Harry Potter: The Rise Of Malfoy

Chapter 48.

The first week of school passed just like that, and Hogwarts welcomed its first weekend.

Soren had thoroughly studied the map of the Forbidden Forest, planned various routes, and prepared for various situations, such as brewing numerous potions and poisons that he might need. 

Early in the morning, Soren cast an Invisibility Charm on himself and quietly entered the Forbidden Forest alone.

The Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts is a vast and sprawling area filled with various creatures, including species that have long been extinct outside its boundaries. It is truly a wild, untamed place, and no wizard has ever been able to explore the entire forest due to its sheer size and the dangers it harbors. Throughout history, students have gone missing within the Forbidden Forest.

The trees here are incredibly tall, exceeding several dozen meters, casting a shadow over the sky and creating a dark atmosphere that only the creatures living in the Forbidden Forest can adapt to. They either possess the ability to see in the dark or have extraordinary hearing or keen observational skills.

The outskirts of the Forbidden Forest was not particularly dangerous, which is evident by the fact that Hagrid, the Keeper of Keys and Grounds, often patrols and clears this area. 

Prepared, Soren easily crossed the perimeter and passed through the area where Hagrid raised twelve hippogriffs, continuing deeper into the Forbidden Forest. Soren had already identified the two most dangerous areas within the forest: the Acromantula lair and the centaur tribe region.

Soren moved cautiously, constantly checking the map to ensure he avoided these two areas. From the darkness came strange howling, and occasionally, he caught glimpses of malicious eyes gleaming in the shadows. At some point, he passed by a gathering place for certain social animals, and a nauseating stench hit him.

Holding his wand tightly, Soren carefully surveyed the surroundings when he suddenly stopped, looking down at the footprints on the ground. He recognized them as wolf tracks, much larger than those of ordinary wolves, likely belonging to a giant wolf, about the size of a three-headed dog. Soren knew that there were technically no true werewolves in the Forbidden Forest, but there was a pack of wolves with intelligence nearly on par with humans.

The origin of this wolf pack is tied to an interesting legend. It is said that on nights of the full moon, two werewolves transformed and mated under the moonlight, and the pregnant she-wolf would give birth to pure wolf pups, rather than werewolves. Such rare occurrences have only happened twice in history.

One of these instances occurred in the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts when Albus Dumbledore was the headmaster. He magnanimously allowed the two werewolves to raise their wolf pups in the forest. Over time, the wolf pups grew into a pack of beautiful, intelligent silver wolves. Besides being clever and spirited, these silver wolves were not much different from ordinary wild wolves; they did not possess the killing urges or cravings for human flesh typical of werewolves, making them not significantly more dangerous than regular wild wolves.

Under Dumbledore's guidance, rumors of werewolves in the Forbidden Forest began to spread among the students, aiming to deter them from sneaking into the forest. To this day, these rumors continue to circulate among students, and Soren has heard them from many, including Draco.

Soren was not afraid of a giant wolf, but since wolves are pack animals, he was uncertain if he could handle a large group of them. For safety's sake, he slightly deviated from his planned route and continued deeper into the Forbidden Forest.

First, he encountered three bloody barrow creatures, small grotesque monsters resembling goblins. They are naturally bloodthirsty and murderous, smearing the blood of their prey on their skulls, which is how they got the name bloody barrow.

Bloody barrow creatures lack magical abilities but are strong and fast, posing a considerable threat to Muggles and novice witches and wizards. However, with Soren's strength, they were easy to manage. 

He used Transfiguration to create dense, winding vines to capture the bloody barrow creatures and then used a severing charm to remove their skulls, which are excellent materials for creating cursed dark magical items—Soren certainly would not pass that up.

[Bloody Barron Skull Obtained!]

Then, Soren encountered a blood-sucking Boggart. The Boggart is a mutated type of creature, a conglomeration of fear, skilled in transformation, usually appearing as a creature similar to an Australian koala but possessing sharp fangs and elongated claws.

The blood-sucking Boggart is the fiercest variation, often attacking livestock. The chickens raised by Hagrid are frequently targeted by these blood-sucking creatures, causing him no small amount of trouble. Of course, in front of Soren, who understood the Occlumency g spells, the blood-sucking Boggart posed no threat at all, and he easily repelled it with "Riddikulus."

Continuing on, Soren finally encountered the big boss of this adventure—a gigantic eight-eyed spider that stood as tall as two adult wizards.

Fortunately, Soren had ensured he was in an invisible state; otherwise, he would likely not fare well if ambushed by such a huge spider. 

Soren knew that creatures living in such dark places generally feared fire, so he unhesitatingly cast a fire spell at the underside of the eight-eyed spider, which was a known weak point he had researched.

