BAD OMENS
009. FOLLOW THE SPIDERS
chamber of secrets, year three
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AN: I'm in love with my Mary Ollivander.
☾
BACK HOME, Lucy had a very difficult time focusing on anything other than Cedric Diggory. She wanted to pay attention as Mason described what he had been doing in Florida, but all she could do was imagine what he was doing for Christmas.
She had only shared the news of her first kiss with three people: Mary, who was almost jumping up and down with excitement; Helena, who muttered "Took him long enough," and Caroline who was yelling, "OH MY GOD!" With her eyes comically widened. "I'm so jealous of you!"
Lucy chuckled. "I can't wait for you to meet him, Care."
"Is he cute? Do you have any pictures?"
Truth be told, even though Caroline was indeed very jealous, she was welcoming the distraction. Having Lucy home was always amazing, but this time, with her parents getting divorced and her father running off to live with another man, it was almost a blessing.
"What are you talking about?" Tyler asked, joining the two of them at the Mystic Grill.
"Nothing," they said at the same time.
The boy scowled. "You are horrible liars."
But while she felt like a normal girl with Caroline — talking about boys and first kisses — back home, Mason and Moony were worried. And seeing the two of them concerned made Lucy realize the severity of what was happening in Hogwarts.
"What is the headmaster doing about these attacks?" Mason asked over hot cocoa.
"Nothing that he has shared with the students," Lucy replied. "But we think we know who did it," she said and proceeded to blurt out their theory. She explained the entire Dobby ordeal and how they thought Malfoy was responsible.
Moony shook his head, "It couldn't have been Lucius who opened it for the first time. He was in Hogwarts a few years before me and there were no attacks."
Fidgeting, Lucy said, "People think Harry is the heir."
"What?!" Moony jumped out of the chair. "Why?"
"Harry is a parselmouth," she practically whispered, fearing Moony's reaction. Surely enough, he seemed to have forgotten how to breathe as she quickly explained the significance of it to her dad.
When Moony somewhat recovered from the shock, he said, "Neither of his parents spoke parseltongue. This makes no sense."
Lucy, eager to change the subject so that Moony didn't have a brain aneurysm, said, "Did you know Lockhart was Dumbledore's only option for the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts?"
It worked. Moony snorted, "Bet Snape is having the time of his life with him."
Lucy told them all about the dueling club. Moony laughed, saying, "I would have paid to see that."
She then told them about her grades, and when she said that Snape was warming up to her and his "acceptable," Moony said, "If the Diggory boy manages to get Snape to stop tormenting you, I will send him a lifetime supply of Chocolate Frogs."
Lucy was dancing around the subject of Cedric all night. She didn't want to tell her dad that she had told someone his secret, but she felt like she owed it to him. When she finally did, instead of being mad, the only thing he said was, "Have you told anybody else?"
She shook her head.
"You should tell your friends. They won't care who I am, just that you trusted them enough to share this with them," Mason said.
Lucy hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Dad."
He kissed her forehead, "I love you."
"I love you more," she replied.
☾
WHEN THEY GOT back from Christmas break, Lucy and Mary could hardly believe it as Helena and the twins told them Hermione was in the hospital wing looking like a cat — fur, tail, whiskers and all. There was a flurry of rumors about her disappearance when the rest of the school arrived, because, of course, everyone thought that she had been attacked. So many students filed past the hospital wing trying to catch a glimpse of her that Madam Pomfrey took out her curtains again and placed them around Hermione's bed, to spare her the shame of being seen with a furry face.
The truly shocking thing was that Hermione — a second-year student — did a Polyjuice Potion almost perfectly. And also, according to Harry and Ron, it absolutely was not Malfoy who opened the chamber.
A few days after the break, when the five of them were sitting by the lake, Lucy decided to tell them the truth, "My father is a werewolf."
Four pairs of surprised eyes found her.
Finally, Helena spoke, "We know."
"Excuse me?" Lucy asked, shocked by the revelation.
"He is clearly not a Muggle," Fred said. "For the last three years, you get nervous whenever the full moon got close, barely remembering to eat."
"Plus, you live in Mystic Falls, Lucy," Mary said. "It wasn't too hard to connect the dots. It took one look in the library to see the Lockwoods listed as werewolves under the 18th-century registry."
"We also know about Mr. Lupin," George continued. "After we figured out about Mason, it was kind of easy to add up the pieces. Plus, Moony isn't exactly a discrete nickname, is it?"
