"Come on then, let's go to the Forbidden Forest!" said Ivan, as he described the location to Dobby.
Ivan remembered that there were still many valuable items in the cave. Previously, he felt that they were too heavy to carry out, but now he could move them all.
Dobby nodded, grabbed Ivan's wrist, and began casting.
Ivan's head spun, and when he came to his senses, he was standing next to the Acromantula's compound, in a pile of rubble, the result of two lightning strikes.
"What are we doing here, sir?" Dobby asked, looking around curiously. There was nothing but weeds and trees.
"Can you use Apparition to get me in there?" Ivan asked, indicating the rubble.
Dobby wasn't sure what Ivan meant, but he did as he was told, and the two of them were soon inside the cave.
Despite the fact that it had only been a few days, the place reeked of rot, and spider corpses still littered the grounds.
Some of the Acromantulas were even the size of a car and did not seem to be injured at all. They just lay there quietly, as if they would wake up at any moment.
Dobby's eyes widened, and he moved closer to Ivan in terror, pressing himself against Ivan's thigh as he surveyed the terrifying Spider Cave.
"M-M-Sir, where am I?" Dobby stammered.
"Let's go! Our target is further in!" Ivan did not answer it, but headed straight into the cave.
Dobby, terrified, followed, clutching the corners of Ivan's robe.
Dobby screamed in terror when he saw the long, motionless snake lying at the end of the cave as if it were asleep.
"My God, it's… it's a basilisk!"
Dobby panicked and grabbed Ivan's hand in fear, intending to cast a spell to teleport away. He now understood how the Acromantula outside the door had died…
"It's a dead basilisk!" Ivan interrupted Dobby as he stepped toward the creature.
Dobby was stunned and hurried to catch up with them. He saw that the basilisk's head was covered with a large gash that had severed almost half of its head.
Not far from the basilisk's body lay the mountain-sized shell of Aragog, its body pierced through.
Dobby could see that it was the same magic that killed them both …
"Did you do this, sir? Did you kill the basilisk? And so many Acromantulas?" Dobby turned his head, trembling, his tennis-ball-sized eyes staring at Ivan in shock and admiration.
"You are greater than Dobby thought!" Dobby screamed.
"I didn't hire you to flatter me," Ivan said, shaking his head. "Now move!"
"I'll split the ingredients. You can use Apparition to transport the items to the Room of Requirement. You know where to go, right?"
"Yes, sir, Dobby has seen you in there before." Dobby nodded, then went to work as if on steroids.
Without Ivan's help, Dobby cut off the rest of the snake's skin, removed all of its teeth, wrapped up its eyes, and dissected the rest of the Acromantula corpses…
…
After ransacking the Spider Cave for valuables, Ivan left Dobby in charge of the sale while he returned to his leisurely studies.
Over the course of the past month, as his mastery of various spells steadily improved, Ivan found time to research ways to counteract Shadowless.
This charm of destruction, created by Snape, is now his most powerful offensive spell.
Deconstructing the spell had always been a problem, which meant that when he cast the spell, it would have an irreversible effect, rendering it useless as a conventional spell.
This was, of course, unacceptable to Ivan!
Since Snape was able to create the Shadowless Blade Charm while he was still a student, he should be able to figure out how to undo it as well…
Thus, while there was still some time before the end of the school year, Ivan immersed himself in the study of counter-jinxes.
"Shadowless Blade!"
Time flew by, and one afternoon after her exams in June, Ivan gently waved his wand and cut a corner of the mahogany table neatly.
Ivan then used the Obscurus Charm to press his wand against the cut, and the table slowly returned to its original shape.
"Finally!" Ivan breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the repaired table, indicating that his counter-curse had removed the effects of the Obscurus spell.
When he was done, Ivan, feeling tired, sat down and snapped his fingers.
"Your tea, refreshments, and today's Daily Prophet, sir!" Dobby duly appeared and offered him a cup of tea and a newspaper.
Dobby then stood quietly, awaiting further instructions from Ivan.
Ivan took the cup of tea from the house-elf and took a sip. As he ate his snack, he opened the Daily Prophet and read it.
The corrupt wizarding aristocracy!
Ivan, of course, was not referring to himself. He was, after all, paid for his services, unlike the "slave-owners" …
Over tea, Ivan scanned the Daily Prophet and nearly spat out his tea.
The headline on the front page said Care for the Werewolf, Starting with You and Me!
On the front cover of the newspaper was a picture of Doggett shaking hands with several werewolf wizards.
Didn't this old fellow usually despise werewolves? He was really shameless just to gain some reputation…
Ivan shook his head helplessly and glanced at the other pages, some of which were reporting on his award of the Order of Merlin.
However, more than a month had passed since the ceremony, and the popularity of the ceremony had died down.
Ivan wasn't paying much attention, and was about to fold the Daily Prophet and put it aside when a headline caught his eye.
[The former Vice-President of St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Dougett, nearly became a prisoner of Azkaban?]
Yvonne froze and looked at him curiously.
After reading the rest of the news, Yvonne found it to be rather gossipy, as there was no evidence of it.
There was only a vague mention of how, more than a decade ago, Doggett was nearly caught in Azkaban for something and somehow managed to get out of it…