Chapter 60: The Wounded Unicorn (Edited)

Hagrid spoke to them as they walked, "Listen, what we're going to do tonight is dangerous... well, there's never a safe time while you're in the Forbidden Forest" sighed Hagrid, "even after walking around the Forbidden Forest for half my life... I can't take it lightly.... I don't want you two to have an accident due to carelessness, but this is actually a very good opportunity to learn about magical creatures."

Hagrid led Tom and Hermione to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, he held the oil lamp aloft, illuminating a path in front of it in the dense forest, where droplets of something silvery white glittered.

"Unicorn blood," Hagrid said, pointing to the silver, "Very unusual. Never before has a unicorn been injured so badly. Usually, unicorns don't go near the edge of the forbidden forest. Our mission today is to find the injured unicorn and put it out of its misery."

A breeze blew through the air and Tom shivered and got goose bumps. At this point, Tom was a little glad he had come well prepared.

After giving them some advice, Hagrid led the two of them and the dog into the Forbidden Forest. They walked along the path, following the trail of blood, the moonlight falling through the branches, making the small flecks of unicorn blood in the forest even more visible.

Tom dipped his finger into the blood, and the moment he touched it, it felt warm and moist, and turned a strange silvery blue in the moonlight.

[Main mission triggered]

[Elf in the forest: Find the wounded unicorn and end its suffering]

[Mission Reward: ???]

[Demon hunter: Repel the culprit]

[Quest reward: ???]

[End Evil: Finish it all off!]

[Mission Reward: System Version Upgrade].

As the moonlight shone on the unicorn's blood, Tom was also given three quests.

As they went deeper, the blood trail became thicker. Finally, in a clearing, they came upon a glowing creature. It lay unnaturally on the ground, its mane spilling over the leaves.

What had been a graceful and beautiful creature was now writhing in the mud.

Despite the distance, Tom could hear her pained gasps.

Instead of immediately stepping forward, Hagrid stepped back, behind a tree, and loaded his huge crossbow before stepping out.

"Sectumsempra!"

As Hagrid reached the edge of the clearing, a flash of light shone like a bolt of lightning, and there, among the trees, was a figure shrouded in black. It was he who launched the surprise attack.

"(Protego)!" Tom was quick enough to cast the (Protego) spell on Hagrid, but the spell shattered like paper in an instant in the face of his opponent's spell. Tom conservatively estimated that the spell was at least level seven.

As the spell flew off, Hagrid responded by firing his crossbow and dodging. The arrow flew with a sharp whine and the arrow glowed with a faint blue light, probably coated with some kind of poison.

Then there were two loud noises, the huge crossbow in Hagrid's hand snapped in two and a bloodstain appeared on his shoulder, but the man in black was unharmed: his spell (Protego) had deflected the arrow. But before he could do anything else, a series of low explosions sounded in the clearing.

Tom stood in front of Hermione, holding pistols in both hands, the pistols in his hands spitting tongues of flame, firing bullets at the mysterious man dressed in black. The black-robed wizard's (Protego) spell (Protego) shattered under the combined strain of crossbow and bullets, and several splatters of blood spurted from under the black robe as he staggered back two steps from the sudden blow.

The hot projectiles fell to the ground and spun around several times, losing the last of their momentum and leaving nothing but a wisp of white smoke.

At that moment, the face under the black robe distorted, the black eyes narrowed and the hand was raised at an unnatural angle toward the direction of the bullets.

A voice like the hiss of a snake rang out, "Avada Kedavra!"

There was a flash of green light, but a solitary one. After Tom emptied his magazine, he immediately dragged Hermione and rolled into the bushes, where they disappeared, and Hagrid also picked up the broken crossbow like a wooden stick and ran towards the black-robed wizard.

The black-robed wizard was about to attack again; it seemed to him that Hagrid, for all his fierceness, was just a reckless man who could easily be killed, but instead, a huge three-headed dog ran wildly out of the forest, and the black-robed wizard turned, a wisp of black smoke billowing from his feet, and fled as fast as he could. He knew, at that moment, that it was best to retreat. The three-headed dog was hot on his heels, and he went with him into the woods.

"Fluffy?" Hagrid was startled and ran after him, but when he reached the forest, where were the three-headed dog and the black-robed wizard?

The three-headed dog was, of course, Tom, and he had not gone after Quirrell alone in the heat of the moment; he had changed direction the first time he ran into the forest, slipped away, and found a deserted place to return to his human form.

So, naturally, Hagrid saw an empty forest.

He was confused: that three-headed dog had been his own Fluffy, hadn't it? But why was he here? His head was full of doubts.

But now was not the time to think about that, he turned around, found Hermione and Tom hiding in the bushes and led them to the dying unicorn.

The unicorn had very little life left, and lay on the ground, motionless, with barely audible breathing, with only a faint movement in its chest and belly to show that it was still alive.

Half kneeling, Hagrid carefully examined the unicorn, trying to save this innocent life. But after a while, Hagrid realized sadly that he could do nothing, he had no way to save the unicorn. Only with Dumbledore and Newt Scamander present, there was a slim chance.

Tom also knelt by the unicorn's side, and could do nothing, he could only stroke its neck gently, hoping it would feel better.

"I will avenge you," Tom whispered, the unicorn's beautiful eyelashes trembled, but that was all. Soon, the glow in the unicorn's eyes gradually disappeared.

It was dead. It died from its wounds.

The last drops of silver blood dripped from his wounds, and Tom caught them in his hands, examining them carefully.

[Cursed Blood: From a pure and innocent creature that can bring a curse to the soul that cannot be removed]

After some thought, Tom pulled out his wand and turned a branch into a goblet, scooping up the blood scattered on the ground nearby and sealing the mouth of the goblet.

"This is not a good place to stay" Tom said seriously to Hagrid, who was still gloomy, "We have to inform Professor Dumbledore."

Hagrid reacted as well, he knew that the black robed man was likely to make a reappearance, so he immediately got up and ran towards the castle with Tom and Hermione.