After the abdomen of the eight-eyed spider was ignited, it let out a sharp, anguished scream, and its whole body thrashed around in pain. To avoid being affected, Soren pointed his wand at the last two legs of the eight-eyed spider and cast a leg-locking spell. The eight-eyed spider seemed to trip over as if someone had pulled its legs from behind, soon succumbing to its injuries.

Soren quickly took out a potion bottle and began to collect the spider's venom. A pint of venom was worth 100 Galleons, and Soren collected a total of 3 pints from this spider's corpse before he was satisfied and left. Fearing another encounter with a larger number of eight-eyed spiders, Soren decided to leave the Forbidden Forest and retraced his steps.

[Eight-eyed spider venom obtained!]

Fortunately, along the way he also collected quite a few Jumping Mushroom Caps. Jumping Mushroom Caps are rare potion materials, with bright red caps covered in white spots. They have keen senses and will quickly jump away if they detect someone attempting to pick them.

Soren first transformed a cover with a transfiguration spell to trap them inside, and then he took them out one by one, placing them into specially made containers. Each mushroom was worth 3 Galleons, and Soren collected 20 in one go, meaning his haul for the morning reached 360 Galleons. It's worth noting that outside of Ministry of Magic employees, most wizards earn a monthly salary ranging from 25 to 50 Galleons!

[Jumping Mushroom Caps obtained!]

The Forbidden Forest truly lives up to its reputation as a lucrative place; although it delayed him for quite a while, he still enjoyed himself.

Suddenly, Soren stopped in his tracks, confronted by an unexpected scene: a super giant eight-eyed spider larger than the ones he had previously encountered and a giant wolf lay on the ground, completely still as if they were corpses.

Soren cautiously approached to inspect; the spider's venom had completely dried up and could not be collected, indicating it had been dead for some time. The giant wolf also remained motionless, but Soren could still sense faint warmth from its body. He contemplated whether to skin it; after all, such a beautiful pelt could fetch a good price even without medicinal or alchemical value.

Taking out his silver dagger, Soren was about to start skinning its belly when he suddenly felt a shift beneath his hand. He furrowed his brow, then suddenly realized—could it be...?

Soren's guess was correct; carefully, he made a small incision in the belly, and without hesitation, he reached in, pulling out three small wolf cubs!

According to Soren's estimation, the pregnant mother wolf was supposed to quietly give birth within the pack, but unfortunately, the pack was attacked by an unknown number of eight-eyed spiders. Consequently, the mother wolf got separated from the pack and fought with one of the eight-eyed spiders until both perished here. Sadly, due to having been dead for some time, the remaining life force of the mother wolf was insufficient to sustain the cubs; two of the wolf cubs soon passed away after being pulled out.

Feeling a pang of compassion, Soren pulled out a few bottles of expensive nutritional potions and fed the last remaining wolf cub, wrapping it in a Nightstar Cloak for warmth. Under Soren's careful nurturing, the cub opened its eyes and let out its first howl since birth.

Despite how weak and powerless the howls were, Soren felt a stir in a gentle corner of his soul witnessing the birth of a life. An indescribable emotion arose, causing his eyes to mist over unconsciously.

Hogwarts allows students to bring pets, but first-year students are restricted to owls, toads, and cats. Students in other grades have no limitations on pet types; for instance, Ron has a hamster named Scabbers, and Gryffindor's Lee Jordan once brought a pet tarantula. Of course, highly dangerous creatures like eight-eyed spiders or three-headed dogs are exceptions, but aside from Hagrid, it's unlikely that other students would bring such terrifying creatures as pets.

Soren had decided to bring the wolf cub back to Hogwarts as his pet. At the moment he witnessed the birth of the little wolf, a bond transcending the ordinary relationship between a master and pet had already formed between them.

Moreover, he had Newt's suitcase, which meant he could carry the wolf cub with him, including to classes and when going home, without fear of being discovered.

Since Dobby was not in England at that moment, Soren had to go to the owlery himself, borrowing a school owl to place several orders for pet food from a pet shop in Diagon Alley. He personally cared for the still very weak little wolf, whom he named "Silver."

Days went by, and the pet food from Diagon Alley had arrived. Soren couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief; otherwise, little Silver would continue to drink his nutritional potions and he would soon be broke.

Busy caring for Silver, Soren hardly had time to pay attention to the events happening with Harry, and even the planned activities for practicing the Patronus Charm had to be postponed until next month.

The Slytherin students were already aware that Soren had a beloved pet wolf, and they often saw him inseparable from it throughout the campus.

Daphne, Meredith, and Astoria were also excitedly taking opportunities to visit Soren, trying to find chances to play with little Silver. Despite being small and weak, Silver was quite intelligent and knew how to endear himself, often making the girls giggle, which made them all the more fond of this adorable wolf cub.

*****

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