Aragog the Acromantula
Summer was preparing itself to greet Hogwarts, but the days weren't the same. No Hagrid outside, Fang on his heels, and to Harry, the days weren't right in general. There was no Padma, commenting on the small things that'd happen and making them funny, and no Luna, smiling day in and day out and laughing loudly at the slightest of things; He'd even missed how Padma would beg for the tiniest peak at his composition because she was two or three inches short.
He would've visited them everyday, but Madam Pomfrey wasn't allowing visitors.
"It's just a safety precaution for all students..." She'd say. "There's every chance in the world, and we don't want whoever's doing the attacks to come and finish these people off..."
With Dumbledore gone, fear spread much like never before, so much that the sun warming the castle walls outside seemed to stop at the windows. There wasn't a face to be seen that didn't look worried or tense, and any laughter that rang through the corridors (and wasn't from Peeves) sounded unnatural and was quickly stifled.
Harry constantly repeated Dumbledore's final words to himself when he caught himself thinking too much on Padma and Luna.
"I will only truly have left this school when none her here are loyal to me.... Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it, and those who need it."
But what was the good of knowing these words? Who were they supposed to ask for help when everyone else was just as confused and scared as they were?
Hagrid's hint about the spiders was far easier to understand-- the trouble was, there didn't seem to be a single spider left in the castle to follow. Harry looked everywhere he went, helped by Draco, Hermione, and (rather reluctantly) Ron. They were always accompanied by teachers, of course, by the fact that they not only weren't allowed to wander off on their own, and had to move around the castle in a pack with other classmates. Most of their fellow students seemed glad that they were being shepherded from class to class by teachers, but Harry found it very tiring. And he became aware of just how tiring it was, the evening of April twenty-third, as he and Lisa were in the common room, studying for exams, it started to rain outside.
Harry suspected immediately that it would soon turn into a thunderstorm, and Lisa did too. She'd been much more careful since Harry's potion had been finished--and careful enough to not mess up her Mandrake leaf again; she'd had her own potion finished just last month. She grew incredibly impatient and quickly became uninterested in studying. And fortunately, not even a couple minutes later, the first lightning strike hit the sky.
"Get your cloak-- and the potion!" she whispered quickly. "Meet me at the door in two - two minutes!"
It hadn't even been two minutes, but they were both already out of the common room, watching the halls. Professor Flitwick was walking with a group of fourth years-- and looking rather tired, Harry thought-- to the Great Hall, giving him and Lisa the perfect excuse to not walk quietly just yet. Lisa had gotten more and more impatient with every lightning strike, and when by time finally got outside the castle walls and away from all the teachers and ghosts walking the corridors, she collapsed on the ground as rain doused them both in water.
"I never would've thought, in my life," she said, getting to her feet, "that I would be so excited to get rained on. Come on! The Forest would be the best place to go-- right? Bunch of space. Something, something- I don't remember."
It took a while, but they'd found a clearing with the bit of the moon visible shining semi-brightly overhead, the dark clouds covering its miniscule light. Out the pocket of his robe, he took the Animagus potion, and Lisa took out hers-- the colour of them, unlike what it was before, was a blood red; He reached into his pocket a second time, took out his wand, and put it against his chest.
"Ready?" Lisa asked, holding her wand to her own.
He was nervous, but time was of the essence, and he nodded.
"Together? Or- no, no, just go-- Amato Animo Animato Animagus," and she downed the potion in one go. She gasped, and dropped her wand immediately. It looked as if she was struggling to hold her own.
Harry tried his best to not pay very much attention to her. "Amato Animo Animato Animagus," He recited silently and quickly, before drinking the potion. Just as, however, a pain jolted through his fingers, arms, legs; His entire body, and his heart thumping very fast. He bit his tongue to keep himself silent. Nevermind-- his heart wasn't beating very fast-- it was that two hearts were beating in his chest. It'd happened, once before, when he'd recited it-- but never again. A figure of an animal flashed before his eyes, and the next thing he knew, he was shrinking.
His paws-- he had paws!-- touched the grassy ground, and the first thing he smelled, very sharply, was the stench of rain; His eyesight was getting so, so, so much better than it had ever been so quickly that he was disorientated for a moment; And his ears felt as if they were on top of his head, and his hearing was suddenly so well that he felt as though he could hear every single drop of rain hit the ground.
And he could see a dark red kind of brown colouredfur where the back of his hand should've been.
He was a fox.
And in front of him, Lisa was a small nearly white crow, fluttering around in confusion, but when her eyes set on him, her wings flapped a bit harder, and she jumped a bit closer, staring at him. She began chirping furiously, and he figured she must've been laughing.
