(Author's Note – I hope you guys are enjoying your week. Now, we return. Now, I'm hoping to get some feedback on what you guys think of the story over these last few chapters so I know what I'm good at and what I can improve on. Next story, I'll be trying to get a beta to fix up any spelling or grammar mistakes so at least you lot can get a story without too many mistakes, if you are a beta writer, get in contact with me so we can talk about this. But, enough of me talking, let's get back into this. As before, I don't own Harry Potter, Enjoy.)
Last time: Hermione's been Petrified, the school has mash into chaos. Dumbledore has been suspended by the school governors over his poor handling of the attacks and Hagrid's been taken away due his past. Harry, Ron and Sophie must find the Heir of Slytherin now.
Dear Sophie
Nice to hear from you, albeit under tough circumstances. Yes, I did know about the Chamber of Secrets. The Minster came in and notify us after the first attack, but he told us not to go babbling about it last thing is the media founding about this, he said. It must be hard to focus with this. Also, sorry to hear about Hermione. I know you were pretty close to her but you must stay strong, not only for yourself but for her.
Stay Safe,
Andy
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 greenhouse. But this time, there was no Hagrid visible from the castle windows, striding the grounds with Fang at his heels, the scene didn't look quite right. Me, Harry and Ron tried to visit Hermione, but visitors were barred from the hospital wing.
"We're taking no more chances." Madam Pomfrey told us severely through a crack in the hospital door.
"Please Miss, we just want to see Hermione, we'll only be five minutes." I pleaded
"No, I'm sorry, there's every chance the attacker might come back to finish these people off..." With Dumbledore gone, fear has spread as ever before, so that the sun warming the castle walls outside seemed to stop at the mullioned seeds. There was barely a face to be see 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. Hagrid's hint about the spiders was far easier to understand – the trouble was, there didn't seem to be a single spider left in the castle to follow. Me and Harry looked everywhere we went, helped (rather reluctantly) by Ron. We were hampered, of course, by the face that we weren't allowed to wander off on our on, but we had to move around the castle in a pack with the other Gryffindors. Most of our fellow students seemed glad that we were being shepherded from class to class by teachers, but I didn't. One person, however, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere of terror and suspension, my stupid, stinky, blonde-haired cousin, Draco. He was strutting about the school as though he had been appointed head boy. I didn't realise what he was so pleased about until the Potions about a fortnight after Dumbledore and Hagrid had left, when, sitting right behind him, I overheard him gloating to Crabbe and Goyle.
"I always thought Father might be the one who got rid of Dumbledore." He said, not troubling to keep his voice down. "I told you that 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. Sir, sir, why don't you apply for the Headmaster's job?"
"Now, now, Malfoy." Said Snape, though he couldn't suppress a thin-lipped smile. "Professor Dumbledore has only been suspended by the governors. I dare say he'll be back with us soon enough."
"Yeah, right." Said Malfoy, smirking. "I expect you'd have Father's vote, sir, if you wanted to apply for the job. I'll tell Father you're the best teacher here, sir..." Snape smirked as he swept off around the dungeon, fortunately not spotting Seamus Finnigan, who was pretending to vomit into hid cauldron. "I'm quite surprised the Mudbloods haven't all packed their bags by now.' Malfoy went on. "But you five Galleons the next one dies. Pity it wasn't Granger..." The bell rang at that moment, which was lucky, at Malfoy's last words, Ron had leapt off his stool, and in the scramble to collect bags and books, hid attempts to reach Malfoy went unnoticed.
"Let me at him." Ron growled, as Me, Harry and Dean hung onto him. "I don't care, I don't need my wand, I'm going to kill him with my bare hands-"
"If you lay even a single finger on Draco, his father will do everything in his power to ensure that you're expelled." I said to him.
"Hurry up, I've got to take you all to Herbology." Barked Snape over the class's heads, and off they went, crocodile fashion, with the four of us bringing up the rear, Ron still trying to get loose. It was only safe to let go of him when Snape had seen us out of the castle, and we were making our way across the vegetable patch towards the greenhouses. The Herbology class was very subdued, there were now two missing from our number, Justin and my friend Hermione. Professor Sprout set us all to work pruning the Abyssinian Shrivelfigs. Ernie spoke to Harry and he told him that he was sorry that he ever suspected Harry as the Heir of Slytherin. Then Ernie and his Hannah came to work at the same shrivelfig as me, Harry and Ron.
