"Why spiders, why couldn't it be follow the butterflies?" You heard Ron ask from behind you through a voice crack.~
"She was found near the library," Professor Mcgonagle said, reaching over to the bedside table to grab a hand held mirror, "Along with this, mean anything to any of you?"
You could practically hear your heartbeat in your ears, kids had been getting petrified for a couple of months now, but never anyone you were particularly close to, and seeing Hermione laying there like that on the bed, completely frozen made you feel sick to your stomach.
"No." Harry answered, for himself but also for you and Ron. Noticing your lack of words, seeing as your voice was completely caught in your throat.
You had never been through anything like this before.
Slytherin Common room, 5:45pm.
"Each student shall return to their common room by 6pm each night, and from now on everyone will be escorted to lessons by a teacher or prefect, any questions?" Snape asked the room full of students, he had called all of the kids into the common room about 10 minutes prior, and telling by the tone in his voice and his choice of words it wasn't hard to tell that every other house was probably getting the exact same talk right about then. A message that professor Dumbledore had delivered to all the head of houses to relay to the students, no doubt.
"Y/n this is bad.." Pansy whispered over to you, anxiously playing with the end of her robe.
"I know..we're practically on lockdown" You replied, taking in the nervous expressions on everyone else's faces as well.
"You don't think they'll close Hogwarts, do you Professor?" A student asked, causing the room to go even more silent than before.
Snape hesitated for a moment, "If this continues the way it is, they very well could."
His statement only caused more commotion between the children, little gasps and whispers filled with worry and doubt being shared amongst them.
"I have to talk to Harry," You began, standing up off of the couch as Snape exited the room, "He'll have some sort of idea of what we could do, I mean we're so close to solving it."
"Y/n no," Pansy protested, grabbing your arm, "Please, it's so dangerous, I mean come on, they're having us escorted to lessons, I don't want anything bad happening to you."
"Shes right." Malfoy budded in, looking you up and down.
"Since when do you care?" You asked, scoffing slightly, all the previous things Malfoy had said in the past about your friend flooding your brain, "You're probably happy Hermione got petrified."
"I never said I was?" He retorted, standing up to meet your level, "You didn't have to." You argued back, feeling Pansy tug on your arm from behind again.
"Please Y/n, I don't want you getting petrified," She said, standing to join you two now. You turned to face her, eyes meeting her own, and that's when you noticed how they were glazed over, looking almost as if she was about to cry, "You're my best friend, please. At least if you go let me come with you."
You felt your own eyes begin to burn upon seeing her emotional state, then hearing her words, all you could do in response was pull her into a hug, "Pansy I swear i'll be as safe as I can ok? I promise I will, but I have to do this.."
You could feel her weakly nod into your shoulder, "I know"
"Y/n," You heard Blaise say from one of the couches to your left, you lifted your head, glancing over at him, "Seriously, be careful."
You smiled at him softly, pulling away from Pansy, "I will be."
Seeing how nervous everyone was made you feel nauseous, honestly you felt terrible. You wanted nothing more but to just sit in the common room with Pansy, Blaise, Crabbe, Goyal, and Malfoy, just joke around with them like you always did, share snacks, memories, old stories, anything that was on anyone's mind, but you knew you had to do this. Tom Riddle showed himself to you for a reason.
After some more words from Pansy and the others you ran up to the dorms and began to change out of your school uniform, you weren't really sure of what you were possibly going to be getting yourself into so you wanted to be as prepared as possible.
Right as you finished slipping your black long sleeve shirt on Pansy walked into the room, she didn't say anything as she took her seat on the edge of your bed.
You'd occasionally catch a glimpse of her face through the mirror as you tied the laces of your doc matins, "Pansy I-"
"Y/n look, I understand this is something you have to do, or else Tom Riddle wouldn't of revealed himself to you, I get it," She sighed, "I just have a bad feeling."
"I know, I don't really have the best feeling either," You admitted, "But all I can do is promise i'll be as safe as I can. For all we know, nothing may even happen."
She nodded, standing up from her former, more comfortable position, and as she walked over to you she slipped something into the back pocket of your black jeans, "If something does happen though, figure out a way to destroy that."
