Inside his plant shop that evening. Adrian was undergoing questioning. As a law-abiding citizen, he was naturally willing to cooperate with the Ministry of Magic's investigator.
Besides, Adrian knew that as long as no Muggles had seen the Chomping Cabbage, the Ministry probably wouldn't give him too much trouble.
"Name."
"Adrian Westeros."
"Occupation."
"I currently teach at Hogwarts."
"Regarding what happened to your house?"
"...Just an experimental accident."
"Not some magical creature?"
"No."
........
After a series of questions, the investigator from the Ministry had filled an entire page with notes.
Because Adrian was very cooperative, the investigator's work proceeded exceptionally smoothly.
"Um... Westeros? Are you really a Hogwarts professor?" he suddenly asked.
Adrian nodded. "Is there a problem?"
"No," he shook his head, then said with a smile, "This is the first time I've met such a young professor."
"Actually, I just started this year," Adrian replied with a smile, his tone relaxed.
The investigator raised an eyebrow. "A newly appointed professor?"
He glanced down at his notes and flipped through the records. "Let me see... which subject do you teach?"
"Care of Magical Creatures," Adrian answered casually.
After hearing this, the investigator added one final note to his record and stood up from his chair.
"The investigation is complete, Mr. Westeros," he said.
Adrian was somewhat surprised. It was over just like that?
"That's it? Is there anything else I need to do?" Adrian asked cautiously.
"Well..." the investigator explained, "In fact, you might have been suspected of keeping dangerous creatures, but, you know, I didn't find any prohibited creatures here."
"And," he winked at Adrian, "we trust you, Mr. Westeros, after all, you are a Hogwarts professor."
'Does being a Hogwarts professor carry that kind of weight?'
Adrian nodded silently to himself. It seemed this position held quite a high social status in the wizarding world.
"Well then, sir," the investigator put on his windbreaker hood and walked to the door, "I should be leaving. If you wish, you can come to the Ministry tomorrow to make a formal statement. Of course, it's not necessary if you don't want to."
With that, he hurriedly left.
Since the matter had been resolved so easily, Adrian naturally wouldn't go looking for trouble by voluntarily going to the Ministry to make a statement.
Wouldn't that be walking into the tiger's den? After all, he had committed quite a few illegal acts.
Just the private breeding of a dragon alone would be enough to send him to Azkaban.
However, he felt that even if the Ministry knew he had broken the law, they wouldn't be able to find the evidence.
After seeing the investigator off, Adrian took out his pocket watch and checked the time. It was already six o'clock.
Seeing how hurriedly the investigator had left, Adrian guessed he was eager to finish work for the day.
Before leaving, Harry had left the Chomping Cabbage with Adrian, as he feared it might suddenly grow large again.
If his aunt's house were to be burst open, it wouldn't be so easily resolved.
Unlike Adrian, he couldn't just wave a wand to repair the house.
Adrian turned his gaze to the Chomping Cabbage on the table.
The Chomping Cabbage now seemed to have recovered some energy, no longer looking as wilted as it had after the gigantification ended.
When Adrian approached, the Chomping Cabbage immediately opened its mouth.
He knew the Chomping Cabbage was asking him for dragon dung fertilizer.
However, Adrian had almost run out of his supply of dragon dung fertilizer.
"I don't have that much dragon dung fertilizer prepared," Adrian said while retrieving some ordinary magical fertilizer from the storage room. "We'll have to make do with this for now."
When Adrian put the magical fertilizer into the Chomping Cabbage's mouth, it seemed somewhat reluctant.
"Cough, cough... cough, cough..."
It chewed a few times, then spat out the fertilizer in its mouth, making several coughing sounds as if it found it disgusting.
"So, you're being picky now, are you?" Adrian's face darkened. "Keep complaining and I won't feed you at all."
Sensing Adrian's displeasure, the Chomping Cabbage immediately stopped coughing and no longer showed disdain for the ordinary fertilizer.
It knew who was in charge, after all. After absorbing some nutrients from the fertilizer, the Chomping Cabbage returned to its normal state.
"Can you freely control your size?" Adrian asked.
The Chomping Cabbage swayed up and down, which was its way of nodding.
Just like before, it emitted a faint black light, and its body began to slowly expand.
However, this time it was clearly able to control its size.
Previously, it was probably because it had just acquired this ability and wasn't skilled at controlling it.
"Stop!"
When the Chomping Cabbage had grown to about half a meter tall, Adrian ordered it to stop.
In most situations, this size would be enough to frighten people.
To test the Chomping Cabbage's Chomping bite force at this size, Adrian took a piece of refined iron from the storage and placed it in front of the Chomping Cabbage.
But the Chomping Cabbage didn't move, just staring at the large piece of iron.
"What are you waiting for? Bite it," Adrian urged.
"..."
The Chomping Cabbage seemed to be saying, "Are you serious?"
Eventually, under Adrian's coercion, the Chomping Cabbage successfully left a tooth mark on the refined steel at the cost of losing one of its teeth.
After leaving the tooth mark, the Chomping Cabbage appeared to have used up its magical energy again, and its size immediately returned to normal.
"Not bad," Adrian praised.
It's worth noting that the piece of refined steel was a quality item he had acquired from the black market, made with genuine goblin craftsmanship.
The fact that the Chomping Cabbage's teeth were hard enough to match this type of refined steel was truly surprising to him.
As the Chomping Cabbage whimpered "woo-woo" in pain over its tooth, Adrian gave it a small bottle of specially made growth potion, which finally calmed it down.
After consoling the Chomping Cabbage, Adrian collected its fallen tooth and had the Wisdom Tree analyze it.
"Eldra."
[Type: Chomping Cabbage Tooth]
[Property: Gigantification]
Indeed, the tooth taken from the Chomping Cabbage also carried the "gigantification" property.
Using this type of tooth, Adrian could create a specific growth potion that would give other plants the relative "gigantification" property.
However, the acquisition of this property had a success rate; only plants compatible with this property would succeed.
As for which plants could be compatible with this property, that could only be determined through repeated experiments.
Fortunately, the Chomping Cabbage's teeth were renewable, so there was no need to worry about running out of teeth for testing.
When he needed them, he could take an unlimited supply from the Chomping Cabbage.
This might require a small sacrifice from the Chomping Cabbage. He believed the Chomping Cabbage wouldn't mind.