Harry Potter and the Burnt Badger

Garr also didn’t bring Moon’s gift because the gift he received had been requisitioned by his mother.

"I feel very depressed when I mention this..." Gal scratched his hair. "Mun gave me a frying pan. Not only can it heat up and cool down according to the user's wishes, but it can also turn over automatically. As soon as I took it apart After I opened the gift, I couldn't wait to try it, but my mother was watching the whole process. After watching it, she praised the pot and took it away for me..."

Several people laughed at Gal's eyebrow expression, which undoubtedly made Gal even more depressed. Fortunately, while laughing, Munn also promised to give him another pot that was exactly the same. The depression was somewhat relieved.

After the atmosphere revived, several people began to talk about their holiday life.Owen also told them some people, things and things he saw in the United States, which made several young wizards say it was interesting.Later, everyone ran to the garden to play in the snow, and called Quaid and Hesper by the way. They did not return to the room until lunch time.

…………

"Little guys, are you interested in hunting deer and rabbits with me in the nearby mountains in the afternoon?" Halfway through lunch, Edgar suddenly looked at Moon and the others with a smile, "Go relax and be with nature." Get close.”

Deer hunting?Hunting rabbits?Upon hearing this, several children immediately looked at their parents, obviously all of them were a little moved.Who would have thought that Edgar actually continued: "It's okay. I've already told your parents that I will bring you back the same way I brought you there. I guarantee there won't be any accidents."

When several people saw the adults nodded, they cheered in unison. Only Gal hesitated and asked: "What should we use to hunt? Magic? But we are not allowed to use magic outside of school. As for a shotgun, I have never touched it..."

"Ha." Edgar winked at Gal, "Don't worry, when you are with adult wizards, spell casting is not strictly prohibited, not to mention that the idiots in the ministry are more focused. In Muggle activity areas, most of them ignore places where wizards are everywhere. The most important thing is... the ministry will only record the magic that has been released in the location where you little wizards are, but there is no way to separate it. It is clear who released it, so as long as there are adult wizards around, they will not know that you have cast spells at all, they will only think that I released it." [Note 1]

Gal nodded in understanding, but still looked a little worried. It wasn't until Moon patted him on the shoulder and told him that Uncle Edgar was an Auror that he was finally relieved.

-

[Note 1] This involves the "Law of Reasonable Restraint of Minor Wizards" in the original work. The behavior of minor wizards releasing magic outside of school will be detected and recorded, and a warning letter will be issued immediately, so Gal is worried about this. .

Chapter 60 Uncle Edgar's Old Friend

"Rabbit! There is a rabbit here!" Ouen, who was covered in snow, suddenly jumped up from the snow. The dumb gray rabbit was frightened and ran away in the distance.

How could anyone let go of such an opportunity to get off to a good start?Edgar reacted the fastest, flicked his right hand and shouted: "PetrificusTotalus!"

The body of the rabbit that was running forward froze, as if its limbs were suddenly locked. The body that had just jumped into the air fell to the ground in a daze.Ouen, who had been chasing the rabbit but was far away from him, was immediately happy when he saw this. He sprinted two steps and swooped down to hold the rabbit in his hands.

Hesper held the rope, and when he saw Ern hugging the rabbit, he hurried over to tie the rabbit and put it on the sled pulled by Quaid.

Moon and the others looked on with envy. Although they could cast spells, they didn't have the reaction speed as fast as Edgar. Secondly, they couldn't come up with too many spells in their minds. They had to think over the spell before casting it. Unable to catch the rabbit successfully, the rabbit was already petrified by Edgar before they even took out their wands.

Ern, the little scout, was quite competent. After the rabbit was put away, he lay down in the snow and crawled forward again - no one knew why he did this, but he stubbornly believed that it was like this on TV. Acting, so as a scout, I have to do this.

A group of eight people moved forward slowly in the forest full of heavy snow. This way, they could not disturb the surrounding prey as much as possible, but also allowed a few people to control their pace so as not to overtake the scout Ou who insisted on taking the lead. kindness.

"There's pee here! It's hot! And there are footprints! Big footprints!"

After walking for a while, Ern suddenly emerged from the snow again, pointing to a tree not far away with disgust - he completely ignored that as a scout, such loud shouting would probably put him at risk. All the animals around were scared away.

