Harry Potter and the Obscurus

Chapter 16 Forbidden Forest

Harry didn't mention the Mirror of Erised to anyone, but even so, his good friend Ron noticed his emotional change. So, to avoid arousing further suspicion, Harry handed over most of his physical control to Moran.

"Harry, can you take me with you...?"

"No."

Harry (Mo Ran), who was taking the Invisibility Cloak out of the box, refused Ron's request before he could finish speaking.

"This isn't a trip to play at school; the place I'm going to is a bit dangerous."

"Of course I know it's dangerous!"

Ron did not back down, and said firmly:

“You’ve been acting really strange ever since Christmas night. I don’t know exactly what you’ve been doing these past few days, but I can guess where you’re headed next… I mean, if you’re not comfortable relying on the professors to protect the Philosopher’s Stone, you should at least go with your friends.”

Faced with such a brave and loyal Ron, Moran felt both surprised and unfamiliar. Having only seen the movie, he didn't know that many of Ron's highlight moments and lines had been drastically altered by the production team and given to Hermione.

"Don't worry, Ron."

Harry (Mo Ran) smiled and patted Ron on the shoulder, saying:

"I'm not stupid enough to risk my life alone. The reason I wear the Invisibility Cloak every night is to complete some academic tasks that Dumbledore assigned to me. So don't worry about me."

After saying that, without waiting for his good friend to persuade him further, he put on the invisibility cloak and disappeared from the dormitory.

……

"Alohomora" (The Opening of the Alohomora)

After skillfully avoiding Filch and Mrs. Lorris's patrol routes, Harry (Mo Ran) passed through the last gate and arrived at the clearing outside the castle. Thanks to the marks left by Hagrid dragging fir trees back and forth, Harry's (Mo Ran) visit to the Forbidden Forest had never been discovered.

The January moonlight was even brighter than the December moonlight, quietly spilling across the silvery-white snow, as if to illuminate the entire world with a shimmering glow. Both Harry and Moran thoroughly enjoyed this journey. Especially when they wore the Invisibility Cloak, the wondrous sight was beyond words.

Upon reaching the edge of the Forbidden Forest, Harry (Mo Ran) took off his Invisibility Cloak and tied it around his waist, as usual. He took a deep breath and then exhaled more slowly. Subsequently, a darkness even denser than the depths of the Forbidden Forest gradually replaced the young wizard's human form.

To ordinary people, the silent wind is invisible, but to wizards, it is a black mist more conspicuous than dark clouds. Therefore, even in the Forbidden Forest, after transforming, Mo Ran could only crawl on the ground to move forward.

Over the past few days, Moran has almost explored the edge of the Dark Forest. As one of the few wild areas undisturbed by Muggles, the Forbidden Forest is home to a large number of magical creatures. Some possess near-human intelligence like centaurs, while others are ferocious, violent, and disobedient; but in most cases, they are extremely dangerous, and only people like Hagrid and Newt Scamander find them interesting and fascinating.

Following a familiar, winding path, Mo Ran slowly drifted to her destination—the nest of the eight-eyed giant spider.

According to textbooks, the giant eye spider is a massive, ferocious, and highly venomous spider that feeds on human flesh. They were first discovered deep in the rainforests of Borneo in Southeast Asia. However, due to their unique structure and habits, magical biologists speculate that the giant eye spider is a man-made creature bred by wizards using black magic. Initially, giant eye spiders were typically bred and trained to guard wizards' homes and treasures, but after the enactment of the Animal Breeding and Experimentation Prohibition Act in 1965, they were largely allowed to go wild. The giant eye spider's body is usually covered in dense black hair, which fades to grayish-black with age. Their bodies and legs are very thick, and although they are extremely fast when hunting, their weight makes them unsuitable for jumping and climbing. When agitated, their large pincers emit a warning clicking sound, and because giant eye spiders are social creatures, wizards typically use Apparition to escape upon hearing this warning sound. Due to its extreme danger, Newt Scamander classified it as a Level 5X dangerous creature in his book "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," with its venom containing a staggering 1 pint of 100 gallons.

Click-clack!

Click-clack-clack-clack!

Hearing the roars of the giant tortoise coming from all directions, Mo Ran once again focused his gaze on the disgusting creatures lurking among the trees and spiderwebs. Over the past few days, he had wondered more than once whether Aragog had been tamed by Hagrid, or if it simply possessed a special constitution that allowed it to understand human speech and communicate. Even though he had been "hunting" them for several days, these creatures still hadn't learned to fear their natural enemy.

Whoosh!

A sudden whooshing sound arose, and the previously slow-moving Momo Ran instantly became ferocious. It was like a black wind with a huge mouth, greedily devouring the eight-eyed giant spiders crawling in the forest and on the spider web.

This was a one-sided massacre with no clear advantage. Because the Oblivious Mist itself was a near-invisible wind, the formless black mist was almost immune to physical damage. Therefore, no matter how strong the Eight-Eyed Giant Spider was, how sharp its claws were, or how deadly its venom was, the Oblivious Mist could treat it as nothing. Conversely, when the Oblivious Mist fully extended its body, the power capable of destroying everything from all directions was enough to make the Eight-Eyed Giant Spider's complex home-field advantage a joke.

