On Sunday morning, Harry was woken up by a voice.

"Oh, Hermione. Harry opened his eyes slightly, and saw Hermione standing in front of his bed.

"Hurry up. Hermione lifted his covers. A cool breath slammed into Harry's body.

"It's cold. Harry frantically tried to pull the quilt over, but was slammed into it by a force.

"Hermione, you shouldn't have come. Ron was woken up by the movement.

"yes. Hermione said, "I want to take Harry to Hagrid." "But this guy just can't get up." ”

"It's only what time it is, it's the weekend, and it's not dawn," Harry said as he lay on his bed, "and it's hard to get some sleep, don't worry about class, and don't expect me to get up now." ”

"Oh, I don't believe in it. ”

Harry hadn't planned to get out of bed, but he felt like he was fluttering. He was forced to open his eyes again, and found himself floating in mid-air. Hermione was in control with her wand.

"Okay. Harry gritted his teeth and said indignantly, "You win, I'll go with you." ”

Hermione finally smiled smugly, "Wouldn't it be nice to wake up too early once in a while? Hermione noticed that Ron, who was hiding under the covers, rolled over and muttered, but didn't hear clearly.

"What's so good about waking up early. Harry said, putting on his clothes.

"Ron, are you going?" asked Hermione.

"Anyway, I've got the 'homework mountains', they've grown to frightening heights," Ron muttered indistinctly under the covers, Hermione suspecting that Ron just didn't want to wake up early.

Reluctantly, Harry and Hermione made their way to Hagrid's hut through the cold morning wind. Soon Andrew arrived.

Hermione knocked on the door for a long time, but there was no response from inside.

"What's going on? he's not home?" Hermione leaned against the window of the room, trying to see if anyone was inside.

"He's not here. Andrew said, drawing his wand and dancing in a complicated pattern, the tip of the wand steaming hot. It pointed at himself and Hermione's robes, causing the moisture to evaporate from the robes.

"Thanks, but where can he go at this time?" Hermione said complainingly to Harry, "It's all your fault, it took me so much time to get you out of bed, if I had come earlier———"

"Hermione, you were able to get Harry out of bed today?" said a deep voice.

Hagrid came out of the woods, and Toothtooth ran up to him to pounce on Andrew, but he was quick to dodge him.

"Hagrid!" Hermione said happily, "we're here to help you prepare." ”

"Oh, okay. Hagrid didn't seem to care, though.

All morning, Hermione had tried to convince Hagrid to use Grassland's teaching methods, which would be more beneficial to him. But Andrew didn't think Hagrid had listened to a word, because he had been telling Andrew about the giants.

When it was finally time for lunch, Hagrid enthusiastically left them to eat, but Andrew and Hermione both knew how unpalatable ——— Hagrid's cooking.

When they returned to the Gryffindor table, Harry was still shivering slightly, and the robes of all three were wet from the knee down.

"How's it going?" asked Ginny.

"No," Hermione said distressedly, "he said he was going to surprise us. I tried to explain what happened to Umbridge, but he just wouldn't listen. ”

When Hagrid reappeared at the staff desk on Monday morning, not all students were enthusiastic. Fred, George, and Lee cheered enthusiastically as they rushed to the aisle between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables, taking Hagrid's huge hand and grasping it again. Others, like Parvati and Lavender, exchanged dejected glances and shook their heads. On Tuesday, they walked down the field, dressed tightly, and walked deep and shallow towards Hagrid, who was waiting at the edge of the woods.

But they didn't see the shadow of the senior investigator. Hagrid looked miserable, and he seemed to have half a dead cow on his shoulders.

