Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 238 The Magical Animals of the Forbidden Forest

"Let me tell you what I need your help with, Ilya. We need a batch of rather dangerous magical creatures and enchanted plants—"

"Oh?"

"No, no, no, it's not about killing them to make medicine. It's an educational program, using them as training targets for young wizards—didn't we play Muggle board games together at Newt's house? Dungeons & Dragons, remember?"

"Yo yo!"

"Yes, Muggle board games are fun, and the Unicorn card game is really strong—basically, that's the concept. We're going to create an area where little wizards can go on adventures, with magical creatures and enchanted plants playing the role of monsters. Let me explain the requirements to you in detail—"

In Vaughn's plan.

For Isabella's first batch of lessons, he didn't intend to make it too intense. The way of practicing the world of paintings was a new thing for both first-year students and upperclassmen.

Hogwarts has never had a course with such a field adventure!

It's everyone's first time here, so we all need to get used to it.

The students had to adapt to this new model, and Isabella and he also had to adapt to such an unprecedented teaching method.

Of course, it can't be too unchallenging either.

"—First of all, since this is a trial, and the first attempt, I hope that the magical creatures I find will possess a certain level of intelligence, be able to understand my meaning, and be able to communicate. This will prevent situations from arising that are beyond our control. Giants are absolutely unacceptable!"

"Yo yo!"

Ilya shouted angrily twice.

She was a beautiful and elegant unicorn, and there was no way she would go looking for trolls. Those guys were one of the few disgusting things that unicorns could not communicate with at all and did not want to come into contact with!

Brainless, short-tempered, and stinky!

After listening to Ilya's complaints, Vaughn nodded: "Yes, they're too stupid—that's why I prefer the Invisible Beasts."

Bird-snake, stealth monster, and big-headed hairy monster —

Vaughn read out a string of names.

These are among the more intelligent types of magical creatures.

For example, the Invisible Beasts, these magical creatures native to the Far East, can become completely invisible, making themselves disappear from the sight of wizards and their natural enemies.

Without powerful magical abilities, it would be impossible to detect, making it the best choice for "assassins" and spies.

Most importantly, these magical creatures, which resemble apes, have intelligence no different from that of normal adult humans, but are gentle in nature, so there is no need to worry about them doing anything too outrageous.

The same applies to owls; as long as it's not their egg-laying season, owls usually don't have much ill will towards wizards, and at the same time, they are very powerful.

Compared to these two, the Hidden Monsters are more dangerous. These are also magical creatures with an ape-like appearance, and their history is not very long.

Around the 17th century, a smuggler named Phineas Fletcher smuggled an invisible beast from the Far East to North America, intending to skin it to make an invisibility cloak.

But the tormented Invisible Beast escaped and mated with a ghoul that also escaped, giving birth to a hybrid Invisible Beast, the Stealth Monster!

Perhaps because they were born in pain and humiliation, the Hidden Monster has always retained the hatred of its ancestors for humans, and enjoys hunting and killing humans and feeding on humanoid creatures.

These creatures are incredibly powerful. They not only inherited some of the abilities of the Invisible Beasts and Ghouls, allowing them to become invisible and shapeshift, but they also inherited the Invisible Beasts' high intelligence, making them extremely cunning and difficult to deal with.

However, communication is still possible.

As for Sulley, he is a "monster" carefully selected by Vaughn, a very special type even within the magical creature family.

They have large heads, resembling round boulders. They lack the ability to attack directly, but prefer to follow humans. If they can successfully track humans for several hours, they can evoke the most painful and desperate thoughts in a person's mind, causing them to have an emotional breakdown in a state of immense frustration.

Then they can eat people.

Hearing Vaughn's request, Isabella, who was initially disappointed that her idea was impossible to realize and that she couldn't get some "powerful guys," couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

Is this what you call being cautious?

Is this what you call being prudent?

Do you have some misunderstanding about these two words?

However, Vaughn clearly didn't care about her opinion; the magical creatures he chose were all creatures that survived by using their brains and special abilities.

If their cannibalistic desires can be restrained, it should bring the little wizard a lot of "surprises".

As for how to regulate it —

Finally, Vaughn looked at Ilya and said, "—And the unicorns, I'd like to hire a few to help us keep these guys in check. What do you think?"

Ilya looked reserved, but Vaughn, who knew her well, could tell from her constant blinking that she was very interested.

Just then, Ilya remembered something and exclaimed, "Yo-yo!" (Why not recruit werewolves? They have intelligence too.)

A werewolf tribe lived in the Forbidden Forest, something Vaughn had known for a long time.

However, for various reasons, he has hardly ever had any contact with it.

