Chapter 14
Of Spiders and Secrets
Madame Pomfrey had all but barricaded herself in the Hospital Wing.
"We're taking no more chances," she told them through a crack in the door.
"But Madame Pomfrey—" Chrys tried.
"No, I'm sorry, there's every chance the attacker might come back to finish these people off…" With that, she frowned and slammed the door shut.
"Dumbledore said we're supposed to ask for help, but who are we supposed to ask when everyone's just as frightened and confused as we are?" Harry grumbled as they followed the large pack of Gryffindors down to potions.
"No idea," Chrys admitted.
"And Hagrid's advice is even worse," Ron figured. They'd been following any spider they spotted, to no end. Chrys patted him on the shoulder, thinking him quite brave considering his fear of the spindly creatures.
"And how are we supposed to get anything done when we can't get a second to ourselves?" Harry continued to complain as Snape motioned them into the room and looked both ways before locking the door behind them.
It warm and bright outside, but the still cool corridors of the basement, and the slimy specimens that lined the Potions classroom walls were more in line with the castle's current mood.
"I always thought Father might be the one who got rid of Dumbledore," Malfoy bragged loudly. Chrys glared at him over her cauldron. He just smirked and turned to Crabbe. "I told you he thinks Dumbledore's the worst headmaster the school's ever had. Maybe we'll get a decent headmaster now. Someone who won't wantthe Chamber of Secrets closed. McGonagall won't last long, she's only filling in…"
"McGonagall's ten times better than anyone Malfoy's dad could think of," Seamus muttered to Chrys, leaning over Hermione's empty chair. Chrys nodded wearily. Seamus quickly straightened up as Snape swept by.
"Sir," Malfoy called after him. "Sir, why don't you apply for the headmaster's job?"
"Now, now, Malfoy," Snape said. Chrys wrinkled her nose at the smile that spread across his lips. "Professor Dumbledore has only been suspended by the governors. I daresay he'll be back with us soon enough." Chrys blinked, wondering if he actually believed that. Snape often disagreed with Dumbledore, but he'd never openly opposed him.
"Yeah, right," Malfoy thought. "I expect you'd have Father's vote, sir, if you wanted to apply for the job—I'll tell Father you're the best teacher, here, sir." Snape mirrored Malfoy's smirk and moved deeper into the room to complain about other student's potions. Seamus stopped miming vomiting into his cauldron. Chrys smiled slightly.
Class finally came to an end and the students were starting to get to their feet.
"I'm quite surprised the Mudbloods haven't all packed their bags by now," Malfoy continued. "Bet you five Galleons the next one dies. Pity it wasn't Granger—"
Chrys and Ron leapt forward at the same time. Malfoy automatically took a large step backwards. Luckily for him, Seamus had grabbed Chrys, while it took Harry and Dean's combined effort to keep back a struggling Ron.
"Remember your wand," Harry told him in a voice of forced calm.
"Let me at him," Ron growled. "I don't care, I don't need my wand, I'm going to kill him with my bare hands—"
"Hurry up, I've got to take you all to Herbology!" Snape snapped. Dean and Harry ignored Ron's dark muttering, and frog-marched him down to the Greenhouse.
"I'm fine," Chrys told Seamus, swatting him off of her arm.
"You're sure?" Seamus eyed Malfoy distastefully. "Not that I wouldn't like to take a swing at him too… but doing it right under Snape's nose is just asking for it, Chrys."
"I know, I know." She sighed. She followed him, joining their Herbology group with Dean and Neville. She glanced over at Harry and Ron, who were down to two as both Justin and Hermione were now petrified. She frowned as Ernie Macmillan and one of his friends moved over to her brother.
"Now what?" Seamus wondered.
"Nothing… just Macmillan's been rude to Hermione before, about the whole 'Harry being the heir' thing," Chrys admitted. Dean watched Ernie and Harry shaking hands.
"That's good. Looks like they've made up."
"Come on," Neville interjected. "We've got to start pruning the Abyssinian Shrivelfigs before they rot."
As Professor Sprout led them back to the castle, Chrys slowed down to join Harry and Ron towards the back of the group.
"Guess what?" Harry said. "We saw these huge spiders in class. They were walking in like, a perfectly straight line."
