SUMMER WAS CREEPING OVER THE GROUNDS AROUND THE CASTLE; large as cabbage 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 Harper; no better, in fact, than the inside of the castle, where things were so horribly wrong.

Harry, Ron and Harper 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 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 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.

Harper constantly repeated Dumbledore's final words  to herself—as if they would somehow make everything all right.

"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 good were these words? Who exactly were they supposed to ask for help, when everyone was just as confused and scared as they were?

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 and Harper looked everywhere they went, helped (rather reluctantly) by Ron. 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 Gryffindors. Most of their fellow students seemed glad that they were being shepherded from class to class by teachers, but Harper found it very irksome.

One person, however, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere of terror and suspicion. Draco Malfoy was strutting around the school at though he had just been appointed Head Boy. Harper didn't realize what he was so pleased about until the Potions lesson about a fortnight after Dumbledore and Hagrid had left, when, sitting right behind Malfoy, she 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. McGonagell won't last long, she's only filling in . . ."

Snape swept past her, making no comment about Hermione's empty seat and cauldron.

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

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

"Yeah, right," Malfoy said, 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 spotting Seamus, 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. Pity it wasn't Granger . . ."

The bell rang at that moment and Harper leaped off her stool, making her way over to Malfoy to punch that git in his face, but it seemed Ron had had the same idea.

"Let me at him," he growled, as Harry and Dean hung onto his arms. "I don't care, I don't need my wand, I'm going to kill him with my bare hands . . ."

It took both Seamus and Neville to stop Harper from executing her plan.

"Hurry up, I've got to take you all to Herbology," Snape barked over the class' heads, and off they went, crocodile fashion. Harry and Dean walked beside Ron while Seamus and Neville kept walking behind Harper. Neither of them wanted Ron and Harper to commit a murder.

They were making their way across the vegetable path towards the greenhouses when Harper could see Cedric and his friends making their way back inside. As soon as he saw her, he made his was over.

"Hey, Harp, how are you doing?"

"Ready to commit a murder," she growled as she glared at Malfoy. Cedric followed her glare.

"Yeah, he's a real pain in the ass," he agreed, before looking back at her. "I'm sorry for your friend," he said softly and Harper's face fell. "And for Hagrid, I know you saw him as a friend."

"Thank you," Harper replied, giving him a small smile. "I just hope everything will be back to normal soon."

Cedric frowned worriedly. "Yeah, me too."

He looked over to his friends who were waving at him and gesturing for him to go with them. "Right, I have to go to class. I'll see you later, Harp, be careful."

"I will," she replied, "you too."

With a smile and a nod, he turned around and made his way back to the castle.

Harper, too, turned around and followed the other Gryffindors into the greenhouse.

The Herbology class was very subdued; there were now two missing from their number, Justin and Hermione.

Professor Sprout set them all to work pruning the Abyssinian Shrivelfigs. As Harry went to tip an armful of withered stalks onto the compost heap, he came face to face with Ernie. Harper held her breath, ready to defend her brother at any accusation that may be said to him.

"I just want to say, Harry," Ernie said, very formally, "that I'm sorry I even suspected you. I know you'd never attack Hermione Granger, and I apologize 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. Ernie came to work at the same Shrivelfig as Harry, Ron and Harper. 

"That Draco Malfoy character," Ernie said, breaking off dead twigs, "he seems very pleased about all this, doesn't he? D'you know, I think he might be the Slytherin's heir."

"That's clever of you," Ron said, who didn't seem to have forgiven Ernie as readily as Harry. Neither did Harper.

"Do you think it's Malfoy, Harry?" Ernie asked.

"No," Harry said, so firmly that Ernie stared.

A second later, Harper spotted something that made her hit Harry and Ron over the hands with my pruning shears.

"Ouch! What're you—"

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

"Oh, yeah," Ron said, trying, and failing, to look pleased. "But we can't follow them now . . ."

Ernie was watching curiously as Harry and Harper were watched the spiders running away.

