Chapter 458
Werewolf
Chapter 458 Werewolf
"Dumbledore?" Morris became excited upon hearing the name. He said loudly, "I know Dumbledore! He is the most powerful wizard in the world!"
"Well, yes." Wade smiled: "Have you ever met Dumbledore?"
"No, I haven't," said Maurice, shaking his head. "I just heard from Dad that he would read the newspaper to us sometimes."
As he spoke, he turned in Wade's arms and looked towards the castle that was gradually getting farther away.
Hogwarts is very beautiful in the morning light. It is shrouded in a thin mist, and the rising sun gives the castle's towers and stone walls a light golden glow.
Students rushing to class and breakfast shuttled back and forth in the castle. Young figures ran briskly past the windows. The sounds of laughter and playfulness could be faintly heard. It seemed full of energy, making the ancient castle glow with vitality.
There was undisguised envy in Morris's eyes.
"Wade, can't I really go to school here?" he asked in a low voice.
Wade was silent for a moment, then said, "Students at Hogwarts all receive their acceptance letters when they are eleven years old."
"Eleven? I'll be an adult by then."
Maurice sighed, resting his head on Wade's arm, staring at the castle without blinking.
Vader had reached the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and the air around him seemed cooler.
He was just about to find Hagrid and ask him to take the two-year-old kid back when he suddenly saw a figure walking out from behind a tree in the dark forest, looking at him silently and slightly warily.
Unlike Lupin, who could still integrate into normal human society, that man's eyes, nose and ears looked very similar to those of a real wolf. He had a pale face, sunken eye sockets, messy hair like a savage, tattered clothes, and no shoes on his feet.
He carried a bow and arrow on his back, and had scimitars and daggers on his waist and legs. In his hand he held a black shotgun, with the muzzle pointed down at the ground, with no intention of raising it.
Wade stopped and saw that the man’s name was Lucas Holden, and shook the young wolf: “Maurice, is that your father?”
"what?"
Morris was trying hard to take in every tree and blade of grass in Hogwarts. He was startled when he heard this, turned his head and saw the man in the forest. He was so scared that he rolled out of Wade's arms.
"Dad...Dad..."
Morris lowered his head timidly, tucked his tail between his legs and whispered, "I'm sorry... I... I shouldn't have run around..."
The man said in a hoarse voice, "Morris, come back."
"...Oh." Morris looked back at Wade and the castle behind him with longing, and walked towards the Forbidden Forest reluctantly.
His wounds had basically healed, but he still looked a little weak. The man waited for him to slowly walk over to him, then leaned over, picked up the wolf cub and examined it.
"I'm fine." Morris didn't want to be tossed around, so he pushed his father's hand away with his little paw and said embarrassedly, "Wade asked the school doctor to treat me."
"Ved, is that so?" The man looked at Ved and said, "Thank you for saving my son."
Vader looked into his amber eyes, nodded and said, "You're welcome. You can take him home. I should go to class."
"Wait!" The man suddenly shouted, and then said: "Be careful, kid. There have been a lot of vampires in the forest recently. They asked me to help lead the way and contacted the Acromantula Tribe."
Wade was stunned. He raised his eyebrows slightly when he heard the name of the Acromantula. Then he was silent for a moment and asked, "Does Professor Dumbledore know about this?"
"Of course." The man raised his lips and said in a mocking tone, "He allowed someone of my dirty bloodline to live in the Forbidden Forest. In return, we naturally have to act as spies for Dumbledore."
Because of his tone, Wade tilted his head slightly and frowned, "I'm sorry, it sounds like Professor Dumbledore has provided help to your family, but I always feel...you seem to be very dissatisfied with him?"
"…dissatisfied?" The man sneered, "No, I respect him. But Dumbledore? He is the one who disappoints everyone again and again!"
Wei De thought of the story of gratitude and hatred, his face turned cold, and he asked, "What do you mean?"
The man narrowed his eyes and said, "You are still studying, kid. In your heart, I'm afraid you think your principal is very great and trustworthy, and you can rely on him at any time. But after you graduate..."
