For the first Care of Magical Creatures lesson of the new term, although the Hippogriff had initially given both the little lions and little snakes quite a shock, looking back on it afterward proved quite interesting and meaningful.
Even Malfoy, who usually liked to cause trouble, couldn't find fault with it.
Of course, this might have been because his attention wasn't focused on the lesson itself at the time.
But by the second lesson, this course became even more popular.
Because Hagrid had taken Sherlock's suggestion and brought Pygmy Puffs to class.
Those soft, fluffy little balls were absolutely adorable, instantly hitting the cute spot of many people.
Not a single young witch wasn't enchanted by them. Even quite a few boys looked at them with shining eyes.
Especially after Hagrid announced that three Pygmy Puffs would be given away as prizes, the young wizards nearly went crazy.
You have to understand, these creatures were already popular pets among wizards, and they cost much more than ordinary pets.
They were cute-looking, gentle-natured, completely harmless, and were even scavengers that could help wizards keep clean.
How much would such perfect pets cost?
At least twenty Galleons, surely!
Wrong!
Twenty Galleons? That was the cost!
Forty Galleons minimum!
Don't think it's expensive, there were no discounts either!
Pet dealers had carefully studied buyers' psychology, customers willing to spend twenty Galleons on a pet wouldn't mind spending another twenty.
What defines a successful person?
This is what defines a successful person, always buying the most expensive, not necessarily the best.
Forty-Galleon pets were generously given away by Hagrid as classroom prizes.
The result was predictable.
The young wizards, competing for these prizes, desperately tried to perform well in Professor Hagrid's classes, nearly coming to blows.
This lesson was naturally a great success.
So, Professor Hagrid continued his efforts, giving away seven more Pygmy Puffs in the following two lessons.
After all, pets that seemed extremely expensive to others only required a trip to the Forbidden Forest for him.
Just like the dog's bed made of unicorn hair in his hut, a mere tens of thousands of Galleons was nothing special.
This even made Professor Hagrid's prestige temporarily exceed that of Professor Lupin.
Whether they had attended his classes or not, everyone would respectfully call him "Professor Hagrid!" when they saw him.
This made Hagrid so happy he couldn't stop grinning. He never imagined he could have such prestige one day.
Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts, Sherlock didn't choose to attend this Care of Magical Creatures lesson.
This left Hagrid somewhat regretful, after all, his course's success was entirely due to following Sherlock's advice.
However, for third-year students, besides Defense Against the Dark Arts and Care of Magical Creatures, the other courses weren't quite so pleasant.
The six compulsory courses—Transfiguration, Herbology, Potions, Charms, History of Magic, and Astronomy weren't much different from the previous school year.
Moving up to third year, the course difficulty was obviously much higher than the lower grades.
Especially Transfiguration and Potions.
But for Gryffindor students, while Transfiguration was difficult, Professor McGonagall was at least objective and fair, not deliberately making things difficult for them in class.
Potions class was different.
Professor Snape already had issues with Gryffindor students, and now it was even worse.
As they say, Walls have ears.
In the first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, the boggart had transformed into Professor Snape's appearance.
That would have been bad enough, but under Neville's manipulation, it also wore his grandmother's clothes, becoming a cross-dressing spectacle.
When this incident spread, it was absolutely intolerable for Professor Snape.
But Neville's actions were part of normal practical teaching, so even though Snape was furious, he couldn't directly target Neville for this reason.
So, in Potions class, besides targeting Harry and Sherlock, he now had another victim.
During this period, Neville was targeted even more often than Harry.
This made Harry breathe a sigh of relief. But he immediately felt this was rather unkind, so he tried his best to help Neville.
The result was predictable. Both were severely disciplined by Professor Snape.
Gryffindor's points were deducted so heavily they became "Gryffin-poor."
In less than a month, the house points fell to last place among the four houses.
However, the little lions no longer cared about this.
"What's to worry about? By the end of the year, the Lion King and the Boy Who Lived will definitely add the points back!" Seamus said confidently.
This view won quite a bit of agreement, after all, that's how the previous two years had gone.
"What are you talking about!" Hermione held a different view. "The previous two years were due to special circumstances. The first year was because we stopped Vol... Quirrell's plot to steal the Philosopher's Stone, so we received large point rewards.
