Aragog
Summer now started to creep over the grounds surrounding the castle. Both the sky and lake turned periwinkle blue and flowers as large cabbages burst into bloom in the various greenhouses.
But with Hagrid no longer being visible from the castle windows, striding through the grounds with Fang by his side, the scene just didn't look right to Arthur, just as the inside of the castle had things go horribly wrong.
Both Arthur and David tried visiting Chrys, but it turns out visitors were now not allowed to enter the hospital wing.
"We're taking no more chances." Madam Pomfrey told them severely through a crack in the door. "No, I'm sorry, there's every chance the attacker might come back to finish these people off…."
With the knowledge that Dumbledore was gone, fear had spread like never before. Nearly every face seen in the school looked worried and tense, with any laughter that rang through the corridors sounding shrill and unnatural.
Arthur would have Dumbledore's final words on repeat in his mind. Who would he ask for help when everyone was confused and scared?
He's yet to tell David about what he had come up with about Mary being the culprit, though one against their will.
And that hint Hagrid gave them about the spiders was definitely easy to understand, the issue was that there hasn't been a single spider to follow. Arthur would look everywhere with a reluctant David but what hindered them was that they couldn't wander off as they had to move around the castle with their fellow Gryffindors in their year.
Most seemed glad to be led from class to class by their teachers, though Arthur found it frustrating.
There was one person that seemed to enjoy the atmosphere of terror and suspicion, Draco Malfoy. He strutted around as though he was appointed Head Boy. This was of course thanks to his scumbag of a father, who removed Dumbledore as Headmaster.
Arthur had fully realised what he was so pleased about when the Potions lesson a fortnight after Dumbledore and Hagrid had left, when, sitting right behind the pale git, he overheard him gloating to his cronies.
"I always thought father might be the one who got rid of Dumbledore." He said, not even bothering to keep his voice down. "I told you 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…."
Arthur's lips became a thin line at this as Snape swept past him, not making a comment about Chrys' empty seat and cauldron.
"Sir." Draco loudly called out. "Sir, why don't you apply for the Headmaster's job?" Arthur hated the idea of Snape as Headmaster, the school would be a living hell to the point that he'd rather be expelled.
"Now, now, Malfoy." Snape said, though he didn't even bother to suppress his 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." Draco smirked. "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…." Arthur rolled his eyes subtly as he was completely wrong about Snape being the best teacher.
Snape smirked as he swept around the dungeon, not spotting Seamus, who pretended to vomit into his cauldron.
"I'm quite surprised the Mudbloods haven't all packed their bags by now." Draco went on. "Bet you five Galleons the next one dies. Pity it wasn't Ranger…."
At that moment, the bell rang and Draco was lucky as when he said those words, David leapt off his stool and attempted to reach Draco and beat him to a living pulp.
"He must pay…." David growled as Arthur and Mike hung onto his arms. "I don't care… he must pay…."
"Hurry up, I've got to take you all to Herbology." Snape barked over the class' heads and off they all went, with Arthur, David and Mike bringing up the rear. It would be safe to let him go when Snape had seen them all out of the castle and they made their way across the vegetable patch towards the greenhouses.
The Herbology was subdued as two were missing among them, Justin and Chrys.
Sprout made them all work by pruning the Abyssinian Shrivelfigs. Arthur was tipping an armful of withered stalks onto the compost heap and ended up face to face with Ernie Macmillan.
He took a deep breath before formally saying "I just want to say, Arthur, that I'm sorry I ever suspected you. I know you'd never attack Chrysanthemum Ranger, and I apologise for all the stuff I said. We're all in the same boat now, and, well -"
He held out a pudgy hand, which Arthur shook, seeing that he was being honest and truthful.
Ernie and Hannah Abbot would come to work at the same Shrivelfig as both Arthur and David.
"That Draco Malfoy character…" Ernie said as he broke off dead twigs. "...he seems very pleased about all this, doesn't he? D'you know, I think he might be Slytherin's heir."
"Not bad thinking, there." David noted, being able to forgive as easily as Arthur did.
"Do you think it's Malfoy, Arthur?" Ernie asked.
