Hogwarts: This professor is too Muggle.

Chapter 97 Animal World
Sylvanus Kettleburn was a pure-blood wizard and graduate of Hufflepuff House. As a student, he developed a keen interest in magical creatures, especially dangerous ones.

After graduation, I was unable to go to Romania to raise fire dragons, so I found an easy odd job. I went to Romania to see fire dragons every holiday. After having one of my hands bitten off by an Australian white-eyed drake during the incubation period, I applied to return to school to be a professor.

With excellent professional ability and years of contact with magical creatures, Kettleburn successfully passed the interview. However, due to his reckless and careless personality, mediocre teaching level, and frequent trouble-making, he was placed on probation 62 times during his teaching career.

About forty or fifty years ago, while rehearsing the play "The Fountain of Good Luck," he insisted on using a magically enlarged fire ash snake as a prop. It went out of control mid-performance and exploded, igniting the entire stage. The flames and smoke sent nearly a hundred students to the school hospital. Professor Beary suffered a head injury, and the pungent, burning smell lingered for months...

His relationship with President Armando Dippet was very strained, he had no good reputation among the student community, and he had not accumulated any connections over the years.

He received injury compensation in his early years and the salary of a school professor was not low, but Kettleburn liked to come into contact with dangerous magical animals and would generously donate money to rescue wild animals. After decades, he did not save any money and instead lost a leg.

As the body ages, the restless soul gradually calms down.

By the time Dumbledore took over as headmaster, Celticburn had only half of his arm and leg left. He had become much more stable and, after being persuaded by his friends, managed to live a relatively peaceful life.

In recent years, he has not been as busy as he was when he was young. He has used his professional knowledge to save some money for retirement, bought a house in Hogsmeade, and plans to settle down outside the school in the future.

In fact, he wanted to retire last year, but Harry happened to start school, and Kettleburn was very curious about the boy, so he stayed for another year.

Entering Hogwarts with Harry was the new professor of Muggle Studies, Melvin Levent, an outstanding young man, much better than Harry was back then, but his working style was that of Slytherin.

Kettleburn originally didn't want to have any social interaction with the professor, but was attracted by the young professor's performance.

He has excellent teaching ability, which enables students to achieve good results. He also handles matters outside of his job well, responding to the difficulties posed by the Ministry of Magic, blocking Voldemort's conspiracy, and delivering Albus's warning in an unconventional way.

In stark contrast to him is Quirinus Quirrell.

After Easter, when Kettleburn learned that Voldemort might make a comeback, he suddenly felt uneasy. Every night when he couldn't sleep, he couldn't help but think, if he retired, what would happen to the school and the young wizards?
Kettleburn never married and had no children. He regarded Hogwarts as his home. He was worried that after he was gone, the professor who took over the care of magical creatures would not be worthy of the trust. It would be okay if he was as unqualified as himself, but he was afraid that the successor wizard would be someone like Quirrell.

In fact, he himself knew that Albus and Minerva could handle these things and it was not his turn to worry about them. Moreover, he was not a good professor when he was young. He always showed dangerous animals to students according to his own preferences. It was common for him to hurt himself, and it was not uncommon for him to hurt students.

He could be considered an experienced professor, but he had no good reputation and his fame was not very good. The fact that he could work smoothly until retirement age was the result of the school board's consideration for his pure-blood status and Dumbledore's persuasion out of old friendship.

But Kettleburn was uneasy.

Before he retires, he wants to find a qualified professor for the school who truly loves magical creatures, truly protects Hogwarts, and truly cares for the young wizards...

Kettleburn sat on the sofa in the carriage, looking at the big man at the door. He felt that he had chosen the right person, and shouted with a smile: "Hagrid, it's windy outside, come sit inside."

"It's okay, I like the breeze!"

Hogwarts Castle had completely disappeared from sight. The half-blood giant sitting on the shaft of the carriage was still in high spirits, staring at the flapping wings of the Pegasus, which made the Iserlons feel uncomfortable.

Winged horses roamed the valleys and hills, and dragon-skin ropes kept them suspended. Unlike a Muggle carriage, the winged horses and carriages were not actually fixed to the frame, but were instead held in place by invisible magic.

The carpeted carriage was very smooth and vibration-free.

Melvin sat by the window looking through some documents as the scenery outside quickly passed by. It was midsummer in June, and the golden sunlight shone in, hitting the parchment and making it a little dazzling.

