A certain broken Hogwarts

Chapter 36 Nighttime Intrusion into the Forbidden Forest

On Friday, a notice was posted on the bulletin board in the Slytherin common room informing first-year students that flight lessons would begin the following Thursday.

"Going with Gryffindor?" Draco narrowed his gray eyes, then gave Crabbe and Goyle a warning look. "You two better not embarrass me!"

The two big guys were secretly stuffing small cakes into their mouths. Upon hearing this, they quickly stuffed the cakes in their hands into their mouths and nodded repeatedly with their cheeks puffed out.

"That's awesome! I hope I don't embarrass myself..." Harry said eagerly, unable to contain his excitement. He had been looking forward to flying in the sky on a flying broomstick for a long time.

"If you fall off your broomstick, you better pray I catch you," Draco said, raising his pointed chin. "I've been able to fly thousands of feet in the air on a broomstick since I was five, and when I was ten, I almost crashed a Muggle helicopter down... If freshmen weren't excluded from the Quidditch team, I could easily join."

Harry maintained his smile, not intending to tell him that if someone were to collide with a helicopter, the most likely outcome would be that the person is knocked off, or both of them fall to their deaths...

"Flying lessons? It's already this late?" Owen glanced at the notice board and lost interest. He had naturally learned to fly at home; after all, who wouldn't want to ride a flying broomstick? He was even quite good at it, able to do some fancy tricks. However, he had absolutely no interest in Quidditch, that barbaric and illogical sport—it was anything but elegant.

"I'm alright, I fly so-so, a little slower than a Muggle plane," Blaise said with a reserved expression.

"Hey, you're getting even more outrageous, aren't you?" Harry thought to himself.

"Then you'd better work harder! I fly much faster than a Muggle plane!" Draco boasted loudly. "Once I flew for a long time, and if my mother hadn't found me, I almost flew across the ocean to another country..."

Owen listened with amusement to their boasting, while unfolding his parchment to write his Transfiguration homework. Daphne listened with a smile, occasionally asking Owen a few questions about his studies.

As night deepened, the common room quieted down, with only the occasional sound of students getting up to return to their dormitories.

"Owen, are you going out again tonight?" Harry asked before heading back.

"Yeah." Owen had just finished packing his backpack.

"Good luck," Harry said. He certainly wasn't going to look for that thing.

"In my opinion, you're just wasting your time," Draco scoffed. "I guarantee you won't find it for a whole year. Want to bet?"

"Go back now," Owen waved him away.

He took a deep breath, recited the three-piece set of spells—Disillusionment Charm, Silence Charm, and Concealment Charm—to himself, and then left the common room with practiced ease.

The auditorium was completely dark in the dead of night. The magnificent sculptures and long tables and benches had turned into deep black shadows, giving it a somewhat eerie appearance. The enchanted ceiling faithfully reflected the weather outside: dark clouds gathered, lightning flashed, and thunder roared, indicating that a heavy rain was imminent.

Owen strode through the empty Great Hall, opened a small side door, and entered the small hut he had been staying in for the past few days. The hut was small, furnished with some tables and chairs, and rarely anyone came in; even Filch and his cat didn't patrol here—the nocturnal wizard had absolutely no interest in it.

A damp chill hung in the air before a heavy rain. Owen pulled his cloak tighter around himself, struggling to tear his gaze away from the unlit fireplace. Though he longed to warm himself by the fire, lighting it here seemed too blatant.

He curled up in a spotless armchair, closed his eyes as if he were asleep, but in reality his mind was in a meditation space, training his spells as usual.

Because he had spent most of his time practicing the Disillusionment Charm and Occlumency these days, he hadn't made much progress on advanced spells like the Ironclad Charm. Now he could finally put some thought into it.

However, tonight is destined to be an extraordinary night.

Less than an hour later, a hazy, silvery-white figure emerged from the wall—it was Ms. Grey. Her face still wore a calm yet slightly haughty expression; her magnificent robe trailed on the ground, and her skin shone with a pearly white hue.

Irving opened his eyes and looked over.

"My birds have found the fax machine in the Forbidden Forest," Ms. Gray said bluntly. "A heavy rain is coming, and they'll have a hard time flying in the downpour. If you want to go, you'd better hurry."

"Coming." Owen drew his wand and strode towards the outer area. "Ms. Grey, you keep birds?"

The female ghost nodded: "I asked Ravenclaw students to feed them for me, and they usually obey my commands."

As she spoke, she stopped inside the castle gate and pointed to a raven circling outside: "Just follow it."

"That's so convenient," Owen exclaimed, then added, "Ms. Gray, aren't you coming along?"

"I don't like the feeling of rain running through my body," Ms. Gray said, looking up at the dark sky, her tone not very enthusiastic.

"Alright, thanks." Owen followed the raven across the field to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. The bird, with its glossy black feathers, circled him once before flapping its wings and flying into the forest.

Irving took a deep breath, recited the three-piece night-walking mantra to himself again, pulled the hood of his cloak over his head, and chased after them.

The path in the forbidden forest was difficult to traverse. Although there was a winding, narrow path that disappeared deep into the dark forest, the ravens flying in the air clearly didn't care about the path on the ground. Because a storm was approaching, they impatiently flew in a straight line, occasionally cawing as if to urge the others on.

The sky was pitch black, and the Forbidden Forest was even darker. Owen uttered "Flashing Light" before he could barely see the road.

"In that case, my illusion spell won't be able to block out the light... Oh well, let's leave it at that."

With the help of his wand's light, Owen struggled to climb over one undulating slope after another, stepping on stones of all sizes, passing through deep tree pits filled with fallen leaves and dense bushes, and occasionally dodging wildly growing branches. The small shadows of ravens appeared and disappeared among the gaps in the leaves.

Occasionally, deep, drawn-out howls or sharp, piercing cries echoed through the jungle, sending chills down one's spine. There were also the occasional crackling sounds of branches snapping, but when Owen looked closely, he found nothing.

A dazzling flash of lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating everything. A deafening rumble of thunder followed, and large raindrops began to fall in torrents, stinging the skin. In an instant, the roars seemed to vanish, leaving only the patter of raindrops on the leaves.

"Immune to water and fire," Owen chanted to himself to avoid getting wet in the rain. He looked up at the sky, wanting to chant one for the raven that had led the way, but its small figure was already out of sight in the dense downpour.

"Where did it go?" Owen raised his glowing wand and had no choice but to continue walking in the same direction. After a while, just when he thought he had completely lost track of the raven, the black bird slanted down from between the branches and landed on Owen's shoulder, flapping its water-soaked wings.

"Immune to water and fire... Cleaned to a crisp!" Owen chanted a spell on the raven, drying it off. But it still stood on Owen, its dark claws gripping his robes tightly, its body trembling.

"Okay, we're continuing this way, right?" Owen pointed ahead, seeing that it couldn't take flight anytime soon. The raven flapped its wings, whether it understood or not was unclear.

The ground beneath his feet grew increasingly muddy and difficult to traverse, with only the sound of pouring rain all around. Owen glanced back at the path he had traversed, realizing he was already quite deep into the Forbidden Forest: "How much further?"

As soon as he turned his head, he saw a pair of round, bulb-like eyes shining in the thick darkness under a tree trunk that was as thick as two people could hug.

(End of this chapter)