Chapter 205: Breeding Demons
All wizards are, in a sense, wicked. Mysterious and inauspicious. What they call "romance" simply depends on how one chooses to look at things.
This is especially true in the field of magical creature breeding.
The purpose for which wizards created these monstrous creatures has always been quite simple: to guard their homes, protect their treasures, or serve as helpers and enforcers.
"The most widely bred magical creatures in history were dragons," Hagrid said, trying his best to sound like a proper professor, stumbling a little over his words. "Lots of magical creatures now have dragon blood in 'em." He paused, then finally added, "Some wizards have dragon blood in 'em, too."
Ooooh...
All the students looked completely baffled, their expressions a mix of confusion and disbelief as they listened to the lesson. This made Hagrid feel a bit awkward. He scratched his head and stopped, looking helplessly at Lockhart to signal that he really wasn't cut out for this.
"Is this hard for you to accept?"
Just then, a deep, hoarse voice came from behind the students, making them all turn around. It was the "Mister Mystery," Professor Lockhart's assistant.
"The cross-breeding of magical creatures, even the mixing of wizard and magical creature blood, has existed for at least a thousand years," Grindelwald said, his eyes sweeping over the young wizards with a detached gaze. "The reason you find this unacceptable is because you have lost your wizarding culture. Your minds are filled with Muggle culture."
"Muggle morality, Muggle values, Muggle worldviews..."
He sneered. "The terrible consequences of the era of Merlin still continue, even now that the Knights of Merlin can no longer influence the will of the Ministries of Magic around the world."
Grindelwald understood better than anyone the root cause of the schism in wizarding society. The problem wasn't "magical bloodlines" or "pure-blood," which were just deceptive terms used by wizards with unique ancestral abilities to claim superiority.
The entire concept of blood purity was utter nonsense!
The real problem was culture.
Pure-blood and some half-blood wizards were born into wizarding families. Before coming to Hogwarts, they received a family education steeped in wizarding culture. Even the Weasleys, supposedly the most "Muggle-loving" family, had Arthur who knew next to nothing about Muggles, so his children were hardly raised with Muggle culture.
Meanwhile, Muggle-born and some half-blood wizards received their primary education in Muggle schools. By the time they arrived at a magical school, they had already become just like Muggles.
This was why the rift between Dumbledore and Grindelwald could, at times, be so sharp.
Why was Harry Potter not raised at Hogwarts, under the care of the one person who cared about him most, Severus Snape? Or even by a hardworking house-elf? Why was he thrown into the care of his Muggle relatives?
Was it really just because this "Saviour" had to be with people who hated him to avoid Voldemort's attacks, a choice that would then be used to shape public opinion?
Grindelwald knew all too well how "far-reaching" some of Dumbledore's plans were under the guise of grand rhetoric.
And he opposed this.
He sneered at the students. "You think breeding magical creatures is evil, so does that mean you also believe harming magical creatures is evil?"
"Your Potions class requires the bodies of various magical creatures. Your Herbology class requires the bodies of various magical plants. So I ask you: do these magical ingredients, these bodies, just fall from the sky?"
"No!"
"You killed them!"
"You needed them, so someone killed them for you!"
He looked down at the students, his gaze finally settling on the Muggle-born Hermione. Seeing the resistance and anger on her face, he slowly walked over to her. His presence was so powerful that the students parted to let him pass.
Grindelwald stopped in front of Hermione, gently took her wand from her hand, and rubbed it lightly between his fingers. A slight smile played on his lips. "Vine wood and dragon heartstring?"
"Miss Granger, do you know how to extract the nerve from a dragon's heart to keep it active enough for use in wand-making?"
Hermione was sharp enough to immediately see the malice in the question. Her eyes widened in panic. She didn't know how to answer.
Thankfully, a figure stepped forward to stand in front of her.
"Mister Mystery!"
