Chen Yu finally understood why Harry liked to find Hagrid when he had ample time.
The reason was simple: Hogwarts Castle was vast, incredibly vast.
Hagrid's hut was located at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Without a flying broom to ride or Apparition to instantly teleport, walking from Hogwarts Castle to the edge of the Forbidden Forest made Chen Yu realize the meaning of "seeing a mountain and running a horse to death."
He set off for the Forbidden Forest after breakfast, walked out of the castle, crossed a large field, and by the time he reached the edge of the Forbidden Forest, nearly two hours had passed!
Seeing Hagrid's hut, Chen Yu did not knock or go in to say hello. Instead, he took out the Serpent Spell, turned invisible, and slowly entered the Forbidden Forest.
The reason he risked being discovered by Hagrid and chose to enter the Forbidden Forest from a spot relatively close to Hagrid's hut was also simple.
There was a path leading deep into the Forbidden Forest here.
Although this path, paved with gravel, looked uneven, rugged, and overgrown with weeds, it was still much easier to walk than completely undeveloped areas.
The air in the Forbidden Forest was humid, filled with the smell of decaying leaves.
Chen Yu held the Serpent Spell in his left hand and his wand in his right, used a Cleaning Charm to clear the scent from his body, and then cautiously stepped on the decaying leaves, moving forward slowly.
It was already past ten in the morning, and the Forbidden Forest still felt somewhat eerie.
Many tall trees grew here, easily blocking the sun's rays.
Under the shade of the trees on both sides of the path, weeds as tall as an adult grew.
Sometimes, various insects could still be seen crawling freely on the gravel path.
Suddenly, over a dozen unknown birds darted out from the woods on both sides, flapping their wings and soaring into the sky.
Chen Yu tightened his robe; this somewhat gave him a sense of psychological security.
In the real world, Chen Yu never had time to wander through forests. The largest patch of woods he had visited as a child was the small grove planted in his hometown.
At that time, the woods in his hometown had not yet been cut down and neatly replaced with crops.
The elders in his hometown, worried about children encountering danger in the woods, would say there were snakes in the small grove to scare them.
Of course, the elders weren't exactly lying; Chen Yu had indeed seen snakes in the small grove when he was little.
It was a harmless rat snake.
Yet it still frightened Chen Yu considerably, even leaving him with some psychological trauma.
Slowly, Chen Yu grew up, and that grove was also cut down, replaced by neatly planted crops.
Later, he went to university, and then successfully landed a job. Occasionally, he would return to his hometown to help with the autumn harvest. Looking out at the golden fields was festive, but he felt something was missing in his heart.
Now, strolling through the Forbidden Forest, Chen Yu once again experienced a faint fear of entering the jungle.
Hogwarts' Forbidden Forest was far more thrilling than the small grove in his hometown.
Not only were there venomous snakes, but also three-headed Runespoor snakes.
This type of snake has a venomous fang on its rightmost head. Unlike the three-headed dog Fluffy, Runespoors rarely live long because their three heads have different thoughts and sometimes attack each other.
Wizards often saw the rightmost head of a Runespoor hiss, annoying the other heads, which would then gang up and bite it off.
Runespoors are classified as Xxxx.
They are recognized by the Ministry of Magic as dangerous creatures requiring specialized knowledge and skilled Wizards to handle.
Furthermore, the Forbidden Forest is home to Xxxxx-class magical creatures.
Five X's denote known Wizard-killers, impossible to train or domesticate, and extremely dangerous creatures.
For example, the Acromantula, which Hagrid considers a cute little pet.
This is a cruel, human-flesh-eating giant spider with eight black eyes and a thick covering of black hair all over its body. Its legs can span up to fifteen feet when extended to its sides.
Acromantula venom is very valuable; a pint (approximately 500 ml) can fetch 100 Galleons in Diagon Alley.
In addition, Chen Yu learned from older Little Wizards that the Forbidden Forest is home to dangerous magical creatures such as werewolves, Trolls, giants, and Graphorns.
Even adult Wizards would find encountering these magical creatures very troublesome, let alone nascent Little Wizards.
No wonder Dumbledore forbade students from entering the Forbidden Forest; it was simply too dangerous for Little Wizards.
Chen Yu moved forward while invisible, observing the trees around him.
