THIRD PERSON POV
Summer was creeping over the grounds around the castle; sky and lake
alike turned periwinkle blue and flowers large as cabbages burst into
bloom in the greenhouses. But with no Hagrid visible from the castle windows, striding the grounds with Fang at his heels, the scene didnt look right to Harry; no better, in fact, than the inside of the castle, where things were so horribly wrong.
Harry and Ron had tried to visit Hermione, but visitors were now barred from the hospital wing.
"Were taking no more chances,"Madam Pomfrey told them severely
through a crack in the infirmary door. "No, Im sorry, theres every chance the attacker might come back to finish these people off. . . ."
Both of them had seen how hard Hermione's petrification affected Y/N, he looks pale the whole time and has bags under his eyes which are red and puffy indicating that he has been crying. During classes also he doesn't pay attention to it instead focuses on his ring and dog tag that Hermione had given him along with the half pendent Bonnie had given him.
People thought that he was going threw the same thing as his other friends but what no one knew except for Ginny the amount of guilt eating him up for petrifying them his crush and his sister.
And now Dumbledore gone, fear had spread as never before, so that the sun warming the castle walls outside seemed to stop at the mullioned windows.
There was barely a face to be seen in the school that didnt look worried and
tense, and any laughter that rang through the corridors sounded shrill and
unnatural and was quickly stifled.
Two people, however, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere of
terror and suspicion. Crabbe and Goyle were strutting around the school as though they had just been appointed Head Boy. Y/N didn't realize what he was so pleased about until the Potions lesson about two weeks after Dumbledore and
Hagrid had left, when, sitting right beside Draco, Y/N overheard Crabbe and Goyle gloating about it.
"I always thought your Father might be the one who got rid of Dumbledore,"he said, not troubling to keep his voice down. "I told you he thinks
Dumbledores the worst headmaster the schools ever had. Maybe well get a
decent headmaster now. Someone who wont want the Chamber of Secrets closed. McGonagall wont last long, shes only filling in. . ."
Snape swept past Harry, making no comment about Hermiones empty seat
and cauldron.
"Sir", said Goyle loudly. "Sir, why dont you apply for the headmasters job?"
"Now, now, Goyle", said Snape, though he couldnt suppress a thin-lipped
smile. "Professor Dumbledore has only been suspended by the governors. I daresay hell be back with us soon enough."
"Yeah, right", said Crabbe, smirking. "I expect youd have Fathers vote,
sir, if you wanted to apply for the job — Ill tell Father youre the best teacher
here, sir"—
Snape smirked as he swept off around the dungeon, fortunately not spotting
Seamus Finnigan, who was pretending to vomit into his cauldron.
"Im quite surprised the Mudbloods havent all packed their bags by now",
Goyle went on. "Bet you five Galleons the next one dies. Pity it wasnt Granger" —
Goyle was cut off by a loud thud which came from
Y/N's direction as he looked angrily at his desk and then got up and was headed towards Goyle with anger etched on his face.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU FUCKING IDIOT." Y/N said loudly as everyone flinched from his tone.
He went up to Goyle and held his collar and was ready to puch him but Snape put his hand on Y/N's shoulder to stop him and back down.
Just then the bell rang at that moment, which meant Goyle was luckily saved from Y/N's wrath.
"Let me at him", Ron growled in the back ground as Harry and Dean hung onto his arms. "I
dont care, I dont need my wand, Im going to kill him with my bare hands"—
"Hurry up, Ive got to take you all to Herbology,"barked Snape over the classs heads with his hand still on Y/N's shoulder, and off they marched, with Harry, Ron, and Dean bringing up
the rear, Ron still trying to get loose. It was only safe to let go of him when Snape had seen them out of the castle and they were making their way across
the vegetable patch toward the greenhouses.
The Herbology class was very subdued; there were now two missing from
their number, Justin and Hermione.
Professor Sprout set them all to work pruning the Abyssinian Shrivelfigs.
