Chapter 16:

I am telling you this from beyond my grave. We die during this chapter. A painful and gruesome death.

I am probably exaggerating . . . but I was absolutely terrified.

It might be clichéd, but my boggart used to be spiders when I was younger. And the fear has not disappeared. I know about Ron Weasleys fear (his twin brothers gleefully told me about it once). But I believe Rons fear for spiders is heavily based on trauma. My fear is a simple but intense phobia. I hate spiders. Small or large, I hate them all. I know it's silly, I know the small ones can't hurt me.

But this one . . .

I had never met an Acromantula in real life, and I had never expected to meet one in this forest, despite my comparison to Mirkwood. There was a fleeting moment when I thought it must be a doll, a model for a play or simply a hallucination. There was simply no way there could be an actual Acromantula in an English forest. But then the monster moved one of its hairy legs, slowly and deliberately as if not to alarm us, its prey, too much. My body reacted before my brain. When I had finally concluded this was too bizarre to be fake, my heart was already pounding against my chest.

The three of us stared at each other for another second, no sound but the drizzling rain around us. Bile rose in my throat. I felt like my legs were made of lead. I couldn't move. I couldn't think. I couldn't breathe.

The monster would have ponced me and eaten me easily had it not been for Snape. He grabbed my wrist and squeezed so hard it felt like my hand could pop off. But it helped me come to my senses a little.

"No quick movements" Snape whispered. "We have to stun it before it can attack, but we have to do it at the same time. An Acromantula this size will never go down with only one spell." He pointed his wand. I shakily drew mine as well.

"When I count to three" he ordered "One. Two. Three."

We both stunned the Acromantula at the same time in a flash of red light. It fell to the ground with a thump and a filter of hairy legs.

Then it became eerily quiet.

"Get back up! We need to get out of here! If there is one Acromantula, there will be more!" hissed Snape with a look of urgency on his face. We mounted Difficult quickly. When I set her into motion I could hear the rustling of several other gigantic animals around us but I couldn't see them. I urged her into gallop and we sped away in whatever direction Difficult chose.

We passed an area where all the trees were covered in spider webs. Unnaturally large spider webs. More rustling came about around us, and I heard Snape yell something behind me followed by a loud thump as something hit the ground behind us. Apparently one of the Aromantulas had tried to jump us. My heart thumped painfully but I kept my gaze onwards. There was no use in panicking now, I didn't have time for that. I had to focus on getting us out of here.

That thought stopped abruptly when the largest spider I had ever seen landed right in front of us with an angry hiss. That was when I finally realized the seriousness of our situation. We were going to die and there was no way out.

Difficult whinnied and pulled backwards. I let out an undignified whimper. I didn't know what to do. I could only stare in horror at the monster in front of us while I tried to hold Difficult steady. All around us gathered more monsters. I could see them in my peripheral vision. Lowering themselves from the treetops and rustling on the ground, surrounding us in the midst of a half circle, facing the largest spider. There must have been about a hundred of them, all hissing and clicking in delight but no one as huge as the one in front of us. My breath hitched and panic made me freeze again. The spiders around us clicked and hissed something that sounded suspiciously like English. "Feed ussssss." I would never have gotten out of there alive had it not been for Snape. He pinched my arm again so hard I would get a bruice, but I understood why he did it. Again it helped me focus. The largest spider (probably the leader) curled together as if to attack us, but before it could do so it was hit by a curse from Snape. The curse sliced three of its front legs off and made a fatal gash in its cephalothorax. It screamed in agony and tumbled to one side.

I didn't realise there was an opening for us before Snape yelled "Move!"

I urged Difficult to move again and we headed straight onwards where the largest spider had just been. The other spiders hissed and wailed in fury behind us, but we kept on galloping through the forest. At last we came out into an open landscape. That was a good thing because the Acromantulas could no longer attack us from above. But to my despair they still followed us.

"How many?!" I yelled to Snape behind me.

"Fifteen!" he yelled back "the rest stayed in the forest!"

"Forget everything I said about this forest. This is Mirkwood!" I said. I know, it was a stupid time to try making jokes, but what can I say? I'm not good with panic situations. It was very clear we would never be able to outrun the horde of hungry man-sized, eight-legged monsters.

"We will never be able to outrun them!"

"Head for the lake!" Snape and pointed at something towards the left "Acromantulas cannot swim!"

How he knew this I wasn't sure. I had never learned about Acromantulas in Care of Magical Creatures (or Defence for that matter), but indeed there was a large lake only a hundred yards in front of us. I made Difficult turn and gallop that way while Snape lashed out more spells at the creatures. None of his attempts seemed to be effective because he cursed loudly and urged me to go faster. Had we reached the lake only seconds later we'd have been supper, but I steered Difficult straight into the water and the monsters stopped by the shoreline. They hissed, scurried and clicked angrily at us while they tried to find a way to reach us. Some even asked us nicely to come back and feed them, just a little bit.

Difficult clearly understood what was at stake. As far away from the Acromantulas as possible the better. She waded further out without stopping. But when the water reached up to her back, one of the Acromantulas, probably in hungry desperation, took a huge risk and leapt at us. I wrenched Snape off the saddle and into the water as the Acromantula landed on Difficults back. Difficult whinnied in panic but the Acromantula failed to hold on and slid off her into the water. There, it thrashed about until it sank underneath. After that, none of the other Acromantulas dared to jump after us. They scurried back and forth along the shore and hissed furiously at us. 'Come baaaack' 'Feeeed ussss'.

The water was freezing cold, and it seeped into my boots and through my clothes. The positive side was that it immediately helped clear my mind and I breathed out in relief.

We had made it. We were not dead.

