[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
Hogwarts.
...
...
The old woman was standing a few meters away from them as the fog circled the area. "What is a student doing here in the middle of the forest alone..." she commented while she examined Snape for a moment.
Snape, meanwhile, was confused; this did not seem like any creature he had seen in his books or about the creatures that inhabit this forest... which made him frown.
"What are you...?" Snape asked with a curious tone, yet calm in the presence of that thing.
The Graphorn beside him seemed to start growling at the creature, clearly not liking her at all.
The old witch looked at him for a moment, surprised by the calmness in Snape's tone that was also reflected in his eyes analyzing her, causing her to start laughing. "I'm surprised you're not afraid of me, since the last students I saw, over ten years ago, wandering through this forest, ran as if their lives depended on it when they saw me, which was true... but it was too late for them. It's been a while for this old lady, but I still remember their scared faces, it was a pleasure to end them... however... you seem different. You're not afraid of an old lady like me, boy?" she said and asked, smiling.
"Should I be? Yes, I am not afraid of you," Snape spoke sincerely, what was there to fear seeing a strange old woman in the middle of this place, others might have, but him?
"Haha. Of course, you should be, everyone should be afraid of me, since I am the Witch of the Forest, the one who has lived in this part of the forest for over 100 years..." she spoke, and looked at Snape's hands, which still held one of the plants he was picking.
"I see, you're after the night lady... But this grove is mine, and I didn't give you permission to take my things," she spoke in a more hostile tone than before, this time.
Meanwhile, the Graphorn started to growl louder at her beside Snape, and she looked a bit surprised. "Oh, a Graphorn! He's a rare creature, must make a nice stew, right, little boy?" she said, becoming more excited again, as she looked at the Graphorn thinking about cooking it afterward.
Snape decided to finally respond to this witch, who seemed to have bipolar personality issues. "I don't care if you consider this land yours, you don't command the forest," Snape said, and the old witch raised an eyebrow.
"Look, I might expect a student not to fear an old woman like me, but someone so confrontational in my presence, youngster. Hahaha. You don't know who you're messing with," she said, starting to get annoyed again, with her mood swinging all the time.
"Alright, boy, you asked for it. I'd usually kill you with some tortures after coming to this part of the forest, but you'll be special... I'll hear your scream for the next few hours!" She moved her hand to the basket on her arm and pulled out a twisted, old wand, shaking off some hoverflies that circled it as if it were rotten.
"It seems I finally found an old witch in a dark forest, like the fantasy books the Muggles describe..." Snape smiled at the irony.
"It's been over ten years since I ate a student and I'll also love cooking this animal," she said, returning to being excited and with a sinister laugh imagining it.
Snape stood firm but looked at the Graphorn and thought about what to do. Suddenly, the witch moved her wand invoking a spell with an annoying voice and released a red beam towards the boy. Snape, however, jumped to the side, making the beam pass by them without touching him or the animal.
"Hm?! You know how to be quick!" She was forced to compliment and cast another beam while Snape, once again, turned his body without jumping, making her miss once again. "Strange, I've never seen a wizard move this way, much less a student," she looked at that and murmured softly, before once again, launching an attack, but without success as the boy dodged without even pulling out his wand yet, while storing the Night Lady in his bag amidst the attacks, as the beam shone through the darkness of the forest, hitting a tree or a stone like the last ones.
Snape remained calm as the Witch finally seemed to frown a bit. "Alright, since I can't hit you, take this," she simply cast a Bombarda. Even if she exploded a part of his body with it, she could still make use of the other parts of his body in her cauldron.
Snape quickly sensed the trajectory of the spell and realized she was aiming at the ground, surprising him since it was bad for him. In a swift movement, he brandished his wand quickly and cast a protective spell. The explosion made his shield fly a bit away due to the force of the impact, but he still landed firmly with an intact shield, unharmed.
"She's smart," he couldn't help but comment.
"And you're good, boy, you even seem like an adult duelist," she complimented once more, after all, this boy was quite quick. "But let's see if you can handle this," she said, and this time she didn't aim at him but at the Graphorn that growled at a distance, but was afraid to act due to its tender age.
Seeing this, Snape quickly cast a "Leviosa" on the animal, making it float just in time as her spell passed by him. She didn't stop attacking, launching spells in the air towards him, while Snape conjured a "Descendo", but not making the animal hit the ground, just lowering it a bit, avoiding the attack once again.
