Chapter 455
Malfoy and Astoria
Chapter 455 Malfoy and Astoria
When Wade returned to the charred land, he saw from afar that Hagrid and Norberta were gone, and the students were a little confused.
"Quick! Help them over here!"
"Be gentle, it hurts!"
"Do you need water? I know the spring water spell!"
"Come on, what are you waiting for?"
Wade grabbed a person passing by and asked, "What happened?"
"You weren't here just now?" Ryan was a little surprised, and then said: "Nobeta accidentally sneezed, and then... you saw it."
He shrugged helplessly, and then helped a junior student repair his robe which was mostly burned.
"Why can't I see Hagrid?" Wade asked as he walked towards the center of the chaos.
"The shouting just now seemed to have frightened Norbeta a little. Hagrid had a hard time getting her back into the cave. Now he's probably trying to calm that big guy down!" said Ryan.
As he was speaking, a low roar was heard from the cave, and the echo was like waves, one after another, and in an instant it seemed as if the whole forest had become silent.
After a pause, Wade continued to move forward and found, as expected, that the one who was most seriously injured was the unfortunate Malfoy.
Most of his wizard robe was untied, revealing large patches of terrible burns on his originally pale skin. The blood-red and black color was terrifying.
Although most of the students present did not like Slytherin, their basic morals and compassion did not disappear. Many students surrounded Malfoy with concern and fear. Percy, Penelope and several other senior students carefully used healing spells.
Malfoy gritted his teeth, tears streaming down his face in pain, but this time he did not yell "I want to tell my dad", but gasped, "Madam Pomfrey, I want Madam Pomfrey!"
"That's terrible!" Hermione said anxiously, "We have to send all the injured to the school hospital as soon as possible."
"Don't worry." Ron comforted, "It's just a minor injury. Madam Pomfrey can heal it in two or three strokes."
Malfoy glared at him fiercely: "That's easy for you to say, but you're not the one who's in pain!"
Ron pointed at Harry next to him and said sarcastically, "Harry even broke his arm before, but he didn't cry like you, Draco sweetheart."
Malfoy immediately showed an extremely disgusted expression: "Don't call me such a disgusting name, who do you think you are?"
"That's enough!" Percy suddenly said angrily, "I'll deduct 20 points from anyone who quarrels again! I mean what I say!"
He gave his youngest brother a stern look before putting his wand down and saying, "This is all we can do for now. We need to get back to school as soon as possible."
"But Hagrid hasn't come out yet." Penelope frowned and said, "Without Hagrid, we'd better not go into the forest without permission."
"Let me see." Wade walked over through the crowd, checked Malfoy's injuries, then reached into his pocket and fumbled for a while, taking out a slender crystal bottle.
Malfoy had been looking at him with suspicion. When he saw him open the bottle and put the bottle mouth to his wound, he asked vigilantly, "What is this?"
"If your nose isn't out of order, this is burn cream."
Considering his injury, Wade didn't mind his attitude and said in a gentle tone: "To be precise, it's the one with the best effect."
Since the last mission to rescue Hayley on the island, Wade has received some potions from Professor Snape and Madam Pomfrey one after another - for treating colds, detoxifying, healing wounds, replenishing blood, etc. There are all kinds of potions, and they are much more effective than the potions Wade made himself.
There was no way. He didn't have much time to practice potions, and his level was only excellent among the students. He couldn't be compared with a potion master like Professor Snape.
Light green potion flowed out from the bottle. Wade chanted a spell softly, and the potion seemed to have its own consciousness, crawling along the wound and eventually covering all the burns.
After a few seconds, the redness and swelling of the wound quickly subsided, and the terrible red and yellow burns gradually turned into a faint red mark. A little bit of charred skin fell off, and some thumb-sized blisters that had just swelled up also disappeared.
"Excellent!" Astoria said happily. "It looks like you've recovered, Malfoy!"
"But my shoulder still hurts!" Malfoy exclaimed, and he reached out and poked it carefully, then cried out in pain.
"Does it really hurt that much?" Harry asked doubtfully.
Malfoy said grimly: "I really hope you can have a taste of this, Potter!"
