In the darkness.
Those floating organisms shone with a cold light.
The tip of the Magic Wand flared with an intense white glow, illuminating the tangled roots and cobwebs ahead. Damp mist clung to the ground as it flowed, winding around Ian's ankles like some living thing. The surrounding trees looked even more sinister in the ghostly light, like monstrous beasts baring their fangs and brandishing their claws, silently watching his every move.
The Forbidden Forest was, as always, gloomy, but tonight its silence was downright abnormal.
"Weird… way too weird!" Ian's steps gradually slowed, his brows knitting. He glanced around—this silent Forbidden Forest was quiet to an excessive degree.
On normal days, Tree-Protecting Leprechauns would be hopping among the branches, and all sorts of small animals would be rustling through the bushes, but right now, it was as if he had stepped into a world that had been forgotten.
No Tree-Protecting Leprechauns leaping between the branches, no Night Owls hooting softly in the canopy, not even a single firefly. The entire forest seemed to have been emptied of life by some invisible force.
Only the dead stillness of the wind and the swaying shadows of the trees remained.
He hadn't run into a single living creature; of course Ian could tell something was wrong.
The creatures in the Forbidden Forest were always active—even at midnight, there should be nocturnal animals about. But now, it was like all the animals in the forest had hidden themselves away.
Or rather.
Had simply vanished!
They couldn't all have been eaten by a Giant Dragon, could they?
Even a Giant Dragon couldn't eat that fast!
Besides.
Ian crouched down, brushing his fingers lightly over the ground. The soil was icy cold—no ants, no beetles, not even goblin tracks. He seriously doubted a Giant Dragon would fancy those tiny snacks that wouldn't even wedge between its teeth.
"This is seriously creepy."
Ian straightened up.
His gaze turned toward the direction the Dragon's Roar had come from.
"Could it have something to do with the 'Riddle' Ron saw?"
Turning it over in his mind, Ian didn't stop walking; he only became a little more cautious as he continued deeper into the Forbidden Forest. The further he went, the more stifling the air grew.
It felt as if even breathing had become sluggish. The tree branches were twisted into even more grotesque shapes. Wind threaded through the treetops, making a "shh, shh" sound that was especially eerie in the dead of night.
He took a look around.
Still didn't find any clues.
Ian simply turned into a wisp of white mist and shot straight toward the far end of his destination—once he listened up close, he'd be able to pinpoint exactly where the sound had come from.
Super hearing.
Nothing more!
No such thing as getting lost.
Ian howled through the air all the way to the source of the Dragon's Roar.
And saw.
Before him lay a clearing that had been violently ravaged.
Thick tree trunks had been snapped clean in half, charred traces spread across the ground, and the air was filled with the sulfurous, bloody stench of burning. Yet the Giant Dragon that should have been coiled here was nowhere to be seen.
"Hm?"
Ian scanned the surroundings. He didn't see the sky-covering bulk of a Giant Dragon. There were huge claw marks left in the soil, but it didn't look like the Giant Dragon had simply flown off somewhere else.
After all.
If a Giant Dragon had taken to the sky.
There's no way Ian would have missed it.
With the size of those Half-blood Dragons nowadays, Ian could easily sense them—never mind an Ancient Giant Dragon as big as a small hill. Yes, that was the discrepancy Ian had picked up on earlier.
Because he'd had contact with an Ancient Giant Dragon.
So.
The moment the sound entered his ears, Ian had already realized that the Dragon's Roar echoing through the Forbidden Forest definitely didn't come from one of the current Half-blood Dragons, but from an Ancient Giant Dragon that was supposed to be extinct.
This was also why Hermione couldn't guess it no matter how she racked her brains. Many Wizards didn't even know Ancient Giant Dragons had ever existed, let alone Hermione, whose knowledge came only from what she bought in bookshops.
When it came down to it.
Anything that could be placed on a bookstore shelf for sale basically counted as common knowledge.
But as for Ancient Giant Dragons.
They were closer to a secret.
And precisely because he understood how precious this kind of Dragon was, Ian felt he ought to come and "manage" things a bit—what? Protecting an endangered species? You're underestimating Ian's expertise in Magic when it comes to bodily restoration.
"Where's my endless supply of Magic Potion Materials?!"
Ian muttered to himself. He circled the area once, trying to find some clues. On a dead tree to the side, he noticed some scorch marks.
They reminded him of the blazing flames that had accompanied the Dragon's Roar.
However.
The weird thing was that Ian couldn't find what the Giant Dragon had been attacking—he clearly remembered hearing two roars, each one angrier than the last. By all rights, the Giant Dragon should have been furious about something.
Ian looked back again and saw a black trail snaking up the tree trunk, as though something corrosive had burned it. He walked over and dabbed the liquid with his fingertip.
"Dragon Blood, pure Dragon Blood."
His tongue wasn't corroded, just seared with a burning pain. Clearly, the Giant Dragon had been wounded, its blood splashing onto the surrounding trees.
"Don't tell me someone beat me to it!"
Ian's expression changed drastically.
A possibility he didn't want to accept flashed through his mind.
And right at that moment.
From the direction of the valley that had been crushed by the Giant Dragon's body, Ian seemed to see something flickering—that looked like a Bronze Gate embedded in the cliffside of the valley?
...
After Ian cast Magic and conjured three Flying Carpets to wrap Hermione, Ron, and Neville, the carpets automatically began to float slowly toward Hogwarts Castle. At first, the three of them were a bit nervous—after all, they'd never experienced such a magical way of flying before. But as time went on, they gradually grew used to this strange and wonderful mode of travel.