"What a big footprint?" Edgar's expression changed, he said hello and hurried towards the location pointed by Owen.

Several children followed, and just as they got closer, they heard Edgar patting the tree trunk excitedly and saying happily: "Ha! He's here!"

Children, you look at me and I look at you. No one knows what Edgar is excited about, but they all saw the footprints that Ern mentioned.Although none of them knew exactly what animal the footprints belonged to, what was certain was that the size must have been left by at least a tiger or bear.

"Uncle Edgar? Who?" Moon was the most surprised among the people, because he noticed that Edgar did not use "it", but "he".

In other words, Uncle Edgar is talking about someone?Could it be an animal trainer?A special wizard riding a big tiger or brown bear?

"An old friend, let's go, let's take you to meet him." Edgar waved to the children happily, and then walked out following the guidance of the footprints.

The ignorant children followed Edgar and whispered behind him:

"Uncle Edgar isn't going to take us to find a bear..." Hesper muttered in a low voice: "There won't be any accidents, right?"

Moon blinked and said with some uncertainty: "Uncle Edgar is an Auror after all. If there is only one bear, he should be able to defeat it?"

Gal suddenly thought of a possibility, "Do you think it could be a magical animal? Or someone who specializes in raising magical animals?"

The little wizards talked to each other, and soon the topic became endless, even to the point where Edgar found it outrageous - what is a person who looks like a bear?

However, he was not in a hurry to answer the children's questions. He just chuckled in front of him. In his opinion, such interesting things must be saved until the end for them to see with their own eyes, so that they would have enough surprise.

That's why Edgar was said to be out of shape. He completely ignored the possibility that the little guy might be frightened.

The beast that left footprints did not seem to deliberately cover its movements, or in other words, "he" seemed to deliberately leave some obvious traces, which made Moon even more puzzling.Although it is true that some wild animals mark their territory with eye-catching footprints and scents to warn uninvited unwanted guests.But how could such a beast exist on the mountain behind our house?If there really were such dangerous beasts, Uncle Golov and Uncle Edgar might have driven them away early in the morning.

Unless... that's a very smart magical animal with intelligence like normal humans?Like Hagrid's giant spider Aragog?

After following the footprints for about ten minutes, something unusual finally appeared in the forest ahead - thick smoke was rising high in the wind, and it looked like someone had lit a fire in the forest. .

The direction of the footprints points directly to the direction of the smoke.

Edgar smiled even more happily, and said in surprise, "It is indeed him," and then urged the children twice more, leading them to speed up and quickly walk in the direction of the footprints.

After advancing about 300 meters, they could almost see a faint light of fire through the dense woods. It was at this time that Moon was surprised to find that the footsteps on the ground had changed.

The previous step was obviously huge, like the footprints of a bear or a giant tiger, but the next step turned into human footprints.

Could this be a...

Moon finally had a bad premonition in his heart. He now deeply suspected that Uncle Edgar was leading them towards a werewolf.

Just when he was hesitating whether to stop Uncle Edgar, a deep and rich man's voice suddenly came from the front, "Edgar? I can smell your stink from 100 meters away."

Edgar was pleasantly surprised and pushed aside the branches blocking the way in front of him, and walked completely into the area covered by the fire. He laughed and said, "Haha, no matter how stinky I am, it will never be worse than the mark you left in the forest. Does it stink?"

We have all come here. Although the little wizards were uneasy, after all, what came out of it was the sound of human voices and not the roar of beasts. So each of the little guys swallowed a mouthful of saliva and followed Edgar through the fine walls. The branches blocked him and he walked into the firelight.

"Hmph, your urine smells much worse than mine. If it weren't for these kids following you, I would have run away long ago."

There was indeed a fire in the clearing in the forest, and a metal frame was set up on the fire. There was a net on the frame, and a large teapot was placed on the net.A strong man with long hair wearing a thin cloth sat beside the fire, talking and taking the teapot off the fire.

Chapter 61 Shepherd

In this strong man's words, his affection for the children was almost self-evident.

