At first, Hagrid didn't take Neil's words to heart, a night walk in the Forbidden Forest was not the same thing as a family picnic in a nature park on the weekend, and the two most stupid things a child at his age would do was brag and be ...... Well, in fact, it should be three, in order, bragging, recklessness, and secretly raising a killer monster under the bed.

But that had little to do with the current situation, the point being that Hagrid wouldn't trust an eleven-and-a-half-year-old capable of keeping up with himself on patrol, and the later he realized that, the more trouble he would have for himself.

However, it didn't take long for Hagrid to realize that he had made a surprising miscalculation.

"I love this place."

Neil muttered as he followed. Probably thinking of the risk of alarming the inhabitants of the forest, the voice was so low that it was almost drowned out by the sound of the two of them stepping on the dead leaves on the ground.

"The most important thing is that the soil is very fertile, and I have never seen such a good land in the UK, it is like having enough to eat...... Oh well, I didn't say anything, I mean, I don't know anything. ”

But he seems to have had some kind of rather serious misunderstanding.

If Hagrid had been a somewhat delicate man, he would have noticed this bad omen and dealt with it, so that Hogwarts' image in the eyes of his international friends would not have slipped in an irretrievable direction, but the reason why he was able to win the trust of the Headmaster was because he never thought about such complex and deep things.

Nearly an hour had passed since they entered the Forbidden Forest, and by this time the average student had already begun to run out of breath, even stomping on the edge of the pit or tripping over the roots of a tree that was exposed to the ground, leaving himself covered in injuries, and forcing Hagrid to interrupt his patrol and take people to the infirmary, but the kid still seemed to be in good spirits.

In addition to his impressive physical prowess, his ability to walk through the jungle is remarkable, and his steps are light and soft, reminiscent of those languid big cat predators, and he walks smoothly through obstacles. Hagrid's eyes occasionally glanced at the half-human-tall lantern in his hand out of worry, and then he was surprised to find that the light inside showed almost no signs of flickering.

"You do know the forest well."

"Mountains and forests, to be exact. In contrast, the road here is much easier, at least you don't have to worry about the accident of falling off the cliff if you step on a pile of rocks without paying attention. He shrugged noncommittally, "Because of that, it would be a shame not to make good use of the land here to grow something, don't you think, Mr. Professor?" ”

"I'm not a professor." Hagrid corrected with sincere trepidation.

"It's all the same." Neil said, "The word 'doctor' can mean both doctor and doctor in English, the Japanese call teachers, doctors, and politicians 'sir', and in my hometown, many people who don't know what to call strangers will temporarily replace them with 'sensei' - there is no one else here, and I call them this way just to make it easier to unify the title of others, so you don't have to take it too seriously, just admit it generously, Mr. Professor." ”

Hagrid scratched his head. He was a little confused, and felt as if he had vaguely admitted some kind of ridiculous conclusion. But even at this point, the worthless redundant information was still pouring into his brain after passing through the other party, so that Hagrid could not remember what kind of cause and effect the other party used to convince him.

"Are you raising the creatures in this forest?"

In order to keep the "students who break the school rules" from forgetting that they are being punished, Hagrid, who has been refraining from being too kind to them, finally refrains from taking the bait - he has an extremely weak self-awareness of the fact that the definition of "cute little animal" in his mind is seriously different from that of ordinary people, and believes that this disagreement, although objective, can be bridged by cultivating the interest of the other party, so he especially cherishes the opportunity to win over others.

"Not exactly. Most of the animals in the Forbidden Forest are close to me, but there are some who don't like humans approaching their territory...... Hmph, don't mention the donkeys, do you like animals? ”

Neil pondered it carefully before nodding, "Okay...... To be honest, the concept of 'liking animals' is a bit of a pan-the-sky, and everyone's liking for different animals and the specific ways of 'liking' are different, and some of them are even, uh, let's just say 'not very accepted by universal morality'...... But for me, yes, in general I like animals, beautiful and valuable, whichever is fine. ”

The tongue-twisting, and therefore literary-sounding phrase "not acceptable to universal morality" struck Hagrid's heart for a moment, and tears rolled in the eyes of the good-hearted giant at the thought of the sad past between himself and Aragog, the damned octopus brute we mentioned earlier, and any other kind of private breeding that would have been revealed enough to make him hang himself on the gallows three times.