"Looks like they're heading for the Forbidden Forest . . ." he said and Ron looked even unhappier about that.

At the end of the lesson Professor Sprout escorted the class to their Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. Harry, Ron and Harper lagged behind the others so they could talk out of earshot.

"We'll have to use the Invisibility Cloak again," Harry told them. "We can take Fang with us. He's used to going into the Forest with Hagrid, he might be some help."

"Right," Ron said, who was twirling his wand nervously in his fingers. "Er—aren't there—aren't there supposed to be werewolves in the Forest?" he added, as they took their usual places at the back of Lockhart's classroom.

"There are good things in there, too," Harry said. "The centaurs are all right, and the unicorns."

Lockhart bounded into the room and the class stared at him. Every other teacher in the place was looking grimmer than usual, but Lockhart appeared nothing sort of buoyant.

"Come now," he cried, beaming around, "why all these long faces?"

"Oh, I don't know, perhaps because there is a monster roaming the castle that is attacking people?" Harper said, sounding very sarcastically.

"Don't you people realize the danger has padded!" Lockhart said loudly, ignoring her. "The culprit has been taken away."

"Says who?" Dean asked.

"My dear young man, the Minister of Magic wouldn't have taken Hagrid if he hadn't been one hundred per cent sure that he was guilty," Lockhart said, in the tone of someone explaining that one and one made two.

"Oh, yes he would," Ron said.

"I flatter myself I know a touch more about Hagrid's arrest than you do, Mr Weasley," Lockhart said in a self-satisfied tone.

"God, I hate that man," Harper muttered, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair.

A note shuffled to her by Harry.

Let's do it tonight.

Harper looked at the empty seat usually filled by Hermione and nodded determined.

"Tonight," she whispered back.

• ✧ •

     THE GRYFFINDOR COMMON ROOM WAS ALWAYS very crowded these days, because from six o'clock onwards, the Gryffindors 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 as Fred and George challenged Ron and Harper to a few games of Exploding Snap and Ginny sat watching them, very subdued in Hermione's usual chair. While playing, Harper had asked her how her first year went and if she liked Hogwarts. She didn't quiet answered it. Ron and Harper kept losing on purpose, trying to go fish the games quickly, but even so, it was well past midnight when Fred, George and Ginny finally went to bed.

Harry, Ron and Harper waited for the distant sounds of two dormitory doors closing before seizing the Cloak, throwing it over themselves, and climbing through the portrait hole.

It was another difficult journey through the castle, dodging all the teachers. At last, they reached the Entrance Hall, slid back the lock on the oak front doors, squeezed between them, trying to stop any cracking, and stepped out into the moonlit grounds.

"Course," Ron said 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' even been going there at all. I know it looked like they were moving in that sort of general direction, but . . ." His voice trailed away hopefully.

They reached Hagrid's house, sad and sorry-looking with its black 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.

"C'mon, Fang, we're going for a walk," Harry said, 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.

Harper took out her wand. "Lumos!" A tiny light appeared at the end of it, just enough to let them watch the path for signs of spiders. From the corner of her eye, she saw Harry doing the same.

"Good thinking," Ron said. "I'd light mine too, but you know—it'd probably blow up or something . . ."

Harry gestured for them and pointed at the grass. Two solidarity spiders were hurrying away from the wandlight into the shade of the trees.

"Okay," 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 Harper and Harry'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 their wands shone alone in the sea of dark, they saw their spider guides leaving their path.

The three of them paused, trying to see where the spiders were going, but everything outside their little sphere of light was pitch black. Harper had never been this deep into the Forest before. She could vividly remember Hagrid advising her not to leave the Forest path last time she'd been in here. But Hagrid was miles away now, probably sitting in a cell in Azkaban, and he had also said to follow the spiders.

"What d'you reckon?" Harry asked her and Ron.

"We've come this far," Ron replied.

"For Hermione," Harper said, "and Hagrid."

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 Harry and Harper could crouch down and find the spiders in the wandlight.

