"Oh, you're right on time." Hagrid said cheerfully, puffing out his chest with pride.

"Although the unicorn herd lives in the Hogwarts Forbidden Forest, they don't like staying in one place for too long, so finding them in the forest isn't as easy as you might think... Of course, it's not a problem for me. Alright, follow me!"

Clearly, Hagrid didn't intend to take Elena and the others into the Forbidden Forest. They walked along the edge of the woods for a few minutes before arriving at a place full of shrubbery, the dense branches perfectly blocking the view from the outside.

"Be careful, don't make too much noise."

Hagrid turned around and whispered, then pulled aside the bushes in front of them. A small clearing appeared before them, with four or five unicorns standing quietly, resting and feeding on the lush meadow.

Just as Elena had seen in books, unicorns could indeed be said to be one of the most beautiful animals in the world.

Adult unicorns were a bit smaller than horses, slender, elegant, and so purely white that they seemed almost unreal compared to the surrounding scenery, so pure that they gave a dreamlike feeling, bathed in sunlight, emanating a dreamy white light like the moonlight of the stars.

Their white neck hair hung down smoothly, their large lake-blue eyes gleamed, and they had a spiral horn on their heads, shining golden in the sunlight—but it would be a big mistake to think they were harmless simply because of their appearance. Adult unicorns were powerful magical creatures capable of fighting elephants and dragons.

Besides the adult unicorns, there were also two young ones in the clearing, golden all over, with little horns just starting to grow, barely able to stand steadily. They leaned shyly against their parents, cautiously nibbling at the grass at their feet.

Whether it was Elena, Hermione, Hannah, or Luna, they all had a strong feeling that such beautiful creatures were like treasures that shouldn't live in the human world—they were simply too beautiful, so wonderful that they felt unreal.

"Ahem, children, don't just stand there, try to get a little closer."

Hagrid cleared his throat, rubbing his hands and smiling. "Unicorns are gentle and elegant creatures. Usually, as long as you express kindness and politeness, they are very willing to interact with wizards, especially young witches."

As Hagrid and the others appeared, the unicorn herd in the clearing gradually looked over, curiously looking at the gamekeeper who had appeared at the edge of the bushes and the little witches they had never seen before.

After hesitating for a few seconds, the most robust and graceful unicorn among them snorted pleasantly, blinked its beautiful eyes, and slowly walked over, proactively lowering its slender neck and extending its golden horn towards Elena and the others.

"Eh?"

Faced with the unicorn's greeting, Elena and the others instinctively looked at Hagrid.

"A very good start, it seems like it likes you. Now, just return the greeting."

Hagrid pursed his lips. He had never enjoyed such treatment. Sure enough, unicorns were arrogant creatures with gender discrimination. It was a common trait of beautiful beings.

"Then, you can try to touch them, remember to stroke them in the direction of their long fur."

"Eh... Hello."

"Good morning, Mr. Unicorn."

"Nice to meet you..."

The girls nodded somewhat flusteredly, greeting the unicorn in front of them with uneven movements, then carefully reached out and gently stroked the silvery-white fur on this beautiful creation.

There was no doubt that the law of "beauty recognizing beauty" existed in every universe.

As the face of the magical animal kingdom, unicorns were naturally extremely "appearance-controlled" creatures. Facing the equally good-looking and cute little witches, they quickly let down their guard and played together quite naturally... Well, except for Elena.

"Why, why won't it let me hug it..."

Elena pouted, muttering softly, glancing at Luna, who was hugging a golden little unicorn and nuzzling it, her eyes full of envy and resentment.

Compared to adult unicorns, these young beasts were more sensitive, getting scared and hiding at the slightest movement, or staggering away in small steps, looking shyly at Elena and the others.

In this regard, even Hermione and Hannah took a while to gradually gain the trust of these little ones, being able to walk to their side and gently stroke their soft, warm backs.

