Anything and Everything

Sizzle! White smoke rises from the scorching hot grill, and the air is filled with the aroma of grilled meat.

A barbecue is taking place outside Hagrid's Hut.

Albert used food tongs to turn the beef on the grill, and the surface of the lightly marinated steak turned slightly browned.

"Onions, lemons, and eggs." Hagrid placed the ingredients on the table, picked up a slice of freshly toasted bread from the plate, took a bite, and stared at Albert's steak as he turned it over, feeling even hungrier.

Hagrid used to think he was a pretty good cook, but now... he feels like he's just cooking food.

Albert picked up his wand, waved it lightly at the onion, used Cutting Curse to slice it into thin slices, brushed it with sauce, and put it in to bake.

The eggs are cracked into a frying pan and fried until cooked. Finally, they are placed on a plate with the grilled steak, along with grilled onion slices, fried eggs, and a large spoonful of canned peanuts. A homemade grilled steak is then ready.

"It smells delicious. Looks like I need to marinate the steak before grilling." Hagrid eagerly cut himself a big piece of beef, took a bite, and exclaimed.

"The main pleasure actually lies in tasting the food I've cooked; it gives me a strange sense of satisfaction and accomplishment." Albert does have culinary skills, but he's never intentionally sought to improve them. After all, he rarely needs to cook at home, except for a few occasions.

Albert cut a piece of beef and was about to put it in his mouth when he suddenly heard a familiar scream from afar.

"Etc!"

Albert had already put the fork in his mouth. He turned his head to look in the direction the sound came from. It was Fred and his group, who were jogging towards them.

"You, you're actually grilling steak here?" Fred's eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at Hagrid and Albert, who were enjoying their grilled steak.

Of course, Hogwarts also serves steak. However, seeing Albert grilling steak there made the group feel a little resentful.

"It tastes alright." Albert squeezed lemon juice onto the steak, ate another piece, and then looked up to ask, "Weren't you guys too busy to come?"

"We came to deliver a letter to you, but we never expected to find you hiding here having a barbecue." George looked heartbroken.

"I was just having a meal at Hagrid's." Albert took a bite of a roasted onion, skewered an egg with his fork, put it in his mouth, chewed and swallowed before asking, "Where's my letter?"

"Here it is." George handed the letter to Albert.

"That's strange, why doesn't the owl just deliver the letter to me?" Albert wondered, reaching out to take the letter George handed him.

"Professor Smith asked me to give this to you," George explained, staring at the cheesy baked potatoes on the grill.

"Help yourself if you want some, but don't burn yourself." Hagrid found it a bit funny and invited the three of them to sit down and eat. "This was made by Albert. I had no idea his cooking skills were so good."

"Professor Smith?" Albert nodded in understanding, glancing at the sender's name, and could roughly guess what was inside.

"Aren't you going to open it and take a look?" Fred's mouth was full of cheesy baked potatoes.

"Oh." Albert thought for a moment and then opened the envelope. It was a letter from Sera Harishis, who expressed her willingness to communicate with Albert through letters and also introduced him to two books related to alchemy in the letter.

"What's written inside?" Lee Jordan asked curiously.

"Someone is willing to establish a friendly correspondence with me," Albert explained with a smile, stuffing the letter back into his pocket.

"Is it good?" George was more concerned about the taste of the grilled steak.

"Not bad," Albert replied, continuing to devour the food on his plate.

After swallowing the roasted potato, Fred couldn't help but exclaim, "I never knew you could actually cook!"

"Why not?" Albert said. "Self-reliance leads to abundance."

After all, Herb and Daisy are lawyers, and there are times when they are too busy to take care of them.

"The steak is great," Hagrid exclaimed. He had already finished his portion; it was far too small to satisfy Hagrid's appetite. There were also toasted bread slices on the table, along with bacon and cheese, and a small pot of oatmeal porridge.

"If I'd known, we should have come to find you after lunch," Fred complained as he watched Albert stuff the last piece of beef into his mouth.

"Yes, it's time to go back, lunchtime is almost here." After saying goodbye to Hagrid, George told Fred and Lee Jordan to get up and leave.

"Goodbye, Hagrid." Albert said goodbye to Hagrid and then left with the three of them.

On the way back to the castle, George suddenly asked, "By the way, we just saw you coming out of the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid."

"What are you doing in the Forbidden Forest?" Lee Jordan then asked.

"Well... I promised Hagrid I wouldn't tell anyone else. If you want to know, go ask Hagrid yourselves." Albert knew the three of them wouldn't ask, otherwise they would have asked earlier, instead of waiting until now.

