Chapter 22
A series of images flashed through her mind, but most strikingly, she heard a girl and a woman's sobbing.
One was older, one was younger.
Suddenly, the sobs rose into screams, and she saw the faces of a pale young girl and the woman from her dreams switch between each other, both of their mouths stretched into a miserly show of agony.
She gasped, feeling herself hold her head tighter, trying to block out their shrieks of terror.
And then, and then...
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Cassidy felt herself being tugged by the hand, and she opened her eyes.
The group was now surrounded by spiders, and they didn't look friendly. Ron was practically sobbing now, but he still made sure to pull Cassidy back with him and Harry gently.
"What's going on? What did I miss?" She whispered at the two.
"T-the spiders," Ron whimpered. "T-they w-want to eat us."
Cassidy sighed, and a single tear rolled down her cheek before she closed her eyes.
"Thank you, Merlin, for everything." She whispered, smiling.
"Amen." Harry completed, for once.
"I cannot deny them fresh meat that has wandered so willingly into our midst." Aragog explained, like this was all basic Arithmancy. "Goodbye, friends of Hagrid."
"Can we panic now?" Ron asked, turning to Harry.
Suddenly, a spider landed in front of them, rearing to attack. Harry used his lantern to swing at it, before turning to Cassidy.
"Cass, your knowledge of Latin could really help us right now!" He shouted, swinging at another two. Cassidy's eyes flew open.
"Oh, yeah! Why didn't I think of that? Silly me." She smiled and whipped out her wand, tapping it against her chin for a moment. "Let's see here... Right!" Cassidy exclaimed, Ron clinging to her like a lifeline as she aimed her wand at an oncoming spider.
"Watch and learn, Ronniekins." She teased. "Arachnus Expulso!" Immediately, a bright light threw back three spiders, and they scuttled away before new ones came to replace them.
"Oh. Er, Aranea Fugo!" Cassidy yelled again, making the new spiders shrink away in fear. But there were too many. She needed help. She turned to Harry, who was using his lantern.
"Harry, can you use your wand, please? I can't- ARACHNUS EXPULSO! - hold them off all by myself- ARANEA FUGO!- hurry!"
Harry and Ron took out their wands, trying and failing to pronounce the spell. Cassidy kept repeating the two incantations, but it wasn't enough to hold the spiders off. She sighed, her voice going hoarse, and the spiders getting closer.
"Where's Hermione when you need her?" Ron whined, looking around in despair. "She would've known how to help Cass."
It seemed to be the end, and the three drew closer to each other. Cassidy closed her eyes.
"Merlin, we're coming." She whispered, head raised skyward. Suddenly, a bright light could be seen.
"Merlin, could that be you?! Ron, Harry, I see the light! We're in heaven!"
"That's not heaven!" Ron shouted, joy creeping into his voice. "That's my dad's car!"
Cassidy widened her eyes as Mr Weasley's old car drove into the clearing, scaring away all the spiders. As it came to a halt before them, its doors sprung open.
"We're saved! Thank you, Me-"
"Cassidy, let's go!" Ron grabbed Cassidy's arm as the three (plus Fang) ran to the car, Ron pushing Cassidy in and slamming his door before a spider could follow them inside.
"Arania Exumai!" Harry yelled, repelling a spider.
"Oh, so now you know what spells to cast?!" Cassidy yelled from the window as Harry clambered into the car. Just as he closed the door, a spider slammed itself against the window. After that, two on the roof. Cassidy screamed.
As if it activated the car to move, it reversed out of the clearing immediately, shaking off some spiders in the process. It bumped and rolled, the final spider falling off as it reversed further out of Aragog's Hollow and back into the Dark Forest.
The car stopped, the four children panting.
"Glad we're out of there." Ron said, smiling, before turning to Cassidy, who was in the backseat, visibly shaken.
"Cass, you alright?"
Before she could answer, a spider came out of nowhere and enclosed its pincers around Ron's neck. Ron started screaming, and Harry scrambled to find his wand.
"NOT RON, YOU FILTHY ARACHNID! ARANEA DETONATUS!" Cassidy screamed, and a bright light erupted from her wand, blowing the spider into pieces. Goo flew everywhere, including their faces, and they all collectively sighed in relief (not at the goo).
"Thanks for that." Ron said.
"No problem, Weasley." Cassidy replied, still huffing. Even though there was spider goo all over her face, she managed a grin at Ron, and he grinned back at her, red-faced.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of pincers clicking. Looking upwards, the group caught sight of more spiders, and they didn't look happy.
"Get out of here," Harry said to Ron breathlessly. "Now!"
Flooring the accelerator, Ron reversed the car further into the Forest, looking back in fear.
"C'MON! RON, MOVE FASTER!!!" Harry yelled. The whole group screamed as Ron drove, the spiders in hot pursuit. Cassidy held on to Fang as he howled in despair, squeezing her eyes shut as the car tumbled its way out of the Forest.
"Get us up in the air!" Harry said to Ron. Ron tried the lever.
"The flying gear's jammed!" He said, and Cassidy thought she was actually about to cry. In front of them, more spiders appeared, and Cassidy started screaming again.
"CASSIDY, SHUT UP!" Harry yelled.
"WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" She yelled in reply, continuing to scream and hold on to Fang.
