Chapter 27
Fear of fear itself
Chamber of Secrets
Rudely enough, the door was left open and, if Fang had not been properly trained, he might've run off. They waited a few more minutes before awkwardly moving towards the entrance, all four adults out of sight as the boys removed the cloak again, briefly gasping for air before talking.
"Hagrid's right.", Ron worried out loud, "With Dumbledore gone, there'll be a new attack any day."
"It's not like he's stopped them so far.", Malfoy complained with his arms crossed. Obviously the other two boys took offense to this.
"You're saying Dumbledore's useless?", the Weasley accused him with a frown.
"I'm saying we have to do it ourselves.", Draco responded, Harry choosing not to side with either boy for now, instead focusing his attention on a line of spiders crawling from one of Hagrid's windows towards the Forbidden Forest. Picking up a lantern and checking if his wand was still in his pocket, the Boy who lived took the reins.
"Come on, Fang.", he called for the quiet dog as it obeyed right away.
"What?!", Ron squealed in a comically high pitch, hiding behind Malfoy, who did not look so eager to follow himself.
"You want to go into the forest again, Potter?"
"You heard Hagrid. We need to follow the spiders.", which were of course leading into the dangerous woodwork, just as the sun was setting completely.
"Why spiders?", Ron continued in that obnoxious tone, "Why can't we follow the butterflies?"
Thankfully they had Harry for this mission, the boy showing not a single ounce of fear as he led the way deeper and deeper into the woodwork, passing by piles of roots that snaked their way around like tentacles, with a deep fog lurking in the distance as the sounds of howling and hooting echoed from trunk to trunk, a trusty lantern shining ahead and with a mysterious swarm of arachnids wandering God-knows-where.
Ron, of course, remained consistently on edge, as his fear of all things spiders had manifested in the most cruel of ways. Draco himself didn't mind the creepy crawlers, he did however fear just about everything else in these woods, his wand constantly raised, making Harry wonder how many attack spells the boy knew.
Fang was just happy to have someone walk him.
"What's that over there?", Malfoy eventually called out, complete darkness having engulfed the kids at this point.
"There's something moving. It sounds big.", Harry surmised, making sure to move back a few steps and raise his lantern, unable to spot the deep rumbling sound. The Slytherin rolled his eyes at the blunt item, pointing his wand forward.
"Lumos!", he quietly uttered, the tip of his tool emitting a small but brilliantly bright light that revealed the outlines of a sky-blue automobile, though it looked heavily damaged as it finally flashed its headlights.
"Harry... Harry!", Ron announced in excitement as he spotted the Ford Anglia, "It's our car! It must've been here the whole time."
"Looks like the forest has made it feral.", Draco muttered before the vehicle turned its headlights off again and drove away into shadows.
"Lumos!", the Boy who lived imitated his blonde counterpart, his wand lighting up much the same way as he smiled with excitement, "I completely forgot about that."
"We did learn it last year, Potter." Malfoy scolded him, Harry handing over the lantern over to Ron who grabbed it without protest.
"Come on.", Harry switched lanes, "We don't want to lose their trail."
He kept marching slightly removed from the other boys, Fang sticking to his side as Ron cowered next to Malfoy.
"Can you stop whinging?", Draco eventually complained as they passed a small patch of shrubbery.
"I told you – I hate spiders!", the Weasley defended himself clinging onto the redundant lantern.
"Well, I for one hate the forest as a whole and I still came along, so maybe you can compose yourself a tat bit more there, huh?", he flipped his eyebrows, causing Ron to pout quietly, Draco sensing that he may have come off as a bit too harsh there. What followed was an attempt to change topics.
"So, uh... that car before... it's how you, Marley, and Potter got to Hogwarts this year, right?"
"Right.", Ron sighed with heavy guilt, "Dad got into a lot of trouble because of it."
"My dad's probably the one that got him into all that trouble.", Draco speculated, and the two boys shared an odd look with each other, one that seemed to break some barriers.
"Sorry for that.", Malfoy apologized.
"Your dad seems like a right old tosser, don't apologize for him. It's not your fault."
A piece of rough exterior broke off that moment as Draco successfully held back some tears.
"Thanks, Weasle-bee."
Sir Ronald actually chuckled a bit at that.
"He's very simple actually, my father. You just do as he expects you to, and you'll be rewarded."
With his eyes still focused on the spider trail, Harry decided to chip in.
"And if you don't?", he inquired as Malfoy let out an annoyed scoff.
