Listening to the centaur Bane, Rhys felt his blood pressure rising: What do you mean by "busy with infighting" and "sent to his death"?
Slytherin's reputation is ruined by people like you!
The worst part was that Hagrid and the others seemed to think the centaur made sense!
This centaur is slandering me!
Rhys was quite displeased.
As for the truth of the matter...
Adrian had actually sneaked off to hunt the black dragon on his own.
By the time Rhys found out, Adrian had already returned to the castle with the dragon's heart.
He paid a heavy price for it, and Rhys gave him a month's detention. However, the reason for his detention was posted on the castle's notice board.
"Adrian's descendant achieving this isn't surprising," the centaurs concluded, giving Daphne a few curious glances: this little witch had the courage to fight such an evil creature and the strength to do so without getting hurt. Her future was boundless.
The centaurs chatted a bit more with Hagrid, and inevitably, the conversation shifted to the night's significant event.
"The injured unicorn is dead," Firenze said with a tone of regret.
Upon hearing this news, Hagrid and everyone else present fell into silence.
"Did you find, or do you know what did it?" After a long pause, it was Hagrid who broke the silence.
The three centaurs, led by the red-haired Ronan, did not directly answer Hagrid's question. Instead, Ronan looked up and pointed at the sky above them.
"The Mars is very bright tonight."
Hagrid: ?
He didn't understand what Ronan meant. Despite repeated inquiries, Ronan's only response was, "The Mars is very bright." Ronan was unwilling to directly share his thoughts, and Firenze and Bane remained silent as well.
"Alright, alright!" Hagrid waved his hand impatiently, complaining, "You lot always act this way, knowing so much but keeping it all to yourselves."
The centaurs, being very familiar with Hagrid, didn't take his words to heart.
"If we were to blurt out everything we know, we wouldn't have survived this long," Bane explained gruffly.
With Bane making things clear, Hagrid couldn't help but let out a heavy sigh, realizing that it was impossible to get any useful information from the centaurs tonight.
While Hagrid and the others were left bewildered, Rhys, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, suddenly had a spark of insight.
Rhys knew that centaurs possessed strong prophetic abilities, deriving their predictions from the stars. This meant that their foresight was often accurate. Thus, Ronan's words warranted serious consideration.
He wouldn't dismiss Ronan's statement as mere star talk like Hagrid did.
'Mars? Could it signify war?' Generally, Mars is associated with war.
With the centaur's prophecy involving Mars, Rhys's interest was piqued.
After further contemplating Ronan's words, Rhys arrived at a startling conclusion: Mars is bright, and war is imminent.
War...
Rhys couldn't help but squint his eyes. He had never feared war, but if possible, the current wizarding world should avoid it, considering the times were different from a thousand years ago.
However, this was just his speculation. Only Ronan knew the specific content of the prophecy. There was a one in a million chance that he genuinely wanted to show his half-giant friend the sparkling Mars.
"Alright, we should head back. Tonight's detention is over." With the unicorn dead, there was no point in continuing the detention. Moreover, it was already the latter half of the night, so Hagrid decided to take Harry and the others back.
The centaurs had a minor disagreement: Firenze wanted to escort Hagrid and his group out of the Forbidden Forest, while Ronan and Bane insisted on dealing with the unicorn's corpse first.
Thus, the centaurs split into two groups. Firenze left with Hagrid and Harry, while Bane and Ronan stayed behind, preparing the wood to burn the unicorn's body.
Due to the presence of that evil being, the centaurs didn't want to bury the unicorn, fearing it would not rest in peace even after death.
Hagrid and his group departed, while Bane and Ronan started collecting branches.
Two spells hit the centaurs from the left and right, precisely knocking them out.
They collapsed without a sound, their eyes rolling back, producing two dull thuds as they hit the ground.
After knocking out the remaining centaurs, Rhys's figure emerged from the shadows.
Looking at the unicorn's corpse lying on the ground, Rhys squinted his eyes. This was an exceptional biological material!
Unicorns, as powerful magical creatures, were extremely rare. Even a thousand years ago, they were animals of legend, with many wizards never encountering one in their lifetime.
Rhys was sure that Mr. Ollivander must have had a close relationship with Hogwarts, or specifically with Hagrid, otherwise, there would be no way he could use unicorn tail hair so abundantly as wand cores— the same applied to phoenix feathers.
Rhys had heard that Dumbledore kept a phoenix, which was likely the source of all the phoenix tail feather wand cores Ollivander used.
However, tonight's focus was not wand making, but the necromancy Rhys had once delved into.
He had conducted some research in this area, although most of his findings had likely been lost over time.
While the results were gone, the knowledge remained. With the right materials, Rhys could naturally recreate his necromantic magic.
'If Gryffindor and the others saw this, they'd probably label me an evil wizard again.' Rhys couldn't help but mock himself as he drew his wand.
The disagreements between him and his friends, besides their students' family backgrounds, also included his research into magic.
Gryffindor and the others were strongly against his studies, citing the simple reason that they believed dark magic would corrode one's soul, causing a gradual but significant change in one's nature.
They thought it best for Rhys to stay away from such things.
But Rhys held an opposing view. He believed that the notion of black magic was nonexistent.
Magic was merely a tool for wizards; tools themselves are neither good nor evil. The key lies in the user.
Muggles can use a fruit knife to cut fruit or to kill someone—should fruit knives then be categorized based on their use? The same logic applies to magic.
Does using necromancy make me a dark evil wizard?
Rhys didn't think so.
All magic, all spells, are potentially useful; some spells just require extra caution in learning and usage.
It's like certain ingredients used by alchemists, which require proper safety measures—blaming the materials as "evil" for injuries sustained due to lack of precautions is quite laughable, isn't it?
Without any psychological burden, Rhys began preparing the ritual to cast spells on the unicorn's corpse.
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