Harry went to tip an armful of withered stalks onto the compost heap and
found himself face-to-face with Ernie Macmillan. Ernie took a deep breath
and said, very formally,
"I just want to say, Harry, that Im sorry I ever
suspected you. I know youd never attack Hermione Granger and Bonnie Bennett, and I apologize
for all the stuff I said. Were all in the same boat now, and, well" —
He held out a pudgy hand, and Harry shook it.
Ernie and his friend Hannah came to work at the same Shrivelfig as Harry
and Ron.
"That Crabbe and Goyle are characters", said Ernie, breaking off dead twigs, "they seemed very pleased about all this, don't they? Do you know, I think one of them might be Slytherins heir."
"Thats clever of you,"said Ron, who didnt seem to have forgiven Ernie
as readily as Harry.
"Do you think its them, Harry?"Ernie asked.
"No,"said Harry, so firmly that Ernie and Hannah stared.
A second later, Harry spotted something.
Several large spiders were scuttling over the ground on the other side of the
glass, moving in an unnaturally straight line as though taking the shortest
route to a prearranged meeting. Harry hit Ron over the hand with his pruning
shears.
"Ouch! Whatre you" —
Harry pointed out the spiders, following their progress with his eyes
screwed up against the sun.
"Oh, yeah", said Ron, trying, and failing, to look pleased.
"But we can't follow them now"—
Ernie and Hannah were listening curiously.
Harrys eyes narrowed as he focused on the spiders. If they pursued their
fixed course, there could be no doubt about where they would end up.
"Looks like theyre heading for the Forbidden Forest. . . ."
And Ron looked even unhappier about that.
At the end of the lesson Professor Sprout escorted the class to their Defense
Against the Dark Arts lesson.
Lockhart bounded into the room and the class stared at him. Every other teacher in the place was looking grimmer than usual, but Lockhart appeared
nothing short of buoyant.
"Come now", he cried, beaming around him. "Why all these long faces?"
People swapped exasperated looks, but nobody answered.
"Don't you people realise", said Lockhart, speaking slowly, as though they
were all a bit dim, "the danger has passed! The culprit has been taken away"
—
"Says who?"said Dean Thomas loudly.
"My dear young man, the Minister of Magic wouldnt have taken Hagrid if
he hadnt been one hundred percent sure that he was guilty", said Lockhart, in
the tone of someone explaining that one and one made two.
"Of course father would have told him to do it." Y/N muttered to himself.
"Oh, yes he would", said Ron, even more loudly than Dean.
"I flatter myself I know a touch more about Hagrids arrest than you do,
Mr. Weasley", said Lockhart in a self-satisfied tone.
Ron started to say that he didnt think so, somehow, but stopped in mid sentence when Harry kicked him hard under the desk.
"We werent there, remember?"Harry muttered but Y/N heard since he was sitting beside him.
"Harry you have to tell me what happened when you both went to Hagrid's." Y/N told him.
"Yeah we will tell you later."he replied.
But Lockharts disgusting cheeriness, his hints that he had always thought
Hagrid was no good, his confidence that the whole business was now at an
end, irritated Harry so much that he yearned to throw Gadding with Ghouls
right in Lockharts stupid face. Instead he contented himself with scrawling a
note to Ron: Lets do it tonight.
Ron read the message, swallowed hard, and looked sideways at the empty seat usually filled by Hermione. The sight seemed to stiffen his resolve, and he nodded.
"What are you both doing tonight?" Y/N whispered to Harry after the bell just rung.
Harry then told Y/N about everything that happened at Hagrid's and about the message that Hagrid gave them.
"So you'll come with us tonight?" Ron asked Y/N as the three of them were walking towards the common room.
"Yeah sure." Y/N said as they reached the fat ladies portrait.
The Gryffindor common room was always very crowded these days, because from six oclock onward the Gryffindors had nowhere else to go. They also had plenty to talk about, with the result that the common room often didnt empty until past midnight.
Harry went to get the Invisibility Cloak out of his trunk right after dinner,
and spent the evening sitting on it, waiting for the room to clear. Fred and
George challenged Harry,Y/N and Ron to a few games of Exploding Snap, and Ginny sat watching them, very subdued in Hermiones usual chair.
