Chapter 10 - Spiders & Spats
"This coming from the guy who chases Veelas in his spare-time?" - Harry Potter -
A/N: This chapter is dedicated to RiddleStar who was my 200th reviewer. ^___~
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"I'm tired," Ron complained for the third time in the last half-hour.
Harry shot him an annoyed look over his shoulder before concentrating back on the path ahead of them. The tunnel had gotten a lot narrower now, making Ron and he have to walk in single file. Harry was beginning to feel a slight case of claustrophobia creeping over him. He raised his wand a little higher; wishing the light glowing at the tip was brighter. He was starting to feel anxious that they were never going to get out of there.
Suddenly there was a high-pitched scream behind him that nearly made him drop his wand.
"What? What is it?" he asked quickly, turning around and shining his light at Ron.
Ron looked whiter then a sheet and was pointing a shaky finger at something near him on the wall, stuttering.
"S-S-Sp...Sp....Spi...."
"Yeeees?"
"Spi-...Spi- Spider!" Ron squeaked out at last.
Oh for the love of..... Harry resisted the urge to slap his face in frustration and followed the direction of Ron's pointing finger. He located the offending creature which was at the moment preoccupied with spinning a web in between a rusty piece of chain hanging from the wall and the low ceiling above them.
Ron had a look of utter horror etched on his face. Harry thought he might actually faint soon.
"Ok, I see it. I see it," he soothed. "Keep your hair on, Ron. It's just a tiny little spider after all."
Even though he tried, the annoyance couldn't all escape his voice. Maybe it was the fact Harry had nearly died in a bathroom explosion caused by a lustful ghost that was being controlled by an illegal love potion but he was starting to feel a little irritable, and Ron's arachnophobia certainly wasn't helping it any. "Here, give me your shoe," he said, motioning to Ron.
Ron's teeth were chattering and his eyes had become unfocused. He didn't move or respond to him.
Harry frowned and carefully passed his hand in front of Ron's face, trying for any reaction. He got nothing.
"Great," he muttered to himself, putting his hand back down.
Pulling it off, he took his own shoe in hand, wincing at the cold stone floor on his feet, and aimed for the spider on the wall.
A slight pang of guilt struck him for killing something even as small as a spider, but he shook it off reminding himself that he had more important things to think about.
Harry aimed and with a great 'THWAP!' his shoe flew down and hit the spider. He twisted it around some to make sure it was dead before he raised the shoe back up again.
"There, you happy?" Harry asked to Ron.
But Ron was still looking terrified.
"What now?" he demanded irately, until he noticed a black dot moving on the wall still in the corner of his eye. He turned back around and spotted it again.
What in the...
Harry's eyes widened. He had missed it somehow.
Harry watched as the same spider scurried down the wall near Ron's and his feet. Frowning, he took aim again and struck at the spider for the second time only to miss once more as the spider changed directions at the last minute, heading up the wall again.
"Hold still!" he ordered the spider while trying to hit him again, but the spider paid no heed to the request and continued to evade Harry's attempts to squash him.
Meanwhile Ron was growing steadily more fearful. Seeing the spider in one place was enough for him, but now it was crawling all over the wall.
Harry started cursing and hitting at the spider like a madman, but every time he was too slow.
The spider swerved to it's right and then, in an attempt to get away; the spider crawled up and onto the shoe. Harry jerked back his hand with a snap of his wrist. The great movement caused it to fall off, and it went sailing thought the air...
Right onto Ron.
"Uh-oh."
"EEEEEEK!" was the all to distinct shriek from Ron, who snapped out of his state of immobility in an instant. He started dancing around the room in absolute horror, screaming and crying at the same time.
Harry found himself using the same string of profanities that Snape had uttered when Neville Longbottom had melted the bottom of his fifth cauldron last week in potions. That's not good, he thought to himself while attempting to avoid Ron's flaying fists, I'm borrowing words from Snape now.
"EEEAAAHHH!!! KILL IT! KILL IT! KILL IT!" Ron started shouting while going into mad hysterics, and with a single leap, he threw himself into Harry's arms.
Meanwhile, the spider fell off Ron in the confusion and landed onto its back on the floor. It's eight legs twitched around in a bewildered, tangled manner.
"Erm, Ron?" Harry tried to pry Ron's tight hands away from him, feeling very awkward. "Ron? C-Could you stop that? You're making me uncomfortable.... AH! Hey, now! Stop tha- OAF!" Harry was cut short by Ron's elbow knocking his glasses above his face and hitting him in the eye as the tall red-head scrambled up him, hanging on him like he was some sort of weirdly made perch.
Ron looked down on the floor at the spider and its fast moving legs swinging at the air around it. The sight of it raised a flood of panic in him even more and he climb higher in the not-so-awaiting arms of Harry's.
The effect of it all ended up making both of them look very, very, very ridiculous. But, on the plus, it did also induce quite a few Slash-lovers to 'ooww' and 'aww' at the "adorabliness" of the two's predicament in the process, though neither one felt that this was in anyway and 'adorable' experience (mainly since Ron was too petrified to care or notice, and Harry was too occupied getting Ron's elbow out of his eye and readjusting his glasses).
"Alright," Harry said loudly as he craned his neck to loosen it from Ron. "That's it, Ron. We're getting out of here."
Wobbling, Harry started taking quick steps down the tunnel away from the spider, attempting to go in a fast jog. It was slow work since Ron wasn't exactly the lightest person on the planet and kept on twitching and moving around while bawling in Harry's neck. Shinning his wand with his hand while still attempting to hold Ron, Harry tried his hardest to watch where he was stepping.
