"Hopefully it's just a vampire or a werewolf or something..."

Aileen followed the golden little unicorn through the dense Forbidden Forest, a dazzling magical brand on the back of her left hand emitting a hazy white light, muttering self-hypnotically.

It was just a simple thought. Aside from temporarily activating the vow for illumination, there was no way to trigger Dumbledore and Grindelwald's sensing. She was mostly just trying to seize the advantage of a preemptive strike.

Faced with an unknown enemy that could appear at any time, she needed to be mentally prepared to strike first.

Hagrid had once said that if you had to enter the Hogwarts Forbidden Forest, you should never stray from the forest path.

However, the Hogwarts gamekeeper's admonition obviously didn't apply to the magical creatures living in this forest. In less than two or three minutes, the golden little unicorn had completely led her away from any area with obvious traces of human activity.

The trees around them grew denser and denser, and the last rays of sunset gradually faded, leaving only a faint light. The lush branches even blocked most of the starlight, leaving only the faint glow on the back of Aileen's hand.

Aileen felt like she had been walking for about ten minutes, and now she should have reached the depths of the Forbidden Forest.

The trees became more and more tightly packed, and the trunks looked thicker and thicker. Occasionally, she could see some grotesque vines clinging to huge trees that had been growing for who knows how many years. Some oddly shaped roots arched out of the ground, forming suggestive shapes—unfortunately, none of them were good associations.

She could faintly hear the sound of gurgling water nearby. In the faint light, Aileen could see scattered patches of unicorn blood along the way, perhaps from the little guy's fur, or perhaps left by the blood's owner.

But in any case, this proved that she was about to reach her destination.

Aileen quickened her pace. Staying in this place for too long was not a good thing.

Although, once spring had fully arrived, with the leaves fully grown, coupled with the shrubs and grass, it might be a beautiful scene, but on an early autumn night, wandering through this cold place was not a pleasant thing.

Most importantly...

As time passed, Aileen became increasingly clear about who she was likely to face as an enemy.

Near Hogwarts now, the culprit was most likely Voldemort, who needed to rely on unicorn blood to sustain his life.

After all, Voldemort, attached to the back of Professor Quirrell's head, was too weak. As a wisp of a remnant soul, he could only rely on this cursed magical blood to restore a little strength.

However, the only thing that puzzled Aileen was that this wasn't the original plot's timeline!

According to the original script, Professor Quirrell should have first tried to cause a commotion, such as releasing a troll into the school, and then taken advantage of the chaos to break through the restricted area of the fourth-floor corridor where the Sorcerer's Stone was hidden.

Something like sucking unicorn blood was supposed to happen after the New Year, when Voldemort became weaker and had a more urgent desire to increase his strength to break through the magical barriers.

Moreover!

Wasn't Hogwarts' food delicious today?!

Why, at this time, abandon the dishes carefully prepared by the Hogwarts kitchen and choose to poach innocent unicorns?!

As a chef, Aileen felt that her dignity had been greatly insulted.

In this silent forest trek and wild thoughts, Aileen suddenly heard a strange, discordant sound.

"Huh?! Stop."

Aileen stopped instantly, reached out and grabbed the little guy's tail in front of her. Before the little unicorn could make a confused sound, she used her other hand to hold the little thing's mouth shut, "Shh... something's not right, this sound."

Time seemed to slow down suddenly, and Aileen's breathing gradually slowed. She felt that her hearing seemed to be several times more sensitive than usual. She could even catch every sigh of the forest wind, and the sound of every twig breaking around her.

And among them, there was a discordant note mixed in.

Something was whooshing and sliding nearby, and the sound was like a cloak being dragged quickly on the ground, but it was unexpectedly light and fast, as if it were sliding on smooth ice.

Looking around, the silver bloodstains on the ground became denser and denser.

Aileen narrowed her eyes. She saw a lot of fresh blood splattered on the roots of an old oak tree beside her. Any experienced hunter would know that such violent bloodstains and signs of struggle often meant that the target would not run too far.

