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Chapter 53: Horseman Ferenczer

"Hagrid, look down now and see your friend, see how in pain Ronan is!" Bane, staring intently at Hagrid\'s rugged face, demanded harshly. "Do you still think that such a cruel presence is just a harmless Hogwarts professor?"

Hagrid hesitated for a moment, but then realized that Dracula was the one trusted by Dumbledore, and the centaurs were merely outsiders.

His gaze grew resolute as he prepared to defend Dracula.

Hagrid and Bane started arguing, but Hagrid struggled with his clumsiness in speech, his neck turning red with frustration as he couldn\'t counter Bane\'s points.

Eventually, he reluctantly gave up on verbal communication with the centaur and rolled up his sleeves, ready to have a physical confrontation with Bane.

At that moment, the circle of centaurs silently parted to form a passage.

"That\'s enough, Bane!"

A centaur with striking features stepped through the passage, speaking in a calm yet restrained voice laced with anger.

His hair was platinum blonde, and he had the body of a silver-maned horse.

"Why are you here, Firenze?" Bane asked the centaur with a look of confusion.

"We were the ones who acted first, Bane. If we are outmatched, there\'s no need to stubbornly put up a fight," said the platinum-haired centaur named Firenze, directly addressing the issue. "War is coming. We cannot let our long-standing prejudices lead us to impose crimes on others that do not belong to them. This will only benefit our real enemies!"

"Do you know what you\'re saying, Firenze?" Bane retorted angrily. "Remember, Firenze, we swore an oath to never defy the will of the stars! Do you think I didn\'t notice the omens indicated by the planetary movements?"

Upon hearing this, Ronan, who was still lying on the ground, glanced at Dracula, his face showing signs of anxiety as he continuously pawed at the snow-covered ground.

It seemed Bane\'s words triggered something, as Firenze\'s expression darkened instantly. He was so enraged that he suddenly stood upright on his hind legs.

"Didn\'t you see the unicorn?" he shouted at Bane, his tone shifting from calm to fierce. "Don\'t you understand why it was killed? I am starting to suspect that you are too foolish to see the secrets revealed by the planetary movements!"

"I must resist the one lurking in our forest, Bane. Yes, if necessary, I will side with any group that may be connected!"

After saying this, Firenze ignored Bane and walked straight towards Dracula, who was surrounded by centaurs.

"Professor, please spare Ronan this time. I will guarantee your safe departure from the Forbidden Forest." He gave a slight bow to Dracula and then gazed thoughtfully into his eyes.

"Firenze, you better know what you\'re doing!" Bane continued angrily. "What does this have to do with us? Centaurs have always been neutral, only concerned with the predictions of the stars! We have no need to compromise our own principles by allying with those evil creatures just to fight against the enemies of wizards!"

However, Firenze was no longer interested in listening. He simply stared with his strikingly blue eyes, like pale sapphires, directly at Dracula\'s wine-red eyes.

Seeing the unusual centaur in front of him, Dracula chuckled softly.

"I didn\'t expect that among this stubborn and outdated race, there would be such an interesting centaur as you," he said, glancing around at the tense centaurs. "For your sake, I\'ll let this matter drop today. However, if there\'s a next time, I will not show any mercy."

His tone turned extremely cold as he spoke the last sentence.

Bane, infuriated and humiliated, opened his mouth to utter more reprimands and sarcastic remarks but suddenly noticed a small, sharp-toothed bat flapping its wings and flying up into the sky above the Forbidden Forest.

He felt an extremely dark and dangerous aura from the bat\'s teeth, though he hadn\'t sensed it before.

As the first tiny bat flew away, the sound of fluttering wings continued. Countless smiling bats flew towards the dimly lit sky of the Forbidden Forest and, under the sunlight, dissipated into a cloud of dust.

Bane noticed that every bat had emerged from the ears of the centaurs. No centaur was left out; each one had a corresponding bat.

He looked at the sharp teeth of these bats and felt their dark aura, his heart sinking with fear. He instinctively looked at Ronan, who was lying on the ground.

Ronan\'s expression was solemn as he shook his head in response.

