Summer was creeping over the grounds around the castle; sky and lake alike turned 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 Lyla; no better, in fact, than the inside of the castle, where things were so horribly wrong.

Hermione's friends tried to visit her as much as possible, but visitors were now barred from the hospital wing.

"We're taking no more chances," Madam Pomfrey told them severely through a crack in the infirmary door. "No, I'm sorry, there's every chance the attacker might come back to finish these people off..."

With Dumbledore gone, fear had spread as never before, so that the sun warming the castle walls outside seemed to stop at the mullioned windows. There was barely a face to be seen in the school that didn't look worried and tense, and any laughter that rang through the corridors sounded shrill and unnatural and was quickly stifled.

Arabella and Ron had shared what they'd witnessed that night in Hagrid's hut, and the group of friends had long conversations debating what it could mean for Hogwarts' future.

"I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me…" said Lyla now, reciting Dumbledore's final words. "Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it."

"Who exactly are we supposed to ask for help?" asked Daphne with a frown.

Everyone only shrugged. The Game Keepers's hint about the spiders was far easier to understand in all the mess that had occurred. The trouble was, there didn't seem to be a single spider left in the castle to follow.

Most of their fellow students seemed glad that they were being shepherded from class to class by teachers, but Lyla found it very irksome. One person, however, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere of terror and suspicion. Pansy Parkinson was strutting around the school as though she had just been appointed Head Girl.

Lyla didn't realize what she was so pleased about until the Potions lesson about two weeks after Dumbledore and Hagrid had left, when, sitting right behind her, she overheard her gloating to Millicent and Tracy.

"I always thought Father might be the one who got rid of Dumbledore," she said, not troubling to keep her 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, making no comments.

"Sir," said Pansy loudly. "Sir, why don't you apply for the headmaster's job?"

"Now, now, Miss Parkinson," said Snape, his lips curled back in a distaste. "Professor Dumbledore has only been suspended by the governors. I daresay he'll be back with us soon enough."

"Yeah, right," said Pansy with a knowing smirk. "I expect you'd have Father's vote, sir, if you wanted to apply for the job— Even Mr. Malfoy's as well– you are Draco's godfather after all, isn't that right, sir?"

Daphne's mouth fell open in surprise, while Theo slapped Draco on the shoulders.

"Why haven't you told us this little fact!" whispered Blasie with raised curiosity.

"It isn't something worth bragging about," the boy responded, flushing pink. "I wish she'd just–"

"I'm quite surprised the Mudbloods haven't all packed their bags by now," Pansy went on, "bet you five Galleons the next one dies. Pity it wasn't Granger—"

The bell rang at that moment, which was lucky; at Pansy's last words, Daphne had leaped off her stool, and in the scramble to collect bags and books. Her attempts to reach Pansy went unnoticed.

"Let me at her," she snarled as Lyla and Blaise hung onto her arms. "I don't care, I don't need my wand, I'm going to kill her with my bare hands if I can just—"

"Hurry up now!" barked Snape, "I've got to take you all to Herbology."

And off they marched, with Daphne, Blaise, and Lyla bringing up the rear. Daphne was still trying to get loose. It was only safe to let go of her when Snape had seen them out of the castle and they were making their way across the vegetable patch toward the greenhouses.

The Herbology class was very subdued. Anthony's absences seemed louder than ever.

Sprout set them all to work pruning the Abyssinian Shrivelfigs. Lyla went to tip an armful of withered stalks onto the compost heap and found himself face-to-face with Sue the Ravenclaw.

"I just want to say that I'm sorry I ever suspected you or your sister," she said, voice trembling slightly. " I know you'd never attack Hermione Granger, and I-I apologize for all the stuff I've said. We're all in the same boat now, and, well—"

She gingerly held out a hand, to which Lyla shook it firmly.

Sue and her friend Padma Patil (Parvarti's twin) came to work at the same Shrivelfig as Lyla and Daphne.

"That Pansy Parkinson character," said Padma, breaking off dead twigs, "she seems very pleased about all this, doesn't she?

