Disclaimer: Everything you recognize is by J.K. Rowling.
Chapter 14-Aragog
Summer is creeping over the grounds around the castle; sky and lake alike turn periwinkle blue and flowers large as cabbages burst into bloom in the greenhouses. But with no Hagrid visible from the castle windows, striding the grounds with Fang at his heels, the scene didn't look right to us; no better, in fact, than the inside of the castle, where things were so horribly wrong.
After waking up from falling asleep next to Hermione and realizing that Madame Pomfrey was the one waking me up, I hadn't been let back in to see Hermione. She was understanding of my pain and sadness but she wouldn't let me in to see my friend again. It went expressly against the orders from the headmaster, or well it would have been if Dumbledore were still around.
That's right people things have gone from bad worse around here. Harry and Ron told me all about their trip to see Hagrid after my breakdown over Hermione that very night. They explain about how Hagrid denied that it was him, and how the Minister of Magic himself Cornelius Fudge had come to Hogwarts to have Hagrid arrested and thrown into Azkeban.
I of course was rightfully ticked off, for Hagrid couldn't have done that, and the only reason they were locking it up was so that he Minister could look like he was actually doing something right for once. That wasn't even the end of the massive amounts of unfairness that unfolded that night.
Who else would have stepped in to get Dumbledore removed from his position as Headmaster of Hogwarts other then our own resident weasel's father Lucius Malfoy. Merlin am I getting tired of that man, couldn't we get a moments peace without him coming in and ruining the day?
Harry had then explained to me much to Ron's unhappiness about Hagrid's clue about following the spiders. Where to we still don't know but, we now have the added problem of actually finding a spider in which to follow. There haven't been a lot of them around recently, much to Ron's happiness, and our displeasure.
I was getting antsy to find a way in which to help Hermione. I know that the mandrakes are being made for the people who have been petrified, but I still want to take down the person who's done this to my best friend. I think that Harry is the most put out about Dumbledore being gone though. His last message to Harry was very cryptic.
I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me. . . . Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.
I don't know about you but that's fairly hard to figure out in my opinion. This all is not even mentioning the fact that the teachers are shepherding us from class to class in order to protect us. Most of the students like this, but for Harry, Ron, and I it only hampers our ability to figure this mystery out.
One person, however, seems to be thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere of terror and suspicion. Draco Malfoy is strutting around the school as though he has just been appointed Head Boy. We didn't realize what he was so pleased about until the Potions lesson about two weeks after Dumbledore and Hagrid had left, when, sitting right behind Malfoy, we overhear him gloating to Crabbe and Goyle.
"I always thought Father might be the one who got rid of Dumbledore," he says, not troubling to keep his voice down. "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 want the Chamber of Secrets closed. McGonagall won't last long, she's only filling in. . . ."
Snape swept past Harry and Ron, making no comment about Hermione's empty seat and cauldron.
"Sir," speaks Malfoy loudly. "Sir, why don't you apply for the headmaster's job?" Oh that weasel has it coming to him. If Snape is being put in charge of Hogwarts then I'm out of here, future be damned. You couldn't bribe me to stay with all the galleons in Gringotts!
I feel the grip that I have on the table in front of me tightly. "Now, now, Malfoy," says Snape, though he can't suppress a thin-lipped smile. "Professor Dumbledore has only been suspended by the governors. I daresay he'll be back with us soon enough."
"Yeah, right," snarks Malfoy, smirking. "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 smirks as he sweeps off around the dungeon, fortunately not spotting Seamus Finnigan, who is pretending to vomit into his cauldron.
I release a shaky breath and attempt to get control over myself. I can't let this slimy prat get to me. It can't be helped though, ever since Hermione's petrification, I've been off. I hardly sleep most nights and that's simply because I can't stand it in my dorm. Lavender and Parvati attempt to be nice but, eventually they give up.
Rachel the other girl in our dorm only smiles and gives me understanding smiles. Most nights I find myself sleeping on one of the couches in the common room. Fred and George have found me there on quite a few mornings. I can tell that people are worried about me but I don't know what to say.
