Screech—!
A sidecar motorcycle screeched to a halt at the border of Chelmsford, its engine roaring piercingly in the silent air.
Two people were crammed onto the motorcycle: one was a burly man in a giant mole fur coat, his hair as thick as a bear's, and the other was a scrawny boy in an ill-fitting shirt and jeans.
"Harry."
Hagrid's heavy voice held a rare seriousness, his massive body almost completely engulfing Harry in shadow.
"The place I'm going next… is very dangerous. I want you to stay here and wait for me."
"Hagrid, don't even think about leaving me behind!"
Harry's emerald eyes gleamed with stubbornness.
Last night's experience was like a wild dream: Hagrid appeared in the shack on the rock, told him he was actually a Wizard, and incidentally "gifted" his cousin Dudley a pig's tail. He had slept under Hagrid's coat with two dormice last night.
All day today, Hagrid had told him the story of his parents, James and Lily, like a warm bonfire dispelling eleven years of cold gloom.
However, when they were about to go to the Leaky Cauldron, Hagrid suddenly slapped his thigh and roared in annoyance,
"Merlin's beard! I forgot to pick up another young Wizard!"
Harry demanded to go with him.
Hagrid initially strongly opposed, but ultimately couldn't resist Harry's gaze, which was a mix of worry and longing, and finally brought him to the edge of this cursed land.
On the way, Hagrid spoke in a low voice about Chelmsford's centuries-long malice towards Wizards. The heavy history made Harry even more uneasy, but he couldn't let his only friend venture alone, even if he might not be of much help.
"Listen, Harry."
Hagrid tried one last effort, his thick eyebrows knitted together.
"This land has a curse! A real curse! Wizards who stay too long will have terrible luck; wands backfiring and spells misspoken are the least of it! You…"
"Hagrid, I'm not afraid!"
Harry straightened his thin chest, his voice quiet but unusually firm,
"You can trust me! I promise I won't be a burden!"
His green eyes stared directly into Hagrid's anxious black eyes.
Hagrid sighed heavily, the sound like distant thunder.
"…Truly James and Lily's child."
He finally compromised, waving his thick arm helplessly.
Just as the two took a deep breath, preparing to step into the ominous land.
"Are… are you… from… Hogwarts?"
A trembling voice came from the roadside.
Harry and Hagrid turned their heads simultaneously.
Not far away, on the shoulder of the road, an extremely strange creature was huddled in a pitifully thin blanket, shivering as it shuffled towards them.
Its messy, orange-red middle-parted hair was disheveled, and its pink, heart-tipped tail dragged limply on the ground, snot frozen into icicles in the cold wind.
Harry's eyes widened; his barren Muggle worldview had never encompassed such a peculiar creature.
Hagrid's reaction was entirely different.
His massive body instantly burst forth with agility disproportionate to his size, crossing the distance to the creature in a few steps, then carefully crouching down as if afraid of startling a fragile butterfly.
His fan-like large hand rummaged in his mole fur coat for a moment, miraculously pulling out a shiny, foot-long piece of jerky, which he carefully offered.
"Poor little fellow."
Hagrid's voice was soft and gentle, with a heavy nasal tone.
"Are you frozen? Here, eat something to warm up."
His bell-sized eyes gleamed with the fervent light of discovering a new species.
Harry also came closer, curiously examining this three-headed, strange creature, then glanced at the empty road.
"Hagrid, what… what is this? Where's the young Wizard?"
"Huh?"
Hagrid finally came to his senses, his huge palm slapping his bushy forehead in annoyance. Dumbledore had mentioned that Nios had a peculiar companion, which must be this creature.
"Right! The young Wizard! Little fellow, where's your master? Where did the young Wizard named Nios Chaos go?"
Azazel, the demon who had waited all night in the cold wind, so frozen his soul was almost ice, finally reacted at this moment!
A rush of grievances and anger instantly broke through the dam of his reason.
With a "smack," he violently threw the useless thin blanket and the precious jerky onto the ground, his short legs bouncing as he let out a heartbroken accusation: "Why did you take so long?! I've been waiting all day!!!"
Hagrid's large face instantly turned beet red, his huge fingers awkwardly scratching his thick sideburns.
He certainly remembered that he was supposed to pick up Nios first yesterday, then Harry, but the excitement of seeing James and Lily's child made him completely forget about the other young Wizard.
Harry's face also flushed instantly, as if splashed with red ink.
He knew that Hagrid's forgetfulness was all because of him.
Azazel looked at their embarrassed expressions and let out a disdainful snort from his dog-like mouth.
He slowly picked up the blanket, smoothed it out, and sat down on it, then casually picked up the jerky that had fallen to the ground and gnawed at it fiercely, as if it were Nios's bones.
Hagrid and Harry exchanged glances, feeling a bit helpless.
Hagrid clumsily imitated Azazel, somehow pulling out a much thicker blanket from another magical pocket and spreading it beside him, gesturing for Harry to sit down. Then, as if performing a magic trick, he produced two more pieces of jerky, handing one to Harry, and sat down himself, joining Azazel in gnawing on the jerky with crunching sounds.
