Hogwarts Crawler

Adam's first stop was not to find the centaurs, but to the nest of the Acromanthus.

Hagrid gradually calmed down as the Acromanthus, which were floating in the air and struggling to pounce on him, calmed him down.

Adam put them down and untied the silencing magic on them:

"Hagrid, you know where the leader of the Acromanthus is, right?"

"His name is Aragog... ahem, I mean, yes."

Hagrid nodded.

He finally realized that Adam seemed to be the new headmaster of Hogwarts.

"Then take me there."

On the way, Hagrid hesitated a little. It was really difficult for him to walk forward with small steps because of his size:

"Adam, uh, Mr. Headmaster..."

"Just call me Professor Reed."

Although Adam had never taught any classes, he could be called a professor after becoming the headmaster. Adam was not the first person to enter Hogwarts and become the headmaster directly.

Ms. Dilys Deventer was once the attending physician of St. Mungo's, and she directly served as the principal after entering Hogwarts.

"Professor Reed, what do you want to see Aragog about?"

Face Hagrid's somewhat uneasy eyes, Adam smiled slightly:

"You know it very well, don't you? Otherwise you wouldn't ask this question."

The so-called more you fear something, the more it will come, in essence, is actually a reversal of cause and effect - it's not that you are afraid that bad things will happen, but that the probability of that bad thing happening itself is very high, so you are afraid.

Just like now, Hagrid knows very well that it is dangerous and against the rules for the Acromanthus to stay in the Forbidden Forest, so he is worried.

Hagrid lowered his head and twitched his lips.

"Don't think about taking me the wrong way, Hagrid. The Forbidden Forest is big, but it's just this big. I can find it without you leading the way, just one day earlier or later."

Adam's words made Hagrid's foot direction quietly return to the right track.

When they arrived at Aragog's lair, the big spider was already waiting for them there. Its descendants had already told it that someone was approaching.

"Long time no see, Hagrid, there's another centaur?..."

When turning to Adam, Aragog was silent.

For an Acromanthus, its long lifespan had made it blind. It mostly sensed the outside world through other means, such as sensing the breath through hair like a wolf spider.

Those descendants had not had contact with it, so they didn't know, but it could clearly sense the familiar breath from the basilisk on this target.

Because of the spider's special eye structure with 360° vision and inability to close its eyes, the Acromanthus is a natural enemy of the basilisk, and it will be killed if it approaches.

Aragog felt his eight legs trembling a little.

"Hello, Aragog, my name is Adam Reed, the new headmaster of Hogwarts."

Adam greeted first.

"So, Professor Reed, what are you here for?"

"The headmasters before me have made too little use of this forest, so that this piece of land belonging to Hogwarts has been in a semi-managed state for a long time. Starting from the next semester, this situation will be improved."

Adam glanced at Firenze while speaking:

"Therefore, I need to deal with the unstable factors in the Forbidden Forest in advance. Regarding the habits of the eight-eyed giant spider, I currently have three options to offer."

"Please speak."

Although he could hardly suppress his fear, Aragog's voice was still relatively calm.

After all, Adam was able to walk all the way to it safely, and there was still the breath of the basilisk on his body. They were destined to have no power to say "no" to Adam.

"First, I will designate an area for the Acromanthus to live in. The Acromanthus are not allowed to leave this area, and the population must be controlled to no more than ten."

Hearing this, Hagrid couldn't help but exclaimed:

"But there are tens of thousands of Acromanthus in the Forbidden Forest now! Are you going to kill them all?"

"That's why I want to limit the number of Acromanthus! Do I need to remind you? Just about fifty years ago, there were only two Acromanthus in the Forbidden Forest!"

Adam glared at Hagrid and successfully shut him up.

Hagrid should be thankful that not even a single student died at the hands of the Acromanthus over the years.

"So, what about the second option?"

Aragok asked.

"For the second option, I will also designate an area where the Acromanthus can only reproduce and thrive. I will not limit the number of Acromanthus, but I will not allow them to leave the area I have designated."

"Aragog, choose the second option!"

Hagrid's call did not stopAragog responded, still waiting for Adam's next words, knowing who was really in charge now.

Adam nodded in his heart, he still hoped to talk to a creature with a brain:

"Correspondingly, there will be other creatures in that area. I will not stop your mutual predation and hunting until one creature dies out."

Aragog understood:

"So, if we choose the second option, which creatures will we be neighbors with?"

"Including the original ones in the Forbidden Forest and those I will add later. I will put the creatures classified by the Ministry of Magic as dangerous level XXXXX there."

Adam gave an example:

"Including various fire dragons, cat-leopards, curled-winged demons, basilisks..."

"We choose the first option."

Aragog said firmly.

As for what the third option was, Aragog didn't need to ask at all, and Adam saved his words.

"Okay, choose the ten Acromantulas to stay."

Adam nodded.

Aragog started communicating with the spiders around him.

"Oh my god, these little guys lay more than ten eggs at a time, how can they control the number below ten..."

Hagrid's eyes were red, and he couldn't help wiping his eyes.

"It can be done through human intervention, and all the extra ones can be eaten."

Adam's voice made Hagrid choke, and then he cried even harder.

"That's it. These ten are the smarter kids."

Aragok's voice was a little sad:

"I can't order the kids to give up their lives, so the other kids..."

"I'll take care of them."

Adam waved his hand, and ten eight-eyed giant spiders were shrunk and floated up. Adam put them into a glass bottle, and then looked at Aragog:

"Wouldn't you consider taking up a spot?"

"No, I'm too old. There's no need to waste a spot."

"Then..."

Adam nodded to Aragog:

"Goodbye."

The basilisk on Adam's wrist opened its eyes briefly, and the eight-eyed giant spiders within a dozen feet lost their lives in an instant, including Aragog in front of him.

At the same time, trees everywhere in the Forbidden Forest surged, stretching out branches to strangle the nearby eight-eyed giant spiders and drag them into the ground. The corpses of these eight-eyed giant spiders will be used as nutrients to make the trees in the Forbidden Forest more lush.

After doing all this, Adam looked at Hagrid who was crying while holding Aragog's body:

"The Acromantula is an extremely bad alien invasive species to the Forbidden Forest. I have done my best to keep some of them... You can stay here, but I'm going to look for your half-brother next. Are you sure you don't want to come with me?"