Hold the Line, and There'll Be a Way!

The two followed silently behind, watching Draco and Ron, who were both internally clamoring to back out, but forced themselves to put on an act of "the Forbidden Forest is nothing to worry about" for fear of being ridiculed by the other.

"Look at them," Seamus nudged Harry with his elbow, lowering his voice with a hint of schadenfreude, "Their legs are shaking, and they're still trying to save face—I bet if Ron were patrolling the Forbidden Forest himself, he'd just circle the perimeter a couple of times and then slip back."

"But there are two people," Harry said with a sullen laugh. "Don't you understand the saying 'one person dies from overeating, two people starve to death'?"

"Indeed." Seamus nodded knowingly.

"Alright," Harry said to Seamus, watching them walk down a secluded path. "Now's the time, let's get started!"

Seamus understood and took a small glass bottle from his pocket containing the Spider-Attracting Potion that Harry had learned from Professor Snape.

He used his wand to guide the small bottle and threw it in front of Draco and Ron.

Afraid that a loud noise would startle the two of them.

"Who?" Ron's voice cracked. "Who's there?"

"Ha," Draco's face also paled slightly, but he quickly feigned composure, using his usual sarcastic tone to mask his nervousness, "What's wrong, Weasley? Scared already? The slightest disturbance makes you reveal your true colors?"

"Scared?" Ron immediately protested. "What am I scared of? I just—I heard some noise, didn't you hear it? It sounded like a glass bottle breaking."

"Ha, you're just scared," Draco sneered. "I think you are scared, aren't you? Cowardly Weasley, you really are a mouse-raising creature—"

"Who are you calling a coward?!" Ron immediately reacted as if his tail had been stepped on. "Who are you calling a coward?!"

"Whoever reacts the strongest, that's who we'll criticize!" Draco said.

"I'm telling you, Malfoy, I am Ronald Weasley— "

"Enough!" Draco interrupted him impatiently. "Enough with the nonsense. Either keep going and prove you're not afraid, or admit you're a coward right now!"

Provoked like that, Ron's freckles turned red with anger, but he still forced a smile and roared, "Fine, let's go! Who's afraid of who!"

The two continued walking forward, and a few minutes later, Draco suddenly stopped.

A gentle breeze blew by, and a strange sound came from the depths of the forest.

"Did you hear anything?" Draco asked instinctively.

Now it was Ron's turn to mock. "Weren't you just talking about me? Now it's your turn to be scared?"

But despite the mockery, Ron also perked up his ears, and his heart pounded.

Damn, could it be Acromantula?

The sound grew closer and louder—

Before they could even wait, a chilling "click-clack" sound came from behind the rocks.

Immediately afterwards, hundreds of enormous eight- Acromantula, each with eight long, hairy legs and compound eyes that gleamed eerily in the darkness, slowly crawled out from behind the shadows of the rocks.

This also explains why the clicking sound was so loud.

With hundreds of spiders gathered together, how could the noise they make be quiet?

They were clearly attracted by the strange Potions and appeared somewhat restless.

"Merlin's fattest briefs—" Ron let out a nearly desperate groan from deep in his throat, the tip of his wand trembling violently, but still fixed on the approaching sea of spiders.

Draco's face turned deathly pale in the light of his wand, but he quickly raised it as well, his voice trembling almost imperceptibly. "It's... it's the Acromantula! But that's impossible! They shouldn't be in this area!"

"Is this the time to discuss ecological distribution in Blood Mother Hell?!" Ron roared in despair, his extreme fear overshadowing his dislike for Malfoy. "If you don't want to become spider dung, cooperate! Do you hear me?! Cooperate! I don't want people coming to collect my corpse tomorrow—or rather, to piece my wizarding fragments together from spider dung!"

In this life-or-death moment, their personal grudges were temporarily put aside. They quickly huddled together, watching the hundreds of giant spiders that were approaching warily.

"Blazing Flames!" Ron fired a burst of flame first, and the spiders retreated a few steps in fear, letting out angry hiss.

