章 97: Chapter 96 - Forbidden Forest 04.
[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
Hogwarts.
...
...
Several distortions of space began to appear across the area as soon as the people in the castle realized what was happening. The headmaster had gathered the professors and aurors at the school for a meeting, convening them right after Hagrid tried to open his door urgently, waking him up.
Unfortunately, it took some time for him to gather everyone and explain the situation during the meeting, which meant he couldn't attend to the Gryffindor girls who tried to talk to him about their missing friend, Lily. The headmaster wasn't able to hear what they had to say.
With everyone deciding to head to the Forbidden Forest, they began appearing in various spots, with the closest ones being a few hundred meters away, cautiously combing the area after hearing that a thousand spiders were fighting here. But what they found was a pile of flames that had burned dozens of trees, while the acromantula nest was now in ashes.
"By Merlin... what happened here...?!" Professor McGonagall couldn't help but be stunned by the sight.
"Revelio!" Professor Flitwick cast a spell to reveal enemies as he analyzed the area before him. "There are no enemies... even so... who would do something like this..." He murmured, just as stunned as Minerva.
"Should we approach, Headmaster Dumbledore?" Professor Slughorn, who had been called just as he was about to finally sleep after closing his monthly gathering, asked.
"Let's see... Professor Longbottom, I'd like you to accompany me and stay alert for any enemies that might appear..." The headmaster said, as both he and the other main professors moved together.
"I knew it..." Nearby, an auror was looking at the destruction with a furrowed brow.
"What do you mean?" His companion asked.
"About the apparition spell we saw a few hours ago!" He exclaimed as his colleagues stared at him for a moment before nodding.
"Do you think that..." Someone suggested.
"Obviously! Whoever did this left the school at that moment! We need to investigate... there's someone suspicious at the school!" The auror continued in a firm tone.
"We'll deal with that later, for now, let's see what we can find here with the Hogwarts staff." Another person from the Ministry said, and they followed the professor.
The place was covered with the bodies of fallen acromantulas everywhere, numbering in the hundreds, with countless cuts and burns on their bodies. But most of the dead acromantulas had been burned by fire spells and were turning to ashes at that very moment.
"This... who could do all of this?" Professor Slughorn was stunned.
"Could it have been the same person who caused this massacre?!" Professor McGonagall questioned.
"I don't know... I can't tell who would do this to so many dark creatures," Dumbledore murmured.
"It's strange, it wasn't daggers that did this... but the cut of a sword." The auror approached at this moment, investigating alongside the Ministry, as they had been ordered to learn everything about blade cuts and how the mysterious wizard might have acted, so they could handle him. He easily recognized the type of sword.
"Still, from a blade... it's our man!" Another colleague said.
"We should inform the Ministry about this and isolate the area..." One of the aurors spoke while the headmaster analyzed everything as well.
"..." Dumbledore couldn't do much against that and remained silent while the man tried to send a message. His gaze fell over the area, wondering why someone would come here and kill so many acromantulas. What reason could there be for eliminating so many lives... This also made him think that he was on someone's territory, someone he knew, and he quickly cast Revelio in the area, searching for any sign of his old companion.
It was at that moment that he detected something. He walked over, arriving shortly after, as he saw the lifeless body lying on the ground.
The witch's body had a large wound on her shoulder that crossed downward, but the part that left Dumbledore shaken was her destroyed face.
"Acromantulas... how could this happen..." He murmured, feeling a bit sorrowful as he gazed at his only companion who had lived as long as he had since their school days, now dead in such a horrible way. He had done everything to keep her alive, even when the Ministry had wanted her dead due to the incident where she had eaten Muggle-borns.
"By Merlin…" Professor Slughorn passed the acromantula corpses to catch up with the headmaster and found him there, looking at the body. "Who is this…?" she asked.
"You, as someone who works for the Ministry, know about the witch of this forest?" Albus murmured.
"Yes... so it's her... or part of her..." Miss Longbottom murmured, looking at her with a furrowed brow. She began analyzing as she approached. "She was killed at close range... but I don't know which spell was used. It certainly burned part of her skin, and it's quite penetrating..." she murmured.
"Headmaster Dumbledore!! I found a fallen centaur!" Professor Flitwick, alongside Professor Slughorn, shouted, drawing attention while the only sound around was the crackling flames.
Professor McGonagall approached as the headmaster and the aurors apparated nearby, looking at him.
"He's alive."
"Try to wake him, he might tell us what happened..." Another auror commented.
"Professor Slughorn, can you handle that?" Headmaster Dumbledore asked his Potions professor.
"All right..." The professor took out a potion as he approached the centaur's mouth.
"Hm?!" The centaur's eyes suddenly opened as he coughed, choking slightly while trying to stop it.
"Calm down... just breathe." Professor Slughorn tried to soothe him, noticing it was just a young centaur.
"W-where am I?" He seemed dazed, looking at all the people in front of him, illuminated by their Lumos spells and the glare of the flames spreading through the forest.
