The Potter Twins and the Chamber of Secrets {2}

24. Follow the Spiders *

I'm just happy Haylee isn't here to see it...

Spiders. Not tiny spiders like those on the ground below, but gigantic ones.

We reach the centre of the hollow and all the other spiders close in around us.

I fall to the ground with a thump, and soon after Ron, Tay and Fang join me.

Fang is no longer howling, but instead he is cowering silently on the ground. Tay is breathing heavily, looking extremely pale. And Ron looks like I feel; his month is wide open, he's pale and his eyes are popping.

"Aragog!" The spider that was carrying me suddenly says. "Aragog!"

And from the middle of the web, a spider the size of an elephant appears slowly. I notice that all eight of his eyes are a milky white.

He's blind.

"What is it?" He asks, clicking his pincers rapidly.
"Men."
"Is it Hagrid?" Aragog asks, moving clear to us.

"Strangers."
"Kill them," Aragog clicks fretfully. "I was sleeping..."

"We're friends of Hagrid's!" I shout, my heart pounding in my chest.

"Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before," he says slowly, following a slight pause.

"Hagrid's in trouble," I say breathlessly. "That's why we've come."

"In trouble?" Says the aged spider, sounding strangely concerned. "But why has he sent you?"

"They think, up at the school, that Hagrid's been setting a - a - something on the students. They've taken him to Azkaban."

Aragog clicks his pincers furiously, and the other spiders follow his lead.

"But that was years ago," Aragog says 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."

"And you...you didn't come from the Chamber of Secrets?" I stutter slightly, feeling cold sweat on my forehead.

"I!" Aragog says, clicking angrily. "I was not born in the castle. I came 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. 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 groun me a wife, Mosag, and you see how our family has grown, all through Hagrid's goodness..."

"So you never - never attacked anyone?" I question, summoning my courage.

"Never," Aragog croaks. "It would have been my instinct, but from respect of 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 in. Our kind liked the dark and the quiet..."

"But then...Do you know what did kill that girl?" I ask him. "Because whatever it is, it's back and attacking people again-"

My words are drowned out by a loud outbreak of clicking and rustling.

"The thing that lives in the castle," Aragog says, "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."

"What is it?" I ask urgently.

"We do not speak of it!" Aragog says fiercely, as I hear the other spiders closing in on us. "We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dread creature, though he asked me, many times."

Not wanting to press the subject further, the three of us begin backing away, but the other spiders continue inching towards us.

"We'll just go then," I say desperately.

"Go?" Aragog says slowly. "I think not..."

"But - but -"

"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."

I spin around quickly to see a wall of spiders towering above us.

I reach for my wand, even though I know it's no good.

There's too many to fight.

I stand, ready to die fighting, when a loud, long note sounds, and a blaze of light flames through the hollow.

Mr. Weasley's car is thundering down the slope, headlights blaring, horn screeching.

It knocks several spiders aside, and comes to a halt in front of Ron, Tay and I.

"Get fang!" I yell, as I push Tay into the car, diving in after her. Ron sieges Fang and throws him in the back seat with Tay, before jumping in himself.

He doesn't even touch the accelerator, and the engine roars and takes off, hitting more spiders. We speed up the slope, out of the hollow and then finally we crash into the forest.

I look sideways at Ron, to find his mouth still open in shock.

"Are you okay?"

But he just states straight ahead, unable to speak.

We smash through the undergrowth, Fang howling loudly in the backseat, and Tay trying desperately to calm him down.

We finally come to a stop - after several minutes - and we're almost thrown into the windscreen. We have reached the edge of the forest.

Fang flings himself at the window, anxious to get out and when Tay opens the door for him, he shoots through the trees back to Hagrid's hit, tail between his legs.

I get out too, and Ron and Tay follow - Ron still looking straight ahead and Tay looking shocked, clumps of hair hanging down from her high ponytail.

"I told you this was a shit idea!" She snaps, as I give the car a grateful pat, before it reverses and returns to the forest.

I quickly return to Hagrid's cabin to get the Invisibility Cloak, to find Fang trembling inside his basket.

And when I go back outside, I find Ron being violently sick in the pumpkin patch, while Tay pats his back awkwardly.

"Follow the spiders," Ron says weakly. "I'll never forgive Hagrid. We're luckily to be alive."

"I bet he thought Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his," I say.

"That's exactly Hagrid's problem!" Ron exclaims. "He always thinks monsters aren't as bad as they're made out, and look where it's got him! A cell in Azkaban!"

"What was even the point of sending us in there?" Tay questions, wrapping her arms around her chest, shivering noticeably. "How did that benefit us, Harry?"

"We know that Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets," I say, throwing the cloak over the three of us and beginning the walk back to the castle. "He was innocent.

Ron snorts loudly.

We enter the castle and we walk carefully back up to Gryffindor tower, careful not to make unnecessary noise.

I pull the cloak off of us as we enter the common room, and Tay gives a gasp, making us jump.

"What?" Ron exclaims.

"The girl who died, Aragog said she was found in a bathroom," she begins. "What if she never left that bathroom? What if she's still there?"

"You don't think - " I ask, struck by sudden realisation. "Not Moaning Myrtle?"

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