It was a 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 tailed away hopefully.
Estella shot him a disbelieving look.
They reached Hagrid's 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 fudge from a tin on the mantelpiece, which glued his teeth together.
Estella could almost picture her parents' horrified looks. Which reminds me...I need to write to them soon.
Harry left the Invisibility Cloak on Hagrid's table. There would be no need for it in the pitch-dark Forest.
"C'mon, Fang, we're going for a walk," said Harry, patting his leg.
Estella frowned. "Are you sure it's safe? I mean," she added quickly at the look on Ron's face, "for Fang. Should he really be going in there?"
"It should be fine," Harry's brow furrowed. "He came with us last year during our detention with Malfoy."
Estella exhaled a long breath, then nodded.
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.
Almost in sync, Harry and Estella pulled out their wands and murmured, "Lumos!"
Two tiny lights appeared like stars in the vast darkness.
"Good thinking," said Ron. "I'd light mine too, but you know- it'd probably blow up or something..."
Estella couldn't help her smile. "Why don't you ask your mum for a new one?" she inquired.
"So she can skin me alive?" Ron snorted. "Ronald Weasley," he said in a false falsetto pitch, "It's your own fault your wand broke- stealing the car. If you put another toe out of line-!"
Estella muffled her laugh with her hand.
Harry tapped Estella and Ron on the shoulder, pointing at the grass.
She blinked and looked in the direction of his wand. Two solitary spiders were hurrying away from the wandlight into the shade of the trees.
"Ok," Ron sighed, as though resigned to the worst, "I'm ready. Let's go."
So, with Fang scampering around them, sniffing tree roots and leaves, they entered the Forest.
By the glow of Harry and Estella's wands, they followed the steady trickle of spiders moving along the path. They walked 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 the pinpricks of light shone alone in a sea of dark, they saw their spider guides leaving the path.
Estella paused, trying to gauge where the spiders were going from the minuscule gleam of their bodies. It was to no avail, however, and she was resigned to staring at the two boys' eyes reflected in the light from her wand.
"What d'you reckon?" Harry said to the dark.
"We've come this far," said Ron.
Estella nodded, then remembered they couldn't see her. "Let's keep going." Her voice sounded feeble and dull in the din and she could feel herself trembling slightly.
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.
More than once, they had to stop, so that they could crouch down and attempt to relocate the spiders again.
They walked for what seemed like at least half an hour, their robes snagging on low-slung branches and brambles.
It was during this tiresome trip that Estella lamented the warmth and comfort of her bed. The only that kept her going was the thought of Hermione and the slow footsteps on either side of her.
Maybe I should really exercise more, she thought ruefully. With all the running around after these boys and the climbing to every class...
After a while, they noticed that the ground seemed to be sloping downwards, though the trees were as thick as ever.
Then Fang suddenly let loose a great, echoing bark, making Estella jump out of her skin. A cry escaped her lips and she stumbled on the mulch underfoot.
Her hands reached out around her for something to grab onto. A hand wrapped around her arm and pulled her upright into someone's chest.
Harry, she realised.
"What?" said Ron loudly, looking around into the pitch dark.
"There's something moving over there," Harry breathed. "Listen... Sounds like something big."
They listened, Estella's heart racing. 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-"
Estella forced her eyes to remain open. You'll be no use if you can't even see what's coming, she told herself, though, really, it was impossible to see much further than their small ring of light.
"Shut up," said Harry frantically. "It'll hear you."
"Hear me?" said Ron in an unnaturally high voice. "It's already heard Fang!"
And me. Oh, why did I have to yell in the middle of this creepy, dark forest? Estella groaned internally. What if I ruined everything?
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.
"Comforting," Estella half-joked in an attempt to stop her legs from shaking.
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 both 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!" Ron shouted, his voice breaking with relief. "Harry, it's our car!"
"What?"
He's gone insane, Estella thought, clutching her heart.
In the unexpected light, she comprehended her hand on Harry's chest and his hand on her arm.
She stumbled back quickly, clearing her throat.
"Come on!" Ron cried.
"Ron? Ron! Where are you going?" Estella shouted.
She and Harry blundered after Ron towards the light, stumbling and tripping, and a moment later they had emerged into a clearing.
A car was standing, empty in the middle of a circle of thick trees under a roof of dense branches, its headlamps ablaze. Bizarrely, it had wings.
As Ron walked, open-mouthed, towards it, it moved slowly towards him, exactly like a large, turquoise dog greeting its owner.
