Before we begin, I would like to give thanks to a good friend of mine on discord who beta'd this chapter and helped me with writing it.
The next chapter is about half done so I hope to have it out soon.
Chapter 30
In astronomy Harry made sure to take plenty of notes but his mind kept thinking about tonight, he remembered Hagrid's words about following the spiders and hoped Lee's tarantula would lead him to Aragog. Even though they knew Tom Riddle was the heir Harry wasn't sure if there were any students in the school who could be related to him, he remembered Hagrid said Aragog felt something was off about Tom's magic, he hoped questioning him could lead them to the heir and the monster.
Harry had explained his plan to Neville and Ron, the two boys were shocked by this and expressed how bad they thought the idea was, however they knew they couldn't talk him out of it.
At lunch Harry hardly said a word to anyone and kept to himself, he kept thinking about what questions he should ask Aragog, everyone thought he was just upset about his fight with Malfoy so no one tried to talk to him.
At the Slytherin table Malfoy was glaring at Harry, he could hear many of the students were still talking about the fight during breakfast, he heard some of the Slytherins mock him for getting beaten as though he were a muggle, he was supposed to be the prince of Slytherin but now many were laughing behind his back and he blamed Harry for all of it.
In transfiguration Harry listened to McGonagall's lecture and wrote down notes from the lesson, they then moved on to trying to transfigure a porcupine into a pin cushion, Harry was one of the first students to successfully transfigure his porcupine and spent the rest of his time trying to help his friends. Ron looked at the broken wand in his hand, he had finished taping it back together in astronomy but hadn't tried to cast a spell yet, he attempted to transfigure the porcupine but let out a yelp when sparks shot out from both halves of his wand. Neville stopped Ron from attempting it again and offered to let him use his wand, Neville's wand worked better and before the class was over Ron had managed to successfully transfigure the porcupine.
The class ended and the three boys packed their stuff getting ready to leave, one Gryffindor walked up behind Harry and reached out to tap him on the shoulder and get his attention, they stopped when they saw Professor McGonagall turn her attention towards Harry.
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Mr. Longbottom, please remain after class." Professor McGonagall said.
The student stepped back and decided they could talk to him later. Nearly headless Nick guided the rest of the students out of the classroom and towards the Gryffindor tower until they needed to head down for dinner. Once everyone was gone Harry decided to speak up.
"Yes, Professor McGonagall?"
McGonagall had her usual stern look on her face before saying "Mr. Potter, I would like to inform you that I have reviewed your memory of Professor Snape's class, he is currently under probation and his teaching methods will be under review, during this time he is no longer allowed to give out punishments or take away points unless they are approved by the students' head of house," She remembered how much Snape was fuming when she informed him of this, she knew Dumbledore wouldn't be able to undo this punishment for the potions master until after the students left Hogwarts.
The three boys were surprised to hear this, they hadn't thought Snape would be punished for what he did, Harry nodded and said "Thank you, Professor."
"That being said," She continued, "I cannot ignore your earlier actions Mr. Potter," Harry frowned at hearing that, "If you were having problems with Mr. Malfoy then you were to come to me or one of the prefects, attacking another student in the middle of the great hall like that and causing a fight is unacceptable!"
Harry decided not to say a word, however that didn't stop his thoughts, "Since when has that ever worked, you wouldn't have even believed me."
McGonagall continued, "After seeing your memory of the fight and hearing what Misters Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle said then I will be assigning all six of you one week detention with Mr. Filch, report to his office after dinner tonight, both Gryffindor and Slytherin will also lose one hundred points."
Ron and Neville started to complain saying they didn't start the fight, however they stopped when they heard Harry say "Yes, Professor McGonagall."
Harry didn't say another word and left the classroom, Neville and Ron glanced at each other and quickly followed after him, they saw Nick was waiting for them in the hallway and offered to guide them to where they needed to go. Harry decided to head to the dueling room instead of heading back to the tower, at least in the dueling room he could relax without other students trying to bother him. Neville and Ron decided to head back to the tower, they asked Harry if he'd be alright, he nodded saying he wanted to get some practice in before dinner, Nick dropped off the two boys at the tower before guiding Harry to the dueling room.
Harry opened up the window since he felt Hedwig was approaching, the snowy white owl wanted to keep him company and Harry explained to Hedwig what he was planning for tonight. Hedwig offered to accompany him into the forest to keep an eye out for anything dangerous, he thanked her and the two decided to spend some time practicing.
Harry had thought of a new idea, with their connection through the bond he wanted to practice how well he could understand Hedwig, he cast obscuro on himself and made a blindfold appear, he explained to Hedwig that he needed her to be his eyes and help him cast at each target. The practice wasn't easy at first, Harry kept missing the target so he slowly moved and listened as Hedwig informed him of where the target was, it took some time but eventually Harry was able to listen to Hedwig and his spell struck the target. With Hedwig's help he could be more aware of his surroundings, he wondered if there was a way to improve the bond.
Dinner quickly came and Harry went down to join his friends, he talked to the twins and Lee and told them about having detention with Filch, he still wanted to go into the forest so they agreed to meet up in the common room an hour after curfew. One of the Gryffindor second years wanted to approach Harry to talk, unfortunately he was surrounded by other students and they didn't want to have the conversation in front of others.
Their detention with Filch afterwards hadn't been as bad as Harry would have thought, Filch hated everyone equally so he didn't give special treatment to them or the Slytherins. When the group of six boys met up in front of Filch's office they glared at each other and threw out a few insults, they were seconds away from pulling out their wands when Filch opened the door, stopping the argument. They all had their wands confiscated. He put them in his office and locked the door. They were each assigned a room they needed to clean by themselves, Malfoy complained,
"You must be joking; you can't make us clean a whole room without magic. When my father hears about this." Malfoy said.
