Aragog 1

238 5 0
                                    


The Slytherin common roon was empty, even with the six o'clock curfew, almost eberyone kept to themselves or to their groups.
Right after dinner, I hurriedly casted an invisibility spell on me, and hid the hallway to the Gryffindors house, waiting patiently for Harry and Ron.

I jumped when the portrait open, out from the hole climbed Ron and Harry, they were using the invisibility cloak, but I could see them clearly eith my red colored eyes.

"It was another difficult journey through the castle, dodging all the teachers. 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.
"'Course," said Ron abruptly as they strode across the black grass, "we might get to the forest and find there's nothing to follow.Those spiders might not've "been going there at all. I know it looked like they were moving in that sort of general direction, but . . ."
His voice trailed away hopefully.

We reached Hagrid's house, the house was sad with it's blank windows.
When Harry 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 toffee from a tin on the mantelpiece, which glued his teeth together.

Harry left the Invisibility Cloak on Hagrid's table. There would be no need for it in the pitch-dark forest.
I looked at them, from Ron's scared attitude to Harry's uncertainty.
The forest can be scary, I've never been there beore but I wasn't scared.

"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.
Harry took out his wand, murmured, "Lumos!" and a tiny light appeared at the end of it, just enough to let them watch the path for signs of spiders.
"Good thinking," said Ron. "I'd light mine, too, but you know - it'd probably blow up or something. . . ."
Harry tapped Ron on the shoulder, pointing at the grass. Two solitary spiders were hurrying away from the wandlight into the shade of the trees.
"Okay," Ron sighed as though resigned to the worst, "I'm ready. Let's go."

The hardest thing about following them, is having to stay quiet.

So, with Fang scampering around them, sniffing tree roots and leaves, they entered the forest. By the glow of Harry's wand, 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 shone alone in the sea of dark, they saw their spider guides leaving the path.
Harry paused, trying to see where the spiders were going, but everything outside his little sphere of light was pitch-black.
I realized Harry has never been this deep in the forest.
Something wet touched Harry's hand and he jumped backward, crushing Ron's foot, but it was only Fang's nose, I snickered but stop remembering they might hear me.
"What d'you reckon?" Harry said to Ron, whose eyes he could just make out, reflecting the light from his wand.
"We've come this far," said Ron.
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. Harry could feel Fang's hot breath on his hand. More than once, they had to stop, so that Harry could crouch down and find the spiders in the wandlight.
We walked for what seemed like half an hour, our robes snagging on low-slung branches and brambles, mine was especially dirty, I couldn't see where I was walking most of the time, so I had to rely on footwork.

Then Fang suddenly let loose a great, echoing bark, making both Harry and Ron jump out of their skins.
"What?" said Ron loudly, looking around into the pitch-dark, and gripping Harry's elbow very hard.
"There's something moving over there," Harry 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 Ron. "Oh, no, oh, no, oh -"
"Shut up," said Harry 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.
"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.
"Dunno -"
Then, to their right, came a sudden blaze of light, so bright in the darkness that all of us 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?"
"Come on!"
Harry, Ivy blundered after Ron toward the light, stumbling and tripping, and a moment later they had emerged into a clearing.
Mr. Weasley's car was standing, empty, in the middle of a circle of thick trees under a roof of dense branches, its headlights ablaze. As Ron walked, openmouthed, 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 Harry, who could feel him quivering. His breathing slowing down again, Harry stuffed his wand back into his robes.

And we thought it was going to attack us!" said Ron, leaning against the car and patting it. "I wondered where it had gone!"
Harry 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," he 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.
Harry didn't even have time to turn around. There was a loud clicking noise and suddenly he felt something long and hairy seize him around the middle and lift him off the ground, so that he was hanging facedown. Struggling, terrified, he heard more clicking, and saw Ron's legs leave the ground, too, heard Fang whimpering and howling - next moment, he was being swept away into the dark trees."

I cursed, one of the branches got close to me enough to cut me on my tight, I was about to cast a spell when spiders appeared. 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 Harry 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.
Harry fell to the ground on all fours as the spider released him. Ron and Fang thudded down next to him. Fang wasn't howling anymore, but cowering silently on the spot. Ron looked exactly like Harry felt. His mouth was stretched wide in a kind of silent scream and his eyes were popping.
Harry suddenly realized 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!"

I groaned, the cut was burning, I casted a healing spell on me, as soon as I made sure that the spiders weren't a threat.
I exhaled, feeling myself heal slowly.

Deadly Snake, Silent Dragon.Where stories live. Discover now