Chapter 149: Centaurs, Acromantula
The two ventured deep into the dense forest along the winding path. Hagrid glanced back frequently to make sure Ethan was still there and hadn't gotten lost.
"I'm right here. No need to keep looking," Ethan finally spoke up when Hagrid looked back for the seventh or eighth time. "How about I take the lead?"
"No. It's too dangerous up ahead. I'll go first." Hagrid flatly refused.
"You take Fang. He's a bit timid, but he can hold his own in the Forbidden Forest." Hagrid thought for a moment, then handed Fang's leash to Ethan.
"All right," Ethan said. Fang nuzzled his hand, then looked warily at the surrounding forest.
They crept along slowly, the lantern casting little light. Hagrid had to make sure the path ahead was clear before taking each step.
"Hagrid, can't you light your wand? It's too dark to see anything."
Ethan was growing anxious. They'd been walking for twenty minutes, but they'd probably covered less than a kilometer.
"I reckon I can. I'm just so used to not casting spells that I forgot I'm allowed to use them." Thanks to Ethan's reminder, Hagrid remembered his ban had been lifted.
He pulled out his umbrella. "Lumos!"
A beam of light shot through the pink umbrella he used to disguise his wand, illuminating a small patch of the surrounding woods.
Ethan stared at the pink glow, momentarily speechless. "Hagrid, you'd better take the wand out of that umbrella. It looks a bit strange."
"Lumos!" Ethan lit his own wand. Dazzling white light burst from the tip, piercing the dark woods and shooting into the distance.
"No, Ethan. Yours is too bright. It'll attract dangerous creatures." Hagrid stepped forward anxiously, blocking the light before it could spread any further.
"Fine." Ethan adjusted the wand's brightness until it lit up twice the area of the lantern.
*This is fine, right?*
"No problem!" Hagrid replied quietly, immediately straining his ears for any unusual movement nearby.
After a moment, satisfied that the sudden light hadn't attracted any creatures, Hagrid extinguished his wand's light. "Let's keep moving."
Now that he could see better, Hagrid walked faster.
Suddenly, Hagrid reached out to stop Ethan. "Stop!" he whispered.
Ethan didn't know what Hagrid had spotted, but he tensed, listening intently. He switched his wand to his left hand, still gripping Fang's leash, drew his spare wand, and readied himself to cast at a moment's notice.
First came hoofbeats, then a man's voice. "Hagrid, you're back in the Forbidden Forest again."
"Bane?"
"It's me." A centaur with black hair, black fur, and a full beard slowly emerged from behind a thick tree. He had a wild look about him, and his black tail flicked back and forth a few times.
From the waist down, he was covered in black horsehair. From the waist up, he looked like a human man, just with thicker body hair.
Aside from a tooth pendant hanging from a rope around his neck and a bow and quiver slung across his back, he wore nothing.
Despite the severe December cold, his human upper half remained bare.
"Whew." Hagrid let out a sigh of relief and extended his hand to shake Bane's.
"New foal? Different from the ones you brought into the Forbidden Forest last time?" Bane's black eyes fixed on Ethan, who stood behind Hagrid with only his head visible.
"This is Ethan. I'm taking him to see Aragog." Hagrid stepped aside to reveal him fully.
Bane stamped his hooves against the ground. "As for Aragog, you need to do something about him. His descendants have overrun the outer woods, encroaching on the rest of our territory."
"Bane, you know that even though I hatched him, I can't control what he does. We're friends. He's not my pet."
Hagrid looked troubled. Noticing Bane's rising anger, Hagrid quickly added, "I'll tell him what you said."
"Hmph! If he refuses to back down, then we go to war. They've gone too far! All the creatures on the outskirts have had enough of them!" Bane's hooves pawed restlessly at the earth, his voice thick with resentment and rage.
"I will. I'll go first." Hagrid knew more than most about the Acromantula colony in the Forbidden Forest, but as he'd admitted, he couldn't control them either.
Hagrid hurried Ethan along. Bane remained where he stood, watching them until they disappeared from view.
He looked up at the sky. "The stars are bright tonight."
Once they were farther away, Hagrid whispered to Ethan.
"Fifty years ago, after I hatched Aragog, I kept him in a cupboard until he was blamed for Myrtle's death. I let him out and helped him escape into the Forbidden Forest."
Pushing aside branches that blocked their path, Hagrid gestured for Ethan to follow.
