togophonebook Chapter 266, page 265: Ron's Attack! Ron's Regret!
Chapter 266, page 265: Ron's Attack! Ron's Regret!
Chapter 266, page 265: Ron's Attack! Ron's Regret!
in the dark.
The planktonic organisms gleamed with a cold light.
A bright white light shone from the tip of his wand, illuminating the gnarled tree roots and spiderwebs ahead. Damp mist clung to the ground, coiling around Ian's ankles like some living thing. The surrounding trees appeared even more sinister in the dim light, like menacing beasts, silently watching his every move.
It must be said that the Forbidden Forest was as eerie as ever, yet unusually quiet.
"Strange...this is too strange!" Ian slowed his pace, his brow furrowing slightly. He looked around; the Forbidden Forest was indeed eerily quiet.
In the past, the Bowtruckle would leap between the branches, and various small animals would dart through the bushes, making noise, but now, it seemed as if he had entered a forgotten world.
There were no bowerbirds leaping among the branches, no owls hooting in the canopy, not even a single firefly. The entire forest seemed to have been emptied of life by some unseen force.
Only the deathly silence of the wind and the swaying shadows of the trees remained.
Having not encountered a single living creature, Ian could certainly sense that something was amiss.
The creatures in the Forbidden Forest are usually active; even at night, nocturnal animals should be out and about. But now, it seems as if all the animals in the forest have hidden themselves away.
Or perhaps.
It just disappeared!
They couldn't have all been eaten by the dragon, could they?
Even a dragon couldn't eat this fast!
and.
Ian crouched down, his fingers lightly touching the ground. The soil was cold, devoid of ants, beetles, or even goblin footprints. He didn't think dragons would appreciate those meager snacks.
"This is really weird."
Ian stood up.
Their gaze turned toward the direction from which the dragon's roar came.
"Could it be related to the 'Riddle' that Ron saw?"
Ian pondered, but didn't stop walking, only becoming slightly more cautious, as he continued deeper into the Forbidden Forest. The further he went, the more oppressive the air became.
Even breathing felt difficult. The tree branches twisted even more menacingly. The wind rustled through the treetops, its sound particularly eerie in the silent night.
I took a look.
Still no clues were found.
Ian simply transformed into a wisp of white mist and headed straight for the end of his destination—with just one listen, Ian would know exactly where the sound was coming from.
Super hearing.
That's all there is to it!
There was no getting lost.
Ian roared all the way to the source of the dragon's roar.
All I saw was...
It was an empty space that had been violently destroyed.
The thick tree trunk was snapped in half, charred marks spreading across the ground, and the air was thick with the stench of sulfur and burning. Yet, the dragon that should have been perched here was nowhere to be seen.
"Um?"
Ian surveyed his surroundings but couldn't see the dragon's overwhelming form. There were some huge claw marks on the ground, but it didn't seem like the dragon had already left for somewhere else.
after all.
If a giant dragon takes to the sky.
It's impossible for Ian not to see it.
Ian could keenly perceive the size of even the hybrid dragons of today, let alone the ancient dragons the size of small hills—yes, this was the strange thing Ian had just sensed.
Because of contact with ancient dragons.
and so.
Ian immediately realized that the dragon roar coming from the Forbidden Forest was definitely not from the hybrid dragons of today, but from an ancient dragon that had gone extinct.
This is why Hermione couldn't guess the answer no matter how hard she tried. Many wizards didn't know that ancient dragons had ever existed, let alone Hermione, whose knowledge came only from bookstores.
After all.
Anything that can be placed on the shelves of a bookstore for sale can be considered common sense.
And about the ancient dragons.
It's more like a secret.
It was precisely because Ian knew how precious this dragon was that he felt he should take charge of its management—what? Protect rare species? You underestimate Ian's magical skills in physical restoration.
"Where did my ever-flowing supply of potion ingredients go?!"
"Ian muttered to himself. He circled the area, trying to find some clues. On a nearby dead tree, he found some charred marks."
This reminded him of the blazing flames during a dragon's roar.
however.
The strange thing was that Ian couldn't find the dragon's target either—he clearly remembered hearing two roars, one louder than the other, and logically the dragon should have been very angry for some reason.
