20demayo Chapter 62 The Corpse in the Forbidden Forest
Chapter 62 The Corpse in the Forbidden Forest
Chapter 62 The Corpse in the Forbidden Forest (Part 2)
After entering November, the weather became very cold.
This completely transformed the weekly magic research class long run into a dreaded torture.
The cold air, inhaled during the vigorous run, felt like countless tiny, sharp ice knives, viciously scraping against the trachea.
It pierced deep into the lungs, giving the person the illusion that their lungs were being torn apart.
It was another Friday night. After exhausting himself and returning to the Gryffindor Tower, Ron collapsed onto his bed, grumbling as he did so.
"I...I swear..." Ron lay sprawled on the bed, his face buried in the pillow, his voice muffled and filled with resentment, "This afternoon...after running, I...spit out...a mouthful of saliva tinged with blood..."
The dormitory was deathly silent.
Neville wrapped himself in a thick blanket, only his messy hair showing, like a hibernating hedgehog.
Simo and Dean were both lying on their own beds, too exhausted to even turn over.
No one in the dormitory responded to him, but no one thought he was exaggerating again, because everyone still felt the stinging pain of being scraped by a cold blade in their throats, and could still feel the burning pain in their chests from running.
Thanks to Madam Pomfrey's superb healing magic and the highly effective potions produced in Snape's Potions class, the minor injuries to everyone's body would heal completely after class, but the pain that had once existed remained tangibly in their souls.
Harry lay on his back in bed, his eyes closed. He felt that Mr. Lynch might be right; his will had indeed been tempered and strengthened through these repeated ordeals.
When he concentrates his will to cast a spell, he can feel the obedience of his own magic.
For example, during the spell review in my spell class last week, even though I hadn't practiced the spells much after learning them, the power of the spells I cast again was significantly better than when I cast them after learning them.
He believed that the other students must have also vaguely noticed this abnormality; otherwise, how could they silently endure this weekly test that was almost physically devastating?
I also want to become a great wizard.
The idea was crystal clear in Harry's mind.
Therefore, this pain is something I have to endure, and thankfully, it's something I can bear.
At least, it's much better than being at the Dursleys' house.
Thinking of this, Harry, exhausted, forced himself to reply to Ron, "Shut up, Ron..."
Then he drifted off to sleep like everyone else in the dormitory.
After the weather turned cold.
Hagrid would wear his enormous rat-skin coat, fur gloves, and thick boots every day.
He would defrost his flying broomsticks every day on the Quidditch pitch.
Every other day, he would take his huge crossbow and his hunting dog, Tooth, to patrol the Forbidden Forest.
Everything seemed so ordinary, as if it were just another mundane repetition of Hogwarts' long autumn and winter season.
Until this day, Hagrid returned from patrolling the Forbidden Forest, carrying a large, bulging bag on his back.
He didn't go back to his warm cabin as usual to have a cup of hot tea to warm himself up.
Instead, he circled around the back of his small house before rushing into the principal's office, still feeling the chill.
Hagrid discovered several bodies in the Forbidden Forest.
More precisely, it wasn't the creature Hagrid discovered, but rather the eight-eyed giant spider.
Several giant eight-eyed spiders discovered these human bodies in a cave under the tree roots during their hunt.
Six months ago, they would have happily dragged the food that was delivered to their door back to their nests and feasted on it.
Unfortunately, starting in August of this year, the diet of these giant eight-eyed spiders living in the Forbidden Forest has undergone a slight change.
The giant eight-eyed spiders were initially going to leave the bodies aside, but they eventually remembered the sea of fire that day and the wizard standing in mid-air, so they took the corpses back and handed them over to Aragog.
Aragog wanted to tell Lynch the news, but Lynch stayed in the castle during the day, and his descendants were unwilling to go near the stone house.
So it directed its offspring to find Hagrid, who was patrolling the Forbidden Forest, and handed him the human body they had discovered.
