A/N: This is for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry assignment #1. Ancient Runes, task #2 Write about someone facing his/her fears. It's also for the Insane house challenge for the prompt 191. Forbidden Forest. It's 504 words. The words 'do not harm Hagrid, on my command. But I cannot deny them fresh meat, when it wanders so willingly into our midst. Goodbye, friend of Hagrid.' are taken directly from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
It's for Hermione. I'm doing this for Hermione, Ron Weasley chanted as he and Harry trekked deeper into the Forbidden Forest.
They had decided to take Hagrid's advice and follow the trail of spiders leaving the castle.
Ron knew that it was the only way to help his friend and to stop any more attacks happening at the school, but spiders were his biggest fear. Ever since Fred and George had turned his teddy bear into a spider when he was five he had been terrified of them.
It wasn't just the thought of them that made him shudder, it was that he could still remember being face to face with a two large fangs and eight eyes. He thought the animal was going to eat him, and that had scared him the most. It didn't matter that his mother had transfigured the spider back to his bear, or showed him a smaller spider running away from them; that fear would not go away.
The only reason Ron had even considered facing his fear was because of Hermione. She was his friend and he would do anything to help her. The thought that she was just lying there petrified and vulnerable to another attack made him want to find out who was behind the attacks and stop them.
As they stumbled out into some kind of clearing, Ron looked around and gulped.
Hundreds maybe even thousands of massive spiders surrounded them and it took all his courage not to run back the way they had just come. His eyes darted everywhere looking for another way out incase something wrong, but there wasn't one.
I'm doing this for Hermione. I'm doing this for Hermione, Ron repeated over and over again as Harry explained why they were there.
"- do not harm Hagrid, on my command. But I cannot deny them fresh meat, when it wanders so willingly into our midst. Goodbye, friend of Hagrid."
Ron's eyes widened at the spider's words and started to panic. He knew there was no way out and closed his eyes waiting for the worst, and when it didn't happen, he opened them to see his father's old Ford Anglia barreling in to save them.
Everything after that was a bit of a blur, but he remembered thanking Merlin several times that they were safe and had not been eaten by giant spiders.
"I am never, ever going back into that forest. There is no way in hell I am going anywhere near those… those things again! What was Hagrid thinking when he sent us there?" Ron exclaimed.
"He wanted us to know that he wasn't the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets," Harry replied.
"Why couldn't he have just told us rather than send us into the forest?"
"He must've thought it was important," Harry said frowning.
Ron knew Harry was right, but that didn't change anything. His fear of spiders was worse than ever and if he didn't see them for an eternity it would be too soon.