"Your father had the same type of detentions when he was here. His specialty was cleaning the toilets so I think I'll have you do the same."
Filch grabbed Malfoys arm and turned to the rest of them,
"What are you doing standing around you got your own rooms to do unless you want the same as Malfoy here…." He trailed off as the others grabbed the cleaning supplies and went to the classrooms they were assigned.
Harry had an easier time with the punishment since he'd cast a wandless scourgify to clean the classroom, he didn't want Filch to add more to his punishment so he'd pretend to clean when he came to check up on him, thankfully Hedwig kept watch from a nearby window and warned Harry of every time Filch was going to check on him.
Filch made sure to keep them for as long as he could. Twenty minutes before curfew he gathered them up and took them to his office where he gave them back their wands. Malfoy was dirtier than anyone else who was cleaning. Filch sent them back to their common rooms with ten minutes before curfew, the students had to rush since they knew Filch would use this as an excuse to punish them even more.
Once they were back in their common room Harry went upstairs to the dorm to prepare to head into the forest, he would meet the twins and Lee in the common room an hour after curfew. Harry tried to relax while he rested on his bed, he admitted to himself he was nervous about going into the forest, he remembered the last time when they ran into Quirrell and nearly died, he hoped it wouldn't be as bad this time.
An hour after curfew Harry got up to head downstairs to the common room, he pulled open his curtains but was surprised to see both Ron and Neville were sitting up on their beds, the two boys looked at him and Neville decided to answer the question before he could ask, "We're coming with you."
Harry stared at them with disbelief, with how against the idea they were he was certain he would have to head into the forest alone, he whispered, "You can't, it'll be too dangerous."
Both boys ignored him and got out of their beds, Ron decided to speak up, "We went with you when you went after the stone, we're not letting you go alone."
"It'll be better if we're there to look out for you, you shouldn't have to go into the forest alone." Neville added.
Harry wanted to argue saying he would be fine going alone, however neither of the two were going to listen, Harry could see just how stubborn they were, in the end he gave in and the two joined him.
The three boys snuck out of their dorm and made their way downstairs, they saw the twins and Lee were there waiting for them on one of the many sofas, Harry noticed Lee was holding a small clear plastic box with a tarantula inside.
"There he is…" One twin said with a grin.
"We were beginning to think you weren't going to show up." the other twin said.
"Looks like you owe me a galleon dear brother," The other said.
Even though they were joking they did it to cut the tension they were feeling. The fact that their little brother's friend was going into the forbidden forest at night still had them a little worried. Even if they had gone into the forest to get ingredients for their experiments, they never went further than five hundred yards past the tree line.
Lee smiled at the twins' antics, seeing them joke told him they were just as worried for Harry as he was. He walked up to Harry and handed him the box.
"Here you go, the box is conjured, it has cushion charms on it so if you drop it, which I hope you don't, it will protect my pet from any harm. It should vanish by tomorrow morning, hopefully it'll lead you to where you need to go."
Harry held up the box and looked at the tarantula inside, it kept facing the same direction no matter which way you turned the box like it was being called to a safe place from whatever was in the castle. Ron shivered a bit when he saw the spider and took a few steps back.
Harry turned to Lee and said "Thanks Lee, I'll make sure to return him afterwards."
George approached and said "Here, we made something for you."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a wooden ball and handed it to him, Harry asked "What's this?"
Fred explained, "It's one of our experimental fireworks, if you want it to go off then all you need to do is throw it at something, once it breaks it'll cause several bright lights and loud sounds, imagine our fireworks from new years but louder and brighter, also make sure you're not close to it when it breaks."
Harry looked at it nervously but decided to bring it along in case he may need it, he put it in his pocket and thanked the twins.
"Ron, are you and Neville going with Harry?" Fred asked, wondering what the two boys were doing here.
"Yeah, we don't think Harry should go alone." Ron said. Neville nodded as he agreed with Ron.
"We can't let you go with him, Ron," George said.
"B-But…" Ron stuttered weakly; he didn't think the twins would let Harry go into the forest alone.
"Yeah, mom would kill us if we let you go into the forbidden forest. At least not without a properly working wand." Fred said while George had disappeared up the boys' tower. He came back down two minutes later with their older brother's wand.
"Just be sure to leave the wand down here on the fire place when you return, we'll leave a solution in a small vial, be sure to put the wand on the mantle then pour the solution over the wand and we'll take the blame for it being there."
The three boys decided not to question the older students and simply thanked them before leaving the common room.
From under the cloak the three boys could see several ghosts out patrolling the castle late at night.
They stopped just at the top of the last flight of stairs when they heard someone humming. They froze in place as the humming got stronger and closer. They relaxed only a little bit when they saw it was Peeves humming to himself. They waited as he floated past them, humming and talking to himself about all the stink bombs he was going to plant in the classrooms.
The three boys managed to sneak out of the castle and made their way to Hagrid's hut, Harry remembered Hagrid said he and Fang would always visit Aragog so he hoped having Fang with them would make it easier. The boar hound was excited to see them and began slobbering on them, Harry told Ron to grab the oil lamp before taking Fang and heading into the woods, with the trees covering them they lit the oil lamp to light the way.
Harry decided to stand in front with the tarantula leading the way, Ron stood in the middle while Neville stood behind them with his wand drawn. Harry felt nervous going into the forest but he knew he couldn't turn back now, Hedwig watched over them and was ready to inform Harry through their bond of anything she spotted, Harry looked at the tarantula and started walking in the direction it was facing.
