Fire Salamander
As soon as Albert opened the dormitory door, he saw a dark shadow dart past his feet, which startled him. He thought his Tom was about to sneak out when the door opened, so he instinctively reached into his pocket to take out his wand to summon Tom back. But instead, he found something furry rubbing against his ankle.
"Okay, I'll go prepare your lunch now."
Albert bent down and scooped Tom up, then slammed the door shut.
He opened the drawer, which was stuffed with cat food and canned cat treats. He reached out and pushed Tom's head aside, took a can of cat food, opened it, and mixed it with the cat food in a bowl. Then, he waved his wand, emptied the water from another bowl, and replaced it with fresh water.
"Looks like I need to ask around and see how other people keep cats at school." After Tom finished eating, Albert picked it up and weighed it; it was still as heavy as ever.
"You should lose weight. Come on, I'll take you to the Common Room. That will be your space for a long time to come."
Once Tom is familiar with the dormitory, Albert will let him roam in the Gryffindor Common Room, and then gradually expand his roaming space so that he can slowly become familiar with the castle environment, meet more students, and distinguish between good and evil in other people's eyes, so that he won't suffer any losses in the future.
There weren't many people in the Gryffindor Common Room at noon. Albert found an empty seat, took out his pocket watch to check the time, and prepared to let Tom roam around the Common Room under his supervision. However, he soon discovered that his cat didn't seem to have any intention of wandering around. Instead, he jumped onto the table next to Albert and lay there taking a nap.
"You eat your fill and then go to sleep? You're really something!"
Albert reached out and ruffled Tom's hair, then sighed softly, "If you don't exercise, you'll get as fat as a ball."
Someone nearby was chuckling softly, covering their mouth, curiously observing the fat cat, and whispering among themselves. Albert turned his head and saw that the speakers were two young girls he didn't recognize.
Yes, they must be first or second-year students. When the other person noticed Albert turning his head to look at him, he seemed a little embarrassed and quickly turned away.
Albert looked away, took a cat toy out of his pocket, and tried to get his cat moving.
After spending nearly an hour in the Common Room, Albert took Tom back to his dorm and then used the Time-Turner to go back an hour earlier.
He went straight to the school library, only to find that Fred, George, and Lee Jordan hadn't arrived yet, so he ended up saving seats for the three of them.
Not long after, the three of them entered the library one after another, still surprised that Albert had arrived there before them.
On the first day of school, the school library was as crowded as ever, with a bunch of people rushing to finish their holiday homework.
Fred was somewhat gloating over this, completely forgetting that he had once been one of them.
In the afternoon, the first period was Care of Magical Creatures, which took place in a clearing on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Kettleburn had a very good reputation at the school, and quite a few students had signed up for this course.
The elderly professor had been teaching at the school for many years, and he knew exactly how to spark students' interest in protecting Magical Creatures.
With Hagrid's help, Kettleburn prepared a campfire for everyone and told them that there were lots of Fire Salamander inside, and that learning about Fire Salamander was the topic of the day.
Everyone sat around the campfire, observing the Fire Salamander in the fire while listening to Kettleburn explain this Fire Salamander Magical Creatures.
The way the class was taught was very interesting, and it immediately piqued everyone's interest.
Kettleburn pointed with a twig to the Fire Salamander in the campfire and told everyone: Fire Salamander are born of fire and feed on fire. As long as the campfire in front of them doesn't go out, they will continue to live.
"What if the flame goes out?" a Ravenclaw girl asked, raising her hand.
"The Fire Salamander will die soon after it leaves the flames."
"Aren't they too pitiful?"
The campfire will eventually go out, which means the Fire Salamander inside will die soon.
Kettleburn raised his hand and gestured for everyone to quiet down.
"If you feed the Fire Salamander that have left the fire a suitable amount of Chili Powder at regular intervals, you can delay their death, but they can only live for a maximum of six hours," he told everyone. "I will take the Fire Salamander back here after the campfire goes out. They usually need a wizard to create a special environment for them to survive."
Albert knew this, because the Fire Salamander represents the number 6 in the Runic Script alphabet.
"Of course, you can't feed the Fire Salamander too much Chili Powder." Kettleburn demonstrated why you shouldn't feed the Fire Salamander too much Chili Powder.
Fire Salamander have eaten large amounts of Chili Powder will have brighter skin and will constantly spit out Mars, setting Kettleburn's white beard on fire.
