When the Mandrake Restorative Draught was poured onto the Hag's ghost, its originally bluish-grey body soon underwent a significant change.
The Hag's ghost's initially substantial body began to turn transparent, and its terrified expression slowly became more lifelike.
After the entire bottle of Mandrake Restorative Draught was poured out, the Hag's ghost was completely revived!
The hands of Draco and Harry, which had been holding its body, could no longer keep it fixed in place. Instead, they passed right through its body as if through cold air.
"Merlin's beard! The Snake King! It's the Snake King!!"
A shrill, hag-like voice rang out across the grassland. The Hag's ghost's consciousness seemed to be stuck at the moment before it was petrified, letting out a shriek the moment it awoke.
This made both Draco and Harry instinctively cover their ears to protect their eardrums from damage.
"Alright, stop, stop. There's no Snake King here. You've been rescued."
Severus spoke to the Hag's ghost, which seemed completely disoriented by its current situation.
Hearing his words, the Hag's ghost seemed to snap back to reality. It looked around in astonishment, and after failing to see the Snake King or anything else posing a danger, it finally calmed down.
"Where am I?"
It began to look around and quickly realized that this place wasn't unfamiliar to it.
"I was saved from that terrible creature's lair? Oh! This is still in the Llogara Forest!"
Soon, its gaze fell upon Severus, Lupin, and Andrews.
"Did you save me? And brought me back?"
Lupin and Andrews both took a step back, clearly not wanting to cause any misunderstanding and to indicate that the one who truly saved the Hag's ghost was Severus.
"I was the one who saved you," Severus stated, "You were petrified by the Basilisk underground, correct?"
The Hag's ghost's voice was shrill and it seemed easily excitable.
"Ah! Yes! That's it! I discovered the times it went out to hunt, or maybe it was called away by something, but it left its lair. So I seized the chance, trying to go straight through that tunnel to reach the final place where that thing was!"
"But what I didn't expect was that at the last moment, it seemed to sense something and suddenly came back!"
"Oh, heavens! You simply can't imagine how big it was! That creature is utterly unlike anything a human could breed! I had no time to react, I looked directly into its eyes, big as lanterns, and then my consciousness froze at that moment, my body was stuck!"
It began darting back and forth around Harry and Draco.
"What's the date today? I don't know how long I've been petrified down there. A month? A year? Ten years? Or a hundred?"
"It's August 27th, 1989," Harry instinctively replied, wanting to put some distance between himself and this crazed Hag's ghost, but answering its question out of habit.
"Oh! So it hasn't been a year! I remember I went down there in the winter!"
The Hag's ghost muttered to itself. It didn't seem to care much about how long it had been petrified, nor did it show any sign of gratitude towards Severus and the others.
"Alright then! Everyone!" It said loudly, "This has been a lovely gathering! But all good things must come to an end. I think we should part ways now. Everyone has their own business to attend to. Let's bid each other farewell!"
With that, it started to drift away, ready to float off.
At that moment, Severus called out to it.
"Wait, Beroe."
Upon hearing that name, the Hag's ghost turned to look at Severus with a look of utter shock.
"What did you call me!"
"Beroe," Severus repeated the name. "That is your name, correct?"
"How do you know that!" Shrieked the Hag's ghost Beroe, "I've been dead for nearly a thousand years! No one should know that name anymore!"
"Do you remember the person who saved you from a teacup?" Severus asked.
Beroe obviously couldn't forget.
"You mean that old fellow named Nicolas!" it exclaimed. "He was a truly skilled old chap. I've never seen anyone with such superb skill in alchemy! He broke the curse on the teacup and set me free!"
"Yes," Severus said, guiding the conversation, "I learned about you from Nicolas. You used to live in a mountain range in France, correct? And after being freed from the teacup, you were completely unbound. Then, in search of something, you eventually came here."
"Correct!" Beroe shook its head, its wild, weed-like hair swaying like seaweed in water, "You're right, Nicolas freed me. I sensed something related to that person, something familiar, was in this forest. That's why I stayed here, and eventually went underground, where I met that Basilisk!"
"So, may I ask, what exactly were you searching for?" Severus asked his final question.
"Of course, I was searching for..." Just as the words were halfway out, Beroe seemed to suddenly remember something. It stared wide-eyed at Severus.
"Why should I tell you about this? What does it have to do with you?"
This response clearly took everyone present by surprise. Whether it was Lupin, Andrews, Harry, or Draco, they all looked at the ghost in astonishment.
"You're really rude," Beroe complained instead, "How can you pry into such private matters!"
Harry was the first to speak up loudly.
"How can you say that! The Professor saved you!"
"Hey, hey, hey!" It waved its hand discontentedly. "Don't use that tone with me! 'The Professor saved you!' Sounds like I begged him to save me or something."
Seeing its rogue-like attitude, Lupin's hand had already unconsciously gripped his wand. Beroe keenly noticed his action.
"That wizard over there, are you thinking of using those laughable spells?" Beroe sneered disdainfully, "According to the knowledge you learned from that so-called magic school, is there any spell that actually works on ghosts!"
It waved its hand, looking completely disinterested in staying any longer.
Its words angered not only Lupin and Harry, but even the usually cocky Draco.
But just as Beroe said, normal wizards had few means to deal with spectral entities.
