Chapter 68: Spiders in the Forbidden Forest

After confirming that Avalon would not open until Christmas, Luo En could finally calm down and continue to focus his attention on the Chamber of Secrets.

"Let's go back to the previous topic; you said the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is very likely in the Forbidden Forest?" Neville asked.

"Only very likely, not absolute," Harry said. "This is the information I got from Malfoy."

"Harry, Neville, I mean, why don't we go and kill the monster in the Chamber of Secrets first?" Luo En said confidently. "If we can determine the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets."

"Are you sure, Luo En?" Harry looked at him puzzled. "I remember you are most afraid of spiders."

"What? The monster inside is a spider?" Luo En's face turned ugly immediately. "I mean, I'm not afraid, just hate it."

"However, Luo En's idea also makes a lot of sense," Neville said. "If we don't verify it, the guess will always be a guess; we can go to the Forbidden Forest to take a look, find if there are spiders big enough to be called monsters; that might guide us to find the Chamber of Secrets."

"Alright," Luo En's face was pale, and his voice was trembling, but he didn't want to back down. "When are we going, now? Or wait a while?"

"It's best to go at night; spiders like darkness and quiet; if we go early, we might not necessarily see it," Harry said. "But forget about tonight; we have class tomorrow; let's go on Friday."

Luo En let out a sigh of relief. He opened the book and looked at it twice, then started to call Harry to play Wizard's Chess again.

When Harry was doing homework with Zhang Qiu in the library, he did seriously consider whether Zhang Qiu could be the suspect who opened the Chamber of Secrets, but he soon found various reasons from many aspects to convince himself that there was no need to suspect Zhang Qiu. He also considered whether he could invite Zhang Qiu to go to the Forbidden Forest to take a look, but he remembered that Zhang Qiu had previously denounced the Forbidden Forest and that it was against her, so he didn't bring it up in the end.

After Wednesday's Potions class ended, Snape called Harry again.

"Potter, if you find out any results, tell me," he said.

"Not yet, Professor," Harry had almost forgotten about this.

After he came out of Snape's office, the first thing was to find Neville and ask him about Polyjuice Potion.

"Oh, don't worry," Neville said. "Hermione asked Professor Fontroy for help, and he can write a letter to mail-order it from a shop in Diagon Alley."

"So that's how it is," Harry suddenly realized that he also had such a way to practice Potions; the ingredients didn't necessarily have to be obtained in school, and could also be bought outside school.

Until Friday, several honor students of Gryffindor restrained their temperaments; not only did they not do anything that violated school rules, but they even deliberately went to bed early and got up early, keeping their spirits up, just waiting to explore the Forbidden Forest when the time came.

Just after dinner on Friday, Harry went to take the Invisibility Cloak out of his trunk, and then the three rested for an hour, checking the things they needed to bring. Because if they really encountered a monster, unless they were prepared to have a big fight with it, it would be easy to fall into a passive position.

The journey through the castle was like before; they avoided all pedestrians, quietly moved the lock of the oak door, flashed out from the crack of the door, tried their best not to let the door make a sound, and then stepped onto the land illuminated by the moonlight.

"Route," when they crossed the black grass, Luo En suddenly said. "We might find that there is no trace to follow after arriving at the Forbidden Forest."

His voice suddenly weakened.

"If that monster slipped from the Forbidden Forest into the castle to attack students," Harry said, "it's impossible not to leave any traces; we can at least..."

"Spiders, look at these spiders," Luo En interrupted him with a trembling voice.

Only then did Harry notice that a few large spiders were crawling toward a place quickly.

"These spiders have obviously exceeded the normal size," Neville frowned. "If we follow them, we might be able to find the monster in the Chamber of Secrets, but what we find might not be one, but a group."

"Let's go; at least take a look," Harry walked forward first.

"Alright," Luo En sighed, seeming prepared to endure the worst. "I'm ready, let's go."

Just like that, the three held three wands lit with Lumos and entered the forest. Borrowing the dim light of the wand tips, they followed closely behind the spiders slowly moving along the path.

They walked for about twenty minutes in silence, listening carefully to the sounds other than broken branches and rustling leaves. Then the trees became denser, the stars above their heads couldn't be seen, and only the faint light of the wands shone alone in the ocean of darkness. At this time, they saw their spider guide leave the path.

Harry stopped for a moment, wanting to see where the spiders were going, but beyond his little light, it was pitch black. He had never been this deep into the forest before.