The second year was because Professor Lockhart was controlled, and Sherlock and Harry received Special Awards for Services to the School. Surely Hogwarts won't have incidents every year?
If that were really the case, we might as well rename this place Azkaban!"
"Yes, yes, that's what we thought last year too!" Hermione's roommate Parvati Patil laughingly put her arm around Hermione's shoulder.
"Anyway, I believe in the Lion King. Maybe this year he and the Boy Who Lived will catch Sirius Black!"
At this point, Parvati couldn't help laughing herself. Mainly because such a notion was utterly ridiculous.
"Black is impossible, but I think we have a good chance of winning the Quidditch Cup this year, right, Potter?" Hermione's other roommate, Lavender Brown, interjected.
Honestly, Harry didn't really want to engage with Parvati and Lavender. But since they had directly asked him, he couldn't bring himself to ignore them, so he nodded.
"Yes, we have a very good chance of winning the championship this year!"
"But Potter, you must be careful during matches—don't forget about your tea leaves!"
Harry: (￢_￢)
This was exactly why Harry didn't want to engage with these two girls.
Since the first lesson announced the death omen, Divination Professor Trelawney seemed to have fixated on Harry.
Every time she saw Harry, she immediately became teary-eyed.
Harry really hoped Sherlock would attend this course with him.
Because whenever Sherlock was present, Professor Trelawney would restrain herself considerably and wouldn't be so presumptuous with Harry.
Unexpectedly, Professor Trelawney had gained quite a following.
Many students in the class respected this professor to the point of worship.
For example, Hermione's roommates Parvati and Lavender—their attitude toward Professor Trelawney was approaching their previous year's attitude toward Professor Lockhart.
After Sherlock mentioned that Professor Trelawney didn't eat with everyone in the Great Hall, they would even visit Professor Trelawney's tower after lunch.
No one knew what Professor Trelawney told them.
But each time they returned, they seemed like different people.
Not only were they mysterious about everything, but when others asked questions, they put on an air of profound mystery, as if they knew things others didn't.
If it were just this, Harry wouldn't have minded them so much.
But they now deliberately lowered their voices when talking to Harry.
And they would occasionally mention keywords like "omens," "tea leaves," and "death."
Surprisingly, Ron actually thought their approach was quite good.
This naturally made Harry even more annoyed.
Then there was Astronomy.
Because they had purchased the orrery model, Sherlock and Hermione gradually began selectively skipping this course as well.
Harry originally wanted to skip along with them, but found that if he didn't attend lectures, he couldn't keep up with the two masters at all, so he had to reluctantly give up.
This made Hermione secretly breathe a sigh of relief.
For safety reasons, Sherlock didn't take Harry on any more Forbidden Forest adventures at night this term.
However, starting from the second week of term, he resumed morning training with Harry and Neville.
Harry practiced boxing while Neville practiced swordsmanship, both young men began to grow stronger.
Before they knew it, a month had quietly passed.
After a month of study, Harry had decided to completely drop Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, focusing on Divination, Muggle Studies, and Care of Magical Creatures, only one more course than Ron.
"You should have done this from the start instead of wasting money on all those textbooks!" Ron commented.
Sherlock said quietly, "In this country, knowledge has always been expensive."
Unlike Harry, over this past month Sherlock's course selection had been completely random.
Whenever courses overlapped, he would attend whichever course he felt like attending.
Sometimes he would go with Harry and Ron, sometimes with Hermione.
He maintained even progress across all five new courses.
Throughout this process, Hermione remained steadfastly on Sherlock's side.
Whatever course Sherlock attended, Hermione would attend.
Meanwhile, when time reached early October, it meant the Quidditch season was approaching.
On a Thursday evening, Gryffindor Quidditch team captain Oliver Wood called all members together to discuss tactics.
Wood, now in seventh year, had grown even taller, which made his voice more decisive when speaking to the Quidditch team members.
"This is my last chance. When this school year ends, I'll leave Hogwarts and never have another opportunity."
The other six team members exchanged glances.
If Wood hadn't reminded them, they would have almost forgotten this fact.
"Gryffindor hasn't won for seven whole years—seven years!
Do you know how I've spent these seven years?"
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