After hearing Professor Hagrid's sentint, Sherlock turned to look at him without saying anything.
Hagrid felt uncomfortable under Sherlock's gaze and couldn't help asking, "Sher-Sherlock, what's wrong?"
Sherlock said calmly, "I personally think you shouldn't have chosen them for your first lesson."
He pointed at the group of young wizards soaring freely on their hippogriffs.
"Wh-what?!" Hagrid was imdiately stunned.
"Why? Everything's going smoothly now—look, everyone's having a great ti—"
"As a student, you can certainly think that way, but as a professor, you can't just look at results and ignore the process."
Sherlock said rcilessly, "For a new course, especially a dangerous one, the correct approach is gradual progression from easy to difficult.
The current situation is only due to your good luck."
He glanced again at Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson.
The young pair were still sitting shoulder to shoulder against the large tree, quietly watching Crabbe and Goyle deal with a hippogriff.
Unfortunately, neither had managed to pass the first stage of making eye contact with the hippogriff. The reason was simple: both Crabbe and Goyle couldn't last five seconds before blinking and failing. After multiple identical attempts, the hippogriff no longer trusted them.
Following Sherlock's gaze, Hagrid asked sowhat confused, "Is there a problem with them?"
"Have you considered the possibility of a student getting injured in your class?"
Hearing Sherlock's words, Hagrid's eyes suddenly widened.
Sherlock sighed, "You really haven't considered this problem at all."
"No, I just wanted to make the first lesson exciting..." Hagrid said sowhat sadly.
"Choosing harmless but interesting creatures could also make the lesson exciting, my dear Professor Hagrid."
Sherlock felt he needed to be more clear, or Hagrid wouldn't understand what he was saying.
"Puffskeins would be an excellent choice."
"Puffskeins?"
Hearing Sherlock's words, Hagrid imdiately pictured small, soft balls in his mind.
He imdiately began shaking his head repeatedly. "Those things aren't cute at all! You wouldn't like them!"
Sherlock had long known that Hagrid's aesthetic sense differed from normal people, so he wasn't surprised by this response.
"I don't think so. Compared to hippogriffs, more people would like Puffskeins."
Seeing that Hagrid still wanted to argue, Sherlock sighed.
"Of course, I'm only offering suggestions. Whether to do this or not is still your decision. After all, Professor Hagrid, you are the teacher of this course."
Hearing Sherlock's words, Hagrid finally fell silent.
The first Care of Magical Creatures lesson ended without major incident.
About a third of the class had enjoyed the experience of flying through the sky on a hippogriff.
This was quite a high percentage.
Even the little Snakes who had initially looked down on Hagrid were no longer as aggressive as they'd been at the start, after successfully flying on hippogriffs through the sky.
Of course, this was also related to their spiritual leader Malfoy being out of commission this lesson.
However, after class, they were surprised to discover that the relationship between Malfoy and Pansy seed much better than before.
Since first year, Pansy had liked clinging to Malfoy, but back then Malfoy had always maintained a sowhat distant attitude toward her.
Malfoy had even shown more interest in Harry than in her.
But after entering third year this year, Malfoy seed to be accepting her.
After puzzling over it, they felt relieved.
After all, it was adolescence, it was perfectly normal.
Overall, Hagrid's first lesson could be considered satisfactory.
Only those who hadn't succeeded at all were sowhat unhappy.
Like Neville.
Although he had successfully completed the first step, during the second step, the hippogriff simply refused to bow to him.
"I don't understand."
Neville's voice sounded extrely aggrieved, and even his accent had changed.
"Why won't it bow to ?"
"I think it might be because it saw through the timidity in your heart, Neville."
Under Sherlock's guidance and example, Hermione had also beco experienced, and hearing this, she imdiately offered helpful advice:
"The hippogriff you chose never looked away the entire ti, which shows it acknowledged your sincerity.
But precisely because of that, it discovered you lack the confidence to control it, so it won't let you ride."
"Is... is that so?" Neville showed a surprised expression.
"I think that's right. Rember flying lessons in first year? You were the sa way then."
"Ah—okay, okay, next ti I'll definitely—"
"Neville, don't say 'next ti definitely'—I've heard Ron say that countless tis."
