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Chapter Sixteen: Aragog

(Before I start I would just like to thank @CHT64 and everyone else that pitched ideas when I asked for help with this chapter, it really helped me brainstorm and think outside the box. I hope you all enjoy.)

Summer was creeping over the grounds around the castle; the sky and lake had 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 didn’t look right to Harry; no better, in fact, than the inside of the castle, where things were so horribly wrong.

Harry had tried to visit Terence, but visitors were now barred from the hospital wing.

‘We’re taking no more chances,’ Madam Pomfrey told him severely through a crack in the hospital door. ‘No, I’m sorry, 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 never make it those who studied inside of them. 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.

At first when Dumbledore had left Harry had continued to review Magick Moste Evile in case he needed to defend himself against the monster, but a rumour had started that suspicious students had their possession examined and if someone found him with that book he would instantly be expelled. He ended up burning it one evening when the common room was almost empty.

Harry also found himself constantly repeating Dumbledore’s final words to himself. ‘I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me…Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.’ But what had he meant by that? Who exactly was he supposed to ask for help, when everyone was just as confused and scared as he was?

Hagrid’s hint about the spiders was far easier to understand–the trouble was, there didn’t seem to be a single spider left in the castle to follow. Harry looked everywhere he went, helped by Tracey, Allison, and Theodore. They were hampered, of course, by the fact that they weren’t allowed to wander off on their own, but had to move around the castle in a pack with the other Slytherins. Most of their fellow students seemed glad that they were being shepherded from class to class by teachers, but Harry found it very excessive.

One student, however, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere of terror and suspicion more than anyone else. Draco Malfoy was strutting around the school as though he had just been appointed Head Boy. Harry didn’t realise what he was so pleased about until the Potions lesson about a fortnight after Dumbledore and Hagrid had left, when, sitting only a couple metres away from Malfoy, Harry overheard him gloating to Crabbe and Goyle.

‘I always thought Father might be the one who got rid of Dumbledore,’ he said, not troubling to keep his voice down. ‘I told you he thinks Dumbledore’s the worst Headmaster the school’s ever had. Maybe we’ll get a decent Headmaster now. Someone who won’t want the Chamber of Secrets closed. McGonagall won’t last long, she’s only filling in…’

Snape swept past Harry, making no comment about Draco’s terrible comment about wanting to keep a bloodthirsty monster in the castle.

‘Sir,’ said Malfoy loudly. ‘Sir, why don’t you apply for the Headmaster’s job?’

‘Now, now, Malfoy,’ said Snape, though he couldn’t suppress a thinlipped smile. ‘Professor Dumbledore has only been suspended by the governors. I dare say he’ll be back with us soon enough.’

‘Yeah, right,’ said Malfoy, smirking. ‘I expect you’d have father’s vote, sir, if you wanted to apply for the job. I’ll tell father you’re the best teacher here, sir…’

Snape smirked as he swept off around the dungeon, fortunately not spottingthe Gyrffindor Seamus Finnigan, who was pretending to vomit into his cauldron.

‘I’m quite surprised the Mudbloods haven’t all packed their bags by now,’ Malfoy went on. ‘bet you five Galleons the next one dies. I hope it is Granger…’

The bell rang at that moment, which was lucky; at Malfoy’s last words, Hermione had leapt off her stool, and while other scrambled to collect their bags she looked as though she was going to murder Malfoy while simultaneously bawl her eyes out.

Harry was pretty upset by Malfoy’s statement as well. ‘Let me curse him,’ Harry growled, his friends blocking his path, ‘their aren’t any teachers in here at the moment, I could drag him back in and teach him a lesson.’

‘It’s not worth it,’ Tracey said, though she sounded pretty upset as well.’

‘Come along,’ a Prefect called our from the hall,’ I’ve got to take you all to History of Magic.’

