The Whomping Willow was a dangerous magical plant, but it wasn't lethal. Even a child wouldn't be beaten to death in a single blow as long as they didn't recklessly get too close.
In the original story, both Harry Potter and Hermione Granger had gone back and forth with the Whomping Willow. A werewolf, with far superior physical strength and reflexes, should have fared even better.
But once the Whomping Willow transformed into a treant, it was clearly no longer harmless.
Countless branches gathered together, forming a massive fist that slammed down with a deafening crash. The werewolf beneath it found no time to react and was smashed into a spray of flesh and bone in a single blow.
And all of this happened right in front of everyone else.
Before they could even process what they were seeing, the companions beside them were crushed like overripe tomatoes, blood and gore exploding in all directions.
This fate didn't befall just one or two of them. Werewolves spread evenly throughout the area met the same end at the same moment.
What just happened? Was there an enemy? Where were they? What were they?
The surviving werewolf wizards' minds went completely blank. Before they could recover, they saw a gigantic fist, its shape smeared and obscured by flesh, crashing down toward them.
Only then did they finally understand how their comrades had died… and nothing more.
The enraged treants wiped out more than twenty werewolf wizards in the opening exchange alone. That result was undeniably terrifying.
But blood wasn't so easy to hide. Their violent attacks exposed their forms to the remaining werewolf wizards.
"Enemy! Spread out!" the second temporary werewolf leader shouted. He had narrowly avoided the first wave and hurriedly put distance between himself and the transparent figure beside him, its outline coated in gore.
"We can't just wait to die! Everyone, counterattack!" he yelled, trying to rally them, even as he quietly prepared to slip away.
The instant he took a step, a piercing screech tore through the air. Then his vision went black…
The werewolf leader collapsed to the ground, a sharp spike embedded in the back of his head. His eyes were empty, utterly confused.
He never even knew how he died.
Though this useless leader died while trying to flee, his final shout snapped the stunned werewolf wizards back to their senses.
The remaining dozen or so werewolf wizards immediately drew their wands and aimed them at the bloodstained, transparent monsters around them.
But before they could cast their strongest spells to break out, all of them stiffened at once, frozen like stone statues.
In the next instant, gashes opened across their throats, blood spraying out in torrents.
In less than a minute, nearly thirty werewolf wizards died without a sound in the botanical garden.
...
[Your Botanical Garden has welcomed a group of guests]
[Total guests: 32, Guest rating: 30 points]
[Your loyal Whomping Willow and Chomping Cabbage perfectly served your guests, allowing them to enjoy the ideal "fall asleep instantly" service]
[You have obtained 660 points. Current total points: 710]
The first batch of "guests" had been dealt with. The so-called "fall asleep instantly" simply meant that the werewolves had peacefully entered eternal sleep.
Blood flowed across the ground, pooling into vast crimson puddles.
But this was only the beginning. Compared to these werewolf wizards with laughably poor spellcasting skills, the pureblood wizards who came next were the real problem.
Soon, the second group of visitors appeared as space twisted and warped. The pureblood family wizards had barely finished materializing when they stepped straight into the pools of blood.
That immediately put them on guard.
"Careful! Something's wrong!" one pureblood wizard shouted. His voice had barely left his mouth before a fist from the Whomping Willow smashed him into pulp.
Pureblood wizards reacted far faster than werewolf wizards. Trained in real magical combat from childhood and long accustomed to fighting together as Death Eaters, they responded instantly.
"Protego Totalum!"
Several wizards on the perimeter raised their wands at once and cast defensive magic.
Compared to a personal Shield Charm, an area-wide barrier like Protego Totalum was far more suitable for this situation.
The barrier, sustained by multiple wizards, briefly blocked the treants' attacks. The shield flickered violently where the fists struck, on the verge of collapse, but it managed to hold back the first wave.
Now it was the pureblood wizards' turn to retaliate.
"Confringo!"
"Expulso!"
"Incendio!"
"…"
A barrage of vicious spells erupted from their wands, magic flaring through the air like dazzling fireworks.
Thanks to the earlier sacrifice of the werewolves, every Whomping Willow treant was splattered with blood. That made them perfect targets. Spell after spell slammed into the treants.
"Wait… why isn't the magic working?" someone cried out as they noticed their spells weren't dealing any damage to the flickering tree-men.
But before the shock could settle, one Whomping Willow shattered under concentrated fire. Its Disillusionment Charm failed, revealing a broken, mangled trunk.
A treant on the brink of death stood exposed before them.
Under that level of focused magical firepower, its four instances of magic immunity were almost meaningless.
"What the hell is that thing?" someone exclaimed.
"Doesn't matter what it is! Noteveryone, finish them off!" a pureblood wizard shouted excitedly.
What they didn't expect was that this fallen treant was only the beginning.
The damaged treant swayed forward, charging straight toward the barrier raised by several wizards.
"What's it trying to do?"
"Stop it!"
The wizards immediately focused their fire, determined to kill it before it reached them. They succeeded. Two wizards shattered its legs, sending it crashing to the ground.
But by then, it was already within the self-destruction range.
A blinding flash erupted, mixed with a violent surge of magical energy that blasted outward in all directions. The terrifying force even disrupted the Disillusionment Charms on nearby plants.
When the light faded, the surviving wizards opened their eyes and stared in horror at the remains of their companions, most of them torn apart.
The massive self-destruction had instantly destroyed the barrier and taken more than a dozen pureblood wizards with it.
But that wasn't the worst part.
As the Disillusionment Charms vanished completely, the remaining pureblood wizards finally saw what surrounded them.
Towering willow treants, their bodies covered in countless branches, standing like giants.
Aside from the one that had self-destructed, there were still eight treants encircling them. And clinging to those treants were over a dozen brightly colored Chomping Cabbages, their mouths wide open.
After sacrificing over a dozen pureblood wizards to bring one down, there were still eight of these monsters left.
In that instant, despair seized every wizard present.