CW: Arachnophobia

Susan was invited to participate in the spider ritual as a sort of test-drive for possible initiation into the coven.

"We're not a real coven, not yet," Hermione said. "We're still too young to all link our magic formally. But we've been practicing together, and we want to see if you're a good fit to be our fifth."

Susan had been cautiously excited.

"I've always wanted to be in a coven, ever since I was little," she confessed. "I don't fully understand why we want to talk to spiders," she added, her eyes sparkling, "but I am incredibly curious to see how this works."

"Hermione thinks we can ask the spiders what the monster Petrifying everyone is," Blaise said, raising an eyebrow as Hermione traced out a circle in chalk in an abandoned dungeon classroom. "They all seem to be acting oddly, and almost all of them are gone."

"She's gone a bit mad lately," Harry said, looking at Susan sideways. "Still, this might work. At least we're doing it far away from Ron."

"Hermione is making impulsive decisions," Luna said calmly. "It's to be expected. Her aura has holes, and there are gaps in her that are not her."

Harry looked alarmed. "Err—that sounds really bad, Luna."

Luna shrugged. "Perhaps."

"There!" Hermione sat back with satisfaction, having completed the skeleton of the circle. Harry's giant compass and protractor had simplified matters immensely. "Now – does everyone want to learn how to talk to the spiders, or only some of us?"

That prompted a discussion. Blaise was concerned with the volume level of spider-speech – he didn't want to hear spiders chattering in the corners of every room he ever went into. Susan expressed the concern that if the ritual called all sorts of spiders to them, what would they do if a false widow or woodlouse came along and bit them?

Eventually, it was decided that Hermione, Luna, and Susan would learn the spider-speech, and that Harry and Blaise would stand guard, watching out for teachers on the prowl and deadly spiders who might try to bite. While Hermione knew there were no muggle spider varieties in the UK that could kill a person, she also knew that their venom could still hurt very, very badly, and she hadn't the slightest idea what kind of horrific magical spiders might show up.

Hermione carefully finished the circle, tracing a triangle in the center circle, making the three points for the three of them to learn the spider-language. She set up candles, then went to her bag.

"I got these from the potions cabinet," she said, handing Luna and Susan each a lacewing fly. "I know it's tiny, but we've each got to get a drop of our blood onto one of the flies."

Getting blood on the lacewings flies was harder than anticipated. Hermione cut her thumb and carefully aimed at the fly, but she kept missing the fly as the drops of blood slowly fell. She finally got it right when she held her thumb mere millimeters above the fly, annoyed with herself. Susan, seeing Hermione's struggle, opted to cut her palm, let blood pool in it, and then drench her fly in the collected pool. Luna went last, taking the knife and cutting her fingertip, one drop of blood neatly falling onto her fly's thorax the first time. Hermione gave her a dirty look as she healed all their hands, to which Luna stuck out her tongue, playful.

"Now we put them in the triangle…"

The ritual was nearly identical to the one they had used to learn Parseltongue. Hermione, rather uncharacteristically, had spent very little time researching and investigating beforehand. She'd decided that four couplets, not five, would be more appropriate, given a spider's number of legs, and she'd also altered the incantation and sacrifices to match their intent (spiders, not snakes), but that was the extent of her changes. She was confident this would work the same.

"You all are going to chant in the background, just like last time," Hermione instructed. "I'll do the couplets of the incantation, and—"

"How much power are we going to put into the circle?" Blaise interrupted. "I remember last time we didn't account for that beforehand, and rather a lot went out."

Susan looked excited. "You could feel the power? Like, really feel it?"

"Umm…" Hermione considered. "Well, there aren't many spiders left, are there? So maybe we should put a lot in on purpose this time?"

"Any left will be in the dungeons, though, where they can't escape," Harry said. He glanced around. "I thought that's why we were doing it here. Surely we won't need that much power to just put out a call to the dungeons?"

"Better too much than too little," Hermione countered. "If we don't do enough, we have to redo the entire ritual from scratch and make a new circle and everything. What's the worst that could happen if we do too much?"

"A teacher notices and comes investigating," Luna said immediately. She held up a hand, beginning to tick things off on her fingers. "One of us collapses from magical exhaustion; the call goes out to the castle grounds and thousands of spiders come crawling; the power sweeping out challenges the structural integrity of the classroom and the ceiling collapses—"

Harry's eyes went wide, and Hermione groaned.

"And how many of those are likely, Luna?" she snapped.

"Oh." Luna smiled. "Just the first one. Snape might come and investigate."