Even the Killing Curse had no effect on ghosts.
However, just as it was about to swagger away, a teacup appeared in Severus's hand at some point.
He didn't immediately use the teacup, just said softly,
"If I were you, I would carefully consider whether I actually have the right to say such things, Beroe."
Hearing Severus's words, Beroe was about to turn around and mock its savior some more, but the next moment, it noticed the teacup in Severus's hand.
Instantly, its face changed!
All the arrogance and mockery disappeared without a trace. The terror revealed in its eyes seemed to stem from the most primal fear deep within its heart!
"You... you... you!! He actually gave this thing to you!!!"
It let out an even shriller shriek, completely different from its previous taunts, more like a cry of furious despair.
Severus merely blinked and said,
"So, I suggest you reconsider."
Beroe's expression shifted constantly, from anger to gloom, from gloom to coldness, then from coldness to fear. Finally, it seemed to have thoroughly thought it through, unable to resist that inner dread.
"What do you want to know!"
It said with a dark face, as if Severus wasn't its savior at all.
Severus didn't care about its attitude in the slightest… he only wanted what he sought.
"What were you trying to find in this forest? Or rather, what were you trying to find in that underground place guarded by the Basilisk?"
Beroe's voice was loud, as if venting.
"What could I be looking for! I sensed magic similar to what the wizard who trapped me in the teacup used! Anyway, I'm already dead, what else do I have to fear!"
"Similar magic?" Severus caught the key phrase in its words, "What kind of magic?"
"Dark Magic, of course! Very terrible Dark Magic!" Beroe's voice became gloomy, as if trying to instill fear in Severus, "Boy! That wizard was immensely powerful! Far beyond your current imagination! This is not something you should be meddling in!"
"I suggest you stick to the main point," Severus stared at it, "You must know exactly what that magic was."
Beroe felt a chill under his gaze and shrieked again.
"It was a magic that makes one immortal! It's dark, evil, the most terrible magic created by the darkest wizards!"
Lupin's brow furrowed completely. He felt this Hag's ghost was deliberately avoiding the core of the question.
"You are being very dishonest!"
His words angered Beroe. This Hag's ghost feared the teacup in Severus's hand but wasn't afraid of Lupin at all.
"You little whelp who doesn't know how to speak! What do you take me for? A missionary preaching morality and love? When I was alive, I wasn't even human! Let alone now that I'm dead! Your moral concepts mean nothing to me!"
Lupin wanted to say more, but Severus raised a hand to stop him. Others might not understand, but Severus could hardly fail to recognize what the 'evil magic' Beroe spoke of was.
His expression turned grave.
The existence of Horcruxes was a secret known to very few wizards.
The first wizard in history explicitly known to have created a Horcrux was [Herpo the Foul] of ancient Greece.
But such tales weren't stories widely circulated among the masses… only wizards with deep research into magical history understood the significance of such a magical invention.
'If Beroe sensed the presence of a magical object similar to a Horcrux in this forest, then whose Horcrux could it be?'
'And did it have anything to do with Voldemort himself?'
In that instant, Severus's mind raced through many thoughts, but his gaze fixed on Beroe never wavered. Finally, he asked gravely,
"You think that thing was hidden in the underground area guarded by the Basilisk?"
Beroe felt unnerved under Severus's stare. It felt like this wizard knew something the others didn't.
The resentment in its heart didn't dare show itself now, and it spoke reluctantly.
"I searched this forest for a long time! I only found a clue about half a year ago! At first, I thought it was there, but just before the Snake King caught up and petrified me, I saw that the place was empty!"
"At some point in the past, that thing must have been there, but it's not there now! Either the wizard moved it to protect it, or someone else found it and took it away!"
It spilled everything it knew. The fear instilled by that teacup since becoming a ghost made it hold nothing back.
Severus clearly noticed this too and pressed further, "What did you want to do with that thing? Get revenge on the dark wizard who imprisoned you?"
"Revenge?" Beroe said incredulously, "He killed me when I was alive, and even managed to imprison me after death! Now, I don't even know how many years have passed. What way do I have to get back at him? I wouldn't do something so self-demeaning!"
"I just wanted to find the thing he left behind. It was almost an instinctual desire, like how some people prefer yellow and others prefer red, but they can't explain why..."
It rambled on, as if it had an endless stream of words.
Severus had to interrupt it.
"And then? Do you plan to continue searching for that thing you didn't find?"
"Of course I won't give up! I'm sure it's still somewhere in this forest. I will find it!"
Beroe stated with certainty.
"Then good luck to you."
Severus didn't trouble it further. Having learned what he wanted to know, he let the Hag's ghost go.
Hearing this, Beroe's expression relaxed.
"Ah ha, and good luck to you too! If your goal is to find some legendary spring or something!"
It began to drift away, eventually disappearing into the dense forest.
After it left, Lupin turned to look at Severus.
"Is that thing the ghost was looking for the same as what you're looking for?"
Severus shook his head.
"Perhaps related, but not the same."
"Then what will you do next?" Lupin could also see that the trail Severus followed seemed to have been cut off with this Hag's ghost.
But at that moment, Severus took out the silver whistle he had found in the underground chamber.
"What Beroe was searching for but didn't find might be related to this," He said.