The blasting-tailed skrewt forced several students into a desperate situation. Fortunately, Hagrid pounced on it and pressed it down, subduing it. However, a ball of fire spewed out from behind its tail, which still burned the pumpkin seedlings nearby.

"Who are you?" Hagrid asked Rita Skeeter, slipping a noose over the snail's spine and fastening it.

"You don't know me? I'm Rita Skeeter, a reporter for the Daily Prophet," Rita replied, looking at Hagrid with a smile on her face, her gold teeth glittering.

"It seems Dumbledore said that you are not allowed to enter the school again." Hagrid frowned slightly, while turning over and getting off the slightly deformed Blast-Ended Skrewt, dragging it towards its companions.

Rita didn't seem to hear what Hagrid said.

"What are these fascinating animals called?" she asked, her smile growing wider.

"Skrewt," Hagrid replied gruffly.

"Really?" Rita said, looking very interested. "I've never heard of that before. Where do they get it from?"

"Do we need to tell you?" Lamia really disliked this ostentatious lady.

But Hagrid's face flushed crimson behind his shaggy black beard, and Lamia's heart sank. Hagrid wouldn't...

Hermione seemed to have thought of the same thing, and said quickly, "They're very interesting, aren't they? Come on, Harry, aren't they?"

"What? Oh, yeah... ouch... that's interesting." Harry stammered as she stepped on his foot.

"Ah, you're here, Harry!" said Rita Skeeter, turning. "So you like Care of Magical Creatures, don't you? Is it your favourite subject?"

"Yes," said Harry firmly, and Hagrid looked at him with a broad smile.

"That's great," said Rita. "That's really great. So - you must have a lot of teaching experience. How long have you been teaching?" she asked Hagrid.

Lamia stepped forward, blocking all sight of Rita Skeeter, otherwise she would have been able to count all the bricks in Hagrid's wall.

But Rita Skeeter turned her gaze back to the cabin window, where most of the classmates stood with their noses pressed against the windowpanes, trying to see if the danger was past.

"Just my second year," said Hagrid.

"Excellent! Would you be willing to give an interview, eh? Share your experiences caring for magical creatures with our readers? The Daily Prophet has a zoology column every Wednesday, as I'm sure you're aware. We could introduce these—um—rattlewolves."

"Blast-end Skrewt," said Hagrid eagerly, "Uh—yes, sure."

Everyone realized that something was wrong, but under Rita Skeeter's nose, there was no way to convey this idea to Hagrid, so everyone could only watch Hagrid silently.

Rita Skeeter arranged to meet Hagrid at the Three Broomsticks later that week for a long talk.

At this time, the castle bell rang and the class was over.

"Well, bye, Harry!" Rita Skeeter called cheerfully as Harry, Ron, and Hermione left. "It's a deal, Hagrid, see you Friday!"

"She twists everything Hagrid says," said Harry under his breath.

"I hope Hagrid didn't import those blast-end skrewts and other things illegally," said Hermione anxiously.

They looked at each other - exactly what Hagrid would have done.

"Hagrid's been in a lot of trouble before, and Dumbledore never fired him," Ron reassured them. "The worst-case scenario is that Hagrid has to lose the Blast-Ended Skrewt. Sorry... did I say worst? I meant best."

"I hope so." Lamia always felt that Rita Skeeter would not let go of this news, and she would definitely find ways to link this matter with her and Harry.

In the divination class that afternoon, they still had to draw astrological charts and make predictions, and everything seemed very ridiculous again.

Lamia even broke her own teacup, but thankfully Professor Trelawney didn't notice her at all because she was staring at Harry and Ron.

Professor Trelawney was quite pleased with Harry and Ron because they had been predicting terrible deaths, but today she quickly grew irritated when they kept giggling as she explained the different ways Pluto interfered with daily life.

"I think," she said, in a low, mysterious voice that did little to conceal her obvious irritation, "that some of us"—she looked at Harry meaningfully—"would have been less frivolous if they had seen what I saw in the crystal ball last night.

Last night, as I sat here, absorbed in my needlework, I was seized with an irresistible urge to consult my crystal ball. I stood up, sat before it, and gazed into the depths of the crystal... What, you say, did I see gazing back at me?

"An ugly old bat with huge glasses?" Ron muttered under his breath.

Harry tried hard not to laugh.

"It is death, my dear."

Parvati and Lavender both covered their mouths with their hands, looking horrified.

"Yes," said Professor Trelawney, nodding gravely. "It's coming, getting closer and closer, circling overhead like a vulture, lower and lower...lower and lower, right over the castle..."

She stared sharply at Harry, who yawned loudly and unconcealedly.

"But what scares me the most is..." Trelawney, who had originally disdained to even glance at Lamia, suddenly turned her head and stared at Lamia with her terrifyingly large eyes.

"It's you, child."

"Me?" Lamia asked, confused by the overwhelming amount of information.

……

"Lamia, forget it. She's done this about eighty times, saying I'm going to die," said Harry, as they finally reached the stairs below Professor Trelawney's room and breathed fresh air again. "But if I dropped dead every time she said I was going to die, I'd be a medical miracle."

"You'd make a super-condensed kind of ghost," said Ron, chuckling. "At least we don't have homework. I hope Hermione gets a load of it back from Professor Victor. I love it when she's doing it and we have some free time..." They were passing the Bloody Baron, his eyes wide and glaring at them fiercely.

But Hermione was not at the dinner table, and when they went to the library to look for her later, she was nowhere to be found.

"Maybe she's helping Harry and I research our next project," Lamia said.

"Wait a minute, look, who is that?" Ron suddenly covered his mouth.

Lamia saw that it was Krum, who was sitting in a chair reading quietly, but his brows were tightly furrowed.

Ron quietly debated with Harry about getting his autograph, but he lost interest in the idea when they spotted six or seven other girls huddled against the next row of bookshelves, arguing over the same thing.

"That's strange, where's Hermione?" Ron said as he and Harry returned to Gryffindor Tower.

"I don't know... Nonsense."

Just as the Fat Lady began to turn forward, there was a sound of hurried footsteps behind them. Hermione was approaching.

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