They were Animagi.
And they had the rest of the night to enjoy it.
It was like a dream, flying around and running on four legs instead of two, jumping through bushes and trees with a tail-- his tail!-- moving behind him. And seeing the world with such clear eyes was astounding-- and he could smell and hear everything with such brilliance, and without even having to try. The rain and thunder was so much more loud and powerful, but he couldn't find it in himself to mind. It was so exciting.
But all things end, and the rain had stopped. They figured it was about time to go back into the castle. They had no clue what time it was, but the clouds had cleared, and they were sure the sun would be rising soon. So they headed back, the castle lights dimly showing through the windows.
When they'd gotten back, the halls were quiet and the torches were out. Harry had changed back to keep underneath the Invisibility cloak, but Lisa had stayed a bird, and had flown up onto his shoulder, getting very comfortable there. And with every step he walked, Harry felt as though he would pass out and take an enjoyable nap, but he was still to excited to even do that.
For a short time, he'd forgotten why he felt so bad, because he suddenly felt twice as joyful. He was an Animagus.
A few days later, a double-Potions lesson had been feeling much longer than expected.
"I always thought if anyone'd get Dumbledore out the school, it'd be father, but I didn't think he really would." said Draco.
"And it's a good thing he did it too, I'd thank him the next time I could if I were you," said a voice from behind.
"Stay in your own business, Runcorn," Harry snapped back, dropping porcupine quills in his cauldron. She hadn't been much of a bother at all-- probably thanks to Hermione-- but something had made her regain her confidence and they had to put up with much more of her as of recent.
"Oh, my, seems somebody's angry because his two best friends got petrified!" she giggled. "I hope that Granger's next, you know, she'll make a good ornament--"
"You'd do better to remember that Padma and Luna weren't Muggle-born, and neither is Hermione, so you've got as much a chance at being petrified. You know, if Hermione was willing to lunge at you, just imagine what I'd--"
The bell rang that very moment, cutting Harry off mid-sentence. He could see Runcorn's snarl behind all the people collecting their bags and books.
"Hurry up, I have to take you all to Herbology," Snape barked over scampering heads.
Once he saw them out the castle, meeting with Professor McGonagall and her Gryffindor-Hufflepuff class(most classes had students from every House included by now, and Herbology was one of those classes), and they were all walking out to the greenhouses, Hermione and Ron came over, Hermione seemingly angry at him.
"What's the problem now?" Draco asked boredly.
"Ronald's still refused to try and do better than spellotape to fix his wand, and he got ink all over my parchment! I can get the ten points back, but I'm not going to be able to rewrite thirteen inches by tomorrow afternoon!" She said, seething. "I've told you-- owl your mother! She's not going to let you learn magic with a wand that can't do magic right!"
"She's probably still mad at me!" Ron scoffed. "I almost got dad fired! I wouldn't need a new wand when he'll be needing a new job! And I don't really need a wand-- it works, it's just wonky!"
"You nearly fried your work!"
The class was large, seeing as students from every House were there, but the missing presences of the petrified students did not go unnoticed.
Professor Sprout set them all to work pruning the Abyssinian Shrivelfigs. Harry went to tip an armful of withered stalks onto the compost heap and found himself face-to-face with Ernie Macmillan. Macmillan took a deep breath and said, very formally, "I just want to say, Harry, that I'm sorry I ever suspected you. I know you'd never attack your friends, and I apologize for all the stuff I said. We're all in the same boat now, and-- er--" He held out a pudgy hand, and Harry, despite his better judgement, shook it hesitantly.
Macmillan came to work at the same Shrivelfig as Harry, Ron, Lisa, and Hermione, for Draco had been dragged off to join Crabbe and Goyle by Parkinson.
"That Runcorn character," said Ernie, breaking off dead twigs, "She seems real pleased about all this, doesn't she? D'you know, I think she might be Slytherin's heir. She'd be in as much danger as any Muggle-born, wouldn't she?"
"That's real clever of you to think, eh," said Ron, who didn't seem to have forgiven Macmillan as readily as Harry.
"Do you think it's Runcorn, Harry?" Macmillan asked.
"No. It's like Hermione thinks-- Runcorn's just talking herself up because she won't be taken seriously otherwise." said Harry, so firmly that Macmillan stared at him and Hermione in surprise.
"She thinks she's terrific," Lisa muttered. "As if. Her hair's cut so unevenly I can't even tell if those are supposed to be bangs or if she's losing hair."
A second later, Harry spotted something.
