Struggle 03

The Forbidden Forest wasn't really living up to its name. I didn't see why it was forbidden at all. A bit dangerous? Sure. Mildly foreboding? Definitely. Filled to the brim with all sorts of critters? Absolutely.

But straight up deadly enough to be 'Forbidden'? Nah, that I didn't understand.

"This is positively atrocious," Daphne grumbled, from just beside me. "I despise the woods. I used to think I liked the woods! How did I ever think that?!"

"We are barely a quarter of the way there," Hermione said, a short way ahead. "It gets progressively more gloomy as we proceed. I think."

"You think?"

Hermione looked over her shoulder for just long enough to glare at Daphne. "I was busy being petrified while my friends were chased halfway through the forest by these giant man-eating spiders. Excuse me if my knowledge of the environment is not entirely complete. You two were ones who requested we don't involve Harry or Ron at this time."

"Until either of them figure out my retainer's skill, I'd prefer we keep the knowledge pool as small as possible. What your enemies aren't aware of can only help you surprise them."

"I am not comfortable keeping this sort of secret from them. I'm supposed to tell them things like this. I've gotten in trouble when I've neglected to bring these sorts of things to light before."

"You've had another friend that has had secret insect manipulation powers before that you've been asked to keep secret before?" Daphne asked, arching her eyebrows and visibly holding back a laugh. She was probably lucky that Hermione wasn't looking at her since the brunette would likely have hexed her for her expression alone from what I was coming to understand about wizarding culture.

I was far nicer than that. I wasn't even going to let on that I knew about it and she would probably never even realize it since I was still holding the bushes out of the way for her as she walked just ahead of me.

"Well, okay, yes, not exactly like this. But it was close enough! I was given a Time Turner in our third year to make it to classes and both Ron and Harry were quite perturbed with me when they found out that I had lied to them for the majority of -"

"Hold on, you got a what?! To attend class?!"

"Yes, I did. And I promised my friends I would not lie or conceal such things again. So I would really appreciate your permission to tell them about this. They are going to find out anyway. Harry always finds out about the latest mystery in the term. I'm half-convinced to make his luck my final project in Arithmancy during seventh year. There has to be a deeper meaning to it."

"Hey, do either of you know why this place is called the 'Forbidden' Forest? Why not the 'Dark' Forest or the 'Unwelcoming' Forest, or even the 'Threatening' Forest? There doesn't seem to be anything really horrible in here. Nothing worse than normal at least."

Both of the other girls turned to look at me and I just smiled. "What?"

"Seriously, Taylor? Seriously?" Daphne deadpanned.

"You should stop fighting. We're in the middle of a spooky forest, have neither of you ever seen a horror movie? Fighting leads to splitting the party, and that leads to someone dying horribly. And it's actually a legitimate question."

Hermione groaned. "Taylor, if half of your skills are remotely as good as you claim, we would never get far enough away fast enough that you couldn't call something together to distract our attackers long enough for us to regroup."

"What's a horror movie?" Daphne asked, frowning.

"What's a horror movie?" I repeated, my eyes wide. "Oh my god. We're totally having a movie night. So, tangent aside, I'm repeating my question, why is this place called 'Forbidden'? Any ideas?"

"You said there was a way into the forest from the Chamber of Secrets right?" Hermione commented. "Perhaps this used to be the basilisk's hunting grounds so the Founder's wouldn't have wanted students accidentally wandering into the area."

Daphne nodded. "I was thinking that as well. It does imply the Chamber wasn't quite as secret as it's named however."

"Four friends build a school as intricate as Hogwarts and you truly believe they didn't know all of each other's secrets about their project?"

"I didn't say that," Daphne snorted, rolling her eyes. "I'm actually more curious as to why the rumor about it being a secret chamber started to begin with. Do you think there's a grain of truth? Perhaps the basilisk was a defensive tool of last resort? I don't really know the old history. Was Hogwarts ever under attack?"

Hermione chuckled, her grin close enough to Lisa's vulpine smirk that if her hair had been blonde I would've said they were related. "According to Hogwarts: A History, the school was attacked by Muggle and Wizard raiding parties no less than seven times between its founding in 990 A.D. and the adoption of the Statute of Secrecy in 1692. Two of those incidents occurred while Salazar Slytherin was still part of the governing board for the school and they affected him greatly. I would be very surprised if he didn't tell his friends about the basilisk and how they now had a defense - should they be attacked for a third time!"

"You're really into history," I said.

"Well, it's more of reading in general, but yes."

"I may not know much about the history of the castle," Daphne stated, the corner of her eye twitching, "but I can tell you all about the shifts in power from one class of wizard or magical society to another whether on Britain or the Continent. Over the past four hundred years."

