Snape, the Sunshine of Hogwarts.

Chapter 171 Helping each other
"Although this fire dragon has the largest body size, it moves slowly. But even if it is slow, it is still a fire dragon."

"Ordinary animals would never have the chance to approach such a creature, but at that moment, I discovered that an eagle was actually using its agility and small size to fight it!"

Harry couldn't help but widen his eyes.

"What kind of eagle?"

"Its back is covered in brownish-black feathers, and its wings have black and white stripes. Compared to that Ukrainian Ironbelly, it doesn't even look as big as the other's eyes!"

Severus kept turning the pages of the animal encyclopedia he had bought from England, eventually stopping at a picture that was exactly the same as the one Andrews had described.

"That should be a goshawk, a small to medium-sized bird of prey."

“Yes!” Andrews also saw the picture and confirmed, “It was extremely brave, almost like it had gone mad, constantly fighting with that fire dragon. Then they flew away together. I wanted to chase after them to see what had happened, but I didn’t follow them closely and only picked up a few feathers on the ground.”

He pointed to the third row of the wooden cabinet, where a feather, framed and hidden among a pile of miscellaneous items, stood.

"This is it. I picked one up and kept it as a souvenir."

While he was recounting the story, Severus had somehow produced a parchment and recorded it down.

At the same time, he continued to ask questions.

"Is there anything else?"

"Of course! If you let me talk, I could talk for three days and three nights and still not finish. Besides special animals, there are also things about spirits."

Andrews turned and walked toward his row of bookshelves.

If a shelf that, besides books, is also cluttered with various dried animal carcasses and herbs, can be called a bookshelf, then so be it.

He rummaged through the album and quickly found a photo album covered in dust.

He rubbed his hands together, placed the photo album in front of Severus and the others, and then began to search through it.

The photos were clearly taken by Andrews himself, featuring a variety of magical creatures, herbs and plants rarely seen in the magical world, and even more trolls.

Furthermore, most of the trolls in the photos are the same one, namely Lulu, but the backgrounds of the photos are completely different!
Upon seeing these photos, Severus and Lupin exchanged a glance. They realized that Andrews and Lulu did not meet in the troll tribe of this valley.

They met long ago, and then the human and the giant began their adventure and journey.

Harry and Draco were both drawn to the photos in the album until Andrews finally found what he was looking for.

"Aha! Here I am!"

He pointed to one of the photos, a picture of the giant Lulu and a ghost. The photo had been developed with developing chemicals, making the moment the shutter was pressed vividly clear.

It was an old witch with a black cloak and a hunched back, but unlike the older witches, she had many warts on her face!
Beside the ghost, Lulu was baring its teeth and claws at her, as if it had been teased by the ghost before the photo was taken, and it was angry and wanted to retaliate.

"Back when we first arrived in this forest, Lulu and I were still searching for this troll tribe. After a long time, we still had no clue. We could only keep walking along the river in the forest and search every tributary of it—the trolls must have set up their homes near clean water sources!"

"Then, we found the banshee ghost on the other side of that river!"

Severus carefully observed the ghostly image in the photograph, wanting to capture the ghost's image in the photograph. This was no easy task; when taking the picture, one needed to find a very suitable lighting angle, otherwise, in most cases, only a blurry image could be produced.

Andrews' technique was quite good; he portrayed the banshee ghost very well, making it clear that it was not another kind of spiritual creature—a female ghost.

Lupin asked, puzzled.

"What makes this banshee's soul so special?"

"She claims she's never been to this place before!"

"Andrews said excitedly."

This surprised both Severus and Lupin.

Andrews seemed completely unsurprised by their reaction, as he himself was utterly shocked when he first heard about it.

"Unbelievable, isn't it! Anyone who knows anything about spirits knows that their range of movement after death is limited! And under normal circumstances, they absolutely cannot go to areas they never set foot in during their lifetime!"

Andrews took out the picture of the banshee ghost.

"But Lulu and I had a brief encounter with her that day. During our conversation, we learned that she had been cursed by a black wizard and trapped inside a teacup. More than a hundred years ago, a French alchemist found the teacup during his travels and freed her from it."

"After that, she was homeless, but a different kind of desire would always rise in her heart, making her want to go into the mountains and forests. Over the years, she has traveled to almost every mountain and forest in Europe. She finally stayed in Albania because when she first arrived there, she encountered a strange black aura. The black aura gave her a sense of familiarity, as if it was related to the black wizard who had cursed her in her previous life."

"She told me she wanted to find the source of that dark aura!"

After listening to Andrews's account, Severus's expression became somewhat strange. He took the photograph and examined the female ghost in it for a while, confirming that she was indeed a type of forest nymph!
This only further confirmed his suspicions.

This banshee ghost is the same one that Nicolas Lemena rescued from the teacup, the banshee ghost that has been completely freed from its restraints!
According to Andrews, her presence here means that the teacup helped her completely break free from the limitations of being a ghost, allowing her to move freely anywhere instead of just being in life!

Since she can do it, it means that Severus's earlier guess at Le May's house was correct.

If Ghost Snape were also sealed inside that cup, and then released, he would also gain freedom and wouldn't have to remain in his current state of one body with two souls forever.

Severus took a deep breath to calm himself down; he was actually more concerned about what Andrews said next.

A wisp of black energy related to a dark wizard?