They walked for what seemed like at least half an hour, their robes snagging on low-slung branches and brambles. After a while, they noticed that the ground seemed to be sloping downwards, though the trees were as thick as ever. Then Fang suddenly let loose a great, echoing bark, making the three of them jump out of their skins.

"What?" Ron said loudly, looking around into the pitch dark, and gripping Harper's elbow very hard.

"There's something moving over there," Harper breathed. "Listen . . . Sounds like something big."

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

"Oh no," Ron said. "Oh no, oh no, oh . . ."

"Shut up," Harry said frantically, as Harper tightened the grip on her wand. "It'll hear you."

"Hear me?" Ron said in an unnaturally high voice. "It's already heard Fang!"

The darkness seemed to be pressing on their eyeballs as they stood, terrified, waiting. There was a strange rumbling noise and then silence.

"What d'you think it's doing?" Harry asked.

"Probably getting ready to pounce," Ron replied.

They waited, shivering, hardly daring to move.

"D'you think it's gone?" Harper spoke up.

"Dunno . . ."

Then, to their right, came a sudden blaze of light, so bright in the darkness that they 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. "Harper! It's our car!"

"What?"

"Come on!"

Harry and Harper blundered after Ron towards the light, stumbling and tipping, and a moment later they had emerged into a clearing.

Arthur's car was standing, empty, in the middle of a circle of thick trees under a roof of dense branches, its head-lamps ablaze. As Ron walked, open-mouthed, towards it, it moved slowly towards him, exactly like a large, turn dog greeting its owner.

"It's been here all the time!" Ron exclaimed 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. Apparently it had taken to trundling around the Forest on its own.

"And we thought it was going to attack us!" Ron said, leaning against the car and patting it. "I wondered where it had gone!"

Harper saw 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."

Harper nodded and glanced at Ron when he didn't speak. He didn't move either. His eyes were fixed on a point some ten feet above the Forest floor, right behind Harry and Harper. His face was livid with terror.

Harper didn't even have to turn around. 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. Struggling, terrified, she heard more clicking, and saw Harry and Ron's legs leave the ground too, heard Fang whimpering and howling—next moment, Harper was being swept away into the dark trees.

Head hanging, she saw that what had hold of her was marching on six immensely long, hairy legs, the front two clutching her tightly below a pair of shining black pincers. Behind her, she could hear two more creatures, no doubt carrying Harry and Ron. They were moving into the very heart of the Forest. She could hear Fang fighting to free himself from a fourth monster, whining loudly.

Harper 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. Turning her neck sideways, Harper realized 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 Harper had ever laid eyes upon.

Spider. Not tiny spiders like those surging over the leaves below. Spiders the size of carthorses, eight-eyed, eight-legged, black, hairy, gigantic. The massive specimen that was carrying me made its way down the sleep slope, towards a misty domed web in the very center of the hollow, while its fellows closed in all around it, clicking their pincers excitedly at the sight of its load.

Harpee fell to the ground on all fours as the spider released her. Harry, Ron and Fang thudded down next to her. Fang wasn't howling any more, but cowering slightly on the spot. Ron looked exactly how she felt. His mouth was stretching wide in a kind of silent scream and his eyes were popping.

Harper suddenly realized 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.

"Men," clicked the spider who had caught Harper.

"Is it Hagrid?" Aragog said, moving closer, his eight milky eyes wandering vaguely.

"Strangers," clicked the spider who had brought Ron.

"Kill them," Aragog clicked fretfully. "I was sleeping . . ."

"We're friends of Hagrid's!" Harry shouted.

Click, click, click went the pincers of the spiders all around the hollow and Aragog paused.

"Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before," he said slowly.

"Hagrid's in trouble," Harper said, breathing very fast. "That's why we've come."

"In trouble?" The aged spider said, and she though she heard concern beneath the clicking pincers. "But why has he sent you?"

"They think, up at the school, that Hagrid's been setting a—a—something on students," Harry replied. "They've taken him to Azkaban."

