Chapter 89: Spider Valley

"That Cornelius Fudge, I mean." Ron said with a puzzled face, "He said a lot, I didn't understand it at all."

"Because he used a lot of over-statements to cover up his true intentions." Harry said, "This will appear more tactful."

"Then what did he actually say?" Luo En asked.

"The Ministry of Magic hopes to take some positive measures in the Chamber of Secrets case to give the public and the media an explanation." Harry said, "Cornelius Fudge doesn't want to fall out with Dumbledore, so he vetoed the plan to send people to the school to investigate and changed it to inviting Hagrid to cooperate with the investigation."

"But they are going to suspend Deng Buliduo!" Luo En was a bit worried.

"That's right, whether it was discussed in advance or Cornelius Fudge and Luxius indeed had disagreements." Harry said, "The current situation is that Dumbledore does need to leave the school for a period of time, but as long as we can solve the Chamber of Secrets incident and demand the Headmaster's return, the Ministry of Magic will support this reasonable demand."

"And this is also in Deng Buliduo's plan." Harry deliberated, not saying that Avalon and Tang Nade were both Deng Buliduo's arrangements, but vaguely explained, "Deng Buliduo said that when he leaves, he will trust me."

"Okay, don't forget what we came here for tonight." Luo En said, "Let's scout those spiders again."

Following the marks left last time, Harry and Luo En once again tiptoed to the edge of that valley. They didn't go deep, just confirmed the situation nearby. This should be a basin with a diameter of more than one hundred feet, the slope is not high, it looks like only ten-odd degrees, Harry speculated that the altitude in the center of the basin would not be too low.

In this way, according to the calculation of the spider's body size, a spider has a lateral width of about seven feet. Even if this valley is crowded with spiders, it will not exceed two hundred. Of course, this is without considering whether they have dug a larger space underground.

"I think there won't be too many of these spiders." On the way back, Harry said to Luo En with a bit of luck, "First, the activity space left for them is not large, and second, there shouldn't be so much food in this Forbidden Forest to support seven-foot carnivores."

"But these spiders are so ferocious." Luo En couldn't stop recalling the last experience, and the clicking sound in the forest, "And you say their activity space is not large?"

"Yeah, what curbed them from expanding their territory?" Harry realized this problem, "Perhaps the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest have also been limiting the spiders' range of activity. I think this is good news, the centaurs will be a good help."

"Let's follow the original plan, I will ride a broom to scout again tomorrow during the day." Approaching the castle, Harry put on his Invisibility Cloak.

Sunday morning, the originally lively Quidditch stadium was now empty. Harry, wearing his Invisibility Cloak, quietly came to the players' training room. The players' respective brooms would be properly locked in the broom cabinet, but there were several old-model spare brooms here, which neither teachers nor students cared much about.

Fortunately, Madam Hooch indeed forgot to put away the spare brooms. Harry mounted one of them, tried to fly a few laps on the stadium to familiarize himself with its performance, and then flew straight to the Forbidden Forest.

According to the rough map drawn last night, Harry soon found the location of Spider Valley. He noticed that although there were still some trees on the periphery, there was a wet, large web in the center of the valley, and there was a dark hole in the middle of the web.

Harry hesitated again and again, but decided not to risk going down to explore. He turned the broom and flew to the side, wanting to see what was around Spider Valley.

Spider Valley is surrounded by ordinary forests, of course, it's just that Harry thinks it looks like an ordinary forest. His common sense reminded him that those places are likely to be the habitats of powerful magical creatures, so the spiders would not dare to move there because of territorial markings.

And just not far to the west of Spider Valley, Harry found some scattered huts. Centaurs lived here, and several centaurs even noticed Harry in the sky, looking straight over here.

Harry, who had seen the ferocity of centaurs, turned around and ran. He didn't want to be aimed at by bows and arrows in the sky.

After returning to the dormitory, Harry described the situation in the Forbidden Forest to his classmates, supplemented the sketch drawn on the broom into a more detailed topographic map, and then they sat down to discuss countermeasures.

"I'm actually thinking." Na Wei said thoughtfully, "Is cleaning up the spiders something that must be done by 'Harry Potter and his friends,' or can 'anyone loyal to Deng Buliduo' do it?"

"From the Ministry of Magic's point of view, I believe it's the latter." Harry recalled several analyses of the politics of the Chamber of Secrets, "However, what Deng Buliduo hopes to see should be the former."

"But I don't think the three of us are enough to deal with these monsters." Na Wei pointed to Luo En, whose face was pale, his teeth couldn't stop chattering, and his forehead was sweating profusely.

