So Long, Then

He reached out, ignored the knife and fork, and directly pinched up the piece of roasted chicken breast with his pale fingers. He stuffed it into his mouth, chewing and swallowing mechanically.

Then, ignoring the peas and mashed potatoes beside it, he picked up the small piece of bread and slowly finished it.

After doing all that, he raised his fingers, slightly stained with grease, pointed at the completely neglected vegetables, then at the empty meat plate.

Looking up at Professor McGonagall, his eyes held nothing but pure need, without the slightest embarrassment or apology.

"Professor," he said in the same calm voice, "I don't eat vegetables. Could the meat... be raw?"

Raw.

The word struck Professor McGonagall's heart like a block of ice.

Looking into the boy's clear yet hollow eyes, she recalled his frenzied howl not long ago—"I want to eat human flesh"—and a chill rose uncontrollably from the depths of her heart.

His calmness at this moment seemed more like a dangerous balance at the edge of a pit of madness.

Professor McGonagall took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed her turbulent emotions.

She could not provoke him, but neither could she indulge such an obviously abnormal, even dangerous request.

"Hogwarts does not provide raw meat, Mr. Leoqi."

Her voice carried an unquestionable firmness, but she deliberately slowed her speech to avoid sounding overly harsh.

"Cooked food can also provide the nutrients your body needs. If you have preferences regarding the dishes, you may state them, but raw meat is not acceptable. It does not comply with hygiene regulations and is not beneficial to your health."

Skofot listened quietly, and the faintly obedient smile on his face slowly disappeared.

He did not make a fuss or argue. He merely looked at Professor McGonagall with an almost scrutinizing gaze, as if assessing the firmness behind her words.

A few seconds later, he lowered his eyes and said softly, "Oh."

Then he stopped looking at the food, and stopped looking at Professor McGonagall. His gaze returned to the empty wall opposite him, and he resumed that silent, isolated state, as though cut off from the world.

His freed wrists hung limply over the sides of the chair.

Professor McGonagall looked at him, her heart filled with mixed emotions.

Worry, pity, vigilance, and a sense of helplessness tangled together.

Silently, she took away the tray and secured his wrists again.

"Get some rest, Mr. Leoqi." In the end, that was all she could say dryly before turning and leaving the empty classroom.

The door locked behind her once more.

The room returned to silence.

Skofot remained in the same position, utterly motionless.

Only beneath his lowered lashes, a fleeting glimmer passed through those hollow eyes—an elusive light mixed with disappointment and some cold calculation.

Raw meat... it seemed he would not be getting any for the time being.

He lightly smacked his lips, seeming to savor the bland taste of that cooked chicken, then let out a soundless sigh.

How boring.

Professor McGonagall walked down the corridor toward her office, her steps much heavier than before.

She needed to find Dumbledore and Snape immediately.

Leoqi's condition... was far more troublesome than they had imagined.

He did not merely have aggressive tendencies. Even his basic perceptions and needs seemed to have undergone a severe, inhuman deviation.

This was no longer an ordinary psychological problem or behavioral abnormality.

The following evening, Professor McGonagall arrived outside the empty classroom being used for temporary isolation with dinner in hand, just as she had the previous time.

Out of habit, she peered through the small window in the door, preparing to unlock it—

But her movements froze.

The chair was empty.

The black-haired boy who should have been bound to it had vanished without a trace.

Only several magical straps, snapped apart by some immense force and scattered across the floor, silently told of what had happened.

Professor McGonagall's heart plummeted, and she nearly dropped the tray.

She immediately turned around and practically ran toward the Headmaster's Office.

At the same moment Professor McGonagall discovered the empty classroom, space twisted faintly amid the shadows at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Skofot's figure appeared, his face even paler in the dim light, while a primal, hungry fire burned in his eyes.

[Energy -5] (Teleport Card consumed)

[Emotion Points: 1960/100]

He took a deep breath of the Forbidden Forest's damp air, thick with the scent of earth and rotting vegetation, and the corners of his mouth curved into an almost delighted smile.

He was free.

And there was something here that he needed.

Without the slightest hesitation, he darted into the depths of the dense forest like a silent phantom.

Inside Hogwarts Castle, a silent search swiftly began.

Dumbledore issued secret orders, and several key professors—

—Professor McGonagall, Snape, Professor Flitwick, and even Filch, who knew the castle's secret passages like the back of his hand—

began searching separately for the missing Skofot. Madam Pomfrey was notified to stand by, and everyone was strictly ordered to keep the matter quiet to avoid causing panic among the students.

They searched every possible hiding place in the castle—abandoned classrooms, broom cupboards, even the Slytherin common room and dormitories—but found nothing. The boy seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Meanwhile, Hagrid carried a bucket full of offal and minced meat, whistling as he headed toward the Bowtruckles and Nifflers he kept at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

However, before he even reached his usual feeding spot, a heavy, fresh stench of blood hit him head-on.

His whistling stopped abruptly, and confusion and wariness appeared on his rugged face.

He quickened his pace and pushed aside a thick clump of ferns. What he saw made him suck in a cold breath—

The muddy ground was splattered with dark-red blood, not yet fully coagulated.

Four or five Pygmy Puffs that should have been roaming nearby, two gnomes, and even a young Bowtruckle whose neck had been cleanly snapped—

Their corpses had been casually tossed into the grass. They had died horribly, as though some force had brutally torn them apart, with most of their flesh and blood already gone.

"Merlin's beard..." Hagrid muttered, his massive body swaying slightly from shock.

This was definitely not the work of an ordinary predator!

He immediately thought of the worst possibility, turned around, and charged toward the castle at a speed utterly at odds with his size.

When Hagrid, panting and incoherent, reported what he had found at the edge of the Forbidden Forest to Dumbledore and the professors who had just gathered, everyone's expressions turned extremely grim.

"The Forbidden Forest..." Snape's voice seemed to have been dredged from an ice cellar. He immediately turned, his black robes billowing as he strode toward the castle's back entrance. "He went into the Forbidden Forest."

Led by Hagrid, the group quickly arrived at the scene.

The heavy smell of blood made Professor McGonagall cover her mouth and nose, while Professor Flitwick's face turned green.

Snape crouched down, dipped a finger into a patch of blood that had not yet dried, and brought it close to his nose to sniff. His gaze grew even more sinister.

Hagrid pointed at the vague footprints and drag marks on the ground leading deeper into the Forbidden Forest. "Look! He went that way!"

They cautiously followed the bloodstains and tracks deeper into the Forbidden Forest.

The farther they went, the darker it became. The shadows cast by the surrounding trees resembled clawing, snarling monsters. The scent of blood in the air also grew stronger and stronger.

At last, in a relatively open clearing, they saw the figure.

Skofot had his back to them, crouched on the ground.

Beneath him was an unknown large rodent, still twitching faintly, its fur brutally torn open to expose bright-red flesh.

With his head lowered, he was intently... gnawing at it.

The faint, teeth-grating sounds of chewing and sucking were especially clear in the silent woods.