Reaching your hand back you felt it, she had given you the pen, "I will."
With that, she gave you one last hug before you made your way down the stairs back into the common room, it was surprisingly empty compared to earlier. You figured that everyone was probably creeped out, wanting to go upstairs into their dorms, but as you made your way to the door you stood corrected, there was one person leaning against the wall.
"What are you doing?" You asked.
"Was waiting to see if Pansy could actually talk you out of it or not." Malfoy replied, pushing himself off of the wall.
"She didn't try to," You replied simply, "She's just worried."
"Yeah," He mumbled as you opened the door, "Be safe."
You froze for a moment, looking back over your shoulder at the boy, "Yeah, I will."
It was odd, you thought. Since when did he care? Why was he acting so nice lately. Maybe not nice but definitely not mean. Honestly, he hadn't been genuinely mean to you since, well it's been months.
As you exit the common room you pushed all of those thoughts out of your mind, you didn't have time to think about that right now.
Instead, you began your way up to the Gryffindor common room, and as you made your way through the eerie empty halls you could of sworn you heard a voice, or two maybe?
That's when you felt someone grab your wrist and yank you to the side, causing you to scream until, "Y/n!" Harry whisper yelled, revealing himself and Ron from under his clock of invisibility.
"Merlin..." You exhaled dramatically, "Why the hell couldn't you just-"
"Shut up, get under!" Ron said, motioning you under the cloak.
"Ok ok relax.." You said, joining the two boys, there was barley any room for three people but it worked, "You two are so extra."
"We're on strict rules right now, this isn't extra Y/n," Harry began, mocking you, "We were coming to get you actually, why would you, alone just leave your common room after curfew, especially in these conditions?"
"Well Pansy wanted to come but I told her not too. Look I always do it? No one was gonna catch me, I would've been fine." You retorted, "And besides I was coming to get you too, so what's going on?"
"Well, we figured we'd go and speak to Hagrid," Ron muttered out as the three of you continued making your way through the halls, "We don't wanna believe that it was him but it's all we've got."
You nodded, contemplating your next words, "Right then, let's go."
Hogwarts grounds, 6:37pm.
It has steadily began getting darker as the three of you made your way to Hagrid's hut, and you couldn't help but feel guilty for even considering that it could be him, but Harry and Ron were right, it was all you had to go on.
"At least we don't have to be under the cloak now, it was cramped." You chuckled, looking over at the two.
"It just smelt like really strong perfume." Ron added, chucking a bit to himself as well, causing Harry to join in.
You gasped, "What? It smells good, and it's not really strong, maybe you two just stink."
"I don't stink, not sure about Harry though, considering all the quidditch practice and stuff." Ron joked, nudging his friend.
"I don't stink." Harry laughed, nudging his friend right back.
The light hearted conversation eased the nervous feeling you had in your stomach almost perfectly, you hadn't hung out with them in a while, you just wished the time you all had happened to hang out wasn't for some sort of scary reason.
"Speaking of quidditch," Harry smirked, "How does it feel knowing our house completely wiped the floor with your house last match?" He asked over to you.
"Ok whatever," You rolled your eyes, "That's only cause Malfoy was choosing to be a prick rather than look out for the snitch, we were in the lead."
"Usual behavior for him.." Ron said under his breath.
"Oh trust me I know," You added, "When we all got back to the common room me, Pansy, and Blaise wouldn't let him hear the end of it. Adrian was the worst though, he was pissed."
-
"Next game get your head out of your ass and actually look will you?" Adrian said to the boy, making his way past him and up to the dorms, "Cost us the match."
His remake caused you, Pansy, Blaise, Crabbe, and Goyal to all lock eyes, exchanging knowing looking to each other, completely expecting the argument that was about to form.
"Whatever Pucey, keep acting like you've never cost us a game." Malfoy retorted, causing Adrian to stop dead in his tracks on the stairs, turning to face him.
"When have I ever cost us a game?" He asked, making his way back down.
"Oh shit.." Blaise muttered, getting himself prepared to have to step in between the two.
