Chapter 281: Surrounding and Annihilation

Besides Harry and Malfoy, the only one saddened by the siege of the Acromantulas was Hagrid, who insisted that the creatures were not dangerous.

He told Ivan that Aragog and his descendants wanted to be friends with humans.

He repeatedly relayed the goodwill expressed by Aragog and the other Acromantulas, but Ivan was certain that these monsters only saw humans as food.

Needless to say, he had set fire to Aragog's lair burning hundreds of Acromantulas and igniting irreconcilable and immeasurable hatred between them. The darkness of the Acromantulas, their evil nature and their instinct to hunt humans for food condemned them and the wizards to be natural enemies.

Ivan, Harry, Ron and Hermione gave many examples, hoping to persuade Hagrid to understand this and realize the danger of Acromantulas, but to no avail.

On Tuesday afternoon, they left Hagrid's hut discouraged.

"We're wasting our time. Think about it. What Hagrid likes, three-headed dogs, dragons, hippogriffs, acromantulas...." Ron grumbled, "He thinks those monsters are friends of man."

"The hippogriffs are good!" Harry whispered. "But the other creatures are really bad, especially the Acromantulas."

"Hagrid's problem is here!" Hermione said sharply, "He always thinks these animals are good, and he never thinks they're dangerous..."

"The only lucky thing is that he's not going to stop us." Ivan continued, "That was a significant step forward. We should persuade him step by step."

"Come on, Ivan!" Ron sighed. "We all know what's going on. Dumbledore must have talked to him, so he couldn't object."

They all agreed, Hagrid was very fond of all dangerous creatures, not to mention Aragog, which he had been in charge of since he was so young.

He believed in Acromantulas, just as he believed in Ivan.

Although he said he would not stop the siege and extermination of the Acromantulas, soon after the operation began, Hagrid was often seen patrolling outside the Forbidden Forest with a bow and arrow and Fang, leading every Acromantula he could see back to the Forbidden Forest or sending signals to sabotage the siege.

Ivan suspected that he must have warned Aragog, because the Acromantulas were now more alert than ever, and they ran back into the depths of the Forbidden Forest as soon as they saw the humans.

But being the flesh-hungry creatures that they were, and considering their sheer numbers in the Forbidden Forest, the Acromantulas eventually had to go out in search of food.

The young wizards only needed to set traps, or go a little deeper into the Forbidden Forest.

In the search for Acromantulas, the centaurs also played a very important role.

They could give precise instructions and help people find the giant spiders.

Tenacious centaurs like Magorian were only a small minority. When faced with such a common natural enemy, the proud centaurs had to cooperate with the wizards to some extent.

In fact, besides Hagrid, Harry and Malfoy, everyone was enthusiastic and interested in the matter.

According to plan, the Acromantula annihilation and killing operations went smoothly.

The young wizards of Hogwarts were divided into different groups according to their houses and age.

Under the direction of the professors, they headed to the Forbidden Forest to fight the Acromantulas. They teamed up to kill the spiders and bring their eyes back with Ivan to get their trophies in Golden Galleons.

Spurred by both the potential for personal growth and the gold, the young wizards attacked with unimaginable enthusiasm, and this once-in-a-lifetime "practice session" became the most popular course at the school. Everyone battled the Acromantulas, honing their skills and experimenting with various spells.

By the end of the day, even the Slytherin house students were looking forward to it.

It should be known that Snape was originally opposed to Sirius' proposal to attack the Acromantulas. He scoffed at it and had no intention of supporting it.

But after Dumbledore announced his support, Hogwarts went into action to fight the giant spiders, and Snape had to change his mind to join the operation.

As head of Slytherin house, he was responsible for the safety of Slytherin students.

With that in mind, and considering that the spit and eyes of The Acromantulas were very valuable potion materials, Snape asked all Slytherin students to give their all in this Acromantula hunt, and to collect spit and eyes. At the very least, the number had to exceed that of Gryffindor.

To make up for Ivan's reward, Malfoy and several other pureblood students began collecting Acromantula eyes for Snape and giving even more Golden Galleons.

Because of this, no Slytherin gave Ivan the eyes.

Obviously, flashes were reforming between the two houses as they competed with each other and competed fiercely.

In turn, the number of acromantulas they had hunted increased with that rivalry, outnumbering those captured from both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.

Due to past disagreements, for their honor in the House and many other reasons, Harry and Malfoy were now really angry. The hostility between the two Houses reached its peak.

Not only for the Acromantulas, but also for the Quidditch Cup and the Academy Cup to be decided this year between the Gryffindor and Slytherin Houses, the tension between the two teams and their Houses was extreme since February.

A series of small fights broke out in the corridors, culminating in a nasty incident in which a fourth year Gryffindor and a sixth year Slytherin ended up in the infirmary wing with leeks sprouting from their ears.

Harry had hoped to fight Malfoy and win the battle.

But the Slytherin students obviously didn't want the same. They didn't plan on letting them face each other head on. They had their own plans, so Harry was having a hard time with that.

He couldn't go to class without the Slytherins sticking their legs out and trying to trip him; Crabbe and Goyle kept popping up everywhere he went, and were discouraged when they saw him surrounded by people.

Wood had given instructions for Harry to be escorted everywhere, in case the Slytherins tried to knock him out.

The entire Gryffindor house eagerly accepted the challenge, so Harry couldn't make it to class on time because he was surrounded by a very large, chattering crowd.

The situation was so bad that even Ron was affected. Because he rarely got to be the center of attention, he was very happy.

Unlike the two of them, Ivan wasn't being harassed by anyone, least of all Malfoy, who still hadn't recovered from the impact of that dark magic. After several other Slytherin students failed to provoke Ivan, he was finally able to enjoy a bit of calm again.