Hogwarts: This professor is too Muggle.

Chapter 137 The Spider and the Dark Mark

Two eight-eyed giant spiders covered with hard shells were as big as baby elephants, with fine and tough hair. Eight long and powerful legs stretched out from both sides of their bodies, and the hard shells collided with each other, making a clicking sound. The eight eyes on their heads were arranged in two rows, and a fierce light was faintly emitted in the dark forbidden forest.

Ron stared straight ahead, his face ashen, his teeth chattering, his face full of fear.

Hermione saw the Acromantula outside the book, and her eyes were also terrified. She kept muttering, "The Acromantula grows deep in the rainforests of southeastern Asia, especially the island of Kalimantan. It is believed to be a species bred by wizards. It is cruel by nature and likes to eat human flesh. Its weakness lies in its armored abdomen..."

The huge beast was approaching, and Harry held his wand tightly, his expression tense.

They knew very well that the Acromantula was a 5X level dangerous creature, causing about the same amount of damage as a fire dragon every year. They dared to go deep into the Forbidden Forest to gather intelligence, or they thought that Aragog and Hagrid were friends. The Forbidden Forest was adjacent to Hogwarts, and these intelligent creatures that could communicate probably followed certain rules like the centaurs and unicorns, and would not actively harm them.

But when the eight-eyed giant spider really appeared before his eyes, the beast's unique fierce and cruel aura hit him in the face. He was unconsciously captured by those eight eyes, his heartbeat accelerated, and a faint smell of blood lingered at the tip of his nose. It was the accumulation of years of hunting and slaughtering, which made the little wizard's delicate stomach feel very uncomfortable.

Melvin was neither anxious nor impatient. He just looked at the two eight-eyed giant spiders quietly, observing them with interest.

The black fangs opened and closed slightly, the jaws were strong and powerful, and the bite force was comparable to that of a crocodile. The dripping saliva had a faint sour smell, which should be the venom unique to the eight-eyed giant spider, and the market price was 100 Galleons per pint.

The abdomen of the eight-eyed giant spider is slightly bulging and covered with tiny bristles. If you look closely, the dark gray markings on it can be seen in the shape of a human face, adding a bit of weirdness and hideousness.

As the Acromantula got closer, Harry pulled Ron, but the guy was already stunned, his body stiff and his mind unable to react.

Harry glanced back at the professor and shouted to the two giant spiders, "We are Hagrid's friends, and we are here to find Aragog!"

The two giant spiders stopped and looked at each other. Although there was no look or expression on their faces, Harry felt that they understood.

Seeing them frequently looking at his and Hermione's wands, Harry put away his wand and said soothingly, "We really are Hagrid's friends. We mean no harm."

As soon as he finished speaking, two spiders pounced over. Despite their huge size, they were not clumsy at all. Their eight legs moved quickly and the rugged road was no obstacle to them.

In the blink of an eye, Harry felt his legs leave the ground, and two hard, slender, and slightly hairy objects grabbed him by the waist and clamped him.

The giant spider knew how to subdue its prey. When it caught him, it shook him a few times, turned him upside down, and left him hanging in the air. The congestion in his brain made Harry feel a little dizzy.

"We are Hagrid's friends..."

Harry twisted and screamed, but the increasing pressure on his two front legs made him breathless, and he soon gave up struggling.

He could only pin his hopes on the professor, tried to look up and to the side, and then he was stunned.

Ron was also caught by the giant spider, right next to him, his eyes bulging, his mouth clenched tightly, his teeth stopped chattering, but he couldn't utter a word.

Another giant spider was holding Hermione and Professor Lewinter in its front legs. Hermione looked terrified, but Professor Lewinter was calm and had the leisure to look at the giant spider's head with wide eyes. His expression was calm and even a little relaxed.

As if noticing his gaze, Professor Lewinter turned and looked over, tilting his head slightly and giving him a perfectly encouraging look.

What did the professor think this was?
Random questions in class?!

Harry shook excitedly for a few times, then his face turned pale. He was pinched so hard that he had difficulty breathing. He could only calm down and let the spider lead them deeper into the Forbidden Forest.

Melvin thought this perspective was quite fresh.

The eight-eyed giant spider has several long and powerful legs. With every step it takes, the sharp barbs at the end can dig deep into the soil. Its movements are full of explosive power. Whether it is bushes or gravel roads, it can move at a constant speed, and the shock absorption effect is excellent.