This is quite interesting.

Then Andrews told them some strange stories, such as the rune snakes that shouldn't be in this forest, being surrounded by man-eating cabbages, the poaching gang captured by Albanian Aurors, and the mysteriously lost dragon eggs in the Fire Dragon Nature Reserve, etc.

These stories amused Harry and his friends greatly, and the two boys listened intently, though they couldn't glean any valuable clues from them.

Only at the very end did Severus ask Andrews, "Can you tell us the location of that banshee ghost?"

Andrews scratched his head with his quill. He didn't understand why Severus was so interested in this story, but since he had agreed to help, he naturally wouldn't refuse now.

Getting up from the wooden table, Andrews quickly rummaged through his pile of odds and ends, and soon he found a piece of parchment.

After the parchment was placed in front of Severus and his companions, they realized that it was actually a poorly drawn map.

The map above uses simple line drawings to mark the general terrain and direction of this amazing animal nature reserve. Although simple, it clearly shows some of the essential mountains and rivers.

Andrews drew a circle on the section of the river that ran through the forest on that rudimentary map.

"She probably stayed in this area. I haven't seen her since, but I heard from some Albanian wizards that she has been wandering around this area ever since and hasn't changed locations much."

Severus stared at the map and found their current location in it.

"If you just follow this stream to find the river, and then walk north along the river until you're almost out of this protected area, you'll reach the area where she is, right?"

Andrews hesitated for a moment, then explained to Severus.

"If it weren't for that torrential rain two years ago, that would be correct. But that summer two years ago, this forest experienced several days of torrential rain. The rainwater flowed into the river, turning the tributaries into the main stream, and the river changed its course! This map of mine was drawn when I first arrived in order to find these giants, so it's somewhat outdated now. If you try to find them using the information on the map, there's a high probability you won't be able to."

"Because of the changed terrain, Apparition can no longer directly pinpoint a specific area, making it quite troublesome to find."

At this point, Andrews seemed to have made a decision, and he looked up at Severus.

"If you really want to go, I can take you to find the original main channel of the river. Just follow it and you'll definitely find it eventually."

Severus's face lit up with surprise, but he didn't feel that it was something the other party was obligated to help him.

"What can we do to help you?"

Andrews didn't mince words; it wasn't really a business deal, just mutual assistance.

"Lulu and I will be leaving Europe in a year at most. Before we leave, we plan to repair the houses of the troll tribe in Oliveira Valley. As you can see, the places they live in can only keep out a little wind and rain, and can hardly be called houses."

"If possible, you can help us build a house while you're searching for the ghost's hiding place."

Harry was the first to agree, not waiting for the deadline.

"No problem at all!"

Draco was somewhat reluctant. According to Malfoy's upbringing, he looked down on even Muggle-born wizards, so how could he possibly respect these trolls?

Not to mention that they also had to personally help the troll build its house.

Lupin had no objection to this, and Severus, needless to say, had no prejudice against trolls and found building houses not boring.

So, he finally made the decision.

"Then it's settled!"

Andrews was also pleased and stood up from his chair.

"Let's go tomorrow! I can Apparate you directly to that tributary! Tonight, to celebrate your arrival, how about we prepare a feast?"

Severus and his companions, of course, did not refuse his proposal.

The valley was vast, and the trolls' colony occupied less than one-twentieth of the space surrounding the lake.

On the east side of the tribal camp, there was even a flock of sheep being kept in a pen!

The flock consists of about a hundred sheep, and they are clearly not ordinary goats, but large yellow-horned goats that have been crossbred with magical animals.

This breed of goat is generally only bred and raised by wizards within the Fire Dragon Nature Reserve, and is used as food for the dragons with their enormous appetites.

They are much larger than ordinary goats, about the size of a cow!

Furthermore, by feeding them hay mixed with specific medications, their growth period can be shortened to three months.

However, the downside is also obvious: this kind of sheep is hard to eat, and the meat is as tough as chewy candy, so no tavern puts this ingredient on the menu.

However, for creatures like dragons, giants, and trolls, this is not a disadvantage at all, but rather a great advantage.

Their bite force and the sharpness of their teeth far exceed those of others.

They generally don't like the kinds of meat that wizards usually eat; yellow-horned goats are their favorite!
These giants clearly don't have the brains of domesticated goats. Their lifestyle doesn't involve herding or farming; they generally eat whatever is available where they live, and once they run out of prey nearby, they move on to another place to eat.

There have even been instances of giants running into Muggle villages and eating people.

It was Andrews's doing that these yellow-horned goats were able to settle in the valley by herding sheep, or rather, he and the strange giant Lulu taught the troll tribe how to do it.

The trolls always have food, but Severus and his group need to catch food on the spot.

Andrews gave Harry and Draco two fishing rods and told them to go fishing at the lake. If they were capable, there was a large school of rainbowfish living in the lake, and if they didn't want to fish, they could try to catch them directly.

Lupin then ventured into the sparse woods by the lake, saying that on his way there he had vaguely seen what appeared to be pheasants in the woods.

Severus was helping Andrews prepare a potion of fodder for the Yellowhorn Goats, and at the same time, he was talking to the ghost Snape about the Banshee Teacup.

"It's almost certain now that the teacup can help the ghost break free from the constraints of his past life and gain complete freedom."

"So, what do you have in mind?"

(End of this chapter)