Several large spiders were scuttling over the ground on the other side of the glass, moving in an unnaturally straight line as though taking the shortest route to a classroom. Harry kicked Hermione's leg under the table.
"Harry! What?"
Harry pointed out the spiders, following their progress with his eyes.
"Oh, yeah," said Ron, having noticed, failing his best attempts to look pleased.
"Well, we can't follow them now--" Lisa whispered, and she shrugged-- Macmillan was listening curiously.
Harry didn't listen as he focused on the spiders. If they pursued their fixed course, there could be no doubt about where they would end up.
"They're heading for the Forbidden Forest..."
Ron looked even unhappier about that.
At the end of the lesson, Professor Sprout escorted the class to their Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson. Harry, Hermione, Draco, and Ron lagged behind the others so they could talk out of earshot.
"We'll have to use the cloak again," Harry told them.
"We can take Fang with us. He's used to going into the forest, he might be some help." Hermione added.
"Right," said Ron, who was twirling his wand nervously in his fingers. "Er-- aren't there-- aren't there supposed to be werewolves in the forest?" He croaked out, as they took their usual places at the back of Lockhart's classroom. Draco tensed up at the mention.
"There are good things in there, too, aren't there, Harry?" asked Lisa, and he nodded.
"The centaurs aren't rude, and the unicorns..." Harry said, trying to remember if there were any other benevolent creatures he'd seen in the Forest. "Er, well, there aren't... werewolves..."
Ron and Lisa had never been into the Forbidden Forest before, unlike the other three. Harry had entered it only once, and honestly hoped never to do so again from his past experience. But then again, it was only because of the previous Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. But the current one... was hardly any better.
Lockhart bounded into the room and the class stared at him. Every other teacher in the place was looking grimmer than usual, but Lockhart appeared nothing short of buoyant.
"Come now," he cried, beaming around him. "Why all these long faces?"
People swapped exasperated looks, but nobody answered.
"Don't you people realize," said Lockhart, speaking slowly, as though they were all just a bit dim, "The danger has passed! The culprit has been taken away--"
"Said who?" said Parvati loudly. She had been looking nothing short of depressed ever since Padma was petrified.
"My dear young lady, the Minister of Magic wouldn't have taken Hagrid if he hadn't been one hundred percent sure that he was guilty," said Lockhart, in the tone of someone explaining that one and one made two.
"Oh, yes he would," said Ron, even more loudly then Parvati.
"I flatter myself I know a touch more about Hagrid's arrest than you do, Mr Weasley," said Lockhart in a self-satisfied tone.
Ron started to say that he didn't think so, somehow, but stopped in mid sentence when Harry kicked him hard under the desk.
"Incase you've forgotten, we weren't there," He murmured.
But Lockhart's disgusting cheeriness, his hints that he had always thought Hagrid was no good, his confidence that the whole business was now at an end, irritated Harry so badly that he wished desperately to force Gadding with Ghouls right down Lockhart's throat, or perhaps use it to knock some sense into him. Instead he contented himself with scrawling a note to his friends: Let's do it tonight.
Lisa got the note first and put on a large- unconvincing- smile, nodding and passing it on; Ron read the message, swallowed hard, and looked sideways at Hermione, sliding her the paper. She nodded, and the sight seemed to make Ron's shoulders tighten. But a moment later, he nodded too. They had to wait until the end of class to give the note over to Draco, but hesitantly, he agreed too.
The Ravenclaw common room was always very crowded these days, because from six o'clock onward the everybody had nowhere else to go. They also had plenty to talk about, with the result that the common room often didn't empty until past midnight.
Harry had taken the cloak out his trunk before dinner, and given it to Hermione for convenience; If all went as it was meant to, she'd be waiting with Ron and Draco under the cloak(thanks to a very well planned out route from the dungeons to the sixth floor boy's bathroom). Etta had come over and spoke with Harry and Lisa for a bit, distracting him from how many people were still in the common room by 11, and she was the last person to go to her dorm atleast fifteen minutes past midnight.
They waited for the sound of the dormitory door closing before Lisa hopped up and ran straight for the staircase, and Harry had to stumble after her before she shut the Eagle knocker door. Not a second passed of them standing outside before Ron's head popped into of the air.
"Come on, we have to be quiet," Hermione's head popped into the air too, before the inside of the cloak became visible under her arm.
The journey through the dark castle felt as perilous as the one Harry and Lisa made only weeks ago, dodging all the teachers. At last they reached the entrance hall, slid back the lock on the oak front doors, squeezed between them, trying to stop any creaking, and stepped out into the moonlit grounds.
