Before leaving the Forbidden Forest, Hagrid even dug up some matsutake mushrooms for Albert, but these were rare, and in the end, they didn't find many.
A quick plug for an app: Mimi Reading, an app that perfectly replicates the old version of the popular book-tracking app and allows you to switch sources.
As soon as Hagrid opened the door to the cabin, the black hound Toothtooth darted out and ran happily around the group, sniffing around everywhere.
Albert crouched down and patted Yaya's head to calm it down.
Hagrid took the matsutake mushrooms out of his pocket and placed them all on the table. He picked one up, examined it closely, and asked, "Are you sure this stuff will taste good grilled?"
"Leave it to me!" Albert said confidently, his outward appearance as steady as a mountain, and his inner self as calm as a mountain.
"If you want to go fishing, I have some fresh meat left here. You can use some as bait," Hagrid said, pointing to a large wooden barrel in the corner.
"What's this?" Albert looked at the raw meat in the bucket, raising an eyebrow. He had just smelled a bloody odor, which was coming from the bucket.
"Food for the Thestrals. It's harder for them to find food in winter, so I occasionally go into the forest to feed them, making sure the younger members of the pack survive the winter." Hagrid reached out and rubbed Tooth's head. "Is this leftover meat my dinner for Tooth?"
"Are you sure this stuff is really edible?" Li Qiaodan asked, staring at the matsutake mushroom.
"Of course." Hagrid lit the embers in the fireplace, put the copper kettle on it to boil, and then went outside to fetch a bucket of well water for Albert.
Albert took a sharp knife from the kitchen, scraped off the dirt from the roots of the matsutake mushrooms, washed them thoroughly, then took out his wand and made a complicated gesture. He pointed the tip of the wand at the freshly washed matsutake mushrooms and chanted a drying spell. The moisture immediately evaporated from the matsutake mushrooms.
"You don't seem like a first-year student at all," Hagrid remarked softly, watching Albert deftly cast the spell. "Your mastery of spells is far beyond my wildest imagination. It's hard to believe you come from a Muggle family."
"Yeah!" George murmured. "I'd bet two silver coins in my pocket that this guy knows more magic than a second-year student."
Ignoring their teasing, Albert asked, "Hagrid, do you have any olive oil here?"
"There are some left. If you need them, I'll go get them for you."
"Excuse me."
Albert carefully used a sharp knife to slice the matsutake mushrooms into thin slices.
"You're being far too stingy!" Li Qiaodan picked up a thin slice of matsutake mushroom with his fingertips and said disdainfully, "What kind of feeling can you get from eating such a thin slice?"
"Slice them thinly so they'll cook through." Albert glared at Lee Jordan, brushing a thin layer of olive oil onto the matsutake mushrooms. Then he took a piece of wood, turned it into a grill, and used tongs to pick out a few pieces of charcoal that weren't completely burned out from the fireplace and put them in the brazier. He placed the grill on top, nodded in satisfaction, and said, "Finally, this feels like grilling."
"I think you're making a big fuss over nothing," Fred said, rolling his eyes at the busy Albert.
"Hmm, this tastes good." Hagrid put his homemade sausage aside, picked up a matsutake mushroom that was still roasting, and popped it into his mouth. He nodded as he chewed. "It's very good, but the portion is too small."
Fred and his friends looked at each other in dismay, and then devoured the freshly roasted golden-brown matsutake mushrooms in no time.
"I found this stuff to have a pretty good chewy texture."
"However, wouldn't it taste better with some salt?"
"I think it should be dipped in some sauce."
"Damn it, you guys ate all of my portion!" Albert glared at Fred and the other two when he saw that his freshly grilled matsutake mushrooms had been snatched away.
"Your portion was eaten by George!" Fred and Lee Jordan both pointed at George.
"Ahem, there's plenty left on the plate anyway." George coughed and picked up a sausage. "How about we grill some sausages?"
"Let me finish grilling the matsutake mushrooms first," Albert said irritably, glaring at the three of them before continuing his work.
The barbecue didn't last long; there was so little matsutake mushroom, with each person only getting a few slices. But everyone had to admit that the matsutake mushrooms tasted really good, leaving a lingering aftertaste.
Afterwards, they grilled Hagrid's homemade sausages and drank several cups of tea before reluctantly returning to the Gryffindor common room.
As for the cookies Hagrid made himself, the group politely declined, since their teeth weren't strong enough to chew them properly.
When they returned to the Gryffindor common room, the celebration of Gryffindor's victory was still going on, but most of the cakes and pies had been eaten, leaving only some toffee and a few vegetable pies.
"Where did you all go?" Angelina asked, staring at the four people who had just entered through the entrance.
"We went into the woods with Hagrid," George said smugly.
"The hunting ground manager actually led you into the forest." Angelina was very surprised.
"Albert succeeded in persuading him," Fred explained. "We also heard that Professor Kettleber, who protects magical organisms, lives in the woods."
"Are you kidding me?" Shanna leaned over and joined the conversation.
"No, it's true. We just happened to run into a witch who was on her way to visit Professor Kettleber, apparently about the bird-snake thing," Li Jordan said.
"What is a bird-snake?" Shanna asked curiously.
Li Jordan choked and turned to Albert for help.
"The ornithopod is a winged, bilegged animal from Asia that can stretch its body at will, so it can be large enough to fill any space, or it can shrink its body to fit the available space."
"I'm curious how you know so much about harpies?" George joked. "Did you memorize Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them?"
"Bird and snake eggs are also one of the ingredients in making Felicis," Albert said irritably. "So I looked it up."
"By the way, the shell of a pheasant egg is made of pure silver, that is, silver." Albert looked around, seeing the shocked expressions on their faces, and nodded with satisfaction as he continued, "It is said that the famous writer Gilderoy Lockhart once used pheasant eggs to make a pheasant egg yolk shampoo, which really could 'lock in the shine'. However, due to its price and danger, the pheasant egg yolk shampoo could not be produced for the mass market and was only sold on the black market, but it quickly disappeared."
"Why?" Shanna asked, puzzled.
"Because it's too expensive," Albert said matter-of-factly.
"No wonder Felix Felicis is so expensive," Fred remarked.
"It's not that it's expensive, it's that you simply can't buy it," Albert said irritably. "Later, I specifically looked up the ingredients of Felix Felicis and found out why almost no one makes that stuff: the ingredients themselves are extremely expensive. If the manufacturing process fails, it would be an unbearable disaster for any apothecary."