Hogwarts Outsider Chapter 168: Riot of the Centaur (2 in 1)
"Yes, those damned horse people," Professor Kettleburn complained loudly:
"Since almost two months ago, they have frequently left the territory assigned to them by Professor Grindelwald... Frequent violations of the Forbidden Forest belonging to Hogwarts... This is a crime!"
"My father always thought," Draco Malfoy interjected suddenly, "that the centaurs should have been hanged, because they were standing on the black side in the war fifty years ago. The wizard's..."
"Yes!" Professor Kettleburn agreed, and he nodded vigorously, "If it weren't for Professor Grindelwald's kindness...they would have completely forgotten all about the past! Unforgivable!"
Professor Kettleburn seemed to be having a good time with Professor Malfoy, and soon they chatted about the horses.
A group of people began to formally enter the Forbidden Forest.
……
The originally narrow path in the Forbidden Forest has been completely covered by heavy snow.
But fortunately, the soil was hardened by the freezing, as long as you don't step into the bushes, it doesn't seem to make any difference which way you go.
As Professor Kettleburn said, in the Forbidden Forest, the snow on the ground is much thinner than outside the Forbidden Forest, and walking is not as strenuous as outside.
"Where should we go!" Theodore Knott looked around in fear and asked.
Obviously, this child seems to have a little psychological shadow on the Forbidden Forest.
"No need to worry," Professor Kettleburn said calmly, "Let's find a guide first, follow me..."
Matthew suddenly remembered the clever "cat raccoon" he met a year ago when he set foot in the Forbidden Forest with Professor Kettleburn for the first time... Its name seems to be Called "Tom"...
Perhaps the "guide" that Professor Kettleburn refers to is it? Or a creature of the same kind!
The heavy snow kept the branches of the trees in the Forbidden Forest very low, and from time to time a large pile of snow would fall on top of their heads... Crabbe was unlucky, a large cloud of snow fell right on his head, Almost hit him with gold stars in both eyes.
So much so that Professor Kettleburn had to stop, helped him up, and cast a restoration spell on him.
After some delay, they moved on.
Since it was cold winter, I didn't meet any animals along the way... Most of the animals, or magical animals, seemed to have fallen into hibernation.
"The Forbidden Forest in winter is actually very safe, and those 'dangerous' animals will not come out to move around at this time..." Professor Kettleburn explained.
Then, Professor Kettleburn began whistling in a flirtatious tone.
I have to say, the sound is particularly unpleasant!
They had to cover their ears...
……
After about ten minutes——
"Strange!" Professor Kettleburn stopped suddenly, and he looked around suspiciously.
"What's the matter, Professor?" Matthew frowned and asked hastily.
"It's nothing, it may be that the weather has been too cold recently, and my guide has also hibernated..." Professor Kettleburn explained, "Let's move on!"
Matthew breathed a sigh of relief, and a cloud of water mist formed in front of him... At the same time, he quietly pulled out his wand from his waist.
"Professor Kettleburn!" Gower stopped suddenly, squatted on the ground and observed something for a while, then pointed at it and shouted, "Look this way, Professor..."
"What's the matter, kid?" Professor Kettleburn approached curiously.
"Look at this...does it look like a horseshoe..." Gore said very excitedly.
What Gregory Gower is referring to is a large rock; on the snow on the rock, there is a horseshoe-like imprint—
The imprint is very vague, and it can be seen that it has been for some years; and this stone is just under a tall English oak tree, so the imprint on it has been preserved... The imprints in other places may have been covered by fresh snow up.
"Yes, this is the evidence!" Professor Kettleburn looked very excited, "Good job!"
He quickly took out a glass frame from the backpack behind him, and then used his prosthetic limb to wave his wand and his only normal hand to assist, transferring the horseshoe print on the snow to the glass frame... It's like Muggles making taxidermy.
Professor Kettleburn's movements were very skillful, and he didn't destroy the integrity of the "specimen" at all... After finishing, he even cast a spell on the "specimen" to prevent the ice and snow inside from melting!
"This is a piece of evidence!" He said contentedly, "I will show it to Professor Grindelwald and Professor Rozier on Christmas day... I believe that they will definitely have a look at the horses recently. I feel angry for your bad behavior!"
Gore raised his head proudly.
"Good job, kid!" Professor Kettleburn patted him on the shoulder, "We'll keep looking... there must be evidence!"
"Should we search separately?" Vincent Crabbe suggested.
Obviously, Crabbe felt a little dissatisfied with Gore's "showing off".
"Good idea!" Professor Kettleburn agreed, "get your wands out and practice a bit... If anyone finds a useful trace, or gets into trouble, fire a red spark and we'll all go over there Looking for you..."
"...Okay, everyone be more careful... Don't be too far away, let's go!"
……
Crabbe and Goyle looked excited and parted.
Matthew is obviously unwilling to disperse with the main force, because he always feels that there seems to be some "crisis" hidden in this seemingly peaceful Forbidden Forest...
The same goes for Malfoy and Nott... Malfoy may have the same idea as Matthew. As for Nott, he obviously still has a fear of the Forbidden Forest.
The sun has risen, and the white snow is slightly dazzling... At the same time, there is silence in the Forbidden Forest, except for the voices of these "intruders".
Matthew was searching the ground aimlessly, without any nature.
In fact, he felt that after the heavy snow a few days ago, it was actually very difficult to find traces of centaur activities... Gore just now was purely lucky!
Nott was not far from Matthew, he always looked around nervously, he looked very uncomfortable, as if someone was watching him.
"Matthew, look! Red sparks!" Knott yelled suddenly, almost startling Matthew.