"And even better," Ron continued, distinctly sarcastic, "They were heading for the Forbidden Forest."
"Huh," Chrys said. "Haven't been in there for ages…" She caught Harry's eye. "Dad's cloak after dark?" He smiled slightly and nodded.
"Just what I was thinking… and we should take Fang. He's been to the Forest loads more times than we have."
"I don't know." Ron hesitated as they moved down the hall to Defense Against the Dark Arts. "Aren't there supposed to be werewolves—"
Chrys waved her hand. "Werewolves are just people who turn into wolf-creatures once a month, aren't they?" She figured. "As long as it's not a full moon tonight—"
"And besides, there are good things in there too," Harry continued over her. "The centaurs weren't so bad." Chrys nodded.
"And the unicorns are pretty." She paused, tilting her head. "Probably prettier when they aren't dead." Ron shuddered. Harry gave her a look, like 'you are not helping things.' She winced.
"Ugh, look at Lockhart," Chrys mumbled to Ron as they moved into their seats.
"I try not to," Ron said darkly.
"Yeah, but how can he look so… happy after everything that's happened?" She wondered. Ron gave him a glance and groaned.
"Why all the long faces?" Lockhart asked, looking around the room.
"Are you serious?" Chrys said, forgetting to keep her voice down. Lockhart looked annoyed for a moment before plastering on his bright smile again.
"Now, Ms. Potter, I understand you may have been frightened about this whole, er, unfortunate business with the muggleborns—after all, you aren't an accomplished monster fighter, such as myself. However, the danger has now passed!" He opened his arms and beamed out at his captive audience. "The culprit has been taken away—"
"Says who?" Dean called out. Chrys decided to forgive him for losing that color-changing ink she'd lent him.
"My dear young man," Lockhart responded slowly, as if Dean were stupid. "The Minister of Magic wouldn't have taken Hagrid if he hadn't been one hundred percent sure that he was guilty."
"Oh, yes he would," Ron shouted.
"I flatter myself if I know a touch more about Hagrid's arrest than you do, Mr. Weasley," Lockhart told him. Ron opened his mouth to disagree, but stopped suddenly, wincing. Chrys was fairly certain Harry had kicked him under the desk.
Lockhart's attitude convinced Ron that they needed to head to the Forbidden Forest tonight—werewolves or not.
Normally, the common room emptied out around ten, but what with the six o'clock curfew, the Gryffindors had been lingering until around midnight.
Chrys knew Fred and George were trying to be responsible for once by keeping an eye on them. She only wished they hadn't chosen tonight to do so.
Harry and Ron kept losing at exploding snap, hoping Fred and George would get bored and go to bed early, but no such luck. Chrys pretended to listen to Lee drone on about a recent magic microphone development, while she watched a despondent Ginny sink into Hermione's favorite chair.
"She'll be alright," Chrys said, trying to convince herself as much as Ginny. "They all will." Ginny nodded distractedly.
"I think I'll go to bed now," she whispered, standing wobbly. Her paleness had gotten worse through the year. Chrys wanted to tell her to go to Madam Pomfrey, but even if the stubborn Ginny would agree, the healer had enough on her hands at the moment.
"Might as well do the same," George figured, mussing Ginny's hair as he yawned.
"Finally," Ron grunted as he watched his siblings disappear up the stairs.
"One sec," Harry said, heading up the stairs to grab the cloak.
Ron and Chrys sat in silence for a moment.
"You really think she's be okay?" Ron asked suddenly. Chrys blinked. "Hermione, I mean." Chrys chewed at her lip.
"I don't know," she admitted. "I hope so." Ron nodded.
"Well, Harry's right. We can't just sit around hoping, we've got to do something about it."
"Course, we might've been wrong," Ron thought as they moved under the cloak, across the lawn. Chrys shivered as blades of grass dragged dewdrops over her ankles. "Maybe the spiders weren't going to the forest after all…" They'd reached Hagrid's hut.
Chrys put up with Fang's licking, knowing how lonely he must be feeling. Unfortunately, his cheerful barking might give them away. Harry hastily fed him one of Hagrid's infamous treacle tarts, which clamped his jaws shut.
Chrys watched Fang trying to lick the sticky goop of his teeth.
"That wasn't very nice," Chrys told Harry as they moved. Harry patted Fang on the rump apologetically.