During his run, the dark around them began to lighten some. Instead of pitch black, it was starting to get a dark gray. Hope rose in Harry right as he legs was about to give underneath him.
"I think we're about to the end, Ron," he stated excitedly to the now still best friend in his arms.
"Mmm," came the sleepy answer of Ron's.
"Are you falling asleep?" Harry asked with a start, looking down at Ron as he started nestling in his shoulder.
"...Maybe," Ron muttered drowsily. "Your shoulder's awful comfy, Harry, did you know that? I'm starting to get why Ginny likes you so-- YAH!"
Harry dropping him cut Ron short. He vainly tried to catch himself before hitting the ground but failed and landed in a heap ungracefully on the floor. He rubbed his bottom in a pained manner and glared up at Harry. "Hey! What'd you do that for?" he demanded in irritation.
"I am in no mood to be teased right now, Ron," said Harry, looking murderous. "And since you're apparently back to normal, you can walk now."
Ron raised his hand in an innocent expression. "Hey, chill out. It was just a little joke - to lighten the mood, you know?"
"Lighten the mood? I just spend the last ten minutes carrying your sorry ass through this stinking tunnel because of your idiotic arachnophobia! If you wanted to 'lighten' the mood, you should have not jumped on top of me, or at least lost a few pounds before doing it."
Ron looked offended. "Are you calling me fat?" he demanded.
"Well, you're bloody well not skinny!"
Ron went red. "And what did you expect? With arms like that, you could barely pick up Hermione!"
"I'd rather pick up Hermione over you, and my arms are fine. I work-out more then you, I'll have you know."
"Still doesn't change the fact that they're girly."
Harry clinched his fists together. "You'd better shove it, Ron, before one of these 'girly' arms swing over and knock the stuffing out of you."
"Oh, threats now? Gosh, you're becoming more and more like Malfoy, you know that, Harry? Do you think the potion will affect him too because it's very apparent he has a thing for you - girly arms and all. Maybe you and him will become an item after this. What do you think: Harry James Malfoy. It has a definite ring to it."
"I'm not gay!" Harry said defensively.
"Humph. So you say."
"Hey, who was it that jumped into my arms? It wasn't Malfoy that's for sure. If anyone's gay, it would be you."
"What are you talking about?" Ron demanded. "I have Hermione, remember? And I only did that because I was scared. I couldn't help it."
"Well, I have Cho. Or did you forget? You know, the girl I've had a crush on since my third year?"
"Of course I remember! How could I not? She's the girl you've wasted days upon days mooning over even though she has shown absolutely no interest in you ever!"
"Who says she's shown no interest in me?"
Ron gave an exasperated sound. "Harry, please, she's turned you down three times now."
"Two times!" Harry corrected with a blush. "The third one doesn't count."
"Two, three, what does it matter? She doesn't like you!"
"Tell me, when is this any of your business?"
"It's not! I'm just getting sick of seeing you hurt my little sister all the time with all your pathetic chasing after a girl who doesn't even deserve your attention."
"Why are you bringing Ginny into this all of the sudden?" Harry demanded going red. "I never asked her to have a crush on me."
"Yeah, I know that," Ron said in aggravation. "I was just trying to make the point that there's tons of girls out there that like you who are far better then Cho Chang."
Harry arched his eyebrows. "This coming from the guy who chases Veelas in his spare-time?"
Ron scowled. "That was really low, Harry."
"Yeah, well, so was you comparing me to Malfoy," Harry shot back.
Ron crossed his arms and glared at Harry.
Harry crossed his arms and glared at Ron.
Twelve minutes later....
Harry sighed and put his arms down. "So are we going to go or what?"
Ron shrugged. "Sure."
"Oh, and Ron?"
"What?"
"Would you mind not repeating what happened in here?"
Ron laughed. "Don't need to ask me twice."
The argument resolved, they both started heading down the tunnel again with Harry leading the way, holding his wand-light, but after about five more minutes the tunnel was becoming so bright he didn't even need it anymore.
"Nox," he whispered and his wand extinguished.
Ron went up along side of Harry and pointed excitedly at a beam of light way in front of them.
"Won't be far now. I can see the exit. Hope it leads us somewhere safe."
Harry shuddered. "Or it could lead us somewhere nasty like Snape's living-quarters or something."
Ron copied Harry's shudder. "Please, don't say things like that. Let's try to stay optimistic here."
"That's kinda hard to do right now with four women and a cat chasing after me," Harry stated glumly.
They quickened their pace until they reached the light-source.
Streams of light shot dimly though thin cracks along a large sort of doorway. It issued from all four sides, sending flickering patterns on Ron and Harry's faces. They approached the apparent dead-end cautiously, both hearts sinking. There looked to be no door-handle or any sign or hint of how to get in, and in Hogwarts, some doorways can take forever to figure out how to open.
"What do you suppose it is?" Harry asked Ron, who was sliding his hand in a puzzled manner over the wall.
"It feels like it's made of some sort of canvas and - ouch! There's something metal on it." He ran his fingers over a small metal strip on the doorway and pulled it up. Two more light beams - stronger then the rest - shot through from holes exactly the shape and size for a pair of eyes to look through.
Ron gave Harry a questioning look. "Should I?"
Harry shrugged and motioned for him to go ahead.
Ron stooped over and looked through the eyeholes.