Chapter 21 - Aragog
Summer was creeping over the grounds around the castle.
Sky and lake alike turned a deep blue and flowers large as cabbages burst into bloom in the greenhouses.
But with Hagrid was locked up in the HQ to keep him safe,
the scene didn't look right. The brotherhood took shifts with Hagrid to keep him company.
The twins spent the time listening for the snake,
this was made harder by the fact that they weren't allowed to wander off on their own, but had to move around the castle in a pack with the other Gryffindors. Most of their fellow students seemed glad that they were being guided from class to class by teachers. But for the Gryffindor's second years,
Minerva overhead Dean say, "We got to be the safest students in the school right now."
"Of course, you are." Said Minerva.
"Yes, we are." Said Dean.
"I am here to protect you." Said Minerva.
Then the boys started to laugh.
"Now, now boys she is a good witch." Said Lewis.
"Then who better than me to protect you." Said Minerva.
Dean looked at her then said, "Thinking the two dragon ridders or the huge dragon that could eat the snake."
"You think that Lewis is more powerful then I?" Said Minerva.
"Professor the boys here have asked us Potters and Saphera about being a dragon ridder, and they learned about how magic works beating a rider, and they saw how easily I took out Lockheart not that really a big thang." Said Lewis.
The Herbology class was very subdued with so many have been attacked. Professor Sprout set them all to work pruning the Abyssinian Shrivelfigs. Lewis went to tip an armful of withered stalks onto the compost heap and found himself face to face with Ernie Macmillan. Ernie and his friend Hannah came to work at the same Shrivelfigs as Harry, Ron, Harry.
"That Draco Malfoy character," said Ernie.
"Not him." Said Lewis.
"Do you think it's Malfoy, Harry?" Ernie asked.
"No," said Lewis and Harry together. "Remember boys he our friend now."
At the end of the lesson Professor Sprout escorted the class to their Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. Lewis,
The brotherhood lagged behind the others so they could talk out of earshot.
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 people 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?" said Dean Thomas loudly.
"My dear young man, the Minister of Magic wouldn't have taken Hagrid if he hadn't been one hundred per cent sure that he was guilty," said Lockhart, in the tone of someone explaining that one and one made two.
"He was arrested?" Asked Lewis.
"I flatter myself I know a touch more about Hagrid's arrest than you do, Mr. Potter," said Lockhart in a self-satisfied tone.
"He dangerous and was taken away."
"You might want to take a look around the room,
you might want to stop talking, NOW." Said Lewis.
"Why," Asked Lockheart, now seeing a room for of
very pissed off faces, even the Slytherins where mad.
"Everyone in this room like Hagrid like a beloved uncle."
Said Lewis, "And don't know who you talked to,
but Hagrid was not taken away by the Minister,
but hidden safely."
"Mabey I should not say anything more." Said Lockheart.
"For once you have had a good idea." Said Lewis.
The Gryffindor common room was always very crowded these days, because from six o'clock onwards,
the Gryffindors had nowhere else to go. They also had plenty to talk about, with the result that the common room often didn't empty until past midnight.
Harry and Lewis where waiting for the room to clear.
Fred and George challenged Harry and Ron to a few games of Exploding Snap and Rob sat watching them,
very subdued in Hermione's usual chair.
Harry and Ron kept losing on purpose, trying to finish the games quickly, but even so, it was well past midnight when Fred and George finally went to bed.
"Rob, are you going to bed?" Asked Lewis.
"No, I know you going to do something. I am coming."
Said Rob, "I want to be part of it."
"You know this will be dangerous?" Said Lewis.
They then went into the HQ, Lewis went up to Hagrid
and Lewis Asked, "I need your help, there something in the forest that I think has answers. You know him,
maybe he will answer you, he might know but did not do it."
"Sure." Said Hagrid.
"Saphera, I need you to fly us to where Hagrid tell us to go to.
Will you?" Asked Lewis.
"Sure," Said Saphera, who was starting to reach fifty feet long,
large enough for all four boys to ride with Hagrid.
Hagrid said to go deep into the forest,
and points at a nearby cleaning to land in.
