The Wind and the Wings of Hogwarts

Hagrid continued, sobbing, “Uru was my favorite… the first horse born in the Forbidden Forest, and it became the leader of the herd… At first, I only had one stallion and five mares… Oh! I couldn’t save them. Those damned thieves…”

"What's going on, Hagrid?" Hermione couldn't help but ask. "Are those Thestrals in the newspapers yours?"

She pointed to a letter on the round table, "I thought the fact that you're about to face a lawsuit was bad enough!"

“Oh! I don’t have time for any lawsuits right now. Let Lucius Malfoy sue me if he wants,” Hagrid said, somewhat agitated. “I’m just worried about Ulquiorra and the others…”

Hermione looked at him disapprovingly. "No, Hagrid, you have to prepare a defense! You must prove that the main responsibility for that teaching accident lies with Malfoy himself!"

"Does that even need proof?" Ron said dismissively. "Everyone knows Malfoy got hurt because he misbehaved in class!"

Harry nodded repeatedly, "Everyone knows it's Malfoy's responsibility!"

Hermione raised her chin and glanced at them. "I can't believe you would say something so stupid! Yes, we know, but that doesn't mean the Department of Education and Wizengamor know!"

“Hermione, I don’t have time for those damned Malfoys!” Hagrid shouted. “Do you know what they’ve done to Ulquiorra and the others? They’ve lost all their freedom!”

At this point, he covered his face with a dirty handkerchief, crying again, "Those bastards... they even put saddles, bridles, and reins on them..."

At that moment, Harry suddenly asked, "So, what is a Thestral?"

Scott noticed that both he and Ron looked even more bewildered.

Hermione immediately turned and glared at them.

Just as she took a deep breath and was about to begin her sermon, Scott quickly said, "Wait, this is getting a bit messy!"

He raised his hand to stop Hermione from saying what she was about to say.

“We need to clarify what each of us knows first.” He glanced at Luna again. “Hermione, you can talk about the lawsuit first, and then Luna can talk about the Thestrals.”

Hermione nodded upon hearing this and began to talk about the letter from Wizengamor on the table.

Chapter 295 Finding a Breakthrough

After Hermione and Luna talked, Scott and Harry finally figured out the two things.

Scott wasn't interested in another matter.

Old Malfoy was extremely dissatisfied with Headmaster Dumbledore and the Board of Trustees' previous decisions, so he took the path of litigation.

Clearly, he wanted to use his connections in the Ministry of Magic to influence the outcome of Wizengamor's trial, with the aim of punishing Hagrid and the hippogriff that had harmed young Malfoy.

Scott didn't think it was a big deal; he could still help Hagrid keep his professorship if Dumbledore wanted to.

As for whether the hippogriff will be sentenced to death like in the "original story"?

This was even less of a concern for Scott.

Anyway... if Harry and his friends want to save the hippogriff, they only need to use Hermione's Time-Turner, just like in the "original book".

What Scott was really concerned about was Medea's actions.

He couldn't get any more information on this, but he confirmed one thing with Hagrid—the Thestrals of Hogwarts had indeed been stolen by Medea's people.

Scott could not send Rimbaud and the Crows to Edinburgh to gather intelligence on Medea.

After all, Rimbaud had been captured by Medea when he was spying on Kitty Shafiq, and she even gave him a Confusion Charm that sent him flying back to Hogwarts.

Inside the hut, Harry and Ron gave Hagrid a bunch of ideas that sounded absurd, only to have them all refuted by Hermione.

Scott and Luna remained silent, simply watching the three Gryffindors bicker noisily, as if they were watching some amusing performance.

Hagrid was sobbing and wiping away tears, his mind completely absorbed by the Thestrals he perceived as suffering, and he didn't hear a word Harry and the others were saying.

The midday break passed by just like that, and the three Gryffindor wizards didn't come up with anything useful.

On the way back, Hermione said to Harry and Ron, "I've decided to do some research. Maybe I can find some past cases in the library for reference. You two should go too!"

Harry and Ron immediately looked distressed.

“Look at your faces! Oh, you’re not willing, are you?” Hermione said angrily. “We can’t help Thestrals, and Hagrid is too busy with the lawsuit right now. We have to help him!”

“Of course, I’d love to help him,” Harry said quickly.

Ron nodded with a frown.

"That's more like it!" Hermione snorted, tossed her head, and strode to the front.

Harry turned to Scott and Luna with a pained expression. "Scott, do you have any good ideas?"

Scott glanced at him.

This kid's intention to drag others down with him couldn't be more obvious.

Ron added, "By the way, Scott, even Fred and George have praised your intelligence. You must have a solution, right?"