The forest felt a lot creepier than they first thought. As they walked deeper into the forest the branches of the trees started to look like twisted hands ready to grab them at any moment. Neville and Ron kept their wands ready in case something happened, they would hear different sounds in the forest but Hedwig would inform Harry that it wasn't anything to worry about. Soon Harry noticed something was approaching them, he told Neville and Ron to stop and the three boys wondered what it could be, they heard it was heading in their direction.
Harry soon spotted what it was and relaxed, he called out, "Swift!"
Emerging through the bushes, Harry saw it was the thestral he had become familiar with, Neville relaxed when he saw the friendly thestral but Ron looked confused. Swift approached the group and moved towards Harry, Harry held the box with one arm and started to pet the thestral, Ron asked "What are you doing?"
Remembering Ron couldn't see thestrals, Harry explained, "It's the thestral we met at the beginning of the year, the one that gave birth a few months ago."
Ron remembered Harry had mentioned her before and nodded, Harry got an idea and asked Swift if she would follow them into the forest, the thestral seemed to understand and stood close to them as they continued to head deeper into the forest. Having the thestral around was a great help, since she was familiar with them, she felt protective of them, there were a few creatures they ran into but Swift seemed to be ready to defend them, although a few times they had to stop Ron from bumping into her.
Some time passed as they made their way deeper into the forest, it became darker as the trees continued to block the moonlight and soon their only source of light was the lamp, there were some spots where the branches didn't cover the moonlight but they were few. They didn't know how long they had been walking but soon Hedwig informed them that there was something up ahead, it wasn't long before the three boys could see what it was, they came to a stop when they noticed everything was covered in spiderwebs.
Harry looked around and saw the trees ahead were all covered in spiderwebs but the trees around them weren't, it felt like this area was separate from the rest of the forest. Neville slowly approached some of the webs and touched them, he said "This is acromantula silk, it's expensive but dangerous to harvest."
They could see they were on the right path, Ron shivered at the idea but continued forward, Fang followed them but Harry noticed Swift wasn't following, he could see she didn't want to go anywhere near the acromantula. Harry and Neville tried to guide her but she wouldn't move any closer. Harry stopped trying and instead said "Swift, wait for us here, we shouldn't be long."
The thestral understood and relaxed, Harry looked towards the webs and thought of something, he spoke through the bond, "Hedwig, I want you to wait here with Swift," Hedwig started to argue but Harry explained, "With everything covered in spiderwebs there's a chance the acromantula could try going after you, we should be safe with Fang, if anything happens then I'll contact you through our bond."
Hedwig wasn't happy but she agreed, she flew down and landed on Swift, the thestral didn't mind having an owl land on her head. Neville and Ron were surprised to see Hedwig.
"She was concerned about me so she followed us," Harry explained.
Ron just thought it was unusual seeing Hedwig on a thestral since it looked like she was standing on nothing to him. The three boys turned towards the part of the forest covered in spiderwebs, Harry looked at the tarantula seeing it wanted to go in that direction. The only one not nervous was Fang since he recognized where they were heading and was excited, he started rolling around on the floor and bursting through the web covered bushes getting acromantula silk all over him.
The three boys kept moving forward deeper into the forest knowing Fang would follow them.
"At least one of us is having fun," Harry thought to himself. Laughing in his mind at Fang's antics. He never saw him so hyper before.
More time passed as the three boys continued to follow the tarantula, the only light was from their lamp and a few glimmers of moonlight through the branches, the forest became as silent as a tomb the deeper they went. Soon not even the crickets were making any sounds.
Harry kept getting the feeling that they were being watched by something, he'd look around to try to spot what it was but he wouldn't see anything unusual, he made sure Fang could be spotted in case it was an acromantula. Harry noticed how different this part of the forest was from the rest, the trees were much bigger and covered the entire sky so not even a small beam of moonlight could pass through the leaves. It felt as though they weren't even in the same forest anymore.
Fang's head suddenly turned in a different direction and ended up barking, it made the three boys jump before they looked at what he spotted, they could hear something approaching and soon they heard rustling coming from the trees and bushes. Ron let out a shriek when huge spiders began to emerge from the bushes and climb down the trees, seeing them made Harry shiver as he pulled out his wand in case he may need it, there were several spiders surrounding them and Harry saw they varied in size, some appeared to be the same size as the cats his neighbor had, others looked big enough to devour them. The sound of chittering could be heard all around them as they continued clicking their pincers, they were surrounded and the three boys kept waving their wands in case any tried to attack.
Fang ended up barking again and it seemed to make the spiders stop, their many eyes were clear to the three boys as they watched them curiously and continued to chitter. One of the biggest acromantula of the group approached and stopped before them, to their shock it spoke in a raspy voice, "Who… are you?"
Looks like they actually can talk, Harry decided to step forward and speak up, "My name is Harry, we're friends of Hagrid, he told us to follow the spiders to find Aragog."
More chittering was heard around them, the acromantula seemed to be speaking to each other so they waited to see what would happen. The acromantula simply turned around and said "Follow."
It started walking and Harry glanced back at Ron and Neville, they both still looked nervous and had their wands out, Harry noticed the acromantula had them completely surrounded and blocked off the way they came from, having no other choice they followed. The three boys made sure to stick close to Fang, the boar hound seemed to be excited so they hoped that meant they were safe. Harry contacted Hedwig through their bond and she could feel where they were, Harry could see they were pretty far from where they had left them.
They continued to walk for several minutes until they arrived at a large open area, the area was covered in far more spiderwebs and allowed some light through but it was still rather dark. The boys felt themselves shiver when they noticed more and more spiders begin to emerge, there had to have been well over a hundred of them in various sizes.