How do you explain that with your best friend gone you're heartbroken to have lost yet another person who means something to you? I don't think that you can. "I'm quite surprised the Mudbloods haven't all packed their bags by now," Malfoy went on. "Bet you five Galleons the next one dies. Pity it wasn't Granger —" Malfoy starts.
The bell rings at that moment, which is lucky; at Malfoy's last words, Ron leaps off his stool, and in the scramble to collect bags and books, his attempts to reach Malfoy go unnoticed. The smarmy weasel is lucky that Harry had grabbed me by the arms because he wouldn't still be standing there alive right now.
"Let me at him," Ron growls as Dean hangs onto his arms. "I don't care, I don't need my wand, I'm going to kill him with my bare hands —"
"Stop it Harry! Didn't you hear what he said about Hermione? He needs to pay!" I cry. Harry's grip tightens around me.
"I know Jamie, but this is not how you do it. Malfoy will get his own all in good time. Think Jamie, Hermione wouldn't want you getting expelled because of that no good cretin." Harry tells me. I release a shaky breath and attempt to expel the anger that I'm feeling.
"Hurry up, I've got to take you all to Herbology," barks Snape over the class's heads, and off we march, with Harry, Ron, Dean, and I bringing up the rear, Ron still trying to get loose. It is only safe to let go of him when Snape has seen them out of the castle and we are making our way across the vegetable patch towards the greenhouses.
The bad mood that I've perpetually been in threatens to take me over. This day just can't get any worse in my opinion. The Herbology class is very subdued; there are now two missing from their number, Justin and Hermione.
Professor Sprout sets us all to work pruning the Abyssinian Shrivelfigs. Ariana has set herself down in our group like she usually does. She's been sticking to my side a lot more recently. I can tell that she's worried about me. I don't know what to say to her though, for I'm afraid that when I next open my mouth I'll explode and I won't like what comes out.
Soon Harry comes back to our table with Ernie MacMillan and Hannah Abbott. As it turns out Ernie apologizes for being a git to Harry, so at least one good thing happens today. "That Draco Malfoy character," says Ernie, breaking off dead twigs, "he seems very pleased about all this, doesn't he? D'you know, I think he might be Slytherin's heir."
"That's clever of you," snarls Ron, who doesn't seem to have forgiven Ernie as readily as Harry.
"Do you think it's Malfoy, Harry?" Ernie asks. Great not this again, I'm seriously not in the mood for the pompous git show.
"No," says Harry, Ron, and I so firmly that Ernie, Hannah and Ariana startle. I can feel he worried gaze on me and it's starting to chip away on what little sanity that I have left, so I divert my eyes to the ground. That's when something catches my eye.
Several large spiders are scuttling over the ground on the other side of the glass, moving in an unnaturally straight line as though taking the shortest route to a prearranged meeting. I snap my gaze up to Harry and toss a twig at him. He snaps his attention to me and I gesture out the window at the ground. It takes Harry a minute but he finally understands what I'm seeing.
Harry hits Ron over the hand with his pruning shears. "Ouch! What're you —" Ron starts crossly. Harry points out the spiders, following their progress with his eyes screwed up against the sun.
"Oh, yeah," breathes Ron, trying, and failing, to look pleased. "But we can't follow them now —" Ernie, Hannah, and Ariana are watching us closely and oddly. Ariana is giving me that analyzing Dumbledore gaze that has seemed to increased tenfold since her grandfather has been kicked out. She's been taking that pretty hard, especially since Malfoy has been taunting her.
Usually my brother would have stood up for her, but things have been awkward for the two of them ever since Valentine's Day. Ariana had later sought out my brother and swiftly but not unkindly told him that she did not like him that way. She told him that she liked him only as a friend and that she hoped that they could still be friends.
I had to console my brother afterward. I'm not so sure if they're ever going to get their friendship back to what they had it at before.
