➣ 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝟏𝟏“𝙉𝙤 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙙"
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“I didn’t tell you before, but that house-elf visited Harry after the Bludger tried to kill him. Apparently, it had been him who set it off, not someone from the Slytherin team,” said Nicolás.
“The same one that stole his mail all summer?” asked Cedric, looking up from the Spiderman comic book he borrowed from Caelum. Nicolás nodded.
The ambiance by the Black Lake was calm. The wind was soft, singing in sweet harmonies to them in such troubled times. Some leaves seemed to dance in the air with the currents, and the grass beneath and around them seemed to shiver.
“Have you found out what family he serves?” asked Dorian, raising his eyes from the book in his hands.
“No, Harry says every time he asks, Dobby starts to hit his head with anything,” responded Caelum.
“Wait, what? Did you just say Dobby?” asked Dorian wide-eyed.
“Yes, why?”
“Because Dobby is the Malfoys’ house-elf!” said Dorian.
“You reckon the Malfoys sent him to try and get Harry killed?” asked Cedric, gaping at him.
Dorian seemed in thought for a second, before shaking his head. “Nah, they’ve been complaining about Dobby missing sometimes.”
“Do you know how he heard about the ‘great Harry Potter’?” asked Nicolás, suddenly remembering the way Harry claimed Dobby used to call him.
Dorian laughed, scratching his cheek. “Well, yes—” he spoke in between chuckles, “Draco had an obsession with him when he was little, you know,” but then his laugh died, “that’s when his parents thought it wise to poison his head harder.”
Okay, that was one mystery less in Nicolás’ list of priorities. There was one more at hand, a long retelling. And so, Caelum and Nicolás told them about what had transpired two nights before at Hagrid’s hut with Dumbledore, Fudge, and Lucius Malfoy.
“Merlin, when I start to think I can’t hate my godfather even more,” Dorian groaned.
“Every time you mention that I can’t help but feel sorry for you, pal,” muttered Caelum, patting Dorian’s shoulder.
“Really, Malfoy is a total git,” commented Cedric.
“Trust me, most pureblood families are,” grunted Dorian.
“Gents, can we leave the topic of how much of an asshole Malfoy is and focus on the matter at hand?” said Nicolás, already exasperated, Dorian sent him a silent thankful glare.
“What could Hagrid have meant by ‘follow the spiders’?” asked Dorian.
“Well, the other day we saw how the spiders were acting all weird, right?” Nicolas asked. Cedric and Caelum nodded. “Take a look at this.”
He showed them a copy he made of the paragraph about the Basilisk in Most Macabre Monstrosities.
“Spiders flee on his presence, eh? Why is the Basilisk their mortal enemy?” asked Dorian.
“Well, it could be like some sort of instinctive mechanism for survival, right?” Nicolás asked. The other three looked at him as if he had grown a second head.
Sighing, Nicolás explained further. “Basilisks have enough dark power in their gaze to petrify and potentially kill anything in an instant. Acromantulas have eight eyes, while other species of spiders have up to twelve of them. They have an incredibly wide range of view of almost three hundred and sixty degrees! Therefore, more probability of ending up petrified or killed than any other animal or creature. Hence, them, fleeing the Basilisk’s presence, is an instinctual drive for survival.”
Wide-eyed, and with his mouth opened, Cedric spoke, his voice was soft and velvety, almost gruff on the edges. “You’re a Pumpkin, genius,” he said, before everyone looked at him in confusion. “I mean, you’re a genius, Pumpkin!” he corrected himself with reddening cheeks.
Both Caelum and Dorian looked from one to the other—from Cedric to Nicolás and back—as both their cheeks quickly reddened, and Caelum suggestively quirked his eyebrows at Nicolás, earning a reproaching frown.
Caelum and Dorian were equally impressed, Though, instead of simply looking at him, like Cedric, they looked focused, probably thinking about what to do next.
“What are we supposed to do now?” asked Caelum, gaining Cedric’s attention back to their talk.
“I haven’t seen spiders since that day,” said Nicolás.
“Me neither,” said Cedric in a distracted voice, still eyeing Nicolás.
“Guess all there’s left to do is wait for the spiders to make their appearance, right? Then, we can see what we can do about them,” said Nicolás, standing up. The others followed quickly.
•─────⋅☾☽⋅─────•
Early, on Herbology—their first class of the day—Professor Sprout had them working on some Abyssinian Shrivelfigs. Their job was to work on creating the adequate compost.