"You're at the site of the attack... you're unharmed. It seems you took a hit to the head... that's a miracle amid all this destruction," Flitwick commented, as the centaur tried to stand with some difficulty.
"I have a headache... I should've come here, and I did, but..." the centaur said.
"State your name, young one, and can you tell us exactly what happened here?" Headmaster Dumbledore asked in a grandfatherly tone.
"My name is Brund... As for what happened here, I don't have many memories... but I arrived here amidst a great battle, right there in the center..." He pointed to the area full of flames as the forest continued to burn. "There was someone fighting the acromantulas. I saw them launching flames from the air... while the acromantulas died one after another, like burning straw... They kept killing, until the spiders began to flee. Whoever did this, they killed most of a nest of 1000 acromantulas. I can't imagine who could have done this. We thought it might be Juggernaut... so I came to investigate... The spiders were so afraid that they didn't even attack me as they passed by..." He said, touching his head, trying to remember everything.
"This is truly strange..." Professor Slughorn said thoughtfully.
Everyone there began to reflect on what had happened, considering what to do. "Young one... may I see your memory?" Headmaster Dumbledore asked, hoping to find any trace of who had attacked the spiders and the witch.
"Headmaster Dumbledore... you can't do that!" An auror exclaimed, clearly dissatisfied with the headmaster.
"But it could be helpful. You see, it might be our chance to find the one responsible for this chaos..." Dumbledore insisted.
"We cannot allow that, headmaster... It's a violation of Ministry law to do such a thing, and we won't permit it." The aurors still had rules to follow, and the professors looked uncertain, except for Longbottom, who sided with the aurors.
"All right... I understand perfectly, and we'll stick to words alone..." The headmaster murmured in the end, looking at the burning forest.
"We'd better deal with this first..." he said, as everyone nodded this time, and together, they began waving their wands, casting spells to control the fire that continued to spread.
"You may go, centaur... we'll handle the rest." One of the professors said, and the centaur nodded, beginning to leave, heading back to where his tribe awaited, his hooves clattering as he moved away.
Meanwhile, where the centaurs were, they received word of significant activity in the forest.
"That's it... Prepare to attack!!" the leader exclaimed as the sound of movement grew louder and louder.
Then they appeared, a wave of acromantulas running at high speed toward them and in all other directions. But before they could fire their arrows, thinking it was an attack, the giant spiders began to scatter, avoiding them as they rushed to escape.
"What?! They're afraid..." the leader murmured as the other centaurs had the same question, having never seen the acromantulas behave like this before.
It was then that Brund appeared a short time later, and the other centaurs sighed in relief seeing him arrive safely.
"The headmaster and the other humans from the school are there... investigating," Brund informed.
"That's good... did you see what scared the acromantulas so much?" the leader addressed him.
"I couldn't see it, but the reason is that nearly all the spiders are dead!" he said, shocking the other centaurs with this information.
"Are you serious...?!" they murmured.
"Yes... there's a graveyard of acromantulas on that side. I suspect that whatever killed the spiders hit me too and knocked me out. For some reason, it didn't kill me, because I swear I saw someone beside me before I passed out..." he murmured.
"Either way, let's go check..." He barely had time to finish when a roar suddenly erupted from the forest, and all the creatures who heard it felt a chill down their spines.
"That... is the Juggernaut!!" the centaurs began murmuring, filled with fear.
"We'd better stay alert... we don't know what else could happen tonight... things are getting darker and darker..." the leader murmured with a furrowed brow. No one wanted to face that monster.
"Headmaster..." Back at the site of the attack, as the fire was almost extinguished, none of them were immune to the chill, and upon hearing the roar, they all looked to the headmaster with a glimmer of fear.
"We'd better get out of here... we can't face that thing... And the Ministry better be careful when they come here... no one can kill the Juggernaut..." the headmaster said in the end, and everyone nodded, quickly leaving.
Albus didn't leave without taking the dead witch's body to give her a proper burial later, while he noticed the first rays of the morning sun hitting parts of the area.
Meanwhile, a few minutes before Juggernaut's roar... Severus and Lily appeared at the edge of the forest as he sighed, glancing at the girl to see if she was okay.
"..." Lily stared at him again, with narrow and strange eyes, but for some reason, she liked how Snape seemed worried about her.
"Don't look at me like that. Let's keep going," Severus said, and began moving forward, heading for the castle before dawn.
"Wait! Can you tell me what the hell that was? Why did you even do it to begin with?!" she exclaimed.
"I needed to get stronger... And collect some nightshade flowers to make money..." Severus murmured. Although he wasn't lying, he wasn't about to give more information. He had collected 200 nightshade flowers and would make a good batch, but now he'd have to find another place to gather the plant... after all, he had burned the entire area during the fight.
"You should tell me... this is really strange. I mean, this breaks all the norms of wizards, no one should be able to take on 1000 acromantulas!!" she exclaimed, not wanting to believe it.
"Forget it, this is who I am now. That's why I'm asking you not to get involved with me. Now, let's head to the castle." Severus said in the end as he kept walking forward, with Lily following him, though far from satisfied with Severus' words.
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