Chapter 280: The action begins

Through the misty, domed web, Ivan looked down into Aragog's lair.

Descending slowly into the cave, it was dark and deep, and the warm wind was blowing from below.

There seemed to be something below, and Ivan hesitated to go down.

In the slow wind, he could hear a low voice calling him, whispering his name....

Before he could make a decision, the temperature of the wind blowing from the cave dropped sharply, becoming colder and colder.

Ivan shivered, feeling the cold breeze on the back of his neck.

A second later, he abruptly woke up and sat upright. Ivan saw that the Poltergeist, Peeves, had been hovering beside him, blowing loudly in his ear.

"What are you doing?", Ivan asked angrily.

"Ivan, you nasty little demon!" Peeves puffed out his cheeks and blew harder.

Then, before Ivan raised his wand, he left the room with a whirr, laughing.

Ivan looked at his alarm clock. It was half past four, and it was dark outside.

Now that he was awake, he found it very difficult to go back to sleep. He sat in bed for a while, thinking about sleep and the contents of Aragog's lair.

Considering that Aragog was much larger than ordinary Acromantulas, his unusual lair should not be as simple as it looked on the surface. There had to be something...

Ivan was thinking of going in and checking it out, but he wasn't sure if it was dangerous. And if he really wanted to do that, he had to figure out how to get Aragog out.

Being a pure dark creature, the Acromantula's Lair must be the darkest and most evil place in the Forbidden Forest. Even if there was any treasure in it, it must be related to dark magic. Ivan could be sure that he would never be happy to see that sort of thing.

One's life was too valuable to risk it for an object of Dark Magic that was probably destined to be unusable or even non-existent....

Besides, the unknown creature's whispering voice in the wind also gave him a sense of uncertainty.

He tossed and turned in bed and finally decided to give up the idea of exploring the interior of the Lair.

He should now concentrate his energy on the Secret Treasure Key of Gryffindor, which was preserved by the centaurs, instead of spending more time in contact with other objects of dark magic.

He rolled over and wanted to sleep on.

But now that he was awake, he found it hard to go back to sleep. He tossed and turned for more than ten minutes before getting out of bed.

Ivan tapped the headboard of the bed with his wand, and a wooden board quietly opened, revealing a dark closet.

He pulled a book of dark magic from inside and read it under the glow of his wand.

A faint fluorescence came from the curtain. In the dark bedroom, there was only a boy leaning on the bed and concentrating on reading....

Due to last night's party, Gryffindor Tower was quiet the next morning, until around noon, when everyone emerged from their dormitories.

As he followed Colin through the hall, walking towards the large dining room, he suddenly saw a small gathering around the notice board outside the door to the hall, reading a piece of parchment that had just been pinned up, most of them Hufflepuff students.

Justin Finch-Fletchley was very excited, and approached Ivan with a smile.

Since the Basilisk incident last year, he wasn't afraid of Harry and Ivan like he used to be.

"Great, Ivan!" said Justin cheerfully. "I'm in. I've thought it through. It's dangerous to fight those monsters, but there shouldn't be any problem if there's a teacher. Besides, accumulating some combat experience will probably come in handy someday..."

"What are you talking about? how can I not understand?" Colin said in confusion.

"Professor Black is gathering people to fight the Acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest." Justin pointed to the bulletin board and said, "There are also the names of Ivan, Harry, Ron and Hermione. All four of them are also participants."

"Are you ready to fight those monsters in the Forbidden Forest? why didn't you inform me earlier?" Colin said excitedly, and read the notice with great interest.

Ivan walked over and looked at the notice written by Sirius.

It began with a detailed description of the dark creatures, the Acromantulas and their current status in the Forbidden Forest. Then, to enhance the combat experience and combat skills of the little wizards, volunteers were called upon to surround and annihilate them.

At the end of the note, it was specifically marked that people could collect the eyes of the Acromantulas and deliver them to Ivan for a certain amount of Gold Galleons as a reward.

The news spread quickly throughout the school, and it didn't take long for almost every young wizard to hear about it. Not surprisingly, everyone was excited.

For a while, Acromantulas became a hot topic.

No one was talking about the Quidditch match that had just ended and the upcoming Quidditch final, but everyone was discussing the subject of Acromantulas. All the books about them in the library had been borrowed. Students signed up for all the hunting sessions until the end of the year. Everywhere you went, you could hear people talking about Acromantulas.

As for the Gryffindor house students, they directly surrounded Ivan, Harry, Ron and Hermione for questioning.

Seeing them excited, Ivan wondered if the boys knew exactly what an Acromantula was. They seemed to totally underestimate the dangers of this dark creature, as if it were a common spider.

The fever persisted, and eventually the number of applicants far exceeded expectations.

Even students from Slytherin house, who had always opposed Sirius, signed up.

In the end, even Dumbledore became alarmed. Faced with the unprecedented enthusiasm of the young wizards, Dumbledore did not stop them, but devised a more secure protection system based on Sirius' original plan.

Now, not only Sirius, but almost all of the professors would be involved in the entire process of the Acromantulas' encirclement, to ensure the safety of the students.

The time of action was set each day at noon, the Acromantulas' most vulnerable time, and the scope was strictly delineated, so that no one could enter the deepest Forbidden Forest.

Because there were so many people, the hunt for Acromantulas would be separated according to the four Houses, and under the protection of the professors, to fight these monsters.

Malfoy was outraged by this decision.

It seemed that he was planning to use this opportunity to retaliate against Ivan and Harry for letting him lose face.

In fact, Harry was unhappy as well. He remembered Malfoy trying to scare him by pretending to be a Dementor. He had planned to take this opportunity for revenge.

However, neither of them had this opportunity.