Just as everyone could have predicted.
What had happened the previous night immediately shot to the top of Hogwarts' list of hottest topics. From breakfast in the morning through the morning classes and all the way to noon, young wizards could be heard discussing it in every corner of the castle.
The students' intelligence-gathering abilities surprised Harry.
Only the three of them had heard the later conversation between Professor Breen and Professor Dumbledore the previous night. But under Sirius's warning, they had not told anyone about it. Yet by noon, it was no longer a secret that Professor Breen had fought the Acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest and driven them deeper into the woods.
Everyone was extremely excited about it, except Hagrid.
"Hagrid didn't come to lunch—"
Looking at the largest empty seat at the staff table above the Great Hall, Harry said quietly to Ron,
"He didn't eat breakfast either. Ron, Hagrid must be feeling awful right now."
Ron, who had been frowning as he listened to Neville excitedly calculate whether they should form a team and go fight the Acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest, turned back at Harry's words. He too cast a sympathetic glance at the staff table.
"But Professor Breen did nothing wrong, did he, Harry? Nobody likes those horrible giant spiders. Except Hagrid. And you heard it too—Professor Breen only drove them deeper into the Forbidden Forest. He didn't wipe them all out. That was merciful enough."
Harry had encountered the giant spider called Aragog at close range. Back then, he and Hermione had accidentally wandered into the Acromantulas' territory while hunting Peter Pettigrew.
It had been an absolutely terrifying adventure. Harry still remembered that they had identified themselves as Hagrid's friends, yet that evil old spider had still refused to let them go.
To