After saying those words and taking off the teapot from the fire, the strong man turned around, revealing his face and chest - brown eyes, long dark brown hair and beard, and vertical and horizontal The staggered light-colored old scars do not look like those left by human swords, but more like the scratches of wild beasts.Under the cover of these scars, there are solid muscles with great visual impact and a fierce, cold, but extremely majestic face.

When he saw this large group of children, this man who looked absolutely untouchable actually showed a gentle smile. He took out a small cloth bag from the satchel beside him, and then shook out the contents inside. Dried meat "I have dried meat and hot tea here. Do you want to rest here?"

Edgar seemed to have become accustomed to men's "double standards". He didn't care about the man's glance at him, and sat down next to the man with a smile. However, the children didn't know whether they were frightened by his scars or something. Yes, instead of moving forward, Yaerlin secretly took a step back.

Moon is feeling a lot better now. Firstly, even if this guy is really a werewolf, today is not a full moon, so it seems that he is unlikely to show off his ferocity; secondly, he is indeed in this man's body. I felt a strong sense of kindness - this guy seemed to have an inexplicable fondness for children.

Therefore, Moon took the boldest Hesper and took the lead to set an example, followed Edgar to sit down by the fire, and at the same time did not forget to greet the others, "It's okay, come and sit." "

In the man's happy eyes, other children came to sit by the fire at Moon's call. Although they all deliberately stayed away from the man, in the man's view, this was always a good thing.

He thought for a moment and did not distribute the dried meat himself, but carefully handed the bag to Munn, as if he was afraid of scaring Munn - which made Munn start to think that this "weird worm" was a little cute. .

Therefore, Moon happily took the dried meat and smiled at the man, "Hello sir, my name is Moon, Moon Fox, Edgar is my uncle, and my mother is Ann. Thank you for the meat." Dry."

The man was stunned for a moment, and then looked into Moon's eyes with emotion, "It turns out to be An's child. I still remember when your mother and your father left Shafiq Manor, it was also winter, and An specially brought her with her. Your father came to say goodbye to me. In the blink of an eye, their children are already this big."

Sure enough, as Moon thought, this man not only knew Uncle Edgar, but also knew his mother Ann. He probably knew Uncle Golov as well.

After a few words of emotion, the man also began to introduce himself, "Hello Moon, and a few little guys. My name is Fan, and I am a herder [Note 1]."

"Herdsman?" Moon, who was distributing dried meat, suddenly heard such a brand-new term and looked curiously at the man who called himself Fan.

Edgar, who was pouring tea by himself, explained: "The shepherds are a special group of people - they are wizards with unique talents who grew up under the care of nature, magical animals and beasts. They have abilities far beyond ordinary." Wizards have the ability to transform and have extraordinary physical strength. Not only do they enjoy a long lifespan blessed by nature, they can even control the power of nature to some extent. However, herders are very rare. Currently, the entire UK has There are only three known herders, and each of them is elusive. If they don't want to show up, no one can find them."

"Now there are only two left..." When Fan said this, he felt a strong sense of loneliness. "Yinze died of old age on an uninhabited island last year and returned to the embrace of nature."

"This..." Edgar was silent for a moment, then patted Fan on the shoulder. "This is a good thing. I remember you said that Yinze has been wandering alone for almost 200 years. It's time for him to take a rest." .”

Fan nodded slightly, took the teapot himself, and poured a cup of tea using the teacup conjured by Edgar. "Yes, this is a good thing."

"So, how do you know my mother and uncles?" Moon asked curiously: "Do you often haunt this mountain?"

"Yes." Fan laughed, as if he had thought of something fun. "This is my hometown. I grew up here more than 70 years ago. Later one year I came back here to visit my parents. My golden deer mother, but I didn’t expect that my golden deer mother had passed away. At that time, your mother Ann and your two uncles were burying her. It turned out that they went up the mountain to play and happened to meet my golden deer mother. He died of illness, so they discussed it and decided to carry out a burial ceremony for my golden deer mother. It was at that time that I met them. [Note 2]"

"Ha, I remember that Golov, An and I were all shocked at that time - you know, this guy Fan stood over two meters tall. We thought this guy was a werewolf for a while." Edgar He also smiled and said: "Golov pulled out his magic wand at that time and wanted to protect An and me. If An hadn't stopped Golov immediately, there might have been a fight that time."

