𝑜𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓃𝑔. - golden trio era au

₂₉ ♙ 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐫

♙

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐫

♙

With nowhere else to go, the Gryffindor common room ended up being rather packed on an evening. Which meant that it often didn't empty until past midnight, and Harry had decided they had best go to the Forbidden Forest that night in order to keep track of the spiders while they were still around. When Fred, George and Ginny finally got sick of winning exploding snap, they were finally able to toss the cloak over their heads and leave.

Once again, each corner they turned at a teacher in it but they had an easy enough time squeezing through the front door and down the grounds.

"Course," Ron puffed as they speed walked down the slope. "The spiders may not have been heading for the Forest at all. For all we know, they could have been going near the Forest. We only saw them going in that general direction." He trailed off hopefully but Dawn was rather pessimistic on the matter. It simply felt like a very Hagrid thing for their answers to be tucked deep in the dark undergrowth. The Forest seemed like their only option.

They reached Hagrid's hut, looking very dreary with all the lights shut off, and distracted Fang from barking at them by filling up his food bowl. Harry folded up the Invisibility Cloak and left it on top of Hagrid's large, round table.

"Come on, Fang, we're going for a walk." said Harry, tapping his leg to get him moving. He bounded happily out the house and went circling around a tree while Harry and Dawn lit their wands.

"Good thinking," said Ron. "I'd do the same but it'd likely blow up or something."

"Found some," announced Harry, staring directly at the ground. Two large spiders were scuttling away from the wand-light into the shade of the trees. Ron sighed heavily, resigning himself for the worst.

They walked in silence, only the sound of their footsteps on crunching leaves comforted them. Dawn tried her best to not pay attention to her peripherals: where her brain conjured images of dark shadows and monsters lurking. They did have a short scare where Harry nearly jumped out of his own skin because Fang's nose brushed his hand but they continued on nevertheless. Plenty of times they nearly lost the spiders and had to crouch to spot them again.

Fang let out a great bark that echoed through the trees that frightened them all. Dawn clutched onto Harry's shoulder in her fright and he didn't have the heart to tell her to stop digging her nails into his skin.

"What?" said Ron too loudly for comfort, head swivelling on his neck.

"There's something moving over there," Harry breathed. He raised his wand in hopes that the light would stretch further. "Listen . . . Sounds like something big." They strained their ears and flinched when branches started snapping.

"Oh no," said Ron, grabbing onto Dawn now. "Oh no, oh no, oh -"

"Shut up," hissed Dawn, terrified out of her mind. "It'll hear you."

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

It might be her imagination, but it seemed like the darkness was growing closer. There was a strange rumbling and then silence, which was far more unsettling than any noise the woods could conjure

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

"Probably getting ready to pounce," answered Ron.

"Animals don't tend to alert prey to their presence when hunting," Dawn reasoned.