Hogwarts: Harry Returns from Azeroth

Chapter 274, Section 273: Hagrid the Imitation Master
"See! Even Harry said so!" Sirius snapped his fingers excitedly. "So you have to do the same, establish your authority as a professor! Hagrid, you can't just reject a student because they say no, you're the professor!"

“The more they don’t want it, the more you should insist. If they don’t listen to you, deduct points! Deduct all the Slytherin’s points! Don’t worry, think about the applause from Gryffindor tonight, you have supporters.” Sirius already had a complete plan. “Remus is right, the students basically can’t handle this book on their own, so you have to mock them for being so stupid, for not learning how to appease the book. Think about what Snape usually says.”

"Uh, a head like a troll?" Hagrid thought for a moment.

"That's right, and then it's point deduction!" Sirius clenched his fist. "Snape deliberately favored Slytherin, so you deliberately favor Gryffindor! Give them a good dressing down! Let those Slytherins know how their evil leader usually bullies people!"

"This...this isn't a good idea, is it?" Hagrid stammered. "Professor McGonagall will be angry."

“She won’t,” Sirius paused for a moment. “Well, she might, but that doesn’t matter—do you think Professor McGonagall, as the Head of Gryffindor, would be happy to see Snape constantly finding fault with Gryffindor and deducting points? Would you be happy in that situation? She’s the Vice-Headmaster! She just can’t do it!”

"I...I won't be happy," Hagrid said in a muffled voice.

“That’s right!” Sirius refilled Hagrid’s glass. “The point is that you’re different from the other professors, different from Remus—those students are too familiar with you, and in their eyes you’re just a gamekeeper! If you don’t act tough, they won’t listen to you at all, and they’ll cause all sorts of trouble in your classes—and that’s Slytherin!”

“…Yes, that’s Slytherin.” Hagrid took a deep breath and muttered to himself, “That’s right, that’s it, I understand completely now.”

Hagrid wasn't drunk yet, meaning he was actually persuaded by Sirius while still in a sober state.

Harry didn't stop the process; he just smiled as he watched Sirius convince Hagrid, even though Sirius's initial intentions weren't entirely pure. This man just wanted to see Slytherin suffer. He had made the same suggestion to Lupin before, but Lupin had refused.

Harry also felt that Hagrid was different from other professors; he did need more authority and the respect of his students—not the respect between friends, but the fear and timidity one would show when facing a professor.

Otherwise, given Hagrid's personality, if a student were to cause trouble in his class, he would likely fall into a state of self-doubt and helplessness, and then his confidence would completely disappear.

So... learning from Snape can sometimes be a good thing.

“Oh, right, Harry,” Hagrid suddenly rubbed his hands together, a fawning smile spreading across his face, “Uh, I meant, uh, could I borrow Angry Horns? I’d like her to demonstrate it in class—you know—it’s a dragon!”

“You should know that Angry Horn now possesses intelligence comparable to that of a human, right?” Harry thought for a moment and said, “I can only ask for you; I don’t know if she will agree.”

“Of course!” Hagrid said excitedly. “Just ask, that’s all. Thank you, Harry.”

"Don't mention it, brother."

Hogwarts is currently experiencing a phenomenon that has never occurred in the past thousand years: the headmaster also has to teach classes. Although Harry uses the pretext of auditing classes to ensure that the professors have real knowledge, anyone with a little intelligence can see the real reason why Harry is in those classes.

This was also Professor McGonagall's desperate suggestion, which at least made things sound much better when they were told.

Harry sat with his friends the next morning. Hagrid's first class came quickly, and the second class that morning was Magical Creatures Protection, a class for Gryffindor and Slytherin students together—no matter what the class was, putting these two houses together always seemed to lead to trouble.

This was undoubtedly a huge test for Hagrid, and Harry was also curious to see how effective Sirius's advice to Hagrid last night really was.

As a friend, he had to give Hagrid a boost.

Hagrid's classroom was located on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. When the students arrived, Hagrid was already standing at the door waiting for them, holding his hunting dog Tooth on a leash. Several open wooden crates were placed on the ground at his feet, and Tooth was struggling to sniff the contents of the crates.

As Harry approached, he could hear a strange crackling sound coming from the box, accompanied by a faint explosion.

"good morning!"

It's hard to imagine that Hagrid could maintain such a serious expression, or at least appear to be. He didn't even come over to chat with Harry and Hermione or anything, but just stood in front of his hut waiting until all the students arrived.

“Very good, I’m glad no one is late or absent.” After taking attendance once, Hagrid said seriously, “I won’t allow anyone to miss this—the Blasttail!”

“Oh, he’s definitely mimicking Professor McGonagall,” Ron muttered under his breath. “I know that all too well.”

Ron wasn't the only one who felt this way.

But what's more important now is that new term.

"What?" Hermione was a little confused, "Blasttail?"

"My God! How disgusting!!" Lavender Brown glanced into the box and jumped back as if he had been bitten by a dog, screaming loudly.

It's really disgusting.

The box was filled with a lot of white-gray and sticky things... resembling peeled shrimp, with many legs sticking out haphazardly, and their heads were basically nowhere to be seen. There were hundreds of them piled together, constantly wriggling, and every now and then they would shoot out some sparks from their tails, propelling them forward... accompanied by a very strong smell of rotten fish and shrimp.

"So fast?" Harry looked up in disbelief. "You started a while ago, didn't you?"

These blast-tailed snails are clearly a completely new magical creature, and a new species that Hagrid specially bred. The authority to breed new species should only be granted to him after he officially becomes a professor, but Hagrid only officially became a professor yesterday.