Hagrid carried several corpses, completely wrapped in spider silk, back to Hogwarts Castle in haste.
Fortunately, he was more careful this time and didn't recklessly carry the bodies into the castle like before. Instead, he left them behind his hut and had Ya Ya guard them.
Dumbledore's expression was unreadable as he followed Hagrid, leading Professor McGonagall and Snape out of the castle and to the back of the hut.
Upon seeing the spider cocoons that were barely recognizable as humanoid, Snape stepped forward, took out his wand, and ran it along the surface of the cocoons.
The tough spider silk broke apart layer by layer as if cut by an invisible blade, revealing what was wrapped inside.
Professor McGonagall was startled, her face turned pale, and she pressed her lips tightly together.
Despite being mentally prepared, the scene before her still exceeded her expectations.
She glanced at Dumbledore instinctively, and the first person that came to her mind was Jim Lynch.
But she immediately realized it couldn't be Jim Lynch. The unbreakable oath she had witnessed clearly stated that murder and death were inviolable red lines.
At least, he didn't do it after he came out of the stone house.
The thought flashed through Professor McGonagall's mind.
Dumbledore stared silently at the corpse before him, his azure eyes revealing no emotion.
Snape cut through all the spider silk wrapped around the creatures, revealing their complete forms to everyone present.
The few corpses were devoid of any flesh or blood; their skin, now dry and wrinkled, clung tightly to their bones like dried shrouds.
Each corpse looked as if it had starved to death and then been exposed to the scorching sun for a whole year.
Snape crouched down and searched through each body.
After a while, he straightened up and looked at Dumbledore: "Six corpses, all adult males, all wizards, but only two wands were found."
As he spoke, he handed the two wands he had found on the corpse to Dumbledore.
Dumbledore examined the two wands closely in his palms.
"These two wands weren't made in England," a voice carrying a hint of sarcasm echoed from behind the cabin. "They weren't even made in continental Europe."
His gaze shifted to the corpses on the ground. Although they had become like dried-up skeletons, almost unrecognizable from their former appearance, he still managed to identify a tattoo on the neck of one of the bodies.
"I'm afraid they're from Vargadu," Dumbledore concluded.
"Vagadu??" Professor McGonagall was somewhat surprised. "That African magic school? How could they have crossed continents and died here? What kind of evil magic could have turned them into this?"
"It wasn't some kind of magic that turned them into this." A voice that Professor McGonagall had been particularly annoyed with lately rang out from above her head. The people behind the cabin looked up in the direction of the voice and saw a raven perched on the eaves of Hagrid's cabin, its head bowed, looking down at the bodies behind the cabin.
"Professor Lynch," Dumbledore's voice remained calm, showing no surprise, "what brings you here?"
The raven gracefully tilted its head, one wing outstretched while the other wing protected its chest, and nodded slightly, as if performing a standard bow: "Please forgive my uninvited arrival. When I saw Hagrid leading the three of you hurriedly toward the cabin from the window, I knew something had happened."
"So I took the liberty of following along. Please forgive my recklessness and curiosity." The raven's dark eyes looked at Dumbledore.
“There is nothing to be forgiven here. As a teacher at Hogwarts, you have an unquestionable right to know about the major events that have occurred in and around the castle.” Dumbledore gently stroked his beard, glancing at McGonagall and Snape beside him. “Those of you here know that you, Professor Lynch, have extensive experience dealing with the Dark Arts. I think they, like me, are all very interested at this moment and hope to hear your insights on this disturbing scene before us.”
After hearing Dumbledore's words, the raven leaned forward and fell off the eaves.
Just before it touched the ground, the crow's figure twisted, swelled, and deformed. In the blink of an eye, Lynch, wearing a well-tailored suit, stood in front of them.
Without exchanging pleasantries, Lin Qi walked straight forward and examined the corpses on the ground.
His calm voice reached everyone present: "As I said before, I don't believe they died from some kind of magic."
