Shocking news: Hagrid chose to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas, and the reason was...
If this had been twenty years later, that would definitely have been the headline in the Hogwarts school newspaper before Christmas.
Harry and the others got the reason he was staying at Hogwarts out of Hagrid-which was really far too easy. For one thing, he had to stay to look after Norberta and Grawp.
For another, Madame Maxime was coming to see him at Christmas.
Something was going on. Something was definitely going on.
Harry and the others did not even need to ask to be absolutely certain of that.
But seeing Hagrid's great face turn so red that even his bushy beard could not hide it, Harry and the others decided not to tease him any further.
They would save it for next time!
Still, compared with the possibility of something going on between Hagrid and Madame Maxime, Harry and the others were actually rather more interested in something else.
This year's Christmas feast would be held early.
Calling it early was not quite right, actually. There would still be a specially prepared feast on Christmas Day, even if there were only six students at Hogwarts that evening.
But before that, on the evening before the students went home, Hogwarts would also hold a party.
A ball, to be precise.
To be fair, apart from Harry's first and fifth years, when there had been fewer school events, the other years really had been quite full of activities.
His second year went without saying. With a character like Lockhart stirring things up, the school was naturally bound to be lively.
And from Harry and the others' third year onward, even with Sirius lurking menacingly outside-at least, that was what people had thought at the time-there had