They landed and they all got off Saphera,
they walked down the hill and then Ron stopped. He didn't move. His eyes were fixed on a point some ten feet above the Forest floor, right behind them. His face was livid with terror.
Hagrid then said, "Bring me to him, we need to talk."
They followed the spiders to the top of a vast hollow,
a hollow which had been cleared of trees,
so that the stars shone brightly onto the
worst scene ever seen.
Not only tiny spiders, Spiders the size of carthorses,
eight-eyed, eight-legged, black, hairy, gigantic.
Then Hagrid walked towards a misty domed web in the very center of the hollow, while its fellows closed in all around it, clicking their pincers excitedly at the sight of its load.
The four boys now standing behind Hagrid.
Hagrid called, "Aragog! Aragog!'
And from the middle of the misty domed web,
a spider the size of an elephant emerged, very slowly.
There was grey in the black of his body and legs,
and each of the eyes on his ugly, pincered head was milky white.
"He wondrous and amazing and handsome they all are,
Hagrid I see why you wanted him protected." Said Lewis.
"What is he, the small ones?" The spider asked,
clicking his pincers rapidly.
"Is it Hagrid?" said Aragog, moving closer, his eight milky eyes wandering vaguely.
"I am here, these are my boys." Said Hagrid.
Aragog paused.
"Hagrid you never brought others to into our hollow before,"
he said slowly. "I like this one," looking at Lewis,
"He is a smaller version of you Hagrid.
He can see the good in anything, including an old ugly monster."
Lewis walked up a little, "Aragog you are not ugly,
you are amazing. Don't call yourself ugly, also you're a friend of Hagrid you can't be a monster, and thank you I love the idea of being compared to Hagrid, love him." Lewis hugged Hagrid.
"You think we are amazing," Said Aragog.
"Yes." Said Lewis. "Something lose in the school,
that was lose in the school when our Hagrid went to school.
Do you know what it is."
Aragog clicked his pincers furiously, and all around the hollow the sound was echoed by the crowd of spiders.
It sounded like applause, except it made Harry and Ron fell sick,
but Lewis looked Amazed and Excited.
"But that was years ago," said Aragog fretfully.
"Years and years ago. I remember it well.
That's why they made him leave the school.
They believed that I was the monster that dwells in what they call the Chamber of Secrets. They thought that Hagrid had opened the Chamber and set me free."
"We know it was not Hagrid, we cleared his name of that,"
Said Lewis, "He is our Hagrid, we will not let him go."
"You protected Hagrid?" Asked Aragog
"Yes." Said the boys.
"And you didn't come from the Chamber of Secrets?"
Said Lewis. "Hagrid hatched you, what in the chamber
is very old. You came to Hogwarts as an egg"
"You are right, you can see thang clearly." Said Aragog.
"Hagrid is my good friend, and a good man.
When I was discovered, and blamed for the death of a girl,
he protected me. I have lived here in the Forest ever since, where Hagrid still visits me. He even found me a wife,
Mosag, and you see how our family has grown,
all through Hagrid's goodness."
"What not to like?" Said Lewis. "He is loved by all at the School,
he is adopted by all the boys as an uncle."
Harry summoned what remained of his courage.
"So you never – never attacked anyone?" Said Harry.
"Never," croaked the old spider. "It would have been my instinct, but from respect of Hagrid, I never harmed a human. The body of the girl who was killed was discovered
in a bathroom. I never saw any part of the castle but the cupboard in which I grew up. Our kind like the
dark and the quiet."
"But then. Do you know what did kill that girl?" said Lewis. "Because whatever it is, it's back and attacking people again."
His words were drowned by a loud outbreak of clicking and the rustling of many long legs shifting angrily.
Large black shapes shifted all around him.
"The thing that lives in the castle," said Aragog,
"Is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others.
Well do I remember how I pleaded with Hagrid to let me go, when I sensed the beast moving about the school."
"We know it was old thousands of years old from the time of the building of the castle when the founders where here,
Slytherin put it in his chamber around a thousand years ago.
There are few creatures that can live that long without food."
