Altair arrived at the scene very quickly.
The centaurs' arrows were immensely powerful. The Skeletal Remains had already been blasted apart by the force behind them, their bones scattered everywhere, and two centaurs were standing there studying the wreckage with curious expressions.
"Undead. Ever since the Dark Lord disappeared, very few people have used methods like this to control corpses."
"A dark wizard has appeared in the Forbidden Forest. I think we should tell Hagrid and have him inform Hogwarts."
The two centaurs muttered to each other, completely unaware that Altair had already come up behind them.
"Stupefy!"
Altair did not kill them. Blood collected from dead centaurs would lower the quality of the potion, and that was something he had kept firmly in mind.
The two centaurs had not been on guard at all. Once the spell struck them, they dropped straight into unconsciousness.
Altair thought for a moment, then tapped each of them once more with his wand.
"Mind Control!"
He seized control of their consciousness and gave them a pleasant dream.
"Perhaps happy emotions improve the quality of the blood. That's a subject worth studying in the future," Altair thought.
He then pulled out a huge collecting bucket from his system space. He had conveniently taken it from the Potions classroom. It had once held some kind of specimen, apparently a magical creature of some sort, though Altair had already thrown it into the Black Lake.
"Wind Blade!"
Using a simple elemental spell, Altair cut open a wound on one of the centaurs and began drawing the blood.
The two centaurs remained in their dream state the entire time. With their minds under Altair's control, they felt no pain whatsoever. After roughly ten minutes, the centaurs had been completely drained of blood, and Altair returned the collection bucket to his system space.
Looking at the two centaurs, now no longer breathing, Altair summoned several skeletons and had them carry the bodies as they followed the direction the spiders had gone, heading toward the Acromantulas' nesting grounds.
On the way, Altair cast Scourgify on himself several times. The smell of blood clinging to him was a little too strong.
By the time he got back to Hogwarts, it was just in time for lunch.
But having just collected blood, Altair had little appetite. He only ate a few desserts. Hermione thought he might be sick and kept glancing at him anxiously for a long while.
After lunch, Hermione went to help Madam Pince organize books, while Altair headed to the Room of Requirement to continue brewing his Orc potion.
Now that he had Professor Snape's self-stirring cauldron, making potions had become much easier. Altair only needed to add the ingredients. While the cauldron stirred by itself, he could study his notes or practice magic.
By dinnertime, Altair saw Hermione looking especially bright and energetic.
It worked.
The moment he saw her like that, Altair knew she had found the parchment he had prepared.
Sure enough, during dinner Hermione mysteriously pulled out the parchment.
"Altair, come look at what I found."
"What is it?"
Altair put on a curious expression. At this point, he felt he deserved an Oscar or something.
"This afternoon, while I was sorting old books, I found it inside an ancient volume. I don't know why, but that book felt especially attractive to me. When I opened it, I found this parchment inside."
"It's a diary, written by a great wizard named Gandalf. You'd never believe..."
Hermione vividly recounted the story Altair had written.
Altair played along perfectly. Whenever the tale reached a dangerous part, he even showed concern and tension on cue.
"Then Gandalf remembered that most Balrogs who had died before had fallen to their deaths, so he chased the Balrog to the summit of a giant peak and used magic to knock it off. In the end, it died from the fall."
"The other members of the escort were injured by the Balrog's blazing fire. Ordinary spells and potions couldn't save them, so he created a holy light spell called Hymn of Light!"
Hermione's eyes shone with excitement. Clenching her fists, she said eagerly, "Hymn of Light can dispel any injury or curse caused by dark magic. Do you know what that means?"
Altair shook his head, indicating that he did not.
He genuinely had not thought that far. He had only included Hymn of Light to make the diary feel more believable. It was a high-level holy light spell, and Altair himself could not use it.
"Theoretically, this spell could cure lycanthropy, or even a blood curse!"
"That means all the werewolves in the wizarding world could be saved, along with those wizarding families cursed by blood magic..."
Hermione had read about werewolves in a book on dark magical creatures, and in another book about the war between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, she had also read about blood curses.
According to those accounts, it was a terrifying bloodline curse that even Dumbledore had been powerless against. As for Nagini, the Maledictus who had once helped Dumbledore fight the Dark Lord, Dumbledore had not been able to save her either.
Hermione's words left Altair stunned.
That truly had not occurred to him.
But what Hermione said seemed to make a great deal of sense. In theory, Hymn of Light really could heal and cleanse most curses.
"I think you should try learning it. I gave it a try myself, but the magic is far too profound. It's not something I can cast right now."
Hermione placed the parchment in front of Altair. In her opinion, with Altair's talent, he might be able to master the spell in a short time.
"I'll do my best. But for a spell this powerful, it may take me a very long time too. Perhaps you could give it to Professor McGonagall?"
Altair knew there was no way he could successfully learn Hymn of Light in a short time. But if the spell was truly this useful, then spreading it around might allow the name Gandalf to start circulating through the wizarding world very soon.
And that would be very helpful for his future plans.