"Zhang Qiu said the Forbidden Forest clashes with her, which means she is prone to bad luck as soon as she enters the Forbidden Forest." Harry said with a headache, "I feel Hermione and Hanna might be a bit dangerous again..."

"Harry Potter's friends, why must they really be his friends?" Na Wei showed a malicious smile.

"Yeah." Harry clapped his hands, "Such a dangerous thing, how can we not call Ma Erfu?"

"If Luxius doesn't drive Deng Buliduo away, we won't take his son to take risks." Luo En said fiercely, "Let him lift a rock only to drop it on his own feet!"

"We can't put classmates in danger, except for Ma Erfu." Na Wei echoed.

"No, even Ma Erfu." Harry vetoed their idea, "We can't let anyone else in this school get hurt because of the Chamber of Secrets, not even Ma Erfu."

"According to Deng Buliduo's plan, this operation is best led by me." Harry said, "So we can't let the professors intervene, but we need to have a certain official status, then we need to take a gamble."

"Gamble on what?" Na Wei couldn't keep up with Harry's thinking this time.

"Gamble that the centaurs don't know the specific organizational structure of Hogwarts." Harry had a strange feeling, as if he had grown up all of a sudden.

In Luo En's gradually dilating pupils, Harry, who was telling the plan, realized a truth. The power Deng Buliduo holds is far lower than his ability, which has caused a lot of chaos. Even if a person does not have the heart to hold power, if it is the expectation of the public, then he has to take on that responsibility.

Harry felt that he should be Deng Buliduo's successor, the next leader to confront the Dark Lord.

"So, what is the plan?"

That afternoon, at the hastily convened Eight-Person Group roundtable meeting, facing the serious-faced Harry, Ma Erfu asked this question.

"We must end the Chamber of Secrets incident. Although the monster in the Chamber of Secrets might be a basilisk, a gorgon, or something else, to end this incident, we only need to wipe out the spiders in the Forbidden Forest and then claim that the Chamber of Secrets monster is them."

When Harry said this, he didn't look like a student at all.

"You are really like a Slytherin, I have always said that the Sorting Hat made a mistake." Ma Erfu said with a smile, thinking it was a compliment, "The statement left by Headmaster Dipeite fifty years ago was that spiders attacked students. If we wipe out the spiders, neither the Board of Governors nor the Ministry of Magic can say anything."

"But the problem is, how to do it?" Cui Ge interjected straightly, "We are only in the first grade, and Harry is only in the second grade."

"We need to set up a special committee, invite representatives from various houses to attend the meeting, and conduct a vote." Harry said calmly, "Then, tell the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest the voting results."

"Centaurs?" Pan Xi raised her head in surprise.

"We all know that although centaurs claim to obey the school's jurisdiction, in fact, they treat the Forbidden Forest as their own and are very stubborn." Ma Erfu said slowly, "Harry, your plan is perfect."

"It's just that there is one problem, it seems there is no one from Hufflepuff House among those present?" Ma Erfu stood up and looked around, "Are we pretending, or..."

"Na Wei will invite Ernie MacMillan and Hanna Aibo as representatives of Hufflepuff." Harry said, "At the same time, we will also invite Zhang Qiu and Lu Na to be representatives of Ravenclaw."

"Then what about Gryffindor?" Ma Erfu asked, twisting his fingers.

"Luo En and I." Harry glanced at Jin Ni, who seemed to be still dizzy.

"Then Slytherin will be set as..." Ma Erfu pondered for a moment. Lu Na is uncertain, Ernie counts as a neutral party, Zhang Qiu and Hanna will undoubtedly lean toward Harry. Even if he brings Pan Xi, he cannot guarantee to take the lead, so it is better to pretend to be fair on this matter.

"Cui Ge and I." He said.

"Wait, I'm wondering what you mean by this committee?" Jin Ni asked this question with a puzzled face.

"I suggest naming it 'Hogwarts Student Union Subordinate Forbidden Forest Management Committee and Chamber of Secrets Issue Special Group'." Ma Erfu said, "We invite centaurs to rectify the spiders in the Forbidden Forest as student representatives."

"Good name." Harry agreed with his opinion, "Those spiders are very dangerous. If we attack rashly, it is easy for someone to get hurt, so we must let the centaurs help us."

"But, wouldn't centaurs get hurt then?" Jin Ni asked.

"Better than students continuing to be attacked, or students getting hurt in the process of wiping out the spiders." Harry shrugged helplessly.

"That's right, the centaurs will understand, this is for the greater good." Ma Erfu held Harry's hand and said the classic quote Deng Buliduo once said.

"For the greater good." The two rarely had the exact same view on the same thing, and they showed approving smiles at the same time.

Only Jin Ni widened her eyes, as if this was the first day she met Harry. ===== CHAPTER 90 =====