There were parts in the chamber that Harry had never seen. It was bigger then he had realized, and also seemed emptied of spiders.
"The noise from the battle probably scared the smaller spiders away," Hermione's spider-form explained. "That's all right, the little ones should still be susceptible to insecticides. Between Filch and Hagrid, someone ought to have spider poison."
"Or Snape could brew one up," Harry suggested. "I may not like him, but I can admit he's good with potions."
"Exactly. But we need to kill Aragog. Otherwise there will continue to be spiders in the school, and Hogwarts will continue to be unsafe."
Harry nodded. He agreed with what Hermione had said, but there was still the problem of finding Aragog. They had been looking for nearly an hour without finding any other entrances to the chamber.
"Where can he be?" Ron asked. "Aragog's not in the chamber, he wasn't in the passage leading to the chamber, and there aren't any ways out of the chamber."
"I think there is one," Hermione said. "Harry, when you were down here before, the basilisk wasn't waiting in the chamber for you. You said Tom Riddle called it from somewhere."
"Yes, he did. The basilisk came out of the statue." Harry pointed to the statue of Slytherin at the far end of the chamber. "Do you think that's where Aragog is?"
"Like Ron said, where else can he be? Can you open it?"
"I think so." Harry walked a bit closer to the statue. What was it Riddle had said? Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four. But Harry wasn't about to address Slytherin like that. Then again, how had Riddle known to say that? He probably hadn't. Maybe anything in Parseltongue would work.
Harry hissed at the statue. Its mouth began to open, just as before.
"Great, Harry!" Hermione said. "What did you say to it?"
"Well, I took a leaf out of Ron's book," Harry said. Suddenly he grinned. "'Salazar Slytherin is a stinker' has such a ring to it, I figured it had to work for something."
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Inside the statue's mouth was a dark tunnel, slanting steeply upwards. Hermione went first, since she could carry a wand with one leg and still have seven for climbing. Harry and Ron followed her, with Galahad struggling behind. The griffin was having trouble climbing the smooth rock tunnel, but he seemed determined not to be left behind.
Suddenly Hermione stopped. The floor's leveling out," she whispered. "I think we're almost there."
"Does anyone have any last minute changes to the plan?" Harry asked. "This could be our last chance."
No one answered. Finally, Ron said, "Well, I guess that's that. Good luck, everyone."
"You too. Now, let's go carefully."
They crept up the last few feet of tunnel. The room they peered into was lit slightly by holes in the roof, probably eroded by water dripping down into the cavern. Rain was falling through now. Massive cobwebs hung from the walls. In the exact center, Aragog was dozing in a heap of legs.
Harry looked around quickly, but he didn't see any other spiders. Just as well, he thought. Aragog will be trouble enough.
"Remember," he whispered, "Aragog's big enough that normal spells won't hurt him. We have to hit him a lot before he'll feel anything."
"So just keep throwing spells at him, and use the spider-specific ones as much as possible because they'll be more powerful against him," Hermione added. "Are you ready?"
Ron held up his wand. Harry mounted Galahad and nodded to her. The griffin bowed.
Hermione pointed her wand at Aragog. She needed to hit him in the face to use the vision-inhibiting spell from Gryffindor's book, but Aragog had his back toward the tunnel. "Hey you!" she shouted. The spider spun around, evidently quite surprised. "Oculus Deceptus!"
The blast from her wand hit Aragog right in the face. It rocked back a step, then charged toward the entrance where they stood. But Harry and Ron had scattered when Hermione cast the spell, and now Hermione scuttled in between Aragog's legs and to the back of the cavern.
Carefully avoiding the cobwebs, Harry and Galahad worked around to a position where they could charge Aragog. The spider was confused, and all but blinded by the spell Hermione had cast, but it could still hear them moving and had lightning reflexes.
Ron and Hermione were busily throwing any spells they could think of. Rainbows of sparks cascaded onto the floor around Aragog. Their main goal was to hit him enough that his resistance would weaken until one really good spell would finish him off.
Galahad leapt forward as Aragog turned toward Harry. Harry swung the sword, nearly cutting through one of Aragog's fangs, and ducked as the spider swiped a leg at him. Then he was out of reach again, waiting for another chance to strike.
Frustrated, Aragog turned back to face Hermione, who was casting spells as she ran back and forth along one wall. Seeing where Harry had cut the fang, she aimed her wand and shouted "Severus!" The fang detached completely. Aragog roared as it fell, and stomped on the ground as Hermione went past. Suddenly, Hermione found herself backed into a corner with a furious spider advancing on her.
"Hermione!" Harry panicked and drove Galahad forward. Aragog's back leg kicked out, and Harry went flying off Galahad's back. The griffin tumbled into another leg and was thrown in a different direction.
Harry landed in one of the webs. He struggled to free himself, but only became more entangled.
Where's the sword? he thought frantically. I'll cut myself out! But it was lying on the floor behind Aragog. He'd never be able to reach it.
"Ron!" Harry shouted. "Help me!" Ron turned and saw Harry stuck in the web. So did Aragog. It left Hermione and began to stalk toward Harry, helplessly caught and immobilized.
Ron dashed over to Galahad and swung himself up. He rode straight across the room, directly under Aragog. Galahad bent down and snapped up the sword in his beak as they passed it.
"Distract it, Hermione!" Ron yelled. He jumped down off Galahad and pointed his wand at the web. "Scalpare Aranea!" The strands holding Harry's arm fell apart. Harry grabbed the sword from Galahad and began hacking at the web wherever he could reach. Ron continued helping with the spell.
"Ron, Harry, look out!" Hermione called. Aragog was ignoring her spells and was nearly on top of Ron and Harry. Ron stopped cutting the web and turned around to try and drive off the spider.
"Hit it in the eyes, Ron!" Hermione told him. Harry finished cutting himself free and pulled out his wand.
Hermione joined them, and the three of them stood before the giant spider.
"I think we've hit it enough," she said. "One more good spell should do. Together, on the count of three. One…two…three!"
"Arania Exumai!" she shouted, and Harry and Ron shouted with her. The triple blast hit Aragog in the middle eye, and the spider slowly toppled over. It hit the ground with a thud that shook the room, and then twitched for a moment before lying still.
They still had a lot of explaining to do, to Dumbledore and the other teachers, Harry realized. But as far as he was concerned, the adventure was finally at an end.
I'm sorry this took so long, I just…well, I don't have a good excuse. I'm a horrible procrastinator, so go ahead and get mad at me for never updating.
As for the spells: buttered-onions named the fang-severing spell (Severus), coolone007 named the web-cutting spell (Scalpare Aranea), and coolone007 and Malfoy's concubine provided the really useful links to Latin websites. The "Arania Exumai" spell is from the Chamber of Secrets movie.
The Farting Menace's hairstyle curse (Barberius) and Malfoy's concubine's jelly donut curse (Berliner) were, alas, not used in this story. But maybe I'll try to work them into another story, because they were really good ideas.
Expect Part Three soon!