After parting ways with the mischievous Weasley twins in the Great Hall, Adrian made his way through the corridors, left the castle and headed directly toward the Forbidden Forest.
He had promised Bart that if he had time today, he would visit again.
The path to the Forbidden Forest went through the castle grounds, past the vegetable patches where Professor Sprout's pumpkins grew to enormous sizes, and beyond the Quidditch pitch where the goal posts stood.
As he approached the forest's edge, where the grounds of Hogwarts gave way to the wild, untamed wilderness out there, Adrian noticed something that made him pause.
Several dark shadows were drifting out from between the towering trees. The Dementors emerged from the forest like living nightmares, their tattered black robes billowing around them as they glided just above the ground.
Their presence brought with it an immediate drop in temperature, and Adrian could see his breath forming small clouds in the suddenly chilly air.
However, those soul-sucking creatures showed no intention of approaching him directly. They seemed to be patrolling the forest's perimeter. Adrian was perfectly content to avoid any direct confrontation with them—after all, who would willingly seek trouble when it could be avoided?
Shortly after entering the deeper part of the Forbidden Forest, a familiar figure appeared in Adrian's field of vision. The sound of hoofbeats on the soft earth announced the arrival of a centaur, and Adrian immediately recognized the brown-red coat and mane.
"Good morning, Ronan," Adrian called out from a distance.
Ronan immediately broke into a gallop, his legs carrying him swiftly across the uneven terrain. When he came to a stop in front of Adrian, his flanks were heaving slightly from the exertion, and white vapor puffed from his nostrils in the cool morning air.
"Hello, Adrian," Ronan's voice carried less of its usual melancholy than Adrian had come to expect. However, Adrian immediately noticed that the centaur's eyes seemed to hold a trace of deep weariness, as if he had spent the night without rest.
"What happened?" Adrian asked directly, his tone gentle but concerned.
His mane suddenly bristled as he said furiously, "Those evil beings invaded our territory! They attacked our village and even injured several of our children! The young ones were just playing near the stream when those... those abominations descended upon them!"
Adrian was genuinely startled by the intensity of Ronan's anger. The centaurs were known for their philosophical approach to life, often speaking in cryptic phrases about the movements of the stars and the patterns of fate.
To see one centaur in such a state of fury was surprising.
It seemed Ronan was truly enraged, not even maintaining his usual melancholy, measured tone speaking of stars knowledge.
And the "evil beings" he mentioned were most certainly the Dementors. The Dementors had indeed gravely affected the centaurs' lives.
Perhaps realizing that it was inappropriate to discuss such close tribal matters in front of an outsider, no matter how well-intentioned, Ronan's anger gradually began to subside. His breathing slowed, and the wild look in his eyes dimmed to something more controlled, though the fury remained like glowing embers ready to burst into flame again.
"Can you tell me what those things are?" He said after taking a deep breath. "You must know something about them, professor from Hogwarts. Your kind has dealings with such creatures, do they not?"
"They are called Dementors," Adrian explained. "The Ministry of Magic is using them to hunt a criminal named Sirius Black. Hagrid should have mentioned yesterday that this criminal has taken refuge somewhere in the Forbidden Forest."
Upon hearing this explanation, Ronan nodded slowly, but his expression remained grim. His jaw was set in a hard line, and when he spoke again, his voice had the tone of a solemn vow. "The Ministry of Magic... I'll remember that name. They will answer for bringing such darkness into our home."
Adrian simply shrugged. Perhaps the Ministry of Magic was about to gain another enemy, and the centaurs were not opponents to be taken lightly.
However, the relationship between centaurs and the Ministry had never been particularly cordial to begin with. Adrian had heard tales of a department called the Centaur Liaison Office within the Ministry of Magic, apparently created to maintain diplomatic relations with the centaur herds.
This office was subordinate to the Being Division of the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, though its effectiveness was questionable at best.
The department had never been utilized by the centaurs themselves, who viewed any attempt at government oversight as an insult to their sovereignty. There was even a running joke among Ministry employees that being assigned to the Centaur Liaison Office was tantamount to being told you were about to be fired—a career dead end for bureaucrats who had fallen out of favor.
After parting with the still-angry Ronan, who galloped away with his tail swishing in agitation, Adrian continued deeper into the forest.
Soon, he arrived at the familiar clearing where Bart was. The ancient tree stood in the center of the small glade. Strangely, even when Adrian stood directly in front of him, close enough to touch the bark, the talking tree showed no signs of movement or awareness.
"Bart?" Adrian called softly.
He reached out and gently knocked on the trunk with his knuckles.
The face on the trunk slowly began to emerge. But something was clearly wrong—Bart's brow was deeply furrowed with worry, his eyes were downcast and filled with shadows, and the corners of his mouth drooped in an expression of sadness. His entire face was shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere.
"Bart?" Adrian sensed immediately that something was amiss and softened his voice to the gentlest possible tone. "What's the matter?"
Bart's eyes opened slightly, revealing depths of his fear. When he spoke, his voice trembled. "Master... last night... was so terrifying..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Bart's composure completely crumbled. He began to sob—though he had no tears to shed.
Seeing this, Adrian's frown deepened with concern. "The Dementors?"
"They wandered around me all night long..." Bart said fearfully. "I felt so scared... so cold... so alone... but no one could help me....."
"Oh, don't be afraid," Adrian said gently, reaching out to pat the massive trunk with both hands. "I'm here now. You're not alone."