Bane raised his hand, halting the centaur tribe\'s pursuit, and watched as Firenze led Dracula and Hagrid into the shadows, obscured by the trees, disappearing from view.

"Ronan, did you stop me from acting recklessly because you recognized those evil bats?" Bane asked, hurrying to Ronan\'s side and bending down to inquire.

"Yes, if my judgment is correct, those small bats are the kind used by the vampire lord more than a hundred years ago against two chieftains," Ronan said with difficulty.

"If it weren\'t for Firenze\'s intervention, he would have turned all of us centaurs into vampires!"

At the edge of the Forbidden Forest, Dracula bid farewell to Firenze and Hagrid, opened an umbrella, and strolled through the Hogwarts campus under the gentle spring sunlight.

It was Wednesday, and he had a class in the afternoon. It was the Defense Against the Dark Arts class for first-year Gryffindor and Hufflepuff students.

When Dracula arrived at the classroom, the first-year students were already seated, sitting upright and attentively watching their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

Dracula nodded in satisfaction, picking up the lesson plan and textbooks meticulously prepared by Quirrell.

He rarely followed the lesson plan precisely, flipping to the section scheduled for that class.

At this moment, Harry raised his hand from the audience.

"Mr. Potter?" Dracula looked at him with some confusion.

"Professor, Hagrid told us at noon today that some animals with drained blood were found in the Forbidden Forest and advised us to stay away from it," Harry said. "Hermione said that only vampires could cause such deaths. We want to know if there really are vampires in the Forbidden Forest?"

Hearing Harry\'s question, Dracula\'s mouth twitched.

He hadn\'t expected that Hagrid, who was supposed to be tight-lipped, would tell Harry and the other two students about the situation in the Forbidden Forest within half a day.

Of course, Hagrid\'s intention was likely good. He didn\'t want these three somewhat unruly students to approach the dangerous Forbidden Forest, so he revealed a bit of information hoping they would be scared.

...but he didn\'t consider that such a degree of danger might not stop the adventurous Gryffindor students\' curiosity and might even provoke it further.

Moreover, the innocent vampire was once again dragged into the situation, and the Count was very displeased!

So, he signaled Harry to sit down, disrupted the teaching plan, discarded Quirrell\'s lesson plan, and turned the textbook "Defensive Magic: A Guide" to nearly the end of the chapter.

"Since Mr. Potter mentioned vampires, let\'s discuss some knowledge about vampires today," he said to the students. "Turn your textbooks to the second-to-last chapter!"

The first-year students, accustomed to Dracula\'s unconventional teaching methods, quickly flipped through the pages.

The classroom was filled with the sound of pages rustling.

"Before we start the lesson, can anyone who has reviewed this chapter tell me how the magical world defines vampires?"

Since Dracula had never read the textbook for this lesson, he quickly came up with a good idea to get a quick understanding of the content.

He directed his gaze towards the messy-haired girl in the front row.

As expected, Hermione, having thoroughly reviewed this chapter, quickly raised her hand.

"Vampires are dark creatures that feed on the blood of living beings. They fear sunlight and cannot go out during the day, so they often wander and hunt at night. They are extremely evil and pierce their victims\' throats with sharp fangs..."

Dracula was initially interested in hearing the wizard\'s perspective on vampires, but as he listened, he started to feel increasingly uncomfortable, his expression growing darker.

He quickly skimmed through the textbook, reading the sentences—

"Vampires are dark magical humanoid beings known for biting humans\' necks and drinking their blood. They, along with zombies, belong to the category of undead creatures, with high infectiousness and danger..."

Dracula exhaled and suppressed his irritation.

"The definition is quite good, Gryffindor gets a point," he interrupted Hermione\'s enthusiastic recitation and said dismissively.

Hermione, who had been reciting passionately, was somewhat dissatisfied with the interruption and felt that the point awarded was stingy. She felt like a dismissed beggar.

However, Dracula\'s longstanding authority made her reluctant to argue, so she pouted and sat back down.

"Alright, everyone close your textbooks," Dracula said after a moment of silence.

Hearing this command, the students who had just opened their books looked up in surprise.