The light grew brighter. Melvin put away the documents, rubbed his brows to relax his mind, and thought about something unimportant. He happened to see Professor Kettleburn not far away.

He thought for a moment and continued with the question he had asked before leaving: "Does the professor plan to let Hagrid take the Care of Magical Creatures class?"

Professor Kettleburn was not surprised. A Slytherin certified by the Sorting Hat, he had a complicated mind, so it was normal for him to see these signs. "Well, my vision is pretty good, isn't it?"

Melvin smiled and shook his head. "Hagrid likes magical creatures and can get along well with students, but he can't be a good professor of magical creatures right now."

"why?"

"Hagrid was expelled in his third year due to an unjust case, and he didn't receive a complete wizarding education at all. His knowledge of magical creatures came entirely from his own observations in the Forbidden Forest, and was very superficial. What seemed like a simple animal behavior to him was another matter to the students."

"..."

Kettleburn fell into deep thought.

"Hagrid often says that Acromantulas are gentle and adorable little creatures. To him, that's the case, because the Acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest are all descendants of Aragog. But what about the Acromantulas in the outside world? What about the Acromantulas in the eyes of students?"
"You have to know that Hagrid is not a pure-blood wizard and has a criminal record. He won't have 62 opportunities for probation. Given the current tense relationship between the Ministry of Magic, the Board of Governors, and the school, he will be dismissed if he makes just one mistake."

Melvin paused. "If you want Hagrid to become a qualified professor of magical creatures, you need him to learn systematic knowledge, understand the magical creatures in the eyes of normal wizards, and understand the characteristics and habits of normal animals."

Coming from a special advisor to the Examinations Authority, these words were particularly convincing.

Kettleburn had lived for decades and was very familiar with this kind of Slytherin-style persuasion. He followed the young professor's thoughts and thought for a moment, then quickly reacted and said with a helpless smile: "Melvin, Hagrid is also your friend. If you have any ideas or suggestions, just tell me directly."

"Muggle scientist Richard Feynman once proposed a learning method, believing that repetition and teaching others are the best and fastest ways to learn. If Hagrid wants to master the professor's knowledge as quickly as possible, the best way is to learn and repeat it at the same time."

"How to do it exactly?"

"Professor, the wonderful memories of your youth spent exploring the world shouldn't be forgotten. The Magic Mirror Club plans to film some informal programs. We'd like to use the colorful memories of magical creatures in your mind, and have Hagrid provide narration to introduce the morphological structure, physiological characteristics, genetic traits, and behavioral traits of magical creatures..."

Melvin smiled gently and said, "I named this show "Fantastic Beasts World"

"Sounds interesting."

Kettleburn stroked his beard in thought, his eyes growing brighter.

Although Hagrid has excellent qualities to be a professor, he also has many shortcomings. For example, after becoming a gamekeeper, he hardly left the British Isles. He has not even been to many places in England. His travels are limited to places like London and Hogsmeade. He has not seen many magical animals in person.

Expanding Hagrid's horizons using his memories and providing him with systematic animal knowledge along the way is indeed a win-win situation. "The Magic Mirror Club will also offer generous compensation," Melvin added.

Now we can kill three birds with one stone.

Kettleburn repeated silently in his heart.

……

The sun slowly rose to its highest point.

I could faintly feel the scorching temperature outside, but fortunately the inside of the car was still cool. A corner of the black curtain was lifted by the wind, and the hot summer air blew in.

Hagrid finally took his eyes off Iserlon, walked into the carriage, took out a few rock cakes from his pocket and handed them to the two people inside, his expression full of eager anticipation: "Melvin, Professor Kettleburn, are you hungry? Have some rock cakes?"

"No, no, no."

Both professors, one old and one young, rejected his expectations and took out food from their luggage: mushroom soup, steak and stew packed by the school kitchen, accompanied by bread with jam.

Hagrid suddenly felt that the rock cake in his hand no longer tasted good.

"Hagrid, leave the rock cakes to Norbert and help us eat these. They won't keep fresh if we take them out. It's hot and they'll spoil easily."

"hey-hey……"

Fortunately, rock biscuits are not easily spoiled. Hagrid smiled and helped the two professors solve the problem. His mouth was full and his words were slurred. "I wonder if Fang has eaten it yet. If the centaurs' barbecue is not to his taste, I left him some rock biscuits under the bed..."

