“This is so bloody, hellishly cool!” Ron said, his face glowing with excitement as he cradled a tiny Pichu in his arms.
“It’s way cuter than Scabbers, and it’s yellow!
Hermione, do you know what kind of Pokémon this is?” “I don’t.
Actually, there’s no record of this Pokémon in *The Pokémon Encyclopedia: Beginner’s Edition* yet.” Hermione walked over, squatting down in front of Ron to peer closely at the Pichu clutched in his hands.
“But I suggest you let go of it.
According to the laws and principles of identifying unknown Pokémon types, based on its appearance, there’s a high probability it’s an Electric-type.
And it looks very uncomfortable being squeezed by you, so there’s a chance—” “Pichu!” “Ahhh—” Before Hermione could finish her sentence, the little Pichu, unable to endure Ron’s clumsy, heavy-handed grip any longer, angrily discharged all the electricity it had stored in its body.
In an instant, Ron was severely shocked.
“—there’s a chance it might shock you.” “You should have warned me about that sooner!” Ron complained to Hermione, desperately shaking his numb palm.
The Pichu he had been holding took the opportunity to leap away.
Hermione was quick.
With a swift movement, she scooped it up into her arms.
“I didn’t tell you to just grab them as you pleased,” Hermione said, gently stroking the Pichu’s fur.
“Hey, that’s not fair!
Why doesn’t it shock you when you hold it?” Ron grumbled, feeling a bit slighted.
*Even this tiny Pokémon prefers girls over its friends?* “Perhaps because it already exhausted its stored electricity on you just now?
The professor said they’re all newborn babies,” Hermione explained.
She was entirely correct.
Pichu were not very good at storing electricity.
Even higher-level Pichu would often discharge sparks unconsciously.
“What are you guys doing?
Look, there’s a unicorn over there!” Harry suddenly shouted to them.
“But I didn’t know unicorns could catch fire!” “Do you ever read books?
That’s not a unicorn, it’s a Rapidash!” Hermione said, exasperated.
She truly could not understand her two classmates’ complete lack of interest in studying.
How could anyone remain completely indifferent to all the fascinating knowledge waiting in books?
“But they’re horses, and they have a horn on their head,” Harry argued, unwilling to back down.
“If you look closely, you’ll see that only the larger, fully-grown Rapidash have horns.
The smaller Ponyta don’t have them.
Besides, unicorns turn white once they reach adulthood, whereas Rapidash are more of a yellowish color!” Hermione lectured.
“Your syllabus includes both *The Pokémon Encyclopedia* and *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them*.
Why don’t you actually read them?” Hermione’s words left Harry feeling both embarrassed and annoyed.
It reminded him of the time Snape had singled him out in class the previous week.
How was he supposed to memorize everything just by looking at a book once?
At this moment, Harry decided once again that he was not going to count Hermione among his close friends.
Fortunately, Ron stepped in to break the tension.
“Hey, look at those Rapidash.
They have fire burning all along their backs.
If someone tried to ride one, wouldn’t they burn their butt off?” “Actually, no.
Someone who has earned a Rapidash’s or a Ponyta’s trust won’t feel any heat when touching its burning mane.” “Have you memorized the entire book?” Ron stared at her as if she were a monster.
Before Hermione could answer, he looked around.
“By the way, where’s Neville?” “Over there, trussed up like a pretzel,” Harry pointed toward Neville, who was not far away, bound tightly from head to toe in vines.
Ron and Hermione immediately looked over and saw a mass of tangled foliage extending numerous vines, hanging Neville upside down.
“He—help!” Neville wailed, his face pale with fright.
“That’s a Tangela!
Quick, save him!” Hermione rushed forward.
Harry and Ron scrambled to follow.
The three of them immediately began tearing at the Tangela’s vines.
With their strength alone, they couldn’t possibly snap them.
However, their fierce onslaught startled the Tangela, causing it to sever its own vines and flee.
Only then did the group peel the broken vines off Neville.
“Whew—thank you guys,” Neville gasped, looking like he had just survived a disaster.
“I thought it was tangled in some vines and wanted to help, but…” “Tangled?
No way, those vines are a part of its body.
That’s a Tangela, a rather eerie Pokémon.” Hermione felt a bit uneasy remembering the description of Tangela.
When Charlen was writing the textbooks, he had included a few urban legends in them.
The urban legend surrounding Tangela was connected to a little girl wearing red shoes.
“Alright, let’s collect these broken vines.
They might be useful later.” They quickly gathered the pieces, and then Hermione warned, “Let’s not wander too far.
Those higher-level Pokémon are still too dangerous for us.” Right now, the newborn baby Pokémon that required their care included Pichu, Vulpix, Dratini, the starter Pokémon from several generations, and a few others.
These species had very low populations in the sanctuary and had not yet formed wild herds.
They had been hatched directly using incubators, which meant they required manual rearing.
Otherwise, Pokémon like Rapidash, which had already established wild herds, would breed and hatch naturally, and the mothers would raise their own young.
Of course, reality was not a video game.
The sanctuary had only been established for a month, and not a single Pokémon had been born naturally within its borders yet.
“It’s incredible.
The professor said most Pokémon only need about a week to mature enough to survive on their own,” Hermione said, still cradling the little Pichu.
It was obvious she had taken quite a liking to it.
On the other hand, Ron had lost all affection for Pichu after being shocked.
Instead, he stared longingly at the Rapidash grazing peacefully in the distance, imagining himself riding one and sprinting across the grassland.
Riding a burning Rapidash…
now that would be bloody, hellishly cool!
“Look, Harry!
That Pokémon has a lightning bolt mark on its belly.
That is so cool!
I say you should catch one.” “That’s an Electabuzz.” Harry looked over, and the moment he saw Electabuzz’s rather abstract appearance, his face filled with rejection.
In truth, he didn’t like the lightning bolt scar on his forehead at all.
He practically wished it would vanish!
The thought of carrying a Pokémon like that around—where anyone who saw it would immediately associate it with him—was an absolute nightmare.
He was only glad that the one who first discovered and named the Pokémon was Charlen, so no one would end up naming Electabuzz “Harry Potter-mon.”