Astoria said helplessly and puzzledly: "Why are you still looking for trouble when you are injured? Are you really not afraid that everyone will throw you into the Forbidden Forest?"
Although he knew that as a professor, Hagrid would never abandon his students and leave, Malfoy still turned pale when he heard this, as if he was a little scared.
"This is a wound caused by a fire dragon after all." Wade explained, "The surface skin has basically healed under the effect of the potion, but the deeper part has not yet - if you don't touch the wound, it shouldn't affect your normal movements."
Malfoy was skeptical, but he carefully put on his robe, stood up and took two steps. Sure enough, he no longer felt the knife-like pain he had just felt.
He pursed his lips, wanting to say thank you, but the words didn't come out.
While he was hesitating, Wade had already been pulled away by others. After all, there was more than one student who was burned, but Malfoy's injury was the most serious.
Malfoy didn't dare to make any big movements, and carefully arranged his clothes. He noticed from the corner of his eye that there was someone lingering beside him. He looked up and saw that it was Harry. He asked sarcastically, "Why? You want to interview me about my feelings after being injured?"
"No." Harry was a little embarrassed, touched his nose and asked: "Malfoy, since your injury will heal soon, you shouldn't complain to your father? You know this is a complete accident..."
When the first accident happened in the Care of Magical Creatures class, Harry thought it was all Malfoy's fault, because Hagrid had repeatedly said that Hippogriffs should be respected, but Malfoy deliberately provoked and insulted Buckbeak.
But this time... he just happened to stand a little close to the dragon's nose, Hagrid was definitely more responsible.
If you look closely, whether it is keeping a dangerous Norwegian Ridgeback in the forbidden forest or bringing a group of students to observe and touch a fire dragon up close, it is definitely a violation of the regulations.
Harry realized belatedly how reckless Hagrid's behavior was, so when he told Malfoy that he hoped he would not pursue the matter, he seemed particularly unconfident.
"What I want to do is none of your business, Potter!" Malfoy said coldly, "Stay away from me!"
After driving away a few Gryffindors, Malfoy didn't dare to make any big movements. He supported his injured shoulder and carefully kept a distance from the others.
Malfoy was thankful that Blaise and the others hadn't come, and of course the annoying twins from the Weasley family, otherwise, those guys would have pretended to be careless and deliberately touched his injured parts.
A figure approached from behind. Malfoy thought it was Harry again. He turned his head unhappily, but saw the thin Astoria.
He frowned and asked, "Why? Are you here to plead for mercy for that big guy too?"
"No." Astoria shook her head and said, "I know you won't pursue it." "How do you know I won't?" Malfoy said in a malicious tone, "I will let my father skin her alive, and Hagrid too. He will never be a professor again and will be sent to Azkaban!"
If Harry and his men had been here, they would have certainly come to blows, but Astoria just shook her head again.
"You won't. You like Norberta more than any of us."
Astoria said with certainty, "And until now, you have always referred to Norbeta as 'she', not 'that beast' - that's what you have always called the hippogriff, right? I have heard it several times."
Malfoy turned his head in embarrassment, and asked after a moment: "Then why did you come here to laugh at me?"
"I just thought that you might not want to be alone right now, when everyone else is with their friends."
Astoria walked unsteadily beside him with her hands behind her back and asked directly:
"Why are you always so mean to others? Potter and Gray had no ill will just now, and neither did I. Also, you may not like Ron Weasley, but his brother helped you with your treatment a few minutes ago."
Draco Malfoy looked into the blonde girl's clear eyes, and suddenly felt that the jealousy, resentment, fear and suspicion that had been suppressed in his heart for a long time were like stinky socks hidden under the bed, which he could not show.
In the end, he just said, "Do you need a reason to hate someone?"
Astoria didn't refute. After thinking for a while, she said, "Okay, I can understand that... After all, I also have someone I hate."
Malfoy paused and asked curiously, "Who?"
Astoria didn't answer, she just looked up at him quietly.
Malfoy was a little confused at first, but suddenly came to his senses after a moment: "——Pansy?"
"I think she often bullies my sister, but when I told Daphne to stay away from Parkinson's, she told me to stay out of it, just like you did just now."
Astoria sighed and said, "Why are you all like this? You know you're a bad friend, but you still can't break up with him?"