They were distracted when Fang barked loudly, they soon heard a loud and raspy voice, "Fang, is that you? Hagrid, are you there?"
They heard the sounds of branches moving and soon saw something crawling down, Harry saw a gigantic hairy spider climb down from the trees, the three boys felt their skin crawl at the sight of the acromantula they were looking for. One of the acromantula from before approached and said "They are not Hagrid."
Aragog turned his head towards the three boys, "Who are you?"
Harry gulped and handed the box to Neville, he stepped forward and answered, "My name is Harry Potter, Hagrid sent us to find you."
"Harry Potter… Hagrid has mentioned you, why are you here and where is Hagrid?" Before he could answer, one of Aragog's legs moved and he ended up gently patting Fang and telling him "Run along Fang, you shouldn't be here this late." Fang barked and the three boys watched as Fang ran off and the spiders made a path for him.
Harry decided to be honest, "Hagrid has been arrested, the chamber of secrets has been opened and the minister has decided to blame Hagrid for it."
"WHAT!" Aragog roared with anger, many of the acromantula around them seemed to react the same, it terrified the three boys. "Hagrid is innocent, he was never responsible for opening the chamber!"
"We know," Harry quickly tried to explain, "We know Hagrid isn't the one who opened the chamber, we needed to find you because we believe we know who did!"
Aragog seemed to calm down before asking "What do you mean?"
Harry steeled his nerves and asked "Do you remember a student named Tom Marvolo Riddle?"
Aragog remained silent for several seconds before answering, "Tom Riddle is the one who blinded me, he is the one who blamed Hagrid and claimed I was Slytherin's monster."
Seeing he remembered Tom Riddle, Harry asked "Hagrid said at the time you felt something was off about Tom's magic, what did you feel?"
"At the time I wasn't aware of what it was but now I know, Tom Riddle possessed the serpent's tongue," Hearing that confirmed Tom Riddle was a parselmouth, "The serpent's tongue is a rare magic only certain people possess, I did not detect its magic unless it had been recently used, the magic I felt from Tom Riddle felt stronger when there had been another attack from Slytherin's monster."
Harry realized he hadn't spoken in parseltongue in a while, maybe long enough that they wouldn't notice it in his magic; he wondered how they would have reacted if they felt the magic from him. Harry decided to ask "Do you know if Tom Riddle had any family, they are saying the current heir has opened the chamber."
"I… am uncertain if he had any family, Tom Riddle would always remain in the castle when the other students would return home, his presence was the only one I felt and it was similar to Slytherin's monster."
At the mention of Slytherin's monster Harry decided to ask, "Do you know what Slytherin's monster is?"
Harry wasn't sure but he almost thought he saw Aragog was trembling, "I… am aware of what Slytherin's monster is, I was able to feel its presence in the castle when it would attack, every petrified victim had traces of its magic but its magic felt the strongest when a girl had been found dead in the bathroom, that was when I felt I needed to flee the castle."
Hearing this gave them some hope, Harry asked "What is Slytherin's monster?"
Aragog moved as though he were trying to shake his head and said "I do not dare to speak its name, it is a creature magic would not dare to create naturally, even its name feels dark and unnatural. It is those who possess the serpent's tongue who are responsible for its creation."
Hearing this surprised Harry, he turned to Ron and Neville and saw they were just as confused and curious as him, Harry turned back to Aragog and asked "Why won't you say its name?"
"There is power even in a name, just as how many wizards do not dare to speak the name of the dark lord, we do not dare to speak the name of that monster."
Harry could see trying to ask for the name wouldn't get them any answers, at least with this they might be able to find out what it is. Harry wanted to leave quickly and get back to the castle so he said "Thank you for telling us, we should head back to the castle now."
As soon as he said that the sounds of chittering and clicking around them started to get louder, the acromantula around them started to become restless. Aragog spoke up, "You will not be leaving, my children have been waiting for something to wander into our nest and they aren't letting it go."
Hearing that made the three boys feel terrified, Harry said "Wait, Hagrid said you promised you would never harm a student!"
"I have; however, my children have made no such promise. I prevent them from leaving the nest but because of that, prey rarely come here, my children are starving to the point that they have engaged in cannibalism, it is how I lost my wife Mosag. Anything that enters our nest becomes our prey."
The acromantula started to approach, the three boys stood together with their wands ready as the acromantula got closer, they were shaking as they weren't sure if their spells would help.
Harry got an idea, without thinking he shouted in parseltongue, "~Back off!~"
The acromantulas suddenly backed away rapidly, Aragog even crashed into the tree behind him, Harry saw how they reacted to parseltongue and saw it terrified them, "Y-you… possess the serpent's tongue!?" his attention turned to Aragog, suddenly the chittering and clicking around them seemed to become more aggressive. Aragog moved and almost appeared to be enraged, "Harry Potter, you will not be leaving this nest."
Harry felt his blood drain when he realized they were targeting him now, he looked around and noticed the acromantula had opened up a path when they backed away, they only had one chance to get out of there alive. Harry called out to his friends, "Ron, Neville, close your eyes and look away, now!"
The two boys listened and did as he said, as soon as they turned away Harry raised his wand and left hand and cast, "Lumos maxima!"
He closed his eyes in time as a blinding light came from his wand and caught the acromantula off guard, the sudden light lighting up the dark forest blinded the acromantula and stunned them. Harry cut off the spell before turning to his two friends and giving them a push as he yelled "Run!"
