Chapter 119: The Three-Headed Dog

Deep in the Forbidden Forest, in a sunken hollow.

Hagrid stood solemnly before Fang, warning it not to scare Silven.

"Last time in the castle, you nearly killed Silven—that's wrong," Hagrid said sternly, regardless of whether Fang could understand, standing there and barking loudly:

"If it were a Slytherin student, they'd report this to the Ministry, and then you'd be killed, even Dumbledore couldn't protect you."

"It's only because Silven didn't press charges—and led you out of the castle—that your life was saved!"

The three-headed dog let out an incomprehensible snort, its three heads turning toward three different directions, but never toward Silven.

It seemed resentful.

"Alright, Hagrid, let me talk to it," Silven said, stepping forward with growing courage.

Fang immediately growled low in its throat, but remembering Hagrid was nearby, it swallowed the sound back.

Only when he got closer did Silven realize Fang had grown much larger than before—he stood there and still wasn't as tall as one of its heads.

"Can it understand what I'm saying?" Silven asked.

"A little," Hagrid said. "Fang is a very smart creature. As long as it's not too complicated, it understands everyday words."

"Then I'll leave you two to chat. I'll go tidy up its bed—it always makes a mess of its sleeping spot."

The "bed" Hagrid referred to was merely a clump of shrubs, trimmed into a giant doghouse, identical in shape to Fang's old nest.

When Hagrid began busying himself, Silven looked up at Fang again.

Only simple phrases understood—that means its intelligence is lower than Tom's… maybe even lower than a tail-dog's. At least tail-dogs understand most wizard commands and are the most popular household pets, the only downside being they're too expensive.

There were some for sale in Diagon Alley—priced enough to buy ten owls.

Silven sneered. With three heads, and yet such low intelligence.

As if sensing something, Fang suddenly turned its gaze toward Silven and began baring its teeth again.

Silven drew in a breath, turned around…

"Hagrid!"

The moment he spoke, the three-headed dog's face instantly shifted into a pleading smile—faster than any dog.

"What's wrong?" Hagrid rushed over, and only when he saw Silven and the dog were unharmed did he exhale slightly.

"Nothing," Silven said. "I just wanted to ask if you need help."

"No, I can handle it myself," Hagrid said. "You can feed it some moose meat—it's in that barrel."

"No problem," Silven nodded.

When Silven looked at Fang again, it had finally stopped baring its teeth.

"That's better. Even though you're a dog, you should still have some sense," Silven said, picking up a piece of meat and placing it into the middle mouth of the three-headed dog.

"I blew up your mouth once, but then you chased me halfway across the castle—so we're even."

The other two heads leaned in, stretching their necks toward the barrel.

Silven gave each of them a piece of meat too.

"We're even, alright?" he asked again.

Silven felt Fang understood him—it could read expressions, after all. Its intelligence was probably higher than he'd thought, about half as smart as Tom.

Fang ignored Silven, staring fixedly into the barrel—it clearly loved it, drool dripping steadily onto the ground.

Only after Silven finished feeding the entire barrel did Fang reluctantly let out a low whine, its dog-face returning to its usual indifferent expression.

"You're pushing it," Silven smirked. "When I blew up your mouth, I even brought you a gift—wasn't that giant tasty?"

At first Fang didn't understand; Silven gestured wildly until it recalled the delicious meat roll that had burst in after him.

Fang licked its lips, as if savoring the memory.

Back then, it had been in too much pain, and the giant had stormed in with hostility—so it tore the thing apart in rage.

Only later, when it regained full awareness, did it realize it had missed a delicacy—the lingering taste in its mouth had been too delicious, even more so than the meat Hagrid brought.

But after searching for a long time, it never found a similar flavor again.

Watching Fang's changing expression, Silven guessed its thoughts.

The three-headed dog truly liked giants… probably because of their unique taste.

Whether due to racial instinct or not, giants stank—a putrid reek of rotting meat and swamp, mixed with moldy cheese, intensely pungent and nauseating.

This odor served as their second weapon; an unsteady wizard might vomit the moment the giant drew near.

But for a three-headed dog, this stench might just be its own natural seasoning.

From Fang's gaze, it was clear—it truly missed it.

"That was my gift to you," Silven patted Fang's muzzle. "Remember? I opened the door."

As he spoke, he casually tugged off a thick, wire-like whisker.

But Fang acted as if it felt nothing, continuing to stare fixedly at Silven.

"That's right—it was me!"

Silven mimicked the motion of opening a door, then pretended to stumble like a clumsy giant, rolling forward.

Fang's six eyes instantly lit up.

It remembered—the "delicious meat roll" had appeared just like that!

Silven suddenly felt a gust of wind—he stood up to find Fang wildly wagging its tail, thudding against nearby trees with loud thumps, leaves and branches raining down everywhere.

