Aragog
Summer arrived at Hogwarts, the sky and lake turned periwinkle blue and enormous flowers burst into bloom in the greenhouses. But the scene didn't look right to Luz, without Hagrid striding the grounds with Fang at his heels. Inside the castle, things didn't look much better.
Without Bump, fear spread across the castle. Visits to the students in the hospital wing were banned; they feared the attacker would come and finish the job. Wherever you looked, there was no face that didn't look worried and tense, and laughter sounded forced and died quickly.
Luz kept repeating Bump’s last words, but what good were they? Everyone was confused and scared as she was. Hagrid’s last words, though a lot easier to understand, stumbled into a great problem: there seemed to be no more spiders in the castle.
Another inconvenience to Luz and Willow was the fact that they weren't allowed to walk the castle freely. Instead, they were shepherded around by a teacher from class to class with the other first-year Gryffindors. The students were, probably for the first time, grateful for the ‘Kare-takers’; they stood guard outside classes and patrolled the corridors restlessly.
A few persons though, seemed to enjoy the grim atmosphere, amongst them, Boscha Troisoiel strutted around the school humming like she had just been appointed Head Girl. Luz only understood why she was so pleased in a potions lesson about a fortnight after Bump’s and Hagrid’s departure.
“I always thought my mother might be the one to get rid of Bump. She always said he was one of the worst things that ever happened to this school. Soon, we’re going to have a new principal. Edalyn won't last long; she’s just filling in” Luz heard Boscha gloating to Skara and Amity. “Maybe this time, we will have a decent principal, one that understands that some people are not worthy of studying here and that the Hall is doing a favour to wizardkind” Lilith was on the back of the room, preparing ingredients for her supplies and made no comment about Gus’s empty seat and cauldron.
“Ma’am, why don’t you apply for the job?” Boscha asked Lilith while the teacher crushed unicorn horns to dust, “Now now, Principal Bump will be back soon enough, he was merely suspended by the governors.” Boscha smirked “I guarantee you’d have my mother’s vote; you are, after all, the best teacher here, ma’am” Lilith couldn't suppress a thin-lip smile. Good thing she didn't look back, because Gloria was pretending to vomit in her cauldron.
“It surprises me the muggle– I mean –the mud bloods haven’t all packed their bags by now”, Skara said in a whisper. “You’re right. If they wanted the attacks to stop, they simply needed to go, simple, but they can’t understand something so simple like that can they?” Boscha let out a high-pitched laugh.
Luckily for the people involved, the bell rang at that very moment, so the attempts of Willow to reach her went unnoticed “Let me at her!” Willow said as Luz and Star hung onto her arms. Lilith took them, crocodile fashion, to Herbology Class.
Luz, Star and Willow brought up the rear, with Willow still trying to get loose. It was only safe to let go of her when Lilith had seen them out of the castle, and they were making their way across the vegetable patch toward the greenhouses.
The Herbology class was very subdued; there were now two missing from their number. Professor Milo set them all to work pruning the Abyssinian Shrivelfigs. Luz went to tip an armful of withered stalks onto the compost heap and found himself face-to-face with Marco Diaz.
Marco took a deep breath and said, very formally, “I just want to say, Luz, that I’m sorry I ever suspected you. I know you’d never attack Augustus Porter, and I apologize for all the stuff I said. We’re all in the same boat now, and, well—” He held out a pudgy hand, and Luz shook it.
Marco and his friend Hop came to work at the same Shrivelfig as Luz and Willow. “That Boscha Troisoiel character seems very pleased about all this, doesn’t she? D’you know, I think she might be Slytherin’s Legatee,” said Marco, breaking off dead twigs.
“That’s clever of you,” said Willow, who didn’t seem to have forgiven Marco as readily as Luz. “Do you think it’s Troisoiel, Luz?” Marco asked. “No,” said Luz, so firmly that Marco and Hop stared. A second later, Luz spotted something and hit Willow over the hand with her pruning shears.