"You actually kept this from us," Fred muttered in dissatisfaction.

"Well, I had to agree to Hagrid's request first," Albert said with a helpless shrug.

"Alright." The three of them had no choice but to stop asking, knowing that Albert didn't want to talk about it.

"By the way, is there a Wizard Card Club gathering this afternoon?" Lee Jordan was quite concerned about this, as he was now a staunch supporter of Wizard Card.

"Well, we'll have a gathering in the Great Hall; there won't be many people anyway," Albert said. "I've already created the Original Cards."

As he spoke, Albert took out several cards and handed them to the three of them; those were the cards for each of the four of them.

Fred and George are both dressed in Quidditch uniforms and holding Flying Broom, while Lee Jordan is dressed in a wizard's robe, wearing a wizard's hat and holding a wand. Albert himself is dressed in a wizard's outfit and holding a book and a wand.

"When were these photos taken?" George asked, examining his cards closely.

"What do you think?" Albert smiled without saying a word.

"Are all the cards like this from now on? This finally feels a bit more professional!" Fred took the cards and looked at them, quite satisfied with his cards.

"What about the other cards?" Lee Jordan asked.

"I haven't made the other cards yet. Do you really think I have that much time to spend on them?" Albert shrugged. "Besides, I don't have any other photos."

As for portrait rights?

There's no such thing in the Wizarding World.

"I'll take this card!" George was about to put his card in his pocket when Albert stopped him.

"That won't do. The Original Card must remain with me. These will all be used as Original Card in the future. I will cast Transformation Charm on them. Once the Original Card are modified, the other cards will also change," Albert explained.

"You can do that?" Fred was surprised.

"Well, the Daily Prophet uses this spell, didn't you guys notice?" Albert countered.

They all shook their heads.

They knew that the contents of the Daily Prophet sometimes changed, but they had no idea why.

"Then... how much longer will it take?"

"Who knows? At least I'll have to wait until I learn the Transformation Charm." Albert thought carefully and then said, "It's said that's the level of N. E. W. Ts, I estimate it will take another two or three years."

"Two or three years?" Lee Jordan said weakly, "You think you can reach N. E. W. T. level in two or three years?"

"While that might sound arrogant, graduating from Hogwarts with excellent grades isn't actually that difficult for me," Albert said nonchalantly.

"It's a real loss for them that you didn't go to Ravenclaw," George remarked again. "After all, you have a brain, don't you?"

"It would be even better if you could answer more riddles than Katrina."

"You're overthinking it." Albert glanced at Lee Jordan and said, rather speechless, "That's impossible. Do you think you can win a riddle-solving contest against someone who spends all his time solving riddles?"

"Then why did you bet with her on riddles?" Fred was even more puzzled.

"I want to know how many riddles there are at the entrance to Ravenclaw, and what the answers are," Albert said without hesitation. "Maybe I can sneak into the Ravenclaw Common Room someday."

"I think you're going to get kicked out," Fred said.

"I think so too," George echoed Lee Jordan.

As the four of them were talking, they arrived at the castle. Just as they were about to pass through the Entrance Hall, they heard hurried footsteps behind them.

Filch strode quickly toward them.

"Filthy! Filthy everywhere! I've had enough!" Filch shouted angrily, pointing at the muddy footprints on the ground. His eyes bulged, and the flesh on his face trembled, making him look quite frightening. "I've had enough... I'll make an example of you... You four, come with me!"

"Ahem, calm down, Mr. Filch." Albert took out his wand and waved it lightly at his muddy footprints and boots. The muddy footprints on the ground disappeared, and the mud on the boots also disappeared.

Fred, George, and Lee Jordan exchanged glances and each cast Scouring Charm on their boots.

Unfortunately, they found they couldn't completely remove the stains.

"How did you do that?" George couldn't help but ask.

"Vanishing Spell." Albert waved his wand to clean them up, then said to Filch, who was still standing there dumbfounded, "Can we go now?"

Before Filch could answer, the four men walked through the Great Hall into the Entrance Hall, leaving a stunned Filch and the other people who were preparing to watch the play. By the time he came to his senses, Albert and the others were already far away.

Filch was trembling all over, and there were a few students watching the show nearby. Unfortunately, they didn't know the saying "collateral damage," so two unfortunate Hufflepuff students were used by Filch as a warning to others.

They wanted to do what Albert did, but unfortunately, neither of them knew how to use the Vanishing Spell.