Successive Upheavals

That was a wizard!

A thought flashed through everyone's minds.

And a powerful wizard at that, because they hadn't seen him make any movements or heard him chant a spell.

This was standard wandless, nonverbal casting—until now, they had only ever seen professors do it.

The cloaked shadow swiftly "swam" toward them. Hagrid hurriedly loaded a bolt into his crossbow, but the massive weapon chose this moment to stop cooperating.

"Get out of here!" he immediately shouted back at the young wizards.

But they had clearly been frightened by the dark shadow. They stood there blankly, unable to move.

"Run!"

Hagrid roared, finally snapping them out of their daze. Fang tucked his tail and fled at the shout, while Malfoy turned and ran as well.

Harry suddenly felt a searing pain in the scar on his forehead, as though a red-hot iron spike had been driven into his head. He nearly collapsed.

"What's wrong, Harry?" Hermione noticed something was off and reached out to steady the swaying Harry.

"We have to get out of here, or we'll only hold Hagrid back!" the young witch said firmly, her thoughts exceptionally clear at that moment.

"No, I don't think we can leave Hagrid behind..." Ron was terrified, but he still couldn't bear to leave Hagrid here alone.

Harry said nothing. His vision was blurry, his head felt like it was splitting apart, and he could barely stay standing.

Not far away, Hagrid clutched two long bolts and charged at the shadow without hesitation.

"Flying Sand and Rolling Stones!"

After a hoarse, low incantation, Hagrid's massive body was struck by the spell and immediately sent flying backward even faster.

When he climbed back up from the ground and shook his dazed head, he discovered that Harry and the other two were still standing there.

"Why are you still here?" he asked, shocked and angry. "Go back to Hogwarts! Find Dumbledore, or any professor!"

"But Hagrid, we don't know what's wrong with Harry. It looks like he was hit by a spell..." Hermione said anxiously.

"What?"

Hagrid asked in shock, but he realized this wasn't the time to investigate. He immediately turned and hurled his stone crossbow viciously at the shadow, then grabbed the young wizards by their collars, lifting one in each hand—the last one tucked under his arm—before turning to run.

But when they turned around, they saw a despairing sight—another figure in a silver-gray cloak stood behind them, pointing an ornate, strange wand at them.

"Holy Light Exorcism!"

A pure white radiance blossomed from the tip of the wand, and Hagrid and the others instinctively raised their hands to shield their eyes.

—Then, it seemed as though nothing had happened. The young wizards were completely unharmed, their faces filled with confusion.

Hagrid checked his body suspiciously. Then that pleasant voice came from beneath the silver-gray hood again.

"Ice Blast!"

An immense force of icy energy gathered in the air, then swept past their faces at incredible speed and struck the moving shadow behind them like a cannonball.

"Boom—"

A violent explosion rang through the forest, and the tremendous shockwave nearly knocked even Hagrid off his feet.

The stunned group turned around and saw that the shadow which had killed the Unicorn had vanished without a trace.

The pain in Harry's scar disappeared. He and the others stared at the silver-gray-cloaked figure in astonishment, only to find that the blast had blown back her hood.

Silver-white hair spilled from beneath the hood. The four of them—one large and three small—cried out in unison. She was actually a woman, and a remarkably beautiful one at that!

At the same time, a Centaur emerged from the bushes behind her.

"Is he dead?"

"No. He escaped," the woman said expressionlessly.

"All right..." The Centaur walked over to the site of the explosion and turned over the frost-covered soil with one hoof.

"Leon?" Hagrid called out in surprise.

"Hello, Hagrid. Long time no see."

"Good? Not good at all. My whole body hurts right now..." Hagrid said. "Leon, why are you here? What was that just now? And who is this lady?"

"I'm sorry, Hagrid, but I can only answer your first question..." The Centaur smiled at him. "Not long ago, I was ambushed and captured by a group of Dark wizards while patrolling in the north... Later, they sold me from place to place until I ended up in Belgium..."

"Dark wizards?" The group looked at the silver-gray-cloaked witch beside him in surprise.

"She has nothing to do with that..." the Centaur said with a smile. "I was rescued from an underground auction house in Belgium, and this beautiful lady was entrusted with bringing me back. Of course, she also happened to collect the payment."

Everyone's eyes returned to her.

"I am not responsible for collecting payment." She stared intently at the Unicorn's corpse and spoke without the slightest change in expression. "I am only responsible for bringing you back to England."

Leon spread his hands and said nothing.

"So you're all students of Hogwarts?" the woman suddenly asked the three young wizards.

"Uh... yes, we..." The two boys stammered, unable to get the words out. "We are... we really are students of Hogwarts."

"We're first-years," Hermione added, feeling somewhat embarrassed by her companions' behavior.

"Thank you, ma'am. Thank you for saving us. To be honest, we misunderstood at first. We thought you were with that thing..." Hagrid pointed at the crater blasted into the ground.

She nodded without answering, then looked at the three young wizards with interest again. "Since you're all students of Hogwarts, do you know Sagreles?"

"You mean Professor Greengrass?" Hermione froze for a moment. "Of course, we know him. His classes are very interesting, and everyone can learn a great deal from them!"

A faint smile appeared on the woman's face at those words. Harry and Ron were captivated by the sudden smile and stood there staring blankly, while Hermione kept rubbing her forehead.

As they spoke, a deeper darkness suddenly rushed toward them from afar. Its immense presence made it seem as though the Forbidden Forest itself was twisting its body.

Malfoy crawled out from somewhere, his face filled with terror as he scrambled toward the others.

The shadow was far too fast, and it covered an enormous area. The trees rustled at its approach.

Everyone understood that no one could escape before it arrived. It was like an instinctive premonition, as if something were persuading them to give up resisting. So they gathered silently together and waited for the shadow to descend.

Only the cloaked woman remained still. She raised her head toward the shadow, her expression impossible to read. Whether an instant or a long time passed, the shadow vanished.

At the very moment it was about to reach them, the wind suddenly died down, and the trees stopped swaying.

In its place came a familiar voice:

"Can anyone tell me... what happened here?"

Along with the voice appeared Sagreles, dressed in black robes.