"It's been here all this time!" said Ron delightedly, walking around the car. "Look at it. The Forest's turned it wild..."
The wings of the car were scratched and smeared with mud.
"What the..." Estella murmured, stepping closer. She didn't know much about cars but she guessed it was a Ford Anglia.
"And we thought it was going to attack us!" said Ron, leaning against the car and patting it. "I wondered where it had gone!"
"Hold- hold on," Estella stammered, puzzle pieces rearranging themselves in her mind like notes on a stave, "Is this- is this the car? The one you flew on the first day of school?"
"Yes," Ron laughed gleefully.
Ok, this isn't strange at all. It's Hogwarts, anything can happen. A laugh burst from her throat.
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.
Estella was mid-turning around when there was a loud clicking noise and suddenly she felt something long and hairy seize her around the middle and lift her off the ground so that she was hanging, face down.
"What the-!" she yelled in alarm. "Put me down this instant!"
She heard more clicking and saw Ron's legs leave the ground too. She could feel Harry beside her.
Fang whimpered and howled and the next moment he was being swept away into the dark trees.
Head hanging, Etella caught sight of what had hold of her. It was six immensely long, hairy legs, the front two clutching her tightly below a pair of shining black pincers.
Fear engulfed her senses and she stiffened. What. Is. That. But she knew, as much as she wanted to deny it.
Behind her, she could hear another of the creatures, no doubt carrying Ron.
They were moving into the very heart of the Forest.
Estella could hear Fang fighting to free himself from a third monster, whining loudly, but Estella couldn't speak anymore. She seemed to have lost her voice back with the car in the clearing.
She never knew how long she was in the creature's clutches; she only knew that the darkness suddenly lifted enough for her to see that the leaf-strewn ground was now swarming with spiders.
Craning her neck sideways, she realised that they had reached the rim of a vast hollow, a hollow which had been cleared of trees so that the stars shone brightly onto the worst scene she had ever laid her eyes on.
She had been right, though her revelation was the opposite of comforting.
Spiders. Not tiny spiders like the two they had followed into the depths of the Forest. Spiders the size of carthorses, eight-eyed, eight-legged, black, hairy, gigantic.
The massive specimen that was carrying Estella made its way down the steep slope, towards a misty domed web in the very centre of the hollow, while its fellows closed in all around it, clicking their pincers excitedly at the sight of its load.
Estella fell to the ground on all fours as the spider released her. Her friends and Fang thudded down next to her. Fang wasn't howling anymore, but cowering silently on the spot.
Ron looked exactly like Estella felt. His mouth was stretched wide in a kind of silent scream and his eyes were popping.
Estella suddenly realised that the spider which had dropped her 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 grey 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.
"Humans," 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 Estella.
"Kill them," clicked Aragog fretfully. "I was sleeping..."
Estella shuffled closer to the others in alarm. No, I can't- Hermione-
"We're friends of Hagrid's," Harry shouted. Estella's eyes were wide as she watched the horror scene. This was straight from a nightmare.
Click, click, click went the pincers of the spiders all around the hollow.
Estella wished they wouldn't. Her heart was pounding hard enough as it was.
Aragog paused.
"Hagrid has never sent humans into our hollow before," he said slowly.
Estella wanted to speak but her mouth was dry.
"Hagrid's in trouble," said Harry, breathing very fast. "That's why we've come."
"In trouble?" said the aged spider, and Estella thought she heard concern beneath the clicking pincers. Surely not... "But why has he sent you?"
Estella swallowed, mustering all the courage she could given her situation. "They think," she started, breathing deeply, "they think up at the school that Hagrid's been setting something on students. They've- 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 Estella feel sick with fear.
Applause was joy and congratulations. Applause was Hermione's. Hermione's every award assembly, Hermione's every time they received their test scores.
Seriously Estella? This is not the time for some self-pity, she scolded herself.
"But that was years ago," said Aragog cautiously. "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?" said Harry. Estella shook her head frantically.
"I!" said Aragog, clicking angrily. "I was not born in the castle. I come 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 found me a wife, Mosag, and you see how our family has grown, all through Hagrid's goodness..."
"How wonderful," Estella said in a strained voice though she felt the opposite.
Harry seemed to be trying to summon his courage. "So you never- never attacked anyone?"
"Never," croaked the old spider. "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. Our kind like the dark and the quiet..."
Like this creepy forest, Estella thought forlornly.
"But then... Do you know what did kill that girl?" said Harry. "Because whatever it is, it's 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 them.