You knew from previous conversations with each of them that they very obviously didn't like each other, and they had disputes and arguments like this all the time, but this time it seemed like they were genuinely about to physically fight.
"Two months ago, couldn't stop looking off into the crowd like some sort of stupid celebrity or something," Malfoy said, locking eyes with Adrian, "I'll tell them."
You didn't understand that last part, tell who? And once you looked over at Pansy and saw her just as confused as you were you realized it must've been some sort of thing that was only between them.
Whatever it was it must've been enough for Adrian to stop, because with one look over at you and the rest of your friends, then one look back at Malfoy he turned around and continued on his previous path up to the dorms, "Don't let it happen again Malfoy."
"The hell?" You chuckled.
-
"Who?" Ron asked, looking over at Harry to see if he knew.
"He's this one guy on the Slytherin team, 3rd year, the one that was walking with Y/n the other day when we saw her in the halls." Harry said, chuckling at his friends obliviousness.
You could see the exact moment Ron realized who you two were talking about flash across his face, "Ohh."
"Yeah," You laughed, "And they already hate each other as it is, Adrian said something to him after the game and it got so bad they almost fought."
"They almost fought?!" Harry asked.
"Yeah, crazy right?" You said, thinking back on it.
"Bloody hell, what goes on in your house?" Ron joked, "Why do they hate each other?"
"No idea, I asked once but neither of them gave me a clear answer. One time I asked Malfoy and all he said was 'they have problems', like can you be any more vague?" You said, sighing. Still wishing you knew more.
The conversation was cut short once the three of you simultaneously realized that you were coming up on Hagrid's hut. It was nice while it lasted you thought, just being able to ignore every other problem for a moment and gossip with the two.
And once you all reached the door, you fought over who would be the one knocking of course, you and Ron practically forcing Harry's hand up to the door.
'knock knock knock'
silence.
'knock knock knock'
Was he home?
Your question was quickly answered for you once the tall man answered the door, not how you expected him to however, he had a crossbow drawn, but not for long once he saw who it was that came knocking.
"What's that for?" Harry asked.
"Oh nothing I was expecting," He hesitated, he seemed tense, it was unusual, "Doesn't matter, come on in, just made a pot of tea."
You three wearily looked amongst each other before entering, making sure to shut the door behind yourselves.
Upon entering you made sure to pet fang, who was laying comfortably on the couch Hagrid had set up.
You had been here quite a few times, some alone just go say hello to the man, and a few with Harry, just to catch up and hang out, it was always warm and always smelt of freshly baked bread, tea, or crackling fire.
"Hagrid are you ok?" Harry asked, causing you to bring your attention up from the dog, noticing that he had over poured the tea into one of the cups.
"I'm fine, i'm alright." He reassured, though it didn't seem genuine.
"Did you hear about Hermione?" Harry asked as you stepped up next to him.
"Oh yeah, I heard about that all right." He said, melancholy tone in his voice.
"Look we have to ask you something," Harry hesitated, "Do you know who's opened the chamber of secrets."
You hadn't expected him to go straight for it, discreetly grabbing a hold of his sleeve and tugging it slightly.
"What you have to understand about that is," Hagrid began saying, but was cut short due to another knock, your heart dropped at this, "Quick under the cloak, all three of you don't say a word, quiet."
You all wasted no time, running over to the farthest corner of the room and throwing the cloak over yourselves as Hagrid answered the door, "Professor Dumbledore sir."
"Dumbledore?" Ron whispered.
"Good evening Hagrid, I wonder, could we?" You could hear him ask.
"There's multiple people." You whispered.
"Of course come in." Hagrid said, motioning them into his home.
"That's dads boss, Cornelius Fudge, the minister of magic." Ron whispered as the man entered the room.
"Bad business Hagrid very bad business, had to come, 3 attacks on muggleborns things have gone far enough, the Ministry has to act." The man said, and you only hoped he wasn't implying what you thought he was.
"But i'd never," Hagrid began, motioning towards Dumbledore, "You know id never, Professor."
"I want it understood Cornelius, that Hagrid has my full confidence." Dumbledore said, defending the man.
"Are they gonna..?" You whispered.
"I hope not." Ron replied.
