Chapter 38: Aragog And Good News
"Aragog!" the freak of nature called. "Aragog!"
And from the middle of a misty, domed web, a spider the size of a fucking baby elephant emerged, very slowly. There was gray in the black of his body and legs, and each of the eyes on his ugly, pincered head was milky white. He was blind.
"What is it?" he said, clicking his pincers rapidly.
"Men." clicked the spider who had caught Harry.
"Is it Hagrid?" said Aragog, moving closer.
"Strangers" clicked the spider who had brought me.
"Kill them." clicked Aragog, as if we were that much of an inconvenience. "I was sleeping..."
"We're friends of Hagrid's!" Harry shouted. I was useless. I felt as if my spirit had left my body.
Click, click, click went the pincers of the spiders all around the hollow.
Aragog paused.
"Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before." he said slowly.
"Hagrid's in trouble." said Harry, breathing very fast. "That's why we've come."
"In trouble? But why has he sent you?"
Harry stayed on the ground. "They think, up at the school, that Hagrid's been setting a - a - something on students. They've taken him to Azkaban."
Aragog clicked his pincers furiously, and all around the hollow the sound was echoed by the crowd of spiders; it was like applause, except applause didn't usually make me feel like I wanted to run to Mum and have her protect me.
"But that was years ago." said Aragog. "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?" asked Harry.
"I!" said Aragog, clicking as if Harry had insulted him. "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."
I stood there stiff as a board, looking around as more and more of those giant spiders started popping up like killer dark daisies in the snow.
"So you never - never attacked anyone?" asked Harry.
"Never!" said 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..."
"But then... Do you know what did kill that girl?" said Harry. "Because whatever it is, it's back and attacking people again. "
I could hardly hear what he was saying. The clicking sounds of the spiders surrounding us was deafening. That and i could literally hear the beating of my heart getting louder and louder.
"The thing that lives in the castle," said 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."
"What is it?" said Harry urgently.
"We do not speak of it!" said Aragog fiercely. "We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dread creature, though he asked me, many times."
Harry finally looked around and seen the spiders pressing closer on all sides. Aragog seemed to be tired of talking. He was backing slowly into his domed web, but his fellow spiders continued to inch slowly toward Harry and I.
"We'll just go, then." Harry called desperately to Aragog, hearing leaves rustling behind him.
"Go?" said Aragog slowly. "I think not..."
"But - but-" I whimpered.
"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."
Harry spun around and looked at me. I shakily took out my wand as he snatched out his.
There were too many of them. As we stood there, preparing to die, i quickly reflected over my short 13 years of life. Would Mum and Dad miss me? Would Hermione be okay? Would they find our bodies?
Suddenly, a loud, long note sounded, and a blaze of light flamed through the hollow. Dad's car came down the slope, headlights glaring, its horn screeching, knocking spiders aside The car screeched to a halt in front of Harry and I and the doors flew open.
"Get Fang!" Harry yelled, diving into the front seat. I grabbed the boarhound around the middle and threw him into the back of the car. The doors slammed shut, the engine roared and we were off, hitting more spiders. We sped up the slope, out of the hollow, and were soon crashing through the forest, branches whipping the windows as the car wound its way cleverly through the widest gaps, following a path it obviously knew.
Harry looked sideways at me. My jaw hadn't closed since the spiders. I felt like I had grown ten years older in less than ten minutes
"Are you okay?" Harry asked. I stared straight ahead, unable to say a word. This was the worst experience of my life. Much worse than the dance with the Whomping Willow.
We smashed our way through the undergrowth. After ten noisy, rocky minutes, the trees thinned, and Harry and I could again see patches of sky
The car stopped so suddenly that we were nearly thrown into the windshield. We had reached the edge of the forest. Fang flung himself at the window in his anxiety to get out, and when Harry opened the door, he shot off through the trees to Hagrid's house, tail between his legs. I got out the car, trying to regain the feeling in my legs.
Harry went back into Hagrid's cabin to get the Invisibility Cloak. While he was in there, every emotion I was feeling came up out of my mouth in sick vomit. I found myself hurling my guts out in pumpkin patch.
"Follow the spiders." I managed to finally get out as I wiped my mouth on my sleeve. Hermione would have scolded me for that. "I'll never forgive Hagrid. We're lucky to be alive."
"I bet he thought Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his." said Harry, patting my back as I bent back over, trying to settle myself.
"That's exactly Hagrid's problem!" I thumping the wall of the cabin I was thoroughly pissed. "He always thinks monsters aren't as bad as they're made out, and look where it's got him! A cell in Azkaban!"
I was shivering uncontrollably now, my blood boiling,. I felt like I was going to explode! "What was the point of sending us in there? What have we found out, I'd like to know?"
"That Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets," said Harry, throwing the cloak over me and poking me in the arm to make me walk. "He was innocent."
Right about them, Hagrid could have kissed my ass.
We made it back safely to Gryffindor tower. We went back to our down and I snatched Harry's cloak off of us and tossed into his open trunk.
