The moment Holly stepped outside the big oaken front door, she took to the sky, not caring if anyone saw her. She was trying to make the exhilaration of flying overshadow the rage and grief she felt after her argument with Professor Snape. How could she have been so foolish, as to think he cared about her.

But when even exhausting herself by flying as fast as she could across the lake and through the forbidden forest didn't help improve her mood, Holly changed direction, heading deeper into the forest. She could have arrived at her intended destination almost instantly by travelling through the magical trees of the forest. She had discovered that she could use them like portals, similar to the barrier at platform 9 ¾ , last year.

But Holly wanted some more time to cool down, she didn't want to worry Fluffy too much. He was such a good puppy and wouldn't understand that she wasn't upset because of him and would be sad as well. She just wanted to play with him, it was sure to cheer her up.

She spent a good while skating through the air, in slaloms around the trees, or backwards, all the while looking for a nice 'stick' to play fetch with Fluffy. Considering his size, said stick should be more trunk than stick. And now that she thought about it, his heads were sure to fight over who got to carry the stick, so she'd need three.

On her way to the clearing Fluffy had claimed as his sleeping area Holly encountered a multitude of different magical creatures. From bowtruckles who happily waved at her (were they some of her friends or were these bowtruckle just more friendly in general?), then there were unicorns, a handful of hippogriffs and giant versions of different critters like giant dung beetles and toads. Had the forest always been teeming with this much life?

On all her trips into the forest last year, the most she ever saw was a small herd of moon calves, and that had been an exception. Usually it was hard to see any creatures at all. And that was when she used her father's cloak to be invisible. Holly shook her head, it wasn't important right now.

With the big sticks she'd found suitable hovering in tow, she arrived in Fluffy's clearing to a napping Cerberus, heads resting on his paws and happily snoring bubbles of snot out of his three snouts.

After landing back on the ground, Holly tried to quietly approach the massive three-headed dog. But apparently not quiet enough, Fluffy's ears twitched with her every step.

"Who's a tired little puppy," she whispered and scratched the only head she could reach behind the ear.

The reaction was immediate, Fluffy groggily blinked his eyes open. But Holly had underestimated how tired he actually was, since he just fell back asleep, rumbling happy dog sounds at the scratches. It was a massive sign of trust that he'd go back to sleep with her standing right in his face and touching him.

So, with Fluffy still merrily dozing away, Holly did what any Hogwarts student would do, she tickled the sleeping d(ragon)og. Even if the school's motto said to do the exact opposite, she didn't didn't know a single student who, if they got the chance, wouldn't.

The tickling under Sir Fluffington's nose, what she'd named Fluffy's righternmost head, had its desired effect. His nose twitched, nostrils flared from breathing in and promptly sneezed all over Holly…

"Eww, Fluffy," she complained as he slowly stood up on his paws and shook himself once. Though, she really should have expected as much.

Now properly awake, Fluffy instantly assaulted her with doggy kisses, licking the snodder off of her, covering her in slobber instead. Yes, one didn't stay dry when playing with Fluffy.

"Stop, stop," she giggled. "I know, I missed you too."

Holly had to be careful when speaking, as to not swallow a mouthful of dog saliva. It had happened before and it was not a pleasant experience. It had tasted like old fish or meat and had somehow remained on her tongue for days afterwards.

When Fluffy was done showering her in slobber, he jumped around the clearing, tail wagging so fast Holly could only see afterimages. Holly understood that Hagrid was busy with all the other creatures and taking care of the forest, but if his Cerberus got this excited just at the prospect of playing he really ought to spend more time with Fluffy.

"You want to fetch," she asked while making one of the logs wiggle in the air with her wand and then threw it out of the clearing, Fluffy hot on its tail, tongues lolling out, making Holly laugh at the silly sight.

It had definitely been the right choice to come here, she felt much better already.

The forbidden forest was an odd place, as odd as any magical thing was inherently weird to someone used to the muggle world at least. One could be walking in a lush clearing full of life and the beauty of nature, listening to the sounds of various creatures, birds and insects, only to end up in a wasteland of barren trees and leafless bushes by taking the wrong turn.

Just like it had happened to Holly now. She had been shocked when she stumbled out of the thick, green undergrowth, right into a desolate and grey part of the forest. It was like she had slipped into another world entirely. The cheerful chirping that had surrounded Holly just seconds ago was replaced by an eerie quiet, only pierced by the occasional howling gust of wind and the excited tippy taps and panting of the Cerberus standing next to her.

She wasn't exactly sure where they were, as she had started their walk in a random direction. But she didn't worry too much, if there were any dangers lurking nearby then surely Fluffy would notice long before her and then warn her.

The last remaining stick went flying with Fluffy running after it and out of the clearing. The others having been completely chewed through in the three heads' fight to keep them for themselves,

What Holly heard next, gave her pause. Twigs snapping and cracking wasn't unusual, happy barking wasn't either, but it was accompanied by scuttling and a weird hissing, screeching like sound that didn't fit. Then it went quiet again.

