In front of a huge stump covered with green moss, the five people stopped walking.
"Now that you have made a decision, listen to my thoughts." Sirius smiled and said, "In fact, I think this is a good practice opportunity."
"Practice opportunity?!"
Everyone looked at Sirius curiously, wondering what he meant. How could fighting dangerous Acromantulas be a practice opportunity?!
"Like most of the school's young wizards, your four combat experiences are too scarce." Sirius explained, "You may not feel its effects right now, but in the real battle with the Dark wizards, this would be an extremely fatal weakness. It must be resolved as soon as possible."
Harry and Ron did not agree with Sirius's words.
They had seen black wizards like Quirrell and Peter Pettigrew before, and undeniably, they were all very evil, but not invincible.
Only Evan knew that Sirius was definitely not being overdramatic. He knew the level of a true Death Eater.
Death eaters like Barty Crouch Jr. and Bellatrix Lestrange were far more difficult to deal with than Peter Pettigrew.
Facing the Killing Curse, even the slightest negligence could prove fatal.
"Sirius, you said this before, so you will rebuild the Duelling Club!" Hermione said doubtfully, "The last time was a great success, and we all learned a lot of combat skills and spells, and practiced duelling…"
"That's true, but simulated duelling among young wizards has a limited effect." Sirius waved his hand impatiently, and continued, "Although you're all working hard, that kind of children's duels doesn't help with much other than giving you the chance to practice your spell."
"What are we going to do, Sirius?" Harry asked curiously.
"Only after experiencing the baptism of real battle can you grow up into a true qualified wizard." Sirius smiled and said, "So, you need real battle, you need an opponent that's strong enough!"
"Real battle, enough strong opponent?!"
"Yes, only through these experiences can you grow quickly." Sirius paused. "I have to say that besides Evan, the three of you are still far too weak. You know, when I was your age, I was able to face up to a Centaur."
Under Harry's questioning, Sirius told everyone about his past.
When he was a third-year student, he encountered a newly grown Centaur Magorian in a Forbidden Forest adventure, and the latter wanted to drive them out of the Forbidden Forest.
Because of this, Sirius fought with him and won.
That's why Magorian had always been obsessed with it, and that's also the main reason of his bad attitude.
Although Harry had defeated Voldemort, the Basilisk and Dementors over the course of the past three years, he had been mostly relying on luck and outside help.
In terms of real strength, he was much worse than Sirius when he was his age.
Compared with Harry, Ron and Hermione's fighting power was even worse.
Naturally, not much needed to be said about Ron. Like most young wizards, he didn't even grasp many common spells.
As for Hermione, besides Divination, the Defense Against the Dark Arts class was the only course she was not good at, and she was not good at dealing with combat-related issues. But she was much calmer than Harry and Ron, and she knew a lot of cool magic and spells that could play their intended role at critical moments.
Unlike the three of them, Evan's own magic power was already very strong, far beyond his peers, and even comparable to many adult wizards.
Without considering prohibited magic and using his late research on Dark magic, he had even enough power to fight against Sirius and Snape.
But as Sirius said, Evan lacked practical experience.
Without the use of powerful magic far beyond the opponent's strength to suppress it, He couldn't make full use of the actual situation to bring his strength into full play.
He needed more fighting and stronger enemies to accumulate experience and improve skills to make up for this weakness.
In this way, Acromantulas were indeed great opponents.
"For young wizards of your age, it's hard to challenge Acromantulas right now. I had a plan for you to try out less dangerous dark creatures first." Sirius said, "But we must speed up our progress, considering the demands of the Centaurs. What's more, Evan's analysis just reminded me that the Acromantulas' weaknesses are so obvious that you can avoid accidents just by being careful."
"What are you going to do, Sirius?" Evan asked curiously.
"Considering the numbers of these monsters, we can first try to practice against the lonely Acromantulas on the edges of the Forbidden Forest." Sirius explained, "Besides, I'm going to propose this at the Duelling Club, other students can volunteer to take part in challenging the Acromantulas."
Next, he explained his plans in detail, including offensive development, protective measures, etc., and everyone was getting very excited.
If all the young wizards and professors in the school were involved in the surrounding and annihilating of the Acromantulas, then safety wouldn't be as much of a concern.
As Sirius said, this was a good opportunity to enhance their strength.
Harry's face showed he was so eager that he completely forgot the danger of the Acromantulas.
Even Hermione's face was blushed and excited.
Only Ron, who was extremely afraid of spiders, had some worries and his face was gloomy.
Evan agreed that Sirius's plan would raise the wizards to a higher level of strength and that would be more secure when fighting against Voldemort in the future, but he did not intend to join the Wizards in their search for the lonely Acromantula.
If he could, he hoped to go deeper.
About ten minutes later, they finally returned to the path, where the trees were still sparse and the huge outline of Hogwarts Castle could be seen.
"Now it's already midnight, we'd better hurry up," Sirius said.
"I don't know how the party went on, is it over?"
Everyone quickened their pace; Sirius sent them to the Gryffindor Tower before leaving, and Evan, Harry, Ron and Hermione climbed into the Common Room, still whispering about Centaurs and Acromantulas.
They just went in, and heard deafening cheers.
The rave party was not over yet, and it was now at its climax. Thanks to the distraction provided by Fred and George, nobody had even noticed that they had been out of the Common Room for such a long time. The Gryffindor party ended only when Professor McGonagall turned up in her tartan dressing gown and hair net at one in the morning, to insist that they should all go to bed.
Evan said goodnight to Hermione, followed Colin and climbed the stairs to their dormitory.
He felt exhausted, pulled up the curtain to cover the moonlight, and immediately fell asleep on the bed.
In his sleep, he dreamed of fighting Acromantulas.
He killed Aragog, the king of the Acromantulas, and stood above Aragog's deep, hidden Lair, looking down upon them.
He couldn't tell why there seemed to be something in it attracting him.
There was something whispering to Evan, luring him down, deep into the cave…