Chapter Thirty-Five: The Basilisk
It turned out that Draco Malfoy had taken an invisibility potion and met Harry and Ron at Hagrid's hut. He had told them that another student had just been taken to the hospital wing and this time it was a muggleborn girl named Casey Valentine. Before Hagrid could tell them very much of anything Dumbledore and the others had come to collect him to take him to Azkaban. However, he had managed to say that if anybody was looking for some information that it would be best for them to follow the spiders.
So, all three of the boys took Fang and headed into the dark forest together after lighting the tips of their wands. "We should have taken our dogs." Draco began to Harry. "Sure they might be smaller, but they're a lot braver than this big baby." He pointed out as Harry stifled a laugh since he was completely in agreement with him, but Ron was way too terrified of all the spiders around them to say anything at all. That's when suddenly all three of them heard a rather loud and deep mighty voice.
"Who is it?" It questioned. "Hagrid, is that you?" It wondered.
"We're friends of Hagrid." Harry replied and that's when Ron quickly dove behind him as the biggest spider of all started crawling towards them.
"Tell me when it's over!" He cried as Draco just simply shook his head and rolled his eyes.
"I stand corrected. At least Fang is braver than that wimp." He said when all of a sudden Harry remembered the spider that Hagrid had let loose those fifty years ago.
"You're Aragog aren't you? There have been some attacks back at the school. They think Hagrid opened The Chamber of Secrets like before." He told him.
"That's a lie!" Aragog cried. "Hagrid never opened The Chamber of Secrets in the first place!" He exclaimed.
"So, then you're not the monster." Harry suddenly realized.
"No. The true monster is an ancient creature that we spiders fear above all others." He told him.
"Well thanks, you pretty much told us everything that we needed to know so we'll get going now then shall we?" Ron questioned.
"Go? I think not. My sons and daughters do not harm Hagrid upon my command, but I cannot deny them fresh meat when it walks so willingly into our midst. Goodbye friends of Hagrid." Aragog told them before he slowly slinked away.
"Can we panic now!?" Ron managed to squeak out.
"No! Come on we have to get out of here! Let's go now!" Harry cried before he, Ron, and Draco started running out of the woods and that's when all of the spiders started gathering around them and all three of them withdrew their wands.
"Know any spells?" Ron wondered.
"One, but it's not powerful enough for all of them." Harry replied.
"Where's Hermione when you need her!?" Ron exclaimed and that's when suddenly in an instant directly out of nowhere the Weasley Ford Anglia came soaring into action and ramming into a bunch of spiders knocking them out.
"Our car!" Ron cried out as he started running towards it.
"We're too young to know how to drive though!" Draco exclaimed.
"As if that'll stop him!" Harry cried out as they all ran inside and then slammed the doors behind them and buckled it.
"Alright then punch it!" Draco cried out as Ron turned on the engine and quickly backed up and then drove away before flying them into the air. Once they were out of the woods and into the clearing Ron landed them on the ground again and then all three of them threw off their seatbelts and got out of the car and started walking back towards the castle with Fang tagging along behind them.
"Follow the spiders! Follow the spiders!" Ron cried out. "It had to be follow the spiders instead of follow the butterflies! If Hagrid ever gets out of Azkaban I swear that I'll kill him!" He exclaimed. "I mean, what was the point of sending us in there?"
"Well we know one thing, Hagrid never opened The Chamber of Secrets. He was innocent." Harry said.
….. …..
The next morning Harry, Ron, and Draco went to go visit Hermione in the hospital wing. Harry and Draco also brought their dogs and they were all looking as if they were about to cry. Harry sat on top of Hermione's beside while Casey laid petrified on the bed next to them. "I wish you were here Hermione, we need you now more than ever." Harry told her while gently rubbing his thumb on the back of her hand and then glanced down and noticed that a crumpled up piece of paper was underneath her palm and he took it and uncrumpled it up and his eyes widened as he silently read it to himself.
"What is it Harry? You're scaring me and obviously I don't scare easily." Draco told him.
"Oh yeah and you certainly proved that to us last year when you ran out of the forest screaming like a girl." Ron said with a roll of his eyes as Draco just simply glared at him.
"That's really thick." He began. "At least I'm not afraid of spiders." He told him.
"Guys that's enough!" Harry snapped. "Hermione had this in the library in the day she was attacked. Look." He began before he showed them that the paper was a page torn out of a book that had an image of a basilisk on it. "The monster in The Chamber of Secrets is a snake! That's why I can hear it speak!" He exclaimed before he continued reading the information off the page. "A basilisk can live for hundreds of years. Its fangs are deadly and venomous, and it can kill within a single glance of anybody looking it in the eye." He explained.
"But if it kills by people looking it in the eye, then how is it that no one's dead?" Ron wondered while Draco turned to look out the window and saw his reflection staring back at him as Harry thought this over.
"Cause nobody did look it in the eye. Not directly at least." He replied.
"That's right April and Justin must have seen it through Nearly Headless Nick." Harry realized. "Obviously Nick got the full blast of it but since he's a ghost he couldn't die again. Collin probably saw it through his camera, and I dunno about Casey but Hermione had that mirror and I'll bet you anything she was using it to see if the basilisk came around any corners." Harry told them.
"And Mrs. Norris and CJ? I'll bet you anything that they didn't have a camera or a mirror Harry." Ron told him as Harry started to think back.
"There was water on the floor that night. The cats only saw the basilisk's reflection." He told him and then looked back onto the page and pointed. "Spiders flee before it, it all fits!" He cried out.
"Well if there was a great snake slithering around these halls wouldn't somebody have seen it?" Draco wondered before Harry showed him the page.
"Hermione's answered that too." He told him and showed him that Hermione had written the word ; "pipes." That's when all of a sudden Professor McGonagall got on the loud speaker and told all of the students to go back to their dormitories and after exchanging glances with one another, Harry, Ron, and Draco ran out into the hallway to go investigate.