After HP shared the dream, Lao Fu was conquered by me

"Don't be silly, Neville, that's illegal," said George. "They can't cast the Cruciatus Curse on a warrior. It sounds a bit like Percy singing to me. Maybe you should attack him in the shower, Harry."

"Want a jam tart, Hermione?"

Hermione eyed the plate he held out suspiciously, and Fred grinned.

"Don't worry," he said, "I haven't done anything to them. It's the custard biscuits you have to watch out for—"

Neville choked on a bite of his custard biscuit and spat it out, causing Fred to laugh.

"I was just joking, Neville..."

Hermione picked up a jam tart and said, "Did you take all this from the kitchen, Fred?"

"Yes," said Fred, grinning at her. He tried to imitate a house-elf in a high-pitched, raspy voice: "'We can prepare anything for you, sir, anything!' They're so kind... if I say I'm a little hungry, they'll roast an ox for me."

"How did you get in?" Hermione asked in a nonchalant tone.

"That's convenient," said Fred. "There's a door behind the picture of the bowl of fruit, and if you tickle the pear, it giggles and—" He stopped, eyeing her warily. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Hermione said quickly.

"Thinking of leading the house-elves on strike again, eh?" George asked. "You're going to give up those leaflets and such and start mobilizing them?"

A few people giggled, but Hermione didn't respond.

"So what, George?" A not-so-loud voice came from outside the door. The voice was not very loud, and at first only Hermione and George who were sitting by the door heard it.

"Don't you want to confuse them by telling them they have to wear clothes and get paid!" Fred warned her. "You'll make them not want to cook!"

Just then, Lamia pushed open the door. As soon as she woke up, she saw the note Hermione left beside her bed. She hoped to see Lamia at night, so she came.

"Lamia! You're awake!" Hermione ran over almost instantly. She hugged Lamia tightly in her arms, feeling the realness in her arms. It was a long time before she finally let her go.

"It's okay, Hermione, I just took a nap." Lamia said weakly.

"What exactly happened at that time?" Ron asked.

In an instant, all the noise disappeared and everyone pricked up their ears to listen to Lamia's words. The scene was really shocking.

"I really can't remember. Maybe the dragon is too kind." Lamia said casually.

"Impossible. After you came down, the dragon simply vanished. The professors searched the entire venue and found nothing."

"Then I don't know." Lamia said and pulled out a stool to sit next to Hermione.

There were bursts of whispers around again, most of them talking about Lamia and what she had just said.

At this moment, a burst of rapid chirping attracted everyone's attention, and they saw a fat canary sitting where Neville had been sitting.

"Oh—sorry, Neville!" cried Fred, amidst the laughter. "I forgot—this is our enchanted custard biscuit—"

Fortunately, Neville shed his feathers in less than a minute, and when they were all gone, he looked completely normal again. He even laughed with everyone else.

"Canary Crackers!" Fred shouted to the excited crowd. "George and I invented them—seven silver Sickles a piece, a steal!"

……

December brought strong winds, rain and snow to Hogwarts. Although there was always a draft in the castle in winter, Lamia was grateful for the hot fires and thick walls in the castle every time she walked past the Durmstrang ship anchored on the lake.

The great ship pitched and swayed in the strong wind, its black sails dancing in the dark night sky, and she thought how cold it must be in the trailer at Durmstrang.

Lamia also noticed that Hagrid kept Madame Maxime's horses supplied with their favorite single malt whiskey.

The smell of alcohol wafted from the feed trough in the corner of the temporary stable, making the students in the Care of Magical Creatures class feel a little dizzy. This was of no use because they were still taking care of the terrible blast-end skrewt, and they couldn't afford to be distracted, otherwise they would have to watch out for their butts.

"I'm not sure if they're hibernating," Hagrid told his classmates, shivering in the pumpkin patch during the next class. "We might as well give it a try and see if they want to sleep... We'll put them in these boxes..."

Only ten skrewts remained, their desire to kill each other evidently not entirely eradicated, for each was now nearly six feet long.

Their thick grey coats, their powerful legs flailing about, their fire-breathing tails, their stingers and suckers all combined to make skrewts the most disgusting things Harry had ever seen.

The students looked listlessly at the big box Hagrid brought out, which was filled with pillows and fluffy blankets.

"We'll bring them in," Hagrid said, "then put the lid on and see what happens."

It turned out that skrewts didn't hibernate, and didn't like being crammed into boxes with pillows and lids on, and soon Hagrid was shouting, "Don't be nervous, don't be nervous!" as the skrewts went scurrying through the pumpkins, and the ground was littered with smoking pieces of the box.

Most of the students—Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle leading the way—had already fled through the back door into Hagrid's hut and barricaded themselves inside.

Lamia, Harry, Ron, Hermione and some other classmates stayed outside to help Hagrid. They worked together and finally subdued the nine skrewts and tied them up, but they paid a heavy price and suffered countless burns and scratches on their bodies.

Finally, only one skrewt was left.

"Hey, don't scare it!" Hagrid shouted as Harry and Ron shot sparks at the Blast-Ended Skrewt with their wands - the skrewt came menacingly towards them, its spines arched and quivering slightly - "Tie its spines with a rope, and it won't hurt any other Blast-Ended Skrewt!"

"Yeah, we don't want that to happen!" shouted Ron angrily, as he and Harry retreated against the wall of Hagrid's hut, still using sparks from their wands to keep the Blast-Ended Skrewts at bay.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah...it does look like fun."

Rita Skeeter was leaning against the fence of Hagrid's vegetable garden, watching the whole scene. She was wearing a thick magenta gown with a purple suede collar, and the alligator handbag was slung over her arm.