Chapter 68: The Friendship of Centaurs

After the battle, neither Alaric nor the centaurs spoke. They silently cleaned up the battlefield.

Alaric used a temporarily transformed sword to dissect the dragon. He multitasked, collecting various materials from the dragon's corpse while recording the dissection diagram in his notebook with an Self-Writing Quill

The centaurs, on the other hand, tended to the wounded, collected fired arrows, and respectfully handled the bodies of the fallen.

Thanks to Alaric's timely arrival, aside from the initial two casualties, the centaur tribe didn't suffer further losses.

Soon, both sides finished their work.

The centaur leader approached Alaric along with his tribe.

"Hello, young man," he greeted Alaric with a gentle tone. "I am Magorian, the chief of the Forbidden Forest Centaur Tribe. On behalf of the centaur tribe, I thank you for your help."

Alaric introduced himself, "I'm Alaric, a first-year student at Hogwarts."

Upon hearing this, the centaurs showed surprise on their faces. After being neighbors with Hogwarts for so many years, they knew what a first-year was.

However, Alaric's power right now clearly surpassed most adult wizards they knew so all of them admired him greatly.

"You're a powerful wizard," Magorian said solemnly, looking at Alaric.

"Not only do you possess strong magic, but you also have a kind heart. We thank you for rescuing us from the dragon's clutches. Wizards who step forward in times of danger deserve our respect."

After speaking, he bowed to Alaric, and all the centaurs behind him followed suit.

This was unexpected. As he was the one who had put the dragon in the Forbidden Forest, and the centaurs were thanking them for his help.

Alaric smiled wryly and explained the origin of the dragon to the centaurs. He also promised to convey an apology from Hagrid to them.

Magorian's face showed a sad expression, but he shook his head, saying to Alaric, "You are an honest person and you don't need to apologize to us because the one responsible for evil and death is not you.

Hagrid made a mistake, and the descendant of that Death Eater is the root of evil. We will hold the mastermind accountable. 

But we appreciate your intervention. From now on, you have earned the friendship of the centaur tribe, and the Forbidden Forest welcomes your presence at any time."

Alaric sighed and secretly lamented the misfortune of Malfoy, who had to bear the blame just because his father was a notorious Death Eater. Even the centaurs knew the surname "Malfoy" when mentioned.

He then took out healing potions from his dragon-hide pocket and handed them to Magorian explaining their usage.

Magorian didn't doubt anything and distributed the potions to the wounded. From this, it was clear they were a noble and proud race.

Before parting ways, Magorian invited Alaric to their victory feast, but Alaric politely declined. Before leaving, he mentioned that he would remember to share the magical materials collected from the dragon with the centaurs.

The two sides bid farewell. In the night, Alaric hurried back to Hogwarts, but he noticed the golden-haired centaur escorting him until the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

This dragon-slaying trip was indeed very fruitful for him.

Alaric not only furthered his study of dragons and gained valuable magical materials but also obtained the friendship of the centaur tribe. 

This meant he could search for various magical materials in the Forbidden Forest—with the help of the centaurs, finding the locations of herbs wouldn't be a big problem.

...

After learning about Norbert's fate, Hagrid was disheartened for several days. 

However, his troubles were not completely over because he still had to find a way to apologize to the centaur tribe and repair the relationship between them.

Meanwhile, Harry and Ron, upon hearing about the battle between the centaurs and Norbert, were surprised and realized the true danger of the dragon.

Of course, at the moment, Harry and Ron didn't have the opportunity to care about Norbert and Hagrid because they had to face an unfortunate event—they were put in detention. 

The reason was wandering at night and getting into a fight. They were accused of fighting with Malfoy on Friday night, causing burns to Malfoy's buttocks. The dragon incident was kept hidden.

Malfoy was also in detention with them. Due to the need for his buttocks to heal, the detention period was delayed for several days.

Finally, the day of detention arrived. They were assigned tasks by Filch, an old man not well-liked by young wizards, who also seized any chance to punish rule-breaking students.

Facing Filch's unpleasant grin, all three of them shivered. They believed the punishment would be severe because Filch seemed overly delighted.

However, what happened next almost made Harry burst out laughing, as Filch took them to Hagrid.

If they had to work with Hagrid, it wouldn't be too bad. Harry thought so, but Filch said, "You probably think you'll have a good time with that oaf, right? Think again, kid—you're going to the Forbidden Forest! If you come out unharmed, I'll admit I was wrong."

Hearing this, Ron couldn't help but snort, and Malfoy abruptly stopped in his tracks.

"The Forbidden Forest?" he added, his voice far from its usual calm tone. "We can't go in there at night—there's everything in there—I've heard there are werewolves."

"You only have yourself to blame." Filch said, joyfully. "You should have thought about those werewolves before you got into trouble, right?"

After a brief intimidation from Filch, he happily left.

Hagrid then told them about their task for the night.

"Look over there," Hagrid said, "See that shining thing on the ground? Silver? That's unicorn blood. A unicorn in the Forbidden Forest has been severely injured.

This is the second time this week. Last Wednesday, I found a dead one. So, now we need to find that poor unicorn and put it out of its misery."

"What if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us first?" Malfoy asked, fear evident in his voice.

"As long as you're with me or Fang, no creature in the Forbidden Forest will harm you," Hagrid assured.

"Don't leave the path. Now, let's split into two groups, follow the blood trails, and search. There's blood everywhere; it seems the unicorn has been stumbling around since last night at least."

"I want Fang," Malfoy said, looking at Fang's long teeth.

"Alright, but I warn you, he's a bit of a coward," Hagrid said.

"Harry and I will take one path, Malfoy, Ron, and Fang take another. If anyone finds the unicorn, shoot green sparks. Understand? 

Take out your wands, practice a bit—oh, and if anyone's in trouble, shoot red sparks. We'll all come running—be careful, everyone—let's go."

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