"You know, I think she might be Slytherin's heir," said Sue.

"That's very clever of you," said Draco from their left, who didn't seem to have forgiven Sue as readily as Lyla.

"Do you think it's her, Lyla?" Sue asked.

"I can't really say," replied Lyla with a delicate shrug.

"She does seem the type," said Daphne after a moment's pause, "but then again, if she were, she also seems the type to boast loudly about it, which she hasn't, so…"

A second later, Lyla spotted something very odd. Several large spiders were 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. She tugged on Daphne's sleeve and pointed.

"Oh, yeah," said Daphne, trying, and failing, to look pleased. "But we can't follow them now… we'd only be—"

Lyla's eyes narrowed as she focused on the spiders. If they pursued their fixed course, there could be no doubt about where they would end up.

"Looks like they're heading for the Forbidden Forest..."

Arabella groaned as she and Ron took their usual places at the back of Lockhart's classroom. Seconds later, Lockhart bounded into the room and the class goggled at him in awe. Every other teacher in the place was looking grimmer than usual, but Lockhart appeared nothing short of buoyant.

"Come now," he cried, beaming around him. "Why all these long faces?"

People swapped exasperated looks, but nobody answered.

"Don't you realize," said Lockhart, speaking slowly, as though they were all a bit dim, "the danger has passed! The culprit has been taken away —"

"Says who?" asked Dean 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," said Lockhart, in the tone of someone explaining that one and one made two.

"Oh, yes he would," said Ron, even more loudly than Dean.

"I flatter myself. I know a touch more about Hagrid's arrest than you do, Mr. Weasley," said Lockhart in a self-satisfied tone.

Ron started to say that he didn't think so, but stopped in mid-sentence when Arabella kicked him hard under the desk.

"We weren't there, remember?" she muttered.

"Right, sorry…"

But Lockhart's disgusting cheeriness, his hints that he had always thought Hagrid was no good, his confidence that the whole business was now at an end, irritated Arabella so much that she yearned to throw Gadding with Ghouls right in Lockhart's stupid, beaming face. Instead, she contented herself, crossed her hands on her desk, and instead, chose to not focus on a single word of class.

Later that evening, what remained of her small group of friends sat together on the floor of the library. They were pleased not many students wanted to utilize the area, which only left Madam Pince prowling through the bookshelves. Arabella had rolled all her assignments around her so that she now was the center of a series of essays, scrolls, and bits of parchment. She wasn't focusing very hard on her work, however.

"We'll have to use the Invisibility Cloak," said Lyla in a whisper. "And only a few of us can go, too many will lead to the likelihood of us getting caught."

"You can leave me out of this one," said Ron triumphantly. "I hate spiders."

"I second that," said Daphne, indeed looking squeamish.

"We can always take Fang with us," continued Arabella. "He's used to going into the forest with Hagrid, he might be of some help."

"Right, right," said Blaise. "But– er– aren't there— aren't there supposed to be werewolves and ghouls in the forest?"

Preferring not to answer that question, Arabella said, "There are good things in there, too. The centaurs are all right, and the unicorns…"

"Let's go tonight," said Draco, "we need to get to the bottom of this before things get worse– I volunteer to go, seeing as I've already been in the forest already…"

"I can't go," said Arabella, looking pained. "McGonagall will have my head if I don't turn this essay in on time…"

There was a murmur of agreement that rippled through the group. Theo was far behind in potions, and Blaise had already agreed to help him. Daphne and Ron despised the idea.

"Lyla and Draco," mused Arabella, narrowing her eyes. It wasn't the worst idea ever, but she did have the creeping suspicion that Draco had been growing incredibly fond of her sister since the term had started. And not in a way she approved of in the slightest.

"I don't see any issue in it," said Theo, giving two thumbs up. "Seeing as they're one of the top students in our year and horse, I think it works pretty well."

Lyla beamed at and looked at Draco with a firm nod.

"Alright," said the blonde boy at last, "tonight it is. Tonight, we follow the spiders."

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