Harry was just in a slump, he didn't think any joy could come from this situation, however that evening at supper, he was approached by Ernie Macmillan. Ernie took a deep breath and said, very formally, ‘I just want to say, Harry, that I’m sorry I ever suspected you. I know you’d never attack Terence Higgs, and I apologise for all the stuff I said. We’re all in the same boat now, and, well–’

He held out a pudgy hand, and Harry shook it. They were still dark days, but knowing that in the face of danger foes could put their rivalries aside and come together was comforting.

Ernie ended up eating supper with Harry and his friends.

‘That Draco Malfoy character,’ said Ernie, breaking off a piece of bread, ‘he seems very pleased about all this, doesn’t he? D’you know, I think he might be Slytherin’s heir.’

‘We thought about that,’ said Theodore, ‘We managed to rule him out. That still leaves two hundred and seventy-one suspects though.’

‘Who do you think it is, Harry?’ Ernie asked.

‘I don’t know,’ said Harry firmly. ‘Every time I think I’ve figured something out I end up even more confused.’

The next Herbology class, Harry found it quite hard to concentrate. It was a gloomy day and he couldn’t stop thinking about Dumbledore, and Terence, and he barely heard a word Professor Sprout had said. He only came out of his funk when Allison elbowed him.

‘Hey, what was that for-‘

Allison was pointing at the ground a few feet away. Several large spiders were scurrying across the earth.

‘You found them,’ said Harry. They quietly explained to Theodore about Hagrid’s message before he had left. He nodded and then spoke. ‘We can’t go right now though, someone will report us missing.’

Harry watched the spiders running away.

‘Looks like they’re heading for the Forbidden Forest…’

Herbology was thankfully the last class of the day, Astrology had been cancelled because of the cloudy grey sky. So when the class had ended Professor Sprout escorted the class to their dormitory. Harry and his friends lagged behind the others so they could talk out of earshot.

‘We’ll have to use the Invisibility Cloak again,’ Harry told the others. ‘It’ll be a tight fit, but as long as we are really careful no one should see us. We can take Fang with us too. He’s used to going into the Forest with Hagrid, he might be some help.’

The others nodded, which gave Harry confidence.

‘Ok then, we go tonight,’ he said.

Allison did not protest this decision, but she did have some concerns. ‘Though isn’t the forest full of deadly creatures?’

‘It is,’ Harry said slowly, ‘but there are good things in there, too. The centaurs are all right, and the unicorns.’

When they reached the dungeon Harry and Tracey spent the rest of the afternoon catching the other two up on what to expect in the forest as they were the only two with experience. Harry had honestly hoped never to enter the forest again, but he trusted Hagrid and if Hagrid’s final words were that there was information in the forest that could help, then that was were Harry was going to go.

The Slytherin common room was always very crowded these days, because from six o’clock onwards, the Slytherins had nowhere else to go. They also had plenty to talk about, with the result that the common room often didn’t 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. A lot of the older students stayed up for a long time, and the Quidditch team had challenged Harry and Allison to a few games of Exploding Snap and the other two sat watching them. Harry and Allison kept losing on purpose, trying to finish the games quickly, but even so, it was well past midnight when everyone finally went to bed.

They all waited for the distant sounds of dormitory doors closing before seizing the Cloak, throwing it over themselves, and walking through the secret wall.

It was another difficult journey through the castle, dodging all the teachers. They had to be extra careful because all a teacher had to do was look down and they’d see their feet. 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 dark grounds, almost pitch black thanks to the cloud cover.

They reached Hagrid’s house, it was so sad and sorry-looking with its blank windows, Harry quite missed the warm orange light that normally was emitted. 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. 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, 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.

They all took out their wands and cast a spell they had learned only a couple months before, ‘Lumos!’ a tiny light appeared at the end of their wands, just enough to let them watch the path for signs of spiders.

‘Do any of you see anything yet?’ asked Theodore.

Harry started pointing at the grass. Two solitary spiders were hurrying away from the wandlight into the shade of the trees.

‘Everyone ready?’ Tracey asked. They all nodded in response. ‘Then lets go.’