"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 Hagrid urgently.
"Harry," Estella pleaded in a whisper. "Please don't."
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."
Estella prayed Harry wouldn't press the subject, not with the spiders pressing closer with every word.
Aragog seemed to be tired of talking. He was backing slowly into his domed web, but his fellow spiders continued to inch slowly towards Harry, Estella and Ron.
"We'll just go then," Harry called desperately to Aragog.
But Estella saw the truth in the old spider's withered retreat.
"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. Goodbye, friends of Hagrid."
"Please," Estella pleaded. "Hagrid wouldn't want us to be eaten! He wouldn't be happy if we died at all!"
Aragog tilted his many-eyed head. "You said yourself: he is not here. He needn't know."
Estella stared at him in horror.
"Stella!" Harry called anxiously.
She spun around. Feet away, towering above them, was a solid wall of spiders, clicking, their many eyes gleaming in their ugly black heads.
Even as she reached for her wand, Estella knew it was no good, there were too many of them, but as she tried to stand, ready to fight beside her friends, a loud, long note sounded, and a blaze of light flamed through the hollow.
Mr Weasley's car was thundering down the slope, headlamps 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 the three of them and the doors flew open.
"Get Fang!" Harry yelled, diving into the front seat; Ron seized the boarhound round the middle and threw him, yelping, into the back of the car. Estella lept after him and Ron ran into the passenger seat.
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.
They smashed their way through the undergrowth, Fang howling loudly beside Estella.
She saw the wing mirror snap off as they squeezed past a large oak. After ten noisy, rocky minutes, the trees thinned, and Estella could again see patches of sky.
The car stopped so suddenly that they were thrown forward. They had reached the edge of the Forest.
Fang flung himself at the window in his anxiety to get out. Estella opened the door hurriedly and he shot off through the trees to Hagrid's house, tail between his legs.
For a moment, Estella just stared the the back of the front seats as her heart slowed down.
Harry stepped in front of her open door and held out his hand. She took it gratefully, ignoring the tingle up her spine at his touch.
"Are you ok?"
She laughed though she didn't know why. She supposed it was relief. "I should be asking you that. Talking to Aragog like that- you must be insane." She poked his shoulder playfully, fighting the urge to lie down on the ground and never get up. "I thought I told you not to get in trouble again! Running towards the danger..." she shook her head.
He grinned. "Aw come on Stella. I did say I wasn't promising anything." He flung an arm around her shoulder. "Besides, you came with us, didn't you? I'd say you're quite the risk-taker yourself."
She rolled her eyes, though a smile sat resolutely upon her face. "Then I suppose I'm just as insane."
"That's the spirit."
After a minute or so, Ron got out of the car and the three of them stared as the car reversed back into the Forest and disappeared from view.
Harry went into Hagrid's cabin to get the Invisibility Cloak and Estella followed him. Fang was trembling under a blanket in his basket.
Estella wrapped her arms around his neck and patted his head. "It's alright," she said soothingly, pressing her lips to his fur. "Here." She placed a plate of food in front of him and stood back up, rejoining Harry.
He smiled at her, the cloak wrapped in his arms.
When they got outside again, they found Ron being violently sick in the pumpkin patch.
"Follow the spiders," said Ron weakly, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "I'll never forgive Hagrid. We're lucky to be alive."
"I bet he thought Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his," said Harry.
"Thought wrong, didn't he," Estella commented.
"That's exactly Hagrid's problem!" said Ron, thumping the wall of the cabin. "He always thinks monsters aren't as bad as they're made out, and look where it's 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, I'd like to know?"
"That Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets," said Harry, throwing the cloak over Ron and Estella.
Estella nodded. "He was innocent. Like I thought," she couldn't help adding.
Ron gave a loud snort. Evidently, hatching Aragog out in a cupboard wasn't 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.
"Thank goodness," Estella sighed. She had a strong desire to flop down on one of the armchairs and stay there forever. She rubbed her eyes.
"We better get to bed," Harry said, sweeping his hair out of his eyes.
She nodded and before she could back out of it, stepped closer and gave him a hug.
She then gave a hurried one to Ron too.
Stepping back she smiled. "Night guys. Sweet dreams." I know what mine will be about. She pictured hairy legs and silky webs and shuddered.
"You too," Harry returned.
Ron smiled feebly. He still looked rather sick.
She gave one last smile and retreated back to her dormitory, the events of the night racing endlessly through her head.
She only hoped her imagination would take pity on her.