"Albus look Hagrids record is against him, i've got to take him." The minister said.
"Oh no.." Ron whispered.
"Take me?" Hagrid asked, "Take me where, not Azkaban prison?!"
"I'm afraid we have no choice Hagrid." Fudge said, and that's when the door began opening to reveal another person.
"Already here Fudge, good." He said upon entering, the sight of him only made your stomach drop worse.
"Malfoys dad?" You whispered, shocked upon the sight.
"What are you doing here?" Hagrid asked, "Get out of my house!"
"Believe me," Lucious said as he began making his way over to where the three of you hid, causing you all to simultaneously shift backwards, "I take absolutely no pleasure being inside your, you call this a house?" He asked, looking around, "No, I simply called at the school and was told the headmaster was here."
"What exactly is it that you want with me?" Dumbledore asked the man.
"The other governors and I have decided that it is time for you to step aside," Lucious said, almost causing you to audibly gasp, "This is and order of suspension, you'll find all twelve signatures on it, im afraid we feel you've rather, lost your touch," He said, passing a neatly wrapped piece of parchment to the man, "With all these attacks, there will be no muggleborns left at Hogwarts, I could only imagine what an awful lose that will be to the school."
He was facing you three again, and with the words that left his mouth he almost looked, pleased. That's when you put the dots together in your brain, Malfoy hadn't acted the way he did simply just because thats how he was, it was because of his father. At that moment you saw Malfoy in him, and it almost made you sad.
"You can't take professor Dumbledore away, take him away and the Muggleborns won't stand a chance, you mark my words they'll be killings next!" Hagrid said defensively.
"You think so?" Lucious asked, and you could tell Hagrid was a bit taken back by the tone in his voice.
"Calm yourself Hagrid, if the governors require my removal I will of course step aside," Dumbledore said, approaching Malfoys dad, "However you will find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it." With that, he looked right at you, Ron, and Harry.
"Admirable sentiment, shall we?" Lucious asked, making his out of the house, Dumbledore followed close behind but not before nodding to the three of you before exiting.
"Come Hagrid." Fudge said.
"Well," Hagrid cleared his throat, "If uhm, anybody was looking for some stuff, then all they'd have to do would be to follow the spiders, yep that would lead them right. That's all I have to say, oh and someone will need to feed fang while i'm away." He finished, grabbing his coat before following the men out of the door.
"What was that all about?" You asked as Harry pulled the cloak off of you three, "Could Dumbledore see us or-"
"Look.." Harry interrupted, directing his attention towards the window.
"Eww..." Ron began, all of you taking in the dozens of spiders crawling from the walls and out of the window.
"Follow the spiders he said?" You questioned, shaking slightly at the ghostly feeling of one crawling up your back.
"Come on." Harry said, making his way to the door, grabbing the lantern that sat by it.
"We're taking Fang," You protested, following close behind, "Come on Fang."
As the four of you now, made your way out of the door your heart dropped among seeing where the spiders were headed, and you guessed Ron's did too, "They're heading into the dark forest!" His voice cracked.
"I'm not going in there." You said, feeling sick to your stomach, "look I know it's a bad time to bring him up but Malfoy told me this story and-"
"Y/n we have to, Hagrid wouldn't of told us that if it didn't mean something," Harry said, turning to face you, "It'll be ok, I promise."
You knew he was right, for the 'you had to' part anyways, you weren't so sure about the whole 'it was going to be ok' part just yet.
You nodded, trying your best to shake away any feelings of fear or doubt as you began following your brother, practically putting all your trust into him.
"Why spiders, why couldn't it be follow the butterflies?" You heard Ron ask from behind you through a voice crack.
You had remembered him mentioning his fear of spiders prior to all of this that one morning you had breakfast with all the Weasleys, you two had bonded over it, seeing as you didn't quite like them either.
The dark forest, 7:40pm.
You four had been walking for what felt like ages, and you had never been so thankful you had worn your boots as you were now, because the amount of spiders there were was ridiculous.
You and Ron were practically clinging to each other at this point, following closely behind Harry as you tried your best not to look down, you couldn't.