"Later, when I became the Gamekeeper's assistant, I'd often come into the Forbidden Forest to visit him. I also helped him find a mate, and slowly they raised many, many descendants."
"This way." Hagrid squeezed through a bush.
"Aragog is very, very old now, so old he's gone blind. His wife Mosag died of old age too. I reckon in a few years he'll be gone too." Hagrid looked sad as he spoke.
The closer they got to the Acromantula lair, the more animal bones littered the ground.
"We're almost there," Hagrid said.
Sure enough, less than three minutes later, rustling sounds came from the surrounding darkness. One by one, huge black shadows began to emerge from the gloom.
"I'm here to see Aragog," Hagrid called, raising the lantern.
After a series of clicking sounds, a massive spider separated from the swarm and approached them. "Follow me," it said in a human voice.
The spider was as big as a small calf, its body and legs covered in black hair. Eight eyes protruded from its head, with a white mark at the center.
The two followed the spider until they stood before a misty, dome-shaped web.
"Hagrid is here, and he has brought a stranger," the guide spider announced.
"You came, Hagrid," a spider the size of a small elephant said, emerging slowly from the web.
It was clear that this spider was ancient. Its body, which should have been pure black, was now streaked with gray. A white film covered its eight eyes, turning them from black to a milky white.
Combined with his slow speech, he seemed more like an elderly man.
"Glad to see you again, Aragog." Hagrid handed the lantern to Ethan, bent down, and hugged Aragog's massive body.
"I'm glad to see you again too." He raised his head slightly, his blind eyes turning toward Hagrid.
"What brings you here this time?" Aragog asked slowly.
"I came to tell you the good news," Hagrid said excitedly. "The monster in the Chamber is dead. You've been cleared too. They've admitted you weren't responsible for the attacks back then."
"You mean the ancient creature we spiders fear most has been killed?" The old spider sounded suspicious.
"Yes, it was a Basilisk. No wonder you never told me what it was."
Hagrid patted Ethan on the shoulder. "This is Ethan. He and Dumbledore went into the Chamber together and killed that Basilisk."
"A truly remarkable student." Aragog turned toward Ethan's voice, his eight eyes fixed on him.
*It was all Dumbledore's doing.* "I just helped a little," Ethan said. He was telling the truth.
He fell silent. As he listened to Hagrid and Aragog reminisce about the past, he examined the dense, hemispherical webs surrounding them and the gathering swarm of Acromantulas.
He set the lantern on the ground and walked toward the giant spider with the white mark on its head that had led them here.
"What is your name?" he asked.
"I have no name. They all call me Seventy-Ninth Son. I am Father's seventy-ninth child." The creature shook its head. It felt an urge to attack Ethan, but remembering Aragog's warning, it could only suppress its bloodthirsty instincts.
"How about I give you a name? You give me some of your venom." An idea struck him as he spoke.
As XXXXX-class beasts, Acromantulas produced incredibly rare venom. Even Professor Snape, the Potions Master, possessed very little.
During the previous school year, Snape had reluctantly handed over a small vial to protect the Philosopher's Stone. He only managed to retrieve it later because it was nearly his entire supply.
Ethan deeply regretted missing his previous chance to acquire rare venom. With another opportunity right in front of him, he wasn't about to let it slip through his fingers.
"Let me think," said Aragog's seventy-ninth son. He raised his head to glance at his father, seemingly considering the offer.
In the vast Acromantula colony, aside from Aragog and his late mate Mosag, whom Hagrid had named, no other spider had a unique name. They were known only by their birth order.
His siblings were called simply Son of Number X or Daughter of Number X, while their descendants were known as Grandson of Number X, and so on.
After only a brief hesitation, he agreed to the deal.
"You have a white mark on your head. We can call you Mark," Ethan offered.
"Okay, I like it." The spider's pincers clicked together in obvious excitement.
Ethan deftly produced a small bottle. Guided by the newly named Mark, he held it beneath the creature's mouthparts until the vial was full.
With both parties satisfied, the transaction was complete.
The newly named spider regarded Ethan. It decided that if it encountered him in the Forbidden Forest again, it would hold off on eating him for a little while.
Ethan remained unaware of these thoughts. Had he known, he would have immediately reduced the spider to ash with an Incendio rather than standing there watching it shake its pincers excitedly while it searched for companions to show off its new name.
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