But this also made Matthew quickly see the red spark... He nodded, "Go, let's go there!"
The two walked through the snow-covered bushes; they hadn't gone far before they encountered Draco Malfoy.
Obviously, like them, Malfoy was also attracted by the red spark...
The three of them moved on hand in hand.
Five minutes later, when they reached a frozen stream, they met Crabbe there.
Obviously, that red light was emitted by him.
"What's going on?" Malfoy asked loudly.
Vincent Crabbe was sitting down on the ground, speaking with a hint of fear in his voice!
"Look...you look quickly..."
Looking in the direction Crabbe pointed, they saw a very cruel scene——
Above the frozen stream, a withered branch stretched discordantly.
A rope was tied to the branch, and a black thing was hanging from the rope...
"Is that...a cat?" Malfoy asked tremblingly.
To be precise, it is not actually a cat... Its body is a bit larger than ordinary cats, its ears are also particularly large, and its teeth are sharper at the same time... Its neck is hung on a rope, His body was completely frozen, his eyes were wide open, and he stared straight at them.
Matthew stood there motionless for several seconds.
"It...is it dead...this cat..." Nott asked tremblingly behind him.
"It seems to be..." Matthew said solemnly, "but this is not a cat... but a cat..."
……
"Children, have you found anything?" Professor Kettleburn quickly ran over, and he shouted, "I saw your spark..."
His voice was excited.
"Look at that, Professor..." Crabbe trembled, pointing to the cat raccoon hanging on the tree, "Can that be considered evidence?"
"What is that..." Professor Kettleburn approached——
Professor Kettleburn's voice froze, and he stayed there.
Soon, a painful expression appeared on his face:
"No...Tom..."
Professor Kettleburn ran over quickly and got the hanged cat and raccoon down...
But obviously it was too late... The cat was as stiff as a hard board, it had been dead for a long time.
Except for Matthew, the rest of the Slytherin students looked at each other in dismay.
"What's the matter... What's the matter here..." Gore was the last one to run over, and he asked out of breath.
"This is a warning!" Professor Kettleburn said suddenly.
"Warning?" Several students were stunned.
"Those horse people..." Professor Kettleburn said while putting the dead cat into his backpack.
His voice calmed down, and at the same time it seemed a little scary: "The killing of my guide so recklessly... This is not an ordinary restlessness... This is a riot!"
There was complete silence, and the few students were so frightened that no one dared to speak again.
Matthew looked around, but he could only hear the dead leaves in winter rustling in the wind.
"That's right... this is a riot... we have to get out of here!" Professor Kettleburn said while shaking his head again, "No, you have to get out of here!"
"Quickly...follow your footsteps and return to Hogwarts..." the professor of Protection of Fantastic Beasts ordered loudly, his voice full of majesty, "Hurry up, or those rebellious centaurs will die Come! After returning to Hogwarts, tell Professor Rozier what happened here, and I will stay here!"
Crabbe and Goyle hadn't figured out what was going on.
Without any hesitation, Matthew ran away, following the way he came.
As early as when Professor Kettleburn told them about the strangeness of the centaur, Matthew had already guessed this... It's just that he didn't expect the riot of the centaur to come so suddenly!
Malfoy was only half a beat behind Matthew, and he quickly caught up with Matthew.
Then Knott.
Finally, Crabbe and Goyle, two fat boys.
……
The footprints on the snow became a little confusing.
This is mainly because they were scurrying around looking for the marks of the centaur before, but they messed up the footprints when they came.
Relying on memory as much as possible, Matthew followed the way he came and returned the same way.
In the surrounding bushes, there is something faintly moving...they are very big and there are a lot of them...
In every bush, there was the faint sound of horseshoes stepping on the snow... as if they had been surrounded by horsemen.
Trembling, Malfoy drew his wand from his waist.
"Don't use magic!" Matthew shouted, startling Malfoy, and the wand in his hand fell to the ground.
Judging from the current situation, they seem to have been surrounded by those horsemen...
Matthew doesn't think that these two-legged creatures can outrun four-legged centaur... and with the magic of their second-year students, it is impossible for hundreds of thousands of centaur opponent.
Rather than irritating them with a few meaningless spells, the most rational choice now is to let them go.
After all, the tradition of the centaur is not to harm the foal, even if it falls into their hands, there is still a possibility of survival.
Another tradition of the centaurs is that they hate magic. Once they recklessly resist and hurt them, they are very likely to be trampled to death by horseshoes.
Malfoy and the others naturally don't understand Matthew's thoughts; but they have been together for so long ~IndoMTL.com~ Matthew still has a little deterrent power in their hearts... Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle did not Dare to pull out the wand.
……
Finally, a huge creature suddenly burst out from the bushes on one side.
A half-human, half-horse creature... above the waist is a human, with black beard and hair, but below the waist is the body of a horse, with a horse tail dragging behind it.
Then came the second, third...
More and more centaurs appeared around them, even if they only appeared in their eyes, there were at least twenty of them...
The horsemen rushed towards them one after another.
They're about to run away!
"Ah—" a sudden shout came from behind Matthew and the others.
It was the voice of Professor Kettleburn.
Then, not far behind them, an oak tree at least ten meters high was cut off by something... It happened that not long after Matthew passed by, the horsemen were chasing after him.
Several centaurs were crushed under the oak tree and groaned in pain.
At the same time, the way forward for the horsemen was temporarily blocked.
Professor Kettleburn waved his wand angrily.
At the same time, the two prosthetic limbs on his legs helped him to cross the snow in the Forbidden Forest at an unbelievable speed...