"COME ON, RON!" Harry yelled.
"I'M TRYING!" He replied.
Finally, after much effort, the car rose into the sky, leaving the furious spiders behind. They flew over the trees, for a few, blissful seconds, the wind blowing through Cassidy's braids, and drying the spider goo from her face. Ron stared at her face in those few seconds, goo and all.
He thought that in that moment, she was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen.
And then they crashed to the land beside Hagrid's cottage, and Cassidy thought she was about to be sick, and Ron turned his attention to the front of the car.
The doors sprung open, and Cassidy tumbled out with Fang, who was barking madly as she bent over to throw up all over the grass.
"Follow the spiders, follow the spiders!" Ron mimicked Hagrid as Cassidy threw up in the background. "If Hagrid ever gets out of Azkaban, I'll kill him!" Harry looked back at Ron, bewildered. (Cassidy was still vomiting). The car suddenly started back up, turning towards the Dark Forest and driving back into the gloom.
"I mean, what was the point of sending us in there?!" Ron continued, exasperated. Cassidy was still vomiting. "What have we found out?!"
"We know one thing," Harry said, staring at the spot the car had been. "Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets. He's innocent."
"Actually, it's two things!" Cassidy had finally stopped throwing up, and looked at the two groggily. "In the clearing, I had a vision. I saw Myrtle. Moaning Myrtle. She has something to do with this."
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Old, flaking flowers stood at Hermione Granger's bedside, surrounding her still, Petrified form. Harry replaced them with fresh ones while Cassidy sat on Hermione's bed, gently running her fingers through her hair. Ron sat beside her, his eyes locked on Hermione's frozen expression, his hands curled into fists in his lap.
"I wish you were here, Hermione," Harry murmured. "We need you."
"Now more than ever," Cassidy whispered, barely audible. Ron sniffled next to her, quickly swiping at his face as if hoping no one had noticed.
Harry reached out, brushing his fingers against Hermione's dormant hand—and then suddenly froze.
"What is it, Harry?" Cassidy asked, noticing the sharp shift in his expression.
Slowly, he pulled a crumpled scrap of paper from Hermione's stiff grasp, carefully unfolding it.
"What's that?" Ron asked dully, still lost in his daze.
Harry's eyes flickered between them, his voice tight with urgency.
"This—this is why Hermione was in the library the day she was attacked," he breathed. His grip on the paper tightened. "Come on!"
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Later, as Harry read from the piece of paper Hermione had been clutching, Cassidy felt the pieces of the puzzle click into place. The Basilisk that Aragog had mentioned would kill anyone that locked eyes with it, but it hadn't killed anyone thus far. It had certainly been roaming around the school, however, so....
"Ron, Cassidy! This is it! The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a Basilisk, that's why your necklace had been glowing, and that's why I can hear it speak! It's a snake!"
"But if it kills by looking people in the eye, why is it no one's dead?" Ron asked.
"That's exactly what I was thinking," Cassidy agreed. "It's the one part that doesn't add up."
Harry looked deep in thought for a moment, and then looked at a window opposite them. It showed their reflections perfectly; Ron's flaming hair, blue eyes and freckles; Harry's messy black hair and round glasses, and Cassidy's hazel brown eyes and long braids. Something clicked in his brain just then.
"Because no one did look it in the eye. Not directly, at least."
"Of course, the reflections! Harry, you're a genius!" Cassidy said as they started walking again.
"Colin saw it through his camera, Justin must've seen the Basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick, Nick got the full blast of it, but he's a ghost, he couldn't die again."
At the mention of the word 'ghost', Cassidy's mind went to Moaning Myrtle and the vision of her screaming again, but she still didn't know what she had to do with anything.
"And Hermione....had the mirror!" Harry kept going. "I bet you anything she was using it to look around corners in case it came along!"
"Smartest witch ever." Cassidy said with a smile.
"And Mrs Norris?!" Ron asked suddenly, making the group stop. "I'm pretty sure she didn't have a camera or a mirror, Harry."
"Ron, there was a puddle of water on the floor that night, I remember," Cassidy said. "That's how she must've seen the Basilisk. Lucky cat." Ron nodded, this explanation being enough for him. Harry looked back to the crumpled piece of paper again, reading a line.
"Spiders flee before it. It all fits!"
"But how's the Basilisk been getting around?!" Ron asked.
"Slithering, obviously." Cassidy replied.
"Cass, stop it. You know what I mean." Cassidy gave a look of total confusion ('no, Ron, I don't know what you mean'), while Ron continued. "A dirty great snake, someone would've seen it."
"Hermione's answered that too." Harry showed them the piece of paper, which had 'pipes' scribbled across it.
"Pipes?" Ron asked.
"Of course!" Cassidy said, looking at it with rising understanding.
"Remember what Aragog said?" Harry replied. "And who Cassidy saw, in her vision? The girl, who died fifty years ago?"
"It was Myrtle!" Cassidy exclaimed, eyes bright with triumph. "Moaning, moping, miserable Myrtle! It was her who died! The basilisk is what killed her!"
Just then, an announcement rang out in the halls.
"All students are to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers to the second floor corridor immediately."
Without a word, the three looked at each other, and knew what they had to do.
They ran to the second floor.
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