Homecoming from Hogwarts

The brilliant red fireworks slowly rose in an erratic trajectory. After being weakened by the distance, the sharp whistling sound had become blurred, but its light still left a clear mark in the eyes of the three people.

The fireworks exploded, and Harry, who had the sharpest eyesight, vaguely caught sight of two dark shadows rushing towards the place where the fireworks were rising at an extremely fast speed.

Two minutes later, the black shadow rose into the air again and flew quickly in one direction. After a few seconds, it completely disappeared.

The three gazes that were staring in that direction were retracted. Harry, Hermione and Ron looked at each other, and they all saw the depression in each other's eyes.

"Someone's out."

Ron made some nonsense remarks, but Harry and Hermione did not blame him.

"Who will it be?"

Hermione asked, her breathing slightly ragged.

No one could answer this question, but Harry didn't want it to be Neville and Luna. Although he didn't like Cedric, they were fighting for the glory of Hogwarts in this arena, which was the most important thing.

His and Cedric's little dirty trick wasn't enough to make Harry change his stance.

The surveillance cameras floating above their heads kept changing their angles to capture the pale faces and weak expressions of the three little wizards more clearly.

It was unclear whether Professor Brain's device could collect their images and voices at the same time. Harry and the other two did not talk too much about the fact that someone was eliminated at the beginning of the show, for fear that the audience would think they were gloating.

The devil's snares in the swamp were still holding up their green vines, as if they sensed that there were living creatures nearby and were not going far away.

In the eerie and gloomy Forbidden Forest, this scene was truly terrifying, and Harry and the other two quickly moved away.

Pulling his legs out of the muddy wetland, Harry climbed up a rock that was half embedded in the mud and half exposed. Without even taking a breath, he quickly turned around and grabbed Hermione's hand. Ron supported Hermione's calves at the bottom. The two boys helped Hermione onto the rock. Finally, Harry grabbed Ron's wrist, and after some effort, Ron also got out of the wetland.

Now, the three of them can take a breather.

Hermione used the Fountain Charm to create some clean water, and washed the mud off the shoes and pants of herself, Harry and Ron. The three of them drank some cold water and finally regained some spirits.

"I have never hated Professor Blaine's whims as much as I do now."

Afraid that his voice would be captured and heard by thousands of wizards, Ron glanced warily at the camera in the air and muttered softly.

Harry wiped the water that had dripped from his wet hair onto his face, and when he heard Ron's complaints, he could only respond with a wry smile.

The three little wizards sat among a grove of towering trees. No cicadas or birds could be heard in the dead silent forest. There was only the sound of the air in the soil seeping into the water and finally releasing itself in the form of bursting bubbles.

Another sense of loneliness oppressed the hearts of the three of them in an intuitive way.

What to do next?
Harry glanced at the blackboard that Hermione was holding in her hands and staring at nervously, and his lips parted. Then he saw the heavy school badge hanging in Hermione's pocket, and his green eyes sparkled.

"Give me the badge, Hermione."

Hermione was concentrating on the blackboard, just in case it suddenly gave her a hint, and she subconsciously touched her pocket.

But just as she was about to take out the important prop that represented victory, she came to her senses and looked at Harry warily.

"What are you going to do, Harry?"

Harry sighed inwardly, knowing that his intention could no longer be concealed.

"I think it would be more appropriate for me to keep it, don't you?"

Harry said lightly,

"It would be misleading. I mean, the school emblems of the other three teams would definitely be given to the Warriors for safekeeping."

It goes without saying that the person who is most likely to hold the school badge will be the target of concentrated fire.

"If that's the case, brother—"

Ron swallowed and gave an ugly smile.
"I should be the one keeping the school badge."

Harry thought Hermione would definitely not agree, but to her surprise, Hermione's eyes flashed, and she actually took out the badge and threw it at Ron.

Ron took the badge in a hurry, rubbed it in his hand for a while, then smiled at Harry and put it in his arms under Harry's gaze.