"'Course," said Ron abruptly as they strode across the black grass, "we might get to the forest and find there's nothing to follow. Those spiders might not've been going there at all. I know it looked like they were moving in that sort of general direction, but..." His voice trailed off hopefully.
"Atleast try to sound a little disappointed at the possibility," Draco said, rolling his eyes.
They reached Hagrid's house-- full and sorrow-struck with blank windows. When Harry pushed the door open, Fang went mad with joy at the sight of them. Booming barks rang through their ears, and, worried he may wake up the whole castle, frantically fed him treacle fudge from a tin on the mantelpiece. Luckily, it did what they had hoped-- Fang's teeth were glued together.
Harry dropped the Invisibility Cloak on Hagrid's table, whispering a brief apology to Fang. There would be no need for the Cloak in the pitch-dark forest.
"C'mon, Fang, we're going for a walk," said Hermione, patting her leg, and Fang bounded happily out of the house behind them, dashed to the edge if the forest, and lifted his leg against a large sycamore tree.
Harry took out his wand and murmured, "Lumos!" A tiny light appeared at the end of it, just enough to let them watch the path for signs of spiders. Draco did the same, making the ground a bit more colourful.
"Good thinking," said Ron. "I'd light mine, too, but you know-- it'd probably blow up or something..."
Hermione admitted that she didn't think they'd need another light, but noticed something a moment later, and tapped Harry and Ron on the shoulder, pointing at the grass. Two solitary spiders were hurrying away from the wandlight into the shade of the trees.
"Okay," Ron sighed as though resigned to the worst. "I'm ready. Let's go."
So, with Fang scampering around them, sniffing tree roots and leaves, they entered the forest. By the glow of Harry and Draco's wands, they followed the steady trickle of spiders moving along the path. They walked behind them for about twenty minutes, silently, listening hard for noises other than breaking twigs and rustling leaves. Suddenly, when the trees had become thicker than ever, so that the stars overhead were no longer visible, and the only light was from the wands, their spider guides had been leaving the path.
Harry paused, trying to see where the spiders were going, but everything outside his little sphere of light was pitch-black. He had never been this deep into the forest before. He could vividly remember Hagrid advising him not to leave the forest path last time he'd been in here. But Hagrid was miles away now, sitting in a cell in Azkaban, and he had also said to follow the spiders.
Something wet touched Harry's hand and he jumped backward, crushing Ron's foot, but it was only Fang's nose.
"What d'you all reckon?" Hermione said, whose eyes could just be made out, the brown colour seemingly glowing from the light.
"We've come this far," said Ron faintly.
"Not like we really have much to do at this time of night in the forest," Draco said, already walking ahead.
"I hate this," said Lisa miserably. "I want to go back to the castle."
"Well," Harry shrugged. "You could wait at Hagrid's. We'd all need the cloak, but you don't have to go with us."
"Oh, great!" She hadn't waited a moment to light her own wand and disappear down the path, from where they'd came.
"Brilliant." said Draco. "atleast if we die, we'll have someone saying we did this of our own accord. Really, brilliant, Floppy."
"Don't pull that with me, Snowflake. You're not stuck here. You can leave too, you know."
Draco paused, and then said nothing.
So they followed the darting shadows of the spiders into the trees. They couldn't move very quickly now; There were tree roots and stumps in their way, barely visible in the near blackness. Harry could feel Fang's breath on his hand. More than once, they had to stop, so that Harry could crouch down and find the spiders in the wandlight. In the case of which he couldn't find any, Draco, who had much better eyesight- as normal- would do the same.
They walked for what seemed like at least half an hour, their robes getting caught on low-slung branches and brambles every moment(or so it seemed). After a while, they noticed that the ground seemed to be sloping downward, though the trees were as thick as ever. Then Fang suddenly let loose a great, echoing bark, making all four of them jump out of their skins.
"What?" shouted Ron loudly, looking around into the pitch-dark, and gripping Harry's elbow very hard.
"There's something moving over there," Hermione breathed tiredly.
"It's something big," whispered Draco. "Heavy steps."
They listened. Some distance to their right, the something big was snapping branches as it carved a path through the trees.
"Oh, no," said Ron. "Oh, no, oh, no, oh--"
"Shut up," said Harry frantically.
"It'll hear you," added Draco.
"Hear me?" said Ron in a very high pitched voice. "It's already heard Fang!"
"Well be quiet otherwise!" Hermione snapped silently.
The darkness seemed to be pressing in their eyes as they stood, terrified, waiting. There was a strange rumbling noise and then silence.
