บท 62: Chapter 62: The Guardian of the Hunting Grounds
"Albert, are you okay?"
During lunchtime, Shanna sat down next to Albert, still upset about Snape deducting a point from her earlier for no apparent reason.
"I'm fine, what's up?" Albert skillfully spread a generous amount of mayonnaise on his sandwich, added sliced tomatoes, two pieces of fried bacon, and topped it with a cold sausage before closing it with another slice of bread.
"By the way, how can you still eat?" Shanna whispered, "Did you offend Professor Snape or something?"
"No," Albert replied without hesitation.
In truth, even if he did, he wouldn't admit it. The answer would always be no.
"I know about that," George, with a piece of pie in his mouth, said with a bite, "It all started two days before the start of the school year when we were wandering around the castle and happened to run into Snape. Albert went to ask Snape if he could take a picture."
As he spoke, George couldn't help but smile.
"Yeah, I remember that," Fred chimed in, "Later, Snape said he would ask Albert a question during the Potions class."
"So that's why those things happened this morning?" Shanna said in surprise.
"Snape didn't want Albert to lose face, so he tried a different approach," Lee Jordan continued the topic, "That's why our Potions professor gave Albert extra homework after class."
"Ahem, you got it wrong. What do you mean by losing face?" Albert cleared his throat and said seriously, "Professor Snape thinks I have good talent in Potions, so he wants to give me special attention and help me improve my potion-making skills. Don't you think so?"
"Yeah, yeah, we misspoke," the twins quickly corrected themselves, wearing expressions that said, "That's right, that's exactly what happened."
Shanna couldn't help but be amused by their words but still asked skeptically, "Is your essay okay then?"
"No problem, I'll write one, and then I'll write another," Albert said casually, "I'm planning to go to the library after this to finish writing both essays."
"Merlin's beard, you're actually planning to go to the library to work on your homework right after eating? Don't we still have plenty of time to finish our assignments?" Fred, George, and Lee Jordan all looked at Albert with disbelief, unable to understand why he was in such a rush to do his homework.
"It won't take much time," Albert took a big bite of his sandwich, chewed slowly, and swallowed, "Besides, it's better not to cram all the assignments together. That way, we'll have spare time to do other things."
"Do you mind if I join you later to write?" Shanna blinked and said, "It'll be faster if two people search for information together."
Perhaps for Albert and Shanna, who came from Muggle families, finishing homework as soon as possible had become a habit.
The Weasley twins and Lee Jordan quickly distanced themselves from the two, afraid of catching the terrifying disease that meant certain death if homework wasn't done immediately.
Alright!
In reality, they were afraid of being dragged by Albert to do homework as well.
There's still so much time, what's the rush to finish it now?
"Ahem, well..." Fred awkwardly changed the subject, "We're planning to go outside the castle later, do you want to come with us?"
"We can't go into the forest," Albert raised an eyebrow, "I won't take unnecessary risks until I have the power to protect myself."
"We didn't say we were going into the forest," George said with a smirk, "Those were your words."
"Don't you dare say you guys haven't thought about it," Albert snorted irritably. He knew very well that the twins would be frequent visitors to the Forbidden Forest in the future.
That's true. Ahem, I mean, just wandering around, there are still some places in the castle we haven't been to," Fred quickly corrected himself.
"We're not planning to go into the forest, just going over there to take a look. I remember there's a small cottage on the edge of the Forbidden Forest," George immediately added.
Albert looked up at the roof. It was overcast. Well, it wouldn't hurt to go out there and digest his meal.
"Alright!" he agreed.
"Then let's go!" Each twin took one of Albert's shoulders.
"Wait, my sandwich is about to fall."
"Don't worry, I'll hold it for you!" Lee Jordan happily took the sandwich.
"See you at two!" Albert and Shanna said their goodbyes and were escorted by the three of them towards the castle's exit.
Indeed, there was a small cottage on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
As they walked towards the cottage, they noticed the guardian of the hunting grounds outside, skinning a marten fur. Next to him, a black hunting dog barked lowly in their direction.
The guardian of the hunting grounds looked up at Albert and his companions as they walked around and said, "You lot, don't wander around here. The Forbidden Forest has terrifying werewolves. Not many who go in there come out unscathed. I don't want to be the one collecting your corpses."
Albert looked up at the barking black hunting dog, took a bitten sausage out of his sandwich, and waved it in front of the dog.
"He's really big!" Lee Jordan murmured. Although he had seen Hagrid once before, he still felt intimidated. After all, the height and appearance of the person in front of them... gave them a great sense of oppression.
"Are there really werewolves in the Forbidden Forest?" Albert wasn't afraid at all and walked towards the man. If he hadn't read about Hagrid's good character in the books, he would never have thought of approaching him after seeing his appearance.
Fred tugged at Albert's sleeve from behind, signaling him to leave quickly.
Albert glanced at them speechlessly. Well, he admitted that his courage was limited.
There was nothing he could do. The appearance of the guardian of the hunting grounds was indeed a bit intimidating. He was at least 15 feet tall, with a fierce, rugged face covered in a thick beard. He wore a patched animal skin coat that made him look like a savage. If he wandered around the city at midnight, he would probably scare countless people.
Hagrid was also taken aback by Albert's casual approach. He didn't expect someone to be so familiar with him.
With a mouthful of sandwich, Albert crouched down and waved the sausage in front of the black hunting dog. The dog's low barking gradually stopped. It wagged its tail and slowly approached Albert, sniffing the sausage with its nose. Then it picked up the sausage in its mouth and started eating. The three people behind Albert were a bit stunned to see this scene.
Is this still a fierce hunting dog?
Hagrid was also surprised that his dog was easily bribed with half a sausage. Well, this little guy had some courage.
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(End of this chapter)
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