Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 88 Rice: Utter slander!

The hooded man was chased away.

After it disappeared, Daphne dared not let her guard down. She first fired a string of red sparks into the sky, and then quickly changed positions several times, fearing that the hooded monster was pretending to run away but was actually preparing to launch a sneak attack.

While Daphne battled with the air, Harry gradually recovered—his headache was so severe that he could barely open his eyes during Daphne's fight with the Hooded Man. The scar on Harry's head only began to subside after the strange man fled the scene.

Just then, the sound of horses' hooves hitting the ground came from not far away. Harry jumped up and pulled his wand from his pocket.

Although he didn't know many spells, he still felt a sense of security when he held the wand in his hand.

Daphne gripped her wand tightly, silently praying that Hagrid would arrive quickly. But as she waited anxiously, a question suddenly occurred to her: why were the people coming riding horses? This was highly unusual. This was the twentieth century, not the twelfth. Cavalry was now a ceremonial force; even the traditionally conservative magical world didn't ride horses anymore. So who were these horsemen?

Daphne's confusion was quickly resolved.

Two centaurs, armed with bows and arrows, charged into the open space. From the waist up, they were indistinguishable from humans, but from the waist down, they had the bodies of horses, even retaining their horse tails.

There were two centaurs. One had a black beard and a pure black horse body, while the other had platinum blonde hair and the body of a silver-maned horse. He looked a little younger than the red-haired centaur.

Watching the centaurs gallop through the Forbidden Forest, Daphne's eyes widened as she carefully observed every detail of their bodies. It was the first time she had ever seen these magical creatures; legend had it that they, like house-elves and fairies, possessed intelligence no less than that of humans.

After patrolling the clearing for a while and confirming that the source of the danger had left, the two centaurs stopped running. The black-haired centaur examined the unicorn's corpse and the traces of the battle around him with a gloomy expression, while the platinum-haired centaur came to Harry's side and asked him if he needed help.

"How are you?"

"It's alright, thank you—"

"You don't look like you're alright." The blond centaur's gaze lingered on the prominent scar on Harry's forehead, which was made even more noticeable by Harry's pale face.

"You're a Potter boy, aren't you?" The centaur recognized Harry. "Why are you here? This isn't a place for you. Go back to the castle! Can you ride a horse? That would be faster." The centaur bent down on his front legs and lowered his body so Harry could climb onto his back.

Upon seeing the blond centaur's actions, the black-haired centaur became enraged.

"Ferencer! How could you let someone ride on your back?! Do you think you're a mule?!"

It was then that Daphne and Harry learned that the blond centaur was named Ferenze.

"Bane, he's the Potter boy, he needs to get out of here as soon as possible."

Upon hearing the surname Potter, Bane snorted, still looking quite unconvinced, but he approved of Harry riding on Ferrenze.

If Voldemort had come to power, the centaurs would have been a million times worse off than they are now. So, as the one who defeated the Dark Lord, Harry owes the centaurs a debt of gratitude.

At this moment, Hagrid appeared with another red-haired, red-bodied centaur.

"By Merlin, Harry, are you alright? Where's Daphne?" Hagrid, carrying a giant crossbow in one hand and several spear-sized arrows in the other, rushed to Harry's side. After confirming that he was alright, he remembered that Daphne was also missing.

"I'm here." Daphne, having broken free of the illusion spell, emerged from her hiding place as if nothing had happened and stroked the head of the hound Tooth that had run up to her.

When Daphne appeared, Bain and Ferencze frowned in unison: they hadn't even noticed the little girl.

They exchanged glances, and after a brief exchange, they were certain that their companions hadn't seen her either, which was quite unusual. Centaurs had excellent eyesight, making it virtually impossible for them to miss her; therefore, the little girl must have used magic to conceal herself.

Spells that can conceal one's form are not low-level spells; this little girl with silver hair is no ordinary person.

Considering that the monster that attacked the unicorn had already fled when they arrived, Ferenze and Bain came to a seemingly absurd conclusion: the traces of battle on the ground were left by this seemingly frail little girl.

Now the two centaurs' focus shifted from Harry to Daphne.

"This is Ronan, this is Bane, and this is Ferrenze." Hagrid introduced the three centaurs to the young wizards present, and then introduced the young wizards to the centaurs one by one.

"Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Daphne Greengrass."

"A descendant of Adrian the Dragonheart?" Upon hearing Greengrass's surname, the three centaurs were all taken aback.

Hagrid and his companions, including Rice who had been concealing himself, were all taken aback. Hagrid and the others hadn't expected Daphne to receive extra attention from the centaurs, while Rice was surprised to hear a familiar name again after a thousand years.

"Indeed, one of my ancestors." Daphne nodded.

"That makes sense then. No wonder you're a descendant of the Dragon Heart," Ferenze praised.

"Dragon Heart?" Harry was completely bewildered; it was the first time he had ever heard such a strange title.

"The Greengrass family's ancestor was a student of Salazar Slytherin. He once ripped the heart out of a dragon with his bare hands during a battle, and was thus revered as Adrian Dragonheart. Even after a thousand years, his legend is still passed down orally in this forest," Ronan explained to Harry.

Daphne added a couple of sentences, giving everyone a deeper understanding of this ancestor of the Greengrass family.

Adrian Greengrass once studied magic under Slytherin, but unlike his teacher, he was bold and straightforward, bearing some resemblance to Gryffindor.

In the early days of Hogwarts, the four great masters cleared the Forbidden Forest, but as time passed, some powerful magical creatures took a liking to this fertile land and migrated there from the outside world. Among them, a black dragon was the most powerful and ferocious, causing considerable trouble for the inhabitants of the Forbidden Forest and for the teachers and students of Hogwarts.

After learning of its existence, Slytherin sent out their student Adrian for training purposes, and he ultimately lived up to his teacher's expectations, successfully defeating the dragon in the Forbidden Forest.

"It wasn't some kind of training; it was because one of the four founders, Slytherin, had a conflict with the other three founders. The four founders were too busy fighting among themselves to care about what was happening here, so this little guy who didn't fit in with the atmosphere of Slytherin House was sent here to die. But who would have thought he would actually succeed?" Bane disdainfully revealed the school's secrets.

Rice, who had secretly overheard the entire incident, was so enraged that he nearly fainted: This was utter slander!!!

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Update delivered! The next update will be a little later, so check back tomorrow morning.

(End of this chapter)