Chapter 299: “Qilin”

Pickett hopped onto a branch and sprinted forward using the students’ heads as a springboard.

“Ow, my hair!”

“Oh my!”

After a little commotion, he finally calmed down. Everyone else turned their attention to the Bowtruckle and saw that Pickett was clinging to a student, climbing up and down on him, and from time to time, he got into the bag of his robe.

Sean smiled and took Pickett into his palm, “I’m here to teach, Pickett. You should cooperate with Professor Scamander’s lecture.”

Green shoots sprouted from Pickett’s pointy fingers, and he rummaged in Sean’s pocket again, making sure that there were no ground beetles in it. It stuck out its tongue at Sean, making a sharp but amusing sound.

“Yes, I miss you too.”

Under the surprised eyes of the students, it stepped on one head after another and returned to Newt’s hands. Pickett climbed up Newt’s hand, correcting the position of Newt’s fingers, and stood motionless. It acted as if it hadn’t been moved just now.

Sean laughed. This little guy has been with Newt for too long. Now, he is no longer afraid of people.

Newt shook his head helplessly and looked at the students, “This is another characteristic of the Bowtruckle. This magical animal that guards trees is usually peaceful and extremely shy, but they tend to be clingy if you can establish a good relationship with it.”

Pickett seemed dissatisfied with Newt’s ‘naughty’ comment on it and turned his head to spit at Newt. The students burst into laughter.

Newt laughed, “Students, remember that although Bowtruckles are generally gentle magical animals, each one has a different personality, just like us. By the way, Bowtruckles drool is actually a tree sap. Oh, Pickett, stop spitting. There’s a lot of people here.”

It took Newt two chubby woodjacks to calm Pickett’s temper. He let the little guy climb on his shoulders and then led the students into the woods.

“Come on, kids. As the first lesson, I think it will be better for you to get up close and personal with these lovely creatures.”

Bowtruckles began to poke their heads out of the trees as they walked in.

Keeping at a slight distance, Newt asked, “Can anyone tell me the gist of dealing with Bowtruckles?”

Hermione and Sean raised their hands at the same time.

“Mr. Wallup.”

Sean moved a little closer to a nearby tree, “Bowtruckles are extremely small. As far as I know, the Forbidden Forest is considered a huge habitat. They often use their body color to hide in trees..”

He continued, “If the tree in which it lives is threatened, it will leap to the woodcutter or tree repairer, trying to destroy its home, using its long, sharp fingers to dig into their eyes. If a wizard offered a woodjack to a Bowtruckle, it would be soothed for a long time, but you can’t feed them too much. They tend to spit tree sap.”

“Of course, there is another requirement for dealing with Bowtruckles, or in other words, this is common to dealing with all magical animals, that is sincerity.”

Sean slowly stretched out his hand. On the tree next to him, a dark green Bowtruckle sized him up for a while, and after a moment of hesitation, it lightly jumped into his palm.

“Sincerely show your kindness. Magical animals are often more perceptive than humans.” He smiled and stretched out his finger, and the Bowtruckle grabbed it and played with Sean.

Newt applauded. He threw a woodjack to Sean and waited until the Bowtruckle began to enjoy the food happily before continuing, “Mr. Wallup is right. This kind of behavior can be very helpful when dealing with magical animals, and being sincere is necessary. Twenty points to Ravenclaw.”

Hagrid brought over a big iron bucket full of ground turtles.

“Come on, everyone, take two woodjacks and try to feed the little guys here.”

With Sean’s demonstration, the other students immediately became enthusiastic. They rushed forward to receive their things. Even the students who were afraid of bugs looked at them curiously.

“Come on, step forward one by one.” Newt greeted.

“Yes, that’s right. Look into the Bowtruckle’s eyes and don’t show any concern about its sharp fingers. As long as you don’t mess around, it will never hurt you.”

“Yes, open your hands first, express your kindness, and pass it slowly.”

“Very good. After it accepts your first gift, you can try to make it climb onto your palm.”

Newt’s teaching level far exceeds Hagrid and Professor Kettleburn. He is very organized when teaching, always with a smile on his face, and he can answer students’ questions promptly and in detail.

Soon, everyone understood why Professor Scamander, who had been in office for less than two years, quickly won the love of the students.

However, some careful students found that although the Bowtruckle in their palms was very gentle, they would turn their heads and look in a certain direction in unison.

They looked toward Sean.

At this moment, Sean’s ears were filled with the thoughts of the Bowtruckles.

“It smells so good.” Says a Bowtruckle.

“There are so many stupid people today, but one person is more fragrant than those.” Says another Bowtruckle.

“Isn’t it better to be their pet?” Bowtruckle retorted.

A Bowtruckle lying in Sean’s hands was basking in the sun with her legs crossed, “It’s cool…”

“I want to try too…”

“I want to try too…”

“I want to try too…”

All the Bowtruckles were a little bit envious of their companions.

Newt was leading a girl close to a Bowtruckle.

