Coming out of the Muggle Studies classroom, Hermione sighed helplessly.
"You're right. Maybe I should drop a few classes."
Ever since she had seen the library in New Nurmengard Castle, Hermione knew that magical knowledge was as vast as the ocean.
For a wizard or witch, it was simply impossible to learn all of magical knowledge within a limited lifespan.
Even Nicolas Flamel, who had lived for over six hundred years under the effects of the Elixir of Life, wouldn't dare claim he had mastered all known knowledge in the modern wizarding world.
After all, new knowledge was being discovered at every moment.
As long as a person's learning speed did not surpass the pace of magical development, achieving this goal would be forever impossible.
Therefore, how to learn as much useful knowledge as possible within a limited time and how to manage one's time properly was incredibly important.
A Time-Turner didn't actually create extra time for its user; in essence, it was more like borrowing future time to fill the gaps of the present.
As a student from a Muggle family, Hermione already understood Muggles well enough.
So, without any hesitation, she dropped Muggle Studies.
As for the remaining classes, she would wait until she used the Time-Turner to go back before nine o'clock and experience them firsthand before deciding whether to drop them.
At lunchtime, Hermione, who had already used the Time-Turner to cycle through three days' worth of time, appeared at the Hufflepuff table, huffing with annoyance.
"You were right. That Divination professor is completely a booze-guzzling madwoman!"
"The moment she started, she spouted a bunch of plausible-sounding nonsense, and for the rest of the time, she made us brew tea and talk rubbish while staring at the tea leaves in our cups!"
Hermione had always been very respectful toward the professors at Hogwarts.
Even Professor Burbage, whose class content was complete nonsense to her, hadn't driven Hermione to say things like "the professor is a lunatic."
This showed just how incredibly unreliable Professor Trelawney of Divination really was.
Kyle grinned. "George and Fred took this class before. I told you back then, but you wouldn't believe me."
Mumbling in dissatisfaction, Hermione pulled her schedule out of her small handbag and crossed off both Muggle Studies and Divination.
"Fortunately, Arithmancy is decent enough."
When Arithmancy was mentioned, Hermione's eyes lit up.
"Using mathematical models to predict future events is far more practical than that completely incomprehensible, ethereal, and mystical Divination."
At the mention of advanced mathematics—a subject that made Kyle feel an absolute ache in both his past and present lives—Hermione immediately opened the floodgates of conversation.
She rattled on and on, completely failing to notice the "Yeah, yeah, whatever you say" look on Kyle's face beside her.
It wasn't until Hannah couldn't take it anymore and scooped up a large piece of pudding with a spoon, stuffing it right into Hermione's mouth, that she finally managed to shut her up.
After a brief rest following lunch, the students who had chosen Care of Magical Creatures left the castle one after another.
Right now, they were walking down the slope toward Hagrid's hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Kyle's expectations for Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class were actually quite high.
Ever since learning the Eight Gates and gaining a massive boost in strength, Hagrid's passion for magical creatures had broken through to a whole new realm.
When he ran into Hagrid in Diagon Alley during the summer holidays, Kyle noticed that Hagrid was covered in wounds of all sizes.
Given Hagrid's current ability to maintain the Sixth Gate for extended combat, Kyle had no idea what on earth in the wizarding world could possibly injure him like this.
Upon asking around, he found out that this death-defying half-giant, in order to prepare live teaching props for their new semester's Care of Magical Creatures class, had deliberately ventured deep into the wilderness to capture magical beasts.
In the brief span of just two months, Hagrid had brawled with Hebridean Blacks in the Hebrides and shared laughs with Nundus in East Africa.
If he hadn't run out of time, he would have even wanted to run off to the Americas to catch a Wampus Cat.
Of course, the aforementioned XXXXX-class magical creatures were far too wild and untamable, so Hagrid hadn't managed to bring them back.
In the end, he had to give up on showcasing these "sufficiently shocking" magical creatures to the students in class, settling for the next best thing: XXXX-class beasts as his teaching material.
Naturally, since it was his first time teaching, Hagrid hadn't forgotten to discuss the curriculum setup with Kyle and a few other resident troublemakers—the "father's headaches" crew—during Hogwarts' military training period.
What massive storms hadn't these troublemakers braved before?
But when they learned that Hagrid wanted to use a pack of untamed Kelpies for his very first lesson and intended to let a bunch of third-years interact with them up close, their jaws still dropped in shock.
There was seeking death, and then there was this.
The troublemakers all shook their heads like rattle-drums.
Under the intense vetoing of the four, Hagrid finally and obediently listened to their advice, choosing the Hippogriffs in the Forbidden Forest—who had long since been thoroughly tamed by him—as the subject of his first lesson.
At this moment, under the guidance of Hagrid—who was wearing a green Jonin flak jacket—the students walked along the edge of the Forbidden Forest until they arrived at a paddock.
"Everyone, come over to this fence!"
Hagrid's face beamed with a warm, enthusiastic smile. "Does everyone know how to open the books in your hands?"
He pulled out a copy of The Monster Book of Monsters, which was snapping and biting at Hagrid's palm like a mad dog.
Against the half-giant's incredibly high physical and magical resistances, this biting was utterly pathetic; it couldn't even break his skin.
Heaven knows what the publishers who made this thing were thinking, turning a perfectly good magic book into something so ridiculously gimmicky.
Seeing that everyone's books were either bound tight with ropes or clamped shut with large clips, a look of awkwardness surfaced on Hagrid's face.
He had thought someone might know the trick to taming the book.
"Right then, you just need to stroke the spine." Hagrid took Harry's book to demonstrate to the students.
"Turn the book to... er... the Hippogriff section."
Standing by the fence, Kyle let out a loud whistle toward the paddock ahead. Within moments, a ruckus of galloping hooves gradually approached from the distance.
A total of eleven Hippogriffs, led by Buckbeak, arrived right in front of the fence where the class was standing.
Deep shock was written all over the students' faces, and as the Hippogriffs crowded forward to scramble for the raw meat Hagrid threw out, they all retreated a bit in fear.
They had heard about previous Care of Magical Creatures classes from older students.
Professor Kettleburn would, at most, show them creatures like Billywigs or Murtlaps—beasts belonging to the lower-risk side of XXX-class magical creatures.
As for those higher-risk XXX-class magical creatures, if they were lucky, they might get a glimpse of them by the end of the term.
But now that the professor had changed, wasn't this curriculum a bit too hardcore?
Starting right out of the gate with Hippogriffs, creatures that were practically bordering on XXXX-class.
Following the usual convention where every course's content gradually escalated from easy to difficult...
Does that mean by the end of the term, they would likely be facing actual XXXX-class or even XXXXX-class magical creatures?
Don't do this, Professor!
I still want to live for a few more years!
The students wailed internally, instantly starting to fear for their little lives.
Especially those who had chosen Professor Trelawney's Divination class and had already listened to her ominous readings of their tea leaves.
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