If Rolf hadn't suddenly brought it up, Harry would have almost forgotten that he was a snake.
At that time, Professor Dracula took him to his office and drew a tube of blood from him, saying that he wanted to test whether he had a blood relationship with Salazar Slytherin, the founder of Slytherin College.
Although it was finally proved that Harry and Slytherin were indeed not related, it still left a deep impression on him.
Until now, the little alchemical bat used to draw his blood is still in his luggage!
"So... is there any necessary connection between Snake Old Tune and the rescue of Luna this time?" Harry asked, "Could it be that Luna fell into the group of snakes?"
He shuddered.
If she fell into the snake pack, Luna would probably have a hard time saving her life after a long day.
"If I really fell into a group of snakes, it would be easier to deal with. I can find some realgar powder from Hagrid's things, which is quite convenient to use to drive away a few snakes." Rolf said, "But that's not the case. I followed the footprints left by Luna and found a relic!"
"remains?!"
Harry and Ginny exclaimed at the same time.
Even Ginny, who had already learned part of the situation from Rolf, only knew that Luna was trapped in some traps or animal communities in the Forbidden Forest, and she didn't know that her disappearance was related to a relic that had long disappeared in the wizarding world.
Harry was even more shocked.
He never knew that there were ancient ruins in the Forbidden Forest, and he didn't know whether Luna's luck was good or bad. She just stepped into a ruin that had never been known to anyone.
"We're not sure about Luna's exact condition yet, so let's talk while we walk." Rolf took the snake fork tongs and walked out of Hagrid's shed first.
Harry and Ginny naturally agreed with his decision and followed him out of the room.
"Aren't you going to help Hagrid lock the door?" Harry asked hurriedly as he saw Rolf walking straight towards the Forbidden Forest.
He now knew that there were many precious things in Hagrid's shed, so he completely retracted his previous judgment that the door of Hagrid's shed did not need to be locked.
Rolf stopped and glanced at Harry playfully, his eyes clearly saying:
"You just said that Hagrid's hut didn't need to be locked. Why did you change your mind so quickly?"
Harry lowered his head, wanting to find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
After locking the door, the three of them walked into the deep forbidden forest together.
…
As time passed, the sky gradually darkened and a bright sunset appeared on the horizon.
The trees in the forbidden forest were tall and dense, blocking out the gradually dimming sunlight and casting thick shadows, making the area appear extremely eerie.
The whole forest was shrouded in mist. The huge and dense trees were connected together, like a giant beast ready to devour people, and swallowed the three little wizards in one gulp.
"Rolf, did you see what the ruins looked like?" Walking in the deep Forbidden Forest, Harry couldn't help but ask Rolf.
After spending such a short period of time together, the three of them have become much closer. They no longer call each other by their surnames, but instead call each other by their first names affectionately.
"I didn't see the entire ruins when I was there this morning." Rolf shook his head slightly and said, "It seems that there are some magical animals protecting the area. Even if we bypass the gatekeepers, there seem to be other animals patrolling."
"I wanted to explore the area to find a way to enter the ruins, but before I had even circled the ruins a third of the way, I was chased out by a giant python."
As he spoke, Rove gritted his teeth in indignation.
"Those snakes are obviously enchanted, otherwise, with my affinity for animals as a future Magizoologist, why would they be willing to chase me away?"
The corners of Harry and Ginny's mouths twitched, and they automatically ignored Rolf's last words.
"But how can you guarantee that there are no guardian animals other than snakes, Rolf?" Ginny looked at Harry and asked worriedly, "Harry's snake voice can only control snakes. If we encounter other kinds of animals, won't we be in danger?"
"If my judgment is correct, we shouldn't encounter any other kinds of animals." Luo Fu thought for a moment and said to the two, "There are many snake statues carved on the building of the ruins. The owner of the ruins must have a paranoid love for snakes. It is unlikely that he would use other animals to fill such a snake space."
"Like snakes?" Harry couldn't help laughing. "Except for those people from Slytherin College, who else would be willing to use snakes, which are not very good-looking animals, as sculptures?"
Ginny cooperated and covered her mouth with her hands and laughed.
"Wait, Harry, you just said... Only Slytherins are willing to use snakes as statues?" Rolf suddenly stopped where he was.
"Yeah, that's a consensus in Hogwarts. Except for Slytherin students, few like snakes." Harry said to Rolf, a new student who had just arrived at Hogwarts. "After all, snakes have cold and hard bodies, and it's not comfortable for the owner to hold them."
"In addition, venomous snakes have fangs that can harm human lives. In addition, many snakes can grow very large, so ordinary snake keepers often end up not being able to find suitable space to keep their snakes because they grow too large."
"No, I'm not talking about the snake's shortcomings." Luo Fu shook his head. "I just suddenly thought of a question. Who built this ruins?"
