When he exited classroom seven and stood in the hallway, he could see the bright moonlight outside the window, painting the sparse shrubs in the yard with a silvery glow.
"No need to see me off," Newt said as he turned around, "I've come by occasionally over the years to replace book manuscripts and still haven't forgotten the way out."
Niffler Valen stood on Felix's shoulder and waved along with the crowd.
At a fork in the path, Hogwarts Champions looked at Newt's back, a surge of admiration welled up in their hearts.
" Do you want to be like Mr. Scamander and work as a Magizoologist after graduation?" Felix smiled at them and asked in a very assured tone, "Or, at some point, want to become a naturalist?"
"Professor, how do you know?" Cedric asked in amazement. He had indeed just felt an urge to follow the footsteps of this old man and travel to every corner of the world to see the magical creatures with whom they shared their magic.
Felix laughed softly.
"This is the personal charisma of a great wizard, their own experience alone is enough to move and inspire countless people until they want to follow along ... but you have to think it through without making a hasty decision."
"Remember what I said? Hogwarts once had popular graduation travel customs, you can use that as a reference, walk more and see more, broaden your horizons. Some truths can only be yours if you have experienced them, and the truths spoken by others are no more precious than a Knut."
With thoughtful expressions, they parted from each other near the grand staircase.
Collins Foley and Cedric Diggory went down, with their common rooms on the lower floors, while Roger Davies and the trio went up until finally, only the trio remained as they headed towards the Gryffindor common room.
"I guess it's ten o'clock, so there shouldn't be many people in the common room, right?" Hermione asked with hope.
They seemed to have turned into rare creatures in the classroom during the day today, attracting everyone's attention. There was a lot of debate, and the attitude of the students of the other three houses was not that good, forming a vague atmosphere of antagonism toward Gryffindor, as if Gryffindor had taken away the honour of the other houses.
The Gryffindor students did defend them, but this kind of defense is equivalent to treating them differently, which is not what they want. The 'Harry Potter fan club' seemed to have added a new member, and Colin's brother Dennis Creevey seemed to be more influential than his brother, which was proved by the fact that he had brought in a group of new students from all four houses.
So the trio fled the scene.
After that they ran to the great hall in one breath, and finished their lunch early before anyone else showed up, then hurriedly made their way out.
In the afternoon care of magical creatures class, Hagrid had used the excuse that the Firetrail Snails had grown to three feet, so they need a certain amount of exercise, and asked the students to take them for a walk with each leading one. These Firetrail Snails are no longer fleshy, shellless, colorless bugs in the incubator, but rather they have grown a thick, grayish-white shell shaped like armour with incredible toughness.
If you just glanced at it occasionally, and also ignored the exaggerated size of the Firetrail Snails, you would think that these little wizards were walking a puppy on a leash. But the truth is, they were like helpless leaves in the wind, or a boat floating in a black lake in a rainstorm, dragged forward by the snails - every time their rear emits a cluster of sparks, the snails would suddenly advance six or seven feet, dragging the little wizards holding the rope behind them to the ground, and Lavender Brown was dragged backward and forwards, as she had screamed horribly while struggling to get up.
Hagrid took this opportunity to express his concern toward Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
The trio then thanked Hagrid for saving them from Malfoy's relentless taunting, as Ron's face turned into the colour of a baked Firetrail Snail in a fit of anger - Seamus at one point complained that if Hagrid continued to let them take care of the Firetrail Snail, he wouldn't be able to resist giving them the Bombarda.
This comment drew the young Gryffindor wizards into a lively discussion, as they all shared the same hatred. Dean introduced the fried scorpions and steamed crabs that he had eaten and talked about various types of cooking. In the process, even Harry joined in, arguing with them half-heartedly about whether fried Firetrail Snail would turn red when cooked or not.
"You guys don't look well, are you worried about the dragon?" Hagrid asked then.
Hearing that Ron's face cooled sharply, originally his face had turned red like a fried Firetrail Snail shell because of anger, now it turned into a pale ash colour, and at the same time, his lower belly trembled. After only a day, the word "dragon" has successfully replaced the word spider and become his new Fear Switch.
Seeing Ron's expression, Hagrid did not say anything else, only patted his shoulder, then Ron with a "poof" sat down on the ground.