"Come on Fang, we're going for a walk." Harry looked around for somewhere to stash the cloak. "We won't need it in the dark…"
"Here." Chrys grabbed it and shoved it under some of Hagrid's knitting. Harry nodded approvingly, and they set off. "Fang, wait up!" He'd bounded off somewhere. "Lumos." She lit her wand and spotted Fang peeing on a tree at the edge of the forest.
"Good thinking." Harry lit his wand too.
"Yeah, I'd follow suit, but…" Ron held up his wand and frowned at it.
By the wand light, Harry spotted the line of scurrying spiders again, and they began to follow the insects deeper into the wood.
"Didn't Hagrid say not to leave the path the last time we were in here?" Chrys said hesitantly as the spiders veered off.
"Well, he also said to follow the spiders," Harry pointed out. He jumped suddenly and Ron cried out. "Sorry, Ron, it was just Fang…" Ron reached down and rubbed his foot. He turned to glare at Fang, who stared back lovingly. Ron sighed.
"Well, we've come this far," he figured.
They continued walking.
After a while, Harry was glancing from side to side, squinting.
"Did you hear that?" A branch snapped. Fang and Ron both whimpered. "Shut up," Harry told Ron. "It'll hear us."
"Tell that to Fang," Ron said, his voice high-pitched. They stood stone still for a moment before Chrys grabbed Harry's arm. A light was zooming towards them. Harry through up his other arm to shield his face as the light got closer, accompanied by an odd rumbling sound. Fang yelped and tried to jump away. He jumped straight into a thorn bush and howled louder.
"Harry, Chrys…" Ron let out a breath, sounding relieved. Harry uncovered his face. "It's our car!" Ron ran towards the light and they followed.
Or rather, it was Mr. Weasley car, green paint scratched by the branches of the tree it was huddling under. When Ron approached, it moved closer, bumping its hood against Ron's outstretched hand like a hesitant dog.
"Has it been here all this time?" Chrys wondered. Her heart had stopped thumping in her ears, so she copied Ron and started patting the car's hood.
"Must've been," Ron thought. "The forest has turned it wild…"
"We've lost the trail," Harry said disappointedly, looking around the forest floor for spiders. "We'll have to double back a bit and…" He trailed off at the look on Ron's face. Chrys raced forward, but it was too late. The spider—about the size of Fang—had grabbed Harry by the middle with its hairy legs, and raced off with him.
"Harry!" Chrys called out fearfully.
"Chrys!" Ron squeaked. More large dog-sized spiders were approaching. Chrys ran to put herself in-between them and Ron (who looked about ready to faint). She set up a shower of sparks. The spiders hung back slightly, rows of beady black eyes studying her.
"No!" Chrys screamed. They'd snuck up behind and grabbed Ron too. She struggled against another spider's grip as it spirited her away, hopefully to the same place the boys had been taken.
Chrys had thought the spiders that grabbed them were enormous. She was wrong. As the spider dumped her onto a clearing floor, she looked around, spotting more spiders of increasing largeness. The second largest spiders were the size of wild horses. The largest was a spider the size of an elephant.
The elephant spider sat in the middle of a suitably sized web. The other spiders gathered around him, like children waiting to hear a story. Her ears were filled with the spiders' chattering pincers. After a moment, she realized they were communicating with each other.
"Aragog!" The spider carrying Harry cried out between clicks. "Aragog!"
The elephant sized spider moved closer. The other spiders had coarse black hair, but his was grey. Their eyes were like coal. His eyes were pearly white.
"What is it?" The spider called Aragog asked.
"Men," Harry's spider answered.
"Is it Hagrid?" Aragog asked hopefully. Chrys realized the spider was blind.
"Strangers," Ron's spider told him.
"Kill them," Aragog said. "I was sleeping—"
"We're friends of Hagrid's!" Harry said quickly.
"Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before," Aragog said doubtfully.
"Hagrid's in trouble," Harry continued, panting.
"In trouble?" Aragog repeated, clearly upset. "But why has he sent you?"
Harry took a deep breath. "They think, up at the school, that Hagrid' been setting a—a… something on students. They've taken him to Azkaban."
