Study Days at Hogwarts

  Chapter 488 Another failure

  Hagrid and Fang have always been frequent visitors in the Forbidden Forest, and they are very familiar with the forest in front of them. They walked for about ten minutes with a dog, and found the place where the unicorn's blood was found.

   "It has solidified."

  Albert picked up a branch, poked the frozen blood on the ground and said to Hagrid, "It shouldn't be here. What we need to look for should be fresh blood."

  Hagrid was a little confused and didn't understand what this meant, but he still nodded, and it was indeed right to bring Albert here by himself.

   "Hagrid, is this far from the lairs of the group of acromantulas?" Albert still asked out of caution.

  After all, he did have a grudge against those acromantulas, and he was not the lucky one like Potter, so he should be more careful, so as not to be attacked inexplicably.

   "Don't worry, you're safe with me here." Hagrid assured himself, patting his chest, "Besides, acromantras rarely come out to hunt during the day."

   "Hagrid, you seem to believe that those big spiders won't hurt you?" Albert said to Hagrid, looking at Fang Fang, who was sniffing around.

   "I trust Aragog," said Hagrid.

   "Aragok, did you have that acromantula?" Albert asked suddenly, "How old is it?"

   "How old is it?" Hagrid stopped, looked at Albert who was checking the bloodstains, thought for a while and replied, "It's almost fifty years old!"

   "How long can an acromantula live?" Albert asked again.

   "This... I don't know much about it." Hagrid shook his head. Although he had raised acromantulas before, his knowledge of them was very limited.

   "It's been fifty years, and the lifespan of that acromantula should be reaching its limit." Albert stopped and looked around. He found that the two had lost blood.

   It is indeed too difficult to find during the day.

   "Maybe, you should come here at night, it will be easier that way." Albert muttered.

   "You think Aragog is dying?" Hearing Albert's words, Hagrid lost his mind on finding the unicorn.

"Fifty years is a very long lifespan for a spider." Albert looked at the lost Hagrid, raised his foot and kicked the other's leather boots and reminded: "However, don't worry, Arago Ke should have a few more years to live."

"You won't understand that feeling, hatching it from an egg, and then slowly pulling it up." Hagrid said disappointedly, and Albert's words made him realize that Aragog was indeed very good. old.

   "Hagrid, I know you like those dangerous creatures very much, but I still have to remind you again, this is the Forbidden Forest, you should cheer up." Albert reminded.

"I know this is the Forbidden Forest. I have been here countless times when I was a hunting ground guard. To be honest, there are no dangerous creatures on the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest." Hagrid seemed to vent his inner dissatisfaction and said to himself He said to himself, "Don't talk about werewolves, there are not even forest trolls. The principal forbids students from entering the Forbidden Forest. In fact, he is more worried about them getting lost in the Forbidden Forest."

   "Are you sure?" Albert's mouth trembled slightly, and he raised his wand to point in a certain direction. He could feel something there.

"That's a Thestral." Hagrid quickly stopped Albert from using magic, "There are a bunch of Thestrals in the Forbidden Forest, and they are responsible for pulling the carriages that the students take when they come to school. You should know what a Thestral is, right? ?”

   "Well, it's the Thestrals that only those who have seen death can see." Albert lowered his wand, but he didn't completely relax his vigilance.

   "Yes, that's it, the Thestral just doesn't have a good reputation." Hagrid asked with a smile, "Would you like to try riding it?"

"May I?"

"sure!"

  Hagrid let Albert experience the feeling of riding a Thestral.

  The backs of Night Riders are soft and smooth, and it doesn't feel uncomfortable to sit on them, and they are gentler than imagined.

   "What do they eat?"

   "Blood and raw meat." Hagrid scratched his head, not understanding why Albert asked this.

   "Maybe, we can really get them to help find that unicorn. I don't think there are many injured animals in the forest!" After getting off the Thestral, Albert put forward his own point of view to Hagrid.

   "This... Thestrals are very smart, but I don't know if this method will work." Hagrid thought about it, and still thought this method could be tried.