"That's how it is. You need to feed it Chili Powder every ten minutes." Kettleburn swatted the Mars off his beard and threw the Fire Salamander back into the campfire. "By the way, keeping Fire Salamander alive for an hour at room temperature is one of the final exam questions every year."
In the following time, Kettleburn asked everyone to go to the edge of the forest to collect firewood and leaves so that the fire could burn more vigorously and they could observe the color changes on the Fire Salamander.
The color of Fire Salamander changes with the heat of the flame. If the flame is hot, it will tend to be blue; if the flame is cold, it will gradually turn bright red; and at room temperature, it will be a bright orange-red.
Watching the Fire Salamander dart around in the crackling firewood, everyone felt it was a very interesting lesson.
Albert used his wand to pull a Fire Salamander out of the campfire. As soon as it was out of the flames, its skin turned a bright orange-red and was still a little hot to the touch.
Fred and the others immediately gathered around to observe the Fire Salamander's reaction, feeling as if its body was burning with flames.
The Fire Salamander quickly broke free from Albert's grasp, fell to the ground, and tried to run towards the campfire, but Fred grabbed its tail.
The poor Fire Salamander escaped by shedding its tail and quickly disappeared into the campfire.
Fred looked at the wriggling lizard tail in his hand and suddenly didn't know what to say.
"Hey, is the scale of that Fire Salamander rotten? It even lost its tail," Kettleburn said in surprise when he saw the tail in Fred's hand.
The latter looked a little embarrassed; the Fire Salamander's tail falling off was clearly unrelated to its scales rotting.
"Fire Salamander, like dragons, can also experience scale rot, and once the scales rot, their tails will fall off. If you keep Fire Salamander and this happens, you just need to apply some Chili Powder to treat it," Kettleburn said to the students who were chatting and laughing. "Why don't you write it down?"
"Sir, is there anything special about Fire Salamander?" Fred tossed the tail aside and changed the subject. "I mean, why do wizards keep them?"
"Fire Salamander blood has powerful healing and restorative properties, and it can also be used to make various Potions. This is one of the reasons why wizards keep Fire Salamander," Kettleburn explained.
"How are we supposed to get blood from the Fire Salamander?" Albert asked. "They don't look like they have much blood on them."
"Very good, this is something you were supposed to learn next year. Of course, if you want to know." Kettleburn waved his wand, and a Fire Salamander flew out of the fire and landed in his hand.
"As we mentioned before, Fire Salamander die quickly after leaving the flames, so you have to be quick when drawing blood." Kettleburn took out a knife and a test tube and demonstrated how to draw blood from Fire Salamander.
The method is simple: make a cut near the tail on the Fire Salamander's hind leg, and then rub it from head to tail like milking a cow.
That's right, it's that simple and straightforward.
As for stopping the bleeding?
Okay, Fire Salamander blood has strong healing properties, and the wound will heal on its own in no time.
"You have to use just the right amount of force, otherwise it will cause the Fire Salamander's internal organs to rupture. Although this won't kill them, it will make the Fire Salamander very uncomfortable." Kettleburn threw the Fire Salamander back into the campfire after taking its blood and continued, "It's best to wear gloves when taking blood, otherwise you might get burned."
"Of course, if you need Fire Salamander blood, you can buy it at the pharmacy. A small bottle costs ten Sickle."
"..." George muttered something.
"Fire Salamander are easy to keep, the only problem is that the process of drawing their blood is quite complicated, and many wizards are unwilling to do this work. However, Fire Salamander blood is needed in many places." Kettleburn expressed his concern about this, and he gestured for everyone to continue observing the Fire Salamander, preferably to observe how they eat.
Fred and George wanted to "rescue" the Fire Salamander from their Care of Magical Creatures class, but Albert scoffed at the idea. He knew Fred's personality all too well, so he simply refused to help them make the bottle and the blue flame that could be put inside it.
In the end, the Twins had no choice but to give up and take the Fire Salamander away, knowing it wouldn't live much longer.
"We just want a Fire Salamander," Fred muttered. "You have a cat, Lee Jordan has a spider, and we don't have a pet of our own."
"I don't think Snape would want you bringing that thing into the Potions Classroom," Albert cautioned. "Also, what do you plan to feed it?"
"We just wanted to see what would happen if we fed Fire Salamander the Filibuster Firework," George blinked and said honestly. Fred's words couldn't fool Albert at all.
"That's a good idea," Lee Jordan's eyes lit up, and he chimed in, "We can try getting a Fire Salamander next time."