"Harry I don't like this," Ron said, looking around, noticing that they were climbing up the trees now as well, "Harry I don't like this at all."
"Me neither, I feel sick." You budded in, wishing you would've just listened to Pansy.
"Shush," Harry said, "Come on."
And so, the walk continued on, until however you heard the sound of large tree branches cracking, and Harry must've saw whatever it was before you and Ron did because the way, "Do not panic." Flowed out through his lips showed that it was something that would in fact make you and him panic.
"Who is there?"A deep voice asked, "Hagrid, is that you?"
Do.Not.Panic.
"We're friends of Hagrid." Harry said as the figure came into view.
Do.Not.Panic.
"Are you?" Harry began, stuttering slightly, "You're Argagog aren't you?"
"Yes," The giant spider answered, "Hagrid has never sent children into our hollow before."
"He's in trouble, up at the school there have been attacks, they think it's Hagrid, they think he opened the chamber of secrets, like before." Harry said.
That's when you noticed the smaller spiders circling in around you, the bad feeling you had before was back, and it was back very quickly.
"That's a lie," Aragog said, "Hagrid never opened the chamber of secrets."
"Then you're not the monster?" Harry asked.
"No, the monster was born in the castle, I came to Hagrid from a distant land, in the pocket of a traveler." Aragog answered.
Do.Not.Panic.
"Harry..." Ron whined, tugging on his sleeve causing you to tug back on the gingers arm that was wrapped around your own.
"But if you're not the monster, then what did kill that girl 50 years ago?" Harry asked.
He was asking a lot of questions, and you feared it was getting the spider upset.
"We do not speak of it, it is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others." Aragog answered, only making you wonder more and more.
"Have you seen it?" You budded in.
"I never saw any part of the castle, but the books in which Hagrid kept me," It answered again, and that's when you looked over to see Ron only a millisecond away from Panicking, "The girl was discovered in a bathroom, when I was accused Hagrid brought me here."
"Harry..!" Ron said again, tugging on the boys sleeve for a second time.
"What?" He looked over, annoyed as Ron pointed at the sky.
Once you looked up however, you understood as well.
Do.Not.Panic.
Spiders, they were webbing down from the trees. Was this a trap?
Do.Not.Panic.
"Well," Harry began, looking back down, "Thank you, we'll just go."
"Go? I think not, my sons and daughters do not harm Hagrid on my command but I cannot deny them fresh meat when it wonders so willingly into our midst," Aragog said as the spiders got impossibly closer, "Goodbye, friends of Hagrid."
PANIC.
"Harry!" You screamed, pointing at one that had gotten incredibly way too close, causing him to smack it with the lantern without a second thought, before throwing it on the ground after, you three then quickly all put your backs to each other, pulling your wands out. Ready to defend yourselves in the only way you knew how.
"Know any spells?" Ron asked.
"No!" You panicked, almost ready to just shot anything out at that point.
"I know one, but it's not powerful enough for all of them." Harry said, looking over his shoulder quickly, grabbing your hand with his free one and squeezing it.
That was it you thought, you could of sworn you were about to die, that was until a loud boom followed by headlights came from your right through the thick forest, running over spiders on its way.
You immediately recognized the vehicle, it was the car in which Ron, Fred, and George had rescued you and Harry in! The car Harry had told you him and Ron had taken to school that year, then crashed into the womping willow.
"The car!!" You screamed from joy as the doors opened, and the spiders had backed off just enough by then for the four of you to rush in. However, you unknowingly landed yourself into the drivers seat. It was too late to switch, as the spiders started surrounding the car again.
"I-What do I...What do I do?! How do I?!" You panicked, looking back at Ron who was grabbing onto Fang for dear life in the backseat.
"That right there!" Ron yelled, pointing to a gear stick, "Reverse then stomp on the gas, now!!"
You wasted no time following his instructions, throwing the car into reverse, looking back over your shoulder and stomping on the gas pedal.
You began hastily making your way out of the spider den, and once the spiders left your vision completely you easily let off of the gas, looking around at everyone.
