"... Is he kind of dead?"
Hagrid checked Ron's breathing and said with some alarm.
"Uh, Ron did mention he was afraid of spiders... but I didn't expect it to be this serious."
Harry also squatted down to confirm, Ron had just fainted. When they talked about the dream game of the Duel Club, and the Spinybacked Orbweaver in the first level was mentioned, Ron said he was very afraid of such creatures.
Fortunately, while they were discussing sending Ron to the infirmary, the boy managed to sit up, still sporting a look of lingering fear, "If... if when you were three, you were hugging your favorite teddy bear, and suddenly it grew eight legs, crawling around in front of you..."
Ron's voice trembled as goosebumps ran all over his body. He turned his head, no longer looking at the open door, "Believe me, you'd also... really dislike these creatures."
"..."
Harry and Hermione involuntarily imagined the scene, falling into a brief silence.
Alright, it's indeed understandable.
Moreover, Acromantulas by themselves are inherently disgusting; even those grouped together eyes would give anyone goosebumps, let alone the fact that even the "juveniles" in Hagrid's words were the size of a bicycle, and their waving eight legs were enough to make anyone's sanity plummet.
To William, they were more like an "economic crop." Probably only Hagrid could treat such a creature as a pet, and it's said he had been sleeping cuddled up with a football-sized Argo recently. Just the mere thought of a giant spider appearing in one's bed sent shivers down their spines...
No wonder he could single-handedly subdue a Manticore, raise Fire Dragons, and the Three-Headed Dog.
"... So, what do they usually eat?"
Hesitant, Hermione, too, braving the goosebumps-inducing scene, glanced towards the door. Inside, there were quite a few Acromantulas—it suddenly reminded her that William had been worried a while back about the storage bursting with Acromantulas. Although their venom was very valuable, the cost of raising them was also high.
However, one day, William's worries inexplicably vanished, and now she knew where all those spiders went.
"Oh, I usually take Fang with me to the Forbidden Forest to hunt. They can't go out; after all, they're still little ones and don't have much combat ability..."
Hagrid patted the black dog crouched by his heel, muttering loudly.
Little ones? No combat ability?
Looking at those spiders, which looked like they could stomp a person to death, Harry and Hermione fell into a prolonged silence, while Ron frowned and said, "Hey! Maybe we should just leave now?" Yes, he hadn't dared to look at all.
"Oh, yes, it's getting dark, and you should head back—"
"Squeak!"
Hagrid nodded, and punched the head of an Acromantula trying to sneak out, stopping it in its tracks. Recently, these little guys kept trying to run out, and he had lost track once before, luckily without any issues.
Hagrid was just about to close the door when he suddenly heard a piercing animal cry from above them. Besides Ron, the other three instinctively looked up—
Only to see several white "packages" hanging from the ceiling of the room.
Harry and Hermione were very familiar with this; during the spider boss fight in the Dream Game, a mist of void above would drop several large, web-woven packages. Harry was once curious and broke the package above his head, only to have a close encounter with a skeleton.
For the following week, he dreamt of that scene every night, to the point where even a Boggart didn't turn into a Dementor in front of him anymore.
Later, he asked William why he designed it that way, and William's answer was—to make it immersive, you could ask around, in the Forbidden Forest's spider nests, they're ashamed not to hang two or three people from the ceiling before heading out.
Do they hang them?
They really didn't know; after all, they've never seen a spider nest firsthand. By now, William's place had almost developed into automated farming, with Dobby mainly taking care of the needs of the Magical Creatures. Hermione had only heard there were a lot of spiders in the Room of Requirement.
But now, they finally confirmed that there indeed were things hanging from the ceiling, though judging by the size of those "packages," there probably weren't any humans inside.
Unlike in the Dream Game, where the skeletons would just sway gently in the breeze, most of the packages in the room were still struggling, and that piercing cry just now probably came from one of those packages.
"Oh, these are the little ones' trophies. Before that Manticore came along, I used to let them roam freely in the cellar—"
Hagrid scratched his nose, seemingly accustomed to such situations, "Since they can't go out, these little guys hang live food they've caught around themselves to the ceiling. I read that it stimulates them, so since they seem to enjoy it, I occasionally bring them something alive—"
Hearing Hagrid's words, Hermione turned to look around the room—indeed, many corners still had webs that hadn't been cleared away.
"Squeak!"
Just as Hagrid was about to close the door again, that piercing scream rang out once more. This time, it wasn't just the three of them looking up, but even Ron, who had just been leaning at the door, walked over, somewhat dazed—in fact, he wanted to come over at the first cry, but it took him a while to muster the courage.