Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures
Chapter 1309: Visiting Hagrid

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Ron successfully catch Ginny’s ball.

She had been incredibly tense, clutching Evan’s hand tightly the entire time.

Now, she wanted to let go, but Evan didn’t release her hand.

After all, holding hands while watching the game just felt right.

Otherwise, what would it look like to sit there with a book in hand?

Like Hermione, Harry was overjoyed to see Ron block the fourth ball.

He resisted joining in the cheers of the crowd with difficulty.

Although Elaine hadn’t pitched yet, Harry turned to McLaggen, ready to tell him that, most unfortunately, Ron had beaten him.

Unexpectedly, when he turned his head, McLaggen’s red face was inches from his own. Harry stepped back hastily.

“His sister didn’t really try,” said McLaggen menacingly. There was a vein pulsing in his temple like the one Harry had often admired in Uncle Vernon’s. “She gave him an easy save.”

“Rubbish,” said Harry coldly. “That was the one he nearly missed.”

Just as he spoke, Elaine threw her shot into the hoop — no mercy at all…

“See? He didn’t block Elaine’s shot either. This trial was fair,” said Harry immediately.

McLaggen took a step nearer Harry, who stood his ground this time.

“Give me another go — with his broom!”

“No!” said Harry. “I just told you that the quality of your broom is part of your Quidditch ability. I can’t let Ron give you his broom. Besides, you’ve had your go. It has nothing to do with the broom. You saved three. Ron saved four. Ron’s Keeper, he won it fair and square. Get out of my way.”

He thought for a moment that McLaggen might punch him, but he contented himself with an ugly grimace and stormed away, growling what sounded like threats to thin air.

Harry was relieved; he could have asked McLaggen to be a substitute, like he did for others. But because this guy was so annoying, he didn’t end up inviting him.

Like Evan had said earlier, Harry didn’t want to have a guy like this in the team.

Because he was close, Evan also witnessed the scene.

If he were to comment, he wouldn’t sympathize with McLaggen. However, Evan had always thought Quidditch, especially at Hogwarts, wasn’t as important as everyone made it out to be. The game was far from fair — an elite broomstick gave players a significant advantage over those using ordinary ones.

This heavily disrupted the balance of the competition, yet it was all within the rules.

Unless a player was truly exceptional, the quality of their broom largely determined the outcome.

Why was Harry always able to catch the Golden Snitch and never failed? Besides his excellent skills, his world-class Firebolt played a crucial role. Back when using a Nimbus 2000, he had far more problems.

Therefore, Evan had always regarded Quidditch as a leisure sport.

It was fine to play casually once in a while, but joining a team? Even if Evan were offered a spot without needing to go through tryouts, he still wouldn’t bother…

Ron was very satisfied with the result of the tryouts because Ginny insisted she hadn’t gone easy on him.

As for Elaine, there was no need to say more — she had never even considered holding back.

Therefore, Ron thought that he had defeated McLaggen through his own skill, and he was very proud of himself. Considering how annoying McLaggen was and what he’d said before the tryouts, this victory made Ron feel particularly happy, which was more satisfying than beating McLaggen up.

He looked extremely pleased with himself and even taller than usual as he grinned foolishly at Harry and the team!

By the time Evan and Hermione came over from the stands to join them, Ron was already cuddling with Lavender.

Lavender was so happy that Ron was selected again that she rushed over to hug him and kissed him vigorously…

The two of them were becoming increasingly shameless, performing actions that made others around them feel awkward no matter the setting.

While everyone else was looking away, Elaine was still staring curiously.

Evan hurriedly covered her eyes. There was nothing good about this kind of thing…

Because Lavender said she wanted to celebrate for Ron, after Harry fixed the time of their first full practice for the following Tuesday and dismissed everyone, Ron told them that he could not go with them to see Hagrid and had to return to the castle with Lavender.

Ron looked a bit torn. He originally wanted to invite Lavender to go to Hagrid’s with them, but Lavender refused!

She had no friendship with Hagrid, and disliked him and his Care of Magical Creatures class.

Caught between keeping his commitment to the group and spending time with his girlfriend, Ron was genuinely conflicted.

After some hesitation, and with the others encouraging him to go back with Lavender, he reluctantly chose the latter.

Ron asked Harry to say hello to Hagrid for him and explain the matter.

“That’s one more thing we’ll have to explain. I have no idea how we’ll phrase this to Hagrid,” Hermione grumbled, staring at Ron’s retreating figure.

“Lavender doesn’t want to go, and there’s nothing he can do about it,” Harry could understand Ron’s difficulties.

“Come on, he didn’t want to go in the first place. He kept trying to persuade us to give up the idea during our discussion this morning. …”

“Alright, we can talk about this while we walk. It’s already past noon. Aren’t you hungry?” Evan interrupted.

Elaine tugged at Evan, asking for food, and he realized he was starving too.

If they wanted to go to Hagrid’s, they should get moving. They might find something to eat there.

After hearing Evan’s reminder, Harry also felt extremely hungry.

He’d been flying all morning, shouting and organizing the tryouts, maintaining order, etc., which consumed a lot of physical energy.

Evan, Harry, Hermione and Elaine headed off toward Hagrid’s. A watery sun was trying to break through the clouds now and it had stopped drizzling at last, and a gentle breeze made the walk pleasantly refreshing.

Since the tryouts had just ended, the conversation naturally lingered on the topic.

They discussed McLaggen for a while, Hermione simply repeated what she and Evan had heard McLaggen say, and everyone thought he was annoying, then the topic turned to Ginny and her last serve, everyone thought that she might have gone easy on Ron!

However, since neither Ginny nor Ron was present, the topic didn’t last long.

The great gray hippogriff, Buckbeak, was tethered in front of Hagrid’s cabin.

As soon as he saw them, he moved closer.

Although Buckbeak had been declared innocent during the trial years ago, an official from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures had insisted that Hagrid impose stricter supervision to ensure the creature never exhibited dangerous behavior again.

Since then, Hagrid had kept Buckbeak under his care. He didn’t mind at all; in fact, he seemed to enjoy looking after the Hippogriff. Most of the time, Buckbeak stayed in a small wood nearby but was occasionally brought to the cabin, just like today.

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