“Ouch! What’re you—” Luz pointed out as 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 prearranged meeting. They followed their progress with their eyes screwed up against the sun.
“Great,” said Willow. “But we can’t follow them now—the boys are listening to us.” Luz’s eyes narrowed as she focused on the spiders. If they pursued their fixed course, there could be no doubt about where they would end up.
“Looks like they’re heading for the Forbidden Forest…” Luz concluded. After the class, Professor Milo escorted them to their Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. Luz and Willow lagged behind so they could talk out of earshot. “We have to use my Invisibility Cloak again, and maybe bring Fang, he’s been to the forest before, so he might be useful”, Willow agreed.
Luz couldn't help but notice that Willow was a bit nervous, and she couldn't judge her. Willow had never gone inside the forest, and though there were some nice things inside it, its reputation was enough to scare anyone. They took their usual seats at the end of De Plume’s lesson.
De Plume bounded into the room, and the class stared at him. Every other teacher in the place was looking grimmer than usual, but he 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 the danger has passed? The culprit has been taken away—” said De Plume, speaking slowly, as though they were all a bit dim. “Say who?” said Gloria Ironsmith loudly.
“My dear young woman, the Minister of Magic wouldn’t have taken Hagrid if he hadn’t been one hundred percent sure that he was guilty,” said De Plume, in the tone of someone explaining that one and one made two. “Oh, yes he would,” said Willow, even more loudly than Gloria.
“I flatter myself. I know a touch more about Hagrid’s arrest than you do, Mss Park,” said De Plume in a self-satisfied tone. Willow clearly wanted to say that she didn’t think so, but stopped and crossed her arms, her eyes shouting enraged looks at the professor.
De Plume’s disgusting cheeriness, his hints that he had always thought Hagrid was no good, and his confidence that the whole business was now at an end irritated Luz so much that she yearned to throw Gadding with Ghouls right in his stupid face. Instead, she contented herself with scrawling a note to Willow: Let’s do it tonight.
Willow read the message, swallowed hard, and looked sideways at the empty seat usually filled by Gus. The sight seemed to stiffen her resolve, and she nodded. The Gryffindor common room was always very crowded these days because, from six o’clock onward, the Gryffindors 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.
Luz got the Invisibility Cloak out of her trunk right after dinner and spent the evening sitting on it, waiting for the room to clear. Edric and Emira challenged the girls to a few games of Exploding Snap. Luz and Willow kept losing on purpose, trying to finish the games quickly, but even so, it was well past midnight when the twins finally went to bed.
Luz and Willow waited for the distant sounds of two dormitory doors closing before seizing the cloak, throwing it over themselves, and climbing through the portrait hole.
It was another difficult journey through the castle, dodging all the teachers, ‘Kare-takers’, ghosts, prefects and head boys and girls. 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.
They reached Hagrid’s house, sad and sorry-looking with its blank windows. When Luz pushed the door 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 fudge from a tin on the mantelpiece, which glued his teeth together.
Luz left the Invisibility Cloak on Hagrid’s table. There would be no need for it in the pitch-dark forest. “C’mon, Fang, we’re going for a walk,” said Luz, patting her leg. 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.
Willow took out her Palisman and murmured, “Lumos!” and Clover started to shine like a candle, just enough to let them watch the path for signs of spiders. “Good thinking,” said Luz. “I’d light mine, too, but you know—it’d probably blow up or something…” For the first time since she fought Belos in her first year, Luz felt defenceless, at the mercy of her own luck, which hadn't the best track record.
It didn't take long for them to see two solitary spiders hurrying away from the light into the shade of the trees. In reflex, they held hands and reluctantly entered the forest with Fang at their heels, sniffing roots and leaves. For almost half an hour, they followed the steady trickle of spiders moving along the path.
By the time their spider guides left the path, the trees had become so dense that the stars were no longer visible, and Clover was the only light in a sea of darkness.
