Chapter 111: Forbidden Forest (Edited)

Harry was feeling very lucky these days.

Ever since he had caught the Golden Snitch as fast as he could in a match against Hufflepuff, rendering Snape's machinations completely useless, everything seemed to be getting better.

His performance on the Quidditch pitch made him more than just a celebrity with a big name.

And the night of the match, he had listened to Snape and Quirrell talk, knowing that whatever was behind the trapdoor was safe for now.

Then, two days later, Hermione found him and Ron with a huge old book in her arms, telling them that she had discovered who Nicolas Flamel really was, in her words, a book she had borrowed for fun.

Harry and Ron couldn't understand it, but they were both surprised.

But in any case, they knew that Nicolas Flamel was the only person in the world who possessed a Philosopher's Stone, and a famous alchemist who had lived for over 600 years.

This explained why Harry and the others couldn't find any mention of Nicolas Flamel in books like 'The Great Magicians of the 20th Century' or 'The Directory of Famous Contemporary Magicians'.

Based on what they knew, they guessed that what was hidden behind the trapdoor was probably the Philosopher's Stone.

But even if they knew that behind the trapdoor was the Philosopher's Stone, it didn't seem to be much help to the matter, the ones who could resist Snape were still Fluffy and Quirrell.

So, for the rest of the day, Harry and Ron spent the rest of the day giving kind words of encouragement to Professor Quirrell, and Ron kept telling everyone to stop laughing at Quirrell's stuttering.

Hermione, on the other hand, was less concerned about this matter once she had figured out who Nicolas Flamel was and had resolved her doubts. In her opinion, she now had more important things to do, which was to plan her revision for her final exams, which were not due for another few months.

Harry Potter and his friends were following Dumbledore's plan to discover the secret of the trapdoor, and Fish wasn't idle either.

...

"Meow!" ?(=ΦωΦ=)?

Sneaking out of the castle, Fish wandered into the Forbidden Forest and found a group of Aethonan eating a bush and jumped on the back of one of them.

The Aethonan was startled at first, but when it realized it was Fish, it snorted, turned its head and touched its nose to the kitten's nose on its back, then spread its wings on its back and carried Fish into the night sky.

"Meow~". ?(=ω=)?

Fish let out a cry of happiness that reached the ears of his friends in the Forbidden Forest.

As a result, the originally silent Forbidden Forest suddenly became animated, and all kinds of flying horses, Hippogriffs, birds and other magical creatures that could fly flew out of the magical forest and joined Fish as he flew on the Aethonan's back.

At that moment, Fish transformed into his cat-person form and took the food out of his magical bag and scattered it across the sky for his winged friends to pick up.

It had been a while since he had escaped Hogwarts to play in the Forbidden Forest.

As the temperature rose, Fish, who had spent most of his time sleeping in his dormitory, became active again and got a bit bored of being in the castle, so he started thinking about sneaking out of the castle to play in the Forbidden Forest.

Anyway, he knew everyone in the Forbidden Forest pretty well, and apart from a few grumpy fellows who were difficult to deal with, Fish had gotten along much better with the animals in the Forbidden Forest than Hagrid.

He had always been good and kept Hagrid company, but only because it was so cold that he didn't want to be out in the open, and when he came back he was able to curl up under Hagrid's clothes and let himself be carried around by him.

Now that it's warmer, there's no need for the warm "walk" involved, and Hagrid scolds him and won't let him go this way or that.

Of course, Professor McGonagall must not find out about this, Fish had not yet figured out how to beat her, so it had to be done secretly.

And Fish soon came up with a good way to do it... borrow Harry's invisibility cloak.

After confirming that Fish wasn't going to use the cloak to enter the trapdoor, Harry lent it out without saying a word.

With the invisibility cloak and the silencing spell he had learned, Fish actually escaped Dumbledore's surveillance and slipped out of the castle.

After sneaking out of the castle, the wily Fish did not move around the outer perimeter, because that would have alerted Hagrid not far away, nor did he approach the centaurs, because they spoke English and there might be a risk of being exposed.

Although the centaurs would not have talked if he had asked them to, the fairy tale books that Professor McGonagall had shown him were full of stories of people unwittingly revealing secrets.

So Fish spent his evenings looking for animals that couldn't communicate with humans, as he did tonight.

"Meow~~~~" ?(=ΦωΦ=)?

Fish, transformed into his cat form, happily jumped on the backs of the group of flying creatures, sometimes jumping straight off their backs and being caught again by them just as he was about to fall to the ground.

It was an exciting and fun game that he would never have been able to play as long as Hagrid was here.

After flying around for a while, Fish had quite a bit of fun before landing back in the Forbidden Forest with the group, where Fish transformed into his human form and pulled some food out of his magical bag to share with them.

It's just that, unlike Fluffy, who took whatever he could get his hands on, many of the animals in the Forbidden Forest didn't eat human food, so while there were many of them, they didn't really consume as much as Fluffy would have if he had eaten.

After sharing the food, Fish returned to his cat form and wandered through the Forbidden Forest.

It was a much larger forest than Hogwarts, and there were many places Hagrid wouldn't normally allow him to go, so he had to mark them and mark his territory when he snuck out.

By doing so, Fish would not disturb the animals that already lived here, as Fish did not live here, and the markings were merely symbolic.

In the animal kingdom, it is not uncommon for animals of different sizes and diets to coexist.

However, from time to time there are brutal creatures, such as Acromantulas, that eat everything or kill anything that gets in their way, and whose territories are rarely populated by other creatures.

If Fish invaded the territory of these guys, he would also be driven off or even attacked.

However, there are very few creatures as ill-tempered, as powerful individually, and as resident in groups as the Acromantula, and in all its time in the Forbidden Forest, the Acromantula is the only one of its kind.

Other creatures with bad temper and fighting ability used to be solitary or part of a single family.

Fish is not afraid of this situation. Although he is not physically large and does not possess much strength, he had some strange spells that he had awakened, which had a great advantage in the forest. For example, the [Root Entanglement] spell, which cannot be used in the castle, but has great power in the Forbidden Forest.

So, even if you encounter a bad-tempered guy, Fish can win, and if he can't, he can easily escape.

Of course, stinky guys like trolls are an exception. After experiencing the stinky troll attack behind the trap door, yes Fish smells them in the Forbidden Forest, he would hide far away.

Although Fish later discovered that he had a much higher tolerance to stench in cat form, in other words, when he smelled bad smells in cat form, he won't have too many adverse reactions.

But because of his previous experience, Fish had unconsciously chosen to avoid trolls, even though he knew he was not afraid of them in his cat form.

However, by this point he had traveled quite a bit of the Forbidden Forest area near Hogwarts, and had a good idea of where the animals were, and it wasn't that he didn't want to go further, but it was too far and it would take too long to get back.

But tonight, Fish didn't want to patrol the territory, but to get revenge on the Acromantulas that had chased him.