Overrun

The Christmas feast was as lavish as ever, but Aya had already eaten quite a few meat buns and put several baskets of them in her backpack, so she focused on sampling the food and packing some to take away.

This Christmas, she refused to pack any roast turkey. She had once thought it delicious, but after eating it for so long, she had discovered that ordinary roast chicken suited her tastes best-tender, juicy, and more flavorful. It had taken her several months to finish the turkey from last Christmas, and in the end, she had been won over by Mrs. Weasley's chicken.

For once, Aya finished her meal relatively early. Percy, who was beside her, had already come downstairs to eat as usual at lunch. Though the thick book that morning had dealt him a heavy blow, he had opened it—and by the time he closed it again, it was lunchtime.

"It must have been difficult to find a book like this. You put so much thought into it..." Percy rambled on, even a little touched. Aya had trouble reading—or so he thought—and yet she had managed to find him a book whose contents suited his present state of mind so well.

Sob, sob, sob, those tutoring sessions weren't for nothing! She does care about me, her senior!

Everything Percy said went in one of Aya's ears and out the other. She even had room to think that with two top students, Percy and Hermione, helping her with her homework this Christmas, she was bound to finish it faster!

Seeing the inexplicably kindly look Percy was giving her, she took it in stride. Plenty of older girls had looked at her that way, and she understood: it was a testament to her captivating charm.

She was grateful the player had spent so long customizing her face. Even here, she could still use her looks to cadge food and drink.

After Christmas, Aya managed to sell Snape another batch of materials before December ended. Strangely, though, when she took out the hundred-odd Acromantulas, his expression turned rather unpleasant.

"Did you really catch these in the Forbidden Forest?" Snape asked in an empty classroom, having Aya take out all the spiders so he could examine them one by one.

"Yes," Aya said, nodding as she followed him around. "How much will they sell for?"

"Is money the issue now? Stupid, shortsighted beastperson! How could there be so many Acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest?" Snape's face darkened. If Dumbledore hadn't gone to clear Hagrid's name, he would have taken the spiders straight to the Headmaster's Office to demand answers from the old bee!

Had Hagrid accomplished nothing on his forest patrols? Why hadn't he reported so many spiders?

"Hagrid raised them, didn't he?" Aya swished her tail.

Snape: "?"

"But I wasn't poaching. Every time, Xiaohua walked over and the spiders attacked first, so we fought back!" Aya said with complete conviction. If the spiders' names had been visible, they would all have been red names. There was nothing wrong with attacking red names!

"You mean... that simple-minded, brawny half-giant was abusing his position to steal?!" Snape asked through gritted teeth, unable to believe it.

"I think he raised them for food," Aya said, scratching her head. "I gave Hagrid a few spider legs for Christmas, and he said they smelled good. I guess he hasn't had a chance to cook them himself yet."

"Only a glutton like you would think of putting those ugly spiders in your mouth!" Snape said, holding his temper in check.

"Says who? Look at Hagrid's build. He's obviously a bigger glutton than I am!" Aya retorted indignantly.

"...I don't want to waste my precious time arguing with you over who is the bigger glutton. Tell me, what were the circumstances when you encountered these spiders?"

"What were the circumstances?" Aya rubbed her chin, thinking back. "I suppose they were gathered in groups ranging from a dozen or so to several dozen? And they were a little farther in from the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Honestly, I originally went in to get some new materials. I didn't expect to find something this good~"

Snape was so angry he nearly laughed. He thought Dumbledore needn't bother clearing Hagrid's name at all. With spiders this densely packed, not even a dog would believe Hagrid hadn't encountered them on his patrols!

But what did it mean that he had encountered these killer spiders and failed to report them?

Were the Giants going to attack Hogwarts?

He knew why Hagrid had been expelled from Hogwarts back then. Wasn't it because of an Acromantula?

Did Dumbledore know that Hogwarts' Forbidden Forest was almost covered in spiderwebs?

"They certainly are good," Snape forced out. "I'll take them all. I'll set the legs aside for you. Have that House-elf come and collect them. I need to speak to Dumbledore about this."

This was not just for the sake of the students at the school, but for his own safety too. When the spiders overran the forest and spilled out, the professors would surely be the first sent to eliminate them, especially young professors like him who had some fighting ability.

