Chapter 225

n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Felix hesitated for a moment and turned back to ask the Acromantula Gork: “If you are asked to manage this colony of Acromantula, would you do that, Gork?”

He felt the big spider next to him tremble, and its large claws held harder, clamping the goblet flatter.

Felix hurriedly touched it with his wand, and Gork slumped down, and the goblet fell out of its large claws, which floated towards him. Felix took a look inside and said uncertainly, “It should be all right …”

Aragog said angrily, “Wizard, what are you planning to do!”

But neither of them paid any attention to it, Felix waited for Gork’s answer, time seemed to be stretched out, finally, Gork answered him, “I think, I can do it.” It knew it had got into this wizard’s boat.

Felix showed a satisfied smile: “You will restrain your people, won’t you?”

Gork said heavily, “Yes!”

Aragog got furious, it flung its big claw, “Go, kill the wizard, kill the traitor.”

The Acromantulas behind it quickly moved closer, and a few had leaped up, but Gork made no move, knowing that the wizard would take care of all the trouble.

Everything is like a scene reproduced, Felix created a spherical vortex that spun violently, with hundreds of blue lines of magic around him. Under the effect of the terrifying suction, these large spiders without any room for resistance were dragged closer, shrinking to the size of a fingernail.

Felix stared at the dozens of Acromantulas in the vortex and said admiringly, “Every time I see it, it makes me feel the magic of magic.”

Gork said sullenly, “Me too.”

There are no more Acromantulas on the concave that is larger than a pumpkin, and from a spectator’s point of view, Gork can see more clearly that he himself had no power to fight back like before.

Felix waved his wand and let the shrunken spiders in the vortex float in midair, along with those in the goblet, in dense masses, as they struggled violently. “Tell me, Gork, which ones will be your obstacle?”

Gork surveyed the Acromantulas that floated in midair, hesitantly pointed out a few, “They have eaten people, not Hogwarts students, muggles and wizards who have mistakenly entered the forbidden forest, and a werewolf.”

Felix nodded, and from the tips of his fingers came a few small, eerie white flames that burned them to ashes in the blink of an eye.

“Is there more?”

Gork said shakily, “Except, except for Aragog … there are none.”

“Very well,” Felix said, and he put Aragog in a glass jar, and the rest of the Acromantulas were dumped on the ground and restored to their original state.

His surroundings became crowded all of a sudden, with these large spiders stacked in layers, like a high wall of rings.

” Gork, I will not delay you from re-establishing the colony, and we can celebrate another day when you become the new king.” Felix prepared to leave.

“Mr. Hay, Hap,” Gork inquired, “what are you going to do with it, Aragog …?”

Felix said calmly, “It is old and sick, I will bring it to Hagrid and let Hagrid take care of it, and maybe it will live a few more years.”

Felix tucked the glass bottle, with its new prisoner inside, into his pocket, took the flying broom out of the ring, and shot up into the sky.

…

In the early evening, Harry, Ron, and Hermione knocked at Hagrid’s door.

Hagrid gave them a suspicious look, then looked outside at the sky and muttered, “It’s not too late, come in.” He stepped aside.

Harry covered in mud, still clutching the flying broom in his hand – he had just finished training and very exhausted at the moment, he sat down on the mat on his butt, not wanting to move a muscle.

Ron’s eyes kept searching and soon found the three-headed dog, Fluffy, under the small table. He went up and dragged it out, holding it in his arms: “Professor Hap has been here? The last time we visited, Fluffy looked as big as Fang.”

“Yeah,” Hagrid said, a little downhearted.

“Hagrid, what’s going on?” Hermione inquired.

“Is it that obvious?” Hagrid said, pointing in Ron’s direction, “It’s Aragog …,” and it dawned on Ron that there’s a fist-sized spider lying on the dirty mat.

Ron shrieked and backed away, he is most afraid of this thing, especially since this seems to be an aged spider, covered with half black and half gray fur, eyes gray and hazy, looks very scary.

Harry is not very afraid, as he asked suspiciously: “Aragog this name, you seem to have mentioned …”

Hermione reminded him that “that is the name of an Acromantula that Hagrid raised fifty years ago, and it was because of that he was mistakenly assumed to have opened the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets.”

It dawned on Harry, and then he had a new question: “But the Acromantula is very big in the picture … Oh, I figured it out, did Professor Hap do it, just like Fluffy?”

“That’s right,” Hagrid mumbled, “Felix came by this morning and said something to me, I didn’t think Aragog would … forget it, it’s old anyway.”

He paused at a key point, which tickled all the Trio’s minds. But Hagrid did not want to talk about it, and they could not help it.

Hermione, unable to restrain herself from saying, “Hagrid, I read from the book, the Acromantula’s venom is extremely toxic.”

Hagrid waved his hand, “It is too old to produce much venom, and also blind, in nature, it simply could not hunt. The Acromantula in the forbidden forest are all its offspring, otherwise … it is better if I raise it and spare myself from having to worry about it being eaten by other spiders.”

Trio took their turn to hug the three-headed dog, Fluffy also resigned to his fate not struggling anymore, three heads fought for the cobbler pie in Ron’s hand. Ron seemed to be very enthusiastic about this activity, happily feeding the cobbler pie to its three mouths.

“Don’t feed it too much!” Hagrid yelled, “It’ll get indigestion.”

…

The trio didn’t stay for too long, they promised Professor McGonagall that they would return to the castle before dark.

In the common room, Harry and Ron caught up on their homework, but they looked distracted. Harry sighed and rummaged through his bookbag for a piece of parchment and a list of notes, constantly cross-referencing the contents.

Ron moved closer and looked at it twice, immediately pushing the homework in front of him aside, “You’re working on the thesis Professor Hap assigned to you?”

Harry said, “Yeah, it’s about the dueling system, I exaggerated a bit.”

“Is it difficult? Your disarming charm is already pretty good.”

“No, I can’t rely on just a disarming charm, if Hermione is around … Hermione? Why you didn’t go to Professor Hap’s office today?” Harry looked suspiciously at the young witch opposite to him.

Hermione looked up in a panic, “What? Oh, I don’t have to go today.”

Ron teased her, “You didn’t forget, did you? It always feels like you’ve been off lately. Dropping things and talking out of turn …”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Hermione’s body straightened as she gave Ron a condescending glance, “I’m working on my third year Ancient Runes test, if you think something’s amiss.”

Ron immediately stammered, “Third, third-year test questions, Hermione, this would not be …”

“That’s right, you’ll see it next week.” She said with a stern face.

Next, Harry watched with interest as Ron kept blowing Hermione up in hopes of getting an early glimpse of what is on the paper, “Just a bit, Hermione, even a little hint would do …”

———-

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