Lucy was speechless.
"And just to be clear, we don't care," Helena said. "We are just happy that you trusted us enough to share it with us."
"How- How long have you known?" Lucy asked.
"Since Professor Binns' assignment on wizarding communities in America. After we read that chapter on Mystic Falls, Mary put the pieces together and we found the registry," George replied.
"And you truly don't care?"
They all shook their heads. "Not at all."
Lucy, who was now crying, moved to hug Helena, who was closest to her. Soon, she was engulfed in four pairs of arms.
☾
HERMIONE left the hospital wing, de-whiskered, tail-less, and fur-free, at the beginning of February.
The sun had now begun to shine weakly on Hogwarts again. Inside the castle, the mood had grown more hopeful. There had been no more attacks since those on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick. Perhaps the Heir of Slytherin had lost their nerve. It must be getting riskier and riskier to open the Chamber of Secrets, with the school so alert and suspicious. Perhaps the monster, whatever it was, was even now settling itself down to hibernate for another fifty years. But even after the attacks seized, people still suspected Harry.
Peeves wasn't exactly helping in that matter. He kept popping up in the crowded corridors singing, "Oh, Potter, you rotter," now with a dance routine to match — whenever Fred and George would spot this amazing performance, they acted like they had just won the lottery.
On February 14, Lockhart decorated the walls of the Great Hall with large, lurid pink flowers. Worse still, heart-shaped confetti was falling from the pale blue ceiling. Lucy went over to the Gryffindor table, where Helena was sitting looking sickened, and Mary seemed to have been overcome with giggles.
"What's going on?" Lucy asked them, sitting down and wiping the confetti of her pancake.
Helena pointed to the teachers' table, apparently too disgusted to speak. Lockhart, wearing pink robes to match the decorations, was waving for silence. "Happy Valentine's Day!" He shouted. "And may I thank the forty-six people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all — and it doesn't end here!"
Lockhart clapped his hands and through the doors to the entrance hall marched a dozen surly-looking dwarfs. Not just any dwarfs, however. Lockhart had them all wearing golden wings and carrying harps.
"My friendly, card-carrying cupids!" beamed Lockhart. "They will be roving around the school today delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion? And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've ever met, the sly old dog!"
Professor Flitwick buried his face in his hands. Snape was looking as though the first person to ask him for a Love Potion would be force-fed poison.
All day long, the dwarfs kept barging into classes to deliver valentines, to the annoyance of the teachers. And late in the afternoon, one of the dwarfs caught up with Lucy.
"Oy, you! 'Arry Lockwood!" shouted a particularly grim-looking dwarf, elbowing people out of the way to get to her.
Hot all over at the thought of being given a valentine in front of a line of first years, Lucy tried to escape. The dwarf, however, cut his way through the crowd by kicking people's shins and reached her before she'd gone two paces. "I've got a musical message to deliver in person," he said, twanging his harp in a threatening sort of way. "Here is your singing valentine: So pretty she is that girl Lucy. But she is choosey and it makes my heart all bruisy, and me all bluesy."
She thanked the dwarf and headed to class. When she spotted the twins, she smacked them, saying, "Choosey, bruisy, and bluesy? You need to work on your rhymes."
"I dare you to make a good one," Fred said.
She snorted, "Easy! Roses are red, violets are blue. Lucy is so awesome it's just like voodoo."
Lucy waited for a sign of defeat on the twins' part, but all she got was, "That was horrible," from Helena.
Lucy's true Valentine's gift, came, however, in the form of an enchanted note that flew into her, folded into a small airplane. It read, "Will you be my Valentine?"
At the end of the afternoon, at their usual spot by their lake for Potion's tutoring, Cedric said, "You never gave me an answer."
Lucy smiled at him. Instead of replying, she kissed him.
And the only coherent thought Cedric could muster at the time was that he would love to spend the rest of his life kissing her.
☾
GRYFFINDOR'S next Quidditch match would be against Hufflepuff. Wood was insisting on team practices every night after dinner, so the twins barely had time for anything but Quidditch and homework. However, the training sessions were getting better, or at least drier, and the amount of complaining had significantly diminished.
They woke the next day to brilliant sunshine and a light, refreshing breeze.
"Perfect Quidditch conditions!" said Wood enthusiastically at the Gryffindor table, loading the team's plates with scrambled eggs. "Boys, buck up there, you need a decent breakfast."