On the other hand, Luna Lovegood, who seemed less gentle and reliable, a little crazy and floaty, went straight to a little unicorn from the beginning, helping the little one untangle the knotted golden mane on its back with utmost naturalness.

As for a certain white-haired ball who thought her cuteness was perfect, her purity was ninety-nine points, her gentleness was ninety points, and her kindness... well, she was quite kind, let alone wanting to get close to cuddle a little unicorn, the little ones would start trembling and running away as soon as she got within three meters.

"Elena, you're scaring them."

Hagrid looked at the sullen Elena with a chuckle, shaking his head helplessly.

"The aura on you is too obvious. Especially since you've been in the Hogwarts kitchen these days, the aura surrounding you is too unsettling for the unicorns—not to mention, you're much more dangerous to them than those kids, in terms of magical perception."

As a Veela hybrid, Elena was essentially half a powerful magical creature, and after awakening her wizarding talent, combined with her Veela heritage, her actual magical power was now close to that of many seventh-year graduates.

Unicorns happened to be a particularly sensitive magical creature. In their view, if Hermione and the others were harmless little fireflies, then Elena was like a blazing torch—especially since this torch was vaguely surrounded by many spirits of living beings.

Although Elena didn't have to do the actual killing most of the time...

As the head chef of Hogwarts, when demonstrating some basic slaughtering, bleeding, and plucking processes, she still had to pick up the Zwilling knives given by her priest father and actually operate on them.

Killing intent might sound a bit mysterious, but it was indeed a real deterrent.

"Ew, Elena, don't come over here."

Hermione frowned, waving her hand at Elena with a look of disgust.

"It starts trembling as soon as you come over. I finally coaxed it, don't make a mess."

"Yeah, yeah... Elena, stand a little further away."

"Sister Elena, how about you take pictures for us?"

"..."

Elena's mouth twitched as she was caught off guard and disliked by all the wings. She glared at the arrogant unicorns in the field with an unfriendly expression. She had noted this down... She would communicate her feelings when no one was around.

Though she was depressed, Elena didn't forget the main purpose of coming here today.

Although there would be no cute and charming little angel like her in the photos, with Hermione, Hannah, and Luna as special models, plus the unicorns that were already beautiful, the photos still looked pretty good.

It was conceivable that after this issue of *The Quibbler* was printed, these three little wings that showed their faces would most likely debut as child stars in the magical world, after all, the basic foundation was there.

At the same time, Hagrid, who was standing around, was not completely idle. After clearing his throat slightly, he began to explain the relevant knowledge about unicorns to the little witches with extra care, as if rehearsing for the subsequent teaching in advance.

"Unicorns are rare and beautiful magical animals, mainly distributed in the forests of Northern Europe. Adult unicorns are silvery-white, while they are golden in childhood. Unicorn horns, blood, and hair have very strong magical effects, so..." (Click to expand the full text)

Just as mentioned earlier, unicorn herds didn't like to stay in one place for too long.

Along with Hagrid's increasingly confident and fluent explanations, time quickly passed and it was almost noon.

After taking more than a dozen photos, the leading unicorn raised its graceful neck, made a clear snort, lowered its head and rubbed Elena and the others with its sharp horns, leading its clan slowly towards the depths of the Forbidden Forest.

What surprised Elena a little was that, at the time of parting, the two golden little ones finally mustered up the courage to wobble up to her, touching her hand with their soft little horns that hadn't fully grown yet, and then quickly slipped back to their parents like frightened little deer.

On the other hand, those adult unicorns always looked at Elena with wary eyes. Even when Hagrid helped her touch them a few times, Elena could feel the stiffness and resistance fed back from the firm and resilient muscles under the silvery-white, warm fur.

"These little guys... Right, Hagrid..."

The corners of Elena's mouth curled up slightly, she raised her eyebrows, and suddenly turned to look at Hagrid, saying with a serious face.