"Looks like they're heading for the Forbidden Forest. . . ." Harry murmurs softly. Ron looks even unhappier about that.
At the end of the lesson Professor Sprout escorts the class to our Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. This is sure to wind up with me in a detention, the mood I'm in plus that imbecile and it will surely end in the defacing of one of the various Lockhart paintings around his classroom. Harry, Ron, and I lag behind the others so we can talk out of earshot.
"We'll have to use the Invisibility Cloak again," Harry tells us. "We can take Fang with us. He's used to going into the forest with Hagrid, he might be some help."
"Too bad we can't leave now. I'd rather get lost in the Forbidden Forest than listen to Lockhart drivel." I grumble crossly.
"Right," says Ron, who was twirling his wand nervously in his fingers. "Er — aren't there — aren't there supposed to be werewolves in the forest?" he adds as we take our usual places at the back of Lockhart's classroom. The only difference is that the seat next to Ron is now empty, my heart pangs sharply in my chest.
Preferring not to answer that question, Harry says, "There are good things in there, too. The centaurs are all right, and the unicorns . . ."
"I'm sure that we're going to run into a tribe full of unicorns that will show us all the answers that we seek." I mutter. Harry glares at me, and I advert my gaze, slightly ashamed that I'm acting like this but unable to stop myself.
Lockhart bounds into the room and the class stares at him. Every other teacher in the place is looking grimmer than usual, but Lockhart appears nothing short of buoyant.
"Come now," he cries, beaming around him. "Why all these long faces?" People swap exasperated looks, but nobody answers.
"Don't you people realize," says Lockhart, speaking slowly, as though they were all a bit dim, "the danger has passed! The culprit has been taken away —"
"Says who?" cries Dean Thomas loudly.
"My dear young man, the Minister of Magic wouldn't have taken Hagrid if he hadn't been one hundred percent sure that he was guilty," explains Lockhart, in the tone of someone explaining that one and one make two.
"Oh, yes he would," says Ron, even more loudly than Dean.
"I flatter myself I know a touch more about Hagrid's arrest than you do, Mr. Weasley," snaps Lockhart in a self-satisfied tone. Ron goes to open his mouth again, but is stopped mid breath by the double kicks he receives from Harry and I.
"We weren't there, remember?" Harry mutters. But Lockhart's disgusting cheeriness, his hints that he has always thought Hagrid was no good, his confidence that the whole business is now at an end, irritated me so much that I yearn to throw Gadding with Ghouls right in Lockhart's stupid face. Instead I sit there glancing at Hermione's empty seat and tell myself that she really wouldn't want to do that.
I divert my attention to a piece of paper when it's passed to me. On the sheet are the words: Let's do it tonight. I glance over at Harry and see the grim resolve on his face. Okay I'm ready to get this over with. I nod my head discreetly at him, and pass the note on to Ron.
Ron reads the message, swallows hard, and looks sideways at the empty seat usually filled by Hermione. The sight seems to stiffen his resolve, and he nods. Don't worry Hermione we'll find out who did this to you, one way or another.
I didn't manage to get very far after class for a sight that I didn't want to see stops me. Ariana is leaning against the opposite said of the corridor, and her gaze fastens on me the moment that I step out of the room. We have a little bit of free time until the teachers will all herd us back to our dormitories.
I don't necessarily want to talk to Ariana, but if it gets me away from everyone else for a while then I'm willing to take the risk. When I approach her, Ariana steps away from the wall, and meets me halfway. "Jamie… do you think we can talk?" She asks softly. I shrug my shoulders and lead her down the corridors away from the mass of students expelling some pent up energy.
"What's up Ariana?" I ask her, slowing to a stop near an open window to the grounds. I lean against the sill and stare out over the grounds. My eye drifts towards the forbidden forest. That's where we'll be going tonight. Of all the stupid things that we've done in the past almost two years this one will take the cake.
For all we know the monster lives there, and makes it's way back into the castle. "I just want to see how you're holding up… I know you're hurting Jamie. Anyone with a pair of eyes can see that." Ariana tells me.