"Not really, he just isn't smart enough to plan any of it anyway." He replied, not going into detail that he knew for sure that it wasn't Draco.
A second later, he spotted something that made him hit David gently with his pruning shears.
"What is it?"
Arthur pointed at the ground a few feet away from them and saw several large spiders scurrying away in the direction of the Forbidden Forest.
"Right… we'll have to follow them some other time…." David whispered quietly enough for Arthur to only hear him, not looking thrilled at the prospect of following the spiders when they eventually do so.
"We'd have to follow them into the Forbidden Forest, you know…." Arthur reminded him, making David more unpleased.
Once the lesson ended, Sprout escorted the class to Defence Against the Dark Arts. Both Arthur and David lagged behind everyone else to talk out of earshot.
"We'll need to use the Invisibility Cloak again. We'll take Fang with us, as well since he's used to the Forest and he might be able to help." Arthur explained.
"Okay. Let's just hope the rumours of werewolves in the Forest don't hold up." David nodded as they took their places at the back of Lockhart's classroom.
"There's centaurs and unicorns in the Forest as well, you know." Arthur reminded him, not wanting to reply to the werewolf rumour.
David hadn't entered the Forbidden Forest, while Arthur did, not exactly thrilled about entering it again.
Lockhart had bound into the room and the whole class stared at him. Every other teacher looked grim, yet Lockhart was still as buoyant and dramatic as ever.
"Come now…" He cried, beaming at them all. "...why all these long faces?"
Everyone all swapped exasperated looks, yet not answering.
"Don't you people realise…" Lockhart said, speaking slowly as though everyone was dim, which offended them. "...the danger has passed! The culprit has been taken away."
"Says who?" Dean said 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." Lockhart replied in a tone that made him sound like someone was saying one and one made two.
"Yeah, well, there's no real proof that Hagrid is the culprit." David told him, much louder than Dean.
"I flatter myself I know a touch more about Hagrid's arrest than you do, Mr Merlon." Lockhart said with a self satisfied tone.
David originally thought to talk back but stopped himself as he couldn't let anyone know he and Arthur were there when it happened.
Lockhart's disgusting cheeriness, hinting that he always thought Hagrid was no good and his confidence that the whole business was now at an end irritated Arthur to the point that he desperately wanted to shred Lockhart's books and throw the remains at him. Instead he scrawled a note to David saying 'Let's go tonight.'
David read the message and swallowed hard, looking over at the empty seat that Chrys normally sat in. It hardened his resolve and he nodded.
Naturally, the Gryffindor common room was crowded as it has been for the past several weeks because from six o'clock onwards, there wasn't anywhere else to go. There was plenty to talk about, of course, therefore making the common room not be empty until past midnight.
Arthur grabbed his Invisibility Cloak out of his trunk right after dinner and spent the whole evening sitting on top of it, waiting for the room to be entirely empty.
Both Jack and Kevin challenged Arthur and David to a few games of Exploding Snape and Mary sat nearby in Chrys' usual chair, watching them in a subdued manner, making Arthur still suspect her for being an unwilling culprit.
Both Arthur and David kept losing on purpose as they wanted the games to finish quickly, yet it was well past midnight when the twins and Mary finally went off to bed.
Once they heard the distant sounds of two dormitory doors closing, they grabbed the Cloak and threw it over themselves, climbing out of the portrait hole.
It was yet another difficult journey through the castle as they dodged all of the teachers.
Eventually, they reached the Entrance Hall, slid back the lock on the front doors, squeezed between the crack and made sure that there's no creaking as they stepped out into the grounds that were lit thanks to the moonlight.
They finally reached Hagrid's hut after crossing the black grass, which was sad and sorry looking with its now blank windows. Arthur pushed the door open and Fang went mad with joy upon laying eyes on them.
Being worried that he might wake everyone up with his booming barks, they quickly fed him some treacle fudge from a tin on the mantelpiece and he finally shut up as it glued his teeth together.
Arthur then placed his Cloak on Hagrid's table as they wouldn't need it in the pitch dark Forest.
"Let's go, Fang, we're going for a walk." He said, patting his leg, making Fang happily exit the house behind them, dashing to the edge of the Forest, lifting his leg against a large sycamore tree.
