Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 246 Harry: This is the real magical battle!

In an instant, the ground covered with fallen leaves was filled with the crunching sounds of chewing. The dead spiders' bodies, not yet cooled, were devoured by their kin who swarmed forward.

While the spiders were enjoying a lavish feast of their own kind's corpses, Daphne and her two companions, guided by Harry, arrived at the spider's nest and witnessed it all firsthand.

All three of them showed obvious disgust on their faces.

"How could something like this be in the Forbidden Forest?"

"I don't know, but it looks like they've been breeding here for a long time," Astoria speculated based on the size of the depression.

"Look!" Daphne interrupted their conversation, gesturing for them to look toward the "feast."

A wisp of black smoke rose from the spider's corpse and clung to another massive, eight-eyed giant spider. The giant spider trembled a few times, and a hideous human face emerged from its back.

The spiders were all scrambling for food, completely unaware of the strange changes occurring on their companions—perhaps they were even enjoying it, because spiders possessed in this way would die in a very short time and become everyone's meal.

"This is the 'evil' Harry was talking about, isn't it? It certainly looks problematic." Hermione frowned.

Before witnessing all this, Hermione was still somewhat skeptical of what Harry said, but after seeing the black mist, she completely believed what Harry said.

What could be more evil than this?

"Wouldn't it be enough to just destroy that thing?" Daphne's hand, hidden beneath her robes, gripped her wand.

"It might work, it's worth a try," Astoria said, supporting her sister's idea.

Daphne, no longer hesitant, unleashed a powerful attack spell that struck the possessed spider's abdomen. The spider's abdominal cavity exploded like a watermelon, the fatal wound killing it instantly. A cloud of black mist rose from the spider's remains, flying at incredible speed towards the large web in the center of the depression.

Clearly, Daphne's spell did not actually harm the monster; it only killed the spider that possessed it.

"We need to enter the lair and find the true form of that black mist!" Astoria, based on the characteristics of the black mist, found a way to deal with it.

"Forget about the black fog, let's deal with the immediate problem first!" Hermione's anxious voice came from the side.

Daphne's spell was like an ice cube thrown into a pot of boiling oil, causing the entire depression to boil. Hundreds of spiders moved their large claws and rushed towards the source of the spell.

Standing on the edge of the depression and looking down, the spiders below look like waves.

"Should we retreat first?" After estimating the number of spiders, Astoria felt that things were a bit tricky. She thought they could use the Disillusionment Charm to hide themselves and run away before making a long-term plan.

"Let's do it!" Daphne immediately rejected Astoria's suggestion. She didn't believe the Disenchantment spell could fool these spiders. The Disenchantment was an optical form of invisibility; it couldn't eliminate a person's heat, odor, or the vibrations generated by their movements. Simply using the Disenchantment was no different from standing directly in front of these spiders.

Seeing her sister's determination to fight, Astoria no longer considered anything else and cast an Ironclad Spell in front of the three of them, creating a semi-transparent shield. Daphne, on the other hand, used attack spells to blast the spiders that approached them into pieces.

It was only then that Hermione, standing behind the two, realized what was happening. Her combat experience was so lacking that she hadn't initially realized her two companions were about to fight the spider.

Once the fight had raged on, she snapped out of her daze and drew her wand, inwardly scolding herself: Hermione Granger, what are you doing? Don't drag everyone down!

"Obstacles are numerous!"

"Thunderous explosion!"

A barrage of spells erupted from Hermione's wand tip like a machine gun, raining down on the "ocean" of spiders. Some spiders were knocked down, while others were frozen in place by her spells and overwhelmed by the spiders crawling up from behind, but the spells were as if they hadn't been cast at all in the face of the sheer number of spiders.

In just a few seconds, several spiders the size of carriages had crawled to the edge of the depression, no more than ten feet away from the three of them. Daphne and the others could clearly see the black hairs on their long legs and their shiny black eyes.

boom!

Daphne activated the spell stored in her necklace, instantly creating a passage through the sea of ​​spiders. All the eight-eyed giant spiders in the straight path of the spell were reduced to fragments.

The spider swarm paused for a moment.

Harry, looking down at the whole scene from the sky, had the most direct experience. He witnessed firsthand how the dark sea of ​​spiders had been carved out into a gray-white path. He was awestruck by the power of the spell: this was what real magical combat was like! Compared to the scene on the ground, the activities organized by the Duel Club were nothing but child's play.

However, this tactic can only be used a limited number of times. If Daphne and her companions can only rely on this method, their defeat is inevitable. Daphne clearly realized this, and she understood that she had to find a more effective spell to deal with the eight-eyed giant spider.

At that moment, the fallen leaves entangled in spider webs in the hollow caught her attention, and a bold idea popped into her mind.

"These spells alone won't work, let's set it on fire!" Taking advantage of the moment when the spider swarm was stunned, Daphne tried out her new idea.

Driven by her, the Nightmare began running around the edge of the depression. Wherever the Nightmare went, all the withered branches and leaves, along with the spider webs mixed in, burst into flames, quickly setting half a ring of fire around the depression.

A look of delight flashed across Daphne's face: just as she had expected, these spider webs were afraid of fire!

"Let's drive the fire down and burn this spider nest to the ground!" Daphne's pupils reflected the color of the flames as she made a near-mad decision.

The thought of the depression in front of her turning into a sea of ​​fire, with thousands of spiders struggling inside, sent a chill down even through Astoria.

Perhaps sensing the threat of the flames, the spider swarm began to stir again, organizing a second wave of spiders in an attempt to forcibly extinguish the raging fire that had been ignited at the edge of the depression.

Daphne and her companions naturally wouldn't let the spiders have their way, and the two sides resumed their tug-of-war.

Just as the two sides were deadlocked, the fire at the edge of the depression grew stronger and stronger. What were originally just a few scattered fires gradually connected into a line, and then a wall of fire.

"I have a spell to blow it away, so let me handle this." Hermione was pale, but she made the final decision—the monster hiding in the spider's nest had to be eliminated.

Just then, the spiders' attack stopped again, and each of the eight-eyed giant spiders began to make a strange sound; if you listened carefully, they seemed to be calling out a name.

Aragog!

Aragog!

Aragog!

The call to Aragog echoed throughout the depression.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

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(End of this chapter)