After leaving the hospital wing, Kael didn't immediately send the letter out. Instead, he waited until noon when he took the letter and the freshly delivered photo to the owlery.
Ladon was too recognizable, and Kael wasn't sure if Lucius would drive it away to avoid getting involved with him, so it seemed more appropriate to choose another owl.
Kael looked around the owlery and quickly picked out a tawny barn owl, fastening the envelope to its leg.
"I'll leave it to you then."
The owl nodded, flapped its wings, and flew away.
Kael was just about to return to the castle, but as he turned around, he saw a pair of intense eyes staring right at him.
"Ah, Ladon... you're here, I really couldn't find you earlier..." Kael said dryly, "Actually, um... this isn't such a good task... there's no need for you to go personally..."
As soon as Kael started speaking, the feathers on Ladon's neck stood up, making it look like a large-size Quaffle.
It didn't listen to Kael's explanation one bit, angrily clicked its beak, making a dull clattering sound, and spread its wings to fly away.
"I should've come when it wasn't here," Kael rubbed his forehead.
Just as he was about to chase after, he suddenly heard a furious roar.
"Get away... you beast, get away!"
Kael quickly sped up his pace.
Outside the owlery, Filch was wielding a hooked wooden stick vigorously.
Above his head were two owls, one of them was the recently departed Ladon, flying furiously in the air while dodging Filch's stick and using its broad wings to smack his head repeatedly.
Ladon's strength was no match for an ordinary owl, each hit caused Filch to stagger back.
Apart from Ladon, there was also a white snowy owl nearby.
"Hedwig?" Kael shouted.
The white owl immediately flew over and landed on Kael's shoulder.
It was then that Kael noticed its feathers were unusually ruffled, several were bent oddly, and one wing was injured, bent at a strange angle, with a letter attached to its talon.
"Ladon, hold on a minute." Kael shouted.
Whether it was tired of hitting or had heard Kael's voice, Ladon stopped pestering Filch and flew onto a nearby tree.
Filch, enraged, tossed the stick in his hand over, but the next second, the stick made a turn and landed in Kael's hand.
A white feather was caught in the hook at the top of the stick.
"Filch, are you intercepting students' letters?" Kael coldly asked.
"It's a routine inspection." Filch gruffly replied, "Return it, or else I'll..."
"Crack!"
Right in front of Filch, Kael directly threw the stick to the ground and stomped it, breaking it.
Hedwig called out excitedly.
"Inspection? I didn't know Hogwarts used such methods to inspect students' letters."
The sudden move startled Filch, causing him to retreat back two steps.
But soon, he regained his courage, stiffening his neck, "Professor Umbridge agreed to it. I'm just following orders."
"Nonsense." Kael squinted his eyes, "Intercepting letters privately is a violation of Wizard Law. Professor Umbridge, being the Senior Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Magic, wouldn't allow you to do that, so don't try to slander Professor Umbridge."
Filch's face turned pale.
He knew it was illegal, but he truly was carrying out Umbridge's orders.
By this time, Kael no longer wished to converse with him further, also giving him no chance to explain.
"I'll report this to the professor."
With that, Kael left the owlery with Hedwig, heading towards the castle.
On the way, Hedwig softly hooted twice, then flew towards Gryffindor Tower, apparently going to deliver a letter to Harry.
Kael initially planned to return to his dormitory to get a bottle of Owl Potion to give to Harry, but upon reaching the entrance of the castle, he suddenly stopped.
Not far away at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, the chimney of a long silent cabin was continuously emitting puffs of white smoke.
"Hagrid's back?"
Kael immediately changed direction, crossing the frosty grass, quickly arriving at the wooden door, knocking twice.
Inside the cabin, familiar sounds of barking could be heard.
"Shut up, Fang!"
The door opened, revealing Hagrid's head through the crack.
"Kael... how did you know I was back?" Hagrid's voice was cheerful.
"I saw the smoke..." Kael said, "It must be someone using the fireplace."
"I should have thought of that." Hagrid said with a laugh, "Come in... move aside, Fang, don't block the way..."
Hagrid widened the door crack a bit more, and as soon as Kael squeezed in, he immediately closed the door again.
The room had a strong musty smell, but Kael didn't mind it, instead, he was staring at Hagrid.
There were dark red blood clots in his hair, both eyes were swollen into slits, his chin was bleeding, and he had lost two teeth, looking as if he had been beaten up roughly... pinned down to the ground for a beating.
"It's nothing... it's nothing..." Hagrid said, covering his eyes with his hand, "Want something to drink... oh, the tea's gone moldy in this darn weather, how about some water."
"It was a giant, wasn't it?" Kael suddenly said.
Hagrid's hand froze in motion, "What?"
"I mean." Kael said assertively, "The wounds on your face were caused by a giant, right?"
"No..." Hagrid insisted stubbornly, but his voice was small.
"What was it, then?" Kael's voice was calm, "There are no magical traces on you, which means it wasn't a wizard. A regular wizard couldn't have beaten you up like this with fists."
"It was... it was a fire dragon." Hagrid's eyes dodged, "I went to Romania..."
"Sorry, excuse my ignorance..." Kael raised his eyebrows, "I have yet to know of any fire dragon that prefers melee; they usually like to use flames."
Kael looked him up and down, "But there are no traces on you where you'd been burned by flames."
"Oh, I remembered wrong, it was a Chimaera..."
"A Chimaera's most powerful weapons are its sharp teeth and claws."
"I..."
"Hagrid, are you testing my knowledge of magical creatures?"
"Bang!"
A copper pot was heavily placed on the stove.
"I know, your Care of Magical Creatures class is the best in school." Hagrid muttered helplessly, "But right now, I really wish you weren't so smart."
"So you admit it, don't you?" Kael said with a smile.
"This isn't something a child your age should be involving themselves in." Hagrid looked at him sternly with his uninjured eye, "Don't ask, Kael, this is top-secret, I won't say."
"Alright then." Kael said straightforwardly.
This surprised Hagrid a bit, the excuse he had come up with so hard seemed unnecessary now.
He remembered then that Kael was not like Harry, who had the habit of digging into everything...
"Luckily, they're two different people." Hagrid thought thankfully.
In some critical matters, he believed he could fool Harry, but he absolutely couldn't fool Kael.
If Kael were like Harry and liked to get to the bottom of things, then Dumbledore's confidential mission assigned to him would be a complete failure...
Additionally, some information he didn't want others to know would likely be exposed directly... such as the item he carefully hid in the Forbidden Forest.
"I just want to know which side the giants are on." Kael continued to ask, "This time you went for this matter, right? To approach the giants as Dumbledore's emissary."
Hagrid gradually put away his smile, his expression turning serious.
"They were originally on our side." he said, "But the giant Grawp... you know who that is, right? It refers to the leader of the giants."
Kael nodded.
"The Grawp we contacted was beheaded on the third day by another giant named Karkus with a goblin-made sword."
"A goblin sword?" Kael said, "That surely wasn't given by you, was it?"
"It was the Death Eaters who gave it." Hagrid's voice was low, "Macnair, a madman, gets on well with Karkus due to their mutual love for killing."
"So, we'll be facing all the giants next, won't we?"
"Maybe not all..." Hagrid said, "Anyway, some changes happened in between, and the giants started fighting again. Olympe and I managed to persuade six or seven giants... if they don't want to submit to Karkus's rule... they might come over to our side."
"How many giants are there in total?" Kael asked.
"Hmm... about seventy or eighty."
...