abcnovels
Chapter 71
Chapter 71
Felix ate his breakfast leisurely, and one by one the young wizards arrived, their faces beaming with smiles, laughing and joking with each other.
The whole Great Hall filled with a lively air.
From the Great Hall, Felix walked towards the direction of the forbidden forest, and on the way, he met Hagrid, who is coming towards the castle.
“Hello, Professor Hap.” Hagrid greeted warmly.
“Hello, Hagrid. I received your gift, and I like it very much.” Felix said, especially the material it’s made of.
” Haha, it’s good that you like it. By the way, the automatic wipe you gave me works quite well, it cleans the house now.” Hagrid said gruffly, “No need for me to worry about it entirely, and it even gets itself clean.”
After exchanging pleasantries, Felix went to the edge of the forbidden forest. He is going to snap some chestnut branches; his stock is running low.
But halfway through, he frowned.
On the snow-covered ground were footprints in a straight line toward the forbidden forest.
Felix measured the size of the footprints, which belonged to some little wizard who had violated the ban, so he followed the footprints.
Felix walked along with the snow, except for the constant ” crisp ” sound of snow and broken leaves under his feet, no other sound was heard. Unknowingly, he has come to the edge of the forbidden forest.
But this place is quite remote, in the northwest corner of the Forbidden Forest, is already quite close to the main gate of Hogwarts – this is where the young wizards go on weekends to Hogsmeade Village.
Felix stopped in his tracks, and the surroundings formed an ambience of silence – white snowflakes fell from high from the sky, and he looked up as if countless ice crystals were swooping towards him.
Everything is silent, and heaven and earth seem to be so empty that he feels like he is all alone.
” Hissing Tum Thumb”
A black creature that looked very much like a horse poked its head out of the forbidden forest, it gave Felix a look with its silver-white eyes, sneezed, and then flapped a pair of large, black, bat-like wings and receded back into the forest.
“Surprisingly, it is a Night Thestrals.” Felix became somewhat surprised.
This kind of magical creature is quite rare, and there are many wizards who categorize them as special invisible beasts – they can only be seen by people who have experienced death, witnessed it, and understand it.
This trait has given them a not-so-good reputation, and night Thestrals were once considered a symbol of bad luck – a harbinger of death comparable to a wizard running into a large black dog. But they are in fact rather docile creatures.
Felix became even more curious, and he went deeper into the forbidden forest, and after about two minutes of walking, came to a clearing.
In the snowy sky, a little girl stood in the midst of a dozen skinny, bony night Thestrals, and she grabbed a handful of hay in her hand and held it in front of the mouth of the closest one.
He also heard her humming softly, looking very cheerful.
Felix waited for her to feed all the dry grass in her hand before walking over, his footsteps alerted the little witch.
The girl lifted her head. She had long, tousled, waist-length blonde hair and very light-colored eyebrows and eyes.
When he got close enough, he realized that the little witch had her wand behind her left ear, she is wearing a pair of toadstool glasses, and around her neck hung a necklace strung with a cork of butterbeer.
At that moment, her eyes stared dead at the person who suddenly appeared.
Felix’s heart welled up with an odd emotion, an odd little wizard … could it be Ravenclaw?
“What’s your name and which House are you from, Little Miss?” Felix asked.
“Luna,” she said in a voice that sounded as if she is singing, “Luna Lovegood, is my name, I’ve seen you in public class, and you are a professor.”
“Yes, obviously. What House are you from, Miss Lovegood?”
“Ravenclaw with saying wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure.”
Felix got it, unsurprisingly … then he said with a reprimanding tone, “Why are you alone deep in the Forbidden Forest, don’t you know it’s dangerous here?”
“They are not dangerous.” Luna said in a trance, “Night Thestrals is very friendly. Do you want to feed them together?” She suddenly knelt down, pushed aside the snow, and grabbed a handful of half-green, half-yellow hay in her hand.
She turned her light-colored eyes toward him, and Felix noticed that her voice had almost no highs or lows when she spoke, but paired with an ethereal voice, it gave the impression that she is singing.
“No.” He said.
With that, Luna made a turn and fed hay to a small night Thestrals as if no one else is around. And it seemed to be just learning to walk, crouching low on its somewhat stiff limbs and sticking out its tongue to lick Luna’s fingers.
She hummed a strange little tune softly, and snowflakes fell on her clothes, accumulating a thin layer.
Felix’s mood became calmer, and he did not try to break the atmosphere.
“You’re in a better mood?” Luna said.
“What?”
“You just got caught in the middle of a harassing gadfly,” Luna said sympathetically.
“I – what did you say?”
” Harassing gadfly … they sometimes drift into your ears and mess with your head.” She said, “I think I just heard one buzzing around here.”
Felix never thought such creatures existed, but he asked her with interest, “Can you be specific, about the harassing gadfly?”
Luna gave a surprised expression as she held her toadstool glasses in one hand and looked behind him.
” Harassing gadfly … Well, they’re usually invisible, but when they want to do something to your brain, they glow red with excitement.”
“So, you saw that?”
“That’s right.” She said with great certainty as if she were speaking some kind of truth.
Felix became suspicious at first, he scanned around but found nothing.
After a while, the two returned to the castle together.
On the way, he asked Luna, “Didn’t you go home for Christmas?”
She said calmly, “Father had a manuscript to catch up with, the Christmas Issue, but we made an appointment to look for the bent-horned snoring beast over the summer.”
Another name I hadn’t heard, “Your father is-”
“Xenophilius Lovegood, he’s the editor-in-chief of The Quibbler.”
Felix said nothing more; he knew the name of this newspaper.
Standing in front of the castle, Felix said to her, “I will not deduct any points this time, go, find your friends and enjoy a pleasant Christmas.”
“I’m having a good time right now.” Luna said with a happy smile, then she gave a thoughtful look, “You do remind me, I met a Gryffindor freshman before, she seemed friendly, maybe we could be friends.”
“Yeah? You could try.” Felix encouraged casually.
“As I recall, she was carrying a rooster in her hand.” Luna said lightly, “But who doesn’t have some strange fetishes.”
“What did you say?” Felix raised his voice, but he quickly softened his tone again, “Do you know her name?”
Luna shook her head, two strands of hair fluttering on her forehead, “But she has beautiful hair, like a puff of dancing fire.”