George grumbled something about Wood turning into a dictator but added more bacon to his plate nonetheless.
At eleven, the teams walked onto the field to tumultuous applause. Oliver Wood took off for a warm-up flight around the goalposts; Madam Hooch released the balls. The Hufflepuffs, who played in canary yellow, were standing in a huddle, having a last-minute discussion of tactics.
Cedric looked up, spotted Lucy in the bleachers, and winked.
Lucy was starting to hate that wink.
That perfectly charming, sexy wink, that made her competitiveness melt away and her brain stop functioning.
He was just mounting his broom when Professor McGonagall came half marching, half running across the pitch, carrying an enormous purple megaphone. "This match has been canceled," She called through the megaphone, addressing the packed stadium. "All students are to make their way back to the House common rooms, where their Heads of Houses will give them further information. As quickly as you can, please!"
Then she lowered the megaphone and Lucy knew something was seriously wrong.
"I think there has been another attack," Helena muttered as they got off the bleachers.
When they got to Gryffindor Tower, they learned that Hermione Granger and a Ravenclaw prefect had been petrified.
The Gryffindors packed inside the common room and listened to Professor McGonagall in silence, "All students will return to their House common rooms by six o'clock in the evening. No student is to leave the dormitories after that time. You will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No student is to use the bathroom unaccompanied by a teacher. All further Quidditch training and matches are to be postponed. There will be no more evening activities."
She rolled up the parchment from which she had been reading and said in a somewhat choked voice, "I need hardly add that I have rarely been so distressed. The school will likely be closed unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught. I would urge anyone who thinks they might know anything about them to come forward."
She climbed somewhat awkwardly out of the portrait hole, and the Gryffindors began talking immediately.
"That's two Gryffindors down, not counting a Gryffindor ghost, one Ravenclaw, and one Hufflepuff," said Lee Jordan, counting on his fingers. "Haven't any of the teachers noticed that the Slytherins are all safe? Isn't it obvious all this stuff's coming from Slytherin? The Heir of Slytherin, the monster of Slytherin — why don't they just chuck all the Slytherins out?"
Percy Weasley was sitting in a chair behind Lee, but for once he didn't seem keen to make his views heard. He was looking pale and stunned.
"Percy's in shock," George told Lucy quietly. "That Ravenclaw girl — Penelope Clearwater — she's a prefect. I don't think he thought the monster would dare attack a prefect."
☾
WHEN Harry and Ron told them what they had seen at Hagrid's house, they all dismissed it as their idea of a bad joke. It wasn't until Lucy saw that Harry was upset did she understood that they were serious. The governors of Hogwarts had decided to suspend Dumbledore and the Ministry accused Hagrid of opening the chamber.
"Apparently, he has a record," Ron said.
"Of what?" Fred replied. "Hiding pixies in his dorm?"
"Well, there's gotta be a reason why Hagrid's wand was snapped," Helena pointed out.
"Whatever it was, I don't buy it for a second that it was Hagrid who opened the chamber," Mary added.
"Dumbledore's suspension will cause a riot," George pointed out.
"Not as big as you think," Lucy muttered. "People blame him for failing to stop the attacks."
"Hagrid also said, and I quote 'if anyone wanted to find out some stuff, all they'd have to do would be to follow the spiders' and that somebody had to feed Fang while he was away," Ron said. "I just hope—"
But before Ron could continue, Oliver sprang from Lucy's lap, right at Ron's chest.
"GET — HIM — OUT — OF — HERE!" Ron bellowed as Oliver's claws ripped his pajamas and Scabbers attempted a wild escape over his shoulder. Ron seized Scabbers by the tail and aimed a misjudged kick at Oliver that hit the fireplace, knocking it over and causing Ron to hop up and down, howling with pain.
Lucy got a hissing Oliver away from Scabbers.
"You'd better take that monster out of here!" Ron said furiously, sitting on the couch nursing his toe.
Mary, desperate to do something to help and change the subject, said, "I'll talk to Professor McGonagall. See if I can bring Fang to live with us at least for a little while."
"We're in trouble now," Harry said hoarsely. "Without Dumbledore, they might as well close the school tonight. There'll be an attack a day with him gone."
Nobody could argue with his logic.
