Harry Potter and the Obscurus

Chapter 73 Pocket Forbidden Forest

Since their trip to North America, Harry and Moran have felt a strange sense of guilt whenever they think of the unborn little Thunderbird.

Logically speaking, although magical creatures possess intelligence surpassing that of ordinary animals, they are still considered inferior beings in the eyes of ordinary wizards. However, coincidentally, both Harry, the savior, and Mo Ran, the transmigrator, have experienced the painful loss of their parents and living under the roof of others.

"Salvia Hexia." (Peaceful Garrison)

"Confundo." (To mislead or confuse)

"Protego Horribillis." (Super armor protects you)

After building the nest for the Thunderbird eggs, Harry cast one protective charm after another, using all the ones he knew well. Before long, the area they had chosen as the hatching ground became a veritable forbidden zone.

"Can you think of any other spells that can be used to protect the Thunderbird eggs?"

"Based on my knowledge of magic, I have nothing left. But I think we can try covering the Thunderbird egg with the Invisibility Cloak. Although the baby Thunderbird hasn't hatched yet, it is still a living creature."

Mo Ran's reminder was like a beacon in the darkness, illuminating Harry's thoughts. Sure enough, when he draped the Invisibility Cloak over the Thunderbird egg, the silver-white egg with its golden lightning bolt pattern truly vanished!

"You're a genius!"

Harry shouted:

"That way, even if Professor Dumbledore discovers the bird eggs and the Invisibility Cloak, he will understand what's going on!"

Despite Harry's praise, Mo Ran didn't seem particularly pleased. At that moment, both of them felt the same way – the main responsibility for stealing the bird's eggs lay with me, and I had to take good care of the little Thunderbird.

Hopefully, things will turn out as we wish...

Mo Ran replied:

"But even with the help of Dumbledore and Professor Scamander, no preparations can be omitted."

Upon hearing this, Harry patted the small bag at his waist. Of course, he hadn't forgotten the plan the two of them had devised after stealing the Thunderbird Egg.

"Everything that needs to be prepared is ready: sand, lake water, trees, soil... The next thing to do is to renovate the inner space of the Unseen Stretch Spell into the same setting as the Forbidden Forest... Hmm."

"You seem to have something to say to me?"

The slight hesitation in Harry's voice did not escape Mo Ran's ears. After the other party pointed out the problem, he did not intend to hide anything any longer and asked directly:

"I'm a little curious. Professor Scamander never taught us how to build a portable magical creature nursery, but you seem to have seen it before. Where did you learn this from?"

Mo Ran would never utter the line, "I've seen the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them." However, he had actually prepared quite a few reasonable answers in advance for similar inquiries.

"The two Obscurials Professor Scamander gave us, besides being the power to defeat Voldemort, also contained some hazy memories. I saw them in the Obscurial that belonged to the Sultan girl; she had been in Professor Scamander's briefcase before being sent to Hogwarts. The Obscurial nursery at that time was a snowy, icy wasteland, with other magical creatures kept nearby, so..."

"I see..."

Harry sounded somewhat dejected, and after a moment, he reorganized his thoughts and said:

"My main hope is to be able to help you as much as possible. Whether it was in the past or this time when we stole the Thunderbird, almost every time we did something risky, it was to help me solve my problems."

"Huh? How could that be?"

Mo Ran said, quite surprised:

"The reason we went to steal eggs this time is because you wanted to get me a Thunderbird as a pet back in April, right?"

"But the reason we had to find the Thunderbird was actually to save Hermione. I'm the one who caused all this trouble, yet I'm the one who keeps giving you headaches after we went back in time."

Harry's words were sincere, but to be honest, Mo Ran didn't think their desire to go back in time stemmed from any trouble Harry had caused to save Hermione. He calmly stated:

"The things between you and me can't be so clearly separated... You might not believe it, but to some extent, I'm not even sure if my presence is a good thing for you. But the past is the past. Even if we had a time-changer, a magical artifact, we couldn't change what was destined to happen. All we can do is shape the future with our actions in the present."

Harry pursed his lips, then laughed out loud.

"Ha, you're starting to look more and more like Professor Dumbledore."

Do I have one?

"There must be."

As he spoke, he waved his wand, placing the elements—sand, lake water, trees, and soil—in place one by one, saying:

"Besides your love for riddles, you're starting to talk more and more like an old person. We used to be able to talk about anything, but after using the time converter, you started using all sorts of cryptic and ambiguous language to dodge my questions."

Mo Ran smiled, not refuting Harry's words. He separated the Obscurial's black mist from his body and, together with the other, began to replicate the cultivation environment in his pocket as closely as possible to resemble the Forbidden Forest.

Time, choices, fate...

