"Getting to go to the Forbidden Forest openly? Such a good thing exists?"
The twins looked extremely happy.
"But seriously, Professor, why didn't you keep chasing him just now?" George suddenly asked.
Of course, Victor Wick wouldn't tell them the real reason, but explaining it wasn't difficult for him.
"Have you forgotten what I told you in class? Unless it's absolutely necessary, never fight an enemy in a place like this where visibility is obstructed and it's dark and gloomy. How do you know he hasn't set traps further ahead? How do you know there isn't an ambush?"
"Right..." Fred and George were both convinced by Victor Wick.
"Let's head back... Instead of worrying about that, you should think about how you're going to face Professor McGonagall and... your parents' criticism. Since I caught you in the Forbidden Forest tonight... your mother's Howler should arrive tomorrow," Victor Wick said calmly.
The smiles on Fred and George's faces instantly froze.
Although being punished with detention in the Forbidden Forest was exactly what they wanted... they still had to get through those two hurdles...
No one wanted to get scolded...
Victor Wick led the two dejected Weasleys back to the spot where the heavily injured unicorn lay on the ground.
Hagrid was squatting in front of the unicorn, sighing. It looked like the creature was in bad shape.
Hearing footsteps, Hagrid looked up. "Victor, things aren't looking good for this poor little guy... Merlin's beard! What are you two doing here?!"
Hagrid's tone had been quite low, but when he saw the twins behind Victor Wick, his face turned pale.
"Merlin! I've worked at Hogwarts for so many years, and I've spent half my life trying to keep you Weasleys out of the Forbidden Forest!"
Hagrid was the Groundskeeper, and the Forbidden Forest was under his care. If a student got hurt in there, he wouldn't just be held responsible; he would also be consumed by guilt.
"Sorry, Hagrid, but we helped intercept that Dark wizard just now!" George said excitedly.
"Good heavens! You actually faced that evil fellow?" Hagrid nearly fainted from shock. "If anything happened to you, how would I explain it to Arthur and Molly?!"
"Alright, Hagrid, we can talk about them later. We have more important things to do right now." Victor Wick looked at the dying unicorn on the ground.
"Sigh..." Hagrid let out a sigh. "This unicorn might not make it. It's lost too much blood..."
"As long as it wasn't hit by the Killing Curse, there's still hope." Victor Wick looked at the gruesome wound on the unicorn's neck.
It seemed to be a wound caused by a Severing Charm; the cut was very smooth.
If it had truly been hit by the Killing Curse, the unicorn would have been dead long ago.
"You mean... there's still hope?" Hagrid immediately perked up.
Hagrid loved magical creatures, and seeing such a beautiful unicorn dying before his eyes made him incredibly sad.
"There should be..." Victor Wick remembered the secret resurrection method Aziraphale had given him. One of the processes might be worth experimenting with on this unicorn.
If it succeeded, the unicorn would be saved. If it failed, well... the unicorn was dying anyway, so there would be nothing to regret.
"Then please, get to it!" Hagrid said excitedly.
Victor Wick nodded and extended his wand, gently tapping it against the unicorn.
In an instant, streaks of light appeared on the unicorn's pure white body, forming a series of regular grids...
Then, a three-dimensional image of the unicorn appeared before Victor Wick, gradually completing itself.
Hagrid and the Weasley twins watched in stunned silence. They had never seen magic like this before...
"Is Professor Wick creating a one-to-one recreation of the unicorn's image?" George asked curiously.
"Quiet, Fred, don't disturb Professor Wick!" Hagrid barked, stopping his questions.
"I'm George..." George muttered, but he didn't dare speak loudly again.
The minor disturbance didn't bother Victor Wick. By now, the three-dimensional image in front of him was fully constructed.
Victor Wick looked at the image, then at the wound on the unicorn's neck, before raising his wand and tapping it lightly on the injury.
"Module Fifty-Five... Repair!"
A second later, the gruesome wound began to writhe rapidly. Tiny ruptured blood vessels and separated flesh were slowly being restored...
Hagrid and the others held their breath as they watched, none of them daring to make a sound.
Although they didn't understand Victor Wick's method, they knew this was the most critical moment.
In truth, Victor Wick's method wasn't complicated—it was just a standard Repairing Charm!
However, a wizard's Repairing Charm was generally only used to fix inanimate objects; it was very difficult to use on living beings.
Because the difficulty was simply too high!
Repairing inanimate objects was quite simple for a wizard. They only needed to have a concept in their mind of the object in its original, intact state to fix it.
For instance, if they wanted to repair a teacup, they just had to think of what it looked like before it broke.
Even if the internal structure of the teacup differed slightly from the original, it wouldn't hinder its functionality.
But for living creatures, it didn't work that way...
A vague conceptualization of appearance was insufficient to repair a wound with the Repairing Charm!
Because the inside of a living organism was far more complex than that of an inanimate object!
If even a single blood vessel or nerve was misconnected, it wouldn't recover properly. Even if forced to restore, it would only grow into a lump of flesh...
