Chapter 284: Teaching Hermione

While Harry's wonderful performance gave everyone confidence, Ivan's powerful curse surprised everyone. The young wizards were now braver, and no longer felt the fear towards the Acromantulas as they had at the beginning. But it was not enough, and they could not expect a few more battles like this one.

Everyone was in a good mood and wanted to be as strong as Ivan and Harry....

Then Sirius divided the wizards into groups according to the plan, and let them go to the nearby woods to act alone and fight the Acromantulas.

He repeatedly warned everyone not to go into the Forbidden Forest.

Under the care of Sirius and his companions, fighting a single Acromantula was already at the limit of what these twelve to thirteen year old wizards could do.

Normally, they had to be exposed to such a creature after passing the Test of Ordinary Magic, or T.I.M.O.

Instead of following the stream in search of some lone Acromantula, Ivan secretly pulled Hermione out of the large group and headed into the remote woods. He had his own plans.

Hermione was still discussing with Ivan the spell he had just used. She had seen it a few times before, but never once was she as impressed as she was now.

"The spell you just used is much stronger than the redoubt curse." Hermione said, "It can split the Acromantula's body. It looks a bit like..."

"Actually, the principle of this spell isn't too difficult!" Ivan thought for a moment, turned to look at Hermione, "I can teach you if you want to learn it!"

"Really?" Hermione said in surprise, and immediately turned a little hesitantly. "But isn't this a spell you created yourself? I mean, you should keep it a secret and leave it as an ace in the hole, not just pass it on to someone else..."

"This isn't a trick; there's no need to keep it a secret." Ivan replied earnestly, "And to me, you are not someone else."

Hearing what Ivan said, Hermione's little face turned red, like an extremely red apple, so cute that one couldn't help but bite it.

For a wizard, a curse that only he masters is very important. It should not be taught outside for someone who is not close enough or intimate enough...

Ivan was willing to pass this spell on to Hermione, and that had a lot of meaning.

While she was shy, Hermione was very pleased, but she still intended to persuade Ivan to keep the spell a secret.

Whatever else she wanted to say, Ivan didn't give her a chance. He explained directly to Hermione the principle, the spell, the technique, and so on.

In the eyes of other young wizards, this spell was extremely powerful.

But to Ivan, that was nothing anymore. His current ace up his sleeve was the dark magic he had learned from studying the Dark Arts.

But those curses were very bad, and every time they were used, there was a price to pay.

Ivan was not fazed by the powerful force it represented, and he knew that dark magic could only be used as a last minute straw to save lives.

He intended to use this as a basis for learning to master the relevant aspects of white magic.

Ivan's recent progress had been tremendous, especially inspired by Dumbledore. But his improvement in combat was limited by his own magic, and he couldn't use many powerful spells without problems.

As long as he got the centaur colony item, all problems would be solved....

In this case, some of the curses he had previously learned from Tom Riddle's journal would not be as important as before, and would become increasingly unsuitable for Ivan.

Instead of being cast aside and idle, it was better to pass them on to Hermione and help her improve her strength.

Standard enchantments, such as Disarm Charm, Protego Charm, Petrification, etc., are generally less lethal, though they are very handy.

Hermione needed a few strong spells to protect herself, so Ivan could be safe.

In the silent forest, Ivan and Hermione were sitting under a huge old oak tree, and the sun was shining through the shadow of the leaves, like stars in the sky, some dazzling, but very bright and beautiful, with an unpredictable silence.

After the initial panic, Hermione quickly calmed down and studied very seriously.

Looking at the girl in front of him, her delicate facial features and those brown eyes full of inspiration, Ivan said and said, but gradually became distracted and moved with confused and silly reflections.

For an instant, he just wished time would stop.

Twenty minutes later, after Hermione had completely mastered the curse, they walked deeper into the Forbidden Forest, to the edge of the Acromantulas' territory. After passing through a huge log that was lying flat, the ground began to slope downward, and the surrounding trees gradually became sparse, revealing a sickly gray.

The trees are scarred and bruised, and large spider webs hung everywhere with animal carcasses inside them.

The scene in front of them was startling. Many of the animals in the webs were still alive. Due to the poison of the Acromantulas, they lost their mobility and were shivering desperately in the webs.

The surrounding landscape was much crazier than Ivan had seen a few months ago.

It seemed that after burning Aragog's lair, the Acromantulas must have retaliated wildly against other animals in the Forbidden Forest.

They were venting their frustration on other creatures.

No wonder even the proud centaurs could not help but need human help.

Watching the horrific scenes, Ivan suddenly understood why the eldest of the centaurs had asked him to eliminate the Acromantulas. What they needed was not the spider's eyes, but the hope that Ivan, the cause of it all, would address the problem and solve it.

With those dark creatures, the Acromantulas, communication would be futile.

Besides, Ivan was not Hagrid. He could not communicate with Aragog and the other Acromantulas. He had to be tough to keep them under control. While greatly reducing the number of Acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest would make them stay in their territory and not dare to leave, finding a way to kill Aragog would make them too afraid to do anything.

It was a good idea to enlist the help of all the young wizards in the school to surround the Acromantulas and reduce their numbers, but Ivan didn't have enough time.

He was ready to make another trip to the Lair of Aragog, the leader of the Acromantulas, and kill him.

Even after all this time, this old spider had a few years left to live. Killing Aragog now was the quickest way to deter the Acromantulas from ravaging and upsetting the ecological balance in the Forbidden Forest, as they were doing now....