"It's not as simple as you say." Malfoy said unhappily, "This matter is very complicated. What do you know, little girl?"
Astoria hit the nail on the head: "I don't think it takes much wisdom to stay away from friends who make you feel uncomfortable... You just lack some courage."
Malfoy was speechless and didn't know how to refute. It seemed that his sharp words, which he usually used when arguing with Harry, had become rusty.
Just at this time, Hagrid finally came out of the cave, with a large area of his beard burnt and several holes in his clothes.
"Okay, kids, everything okay?"
Hagrid looked around carefully, paying special attention to Malfoy who seemed to have screamed just now. Seeing that everyone seemed to be fine (already treated by Wade), he finally felt relieved and said hurriedly:
"Okay, let's go back to school. Nobetha is... uh... in a bad mood. Was anyone injured just now? Is it nothing serious?"
Hagrid looked at Malfoy several times, but Malfoy had no time to pay attention to him because he realized slowly that he had forgotten to refute Astoria just now. Pansy was not a bad friend. She was the most supportive person in the entire Slytherin Academy.
But after walking for a distance with the crowd, Malfoy slowly recalled the details of their daily interactions.
He couldn't help but think: What Astoria said... doesn't seem to be wrong.
……
Wade stayed at the end of the team, turned a dead branch into a thin wooden board, wrote a message on it, then walked to the place where he found the wolf cub and hung the board on the tree with a rope.
He quickly caught up with the team in front, with Yaya still jumping and skipping beside him.
"strangeness……"
As Hagrid walked, he couldn't help looking around, but the trees that blocked the sun blocked his sight, and Hagrid didn't find anything unusual.
"What's strange?" Harry asked.
"The Forbidden Forest seems a little hotter than before." Hagrid said puzzledly: "And don't you smell it? I always feel the smell of barbecue..."
Harry sniffed and his stomach growled twice.
"You're hungry, Hagrid," Harry concluded, and then said, "So am I. The dinner in the Great Hall shouldn't have disappeared yet, should it?"
"Don't worry," Theo said. "If we get home late, we can go to the kitchen and make something for everyone."
He blinked, and Harry immediately smiled, thinking of the sumptuous food and welcoming house-elves.
Now he actually hoped to see an empty dining table when he returned.
When it came to dinner, Hagrid immediately forgot his previous thoughts. Moreover, his most important task now was to send all the students back safely.
The return journey was still smooth and quiet, even a little too quiet. There are usually all kinds of noisy sounds in the forest at night, but tonight it was so quiet that even the insects seemed to be asleep. Only the footsteps and breathing of the crowd could be heard.
Hagrid felt uneasy, so he quickened his pace and urged everyone to walk faster. He didn't breathe a sigh of relief until the lights of the castle came into view.
Wade paused for a moment, and a beam of fire suddenly shot out from the dark forest, flashed by his side and disappeared.
Wade stuffed the pencil case into his pocket, looked at Yaya who was staring at him with wide eyes, and smiled softly.
The hound tilted its head in confusion, then shook it off and trotted towards Hagrid's hut, lying on the steps as if it had collapsed from exhaustion.
"Okay, let's go eat now." Hagrid clapped his hands and said, "If anyone was injured just now, go to the school hospital to find Madam Pomfrey - of course, you all understand. In addition, hand in a paper to me next week on the topic of the Norwegian Ridgeback..."
Amid the students' loud complaints, Hagrid expertly assigned the assignments and strode toward the castle.
……
More than half an hour later, a hand took down the wooden board hanging on the tree. A man dressed like a rag display stand stood under the tree and turned the board over to take a look.
There was a white wolf and several wolf cubs beside him. After waiting for a while, the white wolf impatiently scratched his legs with its claws.
"Don't scratch. This is the only pair of pants I have left." The man said in a hoarse voice, "The wizard brought Morris into the castle. He said he would send the child back after the cure."
The white wolf howled a few times, with a look of human concern in its eyes.
"We can't enter the castle. We can only choose to believe." The man stuffed the wooden board behind his waist and said to a little wolf with amber eyes next to him: "Karen, tell me the whole story."
(End of this chapter)