He looked at Scott with hopeful eyes, seemingly pinning his hopes of escaping the reading assignment on this Ravenclaw.

"Oh, you guys are so funny!"

Seeing this, Luna suddenly burst into a somewhat neurotic laugh.

Harry and Ron stared at her, somewhat bewildered, and even Hermione, who was walking ahead, turned around, her face full of surprise.

Luna laughed to herself for a while before stopping.

Then, in a wavering tone, she said to Harry and the others, "Oh, don't worry, Hagrid will be fine."

The three Gryffindors present all had somewhat indescribable expressions, seemingly believing that Luna was indeed a bit crazy.

"Sorry, I don't know much about dealing with lawsuits."

At this point, Scott began answering Harry and Ron's questions.

Upon hearing Scott's words, the two men showed pained expressions again.

“But I can write to William and ask him,” Scott added.

“William?” Hermione turned around again. “Who’s that?”

Scott said, "William is a Ravenclaw graduate from the previous school year. He is very interested in law and his goal is to become a famous barrister. If he is willing to help, Hagrid will have a much easier time."

“Great!” Harry and Ron immediately beamed.

Scott added, "To be clear, I don't know if William would be willing to be Hagrid's defense attorney, and of course, if he were, he would need to be paid."

“No problem, I can pay him!” Harry said magnanimously.

“That’s settled then.” Scott smiled and said goodbye. “I’ll let you know if there’s any news.”

In fact, William had already left the wizarding world to apply to Muggle universities, and Scott had no idea whether he would be willing to help.

But that wasn't Scott's purpose in bringing up William; he simply wanted to use this opportunity to stay in touch with him.

After all, William was one of the students who had once accepted Medea's contractual deal.

No one knows exactly what he traded.

Scott couldn't say for sure either—

He wondered whether William had really returned to the Muggle world to take the college entrance exam, or... had he also become one of those recruited by Medea?

It's not impossible.

It is very difficult for a wizard to completely abandon magic and return to Muggle society to live as a Muggle, even if the wizard comes from a Muggle family.

When saying goodbye to William, Scott didn't pry too much, and even offered his blessings, wishing him to become one of London's leading barristers.

But upon reflection, Scott felt something was amiss.

Perhaps he was judging others by his own standards, but he always felt that William's departure was too abrupt.

Scott himself could never be that carefree.

In his mind, even if he didn't have such magical talent, he would never give up magic.

Just look at that Jacob kid. Although he was mediocre, he seized every opportunity to improve himself, even at the risk of his life.

During this period, Scott urgently needed information about Medea, but he had no good way to obtain it.

For some reason, he did not want to contact Medea directly, and he could not send ravens to gather intelligence, so he could only look for a breakthrough from other aspects.

With Hagrid facing a lawsuit, Scott thought he could use this opportunity to reconnect with William and see if he could gain anything.

Of course, if he's wrong and William really is just working hard to get into university, then he has nothing to lose.

Without hesitation, Scott took the letter he had written and went to the school's owl hut after his afternoon classes.

He hired a nimble public owl to deliver his message with some food.

After the owl flew away, Scott summoned several crows and had them follow behind it.

“I hope William didn’t use some kind of spell to block your search, you mail carriers,” Scott said, dividing the remaining food among the other owls.

When a wizard doesn't want to be found, there are ways to block all contact with the outside world, including with messenger owls.

Looking up, Scott watched the crows disappear into the horizon, then turned and left the owl hut to attend the evening Transfiguration Club as usual.

The club members are all students with strong Transfiguration talent, which means that they generally learn faster than in regular Transfiguration classes.

For example, Scott and his fellow fifth-graders have already begun to formally learn about human transformation in the Transfiguration Club.

Human body transformation is an important branch of transformational art, and of course, it is also the most dangerous.

The ultimate magic of this branch is the Animagus, which can completely transform into an animal.

Normally, knowledge of human transformation is not included in the content of ordinary wizarding level exams.

In other words, only sixth-grade students who choose to continue their studies in Transfiguration will typically encounter human transformation.

However, within the club, Professor McGonagall had already assumed that these fifth-year club members would all choose to pursue further studies in Transfiguration in their sixth year.

Therefore, she intentionally began teaching them some knowledge about human body deformation at the start of this academic year.

Scott also chose to begin formally studying human transformations this school year in preparation for completing the extremely difficult magic of Animagus.

He plans to spend a year preparing and attempt to complete the transformation during his sixth-grade year.

Professor McGonagall appreciated his cautious approach.

"Human transformation is an extremely dangerous form of magic!"

She emphasized this to her students more than once.

"If you don't want to end up in the hospital, please remember to try it under my supervision, even if you're just planning to make one of your ears bigger!"