Summer swept across the castle and into the grounds like wildfire. A different kind of wildfire spread throughout the school, but it was one of dread. With Dumbledore out of the castle, students and staff were warier and fearful that the attacker would return. And without Hagrid, the grounds felt chilled, even with the periwinkles and other summer flowers spread on the grounds.
Harry, Ron, Frodo and Sam were barred from the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey forbid students from entering the hospital wing, since she feared the attacker might return and finish off her patients. Frodo pitied the Burrows brothers, who did their best to visit their sister. Minto, the youngest of the Burrows siblings, was distraught.
"Myrtle'll be all right, won't she?" Minto asked one day. He sobbed uncontrollably until Frodo approached and sat down with him. He gave Minto some advice:
"Your sister will get better." He added, getting Minto's attention, "Hey, whenever you see the periwinkles in bloom, think of your sister. She'll be back soon." Frodo moved away from Minto as his brothers came to collect him. Minto was in his first year, while his brothers – Mosco and Moro – were in their second year at Hogwarts.
As if there wasn't trouble enough, Frodo noticed around the same time as Harry, about two weeks after Dumbledore and Hagrid left, that Draco Malfoy and Lotho were strutting about the school as if they owned the place. They were being especially canny towards Professor Snape, who – to Frodo's surprise – believed that Dumbledore would return to the castle as quick as he could. But only Frodo, Harry, Ron and Sam knew, from a sneaky experience, that Draco and Lotho weren't the heirs of Slytherin.
As they followed the students to class, Harry passed to Frodo a note. Frodo opened the note to discover a message, which he read quickly before it turned to dust – something Frodo assumed was either Sam, Merry or Pippin's hand magic: Meet me at Hagrid's hut tonight. Frodo grinned back at Harry. So they were going to find out what Hagrid meant by "follow the spiders" then.
Frodo peered down at the floor, to see medium sized spiders scuttling to the windows. They were heading into the Forbidden Forest. Frodo grunted. So, that's where they were heading, and the note… now he understood. He nodded as the note burned up in his hands. It didn't actually burn his hands, but it did turn to dust. All right, Frodo thought. He would do it. He would meet Harry, Ron and their hobbit friends to Hagrid's hut.
-.-.-
The Ravenclaw common room was very crowded lately, due to the fact that no one could go anywhere and for the latest rules put up. Frodo would have found himself bored, but Luna had spun a few tales on the creatures she had known and could find in the Quibbler. That is, until she went to sleep. However, Aria grasped his hand, but she had her own secrets she wasn't telling him. Frodo noticed her hand and looked into her eyes. It was hard for him these days not to notice her.
His hand magic sparked again. Could he not get it to calm down? Or did Aria have something to – the sparking stopped. He looked at her again, as she spoke.
"Frodo?" Aria asked, confused.
"My hand magic," Frodo said, "it's getting out of control."
"Oh," she said, looking down at their hands.
"But if there is something you'd like to tell me," he asked, softly.
"What? That authors have magical abilities." She smirked. "Frodo, if I have magic in me, I'd know it."
"Well, what if? Hobbits have magic and are also muggle born." He shrugged. "Who says the same can't be said for authors and authoresses?" He received no response, only giggles from Aria. He asked further, "Well, why not?"
"Frodo, there are things about authors and authoresses I can't tell you," she said. "It'd be too dangerous. It's one thing to have hobbits, authors and authoresses in the same timeline as Harry's story, but we can't tell him what's about to happen in Harry's life. And there are things about your past and your future that I cannot tell you. We wouldn't want to risk the timelines changing."
"They already are changing." He asked, as she stood up, "Aria, is there any way, is there any chance for me finding out anything? In other words, the possibility of you and me dating, courting and the like. Will we be allowed to do that?"
At this, Aria perked up. She admitted, for the first time, "Frodo, if we're to end up together, then there is one thing you must do. You must prove your loyalty to the authors and authoresses. If you do this and succeed…" she paused, but only briefly, "…then we may very well end up together, with the authors and authoresses' permission."
Frodo smiled. It was the first ounce of truth he managed to get from her. "But how can I do that?" he asked.
"When the time is ripe," she smiled back at him, "you'll know." She said, ending their conversation, "I'm going to bed. Goodnight Frodo." She waved to him, as she charged towards the door to the girls' dormitory.
"Goodnight, Aria," he said, his voice almost distant from him.
In spite of learning a deed he could do, Aria was still secretive. Frodo would find a way to regain his friendship with her. But for now, on this night, he had a mission to do with Harry and Ron. And that mission required making sure Hogwarts would stay open and the culprit would be caught.
Frodo waited until close to midnight before he attempted his hand magic. The cloaking spell worked almost instantly. Good. He felt more in control of it. The spelled worked almost too well, for he walked past the door with the eagle knocker with ease. The eagle knocker snored and stayed that way as Frodo wandered down the stairs.
He dodged teachers left and right, doing his best to keep the cloaking spell surrounding him as much as possible. The effect worked out well, except for the part where the teachers nearly heard his scuffling feet across the stone and wood floors. By those times, he had to move to a safe hiding spot away from prying eyes and ears. When he did finally reach the entrance hall, Frodo met up with Harry, Ron and Sam. He smiled. So Sam was using the cloaking spell as well.
It was new to him still that he was able to see Sam through his own cloaking spell. Must be a new trick that he, Frodo, just learned, or maybe his hand magic was getting stronger… then again, it was better for him to head outside. And Frodo did just that, deciding to wait until they were inside Hagrid's hut before appearing out of the cloaking spell. Sam did the same, jumping at the sight of him.