"Then he'll go to the Crabbes and the Goyles and the Parkinsons so they become my wardens..."
Both Gryffindor boys exchanged their surprise in a quick glance.
"So, you're not friends with them?", Ron asked, sounding briefly excited.
"No? Crabbe and Goyle share a common brain cell and Pansy – eugh!", he groaned quite dramatically, "She's a sodding cow. Always complaining and gossiping about everyone. Merlin, do I hate her!"
Some relief from his companions and in his heart as the boy was finally able to say these things out loud.
"Just stop hanging out with them, then.", Harry suggested plainly.
"I've been meaning to.", Malfoy began, then corrected himself as a radical thought entered his mind, "I'm not planning on joining your friend group either! I'm just helping you out because it's what's best for the school!"
Neither boy pushed him on it, Ron because his arachnophobia resurfaced and Harry because he thought he shouldn't try and force anything for now.
"You know...", the Boy who lived attempted to lighten the mood, "We thought Pansy was the Heir of Slytherin. It's why we did the Polyjuice thing."
"Pansy?", Malfoy asked, sounding offended, "You thought it was Pansy Parkinson and not me?", he scoffed as Harry looked away, smirking, "I'm awfully disappointed by you chaps."
"I don't like this... I don't like this at all. Can we go back now?"
At some point Harry and Draco hat started to simply ignore Ron's phobia and kept pushing with him in tow, Hagrid's lantern providing a warm, metallic thing to grab onto for safety. Their path forged by the little crawlers seemed to lead deeper and deeper into the forest, beneath a large root acting like a bridge, before a tunnel-esc structure led them to an open space, which shone blue in the moonlight, alongside the two wands casting the Lumos spell. It was technically still part of the woodwork, there was no structure acting as a roof above, yet it somehow felt claustrophobic and narrow, as if they had wandered straight into a cocoon.
"Um... Potter?", Malfoy stuttered not quite as frightened, more so concerned as he pointed to the mound's entrance, a series of much larger spiders descending down from their bodily strings as they hung in the air, blocking off their only escape route.
"WHO IS IT?"
The voice roared with the deep rumble of an earthquake, branches snapping as a massive body began moving right at the end of the hideout, beneath the largest tree Harry had seen in the Forbidden Forest yet.
"Don't panic.", he let his companions know, Fang cowering next to the boys as Ron visibly shivered and Malfoy refused to lower his wand from any of the surrounding area where he spotted singular dog-sized spiders creeping about.
"HAGRID? IS THAT YOU?"
"We're friends of Hagrid.", Harry went on as the enormous creature slowly emerged, a fuzzy body with long, hairy legs that dragged it out of its den.
"And you're..."
He possessed great, black orbs serving as eyes, a set of four separating its upper head from its jaw, two on the side, and two main ones centred on the middle, a bit of skull shape above it to give the monster spider a brow ridge and make it look like it was frowning.
"...you're... you're Aragog, aren't you?"
"YES. HAGRID HAS NEVER SENT MEN INTO OUR HOLLOW BEFORE."
Though Aragog's pincers were moving slightly, its voice did not seem to originate from its mouth.
"He's in trouble.", Harry explained as he tried to sound calm, "There've been attacks... up at the school."
While their friend kept on chatting the with big one, Ron and Draco grew more and more nervous at the numerous smaller ones, which began to show up in large numbers.
"They think it's Hagrid. They think he opened the Chamber of Secrets, like before."
"THAT'S A LIE!", Aragog roared as Harry skipped a beat, "HAGRID NEVER OPENED THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS."
A piece of information leading to only one logical conclusion.
"Then you're not the monster?"
"NO. THE MONSTER WAS BORN IN THE CASTLE. I CAME TO HAGRID FROM A DISTANT LAND, IN THE POCKET OF A TRAVELLER."
"Malfoy...", Ron whined in a high pitch as he tucked Draco's sleeve. The blonde boy shushed him in response.
"Shut up. I know..."
"But if you're not the monster... what did kill that girl fifty years ago?"
"WE DO NOT SPEAK OF IT. IT IS AN ANCIENT CREATURE WE SPIDERS FEAR ABOVE ALL OTHERS."
"Did you see it?"
"I NEVER SAW ANY PART OF THE CASTLE BUT THE BOX IN WHICH HAGRID KEPT ME IN. THE GIRL WAS DISCOVERED IN A BATHROOM. WHEN I WAS ACCUSED, HAGRID BROUGHT ME HERE."
