The moonlight was shattered into fragments by the overlapping canopies, casting mottled shadows across the floor of the Forbidden Forest.
Hagrid held up the massive brass lantern, its light blooming into a hazy, yellowish halo in the mist.
"If you ask me, these little wizards ought to be strung up by their wrists and whipped! Isn't that right, Mrs. Norris?" Filch's grumbling voice grew fainter and fainter.
After a long delay, the punishment for the six young wizards had finally arrived. Just as Julien had predicted, their detention was to patrol the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid.
Honestly, the very idea was entirely illogical.
Something anomalous was happening in the Forbidden Forest—someone was even harming unicorns—so why would they send first-year students to investigate? Even if the professors were busy, shouldn't they send older students? Surely there were older students who had broken school rules?
"Six of you. We'll split into two groups and go our separate ways," Hagrid's voice sounded exceptionally deep in the darkness. "Fang and I will each take three."
Look at this, Julien thought to himself. Hagrid is taking a bunch of first-years into a dangerous forest, and he wants to split up? He's practically begging for trouble.
"I want Fang, then," Malfoy was the first to choose. For one, he had ratted Hagrid out, so he had no desire to spend any more time with him than necessary. Secondly, he had been deceived by Fang's intimidating physique—after all, the Neapolitan Mastiff was the size of a small pony.
"Right then. I'll take Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Julien, you three follow Fang." Hagrid then turned to Malfoy. "Just to be clear: Fang's a bloody coward."
Malfoy: ...
"Fang, you take these three down the east path. You three remember: if you see anything strange, send up a signal immediately. Don't go wandering off, and stay on the path."
Send up a signal? Julien griped internally again. We don't even have flare guns. What are we supposed to do, yell for help?
Fang—Hagrid's massive Neapolitan Mastiff—let out a low whine, his tail wagging excitedly. Perhaps he thought he was finally getting to run wild.
"Julien," Hagrid lowered his voice right before they set off. "Fang looks scary, but he's a coward at heart. If you really run into something..." He paused, his gaze shifting between Julien and Liriya. "You two look after each other."
Liriya gave a slight nod, a strange look flashing through the ice-blue eyes hidden beneath her hood. Julien noticed her fingers subconsciously rubbing something; she seemed to share Fang's excitement.
The eastern path was far more sinister than Julien had imagined. Ancient tree roots bulged beneath the ground like the spines of slumbering pythons.
Fang walked at the very front, his massive body forcing a path through the undergrowth, occasionally looking back to make sure the three young wizards were keeping up.
"This blasted place," Malfoy complained, holding a lantern as his platinum-blonde hair was snagged and mussed by branches. "My father says the Forbidden Forest shouldn't be open to students at all. Dumbledore is getting completely senile in his old age..."
"Shut up," Liriya suddenly spoke, her voice as cold as the wind of the North. "You're waking them up."
"Waking who up? The trees?" Malfoy paused nervously for a second, scanning the area but finding nothing. He then scoffed. "There's nothing out here but this stupid dog..."
Just as Liriya was about to say that the forest needed to rest too, Fang slammed on the brakes. His ears flattened against his head, and his massive body began to tremble violently.
The three young wizards instinctively crouched low, following Fang's gaze forward.
Just ahead, a hooded, black figure—looking for all the world like a giant bat—was crouched over the body of a white creature, seemingly sucking on something.
For a moment, the three children and the dog were paralyzed with fear. Silence fell over the area.
It wasn't a normal silence, but a vacuum-like, deathly stillness, as if every ounce of life had been sucked from the air. Even the wind had stopped; it felt as though the entire forest was holding its breath.
The only sound remaining was the hissing, slurping noise coming from the black figure.
The figure soon seemed to sense something, raising its head to look in their direction.
The next second, the giant dog let out a terrified yelp, spun on his heels, and bolted. His four legs scrambled wildly on the fallen leaves, but he ran incredibly fast, disappearing into the depths of the darkness in the blink of an eye.
"Fang! Come back!" Julien yelled, but his only answer was the sound of underbrush being violently smashed through in the distance, accompanied by a fading, whimpering bark.
Malfoy's face instantly drained of all color. He stared in the direction Fang had disappeared, then back at the profound darkness ahead. He swallowed hard. "Ah..."
He turned and ran, fleeing even faster than Fang.
"Blood," Liriya's voice drifted out from beneath her hood, carrying a slight tremble. "So much blood. And..."
She slowly raised her head, her ice-blue eyes glowing faintly in the dark. "He's here."
The underbrush ahead parted to the sides—not blown by the wind, but forced to bow by some invisible pressure.
The black figure didn't stand up. Instead, it slithered forward along the ground, pressing closer like a snake.
The hood had fallen back, but the face remained indistinguishable in the darkness, revealing only a massive turban. The turban bulged and shifted, rising and falling as if something were writhing beneath it.
"What's this? Only two little ones came? Ssss." The black figure reared its head like a snake, its voice hissing.
Even though Julien knew the black figure was Quirrell, the man was no longer speaking with Quirrell's signature stutter. Instead, the voice was a slippery, almost joyous whisper that made Julien's skin crawl.
At that moment, Liriya stepped right in front of Julien. With a flick of her wrist, she drew a dark green wand. It was slightly twisted, looking remarkably like a tree branch.
"Sagitta Ramorum!" (Branch Arrow Flight)
Following Liriya's low roar, the branches of a large tree beside them instantly snapped straight, taut as drawn bowstrings. With a rapid series of thwips, they detached from the trunk, streaking through the air like straight green lasers toward the figure.
However, the black figure twisted its body, and every single arrow missed, embedding themselves deeply into the ground, vibrating from the force of impact.
"Oh? To see natural magic at Hogwarts... how amusing. Are you of the Viracati clan?"
Liriya froze. "That was my grandmother."
"Ah~ A child of nature. No wonder you look... so much like her."
"The Evernight Forest of the North. Such beautiful memories." The black figure's voice wasn't loud, but it struck Liriya like a thunderbolt. "Your grandmother's screams sounded exceptionally beautiful under the aurora."
"What! You killed my grandmother? I thought it was the Rosiers!" Liriya's voice was very soft, but every word fell like a shattering ice crystal.
"The Rosiers? A bunch of stubborn old fools clinging to a bygone era. I had them running in circles with just a few words."
Liriya's body went rigid. Julien could feel the wand in her hand trembling violently, but it wasn't fear; it was the trembling of a glacier right before it fractures, a sign of impending, explosive force.
"She refused to tell me where the stone tablet was hidden. I gave her a choice," the black figure hissed with a light chuckle. "Just as I am giving you one now. Submit, or die..."
Before the figure could finish speaking, Liriya moved. This time, she didn't raise her wand; instead, she pressed both hands firmly against the ground.
Instantly, a ring of ghostly blue, freezing light exploded outward from her, spreading in all directions. The fallen leaves, the moss, even the air itself began to crystallize. Countless tiny ice crystals sprouted like reverse-growing thorns, winding their way toward the figure's legs.
"Still with the natural magic," Voldemort sneered. "So primitive, so crude... Wait?"
The moment the ice crystals touched the black figure, they weren't deflected or melted away like ordinary magic.
They clung to his robes, creeping upward at a slow but unstoppable pace. Wherever they passed, the fabric let out a faint, brittle cracking sound as it froze solid.
"This is..." For the first time, a ripple of shock broke through the figure's slippery voice. "The Power of Evernight? Viracati passed her core essence to you?"