Hunting is one of the earliest skills that humans have mastered.
From 250,000 BC to the present, more than 95% of the time humans have lived on the earth has been in the hunting age.
Perhaps many Muggles have long forgotten how to hunt, but wizards have not. One of the imaginary enemies of most wizards in school is various magical animals, or... dangerous dark magic creatures. This is Defense Against the Dark Arts.
The main teaching content of the art course.
But before that, there was no professor to tell everyone how to hunt a twenty or thirty foot long basilisk.
Fortunately, the "graduates" present also had the opportunity to learn some relevant knowledge on the spot.
"The two most dangerous weapons of the basilisk are instant death when looking into each other's eyes, and its deadly venom."
While Dumbledore was checking the surroundings for magic traps and lighting up the dark gaps between the stone pillars one by one, Newt took advantage of every opportunity to start making up lessons.
"Of course, if there is no direct confrontation, the basilisk is actually not as dangerous as imagined."
"As a snake-like magical creature, it still has innate weaknesses in physiological habits in many aspects, which is very important."
"First of all, the basilisk has no ears, or to be more precise, like most snakes, it has no outer and middle ears."
Newt waved his wand, drawing a lifelike snake-shaped light and shadow in mid-air.
Under the influence of a certain infant hybrid Veela, Newt Scamander, who is nearly a hundred years old, has recently acquired a lot of Muggle knowledge, the most important part of which is about snakes.
The dissections fed back the results and mapped these theories to his previous dissections.
What few people know is that before Newt was in school, he had dissected magical animals more than once with the help of his mother.
"this means……"
Newt cleared his throat, looked at the confused wizards from the Ministry of Magic, and said calmly.
"Basilisks may be weak in hearing. In terms of their means of sensing the surroundings, they use the sense of smell at the tip of their tongues and the way they sense ground vibrations to locate their prey. These are the two things we will focus on next.
aspect, vibration, smell.”
"Well, I understand...so we need to stay as still as possible and eliminate our own smell?"
Rufus Scrimgeour nodded in enlightenment and spoke thoughtfully.
Just like hunting in the mountains and forests, or tracking some dangerous dark wizards, concealment is an essential ability for every Auror.
"No, quite the opposite"
Newt shook his head, a strange look appeared on his old face.
"In the world of magical animals, the animals with keener hearing in silence are less able to tolerate the stimulation of high pitches; the animals with keener vision in the dark are less able to withstand the hot and strong light... Perhaps the basilisk can be easily captured
But when the whole place begins to shake incessantly, like an earthquake, the perception it relies on to survive will actually become an obstacle."
Newt's wand moved, and the originally flat marble floor suddenly twisted and vibrated, as if there was some monster sealed underneath.
Perhaps advanced transformations and magic disguises are troublesome, but disordered ones and simple destruction are obviously much simpler.
"The movement of snakes is very suitable for moving at high speeds on smooth paths, but it is obviously much more difficult for them to move on sharp turns and rugged roads, making the area irregular and vibrating at high frequencies at all times.
, which can greatly restrict the basilisk’s movements.”
As the former interim principal of Hogwarts and professor of magical zoology, Newt introduced him in a gentle manner.
Snakes have no legs. When they move, they mainly rely on the force generated by the alternate contraction and relaxation of a series of muscles attached to the spine to crawl forward. Since there is a set of muscles on each side of the spine, one side contracts while the other side
Relax, which will make the snake's body bend.
This kind of wave-like movement that opens and relaxes can transmit force in opposite positions on both sides of the body from beginning to end.
If this wave motion encounters no obstacles during its transmission, the bends formed by these muscle activities will propagate throughout the province without any hindrance. However, if the ground is uneven or bumpy and narrow, the wave motion will be disturbed.
At each contact point, the ground will generate corresponding pressure. Only when this pressure is greater than the snake's sliding friction can the snake move forward smoothly; on the other hand, since the lung capacity of snakes is generally not as good as other mammals, when it
When such high-energy-consuming exercise is performed frequently, the rate of physical exertion will rise linearly.
In nature, badgers prey on venomous snakes, sometimes directly exhausting their prey to death.
The most important thing is that the movement of the snake's spine is restricted to a certain angle and cannot return at an acute angle.
