When it rains, it pours; a leaky roof meets a rainy night. This phrase currently describes Ron perfectly.
He had just been severely taught a lesson by someone not long ago, but he could not retaliate because he needed their help. Of course, he could not have retaliated anyway.
And now he finally understood the meaning of the last sentence he had heard that day.
He had been bitten by the dragon.
Only a night had passed, and his hand had swollen to twice its original size. The wound had turned an ugly green colour; it was obvious the dragon's teeth were poisonous.
"It looks like I won't be able to hold a quill for a week with this hand," Ron said. "I finally understand what that fellow meant by his last sentence. This is truly the most terrifying creature I've ever encountered," he added, still feeling lingering fear.
"What should we do? Madam Pomfrey will definitely find out," Hermione said anxiously.
"I'll insist it was a dog bite, don't worry," Ron reassured her, as if it were not his own hand that had been bitten.
"Draco sent a letter," Harry said, taking out a letter with a serious expression.
"What does the letter say?" Ron asked.
"He wants us to bring the dragon to the tallest tower at midnight on Saturday, and someone will be there to meet us," Harry said slowly.
"Midnight!" Ron exclaimed, then continued, "This is a conspiracy! He wants us to lose points. Maybe when we get there, there won't be anyone, and we'll be discovered by Madam Norris! Gryffindor's points will all be gone."
"Ron," Harry said seriously. "At this point,t we have no choice but to trust him. Think about it: if he wanted to report us, we would have been punished long ago. Besides, we have a backup plan, don't we?" Harry smiled at the end.
"The invisibility cloak!" Hermione said excitedly.
"The invisibility cloak is enough to cover both of us and Norbert," Harry nodded.
They spent a few anxious days. Norbert was now like a hot potato that was hard to get rid of. They felt they had never looked forward to Saturday as much as they did now.
It was a pitch-black, overcast night. They arrived at Hagrid's hut a bit late because Peeves was playing tennis against the wall in the entrance hall, and they had to wait until he left.
Hagrid had prepared many rats, some brandy, and even a teddy bear for his little dragon. He packed all these things into a large crate.
"Goodbye, Norbert!" Hagrid sobbed. "Mummy won't forget you!" Harry and Hermione covered the crate with the invisibility cloak, then slipped under it themselves.
The journey that followed was safe and sound.
The steep spiral staircase leading to the tower seemed like the easiest part of the journey in the world. They did not take off the invisibility cloak until they reached the cold night sky. How wonderful—they could finally breathe freely again. Hermione even did a quick step dance.
"Calm down, Hermione," Harry reminded her. "We haven't succeeded yet."
After waiting for about ten minutes, several broomsticks suddenly descended from the sky.
"He didn't trick us," Harry said with relief.
"Are you two friends of young master Draco?" asked the largest of them. Clearly, he was the leader.
"Yes," although he did not want to admit it, Harry still nodded.
"Alright, leave it to us now." The group then tied several ropes around Norbert, weaving a net so that he could be carried away securely.
"Pleasure doing business with you," the leader said.
"Thank you very much," Harry nodded vigorously. Afterwards, ds the group mounted their broomsticks and flew into the silent night sky.
Harry and Hermione walked quietly down the spiral staircase. Finally rid of the heavy burden of Norbert, their spirits were as light as their hands. The dragon was gone; they no longer had to live on edge.
The closer one is to success, the more people fall.
As soon as they stepped into the corridor, they saw Filch's annoying face.
"We're done for." Harry wondered why Filch could see Hermione and him. He felt around himself and realised the invisibility cloak had been forgotten upstairs.
The next morning, when the Gryffindor students passed the huge hourglass that recorded the House Cup points, they thought something had gone wrong. How could they have suddenly lost a hundred points compared to yesterday? Afterwards, the news slowly spread: Harry Potter—the famous Harry Potter, the hero of two Quidditch matches—had actually caused them to lose so many points, along with another foolish first-year student.
Harry, who had originally been one of the most popular and admired figures in the school, suddenly became a target of public criticism. Even the students from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff did not give him any good looks, because everyone had been hoping to see Slytherin lose the House Cup. Everywhere Harry went, people pointed at him, and they did not lower their voices when saying insulting things about him. On the other hand, whenever he walked past Slytherin,s they always clapped, whistled, and cheered. "Thank you, Potter, you did us a big favour!"
Only Ron stood by his side.
"In a few weeks,k s they'll forget all about this. Fred and George have been losing points since they enrolled, and people still like them," Ron comforted him.
"But they never lost a hundred points at once, did they?" Harry said.
Ron fell silent.
They now felt that exams were such a wonderful thing, because they could temporarily forget the mistakes they had made. Harry even went to look for Wood to resign from his position as Seeker, but Wood refused.
He made up his mind not to meddle anymore. He wanted to use studying to numb himself. He tried his best to memorise complex potion recipes, memorise those magic spells and incantations, and memorise the dates of major magical inventions and Goblin rebellions, as if in this way those words and rolling eyes could disappear from his mind.
He made up his mind never to meddle again, but this principle was soon broken.
He heard Snape threatening Quirrell again, and this time Snape finally succeeded.
In the library.
"I'm going to stop him," Harry said.
"Harry, I think we should take care of ourselves first," Ron said carefully.
"I think so too," Hermione added weakly.
"Even if I get expelled, I can't let him succeed," Harry clenched his fists.
Hearing Harry's determination, Ron said, "So be it. Aworstwo,rst I'll get expelled. I'll help you—what else are friends for?"
Hermione bit her lip, appearing to struggle internally, but in the end, she said nothing.
The next morning, Harry and Hermione both received notes at the breakfast table. The two notes were identical: Your detention begins tonight at eleven o'clock. Find Mr Filch in the entrance hall — Professor McGonagall.