The five of them had tried to visit Hermione, but visitors were now barred from the hospital wing. "We're taking no more chances," Madam Pomfrey told them severely through a crack in the infirmary door. "I'm sorry, but there's every chance the attacker might come back to finish these people off."
With 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 didn't look worried and tense, and any laughter that rang through the corridors sounded shrill and unnatural and was quickly stifled.
The only place where they could still see joy was at Gryffindor's Tower. Their new occupant, Fang, made everyone smile with his goofy drooly face. They took turns as to who would walk the hound, and whenever he saw his old home, he would instantly whine and pull in that direction.
The Gryffindor common room was always very crowded these days because from six o'clock onward they had nowhere else to go. That night, Fred and George challenged Harry and Ron to a few games of Exploding Snap, while the girls finished their homework. It was well past midnight when Fred, George, and Ginny finally went to bed.
At one a.m., Mary woke up, wondering why the hell Fang wasn't with her in bed. She went to the Common Room and when she noticed he wasn't there either, she panicked. The girl woke both Helena and Lucy up, and they woke Fred and George, thinking they might have done something with the hound. "What did you do with Fang?" Mary hissed.
Blinking away the sleepiness, George sat up, "Nothing, I swear!"
Helena, who had disappeared a few moments earlier, said, "Harry and Ron are not in their beds. They must have taken Fang."
The five of them waited in the Common Room, too distressed to go back to sleep. "What if they went after the monster?" Lucy asked at some point. "What if they are dead and we are here just sitting on our hands, waiting?"
"What do you suggest we do?" Helena asked. "Go after it ourselves?"
When the boys entered the Common Room three hours later, their robes were in shreds. Ron was in shock, and Harry had a nasty wound on his hand. Fang flung himself at Mary, almost knocking her down. He was shivering, and Helena immediately got him a blanket while Mary held him like a baby. Once Fang was properly snugged in, Mary growled, "Explain. Now."
Resigned, Harry told them everything, while Ron was unable to speak.
He told them that they followed the spiders to the Dark Forest with Fang — to which Mary scolded them for a significant amount of time saying, "If you want to get yourselves killed fine by me, but don't drag innocent animals into your suicide missions."
How they met a colony of gigantic, human-eating spiders, who knew how to talk — which made Lucy shiver and the twins green with envy. How their leader, who was the size of an elephant (Lucy thought she might faint if she saw it with her own eyes) had been raised by Hagrid until he got too big and dismissed as Slytherin's monster, which was why Hagrid was expelled. How his children had attacked the boys and Fang — Ron had started shivering uncontrollably at this point of the story and Lucy ran up to get him her weighted blanket.
"Follow the spiders," Ron finally said, weakly. "I'll never forgive Hagrid. We're lucky to be alive."
"I bet he thought the spider wouldn't hurt friends of his," said Mary.
"That's exactly Hagrid's problem!" Ron replied. "He always thinks monsters aren't as bad as they're made out of, and look where it's got him! A cell in Azkaban! 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. "He was innocent."
Ron gave a loud snort. Evidently, hatching the giant spider in a cupboard wasn't his idea of being innocent.
Lucy told them to go to sleep, saying she would take them to Madam Pomfrey in the morning. Helena and Mary slept quite easily — Fang nestled in her bed. But Lucy didn't feel very sleepy. With Oliver on top of her belly, she kept thinking about how Harry had said the monster was the creature the spiders feared the most. What could a spider of the size of an elephant fear?
The next morning, something happened in their first lesson, Transfiguration, that drove the Chamber of Secrets out of their minds for the first time in weeks. Ten minutes into the class, Professor McGonagall told them that their exams would start on the first of June, one week from today.
"Exams?" howled George Weasley. "We're still getting exams?"
There was a loud bang behind Lucy as Fred's wand slipped, vanishing one of the legs on his desk. Professor McGonagall restored it with a wave of her own wand, and turned, frowning, to George. "The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education," she said sternly. "The exams will therefore take place as usual, and I trust you are all studying hard."
There was a great deal of mutinous muttering around the room, which made Professor McGonagall scowl even more darkly. "Professor Dumbledore's instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible," she said. "And that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year."
Later that day, after Potions, echoing through the corridors came Professor McGonagall's voice, magically magnified, "All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staffroom. Immediately, please."
Lucy stared at her friends, "Another attack?"
At Gryffindor's Tower, McGonagall told them what had happened — Ginny Weasley had been taken by the monster right into the Chamber itself.