A faint sound of horse neighing came from the front. Even just listening to the sound, you could feel the pain and despair in it. The girl felt the little guy beside her start to struggle violently, as if wanting to rush out immediately.

"rua, let me... don't be impulsive."

Aileen held the little guy beside her tightly, looked at its lake-blue eyes filled with tears, and said very seriously in a low voice, "You stay here quietly, and leave the rest to me. I can't protect two unicorns at the same time."

In the dense forest, the transformation of hunter and prey usually only has one chance to attack and defend.

Although, theoretically, Professor Quirrell's magical strength has not yet reached the level of Voldemort's threat, but as an adult wizard, especially a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, he wouldn't be too bad in the basic mastery of offensive spells.

"Hoo... the hunt begins."

Feeling the little guy beside her gradually calm down, Aileen breathed a sigh of relief, silently took off the troublesome school robes, and her breathing slowly disappeared, like a terrible and patient top jungle predator, silently approaching the place where the sound was coming from.

Going over the bushes in front, you can see a small clearing in the forest.

Aileen had never seen such a beautiful and tragic scene.

In the small clearing, a pure white unicorn was helplessly lying on the ground, its legs stretched out in a very unnatural way. There was a terrifying wound from its neck to its abdomen, and silver blood flowed continuously from the wound with its faint breathing.

In the shadows at the edge of the clearing, a clump of bushes trembled slightly...

Then, a hooded black figure slowly emerged from the shadows.

The black figure was shrouded in a large black robe, which seemed to absorb all the surrounding light. The drooping hood made it impossible to see its face. It crawled slowly on the ground, like a beast, exuding an aura of weirdness and ominousness.

Then, under Aileen's gaze, the black-robed figure stopped at least four or five meters away from the unicorn, seemingly wary of the dying unicorn, and slowly raised a wand...

Now! Aileen took a deep breath and raised her wand, aiming it at the back of the black figure in front of her.

"explosion—maximum!"

Boom!

Along with the violent roar, the dazzling vow on the back of the girl's hand instantly turned blood red, and a disgusting smell of burning flesh emanated from Aileen's left hand—the backlash of forcibly violating the vow was not so easy to bear.

Even if Aileen bypassed part of the rules loopholes, it was still quite painful.

If it weren't for the damn foreknowledge, it would be good to completely not treat the other side as a person—the previous spell completely blew open the other side's "back", revealing a large piece of bloody "chest and abdomen"—this was a strange being walking backwards, barely half a person?

Aileen bit her lip tightly, quickly changing positions in the jungle, raised her right hand and pointed her wand steadily at the black figure that was roaring like an injured beast, frantically releasing spells towards her original position.

"explosion—maximum!"

Boom!

...

On the other side, Hogwarts Castle.

Dumbledore was raising his glass, talking to Professor McGonagall with a smile on his face.

"Ugh!"

The old man's healthy and tall body swayed violently, and he almost didn't catch the glass in his hand. The red wine splashed on the wizard robe, instantly soaking a large area, and a familiar heart-wrenching pain came from his chest.

The unbreakable vow was forcibly triggered—Dumbledore, as the protector, also suffered the backlash of the vow.

At the same time, Mr. "Otto Apocalypse," who was enjoying the food with a smile on his face, also stood up suddenly, looking at Dumbledore, who was showing a painful expression on the faculty seat, with a solemn expression, and asked anxiously loudly.

"Where is she now? Albus!"

"The Forbidden Forest, you should be able to sense the specific location."

"Immediately lift the apparition restrictions on the castle! I'm going over there now!"

"It's open."

Crack.

A harsh sound of air exploding.

Otto Apocalypse instantly disappeared from everyone's sight, leaving the Hogwarts faculty table that had just reacted and was temporarily plunged into confusion and chaos.

"Please don't let anything happen, little one!"