The days at Hogwarts

Hermione, Harry, and Ron looked as if they had seen Merlin's expression. They looked at the Acromantulas on the ground with twitching eyes. There was even Acromantula ashes floating in the air. They began to doubt themselves and Hogwarts.

This is a second-year wizard? I am a second-year wizard?

We studied together, so why is there such a big gap?

Seeing the power of the piercing spell, Loren also took a breath of cold air.

The night he regained his memory, he felt pain all over his body, but he thought it was just another ordinary magic riot. He didn't expect it to be so much stronger.

Chapter 208: Action, Sneaking into the Slytherin Common Room

The depression that served as the nest of the eight-eyed giant spider was in a mess. Apart from the painful groans of some spiders, there was only the howling of the cold wind mixed with ice and snow.

Most of the spiders were beaten to the point of losing their fighting power, and the remaining spiders were frightened by Loren's strength and dared not approach him in fear.

"Damn it! They actually want to eat us!" Ron gritted his teeth and looked at the broken eight-eyed giant spider with missing limbs. He felt that spiders didn't seem so scary anymore.

The eight-eyed giant spider standing next to Aragog huddled together and trembled constantly. Although he couldn't see, Aragog seemed to have heard the scene in front of him from the many groans. The white film covering his eyes became turbid and unclear, and he let out a sad hiss.

A trace of pity flashed across Hermione's eyes, but she quickly became resolute. If Loren hadn't been strong enough, they wouldn't just be missing limbs, but would have been completely dead.

There are more than one group of Acromanthus in the Forbidden Forest, but neither the unicorns nor the centaurs will take the initiative to harm the young wizard. The Acromanthus ignored Hagrid's kindness, and this is what they deserve.

The heat of the explosion melted the snow in the hollow, and the cold, hard soil absorbed enough water to become muddy and sticky. Harry trudged clumsily through the mud and came to the old, dying giant spider.

The eight-eyed giant spider that had been responsible for passing messages beside Aragog trembled and stepped back, giving up its place next to Aragog.

After thinking for a few minutes, Harry still couldn't understand: "Don't you want to save Hagrid?"

Aragog, who was as big as a baby elephant, gasped weakly and made a choking sound. His terrifying appearance actually revealed some sadness: "Hagrid, Hagrid..."

It did not answer Harry's question, and fell into deep memories: "I come from a distant country, and a traveler gave me to Hagrid before I was hatched from the egg. Hagrid was still a child at the time, and he took care of me, hiding me in a cupboard in the castle and collecting bread crumbs scattered on the table to feed me. He treated me as a friend, and he was a good man. Later, when people found me and held me responsible for the death of a girl, he protected me even though he could not protect himself. He helped me settle down in the woods, often visited me, and even found me a wife - Mosag. You see, our tribe has developed so prosperously, thanks to Hagrid's help."

Harry became even angrier. He growled, "Then why don't you give us a clue so we can rescue Hagrid?"

"The basilisk is the natural enemy of the giant spider. If you human wizards drive the basilisk into the forbidden forest like you did to me, my race will perish."

Big tears oozed from Aragog's eight eyes and flowed into the spider's shell. It was unclear whether he was crying for his friendship with Hagrid or for the tragic situation of his tribe.

"I'm getting pretty old, and I don't know how many more winters I can survive. I don't think it would be such a bad thing if Hagrid died with me."

Harry roared, "Hagrid isn't too old! He's got many more winters left in him!"

He felt like he was holding back a breath, and he wished he could burn all those eight-eyed giant spiders into ashes with fire.

Aragog did not argue, it panted weakly, confirming what it had said. It was old, and it was unknown how many winters it could survive.

They spoke loudly, and Loren and the others could hear them on the other side of the depression. The three of them cast a levitation spell on themselves, avoiding the mud on the ground, and floated to Aragog's side.

Hermione looked at Aragog, the giant spider friend that Hagrid mentioned. After a long pause, Hermione said in a deep voice, "I think Hagrid must have told you not to hurt any human. You are not worthy of being Hagrid's friend. You don't have any of his good qualities."

