Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [6]

⚡️ Chapter 17 ⚡️

The rest of the night and the week went by in a swift blur.

With how many classes she had, Vega had a mountain of homework every day and spent most of her time studying so she would have her weekends more open – especially since she had promised Hagrid that she would go down to the Acromantula lair with him on the morning of Saturday before breakfast started so they could avoid attention.

It was a cold morning and Vega had dressed thickly to join Hagrid as they head into the dark Forbidden Forest that Saturday. Unlike her thirteen-year-old self, this time she was equipped with stronger spells and the ability to hide her human scent.

This journey was just as nerve-wrecking for the girl as had the numerous ones before it – and Vega wasn't sure what they would do if Aragog was already dead.

And as soon as they reached the lair, and seen the unmoving body of Aragog in the middle of it, she had been sure that he was head – and that they would need to flee before they could be devoured as second-helpings by his descendants.

But as Hagrid called out to his old friend, the spider's blind eyes moved and Vega moved forward to get a check on the spider, hesitantly taking the eighteen-foot Acromantula's temperature and spit, very clearly feeling the endless eyes that were on her back from the endless spiders hanging above the colony. Vega moved back quickly.

Vega did not dislike spiders but she did not have any good experience with the Acromantulas from the Forbidden Forest – in Second-Year and Fourth-Year.

Hagrid had brought some maggots along with himself and threw them over to Aragog to eat before taking Vega along quickly away from the spider lair.

"Wait," Vega muttered as she pulled out her wand swiftly as she heard them being followed. "They don't like light – Expecto Patronum!"

The Thunderbird Patronus circled over Vega and Hagrid, keeping the Acromantula at a bay until the two of them had managed to get out of the forest and were greeted by Fang by Hagrid's hut. Vega dropped into an open chair and patted him on the head.

"We were quick, eh?" Hagrid asked. "Yeh can go for breakfast in a bit – I'll make some dandelion juice for yeh," Vega nodded and he bustled off.

"I wrote some letters to the Magical Creatures Department," Vega informed Hagrid, eagerly. "And I'll send them out today... hopefully, we'll get to see Erumpents and Hippocampus... and even an Occamy, can you imagine that?"

After having a good conversation with Hagrid over some juice, Vega trudged up to the castle for breakfast, reaching her ring up to greet her boyfriend morning and go to join the Gryffindor table as her friends would be arriving down any moment.

Things had been rather tense between Harry, Ron and Hermione ever since Harry had acquired that Potions book, especially since he had continued to follow the book's instructions wherever they deviated from Libatius Borage's.

And the result of it was that by their fourth lesson, Slughorn was raving about Harry's abilities quite as much as about Vega, and said he had rarely ever taught any one, much less two, students in one class. Neither Ron nor Hermione was delighted by this.

Although Harry had offered to share his book with both of them, Ron had more difficulty deciphering the handwriting than Harry did, and could not keep asking Harry to read aloud or it might look suspicious. Hermione, meanwhile, was resolutely ploughing on with what she called the 'official' instructions, but becoming increasingly bad-tempered as they yielded poorer results than the Prince's.

"Or herself," Hermione said irritably, overhearing Harry pointing out to Ron how the Prince wasn't always talking about potion-making in the common room that Saturday evening. "It might have been a girl. I think the handwriting looks more like a girl's than a boy's,"