days at Hogwarts

Chapter 543 Sir Nicholas What a pity

tick...

tick...

The sound of dripping water came from deep inside, as if the stalactites were seeping out the underground water hidden in the stone wall, and the liquid fell on the stones and splashed again, creating a slight chill for no reason. There was no light in the dim cave, and only the moonlight reflected from the snow could barely identify a few feet of the road.

The stench of rotting meat lingered in my nose, as if bloody wild boar meat had just been slaughtered and was being eaten by maggots. The smell was pungent.

Loren and Hermione walked along the cracks in the inner wall of the cave. The cave was shallower than they expected. After taking a few quick steps, they were blocked by two huge mounds of earth and two moss-covered stones.

The two ferrets looked at each other, with the same doubt flashing in their shiny black eyes:
I have reached the end of the cave, but why don’t I see the giant?

huh... huh...

The air passed through the cave, and the subtle resonance made a whistling sound. Loren and Hermione looked towards the source of the wind, and their pupils contracted and their breathing stagnated.

The hill-like mound in front of them was rising and falling slowly with his deep breathing. It was not a mound at all, but the tall and curved spine of a giant. The two mossy blocks next to it were not boulders, but two heads covered with thick, fern-colored hair like water plants, with bruises on their cheeks. They were so bruised and swollen that their normal flesh color could not be seen at all, so the two men did not recognize them.

The simple clothes they wore to keep out the cold were made of bark and animal skins, and were already tattered. Several patches of black, blue, and swollen skin were exposed on their torsos and shoulders, and it seemed that there was no good meat left on their bodies. The two sleeping giants were not the Orr they had seen from afar during the day. They were less seriously injured, with almost no wounds that could cause disability or death, and they were sleeping soundly.

Loren and Hermione observed carefully. The cave seemed to be bustling since some time. In the depths of the dark cave, besides the deep whistling wind and the faint sound of water drops, there was also a kind of mournful sobbing sound. The sobbing creature was huge, and it suppressed its throat when sobbing, but its vocal cords, which were thicker than drum skin, vibrated, muffled, and roaring.

The two men walked lightly, climbed over two rising and falling mounds of earth, and followed the direction of the roaring and sobbing sounds, arriving deeper into the cave.

There were two much smaller giants, one male and one female, who were tending to Orr's wounds.

The male giant was wearing a dirty brown smock, also made of animal skins and tree barks. One leg was coiled under his body, and the other leg was dragged at his side, bent at a completely abnormal angle. His main way of moving was to support himself with his hands. Every time he moved, he would grit his teeth, and when he stopped, he would groan and exhale.

The intense pain gathered into cold sweat on his forehead, which flowed down his cheeks to the ground, making a ticking sound.

The leg was broken, but it was just forced to straighten. Even with a giant's body, it would take a long time to heal...

Loren and Hermione turned their eyes to the female giant next to them. Unlike all the giants they had seen before, the female giant was wearing neat pure animal skin clothes and had no obvious scars on her body. She was concentrating on treating the man's injuries, but her right hand was very stiff and the movement was very small, which should be a dislocated shoulder blade.

A chilling scraping sound was heard.

The sharp stone blade broke through the flesh and blood, like a blunt scalpel, and scraped off the broken meat attached to the wound with difficulty. The broken meat slid along Orr's bones and fell under his body, making the accumulated minced meat grow a little bit bigger.

Orr stared at his arm with his eyes wide open, not crying out in pain, not frowning, and his forehead no longer breaking out in cold sweat. He opened and closed his lips, looking at his brother Gail and sister Mir who were busy and in pain, as if he wanted to say something, but the remaining strength in his body was not enough to support him to speak.

"Woo...moo..."

Mir wanted his brother to talk less and save his energy to fight against the god of death.

From frowning and crying out in pain when the wound was first treated, to breaking out in cold sweat, until she gradually became numb and expressionless, as if she didn't feel any pain at all, but brother Or, who had always loved her, no longer responded to his sister's calls.

He couldn't respond, he couldn't hear.