"And Professor Snape is our official coven sponsor," Hermione said, satisfied. "So even if he does come, it will be fine."

"You have a professor as a sponsor?" Susan's excitement couldn't be contained. "How does that even happen? Is that even allowed?"

"They used to teach magic through covens, back before wands were common," Blaise said. "Hogwarts never changed the rules; they just built new rules on top of them. For example, you're allowed to keep an emergency Portkey on you at all times if you're a landlord, in case one of your vassals has an emergency you need to attend to."

Harry snorted. "Surprised Malfoy doesn't take advantage of that one."

Blaise raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think he doesn't?"

"We're getting off topic here," Hermione said. "We need to focus on the ritual. Everyone's going to chant, and I'll do the calling couplets. Use an amount of power you feel comfortable using, but don't exhaust yourself. Got it?"

"What was the chant again?" Susan asked.

"We call upon the spiders to hear our words," Hermione said patiently. "We offer ourselves to join those that are yours."

"We call upon the spiders to hear our words; we offer ourselves to join those that are yours," Susan muttered rapidly. She repeated it quickly to herself a few times before nodding once, decisively. "Okay. I'm ready."

"Then, let's each light our candles," Hermione said, "and we will begin."

They each knelt and lit their candles; Hermione, Luna, and Susan from inside the circle, Harry and Blaise from the outside edge.

"We call upon the spiders to hear our words," Hermione began, and her coven immediately caught on and took over.

"We call upon the spiders to hear our words," they chanted. "We offer ourselves to join those that are yours."

Hermione took a moment to listen as they all got the timing of the chant right, their voices matching up with each other, and she smiled.

It was a neat feeling, seeing her coven like this.

Refocusing on the ritual at hand, Hermione took the silver knife and cut her hand, letting blood drip onto the stone. She counted out four drops before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

It was harder to center her magic than usual, and Hermione fought to steady her core and her breathing. Once she felt her magic was calm enough and ready, she opened her eyes, and she began the incantations of the ritual.

"We call out to the spiders, who crawl in the corners, who sneak and who spin," Hermione intoned. "We come to your webs patiently, calling to be let in."

There was a slight feeling of magic curling around them all now in the circle, like a wisp of wind in the air. It was like a flicker of flame, bright but disappearing a moment later, only for another flicker to pop up somewhere else.

"We offer you prey, to feed on and consume," Hermione continued. "We offer you this so your silk might bloom."

Harry and Blaise looked focused, solid bastions of magic stabilizing the edge of the circle as they chanted, and the sense of magic swirling in the air built as everyone's chanting grew louder. Susan looked so excited she might wet herself, while Luna looked as serene as ever.

"We offer you our blood, fresh from the knife; We offer you our aid, in exchange for a life…"

The pressure of magic in the circle seemed to vibrate with an oppressive intensity, almost as like the air was too humid, making it difficult to breathe. Hermione fought down a sudden feeling of panic, focusing on getting the last couplet out correctly.

"We want to speak to the spiders, the creepy-crawlers of the world. We offer you this, spiders; come heed our words!"

As she cried out the final couplet, she felt the magic spin and swirl in the circle violently, almost like a hurricane, before it burst out of the circle, going every which way it could. Hermione was panting, trying to catch her breath, and most of the others were too.

"That was so cool," Susan said, her eyes wide. Her eyes darted from person to person. "Now what?"

"Now," Hermione said, "we wait for the spiders."

They waited longer than they had for the snakes. Harry kept throwing Hermione uncertain glances as time drew on, but Hermione watched the candles; if their call was going to go unanswered, the flames would go out.

Finally, after nearly ten minutes, the spiders came.

Hermione watched them approach, feeling stupid for wondering what took them so long. She'd been remembering the quick movements of the snakes, but spiders were small, had to crawl along the floor, and couldn't cover much distance that fast. It was creepy to see so many of them approaching, but they were all very tiny, and they stayed outside of the circle once they arrived.

There weren't very many of them left for a castle of this size. There were maybe twenty of them in total, Hermione estimated, not more than two dozen for sure.

As they reached the edge of the circle, Hermione watched as there seemed to be a pushing and shoving match going on amongst the spiders. She couldn't hear any sounds, like she could with the snakes, but she waited with wide eyes until they seemed to settle down.

"They will want to hear your promise," Luna reminded her.