Aragog slumped limply in the mud, uttering no word, with only his weak breathing proving that he was still alive.

Ron kicked it lightly: "Don't play dead, tell us the information quickly, Hagrid is waiting to come back for Christmas!"

Aragog didn't react at all.

Harry and Ron were so angry that they just let them kick Aragog without saying a word.

Hermione's face was tense, and she angrily kicked him twice.

The shell of the limbs was kicked with a "bang bang" sound, and Aragog groaned twice, feeling that his brain was about to be kicked apart and turned yellow. He didn't know how many winters he could survive with normal aging, but if this little witch kept kicking him, he would definitely not survive today.

Unable to bear it any longer, it weakly said, "I won't tell you. For the continuation of the tribe, I hope the basilisk will stay in the castle forever."

"How could Hagrid raise someone like you? Even Norbert is better than you!" Harry cursed angrily.

Snowflakes were falling non-stop, and the snow that had just melted was showing signs of refreezing. Loren shuddered, and he squatted down so that Aragog could hear him more clearly:

"The basilisk is much more dangerous than you, the Acromanthus. The unicorn community and the centaur community will not let the basilisk enter the Forbidden Forest. Dumbledore will also not leave any safety risks for the young wizards. You can think about the meaning of this sentence yourself. In addition, if you don't say it, the Acromanthus tribe will die today." Loren waved his wand and blew up a huge tree that required three people to hug it.

The tree trunks fell into the snow with a dull thud.

The sound was like thunder, exploding in Aragog's brain and making him tremble all over.

Aragog was also crying in his heart... Aren't these Hagrid's friends? Aren't they supposed to be kind and brave Gryffindors?

First, they beat and kicked the little witch until she almost vomited bile.

And there's this wizard who threatens to exterminate the clan if it doesn't reveal any clues. How can they be kind? How can they be Hagrid's friends? How can they be Gryffindors?

Loren's wand tapped gently on Aragog's shell, and every sound of solid wood and shell colliding made the giant spider tremble with fear.

"Pipes! The basilisk moves through pipes!" Aragog squeezed out some strength from his broken body and shouted, "Although I have been staying in the basement, I have noticed its traces several times when the basilisk passed by."

Harry's face showed joy, and he suddenly realized: "No wonder I heard the sound of the basilisk several times, but didn't find its trace. It has been hiding in the water pipe in the wall!"

Loren's wand continued to tap: "Any other clues?"

"No, no more." Aragog argued, "I gave you the clue, let my people go!"

Loren hesitated. To be honest, he didn't want to let these Acromantulas go. He had little tolerance for man-eating animals, and he remembered that the Acromantulas had helped Voldemort in the end. But Aragog was so cooperative, it would be bad if he went back on his word.

"Leave them alone."

With the sound of horse hooves, two centaurs walked out of the woods, Firenze with silver mane and Ronan with red mane.

"Firenze! Ronan!" Harry shouted in surprise. They had met him in the Forbidden Forest last year, and it was the centaurs who rescued him from Quirrell.

Yaya followed the two centaurs, shaking his head, and quickly rushed to Loren, leaving mud marks all over his robe. He kept barking.

Loren heard that it was the one who went to call for reinforcements and was seeking credit and praise.

Firenze took a few leaps and approached the group, looking at them with twitching eyes, and looking at the miserable scene around him, his mood was very complicated.

After the huge explosion, they rushed over and just happened to see several people being tortured into confessions.

To be honest, magic is very powerful, especially for a young wizard of this age to cast such a powerful spell. Hogwarts' magic education is excellent. But on the other hand, Hogwarts' moral education seems to be a bit wrong, with fists and feet, torture, threats of extermination...

Durmstrang, which is famous for its dark magic, can't be that outrageous...

Ronan wandered among the eight-eyed giant spiders for a while before coming over and saying in a mysterious way, "Jupiter's revelation: proper dormancy is more conducive to the prosperity of the tribe."

