The night forest was alive.
Not with wind or wolves or the hum of restless trees, but with the faint, rhythmic clicking of legs—thousands of them.
I moved silently, my form half-swallowed by the Disillusionment Charm.
From a distance, I would appear like a shimmer of heat, nothing more.
And only to those with thermal vision.
Magic covering my physical presence, muffling any sounds i might make, and covering up the scent of my body.
The forest welcomed me in the same way it always did—with suspicion.
The branches seemed to twitch as I passed, and somewhere high above, I heard a dry, brittle hiss.
Harry and Ron were ahead of me, little more than two dim lights bobbing between the trunks—Lumos flickering in their trembling hands.
"Brilliant," Ron muttered under his breath, voice shaking. "Follow the spiders, he says. What's next? Have tea with the Acromantulas?"
Harry didn't answer.
His face, even from this distance, looked tight with determination.
There was something almost admirable about his stubbornness—surely James's blood in him, but at the same time there was the inquisitiveness that surely came more from Lily.
The deeper we went, the thicker the air grew.
The ground squelched with damp leaves, and webs began to appear—first thin as threads, then thick ropes hanging like forgotten drapes.
The spiders were leading them, hundreds of tiny ones scurrying in a perfect line along the ground.
Not a natural migration, this.
Something was clearly guiding them, leading the pair into the heart of the colony itself.
I followed at a measured pace, silent as a shadow.
The forest was my hunting ground now.
I had mapped this portion of it—learned its secret paths, its silences.
But even I knew to tread carefully where the spiders dwelled.
The old colony, the one Hagrid had once protected, had grown restless since my war on their kin began.
The outer colonies had all been cleansed, causing many spiderlings to flee deeper into the forest in terror.
If not for the lingering scent of the half-giant—still clinging to the boys cloaks—neither of them would have made it even this far, having fallen in the outer reaches, long before they had even seen some of the mid-sized arachnids.
The path eventually opened into a clearing.
Massive roots wound around a hollow pit, and in that pit… movement.
Eight-legged, enormous movement.
Aragog.
The spider's eyes caught the light—dozens of them glimmering like wet stones in the dark.
His voice when it came was old, rasping, and full of sibilant reverence.
Elderly by this point having surpassed fifty years in age, with only a few more left on his natural lifespan.
"Hagrid? Is that you?"
Harry stepped forward, his wand shaking only slightly. "We—we're friends of Hagrid's," he stammered. "And you... you... You're Aragog arent you?"
"Yesss... Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before."
"He's in trouble up at the school there have been attacks. They think its Hagrid. They think he opened the chamber of secrets. like before" Harry said.
A silence fell so complete it made the air heavy.
Then Aragog's mandibles twitched. "That's a lie, Hagrid never opened the chamber of secrets."
"Then your not the monster?" Harry questioned, not quite believing it after seeing the twenty foot spider.
"No! The monster was born in the castle, i came to hagrid from a distant land in the pocket of a traveller."
It was at this point Ron's panic was nearly full blow as he tried to whimperingly draw harry's attention only to be shushed.
Looking round i could only agree with Ronalds judgement from my vantage point atop the branches of a tree i could see the veritable swarm of arachnids closing ranks around them.
"If you're not the monster, what did kill that girl fifty years ago?"
"We do not speak of it! It is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others."
"But have you seen it?"
"I never saw any part of the castle but the box in which hagrid kept me. The girl was discovered in a bathroom, when i was accused i fled here."
"HaRry!" Ron's patience broke finally crying out and drawing Harry's attention.
"What!"
Only to look where Ron pointed, seeing what he'd been missing, hundreds of spiders surrounding them, dozens move descending from above.
"Well thank you, we'll just go." Harry tried to keep his cool while remaining polite.
"Go? I think not, my sons and daughters do not harm hagrid on my command, but i cannot deny them when it wanders so willingly into our midst. Goodbye friends of Hagrid.
Aragog's tone changed—deeper, colder.
The forest exploded in sound.
Dozens—no, hundreds—of spiders descended from the trees.
Harry's shout echoed off the clearing walls. "Ron—RUN!"
The boys bolted.
I remained where I was for a fraction longer, watching as the tide of black limbs surged forward.
So much for the scent of Hagrid saving them, now that they knew it was not him afterall.
"Fine," I muttered under my breath. "Let's make this fair."
My wand snapped up, a whisper of power on my tongue. "Confringo!"
The spell burst through the darkness, igniting a knot of webs into blue flame.
The light scattered through the trees, revealing a swarm that seemed to stretch endlessly.
I moved after the boys, keeping to their flank.
Spells flicked from my wand—Incendio, Diffindo, Repulso—each one cutting down another advancing spider.
Ahead, Harry and Ron crashed through the underbrush, branches whipping their faces.
Ron's panicked scream echoed somewhere between the roots.
"We're dead! We're actually—AHHHH!"
The spiders were closing in, a black tide, chittering and shrieking.
All the while the two were utterly oblivious to my aid, simply running for dear life, as i single handedly staved off their pursuers.
The forest canopy broke open—and for a heartbeat, the moonlight flooded down, silver and cold.
Then something roared.
Not a spider.
Not anything of flesh.
The blue Ford Anglia tore through the trees like a ghost, headlights blazing, horn blaring wildly as it skidded to a halt in front of them.
Ron gaped. "The car—she's alive!"
The boys dove into the car as spiders swarmed over its hood.
The Anglia revved, almost as if offended by the intrusion, before lurching backward—spinning and speeding away down the dirt path.
I watched for a second as the car sped off before eventually making its way into the air, taking Harry off to safety.
I on the other hand quickly called forth my broom before doing a light carpet bombing of the forest before setting off for the school to rest after a longs days work.