"We do not speak of it!" said Aragog fiercely.
"We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dread creature, though he asked me, many times."
"Is it a reptile?" Asked Lewis.
"Yes." Said Aragog.
"Does it look like a long tube with flanges?" Asked Lewis.
"Yes." Said Aragog.
"It gets around by the pipes in the wall." Said Lewis.
"Yes, last time to." Said Aragog.
"Don't say it but that why we can hear it in the walls."
Said Lewis. "Us alone." Harry looked at Lewis with understanding on what it is.
"Aragog I would like the honor of seeing you again,
learning more of you." Said Lewis.
"You can come here any time." Said Aragog.
Aragog seemed to be tired of talking.
He was backing slowly into his domed web,
but his fellow spiders continued to inch slowly towards
them Harry and Ron.
"We'll just go, then,' Harry called desperately to Aragog, hearing leaves rustling behind him.
"My sons and daughters you are not to harm Hagrid boys.
Goodbye, friend of Hagrid, you are welcome any time."
"Aragog, we need to create an alliance with the Centaurs,
there may be a battle when Voldemort returns,
and this is our lands. Remember the boy who framed Hagrid?"
Asked Lewis. "Do you want revenge against him."
"Yes, I do." Said Aragog.
"Tom Riddle became Velodrome." Said Lewis.
They got back onto Saphera. They looked at Harry and Ron.
Ron's mouth was still open in the silent scream,
he was sitting in front of Lewis.
"Ron sweety you, OK?" Asked Lewis while hugging
him from behind, squeezing him.
Ron stared straight ahead, unable to speak.
They were now at the edge of the forest when Ron seemed to regain the feeling in his limbs and followed,
still stiff-necked and staring.
They then Landed in Saphera room, they all got off,
then Ron said, "I'll never forgive you Hagrid you could have said spiders, so many spiders."
"Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his," said Harry.
"That's exactly Hagrid's problem!" said Ron,
"What was the point of sending us in there?
What have we found out, I'd like to know?"
"First you're not mad at Hagrid." Said Lewis.
"No, I am not Hagrid." Said Ron.
"Second the Spiders are now our friends." Said Lewis.
"Which will be helpful in the future.
Also that Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets,
not that we ever through that."
Hagrid went to his room with fang now following.
Lewis and Ron went into their room where Ron fell onto their bed without bothering to get undressed,
but Lewis did undress him now he was just in his underwear.
Lewis soon was the same in his and laid down behind him,
Rob did the same hugging Lewis.
Lewis and Harry where thinking together,
the creature that was lurking somewhere in the castle,
he thought, sounded like a sort of monster Voldemort,
even other monsters didn't want to name it.
But he and Ron were no closer to finding it, or how it Petrified its victims. Even Hagrid had never known what was in the Chamber of Secrets.
Harry swung his legs up onto his bed and leaned back against his pillows. He couldn't see what else they could do.
They had hit dead ends everywhere.
Riddle had caught the wrong person, the heir of Slytherin
had got off, and no one could tell whether it was the same person, or a different one, who had opened the Chamber this time. There was nobody else to ask. Now Harry was lay down to, still thinking about what Aragog said.
Lewis was becoming drowsy when what seemed like their very last hope occurred to him and he suddenly sat bolt upright.
"Ron, Ron!" Said Lewis.
Ron woke with a yelp like Fang's, "I have a felling,
but we Must ask Hagrid." Said Lewis.
Then getting up followed by Ron and Rob still in just underwear,
running out into the main room, then Harry come out to in his just his underwear to, running over to Hagrid room,
busting in, Hagrid sat up. "What up, Lewis. Why are you guys walking around like that?"
"You a guy, not like you don't know what we got." Said Lewis,
"Hagrid that girl who died, was her name what was her name?
It was Myrtle." Asked Lewis.
"Yes, it was." Said Hagrid. "You guys look cute in those."
Hugging all three of them."
Then the boys went back to bed,
they took off their underwear, Ron and Lewis got back in bed, Lewis hugging Ron and Rob again, then started playing with Ron again, they then both fell asleep.
