Eccentric Wizard

Chapter 13: Delivery Mail

Beta read by DOOMRAIDER

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-Forbidden Forest-

If I had had to give this creature a description, I'd suppose to call it a horse-looking creature, though it possessed something similar to a reptilian. It was completely fleshless, its black coat clinging to its skeletons, of which every bone was visible. Its head was dragonish, and its pupil-less eyes white and staring right at me. Wings sprouted from each wither — vast, black leathery wings that looked as though they ought to belong to giant bats. Standing still and quiet in the gathering gloom, the creatures looked eerie and sinister.

And it made every single cell in my body freeze up in terror!

"Waaahhhh!" I screamed in fright, falling to the ground and scurrying backward until my back hit the trunk of a tree.

The zombie-like horse just stood there and continued to stare at me, I think… It had no pupils after all. I brought out my wand and pointed it at the beast in front of me, prepared to fire a curse at the slightest sign of aggression. Meanwhile, in my head, I was going through every scene and memory I could muster of the earlier movies and any possible mention from the people I knew from the past. But nothing came, all I could remember was people mentioning dragons, snakes, and mermaids—not a single mention of a horse-like creature came to my head.

Was it something mentioned in the books perhaps?

I expected the horror aspect of the series to start in the later years and not in my first year!

"Jarius!"

I heard Hermione scream my name as she came running at me.

"Are you okay? What happened?" she said as her hands and eyes roamed across my face and my body in search of a possible injury.

"You need to get back, Hermione! I don't know what that thing is, but it could be dangerous and can hurt us at any moment!" I tried to push her away from me, but she remained adamant.

"Huh?"

Eyes roaming across the field in front of us, I grew confused as she seemed to not react to the scary-looking beast in front of us. And the latter wasn't even acknowledging Hermione as well, its eyes still locked on to me.

"Where? Did you see something in the woods?"

What?

"I'm talking about this monster horse that looks like it came from a b-rated horror movie in front of us!" I asked as my confusion kept growing by the second, why wasn't she reacting?

Hagrid soon came near us with hurried steps, he gazed at the horse for a second, relieving me slightly as it showed me that at least I wasn't being crazy here.

"Wha' is goin' on here? yeh okay there lad?" he asked with concern. "Here ye go, be careful with your feet there. I hope yer ain' injured, would look bad in me record as a teacher." he said jovially, trying to ease the mood around.

"Yeh can see it." Hagrid stated, and I nodded at this statement.

"..."

He went all silent, his face turning to that of pity and sadness as he gazed upon me. I could not decipher why he was acting so strangely, more and more questions presented themselves to me while I remained without any answers.

"What are you two talking about? I can't see anything!" Hermione said, getting frustrated by the lack of explanation.

"Is a good thing yeh aren' able ter see it, young lad. No, I would count it as a blessing an' hope fer yeh ter never experience life in such a way tha' it forces yeh ter see things tha' are bes' left alone."