History

XXVI. PIPES

chapter twenty-six; the chamber of secrets

1993

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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 Zoe 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.

"I!" said Aragog, 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. . . ."

Zoe summoned what remained of her courage.

"So you never, never attacked anyone?" she asked, her voice shaking.

"Never," croaked the old spider. "It would have been my instinct, but out of respect for 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. Zoe jumped and grabbed Harry's hand out of fear. "We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dread creature, though he asked me, many times."

Zoe didn't want Harry 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 toward Harry, Zoe and Ron.

"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. Good-bye, friend of Hagrid."

Zoe spun around. Feet away, towering above her, was a solid wall of spiders, clicking, their many eyes gleaming in their ugly black heads. Even as she reached for her wand, Zoe knew it was no good, there were too many of them, but as she tried to stand, ready to die fighting, a loud, long note sounded, and a blaze of light flamed through the hollow.