"What do you want me to say Ariana? Do you want me to tell you that I'm devastated because I am! Do you want me to sit here and cry because I couldn't protect my best friend, because I already do that! Do you want me to tell you that I'm so bloody angry at the world for taking so many people away from me because, YES I am horribly, bloody, stupidly, angry at the world!" I cry.
I can feel the sting of tears behind my eyes. Instead of scaring Ariana away with my outburst it seems to do the exact opposite of what I had originally planned. The look of understanding only grows in her eyes, until I have to look away, for I'm not sure that I want the comfort or understanding that's in her eyes. Ariana understands, she's lost bother her parents as well.
Before I can react I find myself in a strong hug. I'm so shocked that I don't even realize the tears that are falling down my face. "Though it may not seem like it now Jamie, everything will be okay. Hermione will come back. The Mandrakes are almost ready for the potion. Soon enough Hermione will be back here with us telling you off for getting into such a tizzy over her." Ariana tells me.
I sniff and shake my head. "You don't know that for sure." I say petulantly. I know that I'm being childish but this stuff happens far too much to me. I learned when I was younger that not all the people that you become attached to are going to be there for the long haul.
"No I don't know that for sure, but I can feel it. Hermione will be back to beating us in every subject before we know it." Ariana tells me with a smile. I give her a shaky one in return, and disentangle myself from her grasp. I take a few steps away and turn back to look at her.
"Hey Ariana?" I say. She turns around to look at me.
"Thank you, and for the record someday we'll make it." I tell her. I turn back around and head for my friends, but not before I catch the brilliant smile that lights up the other girl's face.
The Gryffindor common room is always very crowded these days, because from six o'clock onward the Gryffindors have nowhere else to go. We also have plenty to talk about, with the result that the common room often doesn't empty until past midnight.
Harry went to get the Invisibility Cloak out of his trunk right after dinner, and spent the evening sitting on it, waiting for the room to clear. Fred and George challenge Harry and Ron to a few games of Exploding Snap, and Ginny sits watching them, very subdued in Hermione's usual chair. Harry and Ron keep losing on purpose, trying to finish the games quickly, but even so, it is well past midnight when Fred, George, and Ginny finally go to bed. I had sat there with my sketchbook attempting to draw the Weasley twins how I perceived them, identical but separate in a way that only I seemed to be able to notice.
We waited until we heard the last two doors close before Harry jumps up, and throws the invisibility cloak over the three of us. We climb carefully under the portrait hole, careful not to step on the cloak and trip us up before we even make it out of the castle.
I don't fancy explaining to Professor McGonagall about why we were found outside of our dormitories when we're not allowed. It is another difficult journey through the castle, dodging all the teachers. At last we reach the entrance hall, slide back the lock on the oak front doors, squeezing between them, trying to stop any creaking, and step out into the moonlit grounds.
"'Course," starts Ron abruptly as we walk across the black grass, "we might get to the forest and find there's nothing to follow. Those spiders might not've been going there at all. I know it looked like they were moving in that sort of general direction, but . . ." Ron says all this rather hopefully.
I can feel him already shaking from beside me. I don't have a problem with spiders but even I'm not looking forward to going into the forbidden forest at night. Out of the three of us only Harry has been in there at all let alone at night.
We reach Hagrid's house, sad and sorry-looking with its blank windows. When Harry pushes the door open, Fang goes mad with joy at the sight of us. Worried he might wake everyone at the castle with his deep, booming barks, I hastily feed him treacle toffee from a tin on the mantelpiece, which glue his teeth together. I feel bad but it had to be done.
Harry leaves the Invisibility Cloak on Hagrid's table. There will be no need for it in the pitch-dark forest.
"C'mon, Fang, we're going for a walk," says Harry, patting his leg, and Fang bounds happily out of the house behind us, dashes to the edge of the forest, and lifts his leg against a large sycamore tree. I wish that I were as care free as him at the moment. Poor dog doesn't know what he's in for tonight.