"Thank you for your business~" Aya left in high spirits. She would go catch more spiders after spring began. She had read the Quidditch magazine Wood subscribed to and heard that an impressive new broom would go on sale over the summer holidays, so she needed to hurry and save up!

In the days leading up to the start of the second term, Aya spent three days rushing to finish her homework.

There was far more homework in second year than in first. Even though Aya wrote her assignments without thinking, she still had to sit through three whole days of misery, with the double buffs of Percy and Hermione. Percy said he had never seen an essay whose contents were so obvious at a glance.

Aya took it as a compliment.

After the new term began, Lockhart was as affected as ever. But the first Duelling Club meeting had started strong and ended poorly, so when another gathering was announced after term began and everyone saw that Lockhart was the only professor there, they silently agreed not to attend. With no participants, the activity simply faded away.

Aya was one of the few who regretted it. Her PVP arena was gone before she had fought there more than a few times. And lately, the school had been conducting strict nighttime patrols, with professors even patrolling the Forbidden Forest, leaving Aya with far less fun.

A few weeks into term, Aya's red notebook came back-in damaged condition.

She nearly screamed and couldn't resist pulling out her wand, ready to give the Headmaster's Office another unplanned renovation. But when she put the notebook back in her backpack, she discovered that its quality was still red.

She calmed down.

All the notebook did was control people anyway, so damaged it was. That was what Aya thought as she hugged a gift box of sweets half her height.

"You've been a tremendous help to me. If you find anything like this again, you can bring it to me to look at. If it meets the requirements, I'll reward you for it. Of course, the item will still belong to you," Dumbledore said with a smile.

Aya gave him several suspicious looks, but in the end, for the gift box's sake, she agreed. Now that she was saving money, she knew just how expensive Honeydukes' sweets really were.

She gave her balance a regretful look.

Not long after Aya returned, Hermione came running excitedly into the common room with the Daily Prophet. "Where are Harry and Ron?"

"If you turned your head a little farther, you'd see them playing Wizard's Chess over there," Aya said around a lollipop, still sorting the contents of Dumbledore's deluxe gift box.

"Oh, that's impossible. I'm not an owl-Harry, Ron! Come here, big news!" Hermione waved to the two boys. Harry glanced at the board, where he was about to lose, jumped to his feet, and knocked it over with extraordinary nonchalance, interrupting the game as Ron grumbled in protest.

"What is it? I was about to win again," Ron complained as he sat down on the sofa. "I was almost at five kills against Harry today, and you interrupted me."

"Look at this!" Ignoring him, Hermione spread out the newspaper and pointed to a small corner of the society news page. "Hagrid's name has been cleared! I bet that's exactly what Headmaster Dumbledore was doing away from school at Christmas!"

[Side quest: Clear the name of your poor friend Hagrid - completed]

[Reward obtained: Hagrid's vegetable garden gift pack]

The system's voice only made Aya twitch her ears. She hadn't leveled up again. Seeing from the reward's description that it contained raw produce, she put it in a corner of her backpack for the time being.

"'...Based on reliable evidence, the court decided on December twenty-sixth to reopen the case of the attack at Hogwarts fifty years ago. Rubeus Hagrid, the suspect at the time, has been cleared of suspicion. The culprit was someone else, who committed murder by controlling a lethal Fantastic Beast...' Why doesn't it say who the culprit was?" Harry asked after reading a passage, somewhat puzzled.

"Could the culprit still be unidentified?" Hermione guessed. "The culprit fifty years ago was a human wizard, right? They'd be over sixty now. If they aren't dead, does Dumbledore know who they are?"

"Maybe they're already dead?" Aya said, looking at a sweet as beautiful as a gemstone. "It's been fifty years. Wasn't there a terrorist called Voldemort in the Wizarding World? Maybe he killed them along the way."

Ron's words startled Ron-Aya's words startled him. "Er, that's not impossible. I heard a lot of people did die when You-Know-Who's followers were active."

"But even if they were dead, a name would still be given. I suppose either they don't know who it was, or the culprit is someone very special." Hermione tugged at her hair, but had no clue.

"I really hope You-Know-Who killed them," Ron muttered. "A life for a life. Isn't it infuriating when someone commits murder and gets to live happily afterward?"

Though the real culprit was still at large, Hagrid's name had been cleared, and that was worth celebrating. With Aya's backpack at their disposal and Duoduo's support, they took a lavish meal to Hagrid that weekend.