"Hmph." Fan glanced at Edgar again, "They were both very cute at that time. Edgar at that time was about the same age as Moon and you are now. Unfortunately, Edgar later became like a bastard. He always likes to play some cheap tricks, such as lying to me that there is a fire at home, but actually he wants me to come to the house as a guest. Another example is trying his best to trick a Bowtruckle out of my hand, just to get through. Addicted to play——"

Just as Fan was counting Edgar's crimes, Gal suddenly widened his eyes and exclaimed: "Delicious jerky!"

Now everyone's eyes were turned to him.

It turned out that after getting the dried meat, this guy, like several other children, had been doing psychological construction - after all, Fan's cloth bag did not look very clean, and the dried meat itself looked cold and hard. After a lot of effort, I finally endured and took the first bite. Unexpectedly, the taste was surprisingly good.

"What kind of meat is this, Mr. Fan?" The temptation of delicious food made Gal break through his fear, just like Hagrid's melons and fruits. "Or did you use some special seasoning?"

-

[Note 1] The Shepherd is an original concept of this book and does not exist in the original work.

[Note 2] The golden deer is a magical animal. Please refer to the following article for details. This magical animal is also original to this book and does not belong to the original content.

Chapter 62 new page

After Fan's explanation, they learned that although the herders also eat meat, they will only eat those old beasts. After they have lost the ability to follow the group and hunt, they can only hunt alone. When seeking death in a certain place, if there is a herder nearby, these beasts will look for the herder and let the herder end their lives that have completely lost the ability to compete and survive.

Therefore, the reason why meat tastes delicious is not because of the quality of the meat itself, nor because of any special cooking techniques, but because of the special seasonings used.

Before leaving, Fan generously gave a small bag to Gal - he himself only had an approximate amount left.

Yes, everyone didn't sit there for too long, because Fan just passed by and came back to take a look, and he had to rush to the next mountain.

When it was time to say goodbye, Moon asked a question he had been hesitating for a long time: how did herders like Van view this behavior of humans hunting animals.

He originally thought that Brahma would stand on the opposite side of mankind to some extent. After all, in many fantasy novels in the past, naturalists and human industrialization were always at odds with each other and were hostile to each other.What he didn't expect was that Fan's answer was, "Humans are also animals. Humans hunt animals. There is no essential difference between the wild wolves catching rabbits on the grassland and the tigers hunting elk in the forest. Ours Our duty is to herd and protect, not to fight against another animal for the sake of its survival. What's more, over the years, I have witnessed with my own eyes that you have begun to establish laws related to poaching, and impose more restrictions on animals that are about to become extinct than we do. More thoughtful protection, which is good behavior.”

"If you feel pity for the wolf because the tiger is chasing the lone wolf, and choose to protect the wolf and drive away the tiger, then what should you do with the rabbits and pheasants that are eaten by the wolf? Hunt, prey, devour, or It's like a kitten using mice and birds to practice its hunting skills. These are natural choices and designs. We will not interfere, because interfering would mean that it is unnatural. We will punish them. There are very few special circumstances. Most of the time, we just wander in the mountains and forests, helping animals relocate, deliver babies, heal their injuries, and protect those who are dying, just like you protect precious animals. "

When he heard this, Moon suddenly felt a little ashamed - in a sense, he was questioning the infinitely tolerant will of nature.

…………

After saying goodbye to Fan, most of the children were somewhat relieved, such as Yaerlin.There is no way, compared to a guy like Hagrid, who would feel a bit naive when he gets close to him, Fan always has a strong sense of majesty in his body, which makes them feel that they have done something wrong from beginning to end. The child feels when facing his father.Even though the kindness radiated by Fan was very obvious, they could not have a normal conversation with Fan.

This resulted in that from beginning to end, only Edgar, Moon and Gal were chatting with Fan.Fortunately, judging from Fan's appearance, he is probably used to this kind of thing.

Now that Fan is gone, a few children are interested and talking happily, "Wow, he is so cool."

"Yeah, judging from his appearance, he must be very powerful."

Quaid was the most courageous person. He ran directly to Edgar and asked, "Uncle Edgar, have you ever beaten Van?"

As soon as he heard this question, Edgar's face suddenly darkened. He did not answer directly, but began to talk about it. "Huh? What? Fan? Why should I fight with him? We are very strong." good friend."