"We're here today!" Hagrid said cheerfully to the students, swinging his head toward the black forest behind him, "It's a little dense! ”

"Are you ready?" said Hagrid, glancing happily at the class, "Okay. I've set aside a forest field trip for you in the fifth grade to show you how these creatures live in their natural environment. The creatures we are going to learn about today are so rare that I think I may be the only one in all of Britain who has tamed them. ”

So they followed Hagrid for about ten minutes, and came to a wooded place, as dark as dusk, and there was not a single snow on the ground. Hagrid thrust the half cow to the ground, took two steps back, and turned to face the class. Many of them used tree trunks as cover, looking nervously from side to side, cautiously approaching him, as if on guard against an attack at any moment.

"Close, close. Hagrid encouraged, "Now, they'll be drawn in by the flesh, they're coming—"

A minute passed, and the students had been nervously peeking around, unaware of what would happen.

At this time, a pair of shiny white eyes grew larger, followed by a dragon-like face, neck, and skeletal body, and a large, winged black horse emerged from the darkness. It looked at the students for a few seconds, flicked its long black tail, then lowered its head and began to bite the dead cow with its fangs.

"Oh, there's another one!" said Hagrid, proudly, as a second black horse emerged from the woods, gathered its leather-like wings, and bowed its head greedily to eat raw meat, "and now—whoever sees it, raise his hand." ”

Andrew raised his hand.

"Oh, of course, Andrew, you can see that Harry too——— too. He said, "And you, Neville? and—"

"I'm sorry," Malfoy said in a sarcastic tone, "what the hell are we supposed to see?"

Hagrid replied by pointing to the dead cow on the ground. The class stared at it for a few seconds, and a few of them gasped, and Parvati screamed: the pieces of flesh automatically peeled off the bones and disappeared into thin air, which must have looked very eerie.

"Andy, can you see that?" Hermione asked Andrew from the side, "what are those?"

"Thestrals. Andrew replied, "Only those who have seen death can see it."

Hermione let out a realised "oh!", but she immediately added, "Have you ever seen death?"

"It's not a good question," Andrew replied after a pause, "if I had to say, I've seen too many deaths." The whispers of hell were with Andrew at all times.

"Too many deaths?"

"What are you talking about, Hermione, try your best, you're the one who can stop the Grim Reaper———" Andrew stopped talking, as if recalling some kind of past. Hermione looked at Andrew a little worriedly when she saw him like this.

"Ahem, ahem. ”

Professor Umbridge is here. She stood a few feet away from Harry, still in a green hat, green cloak, and clipboard in hand. Hagrid, who hadn't heard Umbridge's fake cough, looked at a Thestrals next to him with some concern, apparently thinking it was the sound it was making.

"Ahem, ahem. ”

"Oh, hello!" Hagrid smiled, discovering the source of the strange sound.

"Have you received a note from me to your cabin in the morning?" said Umbridge, still as she had spoken to Hagrid before, slowly and loudly, as if he were a foreigner and mentally retarded, "saying I was coming to your lesson." ”

"Oh, I got it," said Hagrid, cheerfully, "I'm glad you've found the place! look—I don't know—can you see that? We're talking about Thestrals to-day—"

"I'm sorry," Professor Umbridge cried out, holding his hand to his ear in the shape of a cup, frowning, "what did you say?"

Hagrid looked a little confused.

"Uh-Thestrals!" he said loudly, "Big-uh-winged, you know!"

He slapped his thick arm twice in his eagerness. Professor Umbridge raised an eyebrow at him, writing and reading on the clipboard, "By - clumsy - gestures - "

"Okay—" Hagrid said, turning to face the student, looking a little flustered, "uh—where did I go?"

"It seems—the memory is very poor—" Umbridge said, loud enough for everyone to hear. Draco Malfoy looked like Christmas had arrived a month earlier, and Hermione blushed with anger.

"Oh," Hagrid glanced uneasily at Umbridge's clipboard, but spoke bravely. "Yes, I was about to tell you how this group came to be. This, at the beginning, had only one stallion and five mares. This one's called Uwu," he patted the horse that appeared first, "my favorite, the first one born in this forest—"

"Did you know," Umbridge interrupted in a loud voice, "that the Ministry of Magic has classified Thestrals as a 'dangerous animal'?"

