Aragog's Knowledge

Sprinting into the Forbidden Forest Oz kept himself cloaked along with his aura. Compared to his first visit last year he was seeing a lot more creatures lurking this time.

'When hunting in the future it looks like I need to make a habit out of masking my aura...'.

Dragon's were one of the most supreme magical beasts within the wizarding world. They stood at the pinnacle of the food chain and were both dangerous and intelligent. Instilled in the mind of every creature beneath them in the food chain was a fear of such a beast. If any creature sensed even a slight leakage of the aura in their vicinity they would immediately run away or cower in fear. Unlike witches and wizards, creatures/beasts had a survival instinct that was incredibly sharp so they would be able to sense such aura whereas magic folk wouldn't be able to without an artefact or spell to help them.

The creatures Oz passed though were all too weak for him to bother with. They would add nothing to the ritual considering the amount of magic within them. As he scanned the surroundings he finally picked up a trail nearby of spiders all seemingly heading towards one direction. Charging over to that trail Oz followed the spiders through the forest.

'If using beasts in the ritual allow me to hone their abilities what will an acromantula allow me to do? Will I be able to spin webs and swing around like Spiderman?'.

As different questions kept Oz's mind busy as he followed the trail of spiders he eventually found that his surroundings were filling with more and more spiders. The cobwebs hung between the trees in the forest and the nests of spiders surrounding Oz now were becoming more and more numerous. Oz continued onwards as the surrounding amount of spiders become denser and denser.

After some time he could see with his eyes a large presence ahead of him.

'There you are...'.

Oz walked slowly as he took a look at the massive acromantula before him.

'Aragog. It seems to be clueless I'm here... Should I just attack and steal a part of it or should I present myself?'.

Oz started to feel conflicted as he was making a decision. On the one hand attacking and leaving would be the quickest method however if he showed himself along with his aura he may be able to force Aragog to give more than just 'a part of itself'. After balancing the two options Oz found himself leaning towards the latter as he uncloaked himself.

The second he uncloaked himself Aragog's eyes seemed to snap towards him. The surrounding spiders all seemed to shrink back at the sudden threat and some nearby Oz even seemed to pass out. Looking into the giant acromantula's eyes Oz could see that it was incredibly distressed at his presence.

"A-A g-grand dragon has stepped into my nest... H-How may I help you?".

Aragog attempted to talk to Oz even though all of its senses were screaming to run. It probably knew that even if it attempted to run, the boy in front of it would be able to catch up quickly. At this point any attempt at escaping was futile so Aragog could only attempt to solve this diplomatically.

"This is a nice nest you got here as well... You see acromantula I only desire one thing from you and don't worry it's not your life or any of your children's".

Aragog's expression seemed to show relief for a moment before going back to alert when hearing that Oz was not here to kill. Looking down at the boy it began to ask.

"What does a noble one like yourself seek here?".

"I seek something that comes from you. Something with a lot of magical power infused within and something that you deem important to yourself. Whether this be one of your eyes, your lungs or your web sac I really don't care. If you present something like this to me I'll leave you be...".

Oz's aura intensified as the spiders in the vicinity shrunk back once more. His eyes shone purple and started to look like a dragon's as he stared at Aragog.

"It's either that or we do it the fun way... Your decision".

Aragog seemed helpless as it looked down at Oz. Speaking to it's children it seemed to be asking for their help. The spiders climbed up onto Aragog's web and surrounded it.

"I-I will comply with your demands young dragon... My web sac contains a vast amount of magic within, that should be able to satisfy your needs".

Oz looked on apathetically as Aragog called out to its children and finally to It's wife that presented itself. Aragog's wife Mosag led her children to surround their father's web sac as they all jointly ripped it off of him. Aragog seemed to wince in pain as his web sac was taken away from it. A wound was left where the web sac once was and Mosag immediately closed the wound using her own webs.

'So webs can be used like that as well...'.

"I hope this pleases you young dragon...".

