Chapter 500: Rita Skeeter's Scoop (Edited)

Christmas vacation was over, much to Fish's reluctance.

Since it was the first day of school, most of the students had gotten up a little late, and Fish was no exception, as they had just finished breakfast when the bell rang.

"Come on, let's go! It's time to go to class."

Hermione didn't have time to read the Daily Prophet that had arrived today, so she put the paper away in her bag and then grabbed Fish, who wasn't ready for class yet, and headed out of the castle with the rest of the class.

The first lesson of the day was on Care of Magical Creatures, and the thought of helping Hagrid take care of the Blast-Ended Skrewt made everyone feel less than enthusiastic.

With the vacations over, the rose garden at the entrance had finally been removed by Dumbledore, as well as the fountains and statues that had decorated it, leaving the castle gates now empty, with nothing but thick snow.

The bad weather further worsened everyone's mood and, apart from the bouncing Fish, the others spoke very little, merely walking sullenly towards Hagrid's hut.

When they reached Hagrid's hut, however, they saw an elderly witch at the door. She wore her gray hair very short and her chin very prominent.

"Huh? It's someone I don't know." Fish jumped towards her curiously, "Hello nya! Who are you?"

(??ω??)

The cat's eyes widened and he looked at the witch curiously.

"My name is Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank," the witch said with a smile as she bowed to Fish, "I'm your temporary substitute teacher for the Care of Magical Creatures class...you're Minerva's son, right? It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Yes, I'm Fish, and you're a friend of Minerva's?"

Noticing that she seemed to know Professor McGonagall well, Fish immediately displayed a more intimate attitude.

"Sure, when I was in school, Minerva was four years older than me, she was the Prefect of Gryffindor, and captain of the Quidditch team and Seeker, almost all the girls in Gryffindor looked up to her as a role model...".

After congratulating Professor McGonagall, Professor Grubbly-Plank patted Fish on the head and said, "Well, the bell has been ringing for five or six minutes, and if you want to hear from Minerva, wait until after class, we should be in class now."

With that, she waved to the rest of the Gryffindor students, and the Slytherins who arrived later, saying, "Please follow me this way."

Professor Grubbly-Plank rounded the makeshift stables and headed toward the other end.

As she spoke to Fish, it became clear to everyone why Hagrid needed someone else to take his place...

Hermione immediately pulled out today's Daily Prophet when she saw Professor Grubbly-Plank and sure enough, she saw an article titled "Dumbledore's Big Mistake," which mentioned Hagrid's identity as a half-blood giant.

Hermione hadn't seen Rita Skeeter's article about Hagrid before, so she thought she had received a letter from Fish and hadn't done anything about it, and Hermione had gradually stopped paying attention to it, but she hadn't expected it to come out on the first day of school.

In fact, Rita Skeeter received Fish's letter, and debated whether or not to help Fish again, but in the end she was too good to ignore Fish's request.

Besides, if Rita Skeeter wanted to repair relations with Fudge, she would have to write something that would undermine Dumbledore's reputation, and while there were already examples such as Mad-Eye Moody and Lupin the Wolf, Moody only had one reputation, and Lupin and Lockhart were already gone, and had been mentioned in previous articles, so it would not be very effective to do so again.

It was important, then, to focus on Hagrid, the giant half-blood and breeder of Blast-Ended Skrewt, to attack Dumbledore's failures in choosing teachers.

When Fish asked, Rita Skeeter would simply say that she had seen the letter after publishing the article,

It was easy to come up with excuses: she couldn't catch the paper because of the Christmas break, or she was out looking for news and didn't have time to read it.

After a few encounters with Fish, Rita Skeeter discovered that Fish was easy to fool.

But instead of the usual "appropriate exaggeration," Skeeter wrote about Hagrid's identity as a half-breed giant and his vague identification as a "dangerous creature," so as not to let her relationship with Fish suddenly deteriorate again.

Thanks to Hagrid's own problems, even if Rita Skeeter had been truthful, he would have seemed a less-than-competent, even dangerous professor.

That's why Harry and Ron were struck dumb at the time.

Rita Skeeter's previous reports had been nonsensical, but in this one, Hagrid's descriptions were largely truthful, even that of the half-blood giant, which they had received confirmation of from Hermione.

"Hagrid's been teaching for so long and there's been no problems!"

Harry gasped, and looked hopefully at the rest of the Gryffindors, hoping they would agree with him.

Instead, a group of girls exclaimed.

They had reached their destination, a beautiful unicorn tied to a large tree on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and was now digging its golden hooves into the ground restlessly

"Guys, get back!" Professor Grubbly-Plank shouted, "Unicorns like to be touched by women. Girls stand in front, approach carefully... er..."

His words were interrupted mid-sentence, as Fish had jumped in front of the unicorn.

"It's Linda nya!"

?(?ΦωΦ?)?

The unicorn in the forbidden forest was already familiar to Fish, and he untied the rope binding the unicorn without hesitation.

The unicorn, Linda, who was still a bit restless, quickly calmed down after seeing Fish, whinnying softly, and rubbed her head affectionately against Fish.

"Well... the rumors are really true..."

Professor Grubbly-Plank sighed as she unconsciously put her hand to her pocket, as if she wanted to pull something out, but in the end she didn't.

She shook her head and continued to tell the other students, "All girls stay close, all boys but Fish, stay away, and you'd better stay behind the fence."

Cat and unicorn, no girl could resist this combination, could not hold back for long, they cheered quietly and quickly moved to Fish and Linda's side.

The boys too remained obediently by the barn fence, standing, watching them, and Fish and the unicorn, surrounded by them.

"Fish, is her name Linda?"

"Fish, can you ask if we can touch her?"

The girls gathered around Fish and talked about him, leaving Professor Grubbly-Plank completely behind.

Professor Grubbly-Plank smiled bitterly, feeling the helplessness Hagrid had felt earlier....

With Fish here, the Care of Magical Creatures class teacher seemed irrelevant.

But, aside from being distracted by Fish, Professor Grubbly-Plank's lectures were well-received by most of the students....

"I wish you could stay, Professor Grubbly-Plank!" Parvati Patil said after class, "Here's my idea of a class on Care of Magical Creatures... decent animals like unicorns, not monsters..."

"What about Hagrid?" asked Harry angrily.

"What about him?" Parvati said coolly, "He can still be a ranger, can't he?"

Parvati had largely ignored Harry since the ball, and now Harry was directly in her crosshairs.

"But Hagrid's a good teacher, isn't he?" Harry flinched at Parvati's intimidating look, but he was still determined to find other supporters.

However, even among the boys the response was sparse and, with the exception of Fish, all had been injured by an Blast-Ended Skrewt, they were unlikely to enjoy the class, so Ron was the only one who supported him out of friendship.

It was so obvious which was the better choice, the Blast-Ended Skrewt or the unicorn, that even Hermione, who had asked Fish to send a letter to Rita Skeeter, rebelled at that point.

Just as Parvati said....

Anyway, Hagrid still has his job as a ranger, right? It's not like he's going to get kicked out of Hogwarts for not being the Care of Magical Creatures teacher.

As for Fish...

"Wilhelmina is Minerva's friend, and Fish doesn't hate her."

(??ω??)

Fish frowned, he really didn't care who the professor was, and....

"She doesn't assign homework nya!"