Y/N,Harry and Ron kept losing on purpose, trying to finish the games quickly, but even so, it was well past midnight when Fred, George, and Ginny finally went to bed.
Harry,Y/N and Ron waited for the distant sounds of two dormitory doors closing before seizing the Cloak, throwing it over themselves, and climbing
through the portrait hole.
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 theres nothing to follow. Those spiders might
not have 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.
They reached Hagrids house, sad and sorry-looking with its 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 Hagrids table. There would be no need
for it in the pitch-dark forest.
"Cmon, Fang", were 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.
Y/N 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. "Id light mine, too, but you know — itd 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, "Im ready. Lets go."
"Good, that way." Y/N said as he pointed in that direction.
So, with Fang scampering around them, sniffing tree roots and leaves, they
entered the forest. By the glow of Harrys and Y/N'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 Harrys and
Y/N'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. He had never been this deep
into the forest before. He could vividly remember Hagrid advising him not to
leave the forest path last time hed been in here. But Hagrid was miles away
now, probably sitting in a cell in Azkaban, and he had also said to follow the
spiders.
Something wet touched Harrys hand and he jumped backward, crushing
Rons foot, but it was only Fangs nose.
"What dyou 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.
"Now we aren't going back. Come on guys." Y/N said.
So they followed the darting shadows of the spiders into the trees. They
couldnt move very quickly now; there were tree roots and stumps in their
way, barely visible in the near blackness. Harry could feel Fangs 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.
They walked for what seemed like at least half an hour, their robes snagging on low-slung branches and brambles. After a while, they noticed that the ground seemed to be sloping downward, though the trees were as
thick as ever.
Then Fang suddenly let loose a great, echoing bark, making both Harry and
Ron jump out of their skins while Y/N gave no reaction.
"What?"said Ron loudly, looking around into the pitch-dark, and gripping
Harrys elbow very hard.
"Theres 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 Y/N frantically. "It'll hear you."
"Hear me?"said Ron in an unnaturally high voice. "Its 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 dyou think its doing?"said Harry.
"Probably getting ready to pounce,"said Ron.
They waited, shivering, hardly daring to move.
"Dyou think its gone?"Harry whispered.
"Dunno"—
Then, to their right, came a sudden blaze of light, so bright in the darkness
that all of them 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!,Y/N!"Ron shouted, his voice breaking with relief. "Harry, its our car!"
"What?"
"Come on!"
Harry and Y/N blundered after Ron toward the light, stumbling and tripping, and a moment later they had emerged into a clearing.
Mr. Weasleys 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.
"So this is the car that brought you both here."
Y/N said skeptically.
"Its been here all the time!"said Ron delightedly, walking around the car.
"Look at it. The forests 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 didnt 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!"
Y/N 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. "Cmon, lets 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 and
Y/N. His face was livid with terror.
The both of them didn't even have time to turn around. There was a loud clicking noise and suddenly Y/N felt something long and hairy seize him around the
middle and lift him off the ground, so that he was hanging facedown.
Struggling, he heard more clicking, and saw Rons legs leave the ground, too, heard Fang whimpering and howling — next moment, he was
being swept away into the dark trees.
Head hanging, Y/N saw that what had hold of him was marching on six immensely long, hairy legs, the front two clutching him tightly below a pair of shining black pincers.
Behind him, he could hear another of the creatures,
no doubt carrying Ron. They were moving into the very heart of the forest.
Y/N could hear Fang fighting to free himself from a third monster, whining
loudly, but Y/N couldn't have yelled even if he had wanted to; he seemed to
have left his voice back with the car in the clearing.
He never knew how long he was in the creatures clutches; he only knew
that the darkness suddenly lifted enough for him to see that the leaf-strewn ground was now swarming with spiders. Craning his neck sideways, he realized that they had reached the ridge of a vast hollow, a hollow that had been cleared of trees, so that the stars shone brightly onto the worst scene he had ever laid eyes on.
Spiders. 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 the three of them 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.
All of them fell to the ground on all fours as the spider released 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. While Y/N looked pale and terrified with sweat dripping from his forehead.
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!"
