Spider Nest Valley (Thanks to Jian Xuan Shanhai for the support, thank you)

Hermione led Fang, who kept hopping around them, into the forest with the Slytherins.

By the light of the Slytherins' torches, they followed closely behind the spiders crawling slowly along the path. Fang's claws made faint crunching sounds on the fallen leaves. His tail was tucked tightly between his legs, and from time to time, he looked back at the Slytherin students holding torches before turning forward again, his nose pressed to the ground as he sniffed about.

They walked in silence for around twenty minutes. The trees grew denser, and the stars above disappeared from sight, leaving only the torchlight swaying in the ocean of darkness. Then they saw their spider guide leave the path, climb the trunk of an old oak tree, and vanish into the shadows of its canopy.

Though Fang was still leading them, they were no longer moving quickly. Roots, stumps, and other obstacles that were hard to see in the dark constantly blocked their way. Harry could feel Fang's hot breath against his hand. More than once, they stopped as Harry crouched down and used the light from his wand to search for the spiders.

After walking for at least another half hour, their robes had been slashed with streak after streak by low-hanging branches and thorns. Before long, they noticed that the ground seemed to be sloping downward, though the trees remained dense.

Suddenly, Fang let out a loud, echoing howl that startled both Harry and Ron.

The Slytherin students quickly spread out to survey the area. Torchlight flared up in every direction like a ring of scattered sparks.

"What is it?" Ron shouted. He scanned the boundless darkness and gripped Harry's arm so tightly that Harry's arm went numb.

Malfoy, standing nearby, laughed so hard he shook.

Hermione told everyone to be careful, and the Slytherin students activated their Nine-Tails Cloaks one after another. Golden chakra surged from the badges on their chests, exploding with light in the darkness and illuminating the surroundings as brightly as day.

Just then, a light suddenly flared to their right. It was so white and bright that Harry and Ron had to shield their eyes with their hands. Fang let out a miserable yelp and tried to turn and flee, only to get caught in a thornbush. He howled even louder, all four legs kicking wildly among the brambles as he struggled in vain to free himself.

"Harry!" Ron cried, his voice trembling with relief. "Harry, it's our flying car!"

"What?"

"Come on!"

Harry stumbled after Ron toward the light, and before long, they reached a clearing.

Mr. Weasley's car stood empty in the middle of a ring of dense trees, its headlights on. Two straight beams of light pierced deep into the darkness. As Ron approached it with his mouth hanging open, it slowly moved toward him, like a turquoise dog greeting its master. Its front end swayed slightly, as though wagging its tail.

"It's been here all this time." Ron circled the little car excitedly, his voice filled with the thrill of recovering something lost. "Look at it. The forest has made it wild..." He reached out and touched the door.

The car's wings were caked in mud. Clearly, it had wandered through the forest on its own. Fang did not like it at all. He pressed himself as close to Harry as possible, his entire body against Harry's calves. Harry could feel him trembling. His own breathing gradually steadied, and he tucked his wand back into his robes.

"What a terrible car. Just the sort of thing the Weasleys would have." Malfoy was still laughing as he mocked them.

"We actually thought it was going to attack us." Ron leaned against the car. The excitement of getting it back made him ignore Malfoy's taunt. He patted the door like an old friend. "I wonder where it's been!"

Harry narrowed his eyes and searched the brightly lit ground for any sign of spiders, but the spiders had been frightened away by the headlights' harsh glare. They had scattered into the surrounding grass and beneath tree roots. Not a single one was visible.

"We've lost the trail," he said. "Come on, let's find them."

"Stay alert!" an older Slytherin suddenly ordered.

The other Slytherin students immediately took up their positions, wands raised, standing back-to-back in a circle around Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Ron neither spoke nor moved. His eyes were fixed on a point roughly ten feet above the forest floor behind Harry. His face turned from fear to an ashen gray, his lips trembling. He pointed in that direction, unable to force out a single word.

Then the battle began.

Malfoy's wand was the first to flash with pale green light. Diffindo spells lashed out like green snakes, striking the furry things ahead again and again. Their bodies burst apart when hit, splattering green fluid across the tree trunks with a sizzling sound.

The other Slytherins continuously used Confringo to clear out the giant beasts around them. Red firelight flashed through the darkness as explosions rang out one after another.

"Look, the valley! That valley!" Hermione cried anxiously, pointing at a gap ahead illuminated by moonlight. "They're Acromantulas! They all came from that valley!"

Malfoy and the others watched the spiders pour densely out of the valley. Their eight legs scuttled rapidly across the ground, producing a dense rustling sound like thousands of feet trampling dry leaves at once. They surged out from the valley entrance like a black tide, spreading toward them from every direction.

"So we finally found your nest," Malfoy said excitedly. "Then let's fight our way in! Harry! Aren't you looking for them too? They're right here now, so stop being as cowardly as Fang!"

As he spoke, the Slytherins began using wide-range Dark Shockwaves to attack the surroundings in continuous fan-shaped sweeps. Black ripples spread from the tips of their wands. Everywhere they passed, Acromantulas exploded one after another, fluid spraying everywhere as a pungent, fishy stench filled the air.

"Are they always this violent?" Ron was somewhat dumbfounded with fear, his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide.

Harry nodded beside him. "Back in first year, after you fainted, what they did when they slaughtered everything in the Inner World was even more brutal than this. I just didn't dare tell you." He kept his voice low, as though afraid the Slytherins might hear him.