These words, which sound mysterious even in a world without magic, are difficult to explain in words. But perhaps because of his status as a transmigrator, Mo Ran encountered almost no obstacles in comprehending these concepts.

What Harry just said was actually a hint that Mo Ran should explain the plan to him in more detail, so that he could be prepared for any changes in the future. However, it was precisely because he had this idea that Mo Ran couldn't tell him everything clearly.

Just as the two of them brought Professor Snape back in time, they were not tasked with making various choices to fill in the gaps in history. On the contrary, it was precisely because they were destined to appear in history that whatever they did was right.

Because Snape "didn't remember" mixing the new shampoo formula, his own students mistook him for a criminal involved in stealing the Thunderbird eggs. Although at that point, Mo Ran could have chosen to impersonate Snape using Polyjuice Potion to complete the transaction, since he chose Snape, the latter naturally became the Thunderbird Thief.

Later, Snape's display of espionage skills aroused Harry's suspicion. The two used their memories to clear up the misunderstanding, and a series of seemingly unrelated events followed, such as Snape using the Death Eater mark to scare away the invading DB Cooper. Initially, Mo Ran didn't think these off-screen comments would affect the direction of the important plot, but after talking with Grindelwald, he found a path to his ideal future from these complicated and seemingly incoherent threads.

Those who can foresee the future cannot be trapped in their destiny.

If Mo Ran wants to travel in both directions with that "correct timeline," he must make Harry act as unrestrained as possible. Only in this way will disruptors like D.B. Cooper appear one by one, unintentionally guided by Harry.

......

The environment inside the Unseen Stretching Charm had become indistinguishable from the Forbidden Forest. Looking at the place where Hermione was once "buried" and is now used as a nest for hatching Thunderbird eggs, Harry couldn't help but have some guesses.

he asked:

Do you think Little Thunderbird will ever have a chance to use the Forbidden Forest space in this pocket?

Mo Ran smiled and replied:

"Who knows? Maybe someone will need it."

......

After the two finished dealing with everything and left the Forbidden Forest, Harry swallowed back all the questions he had been hesitating to ask.

Compared to Mo Ran, who seemed to have victory in his grasp, Harry's mood was far from carefree. In fact, if he hadn't seen Dumbledore and Scamander furtively studying something in the Forbidden Forest, Harry wouldn't have even wanted to leave the Thunderbird egg there.

"Isn't hiding the Thunderbird egg in your pocket and carrying it with you the safest option? And if it weren't for that, why would we go through all the trouble of creating this Pocket Forbidden Forest? What did you mean by 'maybe someone will be able to use it'?"

Without Mo Ran's help, Harry's mind was almost completely overwhelmed by a barrage of questions. But unlike when Mo Ran usually fell asleep, Harry seemed to realize that he couldn't always rely on Mo Ran to guide him. In his view, if someone he once trusted most and confided in suddenly chose to remain silent, there must be a reason.

"Could it be that he's testing me...?"

A sudden, almost inexplicable, yet subtle and imperceptible sadness and sense of crisis made Harry, after living with Mo Ran for twelve years, think for the first time that perhaps one day he would have to learn to face life and all sorts of problems and challenges alone.

Like a tiny seed quietly taking root in his heart, through this experience of traveling through time, thirteen-year-old Harry finally experienced the loneliness of growing up, just like any other teenager.

Since childhood, Harry's life seemed to be filled with all sorts of tasks and missions. Long before Hagrid found their home, the Dursleys had been constantly instructing him: "You should do this," "You must do that," "Magic doesn't exist," "Don't think about those tricks, they'll ruin you"... Harry didn't resist this feeling of being taught—although he longed for freedom deep down, he always held those who could guide him in high regard.

This ingrained personality trait wasn't something Murphy cultivated later. In fact, even Harry, who had viewed Snape with prejudice for years in the original story, immediately understood his responsibility to destroy the seventh Horcrux after witnessing the memories Snape passed on to him.

Sending a seventeen-year-old to his death was undoubtedly cruel. But no matter how terrible the road ahead, Harry, after lifting his head from the Pensieve, never again harbored the slightest doubt about Snape. He didn't rack his brains to come up with any other way to defeat Voldemort in exchange for his own survival; the thought of using Animagus transformation tricks to escape Voldemort, like Peter Pettigrew did, never even crossed his mind.

Remaining calm and decisive in the face of major issues, and achieving goals in the shortest time and with the most efficient means—this is the core spirit hidden beneath Harry's mischievous, trouble-making, and savvy act of stealing the Golden Snitch. This is also why Mo Ran never doubted Dumbledore's statement—that deep down he was more like Lily.