Arthur then took his wand out and muttered "Lumos!" and a small light appeared at the end of it, giving them enough light to let them watch the path for any signs of spiders. He then saw two solitary spiders hurrying off from the wandlight and into the shade of the trees.
"Okay, let's go." He said to David, who took a deep breath, preparing himself to deal with the spiders in the Forest.
And so, with Fang alongside them, sniffing tree roots and leaves, they entered the Forest.
In the glow of Arthur's wand, they followed the line of spiders moving along the path. The walk lasted for another twenty minutes in silence as they listened hard for any noises that weren't breaking twigs or rustling leaves.
Then, when they reached far enough that the trees became thicker than ever and made the stars in the sky no longer visible and Arthur's wand shone by itself in the darkness, they saw the spiders leaving the path.
Arthur paused at this, trying to figure out where they were going yet everything outside the sphere of light was purely pitch black. He also had never been this deep in the Forest before.
He vividly remembered Hagrid advising to not leave the Forest path when he was last in the Forest. But right now, Hagrid was miles away in the North Sea, sitting in a cell in Azkaban and is currently following the spiders as he told the pair.
Arthur jumped backwards into David when he felt something wet touch his hand but he realised that it was just Fang's nose.
After that, they continued on, following the darting shadows of the spiders into the trees. Right now, they couldn't move quickly as there were tree roots and stumps that were barely visible in the darkness. Arthur could feel Fang's hot breath brushing his hand. Also, more than once, they had to stop so that Arthur could crouch and find spiders in the wandlight.
They continued walking for what felt like half an hour, grateful they were wearing normal clothes with jeans and jackets as low slung branches and brambles would've caught their robes. Then after a while, the ground sloped downward, though the trees were still as thick as ever.
Suddenly, Fang let out a loud, echoing bark, making the two boys jump out of their skins.
"What is it?" David questioned, looking around into the pitch black, gripping Arthur's arm.
"I think there's something moving over there." Arthur whispered. "Listen… it sounds big."
They stood quietly, hearing something in the distance to their right. It was definitely big and it snapped branches as it formed a path through the trees.
David tried his best to keep his cool while Arthur was ready to face whatever it was as he wasn't gonna let whatever it was get in the way of getting answers.
Whatever was making the sounds, which sounded like a strange rumbling, now became silent.
Arthur expected whatever it was to pounce at any moment but then from their right, a sudden blaze of light shone on them, being so bright in the darkness that they threw their hands up to shield their eyes. Fang had yelped and tried running but was lodged in a tangle of thorns, making him yelp louder.
"Wait! It's the car!" David shouted, relief present in his voice.
"Are you serious?"
"Come on!"
Arthur followed after him towards the light, stumbling slightly until they emerged into a clearing.
It seemed that Gideon Weasley's enchanted car was standing there, empty, in the middle of a circle of thick trees under a roof of dense branches, the head lamps ablaze.
When David approached it, open mouthed, it moved slowly towards him like a dog would when greeting its owner.
"It's actually been in the Forest this whole time." He said, walking around the car, examining it. "It seems the Forest has turned it wild."
It was clear why he said that because the wings of the car were scratched and smeared with mud. It must've trundled through the Forest on its own. Fang definitely didn't seem too keen about it, so he kept close to Arthur, who felt him quivering. Feeling a bit calmed down, he stuffed his wand into his jacket.
"And to think we thought it would attack us." David said, patting the car. "I was wondering where it went."
Arthur was busy looking around on the lit ground for more signs of more spiders, yet they seemed to have scuttled away from the glaring headlights.
"We've just lost the trail. We need to find it." He told David, who didn't speak or even move. Arthur looked and saw that his eyes were fixed somewhere ten feet above the Forest floor, right behind Arthur and his face was drenched in terror.
Arthur didn't even react in time as a loud clicking came from behind him and suddenly felt something long and hairy seize him around his middle and lift him off the ground, leaving him hanging face down. He closed his eyes, not wanting to get a glimpse of the acromantula that grabbed him as he heard more clicking, deciding to open his eyes seeing David's legs leave the ground. He then hears Fang whimpering and howling before he got swept away into the dark trees by another acromantula.
