Volume 5: The Burning Golden Flame Chapter 334: The Injured Unicorn and Hermione's Request
Jon stretched out his hand, dipped some of the silver liquid in it and sniffed it.
Although the smell is not strong, it has a distinct smell of blood.
Even though he had never seen such a thing before, he had a vague guess in his mind that there was silver blood in the Forbidden Forest, and there was basically no other possibility except for the unicorn.
But even if a unicorn was injured, why did this Bowtruckle bring himself here?
If it cared about the injured unicorn, shouldn't it be more wary of me, the outsider?
Jon turned his head and looked at the little guy who brought him here. It was blinking and looking straight at him.
Jon suddenly thought of a possibility. He raised the wooden sign and asked the Bowtruckle tentatively.
"Does this injured unicorn know the owner of this sign?"
The little guy jumped up immediately, as if cheering that Jon understood what it meant.
Seeing its performance, Jon also became excited. He looked at the silver spots left on the grass, and began to follow the traces of blood, continuing to search deep into the Forbidden Forest.
The Bowtruckle no longer had the reserve it had at the beginning. It jumped directly onto Jon's shoulder and followed him forward.
Jon continued walking for about half an hour and finally came to an empty meadow. In the center of the meadow gathered a group of horse-like creatures with snow-white hair and a single horn on their heads.
Unicorns are a symbol of purity and holiness in legend, and it is said that only virgins can touch them.
Hagrid had told Jon a long time ago that there was a large group of unicorns living in the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts, which could even be said to be the largest group in Britain.
Every few years, Ollivander would spend money to come to the Forbidden Forest and use a harmless method to scrape some unicorn horn powder to use as the core of the wand. Some of these unicorns also had a very good relationship with Hagrid and received a lot of care from Hagrid.
However, the group of unicorns that appeared in front of Jon did not look so optimistic.
Almost every one of them had claw wounds or burns on their bodies, and their originally beautiful snow-white fur was covered with scorch marks. They were all huddled together with their heads lowered, as if they were mourning something.
Jon did not hide his whereabouts. He pushed aside the bushes in front of him and walked directly into the open space.
Such movement was instantly noticed by all the unicorns gathered here. They all raised their heads, paddled their hooves uneasily on the grass, and looked at Jon with vigilance.
Instead of picking up his wand to defend himself, Jon held up the wooden sign and spoke gently, trying to keep his voice as low as possible.
"Do you recognize this? Don't be afraid, I'm a friend of Rubeus Hagrid."
The alertness in the eyes of most unicorns remained, and they pointed their horns at Jon with a fierce look. However, the one with the tallest body and the purest fur among them passed all the others and walked in front of Jon.
It stuck its head out and sniffed carefully at the wooden sign in Jon's hand, and then its originally tense body visibly relaxed a lot. Obviously, it knew Hagrid.
"Are you in any trouble? I can try to help you."
After gaining the initial trust of these unicorns, Jon continued.
The unicorn that recognized Hagrid's sign seemed to be the leader of the herd. It stared at Jon for a moment with its beautiful eyes, then honked twice at its companions.
After hearing its orders, a few unicorns in the herd were obviously reluctant, but they finally made way in the direction of Jon.
Following the gap, Jon finally saw what was surrounded by them.
It was also a unicorn, but its size was less than half of the adult unicorns around it. It was a cub that had not yet grown up.
What was shocking was that there was a large and horrible burn on its back. The fur on its back had all disappeared, revealing a piece of charred black flesh!
The little unicorn lay on its side on the grass. It could still breathe, but from the sound of its breathing, it was obvious that such serious injuries meant it wouldn't be able to hold on for much longer. From time to time, the burnt area would faintly glow with orange-yellow flames, and its injuries were still getting worse.
Silver blood mixed with black particles flowed on the grass until it spread to Jon's feet.
Jon squatted down and looked into the eyes of the little unicorn. Its eyes were so pure and filled with a desire to survive.
"It was those fire dragons, right? You had a conflict with them?"
Such burns made it easy for Jon to judge the situation these unicorns were currently facing. After hearing his words, the unicorns around him became restless, snoring and paddling their hooves.
After verifying the correctness of his guess from their performance, Jon turned his attention back to the injuries of the little unicorn.
The burns on its back were obviously caused by dragon's breath. The fierce flames were not just high temperature. They also spread inward along the flesh and blood. This was somewhat similar to the Fierce Fire, but not as overbearing as the Fierce Fire that could burn everything.
But even this level is enough to kill the little unicorn.
Under normal circumstances, unicorns themselves have extremely high magic resistance. As long as they are not hit directly, ordinary dragon breath will not cause much damage to them. The adult unicorns around are proof of this.
This little unicorn was definitely not just swept away by the dragon's breath, but also because its own physique has not yet fully developed, its magic resistance is not as strong as other adult unicorns.
This is why its current injuries are so severe. Otherwise, if it were just an ordinary burn, even if it was serious to this extent, it would be able to survive relying on the unicorn's own tenacious vitality. After all, unicorn blood is said to have the effect of bringing the dead back to life.
Looking at the dying unicorn in front of him, Jon was helpless at first.
He did know how to prepare potions to treat burns, but those potions were only effective for ordinary burns, while the fire dragon's breath naturally carried the dragon's own magic power, which could not be eliminated by ordinary means.
