The Black Bloodline of Hogwarts

The moonlight was fragmented by the layers of tree canopy, dappling the ground of the forbidden forest.

Hagrid carried the enormous bronze lantern, its light casting a dim, yellowish glow in the mist.

"If you ask me, these little wizards should be hung up and whipped! Right, Mrs. Lorris?" Filch's cursing voice faded into the distance.

The punishment for the six young wizards, after a long delay, finally arrived. As expected, the punishment was to patrol the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid.

Actually, this doesn't make sense when you think about it.

Something unusual happened in the Forbidden Forest, someone even harmed a unicorn, why send a first-year wizard to investigate? Even if the professors are too busy, shouldn't it be older students who go? Don't any of the older students break school rules?

"Six people, split into two groups, and act separately." Hagrid's voice sounded particularly deep in the darkness. "Teeth and I will each lead three people."

Look at Hagrid, he's even splitting his forces with the little wizard? He's clearly looking for trouble. Julien thought to himself.

"Then I want Tooth." Malfoy made the first choice. Firstly, he had complained about Hagrid and didn't want to spend any more time with him now; secondly, he was also attracted by Tooth's burly physique, after all, it was a Neapolitan Mastiff the size of a foal.

"Alright, I'll take Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Julien, the three of you go with Axe." Then he turned to Malfoy, "Let me make this clear first, Axe is a coward."

Malfoy: ...

"Ya Ya, you take the three little ones and take the path on the east side. All three of you remember, if you see anything unusual, immediately warn them. Don't run around, and don't stray from the path."

Warning? Without even a single arrow to pierce the clouds, how can they issue a warning? They can only shout for help, right? Julien thought to himself again.

Tooth-Hagrid's enormous Neapolitan Mastiff let out a low whimper, its tail wagging excitedly, perhaps feeling it could finally run wild.

"Julien," Hagrid said in a low voice before setting off, "Tooth looks scary, but he's actually quite timid. If something really happens..." He paused, his gaze shifting between Julien and Liria, "You two, take care of each other."

Liria nodded slightly, a strange glint in her icy blue eyes beneath her hood. Julien noticed that her fingers were unconsciously rubbing something, seemingly sharing the same excitement as Yaya.

The path on the east side was even more eerie than I had imagined. Ancient tree roots, like sleeping giant pythons, rose up in ridges beneath the ground.

Toothpaste walked in the lead, its massive body carving a path through the bushes, occasionally turning back to check if the three little wizards were keeping up.

"This wretched place," Malfoy grumbled, lantern in hand, his platinum-blonde hair disheveled by twigs. "My father says the Forbidden Forest should never be open to students. Dumbledore's getting senile..."

"Shut up," Liria suddenly spoke, her voice as cold as the northern wind, "You're waking them up."

"Who did you wake? These trees?" Malfoy paused nervously for a moment, looked around but found nothing, then chuckled, "There's nothing here except this stupid dog..."

Just as Liria was about to say that the forest also needed rest, Tooth suddenly stopped in its tracks. Its ears snapped back, and its massive body began to tremble violently.

The three little wizards couldn't help but lower their bodies and look ahead in the direction Ya Ya was looking.

Ahead, a hooded black shadow, resembling a giant bat, was crawling on the body of a white creature, seemingly sucking on something.

The three people and the dog were so frightened that they dared not move, and the surroundings were completely silent.

It wasn't just ordinary quiet; it was a deathly stillness, a vacuum devoid of all life. Even the wind had stopped, as if the entire forest was holding its breath.

All that remained was the hissing and sucking sound of the dark figure in front of him.

Soon, the shadowy figure seemed to realize something and looked up at them.

The next second, the giant dog let out a terrified howl, turned and fled, its four legs slipping on the fallen leaves, but it ran very fast and disappeared into the darkness in the blink of an eye.

"Toothie! Come back!" Julien called out, but all he heard was the sound of bushes being roughly shoved through in the distance, and a barking that grew farther and farther away, almost a whimper.

Malfoy's face turned deathly pale. He stared at the direction Tooth had disappeared, then looked into the deep darkness ahead, his Adam's apple bobbing: "Ah..."

He turned and ran, faster than Ya Ya.

"Blood." Liria's voice came from under the hood, trembling slightly. "A lot of blood. And..."

She slowly raised her head, her icy blue eyes gleaming faintly in the darkness: "He's here."

The bushes in front parted to the sides, not because they were blown away by the wind, but because they were being forced to bow down by some invisible force.

The dark figure did not stand up, but crawled forward, pressing down on them as if slithering like a snake.

The hood had slipped down, but the face was obscured in the darkness, revealing only a large headscarf. The headscarf bulged and rose and fell, as if something was wriggling beneath it.

"What, only two little guys came? Hiss." The dark figure opposite raised its head like a snake, hissing.

Even though Julien knew the shadowy figure was Quirrell, the other person no longer spoke with Quirrell's trembling, but rather with a kind of slippery, almost pleasurable whisper that sounded somewhat eerie.

At that moment, Liria stepped in front of Julien, flicked her wrist, and drew a dark green wand. The wand was somewhat twisted, resembling a tree branch.

"Sagitta Ramorum (Arrow Flying)!"

With Liria's low growl, the branches of a large tree next to them instantly straightened, like arrows drawn from a bow, and then "whoosh" off the trunk, shooting straight green streaks of light into the air.

However, the shadowy figure twisted its body, and all the arrows missed their mark, embedding themselves deeply in the ground and trembling slightly due to inertia.

"Oh? To see nature magic at Hogwarts? Interesting. Are you from the Veracarti family?"

Liria was taken aback. "That's my grandmother."

"Oh, Child of Nature. No wonder you look...so much like her."

"The Evernight Forest of the North, what beautiful memories." The shadowy voice wasn't loud, but it struck Liria like a thunderbolt. "Your grandmother's screams sounded especially beautiful under the aurora."

"What! You killed my grandmother? I thought it was someone from the Rozier family." Liria's voice was soft, but every word was like an ice crystal falling.

"Rozier? Just a bunch of old fogies from the past. I can easily fool them with a few words."

Liria froze. Julien felt the wand she was holding trembling violently, but that trembling contained a kind of impending explosion, like the tremor before a glacier collapses.

"It's her fault for refusing to reveal the whereabouts of the stone slab. I gave her a choice," the shadowy figure opposite him chuckled softly, "just like I'm giving it to you now. Surrender or die..."

Before the other person could finish speaking, Liria moved. This time, instead of raising her wand, she pressed both hands to the ground.

In an instant, a ring of eerie blue light spread outwards from her. The fallen leaves, moss, and even the air itself began to crystallize, with countless tiny ice crystals, like thorns growing in reverse, wrapping around her legs.

"Still nature magic," Voldemort sneered, "primitive, crude... huh?"

The ice crystals did not bounce off or melt away like ordinary magic when they touched the shadow.

They clung to his robes, spreading upwards slowly but steadily, the fabric making a soft, frozen crackling sound wherever they went.

"This is..." For the first time, a slight fluctuation appeared in the other person's smooth voice, "The power of eternal night? Veracati passed on her essence to you?"