Neville quickly cast a lumos to light their way, despite being blinded, many of the acromantula rushed to where they had been standing but the three boys managed to rush through the path they left open. Harry remembered the firework the twins had given him, he quickly reached into his pocket and threw the ball back at the group of acromantula, they continued running as a blast was heard and several colorful lights appeared.
Neville ran in front while lighting the way, Harry could feel in which direction Hedwig was in and directed them that way, Ron yelled out, "Follow the spiders, follow the bloody spiders, if Hagrid gets out of Azkaban, I swear I'm going to kill him!"
Before they could respond Harry heard something, he looked back and felt dread when he saw many acromantula were quickly running after them, it looks like his spell hadn't blinded all of them. Harry yelled to Neville and Ron to keep running, with him in the back Harry raised his wand to cast a spell, he overpowered his spell and focused on trying to affect a wider area, he cast, "Frictionless!"
His spell hit the ground behind them and his magic covered the area, to their relief the spiders slipped, slid, and fell when they stepped where the spell hit. Harry stayed behind the group and continued to cast in different directions in case the acromantula continued to follow, they continued to run in the direction Harry told them too.
Hedwig felt the panic Harry was feeling and couldn't wait around any longer, she flew off towards where the bond was directing her.
The three boys continued to run through the forest, Harry had spotted several acromantula still trying to follow them, many had even come from different directions but thankfully frictionless prevented them from reaching the three. Neville continued to light their path while holding the box with his left arm, Ron had lost the lamp when he threw it at one of the spiders and managed to hit it, Harry was quick to cast frictionless to prevent it from following them.
Harry focused on casting his spell behind them and on their sides to prevent any of the spiders from reaching them, it seemed to be working since they started to see them less and less but he wasn't going to stop casting until they were out of the forest.
Harry felt Hedwig was heading in their direction and they were close to each other, Hedwig spotted the three boys and felt relieved seeing they were still alive, she looked at their surroundings and soon spotted something. Harry had just cast frictionless behind them again when he felt Hedwig yell out a warning through their bond, when he felt where Hedwig was looking Harry felt like he froze up. Everything seemed to slow down as he looked back at the tree they had just ran past, in the dark he managed to spot an acromantula waiting for them. The acromantula seemed to lock eyes with him, the moment the spider knew it had been spotted it leapt at him. Harry only had a moment to cast one spell, he managed to wave his wand and cast, "Protego!"
The shield appeared just in time to block the acromantula from reaching him, unfortunately Harry didn't have a chance to brace himself as the acromantula slammed into his shield, the force was enough to knock Harry back onto the ground with his shield following him. Harry hit the ground hard and groaned at the pain, he managed to keep hold of his wand and kept the shield up, that was the only thing that saved him since he suddenly felt a heavy weight jump on him, he opened his eyes and saw the pincers of the acromantula were just a few inches away from his face. The acromantula continuously slammed into the shield trying to get at Harry, Harry panicked not knowing what to do as he felt his shield slowly crack with every hit.
"Bombarda!"
The spell rushed forward and slammed into the acromantula knocking it off Harry's shield, Harry saw Neville had cast the spell before rushing to help him up, Ron aimed at the acromantula and cast, "Incendio!"
The jet of flames rushed forward as the acromantula stood on wobbly legs, it couldn't move out of the way in time and was struck by the spell. The acromantula caught on fire and it seemed to be shrieking as it tried to put it out. Harry dropped the shield just as Neville got to him and helped him up, "Come on Harry, we need to keep going!"
Harry got up and the three boys resumed running, Harry noticed Neville wasn't holding the box and saw he had dropped it when he had cast the bombarda spell, there wasn't time to go back for it but Harry couldn't leave it so he raised his wand and cast, "Accio box!"
The box flew towards him and Harry caught it, he was glad to see he could successfully cast the spell. Neville continued to light the way as they kept running, however they started to feel tired from all the running and knew they couldn't keep it up long enough to escape the forest. Harry got an idea and yelled out, "Swift!"
Right now the thestral was their only way they could quickly escape the forest, Neville and Ron realized what Harry was doing and started calling for the thestral. Swift had rushed into the forest not long after Hedwig left, she soon heard their calls and came running to them, Neville and Harry felt relieved when they saw Swift rushing towards them.
Harry grabbed Ron just as Swift stopped in front of them, he told Neville to get on first. Putting away their wands, Neville put down the box before the two boys gave him a boost onto the thestral's back. Once he was on, Neville took hold of Harry's hand and pulled him up as Ron gave him a boost. The two boys took hold of Ron's hands and were about to pull him up, something caught Harry's attention and he noticed a light was quickly approaching, his stomach dropped when he saw it was the same acromantula Ron had set on fire.
Some of its legs were damaged from Neville's blast and it was still burning and making a shrieking sound like it was suffering, it had one thing on its mind and it was to go after them. Harry had his wand put away and couldn't get it in time, he took one hand off of Ron's and raised his right hand and cast, "Frictionless!"
The spell struck the ground, unfortunately the spider climbed a boulder and dodged the spell. It quickly climbed to the top and from there it leapt at them, it jumped far and was about to reach them, none of them could react in time to stop it, an arrow suddenly shot past Harry and struck the acromantula in the face, its body fell to the floor.
They pulled Ron onto the thestral and he sat between them, Swift felt they were on and quickly took off in the direction she came from. Harry pulled out his wand and cast the summoning charm on the box, when he looked back the light from the fire revealed a centaur in one of the trees holding a bow.
Swift continued to run through the forest and the boys took the chance to catch their breaths, Harry could feel Hedwig nearby and was keeping an eye out for more of them. Neville took out his wand and cast Lumos to continue to light the way, once the boys caught their breaths Ron said "Hagrid could have warned us that there were so many of them, we barely managed to get out of there!"
