Chapter 139

Before entering the forest, Snape decided to first visit one half-giant, who currently works as a forester at a school and knows the "Forbidden Forest" like the back of his hand.

 It wasn't particularly difficult to find him; the small hut of the former Gryffindor, Hagrid, was located in the east, not far from the main gate. 

He was a man a little over three meters tall, with long black hair to his shoulders and a beard that almost completely hid half of his face, he was wearing simple leather boots, old trousers and a shirt made of some strong fabric. And at the moment he was busy with a small garden, caring for pumpkins, while humming something to himself.

Just from one look at the man, Snape could immediately say one thing, he was kind and very naive, it was not difficult to understand from his eyes and from the tenderness with which he looked after the garden, and it is not surprising that Tom decided to throw off the blame for Myrtle's death on his head, in addition to the fact that he was half-giant, that is, half-human, which was even worse than Muggle-born wizards in the eyes of the aristocrats who occupied all the seats on the Board of Trustees and the court in the Ministry, he also had an animal in in the form of an acromantula, just an ideal target that won't even make excuses if you put a little pressure on it.

Snape decided to visit him for only one purpose, to look through his memories, because it was one thing to read about the "Forbidden Forest" in a book, but to receive the memory of someone who had walked through it more than once and knew almost every magical creature was completely different. 

And coming close to the half-giant, under the cloak of invisibility and the spell of averting eyes, Severus extended his hand and touched the man's head.

 Hagrid, in turn, only managed to flinch, feeling something on the top of his head, and then his eyes rolled back and his body landed on the ground with a crash, piercing one of the pumpkins with his head. 

And now, standing on his chest, Severus again touched the forester's head and began to "rummage" through his memories.

Snape didn't want to harm him, so he tried to be as careful as possible, after all, such people, whom he was very impressed by, were a huge rarity among the wizarding world. 

Hagrid's mind was much simpler than that of ordinary people due to the blood of giants, who were greatly deprived of intelligence, and therefore finding what Snape wanted was not difficult, it only took ten minutes and now he knew the forest and most of the living creatures, like the back of his hand, but even this guy didn't poke himself into the very depths, because he understood all the danger, but that's where Severus was going to go, but before that, he had to visit someone. 

Severus did not simply leave him on the ground, but raised him with the help of magic, he then slightly cleared the man's memories and placed him on a rocking chair located not far from the entrance, and then headed towards the forest, in one specific direction.

"I think he's a good person, " Nagini looked thoughtfully towards the half-giant, from whom loud snoring could already be heard. 

"Just an innocent fool, but such people are the most loyal, Dumbledore was lucky to have such a subordinate."

"Maybe you can try to lure him to our side, I think we could leave him to look after the animals?"

"It won't work, it's impossible to bribe such people, if someday the old man throws away his skates, we can try to do it, but for now it's useless," calmly explained Severus, who also thought after reading the memoirs to try to hire a forester, because he had a lot of experience in caring for a variety of magical creatures, but it was simply impossible to win such fools over to your side, and Severus didn't really want to do this, because he could at any moment copy the half-giant's memories into one of the memory balls and simply transfer them to the house elf, who will do no worse, and maybe even better, than HaSnape himself.

"Okay, but you still haven't told us about your plans, why are we going there?" The snake tilted its head to the side and looked at him, puzzled. 

"Really?"

"You spent the whole week exploring the forest, and at night you worked on the ritual, you barely even talked to me, " she said at the end with a bit of resentment in her voice. 

"Forgive me, you know that if I get down to something, I won't calm down until I finish," Severus said with an embarrassed smile, gently stroking his companion on the head and looking up, he saw giant trees, the foliage of which was almost completely hid what was behind the "line" separating the "Forbidden Forest" and the castle territory, "My main goal is to explore the forest, in case of unforeseen circumstances, as in the "Magic Jungle", and also to find the "White Lotus", about which I kind of had already told you."

"Yes, this is one of the components for the "Elixir of Life"."

"Yes, I also want to collect some blood and hair from a unicorn, and if possible, then the horn, the powder from it can be a good help to enhance the effect of most potions, as well as the poison of acromantulas, which, by the way, we are heading to now."