Rather than growing a piece of dead meat or forcing a wound closed only to impair physical function, it was better to use medicinal aids and let it heal slowly.
However, what was as difficult as reaching the heavens for other wizards wasn't that hard for Victor Wick.
Since the Forbidden Forest was still within Hogwarts, he only needed to connect to the Hogwarts server. Using his own operating system and Hogwarts' immense computing power, he quickly reconstructed and modeled a precise three-dimensional structure of the unicorn based on its form and internal tissue patterns!
Next, following the 'concept' restored in the model, Victor Wick could use the Repairing Charm on every inch of the unicorn's flesh and every single capillary!
And this... happened to be the most critical step in resurrecting the dead!
When resurrecting someone, you couldn't just bring back their soul; you also had to restore their physical body!
While a body could be fashioned using only potions and the deceased's remains, such a body would lack a precise blueprint. The resulting physical form would look vastly different—perhaps so hideous it wouldn't even have a nose.
That wasn't the kind of resurrection Victor Wick and Snape wanted!
"Severus, you wouldn't want your Lily to have no nose after being resurrected, would you?"
Therefore, Victor Wick needed to use his abilities to construct a detailed model of the deceased's body first. Then, with the help of potions, he could restore the bones and flesh bit by bit from the remains!
This was the method Aziraphale and Crowley had specifically tailored for Victor Wick, based on his unique abilities.
Theoretically, no one but Victor Wick could achieve this.
Treating the unicorn tonight was a timely coincidence, allowing Victor Wick to test this method.
A few moments later, the wound on the unicorn's neck was completely repaired!
This made Victor Wick heave a massive sigh of relief.
Of course, he didn't forget Snape's instructions. While Hagrid and the Weasley twins weren't looking, he still collected a small vial of unicorn blood...
After all, it was spilled all over the ground; it would be a waste not to collect some.
"Alright... next, I need some potions to boost its spirits..." Victor Wick pulled out a bottle of Invigoration Draught.
He uncorked the bottle and waved his wand lightly. The potion inside drifted out slowly, slithering into the unicorn's mouth like a small snake...
"Ah! I can hear its breathing now!" Hagrid was overjoyed.
The unicorn's breathing became strong and steady. Having dealt with magical creatures for years, Hagrid knew well that this meant the unicorn was saved!
"So... so amazing!" George and Fred watched Victor Wick's every move without blinking.
Despite the fact that tonight's nighttime excursion into the Forbidden Forest would cost them a heavy price.
But they both felt tonight's experience was more than worth it!
Victor Wick's mood was also quite pleasant. The experiment on the unicorn had succeeded, proving that this method was entirely viable!
So... what he had to do next was consider how to accurately remodel a deceased person's body from a pile of bones...
This was no simple task.
The unicorn was only injured, its body still present, providing plenty of references for him to quickly build a precise three-dimensional model.
But the deceased had been dead for many years, with no remaining flesh to reference...
The external appearance could be modeled after the image of the soul, but the internal flesh, blood vessels, nerves, and bones were the difficult parts.
"Perhaps... I can study other living people first... After all, as long as the outward appearance of the resurrected body remains the same, some internal differences shouldn't be a major issue..."
Victor Wick felt as if he were restoring a car where only the engine was intact and every other part was destroyed, with only a photograph as a reference...
As long as the exterior was restored... differences in internal wiring wouldn't matter. The engine was still the same engine; it just needed to run...
While Victor Wick was deep in thought, he suddenly felt a warmth on his arm.
He then noticed that the unicorn, which had been dying moments ago, had stood up and was affectionately nuzzling his shoulder with its head.
Hagrid stood nearby, clapping his hands excitedly. "Little guy! Good job! You finally stood up!"
Victor Wick smiled slightly and reached out to stroke the unicorn's head. "It's good you're okay. Remember to stay further away from the edge of the Forbidden Forest from now on."
The unicorn let out a soft neigh. A white point of light suddenly floated from the horn on its head and landed on Victor Wick's arm.
"Hmm?"
Victor Wick felt a gentle heat in his arm.
Then, the voice of the firewall began to sound in his ears.
"Buzz! Unknown program intrusion detected! After testing, the program is non-malicious. Allow passage?"
Victor Wick carefully examined the magic pouring into his arm and then opened the firewall.
In an instant, Victor Wick felt the magic in his body warm up slightly, and then he felt his strength and spirit fully nourished!
Even the slight fatigue from staying up late researching the Power of Faith was swept away.
What surprised Victor Wick was that he felt something extra in his magic.
It was a pure power... it didn't amplify Dark Arts, but the power of other magic was enhanced.
This was actually a buff?
"Oh... Professor Wick! It blessed you!" Hagrid said happily. "It's repaying you for saving its life!"
"Unicorn's Blessing? I've never heard of this before..." Victor Wick said in surprise.
"Because very few people have received a unicorn's blessing, not many know of it. I only heard it from my... my mother..." Hagrid's mood clearly dipped when he mentioned his mother.