Perhaps some smaller snakes are not obvious in this regard, but if it is a behemoth like a basilisk that can easily reach tens of meters, then its ability to turn at sharp angles may not even be as good as a Muggle pilot in the air.
Certain aerobatic maneuvers.
"Destroy the venue and turn it into the wizard's home court... He is indeed Mr. Scamander."
Under Newt's brief explanation, Scrimgeour and others quickly understood and took out their wands and began to cast environmental magic.
The originally smooth and smooth marble floor became ferocious, with countless grotesque protrusions and wrinkles. Irregular bumps and convexities also appeared on the surrounding stone pillars. The ground was covered with easily deformed gravel and crude drum heads, which could be damaged at any time.
Send out a vibration.
It has to be said that as the top master of magical animals in the wizarding world today, Newt has once again given young people a practical lesson.
With Kingsley's additional suggestions, they even went a step further based on Newt Scamander's work and built some hidden bunkers in the tumbling rock folds, as well as carefully camouflaged giant stone spikes.
It is like a thorn trap surrounding the hall. If the basilisk dares to swim and attack in the hall recklessly, then it will definitely realize what is called human beings' despicable hunting wisdom.
At the same time, while waiting for the wizards from the Ministry of Magic to perfect the "Thorn Trap", Newt also took out some water jars that looked a little bad.
There was an unknown red liquid flowing in those jars, and the spicy and pungent smell could be smelled even from a long distance away.
As Newt directed the wand little by little to smear them in every corner of the hall, the crimson liquid gradually adsorbed on the broken marble surface like dried blood, emitting a smell that made people feel hot and unbearable.
Live the hot breath that you want to escape.
"Don't worry, these are specially processed snake-repelling and cold-repelling potions that are harmless to the human body."
Newt Scamander said calmly, and before Scrimgeour asked, he took the initiative to hand over one of the cans.
"Didn't I just say that? The basilisk's perception also relies to a large extent on its sense of smell. Usually when you see them sticking out their tongues, they are capturing the various smells in the air. This is also the most difficult part to restrict.
Therefore, at the request of Professor Dumbledore, the potions professors at Hogwarts prepared a batch of highly irritating potions. If you just smell it, it will be lucky. If you accidentally lick it..."
"...How about it?"
Scrimgeour glanced at the red potion in his arms that exuded the aura of death, and swallowed subconsciously.
After this hunt, he roughly understood the difference between himself and those top wizards.
Environment, potions, information... Even without magic power and magical skills, the two wizards Newt Scamander and Albus Dumbledore can easily control everything with their wisdom and understanding of various knowledge.
That extremely dangerous beast is in the palm of your hand.
"I don't know, but maybe it will burn? Of course, it's just a metaphor."
Newt Scamander recalled what a certain little devil said when describing it, shrugged and added.
"Of course, these are mainly restriction methods, not the main attack methods. How to deal with the basilisk specifically depends on Professor Dumbledore's thoughts. I have never been a particularly good student in Defense Against the Dark Arts.
"
The very strange thing is that although Dumbledore spent most of his time teaching Transfiguration before becoming the Headmaster.
However, when Newt was in school, Dumbledore happened to take Defense Against the Dark Arts for a period of time.
Although Dumbledore was removed from this course as Grindelwald later set off wizard wars in Europe and even the world, in Newt Scamander's mind, Dumbledore has always been a master of dark magic.
A professor of defense, not a professor of transfiguration.
"Well, Professor Dumbledore, what are we going to do next..."
Scrimgeour and others stood there, subconsciously looking at Dumbledore who was checking the magic trap not far away.
However, Dumbledore did not answer them immediately, but took out a roll of parchment from his arms.
The old man tapped his wand on the parchment. After looking at the parchment carefully for about ten seconds through his half-moon glasses, he put the parchment away again and turned to look at the people behind him who had almost finished decorating.
The undergraduates and graduates of "Hunting Place".
"It's very simple. I will summon the basilisk later, and then everyone can cast spells at different locations in sequence."
Dumbledore said with a gentle expression, his voice seemed to contain reassuring magic.
"However, a little extra explanation is that, except for me, you all have to close your eyes to cast the first round of the spell. As for the signal to release the spell, it is the last sound of my incantation until I give the command.
, you can recite the mantra together toward the front."
"But Professor Dumbledore, if we close our eyes, how can we..."