It was different from the time seven years ago when he vowed to eat the bird that shit in his hair, climbed up a giant tree and broke a branch, cutting his stomach. It was different from the time five years ago when he went to the snowy mountains to pick white flowers on the cliff for her and broke his leg. It was different from the time three years ago when he challenged an adult giant who was four feet taller than him and was beaten so hard that he couldn't get up for a month...

This time, her brother was dying. He still had a piece of cold fat in his palm, but he could no longer pass it over. His eyes were closed, and his dark face was abnormally pale, without a trace of blood. All the blood in his body had seeped into the soil. Holding his muscular arms, Mir could clearly feel that the life in this brother who had aspired to become the most powerful warrior in the tribe since he was a child was slipping away bit by bit.

"what……"

Mir stared blankly at his brother who slowly closed his eyes, tears sliding down his cheeks, he opened his mouth but no sound came out, only a deafening yet silent shrill wail.

"Can you speak wizard language? Although I can roughly guess what your giant language means, I can't speak giant language. It's still a little difficult for a wizard's vocal cords to make that kind of sound." A faint voice sounded from the depths of the dark cave.

"Witch... wizard?" Mil and the broken-legged Gail turned their heads and stared at a hanging rock, from which a short young man and woman walked out.

"Ha, I think the same thing as you did. Although I don't have a reason, I think you will say——"

Hermione tugged at the hem of his robe and urged anxiously, "Stop talking nonsense and help save people!"

"I didn't say I wouldn't save him, why are you in such a hurry..." Loren muttered as he walked forward a few steps, floated up and checked the dying giant's injuries.

"[Fluorescence Flashing]"

The silver-white light at the tip of the magic wand was the same color as the disk in the sky, but not as cold. The dark cave became brighter because of this light, and even the eyelids of the dying giant who had lost consciousness trembled. The thick breath of death seemed to be dispelled by the fluorescent light.

Watching the man's shadow swaying on the stone wall, Mir felt an inexplicable warmth.

The cutting spell removed the dead flesh from the wound, the floating spell cleaned up the dirt and slag according to the wizard's will, and the white fresh essence was poured into the terrifying cracks in the flesh, as if boiling magma was pouring into the ice layer. The scorching breath spread from the gradually cooling body. Orr's chest was beating violently, as fast as a trapped beast escaping from an avalanche. A large bucket of raw bone spirit was poured in, and the unconscious Orr shuddered, and steady breathing appeared again between his mouth and nose. The identity of the good student of the potion professor played a powerful role here. Although they were all class assignments of the senior students of Hogwarts, those that could be collected and stored were all qualified products. He poured them down so generously without regard for the amount, even if he was bitten by a fire dragon, he could be saved.

Poor Sir Nicholas, the death penalty was executed too quickly. If his sentence could be reprieved for a few hundred years, Loren might have been able to be saved because of the sticky skin on his neck.

Mir and Gail stared at him blankly for a while, hot tears falling from their eyes.

"There's still half a barrel left. I'll give it to you." Loren shook the wooden barrel containing the bone spirits and handed it to the giant with a broken leg.

Gail was stunned for a moment, then slowly took the barrel. During the whole process, his eyes kept drifting to his sister Mil's face. When he saw her nod, he relaxed, took the Bone Spirit and poured it into his mouth, his movements as heroic as old Dodd drinking wheat juice.

Hermione came in front of Mil, looked up at the giantess's huge figure, her eyes soft, "I know you have a lot of questions, such as who we are, what our purpose is, and why we are here. We can answer these questions, but before that, maybe we should get to know each other first, what do you think?"

Loren stood next to Hermione and threw an earplug spell nearby.

Mir looked at the two tiny wizards, then at his brother who was sleeping over there, and without much hesitation, he spoke first: "You can call me Mir, and that person is Orr."

Gale's face was distorted by the smell of the bone spirit, and he was still grinning when he spoke: "I... I am Gale, we are... brother and sister."

"Just call me Granger. This is Morgan..."

"I have basically taken care of your brother Orr's injuries. When he wakes up tomorrow morning, his bones should be almost healed. Don't worry."

Loren felt that the three giant siblings seemed very different from the giants outside, so after a brief thought, he asked directly and clearly, "The purpose of our coming here is to find two... two wizards, or half-blood giants, who are shorter than you, but much taller than us."

