The Last Marauders: Year Two

Elijah sneaked into the bathroom and tapped his wand on his head, using the Disillusionment charm. He shivered, the feeling off an egg being cracked on his head made him feel odd, but it was the only way to get past all the teachers on patrol. His heart thumped in his throat as he edged his way out of his dormitory and toward the entrance hall. As he went toward the door, he ran into something. “Ow!”
“Bloody hell, Ron?” He whispered.
“Yeah, now come on, Holmes.”
Two pairs of trainer-clad feet appeared as the trio carefully slipped through the heavy doors, all silent as they made a path through the grass to the caretaker’s cottage at the edge of the grounds. His massive boarhound immediately started barking and as Harry slipped a cloak off him and Ron, Ron tossed him a tart. Whatever was in that tart shut the dog up. Elijah tapped his head with his wand and shivered once again as the spell dissipated. “You have an invisibility cloak?” Elijah asked, a tinge of jealousy in his voice.
“Yeah.” Harry set it on a chair. “Come on, Fang.” He turned to the dog. “Let’s go.”
Ron whimpered. “If we have to.”
Elijah took a deep breath. “We have to. For the girls.”
Ron nodded weakly, and both boys followed Harry out the cottage and into the Forbidden Forest, the hound bounding along. “Lumos.” Harry and Elijah both lit their wands. Harry had his head down, looking for something. “Ron.” Harry pointed at two tiny spiders scuttling away from their lights.
Ron sighed. “Alright, let’s go.” He echoed Harry’s earlier statement.
Silence fell among them as they followed a trail of spiders. Ron walked as far away from them as possible and Fang stuck close to Ron. They walked for close to twenty minutes as the spiders led them deeper into the dark forest until the trees became so thick the only lights they had were the wand lights. “Oh no.” Elijah broke the silence. “The spiders are leaving the path.”
“Well? What d’you reckon?” Harry asked Ron.
“We’ve come this far.” The redhead sighed again. “No point in turning back now.”
Harry led them off the path, all three determined to help solve this mystery. It was slower going as tree roots stuck up out of the ground and thorns kept gripping their robes; Harry and Elijah kept having to bend down to find the spider trail. They seemed to be on a downward slope after another twenty minutes or so, and suddenly, Fang let out a loud bark. Elijah jumped, nearly tripping over a tree root. “What?” Ron nearly yelled, almost making Harry fall too.
“There’s something moving over there.” Elijah heard snapping branches somewhere toward their right. “Sounds big.”
“Oh no.” Ron whimpered. “Oh no no no-”
“Shut up.” Harry hissed. “It’ll hear you.”
“Hear me?” Ron’s voice cracked, going up higher than Elijah thought it could go. “It’s already heard Fang!”
A strange rumbling sounded from the right again and then silence fell. The boys pressed in together, all three breathing heavily. “What d’you think it’s doing?” Harry asked, his breath right in Elijah’s ear.
“Probably getting ready to pounce.” Ron said dismally.
“Might be loosening up its’ jaws.” Elijah half-joked.
“D’you think it’s gone?”
“No idea-”
Sudden, blinding, bright light shone upon the boys and Elijah dove out of the way as something drove toward them, stopping mere centimeters from Ron. “Harry, Elijah, it’s our car!” Relief was evident in Ron’s voice.
“What? Car?” Elijah asked, confused.
“Come on!” A large, dirty, turquoise car almost waited for them, turning toward Ron, almost like a dog. “It’s been here all this time, Harry. I think the forest’s turned it wild.”
Harry was kneeling down by the sentient car, looking for spiders again. “We’ve lost the trail, Ron. Come on.”
Ron, just a few seconds ago chatty, turned deadly pale. Elijah opened his mouth to warn Harry but there was a clicking noise and all three boys were picked up by long, black pincers, head down. Elijah gripped his wand tightly, seeing eight hairy legs. “Oh shit.” He muttered.
Light was coming through just enough for him to realize the entire forest floor was covered in spiders of varying spiders, all moving in the same direction they were. The sight that appeared as they came into a hollow took Elijah’s voice completely away right before he was dropped on his head, along with Ron, Harry, and Fang. Ron’s mouth was open, almost as if he was screaming. Massive spiders, bigger than any horses Elijah had ever seen, surrounded them. He tried to count them, but lost track with all the clicking of the pincers. “Aragog!” He realized that one of the spiders that had carried them was speaking. “Aragog!”
Elijah readjusted his grip on his wand, moving closer to Ron and Harry. A gray spider nearly the size of Hagrid’s hut emerged with white beads in every one of his many eyes; Elijah quickly realized he was blind. “What is it?” The old spider’s pincers clicked rapidly.
“Men.”
“Hagrid?”
“Strangers.” The spiders close to them clicked back.
“Kill them. I was sleeping-”
“We’re friends of Hagrid!” Harry yelled out, panicking. “Hagrid’s in trouble. That’s why we’re here.”
“Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before. In trouble? Why has he sent you?” Aragog clicked.
“They think, up at the school, that Hagrid has been setting something on the students again. He’s in Azkaban.”
Aragog’s pincers clicked angrily. “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.”
“You’re not the monster?” Elijah finally found his voice again.
“I was not born in the castle. I come from a distant land. A traveler gave me to Hagrid when I was 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. . . .” Aragog’s clicks trailed off, and Elijah felt bad for the old spider.
“So, you never attacked anyone?” Harry asked quickly.
“Out of respect for Hagrid, never! The girl who died was killed in a bathroom. I never saw any part of the castle but the cupboard Hagrid kept me in.”
“But...do you know what did kill her?” Elijah spoke up again. “Because whatever it is, it’s back and attacking students-”
He was drowned out by rapid clicking by all the spiders. “The thing that lives in the castle is something we do not speak of. We spiders fear it above all others.” Aragog’s clicks were louder than the others.
“Thank you.” Elijah finally got to his feet, bowing to show respect. “We’ll just be going then.”
“Go? I think not.” Aragog said slowly.
“But-”
“My family does not harm Hagrid on my command. But I cannot deny them fresh meat when it wanders so willingly into our midst. Goodbye, friends of Hagrid.”
Almost in unison, the three spun around, coming face to face with a wall of spiders. Harry yanked his wand out of his robe, hand shaking. Elijah gulped. “What do we do?” He asked, his voice shaking.
“Fight?” Harry responded.
A loud, long horn sounded, scattering the wall of spiders, and to Elijah’s surprise, the Weasley’s car spun to a stop, doors opening. “Get Fang!” Harry yelled.
Elijah and Ron grabbed the boarhound and threw him into the back seat and the boys scrambled into the car. Even though Ron was behind the steering wheel, the car was driving itself, as Ron still seemed to be in shock. “You okay, Ron?” Harry asked.
Ron didn’t answer, and Elijah watched the car take a path through the forest it apparently knew well. When light started coming through the leaves, he let out a breath. They were almost out of the forest. The car stopped so abruptly, the boys almost went through the windshield and they rolled out of the car. Fang took off to Hagrid’s, whining quietly.
“Follow the spiders.” Ron said weakly, sitting on the steps as Harry went inside to grab the cloak. “I’ll never forgive Hagrid. What’d we learn anyways?”
“Hagrid is innocent.” Harry replied, to which Ron snorted.
Elijah let out a laugh. “I can’t believe a colony of killer spiders live in there.”
They fell into silence once more, parting at the entrance hall. Elijah managed to sneak past Professor Sprout and quickly fell asleep, exhausted by his adventure in the forest.