Nicolás was working on a long pot alongside Cedric and Caelum.
“Something we haven’t been focusing on,” Caelum started to speak, “Is who could possibly be the Heir of Slytherin.”
“Do you have candidates?” asked Cedric interested.
“Not really,” grunted Caelum. “But it has to be someone very powerful, right?”
“I heard some people naming Draco,” commented Nicolás.
“Well, after you got your point across in the common room, no one dares to even name Harry,” Cedric said, chuckling and looking proudly at him. Nicolás felt as his cheeks warmed a bit.
Caelum laughed, “Yeah, I heard that guy, Ernie, naming Draco.”
“You reckon it may be him?”
“Draco?” Caelum laughed. “Oh, Merlin, no, I don’t think so. If you need to know anything about them, is that the Malfoys are like peacocks, Nico. If they were in any way or form related to Salazar Slytherin, trust me, they would’ve made sure the entirety of the British Wizarding World knew.”
“Yeah, Dorian would’ve known, too,” mussed Nicolás.
As Cedric and Caelum joked about some Niffler accident for the third-years, Nicolás spotted something. There was something akin to a line, made of small spiders.
The spiders seemed to walk in a hurry, some climbing atop others, trying to get out quickly.
“Look at that,” Nicolás pointed. “‘Follow the spiders’, Hagrid said.”
“Are they—are they walking towards the Forbidden Forest?” inquired Cedric.
The spiders walked up the wall, and into a small crevice in the window towards the outside. Under the bright sun of the early morning, they walked out of the greenhouse and in the same line out, towards the forest. Nicolás and Caelum locked eyes.
“You two won’t go after them on your own, right?” inquired Cedric, looking suspicious.
“No, not right now,” was all Nicolás said, doing his best to avoid Cedric’s suspicious eyes.
•─────⋅☾☽⋅─────•
The moonlight was the only source of direction for their path. It was already past curfew, and most students were asleep. Thanks to the Marauder’s Map—now secured once more inside Nicolás’ robes—and under the Invisibility Cloak, they quickly avoided every person, reaching the outside.
The walk to Hagrid’s hut was silent at first, before Caelum talked.
“Have you seen Ginny Weasley?” he asked in a hushed voice.
“The youngest Weasley? I know she’s in the same year as Luna, why?”
“I’m not sure, she seems weird lately. Paler, more scared, constantly shivering, jumping,” explained Caelum.
“I think everyone is a little bit like that recently, with the attacks and all.”
“Well, yeah, but—” suddenly, their conversation was cut short by something, or someone, running into them from behind and, curiously, four surprised yelps from them.
As Caelum and Nicolás fell to the floor from the impact, other two thuds sounded behind them. Harry and Ron emerged from their cloak as Nicolas and Caelum did the same. Everyone shared surprised glances, but no one dared speak.
Harry and Ron looked frantically around, probably trying to come up with any excuse, but fell short. After tense seconds, Nicolás let out a heavy, tired sigh.
“It’s obvious what the four of us are doing here. Let’s move; we don’t have all night.”
In silence, they walked to the hut. The place seemed all sad and sorry-looking with its blank windows. When the door was pushed open, Fang went mad with joy at the sight of them. Worried he might wake everyone at the castle with his deep, booming barks, they hastily fed him treacle toffee from a tin on the mantelpiece, which glued his teeth together.
They left their Invisibility Cloaks on Hagrid’s table. There would be no need for them in the pitch-dark forest.
“C’mon, Fang, we’re going for a walk,” said Harry, patting his leg, and Fang bounded happily out of the house behind them, dashed to the edge of the forest, and lifted his leg against a large sycamore tree.
Nicolás took out his wand. “Lumos Maxima!” he said, and a bright, blinding light appeared at the tip of his wand. He wrapped his hand over the tip, hiding the light, before moving his hand, and the light was gone.
“What—” Harry's voice was cut short when Nicolás opened his hand once more. The light, now taking the form of a small star, floated before them, radiating a warm luminosity.
As both Harry and Ron exclaimed in surprise, Caleum smirked. “Show-off,” he said, nudging Nicolás’ ribs, eliciting tickles on him.
Under the light, a thicker line of spiders appeared, effectively, going toward the Forbidden Forest.
“Good thinking,” said Ron. “I’d light mine, too, but you know — it’d probably blow up or something...”
They stopped, looking at the forest. It was completely dark. The soft silver light of the moon was the only source of light there, and even from a distance, they could still hear the sound of creatures moving. A soft breeze passed, sending chills up their spines.