Hermione added: "The giant tribe that visited you not long ago should have given you precious gifts. If you hadn't been hiding in the cave, you would have seen them."

"We have indeed met, more than once." Mir looked down at the two of them, his two huge eyes filled with grief, "That was a week ago..."

At that time the giant Gugo was still a giant named Kakus, he was the ugliest and laziest man in the tribe, but also the tallest warrior, and in the first few years after taking office as Gugo, he always brought back the most prey, defeated the most ferocious beasts, weighed more than two bull elephants, and had thicker skin than a rhino and wild boar combined.

But in recent years he was no longer willing to run around in the mountains to hunt, but instead sat in the most comfortable cave, waiting for others to bring him food.

It was a sunny morning. When Kakus was lying by the lake and roaring at people to put the dead sheep into his mouth, two half-blood giants came down the hillside holding gifts high. A magical flame that never goes out and is always warm came all the way to Kakus' feet, bowed, and put down the gift...

"Cacus doesn't know the wizard language, so he asked two giants to act as translators. They agreed to talk the next day and bring gifts..." Mill's voice was very soft, as if he was worried about disturbing Orr who was sleeping over there. "The conversation on the second day went smoothly, and I listened nearby. Hagrid conveyed Dumbledore's goodwill. He stopped your government from killing the last group of giants in Britain, which is us... Everything was fine. They agreed to continue the conversation on the third day and bring more gifts..."

"What happened next?"

If all goes well, Hagrid won't be stuck on the way back, and the giant tribe won't replace the new Gogo.

Hermione's eyes widened slightly and she asked in surprise, "Did the Death Eaters suddenly attack them while they were talking?"

Mill shook his head and whispered, "McNeill and Crouch, those two men found Tall Horse. Hagrid said they were both executioners who enjoyed slaughtering, so they got along very well. The two wizards instigated Tall Horse to start a vicious fight, and almost all the giants in the tribe were involved. The depression was noisy that night. Orr asked me to stay in the cave. I only heard that more and more giants gathered outside, and it was getting more and more chaotic. When the sun came out the next day, the snow was red, and Kakus's head sank to the bottom of the lake. Tall Horse, wearing his helmet, became the new Gugo..."

Hagrid and Maxim were still unaware of the Death Eaters hiding behind the riot. They went to meet the Tall Horse with a gift they had intended to give to Cacus, but were almost caught on the spot. Maxim used magic to lead them to flee in a hurry...

"They were unwilling to give up their original mission and planned to avoid the tall horses, so they sneaked into the cave every night to talk to other giants." Mill's eyes showed sadness and he shook his head, "But they didn't expect that McNeill and Crouch were searching for them and found traces of their nighttime activities. They surrounded them in a cave the next day."

"Could it be that you..." Loren looked at the injuries on the two men thoughtfully.

Hermione looked moved.

"Hagrid and Maxim didn't implicate us. They held out against the two Death Eaters for a long time and finally escaped successfully." Mir shook his head again. "The injuries on us were caused by Gao Gaoma. He said that we helped his prey escape while he was sleeping."

"Can he still be your leader like this?" Hermione couldn't help asking.

"We giants are like this. Every few weeks we have to fight with others, either beating others half to death or being beaten half to death ourselves. Men fight with men, women fight with women, and if they die, they die. The survivors will continue to fight, even if it's not for food, fire, and spacious caves, they will still fight. In the words of you wizards, it's called the instinct of cannibalism..."

"What about you?"

Loren squinted his eyes and looked at the three giant siblings in the cave, and asked softly.

Compared to other simple-minded giants, these three are more rational, more tolerant, know how to protect themselves, and can suppress the violent impulses in their bodies.

The eldest brother Or would miss his injured brothers and sisters and reserve barbecue for them. Gale and Mir would worry about Or. Among the savage group of giants, their humanity was like torches at night, which could be clearly seen on the distant ridges and in the dark caves.

The most important thing is that even their names are different from other giants.

"We..." There was a gleam in Mir's eyes.

(End of this chapter)