"Glad we're out of there.." Ron said, almost happily, and right at that moment you felt something slimy grab ahold of your face, and it took you less than a second to realize what it was, but Harry was quick, shooting out a spell you didn't quite recognize, sending the spider flying backwards, completely off of you, somewhere deep and far into the forest.
"T-Thanks for that!" You said, shaking like crazy, you weren't even completely sure of what just happened, it all happened so quickly, this whole night has felt like it was some sort of dream, and not it a good way. Although, you didn't have time to think on it as it was made apparent that more spiders were making their way over the hill, heading for you yet again.
"Y/n get out us out of here!" Harry exclaimed, "The same thing ok?"
You nodded quickly wasting no time stepping on the gas, reversing through the forest yet again, you tried your best to tune out the boys screams as you yanked the wheel left, causing the car to drift so that the front was facing the direction that led out of the forest now rather than the back, putting the car into drive you slammed on the gas the same as before, maybe even harder as the car began dragging itself forward, away from the hungry spiders.
"Y/n, push the gear stick all the way up!" Ron yelled from the back, "Trust me ok?!"
Without a second thought you listened, shifting the car into some unknown gear, until it became very known as the car began lifting off of the ground.
"We...we're flying!" You said, utterly amazed, almost forgetting everything that happened prior to that.
But of course, the peace didn't last long, because as you made your way out of the forest the car started going down back towards the ground on its own, and once it landed it opened its doors, almost as if it it saying it was tired of you three, and so you took the hint and got out, shutting the door behind you before the car began driving off on its own, back into the forest again.
"Follow the spiders, follow the spiders!" Ron began, "If Hagrid ever gets out of Azkaban ill kill him!"
You chose to ignore this conversation, having enough of it tonight, leading fang back inside of Hagrids home, settling him in, but the boys chose to follow you in of course.
"Look, it wasn't pointless," Harry said, plopping down on Hagrid's couch, "We know now that Hagrid never opened the chamber of secrets, he was innocent."
"Yeah we also know that i'm one hell of a driver," You joked, looking between the two boys, "What? Not the time?"
"We just almost died." Harry said.
"But we didn't," You replied, "And we came out knowing more than we did when we went in, so yeah it was terrifying but i'm gonna ignore all that for now and say that it was a good thing. So, does anyone know where Fang's food is?"
The two boys looked between each other, ghost of a smile on their faces, and they couldn't help the laughter that flowed past their lips as they helped you look for the food to feed the pup.
Later that night however, when you got back into your dorm, you truly, finally had time to think.
Pansy was knocked out when you got there, although you could tell she tried her best to stay awake by the way she clung desperately to a wrist watch you recognized to belong to Blaise. He must've given it to her so she could watch the time till you got back, seemed like something Blaise would do, it was obvious he had a little crush on her.
You unlaced your shoes and began changing into your pajamas, and as you were you caught a glimpse of yourself in your mirror.
You had a scratch mark and bruise along the side of your face from where the spider had grabbed you. At the time you hadn't even noticed it had grabbed you that hard, but of course you didn't, your adrenaline was through the roof. You inspected it for a moment, wanting to just shrug it off for the night, care for it tomorrow, but you knew you probably shouldn't do that, and so you walked over to pansy's dresser and grabbed the fancy glass of water she used to clean her face and the fresh face cleansing pads that came along with it, taking the items over to your own dresser for a moment. You carefully unscrewed the knob of the antique glass, dabbing some of the water onto one of the pads before lifting it up to your face, first cleaning the cut, then running it along the rest of your face to rid it of the dirt. Looking at yourself after, you already felt better.
You carefully set the items back on her dresser, throwing the used cleansing pad into the trash.
You climbed into bed, covering yourself with your comfy blankets, and right about when you would've usually fell asleep, you found yourself deep in thought.
You had to put on a brave face for your brother and Ron, well you didn't have to, but you wanted to. Not wanting them to worry, but in all actuality you were terrified by the whole situation. Hagrid was wrongfully accused and in Azkaban, Dumbledore had been suspended, you were almost killed by spiders, you had to get you three out of the forest in a car, which you've never even driven, and although everything did end up being successful, just like you said, it was still scary.
Really scary.
And you had a feeling it was only about to get worse.