Chapter 298: To Save or Not to Save....

Ivan quickly learned to ride the Hippogriff. He could hold Buckbeak's flanks firmly with his heels.

The huge wings flapped at his side and he tried to loosen his arms around Buckbeak's neck.

There was no other discomfort, except an occasional slight feeling of nausea.

Instead, he felt like he was getting more and more adjusted.

Compared to broomsticks that were difficult to master, he felt more confident flying at high altitudes in the Hippogriff.

They followed the air current and entered the Forbidden Forest from the air.

Through the clouds beneath his feet, Ivan saw large trees.

He had seen this scene countless times before from the top of the castle. But because of his new different angle, the feeling was completely different. Looking at the Forbidden Forest from above, the trees that were continuous, the trees that were not visible, and the old trees towering in the clouds were more striking, immersed in the grandeur of nature.

But before Ivan could appreciate it, the trees in front of him began to be sparse, as if they had been dug out.

The color of the trunks was gradually turning a sickly gray. Here was the territory of the Acromantulas.

In the corner, several Acromantulas slowly emerged from the hidden shadows. They watched the visitors coming from the sky attentively.

Ivan hastily crouched down and crouched on Buckbeak.

Click, click...

After discovering that the intruder was only a hippogriff, the Acromantulas, who were in charge of alerting their siblings, slowly backed away and hid in the darkness again.

As a relatively common species in the Forbidden Forest, although there were some Hippogryphs that broke into the Acromantulas' territory, it was not absolute.

They did not see Ivan sitting on Buckbeak's back, nor did they inform Aragog and the other Acromantulas to defend themselves.

Trusting Buckbeak, Ivan was not discovered, sneaking in, and his plan was successful.

He and Buckbeak flew into the center of the Acromantulas' territory. Ivan poked his head out and took advantage of the gap between Buckbeak's wings to carefully observe Aragog's lair.

Since the big fire a few months ago, he hadn't been back here.

With the constant deepening, the landscape in front of him was becoming more and more striking.

Unlike the last time he came here, it was very hard to see trees on the ground in the center of the Acromantula Territory, as if they had been swept away by a tornado and corroded by something. Even the ground turned dark gray, intermittently revealing some red eyes.

White cobwebs, animal cheekbones and traces of destruction could be seen everywhere. Looking down from above, the hillside of Aragog's Lair was deeply sunken into the earth, full of jagged folds and gullies, which looked very strange.

Thick leaves were no longer visible on the ground, and the burnt, shiny black sand seemed to have covered the surface with a thin layer.

Even at a few hundred meters altitude, there was the smell of burnt leaves in the air, dirt and raw meat, as well as the odor of blood....

Most striking was the entrance to the Lair, like a huge spider web.

It seemed to be huge as it used to be, and it was densely filled with all kinds of animal carcasses.

Among them, Ivan even saw the body of a centaur.

It was placed in the most prominent position and seemed to be a demonstration for the intruders.

Inside the Lair, from time to time, like a volcanic crater, a pale, milky-white mist came out of it, faintly dispersing the bloody smell all over the hillside.

The scene before him was too horrible, and the fire Ivan had set a few months ago seemed to have opened the gates of hell.

Now that Aragog had degenerated, he was not restraining his descendants, but submitting to instinct and becoming a dark creature that only knew how to kill.

Worse, his brutality had damaged the balance that Hogwarts and the Forbidden Forest should have.

The revenge of the Acromantulas almost turned the Lair into a purgatory.

The current situation was even worse than the news obtained by the centaurs' investigation. It was necessary to stop the Acromantulas from further raging as soon as possible, and Aragog also had to be eliminated.

On top of the omnipresent corpses, what worried Ivan was that he sensed a hint of black magic in the mist floating up from Aragog's lair.

Dark magic, could it be Voldemort?

Ivan shook his head. With his understanding of Voldemort, Voldemort would not use evil black magic to control, influence and transform Acromantulas. He would probably be inclined to use a Death Curse to eliminate the enemy directly.

In Dumbledore's words, Voldemort despised life and was most afraid of death, and this was his greatest weakness.

In his opinion, he believed that death was the greatest fear for everyone.

Avada Kedavra was Voldemort's favorite curse, not any other complex and evil dark magic.

It could not have been Voldemort who left this dark magic. What's more, he couldn't even be near Hogwarts now.

If it wasn't Voldemort, who would it be?

Ivan thought of the unknown existence that might have been hiding in Aragog's lair. This was only his guess. He didn't know why, he felt that he should already know some important information on the matter, but he couldn't think about it....

Just like the bodies covered by the fog in front of him, the dreams he had forgotten seemed to be related to this existence.

Ivan could not remember those dreams, but in any case, the sight in front of him was enough to inform Dumbledore and have him go out to deal with these Acromantulas.

Buckbeak took Ivan and flew around Aragog's lair a few more times. After Ivan remembered the hiding places of most of the Acromantulas, they started back to the castle.

At that moment, Ivan saw a group of Acromantulas come out of the center.

Because there were no trees, he could see very clearly that the group consisted of twelve or thirteen giant spiders. The one in the lead was obviously much larger than its companions. Behind her, the spiders dragged three wizards in Hogwarts robes, Malfoy, Goyle and Crabbe.

"Damn, what are these three doing?" Ivan was startled and nearly slipped off Buckbeak's back. Malfoy and the other two were supposed to be in the castle. How could they have been captured by the Acromantulas?

What should he do now?

Go save Malfoy?! This was just a joke. In addition to the new arrivals, Ivan found that the number of Acromantulas hiding nearby was definitely no less than a hundred. Once he fought and alarmed them, the consequences would be absolutely unimaginable.

Moreover, no matter from what point of view he came up with, Ivan had no reason to risk his life for Malfoy's rescue.

Come to think of it, if his life was in danger, Malfoy would have no conscience and would not save him.

If he let him go regardless, or left and went back to inform the others, then from what he was seeing, in a few minutes, Malfoy and his companions would become the newest trophy in the vast web.

Ivan was sure he wouldn't be sad to learn that Malfoy was dead.

But witnessing Malfoy's death in front of him was something else entirely.