Listening to his mumbling, Kettleburn turned his head and met the eyes of Melvin, who was smiling beside him. After a moment's hesitation, he asked, "Hagrid, do you know what breed of dog Fang is?"

"Of course I know about the Neapolitan Mastiff. It usually looks fierce with its teeth bared, but it's actually a coward."

"Did you know there's a famous dog in England called the crup?"

"I've seen one. It looks a lot like a Jack Russell. There's a blind wizard from Wiltshire in the Hog's Head Inn who has a swallowtail with him. He said that to keep a swallowtail dog, you have to cut its tail off when it's a few weeks old. If you don't, it will grow up to have two forked tails, very similar to a swallow."

"This is a dog bred by wizards. It's a Class 3X dangerous animal. It looks like a small foxhound from the Muggle world, such as a Papillon or Pembroke Corgi. It has short hair, erect ears, and a forked tail. It's usually cream, light brown, or white, but there are also some with mixed colors. It has an aggressive tendency towards Muggles from a young age, manifesting itself by biting trouser legs and barking wildly. This is because its swallowtail can use magic to track Muggles."

Kettleburn observed Hagrid's expression as he introduced the situation. "You need to pass an exam at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures before you can get a breeding license. According to Section 73-A of the Regulations for the Regulation of Magical Creatures, all cruppies must have their tails docked within eight weeks of birth."

"I see..." Hagrid responded halfheartedly.

He was a practical wizard, and if there was a crup in front of him that needed to be raised, he would definitely remember the physiological knowledge well, but now it was just a casual chat during lunch, and this knowledge would have to enter the digestive system along with the food.

Kettleburn was very helpless about this.

Melvin added with a smile, "In the mid-18th century, Thornton Harkaway, President of the Magical Congress of the United States of America, raised a pack of cruppies. Later, the pack of cruppies attacked the local Muggles in Williamsburg, Virginia. The incident became a major uproar, and as a result, Harkaway was removed from office, and the headquarters of the Magical Congress of the United States of America were moved to Baltimore."

"Is there such a thing?"

Hagrid's eyes widened at that.

"There have also been many cases of lapdogs attacking Muggles in England. These animals are extremely loyal to wizards and very vicious towards Muggles. Some people speculate that this is because the breeders of these dogs are pure-blood wizards."

"is it?"

Hagrid frowned.

Kettleburn thought for a moment, and began to understand how to impart knowledge to Hagrid - he had to tell him something interesting.

After some thought, he said, "Not necessarily. In fact, there are many magical animals that have unique feelings for wizards. Kneazles, Pegasus, and even Dumbledore's phoenix. Loyal pets all have similar habits."

Hagrid slowed down his eating, becoming slightly interested.

Kettleburn continued, "Some clever animals can even predict their own death. They often leave on their own accord, hiding from their owners. Perhaps they can't bear the separation, or they don't want to see their owners sad."

"..."

Melvin listened to the two people's lectures and felt that he had a clear understanding of the animal world. He slowly finished his lunch and continued to look through his own materials.

When it comes to collecting information on wizarding settlements, he has regular partners and they are all familiar with each other. The dark wizards in Knockturn Alley understand his needs better and have sorted out the wizarding ecology around Budapest and Romania, presenting every detail clearly.

The table and data make it clear at a glance.

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. Hungary is adjacent to Romania, and that area is also surrounded by Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine... The history of wizards is lagging behind, and to this day, they still prefer to call that entire area the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire had many well-known figures in the magical world:
Durmstrang School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Bulgarian Quidditch National Team, a wide variety of dragons, the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary, Nurmengard Wizarding Prison in Austria, the remnants of the wizarding cult in Budapest...

Melvin combined his own memories with these materials and noticed many interesting things. Things that seemed unrelated actually had hidden and wonderful connections between them.

Ukrainian Iron Belly, Hungarian Treepeak, Romanian Longhorn, Norwegian Ridgeback... a large number of fire dragons live here, forming the innate geographical conditions for establishing a protected area.

Durmstrang is extremely tolerant of dark magic, so it has cultivated many dark wizards with extreme personalities, the most famous of whom is Gellert Grindelwald.

The first generation of Dark Lord took advantage of the cultural environment here and successfully established the Witch Party.

(End of this chapter)