A certain broken Hogwarts

The sun seemed to be setting in the west exceptionally quickly today. By the time Harry realized it, the sky had already turned a hazy, dark blue-black, with fiery clouds in the west painting a small patch of sky a fiery red.

Lights had already been lit in the distant castle, and orange light shone through the windows, enveloping the dark, towering ancient castle in a soft halo.

The woods in front of me grew darker and darker. The trees, with their branches stretching out haphazardly, looked like pairs of withered giant claws reaching out from the earth, piled up in the shadows, desperately trying to reach for the sky.

Harry instinctively pulled his robes tighter, feeling a chill. He sensed Nagini's location and realized with dismay that it was still some distance away.

"...The Dementors were causing trouble in the Forbidden Forest all night, and a few of them kept lurking outside my house." Hagrid had already started talking non-stop, "That feeling...you'll never want to experience it."

"The animals in the Forbidden Forest are terrified. Although Dementors don't really target animals, there's a centaur tribe in the Forbidden Forest who are affected by the Dementors just like us," Hagrid said, waving his large hand. "After the Dementors left, the centaurs started protesting to me..."

Before he could finish speaking, a small white figure flashed past with lightning speed, startling the two of them. Harry quickly grabbed his wand and Invisibility Cloak from his pocket, while Hagrid gripped his tattered umbrella tightly.

When Harry looked closely, he realized that what appeared before him was a silver-white cat-like creature. Its body was covered with beautiful dark brown spots, and its golden eyes reflected the firelight of the sunset, like dazzling cat's-eye stones.

Harry breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"A raccoon cat? What's this little guy doing here?" Hagrid raised his hand and scratched the back of his head.

The cat leaped out of the bushes and darted to them in a few strides, tilting its head back and meowing urgently. It paced anxiously back and forth at Harry's feet. Its eyes were wide with suspicion as it stared into the woods, its fur standing on end, making the whole cat look fluffy.

"Wait, something's not right!" Harry's expression turned serious again. Because of Owen, he knew a lot about calicos and understood that they were very good at sensing malice and danger. He glanced into the dark woods and pulled his wand out of his pocket.

"Let's get out of here." Hagrid's face darkened, and he reached out a large hand to grab Harry's arm. The cat-like creature also used its small, white teeth to bite Harry's trouser leg, trying to drag him backward.

Harry nodded and retreated away from the Forbidden Forest, his eyes fixed on the dark woods. He even hoped that Peter Pettigrew would rush out and fight them now, so that he and Hagrid could seize him and stop the guy from always lurking in the shadows, watching them with predatory intent.

At this moment, the great hunting dog, Tooth, also became restless. It stared intently at the dark gap between the tree trunks, its nose wrinkled, and it let out a low growl. Its body was low to the ground, as if it were about to pounce at any moment.

"No, Tooth!" Hagrid grabbed Tooth by the collar behind its neck and pulled it backward.

Harry tilted his head; he could already hear the rustling sounds coming from the woods. The sounds were getting closer and louder, as if a group of huge monsters were rushing towards them, accompanied by a noisy clattering sound that was quite irritating to the ears.

They approached unexpectedly quickly; before the two had gone far, the sounds were already close to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and would soon break through its final barrier.

"Hmm? That voice is... Aragog?" Hagrid asked tentatively into the woods.

The clicking sound from the darkness grew louder, and a pair of gleaming black claws emerged from among the lush branches, followed by several long, hairy legs. Eight glittering spots lit up in the shadows, and then more claws appeared behind those dark, long legs.

By the time Harry realized that the eight bright spots were actually eyes, even more bright spots had densely filled the once dark grove. These eyes stared at them unabashedly, and the large spider that had been running at the front was now fully visible on the grass outside the woods.

"Eight-eyed spiders..." Harry recognized these giant spiders; last year, Owen had secretly caught a few to feed the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets. But now, facing a group of lively eight-eyed spiders, the overwhelming sense of oppression and danger made him feel as if his chest had been frozen, and a deep sense of disgust and fear welled up inside him.

He admitted that ever since he was nearly bitten to death by a poisonous spider, he has developed a subtle psychological aversion to spiders.

