章 57: Chapter 57. All Well that Ends Well
The much faster Acromantulas shot past us, none of them noticing us in their hurry to return to their lair.
Catching up with them was next to impossible, at least not while on our feet.
Witter was thinking along the same lines because he finally acknowledged my presence. "Bloody hell, I should have grabbed a broom."
I kept my pace beside him, not mentioning that even though he managed to get to the Acromantulas' lair in time, there was no way he could fight off all the creatures even with my help.
When we were deep enough inside the Forbidden Forest that the school grounds were no longer visible, the din moving further away, I slowed down.
"Witter…"
He didn't break his stride. "I never asked you to come with me, so don't try to stop me."
I ran forward to cut off his path, forcing him to stop abruptly so that he didn't bump into me.
"I'm not trying to stop you." I said calmly.
Witter seethed, his green eyes spitting fire. "Then get out of my way." He snapped already going around me.
"I have a way to save Hazel." I said in an odd tone that caught Witter's attention.
He stopped again, slowly this time and then turned to glare at me. "What do you mean?"
I sucked in a deep breath wondering if I wasn't making a huge mistake but it was the only way to save Hazel, even if we got to the lair in time and fought off the Acromantulas, the chance that Hazel would still be alive after all that would be next to zero.
"I've got an unregistered Animagus…"
Witter sneered. "How's a weasel going to help us out here?"
My eyes narrowed at this but I brushed it off, stepping back to show him instead.
I felt a malicious satisfaction at the horror in Witter's eyes when I transformed right in front of him.
His wand dropped to the ground in terror as he fell backwards.
There was no time to entertain his fear, I disdainfully put out my tail for him to hang onto or I planned to leave him behind, he would be a nuisance at best anyway.
He bravely got to his feet and followed my silent order. I had to give him props for not screaming out loud when I shot through the forest at flashing speeds.
When I got the 'SORCERER' Title, it influenced my skills so naturally, my Animagus got an upgrade.
My Basilisk had gotten even bigger and I felt like I could get faster and stronger.
I had no idea where the Acromantulas lair was but it was not difficult to catch up with them when I was this fast.
Basilisks were Acromantulas' natural enemies because their many eyes put them at a dire disadvantage from my deadly gaze.
The battle was over in a matter of minutes, Witter going for Hazel while I handled the Acromantulas.
I was gracious enough to bring them closer to the mouth of the Forbidden Forest before transforming back to my human form.
Witter had Hazel's limp form in his arms and an unfathomable look in his eyes.
Hazel woke up before we could strike up a conversation.
"Hazel?" He immediately gave her all his attention.
"West?" She replied in a soft voice, touching his face like she had a hard time believing he was real.
I wandered off at this point, there was no reason to hang around. The deal with the attacks had finally come to an end.
The people from the Ministry would be by any moment now, all that was left to be done was clean up and transferring of information.
I looked up to the sky when I got out of the woods, it was barely noon but yet it seemed like the day had gone on forever.
The weather was still bright and sunny like it wasn't made to bear witness to the chaos that had just happened.
I was summoned by the Headmistress roughly an hour later, invited to Professor Drumwind's… well more like Death Eater Fodel's office.
There were a couple people I couldn't recognise but there was one person I would recognise even from a mile away.
Harry Potter.
It was like meeting a celebrity, it felt like it too.
Even though I had found out some decent information I was swept to the side and was sure that the Headmistress forgot about my presence as soon as I got there.
Fodel had been captured and it turned out that Professor Faringray and a couple other students had been Imperiused and a handful more had been found to be working to regrow the ranks of Death Eaters after Voldemort's demise.
"Thanks for your assistance, it was invaluable." Were the only words Harry spoke to me and that brief moment was the only time the room paid attention to me.
This was truly the power of the main character.
I was dismissed soon after, with Fodel caught it would be easy for them to track the escaped prisoners. The security in Azkaban was also fortified as they had gotten intel early enough, foiling the plans of the final grand escape.
The rest of Sunday was strangely quiet, very few students moving around the castle, and even fewer were outside. Most retired to their dorms if they didn't have to be in the Hospital Wing for treatment.
There was no reason for me to go wandering around either so I stayed back in my dorms as well, feeling strangely sober.
I was just exhausted probably, the big match was just yesterday after all and I had spent the entire day fighting off Acromantulas.
It was almost time for lunch, I planned to take a well-deserved nap afterwards.
Information on how the school would carry on after this would most likely be put out during dinner.
There was no worry about The Daily Prophet knowing about the attack of today because their source inside Hogwarts had been taken in by the Ministry.
There were also speculations of spies infiltrating the newspaper but that was the Ministry's jurisdiction.
Blair and Tanner had fortunately been uninjured during the fight. Roxana was fine as well. Hazel had slept off her fright and felt better afterwards.
For the first time at the Great Hall, it was quiet. Well, not quiet but there was no one talking to me.
The Acromantula attack had completely taken over the students' attention, there was no one walking up to me about yesterday's match. People were so fickle.
Headmistress McGonagall requested my presence for the second time after dinner and I find myself wondering what she could possibly need me for.
Everything was pretty much resolved, the little details would fall into place with time.
I wasn't invited to her office this time, the meeting happening inside the Great Hall after it was emptied out for the night.
The familiar floating candles did little to brighten the large vacant hall.
The dais was conveniently brightened though.
"Albeline, the Aurors from the Ministry went investigating the Acromantulas and found a good number of them dead." She levels suspicious eyes on me. "As a matter of fact, they estimated the number of dead Acromantulas to be more than half the Acromantulas that survived the fight."
I kept a poker face on as she kept going, she had hit the nail right on the head, not even being subtle about her line of questioning.
"Let me put it this way, there were at least 400 surviving Acromantulas, a little over 20 had been killed during the fight, and when the Aurors found the lair, almost 200 were decimated without any visible injuries." Her gaze grew colder. "They also refused to talk about what had caused these deaths."
"That sounds quite suspicious." I bullshitted with a straight face, staring her right in the eye. "It doesn't seem like something a student or a teacher could manage, there is also no motive."
She sighed long-sufferingly and decided to shelf the issue. "Thanks again for your help, Albeline, 100 points to Slytherin." She concluded, dismissing me.
I could have been less flashy in my fight with the Acromantulas but I counted on them being unable to disclose that a Basilisk had crashed into their lair. Unless Witter was a tattletale, my unregistered Animagus was still a secret.
I returned to my dorms, noting how empty the way back was. There wasn't even a single student wandering about.
It had been announced during dinner that Professor Esme would be returning to Hogwarts to resume her position as the Transfiguration teacher.
There were still a couple things it wouldn't hurt to know, like why had she acted suspiciously when we first saw her during the Boggart attack and what exactly she was doing with the Thestral.
She wasn't guilty though, that much was clear. I just wanted closure.
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