#219 - Thestral's Revenge

Urged by Percy, Moon quickly left the dormitory carrying his suitcase.

Ron initially chased after him, wanting to return the gemstone to Moon.

However, as soon as he stepped out of the common room and onto the spiral staircase, he was stopped.

Because Moon was usually around, his good friends in the dormitory didn't bother to remember the changing patterns of the spiral staircase.

They usually just followed Moon's footsteps to reach their destination as quickly as possible.

But now, Ron could only helplessly watch Moon's figure disappear into the distance, while he was stuck on the spiral staircase, unable to go up or down.

"Why are you only arriving now? If you miss this carriage, you'll have to walk to the station."

Seeing Moon walking out of the school gate with his suitcase in his left hand and holding the bouncing tree nest in his right, Hermione immediately approached.

She helped take the tree nest and then pulled Moon to quickly run towards the last carriage.

"Hurry, Moon, we're waiting for you."

Neville and Seamus were already sitting in the carriage; they reached out and pulled Hermione and Moon onto the moving carriage together.

"Sorry, I was delayed for a while because of other things."

After placing his suitcase, Moon sat on the right side of the carriage, with Hermione sitting next to him.

"It's okay, you made it in the end."

Neville smiled shyly.

Being able to help others, especially Moon, made the insecure little wizard very happy.

Seamus, on the other hand, didn't care about these things; he simply waved his hand and pointed to the front of the carriage.

"It's so amazing! This carriage can actually run on its own."

In fact, when the carriage carried the older students away earlier, the three little wizards were guessing if it was some kind of magic.

Now that they were on the carriage, it felt very much like a real carriage, but they couldn't see any horses pulling it in front.

"There is a horse, it's just that you can't see it."

Moon had already spotted the Thestral pulling the carriage before getting on.

The horse looked exactly like the one he had seen in the Mirror of Erised.

It had no flesh on its body, its black skin was tightly stretched over its bones, and every bone was clearly visible.

A pair of large, black, sturdy wings, resembling those of a giant bat, grew from the raised area between its shoulder blades.

"Is that it? The one you saw in the book!"

As soon as Moon finished speaking, Hermione's eyes widened instantly, and the corners of her mouth slightly turned up.

"That's right, a Thestral!"

Hearing Moon give the final answer, Hermione became very excited.

She quickly walked to the front of the carriage, wanting to reach out and touch what the Thestral was like.

"Wait! It's looking at us."

Just as Hermione was about to touch the Thestral's body, the magical creature turned its head and revealed its pure white eyes.

Because there were no pupils in the Thestral's eyes, Moon couldn't read any deep meaning from them, but the Thestral's subsequent neigh was heard by all four little wizards.

"Did it... did it reject me?"

Hermione just wanted to feel what the magical creature recorded in the books was like, but she never thought of provoking it.

She had already retracted her hand at this moment, looking blankly at Moon.

"Perhaps... not."

The other three little wizards didn't know what was happening, but Moon was sure that the Thestral seemed to be interested in him.

Just as Hermione reached out to touch the Thestral, Moon also casually fiddled with the magical creature's swaying tail.

However, after just touching it, the Thestral immediately stopped pulling the carriage.

"Ahem一一" (Such a familiar feeling, I can give you one.)

Before Moon knew how to explain it to his three good friends, the Thestral had already used its teeth to pluck a tuft of black tail hair and stuffed it into his hand.

"Wait, this.....

2:

Just as Moon was about to refuse, the Thestral turned around and quickly pulled the carriage forward, already far behind the leading group.

The sudden start of the carriage caused Moon to lose his footing and fall backward; Seamus quickly supported him.

"Did it give you something?"

When Moon regained his balance, Hermione looked down at Moon's not fully clenched hand.

The Thestral was very magical; according to the explanation in the book, people who had not experienced death would not be able to see it at all.

Even the tail hair that had already left its body possessed the same characteristics.

"That's right, it gave me a small tuft of tail hair."

Moon said, spreading his palm in front of his three friends.

"Tail hair! Plucked straight off? That must have hurt a lot."

Seamus said, taking a breath of cold air.

"Is that the point? Seamus, think about it, this is Thestral tail hair, no matter what it can do, it must be very precious."

Hermione and Seamus were also very good friends.

In this semester's Potions class, Neville and Seamus often had various accidents.

As partners, Moon and Hermione were often able to prevent disasters from happening at critical moments.

So when Hermione spoke in a blaming tone, Seamus just helplessly pouted.

As for Hermione at this moment, she had already reached out to the Thestral's tail hair.

"Are you sure this is animal hair? The temperature is too low."

Just after touching it, Hermione immediately retracted her hand.

She felt that the thing Moon was holding in his hand was colder than the ice on the Black Lake.

"Of course, and it's very fresh."

Moon joked, then opened his hand and continued to hand it to Seamus and Neville.

"Forget it, I'm not interested in cold things."

Seamus waved his hand, while Neville next to him shrank back in fear when he saw Moon's palm extended.

"My great-uncle said that Thestrals are ominous creatures and told me never to get close to them."

Neville clasped his hands tightly while speaking; even though he was very curious now, he always remembered the warnings of his elders.

[Thestrals will bring all sorts of terrible disasters to those who see them, they are an ominous sign! 一一 Algie Longbottom]

"Well, okay, then next time can you not say this in front of the Thestral?"

Just when Neville spoke, the Thestral let out a neigh.

Moon was too embarrassed to translate it for Neville because the Thestral's curse was too awful.

As Moon spoke, he tore a piece of paper from his notebook, wrapped the Thestral's tail hair, opened his suitcase, and put it inside.

Thump!

The carriage ran over a small gully, and the wheels made a dull sound.

"Ouch! Okay, then I'll try to only say it in front of you in the future."

Neville was just flashed for a moment, and then inexplicably added a sentence.

Thump ~ Thump ~ Thump ~ Thump ~ Thump Before Moon could remind him, the carriage had already run over several gullies and stones in a row, and the speed was getting faster and faster.

"I remember ~ the road ~ to school ~ doesn't ~ seem ~ this ~ bumpy ~."

Seamus held tightly to the edge of the carriage with both hands, his voice trembling up and down with his body.

"Actually ~ whether you can speak ~ also determines ~ whether the road ~ you take next ~ will be smooth ~."

Moon had already discovered that the Thestral was deliberately retaliating.

The magical creature would rather choose the edge of the road with potholes than take the smooth center of the road.

Of course, Moon couldn't blame the other party, after all, it was his friend's fault.

Fortunately, the remaining road was not very far.

When they arrived at Hogsmeade Station, the Thestral, with a sudden brake, harvested the last scream from the little wizards and left triumphantly with a snort.