We walked around the side of the house to see the window from the outside. As expected, the spiders were crawling back down the outside of the wall and onto the grass, not breaking their lines.
"We have to follow them," Potter said.
"What?" Weasley asked, voice cracking. I almost laughed.
"You heard what Hagrid said. 'Follow the spiders.' " Potter pushed.
"They're heading for the Dark Forest," Weasley said like his best friend was out of his mind. I agreed.
Potter just ignored him and continued to walk forwards.
"Why couldn't it be follow the butterflies?" Weasley wailed.
And so Fang led us into the Forbidden Forest. We kept having to stop so Potter could bring the lantern to the ground if he lost sight of the spiders, and it made for a very slow trek through the trees. Eventually we got to a point where the canopy was so thick that no moonlight was shining through, and I could only see a couple feet in front of me.
The wind whistled, and I swore I heard wolves howl in the distance. The mist rolled off the trees like waterfalls, and I was forcefully reminded of the only other time that I had ventured into the Forbidden Forest, when the Dark Lord in the form of Professor Quirrell nearly killed Potter and I.
But I also noticed that the farther on we got, the more spiders there were, not to mention the way they were steadily growing in size. I jumped when I felt one on my ankle.
"Harry, I don't like this," Weasley said, sounding like he was ready to cry.
"I don't like this at all," I agreed.
"Shush," Potter said suddenly.
"Don't you dare 'shush' me, Potter," I hissed.
"No, really," he looked around, fear in his eyes.
"Can we go back now?" Weasley whispered when the clicking of pinchers and scurrying of legs seemed to increase in sound.
"Come on," Potter argued. Weasley and I shared a glance, and then reluctantly pursed.
We followed Fang and Potter down a ginormous, damp hole, like a cave made of earth. Roots grew up and over our heads, and there were spiders everywhere. Above us, under us, and on both sides of the weird cave. Weasley was breathing far too heavily next to me.
We emerged under the biggest tree I had ever seen, with roots thicker than my entire body. The sound of a branch thrashing came from ahead, and then an old voice that sent a shiver of terror down my spine.
"Who is it?" The faceless voice rasped.
"Don't panic," Potter whispered as Fang barked.
"Thanks, Potter," I whispered back. "I'm all better now."
"Hagrid?" The voice asked, almost hopefully. "Is that you?" A louder branch cracked.
"We're friends of Hagrid's," Potter said bravely.
Eight huge, hairy legs emerged from inside the dip of ground in front of us. Every time the tip of its legs hit the ground, there was a thundering sound. Its body pulled at the sticky web surrounding it.
"You... you're Aragog. A-aren't you?" Potter asked.
"Yes," the monster replied. "Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before."
"He's in trouble," Potter said hurriedly. "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," the monster said angrily. "Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets."
"Then... you're not the monster?" I asked, shocked into speaking.
"Is that a young girl too? How delicious," the spider grumbled. I blanched, and reached for Potter's arm.
"No, I am not the monster," it continued. "The monster was born in the castle. I came to Hagrid from a distant land, in the pocket of a traveler."
"Harry," Weasley whimpered, frantically looking around. I realized how many more spiders were circling us than before.
"But if you're not the monster, then what did kill that girl fifty years ago?" Potter questioned. Apparently that was the wrong thing to say.
"We do not speak of it," Aragog roared. "It is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others."
"But have to seen it," Potter pushed on, frustrated.
"I never saw any part of the castle but the box in which Hagrid kept me. The girl was discovered in a bathroom," it answered. "When I was accused, Hagrid brought me here."
"Harry," Weasley said, much more urgently, tugging on his sleeve.
"What?" Potter finally said.
Weasley only pointed up to the top of the trees. Hundreds of the biggest spiders I had ever seen were closing in on us, lowering themselves from strands of silk, or scurrying down trees.
"Well. Thank you," Potter swallowed. "We'll just... go."
"Go?" Aragog asked.
Weasley nodded his head and made a squeaky sound in his throat.
"I think not," the spider spoke, like he had sandpaper in his throat. "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." Maybe I would throw up all over his sons and daughters.
"Goodbye, friends of Hagrid."
"Can we panic now?" Weasley choked out.
A spider landed hard and sudden in front of us, slowly advancing. The three of us whipped out our wands, standing with our backs facing each other in a tight circle. I released my hand from Potter's arm, because I assumed I had cut off his blood circulation by now, but the comfort of his skin on mine was gone.
A spider who had a singular eye the size of my head hissed and jumped towards me, and I interlocked our fingers. His only sign of notice was a small intake of breath.