Ron whispered to his friend, "What do you mean?"

“These spiders are multiplying recklessly, and they have already occupied the living space of many other animals. In a few years, other animals will unite and completely exterminate these spiders. With your intervention, they will give up some territory and be able to survive for a few more decades,” Firenze explained.

"Why don't you just tell me what's happening next? Why do you have to bring this up with astrology?" Ron complained to Harry in a low voice.

No one paid attention to his complaints.

Hermione remembered what Dumbledore had said, and asked with sparkling eyes, "Did Dumbledore communicate with you in advance?"

Firenze nodded, "Dumbledore left a letter for us elders, saying that you might need help. When we rushed over, we happened to run into Fang."

Ronan asked hesitantly, "What happened in the castle, and why did Dumbledore send you ponies to the Forbidden Forest?"

Harry thought of the good relationship between the centaurs and Hagrid, so he told Hagrid everything about how the centaurs were wrongly captured.

"I once told you that Mars foretells strife..." Firenze's hooves stomped restlessly on the ground.

Ron curled his lips and muttered, "Jupiter's revelation, Mars's foreshadowing...what's going on with the other stars? Did the stars tell us how to rescue Hagrid?"

Harry tugged at his sleeve to silence him.

“Yes.” Firenze heard it and answered seriously, “The sun’s trajectory has deviated, and the world will undergo unprecedented changes.”

Loren was very sensitive to words like the sun, so he immediately asked, "What changes?"

Firenze spread his hands: "I don't know."

The four little wizards curled their lips at the same time, not knowing what you were talking about.

Loren looked around and put away his wand: "Let's go back to school to check the basilisk. If we act quickly, we can really get Hagrid back for Christmas."

There is still about a week until Christmas. If he is more proactive, he can hand in the task to Dumbledore ahead of time and have a good Christmas.

The centaurs escorted them all the way to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Firenze stopped and looked in the distance towards the castle. "You have to walk the rest of the way on your own, foals."

Ronan walked around Harry and Ron a few times, looking at them seriously. "You guys raised that tin box, right? Take it back as soon as possible. It's running rampant in the Forbidden Forest, never resting at night, and always roaring. The animals are fed up with it."

"The flying car!" Ron exclaimed in surprise. He was so happy that he was incoherent. "It hasn't been smashed to pieces... Oh, that's great..."

"Don't worry, we will take the flying car away after we finish dealing with the castle matters." Harry blushed a little. Driving the flying car and breaking the Whomping Willow was not a smart thing to do.

"Remember what the stars tell us!"

Before leaving, Loren entrusted Fang to the centaurs and told them that Hagrid would go directly to them to bring Fang back when he returned.

Gryffindor common room.

Loren, Hermione, Harry and Ron sat around the fireplace, the rising flames dispelling the chill they brought from the forest.

"It is known that after the basilisk came out of the secret room, it wandered around the castle through the pipes. The location of the secret room is currently unknown."

Hermione took out an empty candy box to represent the Chamber of Secrets, a licorice wand to represent the basilisk, and placed two Beebe Every-Flavor Beans in front of the Chamber of Secrets. "There are two people we suspect now, one is Malfoy and the other is Crabbe. It is also possible that neither of them is the case, and the heir is hiding deeper than we thought."

"In any case, we have to enter the Slytherin common room and extract some information from them. It would be best if we could determine who the heir is, or find out the location of the Chamber of Secrets," Hermione analyzed in a serious manner.

"The Polyjuice Potion will be ready before dinner, and everyone else in the castle is gone, which will be convenient for us to act. In addition, we will need some things for the person we want to transform into."

She looked at Harry and Ron and spoke lightly, as if she was sending them to the supermarket to buy laundry detergent. "If you can get something from Crabbe and Goyle, that would be great. They are Malfoy's best friends and it will be very convenient for us to extract information. We also need to make sure that when we interrogate Malfoy, the real Crabbe and Goyle must not come in."

