As Hagrid spoke, he crunched on a Rock Cake, leaving crumbs scattered all over the ground.
"You don't need to worry about it. This kind of mutation in Salamanders has happened before, but it's rare, so not many people know about it, and there aren't many records of it."
This mutation usually occurs after the Salamanders consume some special magical fire. Previously, some people fed the Salamanders green magical fire, which turned them green and also gave them blood that had healing and rehabilitative properties, unlike that of ordinary Salamanders.
However, such cases are extremely rare, and most wizards who possess mutated Salamanders, in order to maintain secrecy, will not reveal too much to the outside world. Therefore, these green Salamanders eventually disappeared, and no one has seen them again.
"It's good that it's okay. On the way here, it kept wriggling and hitting the bottle with its tail, which scared me."
Seeing the Salamander in the fireplace flames, which seemed to have regained some vitality, and hearing Hagrid's words, he felt relieved for the time being.
Following Ethan Jones's gaze, Hagrid also looked at the fireplace and made a guess:
"Look, it's starting to move, which means it hasn't actually been hurt. Its wriggling is probably a natural reaction to the discomfort its body feels during the change."
Hagrid suddenly spoke up somewhat hesitantly: "Ethan, there's something I'd like to discuss with you. I wonder if that's alright?"
"What is it?" Ethan Jones didn't know what Hagrid was trying to do with his behavior.
"I'd like to ask you for a descendant of this Salamander. I don't know if they'll be ordinary lizards or this black mutant, but based on previous experience, it's very likely they'll be mutants." Hagrid said somewhat embarrassedly.
"Well, let me think about it." Ethan Jones seriously considered the problem, weighed the pros and cons, and decided to agree.
"Okay, but I have one condition: you can't give its offspring to anyone else, and you need to take care of it for me temporarily."
He had originally planned to keep it in the Slytherin Common Room, but given its current state, he didn't want to attract attention, so he decided to leave it with Hagrid, who rarely came here, for the time being. He would take it back once he found a way to build a habitat with a constant flame in his dormitory.
"Of course, of course, I completely agree!" Hagrid was overjoyed; he never expected such a good thing to happen.
"Then it's a deal." Ethan Jones smiled and extended his hand to shake hands with Hagrid's large hand.
After the two reached an agreement, Ethan Jones quickly took his leave. He couldn't stand Hagrid's hospitality in serving him Rock Cakes and made an excuse that he had other appointments to keep, thus managing to escape from the cabin.
But Hagrid eventually managed to slip two Rock Cakes into his hand. Hagrid's exact words were: "You've made plans to meet someone, haven't you? Take two Rock Cakes with you and share them with your friend. She'll love them!"
Left with no other choice, he put the cakes in his bag, bid farewell to Hagrid and the reluctant Fang, and headed towards the castle.
Compared to the rush he made on the way there, he had more time and peace of mind to appreciate the scenery along the way on his return journey.
Moreover, he also saw Harry and Ron as he approached the castle.
In a good mood, Ethan Jones nodded to the two boys and walked past them.
After he had walked away, Ron turned back to look at his retreating figure and whispered to Harry, "Isn't that the Slytherin sitting with Hermione? What's he doing here? Judging from this direction, is he also going to see Hagrid?"
Harry shook his head: "I don't know, but judging from his appearance, he's not like the unreasonable Slytherin Malfoy."
"Don't be fooled by his appearance. There's not a single good person in Slytherin." Ron disagreed with Harry's words: "Even if he doesn't show it now, he'll turn into a bad person sooner or later."
Harry fell silent. He knew that as someone who grew up in a Muggle community, he didn't know much about the wizarding world and couldn't possibly change Ron's deeply ingrained ideas.
He urged, "Let's hurry up, Hagrid will be worried soon."
"Wait for me!" Ron stopped thinking about what Ethan Jones had done and quickly caught up with Harry.
The week's classes are over, and the homework is done. All that's left is to enjoy this hard-won weekend.
Also, Edward brought back a reply from his parents, which he had just received that morning and hadn't opened yet. He planned to see what his parents had written later.
After returning to the castle, he first went back to his dormitory to put down the other books before taking the books he had just borrowed that day into the library. Of course, he also left behind that terrifying Rock Cake.
He and Hermione agreed to meet at the library whenever they didn't have classes.
"Where have you been? Why are you so late?" Hermione asked in a low voice.
"I'll tell you later, something unexpected happened." He replied in a low voice, took out a roll of parchment and quill, opened a book, and intended to copy down some passages that might be useful to him.
The quill made a scratching sound as it scratched across the parchment, mingling with the sound of turning pages, as the two of them went about their own business.
Time flew by, and it was time for dinner. The two left the library, and Ethan Jones explained to her the series of events that had occurred since the start of class.
"You mean you bred a mutated Salamander? That's amazing?!" Hermione turned to look at him in surprise.
"It was a lucky accident; I never expected my talent would have such an effect." He was quite self-aware.
"That's still amazing. Also, you're the last House to take the Care of Magical Creatures class this week, which is a real advantage. None of us got a Salamander as a reward, but you were the only ones who got the teaching aid as a gift from the professor after you finished using it." Hermione said with envy in her eyes.
"Once I find a way to house the Salamanders, I'll let you experience it firsthand. If we can breed a few, I can even give you one." Ethan Jones wasn't too concerned about the Salamanders' special effects until he had figured them out, and he felt comfortable giving one to Hermione.
"Thank you in advance then." Hermione was very happy.
The two chatted and laughed as they arrived at the Great Hall.
"Ethan, Professor Snape wants to see you. He wants you to go to his office." Draco approached him before he had even finished his meal.
Ethan Jones frowned, somewhat annoyed. Only a few hours had passed since what happened this morning; it was far too early to forget.
"Okay, I'll go after I finish eating." He dismissed Draco with a simple reply.
"You go to the library first, I don't know if I can go tonight."
Hermione looked at him with some concern, knowing that he had just had a minor disagreement with Snape that morning: "He probably doesn't have anything important to say to you, right? Could you not go?"
"I don't know what it's about, but I hope it's not something bad. I can't not go; besides being the Potions professor, he's also our Head of House." Ethan Jones shook his head and quickly emptied the food from his plate.
"I'm going now, bye-bye."
"Okay, bye-bye." Hermione's eyes held an unconcealable worry.