"Should we discuss countermeasures now?"

Ron pretended to be relaxed and said, "Who are we going to deal with first? By the way, Professor Brian said that the board can mark the positions of all the teams, but he didn't say who is in each position?"

Harry stood up from his slumped position and moved his joints to prepare for the high-intensity exercise that followed.
"It's best not to run into Cedric. If we can take the school badge from Fleur and Viktor, then at least we can secure Hogwarts. Oh!"

There was a rustling sound coming from the deep woods. Harry looked over immediately. At one glance, he let out a scream similar to the one Ron made before he was hung up by the Devil's Snare.

Receiving Harry's warning signal, Hermione and Ron, who were sitting down to rest, immediately jumped up from the rock.

Hermione returned to her position beside Harry, while Ron stood behind them, in the middle of the gap between them, forming a defensive formation.

The visibility in the woods was extremely poor, and it became blurry and unclear beyond a hundred feet. Hermione squinted her eyes and looked around carefully, but could not see anything clearly.

"What did you see, Harry!"

Ron behind him also expressed the same question.

"That thing!"

Harry's voice was shrill.

"I don't know. It's a magical animal. There are five of them. I've never seen them before, but they look difficult to deal with!"

In front of Harry's eyes, about a hundred feet away, a group of hideous-looking magical creatures were walking gracefully in darkness.

Hermione opened her eyes as wide as she could, and she shone her wand in the direction Harry pointed, but she saw nothing.

"You're sure you're not seeing things, Harry!"

Hermione raised her voice and said,
"But I can't see anything."

"Me too. Maybe you're hallucinating, bro."

Ron's breathing was like the sound of a bellows.

"Absolutely not!"

Harry's expression became increasingly nervous.

"That thing looks like a horse, its wings are like a bat, and its head is a bit like the treetop you dealt with, Hermione. Its eyes are red. Oh, they have spotted us and are approaching us!"

As soon as Harry finished speaking, a breeze blew through the woods and quickly turned into a strong wind. Although Hermione and Ron still couldn't see anything, the strong wind blowing in their faces made them know that what Harry said was true.

"I see!"

When the lush grass on the ground fifty feet in front of them began to bend and sway, Hermione suddenly screamed.
"Run!"

Hermione screamed, then immediately turned around and jumped off the side of the rock.

Harry and Ron followed Hermione and jumped off the rock. Ron shouted,

"What the hell is that, Hermione, why can't we see it!?"

Hermione didn't say anything, but fled at high speed, turned her head with a grim face, and cast a spell at the big rock where they had just rested.

The moment the curse light touched the surface of the rock, there was an earth-shattering explosion. The shattered rocks flew in all directions like bullets, and even the three of them were affected!
There was an angry scream in the air, and clear kicking sounds reached the ears of Ron, who was howling like a ghost as he was hit by the rubble.

"Would you mind explaining this, Hermione?"

Listening to the whistling sound getting closer, Harry turned around and cast a spell. His spell light accurately hit the skinny head of the monster in the front. But before Harry could be happy, the monster's hard skull smashed Harry's spell light and continued to chase them without being affected at all.

"Normal spells won't work, Harry, their skin is immune to spells just like a dragon's!"

Hermione waved her hands frequently, throwing out spells of light, which blew up the thin trees on both sides of the place where they passed.
"We need to create obstacles for them so they can't catch up!"

Even though they couldn't see them now, it prevented Hermione and Ron from finding the exact location of the monsters. The three of them fled towards an area with denser trees while blowing up trees and creating holes in the ground.
Harry set another fire behind him. The fire could not spread too far in the wet forest, but the steaming hot air still effectively scared away the group of monsters chasing them from behind.

They ran for about twenty minutes until Ron's ankle got caught on some vines and they were forced to stop.

After casting the Cutting Curse to help Ron break free, before Harry and Ron could ask, Hermione gasped and said,
"Oh, if I'm not mistaken, that's a tribe of wild Thestrals."

(End of this chapter)