Chapter 332: A Clue
Chapter 332: A Clue
"Two giants!"
Lee Jordan exclaimed, his voice laced with fear. It was his first encounter with such creatures, and he considered it a feat that his legs weren't shaking from the sheer terror of facing the giants.
"Shh!" Albert hissed, keeping his voice low. "Our Disillusionment Charms are still active, and with the giants' eyesight and intellect, they might not even notice us."
"What should we do now?" George asked, his wand at the ready. He would have already sent a jinx toward the giants if not for his trust in Albert's judgment.
"Let's clear out of their lair," Albert suggested, already backing away from the giants' nest. He then pulled out a Screaming Inflating Skeleton from his pocket—a novelty item he had purchased from Zonko's Joke Shop—and tossed it toward the entrance of the lair, hoping to draw the giants' attention.
Albert's assessment was spot on. The Disillusionment Charms cast on the four of them were still effective, and while a beast with a keen sense of smell might have been able to track them down, the giants were not known for their olfactory prowess.
The two Forest Giants before them were reacting aggressively solely due to the Advanced Lumos Spell Albert had cast inside their lair earlier.
In the dark forest, even a faint light could easily attract unwanted attention, and the dull-witted Forest Giants were no exception.
True to Albert's prediction, the Screaming Inflating Skeleton immediately captured the giants' attention as soon as it appeared.
Perhaps the hairless giants' tiny brains couldn't comprehend where the strange object had come from. However, such confusion was fleeting, as giants rarely bothered to think things through; they usually didn't think at all.
One of the Forest Giants charged forward, brandishing a club and smashing it down on the inflatable skeleton, its immense strength causing the skeleton to burst with a pop, the impact even making the ground beneath their feet tremble slightly.
"Don't just stand there! Take them out!"
Before the giants could react, Albert conjured a wooden mallet and brought it down hard on the back of one giant's head. It swayed for a moment before collapsing face-first onto the ground with a thunderous crash, making the earth shake.
Fred, George, and Lee Jordan were not as quick to react as Albert, but at his prompt, they aimed their wands at the other giant and cast Stunning Spells together. The spells hit the giant on the back of its head, causing it to wobble as if drunk.
"Their skin seems to have some resistance to magic!" Albert noted, giving the other giant a whack with his wooden mallet for good measure. Whether or not the giants would suffer concussions from the blows was none of his concern.
"I can't believe we took down giants so easily," Fred whispered, awe-struck.
"These big guys are dumb as rocks," George commented. "Aside from their strength and that putrid stench that could probably knock someone out, they don't have much going for them. I heard from Bill that the goblins train giants to guard their vaults. I don't know how they stand the giants' body odor. Do you think the goblins make them take baths?"
"I doubt a mere bath could get rid of that stench," Lee Jordan chimed in. "They're just plain disgusting, like they were pulled out of a sewer."
"That's a gross mental image," Fred replied, making a face.
The giants before them, now unconscious, were Forest Giants, their skin a pale green. Like their relatives, they possessed incredible strength but were incredibly stupid. Of course, they also inherited the giants' violent temperaments and often brawled for no apparent reason.
Unwilling to take any chances, none of them dared to approach the unconscious Forest Giants, despite knowing they were knocked out.
"These guys must have used their clubs to smash their prey flat," Lee Jordan commented.
"Let's just be careful not to get hurt by them," Albert said, waving his wand to manipulate the surrounding vines into ropes that securely bound the two giants.
This was an extra precaution.
"By the way, did any of you bring a camera?" Lee Jordan asked, looking at Albert expectantly. The mention of a camera had the Weasley brothers looking at Albert as well, all of them eager to capture the moment of their triumph over the giants.
"Why would I bring that kind of thing? We're not here on a vacation," Albert replied irritably.
"What a shame. If you'd brought a camera, I would have loved to take a commemorative photo!" George chimed in, sharing a similar sentiment. Defeating giants in their second year was definitely something they could brag about for a long time.
"Don't slack off," Albert said, not sharing their sentiment. For him, the task, "The Fearless Challenger," was already completed, and he had originally thought it would only be achievable in the next semester. Even Albert was surprised at how quickly it had been accomplished.
"Let's take a look inside the lair to see if there's any good stuff. Who knows, we might even find some treasure!" Albert teased, feeling a sense of deja vu from fantasy games where adventurers would search for treasures in the lairs of defeated trolls, werewolves, and ogres.
Although Albert didn't expect to find anything valuable, he was still curious enough to take a look.
"Are we really going in there?" Lee Jordan hesitated, not wanting to be disgusted by whatever the lair held within. Who knew what horrors awaited them?
"If there's nothing inside, we'll head back to school!" Albert took out the treasure map, noting that the pointer was indeed directing them here.
"How about this, you go in first, and if there's nothing, we'll leave together!" Fred suggested.
"I've decided, you take the lead and go into the lair first!" Albert smiled at Fred.
"I think that's a good idea," the other two quickly agreed.
"Stop stalling and get going!" George gave Fred a light push from behind, urging him on with a smile.
"Merlin's beard, you guys can't do this to me," Fred protested, "If we're going in, we go together."
"Don't waste time."
"Of course, we're going in. Stop wasting time."
A few minutes later, a surprised exclamation came from below the lair.
"Come over here and look at what I found!"
The three boys looked at each other before eventually entering the Forest Giants' lair one after the other. To be honest, the feeling of being there was quite uncomfortable.
Fortunately, the Bubble-Head Charms were still in effect, otherwise, Albert wondered if the lair's stench would have knocked them out.
"You're not just trying to pull a fast one on us, are you?"
George looked around, unable to spot any signs of the supposed secret treasure of Gryffindor.
Aside from the giants' garbage and excrement, there wasn't anything else in the lair worth their attention.
"Come look at this, it looks like... a statue," Fred said, pointing to the ground inside the lair.
The three boys huddled together and saw what Fred was talking about—it seemed to be a broken piece of a statue.
(End of Chapter)
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