Lucy clapped her hands over her mouth. Helena gripped the back of a chair as if trying to regain her balance. Mary started crying while Fred and George, at once, fell onto the couch.
"The school will be closing down. The Hogwarts Express will take you home first thing tomorrow."
Harry, the three girls, Ron, Fred, and George sat together in a corner of the Gryffindor common room, unable to say anything to each other. Percy wasn't there. He had gone to send an owl to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, then shut himself up in his dormitory.
No afternoon ever lasted as long as that one, nor had Gryffindor Tower ever been so crowded, yet so quiet. Near sunset, Fred and George went up to bed, unable to sit there any longer.
Unbeknownst to Lucy, Harry and Ron had sneaked out of the Common Room, ready to face the Heir of Slytherin themselves.
☾
LUCY had been to several Hogwarts feasts, but never one quite like this. Everybody was in their pajamas, and the celebration lasted all night. When Harry and Ron walked in, the five of them pulled them in a hug, saying, "You did it! You saved Ginny!"
Hermione — just released from the hospital wing — ran towards them, screaming "You solved it! You solved it!" Hagrid turned up at half past three, cuffing Harry and Ron so hard on the shoulders that they were knocked into their plates of trifle. He hugged Mary tightly, crying, thanking her for taking care of Fang.
And with the Harry and Ron's four hundred points for Gryffindor, they had secured the House Cup for the second year running. At some point, Professor McGonagall stood up to tell them all that the exams had been canceled as a school treat.
Dumbledore — who had been reinstated — announced that, unfortunately, Professor Lockhart would be unable to return next year, since he needed to go away and try to get his memory back. Quite a few of the teachers joined in the cheering that greeted this news.
"Shame," said Fred, helping himself to a jam doughnut. "He was starting to grow on me."
Helena held back tears as Harry told her that he had freed Dobby, and she hugged him tightly, whispering, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
The rest of the final term passed in a haze of blazing sunshine. Hogwarts was back to normal with only a few, small differences — Defense Against the Dark Arts classes were canceled and Lucius Malfoy had been sacked as a school governor. Draco was no longer strutting around the school as though he owned the place. On the contrary, he looked resentful and sulky. On the other hand, Ginny Weasley was perfectly happy again.
Too soon, it was time for the journey home on the Hogwarts Express. The five friends got a compartment to themselves. They made the most of the last few hours in which they were allowed to do magic before the holidays. They played Exploding Snap, set off the very last of Fred and George's Filibuster fireworks, and practiced disarming each other with magic.
But the best part was when Ginny walked in, giggling, and said, "Percy's got a girlfriend."
Fred dropped a stack of books on George's head. "What?"
George was too shocked to complain.
"It's that Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater," said Ginny. "That's who he was writing to all last summer. He's been meeting her all over the school in secret. I walked in on them kissing in an empty classroom one day. He was so upset when she was — you know — attacked. You won't tease him, will you?" she added anxiously.
"Wouldn't dream of it," said Fred, who was looking like his birthday had come early.
"Definitely not," said George, sniggering.
The Hogwarts Express slowed and finally stopped. Lucy pulled out her quill and a bit of parchment and gave the same piece to each of her friends.
"This is called a telephone number," she told them. "Harry told Mr. Weasley how to use a telephone last summer — he'll know. Your dad's girlfriend is a Muggle, so she can help you," Lucy said to Mary. She then turned to Helena and added, "And your aunt has a friend who works with Muggles. Ask for help. I won't stand an entire summer without talking to you."
At the platform, Lucy stopped Cedric and handed him her number. "Hope you've paid attention to Muggle studies," she winked as she ran off to find Harry.
She found the boy and gave him the same piece of parchment. "If you need anything, if the Dursleys mistreat or you just need to talk to someone, call me."
He smiled and thanked her profusely. She grabbed Harry's hand and brought him straight to Moony. "Harry, I would like for you to meet my godfather, Remus Lupin."
They shook hands, and Harry could see his teary eyes. "Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Lupin."
"The pleasure is all mine," Moony said. "Lucy said you wanted to talk to me about your parents, right?"
Harry nodded eagerly, "Maybe we could schedule something over the summer?"
Lucy smiled. She had received his letter a week before, and she was dying to share the news with someone. She turned to Harry and said, "I don't think it will be necessary." Harry's face fell, and she quickly added, "You will have plenty of time to talk over the school year. He will be our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."