Chapter 138: It's You Again! (Edited)

Unicorns are magical creatures that Fish has never seen harmed, except when with him and his kin.

The creatures of the Forbidden Forest, even the fiercest Acromantulas and Trolls, would never attack them.

So when they heard that Lochlin had been wounded, both Shadow and Fish knew something was wrong, not to mention the strong smell of blood that Shadow said he smelled, that proved that Lochlin's wounds were clearly not minor.

Fish had no doubt about Shadow's judgment, not only because he had no need to deceive him, but also because Fish knew how exaggerated the thestral's sense of smell was, and that even Fluffy's three nostrils were nothing compared to a thestral's nose.

Especially when it came to the smell of blood, even from a distance, Thestrals could easily detect it, and they could also tell the owner of the blood and the approximate amount of bleeding.

When compared to other creatures, they are probably the land version of the shark, but their sense of smell is even stronger than the shark's.

"Winny~!"

Shadow let out a short, high-pitched cry and took off with Fish in tow, followed immediately by most of the adult Thestrals, while the rest were left to guard their young.

The other creatures of the Forbidden Forest, all of them good fighters and capable of flight, made a similar decision.

In the sky, Fish took the form of a small tabby cat, lying on Shadow's back, his four paws firmly grasping the black mane on his back.

Of all the winged horses, the Night Tiffin were the worst to ride, as they basically lacked flesh, just a layer of skin over bone, and it was difficult to sit on their backs in human form, so it was best to lie on them in cat form.

Fish then stretched out his paws and applied a [Leopard's Swiftness] spell to Shadow.

The [Leopard's Swiftness] spell awoke without warning shortly after Fish turned into a clouded leopard.

At the time of his awakening, Fish was working on his Easter duties under the tutelage of the girls.

The name suggests that it is a spell in the same family as [Bull's Brute Strength], [Freedom of Movement] and [Bear's Toughness], as its effect is to increase movement speed and attack speed significantly.

However, unlike the other three spells, [Leopard's Swiftness] could be added to others.

At Fish's urging, Shadow's wings flapped and his speed increased dramatically, leaving the other flying creatures behind as he sped towards Lochlin.

Soon, Shadow flew over the bank of a river that was not unfamiliar to Fish or the other creatures: this was one of the drinking places used by a group of creatures in the depths of the Forbidden Forest.

Although most of the magical creatures in the Forbidden Forest rarely attack each other thanks to Fish and Hagrid, and Hagrid often drops food in the forest.

The Centaurs, who consider the entire Forbidden Forest their territory, also maintain the ecological balance of the forest according to the astrological signs, but there are still creatures like the Acromantulas.

That is why, when it comes to drinking, most creatures in the Forbidden Forest choose to drink in the sparsely wooded surroundings so that they can keep a better watch and avoid attacks from other creatures.

Now, however, Lochlin, a unicorn that should not be attacked, has been wounded in the most unlikely of places, spilling silver blood near the riverbank, glowing in the moonlight.

And there was Lochlin, not far from the riverbank, screaming faintly and sadly, and a black-robed figure, familiar to Fish, crouched before him, doing something.

"Ha~~!" (=ΦДΦДΦ=)

At the sight of the black-robed figure, Fish lowered his ears and his fur bristled, but instead of arching his back, he slumped down even further, completely hiding behind Shadow.

"Meow."

Fish whispered a warning to Shadow to beware of the black-robed man, for Fish would not forget their mutual defeat.

At Fish's command, Shadow flapped his wings twice, and immediately gathered them around him and carried Fish diagonally toward the black-robed man below.

Quirrell lay on top of the dying unicorn, gulping down the silver-white blood pouring from his wounds, and Voldemort, who was glued to him, felt his strength returning and was aware of the curse created by absorbing the unicorn's blood.

But Voldemort was not concerned, as he was now half dead with or without the curse, and drinking the unicorn's blood was only a stopgap measure, as long as he can obtain the philosopher's stone, he can get out of this situation.

And no matter if it fails, Voldemort has a way to leave Quirrell with most of the side effects of unicorn blood.

In other words, Voldemort intends to do this regardless of whether or not the plan succeeds, but Quirrell won't know until Voldemort leaves Quirrell's body.

