Chapter 199
Chapter 199
“I’m going to find Headmaster Dumbledore!” Hagrid snatched the two recording orbs, plunged his head into the water barrel outside to sober himself and ran towards the castle dripping wet. His steps were urgent but much lighter than before.
Suer shook his head. The two recording orbs could prove only that the hippogriff had not deliberately attacked Draco Malfoy–that Draco Malfoy had brought the consequences upon himself and deserved them.
But Malfoy’s injury remained a fact. Whether Buckbeak survived would depend upon whether Malfoy’s father, Lucius, was willing to pay the necessary price.
On the surface, it was a father seeking justice for his son, a moving display of paternal love. No one knew what lay beneath it.
Judging by Lucius Malfoy’s previous conduct, he probably intended to exploit the attack upon a wizard for some other purpose.
Perhaps he hoped to gain some advantage for his family and regain a seat on the Hogwarts Board of Governors.
If so, the two recording orbs might ruin his scheme. The thought was rather amusing.
In any case, such matters were for adults to consider. Suer was only a child. His duty was to grow up happily beneath the loving care of his teachers.
Suer shook the thoughts from his head, closed Hagrid’s door and strolled leisurely back to the castle.
It was time to eat.
While the little badger happily filled his stomach, Hagrid paced outside the headmaster’s office. He had already waited for more than ten minutes.
Hagrid did not know the password that day, and the drooling stone gargoyle refused to let him enter. Yet the two recording orbs in his pocket concerned the life of his “little darling”.
Then came the measured tap of a cane and unhurried footsteps from within. Hagrid’s face brightened.
The stone gargoyle rumbled aside, revealing an opening. A cane emerged first, followed by a pale hand. Crimson serpent eyes set into the silver handle stared past the fingers at Hagrid standing nearby.
It was Lucius Malfoy.
What was he doing there? Had he come to inform Headmaster Dumbledore of the inquiry’s verdict? Hagrid stood aside uneasily.
“Oh, Mr Rubeus Hagrid?” Lucius held his chin high and turned his gaze just enough to notice Hagrid’s broad form half-hidden in shadow.
“Come to weep before Dumbledore again?” Lucius sneered. Without waiting for a reply, he shook his head arrogantly, left Hagrid a pitying glance and turned away.
Hagrid remained where he was and spat viciously towards Lucius’s retreating back, disgust plain upon his face.
“Rubeus?” Dumbledore’s voice came from inside.
“It’s me.” Hagrid hurriedly answered, touched the recording orbs in his pocket and climbed the stairs.
The stone gargoyle rumbled shut once more.
No one knew what Hagrid and Dumbledore discussed inside, but the lightness of Hagrid’s steps when he entered the Great Hall showed that he was in a much better mood.
As usual, Suer was eating at the Gryffindor table. He saw Hagrid approach the staff table from a distance and smiled. It seemed Hagrid had received the answer he wanted.
“Do you think this can be used here, Suer?” Hermione asked quietly.
“I don’t know, but we can try. We should brew it first. The short horn of a tree-monkey frog will be difficult to obtain, though.” Suer glanced up at Hagrid, then lowered his head and continued the discussion with Hermione.
“Still… I remember seeing some in Professor Snape’s room. I’ll look for an opportunity to obtain a little.”
“You want to steal it? That’s far too dangerous. What if Professor Snape catches you?” Hermione asked worriedly.
“How can you call it stealing? I’ll merely be collecting reasonable payment.”
They were discussing a potion found in a damaged library book with several pages missing. Someone had once used it during an Animagus transformation. According to the book, it could significantly reduce the wizard’s pain without interfering with the transformation, but some of its ingredients were extremely rare and expensive.
One example was the short horn of a tree-monkey frog. Native to southern America, the magical creatures had once been widespread and were classified as XX by the Ministry of Magic.
Unfortunately, their horns could be used in a potion with enormous economic value. Wizards hunted them relentlessly, forcing the American Association for the Protection of Magical Creatures to establish protected regions.
Fortunately, Suer had once toured Snape’s potion laboratory out of sheer boredom. If he remembered correctly, the fourth bottle from the end on the third shelf held an entire jar of tree-monkey frog horns.
If a student needed one, surely beloved Professor Snape would not mind if he took a little… would he?
Suer needed to find an opportunity…
“Achoo!” Snape, who was brewing a potion, could not suppress a sneeze. With a bang, a cloud of purple smoke exploded above his cauldron.
“Damn it.” Snape expressionlessly waved his wand and threw the potion ruined by that single sneeze, cauldron and all, into the waste bin.
…
Time passed like Snape’s discarded potion, vanishing into the waste bin in the blink of an eye.
During that week’s Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, Professor Lupin brought them a new Dark creature.
It was rated XXX. When Professor Lupin carried it into the classroom inside a cage, the students were astonished, for all they could see was a beautiful red hat.
“If you encounter one in the wild, mistake it for a handsome hat and put it upon your head, it means you are about to meet Merlin.”
Laughter sounded below. Everyone thought Professor Lupin was joking. How could a hat cost them their lives?
“I am not joking,” Professor Lupin said seriously. “Despite their XXX rating, wizards and Muggles die by their hands every year.”
As he explained, Professor Lupin used his wand to lift the hat within the cage and shake it. A dwarf-like creature about forty centimetres tall fell from inside.
It was an ugly, hunchbacked goblin with long nails and a beard covering its chin like an old man’s.
“They are classified as XXX primarily because they possess no magic and cannot harm wizards with spells. But pay attention: those claws are extremely dangerous, and a Red Cap’s thirst for blood surpasses anything you can imagine.”
“In the wild, if you see something vividly coloured that perfectly matches your idea of beauty, never approach it. Beneath a lovely appearance often hides a deadly danger.”
Professor Lupin ended the lesson with that warning.