'Cheerful' Care of Magical Creatures Class

After Potions Class, Bell walked out of the castle, preparing to go to the Forbidden Forest for his Care of Magical Creatures.

This semester, most of Ravenclaw's courses were taken with Slytherin students. This greatly displeased Bell.

He wanted to attend class with his adorable Hermione!

Clearly, Hermione shared the same idea.

As soon as Bell stepped out of the castle gate, he saw his girlfriend standing outside waiting for him, covered in mud.

"How did you get it so dirty?"

Bell reached out and plucked a leaf from Hermione's hair, then cast a Scourgify to clean the dirt off Hermione. Bell asked curiously.

If Bell hadn't known that Hermione's last class was Herbology, Bell would have thought Hermione had just returned from special forces training.

"Don't even mention it, it's all because of that awful Ron!"

Hermione complained angrily.

"In this lesson, we learned how to shave the scales off Serpent Vine, but Ron, for some reason, actually stabbed the Serpent Vine inside with a knife."

The rampaging Serpent Vine turned the greenhouse upside down. I was actually lucky; a few unlucky guys had their bones broken by the Serpent Vine and are now lying in the Hospital Wing, taken by Professor Sprout.

Professor Sprout, in a fit of anger, deducted a full 20 points from Gryffindor House!

On the first day of school, Gryffindor House, and Hermione was so angry she wanted to strangle Ron.

"Well, it seems Professor Sprout is indeed quite angry."

Professor Sprout is nothing like Snape. As the Head of Hufflepuff, Professor Sprout perfectly inherited the Hufflepuff ' characteristic—a good temper.

Unlike Snape, who would deduct House Points from other houses at the drop of a hat, and would never deduct 5 points if he could deduct 10, Bell had been at Hogwarts for more than 3 years and had never heard of Professor Sprout deducting points from anyone.

Of course, when Harry and Ron angrily rammed into the Whomping Willow, Professor Sprout probably really wanted to deduct several points from each of their grades. It's just that school hadn't started yet, so he couldn't.

They chatted casually all the way, showering each other with affection.

Soon, amidst the envious and jealous gazes of others, Bell and Hermione arrived at their classroom in high spirits.

Hagrid was already waiting for them there.

Beside Hagrid was a huge wooden crate, from which cracking sounds could be heard from time to time.

Looking at Hagrid's radiant smile, the Little Wizard present inexplicably felt a sense of foreboding.

I don't know what happened during the summer vacation, but judging from Hagrid's current appearance, he has obviously successfully emerged from the shadow of the previous school year.

Seeing the determined look on Hagrid's face, Bell could only hope that he would learn from the previous school year's experience and not overdo it again.

"Hermione, seriously, let's skip this class."

(_)

Bell, who hadn't shown his signature dead fish eyes in a long time, said to his girlfriend with a look of utter despair.

"... No, that's not a good idea..."

Even Hermione, who had always steadfastly supported Hagrid and whose faith had never wavered even after taking care of Flobberworm for an entire school year, was now on the verge of self-doubt.

There's no way around it; compared to this tiny, sticky, grayish-white caterpillar with its artistic design, the Flobberworm is just too adorable!

Moreover, this peculiar little tail (or rather, what should it be called a tail?) occasionally bursts into flames. Several Little Wizard have already been injured by these explosions.

By this time, a while had passed since the class started.

When Bell saw Hagrid excitedly introducing the fruits of his summer's labor and distributing the creatures, supposedly called "Blast-Ended Skrewt," to everyone for care, Bell knew his hopes had been dashed.

So what was he thinking before that made him believe Hagrid would learn his lesson?

A guy who kept Acromantula, Three-Headed Dog, and Norwegian Ridgeback at Hogwarts must have a memory worse than a goldfish!

If we weren't in Hogwarts, Bell would have burned these disgusting little things to ashes without hesitation with a single Flame Spell.

"How about we take another look? Maybe these things will become cuter when they grow up?"

Hermione hesitated before speaking.

Do you believe it?

"... No, I don't believe it..."

"Let's go, let's go back and play!"

With that, Bell pulled Hermione away.

"Wait, Bell, this is not a good thing."

Hermione quickly stopped her.

Even if you intend to skip this course, you can't just swagger off during class. That would set a bad example.

"Let's take another look, okay? If Professor Hagrid still makes us take care of these ' Blast-Ended Skrewt in the next class, then we'll... we'll... we'll take another class."

"..."

(_)

"No! What I mean is, we can watch three more lessons. If the next three lessons are also about taking care of the Blast-Ended Skrewt, then we'll... we'll..."

"Just give up on this course!"

Bell dared not let his girlfriend continue like this, otherwise the entire school year would be over.

"...All right."

Seeing Bell's determined look, Hermione reluctantly agreed to his suggestion.

Having finalized their future plans, the two now had to confront the current issues.

Looking at the lettuce leaves that Hagrid had given them, Bell reluctantly handed them to the Blast-Ended Skrewt.

Their task for this lesson was to find out the favorite food of the Blast-Ended Skrewt. To this end, Hagrid prepared a wide variety of "feed".

Smack!

However, the Blast-Ended Skrewt seemed to dislike bland food like vegetables. It suddenly turned around and its tail blew into Bell's hand.

"Bell! Are you alright?"

Hermione gasped in surprise.

"Don't worry, it's okay."

A semi-transparent shield was wrapped around Bell's hand, blocking the relatively weak explosive attack from the Blast-Ended Skrewt.

But!

Bell is not Hagrid. He doesn't find these little rascals cute at all, and he certainly wouldn't spoil them!

Veins bulged on Bell's forehead; he wouldn't let this little thing that dared to attack him get away with it easily.

With palm facing up, the Blast-Ended Skrewt was controlled to float into the air.

Watching the Blast-Ended Skrewt struggle incessantly in the air, exploding into bursts of fire, Bell slowly closed his five fingers.

As Bell clenched his fist, the magic gradually squeezed the Blast-Ended Skrewt, causing the little creature to struggle even more violently and let out a series of shrill screams.

"Eat it! Or die!!!"

Bell placed the lettuce leaves in front of the Blast-Ended Skrewt once more, issuing his final ultimatum.

If this little thing dares to show even the slightest resistance, Bell will turn it into "Blast-Ended Skrewt sauce"!

After class, Hagrid rubbed his hands, which were numb from being fried, and looked at the Blast-Ended Skrewt in front of him with a puzzled expression. The snail was happily eating lettuce leaves.

Why don't other Blast-Ended Skrewt like to eat lettuce leaves? That's really strange.