Hagrid Breaks the Rules

The next morning, Harry, Ron, and Draco all received notes at the breakfast table.

The three slips of paper were exactly the same:

Your confinement begins at 11 p. m. tonight. Seek Mr. Filch in the Entrance Hall.

Professor McGonagall

"I thought this was arranged by Professor Flitwick or Professor Snape," Ron complained, stabbing the fried egg on his plate.

Professor Flitwick was always kind and not strict, and Professor Snape was always biased towards his own students, not to mention Harry this time.

But now, the outcome of this lockdown is clearly not good.

"Weasley, is it your ridiculous story that made Professor McGonagall think we had no remorse and thus increased our punishment?" Draco, along with Crabbe and Goyle, sidled up and mocked.

Harry suddenly turned pale. He felt that this was very likely true, especially since it was so late at night to be looking for that old Filch!

The only thing that gave Harry some comfort was that Ron had asked his two brothers to retrieve the Invisibility Cloak from the Astronomy Tower.

Ron's story also prevented others from discussing his "love" with Ron and Draco again.

That night at eleven o'clock, they said goodbye to Ryan and the others in the common room, then went downstairs to the Entrance Hall together. Filch was already waiting there—and Draco was too.

"Come with me," Filch said, turning on a lamp and leading them outside. "I think you'll have to think twice before breaking the rules again, won't you?" He glanced at them and continued with some threatening remarks.

These words were far more explicit than what he had said the night he was arrested. Clearly, such a severe punishment had given him hope of reverting to the old-fashioned punishments—hanging errant wizards by the wrists from the ceiling for days on end.

He also emphasized that he still kept those chains in his office and regularly oiled them, speaking with an almost longing expression.

They strode across the dark ground.

Draco didn't take it seriously at all; in his mind, he was the son of School Governor, how could he be treated like this?

Ron seemed to be taking it seriously; his legs were trembling as he leaned against Harry.

Harry, on the other hand, wondered what kind of punishment would require them to leave.

"You little brats! I'm talking to you!"

"At a time like this, you're still thinking about love and romance? Redhead, you must be Ron Weasley, get off your man!"

"You're here to be punished, not to fall in love," Filch roared.

Surprisingly, Filch also believed Rita Skeeter's melodramatic love story, a thought that Harry, Meghan, and Harry all had almost simultaneously realized.

Time passed very slowly, especially under these circumstances.

An awkward atmosphere hung over Harry, Ron, and Draco. Harry forgot about his speculations about the detention mission, and Ron stopped trembling.

Seeing that Ron was no longer leaning on Harry, Filch mistakenly assumed that his authority had put them on high alert. He cleared his throat and led the way with a cheerful gait.

The moonlight was bright, but clouds kept drifting in and obscuring it, plunging them into darkness. Harry could see the lights shining through the windows of Hagrid's Hut. Then they heard a shout in the distance.

"Is that you, Filch? Hurry up, I'm leaving." It was Hagrid's voice.

Harry and his two friends immediately showed expressions of joy.

He's with Hagrid, what kind of solitary confinement is this!

Filch is the kind of person who is very good at observing other people's expressions and derives pleasure from tormenting them.

His light-colored eyes keenly noticed the relief on their faces. "You probably thought you'd have a good time with that idiot, right? Think again, kids—you're going to the Forbidden Forest! If you come out unscathed, I'll admit I was wrong."

"Oh, is it as dangerous as the Troll that Harry and I defeated before?" Draco stopped in his tracks. Facing the Troll had truly made Draco realize his own strength.

This made him less terrified than in the original timeline, and he would occasionally say, "My dad is School Governor!"

"The woods Fred and George frequent?" Ron pursed his lips.

Harry wasn't worried at all. In his opinion, what was there to be afraid of about being with Hagrid? It was just solitary confinement, not a death sentence.

"Didn't you understand?" Filch emphasized impatiently. "This is the Forbidden Forest, there are Werewolf here!"

Hagrid strode toward them from the darkness, with Fang following behind. Hagrid carried his enormous stone bow and had a full quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder.

"You old devil, are you trying to scare them? I'm telling you, you've wasted your time. Those three are not people you can handle!" Hagrid mocked without any politeness.

"I'm just letting them know how dangerous the Forbidden Forest is, so they don't lose their lives!" Filch said coldly.

Having said that, seeing that he wouldn't get any good results, Filch left with a cursed look in his eyes.

"Harry, Ron, Draco, you got caught because of me."

"Why don't you stay in my cabin for a while? I'll go explore the Forbidden Forest myself," Hagrid said kindly.

Dumbledore was hiding nearby, looked surprised. He hadn't expected Hagrid to say that.

After all, it was his own order.

But that's not a big problem, since he himself is here and can handle everything.

Ryan, who was also hiding to the side, thought this was normal. The reason why Hagrid in the original timeline didn't do this was because of Draco, who didn't get along with them.

What if Draco reports it?

"No, Hagrid, this is detention," Harry said.

"Fred and George have been bragging about how great they are in the Forbidden Forest, I can't miss this opportunity," Ron said excitedly.

"They both went, how can I not go?" Draco said confidently.

"Okay, listen carefully now. What we're going to do tonight is very dangerous, and I don't want anyone to be in danger. Come with me this way first."

He led them to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, held the lamp high, and pointed to a narrow path that gradually disappeared into the depths of the dark forest.

They looked into the Forbidden Forest, a gentle breeze ruffling their hair.

"Look over there," Hagrid said. "Do you see that glittering thing on the ground? Silvery? That's Unicorn Blood. A Unicorn in the Forbidden Forest has been badly wounded by something. This is the first time this week. Last Wednesday, Firenze said something was attacking Unicorn, but it hadn't succeeded. We must try to find that poor Unicorn and relieve its suffering."

"What if the thing that hurt the Unicorn finds us first?" Draco asked, frowning. He knew that the Unicorn was not as easy to deal with Troll.

As Ollivander chose unicorns as the core material for his wands—aside from dragons and Phoenix, Unicorn Care of Magical Creatures are incredibly powerful.

"What I said before still holds true. I really don't recommend that you all come together. You should just stay inside and play with Fang. There's food and drinks available."

"If you insist on going, then stay right behind me," Hagrid emphasized. Perhaps because he realized he had been tricked by the dragon eggs, he didn't resort to the trick of splitting up his forces like he did in the original timeline.

"Haha, Dumbledore, let's see how your plan goes this time," Ryan thought gleefully as he floated in mid-air.