More twigs snapped, and out of a dried out bush that only consisted of sticks, Fluffy emerged, holding something in each maw and entirely covered in blue paint that smelled dreadfully. He bound back over to her, splattering blue droplets all over the forest floor and deposited the twig held in his middle maw at her feet, wanting her to throw it again.

Before she could, his right head dropped something else at her feet. Holly was greeted by the grotesque sight of a pumpkin sized, black, round and hairy severed spider head looking up at her. No, not severed, ripped off. And not the regular pumpkin size either, but the giant kind Hagrid grew in his garden.

It also wasn't blue paint, but blue spider blood that now pooled at her feet. Just as she was about to scream from shock, Fluffy's last head playfully, but violently, shook the black mass lodged in his maw from side to side. Which Holly now realised, was the spider's body and was thus promptly covered in spider blood and gooey intestines as well.

The fact that she didn't manage to close her mouth from the attempted shout in time and got some in there, made the situation all the worse.

As stiff as a stick, she turned away from Fluffy and threw up, mixing the blue blood with greenish brown bile.

Why were there pieces of carrot in there, she hadn't eaten any carrots?

It was safe to say that the stuff tasted even worse than it smelled, Holly couldn't describe it. Just… death and ash on her tongue, she was actually thankful her barf overshadowed the taste a little bit.

Fluffy nudged her side with one of his massive heads in concern.

"Don- don't worry," she managed to stammer out, looking back and giving a little scratch to the only part she could find that wasn't blue. "You did g-great! You killed the bad spider."

She wiped her glasses with her sleeve, but only managed to smear the blood around more. Something cracked again and Holly's eyes snapped to the origin of the sound and blanched.

Fluffy was standing with one paw on the now discarded spider body, shattering the carapace and spilling more innards around her feet.

She couldn't help it, she puked again until there was nothing of her breakfast left in her stomach. Still, she dry heaved and retched, tears forming in her eyes. This walk had turned from delightful to absolutely awful quicker than one could say 'Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans'.

Growling made her look up again. Fluffy had positioned himself between her and the bush he'd come from earlier. He had his teeth bared, ears raised and tail pointing upwards, motionless in anticipation.

Holly didn't know what was wrong at first, but when she finally heard it, she sprang back to her feet. All the disgust from earlier forgotten.

Scuttling, scuttling all around them and this weird sound, like someone was pulling on the strings of a violin.

Fluffy took a single step forward in warning, and they appeared. First one, then a second to its left and a third to the right. Eight legged monstrosities, even bigger than the one currently strewn all over the clearing. Black and hairy and mean looking, with bulbous bodies the size of uncle Vernon's car and a leg span so wide they would barely fit through the Hogwarts entrance hall.

They hissed at Fluffy through their pincer like fangs and Holly would forever remember the moment Fluffy gave a single bark in reply and pounced on them. The sight was terrifying, he had landed on the middle spider, crushing its body under his weight before it could react.

Two heads snapped at the left spider, managing to catch some legs in their jaws and the other head bit at the right one, but this spider reacted in time and dodged. He gave a single tuck with the heads and ripped out three of the first spider's legs. It crumbled to the floor, unable to support its own weight any longer and screeched. It screeched so loud that Holly had to hold her ears closed, fearing her eardrums would burst if she didn't.

With this one out of the fight, Holly got to watch how Fluffy must have disassembled the spider earlier in all its gory glory. As quick as lightning, his outer heads chomped down on its forelegs on each side, preventing the spider from moving. The spider struggled with all its might against his grip, but it was all for naught. Fluffy bit down on its head, pulled with all his heads at the same time, lifting the spider off the ground in the process.

The spider didn't even get to shriek before it got relieved of its head and legs, body dropping lifelessly to the ground. Holly thought the battle was over at first, but the other spider still struggling on the ground made a last ditch effort and pushed itself so hard with its remaining legs, it practically flew at Fluffy who had his back turned to it. She could see the venom drip off its fangs and reacted on instinct.

She whipped her wand in the direction of the spider and cast a levitation charm, which only slowed it down a little. The spell had just… slipped right off its carapace, but it had been enough. Alerted by her shouted incantation, Fluffy whirled around and just in time, swiped the spider out of the air with his paw. It flew across the clearing and crashed into a tree, shattering into a thousand pieces.

Fluffy kept growling, his heads sniffing the air and looking around the clearing, still on full alert. Holly ran towards him, her magic had barely affected the spider so if there were more of them around they had to flee. Fluffy's head snapped towards her and barked in warning. She heard something behind her and as she tried to see what it was, slipped in the guts and blood on the ground, falling into her knees.

Her heart almost leaped out of her chest when she felt a rush of air right above her and stiff hair brushing the back of her head. She managed to look up just in time to see Fluffy snatch the spider that had leaped at her out of the air and crush it between his jaws. Slipping had actually saved her life, it turned out.

But she hadn't come out of the attack completely unscathed, a burning sensation on her arm alerted her to a greenish purple liquid burning a hole in her glove and subsequently her arm. Some of the spider's venom must have dribbled onto her.