Harry and I take out our wands as we approach the forest. "Lumos." I murmur and the end of my wand lights up just enough to show us where we're going. Harry follows my lead and does the same with his wand.
"Good thinking," says Ron. "I'd light mine, too, but you know — it'd probably blow up or something. . . ." That's just about one of the last things that we'd need to happen right now.
Harry taps Ron on the shoulder, pointing at the grass. Two solitary spiders are hurrying away from the wandlight into the shade of the trees.
"Okay," Ron sighs as though resigned to the worst, "I'm ready. Let's go." I grab his hand, and give it a quick comforting squeeze before dropping it, and making my way forward behind Harry. He is the leader of this little quest since he's the only one who has been in here before.
So, with Fang scampering around us, sniffing tree roots and leaves, we enter the forest. By the glow of Harry's wand, we follow the steady trickle of spiders moving along the path. We walk behind them for about twenty minutes, not speaking, listening hard for noises other than breaking twigs and rustling leaves. Then, when the trees have become thicker than ever, so that the stars overhead are no longer visible, and our wands shine alone in the sea of dark, we see our spider guides leaving the path.
Harry pauses, trying to see where the spiders are going, but everything outside our little sphere of light is pitch-black. I'm really starting to not like this, and I'm fairly certain that Ron is only minutes from passing out in fright. "What d'you reckon?" Harry asks us.
"We've come this far," sighs Ron.
"We need to do this for Hermione." I remind them. So we follow the darting shadows of the spiders into the trees. We can't move very quickly now; there are tree roots and stumps in our way, barely visible in the near blackness. I can feel Fang's hot breath on my hand. More than once, we have to stop, so that Harry can crouch down and find the spiders in the wandlight.
We walk for what seems like at least half an hour, our robes snagging on low-slung branches and brambles. After a while, we notice that the ground seems to be sloping downward, though the trees are as thick as ever.
Then Fang suddenly lets loose a great, echoing bark, making the three of us jump out of our skins.
"What?" says Ron loudly, looking around into the pitch-dark, and gripping Harry's and my elbow very hard. I get a funny feeling in my stomach that I'm not going to like whatever comes next.
"Harry…" I start.
"There's something moving over there," Harry breathes. "Listen . . . sounds like something big. . . ." We listen. Some distance to our right, the something big is snapping branches as it carves a path through the trees.
"Oh, no," whimpers Ron. "Oh, no, oh, no, oh —"
"Shut up," I hiss frantically. "It'll hear you."
"Hear me?" squeaks Ron in an unnaturally high voice. "It's already heard Fang!" The darkness seems to be pressing on our eyeballs as we stand, terrified, waiting. There is a strange rumbling noise and then silence.
"What d'you think it's doing?" says Harry.
"Probably getting ready to pounce," whines Ron.
"Sh!" I hiss at them both. We wait, shivering, hardly daring to move.
"D'you think it's gone?" Harry whispers.
"Dunno —" Ron says. Then, to our right, comes a sudden blaze of light, so bright in the darkness that we have to fling up our hands to shield our eyes. Fang yelps and tries to run, but gets lodged in a tangle of thorns and yelps even louder.
"Jamie! Harry!" Ron shouts, his voice breaking with relief. "Guys, it's our car!"
"What?" I ask confused about what's going on now.
"Come on!" Ron says ignoring our confusion. Harry and I blunder after Ron towards the light, stumbling and tripping, and a moment later we have emerged into a clearing.
Mr. Weasley's car is standing, empty, in the middle of a circle of thick trees under a roof of dense branches, its headlights ablaze. As Ron walks, openmouthed, towards it, it moves slowly toward him, exactly like a large, turquoise dog greeting its owner.
"It's been here all the time!" cries Ron delightedly, walking around the car. "Look at it. The forest's turned it wild. . . ."
It indeed has. The sides of the car are scratched and smeared with mud. Apparently it has taken to trundling around the forest on its own. Fang doesn't seem at all keen on it; he keeps close to me, and I can feel him quivering. I don't particularly like that car either. I rub my arm at the memory.