This simple action seemed to provide some comfort. Bart trembled slightly, but the bark's texture seemed to relax somewhat under Adrian's touch.
Adrian suddenly had a strange realization—he felt like he was comforting a very old child.
Though Bart's appearance and voice seemed aged, his emotional responses were clearly still quite immature.
"Master..." Bart said quietly, his voice steadier than but still with tones of fear. "Will they... will they come back tonight?"
Without hesitation, Adrian said decisively, "No, they won't."
As he spoke these words, Adrian felt a sudden moment of clarity. Perhaps this was the reason for his inexplicable insomnia the previous night. Bart's fear and distress had somehow affected him across the distance, making him feel restless and uneasy without understanding why.
However, while he had expected the centaurs to be affected by the Dementors' presence, for Bart—a tree to also be vulnerable to their influence was something he hadn't anticipated. It seemed that any creature with consciousness and emotion could be affected by those soul-sucking things.
It seemed it was time to teach those Dementors a lesson.
He wouldn't allow those Dementors to frighten Bart again.
"Ah, speaking of which, Bart," Adrian said, deliberately changing the subject to something more pleasant, "are you really unwilling to consider moving somewhere else to live?"
"I can't, Master," Bart said dejectedly. "I must stay here. I tried to leave before, but... that didn't work out well."
"Very well," Adrian replied, accepting the tree's decision without argument.
"Wait!" Adrian suddenly paused, his mind catching up to what Bart had just said. He looked at the tree in surprise. "You've been to other places before? You've actually left this clearing?"
"Yes," Bart replied matter-of-factly, as if this was the most natural thing in the world.
"How did you manage that?" Adrian raised an eyebrow, his curiosity thoroughly piqued. "I mean, how did you physically get to other places?"
"I walked there," Bart said, stating what he clearly considered to be obvious.
"Uh..." Adrian looked puzzled, glancing down at the massive root system that disappeared into the earth around the tree's base. "You can walk?"
"Oh, yes," Bart answered with the tone of someone explaining something perfectly self-evident to a slow student.
Adrian suddenly felt somewhat absurd, as if he had stumbled into a fairy tale where the impossible was commonplace. This was too strange, even by magical standards!
Perhaps to prove his words true, or perhaps because he was proud of his ability, Bart began to demonstrate. "Would you like to see?"
"I... yes, actually, I would," Adrian admitted, stepping back a few paces to give the tree more room.
Instantly, the ground began to tremble and crack ominously. Deep rumbling sounds emerged from beneath the earth as Bart's massive root system began to move.
Adrian's eyes widened in amazement as he watched those thick, tangled roots emerge from the soil like enormous tentacles, as they writhed and twisted.
The roots, which had been spread throughout the clearing in a complex underground network, began to gather and consolidate. They twisted around each other, forming increasingly thick bundles that gradually took on a recognizable shape.
Finally, after several minutes of this extraordinary process, the roots had actually formed two thick, woody lower limbs that resembled legs.
"This is... remarkable," Adrian said, unconsciously stepping back a little more as he took in the sight of the transformed tree.
Bart clumsily took his first step, his entire massive body swaying as he adjusted to this new method of movement. His branches swayed like arms to maintain balance, and the face on his trunk scrunched up with intense concentration and effort.
Every movement seemed to require enormous amounts of energy and focus.
"See?" He said with pride, though his voice was strained from the exertion. "I can walk, but it's very tiring."
Just as he spoke these words, disaster struck.
His left foot—if it could be called that—caught on a protruding root that he hadn't noticed. The entire tree began to topple forward like a felled giant heading straight for the ground with alarming speed.
Adrian quickly waved his wand, and cast a powerful Levitation Charm, the spell catching Bart's massive form and suspending him in mid-air just before he would have crashed to the forest floor.
"Oh, thank you, Master," Bart said awkwardly, his suspended root-legs futilely stepping at the empty air as he tried to regain his footing. "I'm not quite used to walking yet. It's been a while since I last tried."
Adrian helplessly shook his head and waved his wand again, carefully guiding Bart back to his original position and "planting" him firmly in place. The roots immediately began to burrow back into the familiar soil, seeking their established positions with relief.
Bart no longer attempted to continue his walking demonstration. His two improvised legs gradually transformed back into the complex root system, the thick bundles separating and spreading out to resume their traditional function of anchoring him to the earth and drawing nutrients from the soil.
Perhaps having expended far too much energy in his demonstration, Bart soon yawned in a very human-like manner, his wooden face stretching in an expression of exhaustion. "I'm very tired now, Master," He said drowsily.
"Rest well, then," Adrian said softly.
As soon as he finished speaking, Bart's eyes immediately closed, and his entire face began to slowly disappear as the bark returned to its natural state. Within moments, he had fallen into the deep sleep to restore his energy.
It seemed that for Bart to walk required enormous amounts of magical energy.
This big fellow was truly one of the most interesting creatures Adrian had ever encountered. He slowly extended his hand toward the sleeping tree, channeling some of his own magical energy into Bart's sleeping form.
After completing this, Adrian turned and began to make his way back through the forest.
About half an hour after Adrian had left, when the clearing had returned to its natural quiet and Bart slept peacefully in his rooted position, not far from Bart's location, a black dog slowly approached with a rabbit hanging from its mouth.
The blood on the rabbit's neck hadn't yet dried, clearly having been killed just recently.
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