So, with Fang scampering around them, sniffing tree roots and leaves, they entered the Forest. By the glow of their 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. The trees had become thicker than ever, and soon it was solely the light from their wands that allowed them to see. Soon they spotted their spider guides leaving the path.

Harry paused, trying to see where the spiders were going, but everything outside of their 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 he’d been in here. But Hagrid was miles away now, probably sitting in a cell in Azkaban, and the last thing he had told him was to follow the spiders.

Something wet touched Harry’s hand and he jumped backwards, crushing Allison’s foot, but it was only Fang’s nose.

‘Should we keep going guys, anything could be waiting for us if we leave the path?’ Harry said to them, not sure himself if he wanted them to say no or not.

‘We already made it this far,’ said Tracey, ‘As long as we don’t split up I think we will be ok.’

So 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. Harry could feel Fang’s hot breath on his hand. More than once, they had to stop, so that they could search around 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 downwards, though the trees were as thick as ever. Then Fang suddenly let loose a great, echoing bark, making both Harry and Theodore jump out of their skins.

‘What is it Fang?’ said Allison loudly, looking around into the pitch dark, and gripping Harry’s elbow very hard.

‘There’s something moving over there,’ Harry breathed. ‘Listen…Sounds like something big.’

They all listened. Some distance to their right, the something big was snapping branches as it carved a path through the trees.

‘Harry,’ said Tracey terrified. ‘I don’t like this, it sounds big–’

‘Quiet,’ said Harry frantically. ‘It’ll hear you.’

‘Its to late for that.’ said Theodore in an unnaturally high voice. ‘The whole forest has 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 d’you think it’s doing?’ said Harry.

‘It might be waiting to attack, wands ready everyone,’ said Allison, trying to keep her cool.

They waited, shivering, hardly daring to move.

‘D’you think it’s gone?’ Harry whispered.

‘I can’t be sure–’ Tracey responded.

Nothing made itself known however. Finally they decided if whatever was out there hadn’t attacked yet they would have to risk pressing on. They only had one problem now.

‘We’ve lost the trail,’ Harry said. ‘C’mon, let’s go and find them.’

‘Ha-Harry-‘ Theodore said in a shaky voice. His eyes were fixed on a point some ten feet above the Forest floor, right behind Harry. His face was filled with terror.

Harry didn’t even have time to turn around. There was a loud clicking noise and suddenly he felt something long and hairy seize him around the middle and lift him off the ground, so that he was hanging, face down. Struggling, terrified, he heard more clicking, and saw Allison’s legs leave the ground too, heard Fang whimpering and howling–next moment, he was being swept away into the dark trees. Within a minute they were all caught by what Theodore had seen.

Head hanging, Harry 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 more of the creatures, no doubt carrying the others. They were moving into the very heart of the Forest. Harry could hear Fang fighting to free himself from his monster, whining loudly, but Harry couldn’t have yelled even if he had wanted to; he seemed to have left his voice back in the clearing.

He could not tell how long he was in the creature’s 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 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 he had ever clapped eyes upon.

Spiders. Not tiny spiders like those surging over the leaves below. Spiders the size of carthorses, eighteyed, eight-legged, black, hairy, and utterly gigantic. The massive specimen that was carrying Harry 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.

Harry fell to the ground on all fours as the spider released him. The others and Fang thudded down next to him. Fang wasn’t howling any more, but cowering silently on the spot. They were all in a terrible shock. Harry’s mouth was stretched wide in a kind of silent scream and his eyes were popping.

Harry suddenly realised that the spider which 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 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 Theodore.

‘Kill them,’ clicked Aragog fretfully. ‘I was sleeping…’

‘We’re 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 Harry, breathing very fast. ‘That’s 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 Hagrid’s been setting a–a–something loose 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. 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, who could feel cold sweat on his forehead.

‘I!’ said Aragog, clicking angrily. ‘I was not laid 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…’

Harry summoned what remained of 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…’

‘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 him.

