Tuesday, eleven o'clock at night.
Harry, Hermione and Neville met in the common room. The three of them had to complete their confinement, but Ron was not, so they took a moment to say good-bye to him and then went downstairs to the hall, where Filch was waiting — and Malfoy.
Harry had almost forgotten that Malfoy was also going to be confined, and the three of them did not look kindly on Malfoy, the culprit of all this.
Malfoy glared back, of course, but Filch had no time for such childish games.
"Well," Filch said coldly. "Come with me."
He lit a lantern and led Harry and the others out. 'I think you'll have to think twice before you try to break the rules again, won't you, eh?'
Neither Harry nor Malfoy wanted to talk to Filch, so no one spoke, and Filch continued to mutter to himself.
"Oh, yes … If you ask me, I'd say work and hardship are the best teachers … It's a pity they've done away with the old-fashioned punishment … hang you by the wrists and hang you from the ceiling for days on end.
I've still got the chains in my office, oiled from time to time, maybe they'll come in handy … Well, come on, don't try to run away. If you do, you'll be in for it. "
They strode across the dark field. It was still a little chilly on a summer night, and Harry was not sure if he had caught a cold, but Neville kept sniffling.
Harry wondered what punishment they were going to get — surely it would be terrible, or Filch would not have sounded so cheerful.
… He thought Filch was a little twisted.
The moonlight tonight was very bright, but there were constantly clouds floating in the sky, blocking the moonlight and plunging them into darkness. But it was just as well — at least Harry could see the lighted windows of Hagrid's hut clearly.
Then they heard a shout in the distance.
"Is that you, Filch? Hurry up, I'm going. "
Harry's heart was suddenly filled with joy. After all, if they were going to work together with Hagrid, then the situation would not be too bad. Hagrid would probably protect him …
He must have shown the relief on his face, because Filch said to him, "You probably think you're going to have a good time with that fool, don't you?
Think about it carefully, kid — — you want to go to the Forbidden Forest! If you can come out unscathed, then I guess I was wrong. "
Hearing this, Harry didn't react. Instead, it was Neville who couldn't help but snort. Malfoy also abruptly stopped moving forward.
"Forbidden Forest?"
His voice was not as calm as usual. "We can't go into the forbidden forest in the middle of the night. There are all kinds of things in there. I heard there are werewolves."
Neville gripped Harry's sleeve and let out a choking sound.
"You can only blame yourself, can't you?" Filch's voice was filled with joy. "You should have thought of these werewolves before you got into trouble, right?"
Hagrid strode out of the darkness toward them, followed by Fang. Hagrid carried his giant crossbow and a full quiver on his shoulder.
"It's about time," he said in a dull voice. "I've been waiting for half an hour. How long are you going to wait?"
Then he turned to Harry and Hermione and asked them a few questions of concern.
"You shouldn't be so polite to them, Hagrid." Filch looked at the hybrid giant coldly. "After all, they are here to be punished."
"That's why you're late, right?"
Hagrid frowned at Filch. He looked very fierce and intimidating. "You've been teaching them a lesson, huh?
Filch, this is not the place for you to teach people a lesson.
Your job is done. From now on, they're under my charge. "
"I'll be back at dawn," Filch said fiercely. "Then I'll clean up their remains."
Not far from where they met, a figure shrouded in darkness was silently watching them. In front of him, a quill and parchment were also shrouded in invisible light. They were floating in the air, and the quill and parchment were rapidly writing.
It was Jon.
He was now in a semi-hidden state. This spell was very complicated. It was a combination of the single-target defensive spell [Moving Fortress] and the Phantom Spell to achieve a similar effect to the Loyal Spell of Movement.
In terms of function, this spell was pretty good, but the conditions were a little too strict. Take Chown for example. He had improved his magic power by so much, and had been practicing single target spells for so long, but he still hadn't reached the perfect level.
Even now, he was only relying on the cover of darkness to achieve the effect of camouflaging himself. If it was daytime, then the slightly experienced Wizard would have noticed the distortion of magic around him.
As for Jon himself, he still needed the help of Ravenclaw's glasses to discover such a distortion of magic.
After all, compared to the experienced Wizard, he was still too young.
The conversation between Hagrid and Harry did not last long. Soon, they left the place and walked in the direction of the Forbidden Forest.
Jon followed them from a distance. Hagrid and the others did not speak when they were walking, so there was no need to record.
Jon was too familiar with the path that Hagrid and the others took.
The winding path that gradually led into the depths of the forest would split into two not far away. One of the paths would diverge after a while, and that would be the path to his training ground.
He walked from there every day.
But tonight was obviously unusual. Even the wind in the air smelled a little bit of blood.
Jon naturally knew what it was. When the two unicorns in the Forbidden Forest died, he sensed it.
The magic wave around Voldemort was so strong that it was difficult for Jon not to notice it.
The only problem was that the unicorns that Voldemort killed weren't in their prime. Perhaps it was because they were in their prime that he couldn't hunt them in his current state. In any case, the ones that died in the past two days were all old unicorns that should have died in the first place.
If it wasn't for Voldemort, these unicorns would have appeared in the unicorn graveyard before they died. After they died, they would leave behind their hair and some materials for Hagrid to collect and send to Ollivander's wand shop.
The Hogwarts Hunting Ground was called the Hunting Ground for a reason.
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
