In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 335: The Wounded Unicorn and Hermione's Request (2 in 1)

Jon reached out and dipped his finger into the silvery liquid and placed it on the tip of his nose and sniffed it.

The smell, though not heavy, had a distinct smell of blood.

Even if he had never seen such a thing before, he had a vague suspicion in his mind about the existence with silvery blood in the Forbidden Forest, and there was basically no other possibility other than a Unicorn.

But even if there is a Unicorn that has been injured, why did this Bowtruckle bring him here?

If it cared about the wounded Unicorn, shouldn't it be warier of an outsider like him?

Jon turned his head to look at the little one that had brought him here, it was blinking and just looking straight at him.

A possibility suddenly occurred to Jon, and he held up the wooden tag and asked the Bowtruckle, probingly.

"This wounded Unicorn knows the owner of this tag doesn't it?"

The little one jumped up at once as if cheering that Jon had understood it.

Seeing how it behaved, Jon perked up too, and looking at the silver patches left on the grass, he began to follow the trail of blood left behind and continued his search deeper into the forbidden forest.

The Bowtruckle no longer had the same reservations as it had at first, and it jumped right onto Jon's shoulder and accompanied him.

Jon continued walking for another half hour or so, eventually coming to an empty meadow, and in the very centre of this meadow, a group of horse-shaped creatures with snow-white fur and a single horn on their heads were gathered.

Unicorns, the legendary symbol of purity and sacredness, are said to allow only female virgins to touch them.

Hagrid had told Jon early on that a large herd of Unicorns lived in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, arguably even the largest herd in Britain.

Every few years, Ollivander would pay a sum of gold to come to the Forbidden Forest and use harmless methods to scrape some Unicorn horn powder for the wand's core, and some of these same Unicorns had a very good relationship with Hagrid and had received a lot of care from him.

The herd of Unicorns that presented themselves in front of Jon, on the other hand, did not look so cheerful in comparison.

Almost every one of them bore claw wounds or burns, their beautiful snow-white fur riddled with scorch marks, and they were all clustered together, heads hanging low as if they were mourning over something.

Without hiding his movements, Jon pushed aside the bushes that were in front of him and walked straight into the clearing.

The movement was instantly noticed by all the Unicorns that had gathered here, and together they raised their heads, restlessly paddling their hooves in the grass and looking at Jon with a wary gaze.

Instead of taking up his wand in defence, Jon held up the wooden tag and spoke as gently as he could in a softer voice.

"Do you recognise this? Have no fear, I am a friend of Rubeus Hagrid."

The wariness in the eyes of most of the Unicorns was not lost, and they gazed intently at Jon and held their horns at him, yet the tallest of them all, the one with the purest fur, strode past all the others of its kind and came up to Jon.

It poked its head out and sniffed carefully at the wooden tag that Jon was holding, and then its body, which had been tense, relaxed significantly; it obviously knew Hagrid.

"Are you guys in some kind of trouble? I can try to help you guys out."

Jon continued after gaining the initial trust of these unicorns.

The Unicorn that recognised Hagrid's wooden tag looked like the leader of the herd, and it gazed at Jon for a moment with those beautiful eyes, before barking twice at its companions.

After hearing its command, a few of the unicorns in the herd were clearly reluctant, but they all eventually made a path open in Jon's direction.

It was only after following this gap that Jon finally saw what it was that they had surrounded.

It was also a unicorn, but it was less than half the size of the adult unicorns around it, a young cub that had not yet grown up.

What is alarming is the horrific burns on its back, the fur on its back has completely disappeared, revealing charred black flesh!

The little Unicorn was lying on its side on the grass, it could still breathe, but from the sound of its breathing you could tell that it was not going to last much longer with such serious injuries, the burns were still faintly lit up with orange fire every now and then, and the injuries were still getting worse.

The grass flowed with silvery blood mixed with black particles until it reached Jon's feet.

Jon knelt down and met the little Unicorn's eyes, which were so pure and filled with a desire to live.

"It's those dragons, right? You guys had a conflict with them?"

Such burns made it easy for Jon to determine the situation these unicorns had encountered at the moment, and upon hearing his words, the surrounding unicorns snorted and paddled their hooves in agitation.

After verifying the accuracy of his suspicions by their behaviour, Jon returned his attention to the young unicorn's injuries.

The burns on its back were clearly the result of the dragon's breath, the fierce flames not simply hot, but spreading inwards along the flesh and blood, a little like Fiendfyre, but not as overpowering as the Fiendfyre that burned everything.

Yet this level of intensity is enough to kill the little unicorn.

Normally, Unicorns themselves are extremely resistant to magic, and as long as they are not directly hit by them for a long time, ordinary dragon breath will not do much damage to them, as evidenced by the adult Unicorns around him.

This little unicorn, on the other hand, had not only been directly engulfed by the dragon's breath but also because its own physique had not even grown up yet, its magic resistance was not as strong as the other adult unicorns.

This is why its current injuries are so serious. Otherwise, if it was a normal burn, even if it was this serious, it would have been able to survive by relying on the unicorn's own tenacious vitality, after all, the unicorn's blood is said to have the power to bring the dead back to life.

Looking at the dying unicorn in front of him, Jon seemed at a loss at first.

He knew how to prepare potions for burns, but they are only effective for ordinary burns, while the dragon's breath naturally carries the magic power of the dragon itself, which is not something that can be dealt with by ordinary means.

As Jon was thinking about this, his whole body suddenly froze.

Removing magic might not be something he could do, but he could absorb it!

