Mysterious Journey
Chapter 963 Leaking the Exam Questions
He had originally thought it would be a small gathering, similar to when Erina and the others visited his cabin a few days earlier, where he could muddle through with a few words and postpone things a little longer. However, Hagrid clearly underestimated Erina's, Hermione's, and others' initiative and determination this time.
When Hagrid opened the door for the third time and saw Professor McGonagall standing there, the light in the half-giant's eyes finally disappeared.
Unlike the somewhat messy and crowded small space before, the gamekeeper's hut had more than doubled in size.
With the full assistance of Professor Flitwick, Professor Apocalyps, and Professor Sprout, an extra area for Hagrid to study had appeared in his small cabin—a tailor-made giant desk, a birchwood bookshelf that was three meters high, magical lamps that were as bright as day...
Unfortunately, these thoughtful and warm surroundings were as terrifying to Hagrid tonight as the Ministry of Magic's interrogation room.
"Oh, Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout, Professor Apocalyps... you're here too?"
Professor McGonagall entered the cabin, took off her tartan cloak and hung it on the coat rack, curiously examining the newly renovated room and the other guests who had arrived at Hagrid's cabin before her. "Oh, Miss Kaslana, you don't have to be so polite, I can do it myself—"
Although her relationship with Erina had improved a lot recently, McGonagall still maintained some basic vigilance.
Moreover, even with so many professors present, Erina wouldn't dare to add anything to her tea, but such unsolicited kindness was still a bit unnerving.
Compared to the enthusiastic and hospitable white-haired ball, who seemed like the owner of the cabin, the original owner of the small cabin was clearly a bit lost. Hagrid closed the door blankly, dragged his heavy steps to his bed and sat down, trying his best not to show any sadness or frustration on his face.
Including Professor McGonagall, who had just entered the room, there were seven uninvited guests tonight, and they all had one purpose—
"Alright, Mr. Hagrid, let's continue talking about what we didn't finish just now..."
Grindelwald cleared his throat, picked up a cup of red tea brewed by Erina, took a sip, and continued happily.
"...how to coordinate class time and extra-curricular time, as well as the intensive tutoring schedule. Actually, you could have told us about these troubles earlier. After all, compared to the wizards outside the school, I believe everyone would be happier to see you succeed in the future professor recruitment."
"That's right, Hagrid. If Professor Apocalyps hadn't told me, I wouldn't have known about this news."
Professor Sprout nodded, and glared at the big guy sitting by the bed somewhat reproachfully.
As the Hogwarts Herbology professor, she was one of the official professors who had the most frequent contact with Hagrid.
After briefly asking Dumbledore and Professor Beun, and learning that it was indeed the case, Sprout readily accepted Erina's invitation and actively came to Hagrid's cabin to help Hagrid prepare for the intensive tutoring—and after hearing about the idea of expanding the cabin, she also decisively pulled in Professor Flitwick, and the two of them came to Hagrid's side to help everyone complete the indoor renovation for Hagrid.
"Uh, I just found out too—"
Hagrid said in a muffled voice, waiting for the final tutoring schedule to come out with no love for life.
The Hogwarts curriculum was not too tight, and Hagrid, who had privileges in this regard, had even more free time than the lower grades.
However, this also meant that Hagrid had more operational space in terms of time arrangement than ordinary students.
Naturally, as the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Dumbledore could not show favoritism openly, especially with Umbridge, a high-ranking investigator, in Hogwarts. It was even more inappropriate for him to actively interfere, but the other professors were different.
Compared to the ordinary and routine teaching time, tutoring Hagrid to complete the basic qualification assessment for staying at school was obviously much more interesting.
Not to mention, they could also learn about some of the follow-up development plans of "Magizoology" in this process.
Newt Scamander obviously saw further than everyone else in the school. The "folk organizations" he founded outside the school and the subject ideas he constructed within the school were all blank areas that the professors were interested in—this was also another factor that prompted the three deans to come.
Not to mention Professor McGonagall, who was facing the trouble of "establishing a school," Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout also had similar ideas in their minds.
Different from the field of Magical Creatures, which had a "full-level account" responsible for exploring the new world, whether it was Charms, Herbology, or even Transfiguration, which was now slightly changing its direction, these subjects had stagnated for too long in the past hundred years, and they were too eager to find new directions for development.
The transition from Care of Magical Creatures to Magizoology allowed these professors to see a glimmer of hope.
"Reclassifying according to the type of creatures, this seems to be able to link with Herbology knowledge..."
"Modern Transfiguration is not difficult, you can understand it by doing a few more sets of math problems..."
"How about this, Hagrid, I'll find you some more Charms test papers..."
"Set up some alarm magic around the Forbidden Forest, so you can save a lot of time on your daily patrols, Hagrid..."
"Erina, can you usually help supervise Hagrid?"
"It's my duty."
"Charms, Herbology, Transfiguration, plus Care of Magical Creatures, that's four subjects. If you cram for one more subject, Hagrid, you can reach the current minimum Hogwarts requirement for a stay-in certificate—5 subjects with a grade of A or above. I advise you to carefully consider Divination and Muggle Studies."
After briefly understanding the situation, Professor McGonagall quickly took control of the conversation in the cabin and looked at Hagrid, who wanted to say something but stopped.
"Of course, I'm not doubting the character of Sybill or Professor Quirrell, but the uncertainty of these two courses is a bit too great, and there are too many subjective factors in them. Therefore, from my point of view, I think you should focus on Defense Against the Dark Arts. Moreover, Magizoology will inevitably involve some knowledge of dark creatures in the teaching process, so you shouldn't give up these course content directly—"
"What I don't understand is..."
Hagrid looked at the professors sitting at the table with a complex expression, his voice a little weak.
