Chapter 14: Aragog
I don't own Digimon or Harry Potter
"Follow the spiders…why couldn't it be follow the butterflies?" Ron groaned as Daisuke patted his back sympathetically.
"I know Ron, but you heard what Hagrid said. Wherever these spiders are leading us, it has got to be to someone who can tell us about the Chamber of Secrets." She told him.
"Don't worry with me here, I'll keep ya all safe." Veemon chirped, puffing his chest out proudly, making the three humans grin and feel a little better.
"Look," Harry whispered, holding up the lantern to show the row of spiders they had been following were now leaving the path and heading into the trees. "Hagrid said never to leave the path the last time we were here."
"He also told us to follow the spiders," Daisuke said. "We've come this far; we've got to keep going," Daisuke said, drawing her wand as did Ron and Harry. They then began following the spiders off the path and through the dense trees and bushes that surrounded them.
Fang sniffed the air as he stayed close to Daisuke. Veemon walked beside the giant boarhound, ready for anything.
"Is it just me, or is this infernal forest getting thicker?" he then asked, frowning as the trees around them began choking out the stars in the sky, leaving them in total darkness, the only light coming from the lantern in Harry's hand.
"I think you're right," Daisuke whispered, narrowing her eyes as she and Harry looked for the trail of spiders, but they had lost them.
"Daisuke, um c…can't you find them?" Ron asked her.
"What do you mean?" she asked her friend.
"Last year, when you, Malfoy and Harry were tracking the unicorn, didn't you say you were able to see the tracks somehow?" Ron answered, and Daisuke blinked, she hadn't thought of that, but she didn't know how she had done it last time.
"Yes…but I don't know if I can do that again."
"No harm in trying," Harry told her with a shrug.
Daisuke sighed, and she turned around and closed her eyes for a few moments; taking a deep breath, she opened them, and her eyes shone gold for a brief second before her vision stretched further ahead, weaving through the trees until she saw a trail of spiders, shimmering gold moving along. "I see them." She whispered. "Follow me." She said, leading her friends through the darkness.
She stopped for a moment when she saw the spiders moving into a small tunnel under a large, old tree. "This way."
"I don't like this." Ron whimpered.
"Come on." Harry urged his friend as he followed Daisuke into the tunnel, and the others followed them, not noticing some larger spiders descending from the trees via threads of silk.
They emerged out the other side of the tunnel and saw a huge hollow with the trees around it having been cleared away, letting in the moonlight. The entire area was covered in webbing, and spiders of all sizes were scurrying along.
"Oh…your…God…" Veemon whispered before a thundering crash came from the giant hole under a gigantic tree.
"Who…is it…?" a raspy voice questioned.
"Don't panic," Daisuke told her friends, grabbing their hands tightly as they heard another noise.
"Hagrid…is that you?" the voice asked again.
"No, we're friends of Hagrid. I'm Daisuke Ainsworth." Daisuke said quickly before her eyes grew wide as a giant spider slowly began to climb out of the hole, and it towered over them; all the spider's large black eyes focused on the group in front of it.
"And you…y…you're Aragog, aren't you?" Harry asked the giant spider.
"Yes…Hagrid has never sent men into our Hollow before…certainly not one of the most ancient and proud Ainsworth bloodline." Aragog stated, making Daisuke and Veemon share a brief look.
"Hagrid is in trouble. Up at the school, there have been attacks." Daisuke began to explain; neither she nor Harry noticed the other giant spiders beginning to circle them up in the trees or on the sheets of webbing.
"They think that Hagrid is behind the attacks; they believe he opened the Chamber of Secrets like before," Harry added.
"That's a lie. Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets!" Aragog told them.
"Then you're not the monster?" Harry asked.
"No. The monster was born in the castle. I came to Hagrid as an egg, from a distant land. In the pocket of a traveller." Aragog explained.
Ron tugged Harry's sleeve making his friend look at him. "Shush," Harry said softly, and Ron gulped, his skin turning paler by the second.
"If you didn't kill that girl fifty years ago, then what did?" Daisuke asked Aragog.
"We do not speak of it. It is an ancient creature that we spiders fear above any other." The spider answered.
"But you must have seen it," Daisuke said.
"No. I never saw any part of the castle, except the small cupboard Hagrid hid me in. When I was accused, Hagrid brought me here." Aragog told her.
Daisuke nodded before Ron tugged her sleeve, and she looked at him and then followed his finger and looked up, seeing hundreds of spiders descending towards them.
"Oh, dip…" Veemon whispered.
"Well…thank you," Daisuke said softly. "We'll just be going now." she bowed slightly before backing up with her friends.
"Go?" Aragog asked. "I think not." he hissed. "My sons and daughters do not attack Hagrid on my command, but I will not deny them fresh meat when it wanders so willingly into our lair. Goodbye, friends of Hagrid."
"Can we panic now?" Ron asked.
"Yep!" the others shouted as a spider dropped down next to Harry, the boy spun around and swung the lantern in his hands, hitting the spider knocking it away.
"Know any good spells?" Ron asked as he, Daisuke, Veemon and Harry stood back-to-back as the spiders closed in around them.
"One, but it's not powerful enough for all of them," Daisuke answered. She pointed her wand at one spider and waved it. "Arania Exumai!" she shouted using the spell she saw Riddle use in the diary and a jet of light hit the spider, sending it flying back into a tree.