"That Draco Malfoy character." Said Ernie, breaking off dead twigs. "He seems very pleased about all this, doesn't he? D'you you know, I think he might be Slytherin's heir."
"That's clever of you." Said Ron, who didn't seem to have forgiven Ernie as readily as Harry.
"Do you think it's Malfoy, Sophie?" Ernie asked.
"No." I said so firmly that Ernie and Hannah stared.
Hey, look." Said Harry. He was pointing at the ground a few feet away. Several large spiders were scurrying across the earth.
"Oh, yeah." Said Ron, trying, and failing, to look pleased. "But we can't follow them now..."
"Looks like they're heading for the Forbidden Forest..." Said Harry. And Ron looked even unhappier about that. At the end of the lesson Professor Sprout escorted the class to the next Defence against the dark arts lesson. We lagged behind the others so we can talk out of earshot. "We'll have to use the Invisibility cloak again. We can take Fang with us. He's used to going into the Forest with Hagrid, he might be some help.
"Right." Said Ron, who was twirling his wand nervously in his fingers. "Er - aren't there - aren't there supposed to be werewolves in the forest?" He added, as we took their usual places. Well, the boys sat next to each other, me, I sat by myself. Lockhart bounded into the room and the class stared at him. Every other teachers in the place was nothing grimmer than usual, but Lockhart appeared nothing short of buoyant.
"Come on." He cried, beaming around him. "Why all these long faces?"
"Haven't you noticed, mate?" I said in a sarcastic voice.
"Don't you people realise." Said Lockhart, speaking slowly, as though we 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 percent sure that he was guilty." Said Lockhart, in the tone of someone explaining that one and one made two.
"Oh, yes, we should." Said Ron even more loudly than Dean.
"I fatter myself I know a touch more about Hagrid's arrest than you do, Mr Weasley." Said Lockhart in a self-satisfied tone.
"You don't! You don't know Nothing!" I shouted at him, shocking the life out of him and everyone else. "You're a terrible teacher, the only thing we've learned is not set pixies loose! You're so stuck up in your bloody fame that you can't see the full picture. You're a phony and are utterly useless!" Wow, that anger, where did it come from?
"Well, Lestrange, if that's what you think." He said to me, still a bit shocked and in a wimpy voice. "Twenty points from Gryffindor and you'll serve detention with me tonight." Great, that sudden outburst has landed me in shit. Perfect. Perfect. Lockhart walked straight up me.
"I don't know what your problem is, young lady, but I assure you, I know what I'm talking about." He sneered.
"No you don't," I answered. "You're just an annoying piece of shit." He looked at me in shock, he stormed off, walked into his office and slammed the door. Then, while reading Gadding with Ghouls, I received a letter from Harry.
Let's do it tonight.
I don't know but then I had a look sideways at the empty seat usually filled by Hermione. I scribbled on the back of the note and threw it at him.
I'M IN
...
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. We head to wait for the room to clear. Fred and George challenged the boys to a few games of Exploding Snap. They kept losing on purpose trying to finish the games quickly, but even so, it was well past midnight when Fred, George and Ginny finally went to bed. We waited for the distant sounds of two dormitory doors closing before we seized the cloak, throwing it over ourselves, and climbing through the portrait hole. It was another difficult journey through the castle, dodging all the teachers. At last we reached the Entrance Hall , slid back the lock on the oak front door, squeezed between them, trying to stop any creaking, and stepped out into the midnight grounds.
"Course." Said Ron abruptly, as we strode across the black grass. "We might get to the forest and find there's nothing to follow. Those spiders might not've been going there at all. I know it looked like they were moving in that sort of direction, but..."
"You're just saying that because you don't want to go into the Forbidden Forest." I said to him. We reached Hagrid's house, sad and sorry-looking with its blank windows. When Harry pushed the door open, Fang went mad with delight at the sight of us. Worried he might wake everyone at the castle with his deep, booming barks, we hastily fed him treacle fudge from a tin on the mantleplace, which glued his teeth together.
