#456 - Malfoy and Astoria

When Wade returned to the scorched land, he saw from afar that Hagrid and Norberta were not there, and the students were somewhat chaotic.

"Quick! Help them over here!"

"Easy, it hurts!"

"Need water? I know the Water-Making Spell!"

"Hurry up, what are you waiting for?"

Wade grabbed someone passing by and asked, "What happened?"

"You weren't here just now?" Ryan asked in surprise, then said, "Norberta accidentally sneezed, and then... you saw it."

He shrugged helplessly, then casually helped a younger student repair his robe, which had been mostly burned off.

"Why don't I see Hagrid?" Wade asked as he walked towards the center of the chaos.

"The shouts just now seemed to have startled Norberta, and Hagrid managed to get her back into the cave. He's probably trying to calm that big guy down now!" Ryan said.

As he spoke, a low roar came from the cave, echoing like waves, and the entire forest seemed to be still.

After a moment of pause, Wade continued to walk forward, and unsurprisingly found that the most seriously injured was the unlucky Malfoy.

His wizard robe was mostly unbuttoned, and his originally pale skin showed large areas of terrifying burns, with blood-red and black colors that were shocking.

Although most of the students present didn't like Slytherin, their basic morality and compassion hadn't disappeared, and many students surrounded Malfoy with concern and fear. Percy, Penelope, and other older students carefully used healing spells.

Malfoy glared at him fiercely, "Easy for you to say, you're not the one in pain!"

Ron pointed to Harry next to him and mocked, "Harry even broke his arm before, but he didn't cry like you, Draco sweetie."

Malfoy immediately showed an extremely disgusted expression, "Don't call me by such a disgusting name, who do you think you are?"

"Enough!" Percy suddenly said angrily, "Anyone who argues again will have twenty points deducted! I mean it!"

He glared at his youngest brother, then put down his wand and said, "This is all we can do for now, let's go back to school as soon as possible."

"But Hagrid hasn't come out yet," Penelope frowned, "Without Hagrid, we'd better not go into the forest without permission."

"Let me see." Wade parted the crowd and walked over, checked Malfoy's injuries, then reached into his pocket and fumbled for a while, taking out a slender crystal bottle.

Malfoy had been looking at him with suspicion. Seeing him open the bottle and point the mouth at his wound, he asked vigilantly, "What is this?"

"If your nose isn't out of order, this is burn cream."

Considering he was injured, Wade didn't mind his attitude and said in a relatively gentle tone, "To be precise, it's the most effective kind."

Since the last mission to rescue Hailey on the island, Wade had received some potions from Professor Snape and Madam Pomfrey—for treating colds, detoxifying, healing wounds, replenishing blood, and various other types, all of which were more effective than the potions Wade made himself.

There was nothing he could do. He didn't spend much time practicing potions, and his level could only be said to be excellent among students. There was no way to compare with a potions master like Professor Snape.

The light green liquid flowed from the mouth of the bottle. Wade chanted softly, and the potion seemed to have its own consciousness, crawling along the wound and eventually covering all the burns.

A few seconds later, the redness and swelling of the wound quickly subsided, and the terrible red and yellow burns gradually turned into faint red marks. A few thumb-sized blisters that had just swelled up also disappeared.

"Great!" Astoria said happily, "It looks like you've recovered, Malfoy!"

"But my shoulder still hurts!" Malfoy said loudly, reaching out to poke it carefully, and immediately shouted in pain.

"Does it really hurt that much?" Harry asked suspiciously.

Malfoy said with a grim expression, "I really hope you can try this taste too, Potter!"

Astoria said helplessly and doubtfully, "Why are you still looking for a fight when you're injured? Are you really not afraid that everyone will leave you in the Forbidden Forest!"

Although he knew that Hagrid, as a professor, wouldn't leave the students and leave, Malfoy's face turned pale when he heard this, as if he was a little scared.

"This is, after all, an injury caused by a dragon," Wade explained, "The surface skin has basically healed under the effect of the potion, but the deeper parts haven't—if you don't touch the wound, it shouldn't affect normal movement."