They paused, trying to see where the spiders were going, but everything outside their little sphere of light was pitch black. Neither had ever been this deep into the forest before. Luz could vividly remember Hagrid advising her not to leave the forest path the last time she’d been in there. But Hagrid was miles away now, probably sitting in a cell in Azkaban, and he had also said to follow the spiders.
Something wet touched Luz’s hand, and she jumped backwards, crushing Willow’s foot, but it was only Fang’s nose. “What d’you reckon?” Luz said to Willow, whose eyes she could just make out, reflecting the light from her Palisman. “We’ve come this far,” said Willow.
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. More than once, they had to stop so that Willow could crouch down and find the spiders.
They walked for what seemed like at least half an hour, their tunics 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 girls jump out of their skins.
“What?” said Willow loudly, looking around into the pitch dark and gripping Luz’s hand very hard. “Something is moving over there,” Luz breathed. “Listen… sounds like something big…” They listened. Some distance to their right, the something big was snapping branches as it carved a path through the trees.
“Oh, no,” said Willow loudly. “ Cállate, It’ll hear you,” said Luz frantically. “Hear me?” said Willow in an unnaturally high voice. “It 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.
“What d’you think it’s doing?” said Luz. “Probably getting ready to pounce,” said Willow. They waited, shivering, hardly daring to move. “D’you think it’s gone?” Willow whispered. “Dunno—” Then, to their right, came a sudden blaze of light, so bright in the darkness that both 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. “Luz! It’s our car!” Willow shouted, her voice breaking with relief. “What?” Luz couldn't believe it. “Come on!” Luz blundered after Willow toward the light, stumbling and tripping, and a moment later, they had emerged into a clearing.
Mr Park’s car was standing, empty, in the middle of a circle of thick trees under a roof of dense branches, its headlights ablaze. As Willow walked, open-mouthed, toward it, it moved slowly toward her, exactly like a large, turquoise dog greeting its owner.
“It’s been here all the time!” said Willow 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 Luz, who could feel him quivering. His breathing slowed down again.
“And we thought it was going to attack us!” said Willow, leaning against the car and patting it. “I wondered where it had gone!” Luz 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,” she said. “C’mon, let’s go and find them.” Willow swallowed, she patted the car again to strengthen her resolve and lit her Palisman again, and the two wandered back to where they were before the car scared them. They searched for 10 minutes before finding a trail of spiders heading even deeper inside the forest.
"Is it just me, or are they getting bigger?" Willow asked when she spotted a spider about the size of a garden mouse "It's just your imagination", Luz said, trying to convince her and Willow of that. They walked for at least 20 more minutes before stopping. They had reached what looked like the entrance of a tunnel underneath a tree root.
"It's here," Luz said when Willow illuminated the whole. Spiders covered every inch of it and it seemed to go for many meters "C'mon, we're close." They took a deep breath and stepped inside the tunnel, it was large enough so they didn't need to crouch to get through. With every step they took, they could see the sea of spiders running away from their feet, opening a path that led straight to the other side of the tunnel.
They emerged at a vast hollow, a hollow that had been cleared of trees so that the stars shone brightly above them. The place was silent, but they could feel the gaze of countless spiders watching them in the dark. Spiderwebs covered most of the ground and connected with the trees outside the hollow, forming suspended paths meters above their heads.
Fang was in complete silence, cowering behind them. Holding hands Luz and Willow followed the spiders to a mound beneath a misty dommed web in the very centre of the hollow, but they stopped when they heard the sound of branches breaking coming from the mound, Willow opened her mouth but the voice that spoke was too deep and old for the girl, something had spoken from inside the mound.
"Who is it?" the voice spoke, among loud clicks, slowly and threatening "Don't panic" Luz whispered to Willow, who was squeezing her hand so tightly Luz thought she was going to break it "Hagrid? Is that you?" asked the voice and Luz couldn't help but notice a certain longing in its voice.