Aragog clicked his pincers irritably. "But that was years ago, years and years ago. I remember it well. That's why they made him leave the school. They believed that I was the monster that dwells in what they call the Chamber of Secrets. They thought that Hagrid had opened the Chamber and set me free."
"And you…" Harry shivered. "You didn't come from the Chamber of Secrets?"
"I! I was not born in the castle. I come from a distant land. A traveler gave me to Hagrid when I was an egg. Hagrid was only a boy, but he cared for me." Aragog told them how Hagrid had hidden him in the castle, until he was discovered and blamed for the death of a girl. Hagrid moved him into the forest, and had later brought Aragog a wife. "And you see how our family has grown, all through Hagrid's goodness."
"So you never… never attacked anyone?" Harry asked.
"Never," Aragog repeated. "It would have been my instinct, but out of respect for Hagrid, I never harmed a human. The body of the girl who was killed was discovered in a bathroom." Chrys straightened up. "I never saw any part of the castle but the cupboard in which I grew up. Our kind like the dark and the quiet…"
"But then, do you know what did kill that girl?" Harry asked, his curiosity overwhelming his fear. "Because whatever it is, it's back and attacking people again—"
The spiders chattered and shuffled uncomfortably.
"The thing that lives in the castle is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others. Well do I remember how I pleaded with Hagrid to let me go, when I sensed the beast moving about the school."
"What is it?" Harry wanted to know.
"We do not speak of it!" Aragog cried. Chrys was uncomfortably reminded of Voldemort and his title of You-Know-Who. "We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dread creature, though he asked me, many times."
"We'll… just go then," Harry said, glancing around at the spiders.
"Go?" Aragog repeated. "I think not…"
Chrys gripped her wand. "But… but…" Harry stammered.
"My sons and daughters 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."
"You'll be sorry!" Chrys shouted, suddenly finding her voice as she jumped to her feet. Chrys drew closer to Harry, who had moved in front of Ron and a shaking Fang. Aragog hissed, and several spiders advanced.
Then a rumbled sound vibrated the ground beneath her feet. A stream of light zoomed towards them, scattering the spiders. The car's doors flung open.
"Get in!" Chrys said, shoving Harry into the back.
"Don't forget Fang!" Harry added. Ron pushed Fang in next to Harry before leaping into the driver's seat, Chrys next to him.
Ron didn't even need to put his foot on the accelerator. The car moved forward on its own, racing through the woods with hairpin turns to avoid trees and chasing spiders.
"Ron?" After they had been moving for a while, Chrys hesitantly put her hand on his shoulder. He let out a breath, his expression slightly calmer.
Then the car stopped with a jerk, Chrys banging her head into the windshield. She yelped as the doors popped open, the car clearly telling them to get going. Fang ran off, as Chrys looked around. They were back at the edge of the forest, Fang probably already scratching at Hagrid's door.
"Thanks." Harry patted the car on his way out. Ron massaged his neck as he watched the car race back into the wood.
Chrys patted Ron's pack as he vomited into the pumpkin patch.
"How's Fang?" She asked as Harry got back with the invisibility cloak.
"Hiding under his blanket," Harry told her. Ron wiped his mouth on his sleeve.
"Follow the spiders," he muttered. "I'll never forgive Hagrid."
Chrys frowned. "Aragog said he promised Hagrid never to kill humans, Hagrid probably took him at his word."
"That's exactly Hagrid's problem!" Ron snapped. "He always thinks monsters aren't as bad as they're made out, and look where it's got him! A cell in Azkaban!"
"Ron." Chrys saw how he was shaking, but he still shouldn't be talking about Hagrid like that.
"What was the point of sending us in there? What have we found out, I'd like to know?"
"Well, Hagrid never opened the Chamber, for one," Harry said, throwing the cloak over them.
"I've been telling you that for ages," Chrys complained.
"Well, now we know for sure that he's innocent," Harry reasoned. Ron snorted.
"Hiding Aragog in a cupboard isn't exactly my idea of innocent!"
"And there's something else," Chrys said quietly as they moved back into the common room.
"Can it wait until tomorrow?" Ron said tiredly. Chrys looked around at their muddy clothes, and their scratched and battered bodies. She nodded. Ron gave her a grateful look, before trudging upstairs. Harry squeezed her shoulder before following.
Chrys wondered if she could take a shower without waking the other girls.