The endless rolling eyes and disdain had almost made Harry forget that he still had to accept the punishment of detention. Harry had originally thought Hermione would complain that this took up her revision time, but she did not. She felt everything was as it should be—if you make a mistake, you should be punished.
At eleven o'clock that night, after saying goodbye to Ron in the common room, the two of them went to Filch's office to accept their punishment. They were uneasy the whole way, not knowing what kind of punishment they would receive. When they slowly approached Filch's office, in the dim light,t they saw someone who absolutely should not have been there—Draco.
"Follow me," Filch said, lighting a lamp and leading them out. "I think from now on you will think twice before wanting to break school rules, right, hmm?"
"Why is he here?" Harry asked loudly. Hermione was also very surprised at this moment, looking down and twisting her fingers, unsure how to face him.
Filch said in his gloomy voice, "Professor McGonagall was worried about you and found you a bodyguard. How strange—it's a punishment, yet you actually get a bodyguard." Filch seemed somewhat incredulous.
"Actually, I'm not that happy about it either," Draco shrugged, "but I have to get my wand back, don't I?" Saying this, he twirled it twice in his hand. Clearly, he also needed to pay a price to retrieve it.
Then they strode across the pitch-black grounds. Hermione asked Harry in a low voice, "Where are we going?"
Harry muttered in a low voice, "I don't know either."
"Stop guessing, we're going to the Forbidden Forest," Draco seemed to have heard their conversation and said lightly.
Night had fallen, and the moonlight was bright, but clouds kept drifting across the sky, plunging them into darkness. The night wind, carrying moisture and chill, brushed past them, making them shiver. Especially Harry and Hermione—they were shocked by this news. The Forbidden Forest was equivalent to a restricted area for many ordinary students, symbolising danger and terror.
"I heard there are werewolves in there," Harry said quietly.
"Heh," Draco laughed mockingly, "not just that. Acromantulas, Thestrals, unicorns, centaurs—we might meet all of them. It just depends on our luck." Draco added inwardly: We might even meet Lord Voldemort today.
As Draco spoke each term, Hermione's face grew paler. She looked at Draco with confusion, as if trying to find some fear on his face, but found none. She could not help thinking: Is he not afraid at all?
"I can tell you some good news," he suddenly said.
"Mr Draco, don't you think you're talking too much?" Filch interrupted him.
"Oh, alright then." Draco stopped talking.
Of course, Harry and Hermione soon discovered what the good news was. They saw Hagrid striding toward them from the darkness, with Fang following behind. Hagrid carried his huge crossbow, with a quiver full of arrows slung over his shoulder. Seeing him, Harry and Hermione could not helbut showng a rare smile.
"Oh, are you here for a tour? You're still that happy?" Filch seemed unable to bear seeing people happy. His identity as a Squib had twisted his heart, and he said viciously, "You'll get what's coming to you in the Forbidden Forest." With that curse-like remark, he turned and hobbled back toward the castle.
"Now listen carefully: what we are doing tonight is very dangerous, and I don't want anyone to get hurt. Follow me here first." Hagrid led them to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, held the lamp high, and pointed to a narrow path disappearing into the black depths of the forest.
"You look over there," Hagrid said. "See that shiny thing on the ground? Silvery white? That's unicorn blood. A unicorn in the Forbidden Forest was hurt by something, hurt very badly. This is the second time in a week. Last Wednesday I found one dead. We have to try to find that poor unicorn and put it out of its misery."
"Now we are going to split into two groups and search along the blood trail. As long as you follow Fang and me closely, you won't be harmed by the creatures in the Forbidden Forest…" Hagrid said proudly.
"I'm afraid there's more than just the original creatures in the Forbidden Forest," Draco's voice came from behind Hagrid.
Hagrid shuddered when he heard it. Though he disliked Draco, he still said gruffly, "So we must be extra careful. You take Fang with you."
The black hound behind Hagrid licked its paw uncertainly.
"By the way, he's a coward, so you'll need to be careful yourself," Hagrid added.
"That's none of your concern," Draco replied indifferently, turning toward the path on the right.
"Harry, Hermione, we go this way." Hagrid led them into the forest, his massive body blocking the faint moonlight.
They walked silently, eyes fixed on the ground. Occasionally, moonlight filtered through the branches above, illuminating patches of silver-blue blood on the fallen leaves.
Harry could see that Hagrid looked very anxious.
"Could a werewolf have killed the unicorn?" Harry asked.
"It wouldn't have been that quick," Hagrid said. "Catching a unicorn isn't easy; these creatures possess powerful magic. I've never heard of one being harmed before."
They passed a moss-covered stump. Harry could hear the sound of babbling water somewhere nearby. Along the winding path, droplets of unicorn blood were still scattered.
"Are you alright, Hermione?" Hagrid asked quietly. "Don't worry—since it's injured this badly, it can't have gone far. We'll soon be able to—oh no, hurry, hide behind that tree!"
A faint sound came from the distance. A centaur was approaching—above the waist,t he was a man with red hair and beard, but below the waist was the body of a reddish-brown horse.
Hermione and Harry stared in astonishment. Meanwhile, the Draco moved deeper into the forest.
Soon, he saw a clearing ahead, where bright white light illuminated the ground.
A bush rustled.
A hooded figure crawled toward the unicorn's body and began drinking its blood.
"Who's there?" the shadow hissed.
Draco stepped forward.
"Father was right; I have finally found you, my Dark Lord!"
And the encounter began.
---
A/N: Advance Chapter Has Been Uploaded. Please Check It Out. It will really help me out and will keep me motivated to continue.
Support: patreon.com/Narrator_San