Wooosh!
Hearing Lucien's words, the flas in the room instantly receded.
"Yes."
The little Qilin walked to Lucien's side, its eyes warily fixed on Cerberus—Fluffy.
But the creature it was guarding against looked quite pitiful at the mont.
Cerberus's already dark fur had been charred even blacker by the flas.
So of the little Qilin's pure flas still clung to its body, burning like fiery blossoms. The pain caused Cerberus's body to tremble uncontrollably.
Lucien patted the Qilin's neck, signaling it to extinguish the flas.
Once the fire was out, the wounds beca more apparent.
The temperature of the pure flas was too high—parts of Cerberus's body with less flesh were nearly burned through, exposing patches of white bone.
In just two or three seconds, the once ferocious Cerberus had been subdued, now only able to whimper in surrender.
Fluffy slowly rolled over, ignoring the pain wracking its body, and exposed its soft, vulnerable belly.
Lucien took one look and understood—the Cerberus had yielded.
The wounds needed treatnt; even with the powerful body of a magical creature, injuries this severe would be hard to heal naturally.
It was Hagrid's pet, after all. As long as it no longer attacked him, there was no need to burn it to death.
After a brief consideration, Lucien signaled the little Qilin to give Fluffy so simple treatnt.
Receiving its master's instruction, the Qilin walked up to Cerberus.
Fluffy trembled as the Qilin approached, but didn't dare move. Instead, it stuck out its tongue and gave a fawning smile.
The little Qilin looked down at Cerberus from above.
"Ptooey!"
Hmph!
A glob of transparent saliva was spat from the Qilin's mouth, landing precisely in the middle head's mouth.
Lucien, witnessing this scene, couldn't help but be stunned.
Wait—why did that look so much like an alpaca?
Qilin saliva's healing effect was indeed powerful, but spitting it out like that… the whole scene looked far too bizarre!
Previously, the Qilin's saliva had always been collected in a container, and Lucien would apply it carefully when needed.
But just now, the Qilin had casually spat out a mouthful of glistening saliva, and it had flown straight into Fluffy's mouth.
Still reeling, Lucien turned to look at Cerberus—only to find that it actually wore an expression of...
Enjoynt?
He saw Fluffy's charred fur rapidly shedding, with new, shiny fur beginning to grow in its place.
The deep wounds, so even exposing bone, also started to heal—though perhaps due to their severity, the regeneration was a bit slower.
The little Qilin returned to Lucien's side, proudly raising its head.
"Master, I've healed it."
"…"
Lucien had the urge to comnt that next ti, maybe it could spit a bit more gracefully—after all, it was supposed to be a divine beast.
But then again, no matter how dignified, spitting was still spitting. There wasn't exactly a refined way to do it.
Shaking his head, Lucien walked toward the trapdoor.
No—more accurately, a gaping, black hole.
The sea of flas earlier had completely burned the door to ashes.
This ti, Fluffy didn't try to stop him. It just squatted to the side, tongue lolling, watching as if it had completely forgotten its guard duty.
After being beaten, Fluffy was no longer as impulsive as it had been when startled awake. It also seed to sense the magical affinity radiating from Lucien and the Qilin, and now behaved more like a docile, oversized dog.
Lucien glanced into the hole and saw nothing but empty darkness below.
There was no Devil's Snare or anything else below.
That made sense—Dumbledore probably hadn't placed the Mirror of Erised down there yet.
So naturally, no challenges or protective enchantnts had been set up.
Lucien turned his head to look at Cerberus.
He couldn't help but grumble inwardly—then what exactly had it been guarding? A hole? Oh, right. A door. Sigh..
Lucien sighed, pulled out an unused tin can, tapped it with his wand, and transfigured it into a door, fitting it neatly over the opening.
He waved his wand a few more tis, applying a semi-permanent solidification charm.
It would have to do for now; he could replace it with a proper one next ti.
He also cast several cleaning charms, thodically erasing the scorch marks left around the room.
Then Lucien took out paper and quill, preparing to record detailed data on magical creatures like Cerberus.
It was much easier now—Fluffy was completely cooperative.
If he asked it to lift a leg, it lifted a leg. If he asked it to open its mouth, it opened its mouth.
Looking at Fluffy's teeth, Lucien noticed that the once dark, cursed fangs were now a gleaming white.
The black aura that had originally shrouded them had disappeared.
Hmm, was it because Lun's pure flas could burn away curses and toxins, cleansing the Dark Arts curse inherent in the Cerberus's bite?
But with his sharp eyes, Lucien quickly spotted faint wisps of black mist beginning to erge again from the base of the teeth, lingering subtly.
So it regenerates? That was in line with what he knew—Cerberus's innate Dark Arts ant that anyone bitten would suffer wounds that couldn't heal naturally and had to be treated with potions.
He quickly jotted this detail down and tucked away his notes.
Then, he pulled out an iron bottle, preparing to extract so of Cerberus's teeth's venom and blood.
Fluffy didn't resist, obediently allowing Lucien to draw the sample.
Lucien didn't take much—just enough to refine his adhesive potion.
Having completed his goal for the night, Lucien left the room, tossing Fluffy a massive rib bone as a small token of thanks.
…
Just a few minutes after Lucien departed—
From another corridor, two figures hurried toward the room where the Cerberus was kept.
"Dumbledore, I told you—that Cerberus is far too dangerous. It shouldn't be kept in the castle!"
"Previously, Potter and his friends got lost and ended up here—and now you say soone else just visited. What if sothing serious actually happened?!"
"Severus, don't be agitated. As far as I know, the issue wasn't serious."
Snape glared at Dumbledore beside him, his eyes dark with frustration.
The portraits and ghosts throughout the castle were all the Headmaster's informants; with their help, Dumbledore could stay aware of most happenings within Hogwarts.
On both occasions, it was a ghost who had alerted him that soone had entered the Cerberus's room.
Snape took a deep breath, suppressing his irritation.
"Dumbledore, when you say it 'wasn't serious,' that still ans there was a problem, doesn't it?"
Dumbledore nodded.
"I know what you really want to ask—whether Harry is alright. He was indeed injured at the ti, but he has already recovered."
When he first heard that Harry had been hurt, Snape visibly tensed, but hearing that the injury had already healed made him quietly exhale in relief.
Besides, he had seen Harry in the past few days—alive and well—so it must have been sothing minor.
Still, Snape snorted coldly.
"I wasn't asking about Potter. Keeping a creature like a Cerberus in this school is far too dangerous!"
Knowing Snape's temperant, Dumbledore didn't take offense.
In fact, he hadn't ntioned that the ghosts and portraits along the way had told him Harry had actually been seriously injured, but the three children had sohow made it out of the Castle.
Dumbledore suspected they had gone to Hagrid for help, so he later went to ask him.
But Hagrid said that when he saw Harry that night, the boy was perfectly fine and happily chatting with Lucien and his friends.
Dumbledore then deduced that Lucien must have healed Harry's injuries, which only deepened his curiosity about the boy.
When they opened the door, everything appeared completely normal.
Except for one thing—Cerberus was chewing on a...
Rib bone?
__________
11 Advance Chaps- P@treon/DarkDevil1
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