Oz nodded towards Aragog as his wife brought the web sac down before Oz. She seemingly bowed before Oz as she left the large web sac at his feet. All the spiders immediately made their distance from Oz as he looked down at the present he had been given. His eyes shone as he inspected it.

'The spider wasn't lying... This does seem to hold a substantial amount of magic in it'.

"Thank you for this offering, I'm indebted to you".

"T-Think nothing of it noble one... I thank you for sparing my family in the first place!".

Oz smiled at Aragog as he stuffed the web sac slowly into his pouch. The size was bigger than his pouch so it took a decent amount of time for it to be fully put in.

"One more thing though spider... How advanced is your knowledge of magical creatures?".

Aragog looked down at Oz with surprised laced in it's many eyes. Blinking a few times he responded.

"M-My good friend who has looked after me since young used to tell me all sorts about other creatures and beasts. Truth be told he's the reason why I can survive in this forest and world...".

"What would you consider as the most dangerous creatures that you could come across in this world then? And where would such beasts be roaming?".

Aragog seemed to think on Oz's question as he lowered his head.

"Besides you young dragon and our mortal enemy the basilisk, I've heard that in parts of Asia there are demon like creatures roaming. In America there's noble beasts that can even change the weather. In the Atlantic ocean I've heard from Hagrid there are a multitude of dangerous sea creatures roaming in the waters that sink ships and destroy island communities. Those are a few of the places I can think off the top of my head...".

Oz's heart seemed to start speeding up as his excitement accelerated. Hearing this information made him all the more looking forward towards next year after this school year finished. Asia, America, Europe and the Atlantic Ocean. He wanted to visit all those places and hunt creatures along with experience the world. Staying trapped in only the UK would become far too stifling for a dragon like him that needed to spread its wings.

Oz nodded along to Aragog's information and smiled looking at the acromantula.

"You've really given me a treat here with this information spider... Take this for your wounds".

Oz accio'd a potion out of his pouch a threw it towards Aragog. The acromantula scrambled to grab the potion with its long legs as it looked down towards Oz with gratitude.

"T-Thank you for this gift noble one!".

"That potion should be able to heal up your wound quicker. It's my own recipe as well so it has some regenerative properties that could also help grow back your lost web sac".

All the spiders around Aragog seemed to bow their heads to Oz in gratitude. Aragog and his wife both did the same. In the wild it was known that most dragons were apathetic towards those that weren't 'their kind' so this kindness from Oz was something that was valued highly.

"Thank you for for all the help spider. In the future I may come again for more information...".

As Oz finished his sentence his presence and aura vanished as he himself became invisible. The pressure all the spiders in the area felt lifted. Aragog looked over to his wife with happiness in his eyes. When Oz appeared he thought it was over for all of them. His decision to talk to Oz instead of immediately run or attack was the correct one.

{Mosag, Immediately tell all our children to search for information on any magical creatures while on their travels... When Hagrid returns here I'll ask him to tell me as much as he knows. If that dragon-like boy returns we need to be prepared to please him less he loses his patience with us...}

.

Oz departed from the Forbidden Forest as dawn started to break over the castle. He rushed into the castle and headed down into the Slytherin common room. He didn't feel tired at all as he sat down on the couch in the common room. Smiling to himself he leant back and rested his head. His next year when he'd leave was looking to be the most exciting thing he had ever done since coming to this world.

The world was not going to be ready for the dragon that would fly across it soon...

-------------------

A/N - This chapter took some time as I've been planning the chapters ahead meticulously. I've finalised my plan for Oz's next year and can say he's going to go to 13 different destinations across the world. So you can all get hyped a bit along with me, here are the countries/places planned:

[Romania], [Belarus], [India], [Atlantic Ocean], [USA], [Brazil], [Japan], [Egypt], [Germany], [France], [UNDISCLOSED ISLAND], [Albania] and finally [Bulgaria]

I feel as though this next volume if I manage to do it well could set the tone for this novel as a whole and really solidify the story.