"Isn't mine better?"

"Better, but it's too strong, and some potions require it." the Prince poked her in the face with a smile and finally overcame the "line", he entered the forest, under the displeased hiss of the reptile, whom such a gesture was already beginning to irritate... 

The trees in the thicket of the forest grew very close to each other, creating a kind of twilight and even now it was already evening, but it was still light outside, but inside it was dark and rather gloomy, although there were still small light areas, but they were extremely rare. 

And almost immediately, as soon as they entered, Severus noticed an ordinary fox running in the distance, which was not too surprising. 

From Hagrid's memories, the forest was inhabited, in addition to magical creatures, by ordinary animals, but they did not go further than the outskirts because of the danger of being eaten by the same acromantulas and other living creatures with magic. 

As for the spiders, they basically, as befits powerful magical creatures, lived very deep in the thicket and tried to hardly leave their territory, but this was not surprising, their colony was no more than thirty years old, because the acromantula, which was blamed for the petrification of Myrtle, and after the destruction of the statue, he managed to escape to the "Forbidden Forest" on the day when Tom came to accuse HaSnape of the murder of a girl, and became a kind of proof of the forester's guilt, which is why the half-giant was accused of murder, because he was its master.

 As punishment, his wand was broken and he was forbidden to use or create new ones, and then he was also sent to Azkaban.

 And the spider lived in the forest all this time until its "owner" returned

 Of course, with the influence of Dumbledore, one of the strongest wizards in Britain and the only wizard capable of fighting Grindelwald on equal terms, it would not be difficult to carry out additional testing and prove the innocence of his student, but this could affect his career in the Wizengamot, which he had just started building, so most likely he decided not to interfere, but in the end, from HaSnape's memories, he pulled him out of Azkaban and took him to work. 

Although it looked noble and matched "Dear Light Wizard, Dumbledore," Snape had other thoughts, that he deliberately did not interfere and delayed his release, in order to earn complete devotion, he allowed him to suffer, and only then pulled him out, receiving one of the most faithful assistants and most likely, judging by the short time of their communication and the information collected, he hit the nail on the head. 

Although the old man's action was not the "brightest," Snape had to admit that he acted beautifully and was able to get the maximum profit from the suffering of his student. 

Therefore, the title "Best Headmaster" would definitely have gone to him. 

But Hagrid, who is still a child from brain, allowed even an acromantula to settle in the forest, a dangerous creature who is not averse to eating human flesh, and at the same time to get a female, thereby allowing him to build a colony. 

In general, both are good with each other, so he didn't really want to win him over to his side.

Moving deeper and deeper, Snape did not pay much attention to the living creatures running past him, because he knew everything about each creature, thanks to the knowledge of the half-giant. 

Although, there was still an attack, but it was just an ordinary wolf, on which you didn't even have to use magic; one slap in the face was enough to knock it out.

Although the further he went, the rarer simple animals became and more and more magical ones appeared, but mostly not aggressive ones, because usually the latter mostly began their hunt late at night, and there were still about five hours before it.

 But still, apparently today one of the monsters decided to change his regime, because at the moment when Severus was climbing a small hill, an almost two-metre boar, with huge tusks and a back along the spine studded with thorns, jumped out in his direction.

 "The thorny boar, a monster that lives closer to the centre of the forest, suddenly found itself on the outskirts..." but noticing panic mixed with rage in his gaze, squinting, the Prince strengthened his perception and almost immediately felt another source of magic, but much more, than this beast.

 And they didn't have to wait long, because from behind the hill an almost three-meter-tall creature resembling a cross between a bear and an armadillo jumped out and rushed in their direction.

 "Well, I was just looking for transport," and looking at the fur-covered back with spikes, and then at the other with armor, the choice was obvious and baring his teeth, he headed towards the monsters rushing towards him, and the boar who saw that the person was no running away and was instead walking in its direction was relieved, because it would be able to throw its pursuer at him and escape itself, but how much the monster was wrong, it realises only after a few seconds…

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