Hagrid's Gift

Hermione was a woman of action, and she quickly established the Defence Against the Dark Arts Club.

Although Albert didn't know exactly how she convinced Harry Potter, Hermione did successfully invite Harry and Ron to join the club.

The only problem is that they don't have a place to practice magic.

Albert naturally couldn't tell them the secret of the Room of Requirement, since it had always been the place where he and Isobel went on dates. Once many people knew about the existence of the Room of Requirement, they wouldn't be able to use it for dates as well in the future.

Hermione had considered asking Albert to teach the group, which would surely attract a large number of students to join the club. Unfortunately, Albert wasn't planning on being so ostentatious, and it would also contradict their original purpose, so he readily declined.

However, to show his support for Hermione, Albert introduced Hermione to several practical books on Defence Against the Dark Arts and encouraged her to consult Professor Lockhart if she didn't understand something.

In fact, Albert had already guessed Hermione's idea: first, increase the number of people in the club, and then invite Professor Lockhart to teach them when he has time. This way, Harry wouldn't resist.

In just a few days, the club's membership has grown to five, and there is a trend of further expansion.

At this moment, Hermione and three others were sitting not far from Albert, discussing the Obstruction Jinx they had been practicing recently.

This is Albert's advice to Hermione: the Obstruction Jinx is a very useful spell, and it's easy to practice: throw a crumpled piece of paper at the other person, and then use the spell to stop the paper in mid-air.

For young wizards who have only recently come into contact with magic, the Obstruction Jinx is still a bit difficult, but they enjoy it immensely. Even though Ginny and Colin didn't initially join the club to learn Defence Against the Dark Arts, they now talk about training with great enthusiasm.

"I think you could totally start a Defence Against the Dark Arts Club," Fred said, turning his gaze away from Harry and towards Albert, who was flipping through the Daily Prophet. "We haven't learned anything useful since Professor Lockhart started teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"If you're willing to teach everyone, I believe many people would be willing..."

"I don't want to. You know I don't have that much time and energy," Albert interrupted dryly. "I have Twelve courses every week, a ton of homework, and I have to squeeze in time to attend several professors' clubs. I really don't have the time."

"I'm sick of hearing the same excuses you use every time." George was unimpressed. He knew Albert could always find a way to make time if he wanted to. After all, the guy knew the so-called "Clone Charm," though they still didn't understand how Albert managed to do it.

"This is not an excuse, it's just the way things are. I'm really busy." Albert flipped to the second page of the newspaper, considering that he would only subscribe to the weekly newspaper from now on. The daily newspaper was really not informative, just a bunch of messy and trivial stuff.

"Don't think I don't know, you're busy dating every day." Fred couldn't help but roll his eyes at Albert.

"I heard Dumbledore has booked a Skeleton Dance Troupe for this year's Halloween Feast," Lee Jordan said as he walked over to his roommates, sharing the good news he had just heard.

"Is the Skeleton Dance Troupe famous?" Albert asked, closing the newspaper.

"Of course it's famous, how could you not know?"

The group stared at Albert with incredulous eyes, as if he were some rare animal.

"The Skeleton Dance Troupe will definitely surprise you," Lee Jordan said excitedly. "Tickets to the Skeleton Dance Troupe are always hard to get and super expensive. It's really exciting that the principal was able to invite them to perform at the school."

"I'll look forward to it a little," Albert said casually. "Aren't you really going to reconsider my suggestion?" Fred was still persistent; he thought Hermione's idea of forming the Defence Against the Dark Arts Club was quite good.

People should learn to save themselves.

"You're making it sound like I don't have to do homework."

Albert suddenly looked up at the owl Accio towards him, and a package was thrown in front of him with a letter on it.

However, what caught their attention the most was that the package actually trembled.

"What is this thing?"

The group was clearly startled by the strange package.

George poked the package and whispered, "Is someone sending you something weird again?"

"There's a letter on it," Lee Jordan reminded him, taking the letter off the package and glancing at the sender's name. "It's from Hagrid."

As he spoke, he handed the letter to Albert.

Albert glanced at the messy handwriting and casually tore open the letter.

"Can we open the package?"

Fred was really curious about what was in the package, so he asked Albert for his opinion, thinking that Albert probably wouldn't open such a strange package himself.

"Open it!" Albert didn't object. "Hagrid probably won't send anything dangerous."

"Hagrid's view of danger seems to be different from that of ordinary people."

Albert added in his mind.

He knew that Hagrid had befriended the Acromantula, had bought a Greece Three-Headed Dog from the Hog's Head Pub, and had even secretly kept dragons illegally at home.

However, Albert wasn't too worried that Hagrid would send him anything dangerous, especially since he wasn't the one opening the package.

He began reading Hagrid's letter, which mentioned two things: Professor Grubbly-Plank seemed to have other Magical Creatures to care for and could not remain at Hogwarts as Professor of Care of Magical Creatures for long.

The suspicious item in the package was "The Monster Book of Monsters," a textbook Hagrid had chosen, hoping Albert could offer him some advice.

The last note reads, "Be careful, it bites."

A gentle touch on the spine of the book can calm it down.

"What is this thing? Damn it, it bites! It hurts! Help me get it off!"

An exasperated voice rang out from the side. When Albert turned his head, he saw Fred struggling to shake the book off his hand, his hand being bitten by "The Monster Book of Monsters".

After George and Lee Jordan realized what was happening, they quickly went over to help Fred pull the book off his hands. The book fell to the ground and immediately ran under the table, looking just like some kind of crab.

"What the hell did Hagrid send you?" Fred complained to Albert while checking the injury on the back of his hand. "Who was it that said this thing wasn't dangerous?"

Ignoring Fred's reproachful gaze, Albert drew his wand and waved it, making the book float up. Then, he conjured a rope out of thin air and bound it tightly.

"Alright, we're safe now." Albert tossed the book onto the table; although it still trembled occasionally, it was clearly no longer capable of biting anyone.

"Why would Hagrid send you this?" George asked curiously. "This thing looks like a mad dog."

"It's called ' The Monster Book of Monsters.' Yes, you heard right, it's a book."

"Are you sure this thing is a book? I think it looks like some kind of dangerous Magical Creatures." Fred emphasized the word "dangerous."

"You'd better go and get your wound treated by Madam Pomfrey, lest it leave a scar." As he spoke, Albert reached out and gently stroked the spine of the book, and "The Monster Book of Monsters" immediately became very well-behaved.

"What bad luck, why didn't you say so sooner that you had a way to subdue him?" Fred complained incessantly.

"Hagrid wrote it in his letter." Albert stuffed the book into his backpack. "Let's go find Madam Pomfrey. I don't think you want to have a scar."

All three understood what Albert meant and accompanied Fred to the School Hospital.

On the way, Albert told them that Hagrid planned to apply to become the professor of Care of Magical Creatures.

"Oh my God, don't tell me that thing in your hand is the textbook Hagrid chose."

The three of them were immediately in a bad mood.

News of Kettleburn's illness had already spread throughout the school, Professor Grubbly-Plank temporarily took over the Care of Magical Creatures.

"I thought Professor Grubbly-Plank would take over Kettleburn's place." Fred found it hard to imagine what it would be like if Hagrid took over the Care of Magical Creatures.

Albert could understand the three men's feelings, but they weren't the only ones disappointed. Many believed Professor Grubbly-Plank would succeed Kettleburn.

"Anyway, next year will be the last year." Albert didn't seem to care much about it. He also didn't plan to continue taking the Care of Magical Creatures.

In fact, Albert even planned to drop out of Muggle Studies, Divination class, History of Magic, and Astronomy in his sixth year.