And from the middle of the misty, domed web, a spider the size of a small elephant emerged, very slowly. There was gray in the black of his body and legs, and each of the eyes on his ugly, pincered head was milky white. He was blind.
"What is it?"he said, clicking his pincers rapidly.
"Men", clicked the spider who had caught Harry.
"Is it Hagrid?"said Aragog, moving closer, his eight milky eyes wandering
vaguely.
"Strangers", clicked the spider who had brought Ron.
"Kill them", clicked Aragog fretfully. "I was sleeping. . . ."
"Were friends of Hagrid's", Harry shouted. His heart seemed to have left
his chest to pound in his throat.
Click, click, click went the pincers of the spiders all around the hollow.
Aragog paused.
"Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before", he said slowly.
"Hagrid's in trouble", said
Y/N, breathing very fast. "Thats why we've come."
"In trouble?"said the aged spider, and Harry thought he heard concern
beneath the clicking pincers. "But why has he sent you?"
Harry thought of getting to his feet but decided against it; he didn't think his legs would support him. So he spoke from the ground, as calmly as he could.
"They think, up at the school, that Hagrids been setting a — a—
something on students.They've taken him to Azkaban."
Aragog clicked his pincers furiously, and all around the hollow the sound was echoed by the crowd of spiders; it was like applause, except applause
didn't usually make Harry feel sick with fear.
"But that was years ago,"said Aragog fretfully. "Years and years ago. I remember it well. Thats 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?"said Harry,
who could feel cold sweat on his forehead.
"I!"said Aragog, clicking angrily. "I was not born in the castle. I come from a distant land. A traveler 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 found me a wife, Mosag, and you see how our family has grown, all through Hagrids goodness. . . ."
Harry summoned what remained of his courage.
"So you never — never attacked anyone?" Harry said as Y/N looked guilty and had his head hung down.
"Never,"croaked the old spider. "It would have been my instinct, but out of
respect for 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. Our kind like the dark and the quiet. . . ."
"But then . . . Do you know what did kill that girl?"said Harry. "Because
whatever it is, its back and attacking people again"—
His words were drowned by a loud outbreak of clicking and the rustling of many long legs shifting angrily; large black shapes shifted all around him.
While Y/N felt really guilty as he knows what creature did it and knows what exactly happened but was afraid to tell the both of them about it.
"The thing that lives in the castle,"said Aragog, "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?"said Harry urgently.
More loud clicking, more rustling; the spiders seemed to be closing in.
"We do not speak of it!"said Aragog fiercely. "We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dread creature, though he asked me, many times."
Harry didn't want to press the subject, not with the spiders pressing closer
on all sides. Aragog seemed to be tired of talking. He was backing slowly into his domed web, but his fellow spiders continued to inch slowly toward Harry,Y/N and Ron.
"Well just go, then," Y/N called desperately to Aragog, hearing leaves
rustling behind him.
"Go?"said Aragog 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.
Good-bye, friends of Hagrid."
Harry spun around. Feet away, towering above him, was a solid wall of spiders, clicking, their many eyes gleaming in their ugly black heads.
Even as he reached for his wand, Harry knew it was no good, there were too many of them, but as he tried to stand, ready to die fighting, a loud, long note sounded, and a blaze of light flamed through the hollow.
But that didn't stop Y/N as he took out his wand and chanted. "Arania Exumai"
That helped repel some of the spiders creeping towards them.
"How do you know that spell?" Harry asked.
"Hermione taught me." Y/N said with a sad smile.
"C-can we leave." Ron said scared of the spiders.
Mr. Weasleys car was thundering down the slope, headlights glaring, its
horn screeching, knocking spiders aside; several were thrown onto their backs, their endless legs waving in the air. The car screeched to a halt in front of Harry and Ron and the doors flew open.
"Get Fang! And both of you get in" Y/N yelled, diving into the front seat; Ron seized the boarhound around the middle and threw him with the help of Harry, yelping, into the back of the car — the doors slammed shut — Ron didnt touch the accelerator but the car didn't need him; the engine roared and they were off, hitting more spiders.