When they encounter puddles or wetlands that are really difficult to walk through, they simply jump onto branches and turn around to move forward with a click-clack sound.

It is huge in size, with a broad torso, and its shape is really like a small carriage. It is covered with thick hair. If it has a seat or something, it must be very comfortable.

Just as Melvin was lost in thought, he heard the little witch's voice: "Professor, why..."

"Aren't you looking for the Acromantula?"

"You mean, this way it's faster and less likely to get lost?"

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, her tone much lighter.

She was saying, how could the professor let them be caught by the spider? How could the professor let them face the dangerous and ferocious Acromantula?

Melvin smiled and said nothing more. He picked up a branch from the treetop he passed by and put it into his sleeve.

There were tree roots and stumps everywhere as they continued to move through the deep forest, but with the help of the giant spiders, the low branches and thorny vines did not catch their clothes.

I don't know how long I walked forward like this, but the ground in front of me began to slope down, and the bushes began to become less lush, as if they had been cleared away in a planned manner. Occasionally, I could see a few leaves covered with densely packed small spiders.

The giant spider led them to a wide, flat depression. Melvin heard the little witch next door's breathing become hurried and turned to look.

The light from the stars and the moon poured down unhindered, illuminating the scene in the depression. On the slope as big as the Quidditch pitch were crawling hundreds of giant eight-eyed spiders. Seeing the prey caught by their companions, each giant spider excitedly came forward and shook its claws, making a clicking sound.

Going down the steep slope, we arrived at the bottom of the nest in the center. Here was a misty hemispherical spider web. Like a huge silver curtain, it covered the bottom of the nest in the depression. The silk threads were thick and sticky, shining coldly in the moonlight.

"Pfft..."

The giant spider loosened its front legs, and several people fell heavily to the ground. One of them moved its claws and crawled forward, shouting:
"Aragog! Aragog!"

It sounded like the voice of a middle-aged wizard, with a very strange, muffled tone, and an accent very similar to Hagrid's.

Hearing the human language coming out of a spider's mouth, Hermione felt a very strange feeling in her heart. The mist at the bottom of the pit contained a chill that made the hair on her arms and back stand up, making her hair stand on end.

She couldn't explain why she felt this way.

At this moment, Melvin whispered beside him, "If a traveler or wizard gets lost in a deserted forest and hears this kind of shouting, they should walk towards the source of the sound..."

Hermione shuddered.

From within the mist-shrouded spider web, a massive eight-eyed spider emerged, its body larger than the other spiders and its movements sluggish. The black hair covering its body was mottled with gray, and the eight eyes on its head were covered with a layer of white film, appearing very cloudy.

Judging from the way it turned its head to look around, it was already blind.

"What's going on?" Aragog's voice was hoarse and old.

"Man, we caught four people."

"Hagrid there?"

"No, it's a stranger."

"Kill them and don't disturb my sleep."

"Wait! Wait!" Hearing them mention Hagrid, Harry breathed a slight sigh of relief, but quickly heard the conversation that followed and immediately spoke up to identify himself: "We are Hagrid's friends."

Aragog turned his head and said slowly, "Hagrid never sent anyone to our hollow before."

"We came here on our own. We are investigating the truth of what happened back then. Do you know any clues?"

"That was many years ago, many, many years ago..."

Aragog, who was woken up, was particularly patient at this moment and told them the old stories of fifty years ago.

A traveler gave the spider eggs to Hagrid, who loved animals. Hagrid was just a student at that time. He hid the spider eggs in the castle cupboard to hatch them and fed them with the leftover bread crumbs on the table. Until Myrtle was killed, others found Aragog and held him responsible for Myrtle's death.

Hagrid and Dumbledore saved it from being beheaded by the executioner from the Department for the Control of Magical Creatures, and it has lived in the Forbidden Forest ever since.

"Hagrid also found me a wife, Mosag, but she's dead now."

Aragog's words were full of gratitude to Hagrid. "Look, our family is so prosperous. It's all thanks to Hagrid... Out of respect for him, I have never hurt anyone."

Facing Harry's question, it did not hide it: "The guy who killed the girl, the guy who lives in the castle, is an ancient creature that we spiders fear the most. I still remember that when I felt the breath of the beast, I begged Hagrid to let me go."

"What exactly is it?"

