Bring a fairy tale to Hogwarts!

Chapter 82 I Don't Want Your Opinion, I Want My Opinion

Even after they were completely away from the centaur settlement, Hagrid's face still bore a puzzled expression. He trudged along the rarely trodden path of the Forbidden Forest, and after a while said:

"This shouldn't be the case."

"The horsemen know a lot of things—they are always mysterious, but they always keep their mouths shut. Such a refusal to listen to outsiders goes against their usual principles."

"Yes," Victor said, also puzzled. "Besides, this is the first time I've been rejected by a magical creature."

I've always been very popular.

"I don't understand, I really don't understand."

Hagrid repeated himself, his expression showing a hint of frustration and unease. He spoke for a while, then fell silent, staring at the ground, clearly pondering the last centaur's words.

A terrible success—...—Insisting on failure—

What are all these things?

If the horsemen were willing to speak frankly, I imagine 60% of the world's problems could be solved overnight.

Hagrid shook his head in frustration, giving up on trying to understand—he had never been able to figure out what the centaurs were saying, even though they had initially been quite willing to talk to him.

But then he suddenly remembered Victor's position beside him.

"Yes, Victor," Hagrid slapped his forehead, "look at the stars! What did you see? If you could explain this to the centaurs, it would save us a lot of trouble. Were you trying to talk to them about the stars too?"

"almost-"

Victor spoke as he walked through the dark, dense forest. As he answered Hagrid's question, he found a gap in the trees and peered at the night sky through the leaves.

The night sky above the Forbidden Forest was clear and bright, unobstructed by any human lights. Looking up, a long river of stars stretched across the sky, shimmering with a faint but undeniable brilliance.

Hagrid looked up with him—but he couldn't make out anything except a jumble of stars.

After a few seconds, Victor said:

"The comet's tail did indeed sweep past Venus, but it is now heading towards the boundary between Jupiter and Mars. In ancient times, Jupiter symbolized all positive and lucky forces, but Mars was another claw of disaster."

Victor then fell silent.

After waiting a while, Hagrid didn't hear Victor continue explaining the meaning of success and failure, so he asked again:

"so?"

"Hmm? There's nothing to it."

Victor replied matter-of-factly, "Mars and Jupiter, that's what I was trying to tell them. It represents the same thing that centaur said."

"So what exactly do success and failure refer to?"

"Oh," Victor shook his head, "explaining the rest too clearly would disrupt the proper trajectory of the stars."

Hagrid fell silent. His lips pressed into a straight line, clearly showing his resentment. He took a deep breath and finally said dryly:

"You should live in the centaur forest. I must say, refusing to include you as a member was the worst decision they ever made."

Dealing with Victor isn't a particularly pleasant experience. He might be a good conversationalist over a meal, but when it comes to serious business, it's best to keep your distance. This is not only good for your physical health, but also for your mental well-being.

Fortunately, Hagrid had dealt with many magical creatures and knew their way of speaking, so he didn't get really angry. After a short silence, he quickly regained his composure.

"I need to talk to Dumbledore about this; Frenzer's words are never unfounded."

After taking Tooth's rope from Victor, Hagrid said this.

"Ference?"

"That centaur who spoke last, he's the one we're closest to. Dumbledore even wants to hire him as a professor at the university to teach about astrology."

But Hagrid had clearly had enough of the centaur topic, and after saying this briefly, he quickly made an excuse to leave.

The two then parted ways.

The next morning, at the breakfast table, Victor wrapped the two untreated dead spiders in a box.

He handed it to Quirrell.

Quirrell's expression immediately froze. Ignoring the curious gazes of those around him, he quickly pulled the box away with a little force and stuffed it into his cloak. This action earned him a squinting, suspicious look from Snape beside him.

Victor, without changing his expression, said to him:

"No need to rush, these are just two giant eight-eyed spiders."

"Two what?"

Quirrell stared at him in surprise.

"The corpses of two juvenile giant spiders," Victor said calmly. "This box has a constant temperature and humidity effect, which ensures that the contents will not be damaged, so the venom sacs of the giant spiders can be completely removed."

The efficacy remains unchanged.

"I've looked into it, and the method you mentioned last time wasn't very good and was quite troublesome, so I've switched to poison sacs for you. They're more effective when used with medicine."

Quirrell: "..—"

He stared at Victor for a moment, then realized he meant, "I don't care what you think, I care what I think."

Looking at Victor's matter-of-fact face, Quirrell suddenly really wanted to pounce on him and tear him to pieces!

No, you only change your mind if I agree to it? If any Death Eater had dared to do something like this before, they would have been hit with the Crucifixion Curse a dozen times over!

This is truly—

There's not much we can do about Victor.

Quirrell clenched his fists, but he still realized this—Victor was a professor at Hogwarts, and didn't seem to be the type who was particularly bad at magic. Even if the Dark Lord wanted to teach him a lesson, he wouldn't risk rushing over to cast the Crucifixion Curse.

Since Victor was unwilling to help, he had no choice but to accept the loss.

Quirrell initially intended to exploit Victor, as the foreign wizard lacked common sense and might not know that unicorn blood was cursed. By tricking him into killing a unicorn, Quirrell could make him a vessel to share the curse.

But this simple scheme failed.

Although he was somewhat prepared, Quirrell's movements as he put away the box were still very stiff.

"Okay—okay," he said dryly, "but I hope you remember, Victor, that our research was done collaboratively. If it fails, all your hard work will be for nothing."

Because they were in the teachers' section, Quirrell dared not openly reveal their plans. So he used his research to hint at Voldemort's resurrection and also wanted to threaten Victor, implying that if he failed, he would also be implicated.

But Victor just tilted his head, not quite understanding what Quirrell was saying.

—Will it?

Hasn't his hard work already yielded results?

After breakfast, Quirrell hurried to his office under Snape's malicious gaze.

The other professors were also curious about what kind of research they were going to do with the venom sacs of the giant spider, but they didn't ask any more questions, and Hagrid, who knew about the unicorn blood, happened to be away.

But when Quirrell returned to his office, his expression changed immediately.

He knelt down abruptly, facing a small shadow on the table.