Regulus Black could swear on both hands—the figure wasn't him. It could only be the other man in black: Snape.
Tonight, Professor Snape had been assigned a task by Dumbledore—to ensure that the Forbidden Forest patrol was carried out smoothly.
The primary objective, of course, was to protect Harry Potter. But as a professor of the school, it was also his responsibility to ensure the safety of every student.
What's more, Draco, Snape's godson, was among the students assigned this forest duty. Dumbledore had no doubt that Snape would come.
Hagrid, accompanied by three boys and the large black dog Fang, slowly made his way into the Forbidden Forest. For Hagrid, this labor service was mostly about scaring the kids straight. Even helping him look for a dragon egg was secondary. He had spent the whole day searching without any luck, and now with poor visibility at night, it was even harder—unless the egg decided to glow and show the way.
In truth, as long as you stuck with Hagrid, the Forbidden Forest was relatively safe. Hagrid was deeply familiar with its creatures. The intelligent magical beasts wouldn't attack him, and the unintelligent ones wouldn't either—because they couldn't win against him!
He had originally thought nothing would go wrong during this patrol. But when Hagrid saw the silvery, mercury-like blood of a unicorn on the ground, his composure faltered. The timing couldn't be that coincidental, could it? Maybe there really was danger tonight. Still, Hagrid remembered Dumbledore's words. He didn't fully understand why Dumbledore was so certain something would happen, but he would follow orders regardless.
"This is unicorn blood, which means a unicorn has been injured—just like the one that went missing a few weeks ago. It was attacked. We need to find the poor little creature."
Hagrid scooped up a bit of the silver blood with his finger and rubbed it between his fingertips. Hidden nearby, both Snape and Regulus Black instinctively reached for their wands, itching to hit him with an Avada Kedavra. That was potion material! That was alchemical-grade stuff! Extremely rare! And he was rolling it around like hand sanitizer!
"We need to split into two groups," Hagrid said firmly, instantly draining the color from the boys' faces.
"Ron and I will go together. Draco and Harry, you two will be in the other group."
"I want Fang to go with us too," Draco quickly added.
"Of course—but let me remind you, Fang's a coward," Hagrid replied.
The black dog looked up at Draco and whimpered pitifully, making the pale-haired boy turn even paler.
With the groups decided, Hagrid and Ron headed off in one direction. Draco, carrying a lantern and accompanied by Fang, had no choice but to go deeper into the forest with Harry Potter. He did think about turning back—but he had already lost 50 points. If he tried to escape this duty too, he'd never be able to lift his head again in Slytherin.
So even if he had to die, he couldn't abandon his noble responsibility. In this regard, Draco was crystal clear.
Harry, on the other hand, was more of a go-with-the-flow type. He simply did whatever others told him, showing no opinion of his own.
Even when these two cousins walked together, it was always Draco who spoke to ease the tension. The more he talked, the more nervous he became—but he never stopped.
Snape had also reached the spot where the unicorn blood had been spilled. He gazed at the precious potion material on the dirty ground, heart aching.
"I know you're here too. Gather this up, and we'll split it fifty-fifty," Snape suddenly said, clearly aware he wasn't alone.
Regulus Black removed his invisibility cloak behind a tree and stepped forward.
"Didn't you bring any tools?" he asked.
"If you didn't either, feel free to go back and get some," Snape replied coolly. His only task tonight was to protect Harry Potter—how could he have known unicorn blood, a top-tier potion ingredient, would show up? Naturally, he hadn't brought any potion tools!
Regulus Black had no intention of going back now, but as for tools—of course, he always carried a few essentials with him.
With a flip of his hand, he took out a small silver flask from his enchanted storage. Unicorn blood was silver in color, and only silver containers could preserve its magical properties properly.
With a light tap of his wand, the unicorn blood began flowing like threads into the silver flask, which had already been enchanted.
The Extension Charm—a spell that expands internal space—was usually used on tents. In the wizarding world, a small tent could hide a villa's worth of space inside.
But when used on potion containers, it was essentially like having a magical storage ring.
Collecting all the silver unicorn blood would still take a bit of time. Regulus Black glanced over at Snape.
"Not going after them? Maybe Harry Potter will get lucky and come across the injured unicorn."
"I don't need you directing my actions."
With a swish of his black robes, Snape turned and left. Now wasn't the time to stand around watching the collection of potion materials.
"Guide me!"
Snape cast a spell to lead him to Harry Potter. No matter where he was, the Forbidden Forest wouldn't hinder him.
As they walked, Draco grumbled, "If my father finds out, Hagrid's done for. Midnight patrols of the Forbidden Forest are a servant's job."
Harry Potter scoffed with disdain, "If I'm not mistaken, you're obviously scared."
That was like a slap in the face for young Master Draco. "I'm not scared! Did you hear that sound? Let's go, Fang!"
But before long, Hagrid's large black dog suddenly stopped and refused to move another step forward.
"What's wrong, Fang?"
Draco noticed the issue first and raised his lantern to shine ahead. A dark figure was crouched over a fallen unicorn, greedily drinking its blood. Sensing someone approaching, the dark figure slowly looked up—its mouth stained with gleaming silver blood.
"Ah...!" Draco let out a horrified scream and immediately turned to flee, with Fang running right behind him.
Harry stood frozen, his blank expression showing he hadn't yet grasped what was happening. It had to be said—kids who misbehave tend to have matching levels of bravery and cluelessness. The strange scene before him hadn't triggered any survival instincts.
The shadowy figure spotted Harry and began gliding toward him, serpent-like in its movements.
Harry had already missed his best chance to run. Even now, escape wasn't his instinct—stumbling backwards and falling to the ground was. Mouth agape, he didn't even call for help, nor did he think to draw his wand. His reaction could only be described as "waiting to die."
Snape heard Draco's scream and immediately quickened his pace in that direction.
He soon came across Draco, but Harry was nowhere in sight. Snape's heart pounded—Lily's child couldn't be harmed. He rushed past Draco and headed toward where Harry had to be.
Regulus Black had also heard the scream and was even closer than Snape. By the time he arrived, the shadowy figure was already standing in front of Harry.
Regulus lunged toward the fallen, lifeless young unicorn and immediately used the strongest ability from his system's golden finger:
[Monster Resurrection]—originally meant to revive monsters killed in-game and command them in battle for the necromancer.
Regulus wasn't sure how this spell would function when used alone, especially whether a pure creature like a unicorn would respond to necromantic abilities.
Compared to the earlier [Red Nightmare Witch Abbey], which was more of an alchemical creation, this time Regulus wanted to truly resurrect the unicorn.
Why? For two main reasons:
One, the unicorn was too young. A juvenile unicorn wasn't an ideal subject for alchemy—adult unicorns had stronger magical power and were harder to hunt. Most unicorn materials in the wizarding world came from those who died accidentally, or of old age.
That's how Regulus had obtained the four unicorn wands he owned.
Second, unicorns were inherently pure and naturally repelled necromantic magic. Yet, they could also be corrupted into nightmares—Regulus had once successfully transformed a unicorn into a nightmare.
To test certain magical theories, Regulus now needed to use resurrection magic on a dead unicorn.
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