"Thud, thud, thud..."
"Bang, bang, bang..."
Since morning, Hogwarts students had been hearing noises from the direction of the Forbidden Forest from time to time.
Driven by curiosity, they could not help leaning out of the windows to look toward where the sounds were coming from.
"Is Hagrid building a new house?" Ron asked, rubbing his ears during Transfiguration Class.
The noise was so loud that even from this far away, it made his ears ache.
"Maybe." Harry also glanced curiously out the window.
Beside Hagrid's cabin, a larger wooden house had appeared out of nowhere at some point. The sounds were coming from inside it.
"Why can't they use magic?" Ron muttered. "I can't even focus on the lesson."
"Do you think Professor McGonagall would believe that excuse?" Hermione said expressionlessly. She lowered her head and glanced at the cactus on Ron's desk, which was riddled with holes.
Their lesson was on the Switching Spell. They were required to swap an arm with a cactus; if that proved too difficult, fingers would do.
The spell was not particularly difficult. Hermione had succeeded after only two attempts, but after struggling through the entire class, Ron had merely blown up the cactus pot twice.
Seamus beside him had been sprayed with dirt and no longer wanted to sit next to him.
Still, Seamus had not done much better. His cactus had exploded three times, and his handiwork could be seen everywhere in the classroom... the spines flung out by the explosions.
Professor McGonagall did not even want to look in their direction anymore. Hermione suspected she would never use cacti as teaching aids again.
Fortunately, the bell rang not long after.
Harry and Ron rushed out of the classroom at once and ran straight toward the Forbidden Forest.
"Hagrid, what are