Snape on the other hand, was not convinced.

I had failed to notice, when we landed in the water, how he thrashed about after I released him. But now that I had made sure the Acromantulas wouldn't come after us, my attention was suddenly drawn to him.

'Fuck' was all I could think when I suddenly saw his head disappear under the surface in his struggle to keep floating. "Fuck!" I exclaimed and splashed to his side in an attempt to help him. Bad idea. He desperately latched onto me, but it only made us both sink underneath. I made a gurgling sound of protest. "Stop! Stop it!" I yelled coughing when I got some air into my lungs again. "Severus! Stop it, you need to calm down!" but it was no use. He pulled me down again.

There was a moment where I wondered whether Snape would drown us both when one of my feet found a rock underneath me. This fantastic protruding rock would be my favourite thing about this day. Oh, thank merlin I thought.

I got a good grip on the rock and pulled both of us above the water. I had a secure arm around his waist, but Snape didn't seem to notice how he didn't sink underneath anymore. In fact, he seemed more panicked the longer we stayed in the water. His breath hitched, he trashed around and gripped me tightly as if I was his only lifeline.

Feed usss!

"Hey hey, it's alright. I've got you, I've got you. Calm down alright? Stop thrashing about!"

This did not seem to help. In fact he only gripped me tighter. I slipped off the rock for a moment before I found it again under my foot. "No!" he managed to grit out. "No, I can't swim, I can't swim!"

'Feeed ussss!'

"I realize that, but you need to stop thrashing about and calm down, you're only making it difficult for me to stay on the rock!" I said this while I slipped on the slimy rock underneath me again and only barely managed to find it again before Snape drowned me.

"I can't!"

'Feeeed usssss!'

"Yes you can! Relax! I promise I'll hold you up. I've got foothold."

"No!" he shook his head vigorously.

"Severus Snape! Pull yourself together! I swear to you if we drown in a stupid lake I'll hunt you down and kill you!"

That was obviously a language Snape could understand. He stopped thrashing, but his breath was still hitched and he didn't loosen his grip on my collar. "Good" I said. I had slipped off the rock again and this time I couldn't find it with my foot. I found my wand from somewhere and waved it to conjure a sort of air-filled bag to make it easier to float. I had tried to conjure a rescue hoop or something, but this would make do.

"Can you let go of my collar too? You can trust me. I swear I won't let you go." I prodded open his grip of steel (it took a while). Then I put one of his arms on my shoulder to tell him he could still hold on to me if he wanted as long as he didn't strangle me. His breath was still hitched and ragged and he shut his eyes tightly clearly embarrassed.

By this time the Acromantulas had scurried away. Hopefully back to their nest in the woods.

"It's fine" I assured him. It amazed me that the man who had been so calm and collected when we were facing a horde of flesh-eating monsters suddenly panicked because of some water. But then we all had our fears. I kicked us both in the direction of the opposite shore after Difficult. She was far ahead of us.

When we were about halfway across Snape spotted something in the sky "look" he said.

When I looked up I heard a voice above us say "Ohoi! Are you in need of assistance, good fellow?"

About twenty feet above us were two men on brooms who flew closer as they spoke. I had to laugh at the sight. "Indeed sir, alas, we seem to have found ourselves in a bit of a pickle!"

"Indeed" said the closest flyer. "We saw your flight from the spiders. Wise move to head for the lake, but your horse is about to leave on the other side. Would you like a ride to the shore to catch it?"

"Oh! That would be very much appreciated! Would you mind taking my wife first, sir? She cannot swim and she is a bit shaken." Snape sent me a look as if I had just betrayed him. I wasn't exactly sure why.

"Certainly!" yelled the broom rider and came down so close to the water that he almost touched the surface with his toes. "Take my hand fair lady, and I will lift you up onto my broom."

"Go on" I urged him while he stared at me uncertainly. Then he reached out and took the broom riders hand. The broom rider then pulled him up with surprising strength and flew away. The other guy, a much burlier man came down and offered a hand to me. I grabbed it and felt myself get pulled out of the water. Together we flew after the first guy who had picked up Snape. When we landed, the first thing I did was to go and meet Difficult when she came out of the water. I pulled out an apple from my backpack to calm her down. Luckily my backpack was waterproof and everything in there had stayed dry. Thank Merlin for that.

Difficult looked exhausted but unharmed. The Acromantula that jumped her had merely slid off her without doing damage. I pulled her over to Snape who sat on a rock near the shoreline with his head in his hands. "Are you alright?" I asked and put a hand on his shoulder. He shoved it forcefully away and snarled "I'm fine!"

"Fine" I said annoyed "Then you can take care of Difficult while I thank those men." I left Difficult with him and headed over to the wizards. It turned out there were three of them. Each with their own horse.

"Oh, good sir! How is your wife? She seems very upset."

"She'll be fine" I said as I turned to look after Snape and Difficult. Snape was petting her muzzle again. "Being chased by monsters is not something a lady experiences every day. But she is tough. She can handle it once she gets over the first shock."

The man in the middle nodded. Now that I looked at him I realised there was something strangely familiar about him. The two men on each side were as different from each other as they were from the man in the middle. The one on the right was a burly red-head while the other was skinny and blonde. However, they all looked regal and posed. Like a band of higher-class men on a business trip.

"I have to thank you for helping out" I said.

"Oh, you are very welcome, good sir, it was our pleasure" said the man in the middle. Then he turned to his fellow men; "let us introduce ourselves. These are my fellow men Sir Goddart Paupard, he pointed at the burly one and sir Fergus Crescent he pointed at the skinny one. An my name is Sir Nicolas DeMimsy Porpington."