The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 306 Collecting Leave
The starlight shone on the entire village of centaurs, making everything in the village seem to be shrouded in a layer of hazy fog. Only on the main road were there a few lights, which were the centaurs holding torches to illuminate the way to the altar.

As the crowd came to the altar, the baby was wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed on a wooden platform in front of the altar. Betty and Bane stood on both sides of the platform as the child's parents.

Of course, when almost everyone was there, the baby's parents began to kneel down in front of the altar and pray silently. All the centaurs in the open space waited in silence, and only the slight sound of the breeze blowing through the surrounding branches could be heard. Even people like Ryan and Hermione who didn't understand the centaur ritual at all were shocked by the sacred feeling and stood there motionless and silent.

Finally, after more than ten minutes, the pattern on the arch that served as the altar began to emit emerald green light spots like fireflies. Then these light spots gathered on a bare branch on the altar behind the arch.

After absorbing these green spots of light, the branch visibly grew green buds. Ryan heard Hermione beside him gasp in disbelief. In all the books she had read before, it was said that centaurs were good at astrology and divination, but it had never been mentioned that centaurs knew other magic.

Betty took a step forward and picked up the branch. She then dipped the branch into the water in the wooden cup on the altar and sprinkled a few drops of water on the baby's forehead, saying, "May the power of nature protect you, my child."

The water droplets evaporated quickly, but Ryan felt that the natural power in the water droplets entered the child's body. This power could enhance the child's vitality and help him through the most vulnerable infancy.

After blessing their children, Betty and Bain held the branch and walked through the archway to the woods behind it. This woodland was different from other places. While other places were covered with thick snow, this small woodland was full of spring-like vitality.

Betty and Bane quickly chose a small empty space and planted the branches in their hands. After the branches were planted, they poured the glass of water into the small hole after the tree was planted. The watered branches began to grow again in a ball of green light, and finally stopped when they were about the same height as Ryan.

"Thank you very much for coming to our tree planting ceremony for the newborn foals. May nature be with us." Aunt Betty said goodbye to everyone while holding the baby. Ryan walked up to them and exchanged greetings before leaving under Wolfe's lead.

"Centaurs can actually cast magic, but why have the Ministry of Magic and most wizards never known about this?" Hermione asked Ryan on the way back. She found everything she saw today a little unbelievable.

"Traditional wizards always think of themselves as superior to others. For example, they look down on people who can't do magic, and they also look down on non-human intelligent creatures. Under the guidance of this arrogant mentality, it is very natural for them to belittle or even ignore the power of other creatures. For example, in the British Ministry of Magic, if someone is assigned to the centaur's office, it means that he is not far from being fired. How do you think wizards can truly understand other intelligent creatures under such circumstances?"

"Yes, arrogance. After excluding other creatures, they divide wizards into different levels. Why do some people always like to show that they are superior by belittling others?" Hermione expressed her emotion.

"Because they can only show their nobility by belittling others. Those pure-blood wizards have actually intermarried with Muggles, otherwise they would have been extinct because of a series of problems caused by inbreeding. It's just that most of the so-called pure-bloods are unwilling to admit this. The evidence is that there are very few wizards who still possess bloodline magic powers today. Faced with this situation, how can they flaunt their nobility without using some tricks?" Ryan said with a slightly disdainful tone.

It was already early morning when they returned to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. The lights in Hagrid's cabin had long been turned off, and even the horses in the stables were asleep. Fortunately, it was a holiday, and the professors were not patrolling strictly. Ryan and the others returned to the common room easily. "Good night, and have a good dream!" After saying good night, Ryan went straight back to the dormitory to sleep, and slept until lunch the next morning. Thanks to the Christmas holiday, no one noticed anything wrong.

After the Christmas holiday, the second match day on February 2th seemed much closer. According to the information revealed by Percy, some battles would probably take place this time. Because only when magic is used on people will it involve certain legal issues, and different places have different certifications for certain magic. For example, the Ministry of Magic in some parts of Northern Europe defines the scope of dark magic much smaller than the Ministry of Magic in the UK.

However, Ryan was not nervous about this. He felt that all the other contestants combined might not have as much experience as him in actual combat experience. Even the students of Durmstrang with the most combat experience probably did not have the combat experience that Ryan had, who fought through mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

The grounds were still covered with thick snow, but fortunately the greenhouse at Hogwarts kept the temperature high to ensure the growth of magical plants from warm places. This also caused fine drops of water to condense on the windows of the greenhouse, and everyone could only see a vast expanse of white through the windows, and could not see the scene on the grounds at all.

Outdoor classes were naturally bad in this kind of weather, but maybe because Hagrid was in a good mood due to his recent success in love, he did not ask everyone to continue breeding blast-tailed skrewts in class for the first time, but instead got an extremely rare Golden Snidget to introduce to everyone.

Everyone, especially Quidditch fans, can't help but love this little bird that flies at high speed in a giant circular cage. As we all know, the Golden Snitch was created to replace this bird when it was on the verge of extinction.

Maybe it was a little tired from flying, so the bird landed on the horizontal bar of the cage. It was round and plump, with a long beak, golden feathers and ruby-like eyes, making it look like a piece of exquisite jewelry.

"Oh, it's so beautiful!" said Lavender Brown. "How did Hagrid get it? They say the Snitch is very rare nowadays. There are only a few left in certain protected areas."

"We need to thank the generous help of Headmaster Beauxbatons." Hagrid's loud voice came over. "We can see this very rare bird with our own eyes. Look at its feathers. Many potions in the past needed these. So their numbers have dropped rapidly due to indiscriminate hunting and killing. Fortunately, everyone has found a substitute today and has begun to understand how to protect them-"

The students were now leaning over the cage to look at the beautiful bird. From Hagrid's lecture, it could be heard that his knowledge of this little cutie was no less than that of the monsters.

When the get out of class was over, every student expressed their satisfaction with the class. Many girls in particular hoped that Hagrid could keep up the current state, because those slimy blast-tailed skrewts were really disgusting.

(End of this chapter)