“Okay,” Ron sighed as though resigned to the worst, “I’m ready. Let’s go.”
“There ain’t no rest for the wicked, my mom used to say,” joked Caelum, trying to lift their spirits.
Nicolás rolled his eyes, shaking his head. “Aunt María has never said that crap, and don’t talk as if she’s dead, you halfwit.”
So, with Fang scampering around them, sniffing tree roots and leaves, they entered the forest. Under the bright light Nicolás created, they followed the steady trickle of spiders moving along the path. They walked behind them for about twenty minutes, not speaking, listening hard for noises other than breaking twigs and rustling leaves.
Then, when the trees had become thicker than ever, so that the stars overhead were no longer visible, and Harry’s wand now shone in the sea of dark too, they saw their spider guides leaving the path.
They paused, trying to see where the spiders were going, but everything outside the big sphere of light was pitch-black. They had never been this deep into the forest before, at least not at night in Nicolás' case.
Something wet touched Harry’s hand, and he jumped backward, crushing Ron’s foot, but it was only Fang’s nose.
“What d’you reckon?” Harry asked, trying to make out their eyes, reflecting the light flying above their heads.
“We’ve come this far,” said Ron.
“Let's see what's ahead,” said Nicolás, walking to the front, wand at the ready.
And 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, visible under the white light. At the front, Nioclás could feel Fang’s hot breath on his hand. More than once, they had to stop, so that Harry or Caelum could crouch down and make sure they were following the right path, the one the spiders drew.
They walked for what seemed like at least half an hour, their robes snagging on low-slung branches and brambles. 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 both Harry and Ron jump out of their skins, Nicolás and Caelum looked around.
“What?” Ron’s voice wavered loudly, looking around into the pitch-dark, and gripping Harry’s elbow very hard.
Looking around, Nicolás grasped the crest of his necklace, feeling the familiar warmth of the silver heating, and Ember's presence in his mind-eye.
“There’s something moving over there,” Harry breathed. “Listen... sounds like something big...”
“And it’s coming straight at us,” said Caelum, grasping his wand.
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 Caelum frantically. “It’ll hear you.”
“Hear me?” said Ron in an unnaturally high voice. “It’s already heard Fang!”
The darkness seemed to be pressing on their eyeballs as they stood, terrified, waiting. There was a strange rumbling noise and then silence. Nicolás and Caelum had their wands at the ready.
“What d’you think it’s doing?” said Harry.
“Probably getting ready to pounce,” said Ron.
They waited, shivering, hardly daring to move.
“D’you think it’s gone?” Harry whispered.
“Be silent,” Nicolás commanded in a hushed voice.
Then, to their right, came a sudden blaze of light, so bright in the darkness that all of them 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!” Ron shouted, his voice breaking with relief. “Harry, it’s our car!”
“What?” said Harry.
“Car? What car?” asked Caelum.
“Is it a living car?” asked Nicolás. “What is it doing here in the wild?”
“Come on!” Ron urged them forward.
The three of them blundered after Ron toward the light, stumbling and tripping, and a moment later they had emerged into a clearing.
Mr. Weasley’s car, the car Ron and Harry had stolen to fly on the first day of school, 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. Apparently, it had taken to trundling around the forest on its own. Fang didn’t seem at all keen on it; he kept close to Nicolás, who could feel him quivering. With his breathing slowing down again, Nicolás stuffed his wand back into his robes, and with a swift hand-wave, the floating light extinguished.
“And we thought it was going to attack us!” said Ron, leaning against the car and patting it. “I wondered where it had gone!”
The others squinted around on the floodlit ground for signs of more spiders, but they had all scuttled away from the glare of the headlights.
“Fuck, we’ve lost the trail,” Caelum said. “C’mon, let’s go and find them.”
Ron didn’t speak. He didn’t move. His eyes were fixed on a point some ten feet above the forest floor, right behind Harry. His face was livid with terror.
Before they even had time to turn around, there was a loud clicking noise, and suddenly something long and hairy seized them all around the middle and lifted them off the ground so that they were hanging facedown. Struggling, terrified, Nicolás heard more clicking, and saw Ron’s legs leave the ground, too, he heard Fang whimpering and howling — the next moment, he was being swept away into the dark trees.
Head hanging, Nicolás saw that what had hold of him was marching on eight immensely long, hairy legs, the front two clutching him tightly below a pair of shining black pincers, an Acromantula. Stupid, they had walked right into an Acromantula colony.