"What is it doing?" wondered Harry.
"Nothing good, it sounds..." said Draco, slightly creeping forward.
"Probably getting ready to pounce," stammered Ron.
They waited, shivering, hardly daring to move.
"D'you think it's gone?" Hermione whispered, squinting.
"Dunno--"
Then, to their right, came a sudden blaze of light, so bright in the darkness that they all flung up their hands to shield their eyes. Fang yelped and tried to run, but got lodged in a tangle of thorns and yelped even louder.
"Harry! Hermione!" Ron shouted, his voice breaking with relief. "It's the car!"
"What?"
"Come on!"
Harry and Hermione blundered after Ron toward the light, Draco following confusedly, stumbling and tripping, and a moment later they had emerged into a clearing.
Mr Weasley's car was standing, empty, in the middle of a circle of thick trees under a roof of dense branches, its headlights ablaze. As Ron walked, open-mouthed, toward it, it moved slowly toward him, exactly like a large, turquoise dog greeting its owner.
"It's been here all the time!" said Ron delightedly, walking around the car. "Look at it. The forest's turned it wild...."
The sides of the car were scratched and smeared with mud, and the paint had begun to look very dark. Apparently it had taken to trundling around the forest on its own. Fang didn't seem at all keen of it; He kept close to a sneering Draco. His breathing slowing down again, Harry stuffed his wand back into his robes.
"And we thought it was going to attack us!" said Ron, leaning against the car and patting it joyously. "I wondered where it had gone!"
Harry squinted around on the floodlit ground for signs of more spiders, but they had all scuttled away from the glare of the headlights.
"We've lost the trail," he said, drawing his wand again. "C'mon, let's go and find them."
Ron and Hermione didn't speak. They didn't move. Their eyes were fixed on a point some ten feet above the forest floor, right behind Harry and Draco, who were beginning to feel they had been facing the way they really shouldn't have been. Hermione looked horrified and Ron's face was livid with terror.
"Harry--" She didn't even have time to say, and neither Harry or Draco even had time to turn around. There was a loud clicking noise and suddenly he felt something long and hairy seize him around the middle and lift him and Draco off the ground at the same moment, making it so they were hanging facedown. Struggling, terrified, more clicking was heard, and saw Ron and Hermione's legs leave the ground, too, heard Fang whimpering and howling-- next moment, he was being swept away into the dark trees.
Head hanging, Harry saw that what had hold of him was marching on six immensely long, hairy legs, the front two clutching him tightly below a pair of shining black pincers. Behind him, he could just barely hear more of the creatures over the frantic muttering of Draco, which he could easily tell wasn't English, though he definitely sounded angry and Harry had no doubt it was for him, even if he couldn't understand-- he wouldn't doubt the other creatures to have been carrying Ron and Hermione. They were moving into the very heart of the forest. Harry could hear Fang fighting to free himself from a fourth monster, whining loudly, but Harry, just as horrified, had stuffed his face into his robes and grabbed Draco's arm incase something had dragged him away. Harry would've yelled, or shouted out, but he couldn't find his voice; It had almost seemed that his ability to speak had decided to stay away from the danger and with the car.
He never knew how long he was in the creature's clutches; He only knew that Draco had clenched his arm too and continued in frantic French- which Harry could now tell it was- gradually getting less angry and more fearful, as the darkness suddenly lifted enough for him to see that the leaf-strewn ground was now swarming with spiders. Craning his neck sideways, he realized that they had reached the ridge of a vast hollow, a hollow that had been cleared of trees, so that the stars shone brightly onto the worst scene he had ever laid eyes on.
Spiders.
Not the small spiders like those surging over the leaves below or the ones he often saw in his old cupboard at the Dursleys. Spiders the size of carthorses while still eight-eyed, eight-legged, black, and hairy like normal spiders. The massive specimen that was carrying Harry made its way down the steep slope toward a misty, domed web in the very center of the hollow, while its fellows closed in all around it, clicking their pincers excitedly at the sight of its load.
Seeing them, very, very large, and knowing they were the very things he used to spend far too much time bullying made Harry horrified. He couldn't hurt them-- he was sure nothing he could ever, ever do would hurt them- not like he could hurt the ones he was used to. But they could hurt him, now. He suddenly wished he was back in his dorm room, comfortable and trying not to sleep... or maybe fast asleep... warm and not scared...
Harry and Draco fell to the ground as the spider released them. Ron, Hermione, and Fang thudded down next to them. Fang wasn't howling anymore, but cowering silently on the spot. Ron and Hermione looked exactly how Harry felt. Ron was paler than Harry had ever seen him, his mouth stretched wide in a kind of silent scream and his eyes were popping. Hermione looked horrified and her face was as pale as it could get.