"They probably never attacked Hagrid so he must have thought they wouldn't attack anyone." Neville explained.
"At least they were afraid when I spoke parseltongue," Harry said, "After that they just wanted to kill me and would have probably ignored you two."
"Let's just get out of here, I don't ever want to come back to the forest!" Said Ron. He looked down and felt uneasy seeing he was riding on a creature he couldn't see.
Harry was about to speak but stopped when he heard Hedwig through their bond, a look of worry appeared on his face. Harry looked back and listened, he could hear several sounds approaching, Neville and Ron noticed his reaction and Neville asked "What's wrong?"
Instead of answering, Harry raised his wand and cast a bright lumos, Neville and Ron noticed what it was and the same look of fear appeared on their faces. Far behind them they could see several acromantula, instead of running on the ground they were jumping from tree to tree and they were catching up. Ron was the one to speak up first, "They can jump. OF COURSE THEY CAN BLOODY JUMP, WHY SHOULDN'T THEY!?"
Harry quickly cast frictionless, the spell hit one of the trees and made a few fall but the other acromantula avoided that tree, they were intelligent, fast, and deadly, it was easy to see why they were a four X dangerous creature. The three boys raised their wands and started casting at the spiders, they were able to knock a few out of the trees but there were too many, they were still getting closer.
Harry looked up at the trees and saw there were too many branches blocking the sky, Swift wouldn't be able to fly them out of here unless they find an opening. Hedwig flew above the forest to search for an opening Swift could fly through, she needed to be quick as the acromantula were getting closer.
Harry saw the spiders were getting closer, he thought of a spell that could help, he raised his wand and cast, "Fumos!"
He overpowered the spell and a thick dark cloud of smoke came from the wand and distracted the acromantula, it surprised them for a moment and caused them to slow down. Harry saw he bought them extra time; he hoped Hedwig would find an opening soon.
Hedwig spotted an opening and flew back to the group, when she told Harry she found an opening Harry yelled "Swift, follow Hedwig!"
The thestral understood and immediately followed Hedwig, the three boys focused on trying to knock the spiders out of the trees, Harry unleashed a shower of sparks trying to distract the spiders and slow them down. When Swift spotted the opening she extended her wings, Harry yelled "HOLD ON!"
Swift took off and the three boys held on tightly, as she reached the opening one of the acromantula got close and leapt at them but just barely missed them. Swift flew out of the forest and the three boys were screaming and holding on tightly to keep from falling, their hearts were pounding and all three were shaking at seeing they barely escaped. Hedwig led Swift to Hagrid's hut, the three boys managed to stop screaming and tried to catch their breaths, they were all still shaking. Harry looked down as they flew over the forest, he saw how deep in the forest they were and knew they wouldn't have been able to escape on foot.
Hedwig landed on Hagrid's hut and Swift landed in front of the hut, the three boys were still breathing heavily as they climbed down, as soon as their feet touched the ground and they knew they were out of danger all three lost all feeling in their legs and collapsed to the floor. They could feel their hearts threatening to burst, they barely managed to escape the acromantula colony. Harry turned to look at the box with Lee's tarantula and saw it was still trying to escape, the memory of that acromantula on his shield was still fresh in his mind, he would never look at spiders the same again.
After a few minutes the three boys managed to calm down and stand back up, now that they were out of danger, Harry turned to Swift and thanked her for saving their lives, the thestral moved closer to him and Harry started to pet her. Ron loudly said "What was Hagrid thinking of sending us into the forest, was he trying to help us or was he trying to make sure he fed those things!?"
Neville tried to calm him down, "Hagrid probably thought they wouldn't hurt us, he raised them so he thought they probably would help us."
Hearing that, Harry turned to the two and said "I'm sorry I dragged you into this, I didn't want to put you in any danger. I didn't know they would want to kill us, I definitely would have died if you two didn't join me, thank you for saving my life."
That calmed the two boys down, Ron said "It's no problem, mate."
"You did a lot to protect us too," Neville continued, "You even turned their attention towards you by speaking parseltongue."
"I figured it would distract them from you." Harry explained.
With that out of the way they began discussing what they had learnt, Ron thought this had only confirmed what they knew about the attacks and Tom being the heir, Harry disagreed saying "Aragog said the monster was unnatural and shared a connection with parselmouths, they even feared it so much that saying its name is the same as when people say V-, You-Know-Who." He stopped himself from saying Voldemort.
Ron looked worried at that and asked, "You mean Slytherin's monster is something even more dangerous than a colony of acromantula?!"
The thought terrified them, Harry nodded and Ron's shoulders slumped at that, he then said "Last year we had to deal with Hagrid's pet Cerberus and pet dragon, we just barely survived his pet acromantula and we still need to deal with Slytherin's pet monster?!" Ron held his arms up as if to say he's giving up, "That's it, I'm going back to the dorm to hold Scabbers, at least that's one pet that won't try to kill me."
Neville tried to cheer him up, "Hey, look on the bright side."
"What bright side?!"
Neville quickly thought of something then said "At least after tonight you can tell people you killed an acromantula."
That made Ron pause as he thought more about it, remembering he set it on fire made him realize he had killed one. Seeing it got his mind off Slytherin's monster, Neville added, "Not many wizards would do well going up against an acromantula, from now on you can proudly say you faced a colony of them and killed one."
That put a smile on Ron's face as he said "Yeah, when someone brings up my fear of spiders I can tell them I killed an acromantula, they can't say I'm afraid of spiders anymore!"
Harry decided not to mention the arrow that killed the spider, that spider was probably already dying so an arrow just made it quicker, he was glad to see Ron was no longer worried.
