A magical journey that begins at Hogwarts

Umbridge took a few deep breaths and crossed out the line in front of Aaron.

"Are you satisfied with this?"

"You can't say that; you can only say the professor is brilliant."

“Hagrid, you don’t mind if I ask one of the students a question, do you?” Umbridge gave Aaron a provocative look, then looked at Pansy Parkinson in Slytherin. “Miss Parkinson, do you think you can understand Professor Hagrid?”

“Ah…” Pansy hesitated and looked at Aaron. She really wanted to seize this opportunity to kick someone when they were down, but she had to give face to some people.

After all, he was from Slytherin. Although Aaron was usually quite low-key, his prestige in Slytherin was second only to Headmaster Snape.

“Why are you looking at him? Look at me.” Umbridge walked up to Pansy and blocked her view. “Don’t hold back. Tell the truth. I’ll back you up.”

"Let's be honest!" Aaron said nonchalantly.

Pansy was on the verge of tears. Was this the truth she knew? What if she was wrong?

“Say whatever you want. Professor Umbridge won’t give up until she gets the answer she wants today.”

Pan Xi immediately understood and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Being caught between these two people was not a pleasant experience at all.

"Professor, Professor Hagrid's lectures are indeed very difficult to understand."

Umbridge nodded in satisfaction and quickly jotted something down on the writing board.

"Cough cough!"

Aaron suddenly coughed.

Umbridge paused, pretending not to hear.

“Professor,” Aaron walked directly up to Umbridge, “I have a little suggestion that you might find interesting.”

“I’d rather not,” Umbridge politely declined, raising the whiteboard in her hand. “Miss Parkinson gave me a very fair assessment.”

“That’s natural, but… it’s somewhat unfair that a high-ranking investigator dispatched by the Ministry of Magic would only investigate Slytherin. If word got out, it would damage Minister Cornelius Fudge’s reputation…”

"Shut up!" Umbridge roared in anger, but after a moment, she smiled warmly at the dozens of eyes around her. "Mr. Gaius, why don't you tell me your suggestion?"

“It’s simple, we’ll guarantee fairness and impartiality,” Aaron said confidently. “Pansy is a Slytherin prefect, so her words are very representative, but I think the Gryffindor prefects should be equally representative, right?”

Upon hearing this, Hermione and Ron exchanged a smile. If they had the initiative, everything would be different; at least Hagrid would be safe.

Umbridge froze, feeling incredibly humiliated. This was the first time in over two months at Hogwarts that she had suffered such an injustice.

Asking the Gryffindor prefect for an evaluation would be tantamount to telling her to let Hagrid, Dumbledore's staunch supporter, go.

"Uh... Mr. Gaius, isn't this unnecessary?"

"Whatever you say, but what will happen if word gets out..."

“No, no,” Umbridge interrupted immediately, then crossed out the comment on the whiteboard for the third time. “I just think it’s a bit hasty.”

"Alright! Since you've said that, Professor, you must have your own reasons."

Umbridge forced a smile that looked more like a grimace. If she hadn't crossed out that comment, things would probably have been very different.

“Longbottom, you can see Thestrals, right?”

Whose death did you witness?

“My grandfather,” Neville said in a low voice.

"What do you think of them?" Umbridge pressed. "Aren't you afraid?"

“Hmm...they’re all fine,” Neville said nervously.

“The students are afraid to admit they are scared.” Umbridge said as he wrote, and soon a new line appeared on the whiteboard.

"Cough cough!"

Upon hearing the cough, Umbridge felt as if a volcano had suddenly erupted in his heart, his anger shooting straight from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

She had been coughing during other people's classes all this time, but today she unexpectedly suffered a setback and was overshadowed by a student.

Oh!

Umbridge tore a page off the writing board, then turned around and glared angrily at Aaron. "Mr. Gaius, is there anything else?"

"Uh... Professor, you might have misunderstood something." Aaron rubbed his neck sheepishly. "I just have a sore throat lately, please continue."

Umbridge: ......

I won't get angry. I can control myself. My body is my own.

He can help Hagrid once, twice, or even three or four times, but he can't keep helping him forever.

"That concludes our investigation of the Professor of the Magical Creatures Protection Class." Umbridge put away her writing board, then looked at Hagrid with a meaningful expression. "But since Professor Hagrid, you returned rather late, we'll need to conduct a few more investigations. You don't mind, do you?"

Hagrid paused for a moment, then shook his head.

"That's good." Umbridge gave Aaron a slight smile and hurried away from the students.