Harry suddenly realized that the spider that had dropped him and Draco was saying something. It had been hard to tell, because he clicked his pincers with every word he spoke.
"Aragog!" it called. "Aragog!"
And from the middle of the misty, domed web, a spider the size of a small elephant emerged, very slowly. There was grey in the black of his body and legs, and each of the eyes on his ugly, pincered head was milky white. Harry felt extraordinarily cold- he'd never been so terrified in his life.
"What is it?" he said, clicking his pincers rapidly.
"Men," clicked the spider who had caught Hermione.
"Is it Hagrid?" asked Aragog, moving closer, his eight eyes wandering vaguely.
"Strangers," clicked the spider who had brought Ron.
"Kill them," clicked Aragog fretfully. "I was sleeping..."
"We know Hagrid well!" Hermione shouted out suddenly, pushing back the spider that had been getting near her. "Very well, you see-- we go to meet him no less than, er, every week!"
Harry was surprised she'd spoken at all-- there were so many spiders he was scared they wouldn't have even had the time to try and fight for their lives. He felt like crying, atleast... some bit of relief he could get, for a few seconds, before he'd die. He understood, very, very well why Ron was so scared of spiders.
Click, click, click, was all any of the four could hear.
Aragog paused.
"Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before," he said slowly.
"He's in serious trouble," said Draco quickly, sounding no where near as composed as he normally did. "That's why we've come here."
"In trouble?" said the spider, and Harry thought he heard concern beneath the clicking pincers. "But why has he sent you?"
Harry thought of getting to his feet but decided against it; He didn't think his legs would support him. So he spoke from the ground, as calmly as he could.
"H- he didn't s- send us."
"They think, up at the school, that Hagrid's been setting a– an... er, something on students, They've taken him to Azkaban." Hermione explained, standing up.
Aragog clicked his pincers furiously, and all around the hollow the sound was echoed by the crowd of spiders; It was like applause, except it made Harry feel sick. He didn't think it could happen-- applause, made bad. But here it was, terrible and sickening, and it made his eyes burn.
"But that was years ago," said Aragog fretfully. "Years and years ago. I remember it well. That's why they made him leave the school. They believed that I was the monster that dwells in what they call the Chamber of Secrets. They thought that Hagrid had opened the Chamber and set me free."
"And you... didn't, come from the Chamber of Secrets?" asked Draco.
"I!" said Aragog, clicking angrily. "I was not born in the castle. I come from a distant land. A traveller gave me to Hagrid when I was but an egg. Hagrid was only a boy, but he cared for me, hidden in a cupboard in the castle, feeding me on scraps from the table. Hagrid is my good friend, and a good man. When I was discovered, and blamed for the death of a girl, he protected me. I have lived here in the forest ever since, where Hagrid still visits me. He even found me a wife, Mosag, and you see how our family has grown, all through Hagrid's goodness..."
Harry summoned what remained of his courage. Maybe they really could talk their way out of this.
"S-so... you never attacked... anyone?"
"Never," croaked the old spider. "It would have been my instinct, but out of respect for Hagrid, I never harmed a human. The body of the girl who was killed was discovered in a bathroom. I never saw any part of the castle but the cupboard in which I grew up. Our kind like the dark and the quiet..."
"Then... do you know- what the- what did kill her?" asked Ron, trembling. "B-because whatever it was, it's back and attacking people again--"
His words were drowned by a loud outbreak of clicking and the rustling of many long legs shifting angrily; Large black shapes shifted all around.
"The thing that lives in the castle," said Aragog, "is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others. Well do I remember how I pleaded with Hagrid to let me go, when I sensed the beast moving around the school."
"What is it?" Draco demanded urgently. "We need to know."
More loud clicking, more rustling; The spiders seemed to be closing in.
"We do not speak of it!" said Aragog fiercely. "We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dreaded creature, though he asked me, many times!"
Harry didn't want to press the subject, not with the spiders pressing closer on all sides, but to his horror, Hermione dared. "It's a snake, isn't it?" she asked, bravely, "A kind of snake? An enormous--?"
"TALK NOT OF IT!"
"We'll get it out of the castle!" Hermione shrieked. "We will! W- we'll find it and get rid of it! We promise, Aragog! We will!"
There was a long pause, and more loud shifting, as though many spiders were turning to and fro. Then Aragog spoke, very softly.
