The Plot Went Off the Rails!

Hagrid looked at the children before him.

Zhang Xiao, Malfoy, Harry, Ron, and Neville. He scratched his head, looking rather troubled, and said awkwardly,

"There are too many of us. Moving together in such a large group will disturb the creatures in the Forbidden Forest. Looks like we'll have to split into two groups."

The other young wizards looked grim, their thoughts consumed by the Forbidden Forest they were about to enter.

Zhang Xiao, however, almost laughed. This was far too forced. Hagrid simply wasn't suited to this sort of work.

Who looks up at the sky while talking, scuffs the ground with one toe, and keeps fidgeting with their fingers?

Isn't that a bit much for a bloke over three meters tall?

Besides, splitting up consistently ranked second on the list of idiotic horror-movie decisions, right behind going somewhere you knew was unsafe or breaking a seal when you knew exactly what it was.

The Forbidden Forest was clearly dangerous, yet they were still splitting up...

Forced. Far too forced!

Too much time had passed, and he no longer remembered all the details. He only remembered that sending students into the Forbidden Forest as punishment for wandering around at night was inappropriate, but it certainly hadn't been this contrived.

Behind a beech tree not far away, Dumbledore stood beneath the Invisibility Cloak, quietly watching everything.

The other young wizards were manageable, but Zhang Xiao was an exception. Their few encounters had shown Dumbledore that this first-year possessed insight and knowledge far beyond his peers. A simple little trick like this wouldn't fool him.

Yet Dumbledore wasn't at all worried that Zhang Xiao would say anything. Precisely because of his exceptional knowledge and intelligence, he would understand that some things were better left unsaid.

Just as he had expected, though Zhang Xiao was practically rolling his eyes into the heavens, he said nothing.

Meanwhile, Hagrid had finally managed the difficult task of dividing them into groups. Malfoy insisted on staying with Zhang Xiao and Hagrid, which would be safest.

With Zhang Xiao mediating, Harry, Ron, and Neville also agreed to go with Fang.

Hagrid led them to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, raised his lantern high, and pointed to a narrow trail that gradually disappeared into the dark woods. They peered into the Forbidden Forest as a breeze stirred their hair.

It carried the forest's distinctive dampness and the scent of foliage, mingled with a faint stench of decay and the fragrance of earth.

"Look over there," Hagrid said. "See that shiny stuff on the ground? Silvery white? That's unicorn blood. Something's wounded a unicorn in the Forbidden Forest, and badly, too.

"Nothing like this has ever happened before. Unicorns are very powerful fantastic beasts. Their skin can shrug off most magic.

"More importantly, unicorns are very sensitive to malice. If you've got evil intentions, even finding one is a problem."

"What if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us first?" Malfoy asked, unable to keep the fear out of his voice.

"Nothing in the Forbidden Forest will hurt you while I'm still alive," Hagrid said solemnly.

"Don't leave the path. Right, we'll split into two groups now and follow the blood trails separately. There's blood everywhere. It was clearly terrified, the poor little thing, running all over the place, but whatever it was kept right on its heels."

Zhang Xiao pressed a cylinder into each of the three boys' hands and told them to pull the cord if they encountered anything. These were the Daoist Order's Signal Fireworks, far more conspicuous than sparks from a wand.

The Forbidden Forest was pitch-black and silent. After walking a short distance, they reached a fork. Harry, Ron, Neville, and Fang took the left path, while Malfoy, Zhang Xiao, and Hagrid took the right.

They walked in silence, their eyes fixed on the ground. Every so often, moonlight spilled through the branches overhead, illuminating a patch of silvery-blue blood on the fallen leaves.

Hagrid was visibly growing restless.

"Was... was it a werewolf?" Malfoy asked shakily. As wizards, there weren't many things that frightened them.

Most things that frightened them were problems even magic couldn't solve.

Black dogs, for instance, dragon pox, and werewolves.

"Wouldn't be that quick," Hagrid said. "I've never heard of a unicorn being hurt before."

They passed a moss-covered stump. They could hear the burble of flowing water; clearly, there was a stream somewhere nearby.

Speckles of unicorn blood still dotted the winding path.

"Something's wrong!" Hagrid waved them to a halt, went ahead alone, and crouched down to examine something. After a while, he returned with a dark expression.

"Something's not right!"

His tangled beard swayed as he shook his head, confusion and concern filling his large eyes.

"These tracks... they shouldn't be here. This isn't the sort of habitat they live in, and I've never seen any of them around the edges of the Forbidden Forest."

Malfoy let out a frightened groan. He kept shivering, desperate to return to the warm common room.

Zhang Xiao, meanwhile, asked curiously,

"Hagrid, what are you talking about?"

Hagrid opened his mouth, about to answer, when a low roar suddenly sounded nearby, like muffled thunder rolling through the mountains.

It carried a primal wildness and power.

The ground began to tremble faintly. Several small trees toppled with piercing cracks. From the commotion alone, they could tell that a monster of enormous strength was charging toward them.

"A troll!" Hagrid roared. "Those tracks were left by a troll!"

An enormous figure burst out of the trees.

It stood roughly two meters taller than Hagrid and carried a massive wooden club, still stained with unidentified brownish blood and studded with white bone fragments.

Clearly, that club had ended quite a few lives.

Its exposed skin was stone-gray and looked indestructible in the moonlight.

This was a troll? What happened to the stupid, bumbling trolls from the films?

What surprised Zhang Xiao even more was that the troll was wearing armor. It fitted perfectly, with precisely joined pieces. One glance was enough to tell that it had been carefully crafted.

Someone had modified this troll!

The troll glared with blood-red eyes and charged with an agility utterly at odds with its size, letting out a deafening roar.

This was a troll? The same sort of stupid, bumbling troll Harry and Ron had taken down in the original story?

Zhang Xiao almost swore aloud. If Ron and Harry could take down a troll like this, he would go kiss the back of Quirrell's head!

Hagrid roared and charged straight at the troll as well, his explosive strength lending him a raw, savage grace.

Malfoy immediately clutched his head and screamed, but the tremendous crash of the two giants colliding soon drowned him out.

Hagrid punched the troll's tiny head, but it merely shook its head once and recovered, roaring as it raised its massive club and brought it down toward Hagrid's skull.

Hagrid roared back without giving an inch and caught its hand, preventing it from swinging the club. The two began a contest of strength.

Earth flew everywhere under the two giants' monstrous strength, yet Hagrid still remembered to shout,

"Run! Don't worry about me!"

Malfoy turned to flee, but Zhang Xiao grabbed him. What good would running blindly do at a time like this?

Just then, a brilliant streak of fire shot into the sky with a piercing shriek.

With a bang, the streak exploded overhead, revealing an enormous Tiger-Dragon Roundel formed from fireworks.

It was impossible to miss!

Harry and Ron's group had run into trouble too!