Lockhart smiled and took the wand from Grindelwald, handing it back to Hermione. "I think magic should always be romantic. It's what ignites a wizard's will. Don't you agree with that?"
What he meant was, stop with your Dark Arts nonsense, you'll just turn these kids into Dark Wizards, and that's not going to improve their skills at all.
Grindelwald's eyes narrowed as he looked at Lockhart, but the professor just returned his gaze with a warm smile, refusing to back down.
After a long moment, Grindelwald finally spoke.
"Children, let's turn our attention back to the lesson on breeding magical creatures," Lockhart said, his expression serious. "I want you to understand one thing: whether you like it or not, this is the only chance most of you will ever get to learn about magical creature breeding. It's now!"
"Beauxbatons doesn't teach this, Durmstrang doesn't teach this, and the regular Hogwarts curriculum doesn't either. Only now, in this place."
"So, like it or not, pay attention."
He gestured to Hagrid. "Please continue the lesson."
Hagrid, flustered by the tense atmosphere, nervously continued his lecture. But as he brought out more animals to demonstrate, his simple, guileless expression gradually gave way to a unique kind of brilliance.
In his eyes, magical creature breeding was a wonderful and romantic pursuit.
To feel this romance, you had to abandon the wizarding—or even human—notions of beauty and ugliness, and then, you had to move past judging creatures by their appearance to truly feel the magic within them.
The Manticore's scorpion tail, red fur, and fanged human face all carried a terrible fire venom. It was aggressive and unrestrained, but also structured and full of explosive, powerful fire venom.
In Hagrid's words, "It's a joyful thing."
He gestured with his hands, urging the students to look closely at the human-headed monster, his face full of expectation. "Can you feel its joy, kids?"
Harry turned his head away with a strange look on his face, avoiding Hagrid's hopeful gaze. He locked eyes with Ron, whose face was so scrunched up it looked like it would stay that way forever, and they both shook their heads. In fact, none of the students could feel it.
"I can feel it!" a voice exclaimed, startling everyone.
Then another chimed in. "Yeah, I can feel it too! It's a lively kind of joy!"
It was George and Fred, the Weasley twins.
"Yes! Yes! It's full of life!" Hagrid, relieved, became excited. "See? Its joy is active in its limbs, its head, its fur, its venomous stinger..."
Cedric Diggory looked utterly shocked, whispering to the twins, "Hey, can you really feel it? How?"
"We just can," George said, unable to explain it. "Look at its movements."
Fred, in a thoughtful pose, observed the creature. "Look how it shivers from the cold. It's special."
Really?
The students all looked at the Manticore, but all they could see was a terrifying-looking monster chained to the wall, roaring in frustration.
"All right, kids!"
Hagrid ushered everyone to another corner of the cave, to a place where an underground river opened into a small lake. He pointed at a cluster of Fire Crabs he was raising.
They were crabs with severely deformed shells. The giant shells looked more like turtle shells, so from a distance, it seemed as if a pile of turtles were crawling on the rocks in the lake.
But compared to the utterly hideous Manticore, the Fire Crabs were the epitome of human beauty. They looked incredibly luxurious. Their brownish-black shells glistened like carved jade and were covered with all kinds of jewels. As the students approached, some of the Fire Crabs, startled, shot a jet of fire from their tails, causing the students to gasp and retreat.
"See? Aren't they lovely?" Hagrid's vocabulary was limited, but everyone could feel the gentle love in his eyes.
This time, the students wholeheartedly agreed with Hagrid.
Only Snape scoffed. "I hope you don't become too enamoured with them. It is precisely because of their magnificent shells that they were hunted so extensively that they are now protected by Ministry law."
In truth, besides their beauty, Fire Crabs had another important use. Their shells were a natural, top-tier cauldron that could increase the success rate of potions like Felix Felicis and those that healed the mind or soul. Most of the students actually knew this. The feeding and cleaning of Fire Crabs was a common question on the Ordinary Wizarding Level exams for Care of Magical Creatures.