"If anyone can rid us of this beast, it would not be small men. You are no match for it. Why do you think we fear it? We cannot face it! We do not speak of it for fear that it might hear us. Its senses are keener than ours. It does not need eyes. Yes, the beast has returned. We have heard the beast slithering, and we have seen its wake. It leaves a clear trail of nothing. You saw the girl! It is the beast's nature to kill!"
"But- but-!" Ron stammered, his voice still very high, "Y-you don't have to fight it yourself!
Aragog didn't respond; He seemed to be tired of talking. He was backing slowly into his domed web, but his fellow spiders continued to inch slowly toward Harry, Draco, Hermione and Ron.
"We'll just go, then, we'll send our regards to Hagrid when he returns," Harry called desperately to Aragog, hearing leaves rustling behind him. He reached into his pocket for his wand-- he already had a spell in mind...
"Go?" said Aragog slowly. "I think not..."
"What?"
"My sons and daughters do not harm Hagrid, on my command. But I cannot deny them fresh meat, when it wanders so willingly into our midst. Good-bye, friends of Hagrid."
Harry spun around. He couldn't hear anything over his heartbeat and it was getting hard to breathe. Feet away, towering above him, was a solid wall of spiders, clicking, their many eyes gleaming in their ugly black heads.
Even as he started to move his wand, Harry knew it was no good, there were too many of them, but as he tried to stand, reaching for Draco's arm to try and steady himself and say the words, a loud, long note sounded, and a blaze of light flamed through the hollow.
Mr Weasley's car was thundering down the slope, headlights glaring, its horn screeching, knocking spiders aside; Several were thrown onto their backs, their legs waving in the air. The car screeched to a halt in front of Harry, Draco, Ron, and Hermione, and the doors flew open.
"Get Fang!" Harry yelled, diving into the back seat; Ron seized the boarhound around the middle and threw him, yelping, into the back of the car; Ron shoved Draco to in before stumbling into the driver's seat behind Hermione-- the doors slammed shut-- Ron didn't touch the accelerator, but the car didn't need him anyhow; The engine roared and they were off, hitting more spiders. They sped up the slope, out of the hollow, and they were soon crashing through the forest, branches whipping the windows as the car wound its way cleverly through the widest gaps, following a path it obviously knew.
Harry looked sideways at Draco, who had also been in the backseat. He was looking through the back window, horrified, watching the spiders falling behind.
"Are you okay?" asked Hermione, glancing over at Ron.
Ron stared straight ahead, mouth agape, unable to speak and flexing his fingers on the wheel, which was steering itself.
They smashed their way through the undergrowth, Fang howling loudly in the back seat, and Harry saw the side mirror snap off as they squeezed past a large oak. After ten noisy, rocky minutes, the trees thinned, and Harry could again see patches of sky.
The car stopped so suddenly that they were nearly thrown into whatever was infront of them. They had reached the edge of the forest. Fang flung himself at the window in his anxiety to get out, and when Harry opened the door, he shot off through the trees to Hagrid's house, tail between his legs. Draco was the first to stumble out the car afterward. Harry got out too, then Hermione, and after a minute or so, Ron seemed to regain feeling in his limbs and followed, still stiff-necked and staring. He gave the car a grateful pat with a shaky hand as it reversed back into the forest and disappeared from view.
Harry went back into Hagrid's cabin. Lisa was fast asleep on the table, and she jumped up as Fang barked wildly, scrambling to the blanket in his basket.
"You're back!" she said, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "I was starting to get worried... it's been almost an hour... or, was-- I-I fell asleep before I, um... sorry. Are you okay?"
He nodded, as that was all he felt he could do, and grabbed the cloak. The sooner he could get away from the forest, the easier it would be to breathe.
When they stepped outside, Ron was being violently sick in the pumpkin patch and Hermione and Draco few feet behind him, keeping a safe distance.
"Follow the spiders," said Ron weakly, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "I'll never forgive Hagrid. We're lucky to be alive. Follow the bloody spiders... last time... I ever..."
"I bet he thought Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his," said Hermione faintly, wiping sweat off her forehead.
"That's exactly Hagrid's problem," said Draco, staring at the ground. "Thinks nothing can hurt anyone as long as it's a creature because he doesn't feel it, the oaf."
"For once, I actually agree!" Ron panted. "He always thinks monsters aren't as bad as they're made out, like dragons, and- and Acromantulas! Giant bloomin' spiders! He's- he's mad! Look where it's got him! A cell in Azkaban!" He was shivering uncontrollably now. "What was the point of sending us in there? What have we found out, I'd like to know?"