‘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 towards Harry, Theodore, Allison, and Tracey.

‘We’ll just go, then,’ Harry 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. Goodbye, 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, he knew no spell that could help, the only spell he could think of would likely burn the whole forest down with him still inside. He was about to give up all hope when Tracey stood to her feet and pointed her wand at the nearest giant spider.

‘Arania Exumai!’ She yelled, a large amount of blue light emerged from her wand, repelling the spider and those next to it, leaving a large black scorch mark when the light had touched.

‘Run!’ She yelled, pointing at the small gap she had made with her spell. They did as she commanded. The spiders tried to fill the gap but Tracey kept casting as they ran, and anytime a spider got eerily close to one of them she would turn and blast it too.

With Fang by their side they sped up the slope, out of the hollow, and they were soon sprinting through the Forest as fast as their legs would allow. Branches where whipping at their faces but they did not care. Despite the risk of catching something in their mouth they all were screaming at the top of their lungs.

They continued to smash their way through the undergrowth, Fang howling loudly, and Harry thought they would not make it. After what felt like twenty minutes of running, the trees thinned, and Harry could see patches of the cloudy sky. They had reached the edge of the Forest.

Fang flung himself at Hagrid’s house, tail between his legs. All four of them then collapsed from complete exhaustion, they were out of breath and their legs were like jelly. Tracey and Theodore had also found themselves vomiting what remained of their suppers. They all stayed lying on the grass like that for over ten minutes, regaining their strength, before Harry spoke.

‘Tracey, you saved our lives!’

The other two started singing her praises as well.

‘I thought we were spider food-‘

‘I was completely frozen with fear-‘

‘We would never have made it-‘

‘Where did you learn that spell?’

He couldn’t see her face, but from her voice Harry could tell she was blushing. ‘Just something I can across randomly, I swear. I’ll teach you it sometime if you’d like.’

After another ten or so minutes of recuperating they all got up. Harry went back into Hagrid’s cabin to get the Invisibility Cloak. Fang was trembling under a blanket in his basket. When Harry emerged Allison had found her attitude again.

‘Why would he ever tell us to follow the spiders,’ she said weakly. ‘His suggestion almost got us killed!’

‘I bet he thought Aragog wouldn’t hurt friends of his,’ said Harry.

‘Well he clearly guessed wrong,’ said Theodore, still quite winded.

‘Did we even learn anything?’ Tracey asked. ‘We already knew a girl died the last time the chamber opened.’

‘We confirmed that Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets,’ said Harry, throwing the cloak over them all, and they started the walk back to the castle. ‘He was innocent.’

They went the rest of the journey in complete silence. They reached the castle and pushed the creaking front doors ajar. They walked carefully back across the Entrance Hall and down the marble staircase, holding their breath as they passed corridors where watchful sentries were walking. As they descended down the stairs Harry couldn’t help ponder what Aragog had said.

The creature that was lurking somewhere in the castle, he thought, sounded like a sort of monster Voldemort–even other monsters didn’t want to name it. But he and the others were no closer to finding out what it was, or how it Petrified its victims. Even Hagrid had never known what was in the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry couldn’t think of what else they could do. They had hit dead ends everywhere. Riddle had caught the wrong person, the heir of Slytherin had got off with no consequences, and no one could tell whether it was the same person, or a different one, who had opened the Chamber this time. There was nobody else to ask.

They had just reached their common room and taken off the cloak when what seemed like their very last hope occurred to him and he suddenly.

‘Guys!’ he hissed through the dark.

‘What?’ They all said curiously.

‘That girl who died. Aragog said she was found in a bathroom,’ said Harry, adrenaline pumping through his veins. ‘What if she never left the bathroom? What if she’s still there?’

Exhausted from their long night the others didn’t understand at first, but then Theodore’s face lit up with realization.

‘Harry, you are a genius. I think we have to pay Moaning Myrtle one last visit.’

Fang

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