The rest of the classes were less interesting. Quirrel played the part of a stuttering traumatised snivelling coward and paid little to no attention on teaching them real defense against dark arts. And herbology lessons went over Richard's head. The history of magic class was just as boring, with their ghost professor conducting the lesson in a monotone that was better than any whale song. But the book was interesting, so Richard spent that time either reading his textbook or taking a small nap, only to be woken up from time to time by Harry or Ron. The charms professor, professor Flitwick and his class on the other hand was like caffeine to Richard. Maybe because of his talent at enhancement or maybe, just the magic of charms was enough to make the class his favourite. And unlike transfiguration, he had almost no trouble casting charms, even though some of the results were a bit more violent than expected.
Snape on the other hand was impossible. He would constantly target Griffindor house, mostly Harry while deducting points for the slightest mistake. And although Richard knew how he was redeemed in the future, he found it increasingly hard to remain neutral at him.
After the disastrous double potions with Snape, the entire Griffindor dorm was in a bad mood. Neville was still in the infirmary after he got splashed by his own defaulty potion and Seamus was a little bummed out about his melted cauldron.
Richard on the other hand was simply disappointed. Snape was a great potioneer. Someone born for the task. But still he had almost little to no talent in teaching. Richard had hoped to learn the art of potions from the man, but he felt let down by the time the classes had finished. The only time he went beyond the text book was to write his own modified version of potions.
Harry recived the worst of Snape though. The man did his best to make Harry's life miserable. And so when he received an invitation to visit Hagrid of tea, he invited both Ron and Richard to come along, which Richard ultimately accepted.
Hagrid's small hut was just at the edge of the dark forest. So that evening, Richard, along with Ron followed Harry along the school grounds to meet up with the half giant for tea.
"Woof woof..."
"Down Fang!" The sound of a dog barking and the loud and deep sound that rivalled it came from the small hut before the door opened revealing Hagrid, who had his hand on Fang's collar.
Soon afterwards they all found themselves in the small but cozy hut
"This is Ron, and this is Richard" Harry introduced his friends to Hagrid making the man squint at Ron. " Another Weasly, eh...."
While they were making small talks, nibbling down on rock hard Rock cakes, Richard's focus was focused elsewhere.
Graphorn horns, Hippogriff feathers, unicorn tail hair... the man's house was simply filled with valuable parts of magical beasts. And even Richard, who had simply glanced over his copy of 'Fantastic beasts and where to find them' was able to identify the value of the small fortune that had found it's home in hagrid's hut.
"Hagrid, do you mind if I check out some of those stuff? " Richard asked as he moved towards the treasures, to which Hagrid nodded absentmindedly, engrossed in his tea talks.
'Structural identification'
Placing his hand on the forearm thick horn, Richard activated his magic spell, hoping to see what was the difference between magical beasts and humans. The moment, his magic circuits touched the Graphorn's horn, Richard felt as if a bucket of cold water got dumped onto his head.
'What am I doing? 'He began to question himself as he thought back. He was supposed to make his own story, and assimilate the world. But here he was, in Hagrid's hut, dragged here by the protagonist. Infact, he had barely done anything out of the original story line till now, nor had he made any plans to affect any significant points in the plot. He had been caught up in the flow, following the protagonist while sucking up to him.
Looking at the knotted horn in his hand, he understood the reason for his sudden mental clarity. Graphorn horns, when taken after powdered, has the property to make an inebriated person sober. And that was what happened to him. He was drunk in this world, but thanks to the miniscule amount of magic in the horn, he was able to break through the clouded thoughts of his mind. And with his mind clear, he felt it. A constant invisible pressure on his soul, trying to infect him. Just as he wanted to assimilate the world, the world desired to assimilate him.
"....Richard!"
"Huh? What!?" As he dwelled in his deep clarity, he was woken up by some one calling his name.
"Are you okay mate?" Asked Ronald as he walked towards Richard. "You've been quiet for some time. "
"Aaah! It's nothing" Richard quickly dismissed the concerns with a wave. "I was just checking out this awesome horn." Then looking at Hagrid, he questioned, "How did you get this stuff anyway. Must've cost you more than a few hundred galleons? "
"Is that expensive?" Hagrid asked in confusion. "I jus find stuff in the forest, I am the ground keeper yer know?"
"I hear you can sell a unicorn hair for nearly five galleons.." Richard replied looking at the bundles of silver hairs used to hang kettles, making Ron drop his jaw in suprise. Not just him even Hagrid looked suprised.
After refusing much of Ron's persistent begging to take him to the dark forest, Hagrid sent them off after giving them a generous amount of rock cakes, which the boys were too polite to refuse. However before leaving, Richard convinced Hagrid to part with Graphorn horn, but when he offered to pay Hagrid, the half giant refused.
"I still think he should've agreed to take me with him" Ron insisted as they walked to the castle. "I mean it can't be that bad can it? Fred and George went there a loads of times."
Since he knew about their financial situation, Richard had no right to judge the stubborn Weasly . But he also did not want the boy to sneak out into the forest and meet Quirrelmort either.
"Well, maybe you just need to ask permission" Harry suggested making Ron nod his head firmly.
"I mean it's in the school grounds isn't it?"
"But i heard that there's a huge Acromantula colony in the forest." Not wanting to see them embark on a suicidal mission, Richard chimed in.
"What's an Acromantula?" Both the boys asked in unison, and Richard was more than happy to answer.
"Acromantula is a XXXXX classified magical beast, the same rank as dragons" Richard explained as he saw the confused looks."They are huge, hairy spiders larger than a cow.... "
"Spiders!!?" Ron exclaimed in fear, interrupting the explanation for a moment.
"Yes, big black hairy spiders " Richard confirmed as he looked at the horrified face of the youngest Weasly boy before continuing. " They can apperently live for really long time growing nearly twelve meters in height, and has venom powerful enough to poison an elephant. They say that the number of spiders in a colony can reach up to several thousands with time."
By the time he concluded his little speech, Ron looked absolutely horrified, almost traumatised while even Harry kept taking glances at the distant forest with fear.
That night while Richard sat awake on his bed, examining the majestic horn, he was almost startled out of his skin by a mid night scream from a nearby bed.
"AAAAAAHHHHH SPIDERS!!"
'Hmmm, hmmm' nodding to himself in satisfaction ,Richard promptly returned to his attention to the horn. No Ron Weasly will sneak into the dark forest in his watch.