"We're friends of Hagrid's," Luz said louder than she wanted. A moment of silence, and the sound of branches breaking became louder as something emerged from the mound. Luz wasn't afraid of spiders, personally; she thought they were misunderstood creatures. If she had come during the day and with Hagrid, she would have found the trip and the sight intriguing and even enjoyable. But at that moment, what she saw sent shivers down her spine.
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. He was blind. Suddenly, a realization came to Luz "You are... an Acromantula..." Luz said as the spider crawled closer.
"That's how your kind calls mine. To me I am just me, but you can call me Aragog. Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before," spoke the giant spider and Luz's mouth went dry, they were somehow in more danger than they had thought.
“Hagrid’s in trouble, that’s why we’ve come, ”said Willow, breathing very fast. “In trouble?” said the aged spider, and Luz thought she heard concern beneath the clicking pincers. “But why has he sent you?” Luz looked around. Above them, in the suspended path, numerous spiders emerged from the dark, and Luz could feel their hunger.
“They think, up at the school, that Hagrid’s been setting a—a—something on students. They’ve taken him to Azkaban. For opening the Dead Man's Hall again,” Willow explained and Aragog clicked his pincers furiously, and all around the hollow the sound was echoed by the crowd of spiders; it was like applause, except applause didn’t usually make you feel sick with fear.
“That's a lie!” said Aragog fretfully. “Hagrid never opened any secret Hall in the school! They believed that I was the monster that dwells within it. They thought that Hagrid had opened the Hall and set me free, and they expelled him for that.” Willow and Luz exchanged confused looks
“So you… You didn’t come from the Dead Man's Hall?” said Luz, who could feel cold sweat on her forehead and hear the clicking noise getting louder. “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 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." Fang tugged Luz's leggings, and the girl turned to where he was pointing with his nose.
Spiders about the size of a large dog were approaching them silently from all directions. Luz's heart was racing; they needed to leave as soon as possible, but Aragog had more to tell before she could summon the courage to speak and warn Willow.
"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…” Willow summoned what remained of her courage.
“So you never—never attacked anyone?” Willow asked, and the old spider croaked, “Never, 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…” Luz looked up and saw spiders coming down from the suspended path.
“But then… Do you know what killed that girl?” said Luz. She needed to end the conversation quickly, they needed to run. “Because whatever it is, it’s back and attacking people again—” Her 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 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,” said Aragog.
“What is it?” said Luz urgently. More loud clicking, more rustling; the spiders seemed to be closing in. “We do not speak of it!” said Aragog fiercely. “We don't name it, your kind does, but we don't want to, we just call... it!”
Luz knew it wasn't a subject to be pressed on, especially not with the spiders pressing closer on all sides. Aragog seemed to be tired of talking. He was backing slowly into his domed web, but his fellow spiders continued to inch slowly toward them.
"Well... I guess we're going now. Thank you very much," Willos said, finally realizing they were being surrounded. "Go? I think not..." said Aragog slowly "My sons and daughters do not harm Hagrid on my command. But I can not deny them fresh meat when it wanders so willingly into our midst... Goodbye... friend of Hagrid." Luz spun around, they were completely surrounded.
"I guess we can panic now! Know any spell?" Begged Willow "One, but is definitely not enough for all of them, even if my staff wasn't broken" Willow swallowed hard, was this the end? But the loud sound of a car engine brought them hope.
Mr Park's car drove out of the tunnel the girls had just used to enter the hollow, spiders on top of it trying to bite through the metal carapace. The Ford Anglia spun around the girls and Fang, throwing spiders on the ground and scaring the smallest ones. The car opened its doors, and that was all the invitation Luz needed "Get inside now!" she yelled.
Willow jumped in the driver's seat "C'mon!" Luz ordered Fang, who entered the passenger seat without a second of hesitation. Luz watched a spider the size of a crocodile rapidly approach them. It jumped high towards Luz, who instinctively raised her staff and yelled, "Arania Exumai!" hoping something would happen.