With his head hanging, Arthur closed his eyes shut again, not wanting to see up close the features of the magical spider.
The spiders that carried him and David into the very heart of the Forest and he heard Fang trying to fight so that he could free himself, whining loudly.
He didn't know how long he, David and Fang were in the clutches of the acromantulas, but he only knew that the darkness lightened up enough for him to see that ground that was covered in leaves was currently swarming with spiders.
Arthur decided to turn his head, seeing that they reached the rim of a vast hollow, one that had been cleared of any trees and this meant that the stars shone brightly onto the worst possible scene for him and David to lay their eyes upon.
There were many spiders. Not tiny ones that were over the leaves below. These spiders were the size of horses with eight legs and eyes and hairy bodies.
The one that carried Arthur made its way down a steep slope, towards a domed web in the very centre of the hollow, while its buddies closed in around it, clicking their pincers excited about its load.
Arthur found himself falling to the ground on all fours as the spider released him. Both David and Fang then landed next to him. Fang wasn't howling anymore and instead was cowering. David looked very much like Arthur felt, trying to hold back a scream of terror as he walked into a living nightmare.
Arthur then realised that the spider that dropped him was saying something, remembering that acromantulas can speak, though it can be hard to tell as the spider clocked its pincers with every word it spoke.
"Aragog! Aragog!" It called out.
From the middle of the misty domed web, the largest of the acromantula, the size of a large elephant, emerged very slowly, which Arthur assumed was because of its age, knowing this was the acromantula Hagrid had before he was expelled.
There was grey in the black of its body and legs, with all eight eyes milky white, meaning it was blind.
"What is it?" Aragog said, clicking his pincers rapidly.
"Men." The spider that caught Arthur replied.
"Is it Hagrid?" Aragog asked, moving closer.
"Strangers." The spider that caught David answered.
"Kill them. I was sleeping…."
"BUT WE'RE FRIENDS OF HAGRID'S!" Arthur bellowed loudly, his heart hammering so fast that each heartbeat blended into one.
There were many pincers clicking around the hollow when he said this and Aragog paused.
"Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before."
"That's because he's in trouble. It's why we're here." Arthur told him, breathing quickly.
"In trouble?" The aged spider questioned, sounding concerned underneath his clicking pincers. "But why has he sent you?"
"Up at the school… they think Hagrid set something on students. They've… even sent him to Azkaban." Arthur hesitated slightly, but knew he had to explain what happened, regardless of how Aragog would react.
Of course, Aragog clicked his pincers furiously and the sound was echoed by the spiders around the hollow, like an applause but one that made Arthur feel sick with fear.
"But that was years ago." The large spider said 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."
He just confirmed plenty of what Arthur and David already knew.
"So you definitely didn't come from the Chamber of Secrets?" Arthur asked him, feeling sweat start dripping down his forehead.
"I!" Aragog clicked angrily. "I was not born in the castle. I come 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…."
Arthur had to admit, he may not like spiders all that much but Hagrid did do something good for his friend. He then gained some more courage to ask more questions.
"So, not even once, you never attacked anyone at Hogwarts?"
"Never." Aragog croaked in response. "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…."
Hearing this made Arthur's eyes widen in realisation that he was talking about Moaning Myrtle because he only ever saw her in that girls' toilet excluding Nick's Deathday Party. And therefore, she can explain what she saw.
"Do you know what killed that girl then? Because it's back attacking people again -"
His words got drowned out from a loud outbreak of clicking and rustling of many legs all shifting angrily with large black shapes shifting all around them.
"The thing that lives in the castle 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."
"How much do you fear it?" Arthur asked him.
"We do not speak of it! We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dreadful creature, though he asked me, many times."
There was a parallel there with how people fear saying Voldemort's name.
Arthur decided to not press the subject any further as the spiders all closed in on all sides. And Aragog seemed to be tired of talking as he backed slowly into his domed web, yet his spiders continued inching closer to Arthur and David, making them fear what would happen if they stayed any longer.
"Okay then. We'll just go." Arthur said desperately as he heard leaves rustling behind him.