"Oh! Mr. Frodo, you're here," Sam said in shock.
"As are you," said Frodo, smiling.
"Last time, it was Aria," Ron said, astonished. "This time, we're accompanied by Samwise Gamgee. Is this going to be a habit of yours, Frodo, to invite a different friend on each adventure."
"Last time, Ron, you didn't come with us to the Forbidden Forest," Frodo pointed out, "and neither did Sam. My guess is we're making up for lost time."
"Let's get going." Harry said, dropping the Invisibility Cloak on Hagrid's table. He told Hagrid's dog, "Come on, Fang." He added to Frodo and Sam, "The Cloaking Spells won't be necessary, not out the in the Forbidden Forest."
"Right. That's good to know," Sam said, nodding silently.
"Harry, will there be any magic that we can do? Hand magic?" Frodo emphasized the words 'hand magic'.
"Well, if you won't use wands, then…" Harry pulled out his wand, "…lumos!" Harry said, as a ball of bright light appeared at the end of his wand. Ron did the same. At that, Harry turned to Frodo and Sam, "Well?"
"Right," Frodo and Sam said in unison.
With a wave of his hand, the same blue ball of light appeared in Frodo's hand. He flicked it a yard or so ahead of him, not enough to scare the spiders, but to also show smaller balls of light. These blue balls of light reflected the general path the spiders took through the woods, and only one direct path was revealed.
"Locator spell," Frodo smiled, admitting truthfully to his friends.
"Oh," Sam looked up. "That's new. I'm still adjusting to hand magic, Mr. Frodo."
"Let's go. Frodo's found the path," Harry said, leading on.
"And the spiders," Ron added.
"They're heading in this direction," Frodo told them.
"We know," Harry and Ron said at the same time.
Silence fell between the four friends. Frodo continued throwing the locator spell into the air, at every point where it stopped and the spiders scuttled about the wood. But it wasn't the locator spell or the silence that was driving them forward: it was the spiders they were listening to. They stayed that way, as the trees became thicker and the roots spread out, until a loud rustle was heard close to them.
The noise grew louder, turning into a rumble. Then silence fell again.
To Harry, Ron, Frodo and Sam's surprise, a blare of lights turned on. The lights were brighter than the locator spell. And yet, when Frodo looked, the locator spell was still present. His hand magic must indeed be getting stronger and staying on longer.
"Harry. Harry, it's our car!" Ron called out. "The forest must have turned it wild…"
"Come on. We don't want to lose the trail," Harry said.
"The locator spell. It's stopped," Frodo said, stunned, "here."
"What? Ron!" Harry asked.
But Ron was too stunned, staring upwards. Frodo looked up in Ron's direction. Ten feet above their heads were gigantic spiders. The clicking sounds they made surrounded them. Sam did his best to fight them off, until he collapsed on his back. Frodo fell, too, landing sprawled out and fighting to get the spider pinning his legs together off of him.
Frodo struggled for a time. He wouldn't give up, not even after the spider's spindly legs released him. He was moving with Harry, Ron, Sam and Fang through the forest, right into a spidery lair, a hollow cleared of trees enough to see the moonlight shimmering inside, where he was thrown on all fours on the soil. His friends and Hagrid's dog joined him, in the same situation. Fang, instead of growling, was cowering at the sight of the spiders. Frodo looked up at the enormous spider that lay before them.
Frodo listened to Harry's conversation with the spider intent, but also warily. It turned out the spider was named Aragog and he was Hagrid's pet. For a few brief moments of peace, when Harry declared they were friends of Hagrid's, Aragog admitted he was not born in the castle, that the girl who was discovered had died in a bathroom, and that spiders feared the monster that lived in the castle. In those few precious moments, they got the information they needed.
However, it did not stop the spiders from attempting to attack them. Fortunately, Ron's father's car, a blue Ford Anglia, arrived in the nick of time. Frodo and Sam leapt inside the backseat of the car with Fang. Harry and Ron moved to the front seats, driving the car through the Forbidden Forest and flying straight back to Hagrid's hut. They got out, with Fang running up the stairs to Hagrid's hut. As for the car, it sped back into the forest.
The four friends returned inside Hagrid's hut, so Harry could grab the Invisibility Cloak. Frodo honestly did not know who was angrier: Ron or Sam. But at least they got the information they needed.
"What have we found out?" Ron asked Harry and Frodo.
"That Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets," Harry said, throwing the cloak over him and Ron. "He was innocent."
"Ready Sam?" Frodo asked, readying his hands.
"I'm ready, but don't send me back to the spiders. Please Mr. Frodo," Sam said, still fuming.
"Not tonight, Sam," he answered, waving his hands. Frodo was pleased: the cloaking spell worked instantly. He looked back at Sam, seeing that he was cloaked, too, which he was from the blue aura surrounding his hobbit friend.
It was time to head back to the castle.
-.-.-
The minute the four friends split up, to head to their separate Houses, Frodo thought over what they had experienced so far this year: they learned Hagrid was innocent, Draco Malfoy and Lotho weren't the heirs of Slytherin, a girl died in a bathroom fifty years ago, Riddle and Mairon's diaries… well, there were clues in there somewhere. He thought it over… the girl who died in the bathroom… the girl who…
Oh no. Not Moaning Myrtle.
Frodo thought it over. Of course, it made sense. The more he thought about it, as he changed into his night clothes, the more it made sense. He thought about Myrtle as he slept, curious over what she knew about the Chamber of Secrets… if she knew anything at all…
Another chapter ending in an ellipsis. But then again, Frodo could have fallen asleep by that point, too. Thanks for reading. :) We're coming closer to the end of the story… I know it. :)