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"Hagrid, stop crying. Aragog is gone, and there's no bringing him back."
Inside Hagrid's hut, the burly Hagrid was crying his eyes out.
After he returned, he had been busy tending to his overgrown vegetable garden. When he finally had the time to go into the Forbidden Forest to look for his old friend, all he found were burned spider corpses scattered everywhere.
Aragog had narrowly survived, but he was now very weak from the smoke inhalation.
The trio was there comforting Hagrid. Sniffling, Hagrid said, "I don't know who did it. It's so cruel."
"Uh…"
The trio exchanged glances, and Harry awkwardly said, "Maybe it was just an accident. I mean, the Forbidden Forest is full of dangers, isn't it?"
Hearing this, Hagrid thought it made sense, but he then said curiously, "But as far as I know, apart from centaurs and werewolves, nothing else in the forest uses fire."
Aragog already had cataracts, and since John hadn't gone inside, it didn't know John was responsible.
These words made the trio even more uneasy, and they each started talking about other things to change the subject.
Hagrid finally calmed down.
During this period of intense studying, Hagrid's hut was the trio's only safe haven.
Coming here made them feel like they were stepping out of the endless sea of books.
Suddenly, a dog barked outside.
Fang heard the noise and, after scratching the ground a few times with his paws, finally stood up.
"It's Tom. He's here to play with Fang."
As the dog who controlled Fang's food supply, Tom was always the boss in Fang's eyes.
The door opened, and besides Tom, John was there too.
John, taking Tom for a walk, had come to Hagrid's hut. He greeted Hagrid, "Hagrid, I heard about what happened. I hope you can find some peace."
He brought Hagrid ten baguettes and a big rye bread from his uncle's place. Hagrid didn't like eating food that was too soft.
"Thank you, John. You're so kind."
Talking about the sad event, Hagrid wiped his nose.
John nodded calmly, as if he hadn't been the one to burn the spider's nest.
As soon as Ron saw John, he instinctively put his hand on his head, having developed a conditioned response to this study fanatic.
Hermione, being the only one who could somewhat compete with the study fanatic, asked, "John, how many electives did you choose?"
"I thought they all seemed interesting, so I chose all of them."
John smiled as he said something unimaginable, which made Harry and Ron's faces fill with fear.
Having realized that some classes had scheduling conflicts, Hermione had been hesitating about which ones to choose. Now, after hearing John's answer, she immediately decided to choose all of them too.
Caught between the two, Harry and Ron felt weak, pitiful, and helpless. This situation caused severe emotional trauma to their young minds.
Invited inside for tea, John took a bite of a rock cake.
He realized his biting strength seemed to have increased, as he managed to take a bite out of the rock-hard cake.
John chewed on it; if it weren't so hard, the taste would actually be quite nice.
"John, now.. can you explain about, um, how do you have a... gun?" Harry hesitated for a long time before finally asking the question that had been on his mind for a while.
When they were dealing with Riddle, he had seen John holding a gun.
He couldn't understand why a wizard would have a dangerous weapon like a handgun.
Hearing this, Hermione looked at John in disbelief and exclaimed, "You actually brought something so dangerous into the school!"
John nodded and said, "I do have one, but guns aren't as dangerous as you think."
Without hiding the fact that he had a prohibited item, John took out the handgun, which was already out of bullets.
But for some reason, even though it had been less than half a year since Christmas, the gun was already covered in rust.
"The magical field of Hogwarts causes some damage to Muggle items to a certain extent, and as for a gun, it's not particularly dangerous to a wizard, except as a surprise tactic."
John gave an example, saying, "Being hit by a bullet is a fatal thing, but for wizards, we have potions that can regrow bones, so apart from the pain, it's not necessarily lethal.
Of course, there are some exceptions."
"For example, being shot in the heart or something like that. Wizards are powerful, but essentially they are still human beings."
John spoke lightly about it. He had experimented before—on Riddle, in fact.
Riddle was hit by at least three bullets and didn't make a sound.
John attributed this to the inherently special constitution of wizards, but that doesn't mean that wizards are above Muggles.