"And we thought it was going to attack us!" says Ron, leaning against the car and patting it. "I wondered where it had gone!" Harry stuffs his wand back into his pocket, and I lower mine, but don't put it away. I still don't feel the greatest about everything that's going on here.
Something doesn't feel right. I almost feel like I'm being watched… and not just by an enchanted car. "We've lost the trail," Harry says. "C'mon, let's go and find them."
Ron doesn't speak. He doesn't move. His eyes are fixed on a point some ten feet above the forest floor, right behind Harry and me. His face is livid with terror. "Ron?" I question, the bad feeling growing inside of me. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I didn't even have time to turn around. There is a loud clicking noise and suddenly I feel something long and hairy seize me around my middle and lift me off the ground, so that I am hanging facedown. This is not good.
Struggling, terrified, I hear more clicking, and see Ron, and Harry's legs leave the ground, too, and hear Fang whimpering and howling — next moment, I am being swept away into the dark trees.
Head hanging, I see that what has hold of me is marching on six immensely long, hairy legs, the front two clutching me tightly below a pair of shining black pincers. Behind me, I can hear more of the creatures, no doubt carrying my friends. Shivers run down my spine.
I may be able to live with small spiders, but ones this big are too much even for me. What do they feed these things, growing potions from Snape's dungeon? We are moving into the very heart of the forest. I can hear Fang fighting to free himself from a fourth monster, whining loudly, but I can't yell even if I want to; I seemed to have lost my voice back with the car in the clearing.
I never knew how long I was in the creature's clutches; I only know that the darkness suddenly lifts enough for me to see that the leaf-strewn ground is now swarming with spiders. Craning my neck sideways, I realized hat we have reached the ridge of a vast hollow, a hollow that has been cleared of trees, so that the stars shine brightly onto the worst scene have ever laid eyes on.
This is surely to give me nightmares for years to come. If I don't make it out of here alive, I am so figuring out a way to murder Harry in the afterlife. Spiders. Not tiny spiders like those surging over the leaves below, spiders the size of carthorses, eight-eyed, eight-legged, black, hairy, gigantic.
The massive specimen that is carrying me makes its way down the steep slope toward a misty, domed web in the very center of the hollow, while its fellows close in all around it, clicking their pincers excitedly at the sight of its load.
I fall to the ground on all fours as the spider releases me. Harry, Ron, and Fang thud down next to me. Fang isn't howling anymore, but cowering silently on the spot. Ron looks exactly like Harry and I feel. His mouth is stretched wide in a kind of silent scream and his eyes are popping.
I scramble next to Ron and grab his hand tightly, if not for his sake then for my own. This is enough to make me afraid of spiders for the rest of my life. I'll never be able to look at them the same way again. I suddenly realize that the spider that has dropped me is saying something. It is been hard to tell, because he clicks his pincers with every word he speaks.
"Aragog!" it calls. "Aragog!" And from the middle of the misty, domed web, a spider the size of a small elephant emerges, very slowly. There is gray in the black of his body and legs, and each of the eyes on his ugly, pincered head is milky white. He is blind, but that's not comforting.
"What is it?" he demands, clicking his pincers rapidly.
"Men," clicks the spider who had caught Harry. I don't even have it in me to be offended about being called a man I'm so scared out of my mind.
"Is it Hagrid?" asks Aragog, moving closer, his eight milky eyes wandering vaguely.
"Strangers," clicks the spider who had brought Ron.
"Kill them," clicks Aragog fretfully. "I was sleeping. . . ."
"We're friends of Hagrid's," Harry shouts. Oh thank Merlin Harry is at least able to keep his wits about him. I'm not sure that the same could be said about me, and Ron… well I'm not so sure that he'll ever speak again.
Click, click, click go the pincers of the spiders all around the hollow. Aragog pauses. "Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before," he says slowly.
