Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 519 The Gold Content of Greek Products
"I'm late—sorry..."

Neville said breathlessly,

"I forgot my textbooks, so I ran back to the lounge to get them—and then I realized that my backpack had actually been on my back the whole time..."

“It’s two against one now,” Cohen said. “Neville, the lesson for us today is about figuring out how to take down Hagrid.”

"Huh?" Neville stared at Hagrid in astonishment.

When Hagrid noticed Neville looking at him, he quickly wiped his face.

“Just kidding, the two of us can’t take him down,” Cohen said. “It should just be the two of us, so Hagrid, what have you prepared for us this lesson?”

Although there were only two students, Hagrid still had a sense of responsibility as a teacher, and with Cohen's reminder, he regained his composure.

"Oh, right, new lesson—come with me, this time we're not going to the Forbidden Forest, we're going to the Black Lake, come on..."

Hagrid rallied his spirits and picked up the fish bucket that was lying to the side.

“It’s really hard to come by such a creature—I made a special trip to Greece, and Cohen knows he didn’t encounter it last time…”

Cohen and Neville followed behind Hagrid.

"What is it?" Neville asked, leaning closer to Cohen with some concern.

"Why did you suddenly choose this course?" Cohen didn't answer, but instead asked Neville another question out of curiosity.

“Because I heard that Harry and Ron didn’t choose this course,” Neville said, head down. “If no one chooses it this year, Professor Hagrid will definitely be very sad, so I went to talk to Professor McGonagall about the supplementary course—and I actually quite like the safer animals, like unicorns and Nifflers…”

“Then you might be a little disappointed this time—” Cohen said, “This course is Hydra.”

Cohen recognized the content of Hagrid's lesson not only because of what Hagrid said, but also because of a sound that was getting closer and closer, like a group of people arguing.

If you listen carefully, you can tell that the arguing sounds are all Parseltongue.

However, Cohen couldn't understand what they were arguing about, because their language, like that of the old water snake, was heavily Greek and full of tongue-twisting retroflex consonants.

“Alright, right here—” Hagrid settled Cohen and Neville in a spot some distance from the shore. “Neville, you can stand further back, Cohen, stand closer—you can definitely understand them—”

"Them?" Neville said in horror.

“Because it has nine heads,” Cohen whispered to Neville, “but it’s alright, these things are ornamental in Greece, they’re not dangerous.”

Cohen felt his reminder might be useless, because Neville's expression already looked like he regretted choosing the course.

“Cohen, I’ve been waiting over there for days before I finally found one.” Hagrid rubbed his hands together, lifted a large fish from the bucket, and tossed it into the water.

Wow!
A huge black shadow leaped out of the water, nine long snake necks intertwined and fought for the fish—then they crashed heavily onto the shore like twisted ropes, rolling around in the grass and mud.

【mine!】

This is clearly mine!

Get lost, this fish is mine!

That giant only touched me, so it's mine!

I'll bite you all to death, and all the fish will be mine!

……

The nine heads chattered incessantly, their necks tangled together in a knot, making them resemble a worm in its pupa. In reality, the fish had been knocked away somewhere by one of the attacking snake heads.

Neville was terrified by the giant snake with nine forked heads and immediately ran far away, as each of the snake's heads was large enough to swallow him whole.

"Good heavens, why are you doing this again..." Hagrid walked up helplessly and reached out to help Hydra untie himself.

“I declare that this snake’s Greek bloodline is pure,” Cohen sighed.

When Hagrid helped them untie their "snake knots," the snake heads, which had been making a lot of noise, suddenly became motionless, as if they knew that Hagrid had come to rescue them.

“Don’t worry, they’re safe—” Hagrid waved to Neville, who had already run off into the distance. “You see, they just…like to fight amongst themselves.”

But Neville refused to get close, only watching from afar.

"Won't they die in the wild like this?" Cohen asked. "Or will some wild giant untie them?"

“I think that’s what those wizards patrolling the coast do,” Hagrid said. “They’ve been spoiled by the Greeks…”

I can smell that old snake!

Suddenly, one of the snakeheads cautiously slipped out of Hagrid's hand.

At that moment, Hagrid also managed to untie his snake knot.

"It's here to steal fish! It's even followed the giant here!" another snakehead screamed.

"It didn't steal the fish; that's my grandfather," Cohen hissed helplessly. "Besides, it's retired from the business now."

"[Human?]" one of the heads asked—Cohen no longer wanted to distinguish which head was which. These hideous snake heads covered in keratin all looked the same and kept moving around each other, making it difficult to tell who had just spoken.

"There has never been anyone who could understand us," the other head asked. "Or is this the old snake's child? Are you here to bring me fish?"

"Me? You want to keep it all for yourself again?" one of the leaders asked angrily.

[I'll bite you to death!] The violent head opened its mouth and was about to bite the head that said, "You're here to deliver fish to me."

"Cohen! Hagrid! Run!" Neville cried out in panic when he saw a snake head suddenly open its mouth menacingly, even trying to rush over with his wand to save them—

By the time Neville rushed over, the snake's head had already bitten another snake's head.

"They are..." Neville, who had gotten closer, saw the snake's left and right brains working in unison and asked with a strange expression.

"The nine heads of Hydra are prone to arguing..." Hagrid gave up trying to mediate; he couldn't persuade them anyway, but there was no need to, since Hydra couldn't break its own defenses.

Since the snake's teeth can't bite into its scales, it can only use a very limited angle to hold its "brother" and shake it around.

“Alright, now that it’s ashore…” Hagrid clapped his hands. “Let me tell you about the habits of Hydra. They are usually nocturnal, live in shallow waters, but can also stay in deep waters for a long time, though they still need to surface for air…”

Hagrid began describing the various features of Hydra to Cohen and Neville, pointing to different parts of the snake. With a physical reference, even Neville could quickly understand why it could stay in the deep sea for so long (even though it didn't have gills).

In order to make the Hydra cooperate with Hagrid's physical teaching needs, each of its heads was given a fish.

"What are you looking at?" one of the heads asked suspiciously, noticing Cohen squatting in front of them. "I'm not going to spit it out on you—"

The food you eat all goes into one stomach, so why are you arguing about which head ate it?

(End of this chapter)