Chapter 773: Infectious Beasts and Hunt

'Cute'

Looking at the Bowtruckles sizing them up, hiding behind branches and leaves, and poking their heads out to take a peek, Hermione felt her heart squeeze.

"Let me talk." 

After saying that, Hermione took a deep breath, approached the tree, and crouched down to face the Bowtruckle on the gritty tree root.

"Ahem, ahem."

"Hello, Mr Bowtruckle. Have you seen a scary, hairy creature with many legs around here?" Hermione gestured using her fingers. But that Bowtruckle just tilted its head and looked confused.

Although Bowtruckles have intelligence comparable to a human child, if you want to effectively communicate with them, you need to be familiar with them and their habits or have special talents and abilities similar to Hagrid, Luna, and Newt Scamander. 

Andy sighed and also crouched down and asked, with his wand at his forehead, "Mr Bowtruckle? I remember reading that Bowtruckles are agender in the Care of Magical Creatures book."

Well, we can easily find Acromantulas using Accio and follow the way they flew over or use a tracking or point me spell. But taking it slow and following Hermione's idea is also not bad.

"I read about them in Mr Newt Scamander's book. It was mentioned that they can choose their gender in the flowering season." 

"Female Bowtruckles will have small flowers growing on their body, and the males will protect the flowers from fairies and other creatures with sharp claws that can even gouge out our eyes and flesh," Hermione explained while thinking about how to make Bowtruckle understand.

While she was musing, Andy pulled silvery smoke out of his head, and when he pointed his wand at the Bowtruckle, the smoke changed into the shape of a spider. 

"Can you guys show me where we can find this creature?"

Looking at the spider projection, Bowtruckles trembled and hid in the tree; only one jumped down and showed a direction before returning to hide.

Are they afraid? 

But Acromantulas are carnivores, so why are they afraid?

"Andy, is it memory? How did you shape the memory you extracted into a spider?" Hermione's eyes widened as she asked.

"Well, hm. You need to use Occlumency to empty every thought apart from the image of a thing you want to show in your mind and use a memory extraction spell to extract it."

"You can shape such memory into the thing you thought of easily with just an intent later." 

Andy explained while leading the way in the direction Bowtruckle had shown.

After a few minutes of walking, the trees seemed less vibrant, ash-grey in colour, and small, ant-sized spiders could be found here and there, with many walking in a line toward the right side.

As they followed the spiders and walked forward, the number of spiders became even greater.

Hermione held her wand tightly, looking at the spiders tensely. She was prepared to cast a spell at any moment if the spiders approached them.

Seeing her state, Andy felt funny. But he can understand her feeling; he also feels goosebumps looking at the ever-increasing spiders.

Just thinking about them suddenly dropping on their heads from above caused his skin to crawl and made him unconsciously cast the modified shield charm on them both.

The Acromantulas truly infested this part of the forest.

What is Hagrid doing, letting such creatures grow to this number?

Is he doing it for money?

No. From his living conditions, he doesn't seem to be such a person.

So, is it just for his love for magical creatures?

As they get closer to the nest, Andy could guess the reason those Bowtruckles are afraid of Acromantulas.

The wand-quality magic trees here seem to have turned into their ideal place to stay. And their venom corrodes the tree and damages its vitality.

Since the Bowtruckles are creatures that have a symbiotic relationship with wand-quality magic trees, they will guard those trees in exchange for magic.

For them, Acromantulas are indeed enemies. They are truly pests and infectious species that need to be regularly massacred to limit their number.

"Rustle, rustle."

As they were making their way and waiting for the big one to come. What they didn't want to happen, happened.

Heavy wind blew and rustled the tree, causing a rain of spiders.

"Ah!"

"Arania Exumai!"

Blue light exploded from Hermione's wand, causing the surrounding spiders to knock back.

Did she already master the spider-banishing charm, or did she specially learn it for this trip?

Well, it's not the time to think about that.

Acromantulas are afraid of fire, right?

Andy shook his head and waved his wand.

Embers instantly lit up on the spiderwebs on the tree, causing a massive, beautiful sea-like fire to spread in a few seconds.

The fire seemed to have a mind of its own; it didn't burn anything other than spiders and webs.

"Andy! Cancel the spell and put out the fire." Hermione came back to her senses and cried out. "This is Forbidden Forest. Many creatures and intelligent beings are living here, and if the fire spreads, it will be hard to put that out."

"Calm down, Hermione. This is just Fiendfyre." Andy tried to reassure her, but it had the opposite effect.

"That's even worse!" Hermione replied and tried to control the fire using the general counter-spell.

"Don't you know my control over that spell?" Saying that, Andy waved his wand, putting the fire out, leaving behind only a rain of ashes from the spiders and their web without damaging anything else.

Looking around, Hermione felt reassured and panted a bit.

A few minutes later, just as Hermione was catching her breath, a series of skittering noises was heard, causing them to look up.

From the shadows, many pairs of large, gleaming eyes emerged, followed by three menacing figures —the Acromantulas; their legs moved with an unsettling grace. Their fangs glinted as they approached closer, with hunger and vigilance evident in their gaze.

"Hermione, can you cast a spell?" Andy asked.

One of the reasons he was here today was to test the magical defence of these magical creatures, so he hoped she could cast a spell, or they would have to make another trip tomorrow.

"Don't worry; I am fine." Hermione answered and cast a stunning spell, "Stupefy!"

A beam of red light shot from her wand, impacting the creature and sending it staggering backward. It shook off the shock, though, seeming more annoyed than stunned.

Seeing it's fine, she cast the spell again.

"Stupefy!"

"Stupefy!"

Only at the third beam of light did the target drop on the ground. But it caused the other two giant, wolf-sized spiders to be enraged and hurry their steps.

"Hermione, if my magic and intent are strong enough, do you think the Disarming spell will work on them?" Andy asked, but before she could reply, he cast the spell and made her eyes widen.

"Expelliarmus!"

With a flash of red light, bloodied fangs, claws, a venom sac, and a web sac appeared before him, making him laugh.

"Haha, haha. It really disarmed it." With a big smile, Andy cast the spell on the other spider as well to confirm.

"Expelliarmus!"

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