"I can't tell you. I haven't even told Hagrid, and there's no point in telling you."

"why?"

Aragog sighed softly and didn't answer. Instead, he turned to the adult wizard next to him, his eight blind eyes dull and lifeless. "Who are you?"

"A professor at Hogwarts." Melvin nodded slightly, holding his wand. "I happened to run into some students wandering the Forbidden Forest at night. I couldn't stop them, so I followed them here to see what was going on. I'll go back later and give them detention."

"I don't think so..."

Aragog spoke slowly, waving his forelimbs as he spoke.

The moment they saw its signal, a dozen spiders nearby immediately raised their front halves, pointed the spinnerets at the end of their abdomens at Melvin, and spurted out silver-white silk threads.

At first, a single thread wrapped around the slender wooden stick in his hand, and other spider silks tightly bound it together, intertwining and adhering to each other, layering and nesting, sealing it into a thick cocoon in just a few seconds.

Hermione stared blankly, the peaceful and carefree thoughts in her mind finally disappearing, and she began to panic.

Her intuition told her that the professor could not be subdued so easily, but the fierce gazes around her kept reminding her that they were now in the lair of a 5X level dangerous creature.

"Crack!"

The spider next to him bit hard and broke the wand he had taken from the young professor.

Harry glared at him. "What do you mean?"

Aragog then slowly added: "Fresh human flesh is delivered to my door, I can't stop the children from enjoying it. Goodbye, Hagrid's friends..."

"Damn it!"

Harry's roar was drowned out by the clicking sounds of countless giant spiders moving. Huge black shadows continued to gather around them and approached them. Aragog stopped talking and slowly retreated back into the depths of his spiderweb nest.

Ron also came to his senses at this time. He looked up and found that they were standing at the bottom of the sunken nest. The steep slope was densely packed with eight-eyed giant spiders. The shells collided with each other and made a clicking sound. Many pairs of dark eyes flashed fiercely.

It was as if a wall of spiders were advancing.

Hermione stopped her chaotic thoughts, took a deep breath, and clenched her wand with her trembling hands: "Break their blockade and rescue the professor!"

In the sunken nest, the dazzling light of the spell began to bloom continuously.

[Retreat the enemy three feet]

[Burning Flames]

【Whirlwind Sweep】

……

Deep within the hemispherical spider web, Aragog's eight legs slowly groped the mesh, following the familiar route back to his nest.

Lying on the soft sheepskin, Aragog quickly became drowsy. As for the fact that Hagrid might blame him when he found out about this, he didn't care much.

The few bits of humanity he had learned from Hagrid were all put to use in him. After living in the Forbidden Forest for decades, Aragog had become more devoted to the survival laws of the beasts, which was the root of the growth of his tribe.

The sounds of battle outside traveled through layers of spiderwebs and winding caves to reach the old spider's ears. They were no longer very clear, but through the vibrations of the webs, it could tell that the young wizards were more troublesome than expected, prey even tougher than a pack of wolves.

Perhaps many children and grandchildren will die in battle.

The flesh cut from the four wizards was only enough to feed one or two spiders, and more spiders had to eat the corpses of their own kind to fill their stomachs.

But it doesn't matter anymore.

Sleepiness struck the old Acromantula, who closed his eyes and muttered in a half-awake state, "That's how beasts are. Everything is for survival, everything is for reproduction."

"You're right. Living in the forest means following the law of the jungle. The strong prey on the weak, and only the fittest survive. This is something that all fox girls know. Since they voluntarily came to the nest, they should become your food. I would do the same."

The eight-eyed giant spider stood up in horror. It had been blind for a long time and could not see anything, but through the vibration of the spider web and the tone of voice, it could vaguely outline the figure of a young wizard.

He leaned against the inner wall of the nest, looking around curiously, holding a thin wooden stick in his right hand.

It had heard this voice not long ago and it was very familiar. But the young professor was trapped in a spiderweb cocoon, his wand was broken, and he should have been paralyzed by the toxins in the spiderweb and fell into a coma. How could he appear here!?

"You! Just now..."

"Is that what you want to ask?" Melvin raised his wand and waved it in front of its eight blind eyes. "You spiders have eight eyes, but your eyesight isn't very good. The one I broke was a branch I picked up on the way."

Without waiting for it to continue asking questions.

The magic wand emitting woody fragrance was waved, emitting a green light.

Dark Mark

(End of this chapter)