His voice stopped abruptly, his nostrils twitched a few times, and his teeth chattered.
After a long while, he spoke again: "When you graduate, you will see that the Ministry of Magic is corrupt, inefficient, and slow. It always makes a mess of everything. It is full of discrimination and prejudice. Criminals are at large, but people who live a peaceful life will be thrown into Azkaban just because they bought a second-hand wand..."
"You know there's a big problem here, and you also know there's someone who can definitely solve it...at least improve part of it. You ask him again, again, and again! Again! Again and again! Ask him to come forward! But he always refuses!"
"As long as Dumbledore nods, he doesn't have to do anything and the position of Minister of Magic will be offered to him!"
"But what about Dumbledore? He would rather see a greedy fool take that position than leave Hogwarts!"
"Tell me, child, in this situation...how are you going to thank him?"
The werewolf asked, but then, seeing Vader's still somewhat childish face, he smiled bitterly and wiped his face.
"I'm sorry, you're still a child, I shouldn't tell you this... Go back to study, and don't come to the Forbidden Forest again recently."
Then, holding Morris, who dared not even breathe, he strode into the forest.
Vader stood there for a moment longer before turning and walking back toward the castle.
Hagrid had vaguely heard the werewolf's growl just now and was standing outside the hut, looking around, with an axe in his hand.
Seeing Vader, Hagrid dropped his axe and asked curiously, "Vade, who were you talking to just now?"
"The werewolf who lives in the Forbidden Forest." Wade said simply, "I found his child injured."
"Oh...that guy."
Hagrid felt relieved, and a conflicted expression appeared on his bearded face.
"What's wrong?" Wade asked curiously.
"Don't approach them, Wade." Hagrid pulled his messy beard and said, "Of course, Remus is a good man, I like him very much; Lucas is not bad either."
"And?" Vader said with a smile.
"Well...but Vader, you're too unguarded against werewolves."
Hagrid bent down, looked at him worriedly, and said, "Most werewolves are extremely violent guys, especially towards wizards. They don't have a good impression of them. During the last war, almost all the werewolves were on the side of You-Know-Who."
"I understand." Wade followed the advice and said sincerely, "I won't approach those strange werewolves casually again."
"That's good." Hagrid did not doubt it and smiled happily. "You can write a paper on how to correctly identify werewolves..."
"Stop!" Wade gestured and asked curiously, "Hagrid, why do you like assigning homework recently?"
Even when taking students out for an "outing", they are required to bring a paper as a "commemorative gift". "Oh, this is Professor Kettleburn's advice to me." Hagrid said, "I am very worried that you all can't pass the OWLs exam. I heard that it is extremely difficult. Professor Kettleburn said that as long as you write more papers, you will always imprint the knowledge in your mind..."
Vader was speechless.
Two people who usually don't write much actually came up with a homework method to improve their grades. It's really... too surprising.
He asked, "But Hagrid, isn't that something that fifth-year students should consider? You've arranged it for us when we're only in our third year?"
He liked to learn all kinds of magical knowledge that he had never been exposed to, but Wade didn't have the patience to ask him to write papers over and over again on content that he had already fully mastered.
Hagrid rubbed his head and said simply, "It wouldn't hurt to learn early."
"Yes." Wade said seriously, "If everyone knew that this course has a lot of homework, there might not be many freshmen willing to take your class next school year! There are too many papers to write, even Hermione can't stand it!"
Hagrid was stunned. "Really?"
"Of course." Vader nodded.
The half-giant fell into deep thought.
Vader quietly moved away from him and headed towards the castle.
Speaking of Hermione, here comes Hermione.
When he stepped into the entrance hall, Wade saw Hermione was bumped by someone and the books in her arms fell out.
"Hey!" Hermione yelled angrily.
Pan Xi, who bumped into someone, pretended not to see or hear anything, and walked quickly into the hall with a few Slytherin girls, and then laughed in glee.
Hermione was so angry that her eyes instantly became fierce, but she was too busy to fight back. She immediately squatted down and started picking up the books.