Instead, it died in extreme agony after its magical energy and life force were drained.
After saying that, he looked at Dumbledore: "What do you think, Headmaster Dumbledore?"
Dumbledore shifted his gaze from the house to the distant, somber Forbidden Forest, paused for a few seconds, and then slowly said, "I think we need to notify the Ministry of Magic."
He turned to Professor McGonagall, his tone regaining its usual decisiveness: "Professor McGonagall, gather all the professors in the faculty lounge and tell them what happened, but make sure they remain calm and do not panic."
At the same time, please notify the Ministry of Magic that six wizarding bodies from Vagado have been discovered in the Forbidden Forest near the school, and that they are needed to handle the case.
He paused, then added, "Oh, and by the way, please make sure to remind all professors that this matter needs to be kept strictly confidential and that no students should know about it. We don't want to see students looking panicked."
He then looked at Snape and Hagrid: "Hagrid, Professor Snape, I need you to return immediately to the place where the Octopod discovered the body and protect that place as intact as possible. Once the Ministry of Magic arrives, they will need to conduct a detailed investigation of the crime scene."
Professor McGonagall, Snape, and Hagrid hurriedly left with the tasks assigned to them by Dumbledore.
Just before leaving, Professor McGonagall and Snape both glanced at Lynch, who was standing there, with complicated expressions.
Lynch and Dumbledore stood there, looking at the corpses in front of them, neither of them speaking.
A little while later, a few gusts of cold wind blew by, stirring Dumbledore's silver beard and hair.
Dumbledore took out his light gray elderwood wand. He didn't chant a spell, but with a very slight flick of his wrist, the tip of the wand drew a circle in the air.
An invisible and intangible barrier appeared around them, enveloping the two of them.
Lynch spoke first: "It seems Professor Quirrell can finally get some restful sleep. No wonder he looks much better lately."
Dumbledore didn't respond to Lynch's question. His gaze remained fixed on Lynch as he slowly asked, "Do you know the identities of these wizards?"
Lynch met Dumbledore's gaze without flinching: "I don't know, but I can make a rough guess."
After the first public lecture, those pure-blood families did more than just suppress the news from the newspapers or send me howling letters via public owls.
I received word that they planned to find some wizards from outside the British wizarding world and send them to Hogwarts to shut me up.
I've been waiting for them to arrive, ready to treat them well as I told you before and then send them to Azkaban, but they haven't come. I thought Hogwarts' great reputation had finally made them give up.
His gaze swept over the corpses on the ground again: "Now it seems it wasn't that they gave up, but rather that they arrived and, before they could find me, they ran into someone else."
Lin Qi let out a very soft laugh: "These purebloods, by some twist of fate, actually did a favor for their former master."
As he spoke, Lynch shook his head and looked at Dumbledore: "Although it was just a small move to weaken Voldemort, they undoubtedly replenished Voldemort's life energy by a large amount."
How's your trap setup coming along?
Dumbledore looked at Lynch: "It's almost finished. I'm waiting for a magical item to arrive. The trap needs real bait, and this item will ensure its safety."
"Very good," Lynch nodded. "Once the items are in place and the traps are set, remember to let me know. Although we all know that Voldemort cannot be killed for the time being, it would seem very abnormal if we didn't try our best, and it might even arouse his deeper suspicions."
"Are you sure you don't want to set up a barrier?" Dumbledore asked.
"No." Lin Qi's refusal was crisp and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.
After clearly expressing his refusal, his figure began to twist and collapse without warning, and he turned back into a crow.
The raven flapped its wings and broke through the invisible barrier set up by Dumbledore, leaving only one sentence in the air: "I have no interest in setting up a barrier that is destined to be solved."
After watching the crows fly away, Dumbledore slowly lowered his head.
His gaze returned to the six corpses on the ground, staring at their empty eye sockets and sunken features, a dark emotion silently churning in his deep blue eyes.