Soon, the clicking sounds were replaced by squeaks like the screams of mice. One after another, the giant eight-eyed spiders were swept away by the black wind, drained, and finally reduced to dust, falling back to the ground. Mo Ran didn't care whether the spiders that kept rushing towards him were blind or stupid; he was even somewhat relieved. Just think, if they had really run away after witnessing their companions' gruesome deaths, his "predation" plan would have been much more difficult.

Time passed slowly, and the number of giant eight-eyed spider carcasses on the ground increased. For Mo Ran, spiders that could be used to enhance his dark magic power had to reach a certain age first. Therefore, to ensure sustainable development, he adhered to the principle of not "indiscriminately killing innocents" during his first hunt here. However, as he absorbed more and more giant eight-eyed spiders, Mo Ran was surprised to find that the rate at which his magic power increased was becoming slower and slower. In fact, starting yesterday, even the medium-sized spiders could no longer accumulate more dark magic power for him. After that, he simply gave up on the troublesome step of identification, killing any spider that pounced on him, regardless of size.

"Blame it on your disgusting appearance."

Mo Ran said this, and began to calculate in his mind how much magic power he could still absorb from the eight-eyed giant spider at this rate of "predation".

"Three days? No! It might be less. Although I haven't encountered Aragog yet, I can feel that the black magic I'm extracting from those giant spiders is becoming less and less enough to boost my magic power. It would be best if there were even larger spiders, otherwise I might not be able to level up with the eight-eyed giant spider in a few more days."

"Stop! You monster!"

With a series of clicking sounds, a group of giant eight-eyed spiders, each as big as half a bus, rushed out of the deep forest. They angrily waved their large pincers, and large amounts of venom dripped from them onto the ground in sticky threads, making a "hissing" sound.

Upon hearing the hoarse voice, Mo Ran was overjoyed and charged towards the group of giant spiders almost without hesitation.

"No!"

"It hurts! It hurts so much!"

"what!"

A pitiful scream echoed through the Forbidden Forest, as countless torn legs were blown away like withered branches and rotten leaves. Feeling the abundant dark magic power surging into his body, Mo Ran was overjoyed.

He never knew that there were other talking giant spiders among these spiders besides Aragog, but now it seems that the eight-eyed giant spider that can speak human language is his ideal prey.

"The Harry Potter movies were too conservative! These spiders are all three or four meters long! No wonder I haven't seen them before; they've been hiding deep in their territory! It seems these giant spiders' range might be hundreds of square kilometers! Come on! Bring on more! I remember Aragog saying in the movies that he only spared Hagrid, but didn't care about the safety of other humans. In that case, for the safety of the Hogwarts students and teachers, I'll slaughter you all, no matter how hard it is!"

……

This continued for a week. Even though Mo Ran had lost count of how many colossal spiders he had killed, he could still extract a considerable amount of dark magic power from these monsters. However, many things in this world are a double-edged sword. While the colossal eight-eyed spiders were indeed an excellent source of magic, having mastered human speech and possessing sufficient intelligence, they also sensed the danger Mo Ran posed. Now, Mo Ran had to spend almost half of each night searching for and tracking down the eight-eyed spiders before he could feast on them in the few hours leading up to dawn. If it weren't for the fact that he could also extract some expensive spider venom from the remains of those colossal eight-eyed spiders, he probably would have been cursing under his breath long ago.

It's worth mentioning that during the time he was hunting the eight-eyed giant spiders, Mo Ran also noticed that as the spiders' territory shrank, the number of magical creatures that hadn't appeared in his path before began to increase. Thinking about it carefully, this makes sense, since the eight-eyed giant spiders aren't native to the Forbidden Forest. If Hagrid hadn't released them, how could such a large number of spiders have infested the Dark Forest?

"This is practically an invasive species! So even if I encounter Aragog, I won't hold back against it just because of Hagrid!"

With this in mind, Mo Ran continued hunting until the second Monday of January, which was the start of the Hogwarts spring term.

……

"He usually has a big appetite, so why did he leave so early today?"

Noticing Harry's condition, Hermione asked Ron what was wrong, but he only replied with a displeased expression:

"He doesn't share secrets with me anymore. If you want to know, go ask him yourself."

……

Soon, the twelve chimes of Hogwarts' bell tower rang out. By then, Harry had already handed himself over to Mo Ran and appeared in the Forbidden Forest. After walking along the familiar path for a while, Mo Ran was pleasantly surprised to find that the giant spiders had gathered in large numbers, as if preparing to retaliate.

"kill!"

"Tear it apart!"

"Drink its blood dry!"

Having transformed into Mo Ran, he couldn't speak, but if he still had a mouth, he would definitely chuckle and say:

"What a bunch of brainless idiots."

Having absorbed the dark magic of the eight-eyed giant spiders during his vacation, Mo Ran is now far more powerful than before. Whether it's the speed, the range, or the destructive power of the black mist, he demonstrates a level even stronger than Credence from *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them*. Hundreds of eight-eyed giant spiders were like shrimp thrown into hot soup; before they could even hop around, they were nearly all annihilated.

"Incendio!" (Burning flames)

The firelight and the stinging pain from the burning made Mo Ran startled; he was very familiar with that deep voice.

Hagrid?

Looking at the figure holding an umbrella and a giant crossbow, Mo Ran was speechless for a while. Because, as a human, the person standing next to him was not a Hogwarts teacher, but a gigantic, gray-furred, eight-eyed giant spider.