"Hagrid?" Harry shouted, raising his wand and pointing it at the swarm of giant spiders charging menacingly towards them. He knew Hagrid seemed to be quite familiar with these eight-eyed spiders.

"Stop! What are you doing? You shouldn't have left the Forbidden Forest!" Hagrid roared, waving his arms, trying to drive them back. His booming voice startled a flock of birds in the forest.

"Food! Food!"

"Hunting! I'm so hungry, so hungry..."

"Humans! Delicious human flesh!"

"Kill! Kill them! Kill them...eat them..."

Without the slightest pause, the giant eight-eyed spiders swiftly moved their long, hairy legs and pounced towards them. Their enormous size made them look like a series of rampaging cars. They clicked and clacked, manipulating their large black pincers, spewing out frantic chatter.

"Stop! Go back! You're not allowed to eat people!" Hagrid's loud voice even drowned out the spiders' clamor, and then he was overwhelmed by a large swarm of spiders.

"Stun!" Harry finally began to cast the spell. A beam of red light struck the head of an eight-eyed spider precisely, knocking it to the side where its eight long legs curled up, before it was overwhelmed by the swarm of spiders.

"Hagrid, something's wrong with them!" Harry shouted at Hagrid, frantically casting spells. The swarm of man-eating spiders seemed to have completely lost their minds, wildly swinging their pincers to attack them.

Harry rolled awkwardly across the grass, dodging a pair of strangely shaped spider legs, and managed to shoot a large spider on its soft abdomen, but there were already spiders all around him.

The cat-like creature beside him had long since run far away, turning into a white line on the blackish-green grass as it sped towards the castle.

Hagrid emerged from the swarm of spiders, most of his body exposed, as giant spiders relentlessly climbed onto him. He grabbed the long legs of the eight-eyed spiders with both hands and tossed them far away; their massive black pincers posed no threat to him whatsoever.

The big hunting dog, Tooth, tucked its tail between its legs and ran towards the cabin, but it hadn't gone far when a giant eight-eyed spider grabbed it by its hind leg, and it was curled up, howling pitifully.

"Harry! Where are you?" Hagrid strode toward Harry's location, clearing away the large spiders blocking his way, and rescuing the whimpering Tooth in the process. The spiders posed no threat to him; they were merely obstructing his view.

He called Harry's name anxiously, but the small Harry was completely overwhelmed by the swarm of spiders. He flung away an eight-eyed giant spider that had crawled onto his chest like a frisbee, glanced around, and strode toward the direction of the spell flash, knocking over spider after spider along the way.

Harry felt as if he were being swallowed by a tsunami, unable to distinguish any directions, surrounded by large, hairy black legs and clicking pincers. He maintained his armor charm and fired spells in all directions, each one hitting a large spider.

But there were too many eight-eyed spiders, and he could only drift along with them, seemingly getting further and further away from Hagrid. Hagrid's shouts came from afar, and amidst the loud clicking sounds, he couldn't even tell which direction they were coming from.

"I'm here!" Harry was a little dizzy and shouted between incantations, but his voice didn't carry very far.

He heard a dangerous whooshing sound in his ear, and without hesitation, he lunged forward. A large claw grazed the back of his neck, and the cold wind whipped up by its sharp tip made his neck feel chilly.

Harry broke out in a cold sweat, but he didn't even have time to feel the shock. Another large claw attacked him, big enough to snap his neck in one go. He rolled to the side, his arm bumping into a hairy spider leg.

Before he could react, he was swept up by two spider legs, dangling face down in mid-air, his wrist gripping the wand tightly with a large pincer. Then, he was carried through the dense network of long legs and dragged into the dark thicket.

"I've caught someone! A fresh and delicious person!" the large spider that had caught him clicked and squeaked.

In the instant that Harry was completely engulfed by the foliage, he only caught a glimpse of Hagrid looking in his direction with a look of shock and anger, waving his large umbrella and sending sparks flying.

……

The four-poster bed that appeared from the House of Requirement was soft and warm, with a roaring fire in the fireplace next to it, bathing the surroundings in a soft, warm orange light, and making the air feel cozy.

Irving was lost in a sweet dream, his pale lips slightly pursed, a faint smile playing on his lips.