"Blazing Flames!" Draco tried to create a wall of fire to restrict their movement.

Harry and Seamus, hidden in the shadows, were watching closely.

"Not bad," Seamus chuckled. "Look at Malfoy's reaction, haha!"

"Ron's control over the Fire-Making Spell is much better than before," Harry commented objectively, while slightly raising his wand, ready to strike at any moment.

"No, there are too many of them!" Ron shouted anxiously, "We have to think of something!"

"You use Water-Making Spell, I'll turn that water into oil, then ignite it to create a continuous wall of fire, building a firebreak!"

In a flash, Draco came up with a solution—a method he'd seen someone else use to deal with the Inferi just a couple of days ago.

As he spoke, he unleashed a Spider-Repelling Spell, sending several spiders that pounced on him flying.

Ron swung his wand, pointing it forward.

"Aguamenti (Water-Making Spell)!"

A waterspout suddenly appeared, forcing the surrounding spiders to retreat.

At the same time, Draco also turned the clear water into black oil.

"Incendio (Blazing Flames)!"

Flames erupted from the wand, igniting the oil in front of them. Instantly, streams of flame shot into the sky, engulfing dozens of spiders.

The spiders emitted a violent, mournful hiss, and the air reeked of a burnt stench.

"Well done!" Ron panted, channeling his Charms to form a protective wall of flames, leaving only a small opening. "We did it! Malfoy!"

The spiders could only attack the two through this opening. The flames were too terrifying for these beasts; they were just spiders, not Fire Dragon, and had no courage to cross the flames.

Draco was also breathing heavily. He quickly used Charms to kill several spiders that were trying to break through the gap, his gray eyes gleaming with the light of relief.

"Not bad, Weasley," Draco muttered somewhat awkwardly.

At least, Weasley didn't let him down when it came to life and death.

Ron paused for a moment, then grinned, though the smile was still a little stiff, "You too, Malfoy. That oil-turning spell—it's kind of weird, but it does work."

Harry and Seamus, hidden in the shadows, exchanged a knowing smile.

"It's just a bit costly," Seamus clicked his tongue, looking at the spiders pacing anxiously around the firewall. "Hopefully Hagrid won't notice that a few dozen of his 'little darlings' are missing."

"Oh, that's not his little darling anymore," Harry said with a shrug. "Hagrid mentioned this to me when Aragog died, saying that the spiders wouldn't let him near them after Aragog died, and even wanted to eat him up—"

"Merlin," Seamus said disdainfully, "I really don't understand Hagrid. Why would he like such an evil creature? They have no gratitude whatsoever. It was Hagrid who brought their ancestors into the Forbidden Forest, allowing them to thrive and multiply—"

"That's a spider," Harry said.

Inside the ring of fire, Ron had already pulled out his phone.

"I need to call Harry!" he said quickly. "Get him to come rescue us—or we'll be spider dung in no time—you keep an eye on the fire ring so the spiders don't get in—"

"Then why did you leave an opening?" Draco asked, puzzled.

"Oh—" Ron realized something was wrong and quickly sealed the entrance with Charms. "Alright, I'll call now—you absolutely mustn't let them find a chance to break in!"

After saying that, Ron took out his phone and dialed Harry's cell phone.

Fortunately, Harry had his phone on silent, so it was only on vibrate. He took out his phone, cast a Silencing Charm, and answered, "What's wrong?"

"Help!" Ron cried out in the voice of the legendary mid-laner, "Help me, help me! There are so many Acromantula in the Forbidden Forest! Look, the fire is where we are, Malfoy and I are surrounded!"

"I'm going right now," Harry said. "Hold on tight, and there's a way!"

Ron instinctively felt that the words were a bit ominous, but he couldn't quite put his finger on why.

He hung up the phone and said to Draco, "He answered the phone—he'll be here soon. How about we kill a few more while we're at it?"

"Of course," Draco said, casually flicking out a blast of Crushing Spell.

However, it was this Crushing Spell that caused the trouble; instead of blasting the spider, it extinguished a section of the flame.