"C'mon, Fang, we're going for a walk." Said Harry, patting his leg, and Fang bounded happily out of the house behind us, dashed to the edge of the forest and lifted his leg against a large sycamore tree. Harry took out hid wand, and murmured.
"Lumos." And a tiny light appeared at the end of it, just enough to let us watch the path for signs of spiders.
"Good thinking." Said Ron. "I'd light mine too, but you know – It'd probably blow up or something..."
"Lumos." Just like Harry, I lit the tip of my wand to help light our way, though it wasn't doing much good. Harry then tapped me and Ron on our shoulders, pointing at the grass. Two solitary spiders were hurrying away from the wandlight into the shade of the trees.
"Ok." Ron sighed, as though resigned to the worst. "I'm ready."
"Let's go." I said. So, with Fang scampering around us, sniffing tree roots and leaves, we entered the forest. By the glows of both our wands, we followed the steady trickle of spiders moving along the path. We walked for about twenty minutes, not speaking, listening hard for noises other than breaking twigs and rustling leaves. Then, when the trees had become thicker than ever, so that stars overhead were no longer visible, and our wands shone alone in the sea of dark, we saw our spider guides leaving the path. We couldn't see jack shit because everything outside the little sphere of light was pitch black. I never been this deep into the Forbidden Forest.
"What d'you reckon?" Harry said to us.
"We've come this far." Said Ron.
"Let's keep going." I said, so we followed the darting shadows of the spiders into the trees. We couldn't move very quickly now, there were tree roots and stumps in our way, barely visible in the near blackness. More than once, we had to stop so that Harry could crouch down and find the spiders in the wandlight. We walked for what seemed like at least half an hour, their robes snagging on low-slung branches and brambles. After a while, we noticed that the ground seemed to be sloping downwards, though the trees were as thick as ever. Then Fang suddenly let loose a great, echoing bark, making both of us jump out of our skins.
"What?" Said Ron loudly, looking around into the pitch dark.
"There's something moving over there." Harry breathed. "Listen... Sounds like something big." We listened. Some distance to our right, the something big was snapping branches as it carved a path through the trees.
"P-Please, tell me that was y-you." I said with fear.
"Oh no." Said Ron. "Oh no, oh no, oh-"
"Shut up." Said Harry frantically. "It'll hear you."
"Hear me?' Said Ron in an unnaturally high voice. "It's already heard Fang?" The darkness seemed to be pressing on our eyeballs as we stood, terrified, waiting. There was a strange rumbling noise and then silence.
"What d'you think it's doing?" Said Harry.
"Probably getting ready to pounce." I said. We waited, shivering hardly daring to move.
"D'you think it's gone?" Harry Whispered.
"Dunno-" Then, to our right, came a sudden blaze of light, so bright in the darkness that all of us fling up our hands to shield our eyes. Fang yelped and tried to run, but got lodged in a tangle of thorns and yelped even louder.
"Harry!" Ron shouted, his voice breaking with relief. "Harry, it's our car."
"What?" I asked.
"Come on!" We ran after Ron towards the light, stumbling and tripping, and a moment later we had emerged into a clearing.
"Is that your dad's flying car?" I asked him but he wasn't listening. It was standing, empty, in the middle of a circle of thick trees under a roof on dense branches, its head-lamps ablaze. As Ron walked, open-mouthed, towards it, it moved slowly towards him, exactly like a large, turquoise dog greeting its owner.
"It's been here all the time!" Said Ron delightedly, walking around the car. "Look at it. The Forest's turned it wild..." The wings of the car were scratched and smeared with mud.
"It's looks like shit." I whispered.
"And we thought it was going to attack us!" Said Ron, leaning against the car and patting it. "I wondered where it had gone."
"We've lost the trail!" Said Harry. I ran over towards him with my wand still lit.
"Where the bloody hell did they go?" I asked him. "Ron..." I looked at him. He didn't move. His eyes were fixed on a point some ten feet above the Forest floor, right behind me. His face was livid with terror. Next thing I know, something long and hairy seize me around the middle and lifted me off the ground.
"What the..." I shouted with fear. "Let me go..." Harry and Ron were also hoisted up next to me. Fang wad howling and whimpering – next moment, he was being swept into the dark trees. I saw that what had hold of me was marching on six immensely long, hairy legs, the front two clutching me tightly below a paid od shining black pincers.