"Just a few hours ago, I just learned that Professor Dumbledore was planning to let me take over Professor Beun's job later, and there are still more than half a year before Professor Beun officially leaves. How come you all think this matter is so urgent that I have to start tutoring now..."
This serious scene, like a home visit plus an after-school individual talk, was something he had never encountered even in his dreams.
Hagrid never thought that after returning to Hogwarts to continue his studies, he would be fortunate enough to make up for this childhood regret—perhaps this is why Newt Scamander did not choose to continue his studies and kept his dropout record?
When your colleagues become your teachers again, it's really terrible!
"The problem is, Hagrid, you should know that Hogwarts is currently in a very delicate stage."
Professor McGonagall said with a serious expression, "The Ministry of Magic may not be able to solve problems, nor can it prevent the emergence of new knowledge, but they have ways to deal with people who may cause problems. The incident targeting Quirinus was not an accident—you may be another target."
She put down her teacup and looked at Hagrid sharply, causing Hagrid to straighten his back subconsciously.
"What do you mean, I may be... another target of the Ministry of Magic?"
Hagrid scratched his hair in confusion, looking at Professor McGonagall without understanding.
"Oh, it seems that Mr. Hagrid doesn't realize how special you are now."
At this moment, Grindelwald, who was sitting next to him, grinned and said softly.
"For centuries, you are the first wizard to revoke a sentence that has been revoked for decades and force the Ministry of Magic to make compensation... The symbolic significance of this is far greater than the truth of the case itself. If it weren't for Peter Pettigrew disrupting their plan, how could the Ministry of Magic admit that you were wronged so easily... And now you may become the second precedent, but there is no second Peter for the time being."
"I was originally wronged!" Hagrid said loudly.
"We all know the facts, Hagrid. But you should also know that this world does not operate on the basis of truth, right?"
Grindelwald said impatiently, tapping his fingers on the table lightly.
"Moreover, in fact, you should be the clearest that the reason why the Ministry of Magic asked Hogwarts to expel you was not 'opening the Chamber of Secrets' or 'causing the death of students', but illegally raising high-risk magical creatures. If they hold on to this point, unless you can push these charges to Tom Riddle, the Ministry of Magic has the right to maintain the previous sentence—they changed the sentence because of Dumbledore, that's the fact!"
"But..."
Grindelwald paused slightly, turned his head, and exchanged a uneasy look with the other deans around him.
"With the advancement of the new curriculum standards, Dumbledore has begun to threaten the status of the Ministry of Magic. The purpose of the Ministry of Magic's secret arrest of Quirinus Quirrell is not to maintain the secrecy law from being broken, but to weaken Dumbledore's credibility, understand?"
"Weaken Professor Dumbledore's credibility? What good is that to them?!" Hagrid frowned.
However, this time, before Grindelwald and others could speak, he shrugged helplessly and sighed.
"Don't explain so much to me... I'm not good at these twists and turns."
Hagrid's gaze swept over the professors sitting in the room, as well as the little witches who were eating melons and listening in the corner on the small stools.
If it was only Erina and a few others, he might still be a little hesitant, but since the three deans and Professor Apocalyps had also appeared in his small cabin, then the truthfulness of these things was not worth questioning. He just had to wait for the conclusion.
"So, professors, what should I do now—"
"Study hard and improve and make up for the shortcomings in your knowledge reserves as much as possible."
Grindelwald spread his hands, "We don't know the specific ideas of the Ministry of Magic, but we can roughly guess some ways that Umbridge, or rather the Ministry of Magic, might try after learning that Professor Beun is about to retire—competitive employment. This is obviously the most logical thing to do. And what we have to do now is to find a way to help you prepare some knowledge that may be used at that time to ensure that you can stay at school smoothly..."
"Okay, but there's one thing I don't understand, why didn't Professor Dumbledore tell me about this?"
"There may be many reasons, but the simplest and most direct one..."
Grindelwald couldn't help but curl his lips, and said in a rather disdainful and helpless tone.
"Because this involves his own affairs. With Albus's character, do you expect him to put this unnecessary pressure on you in order to maintain these false reputations? In fact, today's conversation and subsequent tutoring are all kept from Dumbledore. This is the result of the discussion between me, Professor McGonagall, Professor Sprout, and Professor Flitwick... If you think there is anything inappropriate—"
"There is nothing inappropriate, thank you very much, and thank you all! Let's continue to discuss the subsequent tutoring plan!"
Hagrid said without thinking, his voice subconsciously raised, returning to his old tone.
The field of Magical Creatures was originally Hagrid's greatest interest, and he was quite eager to become a professor of Magizoology.
Not to mention, Dumbledore has been taking care of and helping him all these years.
But in contrast, Hagrid rarely finds places where he can help Professor Dumbledore, and now that he learns that he may become a target used by the Ministry of Magic to attack and weaken Professor Dumbledore, of course he cannot retreat at the last minute and sit back and watch the Ministry of Magic mess around at Hogwarts.
"Well, but Hagrid, you don't have to worry too much. In fact, memorizing the text is not as difficult as you think—"
Professor Sprout smiled and shook her head. There were three deans and several talented students present.
These things about learning should be carried out step by step. She was very relieved about the teaching plans of Minerva, Filius, and others, and now there were Erina, Hermione, and other good children to supervise and tutor Hagrid, which was even more of a guarantee.
The purpose of her coming here today was actually to give Hagrid a hint, or rather an attempt at additional cooperation...
"Regarding Magizoology, I actually have some extra information here. I don't know if you've heard of it, Hagrid. In the non-magical world, there is a systematic classification method for organisms: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species... This may be one of the important links in Magizoology in the future. But in the current magical world, obviously no one has filled this gap, so I think..."