I fell onto my bed without bothering to get undressed. I was tired. The whole ordeal had taken everything out of me.
I couldn't have been asleep for two minutes before Harry woke me up, hissing my name for some mental reason.
"What mate?" I sat up, rubbing my eyes.
"Ron , that girl who died. Aragog said she was found in a bathroom." said Harry. "What if she never left the bathroom? What if she's still there?"
My eyes grew wide as realization sat in.
"You don't think...not Moaning Myrtle?"
All those times we were in that bathroom, and she was just three toilets away." I said bitterly at breakfast next day. "and we could've asked her, and now..."
"I know, mate." said Harry, spooning cereal into his mouth. "Now it makes going in that fucking deathtrap even more stupid."
"So when Hagrid comes back, you take out his right knee, yeah?"
Harry chuckled as we got up to head to Transfiguration.
Ten minutes into the class, Professor McGonagall told us that our exams would start on the first of June, one week from today.
"Exams?" groaned Seamus. "We're still getting exams?"
"The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education." said McGonagall, sternly. "The exams will therefore take place as usual, and I trust you are all studying hard."
Studying hard! It had never occurred to Harry that there would be exams with the castle in this state. There was a great deal of mutinous muttering around the room, which made Professor McGonagall scowl even more darkly.
"Professor Dumbledore's instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible, she said. "And that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year."
I sighed, looking at my wand, that had just started to whistle for some odd reason.
"Can you imagine me taking exams with this?" I asked Harry, holding up my wand.
Later that night, I took Harry's cloak and snuck down to the hospital wing. I sat beside Hermione, looking at her laying in the same position that she had always been in.
"So I bet you're eager to hear what happened." I started talking. "Well, we followed the bloody spiders and we were almost killed by this huge ass ones that were ruled by this even bigger one name Aragog. Come to find out, he had nothing to do it anything that had happened and was happening. So I truly felt that besides learning that Hagrid didn't do it, we had wasted time and our lives."
"We did find out that it was Myrtle that had been done in though. So that bit of information is very good."
I looked at Hermione, thinking I saw the smallest of a flutter of her eyelash. Wishful thinking.
"I miss you, Hermione. I need for you to get better. I didn't endure that bullshit for nothing."
Three days before our first exam, Professor McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast.
"I have good news." she said, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted.
"Dumbledore's coming back!" several people yelled joyfully.
"You've caught the Heir of Slytherin!" squealed a girl at the Ravenclaw table.
"Quidditch matches are back on!" roared Wood excitedly.
I rolled my eyes. Even I didn't give a damn about Quidditch at this point.
When the room had done speculating, Professor McGonagall said, "Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit."
There was an explosion of cheering. Harry looked over at the Slytherin table and wasn't at all surprised to see that Malfoy hadn't joined in. I, however, felt happier than a child at Christmas.
"It won't matter that we never asked Myrtle, then!" I said to Harry. "Hermione'll probably have all the answers when they wake her up! Mind you, she'll go crazy when she finds out we've got exams in three days time. She hasn't studied. It might be kinder to leave her where she is till they're over."
As much as I was trying to hide my giddiness, I couldn't help but want to jump up and down. My best mate would soon be okay.
Just then, Ginny came over and sat down next to me. She looked tense and nervous, and I noticed that her hands were twisting in her lap.
"What's up?" I asked her.
Ginny didn't say anything, but glanced up and down the Gryffindor table with a scared look on her face.
"Spit it out." I said as I watched her.
"I've got to tell you something," Ginny mumbled.
"What is it?" said Harry.
Ginny looked as though she couldn't find the right words. She looked at Harry and then back over to me.
"What? Go on, Gin, what is it?'
Ginny opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Harry leaned forward and spoke quietly, so that only Ginny and I could hear him.
"Is it something about the Chamber of Secrets? Have you seen something? Someone acting oddly?"
Ginny drew a deep breath and was about to say something, when Percy appeared looking tired, but anxious.
"If you've finished eating, I'll take that seat, Ginny. I'm starving, I've only just come off patrol duty." he informed our baby sister.
Ginny jumped up as though her chair had just been electrified, gave Percy a frightened look, and rushed off. Percy sat down and grabbed a mug from the center of the table.
"Percy!" I yelled. "She was just about to tell us something important!"
Halfway through a gulp of tea, Percy choked.
"What sort of thing?" he said, coughing.
"I just asked her if she'd seen anything odd, and she started to say-"
"Oh - that. That's nothing to do with the Chamber of Secrets," said Percy, looking over his shoulder as he lowered his voice an octave.
"How do you know?" I asked as I raised my eyebrows.
"Well, er, if you must know, Ginny, er, walked in on me the other day when I was... well, never mind. The point is, she spotted me doing something and I, um, I asked her not to mention it to anybody. I must say, I did think she'd keep her word. It's nothing, really, I'd just rather-"
"What were you doing, Percy?" I asked, grinning. "Go on, tell us, we won't laugh."
Percy didn't smile back.
"Pass me those rolls, Harry, I'm starving." he said, changing the subject.