"Oops - sorry! But I think you can, at least exercise your body a bit, so that you can run faster ..."
This is why they were so unenthusiastic towards Hagrid's concerns and advice, as it was totally counterproductive!
...
On the grand staircase, the trio slowed their pace as much as possible, the fireworks that the Weasley twins bought to celebrate last night had not been used up yet, and according to their habits, they certainly would make up for it today, or perhaps they are just behind the door at the moment.
As they walked up a staircase, two Ravenclaw girls came down and glanced at them with a strange look, before they turned their heads back and walked down.
Hermione let out a long sigh.
"Didn't Cedric and them say that they'd help us explain?" Harry asked in perplexity.
"It's only been a day, nothing won't change this soon." Hermione said, "Everyone else just wants to throw some tantrum."
"Let's just take a break here." Harry said with a low spirit, as he sat on the steps, he saw the portraits on both sides of the stairs were staring at them, he suddenly burst out with a fit of anger: " Wanna look? Come closer so you can see better!"
The old wizard in the portrait with the walrus moustache gave him a blank look and walked away, muttering something.
"Harry ..."
"I'm fine, I'm just a little uncomfortable," Harry said after taking two deep breaths, Sirius had comforted him only in the morning and his chat with Mr. Scamander in the evening had taken his mind off his troubles for a while, but now they were all coming back together.
"If Malfoy is going to give me a nickname like the fried Firetrail Snail or Scarhead, I'll give him a good beating." Harry clenched his fist and said.
Hermione's originally stony face bloomed with a smile, and then they all quieted down, each thinking about something.
"Harry, what do you think my family clock shows about me now? Will it point at 'mortal peril'?" Ron suddenly asked.
Harry hesitated for a moment, "I don't think so." He knew what Ron was talking about; there is a magical wall clock in their Burrow that didn't show any specific time, but rather what one family member is doing. At Nine o'clock on the regular clock, it is labelled with " Mortal Peril ".
"I haven't informed the family that I've been chosen as a champion." Ron said, glancing at Hermione, "You haven't either, have you?"
Hermione shook her head.
"I wanted to drag it out for a day, and although Professor Hap said that we can bring our family over to watch the tournament of champions, I don't want to bring them." She said.
"I can't dodge it," Ron said bitterly, "Ginny writes home every week, and Fred and George write almost once a month or two unless they get into trouble. Then there's Percy and Charlie, whose works related to Ministry of Magic, and they'll know about it sooner or later ..."
"Maybe I'll wake up one day and watch them storm into my dorm room and beat me up, or a red Howler will be sent to me by owl."
"We have to do something." Harry said as he got up.
Ron and Hermione looked up at him.
Hermione said hesitantly, "You mean classroom seven? But according to the professor's plan, we will spend the next few days following Mr. Scamander's memory to learn about dragons, and at the end of the week, they will determine each person's style and develop a strategy for the tournament. Other schools are probably doing something similar, and all of Ilvermorny's students have taken a day off today."
"We can't always count on others. Ron, what do you say?" Harry looked at Ron.
Ron licked his lips and said slowly: "I think Hermione has a point, we still can't do anything, our magic is useless against a Dragon..."
"How can it be useless!" Harry shouted, causing the portraits to stare again, but he continued without caring: "Remember the Professor's black hovering door? Remember how we got selected? Have you all forgotten?"
He stared into the eyes of Hermione, who compromised first, and then he looked at Ron, who swallowed hard twice.
A few minutes later.
Felix Hap's memory body clasped his arms as he leaned against the wall and looked at them nonchalantly.
"So, you guys are going to try out the Dragon in advance?"
"That's right." Harry said, dragging Ron and Hermione along.
Felix Hap's memory tilted his head to the side, seemingly listening to someone in the air, and the trio looked around, without discovering a single person. Under their expectant gaze, the memory body stretched his hands out as he said: "Some people disagreed. But ... I do think it's interesting ..."
The dark, ancient wall he had been leaning against gradually collapsed, as a single dragon hung its head down and a large pool of drool dripped in front of the three.
"Do you need me to give you a countdown? Three - two -"
"Run!" Harry shouted.
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