129 Chapter 129: Two New Professors
The afternoon's Care of Magical Creatures class was Hagrid's first lesson, focusing on introducing the Hippogriffs.
The name of these creatures was long and unfamiliar, but in fact, their lineage was quite simple—they were offspring of a male Griffin and a female horse.
They had the body, wings, and front legs of a Griffin, while the hindquarters resembled that of a horse.
Such hybrids were exceedingly rare due to Griffins traditionally despising horses and even preying upon them, making their existence quite uncommon—after all, not everyone could mate with their food.
Additionally, these creatures had another shorter name—Hippogriffs.
Alaric was very interested in these proud creatures.
Hagrid brought twelve Hippogriffs and instructed them that the first step to approach one was to bow and maintain eye contact; if it returned the bow, then you could stroke it and even ride it.
Harry stepped forward first, bowed to the Hippogriffs, and successfully mounted one, earning cheers from Gryffindor.
Alaric followed suit, but before he could make a move, the Hippogriffs all bowed before him, seemingly bowing to his authority—now that Alaric had become adept at wielding certain abilities of a dragon, such as Dragon's Dominion.
With Dragon's Dominion, these ordinary magical creatures behaved as if they were facing a natural enemy and dared not move.
So, under these circumstances, Alaric smoothly rode one around and even forced another to carry Hermione for a spin.
This strange scene surprised Hagrid greatly, as even he had never made them so docile.
Perhaps misled by Alaric's example, most young wizards underestimated the danger of Hippogriffs.
But out of respect for the professors, they strictly followed Hagrid's instructions in dealing with these creatures, except for Malfoy.
He not only looked down upon the half-giant Hagrid but also disdained Hermione and Alaric, both of whom were Muggle-borns and excelled in magic, despite Draco's pureblood status—plus, he considered Harry Potter his enemy.
So, to see his despised peers and two other Muggle-borns ride such beasts during a class he disdained, Draco couldn't help but wonder why he couldn't achieve the same with his noble bloodline.
Then, the unexpected happened.
The foolish Malfoy dared to insult this XXX-grade magical creature.
"You're not dangerous, you ugly brute!"
The next second, the steel-gray claws swiped. Malfoy screamed, curling up on the grass. His robes were stained with patches of blood.
Sighing helplessly, Alaric shook his head. Some people never learned.
However, Hagrid and the Hippogriff also faced an unfavorable fate because, with wizards' pride, anyone daring to harm a wizard's magical creature would face punishment.
Just look at the exaggerated fountain statue in the Ministry of Magic—especially when Malfoy's father was an influential pureblood wizard.
But for now, there wasn't much Alaric could do. After all, Hagrid himself was somewhat careless; he was too fond of those dangerous magical creatures and treated the young wizards as equals.
Compared to Hagrid's failure, the other new professor, Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Remus Lupin, was much more successful.
In fact, the initial impression the young wizards had of him wasn't great.
During his first class, everyone noticed that Professor Lupin's clothes were patched, and the box he carried was worn-out.
Due to this appearance, some young wizards, especially Slytherin students, began to look at him disdainfully.
To Alaric, this new professor didn't look bad at all, if not for the thick lines due to age on his forehead and the messy beard on his cheeks.
But for a werewolf who was unwelcome everywhere and struggled for survival due to hunger every day, these were all unattainable luxuries.
"Good afternoon," he said, "Please put all your books back into your bags. Today is a practical lesson; you only need your wands."
The whole class was puzzled but also intrigued. They all stood up and followed Professor Lupin out of the classroom.
He led them down the deserted corridor, around a corner.
There, the first thing they saw was a Peeves, playing tricks, floating upside down in mid-air and stuffing chewing gum into the nearest keyhole.
It wasn't until Professor Lupin was two feet away from the Poltergeist that it looked up and, wiggling its toes, began to sing:
"Loony, loopy Lupin," the Poltergeist sang, "Loony, loopy Lupin, Loony, loopy Lupin..."
The Poltergeist was consistently rude and unruly, but it usually showed some respect to teachers.
It seemed Lupin had some history with the Poltergeist from his school days.
Everyone quickly looked at the professor to see how he would respond; to their surprise, he continued to smile.
"If I were you, Peeves, I would take the gum out of the keyhole," Lupin said cheerfully, "Filch won't be able to get his broom in there otherwise."
However, Peeves paid no attention to Professor Lupin's words and simply blew a wet raspberry.
Lupin sighed slightly and took out his wand.
"This is a handy little spell," he turned back to the class, "Watch closely."
He raised his wand and pointed it at Peeves, saying, "Waddiwasi!"
The small piece of chewing gum shot out of the keyhole like a bullet, directly into Peeves's left nostril; Peeves immediately turned away and shot straight up, cursing all the way.
This move earned Lupin admiration and praise from all the students; they thought he was a truly capable professor.
Poor Peeves, being used as a stepping stone for Lupin to gain popularity.
...
In just a few days, Professor Lupin had won over almost all the students in the school.
His knowledge was extensive, his lectures were engaging, and he was responsible for every student.
Of course, it also helped to be compared to previous Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers like Lockhart and Quirrell!
Compared to those predecessors, at the very least, he was the most capable one, considering he was part of the Marauders, along with James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew, who were famous troublemakers.
Alaric had heard more than once: "Professor Lupin is the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher I've ever seen!"
It's just that I wonder if they'll continue to say that when they find out Lupin is actually a werewolf?
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