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There was no result.
"Where did they go?" Fred sighed.
"ah--"
Just then, a sharp scream came from the next corridor, breaking the silence of the night.
The three of them stopped instantly and exchanged a glance.
"Let's go check it out!" The twins were the first to run towards the direction of the sound.
...
Chapter 35 Spider Attack
Let's go back two minutes.
"Are you sure this is the way, Ron?" Harry Potter rubbed his forehead, looking at the somewhat familiar armor in front of him, and asked his friend beside him for the umpteenth time.
Ron Weasley scratched his red hair, his face full of uncertainty. "Hmm... I think so. Isn't the Transfiguration classroom over there? We just came down the stairs and went through a corridor..."
"Okay, I don't remember." He gave up struggling.
Harry sighed, unsure of what to say.
So the situation is now quite clear—in their attempt to find the classroom for tomorrow's Defense Against the Dark Arts class, the two of them have gotten lost here.
He thought they must have gone to the wrong floor, because the marble staircase would always quietly turn around when they weren't looking.
Their destination should still be upstairs.
Just then, Ha caught a glimpse of something strange out of the corner of his eye. On the ceiling directly above them, a dark shadow was moving rapidly.
"Ron, look up!"
Harry whispered, tugging at Ron's sleeve.
Ron looked up blankly.
Then, he saw a sight that he would never forget.
On the rough stone ceiling, a huge, hairy black creature was crawling swiftly on its eight slender legs.
"Spider...spider...sizzle..."
Sometimes, the more you fear something, the more likely it is to happen.
Before Ron could finish speaking, the spider swooped down towards him like lightning!
It was so fast that he didn't even have time to react before the spider pounced on his leg.
He felt a piercing pain in the side of his calf.
"Ugh—!"
Ron let out a short scream as the spider bit his trouser leg tightly, its sharp mouthparts penetrating deep into his flesh, drawing blood.
"Get out of here!!"
Ron was terrified and kicked his legs wildly, trying to shake it off.
But the spider's bite was very tight, and the swaying he made only made the wound tear wider.
Harry's mind went blank when he saw this.
He didn't have time to think, but the surge of adrenaline made him react instinctively.
He rushed forward, raised his foot with all his might, and kicked hard at the black monster that was biting Ron's calf!
"Bang!"
It landed squarely on the spider's soft abdomen.
The spider was kicked away like a ball of yarn, tumbling through the air a few times before crashing into the wall with a "thud".
However, before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, the spider that had been kicked away shook its head, got up again, and locked onto him with its cold compound eyes.
Harry's only thought at that moment was, "If only I had already learned magic."
Just as the spider was about to launch another attack.
"He collapsed unconscious!"
A spell shot from the other end of the corridor, striking the spider that was poised to strike.
The spider's body stiffened, then it slumped softly to the ground.
Harry turned his head and saw three upperclassmen rushing towards him, two of whom were the Weasley brothers he had met at the opening dinner.
"Looks like we're not too late after all." Fred put away his wand and let out a long sigh of relief.
"No, I'm afraid it's too late," Morris said, pointing to Ron, who was lying on the ground, pale with pain. "The boy doesn't look well."
George knelt down in front of Ron, pulled down his blood-soaked trouser leg, revealing a shocking wound.
However, after the examination, he simply waved his hand and said, "Oh, it's just a minor superficial injury, nothing serious."
"Yeah?"
From Morris's Muggle perspective, this should be considered a rather serious wound.
Roughly estimated, even with proper handling, it will take several weeks to recover.
But in the wizard's eyes, it was just a minor superficial injury.
It seems that wizards are indeed much better at healing than Muggles.
"Go and put the spider away," George said to Morris. "Maybe we shouldn't have put it in the wooden box."
"Then I'll have to conjure up the box using a more robust material," Morris replied.
"Use that one," Fred said, pointing to the head of the iron armor suit next to him.
"!"
As if sensing Fred's malice, the armored figure released its grip on the sword and clutched its head tightly with both hands.
"It seems it doesn't want to." Morris shrugged, then stepped forward, picked up the eight-eyed giant spider, and added a weakening curse.
Meanwhile, Ron was wincing in pain, his forehead covered in cold sweat.
He saw Fred and George seemingly still leisurely discussing something else when he growled, his voice trembling with sobs and anger, "Stop standing there! Get me to the infirmary! I'm dying!"
At this moment, Ron deeply doubted whether he was really the two guys' younger brother.
"Don't worry, Ronnie," Fred said with a smile. "You're far from dead. This injury doesn't require a trip to the school infirmary. George, did you bring any white styrax essence?"
"certainly."
George pulled a small bottle of medicine and half a roll of bandage from his pocket.
"We get injured often, so we carry dictamnus extract with us," he explained to Maurice while skillfully dripping a few drops of dictamnus extract onto a bandage. "I think you probably don't know this, but dictamnus extract is an extract of dictamnus and can treat most wounds."
After quickly wrapping the bandage around Ron's wound, he patted his brother's shoulder (causing Ron to grimace again), "See? You're fine now. The injuries we get in all sorts of magical experiments are much worse than this. So stop crying."
Morris didn't think it was anything to be proud of.
Ron looked at his leg, which had been quickly bandaged. Although it still hurt, it was much better than before, and he felt relieved.
"Don't underestimate me," he said. "I didn't cry."
Harry turned his gaze to the unconscious black creature in Maurice's arms and asked with lingering fear, "What was that thing? Why did it suddenly attack us?"
Morris glanced at the twins and noticed they were winking at him.
Unfortunately, he didn't have mind-reading abilities and couldn't accurately understand the twins' meanings.
But I can probably guess.
"Just a mischievous pet spider." Maurice held out his hand to Harry, changing the subject. "Oh, by the way, you're Harry Potter, aren't you? I'm Maurice Black, a first-year Ravenclaw."
"I am Harry Potter, just call me Harry." Harry shook hands with Maurice, but his gaze remained fixed on the eight-eyed spider.
Spiders in the magical world are so ferocious; they're completely different from anything he's seen in the Muggle world.
You should know that he grew up in a cupboard, but the biggest spider he had ever seen was only the size of a fingernail, and it would quickly hide in the cracks as soon as it saw people.
It seems he'll have to be careful from now on.
If a spider suddenly runs out and bites him while he's sleeping, that's no joke.
Chapter 36: I'm so scared I fainted
After Ron saw the true form of the eight-eyed giant spider in Morris's hand, he instinctively shrank back, his face even paler than before.
Seeing his expression, Morris asked in confusion, "Are you afraid of spiders? It's okay, it's already passed out."
Look!
As he spoke, he placed the spider in front of Ron, its hairy legs almost brushing against his nose.
"ah--"
Ron yelled, his brain exploding with a "buzz".
He felt a sudden darkness before his eyes, his body slumped backward uncontrollably, and his consciousness drifted away like a kite with a broken string.
"Ron!" Harry exclaimed, reaching out to help him, but Ron had already fallen straight backward.
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