[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-wizard-war-at-hogwarts":3,"chapter-wizard-war-at-hogwarts-wizard-war-at-hogwarts-chapter-68":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Wizard War at Hogwarts",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2358041,4612,"Chapter 68: The Spiders of the Forbidden Forest","wizard-war-at-hogwarts-chapter-68",68,"\u003Cp>After confirming that Avalon would not open until Christmas, Ron finally settled down and refocused his attention on the Chamber of Secrets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let’s go back to what we were discussing earlier—you think the Chamber’s entrance is very likely in the Forbidden Forest?” Neville asked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Very likely, not certain,” Harry said. “That’s the information I got from Malfoy.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Harry, Neville, why don’t we just go and kill the monster inside the Chamber first?” Ron said confidently. “If we can confirm the entrance.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Are you sure about that, Ron?” Harry looked at him in disbelief. “I remember you’re the one who’s most afraid of spiders.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What? The monster’s a spider?” Ron’s face darkened. “I mean, I’m not afraid—I just hate them.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But Ron’s idea makes sense,” Neville said. “If we don’t verify it, speculation will always stay speculation. We could go to the Forbidden Forest and look for spiders large enough to qualify as monsters—those might lead us to the Chamber.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright,” Ron said, his face pale and voice trembling, but he refused to back down. “When do we go? Now? Or wait a bit?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Better at night—spiders prefer darkness and quiet. If we go too early, we might not see it,” Harry said. “But not tonight—we have classes tomorrow. Let’s go Friday.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ron let out a sigh of relief, opened his book for a moment, then immediately urged Harry to play wizard’s chess.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While Harry did homework with Zhang Qiu in the library, he seriously considered whether she might be the suspect behind the Chamber’s opening—but he quickly found multiple reasons to convince himself there was no need to suspect her. He also thought about inviting her to the Forbidden Forest, but remembered how she had previously denounced the forest as incompatible with her, so he never brought it up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After Potions class on Wednesday, Snape called Harry aside again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Potter, if you uncover anything, tell me,” he said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Not yet, Professor,” Harry replied, nearly having forgotten the matter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After leaving Snape’s office, the first thing he did was find Neville to ask about the Polyjuice Potion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh, don’t worry,” Neville said. “Hermione asked Professor Fontroy for help—he can send a letter to order it from a shop in Diagon Alley.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So that’s how,” Harry realized suddenly—he now had a way to practice potions without needing to obtain materials from school; he could buy them outside too.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Until Friday, the top Gryffindor students all restrained themselves—not breaking any rules, even deliberately going to bed early and rising early to conserve energy for their expedition into the Forbidden Forest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Right after dinner on Friday, Harry retrieved his Invisibility Cloak from his trunk, and the three of them rested for an hour, each checking their gear. If they encountered a monster, unless prepared for a full battle, they’d easily be caught off guard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As before, they slipped through the castle, avoiding all passersby, quietly unlatching the oak door, slipping out through the crack without a sound, then stepping onto the moonlit ground.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Route,” Ron suddenly said as they crossed the black grass. “We might reach the Forbidden Forest and find no trace at all.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His voice grew faint.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If the monster slipped out of the Forbidden Forest to attack students,” Harry said, “it couldn’t leave no trace—we could at least…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Spiders—look at these spiders,” Ron interrupted, voice shaking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Harry then noticed several large spiders rapidly crawling toward one spot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“These spiders are clearly far larger than normal,” Neville frowned. “If we follow them, we might find the Chamber’s monster—but we might find not one, but a whole group.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let’s go,” Harry said, stepping forward first.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fine,” Ron sighed, as if bracing for the worst. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, the three advanced into the forest, holding wands lit with Lumos, following the slow-moving spiders along the path, their dim wandlight the only guide.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They walked in silence for about twenty minutes, straining their ears for sounds beyond snapping branches and rustling leaves. Then the trees grew denser, the stars vanished from above, and only the lonely glow of their wands pierced the dark sea—when they saw their spider guides leave the path.