"If according to what you said, only Slytherin wizards like animals like snakes, then this ruins was most likely built by a Slytherin, and his talent and wealth should be very strong, so he had the opportunity to build such a large ruins."
"That's right..." Harry nodded and fell into thought.
He suddenly remembered what Professor Dracula had said to him when he asked him to take blood for a test:
The founder of Slytherin House, Salazar Slytherin, was a Snake. He could use Snake's Tongue to control countless snakes to fight for him. Snake's Tongue was like the Imperius Curse for snakes.
Harry's eyes suddenly widened. "Do you think this relic was built by the founder of Slytherin College?"
"No way..." Ginny opened her mouth wide, "If it was a ruin built by Slytherin, why could a Ravenclaw witch like Luna enter?"
"I don't know, but the more I think about it, the more I think it's possible." Harry said excitedly, "Ginny, Rolf, can you remember what is described in "Hogwarts: A History"? Hermione has a copy, and I borrowed it to read it."
"Salazar Slytherin later broke with the other three founders because of the admissions rules and eventually left Hogwarts. There has always been a legend that in order to maintain the purity of Hogwarts, Slytherin left a secret room in Hogwarts. Every certain period of time, a monster would come out of the secret room to eliminate Muggle-born students."
"Could that relic be the Chamber of Secrets left by Slytherin?" Harry asked excitedly.
"Harry, legends are just legends after all. There isn't much we can learn from them." Rolf shook his head slightly. "Besides, I don't think a large relic would be described as a secret room."
"But there's no smoke without fire. Such a legend at least proves that Slytherin is very likely to have left something behind." Ginny said optimistically, "And instead of discussing it aimlessly here, we might as well go to the scene and take a look."
Harry and Rolf nodded in agreement with Ginny's statement, and Rolf led the two of them deeper into the Forbidden Forest.
Gradually, as the sky darkened, a thin layer of mist shrouded the forbidden forest, obstructing the vision of the people in it.
As Harry and his companions went deeper, it became darker and darker. No more sunlight could penetrate through the gaps between the trees, and there was no light enough to illuminate the way ahead.
“Lumos.”
Harry and Rolf raised their wands at the same time and used the Wand Illuminating Charm to light up the tips of their wands, dispelling some of the darkness around them.
The three of them were able to see the surrounding scene clearly.
Trees so thick that they require two people to hug stand all around. Looking up from the ground, you can't see the top at all. Only layers of branches and leaves block the sky.
In addition to the dense bushes, there are some dark-colored tree trunks in the distance. Even in midsummer, there are not many leaves. Many bare, oddly shaped branches overlap each other, giving people a somewhat eerie feeling.
The soil on the ground is gray in color, but it doesn't seem damp and remains strangely dry in the diffuse mist. When you step on it, you can feel its solid and hard texture, and your shoes won't be stained by the mud.
Rolf stopped in front of a bare tree trunk.
"Why did you stop?" Harry looked at Rolf who had stopped halfway and did not continue to move. "What's the problem?"
"Well... nothing went wrong." Rolf turned around with an embarrassed expression, "It's just that the fog has become a little thick now, and I can't tell the specific path to the ruins."
"What did you say?!" Harry's eyes widened. "Among the three of us, you are the only one who has been to the ruins where Luna is... If even you can't find the way, how can we rescue Luna?"
Ginny also showed a very worried expression beside her, "Rolf, think of a solution quickly!"
"It's okay, it's not a big problem." Rolf looked around a few times and said confidently, "If I can find the ruins once, I can find it a second time!"
After saying that, he asked Harry and Ginny to stay where they were, and walked a few steps towards a small open area nearby.
Then he pulled his wand from his pocket and chanted the spell -
"Appare Vestigium."
Rolf bent down and lowered his body to the ground, then spun around in the Forbidden Forest. His wand emitted a golden light that illuminated all traces of magical activity nearby.
"Huh, I have to say this magic is really useful." After the magic was cast, he looked at the area covered by golden light with satisfaction and said, "You may have heard of it. This spell is called the Tracking Spell."
"My grandfather is very good at this spell. He often uses it to find traces of magical animals and rescue those little guys hiding in places that are difficult for people to find... Not only that, during the Global Wizarding War, he used this magic to find my grandmother in Paris."
Rove stood in the center of the golden light, looking at the various golden lines and shapes gradually appearing around him, and introduced them happily.
"It's quite lucky actually. When I was working as an assistant for my grandfather, I thought this spell looked very cool, so I pestered him and asked him to teach me this spell."
"It really came in handy today!"
Harry and Ginny stood outside the golden light at a certain distance from Rolf, looking dazzledly at the movement trajectories of various animals illuminated by the golden light, and frowned unconsciously.