After instructing Harry and Ron, she turned her gaze to Lauren.

Loren took out two large bottles of Hell Potion from his pocket. He had stored a lot of it to help the basilisk detect its vision. Anyway, Snape had enough. These two bottles were prepared by several senior members of the potion club. They were of high quality and had no unknown side effects.

"According to Hermione's plan, find a way to put the Living Hell Potion into Crabbe and Goyle's food. After they are unconscious, pull out a few strands of their hair. Then stuff them into the broom closet."

"Oh, okay, okay." Harry thought over his plan. "But Hermione, Loren, what about you two? Whose hair are you going to pull?"

Loren shook his head: "I won't turn into anyone. I will stay by your side in stealth to support you and prevent any accidents."

Of course he knew that he couldn't get any information out of Malfoy. But now the clues were almost clear: the sewer pipes, the bathroom, the first murder scene of Myrtle... After Harry and Ron came back, with a little guidance from him, they would be able to determine the location of the Chamber of Secrets.

Why do I have to use Polyjuice Potion? Of course it’s to see the little cat girl.

"I already have mine!" Hermione said happily, pulling a small bottle from her pocket and showing a strand of hair inside. "Remember the Dueling Club event? Millicent and I were fighting, and I held her down and took it from her collar. She went home for Christmas, and I just had to tell Malfoy that I decided to come back again."

"Pfft!" Loren couldn't help but chuckle.

Hermione looked at Loren suspiciously: "What are you laughing at?"

"I think of happy things..."

……

After dinner, Myrtle's bathroom.

Loren and Hermione were squeezed into a small single room. Hermione kept stirring the crucible, and thick black smoke came out of the crucible.

In the past, they always worked on the flat ground outside, hiding the cauldron in the small room at night and taking it out again the next day. But now, the Polyjuice Potion was about to succeed, and Hermione was anxious and didn't want to move it around. So the two of them squeezed directly into the compartment to stir the cauldron.

Harry and Ron ran in from the bathroom and knocked softly on the door. "Loren, Hermione."

Loren and Hermione came out holding three cups of potion. The potion, as thick as syrup, was still bubbling in the flat-bottomed glass cups.

"Did you get it?" Hermione asked.

Harry showed her, holding a few strands of hair in one hand, pulling at the laces of two large shoes with the other, and carrying Goyle's large wizarding robes under his arm.

But his tone was not relaxed: "Only Goyle's. I don't know where Crabbe is."

Ron was a little uneasy about this unexpected incident: "Crabbe didn't show up during the entire dinner. We couldn't find him."

Loren frowned, wanting to stop the action tonight.

Hermione pursed her lips and said, "Harry and I will take Polyjuice Potion. Loren, you and Ron will stay invisible and follow us. The effect of Polyjuice Potion will last for an hour."

Before Laurent could think about it, Hermione had already added "Millicent's Hair" to the Polyjuice Potion in her hand. The flat-bottomed glass cup made a loud sound and bubbles kept coming out like a carbonated drink. After a few seconds, the reaction stopped and the potion turned into an ugly yellow color.

Hermione swallowed it in one gulp, and Harry followed her example and drank the Polyjuice Potion as well. They found a cubicle and went to change their clothes.

Ron stared at the remaining liquid in the two cups with disgust and said, "Oh - the essence of Millicent Bulstrode, the essence of Gregory Goyle, I guess they must taste terrible."

The transformation brought a quick burst of pain, with screams of pain coming from the two people in the compartment, but it was completed quickly.

Harry unlocked the compartment, stepped out in Goyle's image, and said in a low, gruff voice, "How's it going?"

Ron circled around him several times, jumped up and patted his shoulder: "Oh! It's exactly the same. Unbelievable, unbelievable..."

The two of them were having fun on the side.

Loren had been waiting outside Hermione's compartment long ago. He estimated the time, knocked on the door, and tried to call out in a calm tone, "Hermione, how are you? Are you okay?"