Ian turned his head again and saw a dark mark winding up the tree trunk, as if it had been burned by some kind of corrosive liquid. He walked up and touched the liquid on it with his finger.
"Dragon blood, pure dragon blood."
Ian's tongue wasn't corroded, but it burned with a painful sensation. Clearly, the dragon had been wounded, and its blood had splattered onto the surrounding trees.
"Could it be that someone beat me to it?"
Ian was horrified.
He thought of a possibility that he was unwilling to accept.
And at that very moment.
In the direction of the valley crushed by the dragon's body, Ian seemed to see something shimmering—it looked like a bronze door embedded in the valley.
……
After Ian used magic to conjure three flying carpets that enveloped Hermione, Ron, and Neville, the carpets automatically and slowly floated towards Hogwarts Castle. At first, the three were a little nervous, having never experienced such magical flight before. But as time went on, they gradually adapted to this wondrous mode of flight.
Three thick flying carpets swept across the night sky, as if guided by an invisible hand, steadily flying towards Hogwarts Castle. Realizing this experience was far more comfortable than flying broomsticks, the three no longer held their breath in fear.
"This...this is quite interesting. Senior Prince's magic is really amazing," Neville said softly, his fingers gripping the edge of the blanket tightly, but the initial fear in his voice was gone.
Hermione adjusted her position to make herself more comfortable in the wrapped-up state, her brows still furrowed: "Ian facing a dragon alone... that's too dangerous."
"We all know how powerful dragons are, and no one knows what awaits them." Hermione was already starting to worry that she might hear the devastating news of Ian's death tomorrow.
Well, how should I put it?
The girl, who had just entered the wizarding world, did not know what level her mentor was in this world, nor did she have much of a clear understanding of the upper limit of the second-year senior's strength.
The feeling of limited imagination.
As for imagination.
Ron has his own unique talent.
"Too dangerous?" Ron perked up immediately upon hearing Hermione's words, his voice trembling with excitement as he began to launch into a long explanation of his opinion.
"Hmph, I don't think so."
His voice carried a hint of resentment.
"What do you mean?"
Hermione frowned. The howling wind made her fluffy hair very messy, constantly sticking to her cheeks. Her serious expression looked quite frightening in the night.
"Gurgle~"
Ron shrank back in fear.
"Perhaps he wasn't even going to 'face' the dragon?"
However, he continued to ramble on and on.
Please explain it more clearly.
Hermione turned her head and looked at him with a puzzled expression and a hint of annoyance in her eyes.
Ron lowered his voice and said mysteriously, "Think about it, if he really was just going to fight the dragon, why would he send us away instead of letting us witness his heroism?"
"Everyone says he loves to show off, doesn't he?"
Ron lowered his voice even further.
"What if... I mean, possibly, that he's in cahoots with that problematic Harry Potter? He sent us away because he was afraid we'd discover the secrets of the Forbidden Forest!"
"He must be moving the dragons they're raising now!" His voice grew more and more excited as he spoke, his eyes wide open, as if he had seen through some earth-shattering conspiracy.
If it weren't for their hands and feet being bound...
He might even gesture excitedly with both hands a few more times. This is truly imaginative, Ron said excitedly, his imagination running wild, the more he talked, the more terrifying his own speculation became.
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Ron, can't you use your imagination for your homework?"
She clearly often lent her homework to Ron to copy.
Neville was also skeptical of Ron's assessment. He shook his head slightly and said, "Ron, you're probably overthinking it. Senior Prince isn't that kind of evil person."
"Although he broke school rules, fought, brawled, and bullied Slytherin students, he was a good person and a good senior. I believe he had his own reasons for facing the dragon."
Neville seems to know Ian quite well.
His tone was sincere, and his description was based on facts. However, Ron wouldn't listen at all; wrapped in his blanket, he turned his head sharply and glared at Neville.
"You're being too naive, Neville. Who can guarantee that the Ian we've encountered is the real Ian Prince? Even Harry Potter could be switched, so a second-year student certainly can! Maybe Ian Prince has already been switched, and he's now an accomplice of that scheming Harry Potter!"