As far as he knew, unicorns didn't usually associate with those werewolves, so he couldn't help but wonder, "Why are you suddenly bringing them up?"

I remember you didn't get along well with them.

Werewolves are not a natural product, but rather a result of the sins and greed of wizards. Therefore, unicorns, being forest spirits, do not particularly like werewolves.

However, the unicorns and the werewolf tribe of the Forbidden Forest do not have a good relationship because of this.

The unicorn, symbolizing holiness and beauty, may have a foul mouth, but it doesn't discriminate against or exclude a group of pitiful people. Their resistance and hostility are simply because the werewolf tribe in the Forbidden Forest isn't even considered werewolves!

This brings us to a peculiar phenomenon involving werewolves—

Werewolves only transform into their wolf form on the night of a full moon. Normally, they are human and not contagious (but they can make people bloodthirsty and crave raw meat). Their children are also human.

However, during the full moon, a pair of werewolves, after transforming and losing their minds, driven by bloodlust and wild instincts, coincidentally become husband and wife and successfully become pregnant. Then, under the influence of werewolf syndrome and the full moon ritual, this pair of werewolves will give birth to the most special offspring!

Giant wolf.

A very beautiful wolf-like beast with silver fur, a large and robust physique, yet possessing human intelligence and the ability to cast spells!

Yes, they are not ordinary things, but a new type of magical creature that has both the characteristics of magical animals and human characteristics.

A creature that, from the perspective of natural evolution, should not have been born into this world!

The werewolf tribe in the Forbidden Forest consists entirely of these wolf-like beasts, and they haven't been in the Forbidden Forest for very long. According to Vaughn's understanding, the legend of a werewolf tribe in the Forbidden Forest only appeared after Dumbledore became the headmaster of Hogwarts.

It is almost certain that the appearance of that wolf tribe is inextricably linked to Dumbledore.

As he pondered, Vaughn's gaze became somewhat profound.

Early in his research on werewolves and the werewolf virus, he discovered that the werewolf virus, a magical virus created by an unknown wizard, might not be intended to spread disease, but rather to create a new species through the spread of the virus.

Or perhaps, the person who designed the virus wanted to create a shell that conformed to his or her vision and goals!

Vaughn had no idea what the mysterious wizard's specific plans and goals were. In fact, no one in the history of magic or the notes of ancient wizards recorded how the first case of wolfification occurred or which wizard was a suspect.

Therefore, although he knew there was a wolf tribe in the Forbidden Forest, he had almost never come into contact with them.

Because he didn't know if Dumbledore was also researching werewolves, tracing the origins of the werewolf virus, or what his plans were.

Moreover, the birth of wolf beasts requires so many "coincidences" and demanding conditions, so how did Dumbledore manage to collect so many wolf beasts from "a tribe"?

In that instant, many thoughts flashed through Vaughn's mind, thoughts that he had previously had questions about but had temporarily suppressed and not pursued.

Ilya, of course, was unaware of his inner turmoil, and gave a slightly disdainful "Oh."

The language of magic isn't about syllable changes, but about conveying information through magic. Although it was just a short cry, to Vaughn, who had mastered the language of unicorns, it sounded like a string of complaints: "Of course the relationship isn't good. Those wolf pups born from twisted magic are like trees strangled by dodder; they may look lush and green, but what's alive are the vines on their branches—but Dumbledore wants us to accept them. He also said that you're fighting for the rights of werewolves in the world outside the Forbidden Forest, and you've already convinced the centaurs. You know, the centaurs and we get along very well, and we've been thinking about whether to change things recently."

Centaur?

Vaughn frowned slightly.

Centaurs believe in nature and the stars and are strongly opposed to human and magical interference with nature. For example, the Statute of Secrets covers not only wizards but also all magical creatures.

Therefore, when the Secrecy Act was first signed, the magical world invited all magical creatures to sign the contract together, to show that the magical world would jointly abide by the secrecy agreement under the witness of magic.

The signing of a contract requires distinguishing between the identities of "humans" and "beasts"—after all, many magical creatures lack advanced intelligence and need intelligent beings to "supervise" them in enforcing secrecy laws, which is also a division of rights and obligations.

As a result, the English Ministry of Magic, which led the agreement at the time, included she-demons (or banshees, a type of humanoid magical creature that looks like an old witch) and vampires in the category of "human".

The mermaids and centaurs were enraged and immediately abandoned their "human" identity, voluntarily becoming "beasts"!

Because she-devils and vampires are not natural products, they refuse to share the same category as man-made things!

The centaur's adherence to nature is evident.

Therefore, after the centaur established their tribe in the forbidden forest, they have always consciously undertaken the responsibility of maintaining the ecological balance of the forbidden forest.

