In the early morning, the silent Forbidden Forest was awakened by a deafening cry.
The three-meter-tall hybrid giant knelt on the open ground, looking at the pure white animal carcass beside the stream with tearful eyes.
Dracula stood nearby and helplessly covered his ears, blocking out Hagrid's shrill cries.
…
Time goes back to an hour and a half ago.
It's February now, and Hogwarts has just started school.
At the turn of winter and spring, the sun lazily stays below the horizon and refuses to show its head.
However, the world without the sun does not appear dim. The heavy snow that fell in winter has not melted yet, and the thick and soft snow reflects the soft white color against the starlight in the sky.
Dracula loved this kind of bright sky without any sunlight. He jumped out of the office window early in the morning, landed on the snow and wandered around, admiring the night view of Hogwarts Castle covered with snowflakes.
After walking around for a while, a huge figure caught his attention.
"Good morning, Professor Dracula." Hagrid saw Dracula in the snow, greeted him hastily, and then hurriedly walked towards the castle.
Dracula noticed that he looked extremely anxious, and he didn't even have time to wipe his dewy face.
"What are you doing in the castle so early, Hagrid?" Dracula asked curiously.
"There is an emergency in the Forbidden Forest. I need to report to Principal Dumbledore immediately." Hagrid kept walking and strode towards the castle.
"Oh, then go ahead. Dumbledore should be sleeping at this moment. Remember to knock on his door hard and don't let him sleep to death." Dracula was not interested in what happened in the Forbidden Forest, but he was interested in how to use it. He had some ideas about waking up the old principal, "If he doesn't want to wake up no matter how hard you knock on the door, I'll be happy to help."
He floated in the air as if he had wings, walking side by side with Hagrid, his black and red robes floating behind him. At the same time, he picked up a snowball from the ground that was about as big as Hagrid's head.
"I can fly directly to the roof of the main tower of the castle and smash the snowball through the window of the principal's office. This way Dumbledore will definitely wake up." Dracula said seriously.
"Well... it's not that urgent." Hagrid looked at the snowball the size of his head and couldn't help but feel his heart for Dumbledore, "That means there are traces of suspected vampires in the Forbidden Forest. In order to protect the little wizard I need to inform Dumbledore about this as soon as possible.”
Dracula's floating figure suddenly stopped in place.
Hagrid turned around in confusion and saw Dracula standing on the snow with a gloomy expression. He couldn't help but shudder.
"Otherwise, it's better not to disturb Mr. Principal, Hagrid." Dracula threw the snowball aside casually, letting it shatter into scattered snowflakes on the ground. "Let's go directly to the Forbidden Forest to catch the rebellious vampire. Shouldn't we Wouldn’t it make the principal more worry-free?”
He snapped his fingers, which was extremely clear in the silent night.
The next moment, Hagrid felt a dark moon crash into him and pass through his huge body. When he opened his eyes again, he was already near the Forbidden Forest.
Hagrid looked at the familiar shacks and vegetable gardens next to him, as well as the deep forest in front of him, and was deeply shocked.
He ran for a long time with two-meter-long strides before approaching Hogwarts Castle, and now Professor Dracula brought him back to where he was in an instant? He felt a little on the verge of tears.
"This... what kind of magic is this?" Hagrid wiped the liquid on his face that was either dew or cold sweat and asked.
"Just think of it as disembodiment." Dracula said casually, "Let's go, take me to find traces of vampires."
Hagrid was taken back to the Forbidden Forest in an instant, and now he was too lazy to spend dozens of minutes running back to report to Dumbledore. It was not worth it!
So he took Dracula into the Forbidden Forest as if resigned to his fate.
"Professor Dracula, look at this poor rabbit." Walking deep into the Forbidden Forest, Hagrid found a shriveled hare body beside a bush. "Its blood has been completely sucked dry. All that's left is shriveled flesh and skin. I can't think of any animal other than vampires that would do this."
Dracula frowned and let the hare's body float in mid-air, observing it carefully.
"This was not done by vampires." He shook his head. "There are no wounds on the hare's body. Vampires cannot suck the animal's blood out of thin air."
"This...are there any other magical animals that can drain blood without causing wounds?" Hagrid racked his brains to recall the magical animals he had seen, but he had no clue, "Otherwise, find Keitel Ask Professor Byrne? He has been a professor of the Care of Magical Creatures for sixty years, maybe he will have other opinions."
Dracula didn't speak, and the child with burgundy eyes stared at the complete body of the hare.
"Hagrid, how many days has this hare been dead in your opinion?" he asked suddenly.
"Judging from the body, it should be two or three days old. I have been a gamekeeper for so many years, so I can't make a mistake!" Hagrid confidently patted his chest and assured.
As soon as he said this, Hagrid seemed to suddenly realize something and looked at the hare's body in astonishment.
"How can the body of this hare be kept for two or three days?!" He said in shock, "This is wrong! In this season of food shortage, other carnivores in the Forbidden Forest will definitely drag away and eat such a body when they see it. . Not to mention three days, it can’t even be kept for one day!”
"That's what I want to say." Dracula nodded lightly, "So the most likely possibility is that this rabbit actually died under the curse of black magic. Therefore, the surrounding animals instinctively dare not approach this kind of rabbit." A corpse with an evil aura.”
"Professor Dracula, you mean...the evil creatures in the Forbidden Forest are not vampires, but dark wizards?!" Hagrid looked around and asked in a low voice.
"It's just a guess." Dracula said, "Look for other dead animals that have lost their blood."
Hagrid took the lead. Using his familiarity with the surrounding environment, he traveled deep into the Forbidden Forest and found many shriveled animal carcasses.
Seeing the tragic death of so many small animals, his expression was very sad, and this sadness reached its peak when he came to a stream deep in the forbidden forest -
On the bank of the stream, a pure white horse-like creature with a single horn on its forehead fell on the pebble beach. The stream flowed through her golden front hooves and soaked the pure white mane on her neck.
Even though two or three days had passed and her whole body had become shriveled, her hair was still so bright white that the surrounding snow seemed to have turned gray.
This is a sacred unicorn.
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