star shopping ✰ d.m.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Ron and Arabella, both having a deep fear of spiders, did not want to follow those spiders. What made it even worse was that the spiders were going into the Dark Forest.

"Why spiders? Why couldn't it be 'follow the butterflies'?" Ron whimpered as he trudged after Harry with Arabella close behind.

They had been walking for about half an hour, following the obscene amount of spiders and trying not to step on any of them. Arabella's heart was beating out of her chest the entire time, she was so scared. She hadn't been this scared since she had seen her old Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrell, drinking a dead unicorn's blood a year before, and even then, she thought this was worse.

"Harry, I don't like this." Pause. "Harry, I don't like this at all."

"Shush!" said Harry, who didn't seem the least bit worried.

"Can we go back now?"

"Please?" Arabella begged. She wanted nothing more than to be asleep in her warm bed back in the castle.

"Come on," said Harry, ignoring them.

"That didn't sound like a 'yes.'"

They were now so deep into the forest that Arabella wasn't sure how they were going to find their way back. The trees were unnaturally large, and so were the spiders. Arabella was now so terrified she was clinging onto Ron so hard he was starting to lose feeling in his arm. Suddenly, they began to hear crashing sounds, and Arabella jumped.

"Who is it?" said a loud, deep voice that did not sound friendly at all.

"Don't panic," Harry said quietly to the twins.

"A bit too late for that," said Arabella.

"Hagrid?" asked the voice. "Is that you?"

"We're friends of Hagrid's," Harry said. A huge spider emerged from a hole in the ground and the three backed away a bit. Arabella had to struggle to not faint. "And you? You- You're Aragog, aren't you?"

"Yes. Hagrid has never sent humans into our hollow before."

"He's in trouble. Up at the school, there have been attacks. They think it's Hagrid. They think he opened the Chamber of Secrets. Like before."

"That's a lie. Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets."

"Then you're not the monster?"

"No. The monster was born in the castle. I came to Hagrid from a distant land in the pocket of a traveler."

"Harry," Ron whispered pleadingly, tugging on Harry's sleeve.

"Shush," Harry quieted him again. "But if you're not the monster, then what did kill that girl 50 years ago?"

"We do not speak of it. It is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others," Aragog said. He seemed to be getting angry, and Arabella did not like it. Not to mention the many other large spiders crawling around.

"But have you seen it?"

"I never saw any part of the castle but the box in which Hagrid kept me. The girl was discovered in a bathroom. When I was accused, Hagrid brought me here."

"Harry," said Ron, again tugging on Harry's sleeve.

"What?" Harry asked, a bit annoyed. Ron pointed upward at the hundreds of large spiders crawling down from the trees. Finally, Harry seemed to want to get out of there, too. "Well, thank you. We'll just go."

"Go?" asked Aragog. "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, friend of Hagrid."

"Can we panic now?" Ron asked.

Just then, a spider jumped down right behind them, and the twins got out their wands, but both were currently too scared to think of a spell to use to save themselves. Harry was using the large lantern he had brought to hit the spiders, but this was only going to get them so far. He must have realized this because he dropped the lantern and took out his wand.

"Know any spells?" Ron asked.

"One," said Harry, "but it's not powerful enough for all of them."

"Bella?" Ron asked. Arabella, too terrified to even speak, did not answer. "Where's Hermione when you need her?"

Then, a sound one would not expect to hear in a forest resonated all around them. It was a sound most wizards were not accustomed to; the sound of a car engine. It got louder and louder until Arthur Weasley's enchanted car had come to a stop just next to them. The doors opened as if inviting them in.

"Let's go!" Harry shouted, and all of them, including Fang, got into the car, quickly slamming the doors behind them. As spiders scurried all around them and dropped onto the roof of the car, Harry yelled, "Go!" and without Ron even touching the gas pedal, the car began to drive away.

Huge tree branches knocked the spiders off of the car, making them land on their backs as the car sped through the forest. When there were no more spiders hanging onto the vehicle, it stopped.

"Glad we're out of there," Ron said.

Just then, a spider appeared outside of Ron's car door. The window on that door just so happened to be gone, and the spider wrapped two of its legs around Ron's neck.

Arabella, all of a sudden aware of the fact that she was a witch now that her brother's life was in danger, did not hesitate to take out her wand and point it at the spider. "Arania Exumai!" she shouted, and the spider was blasted away, setting Ron free of its grasp. Just as this happened, the rest of Aragog's children caught up with them. "Get us out of here!"

The car sped off at her command, racing away from the crowd of spiders that persisted. However, some spiders got ahead of them, and after struggling for a bit, Ron managed to get the car in the air. They soared just over the tops of the trees and dropped just outside of the forest's edge. The trio and Fang got out of the car, extremely shaken.

"Follow the spiders! Follow the spiders!" Ron exclaimed. "If Hagrid ever gets out of Azkaban, I'll kill him!" As Fang went back into Hagrid's cabin, the car started up again and drove into the Forest. "I mean, what was the point of sending us in there? What have we found out?"

"We know one thing," Harry said. "Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets. He was innocent."

"Well, I already knew that!" Arabella said. "But what I didn't know was that there were thousands of gigantic spiders in there who's favorite meal is human children, and that, I would've been perfectly happy not knowing! So, please, let's go back inside before something else gets its heart set on killing us, and stop accusing random people of opening that damn Chamber!"

[word count: 1152]
[written: 4/22/20]
[published: 5/22/20]