Chapter 131

Chapter 131

Unconscious, Suer naturally had no idea what was happening in the outside world.

In fact, he thought those two bloodthirsty spiders might already have eaten his body.

Would Dumbledore exterminate the entire Acromantula species when he heard the news?

That no longer had anything to do with Suer, who believed he had died suddenly, though it was a pity that he had never married Hermione or made his old imaginings real.

His “death” had come too suddenly. Before casting his final spell, the very last thought in Suer’s head had actually been — I came to the Forbidden Forest for my Animagus transformation without touching those cat ears first. What a blunder!

“So your greatest regret is not touching your little girlfriend’s cat ears?” Ariana Dumbledore burst out laughing.

Yes, it was that familiar scene again.

What was this, was he going to die here once every year?

“I haven’t even confessed to her yet.” Suer shrugged and spoke dejectedly. “But this time I’m truly dead. By now, wild beasts have probably eaten every last bit of my body.”

“Is that so?” Ariana smiled, unconvinced. Encountering Suer here three times had made her realise that this young wizard might be rather unusual.

“I thought the people you would have the hardest time leaving were your parents.”

“It all happened in an instant. There wasn’t time to think of so much.” Suer sighed. He could already imagine what would happen when Angel learnt that he had died.

Most likely, Mother Suli would coax her by saying he had gone to heaven. After all, death was far too heavy a word for a child.

“Is it possible that you aren’t actually dead?” Ariana asked with a smile.

“No. You don’t know what I encountered,” Suer said. “They were Acromantulas with a five-star danger rating. There is no reason they would abandon meat already at their mouths.”

At this point, Suer became rather annoyed with himself.

“How did I forget that Acromantulas were active in that area?”

“The Forbidden Forest? My brother told me that many dangerous and wondrous creatures live there, but he never mentioned Acromantulas. What are they?” Ariana asked curiously.

“Do you want to know what they look like?” Suer instinctively felt around his body, then remembered he was dead and his wand had naturally remained in the real world. “What a pity. If I had my wand, I could transfigure one for you.”

“Never mind. Perhaps it’s better not to know.”

Ariana nodded and did not dwell on it. “What were you doing in the Forbidden Forest?”

That question immediately revived Suer’s spirits. “Do you know about Animagi?” Without waiting for Ariana to answer, he continued, “It is one of the ultimate branches of Transfiguration. Very few wizards can do it. It allows a wizard to change freely between human and animal form.”

Suer then told Ariana how exacting and complicated the requirements were.

He thought of keeping a leaf beneath his tongue for a month and going several months without a single lazy morning, all to complete the Animagus transformation. The transformation itself had failed to kill him, only for two spiders to eat him afterwards.

Most importantly, he had died before he could show off to a certain person!

Suer’s face fell as sorrow welled up, though the admiration in Ariana’s eyes made him feel a little better.

“Even my brother cannot perform that magic. You’re amazing. He said that people in our family are innately incapable of learning it.”

“It wasn’t much. It was all luck.” Suer smiled and scratched his head. “I’ve also learnt the Patronus Charm, and that’s a very difficult defensive spell.”

“I know that one.” Ariana sounded somewhat excited. “It’s a wondrous spell that can summon a Patronus.”
“My brother told me the incantation. I think it was — Expecto Patronum?”

“The correct pronunciation is… Expecto Patronum.”

After practising with Professor Flitwick, the pronunciation of the incantation had long since become habitual. Suer knew precisely where to pause and which syllables to stress.

Enthusiastically, he raised a hand and pretended he was holding a wand. “The wrist movement should go like this, and then… Expecto Patronum!”

Something miraculous happened. Fine silver threads emerged from Suer’s fingertips.

“This…” Suer stared at the sight in stunned disbelief.

“This is the first time I’ve seen anyone use magic here.” Ariana’s eyes widened as well, and she curiously reached out to touch the silver threads suspended between them.

But the instant her fingertips touched them, the threads seemed to encounter something that drew them in. They wound around Ariana’s fingers, then swiftly formed a silver ring around her wrist, gleaming like a bracelet.

It all happened in an instant. Suer began to panic.

At that very moment, Suer’s figure rapidly faded and disappeared. He did not even have time to ask whether Ariana was all right.

Ariana was not surprised in the slightest. Or rather, she had expected it. Suer had disappeared in precisely the same way last time.

She even waved to him with great interest by way of farewell.

After Suer vanished completely, she gently shook the silver ring on her wrist, smiled faintly and skipped away.

…

Suer opened his eyes. The familiar hospital ward greeted him, and panic remained in his gaze.

He had thought himself dead, completely and utterly, without so much as a scrap left. But the stabbing pain in his mind reminded him that he was alive.

Frowning, Suer endured a sensation like hundreds of needles jabbing into his head and barely managed to turn it aside.

A cat-eared head bent over a book entered his sight.

It was Hermione.

Yet Suer remembered that the last time he had seen her, some fur had remained on Hermione’s face and the backs of her hands. Now, only the pair of ears remained.

“Cough…” Suer could not help coughing.

“Oh! You’re awake.” Hermione looked over blankly, then threw down her book and sprang to her feet.

“How do you feel? Is anything wrong?”

Suer managed to shake his head, though the pain in his mind made him frown.

“I’ll fetch Madam Pomfrey,” Hermione said. “You frightened everyone half to death. If you hadn’t still been breathing when Hagrid carried you in, we would all have thought you were dead!”

“What were you thinking? How could you dare enter the Forbidden Forest alone and fight an Acromantula? That’s an extremely dangerous magical creature!”

“You were in such a state that I nearly died of fright. There was a great hole in your shoulder, your whole body was torn and covered in blood, and you’d been poisoned too. If Fang hadn’t fetched Hagrid, you would have died. Do you understand?”

Hermione rattled off one reproach after another. Her eyes even glimmered when she described Suer’s injuries, but Suer did not take in a single word. He merely blinked in confusion.

“Forget it. I can’t be bothered lecturing you! I’m going to fetch Madam Pomfrey.”

With that, she stamped her foot and hurried away, her two cat ears bobbing.

Hagrid had saved him? One spider? Had there not been another two?

So Fang had not run away, but gone to fetch help…

For a moment, all sorts of chaotic thoughts flooded his mind.