"Know any spells?" Weasley's voice came from my right.
"One. But it's not powerful enough for all of them," Potter rushed out.
"Where's Hermione when you need her?" I asked.
By now all the spiders were in a tight-knit circle around the three of us and Fang. The lantern was long gone, somewhere on the forest floor. There was no possible way to get out of this.
Then, a two bright lights came from behind me. We all whipped around, and the spiders scattered. There was a beat up, blue car with flashing headlights skidding into the clearing. It skidded to a stop and threw open it's doors.
Potter and I squished into the passenger seat, and Weasley fell into the driver's seat. A spider ran into the window on Potter and I's side, and I screamed. Another one landed on the roof of the car, cracking the already dented windshield.
"Go!" Potter yelled.
The magic car revved its engine, shooting backwards. Two spiders were still clinging onto the vehicle, and more were chasing us. We went under a huge lifted root, knocking any remaining spiders off.
We rode off a small mound of dirt and flew through the air. I think everyone in the car was yelling, Fang even barking in fear. The car finally stopped int he middle of the thick trees.
Everyone was silent for a moment. All the places where Potter and I were touching were on fire.
"Glad we're out of there," Weasley sighed.
Then a familiar spider came through the open window on Weasley's side, wrapping its arms around his neck. I took my wand out of my pocket and prayed that I wouldn't hit Weasley.
"Arania Exumai!" I yelled. The spider shot backward forty feet and landed with a crack against a tree.
"Thanks for that," Weasley gasped.
"Any time," I replied breathlessly.
Next to me, Potter squinted out the windshield. I followed, and groaned. The hoard of spiders was back, in a thick band all around us. And they were getting closer.
"Get us out of here," Potter said to Weasley. "Now!" He yelled, when nobody moved.
Weasley slammed his foot on the gas pedal, and we rolled backwards.
"Come on! Faster!" I screamed as we were flung around in a circle, and then lobbed in a random direction by a tree. The spiders did not slow down, some of them moving next to the car's side door.
"Get us in the air," Potter said suddenly.
"The air?" I shrieked.
Weasley tugged at the shifter, but it didn't move. "The flying gear's jammed!" More spiders had gone the opposite way, and were now waiting for us a couple feet ahead.
"Come on, pull!" Potter yelled.
"I'm trying!"
We rode through the sea of spiders, managing to hit most of them, until I felt a lurch under me. The car was hovering, and then tilting steeper, and then full-on flying. We hit one last root before soaring up over the tree line.
We landed with a sickening crash, right outside Hagrid's hut once more. The car doors swung open of their on accord, and the seats shot us out of them. I landed next to Potter on the soaking wet grass.
Fang was already running back to the house, tail between his legs.
"Follow the spiders! Follow the spiders!" Weasley ranted. "If Hagrid ever gets out of Azkaban, I'll kill him!"
"Do you need a second-hand man?" I asked, wincing as Potter helped me up. When I was standing, he took a second too long to let go of my hand. We only stared at each other, neither of us daring to break eye contact. I was grateful when a groan was heard from behind us, and I had an excuse to turn my head.
The car was rolling back into the forest, its job done.
"I mean, what was the point fo sending us in there?" Weasley asked. "What have we found out?"
"We know one thing," Potter answered. "Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets. He was innocent."
We were in the hospital wing again, sitting with Hermione. Madame Pomfrey insisted that it was no use keeping company with a Petrified person, but she never denied us.
I had brought a new vase of flowers for her bedside table, and I switched them out with the dry, dead ones.
"Wish you were here, Hermione," Potter said. "We need you now more than ever."
I was rubbing my thumb over her closed fist when I felt something crinkle. I pulled out a crumpled up piece of parchment and un-folded it.
"What's that?" Weasley asked me.
"I'm not sure..." I said, skimming it quickly. Then I took a double take.
"This was why Hermione was in the library the day she was attacked," I breathed. I passed it to Potter, who's eyes widened as he read.
"Come on!" He said, and we followed him to Moaning Myrtle's corridor.
" 'Of the many fearsome beasts that roam our land, none is more deadly than the Basilisk. Capable of living for hundreds of years, instant death awaits any who meet this giant serpent's eye. Spiders flee before it...' don't you see? Everything fits," I said, reading the page to them as we walked.
"This is it," Potter agreed. "The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a Basilisk. That's why I can hear it speak. It's a snake."
"But if it kills by looking people in the eye, why is it no one's dead?" Weasley asked.
"Because no one did look it directly in the eye," I realized.
