Huh? There's a magic school here.

While Beretta was discussing her Christmas, Catherine was also making preparations for Christmas.

A few days ago, Catherine asked Andres to spend Christmas together, and besides celebrating the holiday, she also wanted to report on her recent work to Andres.

Of course, Christmas gifts were a must, and she prepared a brand-new laptop and some computer games for Andres.

She decided on this gift after consulting with her younger colleagues at the company. After all, Andres is a young man himself, so he should like it, right?

Professor McGonagall was a witch, and women are always interested in sparkly things. So Catherine carefully selected a set of ruby ​​jewelry, which cost her tens of thousands of pounds.

She's no longer the poor student who graduated just six months ago; with her current net worth, she can easily afford it.

Professor Flitwick, on the other hand, possessed an antique pocket watch, which she had someone find at an antique shop, supposedly originating from royalty. It's unclear whether this item suited Professor Flitwick's taste.

Then came Hagrid, whose arrival she only learned of through letters from his sister Beretta and his boss, Andres. Of all the gifts, Hagrid's was the best choice, because he had expressed his desire for a hunting rifle through Principal Andres.

So Catherine found a classic Remington deer hunter rifle, complete with a bullet belt and one hundred rounds of ammunition. Normally, buying such a gun would require a lot of paperwork, but the Magic Financial Investment Company was riding high, and many of London's upper class wanted to invest.

So, at a dinner party, Catherine subtly mentioned this to a military official, and the next day, all the necessary paperwork appeared on Catherine's desk. The gun ownership remained with the military; the police had no authority to intervene.

Stan and Ern had driven Catherine around before, and they would chat on the way. So Catherine knew what they liked! Catherine specially went to a car company to buy two 20:1 scale sports car models, which were also handmade and not cheap.

As for the house-elves, Catherine prepared some Muggle recipes for them. This was because Beretta had recently started complaining that the food at Hogwarts was rather limited and she was getting tired of it.

Soon the Christmas holidays arrived, and the professors were worried that the young wizards would forget to study while having fun, so Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick assigned a lot of homework to the students.

Despite the students' complaints, it didn't dampen their festive spirits. The young wizards had packed their bags the night before and were ready to go home. The next day, after breakfast, everyone gathered promptly at ten o'clock to begin sending them home.

At the same time, the prefects also reiterated to everyone that if anyone missed the return-to-school bus on the first day of school, they would need to call a number.

This phone number could be used to contact Catherine, so Catherine acted as a liaison for a while.

At ten o'clock, in the square of Hogwarts Castle.

The Knight Bus departed on time! Very few people remained for Christmas, only Beretta and a Slytherin snake.

The snake's parents were suddenly assigned by the government to investigate a plague outbreak in Africa, so they had no choice but to entrust him to the school.

As a result, the once bustling school became quiet, and because there were fewer people, mealtimes were standardized.

The dining table became a question-and-answer session between Beretta and the Slytherin snake, with them asking all sorts of strange and unusual questions.

For example, could you fly into space on a flying broomstick?

The answer they received disappointed them, because Andres's answer was scientifically sound! It stated that the flying broomstick could not escape Earth's gravity and therefore could not reach space.

The two young wizards were very disappointed. After finishing their meal, they agreed to go to the study room together to do their homework later.

That evening, three more people and two pets joined the dinner table: Stan and Ern had brought Catherine home. The pets were Tooth and Thunder, because Andres thought it was too quiet! With the two little guys around, the atmosphere became much livelier.

Thunder has grown a lot, almost the same size as Snowflake who raised it. Now Snowflake can no longer hold it in its arms, which saddened Snowflake for a long time.

However, Thunder is very lively, and it jumps around on the table looking for its favorite food.

Unlike Thunder, Awful lay quietly at Hagrid's feet, with Hagrid occasionally pretending to drop some food on the ground.

Beretta was even more blatant; after she and the little snake finished their meal, she used an apple to tease Tooth.

The two women weren't afraid of the huge dog that was taller than both of them when it stood up!

Yaya glanced at the apple in Beretta's hand, then looked back at Hagrid, only to find that Hagrid was chatting with the professors and had no time to pay attention to her.

Toothpick stood up, slowly walked to the little wizard, and opened his mouth wide. Beretta giggled and put the apple in Toothpick's mouth, but Toothpick didn't even bite it before returning to lie down at Hagrid's feet.

Beretta was surprised and tried to pry open Tooth's mouth to see where it had hidden the apple!

Catherine was startled. Such a big dog! How dare she pry its mouth open? What if the dog got angry? Beretta might not even have enough to eat!

Catherine immediately called out to Beretta.

"Beretta, can't you behave yourself! How dare you pry open a dog's mouth? Go wash your hands!"

"It's alright, Catherine! Tooth is very docile and won't bite without my command."

"Alright, but Beretta, you're not allowed to eat anything until you've washed your hands! By the way, Principal Andres, are you free after dinner? I have some company matters to report to you!"

"Of course, you're welcome anytime! What would you like to drink? I'll have Dobby prepare it for you."

"Thank you, boss. Could I have a glass of apple cider vinegar? It's good for digestion."

After that, everyone started chatting again, with Professor Hagrid being the most excited at the table. This was because of the Thunderbird hopping around on the table—a very rare magical creature, and a young one at that.

If the Thunder didn't belong to Andres, he would have wanted to take them over and raise them himself.

Andres had long noticed Hagrid's fondness for Thunder, so he deliberately said, "Oh, this little guy is such a hassle. Now that he's grown up, Snowflake is finding it a bit difficult to take care of him."

"Oh? Principal, you're not planning to raise them yourself?"

"Of course I'll raise it myself, but not now. I'm quite busy lately, so I'll have to trouble Snowflake to take care of it for a while longer."

Hagrid's face immediately lit up with a smile: "Principal, you don't need to go to so much trouble. You can leave Thunder to me. I'll take good care of it. It should get used to the outside world; it can't always be kept in a tent!"

"Oh? Hagrid, you're free lately?"

"I'm free, I'm free! It's snowing heavily outside, so there's no need to patrol the forbidden forest."

"Alright, thank you for your help!"

Hearing this, Hagrid laughed even harder, leaving the big dog Toothbill confused about what was wrong with its owner.