"How could this happen?!" Hagrid knelt on the bank of the stream, crying in grief, "Who on earth is so cruel to slaughter such a pure, weak and helpless life? Isn't he afraid of being cursed by his life!"
Dracula covered his ears helplessly and stepped forward into the clear stream, close to the half-submerged body of the unicorn. The stream automatically bypassed his legs and did not even wet the drooping hem of his clothes.
He looked at the unicorn's shriveled body, which was exactly the same as those of the previous animals, and frowned slightly.
Hagrid was still sobbing and blowing his nose into a dirty handkerchief, but Dracula, disliking his crying as loud and unhygienic as it was, patted him on the shoulder as he leaned over him.
Instantly, a bone-chilling chill penetrated Hagrid's whole body from his shoulders, like a basin of December water from the Black Lake being poured mercilessly on him. He calmed down immediately, and most of his sadness was extinguished.
This sudden change of mood made Hagrid feel quite flustered and a little suffocated...
"Be quiet and listen to me." Dracula's indifferent voice sounded.
Hagrid shuddered and turned to look at the figure standing next to the unicorn, unconsciously holding his breath.
"This kind of blood-sucking black magic is most likely a sacrificial magic, which absorbs the blood of other creatures to plunder their vitality." Dracula looked at the body of the unicorn and said calmly, "It may be that those ordinary animals are not enough to provide enough vitality, so the black wizard in the forbidden forest targeted the unicorn with strong vitality and plundered the power in her blood."
"But... using unicorn blood will bring you a curse!" Hagrid couldn't help sobbing again when he thought of the tragic death of the unicorn. "Who would be willing to have a half-dead, cursed life?"
Dracula thought for a moment, and suddenly remembered the forbidden black magic that Dumbledore had mentioned in the abandoned classroom, and a hint of understanding appeared in his eyes.
If it was Voldemort who relied on the Horcruxes to survive in the world, then he naturally would not care about the curse of the unicorn blood.
"Perhaps... the dark wizard only had a half-dead life?" he said softly.
Suddenly, the sound of a taut bowstring rang out from deep in the bushes, followed by the sound of an arrow breaking through the air.
Dracula suddenly raised his hand and caught a sharp crossbow arrow between his two fingers.
"Hagrid, get away from that evil creature immediately!" A deep voice sounded from deep in the bushes.
Then, a man, or a centaur, ran out of the dense jungle with his four hooves. He had red hair and beard, but his body from the waist down was a shiny brown-red horse, with a long red tail trailing behind him.
He quickly ran to the side of the stream, raised his front hooves and stopped moving forward. Then he raised a long bow and pointed it at Dracula with a nervous look.
"The man in black and red clothes, don't move. I can feel the darkness hidden in your body!" The centaur stared at Dracula and said to him.
"Wait, Ronan, is there some misunderstanding here?" Hagrid was a little confused when he saw the centaur who suddenly appeared. "This is Professor Dracula, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts. We came to the Forbidden Forest to investigate the strange deaths of animals."
"Don't be fooled by this dark creature, Hagrid!" said the centaur Ronan in a low voice, "Listen, the unicorn was attacked, and then he appeared in the Forbidden Forest. Maybe he was responsible for the unicorn's death!"
Then, another centaur came out from behind the bushes. He had black hair and black skin, and looked rougher than Ronan.
"Bain, you're here too?" Hagrid saw the new centaur and was about to say hello to him, but then his expression became extremely surprised, "Wait, what do you want to do?"
More centaurs followed and surrounded Hagrid and Dracula on the bank of the stream, raising their bows and arrows.
"Wait a minute!" Hagrid looked at the increasing number of centaurs and felt that things were getting serious. "Everyone, hold your ground. There must be a misunderstanding here!"
"Ronan, Bane! Keep your people under control and don't let them move around!" He looked at Ronan and Bane and shouted angrily.
However, the centaurs had no intention of stopping their actions. Instead, with the sound of bowstrings being tightened, they readied their bows and arrows to shoot.
"Hagrid, you are a friend of our centaur tribe. We will not allow you to be deceived by these dark creatures!" said Ronan.
Then he waved his arms at the centaurs around him.
Countless arrows shot in from all directions, filling Hagrid and Dracula's vision, and even the starlight in the sky was obscured for a moment.
The centaur was very good at archery, and every arrow he shot was designed to avoid Hagrid's huge body, aiming to shoot Dracula beside him to death!
"Damn it, these centaurs can never communicate well!"
Hagrid cursed inwardly, then stood in front of Dracula, trying to use his sturdy body to block some of the sharp arrows for Dracula.
Seeing this, Dracula, who was originally laughing quietly, raised his eyebrows.
"Take care of yourself first," he said softly. "I don't need you to take the blame for me, Hagrid."
He didn't know if it was an illusion, but Hagrid felt that Professor Dracula's voice seemed to become softer compared to the coldness just now.
While speaking, Dracula raised one hand. All the arrows suddenly froze in mid-air.
"Centaurs, right?" He smiled sarcastically, "It just so happens that I still have a debt to settle with you!"
The next moment, the arrow lost all its power to fly and fell softly among the white snowflakes on the ground, and fell into the clear stream beside the pebble shore, splashing faint water.
At the same time, Dracula's figure disappeared out of thin air from Hagrid's side.
"How could it be? Where did he go?" Ronan looked towards the river bank with an unpleasant expression, then turned to the other side of the centaur encirclement, "Baine, can you see where he is over there? We can't let him leave the Forbidden Forest!"
However, he suddenly discovered that the centaurs opposite him all had horrified expressions and were looking at him in amazement.
Ronan seemed to realize something and turned around stiffly, seeing a silver-haired figure standing beside him with an amused look on his face.
Around him, many centaurs had fainted.
"Don't look for me, I'm right next to you."
Dracula's voice was clear, mellow and pleasant to the ear, but to Ronan it sounded no less eerie than the whisper of death.
…
…