Good-hearted ignorants may be moved by his sympathetic appearance, but those who know what he is remembering are likely to be reluctant to punch him in the face - giants are so resistant to magic that a wand may not be as good as a fist.

"Yes," he sniffed, recalling with a sad expression, "people are always subconsciously afraid of things they don't understand...... I remember, it was about twenty years ago, when I was trying to tame a twin-tailed manticore, and the Ministry of Magic—"

The heartwarming memories came to an abrupt end here, as a group of scrawny black beasts suddenly appeared in the night not far ahead. Their bodies resemble horses, with a pair of huge bat-wing bats on their backs, their heads resembling some kind of lizards, their eye sockets are sunken, their gums are turned outward, revealing their sharp canine teeth, and if it weren't for the light of a lantern that can see their nostrils open and close, many people would have mistaken these creatures for half-rotten zombie Chimera.

However, contrary to their hideous appearances, the monsters did not show any aggression, and the leader raised his head half-deadly, swept the faces of the two men in turn with dark red eyes, and did not know whether he recognized Hagrid, or if he had no interest in humans in the first place, and then led by it, the whole group of animals passed the two of them without a sound, and disappeared into the dark depths of the dense forest.

Hagrid glanced nervously at Neil. The zombie-like ponies were his favorites in the Forbidden Forest, with the exception of Aragog, and they were smart, strong, and loyal to their owners. But there are also many people who see them as dangerous creatures and associate them with bad omen. He didn't want to see the magical creatures lovers he had so hard enough time to win over be intimidated by this kind of thing, and he forgot for a moment that the most representative feature of these creatures was that not everyone could see them.

However, when he turned his head to confirm the situation, he saw that Neil's face was full of intoxication, and even looked a little hideous in the light.

"Can you see them?" Hagrid asked, somewhat surprised.

"Is there anything else to say about that?" Neil asked rhetorically in the same tone, "I'm sorry for being presumptuous, but I don't know much about your local magical creatures. ”

"Well, actually, they, Thestrals, have a ...... for this creature Peculiarity. Hagrid slurred, seemingly reluctant to explain, "Only those who have witnessed death can see them - but I'll tell you, some people call them bad luck because of this, and that's complete nonsense!" ”

"Of course. It's hard to imagine that when you've mastered the use of supernatural powers, you'll have such terrible thoughts as superstition, like poor Macbeth...... God, what did I just say, what is there to pity that guy? ”

Neil nodded politely. His respectful attitude did seem to be perfunctory and conforming, but in fact, except for the last sentence, his sincerity could be felt in the pronunciation of every word.

"I don't know how 'people who can't see them' or 'people who can see them one day suddenly' will think about them, but personally, these guys are undoubtedly beautiful creatures and make people feel very ...... Miss. What are they called? Night riding? ”

"No, Thestrals."

"Strange name...... Neil shrugged, "but it's not unpleasant. I can feel that of all the creatures that have inherited the mottled dragon bloodline, their bloodlines should be the lowliest—no, this is not an insult, Professor, purely from an academic point of view...... Okay, it's kind of like swearing, but that's just a matter of facts, okay? ”

After finishing speaking, he probably felt that his explanation was not enough, so he quickly cleared his throat and continued: "The dragon blood flowing in their bodies is indeed the most complex composition I have ever seen, this is an undoubted fact, and in terms of purity, it is even inferior to the mine demon - the kind of little monster you call 'Kobo'. They were once the powerful and thankfully now all dead servants of the Demon Lords, frantically burrowing near all the veins they could find, looking for spirit stones for their masters...... Right now? Now the devil knows what they're thinking. ”

The harsh-sounding comment did upset Hagrid at first, but the ensuing story of the magical creature made up for the negative impression and made his eyes sparkle again.

"What do you mean? You mean they have dragon blood in their bodies? No one has ever proven to-"

"Absolutely, Professor. I couldn't have missed the smell. Neil interrupted him lazily, but as he spoke, his eyes suddenly lit up, as if a light of wisdom flashed, "It's too late today for a long speech, but if you're interested in these topics, Professor, we can find time to talk more later......"