"Ahem!" Hagrid coughed. "Now let's continue the lesson."

This is Wuwu, the first Thestral born in this forest, and my favorite.

Thestrals are a breed of Pegasus, and once tamed, they become loyal to their owners.

They have an excellent sense of direction; just tell them where you want to go and they'll take you there. And they're incredibly fast, faster than a flying broomstick, even faster than Buckbeak…”

Everyone gained a basic understanding of Thestrals and did not encounter any danger.

However, due to the superstition that Thestrals are unlucky in the magical world, students have a deep-seated awe of them, and very few dare to approach and touch them.

More than half an hour later, Hagrid's first class after his return officially ended.

He strode up to Aaron, and Draco and the others, seeing this, wisely left.

"Thank you so much this time, otherwise Umbridge would have belittled me so badly."

"You're welcome." Aaron waved his hand dismissively. "You gave me a bunch of magical creature feathers, it would be too much of a waste to ignore it."

He valued Hagrid, his supplier, highly. If Hagrid were to be expelled from Hogwarts by Umbridge, he would likely have to collect magical creature feathers from the Forbidden Forest himself in the future.

"However, I still have to remind you that you can't guard against a thief forever. Umbridge will definitely not let you off so easily."

“I could see it too,” Hagrid said sadly. “I felt her malice the moment I saw her.”

“We warned you,” Hermione said, walking over. “A very serious warning.”

"How could I have imagined she was so disgusting!"

Hagrid was indignant. He had lived most of his life and thought that no one except the Dursleys could change his perception, but he never expected to encounter such an oddball today.

“But Thestrals are certainly interesting,” Harry said. “They remind me of Buckbeak.”

"Would you like to come up and sit for a while?" Hagrid asked meaningfully.

Harry was somewhat tempted, but then he thought that Umbridge might find out about it, and it would be terrible if it had a negative impact on Hagrid.

"Uh...maybe next time!"

......

As December approached and Christmas drew near, the class monitor's workload increased significantly.

In addition to organizing people to decorate the castle, they also had to look after the younger students who were getting a little too active because of the holidays.

Aaron was even busier, as he also had to organize the Defense Against the Dark Arts (DA) training sessions.

The Room of Requirement, the last lesson before Christmas.

Thirty students from different grades and colleges sat in chairs, while Aaron on the podium spoke in a serious tone, “The Stunning Spell, the incantation is to fall unconscious, and the effect is to stun the enemy.”

This is the most commonly used spell for defense against dark magic; it has relatively low destructive power but also consumes less mana.

"Raise your hand if you know this spell."

As soon as he finished speaking, all thirty people raised their right hands in unison.

Aaron chuckled to himself; the scene was exactly the same as when he taught them the disarming spell.

"Let me make this clear from the start: if you know it, you know it; if you don't, you don't."

I'll give you one more chance. If you already know it all, then I won't teach you anymore; you can just start training directly.

The Crevi brothers hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly lowered their hands. Besides them, there was a Ravenclaw and two Hufflepuffs.

"Sigh! I hope everyone can be more honest in class from now on, after all, this isn't for me to learn," Aaron said speechlessly, then turned the ground into a huge soft cushion.

"Harry, you'll be in charge of teaching them a few."

"I?"

"Of course it's you. You're not incapable of using the Stun Spell."

"understood."

"The remaining people will practice in pairs."

The group dispersed on their own, and soon the sound of people fainting and collapsing could be heard in the classroom.

Aaron patrolled the classroom to prevent any accidents from happening during practice.

Fred and George flanked him as he approached.

"Have you forgotten something?" Fred asked pointedly.

“We’ve already mastered five spells,” George added. “What about the Patronus Charm?”

"Well..." Aaron pondered for a moment, then said thoughtfully, "Let's teach him after the Christmas holidays!"

"what?"

"What? You guys don't actually think you can learn the Patronus Charm in one class!"

The two looked at each other and sighed helplessly.

They were self-aware enough to know that the Guardian Charm was a highly difficult spell, and they weren't really confident they could learn it in a short time.

The class ended quickly, and the group left the Room of Requirement in twos and threes under the cover of night.

Aaron went to the Temple of the Gods after returning to the common room. The temple was covered with a thick layer of white snow, and silver crystals hung upside down from the ceiling, glittering.

Several shadowy ninjas are decorating a giant Christmas tree to create a festive atmosphere.

"Merry Christmas," the message from the "Thoughts" columnist greeted.