Baruk, I'll Support You!

Regulus didn't speak, but simply met Aragog's compound eyes at the top of his head, looking straight ahead, and did nothing.

Aragog was stared at by those gray eyes and suddenly remembered the orange-red fire from before.

It moved all eight legs backward at the same time, its carapace scraping against the rock with a crisp sound, its chelicerae retracted slightly, and its head lowered slightly.

Regulus withdrew his gaze, his tone remaining the same. "You may make one request."

Aragog hesitated.

The topmost eye, the left one, is marked with surprise and doubt, the right one with fear. The six eyes below are looking in different directions, as if each is making its own judgment.

After a moment of silence, it asked, "Can we bring this up later?"

Regulus looked at it and said calmly, "Okay."

Then he looked at Baruk.

Baruk remained huddled behind Aragog, his body low to the ground, his eight legs tucked in, and his chelicerae closed.

When Regulus's gaze swept over, its chelipeds twitched so slightly that it was almost imperceptible.

Aragog moved to the side.

Baruk crawled out from behind it and stood in front of Regulus, its eight legs firmly planted on the ground and its chelicerae slightly open.

It only looked at Regulus, not Aragog.

Aragog's uppermost eye was fixed on Regulus, while the lower pairs of eyes moved down to Baruk. Aragog's chelicerae twitched slightly before stopping.

Something seems off about this offspring.

Regulus looked at Baruk: "Shrunk you down, it'll be a little uncomfortable."

Baruk glanced at the Gnomes had turned to ash; the clump of ash had been scattered by the night wind, leaving only a faint trace on the spider silk.

It then looked at Regulus, its chelicerae opening and closing with a click.

Regulus drew his wand.

Transfiguration is based on the principles of Human Transfiguration, compressing the entire body while maintaining the original structure.

The size decreases, but the proportions remain the same, the organ functions remain the same, and the hardness of the shell remains the same.

Strength and speed will be reduced proportionally; a spider the size of a palm will only have the strength of a spider the size of a palm, but the strength of the venom and the silk will remain unchanged.

Furthermore, the Acromantula's own Magic Power will cause the spell's effect to gradually fade, requiring periodic replenishment.

He tapped his wand.

Baruk's body began to shrink, his eight legs pulled inward, his abdomen shrank, and his eight eyes shrunk into even smaller points of light.

A few seconds later, it shrank to the size of a palm, and then, with all eight legs pushing off at the same time, it jumped onto Regulus's palm.

It's so much smaller now, but it's kind of cute. It's all fluffy, with its eight legs curled up, like a shrunken ball of fur.

Baruk paused in the palm for a moment, then his eight legs sprang up simultaneously, leaping off the palm and landing on Regulus's shoulder.

Its claws hooked onto the fabric of his robe, and it settled down, its pincers gently pinching the edge of his collar.

Regulus looked up at Aragog: "I'm taking Baruk with me."

Aragog didn't speak, but opened and closed its chelicerae as a response.

Regulus Apparition.

The wind from the Forbidden Forest swept in, scattering the last trace of that clump of ash.

Apparition landed at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. The moment Regulus touched the ground, he heard a series of rapid, thin tapping sounds coming from his shoulder.

Baruk's eight little legs kicked wildly near his collar, his chelicerae opened and closed rapidly, his body curled up into a ball, and the whole spider rolled over on his shoulder.

It's gagging.

Regulus had never seen a spider gagging before, but now he had.

Its abdomen contracted and expanded, its chelicerae extended outwards, and it made squeaking and clattering sounds, interspersed with a few thuds, intermittently.

The squeezing sensation of Apparition is unpleasant even for wizards, and it would probably be even more unbearable for a spider the size of a palm.

Regulus stood there and waited for a while.

After about ten seconds, the thumping on his shoulder lessened, Baruk's voice slowed, and his abdomen was still rising and falling slightly, but the convulsions stopped.

Regulus extended his right hand, spread it out, and placed it beside his shoulder.

Baruk flipped himself over and wobbled toward his palm, his eight legs slipping in turn, as limp as noodles that had just been soaked in water.