It's important to know that not only water can extinguish fires, but explosions can also extinguish fires under certain circumstances.

Upon seeing the gap, the spiders became excited, their eyes gleaming with evil light, and they rushed towards it at top speed.

"Malfoy!" Ron's eyes widened in fury. "Blood Mother Hell, are you a spy sent by the Spider?"

Draco clearly knew he was in trouble; he stood there silently, continuing to fling spiders outwards using Charms.

"Let's go," Harry said, patting Seamus on the shoulder as he watched the two men bustling around in the ring of fire. "It's our turn to go and rescue them. And while we're at it, let's see how long this fragile alliance, forcibly formed, can last before we leave the Forbidden Forest."

Just as the spiders surged toward the breach like a black tide bursting its banks, Ron and Draco frantically cast spells but could not completely stop them. At the critical moment when the defense line was about to collapse, suddenly, the flames in front of them vanished without a trace.

Following the moonlight, the two saw that the surroundings were filled with enormous Acromantula, a dark mass that resembled an ocean of spiders.

The clicking sound was incessant, sending chills down one's spine; it was utterly terrifying.

"Merlin!" Draco roared in despair, "Where's the flame? Are we going to die?"

"Shouldn't... shouldn't be?" Ron swallowed hard. "Quick, quick, let's continue making the isolation strip—"

But it was all in vain, for the incredibly swift spiders had already pounced.

Just when they were in despair, a familiar voice rang out.

"Partis Tempurus (Fire God Paves the Way)!"

The next second, the world was ignited.

A towering wall of purple-blue fire suddenly rose up, reaching a height of several tens of feet, and then, like a tsunami, it swept outwards in all directions!

The flames swept away, but as they passed Draco and Ron, they parted the sea like Moses parting the ocean, creating a path.

The surging spider horde was instantly engulfed by the flames. The spiders in the front row let out a shrill scream under the high temperature and were instantly turned into charcoal. The spiders behind them retreated in terror, but they could not outrun the rapidly spreading flames and were devoured one after another.

Ron and Draco were stunned by the sudden burst of powerful magic and turned to look at it at the same time.

Harry and Seamus emerged quickly from the shadows of the trees not far away. Harry's wand was still wreathed in purple flames, and his expression was calm, as if he had merely swatted away a few flies.

Seamus followed behind him, a smug look on his face that said, "Aha, we've come at just the right time."

"Ha— Harry!" Ron breathed a long sigh of relief, his legs went weak, and he almost collapsed to the ground, only managing to stay upright by sheer willpower.

Draco didn't speak, but his tense shoulders instantly relaxed. He quickly straightened his disheveled robes, trying to regain some of Malfoy's dignity, but his pale face and rapid breathing betrayed him.

"Looks like you guys were having a good time?" Harry raised an eyebrow, his tone slightly teasing, as his gaze swept over the charred spider corpses around him.

"Happy?!" Ron's voice rose eight octaves as he pointed at Draco, "If that idiot hadn't used the Reductor Curse to destroy the wall of fire, we would have been—"

"I just misjudged!" Draco immediately retorted, a blush rising on his pale face. "Who knew the flames would be so unstable! And if it weren't for my previous Oil Spell, we would have been engulfed long ago!"

A moment of silence fell, broken only by the crackling sound of the remaining flames igniting on the spider's body.

The Welsh Green Fire, isn't it amazing? It only burned spiders, without burning down any bushes in the forest.

Finally, Ron couldn't hold back any longer. He looked at Harry and asked, still shaken, "Harry, weren't there a lot of spiders just now? Even in the Forbidden Forest, that's quite a lot—"

He didn't say the last sentence, because just thinking about the overwhelming number of spiders triggered his spider phobia.

Harry had already prepared his story, and he made up a lie without batting an eye. "Do you remember what I told you a few days ago? Because Aragog died, they wanted to migrate. Maybe you ran into their migrating army—who knows what happened deep in the Forbidden Forest?"