Wade walked over quickly and waved his wand. All the books on the ground floated up and fell into Hermione's hands.
Finally, there was only a thick book on the history of magic left, which had already been picked up by someone.
"Here you go, Granger." Caryl handed over the book.
"Thank you." Hermione took it, then glanced at Wade and reminded him, "Class is about to start, Wade, remember not to be late!"
"Well, I won't miss the time." Wade asked, "Why didn't you put all the books in your bag?"
He had cast an invisible stretching spell on the backpacks of all the SSC people, so they could fit a lot of books in them and they were almost weightless.
"Oh, I'm going to return these books to the library." Hermione said anxiously, "I have to go first!"
The girl left in a hurry, and when Wade turned around, he found that Khalil had left without knowing when.
"Looking for that little sharp-toothed kid from earlier? He left with his girlfriend."
In the portrait hanging on the wall, there was a guy lying on the frame and suddenly spoke.
"Griffiths?" Wade looked at the red-haired guy in surprise, and then asked, "Girlfriend?"
"I guess so." Griffiths said with a smile, "Although I haven't heard any news, but the two of them are so close, their relationship must be unusual."
Wade didn't care about Khalil's love history, but he still warned: "Don't spread rumors. Be careful of students complaining or you'll be moved to the astronomy tower again!"
Griffiths's expression became serious, and he made a motion as if he were zipping up his mouth.
After watching Wade enter the auditorium, he complained to the people around him: "Young people nowadays really have less and less respect for their elders."
The person in the portrait next to him was sleeping with his eyes closed and did not answer.
Griffiths could talk happily on his own: "But it's better this way. If you are always respectful, it will be meaningless... Oh, you don't have to pretend to be asleep. I won't bother you today."
The old man in the pointed hat next to him seemed to be pretending to sleep to the end. Even his hair didn't move. Only the slight snoring proved that he was still a portrait of the magical world.
Griffiths looked somewhat sad. He retreated to his original place and sat there dejectedly, as if he had also become a static portrait.
……
Werewolf Lucas threw his son onto his shoulders and told him to lie down on his stomach. Then, while scolding Morris for being disobedient and getting into danger, he strode towards home.
For some reason, from last night to today, the Forbidden Forest seemed to have suddenly become friendly. He slept outside for a night, not in a cave, nor in a built nest, and he did not encounter any danger.
Suddenly, Lucas paused. At the same time, Morris raised his head and sniffed a few times with his wet nose, trying to catch the slight sense of disharmony in the air.
"It smells like barbecue, Dad," Morris said pitifully. "I'm hungry."
"Wait a moment." Lucas pushed aside the grass and walked carefully towards the direction where the smell came from.
A man was lying on the ground, covered in blood and in a very miserable state. There were several burns on his body and his hair was almost burnt off.
Lucas examined it carefully for a moment, then froze.
——Isn't this the person who asked him about the nest of the Acromantula a few days ago? If I remember correctly, he claimed to be a vampire.
Lucas looked back in the direction of Hogwarts and saw only endless trees and leaves.
Without much hesitation, he dragged the man up from the ground, tried to see if he was still breathing, then took out a crystal bottle from the bag on his waist and carefully dripped a few drops into the man's mouth.
A good potion always has an immediate effect. After a while, the man opened his eyes with difficulty and coughed a few times.
"Hey, Thomas," the werewolf asked, "Did the negotiations with the spider go well?"
"Lucas... it's good to see you."
Thomas recognized the guide he had hired before, and stood up, pressing his head. He said in confusion and frustration, "The negotiations have completely failed... or rather, they are not as meaningful as we thought before - there are far fewer members of the Spider Tribe than expected."
"Few?" The werewolf didn't understand. He remembered that when he passed by not long ago, he saw countless spiders in the spider's nest.
He was about to ask a question when the vampire opposite him suddenly made a "don't talk" gesture.
The two men fell silent, and Morris remained motionless.
Then they heard a chaotic sound of footsteps approaching and finally stopping.
(End of this chapter)