"Unicorns are quite rare magical creatures, but as Hogwarts' teaching progresses, the magical world actually knows that there is a herd of unicorns living in the Hogwarts Forbidden Forest—if you have recently discovered any suspicious black-robed figures in the Forbidden Forest, be sure to tell me as soon as possible, I have a way..."

As she spoke, Elena touched the Deathly Hallows protection charm hanging on her chest, a cold light flashing in her eyes.

Although under her influence, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, who had become good friends, seemed to have no chance to be punished to explore the Forbidden Forest again, some people who were madly obsessed with life-extending techniques might still continue to have some crooked ideas.

It should be noted that, strictly speaking, the Hogwarts Forbidden Forest was also Hogwarts' property.

As one of the castle's "not so legal," but soon to be fully legal, heir and owner, Elena naturally had the obligation and responsibility to prevent certain tragedies from happening—especially after intimately contacting these beautiful beings today, she was even more determined to disrupt Voldemort's "poaching" in the Forbidden Forest.

Of course, some specific methods still needed to be studied and pondered.

Even if the other party was a low-level terrorist who had been expelled from the Dark Lord club by Grindelwald, Elena still had to give Voldemort, who had once caused social panic throughout the British Isles, a certain amount of respect, at least in terms of single-point output capability - it would be too uneconomical if she accidentally crashed and got herself involved.

After politely declining Hagrid's invitation to lunch, the girls left Hagrid's hut and walked towards Hogwarts Castle, chatting and laughing.

There was no doubt that this morning was a very interesting and fulfilling experience for Luna, Hannah, and Hermione, even upperclassmen rarely had such luck and time.

However, compared to the cheerful Hermione and the others, Elena became a little more silent along the way.

On the way from Hagrid's hut to Hogwarts Castle, Elena once again seriously considered the feasibility and difficulty coefficient of preventing Professor Quirrell (Voldemort possessed) from poaching in the Forbidden Forest.

In fact, for the current Elena, it was not too difficult to disrupt Voldemort's original plan. If she relied on Old Carrot or Old Potato's power, she had a thousand ways to play with the poor ghost Voldemort.

However, after a period of magical learning, Elena still wanted to try to solve this minor event node with her own strength, instead of completely relying on the power of the two old guys.

The most important thing, of course, was to deduce the time node when the unicorn attack event occurred.

The description in the original book was quite vague. Elena only vaguely remembered that it should have happened sometime after Easter. Hagrid's little dragon Norbert had already been born at that time, which meant that it happened at least after mid-April next year.

According to what Hagrid said to Harry at the time, the attack had happened three times, so pushing the timeline forward, it was actually in the period after the little dragon Norbert was born.

Therefore, if Elena's goal was to protect all the Forbidden Forest unicorns from harm, then at the latest before March next year, or even around the time when Hagrid received the dragon egg as a time coordinate, she had to solve some uncertain factors, or find a way to confront them head-on.

Elena was very clear that although she had been lucky enough to defeat many foreign Aurors, those were all cases of being prepared and also using other people's orderly camp to a certain extent—it was a different level of hard power confrontation when really facing a chaotic evil person like Voldemort.

This was also why she hadn't actively provoked Ron's rat for so long.

Fortunately, she still had plenty of time, and even more fortunately, besides Dumbledore, Gellert Grindelwald, and most of the Saints' gang were on her side this time.

Thinking of this, Elena gradually calmed down. Improving her strength needed to be done step by step. According to the current learning progress, she would soon grow to the point where she could set traps for Voldemort—as for the stage-wise acceptance goal, she would temporarily set it as catching a rat.

When she was 100% sure that she could deal with a certain little rat, she felt that she might be able to try teasing Voldemort head-on. If she couldn't even deal with Peter Pettigrew, then it was better not to provoke Voldemort.

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Continuing with the 4000-word chapter! Good night!

The National Day holiday is over, and I should be able to see the chapter discussions tomorrow... right?

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