Hagrid carefully placed his tea set on the table, as if afraid of breaking it, and then turned around to boil water. Herman noticed that next to the table where he had placed the tea set was a bowl of stew that had not been finished, with a half-eaten bone on the side of the bowl.
After Hagrid boiled the water, he put the kettle on the stove and glanced back at Draco, his tone filled with genuine admiration. "You're quite polite, much better than I expected. Your father wasn't this courteous back then; he always looked at me like I was some monster, with a stern face."
He chuckled as he said this, "You're much better than him, just like your mother."
Upon hearing this, Draco's expression stiffened slightly; her lips curved into a forced smile, as she seemed unsure how to respond.
Ron sat next to Neville, head down, rummaging through her schoolbag. But after Hagrid's words reached her ears, she slowed her movements, her lips twitching. She muttered something softly, loud enough for Draco, sitting beside her, to hear. "What manners do the Malfoy family have..."
Draco stopped writing with her quill. She turned to look at Ron, her gaze no longer as casual as it had been during their conversation. "What did you say?"
Ron's ears turned red, but the words were already out. She bit her lip and replied, "My father said that your father harmed many people when he was with the You-Know-Who. Who can believe him now that he's pretending to be a good person?"
When those words were spoken, the air seemed to freeze.
Neville abruptly turned to look at Ron, opened his mouth as if to say something, but before he could speak, Draco interrupted him.
Draco closed her notebook, her voice soft but clear. "Has your father ever met the You-Know-Who? Has your father ever had dealings with the You-Know-Who? You think you know everything just because you've heard a few things from others? Well, I've also heard my father say that the Weasley family are Pure-blood traitors, hanging out with Muggle all day long, abandoning their family dignity for that pitiful bit of face."
Ron's face flushed crimson, and her lips trembled: "You—"
Neville quickly stood up and stepped between the two. "Alright, stop arguing. We're here to see Hagrid, not to talk about this."
Hagrid stood by the stove, holding the kettle but not yet pouring water. He looked at Ron and then at Draco, his face showing a bewildered expression as if he hadn't expected that his casual compliment would lead to this whole argument.
He put down the kettle and scratched his head. "Um, everyone, stop arguing. Come and try my rock cake, it's Fang's favorite."
Hagrid gestured for a few people to sit down at the table, and casually placed the rock cake on it. The rock cake made a thud when it hit the table, which was clearly not the sound a cake should make.
Hagrid then looked at Neville: "How's school? Getting used to it?"
Neville nodded. "It's good. The professors are all nice."
He paused, as if remembering something, and turned to look at Herman: "By the way, Herman, didn't you say you wanted to ask Hagrid about raising Fantastic Beasts?"
Hagrid immediately became interested upon hearing this, putting down the watering can he was holding. "What do you keep as pets?"
Herman's mind raced when he was asked this question. He realized that his claim of "seeking advice on raising Fantastic Beasts " yesterday was just a made-up story to cover up his real purpose of going to Hagrid for healing Potions.
Now that Neville was asking him this in front of Hagrid, he had no choice but to make something up. After thinking for a moment, he said, "I have a raven named Xiao Hei, which delivers messages. But I feel like it's not big enough, and its flight isn't very stable. I was wondering if there's any way to improve it."
Hagrid's eyes lit up; the topic had hit him right on the mark. "Raven! What a clever bird!"
He rubbed his hands together. "If you want it to be stronger, you can feed it some special feed, such as grains with Ashwinder Egg added. I have the recipe here."
Also, let it fly more often, don't keep it in a cage all the time.
If you want it to grow bigger, you can try using some bone-strengthening powder when it's molting, but you have to control the amount; too much can cause it to grow crookedly.
He stood up and rummaged through a pile of odds and ends for a while, then pulled out a crumpled piece of parchment and handed it over. "This is the recipe for Ashwinder Egg. Pay attention to the dosage."
Herman took the paper, thanked her, folded it neatly, and put it in his pocket.
Neville watched the two finish their conversation before casually asking, " Hagrid, among all the Fantastic Beasts you've kept, are there any particularly rare ones? Like... the really big ones?"
Hagrid's eyes lit up again at this. "There are so many! The Forbidden Forest has all sorts of things—"
Neville interrupted, "Like, the kind with multiple heads?"
Hagrid paused for a moment, then nodded. "Many-headed ones, of course there are, like the Cerberus, a breed unique to Greece, not very common."
Hugo interjected at the opportune moment, "Does it have any special habits?"
Hagrid was drawn into his own rhythm and began to speak at length:
"The fur of the three-headed dog is highly resistant to ordinary magic; a regular Stunning Spell is like a tickle to it. However, they are extremely loyal; once they've chosen a master, they won't easily obey anyone else. They have huge appetites and can eat a whole sheep in one meal."
Draco listened intently, unconsciously pulling out her small notebook from her pocket and starting to write, "Large appetite... recognizes its owner..."
Herman glanced at her but said nothing.
Neville was delighted that Hagrid really knew a lot about Cerberus; maybe today he could find a way to defeat Cerberus.
Hagrid clearly didn't realize anything was wrong and continued recounting the various details of Cerberus.
Herman seized the opportunity to ask, "What if we get bitten by one of these large Fantastic Beasts? Aren't Fantastic Beasts wounds said to leave magical residue and be difficult to heal?"
Hagrid scratched his head, clearly this question had never bothered him, "I don't know. Fluffy has never bitten me. He's very well-behaved, but he's also very naughty. He often bites my hand, but he never bites hard."
He spoke in a very natural tone, as if he didn't see anything wrong with it.
Herman realized his mistake then and there. Hagrid was Half-giant, with magic and physical resistance far exceeding that of ordinary people. Most Fantastic Beasts ' claws and teeth couldn't even break through his defenses.
He had no idea how ordinary people healed their wounds, and the idea of using Potions to heal wounds was probably completely unnecessary for him. Even if he occasionally got a cut or two, his Half-giant physique would probably heal it in a day or two.
Neville naturally followed up on Hagrid's words, asking, "That Fluffy you mentioned earlier, is it your three-headed dog?"
Hagrid didn't think twice and casually replied, "Yes, that's the name I gave it. It's very cute and fluffy."
Listening to Hagrid's description, if none of them had seen Fluffy before, they might have really thought it was some cute little thing.
Neville, barely suppressing the urge to retort, asked, "And what about your Fluffy?"
Hagrid instinctively replied, "It's been borrowed by Headmaster Dumbledore and is kept in the third-floor corridor guarding Nicolas Flamel. Wait, did I say too much?"