"Hey, hey, Harry, if you're talking about Neville, talk about Neville—what's it got to do with ?!"
"But you really do say 'next ti definitely' every ti, don't you?"
"So what?"
"Nothing much, I'm just stating a fact."
"Hey, now you're talking like Sherlock! My temper won't stand for this!"
Watching Ron and Harry argue, Neville, who had originally started the topic, carefully tried to diate between them.
Hermione shook her head and ignored the three, turning to Sherlock to ask,
"What did you say to Hagrid today? Why did he look so dejected after class?"
"You've spotted the key point, Hermione."
Sherlock looked at Hermione with approving eyes. "I just told him that hippogriffs weren't suitable for the first lesson."
"You an he set the bar too high from the start?"
Hermione thought aloud, "Now that I think about it, that's true. If you and Harry hadn't stepped up for him, he would have been in quite an embarrassing situation."
"Not only that—if soone had actually done sothing to anger the hippogriffs during class, that would have been trouble.
Of course, with Hagrid's abilities, the students wouldn't be in mortal danger.
But having a student bleeding incident in the very first lesson wouldn't be good."
Sherlock's gray eyes sparkled as if he had already foreseen another possible outco.
"If we had been injured, that would be one thing, but if a Slytherin had been hurt, my friend, imagine what would happen."
Hermione's mind worked quickly. She ntally played out a scenario where Malfoy was clawed by a hippogriff, first she felt a mont of satisfaction, then imdiate dread.
"He would definitely make a huge fuss!"
Hermione said without hesitation, "Malfoy's father has always resented being kicked off the Board of Governors—he'd definitely use this opportunity for revenge."
"Exactly."
Sherlock snapped his fingers. "So, for Hagrid, the most important thing now is stability first, steady progress.
Only after he's firmly recognized in Care of Magical Creatures can he share his unique aesthetic sense with students."
"You're absolutely right."
Hermione first nodded in agreent, then said enthusiastically, "Perhaps he should have used Flobberworms or sothing for the first lesson— What's wrong, Sherlock?"
At this point, Hermione suddenly noticed Sherlock looking at her strangely and couldn't help blushing slightly.
Fortunately, her skin was still tanned, so it wasn't noticeable.
But Hermione also reminded herself silently not to blush at every little thing anymore.
After all, once this term ended, her skin tone should return to normal.
Sherlock looked at Hermione: "My suggestion to Hagrid was Puffskeins."
Hermione: (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)
'Oh no, my aesthetic sense seed to have been influenced by Hagrid too!
Why had Flobberworms been the first thing to co to my mind?'
Hermione fell into deep self-doubt.
By Tuesday morning, they saw Hagrid again in the Great Hall.
He was still wearing that long moleskin overcoat, absentmindedly swinging a rooster with one large hand.
When he spotted Sherlock, he stopped his journey toward the staff table and said enthusiastically:
"Today I'm teaching fifth-years, and it's still hippogriffs for the first lesson. They should be fine, right?"
"For fifth-year students, that choice is just right."
"Haha, Sherlock, I'll have to see if they perform better than you did!"
He smiled cheerfully at the group, as if he had already recovered from yesterday's disappointnt, and headed toward the staff table still swinging the rooster.
"Does he have to be holding sothing at all tis?"
Ron watched Hagrid sit down next to Professor McGonagall, still swinging his rooster, and asked sowhat confused.
Harry also shook his head, Hagrid's aesthetic sense was truly beyond his appreciation.
"Ron, what classes do we have today?"
"Let see—um, for compulsory courses, we have Herbology in the morning, then History of Magic and Astronomy in the afternoon.
Electives—?!"
Ron suddenly punched Harry, "I don't have any electives today—fantastic!"
Watching Ron cheer and continuously wink at him, Harry felt sowhat speechless.
He knew what Ron ant.
If he had chosen only Divination and Care of Magical Creatures last year like Ron, then he too would be free today like Ron.
But since he had chosen his own path, he had to see it through.
"The schedule's overlapping again," Harry frowned, ignoring Ron's childish attitude. "Muggle Studies and Arithmancy—Sherlock, which class should we attend?"
You can read more than 40 chapters on:
patreon/MikeyMuse
User Comments
0 comments from readers