He protected the animal from this old witch and was about to start attacking her with magic, but this meantime opened a gap for the old witch to attack while Snape was focused on the Graphorn to not hurt it, and soon he received a beam directly on him.
The beam made him immediately lose his wand, with a spell that disarmed him. "Haha, that really was incredible, I've never seen a boy as good as you," as the Graphorn fell to the ground.
She still pointed her wand at Snape and smiled. "You may be agile, but in the end, you're just a boy with a weakness while protecting that creature... I hope you're juicy..." She said, revealing her toothless grin.
However, as she celebrated, there was a subtle movement beside her: the Graphorn charged at the witch after gaining the courage to confront her. She saw this and smiled once more.
Casting a spell before it could reach her, the animal immediately flew backward, emitting a mournful sound. "Don't worry, puppy, I'll keep you whole, since I want you to still be alive when I put you in the cauldron..." She said.
But at that moment something else happened, a cutting sound of air sounded, and a stone flew directly to her hand holding the wand before she could react, the sound of something breaking emerged as soon as the stone hit her wrist.
"AHHHHHH!" The witch felt that and immediately let out a loud scream that echoed throughout the area, even the Acromantulas at a distance turned their heads to this moment, the witch cried at that moment. After all, the stone had broken her wrist.
"My hand!" she looked at her hand with a mix of horror and anger. "You broke my hand!" she exclaimed, crying.
"You let your guard down, that's what happens," Snape said and looked at the Graphorn lying at a distance, which had helped him in a way. He didn't care about his wand while the woman screamed, feeling her limp wrist and unable to move that hand anymore.
He approached her calmly. "So, you're quite an old witch from here," he murmured, looking at her with a gaze that made her feel like she was his prey.
"No, this can't be possible, this area is mine and I won't let a mere... a mere student mock me!" She exclaimed, until then she had the situation under control, even though this boy was unusual, without her wand she never imagined losing and never in her worst nightmares had she seen someone use a stone from the ground as a weapon.
"No!! I won't let this happen!!" she spoke with a more resentful tone as she looked up and let out a scream before Snape approached further.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"
This scream quickly alerted everyone within a few kilometers. Even some centaurs who were at a distance watching an area of the forest, quickly looked in that direction. "What is that?" one of the pair exclaimed in surprise.
"It's the witch," his companion quickly realized.
"This is bad... she seems enraged. Something happened, I just wonder what could enrage the Witch of the Forest." He spoke while looking towards the corner and tightening his grip on his bow. "We should warn the others. We don't know what will happen, but she has control of all those Acromantulas from that side. We can expect her to summon all those creatures and this area will become quite agitated..."
Meanwhile, at the site of the scream, that was exactly what happened. The nest of giant spiders had already heard the sound of the woman screaming in pain, now they heard her call, clamoring for them to approach and attack her enemy. As she was an ancient being from this place who had isolated herself from the magical world after committing misdeeds and corrupting her soul, becoming an ancient being that dominated this area of the forbidden forest for many decades ago, she easily took control of the Acromantulas. And so, like the call of their supposed queen, the giant spiders began to move rapidly, emerging from their burrows in the great nest. Snape could see them like ants in the distance. What made him frown after stopping his approach due to the witch's scream, looking back there and seeing the Graphorn trying to get up from the ground.
He had a choice: to kill all the giants along with that witch, which also would not be an easy task, after all, he was not dealing with a few dozen as before, there were hundreds, even thousands of them, and even for him it would not be a simple task and he ran the risk of his life. But this would also kill the animal that had helped him, suffering attack from the witch and, even though he could get out of this situation on his own; he was also not an ungrateful person.
He sighed and quickly went to the Graphorn, picking it up despite its weight, which was nothing to him.
"Where do you think you're going? Face my spiders and die, cursed child!" The Witch snarled at Snape, seeing that he was already preparing to leave.
He ignored her and went to his fallen wand on the ground, picking it up and waiting while looking at the Witch one last time as she continued cursing him, as the landscape behind her was being filled with shadows, hundreds of them coming in his direction. He sighed and started running with the animal, which made some frightened sounds. Thus, Snape and the Graphorn began running through the forest, while hundreds of spiders were on their trail.
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