Chapter 266: Quidditch Training

Ivan left Sirius' office and headed for the library, thinking about the centaur colony.

Since he was going to the colony the next day, he had to be prepared.

To make sure of that, Ivan went to the library to study the trend of the constellation over the past few days, and see what it represented. He remembered that there were some magical books in the library that specifically introduced centaur astrology, which might be useful.

Besides, he had to inform Harry, Ron, and Hermione as soon as possible.

A few minutes later, Ivan had just reached the library door when he saw Harry panting. Behind him, Madame Pince, the librarian, was shouting harshly and scolding Harry for running through the library.

"What are you doing?" Ivan said in astonishment, reaching out to stop Harry.

"I'm looking for you, Ivan!" Harry answered with a gasp.

"Alright, I'm looking for you too." Ivan looked around. He lowered his voice and said, "Remember the other day, at the Burrow, when I told you, Ron, and Hermione about the Secret Treasures left behind by the Four Founders of Hogwarts?"

Harry hadn't expected Ivan to say that. He froze, became serious, and nodded carefully.

"According to my reasoning, the key to the treasure left by Gryffindor is kept in the Centaur colony in the Forbidden Forest." Ivan said, "I just spoke to Sirius, he's taking the four of us to the centaur colony tomorrow night."

Harry looked surprised when he heard Ivan's words.

It took him a long time to understand what Ivan meant.

"You mean the magical item that was kept in the centaur colony and left by the Gryffindor himself to augment the magic?" Harry couldn't believe it. "Tomorrow night, will Sirius take the four of us to the Forbidden Forest to look for it?"

After seeing Ivan nod and confirm it, Harry got more and more excited.

It was the greatest adventure to be able to explore the centaur colony in the Forbidden Forest, to find what Gryffindor himself had left behind, to explore a mystery that hadn't been solved in a thousand years.

It was a while before Harry calmed down.

"Tell Ron and Hermione and let them get ready." Ivan continued, "By the way, you just said you were looking for me, what's up?"

"I hope you can come to the pitch with me to watch the last Gryffindor practice before the match." Harry said excitedly, "Ron and Hermione are there too. You can talk to them about it."

"Wait, Harry, tell them both." Ivan said hurriedly, "I still have something to do, I'm going to the library to study the trajectory of the nearest constellation. It is very useful to understand the centaurs."

"When the training is over, we can study together. Come on, Ivan. Ron and Hermione are waiting for us on the field!" Harry didn't seem to hear Ivan's refusal, he couldn't help but push him in the direction of the Quidditch stadium. "You can't always stay in the library - you need to relax and breathe some fresh air!"

"Alright!" Ivan thought about it. He really needed Hermione's help.

His astrology wasn't particularly good, and Hermione could give some professional advice on that. Many parts of arithmetic divination involved planetary orbits, and Hermione had been observing and recording them for a whole year.

Hermione's arithmancy and Divination scores were known to be the best at Hogwarts.

Harry dragged Ivan to the Quidditch pitch. He stood at the edge of the pitch. They were forming a circle and listening to Madam Hooch's explanation of the firebolt.

Madam Hooch was as impressed with the firebolt as everyone else.

She took it in her hands and gave them the benefit of her professional opinion, "Look at the balance it has! If the Nimbus series has a flaw, it's a slight bucking at the end. You often find that they develop a resistance after a few years. They've also updated the handle, a bit thinner than the sweepers, reminds me of the old Silver Arrows; too bad they stopped making them. I learned to fly on one, and it was also a very fine broom..."

She continued in this vein for some time, until Wood interrupted her. Mrs. Hooch handed the sweeper back to Harry, went to the edge of the bleachers and sat down.

Wood relayed the tactic to the players. Ivan waved to Ron and Hermione. The three of them climbed to the top of the stands and found a place where no one was sitting.

In the middle of the pitch, the Gryffindors Quidditch players flew up from the ground.

Ivan saw Harry flying through the air with the firebolt. He was very fast, almost like the wind, and he could only see a vague shadow.

"Harry, I'm going to let the Snitch out!" Wood called, standing in the middle of the pitch and waving Harry into the air.

As soon as his words were finished, Harry turned sharply from the sky.

He seemed to be weightless. He went into a perfectly controlled dive, skimming the grassy field with his toes, then stopped abruptly, with a slight twinkle of his shadow, came off Wood's back and grabbed the newly released Snitch.

The whole process took less than ten seconds.

Over the pitch, the deafening cheers of the Gryffindor team could be heard, Harry released the Snitch again, gave it a minute's head start, then blurred, weaved in and out of the other team members; he found himself lurking near Katie Bell's knee, curled it with ease and caught it again.

"Great, the fireboltt is the best!" Ron shouted. "Come on, Harry, we'll win tomorrow!"

Hermione was very happy to see Harry's performance.

The two looked as usual, but Ivan was catching the faint tension and oddness in the air, What must have happened between Ron and Hermione? They hardly ever looked each other in the eye.

Ivan shook his head, not thinking too hard.

In his opinion, that was just the way Ron and Hermione were. It was all too normal for the two of them to fight.

But most of the time, Hermione was right.

Ivan stood at the top of the stands and looked at the Forbidden Forest in the distance.

It was as quiet as ever; not a single bird could be seen. Looking out over this sea of green, the tall trees at its edge left hardly anything to be seen.

As the oldest living creatures in the Forbidden Forest, centaurs had been there for a long time, and before Hogwarts was established, their footprints were scattered all over the land.

Ivan didn't know what he would be asked to do. Thinking of Florence's melancholy expression as he left, his feeling of unease gradually increased.

He also thought of Professor Trelawney's prophecy that Voldemort would mark the chosen person in the temple, perhaps the place where the centaurs used to keep the key to Gryffindor's secret treasure.

Ivan didn't know what to expect next, and shook his head vigorously.