"Potter!", a voice behind him snarked. Harry turned around with the intention of shutting him up, but found his gaze moving upwards alongside his wand, finally spotting what had been unsettling his companions the whole time.
Quite... a lot of spiders surrounding them, to put it mildly, many dangling from above as they began to touch the ground.
"Well... thank you...", the Boy who lived (so far) spoke politely to Aragog, "We'll just... go."
"GO?", Ron nodded as his expression screamed terror, "MY CHILDREN DO NOT HARM HAGRID ON MY COMMAND. BUT I CANNOT DENY THEM RAW FLESH WHEN IT WANDERS INTO OUR MIDST. GOODBYE, FRIEND OF HAGRID."
"Can we panic now?", the Weasley went on in that squeaky voice, finally having drawn his own wand as he dropped the lantern, causing it to shatter, "Know any spells?"
"Ventus!", Harry begun, causing a dozen or so spiders to be blown away before being replaced by two dozen more.
"Immobilus!", Draco followed it up, petrifying a handful of crawlers before they were replaced by... you get the idea.
"Nothing powerful enough for all of them.", Harry nihilistically surmised.
"Oh... where's the girls when you need 'em?", Ron continued to whine as he tried thinking of some spells of his own-
The most epic guitar intro howled from the distance as an old engine revved, a blue saviour drifting into the mound as it ran over a few arachnids. As it came to a halt and opened its doors, the angelic voice of Joe Strummer echoed through the Forbidden Forest.
"Darling, you got to let me know."
"It still has Marley's cassette!", Harry exclaimed with pure joy in his heart.
"Should I stay, or should I go?"
Ron managed to hop into the driver's seat, getting a poor spider's leg stuck in the door as he slammed it a few times, causing the beast to give up and back off.
"If you say that you are mine."
The Boy who jammed along meanwhile got to the other side, letting in Malfoy and Fang in the backseat before needing to defend himself from a trio of creatures.
"I'll be there till the end of time."
"Serpensortia!", he roared, the cobra blasting from his wand genuinely seeming to intimidate a larger number of spiders, Harry making a mental note as he got in.
"So, you got to let me knooow."
"What is this music?", Draco complained in the back as the critters began swarming their vehicle.
"Should I stay, or should I go?"
"LET'S GO!", Harry yelled, Ron jamming the gear shift into reverse and ramming the gas pedal. The Clash kept playing at full volume of course, the Ford Anglia apparently having grown fond of it in its time as a wild creature. As it backed off out of the spider's den, a mean arachnid on the roof slammed against a massive section of tree, smacking to the ground before the vehicle began flying into the air for a moment.
"Woah!", all three of them screamed, the car eventually landing with a rough jolt.
"Glad we're out of here.", Ron shouted over the loud music. His relief was cut short though, as the spider which had been rudely wiped off the car moments ago had returned, sticking through the window as its pincers unsuccessfully tried biting the Weasley, causing him to cry it in panic instead.
"Locomotor Mortis!", Malfoy made himself useful, an attacking arachnid quickly losing its balance as all eight of its legs were bound together and it awkwardly slipped down the side of the door, landing on the forest floor with a dull thud.
Things didn't quiet down from there on, one due to British punk rock, and also because the horde of crawlers had followed them, exploding in massive numbers from the hollow as they slowly began surrounding the car.
"Get us out of here!", Harry commanded, Ron's nerves burning with adrenaline as he pulled the car around, shifting the Ford into drive before stepping on the gas, heading towards the bridge-like root that I mentioned earlier, which Aragog's army attempted to use as an interception spot.
"The flying gear's jammed!", Sir Ronald complained as his voice broke for a second.
"Come on, pull!"
"I'm trying!"
"Carpe Retractum!", Malfoy chimed in, the spell causing the gear mechanism to be pulled out as far as possible towards the Slytherin, activating it in the process and allowing this regular old land vehicle to turn into a flying machine.
"So, you gotta let me knooow."
And it of course rammed a few more spiders on its way out.
"Should I stay, or should I go?"
A short sightseeing tour later and the Ford Anglia eventually descended back down to make for a bumpy landing in front of Hagrid's strange, asymmetrical hut. As everyone got out and dusted off, The Clash still kept playing inside the car, though now at a much lower volume, allowing everyone to calm down from this exciting adventure while Fang the dog returned to his owner's house.
"Follow the spiders – follow the spiders!", Ron started to complain, this time in his normal pitch, "If Hagrid ever gets out of Azkaban, I'll kill him!"