According to Vaughn, the centaur tribe has always been very wary of the wolf tribe and the eight-eyed spider clan of Aragog.

Be wary of the Octopods because Hagrid's favoritism has led to their rapid reproduction, which has greatly impacted other species within the Forbidden Forest.

The centaurs are wary of the wolf tribe because they despise unnatural magical creations!

Vaughn glanced back at Isabella, who was peering at the unicorns, and instead of using human language, asked in unicorn language, "Yo—" (How did he convince the centaurs?)

"Oh!" (I don't know, have you forgotten? You and Dumbledore took us to Newt's place before—speaking of Newt, is he alright? He's a good man, we really like his basement, it's just a pity that Newt is old and ugly, every day we have to suffer a mental shock when we see him, it's such a terrible feeling—)

"—Ilya!"

Ilya clicked her tongue, still wanting more, and her mane, flowing like seaweed, swayed slightly. "Alright, let's get down to business—"

Two months ago, after you and Newt brought us back, we noticed the centaurs had changed.

"They used to be as stubborn as rocks, even more extreme than we were towards wolves. I think if Dumbledore hadn't disagreed, those big oafs might have slaughtered all the wolf cubs. But now—can you believe it? When we came back, we found that the centaur tribe, led by a centaur named Frenzer, had built villages and irrigation canals for the wolf cubs, and taught them farming and animal husbandry—a pack of wolves, farming and raising livestock in the forest! My God, this world is insane!"

Well----

That's pretty crazy.

Vaughn paused, then asked, "Are you sure this change was caused by Dumbledore?"

Ilya blinked her clear eyes: "Of course, besides him, who else could convince the centaurs? Is it the stars they worship? Hahaha!"

Miss Unicorn burst into laughter as if she had heard a joke.

Vaughn seemed to be deep in thought.

Astrology —

That's not necessarily true.

Vaughn didn't know why the wolf tribe and the centaur tribe had changed.

He recalled that at the beginning of the year, when he and Dumbledore were observing Harry's adventures, they had noticed that there had been disagreements among the centaurs.

The reason is that the stars revealed traces of fate to the people of the Sagittarius, and there are different interpretations of this among the Sagittarius themselves!

He wasn't sure what this change meant.

But as he listened to Ilya say that the centaurs were helping the wolf tribe, for some reason, he remembered Dumbledore telling him that his existence and that of the WAC were like pebbles thrown into a lake, influencing destiny.

Is the transformation of the centaurs also due to this?

However, he could only keep his doubts to himself tonight, because now was not the time to explore those questions. His current focus was on how to properly arrange Isabella's first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson.

It must be said that his decision to seek out the unicorn was the right one.

These foul-mouthed but pure-hearted creatures are the social butterflies of the forest; even the most dangerous magical creatures will not attack them unless provoked.

Not to mention, they know the lairs, routes, and recent status of all the magical creatures.

Led by Ilya and other unicorns, Vaughn and Isabella traveled only about 10 miles through the forest before finding all the magical creatures Vaughn needed.

Moreover, with unicorns mediating, communication and exchanges between the two sides went quite smoothly.

Vaughn sought out these magical creatures not to kill them for fun, nor for the materials they contained, but simply to employ them as NPCs in the Little Wizard Adventure game.

Since they are employees, they are naturally paid.

Fantastic creatures generally crave food imbued with magical elements, especially potions. As a potions master, Vaughn may lack many other things, but he certainly doesn't lack potions.

There are unicorns connecting the relationships, and magic potions paving the way.

As night deepened, when Vaughn and Isabella finished their second trip to the Forbidden Forest, they had successfully recruited several invisible beasts and bird-snakes.

The Invisible Beast and the Bird-Snake are relatively gentle in nature and do not reject contact with wizards; they are considered relatively friendly magical creatures.

Other monsters, such as the Hidden Monster and the Big-Headed Hairy Monster, are more difficult to deal with, and we may have to try a few more times.

As night fell, Vaughn and Isabella stepped out of the Forbidden Forest. Without the endless canopy of trees to block their view, the bright moonlight streamed down from the sky.

Isabella glanced back at the unicorns gradually disappearing into the shadows in the dappled moonlight behind her, and sighed, "Today's experience was truly amazing—when I was in school, I dreamed of seeing unicorns all the time, and I never imagined that this wish would come true after graduation."

Of course, what she was most curious about was why Vaughn could speak the language of unicorns and had such a good relationship with them.

However, she has one advantage: she doesn't pry. Since Vaughn isn't going to tell her, she won't bother him by asking rashly.

This is about mutual respect between friends.

Just like Vaughn never asked her how she learned African transfiguration.