"What do you think?" Harry said to the other two; he could barely identify their wands.

"We've walked so far," Luo En said.

So they followed the increasing number of spiders into the forest. They couldn't walk very fast now; there were tree roots and stumps that were hard to see in the dark on the road. They stopped more than once, using the light of their wands to look for spiders.

After walking for at least half an hour, their robes were scratched by low-hanging branches and thorns. After a while, they noticed that the ground seemed to start tilting downward, although the trees were still very dense.

"Wait, this seems to be a valley," Neville said. "Perhaps the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is at the bottom of the valley."

"Judging from so many spiders around, it must be very dangerous below," Luo En looked very uncomfortable, but he was still holding on.

"Let's put on the Invisibility Cloak," Neville suggested. "With the help of the Invisibility Cloak, quietly touch down to take a look."

"I'm afraid not," Harry said. "Spiders mainly obtain external information by feeling smell and vibration; the Invisibility Cloak doesn't work well for them."

"Lumos," Luo En suddenly extinguished his wand and said in a very, very light voice. "Listen."

Harry and Neville also extinguished their wands. In the silent forest, except for the breathing and heartbeat of the three, they could also hear some slight clicking sounds.

Harry began to retreat slowly. Those clicking sounds hadn't disappeared. They backed against each other, slowly retreated from the tilted ground, and slowly left along the road they came.

"I think we are safer," after walking out for hundreds of meters, Harry said with lingering fear. "Perhaps that whole concave valley is within the sensing range of the spiders."

"I really can't imagine how many spiders are in there," Luo En said with a pale face. "Why did Slytherin raise these spiders? Couldn't he change to snakes? Snakes are better."

"God knows what he was thinking," Harry said. "I think we can basically determine that the monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a group of large spiders; Slytherin raised them here, generation after generation, so this monster can maintain for thousands of years without dying."

"No, we can currently only determine that there is a group of large spiders in the Forbidden Forest; we can't determine whether they have anything to do with the Chamber of Secrets," Neville said. "If we can go down to the bottom of the valley to take a look, see if there are any marks left by Slytherin, such as statues..."

"Ascendio!" Neville suddenly shouted. When Harry reacted, he found that not far from his side, there was a spider as big as a horse pulling a carriage, and it was currently on fire, rolling on the ground uncontrollably.

"Lumos!" Harry's first reaction was to make some light so he could see the situation clearly.

Only then did he notice that besides the spider that had just been lit by Neville, there was another spider trailing far behind the three. The eight eyes were so conspicuous under the light of the wand that Harry almost didn't see its eight hairy legs.

Harry turned around quickly, staring vigilantly at the second spider. At this time, Neville was half-kneeling on the ground panting, and Luo En was supporting him nervously.

"Is it just these two?" Luo En asked nervously.

"Perhaps there are only two," Neville said weakly. "They might have chased out."

Harry's left hand reached toward his waist for the pistol. After a summer of training, he could already skillfully shoot with his left hand. As he continued to learn more powerful spells, the role of firearms would gradually weaken, but it was still very appropriate to use them for assistance.

After Neville recovered some physical strength, he could stand firmly by himself. Luo En pulled out his wand and confronted the spider that was slowly approaching.

"Let's cast the Knockback Jinx together," Harry said. "Count one, two, three."

After counting to three, the three young wizards cast this simple spell taught in the first year together. The power of the Knockback Jinx was not strong, but when tripled, the effect was still very good: the large spider was knocked flying backward directly.

"Run!" Harry and Luo En each took one arm and carried the weak Neville to run toward the outside of the Forbidden Forest. Fortunately, they had carefully made some marks on the way they came; otherwise, Harry was really worried that he would crash into the spider group again.

Perhaps it was knocked unconscious by that Knockback Jinx, or perhaps it was scared; in short, that spider didn't chase up again; otherwise, with their two legs, they really might not be able to outrun eight legs.

The three ran all the way to the main road and only stopped to rest after confirming they were safe. Neville said somewhat unwillingly: "This spider is actually not as hard to deal with as we imagined; just one Incendio is enough."

"But how many Incendio can you cast?" Harry said panting. "I don't know if there are other spiders; our magic power is limited and cannot be wasted."

"But it really is thanks to your Incendio," Luo En said. "It was almost about to catch Harry."

They smiled at each other, with the celebration of surviving the disaster, and supported each other toward the dormitory. ===== CHAPTER 69 =====