Chapter 72    

"YES! You're a genius Hermione! You totally deserve to be the top student of our year. HA! Take that, both of you." Aman said loudly as he gave her a thumbs up while she simply turned her face away, blushing slightly.

"Oh yeah?" said Jane as she took a few steps towards him to be able to stand close enough that her nose almost touched his chin as she looked up to face him.

"Then explain why Ron has a rat, why those seniors there have a turtle and a damn chameleon?"

She then took another step, forcing Aman to step back before she turned to look at Hermione, "There was never a rule that banned other pets. It's mentioned in the letter that students may bring an owl, a toad or a cat, not "only" these three."

Hermione now looked offended as she turned to face Jane, "But-"

"Did you guys know that a few years or maybe decades ago, the letters from Hogwarts never mentioned about pets. It's a long standing rule from the moment this school was created that you can bring any pet into the school but there were a few cases, specifically two cases that pushed the school to mention those three pets as an example." Alex said slowly, drawing everyone's attention when he mentioned old rules of Hogwarts.

He glanced at everyone who stared at him attentively before continuing, "You guys must know of Newt Scamander right?"

Hermione raised her hand high up in the air while a slow drawly voice behind Alex voiced out, "He's one of the most famous magizoologists in the world. I'm sure he knows that Crumple-Horned Snorkacks exists unlike everyone else who seem ignorant…"

Everyone's attention turned towards the girl standing behind Alex while Hermione quickly put her hand back down.

"Loon- I mean Luna? What are you doing here?" Jane asked as she tucked some of her stay hair behind her ear.

"It looked like you were having an interesting conversation so I thought I'd just join in…"

Before anyone could reply to her, Alex clapped a few times before speaking, "Absolutely right. But did you know that he was expelled from Hogwarts? And if you do know that he was expelled, do you know why?"

Hermione shot her hand up again while Luna simply stood beside Alex waiting for an answer.

"This is not a class…. You can speak without anyone's permission Hermione. Anyways, please tell everyone the answer."

"He brought a Jarvey to Hogwarts.", she said and after seeing that everyone other that Alex and Luna looked clueless, she continued, "It's a magical creature that looks like ferret but way larger. It is a XXX ranked creature which can potentially cause an endangerment to human life.

It is also capable of human speech but only uses short, usually rude statements and phrases constantly. While many trained adult witches and wizards can kill a Jarvey, the ministry laws prevent them to do so since it is an endangered species.

The last reason why I believe that Sir Newt Scamander was wrong is because students like us who barely know any offensive or defensive magic cannot defend ourselves from a Jarvey so it surely was a foolish idea to bring one to school."

Alex nodded as he sat down beside Neville, "Very accurate. He's a great man but he did some really foolish things when he was young. He is one of the reasons why the school had to take these measures but do you know about the other person?"

Everyone shook their head while Harry and Ron looked at each other like they expected who it could be since they were involved in a very memorable adventure of smuggling out a XXXXX ranked creature.

"Well… It wouldn't be fair to talk about him when he still works at Hogwarts but he was also expelled for bringing in a magical creature. But compared to Newt, this guy was extremely reckless. He brought in a XXXXX ranked creature and well… you can tell what happened, he got caught and then expelled but unlike Sir Newt Scamander, his wand was confiscated and destroyed.

So, in short as long as your pets are normal creatures that aren't too huge or dangerous, you can happily bring them into the school but your pets are completely your own responsibility."

"Tch…" Aman clicked his tongue but decided not to say a thing when he saw Jane almost tearing up in front of him. He hugged her from behind even though he felt extremely embarrassed from all the stares around him and the pin drop silence that enveloped his surroundings.

"Thanks for the gift kay? I'll cherish him.", he whispered into her ears and before he could say anything else, Jane walked away towards the Gryffindor common room.

"Aww what a lovely brother. Did you guys hear what he said?" Ron quipped from behind Harry with his signature smirk that he had developed after beating a lot of students in the gameboard.

"Atleast he's better than you!" Ginny added in before heading off to catch up to her classmate while Aman simply ignored Ron entirely as he grinned widely as he stared at Alex with his arm stretched out.

"Where's my gift ey? You told me you will give me one if I take this parrot."

Alex stared at him silently for a few seconds before saying, "It's not ready yet."

"Don't lie mate, you told me it was ready just a few minutes ago!"

"…. Would you leave me alone if I said that I was lying?"

"No. Give me the gift you promised. I won't let you off hehe."

"….. Why are you my friend…." Alex muttered, smiling as he took out his wand from his robes and said, "Accio broom."

Hermione gasped as she stared at Alex wide eyed, "That's a spell thought in fourth year!"

"Well…. You've already seen what I'm capable of so why are you so surprised?", he said as he looked outside one of the windows and the others followed his gaze to see a flaming red dot heading towards the castle from outside.

"Is that…. fire?"