  Thestrals are not human after all, and cannot communicate well. Even though Hagrid tried hard, he still failed in the end.

  Albert was not surprised, this was also expected by him, and he only let Hagrid try with the idea that he would try and not lose money.

  The two had no choice but to continue looking for the unicorn.

   "I heard that after a period of time after the death of a unicorn, the blood will become a kind of poison, is it true?" Albert asked a question

   "Not sure." Hagrid shook his head, he really didn't know: "Very few wizards would brutally kill such a pure life."

"That's because the benefits are not big enough. If a unicorn is worth a thousand Galleons or more, believe it or not, the unicorn will soon become an endangered animal." Albert couldn't help laughing at himself: "Don't Forgot, there are quite a few dragon livers, dragon blood, dragon skins, dragon meat, dragon claws on the market...these transactions are all legal."

   "Maybe, you're right."

  Hagrid felt that Albert's words were very reasonable. There were indeed no internal organs of unicorns for sale in the market, but more unicorn tail hair and unicorns, and the price was very expensive.

  The unicorn's unicorn horn is cut, but it can grow back.

   Otherwise, every unicorn's horn kills a unicorn, and these creatures would have been extinct long ago.

   After wandering in the Forbidden Forest for more than an hour, the two of them and the dog still found nothing, Yaya no longer had the original vitality, and panted with her tongue drooping.

  During this period, Albert also tried many methods, but to no avail. Maybe the unicorn was still alive, or maybe the unicorn's fur directly resisted the call of the Flying Curse.

   Many magical creatures with powerful magical powers can do this.

   "I don't know how big-hearted Dumbledore is to let Potter come into the Forbidden Forest to look for unicorns." Albert cursed in his heart, and continued to follow Hagrid along the bloodstains he found.

  They have begun to penetrate deep into the Forbidden Forest.

   "It's getting closer, the blood hasn't completely solidified yet!" Hagrid rubbed the blood on the tip, as if he wanted to put it in his mouth to taste it, but he seemed to think of something and gave up.

  As it got deeper and deeper into the forest, the trees became extremely dense, and the book of beasts couldn't get through, but the blood stains around it became more and more obvious.

  In the end, they really did find it, a unicorn lying in a pool of silver blood.

   "It's dead, and it should have been for a while." Albert looked at the beautiful unicorn in front of him, and sighed softly.

  Hagrid stepped forward quickly to check the wound on the unicorn. It wasn't scratched or bitten, but was pierced through the abdomen by something.

   "It should be magic, yes, maybe you are right, there are dark wizards hunting unicorns." Hagrid's face was ugly.

   "Should there be other people around?" Albert explained, "I mean, did the black wizard succeed?"

   "Probably not, I didn't find any traces left by other people around." Hagrid shook his head and said.

   "What are you going to do now?" Albert asked again: "Is it buried directly? Or let Dumbledore come over and check to find out what black magic killed this unicorn."

   "Bury it!" Hagrid said, clenched his fists.

   "That, Hagrid?"

"What's up?"

   Hagrid asked suspiciously when he saw the pit made by Albert using magic.

   "Can I take the unicorn?" Albert pointed to the unicorn's horn.

   Most of the unicorn horns on the market are processed, just like dragon claws, they are basically ground into powder and sold in bottles.

   "What do you want this for?"

"The horn of a unicorn has a strong detoxification effect, and basically you can't buy this kind of complete unicorn on the market." Albert casually found a reason. He couldn't say that this was his mission reward. !

   "Okay, take it if you want!" Hagrid didn't refuse either.

   After all, the unicorn is dead.

"Thanks."

  Using the cutting spell, Albert carefully cut off the unicorn's unicorn horn and put it into his deformed lizard skin bag.

   "It should be me thanking you."

   After burying the unicorn, the two set off on their return journey.

  The speed of going back was much faster than when he came. Hagrid went back to the hut first. After packing up the crossbow and arrows, he went to the principal's office alone to report the matter to Dumbledore.

  (end of this chapter)