Hagrid kept some chickens in the Forbidden Forest orchard. Grawp placed logs beside the experimental fields to stop them from leaving droppings in the plots and affecting the experimental data.
"Found it." Bill placed a book on a table at the Three Broomsticks. "I knew I'd seen this name somewhere."
Everyone gathered around.
The book was called Famous Beast Whisperers in History (Beast Whisperer). It included Parseltongue speakers such as Salazar Slytherin. Sen Bakar was renowned for being skilled at whispering to "warm-blooded" animals. He was a Muggle-born wizard from Yemen who had studied in Slytherin before later becoming Hogwarts's professor of beast studies.
"This has to be a joke," Barnaby said bluntly.
Ben Cooper had been drinking Butterbeer. After hearing Bill's introduction, he nearly choked to death.
"It doesn't say he was Muggle-born." Liz Turt carefully examined the book's contents. "It only says he left his Muggle family."
"What do you think?" Pomona asked the Slytherin Head of House beside her at the bar.
"A Slytherin became the Head of Hufflepuff. What do you think?" the old bat retorted viciously.
"The book only says he was a professor of beast studies. It doesn't say he was Head of Hufflepuff," Pomona said.
"Miss Turt also said he merely left his Muggle family. How do you know he wasn't a half-blood?"
Pomona could not be bothered to argue with him and continued eavesdropping on the students' findings.
"The headmistress at the time was called Niam Fitzgerald. She came from Ravenclaw, while the Divination professor was Percival Rackham, from Hufflepuff." Liz read from the book in disbelief. "Has the world gone mad?"
"The four of them were friends. Wait." Charlie counted on his fingers. "Why does it seem like I've only seen three names?"
"I know that name," Bill said again.
"Whose?"