"That's very impressive, Daphne," I hummed.

"I also know how those changes affected artifact trading, both magical and non-magical."

"Did you have to learn that because of your family's business dealings?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. "But some of it is actually quite interesting. For example, did you know that the Indian Ministry outlawed brooms for nearly 200 years after Sultan Arun Shrivastava fell off one right into his lion's den? His overreaction changed the face of trade for his entire nation to this very day! Even their culture has been impacted; they still prefer flying carpets and look at broomsticks with suspicion."

I stopped and turned to stare at her, my eyes wide. "Hold on. You're telling me that your society not only has witches on brooms, but you also have literal flying carpets?"

Daphne blinked. "Yes?"

"Jesus, you're actually trying to fit every stereotype non-magicals have, aren't you? I am never eating an apple in the wizarding world. All of them are probably poisonous at the rate we're hitting tropes."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Hermione gasped, her eyes widening. "My goodness, I never realized before, we really do fulfill a good portion of fantasy cliches! Oh I need to research these patterns now. Perhaps it's intentional? Were the writers magical or perhaps Squibs? Could it really be a coincidence? Or is it some sort of larger convergence…" Her murmurings were amusing enough that they almost distracted me, but I would not be deterred. I had a badly neglected friend here in dire need of assistance.

"Definitely a movie night," I muttered. "Horror, Disney, comedy, action, you badly need a pop culture education. Come on, girls, lets keep -"

I stopped mid-sentence, my mouth falling partially open as my scouting critters chanced upon something in a clearing just ahead.

"Taylor?" Hermione was staring at me, her eyes wide. "Are we in danger?"

"We're taking a detour. This way!" I strode forward, brushing past her, moving fast enough I was nearly jogging. The others quickly fell in behind me.

"What's going on? What did you see?" Daphne asked, her head on a swivel as she tried to take in the forest all around us.

"Nothing dangerous. We're just going this way. Short detour. This is going to be awesome!"

Daphne stopped eyeing the trees and started eyeing my back. "Now, I'm even more concerned. Your definition of awesome is frightening."

"Trust me!"

"A bit of context would help," Hermione said.

"I just," I sighed. "I just want to see the unicorns. Okay? Can we stop for like five minutes to pet the unicorns? Every kid dreams of petting a unicorn when they're a toddler, don't they? But then they grow up and realize unicorns aren't real. Except I just found a damn unicorn and it's real. And I want to pet it."

Daphne took my hand, squeezing it and meeting my searching gaze with a warm smile. "I'm sorry. Let's go pet a unicorn, Tay."

"Wow…"

I hadn't been a secret hero very long. I had been a real villain for even shorter. I had been a hero for all of one night. My cape career was woefully short and - as far everyone back home was probably concerned - had ended tragically.

I had still seen a lot of amazing things. Dogs the size of cars. A twelve-year-old skipping between buildings with a smile on her face and a flare in her skirt. A grown man literally pinballing between skyscrapers.

There were horrible things too. People turned into literal glass immediately sprang to mind. People melted into a puddle of organic goo. People burned to death. People skewered by metal blades. Horrible though they were, they were all still impressive, if only for the intimidation and horror factors.

None of them compared to seeing a real, fucking, unicorn. To running my fingers through its fur.

"I realize they're beautiful but…" Hermione said. She had a small frown on her face behind me. Daphne shushed her, I just smiled.

"Back home, there are always stories about unicorns, but everyone knows they're just fairy tales, the old types, before Glaistig Uaine corrupted everything. What I mean is that it's something for kids, something you grow out of. If you're really lucky, you believe in unicorns until you learn about Endbringers. Then you stop believing in happy endings. The best you believe in after that is that maybe, just maybe, you can make things a little less dark before the lights go out. Biotinkers could make a unicorn. A few could, at least I assume they could. But it wouldn't be real. It would just be another fake, another…disappointment."

"They're a symbol to you," Daphne stated.

"Maybe the world here isn't so dark. Maybe you guys can actually get that happy ending. You don't have Endbringers, your world isn't filled with compromise and disappointment." I turned back to the beautiful creature in front of me. "You have real unicorns."

It leaned down and nudged my hand with its head. My face felt like it would split from how wide I was grinning as I ran my fingers along its neck. The unicorn neighed, brushed against me one last time and pulled away, trotting off to catch up with the rest of its herd as they moved away from the clearing.

I stepped back towards the girls, the smile not leaving my face and watched the creatures go. My hand lifting in an almost involuntary wave. The unicorn tossed its head in reply and galloped off.