While gnawing, Hagrid couldn't help but steal glances at Azazel from the corner of his eye, his gaze filled with fascination for the strange creature.
Harry, however, was more direct; he hadn't touched the jerky in his hand, his emerald eyes unblinking, staring intently at Azazel as if trying to see through him.
Azazel felt uncomfortable under Harry's intense, searchlight-like gaze, and even the jerky didn't taste as good.
He suddenly lifted his head, his dog-like face wrinkled, and his pink tail impatiently slapped the ground.
"Hey! Kid! Speak your mind! Don't stare at me with that perverted look like you're eyeing someone's wife or a JK! And you, big guy!"
He turned to Hagrid.
"Your gaze is like a pure high schooler peeking at their crush! It's disgusting!"
Harry and Hagrid's faces instantly flushed another shade deeper, like steamed lobsters.
Harry took a deep breath, gathered his courage, and pointed at Azazel, asking, "What exactly are you?"
Hagrid also stopped chewing, holding his breath, his huge ears almost perked up.
"A Demon."
Azazel chewed on the jerky, saying indistinctly, then extended his short paw towards Hagrid.
"Big guy, another one. Hey! Big guy?"
Seeing Hagrid didn't react, he impatiently patted Hagrid's pillar-like thick calf with his paw.
Hagrid came to his senses and blankly handed over another piece.
Azazel took it and continued chewing as he spoke:
"I know, your world doesn't have Demons right now. But it will, in the future."
He paused, a strange expression, a mix of schadenfreude and helplessness, appearing on his dog-like face.
"And there will be many."
Although Hagrid had been expelled from Hogwarts, his basic magic education was still very solid.
He suddenly stood up, the shadow cast by his huge body instantly completely engulfing Azazel.
His voice held disbelief and a hint of angry betrayal.
"Impossible! Demons are just things from Muggle fantasies! Thousands of years of magic history have never shown any evidence of Demons' existence! There are no Demons in this world!"
Harry also understood now that the Demons in those storybooks were indeed just stories.
Azazel, however, was as calm as if discussing the weather. He slowly chewed his jerky, the tip of his pink tail idly swaying.
"I already said, it's 'in the future.' I was created by Nios. With that bastard's personality, would he create beings like us without absolute countermeasures?"
He scoffed, "Dream on."
"Then why would he create you?"
Harry pressed, a strong sense of wariness rising in his heart towards this classmate he had never met.
Creating Demons? That sounded even more dangerous than the Dark Wizards Hagrid had told him about!
"No comment."
Azazel rolled his eyes, his cheeks bulging as he chewed the jerky.
The air instantly solidified.
Only the sound of the wind whimpering in the empty border remained, along with Azazel's smacking sounds as he chewed the jerky.
Harry looked at Azazel's round, furry form with its comical middle-parted hairstyle and simply couldn't connect him with the terrifying, monstrous hellish Demons of legend.
Curiosity scratched at him like a kitten's paws, and he couldn't help but speak again,
"Then why… are you… like this?"
He pointed to Azazel's three-headed body and his chow-like face.
Whoosh—!
A tangible, dense black aura suddenly erupted from Azazel!
His originally somewhat cute dog-like face instantly twisted into a ferocious grimace, like a hellhound! The tough jerky in his hand snapped with a "crunch," broken by his grip!
Hagrid reacted with lightning speed!
He scooped up Harry, holding him behind him like a small chicken, while his other large hand flashed out from inside his coat, drawing his iconic pink umbrella, its tip vigilantly aimed at the enraged Demon!
Harry was so startled his heart almost stopped; he knew he had definitely stepped on a landmine!
Just at this tense moment,
Crack! Sizzle!
Several twisted white electrical arcs burst forth from the ground behind Azazel without warning!
The soil arched and rolled upwards as if alive, yet not a speck of dust was stirred.
A boy in a neat, well-fitting black suit emerged from the churning earth, elegantly and silently, as if rising from water.
His skin was almost transparently pale, and he wore a strange cartoon eye patch on his face, its eye pattern moving flexibly.
Azazel was still immersed in his furious accusation, his back to Nios, completely oblivious to the anomaly behind him, and continued to roar.
"Why am I like this? You have to ask that bastard Nios! I'm clearly a being representing the Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Virtues! Why do I look like this embarrassing ghost! I'm clearly…"
The roar abruptly ceased.
A pale, slender, yet exceptionally strong hand, like an iron vice, precisely gripped the scruff of Azazel's neck, lifting him entirely off the ground, his feet dangling.
Azazel's body instantly stiffened, as if frozen in an instant.
All his anger and black aura vanished, leaving only bone-chilling coldness frantically surging up his spine.
Cold sweat poured down like a floodgate opening, instantly soaking his orange-red hair and dripping from his chin onto the ground.
A voice, calm without a ripple, yet with a biting chill, like a cold viper, sounded close to Azazel's ear,
"It seems our great Demon…"
Nios Chaos tilted his head, the eyes on his cartoon eye patch "watching" the stiff plush toy in his hand with "interest."
"…isn't too pleased with his master's aesthetic."