"Damn it! It seems more than one dark wizard has his eye on Hogwarts!" Ron said, still somewhat doubtful, though his logic was at least sound to him.
only.
Neville could only shake his head helplessly.
Hermione didn't believe a single punctuation mark in Ron's conjecture.
Hermione, wrapped in a blanket, rolled her eyes as she listened to Ron's absurd remarks. "Ron, if that were true, we'd be dead by now. Ian has the ability to kill us in the Forbidden Forest, and no one would know the truth afterward, would they?"
"That's the Forbidden Forest. If we go there and die, it's our problem. The Ministry of Magic will just think we were asking for trouble and got eaten by the dangerous creatures in the Forbidden Forest."
Hermione's speculation was the only one that truly made sense.
Neville, after hearing Hermione's words, also felt that Ron's speculation was somewhat untenable. He nodded and said, "That makes sense, Ron. There will be consequences for making baseless guesses like this."
Upon hearing this...
Ron was stunned.
Seemingly pondering Neville and Hermione's words, after a long while, he finally sighed and admitted, "Well, Hermione, you're right. I might have been a little too impulsive."
Well, how should I put it?
I guess you could call it beautifying myself.
This is clearly no longer a matter of being impulsive or not; it's about having a conspiracy theory in mind—perhaps not targeting Ian, but rather Ron's subconscious desire to be a hero.
that's it.
The three of them fell silent.
The flying carpet finally landed in front of the gates of Hogwarts Castle. Hermione and Neville's carpets slowly unfurled, allowing them to gently land on the ground, while Ron's carpet suddenly trembled.
"Ouch!"
Ron crashed to the ground, landing hard on his backside, wincing in pain. He rubbed his tailbone and looked up indignantly, yelling, "Why are you guys okay?! My butt's practically in four pieces!"
He was really badly hurt when he fell.
"This is the consequence I was just talking about..." Neville said somewhat embarrassedly, scratching his head. His words made Ron speechless and want to slap his forehead.
"Damn it!"
Ron wanted to swear.
But I didn't dare to scold them.
"See, that's it." Hermione dusted off her robes and rolled her eyes at Ron. "You're just too talkative. We didn't say anything bad about Ian."
She was clearly pointing out why she and Neville landed so easily, while Ron had to suffer.
Neville glanced at Ron cautiously, and seeing Ron's defiant expression, he hesitated for a moment before finally whispering a reminder.
"There's always been a rumor in the college... that Prince can be quite petty at times. Apparently, you happened to be in one of those petty moments."
Neville knows a lot about Ian, not only because of the help Ian gave him at school, but also because someone reminded him of the things to pay attention to when studying at Hogwarts after he entered the school.
Most people might not believe the twin brothers' "Hogwarts Survival Guide," but Navis actually spent a lot of money to buy the "Hogwarts Survival Guide Collector's Edition" from them.
This edition of the book has a full thirty pages extra, all of which teach buyers how to avoid being targeted by the school's big bad guy. Anyway, Neville felt that his gold coins were well spent after reading it.
And now we see Ron's situation.
He even felt that the expense was absolutely worth it.
"..."
Ron fell silent for a long time after hearing Neville's reminder. In fact, his twin brother had also reminded him of this, but he never really took his brothers' reminders to heart.
Looking at it now...
Ron genuinely felt that he should trust his family—and thinking of this, he couldn't help but recall what his two older brothers had said about Ian when they were trying to scare him.
For an instant.
Ron's face turned pale.
I started to panic.
The thought that Ian might hold a grudge against him reminded him of the fates of the pure-blood Slytherin families. He realized that he didn't have anything in his family that he could give to Ian in exchange for Ian's forgiveness.
"My damn mouth!"
Ron began to regret it.
My mind was already conjuring up images of Ian toying with me using all sorts of evil curses.
And at that very moment.
"What are you three doing here?!"
An angry voice suddenly rang out—the three of them turned around at the same time, only to see the Hogwarts professor, dressed in black, standing not far away. His gloomy face and sharp eyes made them all feel a chill.
Such imposing presence.
The professor who appears will only be Ian's good uncle, of course.
Snape.
(End of this chapter)