"Worth it, I assume?"

I glanced at them both. "Even if we don't find the giant man-eating spiders, this trip was definitely worth it."

The rest of the trip towards the acromantulas went quickly. We were close enough now that the webs in the forest around us were readily apparent to my scouts. I was losing insects fast to the webs, enough that I actually started to pull more of my swarm back towards us.

Hermione stopped and turned towards us, her grip on her wand tight enough that her knuckles were white.

"Okay, it should be just a little further. In case Taylor isn't able to control them, Daphne, you know the flame whip spell, yes?"

"I do."

"Good. Now, Taylor, some of the larger, older, spiders here are likely to be at least somewhat intelligent. Acromantulas are -"

"As smart as a human," I finished. "I know. I read the bestiary too, Hermione. From what Scamander wrote, they have to be fairly old before they can overcome their instincts, so they're incredibly dangerous to anything nearby. Judging by the extent of the webbing I've seen already, I'm amazed you haven't already had students die from these things."

Daphne shuddered, moving closer to me. "It is the Forbidden Forest. Most of us don't go for pleasant strolls in the woods. Are you really okay controlling something that thinks?"

"More okay than I probably should be," I murmured too softly for them to hear. Shaking my head, I said, louder, "If they're left alone, they will expand and start eating people. The basilisk might have kept them away before; it was their natural predator, per the book, but it's been dead for a few years. They're going to grow and they're going to get to the castle. Probably soon. We need to handle this."

"That's not an answer," she said, taking my hand again.

I squeezed her fingers, flashing her a small smile and using my other hand to tighten my tie. "I've done worse things for less benevolent reasons. If some of them are willing to relocate to the other side of the mountain, I'll let them, but I can pretty much guarantee you, not all of them will want to do that. We're going to be walking away with at least some spiders that I have to either put down or keep on a tight leash. Let's get this over with."

They nodded and fell back, letting me lead the way. My ring was hot on my finger as I strode forward.

The first acromantulas fell into my range, and I nearly gasped as I saw through their eyes. They were staring down at us from high in the trees, their chelicerae moving in anticipation, beads of venom dripping from their fangs.

Just like that, my remaining sympathy for the giant, thinking spiders vanished.

I was somewhat surprised to find that I couldn't get much of a sense of their thoughts as I directed them to follow us through the trees towards the main nest. There was a vague impression of something like 'feelings' or 'preference'…but even that was less developed than what I felt with Trevor the Toad.

Maybe it was because Trevor wasn't in my usual control set so whatever happened with him was fully magic and here it was just a bit of a boost? Hmm, well, I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. If I didn't need to be worried about constantly hearing the thoughts of these things that wanted to eat me and my friends, all the better.

"So, good news, girls, I can control acromantulas."

Daphne swallowed hard, her grip on my hand felt close to breaking my fingers. "That's good to hear."

"What's the bad news?" Hermione asked.

"They were going to eat us if I hadn't been able to control them," I stated.

"Oh. Is that all?" Hermione said, her voice nearly as faint as Daphne's.

I ensnared 40 more acromantulas in the span of 4 steps. Wetting my lips, I tried to shrug as nonchalantly as possible. I didn't quite succeed as Daphne shuddered and Hermione's hand clenched even tighter around her wand.

Some of these spiders were big. As big as Bitch's dogs, big.

I had three of the larger ones come down out of their webs to fall in step beside us. "An escort is probably a good idea. Just in case."

"Are you worried?" Hermione asked, her voice cracking.

"She's fine. We're all fine here. Right, Taylor? We're fine," Daphne said.

"Perfectly fine. The big guy is up ahead. We're in the middle of the nest now."

"Oh. Well that's just brilliant," she murmured.

We walked into another clearing, the sky overhead completely blotted out by the plethora of webs, my escort of car sized spiders flanking us, the rest of the spiders under my control high up in their webs. Directly ahead was the largest of the bunch. He was massive, as large as a bus, and he was ancient too. I could feel his body breaking down around him as he slowly padded out of the enclosed area he had built around himself at the edge of the clearing. This acromantula wouldn't be lasting much longer, maybe a few months, a year at the most.

Stopping just in front of us, the spider bent down, its eyes even with our heads.

"Taylor, tell me you're in control here," Daphne whispered.

"With all of the others? Sure."

"Taylor!"

"This is the leader, he's the intelligent one, he's also the only one not immediately jumping to try and eat us. If he wants to talk, he can talk," I said. I nodded at the Fuck-Off giant Spider. I could've taken control of him too, but he hadn't shown any aggression so far and he hadn't been rushing to consume us like every other member of his brood. I could draw the line in the sand. I wasn't a monster. I wouldn't let myself stoop to the trio's level.