She quickly pulled the glove off and used the unaffected parts to wipe any remaining venom off her arm. It didn't look much different, just another burn added to her already scarred skin.

Fluffy in the meantime had taken position at her side, but the spiders hadn't been idle either. More had arrived in the clearing, they were surrounded. And not just on the ground, they were in the trees as well and had spun some rudimentary silk webs at the exits to the clearing. There was no escaping by flying with her boots it seemed. Not like she would ever abandon Fluffy either.

They remained at a standstill for several seconds.

*thud*

The ground trembled and shook.

*thud*

Fluffy jumped into action, pulled her up by the scruff of her robe and deposited her on his back. The spiders themselves had exploded into a torrent of movement, quickly advancing on them and some slightly different coloured ones actually shooting sticky blobs at them that thankfully didn't manage to hold Fluffy for long. Though, his erratic dodging made it hard to hold onto his fur and aim her wand at the same time.

*thud*

While Fluffy bit and ripped into any spider that dared approach, Holly worked on securing his vulnerable back. When not even severing charms with as much power as she could muster did more than scratch the spiders' hard chitin, Holly switched tactics.

"Wingardium," *thud* "Leviosa!"

If magic couldn't affect the spiders, then she would have to cast indirectly. Holly made any stone of decent size float and threw them at the spiders with a swish of her wand. It definitely had more impact than her spells, but her throws were lacking force, barely able to knock the spiders off their path so Fluffy had enough time to dodge. If only she had learned the banishing charm, then she could actually make this hurt.

*thud*

Holly could tell they were getting overwhelmed, no matter how many spiders Fluffy killed, their numbers just kept increasing. And he was already panting in exhaustion, they had to get out of here soon, before whatever was making these sounds arrived.

*thud*

So, whenever Holly got a little reprieve from spider attacks, she aimed a severing charm at the spiderwebs boxing them in. She wasn't able to cut more than a single strand of silk per charm, the threads having a similar magic protection like the spiders, but with enough time, it'd open up a way of escape.

*THUD*

The spiders scattered, fleeing. Holly could hear some of them screech, but with no more spiders attacking them, she blasted the webs as quickly as she could.

*THUD*

It hadn't been necessary.

*BANG*

Bark cracked, twigs snapped and with a mighty crash, two trees were toppled over, ripping all the webs down with them. Fluffy jumped out of the way of the falling trees and turned to the new threat.

Holly didn't know if calling this monstrous horror a spider was appropriate. Its black body was bigger than the house she lived in, with legs as thick as marble pillars adorned with knife-like protrusions dripping acidic purple venom. This was the mother of all spiders!

*THUD*

A single step forward from this thing shook the forest, as it gobbled up the already dead spiders as well as the still fleeing ones in single bites.

When there was nothing left of them, its glowing red eyes, burning with hatred, turned to her and Fluffy, an ominous presence pressing down on them. It roared, making black ichor-like saliva fly out of its maw. Anywhere the ichor touched, whatever life was left was sucked dry, turning everything to ash.

She swallowed thickly and Fluffy whimpered, she could feel him shaking under her. Holly did the only thing she could think of. She aimed her wand at the spider and shouted:

"INCENDIO!"

The torrent of bright orange fire enveloped the spider in no time. She had refrained from using it earlier in fear of burning the forest down, but this was an emergency.

Out of the flames, a thick black leg swiped at Fluffy. He yowled in pain, having been sent flying across the clearing and the impact knocking Holly knocked off the hellhound's back. Her world spun, and a second later she crashed headfirst into the bloody forest floor.

*THUD*

*THUD*

*THUD*

Properly dazed, it took Holly a bit to regain her bearings. Her vision was all blurry and messed up, dirt and tears streaking her face as she tried to focus on her surroundings.

Blearily, she looked back up and to her horror, saw the spider advancing on her with heavy steps. It had not a single burn, nor was its chitin charred at all. It looked like the same horrific sight as before, her fire had done nothing. Holly was absolutely powerless.

Holly attempted to stand, to look death in the eye as it approached, but her legs buckled under her. The spider loomed closer, its multiple eyes glinting red with a predatory gleam. Desperation surged through her, she tried to think of any spell that could help her.

But she came up empty, so she just threw everything at it. Severing charms, levitated stones or trying to blind the spider with a wand lighting charm were pitiful attempts to survive this foe, but it was all she had. With a trembling hand, she aimed another stream of fire at the spider to no avail.

Its pincers opened wide, revealing the maw stained with black tar-like ichor. It surged forward.

In the nick of time, just as the spider was about to swallow her whole, Fluffy dragged her backwards by the scruff of her cloak and out of line of fire. He presented her with his back, so Holly quickly scrambled back to her feet and climbed on. With no more webs in their way, the path was clear.

She sent one last blast of fire at the spider's legs, hoping to impede it as much as possible and Fluffy ran.

The mother roared in anger as Holly and Fluffy fled. Limping, battered and bruised, but alive!