Aragog clicked his pincers furiously, and all around the hollow sound was echoed by the crowd of spiders; it was like applause, except applause didn't usually make Harper sick with fear.

"But that was years ago," Aragog said 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?" Harry asked.

"I!" Aragog said, clicking angrily. "I was not born in the castle. I come from a distant land. A traveler gave me to Hagrid when I was an egg. Hagrid was only a boy, but he cared for me, hidden in a cupboard in the castle, feeding me on scraps from the table. Hagrid is my good friend, and a good man. When I was discovered, and blamed for the death of a girl, he protected me. I have lived here in the Forest ever since, where Hagrid still visits me. He even found me a wife, Mosag, and you see how our family has grown, all through Hagrid's goodness . . ."

"So you never—never attacked anyone?" Harper asked, summoning what remained of her courage.

"Never," the old spider croaked. "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 . . ." Harry began, "Do you know what did kill that girl? 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 us.

"The thing that lives in the castle," Aragog said, "is and 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?" Harry asked urgently.

More loud clicking, more rustling; the spiders seemed to be closing in.

"We do not speak of it!" Aragog said fiercely. "We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dread creature, though he asked me, many times."

Harry and Harper 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 her, Harry, Ron and Fang.

"We'll just go, then," Harry called desperately to Aragog, as Harper heard leaves rustling behind them.

"Go?" Aragog repeated 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."

Harper 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, she knew it was no good, there were too many of them, but as she stood ready to fight, a loud, long note sounded, and a blaze of light flames through the hollow.

Arthur's car was thundering down the slope, head-lamps 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 them and the doors flew open.

"Get Fang!" Harry yelled and Harper pushed the boarhound onto the back seat next to her. As soon as everyone was inside, the doors slammed shut.

Ron didn't touch the accelerator but the car didn't need him; the engine roared and they were off, hitting more spiders. They sped up the slope, out of the hollow, and they were soon crashing through the Forest, branches whipping the windows as the car wound its way cleverly through the widest gaps, following a path it obviously knew.

As Harper glanced at Ron, she saw that his mouth was still open in the silent scream, but his eyes weren't popping any more.

"Are you okay?" she asked carefully.

Ron stared straight ahead, unable to speak, and Harry and Harper exchanged a glance.

They smashed their way through the undergrowth, Fang howling loudly next to her. After ten noisy, rocky minutes, the trees thinned and Harper could again see patches of sky.

The car stopped so suddenly that they were nearly thrown into the windscreen. They had reached the edge of the Forest. Fang flung himself at the window in his anxiety to get out and when Harry opened the door, he shot off through the trees to Hagrid's house, tail between his legs. Harry extended his hand and Harper gladly took it. He pulled her out of the car and they waited for Ron, who seemed to regain the feelings in his limbs.

"Thank you," Harper said, patting the car.

As Harry went back into Hagrid's cabin to get the Invisibility Cloak, Harper rubbed over Ron's back as he was being violently sick in the pumpkin patch.

"Follow the spiders," he said weakly, as Harry exited the cabin. "I'll never forgive Hagrid. We're lucky to be alive."

"I bet he thought Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his," Harry said.

"That's exactly Hagrid's problem!" Ron exclaimed, 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 here? What have we found out, I'd like to know?"

"That Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets," Harry replied as the three of them headed back to their common room with the Invisibility Cloak thrown over them. "He was innocent."

"And," Harper added, the pieces falling together now, "there is someone who could tell us what the monster is."

Both of them looked up at me so she continued.

"The girl was killed in the bathroom, but what if she never left?"

"Blimey, Harp," Ron said, "you aren't talking about Moaning Myrtle, are you?"

Harper stopped in front of her dormitory and turned around to look at the boys.

"Of course I'm taking about her, Ronald."

· · ───── · ☆ · ───── · ·

April 18th 2023
I hope you enjoy it & tell me what you think of it! :)
I'm trying to finish year two by the end of the week :)