"We know for sure that Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets. That he was innocent," said Harry, throwing the cloak over their heads. Ron gave a loud snort as Hermione supported him, helping him walk. Evidently, hatching Aragog in a cupboard wasn't his idea of being innocent. "And he didn't accidentally kill a girl either. It was the- the--"
"Snake," Hermione gasped. "The snake-- they heard it slithering, it- it has a nature t- to kill-- I forgot, again, after Padma and Luna got Petri-- wait. Wha- Lisa, what happened?"
"What?"
"Luna had gone to tell you it was a snake, but then neither of you returned, so Padma left to go find you both. But then only you came up to the stands and you said you didn't find anything."
"I never saw them," said Lisa, frowning. "I thought I knew what I was looking for, but it wasn't there, so I just said I didn't find anything. I didn't run into Luna or Padma- I never even saw them."
They had begun walking slowly as they began to think more over the whole thing.
"Whatever book you're talking about-- if you've both read it, it's there. Hell- I bet me and Luna have read it. The heir must've checked it out, thinking someone would go looking for it." said Draco.
"If you've read it, why can't you remember?" Harry asked, and Draco scoffed. "I've read plenty of books-- you can't really--"
"That's not what I'm saying," said Harry, "I'm saying- don't you remember the name of it? If- if you've read it before, don't you have it somewhere else? You said you barely have time to go to the library."
"I- it- it was... bloody- I can't. I don't- I know it, but I can't--"
"Could it be that we were halfway correct before?" said Hermione, when it was evident Draco wouldn't remember. "Like how Padma said--" Harry tensed up as Hermione spoke, "-- the key to the Chamber could've been passed down, generation to generation, but we just got our guess wrong when we went with Malfoy. Er, sorry. But, really. For all we know, it could be some Hufflepuff with distant Slytherin heritage doing the attacks. Or, for all we don't know. Someone could've stolen it..."
Draco finlly stopped stuttering, and said, "If it's a snake, it must be a Parseltongue doing the attacks. It has to be-- the reason only Salazar could control it... bloody-- it doesn't even have to be Slytherin heritage. All they've got to have is an ancestor who could speak it-- and from what I know, in India, Parseltongue is real bloody common--"
"Would you stop saying bloody?" said Lisa through gritted teeth, "We get it-- it's common in India! Great to know in a school full of kids who weren't born in England! Yeah!"
Ron sighed loudly. "That makes less sense and more sense at the same time. It could be anyone."
A sudden realisation hit Harry.
"Aragog said the girl died in the bathroom." He said, still thinking over his words.
"Yes? Harry, just tell us," Hermione said, as Draco yawned. He was surprised they hadn't caught it already-- logic, he remembered, Draco wouldn't let go of. Either of them, really- and they hadn't caught on to the most obvious thing?
"The girl was Myrtle. She had to be. That's the only reason Riddle really would've gotten the award in the first place-- everyone thought that he had gotten rid of someone who had killed another person. The attacks stopped after Hagrid got expelled, and everyone thought he killed Myrtle."
"So she's the reason Hagrid got expelled, is what your saying." Ron concluded.
"More or less," Hermione answered, as they neared the castle. "Weren't you listening?"
Ron groaned, rolling his eyes, but he said, "What if Riddle was the heir? I mean- you said he caught Hagrid all of a sudden, when he heard he might have to go home- er, not home, but back to wherever that place was, you said, Haz? But he knew earlier, and he didn't do it when Myrtle got killed?"
"So, what, you think he stopped attacking people just so he didn't have to leave?" said Draco. "That must be the brightest and stupidest idea you've ever had in your life."
"Stupid? How's it stupid?"
"His name." said Draco simply, and his voice took such a serious undertone that Harry would've thought he was listening to Draco's father. "Use logic, Weasley- you've proven you've actually got some. There's never been a documented magical family with the surname Riddle, let alone a pureblood family. And if there was, they were either dead or half-blood by the thirties. So either Riddle was Muggle, or one of his parents was. Looking at Salazar Slytherin-- he wouldn't let anyone unpure open the chamber he kept practically only to eradicate Muggles from the school. Riddle couldn't have opened the chamber."
"You just said--"
"I said something going by logic-- Pureblood elitists don't happen to share common logic!"
"Oh, of course you'd know that--"
"And what does that mean?!"
"And I really thought he wouldn't be another Hermione," said Lisa, yawning loudly. "He's just her if she was obsessed with Purebloods. Even the constant arguments with Ron."
Harry hadn't listened to very much of what either of them had said. He was too busy thinking.
Maybe Riddle did open the chamber fifty years ago.