"Colin saw it through his camera," I explained as we began to walk again. "Justin must have seen it through Nearly Headless Nick."
"Nick got the full blast of it, but he's a ghost. He couldn't die again," Potter agreed.
"And Hermione..." I continued, "...had the mirror! I bet you anything she was using it to check around corners just incase."
"And Mrs. Norris?" Weasley asked. "I'm pretty sure she didn't have a camera or a mirror."
"The water..." Potter and I said at the same time. We looked at each other in surprise, but I turned away first.
"There was water on the floor that night," I said directly to Weasley. "She only saw the Basilisk's reflection."
Potter held out the paper to the nearest torch for better light.
" 'Spiders flee before it,' " he read out. "Like Alexandra said, everything fits."
"But how's it been getting around?" Weasley asked, oblivious to how colored my face was. Potter had called me by my first name.
"A dirty, great snake. Someone would have seen it."
"Hermione answered that too," Potter said, holding out the ripped page. In the bottom right corner, the single word 'pipe' was written.
"Pipes?" Weasley asked, confused. "it's using the plumbing?"
"Remember was Aragog said about that girl fifty years ago?" Potter asked. "She died in a bathroom? What if she never left?"
"Moaning Myrtle?" I whispered.
He nodded.
Throughout the school, Professor McGonagall's voice rang out. "All students are to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers to the second floor corridor immediately."
Naturally, the three of us ran to the second floor corridor.
"As you can see, the Heir of Slytherin as left another message," Professor McGonagall said. "Our worst fear has been realized."
I held out an arm to stop Potter and Weasley before they ran right into Professor Sprout. We peeped our heads around the corner, not daring to breath.
"A student has been taken by the monster into the Chamber itself," she explained. "The students must be sent home. I'm afraid this is the end of Hogwarts."
Just then, Professor Lockhart strolled over from the other side of the corridor.
"So sorry, dozed off. What have I missed?" He asked, apparently not noticing the look Professor McGonagall was giving to him. It was the one she gave Fred and George once when she caught them trying to sneak off to Hogsmeade with a Hogwarts toilet seat. What they were planning on doing with it, I never want to find out.
"A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart," Professor Snape said. "Your moment has come at last."
"My... moment?" Professor Lockhart stuttered.
"Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber is?" Professor Snape continued.
When Professor Lockhart didn't answer, Professor McGonagall cut in. "It's settled then. we'll leave you to deal with the monster, Gilderoy. Your skills, after all, are legend."
"Very well," Professor Lockhart smiled nervously. "Uh, I'll just be in my office getting... getting ready." And he walked off, his manner not as confident as usual.
"Who is it that the monster's taken, Minerva?" Madame Pomfrey asked.
"Ginny Weasley."
Weasley stumbled backwards.
When the teachers left, the corridor wall was unblocked.
"Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever," Weasley read out quietly, like he couldn't believe it. "Ginny..."
"Lockhart may be useless, but he's going to try and get into the Chamber. At least we can tell him what we know," Potter yelled back to us as we ran to Professor Lockhart's office.
"Professor, we have some information for you," Potter burst in.
But Professor Lockhart wasn't 'getting ready.' He was packing to leave. Clothes and trunks were strewn all over the room, like this wasn't planned.
"Are you going somewhere?" I asked, quite rudely. I didn't really care at the moment.
"Uh, well, yes," he stuttered. "Um... urgent call. Unavoidable, uh, got to go."
"What about my sister?" Weasley asked, incredulous.
"Well, um, as to that... most unfortunate. No one regrets more than I," Professor Lockhart answered.
"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," I exclaimed. "You can't go now."
"Well, I must say, when I took the job there was nothing in the job description about-" He tried to counter.
"You're running away?" Potter asked harshly. "After all that stuff you did in your books?"
"Books can be misleading," Professor Lockhart said in defense.
"You wrote them!" I said.
"My dear girl, do use your common sense!" He said, putting his trunk down for a moment. "My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I did all those things!"
"You're a fraud," Potter said quietly.
"You've just been taking credit for what other wizards have done?" I asked furiously.
"Is there anything you can do?" Weasley asked.
"Yes. Now you mention it," Professor Lockhart said, almost proudly. "I'm rather gifted with memory charms. Otherwise, you see, all those wizards would have gone blabbing, and I'd never have sold another book."
I looked on at him in sheer disbelief. How awful he was.
"In fact, uh, I'm going to have to do the same to you," he said slowly, walking over to his wand. But when he turned around, the three of us were all already pointing ours at him.
"Don't even think about it," Potter said.