They sped up the slope, out of the hollow, and they were soon crashing
through the forest, branches whipping the windows as the car wound its way cleverly through the widest gaps, following a path it obviously knew.
Harry looked sideways at Ron. His mouth was still open in the silent
scream, but his eyes werent popping anymore.
"Are you okay?"
Ron stared straight ahead, unable to speak.
They smashed their way through the undergrowth, Fang howling loudly in
the back seat, and Y/N saw the side mirror snap off as they squeezed past a
large oak. After ten noisy, rocky minutes, the trees thinned, and Y/N could
again see patches of sky.
The car stopped so suddenly that they were nearly thrown into the
windshield. They had reached the edge of the forest. Fang flung himself at the window in his anxiety to get out, and when Harry opened the door, he shot off through the trees to Hagrids house, tail between his legs. Harry and Y/N got out too, and after a minute or so, Ron seemed to regain the feeling in his limbs and
followed, still stiff-necked and staring. Harry gave the car a grateful pat as it
reversed back into the forest and disappeared from view.
Harry went back into Hagrids cabin to get the Invisibility Cloak. Fang was
trembling under a blanket in his basket. When Harry got outside again, he
found Ron being violently sick in the pumpkin patch as Y/N stayed on the side.
"Follow the spiders", said Ron weakly, wiping his mouth on his sleeve.
"I'll never forgive Hagrid. Were lucky to be alive."
"I bet he thought Aragog wouldnt hurt friends of his", said Harry.
"Thats exactly Hagrids problem!"said Ron, thumping the wall of the
cabin.
"He always thinks monsters aren't as bad as theyre made out, and look where its got him! A cell in Azkaban!" He was shivering uncontrollably now.
"What was the point of sending us in there? What have we found out, Id like
to know?"
"That Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets", said Harry, throwing
the Cloak over Ron and Y/N prodding them in the arm to make him walk. "He was
innocent."
Ron gave a loud snort. Evidently, hatching Aragog in a cupboard wasnt his
idea of being innocent.
As the castle loomed nearer Harry twitched the Cloak to make sure their feet were hidden, then pushed the creaking front doors ajar. They walked carefully back across the entrance hall and up the marble staircase, holding their breath as they passed corridors where watchful sentries were walking. At last they reached the safety of the Gryffindor common room, where the fire had burned itself into glowing ash. They took off the Cloak and climbed the winding stair to their dormitory.
Ron fell onto his bed without bothering to get undressed. Harry, however,
didn't feel very sleepy. He sat on the edge of his four-poster, thinking hard
about everything Aragog had said.
While Y/N was just lying down on his bed staring at the ceiling as he thought about Hermione and Bonnie both of them petrified. He was tired, tired of crying at night. He couldn't sleep since that day their bodies lying down on the library floor clouded his mind. His heart was hurting a lot.
As Harry was about to lay down, still thinking about what Aragog had said Y/N called out to him.
"Harry whatever happens tomorrow just don't hate me." Y/N whispered to Harry.
"Why would I hate you? Is it something to do with the Chamber of Secrets." Harry also whispered to Y/N.
"Just know that I didn't mean for this to happen all of this is out of my control." Y/N told Harry and left him to his thoughts. Y/N went back to his bed and tuned out everything but suddenly the voice came back.
Tomorrow is the big day young boy. Tomorrow is the final part of the plan.
That was the last thing he heard as Riddle controlled his mind and made him go to sleep only for him to wake up in the middle of the night due to the nightmare.
Harry was becoming drowsy when what seemed like their very last hope
occurred to him, and he suddenly sat bolt upright.
"Ron", he hissed through the dark, "Ron"—
Ron woke with a yelp like Fangs, stared wildly around, and saw Harry.
"Ron — that girl who died. Aragog said she was found in a bathroom,"
said Harry, ignoring Enzo's snuffling snores from the corner. "What if she
never left the bathroom? What if shes still there?"
Ron rubbed his eyes, frowning through the moonlight. And then he understood, too.
"You dont think — not Moaning Myrtle?"
"There is also another thing."
"What?"
"Y/N knows something about what's happening."
~Anonymous