When Jon was thinking about this, he was suddenly stunned.
He may not be able to clear the magic power, but he can absorb it!
Jon quickly took out the ring from around his neck and tentatively aimed it at the burn site on the unicorn.
Although he had successfully absorbed a lot of ownerless magic before, those were left by wizards. This was the first time he had tried to absorb magic left by magical creatures themselves. Jon himself didn't know whether he would succeed. Now he could only do his best and leave the rest to fate.
And just after the ring hovered over the unicorn's wound for a few seconds, Jon could clearly feel that a strange magical power was being absorbed.
This kind of magic was different from all the magic he had absorbed before. Although he could clearly feel that the quality of the magic itself was very high, there was no way to bring much room for improvement to the magic absorbed by the ring.
However, Jon had not expected to gain much strength by absorbing the dragon's magic power. As the magic power from the burns was gradually extracted, the condition of the unicorn improved significantly.
The adult unicorns around also felt the changes in the little unicorn's injuries. They couldn't help but move closer to Jon, their eyes shining brightly.
The fire dragon's magic power had all been extracted, but the burns on the unicorn's body were still there, and because the erosion of magic power had not been slowed down for a long time, the burns had already penetrated into its internal organs. If it was not treated immediately and was delayed, its life would be in danger.
Jon stood up from the ground, stretched out his hand and gestured to the leading unicorn while describing it.
"Have you ever seen a kind of grass plant with round leaves in the Forbidden Forest? There are obvious white lines on the leaves. Their juice has a significant healing effect on various types of wounds."
The leading unicorn understood what Jon said. It turned around and was about to run in one direction, but soon hesitated and turned back. Facing Jon, it slowly knelt down on its front legs and bent down its upper body.
Jon blinked and asked in disbelief.
"You want me to ride you?"
The unicorn raised its head and blinked its bright eyes, as if in response.
Jon really didn't expect that the unicorn would be willing to let a man like him get close to it. According to the wizards' years of research on this creature, they are generally only willing to get close to pure virgins, especially little girls.
In this situation, he could only attribute it to his act of rescuing the little unicorn, allowing it to restrain its instincts.
Jon certainly had no pressure about riding a unicorn. He simply stepped on the unicorn's back. Then, without stopping for a moment, the unicorn spread its hooves and began to gallop wildly towards the northeast.
…
The Triwizard Tournament began without other students being allowed to watch.
Even the students on the carriage stayed in the carriage throughout the day and were taught by Dumbledore.
Even if they arrived at Hogwarts Castle, their studies would certainly not be delayed, and Dumbledore, who had been staying in the car the whole time, was of course the most suitable person to teach them.
Just when these students were having classes in the afternoon, the students around them discovered that Hermione, who was there in the afternoon, was now missing.
Lavender questioned this, and Dumbledore answered calmly.
"Miss Granger asked for leave from me for some special matters. Don't worry, she will be back tomorrow."
He didn't say where Hermione had gone, but Lavender didn't ask any more questions. After all, as long as Dumbledore knew where she was, it proved that Hermione was safe enough.
At the same time, Hermione was in the carriage's bedroom, making a final check on the things she had received.
An invisibility cloak, a marauder's map, and... a golden-red bird!
Fawkes stood gracefully on Hermione's bed, combing his feathers, while the ghost of Ms. Grey looked at Hermione with surprise.
"Have you made up your mind to help me, Hermione? And you even went to Dumbledore to apply for this phoenix?"
Hearing someone mention him, Fox raised his head, glanced at Ms. Grey with disdain, and then focused his attention on his feathers again.
After hearing what Ms. Grey said, Hermione said without raising her head.
"We are not close enough to call each other by name, Ms. Grey, and I obviously didn't prepare these for you."
She was so blunt that the joy on Ms. Grey's face suddenly turned pale.
"But you are going into the castle, right? Dumbledore sent you?"
Hermione spoke calmly.
“I feel I can handle this task.”
"Then why can't you help me too, kid? I promise I will help you too. As long as there is anything that might put you in danger, I won't force you to continue. You can choose to give up on your own."
Hermione did not answer her first, but carefully opened the Marauder's Map, waving her wand and casting a spell to open the map.
The next moment, the entire picture of Hogwarts appeared before her eyes.
The first thing she did was to look in the direction of the Forbidden Forest. However, this map only covered the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Apart from seeing some Aurors and Matthew's three referees wandering around, she could not gain any other information.
Hermione was a little disappointed that she didn't see the name she wanted to see. She shook her head and turned her gaze back to Hogwarts Castle, while answering what Ms. Grey had just said.
"I can agree to your request."
Ms. Grey was stunned at first. She had almost given up hope that Hermione would do what she promised her. She thought that if there was really no other way, the worst that could happen was that she would sneak into Hogwarts Castle herself and try to persuade a student in the castle to help her do this.
Unexpectedly, Hermione actually gave in at the last minute, and a look of joy immediately appeared on her face.
"Thank you so much... Thank you so much, H... Miss Granger!"
But when Hermione withdrew her gaze from the Marauder's Map, she continued what she had not finished saying.
"I can help you, but like you said, if I encounter something risky, I can choose to continue or give up. At the same time, you have to promise me one thing."
Ms. Grey said urgently.
"you say."
"You cannot follow me into Hogwarts Castle during this process."
