Dumbledore's expression turned serious. He listened attentively to Hermione's report and slowly nodded. " Hogwarts has a responsibility to protect the peace of the Forbidden Forest."
"Thank you for bringing this important news." He said, looking at Hagrid, who was anxiously wringing his hands.
"I will contact the Ministry of Magic immediately, especially Mr. Scamander of the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures; he has extensive experience handling these kinds of incidents. We need an official and effective solution to eliminate these threats."
Hagrid couldn't help but urge, "Headmaster, please hurry... those animals, their numbers are decreasing every night..."
"Don't worry, Hagrid! I'll take care of it right away. I won't let those poachers stay in the Forbidden Forest for even a single unnecessary night." Dumbledore stood up...
With the matter resolved, Hagrid breathed a sigh of relief. Dumbledore told them to go to the Great Hall for dinner and wait for news.
Leaving the Headmaster's Office, Hagrid's tense nerves relaxed slightly. Draco patted his stomach and said:
" Dumbledore will surely solve this problem. Hagrid, would you like to come with us to the Great Hall?"
"I need to go back to the cabin and keep an eye on the edge of the woods, but you two should go eat; you've run quite a distance."
Hagrid smiled kindly at the two of them.
So Draco and Hermione turned and headed toward the Great Hall, intending to soothe their stomachs and minds after a long and tumultuous day with a belated dinner.
After finishing their meal, Draco and Hermione headed up to the Seventh Floor, intending to spend some time together at the Room of Requirement.
Hermione was still complaining that she hadn't studied for several days...
"Wait." Draco suddenly stopped and led her around the corner of the empty stone wall.
"What's wrong?" Hermione looked up at him with a puzzled expression.
Draco didn't speak, but leaned down, his gaze falling on the corner of her lips. Under the light, a little bit of pale golden pumpkin pudding residue still clung to the corner of her mouth.
He reached out and braced himself against the stone wall beside her ear, gently pulling her into his arms between them.
" Draco? What... what are you doing?"
"Don't move," Draco said with a slight smile, "You still have something in your mouth."
"W-what is that?"
Hermione instinctively reached out to wipe it, but Draco gently pressed her wrist down. "Don't wipe it."
He lowered his head, his lips moving downwards, "I'll help you."
As soon as he finished speaking, Draco kissed the corner of her lips.
Hermione shuddered, her eyelashes fluttered, and she instinctively closed her eyes, but Draco only took a small sip.
As he stepped back slightly, he brushed his fingertip across her reddened lips, teasing her with a smile, "Okay, it's clean now."
Hermione's face turned completely red, and she buried her face in his chest shyly, saying, "You... you did that on purpose!"
"You caught me." Draco laughed and hugged her tighter. "But I was just helping my wife clean up the mess."
Swish--
A pale white shadow suddenly emerged from the wall.
This instantly shattered the ambiguous atmosphere between the two.
It was a semi-transparent ghost, its hands holding a severed head upright. Its long hair was disheveled, and its face was bluish-purple. It suddenly burst into their line of sight.
The sight was enough to make anyone with a weak heart scream: it was a male ghost dressed in a vintage robe, but he had no head!
Even more horrifying, his hand was carefully holding a head—truly, bringing the head to him!
"Whoa!" Hermione exclaimed in fright, taking a step back and grabbing Draco's arm tightly.
Draco was startled and took a half step back, his wand instantly drawing as he chanted a spell, ready to strike. "Expel..."
"No! Don't do it! I meant no harm!" The hand holding the head quickly and earnestly apologized.
"I'm sorry! I startled you! My name is Richard Jackdaw, and I have something... I need your help!"
"Help?" Draco's face was as black as the bottom of a pot.
"Not only did you bring this up, but you also interrupted my good time with my wife, and now you want my help?" Hearing this, Hermione gently pinched his arm from behind.
Although still shaken by the way the ghost had appeared, he tried to speak in a calm tone, " Draco, don't do that."
" Draco, wait." Hermione peeked out from behind Draco, still shaken but quickly regaining her composure.
"Ghosts... it's rare for them to appear in this form and actively seek help; there must be a reason behind it."
She turned to the ghost named Jackdaw and asked, "You said you need something from us? What exactly?"
Draco crossed his arms and snorted coldly, "Fine, give my wife some face. Three minutes. If it's all nonsense, I'll throw your head into the Black Lake to feed the Giant Squid."
Jackdaw was granted a general amnesty.
He clutched his head and bowed repeatedly, a gesture that appeared both comical and tragic on a headless body.
"Thank you, thank you all! I know this is abrupt, but I really had nowhere else to turn."
"I know the whereabouts of the Ancient Magic book fragments—those pages hold the secrets of Ancient Magic!"
"But in exchange, I hope you can help me uncover the truth behind the death and clear Anne's name!"
"You know of fragments from Ancient Magic? That sounds interesting. But..." Draco looked the Jackdaw head, and asked with a hint of doubt.
"You don't even know how you died? Isn't that obvious?" He pointed to his neck.
"No... I don't know..." Jackdaw's head showed deep pain and confusion as he shook it.
"I also studied Ancient Magic in my previous life. Once, I was lucky, or rather unlucky, to snatch a fragment of a spellbook from Peeves..."
"Wait," Draco interrupted him, an incredulous look on his face, "You stole Peeves? The Peeves we know, the one who turned the whole castle upside down?"
"Would he agree? Wouldn't he have... twisted your hair into a pretzel or poured ink all over you back then?"
That happened when I was still alive.
Jackdaw said with a wry smile,
" Peeves was playing with that parchment, folding it up Ancient Runes on it."
"Then, taking advantage of his inattention, I used a clever Summoning Charm to get my hands on it, and then hid inside... For this, he chased me and threw stinky eggs at me for a month, but I think it was worth it."
"What do you think now?" Draco asked.
"I just feel incredibly stupid now," he said regretfully.
"If I had known that piece of paper would lead to my death and send Anne to Azkaban, I would have preferred not to have even glanced at it, and I would have preferred that Peeves tear it to shreds."
" Draco..." Hermione tugged at Draco's sleeve, not wanting him to continue reopening the ghost's scars.
"Alright, you can continue," Draco gestured.