Chapter 158
Chapter 158
Last time, Suer had fled through the Forbidden Forest with spiders chasing him like a pig to slaughter.
Now he stood with his hands in his pockets and searched in every direction, unable to find a worthy opponent.
Possessing a way to save his life had made him arrogant.
Bang.
His wrist moved with subtle precision, and his wand eagerly answered the spell. A beam of red light struck an Acromantula that had entered his safe range and hurled it away.
After so long training — or suffering — under Snape, Suer had never found an opportunity to see how much he had improved.
Now the perfect opportunity had arrived, and it was certainly exciting.
Every spider was coming for him.
What fun was there in attacking training dummies compared with living targets?
Suer retreated while waving his wand, watching every direction and listening to everything around him. Whenever a spider entered his safe range, he struck it with a Knockback Jinx.
The spiders suffered little harm. Their powerful resistance to magic meant that being thrown merely left them dazed. This sobered Suer somewhat. He truly needed Snape to teach him Sectumsempra. An ordinary Cutting Charm could leave no more than a white mark on an Acromantula; it was far too weak.
Fighting as he retreated, Suer felt his magic nearing exhaustion beneath the dense stream of spells.
That was enough.
“Wait!” he shouted. “Aragog, I’m Hagrid’s friend. Hagrid sent me to find you.”
Click.
A faint but unmistakable sound carried from the hollow. Every spider stopped like soldiers receiving an order from their general.
“Who… are you?” Aragog’s puzzled voice came from beneath the pale webs at the rear of the hollow.
“That isn’t important.” Suer stopped and took several breaths. At some point, his other hand had closed around a bottle, thumb pressed against the edge of its stopper.
“What matters is that you fell for it.”
With a casual swing, he threw the bottle high into the air and struck it precisely with a spell.
Glass shattered sharply. Fireleaf fibres drifted down from the bottle, and Suer immediately followed with a Breeze Charm. A current of air appeared from nowhere and scattered the fibres.
Click!
A much louder snap followed. The motionless spiders understood the anger within it and lunged at Suer together.
“Wretched wizard!” Aragog’s aged but piercing voice rang out.
Suer was already smiling as he gripped Fawkes’s feather. Brilliant light burst from the golden-red feather. His wand hand began a subtle rotation, light gathering at its tip and growing steadily brighter.
“I hope you enjoy my gift. Goodbye.”
“Confringo!”
A spell brighter than all those before it shot away an instant before golden-red phoenix fire enveloped Suer’s body.
The dead leaves erupted into flame. A continuous chain of thunderous explosions startled the young wizards in the castle awake.
From the tower windows, they could see only red light rising deep within the Forbidden Forest as countless birds burst from the trees.
The distant centaur camp also descended into uproar. Their language travelled from one end of the camp to the other, and then a fully armed group charged out.
Inside the swaying car, Harry felt the vehicle shudder violently several times.
He naturally heard the explosions behind them. They appeared to come from the spiders’ lair.
What had happened?
That night, the Forbidden Forest and a castle already troubled by the Chamber of Secrets were destined for noise and sleeplessness.
Suer, the cause of the disaster, had already been returned to the castle by Fawkes’s teleportation magic.
The moment he reached the Room of Requirement, he buried himself in the soft bed without even tidying up.
Ah… that felt wonderful. It was a pity he had not brought back a few spider legs. A little salt and fire would have made them delicious.
Never mind. Next time, he would take the Weasley twins into the Forbidden Forest and drag out a spider. Those creatures bred prodigiously.
One modest Blasting Curse and a fire could not possibly destroy an entire colony. Suer understood that perfectly.
The Room of Requirement’s excellent soundproofing, however, prevented him from hearing the chain of explosions that continued in the hollow after his successful retreat.
The reason was simple. Spiders preferred dark, damp places. As leader of the colony, Aragog received prey from dutiful descendants every day.
Spiders plainly had no habit of clearing away their meals. They generally covered the remains with fallen leaves and left them where they lay.
Over time, the hollow had become a natural reservoir of marsh gas, concealed beneath a thick blanket of leaves.
In other words, Suer’s Blasting Curse and fireleaf fibres had acted like a fuse.
Little explanation was needed for what happened when flame met highly concentrated combustible gas.
The young wizards erupted into uproar the following day, and Suer was equally dumbfounded.
Hermione rushed over between lessons, woke him and ordered him into his Animagus form. Carrying him along the eighth floor, she found a corridor with a view towards the Forbidden Forest.
The forest had once been lush and green. Now its left side looked as though someone had gouged out a piece overnight, while the edges of the empty space remained scorched brown by fire…
I only started one fire… How did it become this?
Was there still any hope for his roasted spider legs?
Suer had not expected his first concern to be whether he could still eat the legs.
Then again, Acromantula had something in common with king crabs: both carried plenty of sweet, fragrant meat in their legs…
“Explain. What happened?” After showing Suer the Forbidden Forest, Hermione hurried back to the Room of Requirement, tossed him onto the bed and folded her arms.
“I don’t believe this had nothing to do with you.”
She looked remarkably like an interrogator in uniform holding a whip before a prisoner.
In truth, Hermione had sensed something wrong after Suer talked her into returning to the dormitory the previous night. She had remained at the tower’s best vantage point, watching the direction of Hagrid’s hut.
Despite the darkness and Suer’s efforts to conceal himself along the path, he could not escape Hermione’s deliberate scrutiny.
“Would you believe me if I said it had almost nothing to do with me?” Suer rolled across the bed, returned to human form and cautiously studied Hermione’s expression.
“Er… perhaps it had the tiniest bit to do with me…”
Hermione continued staring. A small flame appeared in her eyes.
“All right, I confess.” Sensing danger, Suer immediately raised both hands above his head. “I did it…”
Hermione huffed, looking as though he had made the sensible choice.
“Professor Flitwick told us that most of the castle’s professors had to rush out in the middle of the night to fight the fire. You nearly burnt down the entire Forbidden Forest.”
“W-was it truly that serious?” Suer guiltily lowered his head and muttered.
“I only started a fire and cast one Blasting Curse. How was I supposed to know those Acromantula couldn’t extinguish something so small?”
“That must have been quite a Blasting Curse.”