The Magical Food God of Hogwarts

Speaking of toads...

Lucas saw a toad swallowing a swarm of flies in the glass box, drool dripping from its mouth, and he immediately looked away.

Owls and cats each have their uses, but why is Reckoning one of the top three pets on the list?

"Centuries ago, toads were very useful pets. Wizards would bring a whole basket of toads when they went to school," Sandy replied enthusiastically. "Wizards needed to dissect the toads and take out their magical materials, such as brains, intestines, and skin, to make potions."

"At the same time, toads have a strong tolerance, making them excellent test subjects for spells and potions."

Out of the corner of his eye, Lucas noticed that the toad convulsed in fright at Sandy's words and vomited up a whole bunch of flies.

"But now, with the enactment of laws prohibiting animal cruelty, it's no longer possible to do that. So, yes, toads have indeed become completely outdated pets, and very few people want them."

"Lucas, you've spent all your money on a wand? No problem, I can give you a toad if you want."

Lucas quickly declined, and Sandy laughed heartily.

"Yes, that's true. If someone gave me a toad, I would immediately find a way to get rid of it."

"Oh? You want to see the smartest pet? Okay, come with me."

Lucas followed Sandy through cages of all sizes, passing various rustling, chirping, and flapping wings, the air filled with the scent of hay, feathers, and a strong bird smell.

They turned the corner and came to a tall iron fence. Several hoarse, rough voices came from inside the fence.

"Mice, so noisy, squeaking all the time, eat them!"

"A necklace! A necklace! It's sparkly! I want it..."

"My feathers are ruffled, please help me, thank you."

Lucas looked closely and saw that in the spacious indoor enclosure, some sturdy wooden frames formed perches of varying heights. Several large, robust black birds were standing on them, their feathers as black as ink, gleaming under the lights.

They were at least two feet tall, and one of them flapped its wings and had a wingspan of over four feet, reaching almost to Lucas's thighs when standing upright.

"These are ravens," Sandy exclaimed. "Aren't they big? They can easily deliver heavy packages. They're also very intelligent, equivalent to a seven or eight-year-old child. More importantly, they have a strong language ability; they can talk!"

Lucas was amazed. He could tell that these ravens were not like their Muggle counterparts, who could only mimic human voices like parrots. They truly understood human language and were communicating with it.

These are much smarter than the ravens of the Muggle world. The only drawback is that their speech is not fluent; they can only utter one word at a time.

After all, they are not a truly intelligent race—

Just as I was thinking this, a clear, fluent, and impatient voice suddenly rang out.

"Shut the fuck up, you motherfuckin' birds!"

Lucas was stunned. He saw a small figure jump out from the wooden house at the top of the wooden frame. It was also a raven!

But it is very small, less than a third the size of a normal raven, with a jet-black body that shimmers, its feathers are compact and smooth, and its small eyes are bright black.

It paced back and forth, clearly disgruntled, and yelled at the group of large creatures below, "Can't a motherfucker get some sleep? Shit!"

The ravens below immediately folded their wings and bowed their heads respectfully to it.

The little raven spat in disgust, its dark eyes turning to the three people outside the fence. Its gaze lingered on Lucas for a moment before it hopped over.

"Great. Another fuckin' kid!"

"What's your name, kid?"

Lucas moved closer: "Nice to meet you, I'm Lucas McGregor."

The little raven laughed loudly: "Fuck you! Lucas!"

Professor Sprout's pointed hat was tilted back, and his mouth was wide open, big enough to fit an egg.

Lucas was also dumbfounded; this raven... was quite powerful.

The little raven turned to Sandy: "Hey, Sandy, what's for lunch today? Don't fucking tell me it's that pile of dog poop again!"

Sandy smiled helplessly: "Hi Pepper, you guessed it, it's still 'Cooco Brand' premium bird food."

"Are you fucking talking?!" Pepper immediately exploded. "That thing is drier than a nun's vagina!"

"Oh, Merlin!" Professor Sprout was shocked by the outrageous profanity.

But Pepper didn't care at all, and a string of words came out like a machine gun.

"Ha! Premium bird food? I don't believe you for a second!"

"The grain ratio is completely off; there are more seeds than fruit, and the dried insects are fried up like tire husks. Who the hell invented this?!"

"They even added that damn sweetener to mask the rotten smell! It smells like a lollipop soaked in a sewer! It only deserves to be stuffed into someone's anus!"

Lucas was immediately taken aback.

It's not the profanity it spews, but the thing itself—

To survive, birds generally have very dull senses of taste and smell, so they can eat all kinds of smelly food, including carrion. But this raven seems to have mutated into having a very sensitive sense of taste and smell, in addition to its intelligence and language ability!

He leaned closer to the fence: "That's amazing, you can taste the food?"

Pepper held her head high with pride, glancing at him. "Isn't that fucking obvious, you idiot!"

Professor Sprout finally recovered from the shock and asked in a low voice, "Sandy, what's going on with this raven?"

“Ah, Professor, we believe it’s a very special mutant.” Sandy looked at Lucas and Pepper, who were interacting. “Its intelligence is almost indistinguishable from that of a human; its memory, learning, and language abilities are ridiculously strong. As you can see, it became the leader of this flock of ravens with ease.”

"But its foul language?!"

“Pepper was born in a Black community in the United States and was later brought here across the ocean,” Sandy sighed. “That’s where its language habits were formed. But… you know what, some customers, including our owner, think it’s really cool.”

As if to confirm Sandy's words, a young wizard was drawn over. Listening to Pepper's foul language, he couldn't help but whistle, "Hey, this kid's got some nerve!"

"Go fuck yourself, asshole!" Pepper said bluntly.

The wizard, far from being angry, burst into laughter: "Cool! I love it. How much for this raven?"

Sandy smiled and quoted the price: "Fifty Galleons, sir."

The wizard's laughter abruptly stopped, his cheeks flushed red, and he coughed repeatedly: "Fifty...fifty Galleons? Are you kidding me? A top-quality owl only costs a dozen or so Galleons!"