He saw a creature that looked like a monkey and a frog, hunting in the trees.
Its skin was mottled green, with short horns on its head, and a large mouth that always seemed to be grinning, revealing razor-sharp teeth.
It was chasing a crow and was about to catch it when the pustules on its head suddenly flashed red, scaring it into a hasty retreat.
Chen Yu had seen this creature in the textbook "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them." It is a magical creature called a Tree-Monkey-Frog, classified as Xx, and feeds on small lizards and birds.
Just as the Tree-Monkey-Frog frantically jumped to another tree, a winged snake suddenly darted out from a nearby tree and swiftly coiled around the Tree-Monkey-Frog's body.
The Tree-Monkey-Frog, naturally, would not surrender without a fight and began biting the snake's vulnerable spot.
This snake is called an Occamy, with fine feathers and wings on its body. Its feathers are hard, almost comparable to scales.
Occamies have feet, but they are usually hidden among their feathers and rarely exposed.
Occamies generally feed on insects, mice, and birds, but sometimes they also catch monkeys.
They are very aggressive towards humans who approach them, especially when protecting their eggs.
Chen Yu saw that the Tree-Monkey-Frog's resistance was negligible; it resisted for a moment before the Occamy opened its mouth wide and swallowed it whole.
The Occamy's body is highly extensible; it can stretch and shrink more freely than ordinary snakes. Some Occamies are large enough to fill a room, while others can shrink their bodies into a cabinet. It is a Xxxx-class creature.
Just as the Occamy was about to return to the tree to digest its meal, an eagle's cry echoed from the sky.
A huge shadow descended from above. It first swiftly grabbed the Occamy's body with its eagle talons, then pecked the Occamy's head with its beak to stun it, and carried its twitching body away.
The entire process was smooth and seamless.
From the Tree-Monkey-Frog catching the crow, to the Occamy hunting the Tree-Monkey-Frog, and then the Griffin hunting the Occamy, the entire process took less than a minute and a half.
Chen Yu was dumbfounded, witnessing a magical creature version of "the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind."
Griffin, like the Occamy, is a Xxxx-class creature, feeds on raw meat, and has a fierce temperament.
Its front half resembles a giant eagle, with an eagle's head, forelegs, and wings, while its back half resembles a lion, with a lion's body, hind legs, and tail.
Griffins are enormous. When standing on all four feet, excluding tail length, an adult Griffin measures 10 feet (about 2-3 meters) in length, with males weighing around 1100 pounds (about half a ton) and having a wingspan of 7-8 meters.
It can fly in any weather and has an instinct for sensing weather changes.
It has a long lifespan; records show that a Griffin can live for at least 150 years or more.
Griffins appeared very early, first in ancient Akkadian (Babylonian-Assyrian) mythology. In the legend of Marduk slaying demons and thus becoming a god, the Griffin was the third giant beast he killed.
Later, the image of the Griffin appeared in Greek mythology, pulling the chariots of Zeus, the sun god Apollo, and the goddess of vengeance Nemesis.
Because lions and eagles were considered the kings of beasts and birds respectively, they were also seen as symbols of divinity by ancient Muggles.
In the book "Rare Bird or Vicious Beast? A Study of Winged Hippogriffs," the author speculates that there might be three possible origins for the Griffin.
One theory is that some Wizards guess the origin of the Griffin might be similar to Sphinxes, Minotaurs, and Medusas, belonging to unlucky individuals who failed in Transfiguration on themselves.
It is speculated that in ancient times, a certain Wizard became conflicted when using a Transfiguration Charm to transform himself into either a lion, the king of beasts, or an eagle, the king of birds. Or perhaps when using the Transfiguration Charm, he wanted both the flying ability of an eagle and the strength of a lion. As a result of his greed, his front half became an eagle and his back half became a lion.
Ultimately, the Wizard lost his intelligence and became a pathetic beast with magical blood.
Another theory states that Griffins are the result of a magical experiment in ancient civilization, a product bred by Wizards, and like the Basilisk, they are magical creatures cultivated by ancient Wizards.
The third theory is that Griffins, like Unicorns, dragons, and Centaurs, are pure, natural, and ecologically original magical creatures, beings created by nature's extraordinary magic, and have no connection to mysterious Wizard experiments.