A cluster of black flames burst into flames in the room with a "whoosh," and Nyx's noble and elegant figure emerged from the fire, his long and flowing black and gold tail feathers reflecting a shimmering light in the flames.

It poked its beautiful head through the curtains of the four-poster bed, tilting its head to look at the sleeping Owen, its bright red eyes like the most beautiful rubies. It clicked its sharp beak open and closed, then leaned close to Owen's ear and let out a rapid but still melodious chirp.

Owen groggily opened his eyes, his sweet dreams disturbed. He stared blankly at Nyx, his eyes fogged with a dark mist. No matter how pleasant a sound is, it becomes annoying once it becomes an alarm clock, especially when it wakes someone up before they've had enough sleep.

Nyx clicked its beak in dissatisfaction, glanced at him sideways, and relayed what Melete had told it.

Owen snapped to attention, a sharp glint appearing in his dark eyes: "Merlett received word from her brother that Harry was attacked?"

Nyx nodded lazily, preening her feathers to herself, and didn't forget to flap her wings to suppress the tuft of hair sticking up on Owen's head.

"Where are you? How is it?" Owen asked quickly, nimbly getting out of bed, lifting the curtain of the four-poster bed, and jumping onto the carpet. His robes floated over and automatically spread out over his body.

Nyx called out softly.

"On the edge of the Forbidden Forest? What would he be doing there at a time like this..." Owen muttered irritably as he finished dressing. "I wonder what kind of attack it was? Well, that makes sense..."

Melett was able to have her siblings take turns protecting Harry thanks to the cats' innately keen senses. As siblings born of the same mother, they were bound by blood and very close, able to vaguely sense each other's intense emotions within a certain distance. It was through this connection that Melett was able to receive information in a timely manner, though only with very vague perception.

Owen patted his cheeks, about to grab Nyx's tail feathers and have them teleport him there, when he suddenly felt a chill run through his body.

A sense of danger, as if he were being watched by something, made him feel uneasy, instantly raising goosebumps all over his body. It was as if he were being tortured by a naked, sharp gaze, yet he couldn't sense the source of the gaze.

But this is the Room of Requirement, and the room we're in right now is Owen's secret base, so there shouldn't be anything else here.

A chilling and ominous black mist surged up instantly, and the Black Demon Guardian appeared beside him, aimlessly circling around Owen, the cool hem of his clothes occasionally brushing against his cheeks and hair.

Nyx stared blankly at Owen, her hair standing on end, and moved a little further away from the Dark Lord Guard, her red eyes filled with confusion. So, Owen had finally gone mad? What should she do? Slap him?

Ignoring Nyx's inner monologue, Owen quietly gripped his wand, his eyes narrowed to slits, looking incredibly cold and dangerous. A feeling of being stared at intently sent chills down his spine.

He looked around the room, which was neither too big nor too small. This room, which had been specially separated to serve as a bedroom, was laid out similarly to his bedroom at the Shafiq Manor. Next to the door stood a large black wardrobe, and on the soft carpet were two armchairs, one next to the wardrobe and the other in front of the desk on the other side of the four-poster bed. At the far end of the room was an exquisite carved fireplace.

By the flickering light of the fireplace, Owen quickly spotted the anomaly in the room.

On the other side of the four-poster bed, near the desk by the fireplace, a dark shadow was cast on the carpet. The shadow was particularly dark, as if it had been painted with thick ink on the ground, and it looked somewhat abstract, only vaguely recognizable as a huge four-legged beast.

It looked like a cow, a bear, a cat, and a dog... its outline shifted and blurred like smoke.

But nothing in the room could reflect such a shadow, and the fireplace, the only light source in the room, could not possibly cast a shadow at that position and angle.

"Nyx, can't you see?" Owen said softly to the phoenix, whose forehead was full of questions.

Nyx stared at him blankly, her bright red eyes filled with suspicion.

Seeing Nyx's reaction, Irving no longer needed to wait for its reply.

A sudden dark shadow, a constant sense of danger, a shadow like a dog, visible only to oneself... Could it be an ominous sign of death? An ominous sign?

Owen's expression shifted, but now was not the time to dwell on it, for the shadow had solidified from its ever-changing form into a truly massive dog, stretching its limbs and slowly approaching him. (End of Chapter)