Seeing his uncle's appearance, Moon laughed and teased Edgar beside him, "A very iron friend, do you mean the kind of iron that you want to deceive people into making bowtruckles?"

Edgar knocked his knuckles on Moon's head with his backhand, and then walked forward without looking back.

We went hunting originally just for fun. Now that we saw Fan, everyone was very excited. Even if we went hunting again, we might not find much fun. So after some discussion, we decided to just go down the mountain along the road and go back to rest. Have dinner,

When he reached the bottom of the mountain, Moon suddenly remembered something, grabbed Quaid who was walking in front, and then picked up the bird from his sled that had given up its struggle and lay on the sled with a look of helplessness on his face. Love rabbit.

He and Uncle Edgar had gone hunting in the mountains before. In fact, this so-called hunting was just for fun. Everything they hunted would be released again when they came down the mountain.

In the past, he didn't quite understand why Uncle Edgar would release all the small animals into the forest. Now that he thought about it, it was probably because of his acquaintance with Fan?

The rabbit, who was finally freed from its restraints, was a little uncomfortable at first, probably because it was dizzy. It first looked left and right at the same spot several times, and then tried to move its paws twice.It wasn't until it confirmed that there was nothing on it that could prevent its escape that it finally let go of its arms and legs and disappeared on the mountain road, leaving only some small paw prints along the road.

"Okay, let's go home." Moon clapped his hands, and everyone followed Edgar while chatting and laughing, and gradually left this hill full of surprises.

…………

Today's dinner was just as sumptuous as Christmas Day, and the whole restaurant was filled with the rich aroma of meat.At Mrs. Fuller's request, she even went to the kitchen to show off her skills - it turned out that Gal's cooking talent should have been inherited from his mother. Mrs. Fuller's skills were quite good, and the roasted lamb chops were It is the most addictive dish on the table, and it is also the first dish to be eaten cleanly.

After dinner, Cedric left Shafiq Manor with his father first, followed by Gal and his family in a car. Arlin was not only the last to arrive, but also the last to leave.It wasn't until almost 08:30 in the evening that his mother finally came to Shafiq Manor to pick him up.

Before going to bed, Moon, who couldn't bear to refuse Ouen's request, came to Ouen's room with a storybook and told him three short stories in succession before finally coaxing the little guy to sleep.

After dragging his tired body back to the room, Moon looked at the time - 24:[-]. After thinking about it, he took out his book and opened the grimoire.

Staying up until the top of the hour before going to bed is the last stubbornness that modern people’s souls can retain.

As soon as he opened the book, a pure magic power poured into Munn's body. He was surprised to open a new page in the grimoire. The name of the new magic was written at the top of the page:

"Activated Rope".

Chapter 63 Violet’s Little Book

Amidst the heavy snow, the little wizards ushered in their homecoming day.

People say that holidays are always happy at both ends and sad in the middle. This is probably true - when the holidays first come, children are full of thoughts about being able to reunite with their families and relax at home for a while, so most of them Very happy.After I have been on vacation for a while, I inevitably start to feel that the nagging of my family is annoying and not as interesting as school life and friends.In this way, until the holiday is over, although going back to school is not something to be happy about, the thought of being able to have fun with friends again naturally makes me happy.

Although Moon himself did not have such worries because he had a more mature soul, when he saw the cheerful expressions of the little wizards around him, he still felt that these words really hit the lungs of the children.

After waving goodbye to Uncle Golov, mother Ann, and several younger brothers and sisters, Moon took care of himself and got into the car.Aunt Nora has returned to the United States. Last year Hesper and the others stayed in the United States for a whole year. This year it is their turn to accompany their father at home, so today several little ones clamored to come together to see Moon back. school.Uncle Golov couldn't resist them, so he had to agree to these chirping children.

The Hogwarts Express is always bustling with people and noisy students everywhere. After boarding the train, Moon avoided the "surprise attack" of two trumpet-fired fireworks one after another, and then bypassed them again. After gathering a whole team of Ravenclaw's "girls' phalanx", we finally found the carriage where Gar and Arlin were - they had exchanged letters the day before yesterday, and each knew their approximate arrival time.