"Oh, looks like you two are getting along well," Hagrid returned just then. He glanced at the empty metal barrel, then at Fang's demeanor, and patted its head approvingly.

"That's right—you should be friends with Silven."

His hand brushed against something sticky—he looked closer and realized it was drool.

Fang's right head had tilted too high, and the drool had dripped onto its middle head.

"You greedy thing," Hagrid laughed. "Didn't you just finish a whole barrel of moose meat? How are you hungry again… but I've got nothing else left."

"I bet it's not hungry," Silven said. "Maybe it's craving something."

"Craving what?"

"Trolls," Silven said. "Are there any in the Forbidden Forest?"

"Probably," Hagrid thought for a moment, then said, "but they should be on the other side of the Forbidden Forest, very far from the castle, with a huge stretch of swamp in between."

"You absolutely must not get any ideas about them."

Hagrid seemed to think of something, his expression changed, and he hurriedly warned, "Even I rarely go to the other side of the Forbidden Forest. That swamp is too big, and it's full of Grindylows and Vampire Bats, and there are werewolves on the far side. You absolutely must not go near it."

"Don't worry, Hagrid, I definitely won't," Silven explained. "It's Fluffy — he likes the taste of trolls."

But this explanation clearly didn't convince Hagrid; he just felt that Silven wanted to get another spine.

But were trolls really that easy to deal with?

This thought instantly killed Hagrid's mood to keep staying, and he soon left together with Silven.

Fluffy lowered his head and followed behind, as if seeing them off, and the effect was remarkably effective.

Under the deterrence of the three-headed dog, the creatures in the Forbidden Forest didn't dare approach at all, and the two of them returned to the side of the wooden cabin very smoothly.

At the same time, Hagrid also drove Fluffy back into the depths of the Forbidden Forest.

Even though by now no one was pursuing last year's matter anymore, to be absolutely safe, Hagrid felt the three-headed dog was still better off in the Forbidden Forest as much as possible.

Back inside the wooden cabin, Hagrid poured Silven some tea, then went to get him rock cakes. These two things were Hagrid's fixed combination for entertaining friends.

Silven, meanwhile, was examining the harvest from this trip to the Forbidden Forest.

First of all, there were ten branches of varying lengths — the longest thirty inches, the shortest fifteen inches, all of wand-making length.

And the quality wasn't bad either, especially the oak ones — smooth on the surface, complete in texture, with no cracks at all.

Besides these, there were also two whiskers from the three-headed dog. Originally Silven had wanted to pull one from each head — fair and equal, after all — but when it came to the head whose two teeth he'd blown off, Silven inexplicably felt a little reluctant.

But two was fine too. Now he and the three-headed dog had shaken hands and made up, and with this relationship, getting some whiskers was as easy as pie.

If there was a chance, and he found a suitable gift... a dog tooth wasn't impossible either.

Silven stroked his chin and suddenly thought of the last two properties of the wand Silvermane.

【Spell-Breaker】: Attack magic penetration +20%, with a chance to directly destroy the opponent's defensive magic.

【Tear】: After magic deals damage to a target, Counter-spell effect weakened by 30%.

When he used Silvermane now, whether it was targeting Voldemort's soul, soothing the effects caused by Avada Kedavra, or解除 petrification, it was all related to the unicorn.

But these two clearly came from the three-headed dog, except Silven was only in second year now, so he couldn't use them for the time being.

Wait... a chance to directly destroy the opponent's defensive magic?

Silven's expression was a little strange, somewhat suspecting whether this was the three-headed dog targeting trolls.

A troll wand could increase defensive magic, and then the three-headed dog brought a 【Spell-Breaker】 — was this chasing them down to kill?

"What are you thinking about?" Hagrid placed a plate of rock cakes on the table in front of him.

"Nothing," Silven put away Silvermane. "I was just thinking, when can we go to the Forbidden Forest again? I found there really are a lot of treasures in there?"

"Of course, the Forbidden Forest is Hogwarts's most precious treasure," Hagrid blurted out, then added, "but you're a student, going to the Forbidden Forest without permission is against school rules."

"Then I'll wait until school is on break to come again — Christmas holiday, Easter holiday, or end-of-year holiday. I'll wait until Hogwarts is on break to come again, that can't count as breaking school rules, right?"

Hagrid was stunned.

The first two were hard to say, but the holiday after the school year ended... this one really didn't seem to count as breaking school rules, if he could get into the school by then.

"No, too dangerous," Hagrid frowned. "You're still a second-year student."

"When the time comes, I'll find you to come along," Silven said. "During the break, we'll go visit Fluffy together."

"That works," Hagrid nodded subconsciously.

……

(End of chapter)