Behind him, he could hear more of the creatures, no doubt carrying Caelum, Harry, and Ron. They were moving into the very heart of the forest. Nicolás could hear Fang fighting to free himself from a fifth spider, whining loudly.
He couldn’t know how long he was in the creature’s clutches; he only knew that 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 scene in front of him.
Spiders. Not tiny spiders like those surging over the leaves below. Spiders the size of carthorses, eight-eyed, eight-legged, black, hairy, gigantic. The massive specimen that was carrying Nicolás 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.
As Nicolás fell to the ground on all fours, after his carrier spider released him. He heard the others thud down next to him. Fang wasn’t howling anymore, but cowering silently on the spot. Ron looked exactly like Harry, mouth stretched wide in a kind of silent scream, and his eyes were popping. Caelum's eyes were open to comical proportions, and he gripped his wand, his knuckles white. Nicolás gestured for him to not make any rushed move.
He had come to realize that the spider that had dropped him was saying something. It had been hard to tell, because he clicked his pincers with every word he spoke.
“Aragog!” it called. “Aragog!”
“Where's your leader?!” Nicolás demanded, and the call for Aragog intensified, with the other spiders joining the calling.
And from the middle of the misty, domed web, a spider the size of a small elephant emerged, very slowly. There was gray in the black of his body and legs, and each of the eyes on his pincered head was milky white. He was blind.
“What is it?” he said, clicking his pincers rapidly.
“Men,” clicked the spider who had caught Harry.
“Is it Hagrid?” said Aragog, moving closer, his eight milky eyes wandering vaguely.
“Strangers,” clicked the spider who had brought Caelum.
“Kill them,” clicked Aragog fretfully. “I was sleeping...”
“We’re friends of Hagrid’s!” Harry shouted. His heart seemed to have left his chest to pound in his throat.
Click, click, click went the pincers of the spiders all around the hollow.
Aragog paused.
“Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before,” he said slowly.
“Hagrid’s in trouble,” said Harry, breathing very fast. “That’s why we’ve come.”
“In trouble?” said the aged spider, with what sounded like concern beneath the clicking pincers. “But why has he sent you?”
“They think, up at the school, that Hagrid’s been setting a — a — something on students. They’ve taken him to Azkaban.”
Aragog clicked his pincers furiously, and all around the hollow the sound was echoed by the crowd of spiders; it was like applause.
“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.”
“But you didn't come from the Chamber of Secrets, did you?” asked Nicolás.
“I!” said Aragog, clicking angrily. “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, 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...”
“So, you never — never attacked anyone?” Caelum asked.
“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...”
“But then... Do you know what did kill that girl?” said Harry. “Because whatever it is, 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 him.
“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 about the school.”
“It's a Basilisk, isn't it?” said Nicolás urgently.
More loud clicking, more rustling; the spiders seemed to be closing in, and Aragog’s head snapped in the direction of his voice.
“We do not speak of it!” said Aragog fiercely. “We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dread creature, though he asked me, many times.”
Aragog seemed to be done with their talking. He was backing slowly into his domed web, but his fellow spiders continued to inch slowly toward them.
“We’ll just go,” Nicolás said, hearing leaves rustling behind him, he tried to wrap his arms around Harry and Ron, slowly walking back.
“Go?” said Aragog slowly. “I think not...”
“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. Goodbye, friends of Hagrid.”
Harry spun around. Feet away, towering above him, was a solid wall of spiders, clicking, their many eyes gleaming in their ugly black heads.
“Son of a bitch,” hissed Caelum under his breath.
“Incendio!” Nicolás yelled, burning three of the spiders. Behind him, Caelum took out his own wand, (“Bombarda!” he cried).
Then, a high-pitched, and thundering roar was heard. Spiders started to move and be thrown to the sides, making a path. A flashy yellow body of a Wampus Cat was moving towards them, getting the spiders out.
It was Ember. Running on his four back legs, he used his other two front ones to claw at any spider nearby.
Arriving in front of them, Ember faced the spiders once more. Harry and Ron's eyes were even wider now.
“Took your sweet time, didn't you?” hissed Nicolás.
Ember only growled in a deep sound.
“What to do — What to do — What to—” Nicolás muttered, looking around frantically.