"Thestrals aren't dangerous! Of course, if you really get into trouble, they might bite you-"

"Yes—brutally—showing—pleasure—" Umbridge wrote in his notebook again.

"No—no," Hagrid said, a little anxious, "I mean, dogs still bite, right- Thestrals only have a bad reputation for being associated with dead people—people used to think it was unlucky, right? just ignorance, right?"

Umbridge didn't answer. She finished the last stroke, looked up at Hagrid, and said slowly, "Please continue the lecture as usual, I want to be among the students"—she pointed to the students one by one—"Take a walk." —she made a walking gesture, and Malfoy and the blonde-haired Pansy Parkinson were secretly laughing. "Ask a question. She pointed to her mouth again to speak.

Hagrid glared at her, apparently completely confused why she thought he didn't understand normal English. Umbridge ignored Hagrid at all and turned to Andrew.

"You can see Thestrals, can you, Andrew Lee?" she asked.

Andrew's face was gloomy, his gaze was wandering in the void at this time, and Pansy Parkinson couldn't help but comb his hair, "It's obvious. Hermione replied for Andrew.

"I didn't ask you, I was asking Andrew Lee, who did you see dead?" the deputy minister asked with a toad-like glare at Hermione and a cold tone.

The surroundings fell silent for a while, and even Thestrals stopped eating, looking around uneasily, Hermione nudged Andrew gently, "What?" Andrew's voice swept through the air like an ice blade.

"I'm asking you, who did you see dead?" the deputy secretary asked nonchalantly, waving his stubby hand at the black Pegasus, who had already torn most of the corpses to bones, "and you'll be able to see them after that?"

"Obviously," Andrew said in a low voice, glancing at her, "someone with a bit of intelligence wouldn't ask such an idiotic question." ”

Umbridge raised an eyebrow, and this time ignoring what Andrew had said, and said to Hagrid, "All right, Hagrid," she looked up at him, and said again in a slow, loud voice, "I think I've got enough of the situation—you'll be in ten days"—she held out her short ten fingers, "RECEIVED"—she gestured to take something out of the air, "Your findings"—she pointed to the clipboard. Then, smiling even more triumphantly, she hurried out from the students under the green hat, more like a toad than before. Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson laughed, and Hermione shivered with anger as she looked at Andrew with a gloomy face.

"Andrew, are you alright?" Hermione asked Andrew cautiously after half an hour, and they walked back to the castle along the path they had tread in the snow when they came, "...... I don't think you're happy?"

Umbridge clearly asked what he shouldn't have asked. Ginny said.

"All right, Ginny!" Hermione looked at Andrew uneasily, "I teach this before the exam, but they're really interesting, aren't they? ”

"Really?" asked Harry calmly.

She suddenly looked even more uneasy.

"Oh—I'm sorry—what I said—those stupid things—"

"Nothing," Andrew said suddenly, "seeing death with your own eyes won't do you any good, and it won't make you anything special—useless except to drain your vitality and erode your will." There's nothing to envy to see Thestrals, Hermione, and I hope you'll never see Thestrals. ”

December brought more snow and an avalanche of homework for fifth-graders. As Christmas approached, Ron and Hermione's prefects became more and more overwhelmed. They oversee the decoration of the castle, watch the first and second graders stay indoors during recess because of the cold and rain, and take turns patrolling the corridors with Argus Filch, who suspects that fights might increase during the holidays. Hermione was too busy knitting her elf hat to knit her elf hat, and she was in a hurry, she only had three left.

"Those poor elves whom I have not yet liberated, I have to stay here for Christmas, because there are not enough hats!"

Harry and Ginny couldn't bear to talk about Dobby taking all the hats she had knitted, so they buried their heads in writing their papers for the history of magic class.

Today is Wednesday and the last assembly before Christmas. Andrew and Hermione were discussing Christmas, and Harry and Ron were pretending to duel with their wands.

