"Professors! I've made peace with Aragog, and we can start! He'll direct the spiders to cooperate with us!"
Hagrid shouted and laughed as he emerged from the cave.
The raw meat hanging on him was gone, and behind him, an extremely large spider as big as a nearly fully - grown elephant slowly crawled out.
Its eight all - black eyes of varying sizes, with a strange and ambiguous look, gazed at the group of powerful wizards who stood at the top of the wizarding world.
"Zzzz—"
The old Aragog struggled to move the chelicerae and maxillae on its mouthparts and let out a shrill insect cry in front of the cave entrance.
About half of the young Acromantulas on the giant vines on both sides silently lowered their forelimbs upon hearing the cry, showing respect and submission.
But the other half of the Acromantulas, which were bigger than a carriage wheel and full of vigor, weren't impressed by Aragog's demonstration of authority. Only when Aragog turned its eight eyes towards them did they reluctantly lower their spider heads slightly.
Aragog managed to subdue its clan with great difficulty. Then, guided by Hagrid, it spoke in a hoarse male voice to Dumbledore and his party:
"Friends of Hagrid, powerful wizards, welcome to my territory.
For Hagrid's sake, I'm willing to command my clan to cooperate with you in renovating the Acromantula Nest.
And during the wizards' training later, I'll let my clan bring some limited challenges to the wizards to support your training.
I only ask that you allow my clan to continue to thrive in The Forbidden Forest."
Dumbledore gave a deep look at Aragog, which was extremely large but obviously wouldn't live for many more years, and nodded slightly. He replied seriously:
"As long as you and your clan know your limits and stop at the critical moment without harming any wizard's life, you can continue to live here.
You can even, like the unicorn and centaur clans in The Forbidden Forest, sign a magical contract with Hogwarts and become a part of the guardians of Hogwarts."
Hearing that Dumbledore wanted to sign a magical contract with them, Aragog was quite tempted but quickly calmed down.
If they really signed the contract, his Acromantula clan would never be able to eat human flesh again for generations.
"Let's deal with the contract later. I only trust Hagrid for now, not you lot."
Aragog came up with a reasonable excuse.
Professor McGonagall in the group was a bit annoyed.
In her view, they hadn't even begun to doubt those big flesh - eating Acromantulas, yet the spider boss was the first to say it didn't trust them.
Dumbledore reached out to stop Professor McGonagall, who was about to have a bit of an argument with Aragog. He had already sensed that Aragog and this group of Acromantulas had no intention of suppressing their nature and living in peace with the wizards.
The reason they agreed to let the wizards renovate the Acromantula Nest was mainly the wizards' flesh, though Hagrid's influence also played a part.
"Let's start the renovation!"
Dumbledore gave the order. "Dudley, help Hagrid first and move all the materials he prepared here. Other professors, take action first to adjust the existing giant trees and vines in the Acromantula Nest to build the prototype of the training maze!"
Everyone responded affirmatively and started to act.
Surprisingly, those terrifying Acromantulas didn't attack them. They allowed the professors to cast spells for the transformation and even cooperated by making way.
Dudley followed Hagrid and walked out of the depression along the way they had come, and circled to a relatively open area outside the depression, where there were full of giant trees and big stones.
Hagrid was very energetic. He stretched out his two thick and strong arms and was about to pick up two giant trees and tuck them under his armpits.
Dudley quickly called out to stop him.
"Hagrid, what did you say to that big spider Aragog? Didn't you tell it that once the training maze was built, there would be a steady stream of senior wizards coming for training?"
"Yeah! Didn't you tell me the same thing back then? I didn't say any extra words. Whether it was telling Dumbledore last week or telling Aragog, I said the same thing!"
Hagrid replied nervously, afraid that he had said something wrong again.
"It's okay. You did well and right!"
Dudley comforted Hagrid.
Hagrid really didn't say anything wrong in this matter.
Previously, without Dudley having to explain it personally, Dumbledore could understand Dudley's true intention immediately through Hagrid's description. This was completely within Dudley's expectation.
But Dudley underestimated the self - control of the Acromantula clan.
He originally thought that when their group was surrounded by the Acromantulas a moment ago, these spiders would be unable to suppress their nature of devouring human flesh and rush forward recklessly.
At that time, taking advantage of the chaos, Eris could be further injured.
Unexpectedly, Aragog managed to barely stabilize the situation.
Dudley analyzed that Aragog must have explained the combat power of the Hogwarts professors to those rebellious descendants who defied its authority in advance.
Then, with the temptation that there would be easy - to - deal - with wizards coming to offer human - like 'takeaways' in the future, it appeased those rebellious descendants and barely controlled the clan.
It seemed that if Dudley wanted to further injure Eris today, he had to find a suitable opportunity to cause some accidents.
Dudley silently calculated in his mind and at the same time greeted Hagrid to become building material porters.
First, he and Hagrid cast the Levitation Charm together, making a large number of giant trees and stones float slightly off the ground.
Then, they cast the Strength Enhancement spell together to increase their strength, used the Transfiguration Charm to turn weeds into strong ropes, tied up a large number of giant trees and stones, carried them on their shoulders, and headed towards the Acromantula Nest.
When they attended Dumbledore's class at the Dursleys' house together, Hagrid learned the Calm Mind Spell and Strength Enhancement from Dudley and Harry.
Coupled with other spells taught by Dumbledore, Hagrid's strength had increased several - fold compared to before.
With his own magic cultivation, magic resistance, and strength, he now had a stable professor - level combat ability and should not be underestimated.
Since the distance was very close, within a few minutes, Dudley and Hagrid controlled the mountain - like giant trees and boulders and returned to the depression where the Acromantula Nest was located.
A group of Acromantulas and the professors stared at the scene in disbelief.
Especially when they saw Dudley covered in a dazzling red light, carrying a huge pile of tied - up logs and stones on his shoulders as if an ant were carrying an elephant, they almost popped their eyes out.
It was hard for these frail wizards to imagine that an ordinary person could do such a thing.
"Boom—"
Dudley and Hagrid unloaded the goods. When the logs and stones hit the ground, the depression trembled slightly three times in succession. If the humidity in the area hadn't been relatively high, it would probably have kicked up a cloud of dust.
The professors' surprise didn't last long. It was the effect of a spell, still within their understanding.
Urged by Dumbledore, they quickly resumed the transformation operation.
However, the Acromantulas were terrified and became even more docile.
Only then did they truly realize the power of the top wizards, just as their long - lived ancestors had said.
No matter how much they craved human flesh, they didn't dare to attack these wizards... at least not Hagrid and that boy who seemed like a monster in human form.