An idea sparkled in his mind. Pointing his wand towards the approaching spiders, Nicolás shouted, “Incendio!” From the tip of his wand, wild flames erupted, and, with an expanding arms move, as if he were an orchestra director, the flames expanded, and when he moved his arms upwards, the flames created a tall wall of fire.
Suddenly, Mr. Weasley's car came to the rescue. It steadily moved down the slope and crashed over any spider in its way.
“Get Fang!” Caelum yelled, diving into the driver's seat; Ron seized the boarhound around the middle and threw him, yelping, into the back of the car. As Nicolás seated on the passenger seat, Ron and Harry climbed in the back with Fang, and the car roared to life.
“What about Ember?!” yelled Harry.
“He's got it handled,” said Nicolás as a yellow figure flashed by their side, clawing each and every spider in his way he quickly leaving them behind.
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 Ron. His mouth was still open in the silent scream, but his eyes weren’t popping anymore.
“Are you boys, okay?” asked Nicolás, forcibly gulping air.
Ron stared straight ahead, unable to speak. Harry was gulping down heavy swallows. Caelum breathed heavily, with his head leaned on the steering wheel.
“I'll take that as a yes,” Nicolás nodded to himself.
After ten noisy, rocky minutes, the trees thinned, they could again see patches of sky. And soon enough, the car stopped a few meters from Hagrid's hut. After they all got out, and under their perplexed eyes, the car made its way back to the forest on its own.
Ember was already waiting for them there. Sitting all regal as he always was. Harry and Ron kept an impressed look as Nicolás crouched to hug Ember, thanking him, Caelum patted the cat on the back.
“He's—” said Harry.
“A Wampus Cat,” responded Nicolás, scratching Ember's head. “Beautiful, isn't he?” Ember only purred in agreement.
“He has —” said Ron.
“Six legs, yes. Can run faster than an arrow. Able to use Legilimency with his eyes.”
Ron's eyes were wide open. Harry looked at him confused. “Legilimency?”
“Read the mind,” said Caelum.
Standing up, and turning towards them, Nicolás chuckled, “That's an oversimplification. Legilimency is a branch of magic that allows us to delve into a person's mind.”
“Read the mind,” Caelum whispered to the boys. Nicolás rolled his eyes.
“And you can do it?” Harry asked as he opened the door to Hagrid's hut.
“Yeah, I've been training ever since I was nine.”
Quickly, Fang got in his basket, trembling with every inch of his poor body. After a moment, trying to collect their breath, Ron ran out of the house.
They grabbed their cloaks and walked out of the house, finding the poor boy being violently sick in the pumpkin patch.
“That's it, let it all out,” Caelum spoke soothingly, rubbing Ron's back.
“Follow the spiders,” said Ron weakly, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. “I’ll never forgive Hagrid. We’re lucky to be alive.”
“I bet he thought Aragog wouldn’t hurt friends of his,” said Harry.
“That’s exactly Hagrid’s problem!” said Ron, thumping the wall of the cabin. “He always thinks monsters aren’t as bad as they’re made out, and 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?”
“That Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets,” said Harry. “He was innocent.”
Ron gave a loud snort. Evidently, hatching Aragog in a cupboard wasn’t his idea of being innocent.
“What was that thing you mentioned? It made Aragog go all wild,” asked Harry, looking at Nicolás. “The basibi- something?”
Nicolás chuckled. “The Basilisk. It was our theory. And it all fits. The spiders fleeing in its wake, how long it has lived in the chamber, why you, a Parselmouth, can hear the voice, the petrifications, the only thing is finding out who was the girl who died.”
“And how do you reckon the Basilisk is moving throughout Hogwarts without anyone noticing it?” inquired Ron.
“The pipes. It’s been using the plumbing. They're old, and big. That’s why the voice always seems to come from inside the walls.”
“And why did nobody die this time?” asked Caelum.
“Colin saw it through his camera lens, Justin probably saw it through Sir. Nick and the ghost got the biggest blast, but he’s already dead, of course, he can’t die again. Hermione, Aurora, and Penelope were found with mirrors at hand. Just before the attack, we had understood about the Basilisk, Hermione already knew how to survive, they saw it through those mirrors. Mrs. Norris probably saw it in the water, Moaning Myrtle had flooded the corridor.”
Suddenly, Caelum stopped in his tracks. “Wait, Aragog said that the girl who died, was found in a bathroom, right?” Everyone nodded. “What if — what if she never left the bathroom? What if — what if she's still in there?”
Harry's eyes widened, understanding downing upon him. “You don’t think — not Moaning Myrtle?”
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