Malfoy was dubious, carefully put on his robe, stood up and took two steps, and indeed no longer felt the knife-like pain he had felt just now.

He pursed his lips, wanting to thank him, but didn't say it.

While he was hesitating, Wade had been pulled away by other people. After all, Malfoy wasn't the only student who had been burned, but his injuries were the most serious.

Malfoy didn't dare to make big movements, carefully tidied up his clothes, and noticed out of the corner of his eye that someone had been wandering beside him. He looked up and saw that it was Harry. He asked sarcastically, "What? Want to interview me about my feelings about being injured?"

"No." Harry said awkwardly, touching his nose and asking, "Malfoy, since your injury will heal quickly, you probably won't tell your father, right? You know this was completely an accident..."

The first time an accident happened in Care of Magical Creatures class, Harry thought it was all Malfoy's fault, because Hagrid had repeatedly said to respect the Hippogriff, but Malfoy deliberately provoked and insulted Buckbeak.

But this time... he just happened to be standing a little too close to the dragon's nose, and Hagrid's responsibility was definitely greater.

Upon closer inspection, both raising a dangerous Norwegian Ridgeback in the Forbidden Forest and bringing a group of students to observe and contact the dragon up close were definitely against the rules.

Harry belatedly realized how reckless Hagrid was to do this, so he seemed particularly unconfident when he told Malfoy that he hoped he wouldn't pursue the matter.

"What I want to do is none of your business, Potter!" Malfoy said coldly, "Stay away from me!"

After driving away a few Gryffindors, Malfoy didn't dare to make too many movements. He supported his injured shoulder and carefully distanced himself from the others.

At this time, Malfoy was glad that Blaise and the others hadn't come over, and of course, the Weasley's annoying twins. Otherwise, those guys would definitely pretend to be casual and deliberately touch his injured area.

A figure approached from behind. Malfoy thought it was Harry again and turned his head displeased, but saw the petite Astoria.

He frowned and asked, "What? Are you here to plead for that big guy too?"

"No." Astoria shook her head and said, "I know you won't pursue it."

"How do you know I won't?" Malfoy dragged out his voice maliciously, "I'll have my father skin her alive, and Hagrid, he'll never be a professor again and will be sent to Azkaban!"

If Harry and the others were here, they would have already started fighting, but Astoria just shook her head again.

"You won't. You like Norberta more than any of us."

Astoria said certainly, "And until now, Norberta is still 'she' in your mouth, not 'that beast'—you've always called that Hippogriff that, right? I've heard it several times."

Malfoy turned his head away in embarrassment, and after a moment asked, "Then what are you doing here, also to laugh at me?"

"I just think you might not want to be alone right now, when everyone else is with their friends."

Astoria walked beside him with her hands behind her back, swaying back and forth, and asked very directly:

"Why are you always so mean to others? Potter and Grey didn't have any malice just now, and neither did I. Also, you may not like Ron Weasley, but his brother helped you treat your injury a few minutes ago."

Draco Malfoy looked at the golden-haired girl's clear eyes and suddenly felt that the jealousy, resentment, fear, and doubt that had been suppressed in his heart for a long time were like smelly socks hidden under the bed that he couldn't take out.

In the end, he just said, "Do you need a reason to hate someone?"

Astoria didn't refute, and after thinking for a while, she said, "Okay, I can understand that... after all, I also have someone I hate."

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Malfoy stopped and asked curiously, "Who?"

Astoria didn't answer, just looked up at him quietly.

Malfoy began to feel confused, and after a moment he suddenly realized: "—Pansy?"

"I think she often bullies my sister, but when I advised Daphne to stay away from Parkinson, she told me not to interfere, just like you did just now."

Astoria sighed and said, "Why are you all like this? You know they're not good friends, but you still can't break off the relationship?"

"It's not as simple as you say," Malfoy said unhappily, "This kind of thing is very complicated, what do you little kids know?"