Scrimgeour glanced around the spacious and vast hall of the secret chamber, seeming to find it a bit strange.
"Calibrated shooting, and fixed attack angle"
Dumbledore said softly, as if he had predicted Scrimgeour's question in advance, and said with a leisurely smile.
As the old man spoke, he raised his wand and lightly moved it towards the tall statue of Salazar Slytherin not far away.
The next moment, a golden-red light spot appeared on the face of the Slytherin stone statue.
"Before summoning the basilisk, we can first use the straight-line light spell to mark the direction of our spell and then use the petrification spell to temporarily fix the angle of the arm. After the spell is activated, your magic power should be able to automatically remove the rough spots on your arms.
magic."
Dumbledore explained lightly that the wand moved back and forth in the chamber, leaving afterimages of light spots in various places.
"Here is the first group. The spelling time is consistent with my final tone."
"This is the second group. Release the heavy object when it hits the ground."
"This is the third group..."
Before arriving in the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets, Elena and Grindelwald deduced an extremely detailed battle plan for him.
Perhaps Dumbledore didn't really trust these two demon kings in other matters, but in this kind of magical battle where many people were hunting, the cooperation between the Goblin Queen and the first-generation Dark Lord was indeed the most trustworthy plan, didn't Dumbledore
I would be wrong about this kind of thing.
The importance that "Prophet" Elena showed in this process also made Dumbledore silently add a lot of weight in his heart.
With so many combinations of punches, as the last one to attack, he naturally had no idea of holding back.
Not to mention…
After Dumbledore roughly arranged the personnel in each group, he took out a small package from his arms and threw it high into the air in the distance.
A giant spider web that is off-white, sticky, and as dense as a thick white germ carpet spreads out on the face of Salazar Slytherin's stone sculpture.
From a distance, it looks like it is wearing an airtight spiderweb mask. Perhaps after the basilisk breaks through, it can use its bite force and brute force to break free of the "spiderweb hood" that falls off its head, but it absolutely cannot
Open your eyes for the first time and send out a death glare.
Even in the worst case scenario, it would take at least 2-3 seconds for the basilisk to knock away the cobwebs in all directions.
And according to Elena and Grindelwald's estimation.
Three seconds.
The wizards present can almost release at least two rounds of magic volleys.
Not to mention the full spell casting of Dumbledore and Newt. If this still can't make the basilisk lose most of its combat effectiveness and directly fall into serious injury or even be killed directly, then they
Then you can start thinking about escaping.
Of course, if it still has the energy to escape back.
Or if you run away from somewhere else, that will be another derivative battle plan.
After the final confirmation, Dumbledore used the "real-time communication" ability of the academy to transmit the signal to enter the battle upwards.
"Now everyone, close your eyes and cast two spells before turning around and opening your eyes."
Then, Dumbledore took a deep breath, raised his feet and walked between the deformed and weird stone pillars.
He stopped in front of the towering stone statue, looked up at the face of the Slytherin stone statue hidden behind the spider web hood, opened his mouth, and made a hissing sound. Although no one understood what he was saying, everyone
Everyone knows the "human language" meaning of that passage.
[Talk to me, Slytherin, the greatest of the Hogwarts Four]
Behind the invisible spider web, Slytherin's huge stone face moved.
Its mouth opened, and opened wider and wider, eventually forming a huge black hole.
Something moves in the statue's mouth.
Something rustled upwards from the depths of the statue.
Finally, just when everyone's nerves were tense and on the verge of breaking, they heard the strange muffled sound of a heavy object hitting the cobweb, and Dumbledore's somewhat surprising, energetic and full of energy.
The voice of power.
"Fainted!! Group 1!"
Along with Dumbledore's chanting, more than ten beams of crimson light lit up in the dark secret room.
A huge object suddenly fell to the stone ground, and people felt that the secret room was even shaken violently.
Like a drop of water dropped into boiling oil.
The next moment, the entire secret room trembled even more violently, almost all the gravel collided and trembled, and the marble floor twisted and swayed crazily, like crazy rock tentacles, twitching and crashing crazily in the narrow space.
Amid the noisy, chaotic, shuddering vibrations, people could vaguely hear the painful and terrifying hissing sounds from the giant snake.
as well as.
Professor Dumbledore's calm voice sounded like a steady voice in his ears.