The three felt the exhaustion hit them and they realized how late it was, they agreed to head back to their dorm. Harry again thanked Swift for saving them, he noticed a few thestrals showed up and noticed Binky was standing next to another thestral, Swift moved to join them and the three left together.
The three were about to head back when they heard rustling coming from the forest, they all immediately pulled out their wands thinking the acromantula followed them here, however they relaxed when they saw it was Fang. He was covered from head to tail in acromantula silk, they completely forgot about him while running for their lives.
"At least someone had fun." Ron said, Fang probably thought they were all playing.
"We better clean off the silk so he can sleep better," Neville said.
"Your right," Ron said, "Maybe I can keep some."
"I don't see why not," Harry said, "Maybe we can give the rest to the twins and Lee as a thank you."
So, for the next 20 minutes Fang was gently petted as they pulled the sticky silk off of him. Some was easy to get off while others were pulled a lot harder. Fang was completely quiet during the process though.
Harry cast a scourgify for good measure after he was sure all the silk was off Fang.
"Ok, let's get back to the castle," Harry said. Feeling as though if he continued to sit by Hagrid's hut, he would fall asleep. He contacted Hedwig through their bond and thanked her for her help, he sent her back to the owlery and promised her plenty of bacon for this.
As the three boys made their way back to the castle Neville asked "By the way, Harry, since when did you learn the summoning charm?"
"I've been practicing it for months now," Harry explained, "I found the charm and thought it would be useful, I also thought I could surprise Professor Flitwick with it." He decided not to mention he learnt it to summon his wand.
Neville was surprised saying they wouldn't learn the charm for a few more years, he asked Harry if he could teach him and he agreed.
The three boys snuck back into the castle using Harry's cloak, they spotted a few ghosts but they were able to avoid them and make it back to the tower. The fat lady swung open after they gave the password and all three climbed in, Harry was ready to drop off the box in the fourth-year boys' dorm and head to bed, however they stopped when they saw someone was waiting for them in the common room, sitting on one of the sofas trying not to fall asleep was Lavender Brown.
Lavender heard the portrait hole open and saw Harry, Ron, and Neville enter the common room, they stopped when they spotted her wondering what was going on. Harry ended up asking "Lavender, what are you doing here?"
She stood up and said "I went to your dorm to find you but I saw you three were gone, I assumed you snuck out so I waited in the common room for you to return."
The three boys looked at each other worried that Lavender might say something and get them in trouble, at once they tried to make some kind of excuse but ended up talking over each other, Lavender held up her hand and said "Look, I'm not interested in knowing where you went, that's not why I'm here. Harry, I wanted to speak to you in private, it's something important."
That surprised Harry, he hasn't really spoken to Lavender this year other than a few greetings and helping her with some homework, he wondered what she wanted to talk about.
"Sure," Harry said, "But just a second."
He turned to Neville and Ron and spoke very quietly so Lavender wouldn't hear him.
"Ron, can you pass me your wand? I'll do what the twins asked." When they had entered, he had seen the vial on the fireplace mantle.
"Sure, mate, here you go," Ron said quietly as he passed Harry the wand.
"Here, Neville, can you take this to Lee's room before the box vanishes?" Harry said a little more loudly so if Lavender was listening, she wouldn't get the full story or what he was going to do after she went to her room.
Neville and Ron then went upstairs to the dorm room, both were now yawning since they could now relax.
The two boys left the common room leaving Harry and Lavender alone.
Once the two were alone Lavender asked Harry to take a seat, he sat on the sofa across from her and asked "What did you need to talk about?"
Lavender took a few seconds before answering, "I needed to deliver something to you, on Valentine's Day I wasn't feeling well so I had gone back to my dorm to lay down, while I was resting, I heard the door open and someone came in. She was talking to herself and she mentioned your name, she said she had something important to give to you but couldn't."
Harry was confused wondering who it was, he asked "What is it?"
Lavender reached into her pocket and pulled out an envelope, Harry noticed his name was written on it and the handwriting was familiar. Lavender explained, "This is a letter Hermione wrote for you."
That immediately stunned Harry, he asked "What?"
"I heard Hermione say she wanted to give you this letter but she wasn't able to, she kept it in her nightstand since then. I didn't think to give it to you until I saw you attack Malfoy earlier and defend Hermione, I thought it would be important if you got to read it."
She handed Harry the letter and Harry stared at it wondering why Hermione wrote him a letter, he also wondered why Hermione hadn't given it to him. Harry turned to Lavender and asked "Did you read it?"
Lavender looked offended at that, she frowned and put her hands on her hips and said "Hey, I may like to gossip but that doesn't mean I'm going to go out of my way to invade people's privacy! that letter sounded personal to Hermione so of course I wouldn't read it!"
Harry flinched at her tone and quickly apologized, "I'm sorry, that was rude of me, I shouldn't have said that, I'm really sorry!"
Lavender huffed but accepted his apology, she got up and said "Anyway I just wanted to deliver her letter for her, it's late so I'm going back to bed."
Harry thanked her and as she started to head to the stairs Harry called out, "Lavender," she looked back at him, "Thanks for the letter, I know we haven't really talked that much but I would like for us to be friends."
Smiling, Lavender said "Sure, I'd like that, I'll see you tomorrow, Harry."
With that over she made her way up the stairs to the girls' dorms. Harry sat on the sofa looking at the letter Hermione wrote him, he read his name on the envelope written in Hermione's handwriting, he wasn't sure why but he felt nervous about reading it. He took a deep breath and opened the envelope and pulled out the letter, he held the letter in his hands and started reading.
