Chapter 29: Whomping Willow

Time quickly reached the weekend.

In these few days, John had finally adapted to life at Hogwarts.

Taking two or three classes every day, with the remaining time free to arrange, all in all, it was still very fulfilling.

Today was a rare weekend to sleep in.

But actually, he didn't sleep too late, because this was their first weekend coming to Hogwarts, and it couldn't be wasted.

Before today, the four of John had already agreed that today they would act together to explore the castle and unlock new maps.

However, before exploring the castle, they still had one thing to do.

That was to go to the Owlery outside the castle first to send letters to their families.

Until nine o'clock, the three of John slowly came out of the Ravenclaw dormitory.

On days without class, the whole person felt much more relaxed.

By the time they reached the Great Hall, the few found that there were only a few people in the Great Hall, which was the fewest number of people they had ever seen.

Among them, the most conspicuous was their Eagle House table side, where Titus was sitting alone, constantly showing off his breakfast.

Breakfast had ended long ago at this time, but their Hufflepuff dormitory was next to the kitchen, so if he wanted to eat anything, he could enter at any time and order the house-elves to make it for him.

This matter made Titus very happy, and from time to time, he would tell them what he had stolen into the kitchen to eat last night.

"Woo! Woo woo woo woo, woo woo woo!" Titus raised his head upon hearing the movement and saw John and the others coming, hurriedly waving to signal them to sit down and eat together.

But his mouth was stuffed with a piece of toast, and he couldn't spit out a second word, wooing for a long time.

This breakfast was arranged by him for the house-elves to prepare before going out, knowing that John and the others hadn't eaten breakfast.

"Good brother, I really didn't misjudge you, you even knew to prepare breakfast for us."

Ryan laughed, immediately understood what Titus meant just now, sat down, and started eating breakfast.

Following the little badger, there is food to eat, which is really not just talk.

Since things have come to this, let's eat first.

The Owlery, as the name implies, is the owl's shed.

It was built outside the castle, on a small hillside by the Forbidden Forest, and one had to climb a mountain road to get up.

Hundreds of owls were kept here, some raised by students themselves, and some publicly used by the school.

Owls sending letters is one of the school's main means of contacting the outside world.

Hogwarts has no telephones, and Muggle electronic products are not allowed to appear at Hogwarts.

Or rather, the entire wizarding world is prohibiting the abuse of Muggle products.

The Ministry of Magic even has a specialized department to manage this matter.

Today they came to the Owlery besides unlocking the new map, of course, to send letters to their families to report safety.

John had originally forgotten to send a letter to his family; after all, in his previous life and this life, he had never written a letter, except for homework.

However, seeing Ryan and the others writing letters, he remembered that he had to report safety to his parents.

So he wrote a few words freely.

【Iam very well, no worry.】

After sending the letter, the few stood on the tower of the Owlery, overlooking the scenery around them.

On the right was a large forest, which was the Forbidden Forest; outside the Forbidden Forest, a small hut was located, which was the Hagrid hut of the Forbidden Forest guard.

It is rumored that many magical creatures exist in the Forbidden Forest, including some dangerous dark magical creatures, and even a centaur tribe.

However, I heard from Senior Neville that many students have been inside, and magical creatures are not as easy to encounter as they imagine; more often, it is just an ordinary forest.

And on the left was the Hogwarts castle; looking at the castle from a high place, one could always feel the mysterious charm of the castle, which was fascinating.

And below the castle was the Black Lake; it is rumored that mermaids and fish demons lived inside.

"Look, that is the Whomping Willow; I heard from my father that the age of that tree is older than us, and it was planted by the Headmaster himself that year."

Titus suddenly pointed to the sturdy big tree between the castle and the Forbidden Forest; its branches were also equally sturdy, shaking back and forth like human hands.

"My father said that as long as any creature approaches that tree, it will attack the surrounding creatures indiscriminately, so it is called the Whomping Willow, and the school also prohibits students from approaching that tree."

"Why does the school want to raise such a dangerous tree here?"

Ryan asked somewhat doubtfully.

"Who knows, the Headmaster must have his deep meaning in doing so."

"Perhaps when foreign enemies invade, it can grow legs and go to drive away foreign enemies?"

"I think it should be a plant version of a catapult; it digs out giant stones from the ground, or turns into giant stones, and then throws them high to smash enemies to death."

The few made guesses one after another.

"... Uh, I wonder if it's used to protect some secret passage?"

At this time, John said somewhat uncertainly.

"What do you mean?" The few looked at John suspiciously one after another.

As a result, John pointed his finger at the Whomping Willow in the distance, and the crowd looked over one after another.

Although there was some distance, they all saw a black shadow drill out from under the root system of the Whomping Willow, and then rush into the wooden bridge corridor leading to the castle.

The movement didn't feel like a human's movement, but more like an animal crawling and running.

The few were silent for a while, and then someone popped out a sentence.

"... Go take a look?"

"Go." ×3

The other few nodded very tacitly.

Having said that, they hurriedly went down the Owlery and walked toward the Whomping Willow.

The more it is linked with words like "forbidden" and "secret," the more it can arouse people's curiosity.

As for that black shadow, they didn't think much about it; what kind of monsters and ghosts are not at Hogwarts?

They walked all the way to the front of the Whomping Willow.

However, they stood at a distance of ten meters away from the Whomping Willow and watched.

Attempting to find out where that black shadow drilled out from, and whether there really was a secret passage here.

"See that protruding tree root behind the tree; although I can't see that side, I think that might be the location of the secret passage."

Ryan leaned against the mountain wall on the side, pointing at the back of the Whomping Willow and saying.

Because the location where the Whomping Willow was planted was on the edge of a small cliff, one side was a protruding mountain cliff, and the other side was a cliff; they could only peek at the Whomping Willow from one direction and couldn't observe it by circling around.

The few looked over one after another; there was indeed a tree root protruding strangely, just like a small archway.

In order to see clearly, they couldn't help but walk forward a few steps.

However, before the few could get any closer, this huge Whomping Willow shook violently, and a sturdy branch smashed toward the few without saying a word.

"Bu Hao!"

The few noticed the abnormality of the Whomping Willow, but when they reacted, it was already too late.

The next moment, *bang*!!

Dust flew.

Fortunately, just before the branch smashed down, John opened his arms and pushed Titus and the three down together, barely dodging this heavy blow.

But there were still branches whipping on their bodies, which hurt as if they had been whipped by dozens of whips at once.

However, they couldn't care about the pain at all, because after the Whomping Willow retracted that branch, it raised it high again, making a gesture to smash.

John hurriedly climbed up from Titus's stomach, dragged Titus up, and took Ryan and Ethan to retreat out of the attack range of the Whomping Willow.

The few ran out for dozens of meters before collapsing on the grass and panting heavily. ===== CHAPTER 30 =====