On the contrary, if Muggles wanted to eliminate wizards, aside from spending some time and being careful to guard against the wizards' elusive abilities, Muggles could be more deadly. This is why both sides prefer not to interact with each other too much.
The numbers decide everything.
There are far more Muggles, and with any weapon, an ordinary person can possess the power to take a life.
Hearing this, Harry and Hermione reluctantly accepted it.
While Ron was still asking what a gun was, the two dogs playing outside started barking.
John walked out to check, and the fence outside opened two eyes.
It was a Demiguise.
The Demiguise saw John and showed a human-like expression of happiness.
"Tom Stop, he's a friend."
Tom was still barking, and John told him to stop.
"Are you looking for me?"
The Demiguise had clearly come for a reason. John walked out.
The Demiguise pointed towards the Forbidden Forest. From its gestures, it seemed to want John to go with it.
"Go ahead, John. Demiguises are gentle creatures; they won't harm anyone."
Hagrid's eyes widened at the sight of the rare Demiguise. He wanted to talk to it but refrained, fearing he might scare it.
The Demiguise had specifically come for John. Pondering for a moment, John glanced back at Harry and the others, then nodded and said, "I'll go with you."
He parted ways with Harry and the group, asking Hermione to look after Tom.
The Demiguise led the way, with John following behind.
Man and beast entered the Forbidden Forest. After passing through a patch of trees, they arrived under a large tree.
It was a massive tree, home to several Bowtruckles and a bird's nest.
"You want me to go to the bird's nest?"
Seeing the Demiguise hopping up and down, John activated his boots and floated up.
As he approached the bird's nest, the Bowtruckles hissed cautiously.
John signaled that he meant no harm. When he reached the nest, he found broken silver eggshells inside.
"Is this silver?"
Picking up a piece of the eggshell, something flashed through John's mind.
"A Occamy?"
He carefully removed the broken eggshell, revealing a winged Occamy inside.
This was a magical creature whose size could change according to the available space. This particular Occamy had just been born and hadn't even opened its eyes yet.
John understood why the Demiguise and the Bowtruckles were so anxious; the Occamy looked like it was in bad shape.
"Hmm.. I remember Professor Silvanus Kettleburn kept some Occamies; this could be the offspring of those Occamies."
Gently lifting the Occamy, John noticed the Demiguise moving closer.
It pointed at the Occamy and then at John, hoping he could take care of it.
John shook his head and said, "I know someone who can take excellent care of it. Trust me, he's the best."
The Demiguise seemed doubtful, but John reassured it with a promise.
As they left the Forbidden Forest, John kept observing the Demiguise.
By the end of this term, he would gain new magical blood, and he would need the blood of a magical creature to mix with it.
Although he already had the Basilisk's blood, seeing the Demiguise gave him another idea.
"If I use Demiguise blood, would it strengthen my Disillusionment Charm?"
John stared at the Demiguise. Betraying it would be impossible for him.
So, he chose to make a deal with the Demiguise. After leaving the Forbidden Forest, John had acquired some Demiguise blood.
Finding Hagrid, John took out the newly hatched Occamy.
Upon seeing the Occamy, Hagrid almost crushed John with excitement.
A strong hug from Hagrid made John think his bones might break.
With Hagrid, a magical creature expert, around, John wasn't worried about the Occamy's well-being.
The trio gathered around to look at the Occamy.
After leaving Hagrid's hut, John headed to the Gryffindor's Chamber of Secrets.
He felt like his alchemy skills were about to reach level 4.
With plenty of time on his hands, he planned to push forward and reach level 4 in one go.
The Slytherin students were as energized as if they had been injected with adrenaline, even on the Quidditch field.
Malfoy wanted to redeem himself and show that he wasn't just relying on his father's reputation.
Unfortunately, Harry, the natural Seeker, was still a cut above, causing Malfoy to angrily smash his Nimbus 2001 on the spot.
...
Time passed bit by bit, and this term finally came to an end.
Slytherin defended its winning streak with less than ten points, which made Gryffindor feel very sorry.
After two months of tension, Slytherin finally breathed a sigh of relief and shouted John Wick's name.
The student with the highest score(?)
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