"You better let us go, or I'll kill you." I growled at it. The things took us to a rim of a vast hollow, a hollow which had been cleared of trees, so that the stars shone brightly onto the worst scene I had ever clapped eyed upon. Spiders. Not tiny spiders like those surging over the leaves below. Spiders the size of carthorses, eight-eyed, eight legged, black, hairy, gigantic. The massive specimen that was carrying me made its way down the steep slope, towards a misty doomed web in the very centre of the hollow, while its fellows closed in all around it, clicking their pincers excitedly at the sight of its load.
"I'm not food." Then I was dropped onto all fours. The boys and Fang thudded down next to me. Fang wasn't howling any more, but cowering silently on the spot. Ron looked exactly like Harry.
"Aragog!" It called. "Aragog!" And from the middle of the misty doomed web, a spider the size off an a small elephant emerged, very slowly. There was grey in the black of his body and legs, and each of the eyes on him ugly, pincered head was milky white. He was blind.
"What is it?" He said, clicking his pincers rapidly.
"Men." Clicked the spiders who caught Harry.
"Oi! I'm not a man!" I shouted.
"Is it Hagrid?" Said Aragog, moving closer, his eight milky eyes wandering vaguely.
"Strangers." Clicked the spider who had caught Ron.
"Kill them." Clicked Aragog fretfully. "I was sleeping..."
"Kill us?!" I asked. "Now wait just a minute..."
"We're friends of Hagrid!" Shouted Harry. Click, click went the pincers of the spiders all around the hollow
"Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before." He said slowly.
"Hagrid's in trouble." Sais Harry, breathing very fast. "That's why we've come."
"In trouble?" Said the aged spider, and I thought I heard concern beneath the clicking pincers. "But why has he sent you?"
"They think, up at the school, that Hagrid's been setting a – a – something on students. They've taken him to Azkaban."
"But that was years ago." Said Aragog fretfully. "Years and years ago. They believed that I was the monster that dwells in what they called the Chamber of Secrets. They thought that Hagrid's had opened the Chamber and set me free."
"And you... you didn't come from the Chamber of Secrets?" I asked him.
"I" Said Aragog, clicking angrily. "I was not born here in the castle m. I came from a distant land. A traveller gave me to Hagrid when I was an egg. Hagrid was only a boy, but he cared for me, hidden in a cupboard in the castle, feeding me on scraps from the table. 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..."
"So you never – never attacked anyone?"
"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 Harry, Because whatever it is, it's back and attacking people again..." His words were drowned out by a loud outbreak of clicking and the rustling of many long legs shifting angrily, large black shapes shifted all around us.
"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 castle."
"What is it?" I asked. More loud clicking, more rustling, those seemed to be closing in. I had my wand very close to me.
"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 many times." Judging by his voice, he was seemed to be getting tired of talking. He was backing slowly into his domed web, but his fellow spiders to inch slowly towards us.
"We'll just go, then." Harry called desperately to Aragog.
"Go?" Said Aragog slowly. "I think not..."
"Oh shit. Come on mate." I said.
"My sons and daughters do not harmed Hagrid on my command. But I cannot dent them fresh meat, when it wanders so willingly into our mists. Goodbye, friends of Hagrid." Shit. There were spiders all around us. There were too many of them. Then I heard a loud screeching and sae a blaze of light flamed through the hollow. My Weasley's car was thundering down the slope, headlamps glaring, its horn screeching, knocking spiders aside, several were thrown onto their backs, their endless legs waving in the air. The car screeched to a halt in front od us and its doors flew open.
"I call shotgun!" I shouted as I jumped into the front seat. Harry, Ron and Fang joined me quickly and the car took off. We sped up the slope, out of the hollow, and were soon out of the forest faster than we went in it. Returning to the hut, Harry grabbed his invisibility cloak and re-joined me and Ron, who was throwing up in the pumpkin patch.
"Did we get something out of this?" I asked Harry.
"That Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets." Said Harry as he threw the cloak over us. "He was innocent."
(Author's note – Done and done. Hope you guys enjoy that. Next chapter will be posted on Friday so we will be back to regular programming. Please leave a review and until next time, Kizzard245 out!)