Seeing these scenes, the teachers, led by Professor McGonagall, stopped at the castle entrance.
They decided to first intercept the students trying to rush out to help.
And issued orders.
"...Mr. Filch and Madam Pomfrey, you are responsible for stopping students from leaving the castle. The other professors and I will intercept all enemies attempting to attack the castle at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Quick! Quick! The students are waiting for us! Percy, put down your wand!"
In Professor McGonagall's view, this tide of Acromantulas was just an appetizer, the vanguard.
There must be evil Dark Wizards and more dangerous magical creatures behind them.
"You don't have a brother out there!" Percy, who had just put down his study materials and missed the earlier scene, had messy hair and glared angrily at Professor McGonagall.
Percy wasn't the only one with this idea; many students were eager to go out and fight alongside their friends and classmates.
Just as they were about to surge out of the castle and rush to the battlefield...
A voice rang out.
"There are no enemies, only a swarm of cursed spiders. I am enough."
With a flash of fire, Dumbledore appeared, a large red-and-gold bird perched on his shoulder.
The Great Hall, which had been noisy enough to lift the ceiling moments ago, instantly fell silent.
Everyone found their backbone.
The students led by Percy also lowered their wands.
They all believed that with Dumbledore present, any crisis could be quelled.
Dumbledore had that kind of charisma; as long as he was there, darkness and evil would not descend upon this castle.
Professor McGonagall's tense face relaxed, but she asked puzzledly, "Didn't you leave an hour ago? You received an urgent letter from the Ministry of Magic via owl and flew to London immediately."
"The school needs me," Dumbledore said, taking a step forward. A flash of fire passed, and the next second he appeared at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
With a light wave of his wand, a golden line appeared at the boundary between the forest and the grounds.
At the golden line, an invisible wall of air materialized.
One by one, the Acromantulas trying to surge out crashed into it like mindless zombies, wave after wave.
Their bodies were torn apart by the power of the golden line.
Only their green blood and mangled limbs successfully crossed the line, landing on the grounds.
Dumbledore looked around, pausing for half a second on Harry and Basil.
"You all did very well!" His voice wasn't loud, but it was extremely penetrating; even the students and professors inside the castle could hear it.
"The root of all this lies in the forest before us. It is a curse, rooted in the origin of these spiders' bloodline."
"Regrettably, only I can handle this."
"Minerva, take care of the students. Severus, you know where you should go."
Then, with another flash of fire, Dumbledore vanished from the spot.
The Forbidden Forest was located on the west side of the castle. Its name—Forbidden Forest—stemmed from the rule that students were prohibited from entering except for Care of Magical Creatures lessons.
Because many dangerous magical creatures lived inside: Unicorns, Werewolves, Centaur herds, Aragog the Acromantula and his family, Trolls, and so on.
It had another name—the Dark Forest.
But this was a title only those who knew it best used.
Anyone who had entered knew that the trees were dense enough to block out the sunlight, making the forest dim even during the day.
Walking to the deepest parts felt like entering a lightless, profound cave, pitch-black, where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.
However, right now, in the depths of the Forbidden Forest which should have been pitch-dark, a blinding light had descended.
It hovered above a clear stream, illuminating the large quantities of stinging nettles, yew trees, oaks, and knotgrass growing around it.
And the magical creatures sleeping nearby.
There were Unicorns glowing with a pearly white sheen; chubby Diricawls stuck in branches, having fallen asleep mid-teleportation; Centaurs leaning against trees napping, bows drawn but unreleased; Werewolves biting gnomes' legs, ready to feast, but now eyes closed...
They all seemed affected by an invisible force, falling into a sudden slumber.
Meanwhile, the Acromantulas passing by on the winding path, bloodthirsty as they were, ignored the "delicious meat" in front of them and marched single-mindedly toward the forest exit, toward the castle.
"What is this?" A voice came from a burst of fire in the air.
Dumbledore, wearing purple robes, appeared with Fawkes the phoenix and immediately walked toward the ball of light.
Muttering complex incantations, he waved the Elder Wand in a strange rhythm, and the contents of the light ball were gradually revealed.
It was a pale, pointed face with gray eyes—the head of Lucius Malfoy!
His pale blond hair had been shaved clean, and his exposed, smooth scalp was covered in black runes.
Judging by his expression, he was extremely shocked, not expecting to be killed so ruthlessly.
Dumbledore was also very surprised. Ten minutes ago, Lucius Malfoy was probably still alive.
Bound by the power of the curse, he couldn't struggle; not even the muscles on his face could twitch.
One could only watch as every part of him except his head turned into light and vanished bit by bit.
What kind of hatred was this?
Why use such a cruel method?
And wasting the authority inherited from Slytherin for this?
He finally understood why Tom, in his current state, could achieve such a feat.
The sacrifice of a wizard, and the offering of authority.
But in doing so, the curse rooted in the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor would also disappear.
Without authority, Voldemort would only have the title of Slytherin's descendant and Parseltongue left.
However, even if a wizard had to be sacrificed to create this curse, it shouldn't be a member of the Malfoy family, the wizarding family Voldemort favored most, right?
But soon, his brain connected everything that had happened recently.
"The reason is the destruction of the Diary, one of Tom's Horcruxes."
"The person who went to prison wasn't Malfoy, but someone else using Polyjuice Potion."
"He himself was used as a sacrifice, hidden here all along, unable to move, spending months merging with the magnetic field of the entire Forbidden Forest, and finally sacrificed today."
"Was all this Quirinus's voluntary help?"
"The reason for choosing the Forbidden Forest was that Tom sensed my gaze? That's why Quirinus remained normal inside the castle."
Dumbledore sighed. He waved his wand, and the dead branches and rotting leaves on the ground gathered together, turning into a gray cloth that wrapped the head.
The curse was broken.
The next second, the Forbidden Forest, which only had the rustling sound of spiders advancing, suddenly filled with other noises.
The sleeping creatures woke up again.
Facing the Acromantulas right in front of them, they launched attacks one by one.
At this moment, Quirrell, who wasn't in the Great Hall but had passed the three-headed dog, Devil's Snare, and Flying Key challenges and was now playing chess, let out a giggle from the back of his head.
During this time, he had figured out the secret of Dumbledore monitoring every corner of the castle.
It was a spell or alchemical item created based on the Headmaster's authority, using the magical magnetic field of Hogwarts Castle itself as the circuit.
So, as long as the surrounding magical magnetic field was chaotic, Dumbledore couldn't retrace what happened during that period of chaos.
Before this, Voldemort and Quirrell had never used this method.
A drop of ink on blank paper would be even more obvious.
So, he boldly asked and answered himself.
"Do you think Lord Voldemort's curse is so easily removed? Even using the power of the greatest founder, Slytherin. As expected, faced with the head of a newly dead wizard and an old Acromantula, you chose the former."
"So-called mercy and love will make you choose a gentler method instead of destroying Lucius's remains."
"Truly foolish!"
"You must be curious why I abandoned the authority of the true Heir of Slytherin."
"But who would have thought this was targeting the younger me?"
"How much time will you spend solving my curse of immortality?"
"And after solving it, how much energy will you have left to deal with me after I get the Philosopher's Stone? I'm really looking forward to it. The great saint, Albus Dumbledore."