"Good evening," I said. "I'm Taylor Hebert."

"You are a Queen, yet you walk on two legs, not eight," the spider said, its voice rumbling, gravelly, deep enough to vibrate my bones. I could barely feel my fingers with how tightly Daphne squeezed my hand.

"Uh, thank you, I think."

The spider lowered itself further, staring directly into my eyes with all eight of its own. "I am Aragog. Named by Hagrid the Giant, friend of the acromantula. Why have you come to my nest, Queen Taylor Hebert?"

"The basilisk," Aragog hissed at my words, the bristles on his legs raising as he just barely resisted stepping back, "was killed just over two years ago. You've been expanding your territory since then, haven't you?"

"My children need room to grow. The death of our nemesis was a great boon. We could not overlook such a gift."

"You realize you're growing towards Hogwarts?"

"The best prey lies in that direction," it stated.

Hermione whimpered and Daphne shifted behind me. I narrowed my eyes. "You mean the students in the castle."

"The expansion will not reach the castle before I expire. I will have kept my promise to my friend. No humans within those walls will be harmed while I preside over my children."

"And what about outside of those walls?!" Hermione yelled. "You let your children try to eat my friends when they came to you for help after being sent by Hagrid!"

"They walked willingly into our den. I could not deny my children such a meal when they were starving."

I shook my head. "That's not even getting into the letter vs. spirit of your promise. You don't have a successor that cares about humans at all do you? They're going to run wild as soon as you're dead and they're going to swarm over Hogwarts."

"I will have kept my promise until my dying day. That is more than most of my kind. We cannot overcome our nature forever, Queen Taylor Hebert. You more than any other should be aware of that."

I frowned. "Just what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You direct my children with but a thought. All of our Queens died in ages long past, but all commanded the direction of the brood through their might. They were all slaughtered by the Kings, for they could not stop what they were and the Kings were not the same as our children. Our children yearn for direction, while we longed to direct."

"You killed the ones that made you civilized," I said, the spiders under my control swiping at their fangs with their pedipalps and raising up to their full height.

"I know not how you came to be a Queen that walks on two legs, yet the fact remains that you are. The brood is yours now, Queen Taylor Hebert. Do with it what you will. The time of the King has come to an end. I only ask that you allow me what was denied to your forebears: an honorable death. I have no wish to die alone of old age."

My frown deepened. "You know, I don't have to kill you. You could take a few of your children and go across the mountain. If you just expand the other way, they'll never come into conflict with the school, you can keep your promise, everyone lives happily."

Aragog chuckled, the sounds shaking the ground with the vibrations. "Queen Taylor Hebert, we both know that would never happen. My children are aware that Hogwarts exists and its prey are far more appealing than deer or centaurs. Wizards have magic, but wizards are also juicy in ways that centaurs are not. No, it is better this way. It is better that a Queen has arrived to direct them. They will follow you, they will die for you, and perhaps now I can even stay true to the…what did you call it? The spirit of my promise."

"This isn't how I…imagined this conversation going."

"Nor I," it said, chuckling again. "I expected to lose my head the moment I sensed a Queen approaching. Has your curiosity been sated?"

"How likely are they to continue following my orders if I let them leave my range?" I asked.

"Now that my children have heard the call of the Queen? They will follow you until their deaths. That is their nature. That is the curse of the acromantula. That is why we Kings slew them all."

"Important follow-up," I said. "Are there any other Kings nearby?"

"I was removed from my place of birth and transported a very, very far distance, in a very dark container. I smelled the poison water. Hagrid showed me a map once when I was very young. I doubt there is another King on this island, or even the continent besides. Your reign will be uncontested."

"Okay then, that's fine." I nodded. This was not fine. This was disturbing on multiple levels.

Still, it was stopping a very real threat with minimal bloodshed, so all told, I'd chalk it up as a win.

"We're going to go now," I stated. Daphne enthusiastically nodded behind me, Hermione just a second delayed in her own head bob.

"May your webs be strong and large, Queen Taylor Hebert."

"For what it's worth King Aragog, I'm proud of you for keeping your promise for your entire life." I may not necessarily believe that, but as weird as it was, it actually had managed not to eat anybody and seemingly had mostly kept its brood in check. That I was about to kill it by its own request…well I could afford a few pleasant, sympathetic words before it died.

The spider bowed as much as it was able and stepped backwards two paces. I turned around, leading Daphne and Hermione out of the clearing. Most of the brood followed silently in the trees above us.

I left the three in our main escort behind.

They had a reign to end.