Unlike his previous words used to persuade Snape to protect Lily's son, Dumbledore reached this conclusion only after interacting with Harry. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for Mo Ran's transmigration and intrusion into Harry's life to cause such a smooth and significant change in the protagonist's personality.

Harry has now embarked on a completely different life. His intelligence and composure are now dominant, and aside from his continued love of Quidditch, he bears almost no resemblance to his character in the original stories. However, even someone who maintains such high levels of discipline for so long will inevitably feel uneasy when suddenly losing clear goals and guidance.

Without Mo Ran's complete revelation, without any clues, the enemy he faced was no longer Voldemort, and the unknown threat wasn't even a malicious Death Eater or dark wizard. An adventure seemingly guided by Harry himself, yet requiring him to personally return to the past to fill in history, all seemed to point to a completely unknown path for the future.

The thought that “maybe one day in the future I will have to face everything completely unknown by myself, just like I do now” began to spread in Harry’s mind.

Will he feel disappointed or uneasy because of this?

No, Harry isn't afraid of the unknown. While representing uncertainty, the unknown also symbolizes novelty.

What truly made Harry feel a sense of crisis and realize that the responsibility on his shoulders had become heavier was the thought that the person who had always been with him and taught him might leave him one day in the future.

......

Knockout Alley, inside the Boginborough Magic Shop.

Having just heard the story of the Thunderbird Thief from DB Cooper, who was disguised as an old man with white hair, Borgin-Bock fiddled with his Galleon while staring with a worried expression at the top-tier collectibles that had been sitting in his display case for years without being sold.

After a long pause, he slowly spoke:

"Your intelligence... well, it's not that valuable. Look, firstly, you didn't see the Thunderbird Egg in those two's hands with your own eyes; secondly, you said you saw one of them with the Dark Lord's mark on his arm. Let's not even discuss whether you, a country bumpkin from America, might have mistaken it for something else. Just assuming the Thunderbird Egg really fell into the hands of the Death Eaters, do you think anyone in the world would dare to steal what belongs to the Dark Lord?"

Borgin-Bock spoke with perfect ease, as if he were genuinely trying to prove he had no connection to the Death Eaters. Unfortunately for him, even a seasoned veteran like him was fooled by DB Cooper, who possessed the ability to disguise himself as Magus.

The white-bearded old man said anxiously:

"Me! Me! How could I dare to cause trouble for the Dark Lord? I just want to join, to join that lord's ranks."

"Oh?"

Bokin-Bock's eyes lit up, and he said:

"Didn't you turn down the invitation from those two Death Eaters before? Why have you changed your mind now? Don't tell me you've lived long enough and want to use this opportunity to steal Thunderbird eggs?"

Upon hearing this, DB Cooper immediately wore an incredulous expression, nervously shaking his arm as he said:

"Hey! You can't just say things like that! I only refused because I thought those two guys were suspicious and suspected that someone was using the Black Demon King's name to swindle people."

Borgin Burke didn't really care who had the Thunderbird Egg; he only cared about money. After hearing the white-bearded old man's words, he was basically certain that this guy had no intention of "defecting" to Voldemort's side. So, he pretended to be troubled and said:

"Sir, it seems you've misunderstood something. Although my Borgin Burke's magic shop is located in Knockturn Alley, I conduct all legitimate business. The person you're looking for is either already in prison or dead. Even if I had the greatest abilities, I couldn't possibly bring the person you're looking for out of Azkaban! Besides, haven't you heard in America these past two years that a savior named Harry Potter is rising up? Take my advice, don't make trouble for yourself, go home."

"Harry Potter? The boy who survived?"

"Yes, he'll be starting third grade at the end of this summer vacation. If you ask me, his future is truly limitless. Most of the Hogwarts teachers, including Dumbledore, consider him the most talented student in recent decades."

After hearing the shop owner pronounce his target's name, DB Cooper maintained the same expression as before. He pondered for a moment, then said:

"Is this kid really as powerful as you say? Could he be a young master from some pure-blooded noble family?"

Bokin-Bock didn't answer. He stretched out his fingers and rubbed them together in the air. After about half a minute, he grinned and took a small cloth bag containing Galleons from the white-bearded old man's hand.

"Don't be so stingy with money. This is something you earn, not something you save! Besides, Harry Potter isn't just an ordinary Hogwarts student."

The slightly obsequious voice did not make the white-bearded old man feel comfortable. He simply pointed to a display case not far away and said:

"Stop talking nonsense. I'm not buying the personal information of teenagers. Hand over the 'Hand of Glory' right now, and don't even think about raising the price!"

Bokin-Bock was stunned. He had thought he had the upper hand in the negotiations, but now he realized that he had been outmaneuvered by a seasoned veteran!