Two months ter, on a crisp weekend m, Alex stood at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, fully prepared for his first foray into its depths. Up until now, he’d only ventured into the forest’s outskirts to help Hagrid feed the magical creatures housed there. This time was different. Hagrid had retly pio Alex about a series of attaagical creatures. A Teb and a Reem bull had been dismembered, and a hippogriff had been gravely wouhe injuries didn’t resemble the work of natural predators, and both Professor Kettleburn and Hagrid were deeply ed.

  Alex hadn’t po get involved. But sidering that Tebs and Reem bulls were vital to his diet, he was furious. Raising those creatures had taken years, and someone had stolen what he sidered his rations. To make matters worse, Hagrid’s over patrolling the forest alone vinced Alex to take a. He also saw this as an opportunity to test his ret research, including upgraded alchemy tools and newly developed spells.

  Kneeling near a patch of dark, blood-stained soil, Alex murmured, “This is where the hippogriff was attacked.” His fingers sifted through the dirt, which still held a faint reddish hue. He wiped his hand on his robes and adjusted the monocle perched on his right eye.

  Through the ented lens, the ground appeared to shimmer with faint red light where the blood had seeped. Alex drew his wand and poi at the stain, muttering an intation. A work of glowing spots spread outward in his vision, marking traces of biological activity ected to the blood. Above the stain, a faint, colorful mist hovered, indig lingering st trails. This spell was Alex’s test creation. Dubbed the “Aurum Vestigia,” it bined elements of traditional trag magic with innovations in blood magic, st dete, and temperature runes.

  The spell’s funality was enhanced by the monocle Alex had crafted. Together, they allowed him to detect traces of blood, footprints, st trails, and even residual signs of life. Blood appeared as glowiains in his vision, while activity traces maed as light spots scattered on the ground. The st trail hovered above as a mist, and the passage of time left subtle variations in the brightness of these traces.

  "This area has the most clues," Alex muttered, croug to ihe ground. Bloodstains ahers littered the earth, and the trees on both sides bore deep scratches. "Judging by the marks, there was a fierce fight here."

  He examihe broken branches scattered across the forest floor and the cw marks etched into the trees. His brow furrowed as he analyzed the se. "These aren’t from a Hippogriff. No bite marks, just cw marks. The attacker used its cws as its main on. The height of these scratches suggests it’s a sizable creature, but the marks themselves don’t matething massive. Maybe it relies on jumping to attack?"

  Pieg it together, Alex cluded, "It’s likely a medium-sized creature, no heavier than 300 kilograms, with strong forelimbs, four or more cws, agile movements, and excellent jumping ability. The exaumber is unclear, but it’s not a dragon. Possible suspects include chimeras, cat leopards, werewolves, wetnd werewolves, sac leopards, manticores, or maybe a griffin. I’ll need more evideo narrow it down."

  Turning his attention back to the blood trail, Alex noticed it diverged into two paths. One led out of the Forbidden Forest. "This must be where the Hippogriff fled. It must have been badly injured, so why wasn’t it pursued?"

  He retraced his steps and found that the Hippogriff’s trail extended for about teers before abruptly ending in midair. "Looks like it mao fly off despite its injuries," Alex cluded. "That rules out any flying creatures like Griffins."

  Shifting focus to the sed trail, Alex identified it as the attacker’s path. The creature's body carried traces of the Hippogriff’s blood and aura, leaving a clear trail initially. He followed cautiously, noting how the footprints gradually became harder to dis, cealed by fallen leaves or disrupted by other animals. Only the faint st of blood guided him now, though even that grew weaker.

  Determined, Alex pressed on, pausing behind a rge tree after walking nearly a kilometer. He crouched and sifted through the fallen leaves, unc a tuft of dark hair. Twisting it between his fingers, he he bloodstains on it. "This isn’t Hippogriff blood," Alex said, holding the hair closer. "The trag spell doesn’t react to it. That means the target itself was injured."

  He gnced back at the earlier battleground. "There weren’t any signs of the attacker being ihere. So it’s either a minor wound or it has strong healing abilities." This new clue narrowed his list of suspects. "That points to a werewolf or a wetnd werewolf. But wetnd werewolves are native to the Americas, so it’s probably a local werewolf. What’s one doihe outskirts of Hogwarts, though?"

  Shrugging off the mystery for now, Alex decided on his move. "Doesn’t matter. I’ll find out soon enough. If it’s a local werewolf liviirely in its transformed state, that’s going to be a problem. I’ll have to deal with it quickly."

  He cast a trace spell ouft of hair. New, faint trails appeared in his vision, shimmering like silver ribboending from the tree into the depths of the Forbidden Forest. However, the closer he looked, the more he noticed how chaotic the surroundings were. Tracks and sts from ical creatures mixed with the target’s aura, making it harder to follow.

  To ter this, Alex used an echo spell, sing the area within a hundred meters to eliminate irrelevant trails. Simultaneously, he refihe trag spell by log onto the Hippogriff’s blood and the target’s aura, redug the interferend pinpointing the creature’s dire. As he followed the trail deeper into the forest, Alex discovered traces of ical creatures and stumbled across clusters of wild herbs. He couldn’t resist harvesting some. "Might as well make this trip worth it, even if the target gets away," he muttered with a smirk.

  Eventually, he arrived at a wide river, its surface glinting uhe fading light. "The trail stops here," Alex muttered, frowning as he sed the area. "No signs oher bank. Did the target cross the river?"

  The rushing water presented a challenge. If the werewolf had crossed, the current would have likely diluted its st, making trag difficult. Worse, if it had followed the river instead of crossing directly, the search area would expand expoially.

  Determined, Alex devised a pn. "I’ll search both dires along the river. If I find a trail, great. If not, I’ll retrace my steps." Without hesitation, he cast a Levitation Charm to glide across the river. His nding marked the transition into the heart of the Forbidden Forest, an expanse so vast that even the most seasoned wizards struggled to grasp its boundaries.

  Gng at his watch, Alex he time—almost evening. He o act quickly. Before starting his search, he pced a trag amulet at the crossing point, ensuring he could return to this spot. From there, he began a systematic search, starting downstream. "If I were a werewolf," Alex reasoned, "I’d likely move with the current after crossing."