It crawled to the center of the palm, curled up into a ball, closed its chelipeds, and narrowed its eight eyes, clearly still recovering.

Regulus brought his other hand back up, a Natural Magic Power condensing in his palm—a pale green light, not large, warm, carrying the gentle scent of growing plants.

He brought his hand close to Baruk, and Magic Power seeped into it.

Baruk's legs slowly relaxed, stretching out from their curled-up state. One by one, his eight eyes opened, and his chelicerae tentatively opened and closed.

"It hurts... I want to... spit spider silk..." Its voice shrank and became high-pitched and thin, like the sound of fingernails scratching glass being suppressed to the lowest setting.

"Endure it," Regulus said.

Baruk's chelicerae opened and closed again, but he didn't spray.

After it recovered, it became active, its eight legs moving back and forth in Regulus's palm, its claws pricking Regulus's hand and making it itch a little. Then it climbed onto his fingertips and poked half its body out to look outside.

Its head turned this way and that, its eight eyes scanning in different directions. After just one glance, the entire spider froze.

It tucked all eight legs in, closed its chelicerae, and remained motionless.

The spider's stillness.

Before it lay an open area at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, Hagrid's Hut in the distance, and beyond that, the outline of Hogwarts Castle, with scattered lights shining from the tower windows.

There were no tree canopies, no spider webs, no smell of damp fallen leaves or humus.

Baruk never left the Forbidden Forest.

After a long while, it finally spoke, its voice high-pitched and thin. "Aragog... Father... won't... come..."

Regulus held it up to his eyes; the palm-sized spider was less than twenty inches from his face, its eight small eyes meeting his gray ones.

"You're out," he said. "You're free."

Baruk's claws opened and closed, and his eight eyes swept around his face, it was unclear whether he understood or not.

Regulus put it back on his shoulder and strode forward.

Baruk lay on his shoulder, his claws hooking into the fabric, and said nothing more, his eight legs spread wide, clinging tightly to him.

Regulus cast Levitation Charm, his body levitating as he floated towards the Castle.

Baruk initially lay prone, his claws gripping the fabric tightly, his body pressed very low.

After a while, it slowly straightened up and poked its head out to look down.

Hagrid's Hut shrank, the Black Lake shimmered in the gaps of moonlight, and the Forbidden Forest spread out below, its dark canopy stretching into one.

Baruk's eight eyes were wide open, its chelicerae outstretched, emitting a series of rapid, rapid, excited clicking sounds.

Regulus flew towards the Castle at a slow speed.

The Black Lake slid past below, leaving only the skeletal outline of the Quidditch Pitch stands in the night.

Baruk grew increasingly restless, leaning out from over his shoulders until half his body was hanging off the edge, with only his hind legs still hooked onto his robe.

It lifted its rear end, sprayed out a strand of spider silk that stuck to the back of Regulus's robe collar, and then it loosened its legs, its whole body swinging away.

A spider the size of a palm, suspended by a thread thinner than a hair, swayed back and forth in the wind, its eight legs spread wide, its chelicerae extended, making a squeaking sound as it faced the wind.

Regulus turned his head and glanced at it.

Baruk was swinging at his highest point, his posture relaxed, a stark contrast to when he was just curled up on his shoulder.

Then it silently crawled back along the spider silk, reached the collar, removed the silk, and lay back on the shoulder, its claws hooked, its eight eyes obediently looking ahead.

It fell silent.

Regulus withdrew his gaze, a slight smirk playing on his lips.

He deliberately slowed down, letting it look at the screen a little longer.

After a while, Baruk started peeking out again. This time he didn't swing out, but instead perched on his shoulder and looked down, turning his head from left to right and from right to left, his eight eyes too busy to keep up.

Regulus was thinking about something else.

Aragog prevents its people from approaching the edge of the Forbidden Forest, let alone leaving Forbidden Forest.

The reason is not complicated.

The Forbidden Forest has enough prey and food, so the Acromantula doesn't need to go far to find food.

But beyond the Forbidden Forest lies Hogwarts Castle and the surrounding open grounds, where students and faculty reside.