"That only seemed to make them mad!" Ron shouted. "Oh, where's Hermione when you need her!?"
"Daisuke, I think it's time for me to digivolve!" Veemon shouted.
"Good idea," Daisuke said. She pulled out her D-3 and D-Terminal, and both began glowing bright blue. "Digi-Armour Energise!"
Veemon began glowing bright blue as he began to digivolve. "Veemon armor digivolve to…Raidramon the Storm of Friendship!"
The spiders all paused for a moment, caught off guard by the transformation of the Digimon. "Come on, climb on!" Daisuke shouted, jumping onto her partner's back, and she helped Ron and Harry climb on before they all managed to pull Fang up onto the Digimon and wedged him between Ron and Harry.
"Hold on tight, this is gonna be rough!" Raidramon shouted. "Blue Thunder!" he shouted, his three spikes on his back arching with lightning which flew around him, striking several dozen spiders at once, making them all shriek as they were electrocuted.
Once the path was clear, Raidramon shot off at full speed, and the spiders that remained gave chase in furious anger, desiring to kill them all in vengeance for their fallen brethren.
"Not good, not good!" Ron shouted, looking behind him. "They're gaining!"
"I'm going as fast as I can, and this forest doesn't help for going in a straight line!" Raidramon barked back, jumping over a fallen tree. Another bunch of spiders dropped down from above in front of them, and Raidramon's main horn glowed brightly. "Thunder Blast!" he launched a blue and red blast of lightning, hitting the spiders and sending them scattering.
"Nice shot!" Daisuke cheered as her partner grinned and kept running. He came to a stop and looked around once they reached a small clearing.
"Did we lose them?" Harry asked, seeing the spiders following them had vanished.
"No…they're around here somewhere," Raidramon growled, sniffing the air, the faint sound of clicking from the spiders echoed around them.
"Come on, we'd best hurry back to the school before they cut us off," Daisuke said before she suddenly let out a scream when she was pulled upside down by her ankle off Raidramon into the air, the others looked up and saw Daisuke's ankle had a spider's webbing wrapped around it.
"Daisuke!" Harry shouted in a panic seeing the giant spider in the trees slowly pulling Daisuke up towards it.
"Someone hurry up and do something!" she screamed. Ron and Harry pulled out their wands and tried to aim for the webbing or the spider, but Daisuke kept swinging side to side, making their aiming difficult.
Fortunately for them, an arrow came flying into the clearing and struck the spider in one of its many eyes, the spider let out a screech and lost its grip on the webbing Daisuke was attached to, and she fell back down, landing hard on the ground.
"Oof…what the heck?" she muttered. She slowly looked up, and to her surprise, a familiar centaur rushed into the clearing, followed by many others. "Firenze!?" she gasped as the centaur she and Harry had met last year trotted over to her. He held a handcrafted bow in his hand and a quiver of arrows slung on his back, and he grabbed her by her arm and picked her up before he swung her onto his back.
"Lady Ainsworth, it is not safe here." He told her as the other centaurs fired a few more arrows at the encroaching spiders.
"We know, but we had to get some answers to find out what is happening at the school," Daisuke said.
"We shall discuss this later," Firenze said as he turned and ran off, followed by Raidramon and the other centaurs who continued firing arrows from their bows at any of the spiders that kept chasing them.
Soon they all reached the border of the Forbidden Forest, and Harry, Ron and Fang climbed off Raidramon's back while Firenze set Daisuke down. "Thank you, Firenze." She told the centaur softly.
The centaur nodded and smiled softly at them. "No thanks are needed, Lady Ainsworth."
"How did you know we'd be in trouble?" Ron asked.
"The stars foretold this evening would come." Spoke another centaur who Ron recognised as Bane, the centaur Hermione and He had met with Hagrid the previous year. "It was unwise for you to venture into the Acromantula nest alone, especially at this time when danger comes from all sides.
"We needed to know who is behind the attacks at the school," Harry explained.
"Ah yes…the great sorrow," Bane murmured.
"Do you know anything?" Daisuke asked, looking at Firenze, who hummed softly.
He looked to the sky, gazing at the stars. "All shall become clear very soon. The creature with a beautiful song shall aid you, and that which many think is worthless shall lend you its aid."
"Well, that's not cryptic at all," Raidramon grumbled sarcastically before he glowed and turned back into Veemon.
"Now that you are safe, Lady Ainsworth, we shall return to our lands. We will keep an eye on the Acromantula colony, they shall not leave the forest. That we swear." Firenze promised the group before he and his fellow centaurs walked back into the Forbidden Forest.
Once they were gone, the group walked back to Hagrid's hut. "Follow the spiders…follow the spiders, if Hagrid ever gets out of Azkaban, I'll kill him!" Ron shouted hysterically. "What was the point of even sending us in there? What did we find out!?" he asked as Harry grabbed his Invisibility Cloak off Hagrid's table, and they left Fang inside the hut before hurrying back up to the castle under the cloak.
"We do know one thing; Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets. Tom Riddle framed him." Daisuke said softly.
"But why?" Harry asked.
"Something we're going to find out, and we're going to save the school too," Daisuke answered, and her friends nodded.
"Right, let's do this!" Veemon cheered.
The end of the chapter
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