"Hagrid's in trouble," I interrupt, breathing very fast. "That's why we've come." Okay maybe I can help out a little.
"In trouble?" says the aged spider, and I think I hear concern beneath the clicking pincers. "But why has he sent you?"
"They think, up at the school, that Hagrid's been setting a — a — something on students. They've taken him to Azkaban." Harry takes back over, for I've lost my voice again. Oh well I tried.
Aragog clicks his pincers furiously, and all around the hollow the sound is echoed by the crowd of spiders; it is like applause, except applause doesn't usually make me feel sick with fear. "But that was years ago," says Aragog fretfully. "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 . . . you didn't come from the Chamber of Secrets?" I ask, feeling cold sweat on my forehead. This is one of the most terrifying things that I've ever done and I've jumped in front of Harry defending him from Quirrel/Voldemort before.
"I!" booms Aragog, clicking angrily. "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, hidden in a cupboard in the castle, feeding me on scraps from the table. Hagrid is my good friend, and a good man. When I was discovered, and blamed for the death of a girl, he protected me. I have lived here in the forest ever since, where Hagrid still visits me. He even found me a wife, Mosag, and you see how our family has grown, all through Hagrid's goodness. . . ."
If I wasn't so terrified and mildly disgusted, I might have been touched by the story that I just heard. As it is I grip tighter to Ron's hand, and grasp Harry's with my free one. Fang nestles himself in close to Ron's side. I can feel Ron shaking beside me. "So you never — never attacked anyone?" Harry asks, summing up the last of his courage.
"Never," croaks the old spider. "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. I never saw any part of the castle but the cupboard in which I grew up. Our kind like the dark and the quiet. . . ." Wait bathroom?
"But then . . . Do you know what did kill that girl?" asks Harry pushing on. "Because whatever it is, it's back and attacking people again —"
His words are drowned by a loud outbreak of clicking and the rustling of many long legs shifting angrily; large black shapes shift all around us. This is not looking good.
"The thing that lives in the castle," spits Aragog, "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." This thing is scared of the monster in the school? What the bloody hell is living in my school?
"What is it?" says Harry urgently. More loud clicking, more rustling; the spiders seem to be closing in.
"We do not speak of it!" says Aragog fiercely. "We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dread creature, though he asked me, many times." This is not good… not good at all. Why does it seem like we're about to become spider food?
Aragog seems to be tired of talking. He is backing slowly into his domed web, but his fellow spiders continue to inch slowly towards us. Oh because we are going to be spider food.
"We'll just go, then," Harry calls desperately to Aragog, hearing leaves rustling behind us.
"Go?" says Aragog slowly. "I think not. . . ."
"But — but —" I stutter knowing its hopeless.
"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. Good-bye, friends of Hagrid." Well this isn't how I pictured my life ending. Oh no, I've left my brother alone again. We can't handle losing anyone else in my family.
We spin around and I grab my wand from my cloak pocket. It's no use though a massive wall of black spiders greets us. Oh well. At least they can say that I didn't go willingly. I'm prepared to take just as many of these beasts with me. Before I can act a loud, long note sounds, and a blaze of light flames through the hollow.
Mr. Weasley's car is thundering down the slope, headlights glaring, its horn screeching, knocking spiders aside; several are thrown onto their backs, their endless legs waving in the air. The car screeches to a halt in front of Harry, Ron, and I and the doors fly open. Never have I ever been so happy to see this flying death trap before! If I wasn't about to die I think I would kiss it. I jump in the back without another thought.
"Get Fang!" Harry yells, diving into the front seat; Ron seizes the boarhound around the middle and threw him, yelping, into the back of the car next to me — the doors slam shut — Ron didn't touch the accelerator but the car doesn't need him; the engine roars and we are off, hitting more spiders. We speed up the slope, out of the hollow, and we are soon crashing through the forest, branches whipping the windows as the car winds its way cleverly through the widest gaps, following a path it obviously knew.