At this moment, the door creaked open, and Luna walked in as if dreaming as usual. "Hello," she said vaguely, looking at them, "what are you discussing?"

"Oh, Merry Christmas, Luna. Andrew said, "How's it going?"

"It's okay," Luna said dreamily, then pointed to a large clump of white berries and said gravely, "it often has a fly hook in it." ”

Just then, Angelina, Katie, and Alya entered, all three girls panting and looking frozen enough.

"Merry Christmas, everyone. Angelina shuddered, tearing off her cloak and throwing it into a corner, "It's really cold. ”

"Warm up first. Andrew pointed at the stove with his wand, and the flame burned even brighter.

"Oh, thanks. "They hurried closer to the stove.

After a while, the people finally came, and all of them came.

"Merry Christmas, everyone. Andrew began by saying, "We've learned a lot before. ”

Many people nodded, "But we're not going to learn anything new today." ”

"Not learning something new?" Zachares muttered as his voice echoed the room, "I wouldn't have known I wouldn't have come—"

"Then we all regret that no one told you earlier. Fred exclaimed. Several people laughed secretly.

"—It doesn't matter how much you know, but how practical you are," Andrew said, "even if you know a hundred spells, but you can't use one of them at a critical moment, it's pointless, is it?"

Everyone nodded again.

"So we're playing a game today——— the rules are simple, the last person standing in front of me with a wand is the winner. ”

"What?"

"Did I hear me right?"

Andrew smiled and said, "That's right, this can exercise a lot of your abilities, isn't it? Of course, all the spells I taught you before are not life-threatening——— if they do, I will stop them." ”

Then, Andrew took out a small bottle, "I'll give him a little reward for that person, that's it, it's called the Elixir, I think many people should know about it, right?"

"What's that?" asked Seamus.

"It's something that can make you lucky for a while——— it's a good thing, Seamus. Ron said, he couldn't forget the feeling — the feeling that the world was giving way to itself.

Everyone saw this and started to jump for it. Some people look at each other, measuring the level of others. George and Fred looked at each other, and then smiled in the same way.

"Of course," Andrew said, "you can attack me directly, but I can guarantee it." He smirked, "You're going to be happy." ”

"What if our room of people attack you together?" Zachares Smith sneered, holding his arms together, "I dare say you won't be able to hold on." ”

"You can try. Andrew said, looking around, "If you're interested, you can join a few people to try." Be sure to do so at your own risk, though. ”

"Okay, let's ——— get started. ”

Everyone was silent for a moment, looking at each other, a little overwhelmed.

Finally, a person finally made the first move, "fainted and ———", and the room was finally lively. Everyone began to cast spells on each other, and all kinds of spells flew all over the sky. Some took refuge behind cover and began to return fire.

Seeing that everyone was so "enthusiastic", Andrew conjured up a comfortable sponge sofa and sat in the corner watching them.

George and Fred are teaming up to attack others, "Whoever of us gets the same. The two of them said as they passed by Andrew. They were immediately knocked unconscious by Harry's two faints.

Zachares Smith approached two or three people who seemed to be trying to get Andrew in trouble, as they kept staring at Andrew, who was sitting in the corner, discussing something.

Neville's progress is almost like a different person. He knocked two or three people's wands flying in quick succession

At this moment, Andrew suddenly felt something flying towards him, and with a wave of his wand, he flicked away several spells pointed at him.

Zachares Smith and a few of his companions were about to surround Andrew, but Andrew knocked one down with a red light, and then lowered his head to dodge the spell that flew on both sides, which staggered over Andrew's head. and they struck themselves separately.

Almost instantaneously, Smith was left alone with the people besieging Andrew.

"I told you, you'd be happy. Andrew said, casting a spell at Smith, who suddenly began to laugh before he could react.

"Look, I said, I'm going to make you happy. Andrew said with a smile.

At this time, there were only two people left in the room who could still move with wands——— Hermione and Autumn.