Dumbledore allowed the Aragog to inhabit the Forbidden Forest, provided they did not venture out.

Aragog may not know who Dumbledore is, but he knows that a wizard lives in the Castle.

It knew those wizards were more powerful than it, and it knew what those wizards would do if the clan showed any threat to the wizard cubs in the Castle.

Therefore, it kept its people confined deep within the Forbidden Forest, preventing them from venturing out, showing themselves, and giving the Castle no reason to attack.

There's another reason.

Basilisk.

A Basilisk lived in the Chamber of Secrets of Secrets at Hogwarts. Aragog almost got executed because of it, and Hagrid was expelled because he was suspected of opening the Chamber of Secrets.

The Basilisk is the natural enemy of the Acromantula because the spider has too many eyes.

Aragog's greatest fear was right beneath the Castle, so of course it wouldn't allow its tribe to head towards Castle.

Regulus recalled some accounts of the Basilisk.

He's always been interested in the Basilisk, but hasn't seen it yet.

He knew where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was—the women's restroom on the second floor, the one belonging to Myrtle. To get in, he needed to Parseltongue, which he didn't know, but he had another way out.

What truly interested him was the Basilisk itself.

The Basilisk's birth method is the most outrageous of all Magical Creature: an egg laid by a rooster, hatched by a toad.

Roosters don't lay eggs under normal circumstances, so that egg requires Magic intervention. It's either a deformed egg laid by a rooster affected by Magic, or the product of some deeper Magic effect.

Toads are Leng Xue and do not have the instinct to incubate eggs. Forcing a toad to incubate an egg that should not exist would require Magic to forcibly rewrite its biological instincts.

The whole process was more like a ritual, and an extreme one at that.

Two completely unrelated species, a chicken and a snake, are forcibly merged, with a toad used as a medium, to directly rewrite their biological attributes from the embryonic stage.

This is different from the Human Transfiguration, which borrows the Magic properties of other Magical Creature.

Human Transfiguration is an addition to an existing organism, extracting Magic properties from a living body and implanting them into another living body, allowing two sets of Magic Power to coexist.

It alters the finished product; it tampers with something that has already been formed.

The Basilisk's incubation ritual alters the raw materials, rewriting the content before life even begins, creating a new species from scratch.

The two sets of logic seem completely unrelated, but Regulus believes that at their core, they may point to the same thing.

The Magic structure of life can be rewritten by humans.

One was changed after birth, the other was changed before birth.

One adds, the other builds from scratch.

The methods may differ, but the premise remains the same: both require understanding how the Magic Power of life works.

I'll have to look into this further when I have time; maybe next semester I can go into the Chamber of Secrets to see that snake.

Then he thought of the Basilisk Venom.

The Basilisk's venom is the most potent corrosive substance in the Wizarding World.

Only two things are known to be able to destroy Horcruxes: Basilisk Venom and Fiendfyre.

In the original destiny, Harry Potter used the Basilisk to pierce Tom Riddle's diary, and later Hermione Granger used it to destroy Hufflepuff's Cup.

This alone was enough to pique Regulus's interest.

It shares a characteristic with Fiendfyre: destructiveness.

But upon closer examination, there are differences.

Fiendfyre is utter destruction; once burned, it's burned to ashes, obliterating both the material and Magical Level simultaneously, with no possibility of restoration.

The Basilisk Venom Taiyi; it's reversible.

Harry Potter was bitten by the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, and the venom was injected into his body. Everyone thought he was doomed.

Then Fawkes flew over, his tears falling onto the wound, and it was healed.

What does this tell us?

It might be due to restraint; the Phoenix is simply more powerful than the Basilisk. The Phoenix's abilities naturally suppress those of the Basilisk, so there's nothing more to say—a higher position in the food chain is a higher position.

But what if it's not simply about restraint?

What if the Phoenix's Magic level is higher than the Basilisk's?

Phoenix Tears can cure the Basilisk's venom; in the presence of the Phoenix, its destructive potential can be reversed.

Perhaps some forces are qualitatively superior to others.

Does his own Magic system contain something of sufficiently high quality?