"Go?" Aragog slowly said. "I think not…."
"But -"
"My sons and daughters do not harm Hagrid on my command. But I cannot deny them fresh meat when it wanders so willingly into our midst. Goodbye, friend of Hagrid."
Arthur finally got to his feet and spun around to see a towering wall of spiders feet away from him, all clicking and their many eyes gleaming among their horrifyingly ugly black heads.
Despite having his wand, he knew it would do no good as there were just too many but he didn't care as he'd rather die fighting. But then a loud long note rang in the air and light entered the hollow.
The enchanted car thundered down the slope, its head lamps glaring brightly and horn screeching loudly as it rammed into and knocked many spiders aside, throwing some onto their backs. The car then screeched to a halt in front of the boys and opened its doors.
"GET FANG!" Arthur yelled as he dived headfirst into the passenger seat. David grabbed the boarhound and threw the yelping dog into the back of the car as he got into the driver's seat. The doors then slammed shut before the car's engine roared loudly and were off, David not even touching the accelerator.
They hit more spiders as they sped up the slope and out of the hollow, soon crashing through the Forest with branches hitting the windows like whips as the car made its way cleverly through the widest gaps and following a path that it knew.
Arthur looked at David, who was taking deep breaths to calm himself down as he was now out of that nightmare.
They continued on, smashing through the undergrowth, Fang howling loudly from the back seat and Arthur watched as a wing mirror snapped off when they squeezed past a large oak tree.
After a rocky and noisy ten minutes, the trees thinned out and Arthur could see patches of sky finally.
The car then came to a sudden stop, almost throwing the two boys into the windscreen. They've finally reached the edge of the forest.
Fang shot himself at the window, anxious to get out, so Arthur opened the door and the dog shot through the trees and right to Hagrid's hut.
Arthur got out as well after he sat there for a minute or two, waiting for David, who had finally started functioning properly and so they left. Arthur made sure to give the car a grateful pat before it reversed back into the Forest and disappeared into the darkness.
Arthur had to get into Hagrid's house as he had to get his Invisibility Cloak. Poor Fang trembled under a blanket in his basket.
When Arthur got back out, he saw David throwing up by the pumpkin patch.
"David?" He asked, hoping he was finally alright.
"I am never gonna forgive Hagrid for that. We were lucky to be alive." David answered, sounding weak as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve.
"He clearly thought Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his." Arthur groaned.
"Which is Hagrid's problem! He thinks certain creatures aren't as bad and dangerous as they're made out! And that kind of thinking is what got him into Azkaban!" David spat, punching the side of the cabin.
"What have we even found out in there, anyway?" He then asked, not really paying attention to what Arthur and Aragog said in the hollow from being in too much terror.
"Confirmation that Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets and that Moaning Myrtle was the girl killed by the monster because Aragog said she was discovered in a bathroom. Ghosts don't tend to leave where they died as living beings." Arthur explained.
"Of course! Now we just need to find the right moment to ask her about what she saw." David gasped before they threw the Cloak on to head back into the castle.
They pushed the creaking front doors ajar, squeezing in quietly and carefully into the Entrance Hall and up the marble staircase, holding their breaths as they went down numerous corridors where various sentries were walking.
Once they reached the safety of the Gryffindor common room, where the fire burned by itself into glowing ash. They then took the Cloak off as they went up the spiral staircase into their dormitory.
David immediately fell asleep whereas Arthur sat on the edge of his four poster bed, thinking about something in particular.
Whether or not to tell David and his brothers about Mary. On the one hand, they'd think he was crazy, that she'd never open the Chamber and unleash the monster and they'd be alienated from Arthur from that point on. But on the other hand, they'd understand that she didn't do it willingly, especially since it was because of the diary, which was planted by Lucius Malfoy. They were smart enough to realise this.
After going back and forth on this for a bit, looking through the tower window at the moon, he came to a decision.
He's going to tell them that Mary's the one behind the attacks, possessed by Riddle's diary.
No joke, meeting all those acromantulas would be my worst nightmare as I'm scared of spiders.
And as much as I like Hagrid, I have to admit that his obliviousness towards the real danger of certain creatures can be really annoying.