Remembering the magic she knew, Isabella suddenly realized something and asked, "You want to change the practical course of Defense Against the Dark Arts to a real-world adventure? What about the reward?"

Having known Vaughn for so long, Isabella has naturally played Muggle games and understands the essence of games, which is the relationship between giving and receiving.

Defeating monsters and obtaining the treasures they guard is the most classic gameplay mode.

Instead of answering directly, Vaughn asked her in return, "What are your thoughts?"

Isabella beamed, "I'm going to use the magic I learned on my travels, along with African shapeshifting, as game rewards. They're all very useful spells, each one has helped me a lot, and the students will definitely love them!"

Vaughn listened to her with a smile, then asked again, "This reward is indeed quite good, but there's a problem."

"What?"

"Imagine you're a student. After painstakingly defeating a monster, the treasure you obtain turns out to be a cursed object. Would you be happy?"

"Of course—" Isabella's surprised expression quickly turned to reality, "Uh—it's probably not that fun—"

“Yes,” Vaughn nodded. “You’ve put your own thoughts into the students’ shoes, Isabella. You’re happy to learn new magic on your journey because you need it. But the students are different. They’re at Hogwarts, they don’t face as many dangers. They haven’t even finished learning all the magic in this castle, so why would they want to learn magic from other countries?”

Upon hearing this, Isabella agreed, but also felt somewhat frustrated.

Today's events made her feel like a tool, a tool of Vaughn and Dumbledore.

Even though she was the professor, both Vaughn and Dumbledore made the decisions for her without asking for her opinion.

Although in the end, her opinion was indeed of little use—but that was even more frustrating!

The issue of rewards that I just mentioned is that she wanted to play a role and increase her sense of participation.

However, it was rejected by Vaughn again.

Noticing Isabella's frustration, Vaughn naturally understood why. However, using Isabella to intervene in the teaching tasks was part of his future plan, and he could not let go of it.

Of course, we shouldn't be too harsh on Isabella.

After thinking for a moment, Vaughn said, "I actually have some ideas about the reward, but nothing's been finalized yet. Perhaps you could help me with that!"

"Hmm?" Isabella looked up. "In what way?"

"Follow me!"

With that, Vaughn took the lead and walked along the edge of the Forbidden Forest toward the other side of the castle.

The destination wasn't too far from Hagrid's cabin. Near the greenhouse overseen by Professor Sprout, on a wide-open meadow, stood a tree covered in knots, under the dark night sky.

Isabella, who had spent seven years at Hogwarts, recognized it at a glance: "The Willow of Hearts?"

"Yes, our destination is below it."

"under?"

Isabella stared in astonishment as Vaughn walked over to the Willow, took out his wand, conjured a hand, and scratched the scars on the Willow a few times.

Then, the plant she remembered as having a bad temper suddenly trembled a few times, as if it had been tickled. Then, its tangled roots separated, revealing the entrance to the underground passage that had been hidden by the roots.

For a fleeting moment, Isabella questioned her seven years of student life.

She had no idea that there was an underground passage beneath the Willow Tree that was hitting people!

"Don't just stand there, keep up!"

At Vaughn's call, Isabella followed him, looking somewhat dazed.

The underground passage looked like it hadn't been maintained for a long time, appearing dark and damp, with only the glowing spell raised by Vaughn, who was walking ahead, providing a little light.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, the passage gradually dried out, and the faint sounds of movement could be heard: "—Hand me that blueprint, Fred——Damn it, what went wrong?"

"Shielding material formulations, symbols, designs—there's always a possibility, George!"

The sounds of conversation and complaints initially seemed distant.

But after walking a few more steps along the passage and turning a corner, when a set of steps leading upwards appeared in front of you, the sound immediately became clear.

Isabella looked up and saw a trapdoor at the end of the steps, above which was probably the floor of some house.

In other words, they are currently below a house.

She turned to Vaughn: "Is this Hogsmeade?"

This conclusion wasn't just a guess. Before entering the underground passage, she knew the direction. She roughly estimated the time and distance to walk in the underground passage based on the direction, and then, by referring to what was within that distance centered on the "Hawthorn Tree," she naturally understood.

"Yes." Vaughn nodded and walked up the steps first.

Isabella quickly followed: "Where in Hogsmeade is this? Wait, don't tell me, I think I've already figured it out. I've lived in Hogwarts for 7 years and never knew there was a hidden underground passage in the school that leads directly to Hogsmeade."

"There's an old saying in the East—the only way to keep a secret is to never let anyone know it. This path is very well hidden; it couldn't possibly lead to any inhabited or commercial buildings in Hogsmeade, otherwise it would have been exposed long ago. Therefore, it can only lead to a place where no one lives and where no one will notice."

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