Their four-wheeled saviour flashed its headlights twice before returning to the darkness of the forest, Harry quietly staring after it as he pondered all which had transpired.
"What was even the point of sending us in there?", the Weasley went on.
"Maybe he was just trying to give us a big ol' spook.", Malfoy suggested jokingly.
"Honestly doesn't sound too far off. I mean, what did we find out?"
"Well, we do know one thing now.", the Boy who lived spoke calmly as he turned back around to his companions, "Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets. He's innocent."
Which was a clue worthwhile, although Draco did repeat several times how he could've guessed that one as well.
Not gaining any more intel that night, all three boys managed to sneak back to the castle after dinner, no one having paid attention to their absence, thankfully.
The day after, the trio had decided to visit the girls at the Hospital Wing, Ron replacing a set of dried-out flowers with a new one, refusing to accept Malfoy's suggestion of refreshing the greenery with a spell. Neither Ron nor the Slytherin questioned why Harry sat exclusively by Marley's side, forced to be seated on a stool as her kneeling position took up any space on the actual bedframe. Though as his gaze was fixated onto her eyes constantly and his hands kept gently stroking her frozen fingers over and over again, Draco did throw up a very curious frown. Switching over to Ron, who, in contrast, seemed almost a little bored admiring Hermione, got him no answers either, as the Weasley threw up his hands and shrugged with a comedically uncomfortable expression.
"So, anyways...", the most useful member of the triad started off, "...Granger's mirror isn't any clue? Doesn't ring any bells?"
"No.", Ron sighed as Harry finally averted his eyes to look over the collection of items.
"That reminds me.", the boy uttered before drawing his wand, aiming it at Marley's broken specs, "Oculus Reparo.", which naturally fixed the shattered glass in an instant.
With his mind still juggling and making sense of last night's events, a random detail finally rushed to the surface.
"Draco...", he asked their unlikely ally, "...did you notice how the spiders were afraid of the snake I conjured?"
"Yes.", the blonde boy scoffed as he admired his nails, "And I'm surprised you even know that spell, Potter."
"Marley taught me.", thankfully he kept his focus and didn't meander off to memory lane, "Aragog told me the creature in the Chamber is a spider's biggest fear. And here they were trembling at a fake cobra."
Some more looks were exchanged as the thought began to be constructed.
"It's got to be a snake then.", Ron said as he literally scratched his chin, "A really big one then if that Aragog thing was afraid of it."
"Snakes that size don't exist.", Draco corrected him smugly, though he refused to abandon the thought as a whole, "But... there are snake-like creatures that fit that description. Magical ones that can live for hundreds of years."
"Like?", Harry inquired as he readjusted his glasses.
"Well... there's only one I can think of...", the Slytherin hesitated as he gulped, "A Basilisk."
A few seconds passed where the Gryffindor boys exchanged curious glances, though Malfoy shook his head in disbelief.
"But that's not possible. The main thing with a Basilisk is that it can kill you by looking at you. And no one's died."
With that in mind, Harry's gaze once again returned to Marley, eternally grateful that the girl was "merely" petrified. She's so beautiful, flashed through his head for a second before he switched over to look at her glasses, which were mostly broken only a few moments ago.
Picking them up again, his eyes widened greatly.
"Unless no one really looked at it.", he suggested proudly, and the other boys listened closely.
"Colin saw it through his camera. Justin saw it through Nearly Headless Nick. Now, he saw it full on but... he's a ghost, he can't die. Hermione...", looking back at the nightstand allowed him to solve it right away, "Hermione used her hand mirror, maybe she had been suspecting it for a while. And Marley...", the boy scoffed with the brightest of smiles, "Her glasses must've fallen down. She can't see very far without them."
"They just fell down? On accident?", Draco criticized with crossed arms. In that moment Leaghon, still hung around Ron's neck, decided to escape its silver locket and swirl around the room for a second before gently landing on Marley's binoculars.
"You knocked them down, Leaghon. Didn't you?", Harry asked the little pixie as it fluttered its wings and the boy smiled brightly once more, "You saved her. Thank you."
"I suppose it's not a bad theory.", Draco wondered out loud as Ron's eyes caught onto some strange detail pertaining to Hermione, "It also means that Granger knew it was a Basilisk, seeing as she had a hand mirror with her."
"Um...", the Weasley awkwardly announced as he revealed a crumpled-up piece of paper ripped from a book. Unfolding it, it showcased a detailed drawing of the exact creature they had been talking about.
"Well... she'd be very proud we found it out ourselves.", Ron theorized, sounding slightly amused.