And it did; the red cracked gem shone brightly, illuminating the hollow to the point Luz had to close her eyes "I can't see anything!" Luz yelled. She could hear screeches erupting and angry clicking noises "Get inside!" Willow pulled her down, and the door closed on its own. Willow didn't touch the accelerator, nor did she have any control of the wheel; the car moved on its own.
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. When Luz's staff finally stopped emitting light, she looked sideways at Willow.
The girl was silent, eyes closed due to the light, but she seemed to be in deep thought, her mouth opened and her skin paler than normal. They smashed their way through the undergrowth, Fang howling loudly in the back seat. After ten noisy, rocky minutes, the trees thinned, and Luz could again see patches of sky.
The car stopped so suddenly that they were nearly thrown into the windshield. They had reached the edge of the forest. Fang flung himself at the window in his anxiety to get out, and when Luz opened the door, he shot off through the trees to Hagrid’s house, tail between his legs. After a minute or so, they regained the feeling in their limbs and followed, still stiff-necked and staring. Willow gave the car a grateful pat as it reversed back into the forest and disappeared from view.
Luz went back into Hagrid’s cabin to get the Invisibility Cloak. Fang was trembling under a blanket in his basket. When Luz got outside again, she found Willow sitting on the first step outside the cabin, her head dangling between her legs, holding her glasses with shaking hands.
“Follow the spiders,” said Willow weakly, wiping the sweat on her sleeve. “We’re lucky to be alive. That monster didn't even hesitate before sending his children to kill us! That is what Hagrid gains for thinking every monster is just misunderstood and not as bad as it seems– a cell in Azkaban!” Willow yelled at the wind.
“Don't be so harsh on them,” said Luz, sitting by Willow's side "Acromantulas have a taste for human meat; is just their nature, we can't blame them for that..." Willow turned to Luz and for a moment the girl seemed ready to shout out at Luz, but she stopped.
“You sound just like him, you know?" Willow said with a smile forming on her face, "Please, don't count on me to take care of an illegal dragon you won from a stranger in a pub" Luz chuckled, and for a moment, the girls laughed, forgetting about their near death just a few minutes ago.
“At least we know one thing, Hagrid never opened the Dead Man's Hall,” said Luz, throwing the cloak over Willow “He was innocent.” Willow gave a loud snort "I bet you 5 galleons hatching an Acro–something is against the law." As the castle loomed nearer, Luz twitched the cloak to make sure their feet were hidden, then pushed the creaking front doors ajar.
They walked carefully back across the entrance hall and up the marble staircase, holding their breath as they passed corridors where watchful sentries were walking. At last, they reached the safety of the Gryffindor common room, where the fire had burned itself into glowing ash. They took off the cloak and climbed the winding stair to their dormitory.
Luz was exhausted; she almost didn't have the strength to undress and put on her sleeping tunic. The girl lay on her bed, thinking about what she had just learned was lurking somewhere in the castle; a monster so dangerous others didn't speak of it, a monster which spiders, even giant-sized talking spiders, feared the most.
It was like a monster Belos– a looming presence, spreading fear like wildfire. But Luz and Willow were not any closer to the solution to the puzzle. Luz swung her legs up onto her bed and leaned back against her pillows, watching the moon glinting at her through the tower window.
She couldn’t see what else they could do. They had hit dead ends everywhere. Wittebane had caught the wrong person, the Legatee of Slytherin had got off, and no one could tell whether it was the same person or a different one who had opened the Hall this time. There was nobody else to ask.
She was about to fall into slumber when Willow hissed through the dark, "Luz, Luz–" She got up with a yelp like Fang’s and stared wildly around "What?" she asked drowsily. Willow was wide-eyed, something had clicked in her head and she was staring into the nothingness.
“Luz—that girl who died. Aragog said she was found in a bathroom,” said Willow, ignoring Star’s snuffling snores from the corner. “What if she never left the bathroom? What if she’s still there?” Luz rubbed his eyes, frowning through the moonlight. And then, like at the climax of a detective movie, she understood, too.
“You don’t think—not Moaning Myrtle?”