Ron stared wide-eyed at Harry, then looked at Hermione. Hermione spread her hands. "I'm not too sure either. I didn't go in, after all. But they were already pretty brutal when they came to save us. If you hadn't fainted, I could've gone in and seen it too."

Ron fell silent for a while, then murmured, "I provoked Malfoy before, and he didn't kill me. I'm truly grateful for his mercy."

As the group continued clearing the way, Harry, Ron, and Hermione finally reached the valley. Every tree in the entire valley had been cleared away. In the bright moonlight, they saw an utterly disgusting sight—Acromantulas were everywhere, large and small, packed together in countless numbers. White webs covered rocks, branches, and the ground.

Suddenly, more than twenty people appeared on the cliffs to either side using Apparition.

Sister Ka suddenly appeared beside Hermione. She reached out and stroked Hermione's head, her fingers lightly combing through Hermione's fluffy curls.

"No wonder Su Yu touches your hair every time he sees you. It really does feel nice." Sister Ka's voice carried a lazy smile.

Hermione rolled her eyes at Sister Ka. "Why are you here too?" She had noticed that everyone who had come this time was a sixth- or seventh-year Slytherin.

"Of course we're here to wipe them out. We've been searching for them for a long time too. Ever since we began hunting them down, they've been hiding." Sister Ka walked ahead, the golden glow of her Nine-Tails Cloak making her look like a golden statue. She raised her wand without looking back, her voice crisp and commanding. "Everyone, prepare yourselves. Fiendfyre!"

More than twenty streams of black-gold Fiendfyre streaked with dark purple patterns erupted from the wand tips. Waves of ink-black fire surged forth, their molten-gold cores leaping fiercely as distorted phantoms of fire beasts roared and lunged ahead. The fire beasts seemed alive—some like wolves, some like snakes, some like eagles. With their jaws wide open, they pounced upon the spiders. Everywhere they passed, webs instantly charred and shattered into ash. Scorching heat blasted in all directions, making everyone's faces burn.

The fleeing Giant Acromantulas were swept up and engulfed by the waves of fire, their shrill cries rising one after another. The dark flames continued multiplying and spreading, expanding along the rock walls and spider nests like black snakes crawling over every inch of the ground.

The entire nest was swallowed by the endlessly rolling tide of fire. The rocks glowed dark red as the flames heated them, while the webbed nests collapsed layer by layer. The entire Spider Nest Valley was completely consumed by the ravaging, surging black fire of destruction. Huge spiders curled into balls as they burned, their legs tucked beneath their bodies like black lumps of coal, before exploding into ash.

"Enough! I said enough!" Suddenly, a spider the size of a small elephant slowly emerged from the black flames. Gray markings mottled the legs of its black body. Every eye on its ugly, pincer-like head was white—he was blind. Its mouth opened and closed constantly, producing a hissing sound.

"What exactly do you want? Are you trying to exterminate us all?" Aragog roared angrily, his voice rough and hoarse.

"What's the point of keeping you around? So you can eat people in the Forbidden Forest?" Sister Ka dispersed the flames, leaped to Aragog's side, and stomped his head into the ground. Her boot pressed down on his ugly head as Aragog's legs scraped wildly at the ground, unable to break free. "Don't you think there are too many of you? When your numbers keep growing and food becomes scarce, what will you do? Slaughter every animal and human you can?"

"But I've never killed anyone!" Aragog said angrily. His pincers snapped several times in the air, but they could not reach Sister Ka.

"But which of your descendants hasn't killed people? Don't forget, Acromantulas are naturally fond of human flesh!" Sister Ka said disdainfully, pressing down even harder with her foot. "You're allowed to kill people, but we're not allowed to kill you? What ridiculous logic. From the moment you allowed them to slaughter humans, there was only one path left for you: extinction."

"Still, for the sake of future Slytherin students' training, don't worry. We won't wipe you all out." With that, Sister Ka turned to Hermione. "Whatever you want to ask, ask now. Our mission is complete, and we're leaving. This place is Malfoy's responsibility now."

With that, she led the older students away by Apparition, leaving only the torches in Malfoy's group's hands and the golden light of their Nine-Tails Cloaks.

Aragog climbed up from the ground. A small section of his head had been crushed inward where it had been stepped on, and gray fluid seeped from the wound. He stood there, breathing heavily, his white eyes facing empty air as though he did not know where to look.

Hermione took a deep breath, stepped forward twice, and stood before Aragog.

"Hagrid is innocent." Her voice was resolute. "We know he didn't open the Chamber of Secrets. Do you know what the monster in the Chamber of Secrets is? Who is controlling it?"

Aragog remained silent for a long time. His pincers lightly touched the ground, then lifted again.

"We do not speak of that," he finally said, his voice much quieter than before. "We do not speak that name. There is something in that castle—something older and more terrifying than all of us spiders. When it moves, we can feel it. Our kind fled from there, fled into the Forbidden Forest, but it still was not far enough."

"What is that thing?" Harry asked urgently.

Aragog turned his head toward Harry, though he could not see him. "We do not speak its name. But it is beneath the castle, very, very deep below. It has been waiting, waiting for its master to return."

"Who is its master?"

Aragog did not answer. He turned around and slowly crawled back toward the nest that was still smoking. Black ash swirled beneath his feet and settled on his back. His legs made soft puffing sounds as they stepped across the scorched earth, until he vanished into the dark cavern.

Hermione stood where she was, staring in the direction where he had disappeared, her lips pressed tightly together.

Ron stood behind her, looking at the spider corpses littering the ground and the webs still smoking. His face was still pale. Harry patted his shoulder.

"Let's go," Harry said. "Let's head back."