Hermione recited the couplets again. This time, the magic spiraled inside of the smaller inner circle, the one where Luna, Susan and Hermione each sat at a point. Susan's eyes were wide, rapt, while Luna seemed serene. As Hermione cried out the last couplet, three of the spiders scuttled forward into the triangle, and they began wrapping their prey in silk.

Hermione stared, peering down at the spiders, who slowly continued to restrain the dead flies.

What?

She'd been expecting the immediate, climactic pain of learning an animal language, the way it had been with the snakes when each snake had swallowed a mouse. Watching the spiders wrap their prey in silk before sucking out its juices hadn't quite been what she'd had in mind.

Suddenly, Susan cried out, clutching her head, and Hermione felt relieved. At least Susan would not have to wait quite as long before feeling the magic happen – she'd have hated to have disappointed her with her first ritual. Luna yelped next, and a moment later, the blinding pain finally struck Hermione.

Hermione remembered the sharp pain from the snakes, had been ready for it, but this pain was a darker, deeper pain. Agony crawled through her neural pathways almost like a vein, burrowing into her brain, and she groaned, holding her temples and clenching her eyes tightly shut. The pain wasn't stopping, and though it wasn't as sharp a pain as the first ritual's had been, this just went on and on and on.

Finally, finally, the pain stopped, the aching of her head gradually receding, and Hermione straightened, looking to Susan and Luna, who were both collecting themselves as well. Harry and Blaise had moved to the two candle points of the circle closest to the remaining spiders, both looking ready to stomp on the spiders in case one of them tried anything.

Not that they were genuinely threatened by spiders. But Hermione appreciated their protective instincts nonetheless.

"Say something," Harry said, watching. "You have to talk to them."

But Hermione was watching as one spider scuttled forward a little bit. Almost intuitively, she felt herself pressing her body to the ground as close to the spiders' triangle as the circle allowed, Luna and Susan doing the same at her sides.

The spider jumped and twitched a little bit, and there was the slightest vibration in the air and in the stone.

"What are you doing?" Blaise said, looking down at them. "Are you trying to see eye to eye?"

"The spiders are asking if there's a way out," Susan said. Her eyes were wide. "They want us to help them escape."

Harry was incredulous. "What?"

"I'll tell them that we'll help them if they help us first," Susan said. "They have to tell us what the monster is first, right?"

Hermione watched on in astonishment as Susan tapped her fingers on the ground, wiggled her body around, bounced from the ground on her knees, and knocked on the stone some more.

Hermione groaned, closing her eyes in mortification. "I can't believe I understood that."

"Hermione," Blaise said, watching Susan wriggle at the spiders. "What the hell is going on?"

Hermione felt her face heat up in embarrassment.

"She's talking to the spiders," Hermione admitted. "Spiders—err—they don't exactly have a language."

"They don't?" Blaise's eyes were sharp.

"Well, at least not an auditory one," Hermione was quick to defend. "They do have methods of communication, so the ritual wasn't pointless. It's just… spiders communicate with pheromones, jumping, body language, and vibrations. It's not quite the simple hissing of the snakes."

Harry looked like he was trying not to laugh. "Are you serious?"

Hermione became abruptly aware this was the most uncool thing in the world.

"The spiders say they dare not speak of it," Susan reported back. She frowned. "Now what?"

Hermione sighed. "I'll respond."

She found herself wriggling on the ground and tapping her fingers to create vibrations in the stone just so, almost instinctively. Part of her was struggling with the fact that she couldn't emit pheromones through her silk, while the other part of Hermione's mind boggled at itself and vehemently expressed that she didn't have silk, while the rest of her continued shifting and wiggling and tapping out her message as best she could.

We can save you if you tell us, she tried to communicate. We know it is a serpent of some sort. You must tell us what kind.

Harry and Blaise were openly snickering now. Hermione ignored them.

It is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others, the spiders told her, through a series of tiny jumps and jerks. We can sense it moving. We do not name it! It is the name of our dread.

Hermione was annoyed.

We will help you escape, she communicated, loathe to wriggle about again. You will not trade the name of the beast for your freedom and safety?

We do not speak of it! the spiders continued to reply.

She sighed, sitting up.

"They're refusing to speak of it, even knowing we could help them escape," Hermione said. Her eyes met Blaise's, and she frowned. "I don't get it; anyone rational would take that deal."

Blaise looked thoughtful.

"Maybe they aren't rational creatures," he said. His eyes lit with an idea. "Here, Hermione: tell them if they don't tell us immediately, they'll meet their doom."

"I've already said that," Hermione complained.

"You've said something similar, but not that," Blaise shot back. "Just shake your bottom some more, Hermione, and tell the spiders my message."