The snow had yet to melt, but Harry's heart was warm. After just a few steps, he felt so excited he could almost jump for joy.

Of course, he couldn't be so undignified. As far as he was concerned, having one flighty person like Aya among his friends was enough.

"Hello, community outreach~" Aya knocked on the door bang, bang, bang. It was quite a while before Hagrid opened it from inside.

"Oh, I suppose you've come to congratulate me, haven't you?" Hagrid's smile was so radiant that even his thick beard couldn't hide it. "I'm making a feast. Would you like some?"

"No, Hagrid, we brought you a feast." Ron was the first to refuse, afraid Hagrid would produce sandwiches made from some strange creature.

"We had the House-elves send us food especially for this!" Harry said happily, eagerly following them inside.

Hermione helped arrange the food Aya took out, setting each dish on the spacious coffee table. Hagrid brought out his stew anyway, and Ron saw small pieces of Rock Cakes floating in it.

"So you can use your wand openly from now on, right?" Hermione was happy for Hagrid. "Did Dumbledore repair your wand?"

"Shh-" Hagrid hurriedly made a gesture. "Dumbledore's always been brilliant, and he's always believed in me, but something like that... well, you know, it's enough that you know. I've always had my wand, but I need to find a way to bring it out into the open."

"Pretend to go and buy another one at the wand shop?" Ron asked, his mouth stuffed full.

"A second wand isn't cheap," Hagrid sighed. He rarely made a habit of saving money, spending his Galleons either on Fantastic Beasts or on drink.

"Doesn't one only cost seven Galleons?" Harry asked, a little puzzled.

"That's the most basic price," Hermione said. "I read in Wizarding Society Law that a young wizard's first wand costs no more than fifteen Galleons. The Ministry of Magic subsidizes the rest. They aren't really that cheap."

"That's right. My wand cost thirteen Galleons," Aya chimed in. She was gnawing on a Rock Cake from the stew. Though it was still very hard after soaking up the broth, she could at least bite pieces off it.

"That's an unlucky number," Ron muttered, indulging his usual envy. Of everyone present, only his wand was secondhand.

"No matter how unlucky it is, it's lucky in my hands!" Aya didn't believe in such things. "Besides, do you wizards care about that kind of bad luck?"

"What do you mean?" Ron was confused.

"She means that if you believe thirteen is unlucky, then wizards are the sort of beings who go to hell," Hermione explained quietly. What it stood for was a bit... like dark humor.

It took Ron a long time to work it out. Once he did, he immediately bent his head and ate, awkwardly saying, "None of us are going to hell."

Someone as untroubled as Aya didn't take such things to heart. After she finished eating, she held her belly and watched Hagrid wolf down his food. "Hagrid, you're a genius," she said with feeling.

Hagrid froze for a moment, then immediately grew embarrassed, though he laughed loudly. "You're the first to say that. No one's ever called me a genius before, hahahaha."

"Don't be modest. Give me a whole lifetime and I'd never have thought of breeding giant spiders!" Aya praised him.

How could he not be a genius? Acromantula Venom was expensive, the mucus from their abdomens could be sold, and their leg meat was so delicious. She had heard their shells could be used as magical materials too. Practically every part of them was a treasure!

"Wh-what breeding-" Hagrid immediately felt guilty at her words. Recalling how Dumbledore had brought Snape to see him a couple of days earlier, his eyes filled with tears, and his voice quickly choked up. "I didn't raise them. They're all Aragog's descendants. They follow Aragog's orders and wouldn't hurt anyone-"

With Hagrid's build, his crying was deafening. Aya immediately darted to the farthest sofa and sat down, watching him put down his utensils and start searching everywhere for a handkerchief to wipe his tears.

"Boo-hoo-hoo-they wouldn't hurt anyone. Why won't anyone believe me? They've always been well-behaved. I've never been bitten, and Aragog keeps them from leaving the Forbidden Forest. Why? Why did this happen? They're still children!" Hagrid was so distraught that his tears nearly drowned his beard.

"That spider of Hagrid's is still alive?" Hermione whispered to Aya.

"Huh? Hagrid raised loads of spiders. There isn't just one. I've fought a hundred or so myself." Aya was a little baffled as she watched Hagrid cry. "That number barely scratches the surface. What's he crying for? I didn't forbid him from raising spiders, did I?"

"...A hundred or so!?"