Autumn flashed a flying spell and a red light struck back, and Hermione's wand fell to the ground.

Then ran to Andrew's side, "I won, Andy." ”

"Oh yes. Andrew said, and gave the elixir to Qiu.

"That's all there is to it?" asked Qiu dissatisfied.

"What more do you want? I'll give it to you in the evening. Andrew said embarrassedly.

"Okay," Cho suddenly kissed Andrew on the cheek, "give you a stamp." ”

Andrew waved his wand expressionlessly, and the wand emitted a light blue smoke like light, and the effect on the people in the room who had been enchanted was removed.

George and Fred, who had fainted, stood up with a mumble in their mouths, Harry, who was standing stiffly, and the man who was hanging from the roof came down.

They saw Qiu's small bottle of elixir in his hand, and they all showed envy.

"I've seen that I've done a good job at home," he said with a smile as he looked at the group, "and a lot of people are doing a lot better than I expected, and when we get back from vacation I think we can start some of the more difficult ones — even including the Patronus Charm or something." ”

Under the sound of excitement and mournful sighs. People walked out of the room in twos and threes, as usual, and many wished Andrew "Merry Christmas". Andrew dragged Cho away, and Harry, Ginny, and Hermione left.

"You're doing a good job. On the way, Andrew said to Cho.

"Of course, I'm the most Ravenclaw princess, and if not you, I'm the best witch in the Academy. Cho snuggled up to Andrew's side and said with a smile.

"Where are you going for Christmas, do you want to go with me to western Tibet?"

"Oh, Andy, I'd love to go, but Dad has booked a plane ticket to South Africa and our family is going to spend Christmas there. Qiu said with some uneasiness, looking a little apprehensive.

"Well, that's fine, I have a lot to do anyway. I heard from my father, your father's business is good this year, and he seems to have made a lot of money. Andrew shrugged.

"Of course, but it's not because of Count Lee's help. She said. "Especially when doing business with Muggles, I only make money and don't lose money, and now my father can't wait to stay with Lord Earl every day. ”

Andrew smiled softly, and magically conjured a pair of crystal-like, five-pointed star-shaped earrings from his hand.

"So," Andrew put earrings on Hermione, "this is my gift to you, to celebrate that we're together." ”

When Neville returned to the lounge, he saw that Harry had gone back and was sitting on the bed giggling.

"Harry?"

Harry didn't react. Ron, who was already lying on the bed, said, "Neville, you just ignore him, he's like that when he comes back." ”

In the middle of the night, Ron was awakened by a shout,

"Harry?" Ron and Neville called out to the sleeping Harry in panic.

By this time Harry was awake, but he was still sweating and shivering like he had a high fever. He vomited again, and Ron jumped backwards. "Harry, you're sick," he said uneasily, "Neville has gone find someone—"

"I'm fine!" Harry choked and wiped his mouth with his pajamas, shivering uncontrollably, "I'm not sick, it's your dad to worry about—we're going to find out where he's bleeding—I'm — it's a big snake—"

"What, Orochi?" Ron asked Harry, looking confused.

"Leave that alone, your father, Uncle Weasley, quick, I need to report this, leave it alone..."

"What's going on? What's wrong with my dad?"

"He was bitten, the injury was severe, and the man was angry. Harry pushed Seamus away, looking for Ron.

"Don't worry, Harry. Ron felt his arm being gripped tightly by Harry, who was sweating all over his hands.

At this time, there was the sound of hurried footsteps on the stairs——— Neville was looking for someone.

"Over here, Professor—" Professor McGonagall hurried into the dormitory in a tartan dressing gown, her glasses crooked on the bridge of her thin nose. "What's wrong, Potter?"

"It's Ron's father," he said, sitting up again, "he's been bitten by a snake, and it's all blood, I see." ”

"I see. Professor McGonagall glanced at Andrew, "Come with me, let's go to Professor Dumbledore."