Hermione groaned and did as Blaise bid, wriggling and tapping and hopping on the hard stone ground.

You must tell us the name of the creature immediately, she communicated, or you will meet your doom.

The spiders started to wriggle back again.

"Did you tell them?" Blaise asked, watching.

Hermione sighed. "Yes…"

"Good."

Abruptly, Blaise stomped down.

There was a sharp feeling of panic as Blaise crushed one of the larger spiders beneath his boot, sending the other spiders scrambling around, trying to escape, while Harry and Blaise stomped a border, keeping them from escaping back into the dungeons. Hermione, Luna, and Susan were all left gasping, the panic and fear in the air overwhelming their senses as the spiders tried to flee.

Tell us, Hermione felt Luna tap into the ground. Tell us the name, and you will go free.

One spider scuttled forward, very fast, its legs twitching rapidly.

It is known as the Basilisk. The spider shuddered. Do not ask us to name it again! Now let us go.

Luna politely asked the spiders if they wanted transport outside of the castle as originally promised, which made the spiders pause and debate for a moment; they did desperately want out of the castle, but their trust in the coven had been sorely shaken by Blaise's abrupt murder of one of their kin.

"A basilisk," Hermione said aloud, looking at Harry and Blaise. "It said it's called a basilisk."

Blaise wrinkled his face up. "I think I've heard of that?"

"I think I have too, but not much," Hermione admitted. "I do seem to remember it being a giant snake, though. I'll have to look it up."

Luna and Susan, having come to a peace accord with the spiders, were carefully helping them climb into Luna's quill case.

"We need to take them outside, so they can get away," she explained. "We'll all go as soon as they're all ready."

Hermione exhaled sharply. "Alright."

She set about packing her ritual supplies away. The candles had gone out with the successful transfer of the spider 'language', and a few Aguamenti spells had the chalk lines and blood washed from the ground.

"We've got them all," Susan said, standing. Her eyes were alight with excitement behind her glasses. "This is wicked! I can't believe I can understand spiders!"

Hermione, Harry, and Blaise all exchanged a look. It was obvious that Susan only thought this had been neat because she hadn't been part of the seriously cool snake ritual first, like the rest of them had.

They wound their way out of the castle dungeons, Blaise leading the group.

"We're close to curfew," Harry warned. "We'll need to be quick, to make sure we have enough time to drop everyone off."

Soon enough, they were outside, and Hermione watched as Luna carefully let the spiders out of the quill case onto the grass. Hermione felt an overwhelming sense of relief and gratitude as the spiders scuttled away, and she bit her lip. Blaise had had the right idea; being able to perceive spiders could easily get annoying, fast.

She sighed. At least there weren't any spiders left in the school anymore.

"Ravenclaw first," Harry said. "Come on, Luna."

As the group made their way up to Ravenclaw tower to drop off Luna, Hermione fell into conversation with Blaise.

"I can't believe you just killed that spider," she said. "We were talking to them, and you just murdered one of their friends!"

Blaise laughed.

"Hermione," he said, eyes dancing. "Consider: in any other context, would you be shocked or horrified by killing a spider?"

She paused.

"…okay, no, I wouldn't," she conceded. "But we were talking to them! They were sentient!"

"Were they, though?" Blaise challenged. "They didn't have a language, did they? You had to communicate with them through biological functions and wiggling instead of an intelligent language."

Hermione frowned.

"You can't communicate without intelligence," she said slowly, and Blaise snorted.

"That's obviously wrong. Just look at some of our classmates." He smirked. "Realistically though, Hermione – you know that's not true. Insects communicate with scents and wiggling because they're not intelligent enough to have a language. And if they're not intelligent enough for a language, they're not really sentient, are they?"

"Is sentience where we determine the value of a life?" Hermione challenged. "Killing the unsentient is okay, but killing of the sentient is not?"

"I don't know where that line is, Hermione," Blaise admitted, shrugging. "I'll tell you what, though: I don't hesitate before picking a flower, and I don't flinch before stepping on spiders. And if those were truly evil things to do, I think there wouldn't be a Light wizard left alive."

Hermione considered this.

"I think I need to study this more," she decided. "Is there a formal study of ethics within the magical community I could read about?"

Blaise laughed.

"All this from killing a spider," he said, his eyes sparkling. He slung an arm around Hermione and tugged her tight to him in an odd, one-armed hug as they walked, and Hermione's face flushed. "Never change, Hermione. Never change."