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Harry paused, trying to discern where the spiders were headed, but beyond his faint light lay only blackness. He had never ventured this deep into the forest before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What do you think?” Harry asked the other two, barely able to make out their wands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We’ve come this far,” Ron said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So they followed the increasing number of spiders deeper into the woods. They could no longer move quickly—roots and stumps littered the ground, hard to see in the dark, forcing them to stop repeatedly, using their wandlight to locate the spiders.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After at least half an hour, their robes were torn by low-hanging branches and thorns. Soon, they noticed the ground began to slope downward, though the trees remained thick.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wait—this looks like a valley,” Neville said. “Maybe the Chamber’s entrance is at the bottom.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“With so many spiders around, the bottom must be extremely dangerous,” Ron looked uneasy, but he held on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let’s put on the Invisibility Cloak,” Neville suggested. “We can sneak down and take a look.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Probably not,” Harry said. “Spiders sense the world through smell and vibration—the Invisibility Cloak won’t help much.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Lumos,” Ron suddenly extinguished his wand, whispering so softly they barely heard him. “Listen.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Harry and Neville also turned off their wands. In the silent forest, beyond their own breathing and heartbeats, they heard faint clicking sounds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Harry began slowly backing away. The clicking didn’t stop. They stood back-to-back, retreating slowly from the sloping ground, retracing their steps.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I think we’re safe now,” Harry said, still shaken, after walking several hundred meters. “Perhaps the entire sunken valley is within the spiders’ sensory range.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I can’t imagine how many spiders are down there,” Ron said, pale-faced. “Why did Slytherin keep these spiders? Couldn’t he have used snakes instead? Snakes would’ve been better.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Who knows what he was thinking,” Harry said. “I think we can now be fairly certain—the Chamber’s monster is a group of giant spiders. Slytherin kept them here, breeding them generation after generation, so the monster could survive for centuries.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No—we can only confirm that a group of giant spiders exists in the Forbidden Forest. We can’t yet link them to the Chamber,” Neville said. “If we could get down to the valley and look for Slytherin’s markings—statues or something like that—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Incendio!” Neville suddenly shouted. Before Harry could react, he saw a spider beside him, as large as a carriage horse, engulfed in flames, writhing helplessly on the ground.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Lumos!” Harry’s first instinct was to produce light—to see the situation clearly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He then noticed that behind them, far off, another spider trailed them—its eight eyes glaring in the wandlight, so prominent he almost missed its eight hairy legs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Harry spun around, alert, watching the second spider. Neville knelt, gasping for breath; Ron nervously supported him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Just these two?” Ron asked, tense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Maybe only these two,” Neville said weakly. “They might have followed us out.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Harry’s left hand moved to the pistol at his waist. After a summer of training, he could now shoot accurately with his left hand. As he learned stronger spells, firearms would gradually lose their edge—but they remained excellent for support.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once Neville regained some strength, he stood on his own, and Ron drew his wand, facing the slowly approaching spider.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let’s cast the Knockback Jinx together,” Harry said. “One, two, three.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On three, the three young wizards cast the simple first-year spell. The Knockback Jinx wasn’t powerful—but with triple the force, the effect was excellent: the giant spider flew backward violently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Run!” Harry and Ron each grabbed one of Neville’s arms and dragged him toward the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Fortunately, they’d marked their path carefully—otherwise Harry feared they’d stumble back into the spider swarm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps stunned by the Knockback Jinx, or frightened, the spider didn’t pursue them—otherwise, with only two legs between them, they’d never outrun eight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The three sprinted all the way to the main path, stopping only when they were sure they were safe. Neville said, with some frustration: “That spider wasn’t as hard to deal with as we thought—just one Fire Charm would’ve done it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But how many Fire Charms could you cast?” Harry panted. “I don’t know if there are more spiders—we have limited magic. We can’t waste it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Still, your Fire Charm saved us,” Ron said. “It was about to grab Harry.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They exchanged a smile, relieved to be alive, and supported each other as they walked back to the dormitory.\u003C\u002Fp>",1429,"2026-06-21T04:54:27.874Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","a2741342be580c4241230fab137721cceeeb1e8c336943940dea7c9b01354aea","wizard-war-at-hogwarts-chapter-69","wizard-war-at-hogwarts-chapter-67",528,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fwizard-war-at-hogwarts-cover.jpg"]