After drinking the unicorn's blood, Quirrell, following Voldemort's orders, took a bottle from his chest and brought it close to the unicorn's wound.

Although Quirrell had already used a dragon's egg to discover a way to overcome Fluffy from Hagrid's mouth in the Hog's Head bar long ago, Dumbledore had been at the school all this time, so Voldemort did not dare to act rashly.

Once all preparations had been made, he ordered Quirrell to sneak into the Forbidden Forest and obtain unicorn blood to regain his strength.

Only once he had regained some of his strength could Voldemort forge a perfect letter from the Ministry of Magic to trick Dumbledore into leaving, but he needed more unicorn blood to maintain his strength before Dumbledore left, so it was necessary to store some blood for later use.

Voldemort wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble, the Dark Lord's way of doing things was to come to the Forbidden Forest and drink fresh blood when he needed it.

The reason he would do it was because of Fish.

If it had just been a unicorn attack, Dumbledore wouldn't have been so quick to notice, but it was a different story with Fish coming to play in the Forbidden Forest every weekend.

Although Voldemort wanted to kill Fish at every turn, he had to admit that Fish's Minerva-like talents and his status as Professor McGonagall's adopted son would have made Dumbledore take the unicorn attack seriously in the first place, and he might even have ignored his forged letter and abandoned his trip to the Ministry of Magic.

So he had only this opportunity to come to the Forbidden Forest.

After collecting enough unicorn blood, Quirrell stood up and handed over control of his body to Voldemort.

Voldemort drew his wand and pointed it at the dying Lochlin, a cold smile curving his lips.

Even without his actions, the unicorn would not live much longer, but it would give the Dark Lord great satisfaction to take a pure life with his own hands.

"Avada..."

"!!!!"

As he was about to utter the incantation, Voldemort suddenly heard a loud hissing sound coming from above, and, experienced in battle, he darted to the side to avoid Shadow's attack.

"Winny~!"

Shadow, who missed a hit, let out a long howl as he was about to hit the ground, flapped his wings, took to the air again and circled Voldemort low.

Voldemort rolled in the grass, then looked up at the huge figure in the sky and said in a surprised and puzzled tone, "Thestral?"

As the Dark Lord who had once suppressed the entire British magical world, Voldemort certainly wasn't afraid of a mere Thestral, but he only wondered why the Thestral had come to the unicorn's aid, as it was difficult for the two to have a friendship, both because of their attributes and personalities.

But surprise and confusion did not interfere with Voldemort's decision, and he raised his wand with the intention of firing a spell at the Thestral.

He had already killed a unicorn anyway, so another Thestral would be no big deal.

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Voldemort caught a flash of green light, which he immediately dodged and quickly turned his head to look in the direction of the light: he thought someone was using a killing curse against him.

Then, Voldemort saw that the unicorn he had knocked down and almost killed was back on its feet.

It still looked a little battered, but its wounds were almost healed and it was looking at him with a fury that didn't seem to be dying.

At the same time, a green glow enveloped the unicorn's body.

Voldemort had not noticed the green glow because he had only glanced at it out of the corner of his eye, but now that he had seen it in its entirety, he realized that it was different from the glow of the Killing Curse, giving him a warm feeling and great vitality.

The vitality of the light still attracted the half-dead Voldemort, but the warmth of the light itself caused Voldemort to feel an instinctive repulsion.

Voldemort's eyes narrowed and he began to back away slowly.

The situation was not right and he did not want to linger any longer, he had the unicorn blood in his hand, and with the earlier incident in the Room of Requirement still fresh in his mind, Voldemort did not want to create any more trouble.

As for the unicorn's green light...

Voldemort slowly stepped back with his wand in the air, as he stared into the unicorn's eyes and unleashed his Legeremancy.

Unicorns themselves were very resistant to magic, and while they knew nothing about Occlumency, most spells didn't work too well on them, and even Voldemort was barely able to extract a few words from his mind.

[anger... worry... fear... anxiety...]

y...

[FISH!]

The sudden appearance of the name startled Voldemort, and he looked around warily.

"Meow!" ?(=`Д′=)?

A small gray figure stepped out of a bush and pounced at Voldemort, growing larger as it leapt, its silver-gray fur turning a more vivid golden color, and a huge paw of somewhat exaggerated proportions slapped Voldemort in the face.