A certain Hogwarts professor of runes

Chapter 226 Aragog

Felix rarely used flying brooms, but it was the most appropriate method; he had no interest in spending hours exploring the location of the eight-eyed giant spider's nest.

He took a glass bottle out of his pocket and asked the eight-eyed giant spider inside, "Can you pinpoint the location?"

"You're going to the spider's nest?" the eight-eyed giant spider asked in surprise.

"Yes, it'll broaden my horizons," Felix replied dismissively.

The giant spider had long understood the wizard's temperament; if there was no benefit to be gained, he would have simply tossed it aside at the edge of the forest and walked away. His current attitude could only mean he intended to do something to the spider swarm.

Although there were over three hundred giant eight-eyed spiders in the nest, it was still unsure and simply kept quiet. Felix stuffed it into his pocket, flew in the direction the centaur had pointed out for him for almost half an hour, and then jumped off the broom.

"Next," Felix waved his wand, "I remember stamping those three giant eight-eyed spiders earlier. Let me see where you are?"

Several weeks ago, Felix ventured deep into the Forbidden Forest to practice his Scaling Charm. He accidentally entered the hunting range of the eight-eyed giant spiders and was attacked by a group of them. As expected, he subdued the spiders, and secretly cast tracking magic on several of them...

Felix quickly sensed the direction of the magical mark and followed a winding path. The ground was covered with more and more pebbles, intertwined tree roots, and scattered spider webs.

"The silk of the eight-eyed giant spider is non-toxic." Felix picked at the silk with his fingertip. The slime on it had dried and felt like a flexible rope.

"Maybe I can add it to the Binding Vine. I wonder what the effect would be," Felix muttered, casually collecting some of the white spider web.

Soon, he heard a whooshing sound, followed by a series of clicking sounds. Felix looked back and saw that thirty or forty giant eight-eyed spiders, each the size of a small carriage, had surrounded him.

One minute later.

Felix took a goblet from his ring and stuffed all thirty-odd shrunken eight-eyed giant spiders into it.

After thinking for a moment, he took out a glass bottle from his pocket and released the original eight-eyed giant spider 'prisoner'. After a burst of intense blue light, it finally returned to its original state.

"Here, your companion, hold on tight, don't break it." Felix placed the goblet in the crevice of its left pincer, and the eight-eyed giant spider's eight dark eyes stared intently at the small spiders huddled together in the goblet.

"You, you put them..." In his agitation, the eight-eyed giant spider dented the goblet. The little spiders inside scurried around in panic, but the rim of the goblet was covered by a semi-transparent membrane, making escape impossible.

"Explaining to each one individually is too troublesome; let's save ourselves the trouble." Felix toyed with his ebony wand. "By the way, I haven't asked your name yet. Do you guys have names?"

The eight-eyed giant spider paused for a few seconds, then said in a gruff voice, "Gok, my name is Gok."

Felix said, "Gorker? I remember the guy Hagrid originally kept in the cupboard was named Aragog... What's your relationship with him?"

The eight-eyed giant spider, Gork, reluctantly said, "I am his child."

It seems that even magical creatures experience family discord, as Felix didn't ask questions like "Which child are you?" or "What's your relationship with Aragog?"

They ventured deeper into the forbidden forest, where even during the day, the light was dim, with the towering beech trees overhead acting like layers of canopies, completely blocking out the sunlight.

Felix waved his wand, causing a ring of eerie blue flames to swirl around him, providing ample illumination. Spiders of all sizes began to appear on the leaf-strewn ground, swarming everywhere from the exposed tree roots and piles of leaves.

"I vaguely remember a very obscure spell, the Spider Repelling Spell?" Most of his consciousness entered his mind chamber, and a moment later he flicked his hand and unleashed a red light. The little spiders moved away from him uncontrollably, and even the eight-eyed giant spider Gork retreated swiftly.

Felix scratched his head. "I almost forgot about you, okay." He canceled the spell, cast a levitation spell on himself, and floated lightly on the back of the eight-eyed giant spider, Gork.

"let's go."

He plucked a hair from the back of the eight-eyed giant spider, transformed it into a soft cushion, and sat on it.

Goke, the eight-eyed giant spider, strongly objected, but it knew it was pointless to raise the issue. It grunted twice, and its other free claw made a "click-clack" sound, seemingly venting its anger.

They set off again. The fallen leaves on the ground were decreasing, and white spider webs were increasing. During this process, giant eight-eyed spiders kept spotting them, but Felix's shrinking spell turned them into tiny spiders, stuffing them all into goblets.

They came to the edge of a wide, sunken clearing. In the light of the blue flames, Felix saw hundreds of enormous creatures, some as large as a small carriage, their silhouettes in the distance. He jumped off Gork.

In the center of the depression lay a misty, hemispherical spiderweb. Several giant eight-eyed spiders approached, one of them, with white hair on its head, saying, "Gork, you've brought the wizard. Have you betrayed Aragok?"

In the darkness, more clicking sounds rang out, sounding eerie and terrifying in the dark, lightless forest.

The eight-eyed giant spider, known as "Gok," roared angrily, "I have not betrayed Aragok, never!" It raised one of its large pincers and shouted towards the hemispherical web in the center of the depression, "Aragok, Aragok!"

From the misty, hemispherical spiderweb, a spider the size of an African elephant emerged very slowly. Its body and legs were blackish-gray, and each eye on its ugly head was covered with a white film. It was blind.

"What's going on?" it said, clicking rapidly with its two large claws.

"Gork is back," said the large spider with white hair on its head, "and he's with people."

"Who is it, Hagrid?" Aragog moved closer, his eight milky-white eyes staring blankly into the distance.

"No, it's a strange wizard."

"Kill him, I'm sleeping..." Aragog said irritably.

"Oh, I don't think so, I have hostages," Felix said lightly.

"Hostage..." Aragog was somewhat bewildered. It looked blankly in Felix's direction, its large, gray-black pincers flailing. "Gagog, what did you do?"

"Old man," Gork, the eight-eyed giant spider, said gruffly, "have you completely lost your mind? This wizard says he has hostages!" he roared. "They're in a goblet, shrunk down... all our kind, over a hundred of them!"

Aragog remained silent for most of the day. Just as Felix was wondering if it had fallen asleep, it finally spoke, its words much more cautious: "Which powerful wizard has come to my territory? I, Aragog, the founder of the Forbidden Forest's Eight-Eyed Spider colony, have a non-aggression pact with Hogwarts."

Felix chuckled softly. "That's interesting. I've always wondered where Gorker's indifference to human life comes from, and I think I might have found it."

"You've come to the wrong place, wizard. We haven't harmed any young wizards," Aragog said, slapping the ground with its large, gray-black pincers. More and more large spiders appeared, standing behind it.

(End of this chapter)