My heart is in my throat and I'm gripping onto the front seat for dear life. It doesn't help that I'm getting partially crushed by a large boarhound. I glance sideways at Ron. His mouth is still open in the silent scream, but his eyes aren't popping anymore.
"Are you okay?" I ask him finally finding my voice. Ron stares straight ahead, unable to speak.
They smash our way through the undergrowth, Fang howling loudly in the back seat, and I see the side mirror snap off as we squeeze past a large oak. After ten noisy, rocky minutes, the trees thin, and I can thankfully see patches of sky again.
The car stops so suddenly that we are nearly thrown into the windshield. We have reached the edge of the forest. Fang flings himself at the window in his anxiety to get out, and when Harry opens the door, he shoots off through the trees to Hagrid's house, tail between his legs. I feel like doing exactly the same thing, but I'm not quite sure if my legs will even work.
Harry steps out of the car on shaky legs, and I reluctantly open my door, and step out as well. My legs wobble violently and threaten to give out, but Harry steadies me before that happens. "You okay Jamie?" He asks me worriedly.
"I… I don't ever want to meet another one of Hagrid's pets." I say. Harry grins weakly and nods his head to me in agreement. Ron finally joins us in a minute, still looking rather ghostly pale. Harry gives the car a grateful pat before it reverses out of view back into the forest. I sure as hell wouldn't want to go back in there.
Harry goes back to Hagrid's hut to fetch his invisibility cloak so that we can sneak back into the castle. I wait outside with Ron, trying not to throw up myself as he's violently sick in Hagrid's pumpkin patch. This has been a long night and a pretty horrible one if I don't say so myself.
"Follow the spiders," says Ron weakly, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "I'll never forgive Hagrid. We're lucky to be alive."
"I bet he thought Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his," I say attempting to defend Hagrid.
"That's exactly Hagrid's problem!" cries Ron, thumping the wall of the cabin. "He always thinks monsters aren't as bad as they're made out, and look where it's got him! A cell in Azkaban!" He is shivering uncontrollably now. I can't exactly deny the truth in his words.
"What was the point of sending us in there? What have we found out, I'd like to know?" Ron gripes further.
"That Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets," says Harry, throwing the Cloak over Ron and me, prodding him in the arm to make him walk. "He was innocent."
Ron gives a loud snort. Evidently, hatching Aragog in a cupboard isn't his idea of being innocent. Its not exactly mine either but I still love the big fella. As the castle looms nearer Harry twitches the Cloak to make sure our feet are hidden, then pushes the creaking front doors ajar. We walk carefully back across the entrance hall and up the marble staircase, holding our breath as we pass corridors where watchful sentries were walking. At last we reach the safety of the Gryffindor common room, where the fire has burned itself into glowing ash.
The three of us throw the cloak off, and collapse into chairs around the empty fire. "Never again. Never again Harry, I'm not stepping foot inside that forest unless its for a really good reason." I tell him as firmly as my still trembling voice can allow.
Harry nods his head in understanding and Ron looks at me like I'm mental. "I won't ever set foot back in that forest even if someone was in there offering a millions galleons to whoever bothered going!" He exclaims.
I start thinking over the conversation that we'd had with Aragog before he tried to have his children eat us. "Guys, that girl who died! Aragog said she was found in a bathroom. Harry and Ron give me blank looks. "What if she never left the bathroom? What if she's still there?" I tell them. I watch as slowly the understanding looks light up their eyes.
"You don't think — not Moaning Myrtle?" Ron says incredulously. I nod my head, and Harry gives us a triumphant grin.
"Well there's not much that we can do tonight. Let's get some rest and then talk to her tomorrow." Harry decides. I nod my head and stifle back the yawn that had threatened to break through. I bid the boys goodnight, and snuck upstairs to change into my griffin pajamas, only to sneak right back downstairs with my blanket and pillow, so that I can sleep on the couch.
It still doesn't feel right up there without Hermione. I close my eyes and try to fend off the sure to be nightmares of gigantic spiders. It looks like I have a date to talk with this increasingly infuriating and intriguing ghost.