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Chapter 528: Another Year’s Death Prediction
🕑 Added 2019-06-25 09:39:39 +0000 UTCNext, Hagrid told Evan a lot of things about breeding the Blast-Ended Skrewts.
They now needed to figure out what the Blast-Ended Skrewts liked to eat, and that was the main task of the Care of Magical Creatures class this term.
In the morning class, Hagrid asked everyone to try them out with ant eggs, frog livers and grass snake. But it seemed to be wrong. The Blast-Ended Skrewts didn’t not like to eat these things, and Hagrid changed the next classes’ assignments to new varieties.
Evan couldn't suppress his suspicion that the whole thing was entirely pointless, because the skrewts didn't seem to have mouths!
More than twenty minutes later, the students gathered at Hagrid's Hut.
The third-year wizards, who came to their first lesson on Care of Magical Creatures with great expectations, were obviously in a state of shock after seeing these terrible skrewts, and their little faces were filled with consternation and disappointment.
They repeatedly turned to look at Hagrid to confirm that he was not joking with them.
Even with no funny or amazing magical creatures such as the Nifflers or the Unicorns, last year's Hippogriffs were much better than this. At the very least, they could ride them up to the sky and have laps around the castle, which sounded very cool.
But in the face of these skrewts, the young wizards felt nothing but nausea. Needless to say, this was simply the worst course of the year.
When Colin was feeding them, he accidentally burned his fingers and he never dared to approach these beasts again.
Hagrid was not aware of any complaints or dissatisfaction from all of them. Instead, he shared his new discovery with great interest. "Look at the pointy things of the tails of some of them. They’re stings. I reckon they’re the males. The females have got a sort of sucker things on their bellies … I think they might be to suck blood."
Yes, in addition to being able to make explosions and bite people, these Skrewts could also suck blood, which was indeed a remarkable discovery…
Among all the young wizards, Luna was the only one who was happy. She seemed to think that these Blast-Ended Skrewts bred by Hagrid were very interesting and she asked for many details. This made Hagrid very happy and he added five points to Ravenclaw.
This class was attended by Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Evan hadn’t seen Luna for the whole vacation, but the girl hadn’t changed much.
Her waist-length, messy blonde hair grew longer, and the aura of distinct dottiness about her was stronger than before. Although very pretty, with a rare and unique beauty, she was hardly appealing to him.
Luna was wearing a necklace of Butterbeer caps and Dirigible plum-shaped earrings.
She brought Evan the latest issue of The Quibbler and told him that there was the latest research on some mythical monsters.
Luna did not go to the World Cup this holiday. Instead, she traveled to Sweden with her father using the money they gained from the sales of Evan’s articles published in The Quibbler to see if they could catch a Crumple-Horned Snorkack.
If there was a person in the school who was indifferent to Evan’s tough performance in the Quidditch World Cup, it was probably Luna. She didn't seem to feel that there was anything surprising about it. In her opinion, Evan had always been strong, and she had no doubts about that.
All the students waited for the class to be over to drag their tired bodies and heavy moods back to the castle. They were glad to get rid of those Blast-Ended Skrewts.
While having dinner, Hermione briefly talked to Evan about her current progress in protecting the rights and interests of house-elves. She wrote an article calling on wizards to pay attention to the legitimate rights and interests of elves and mailed it to Professor Lupin.
Then she told Evan that she was about to do something for the house-elves. Before Evan could figure out what that was, she hurriedly finished her dinner and went to the library to look for information.
As for Harry and Ron, their mood was as bad as the third-years’ who were immersed in the shadow of the Blast-Ended Skrewts.
Not surprisingly, Professor Trelawney predicted Harry’s death again. Her statement this time was that Harry was born under the baleful influence of Saturn, so he would be so unfortunate.
She told the students that the movements of the planets revealed the mysterious portents only to those who understood the steps of the celestial dance. She also said that human destiny might be deciphered by the planetary rays, which intermingled.
To put it simply, it was very reasonable to use planets to predict fate. That sounded a bit like what the Centaurs did, looking for harbingers from the sky.
According to the changes in the position of the stars, Professor Trelawney saw that the days before Harry would be full of hardships and very difficult. Harry’s dread would indeed come to pass, and perhaps sooner than he thought.
It seemed reasonable that Harry was worried about Voldemort because of those dreams.
But thinking about it carefully, he felt that it was easy to guess this kind of thing without having a prophecy about it, and that Professor Trelawney was simply bluffing him.
Then each of them had been given a complicated circular chart, and was attempting to fill in the position of the planets at their moment of birth. It was dull work, requiring much consultation of timetables and calculation of angles. For Harry and Ron, it was a waste of time.
As for the next day, the first Divination lesson for the third-years was as bad as Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class.
The arrangement of Divination classroom was the same as that in Evan's memory. The curtains were all closed; the circular room was bathed in a dim reddish light cast by the many lamps, which were all draped with scarves and shawls.
The familiar sweet scent spreading from the fire met his nostrils, and there was a mess of chintz chairs and poufs.
Professor Trelawney asked everyone to drink tea and then read the tea in everyone's cup.
Although Evan went through this last year a bit more safely, this year, Professor Trelawney rudely predicted that he would suffer disaster or even die. This was her favorite way to welcome new students.
Evan was already prepared, but the others didn’t know. Everyone looked at him strangely, as if he could fall down at any moment.
The sign this time was not unknown, nor was it an Acromantula, but a Kelpie.
God knows how Professor Trelawney saw this magical creature from in Evan’s teacup.
It is said that the Kelpie can take various shapes, but it most often appears as a horse with bulrushes for a mane, or a sea serpent. Having lured the unwary onto its back, it will dive straight to the bottom of its river or lake and devour the rider, letting the entrails float to the surface.
The correct means to overcome a kelpie is to get a bridle over its head with a Placement Charm, which renders it docile and unthreatening. But one mustn’t let it go easily, for it willl hold a grudge and curse them…
The world’s largest kelpie is found in Loch Ness, Scotland.
To put it simply, the Kelpie was man-eating and particularly dangerous. It appeared in Evan's teacup, which meant that Evan was likely to drown in the water or be eaten directly by the monster in the water.
Evan didn’t take this kind of nonsense prophecy to heart at all. He could not see where he could meet a Kelpie.
There was definitely no such thing in Hogwarts Lake, and Evan was not planning to go to Loch Ness.
After the baptism of the past year, he was now totally indifferent to Professor Trelawney's usual predictions. Because of the warmth in the Divination classroom, Evan suddenly found that it seemed to be a good place to sleep…