"Their hearts are on the outside," Hagrid said, sharing information about the creatures that wouldn't be found in any class or textbook.
"If you're good at watchin' nature, you'll see animals that make pearls, they keep their pearls inside their bellies. Fire Crabs, though, their pearls grow on the outside of their shell."
"So the Fire Crab's heart is always out in the open, but that pressure is what makes 'em feel safe."
Hagrid knelt and held out his hand. A Fire Crab crawled onto his palm and clamped its massive pincer onto his finger. Naturally, Hagrid had powerful physical resistance, and the crab couldn't hurt him at all.
"Both the Manticore and the Fire Crab have powerful fire venom. That's why the Manticore likes to eat Fire Crabs—it gets something useful from 'em. But that's not what's goin' to satisfy its deepest desires."
"They're actually opposite ends of the same thing. One's joyful, the other's repressed..."
"And in this cold place, the joyful one gets agitated, and the repressed one opens up. That's how they'll be able to get together."
Hagrid explained. "We can guess from their natures what the offspring will be like. If they do breed, it'll be a powerful creature full of fire venom, but with an explosive heart."
He tried his best to describe the unique quality, hidden within the two magical creatures and the changes in their coupling. "It'll be the most seductive demon!"
"!!!" The students gasped in shock.
"A demon?!!!" Harry couldn't help but shout. Despite how close he was to Hagrid, he couldn't understand why his friend would want to breed a demon.
"Hmph!" A cold snort rang out, and the students all fell silent.
It was, of course, Grindelwald, who exerted a powerful psychological pressure on them, though none of the students knew why they were so afraid of this old man.
"The meaning of 'demon' in wizarding culture..." Grindelwald looked around at the young faces, a look of profound disappointment on his face. "It means a product created to satisfy human desires!"
Bloody hell!
What's wrong with kids these days?
Don't they even know that?!!!
Demon, demon... do only Muggles get to define what a demon is? Even if nobody told you, didn't you ever think about it after hearing some wizarding fairy tales and bedtime stories?
"A seductive body to satisfy lust, delicious food to satisfy gluttony, gold and treasure to satisfy greed, magical power to satisfy a lust for power..."
Grindelwald explained in a cold voice. "That's what a demon is. It's something that makes people fall, makes them no longer human, understand?"
As he spoke, he looked over at the flustered Hagrid, and a hint of respect entered his eyes.
Yes, Grindelwald was willing to show respect to this wizard, a master in the field of magical creature breeding. He was a valuable talent who could bring more possibilities to the wizarding world.
"If anyone outside knew you could breed a demon, knew you could instinctively tell which two creatures would be able to breed a demon, they would go absolutely mad," Grindelwald sighed, his voice softening. "Hagrid, can you tell which kind of demon you'll breed this time?"
Hagrid shook his head. "I don't know. Life always finds its own way."
He wasn't sure, but Lockhart had a hunch.
Because he knew what was ultimately bred—Blast-Ended Skrewts. They had the Fire Crab's fire-spitting tail and the Manticore's violent temper, a clear continuation of the fire venom trait.
Lockhart wasn't sure if the Skrewts' shells would grow jewels like the Fire Crab's or have a powerful magical resistance like a Manticore's. But he did remember one thing:
The Blast-Ended Skrewts had a distinct smell of rancid fish and rotten prawns, a smell that made all the students hate them, even Harry, who was steadfastly on Hagrid's side.
That smell of rancid fish and prawns...
It was a very unique flavour.
Lockhart guessed that the Blast-Ended Skrewts were a form of ultimate delicacy created to satisfy gluttony.
Of course, anything taken to an extreme is dangerous, even food. As Grindelwald said, something is called a demon precisely because it makes people fall, makes them no longer human.
These kinds of extreme creations would normally have great applications in potions. A unicorn, for example, hailed as the purest magical creature, was, in an academic sense, also a kind of demon.
(End of Chapter)
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