In other words, this person had already started taking action when they received the news during the summer vacation...

“Oh, just a little bit early…aren’t they cute?” Hagrid winked at Harry and whispered.

Ron, who was standing nearby and heard this, looked like he could barely breathe.

Hagrid's aesthetic sense always surprises his friends.

"In short, they are all newly hatched little creatures, brand new magical creatures that have never been seen before!" Hagrid said proudly. "You can raise them yourselves! I can tell you in advance that your course this semester will be about raising them."

"Why?" A cold female voice suddenly came from the crowd.

“Good heavens, it’s her again,” Ron said with disgust. “I suddenly realized that ever since Malfoy became less annoying, Parkinson has inexplicably taken over his position.”

“Maybe it’s because she’s inherently annoying, but in the past you only cared about Malfoy,” Neville whispered.

"I only care about Malfoy?" Ron turned to his best friend, dumbfounded. "You might as well just kill me!!"

"Why?" Hagrid seemed a little confused; he appeared somewhat stumped.

“I mean, what can they do?” Parkinson asked repeatedly. “What are they used for?”

Hagrid's mouth dropped open. He had anticipated being harassed by Slytherin students, but he had never really thought about this possibility.

"They, they can—"

Before he could finish speaking, Harry kicked Hagrid's leg.

Rupert Hagrid! Quickly recall Sirius's teachings!!

That kick was powerful enough that Hagrid felt it and realized where the focus should be.

"Slytherin, deduct 10 points!! No, deduct 20 points!!"

Remembering Sirius's teachings, Hagrid instinctively deducted points from Slytherin's score after being reminded by Harry.

"Disrespectful to the professor, disobeying the professor!" Hagrid blurted out the two reasons Sirius had prepared for him, only then belatedly realizing that he should perhaps explain something. "I already said, they are a completely new magical creature! Completely new, understand?"

"And now you're asking me what the point is of raising a completely new magical creature?!"

Parkinson didn't say anything, or rather, she hadn't quite reacted yet—she was stunned by the twenty points that had been deducted.

It's only the first day of school, and not even the first half of the day has passed yet. She hasn't even had lunch, and she's already deducted twenty points from Slytherin.

But anger followed immediately.

"How dare you?!" Parkinson screamed. "I'm going to tell Principal McGonagall—I'm going to tell the principal—"

After two turns, at the first turn Parkinson realized that Professor McGonagall wouldn't get involved in this kind of thing, and at the second turn she realized that the headmaster was now sitting next to Hagrid, but he didn't say anything, he just looked.

Tears welled up immediately.

"I'm going to tell my dad! He's on the school board! He'll make sure you're never a student again—"

"Shut up! You troll with a head full of shit!!" Hagrid's roar cut off Parkinson's screams and cries, his voice practically echoing throughout the castle. "Is your head filled with reeds? Your stupidity is more obvious than a troll's snot!"

“Oh, it’s Snape this time.” Ron had to pinch his thigh hard to stop himself from laughing out loud, so his whole face turned red. “I have to say I never thought that Snape’s words, when shouted out by a loud voice, would have such power.”

“Yes, the same words can produce two completely different styles.” Hermione was also trying hard to hold back her laughter, but most of the Gryffindor students had already burst out laughing.

Something unprecedented happened: Snape's insults took an unexpected turn and were thrown back at the Slytherins like water.

“A completely new magical creature!” Hagrid exclaimed with immense pride. “Most people in the entire wizarding world couldn’t discover a new magical creature on their own! Its preferences, its habits—these will all be recorded in the new textbooks! This is something that ordinary magical creature protection classes simply can’t cover!”

Parkinson didn't care about any of that, and she seemed about to make another fuss, but Draco, who was sitting not far from her, waved his wand, and Parkinson was forced to shut up.

“Enough, Parkinson,” Draco said coldly. “Stop embarrassing Slytherin, Professor. If we can help you find out the habits of this… new magical creature, will you include our names in the new textbook?”

“…Of course!” After a slight pause, Hagrid replied as quickly as possible, “Of course! But only the best students, well, I mean, the top-performing students, will have this opportunity.”

"That's good," Draco nodded, and said no more.

But the effect he wanted to achieve has already been achieved—his name has been written in the textbook, and perhaps in the future, there will be a record of how he discovered what this new magical creature likes to eat.

honor.

After last night, or more precisely, stimulated by the sense of honor brought by the three-way competition, students nowadays are particularly concerned about things that can make them famous in history.

Hagrid has achieved his goal; at least for now, the students look at the box of sticky, sparking little things with eager eyes—a successful start.

"Very good, Malfoy, for your, uh, cleverness, Slytherin... ten points!" Hagrid's awarding of points felt somewhat extravagant, and it was this reason for the points that made many people cover their faces.

“If you don’t want to go, then go back to the castle as soon as possible!” Mimicking Snape’s mannerisms, Hagrid glared at Perkins and said, “The Magical Creatures Protection Class doesn’t need someone who doesn’t love magical creatures!”

This statement is probably Hagrid's honest opinion.

“Everyone else, come with me. I’ve said it before, this is a completely new magical creature, meaning even I don’t know what it likes, what its personality is like, or what it hates—what we’re going to do today is try to feed it. What’s it called again? Exploring the unknown? I think you’ll enjoy this feeling.”

"Oh, right, there's one more thing," Hagrid suddenly remembered something, "Take out all your textbooks. I want you to find some things in them that you think the frizzy-tailed snails might like to eat."

(End of this chapter)