“Yes, stretch out your hand slowly and flatten your palm. Don’t worry, try it. It’s very simple, this one’s temper is much better than my Pickett’s. Since Pickett likes to sting me so much.”

At this time, there was a sudden commotion from the crowd. Newt quickly looked back and saw Sean in the crowd, jumping around. Most of the Bowtruckles in the entire forest jumped onto Sean as if they had been agreed upon, and they hung on Sean like twigs.

Some were swinging with Sean’s robes and earlobes, some were lying in a large area to bask in the sun, and some crawled into Sean’s clothes. They came out to hug Sean for comfort.

Newt heard the sighs of the Bowtruckles, “It smells so good…”

Sean was jumping in pain, “Hey, don’t grab my ears. Your fingers are too sharp! Little guy, you can’t drill there. You! Don’t lick!”

Newt smiled and shook his head, “It seems that before each class, I have to discuss with the magical animals who are going to class in advance.”

The two chatted and laughed for a while, and while there was no one around, Sean turned the topic to the magical animals he saw in Selma’s photo.

“A magical animal you haven’t seen?” Newt became interested.

Sean has been running to his office, and he basically read all his graphic notes, even the new version of “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” which has not yet been published.

Sean nodded and gave Newt a detailed description of what he saw, “I can’t see the head clearly, it has a body similar to that of an elk, and it has the tail of an eastern dragon. The scales on its body do not seem to be the same color.”

Newt rested his chin and pondered, “From the ancient East?”

“Possibly.”

“There are indeed many unique magical animals there, and I have never had a deep understanding of many of them. However, from your description, only one creature looks like this in my impression. Are there bamboos in that forest area?”

Sean recalled it for a while, then nodded, “It seems that there are indeed bamboos.”

“That should be it…” Newt’s expression was slightly solemn.

“Professor?”

Newt looked at Sean and said seriously, “Are you sure you just saw it in the photo, or do you have one secretly?”

“Am I that kind of person?” Sean felt wronged.

“Hatching Winged Demon isn’t easy, right?”

“Well….” Sean laughed.

Newt smiled, and then his expression returned to serious, “If you’re right, it should be a Qilin.”

“Qilin?” Sean’s eyes widened.

Newt glanced at him and continued, “Many legends are not groundless, just like the Qilin I mentioned to you. It is also a strange beast in Eastern mythology, and I have also seen it with my own eyes. Not only that, there are many magical and even terrifying magical animals in that land, and the Qilin is a very special kind of them.”

“Special? Why do you say that?” Sean asked curiously.

Newt shook his head, “I just heard an old wizard say it when I was traveling in Asia. I don’t know what is special about it. It’s just that the local wizards call it a divine beast.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“In addition, they may have another function.”

“What?”

Newt sighed in relief, “Do you know what’s happening with the International Confederation of Wizards now?”

“Of course, is it about the president will be re-elected soon?”

“It happens to be related to this election…” Newt smiled, “The president is elected by voting. This election method has only been decided in the past two hundred years. It is said that in the beginning, the election of the president of the International Confederation of Wizards was not done by voting, but by Qilins.”

“Qilin?” Sean became confused, “How does Qilin choose candidates?”

Newt laughed, “It’s really hard to say. I don’t know the specific criteria for the selection, but I guess it may be similar to the way they think. Qilins could look into a person’s soul and find out if they were pure of heart. If they do, they would bow toward that person.”

“I see.” Sean nodded suddenly.

Newt is worthy of being a professional in handling magical animals. He learned a lot from this trip today. When Sean said goodbye and was about to return to the crowd, Newt called to him.

“Sean, are you sure you really didn’t get a Qilin?”

“I swear, Professor.” Sean assured rather helplessly.

After the class ended, the students were still discussing enthusiastically on the way back to the castle. Many people and friends bragged about their experience of seeing a certain Bowtruckle.

Hermione, on the other hand, was a little sullen.

Sean asked strangely, “What’s the matter? I think you get along well with that Bowtruckle.”

Hermione kicked the stones under her feet, “Professor Scamander didn’t give us homework after class.”

“Why do you think Professor Scamander is so popular? He mainly doesn’t give out homework.” Sean said.

Hermione puffed up her cheeks unwillingly, “I’ve prepared a lot of materials, and it seems useless now!”

“It’s not a loss if you learn it in your head. But if you want to study it more, why not buy a pet?”

Hermione didn’t buy Crookshanks in Diagon Alley, which made Sean quite regretful.

Hermione was obviously a little moved, but she shook her head in the end, “Forget it, I don’t really like the idea. You need to be responsible for it when you buy a pet.”

“How about cats and raccoons? I have connections. I can get a breeding certificate at the Ministry of Magic.”

“I know your connections, isn’t it, Mr. Potter and Mr. Black?”

“That’s just part of it, okay? I’ve been thinking about getting something recently and researching it for a long time.”

Having said this, the two entered the castle, and as soon as they entered the front yard, they heard Fred and George’s voices.

“Come here!” The two waved a newspaper, “We have big news!”