"Rolf, how do you use this spell?" Ginny curiously stretched out her hand to touch a golden line, but her hand went straight through the line and touched nothing.
"It's actually quite simple to use," Rolf said. "Each golden shape represents the activity trace of a creature. Depending on the amount of magic output and the proficiency of using spells, you can see a time range ranging from one hour to several years."
"But there are so many lines and shapes here, how can we find Luna's trace?" Harry looked at the dazzling golden lines and felt a little worried.
"Besides, you discovered Luna's tracks this morning. Now an afternoon has passed. There should be more animals passing through this area, which will interfere with our judgment even more."
Faced with Harry and Ginny's less optimistic mood, Rolf raised his head and showed a confident expression.
"If we were looking for other magical animals, it might be a bit difficult, but since we are looking for a wizard, and Luna in particular, then this task becomes much easier." He pointed at the golden traces in front of him and said,
"This is already deep in the Forbidden Forest, a place that few wizards would come to. Even if someone comes here, they are usually powerful professors. They might enter the Forbidden Forest to collect some materials."
"But don't forget!" Luo Fu suddenly emphasized.
"Today, Professor Dracula brought all the faculty members to his home. Even Professor McGonagall did not stay in the castle. It is conceivable that none of the other professors stayed here, so we only need to find the whereabouts of the young wizards."
"Besides that, even if there are other little wizards who really violate school rules and appear in the depths of this forest before the exam, we don't need to worry too much."
"I discovered it this morning. If you see Luna's footprints, you will probably be surprised... Anyway, her footprints are very unique."
Rolf took Harry and Ginny into the area covered by the golden light, and one by one they eliminated the footprints and activity tracks that were obviously left by animals, and eliminated the golden shapes that represented those things.
Soon, the area covered by the golden light became empty, with only a pair of very special footprints remaining in it.
"This is… "
"ah?"
Looking at the footprints, Harry and Ginny opened their eyes wide in surprise.
I saw Luna's footprints extending forward along a path. The distances between her steps were different. It seemed that she was jumping along the way and she looked in a good mood.
What was even more shocking was not Luna's cheerful mood, but the pattern left by her two feet -
The two footprints left by Luna were different. The one representing the left foot was a round shoe print with a cute rabbit head printed on it, while the one representing the right foot was a bare foot print. The toes were clearly illuminated by the golden light and were left on the ground in front of the three people.
"I didn't lie to you, did I?" Rolf glanced at Harry and Ginny with pride, "I told you that Luna's footprints would be easy to find, but you didn't believe me just now!"
Harry and Ginny looked at each other and both thought that it was very strange to walk barefoot on the dirt road in the Forbidden Forest; and it was even stranger to have a shoe on one foot and the other bare!
The two of them immediately thought that since it was Luna who did this, it was normal to think this way...
"This shoe print is indeed Luna's." Ginny pointed to the round shoe print with a cute bunny head printed on it and said, "I've seen her wearing that pair of slippers. There is a pair of the same fluffy bunny heads on the slippers. They are super cute..."
Then, Ginny sighed with some regret, "If my pocket money was not enough, I would actually like to buy myself a pair."
"But why is she only wearing one shoe?" Harry still didn't understand. "Did she only wear one shoe when she was at Hogwarts Castle, and then she went straight to the Forbidden Forest to feed the Thestrals?"
"That shouldn't be the case, right?" Ginny shook her head. "When I met her last night, both of her slippers were still in good condition."
"I guess based on Luna's personality, she must have accidentally thrown off her right slipper after entering the Forbidden Forest." Rolf thought for a moment and quickly analyzed what happened.
"It was like this when we went exploring the Forbidden Forest together. When walking on the road, her attention was easily drawn to other small animals or interesting things, so it was normal for her to lose her slippers when chasing those little things!"
He covered his forehead with his hands, feeling a little tired, and felt that Luna's fickle personality was not something that ordinary people could bear.
"Then let's hurry over there. Now Luna is even missing one of her shoes. I don't know what kind of danger she is in!" Ginny interrupted Rolf's thoughts, grabbed Harry's arm and walked towards the direction of the footprints.
"Hey, Rolf, can you expand the range of your tracking spell?" She walked to the edge of the golden light and found that Luna's footprints disappeared along with it. "Does that mean I need to use this spell again every few steps?"
"The tracking spell is not that low-end, otherwise my grandfather wouldn't like this spell so much." Rolf smiled and held his wand in the palm of his hand. "This spell often needs to be used in conjunction with the directional spell to achieve the greatest effect."
"Point Me." He chanted the spell.
The golden light slowly disappeared, and at the same time, Rolf's wand turned in his palm, pointing directly in the direction where Luna's footprints disappeared.
…
…