Champions Revealed

After dinner, Hagrid poured each of the young wizards a cup of strong tea. That was to his taste; he always liked his tea brewed extra strong.

No one knew what kind of tea leaves had been used, but the flavor was peculiar. Still, it felt quite comforting after a meal.

"What's that smell?" Ron Weasley sniffed and gradually edged closer to Hagrid, as though the scent were coming from his direction.

It would have been fine if Ron Weasley had said nothing, but once he pointed it out, everyone seemed to catch the scent: a pungent perfume mixed with something else.

As everyone followed the scent with their noses, Hagrid grew increasingly awkward. That expression gave him away at once.

Faced with the looks from the young wizards, Hagrid stammered. The last time he had been this bashful was when he was about to become the Care of Magical Creatures professor.

"Yes... it's perfume," he hurriedly added. "Cologne."

Everyone's expressions turned strange, and they began looking Hagrid over. That was when they noticed the problem: Hagrid had styled his hair in a peculiar way.

Hagrid was usually so unkempt and shaggy that even though he had done his hair, they had not noticed at first. Mainly because the young wizards had to look up to see it.

"Hagrid, are you... getting promoted? Going on a date?"

"Ah... something came up... The food was good today, wasn't it? I'll show you my Blast-Ended Skrewts later." Hagrid clumsily changed the subject, though no one pressed him further.

"Merlin, you're still raising them?" Ron Weasley clearly did not care for Blast-Ended Skrewts.

Blast-Ended Skrewts were a new species of magical creature Hagrid had bred. Ron Weasley hated them because they sometimes gave off the smell of rotten fish and spoiled shrimp.

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