Dear Harry,
I've thought about how many ways I could write this letter but I think it would mean more if I'm honest, I wanted to let you know how much you mean to me. Having you in my life has made it so much better, one of my favorite memories is when you came to find me in the girls' bathroom last year before the troll attack, that was the day I knew you truly were my friend. Everything you said to me that day meant a lot to me, I'm happy you became my first friend.
I never had any friends growing up, books were the only things I had and many kids made fun of me for it, they would pick on me for wanting to learn or pretend to be my friend just so I could help them with their homework. One of my worst memories was when I invited many kids to my birthday and they all said they would come, but on my birthday, no one showed up, the next day they all laughed at me. I ran home and locked myself in my room and wouldn't stop crying, it took my parents a long time to cheer me up but even then, I was sad I had no friends.
When I got my Hogwarts letter, I was excited to come to Hogwarts, I had hoped I could finally make a friend, however I made a friend before I even got to the school. That day I sat with you on the train has been one of my happiest because it's the day you called me your friend, every day I looked forward to going to class with you, practicing together in the dueling room, or even just being together.
I know right now you're having a hard time dealing with everyone believing you're the heir but I promise I won't let you go through this alone, I'll stand by your side no matter what just like how you did the same for me. When I went through my potion's accident, I was terrified thinking I'd be stuck like that forever, but you were there by my side to cheer me up, you snuck in to read to me and keep me company, it made me happy when we got to watch the fireworks together.
Even if the whole school tries to say you're the heir I'll tell them that they're wrong about you, I know the kind of person you really are, you're one of the bravest people I know, you're an amazing wizard, and you're my best friend. I'll stand by your side no matter what anyone says and I know we'll figure out who the heir is and clear your name.
Sorry if I rambled too much, I just wanted to say thank you for being my best friend, for accepting me as I am and defending me, for being someone I know I can always trust.
Happy Valentine's Day Harry,
Love,
Hermione
Harry reread the letter multiple times, he made sure to carefully reread every word as if to make sure he doesn't forget it. He realized why Hermione hadn't given him this letter, he had told her he hated Valentine's Day so she probably decided not to give it to him. The part that got to Harry was the last part, how she said he's someone she can always trust, he always found it hard to trust others but he remembered how he had always been able to rely on her, out of all his friends he knew he could always trust her.
Harry folded up the letter and put it safely in his pocket, he then got up. He quickly did as the twins asked and put Percy's wand on the mantle and poured the solution over it. He didn't know what would happen but he was curious, instead of heading to the dorm afterwards he made his way to the hospital wing.
Harry was able to sneak in again without alerting Madam Pomfrey, he made his way over to Hermione's bed and sat in the chair next to her petrified form. Harry pulled off the cloak and said "Hey Hermione, I know this isn't the usual time I come to see you but I had something important to tell you."
He took hold of her left hand and continued, "A lot has happened in the time you've been petrified, we managed to learn more about the heir but we still don't know what the monster is yet, tonight we had just found out more but something else also happened. When we got back to the common room, we found Lavender there waiting for us, she said she needed to talk to me about something important, she gave me the letter you wrote for me for Valentine's Day.
Don't be mad at Lavender, she thought it would be important for me to read the letter. I'm glad she gave me your letter, reading about how much I meant to you made me really happy. I wanted to tell you that meeting you on the train was one of my happiest days too, it's the day an amazing, brilliant, and pretty girl became my best friend and she's been by my side ever since. You said I'm a great wizard but one of the reasons I became a great wizard is because you were there by my side, we've always encouraged each other and pushed each other to become better, you've made me a better wizard.
To me I think the best part about coming to Hogwarts is that I met you, you're someone I know I can always trust… that's why there's something I want to tell you, I've been keeping it secret from everyone unless I know I can trust them, that's why I know you're someone I can tell."
Harry raised his left hand in the air where he was certain Hermione could see it, with his palm facing upward Harry flicked his wrist and his journal appeared in his hand.
Harry lowered the journal to himself and explained, "I know you've seen this journal before, I'm pretty sure you've seen me reading it a few times even though it's blank. This journal is actually my most valued treasure, you see… this was my mother's journal. My mother created this journal for me because she wanted to pass on everything to me, it's made up of her time at Hogwarts, her school notes, personal research, and personal messages. She bound this journal to me and made sure no one can read it unless I give them permission to. It's thanks to her that I wanted to study magic and practice my spell casting. She really inspired me with everything she wrote in this journal. I've been working hard to master something she had been practicing."
Harry put down the journal then raised his left hand, he quietly cast, "Lumos."
His hand started to glow and he slowly made it brighter before casting nox and extinguishing the light, he explained, "I've been practicing wandless magic, it was something my mother had in her personal research and she wanted to master it. When I found this journal and read about that I promised myself I would master wandless magic for her, it's something that has saved my life already.
I'm sorry I never told you about this, I didn't want to share this secret with anyone because I was worried someone could use legilimency on them and read their mind. My mother shared a lot of information in this journal and if some people found out then they might try to steal it, she told me to share it only with those I know I can trust and can use occlumency to protect their minds, I was still worried about sharing it but I know you're someone I can trust with the journal. I promise I'll let you read it when you recover, my mother was a brilliant witch and I'm sure you'll love to see the kind of knowledge she had."
Harry read a few parts of the journal to give her an idea of what kind of information his mother had written in the journal, while he has focused on studying wandless magic, he also looked over some of the notes his mum had written about potions she had been working on. Harry felt the exhaustion hit him and he knew he needed to get to bed soon, he promised Hermione he'd visit her tomorrow, he soon put on the cloak and made his way back to his dorm.
Please comment and let me know what you thought of the chapter.