Astoria said pointedly, "I don't think it takes too much wisdom to stay away from friends who make you feel uncomfortable... you just lack some courage."

Malfoy was speechless and didn't know how to refute. The sharp tongue he usually used to argue with Harry seemed to have rusted.

Just then, Hagrid finally came out of the cave, a large part of his beard was burned, and there were several holes in his clothes.

"Alright, kids, is everyone okay?"

Hagrid looked around carefully, focusing on Malfoy, who seemed to have screamed just now. Seeing that everyone seemed to be fine (had been treated by Wade), he finally felt relieved and said hastily:

"Alright, let's go back to school. Norberta is now... uh... not in a good mood. Did anyone get hurt just now? Nothing serious, right?"

Hagrid looked at Malfoy several times, but Malfoy didn't have time to pay attention to him. Because he realized sluggishly that he had forgotten to refute Astoria just now. Pansy was not a bad friend, she was the most supportive person in the entire Slytherin house.

But after walking with the crowd for a while, Malfoy slowly recalled the details of their usual interactions.

He couldn't help but think: What Astoria said... didn't seem wrong.

...

Wade stayed at the back of the group, turned a dead branch into a thin wooden board, wrote a message on it, then walked to the place where he found the wolf cub and hung the wooden board on the tree with a rope.

He quickly caught up with the group in front, Fang still jumping and hopping beside him.

"Strange..."

Hagrid walked while looking around involuntarily. But the sky-covering trees blocked his view, and Hagrid didn't notice anything unusual.

"What's strange?" Harry asked.

"The Forbidden Forest seems to be a little hotter than before," Hagrid said confusedly, "And can't you smell it? I always feel like there's a smell of barbecue..."

Harry sniffed, and his stomach rumbled twice.

"You're hungry, Hagrid." Harry concluded, then said, "I'm also hungry, the dinner in the hall shouldn't have disappeared yet, right?"

"Don't worry," Theo said, "If we get back late, we'll go to the kitchen to get some food for everyone."

He winked, and Harry immediately laughed, thinking of the rich food and enthusiastic house elves there.

He now hoped to see an empty dining table when he got back.

Speaking of dinner, Hagrid immediately forgot what he was thinking just now. What's more, his most important task now was to send the students back safely.

The return journey was still smooth and quiet, even a little too quiet. The forest usually had various noisy sounds at night, but tonight it was so quiet that even the insects seemed to be asleep, and only the footsteps and breathing of everyone could be heard.

Hagrid felt uneasy and quickened his pace, urging everyone to walk faster, until the lights of the castle appeared in sight, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Wade stopped for a moment, and a flash of fire suddenly shot out from the dark forest, disappeared beside him in a flash.

Wade stuffed the pencil case into his pocket, looked at Fang beside him with wide eyes, and smiled softly.

The hound tilted its head in confusion, then shook its head, trotted to Hagrid's hut, and lay down on the steps, as if it was exhausted.

"Okay, let's go eat now," Hagrid clapped his hands and said, "If anyone was injured just now, go to the hospital wing to find Madam Pomfrey—of course, you all understand. Also, write an essay on the Norwegian Ridgeback and hand it in next week..."

Amidst the loud complaints of the students, Hagrid skillfully assigned homework and strode towards the castle.

...

More than half an hour later, a hand took down the wooden board hanging on the tree. A man wearing what looked like a rag display rack stood under the tree and turned the wooden board over to look at it.

Beside him were a white wolf and several wolf cubs. After waiting for a while, the white wolf impatiently scratched his leg with its paw.

"Don't scratch, this is the only complete pair of pants I have," the man said in a hoarse voice, "The wizard brought Maurice into the castle. He said he would cure the child and send him back."

The white wolf whined a few times, its eyes revealing a hint of human-like concern.

“We can’t enter that castle; we can only choose to believe.” The man tucked the wooden plank behind his waist, then said to a small wolf with amber eyes beside him, “Karen, tell me exactly what happened from beginning to end.”