Jon quickly pulled out the ring he wore around his neck, and then experimentally aimed it at the location of the unicorn's burns.

Although he had successfully absorbed a lot of unowned magic before, those were left behind by wizards, and this was the first time he had tried to absorb magic left behind by a magical creature like this, whether it would work or not, Jon himself didn't know, he could only do what he could for now.

A few seconds after the ring hovered over the unicorn's wound, Jon could clearly feel a strange magical power being absorbed.

This magic was different from all the magic he had absorbed before; it was clear from the quality of the magic itself that could be felt, but there wasn't exactly any way to use the magic that the ring had absorbed to bring much room for enhancement to himself.

But Jon hadn't expected to rely on absorbing dragon magic to give him much of an enhancement, and as the magic was gradually extracted from the burns, the unicorn's condition improved significantly.

The adult unicorns around him also felt the change in the young unicorn's injuries, and they couldn't help but move a little closer to Jon, their eyes all showing a bright look.

The dragon's magic had all been extracted, but the burns on the unicorn's body were still there, and because they continued unchecked for so long, the burns had penetrated into its internal organs and could be life-threatening if not treated immediately.

Jon stood up from the ground, and he held out his hand to the lead unicorn as he gestured at it, describing the situation.

"Have you ever seen a herb with rounded leaves in the Forbidden Forest, with distinctive white lines patterned on them, their sap has a remarkable healing effect on all types of wounds."

The lead unicorn understood what Jon was saying and first turned around intending to run in one direction, but soon hesitated and turned back again, facing Jon and slowly kneeling down on its forelegs while bending its upper body.

Jon blinked as he asked with some incredulity.

"Are you asking me to ride you?"

The unicorn raised its head and blinked its bright eyes in return, as if in response to his question.

Jon had indeed not expected the unicorn to be willing to allow a male like himself to come so close; according to the wizard's long years of study of such creatures, they would normally only be willing to get close to pure virgins, especially little girls.

In this case, now, he could only chalk it up to the fact that his act of saving the young unicorn had made it restrain its instincts.

There was certainly no pressure for Jon to be able to ride the unicorn, he straddled directly onto this unicorn's back, then the unicorn didn't stop for half a moment, it just kicked off its hooves and started to run wildly in the north-east direction.

***

Other students were not allowed to spectate the start of the Triwizard Tournament.

Even the students on the wagon had remained in the wagon for the rest of the day, with Dumbledore giving them their lessons.

Even when they arrived at Hogwarts Castle, their lessons were certainly not delayed, and it was only fitting that Dumbledore, who remained on the wagon at all times, should teach them.

Just as the students were in the middle of their afternoon class, the surrounding students realised that Hermione, who had been there all afternoon, was nowhere to be seen.

Lavender raised a question about this and Dumbledore replied calmly.

"Miss Granger has asked me for a leave of absence for some special commitment, don't worry, she'll be back tomorrow."

He didn't say exactly where Hermione had gone, but Lavender didn't ask any more questions, after all, as long as Dumbledore knew where she had gone, that was all that was needed to prove that Hermione would be safe enough.

At the same time, Hermione was making a final check of the things she had got in her room in the wagon.

The cloak of invisibility, the Marauder's Map, and a golden red bird!

Fawkes stood gracefully on Hermione's bed and was brushing his feathers, while the ghost Lady Grey looked at Hermione with a surprised look on her face.

"Have you made up your mind about helping me, Hermione? And specifically gone to Dumbledore to request this phoenix?"

Hearing the mention of himself, Fawkes looked up and glanced at Lady Grey with disdain before refocusing his attention back on his feathers.

And after hearing Lady Grey's words, Hermione said without looking up.

"We are not so close as to call each other by our first names, Ms Grey, and I obviously didn't prepare these for you."

She was so blunt that the joy that had been on Lady Grey's face turned a little pale.

"But you're going into that castle now, aren't you? Did Dumbledore ask you to go?"

Hermione spoke calmly.

"It was me who thought I could be up to the task."

"Then why can't you help me as well, child? I promise I'll help you too, whenever anything comes up that could potentially put you in danger, I won't force you to continue, you're perfectly free to choose to give up on your own."

Hermione didn't bother to answer her words for a moment, but carefully opened the Marauder's Map, while simultaneously reciting an incantation with a tap of her wand to unlock it.

The next moment, the whole of Hogwarts appeared in full view to her eyes.

The first thing she did was to look first in the direction of the Forbidden Forest, however, the map could barely cover the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest, and she couldn't glean anything other than some Aurors, Matthew, and the other three judges wandering around there.

The fact that she didn't see the names she wanted to see, couldn't help but disappoint Hermione a little as she shook her head and returned her gaze to Hogwarts Castle while answering Lady Grey's words from earlier.

"I will agree to your request."

Lady Grey stayed frozen as a whole for a moment, she had almost stopped expecting Hermione to agree to her, thinking that there would be no way out, the worst that could happen was to sneak into Hogwarts castle by herself and try to see if she could talk her way around one of the students within the castle to help her with this.

To her surprise, Hermione ended up giving in at the last minute and a look of delight spread across her face.

"Thank you so much truly thank you so much, Her- Miss Granger!"

But as Hermione's eyes retracted from the Marauder's Map, she continued with what she hadn't finished saying earlier.

"It's fine to help you, but as you said, when it comes to things that are risky, I can choose for myself whether to continue or give up, and also, promise me one thing."

Lady Grey asked eagerly.

"Do tell."

"You can't follow me into Hogwarts Castle while this is going on."

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