meant to be (2)

46

The Gryffindor common room was always very crowded these days, because from six o'clock onwards, the Gryffindors had nowhere else to go. We 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.

Fred, George and Mason challenged Harry and Ron to a few games of Exploding Snap while Ginny and I sat watching them.

"Are you alright, Gin?" I asked. Ginny was awfully quiet, which was not like her at all.

"Yes" she said, avoiding my gaze. "I think I'll go to bed, I'm very tired."

"Alright." I said, upset at the fact that she was clearly lying to me. "You can always talk to me."

Harry and Ron kept losing on purpose, trying to finish the games quickly, but even so, it was well past midnight when Fred, George and Mason finally went to bed.

Harry, Ron and I waited for the distant sounds of the dormitory door closing before seizing the Cloak, throwing it over ourselves, and climbing through the portrait hole.

It was another difficult journey through the castle, dodging all the teachers. At last we 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 moonlit grounds.

"Course." said Ron abruptly, as we strode across the black grass, "we might get to the Forest and find there's nothing to follow. Those spiders might not've been going there at all. I know it looked like they were moving in that sort of general direction, but...."

His voice tailed away hopefully.

We reached Hagrids house, sad and sorry-looking with its blank windows. When Harry pushed the door open, Fang went mad with joy at the sight of us.

Worried he might wake everyone at the castle with his deep, booming barks, we 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.

"Cmon, 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.

I took out my wand, murmured, 'Lumos!' and a tiny light appeared at the end of it, just enough to let us watch the path for signs of spiders.

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

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

"OK..."Ron sighed, as though resigned to the worst. "I'm ready. Let's go."

So, with Fang scampering around us, sniffing tree roots and leaves, they entered the Forest. By the glow of my wand, we followed the steady trickle of spiders moving along the path.

We 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 my wand shone alone in the sea of dark, we saw their spider guides leaving the path.
I paused, trying to see where the spiders were going, but everything outside my little sphere of light was pitch black.

I had never been this deep into the Forest before. I could vividly remember Hagrid advising Harry and I not to leave the Forest path last time we'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.

Something wet touched my hand and he jumped backwards, crushing Harry's foot.

"Ouch!" Harry exclaimed. "What was that for?"

"Sorry, it was Fang's nose" I apologised.

We followed the darting shadows of the spiders into the trees. We couldn't move very quickly now; there were tree roots and stumps in our way, barely visible in the near blackness. I could feel Fang's hot breath on my hand.

More than once, we had to stop, so that we could crouch down and find the spiders in the wandlight.

We walked for what seemed like at least half an hour, our robes snagging on low-slung branches and brambles. After a while, we 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 us jump out of our skins.

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

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

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

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

"Shut up" Harry and I said frantically at the same time, which made us exchange smiles.

"It'll hear you." I adeed

"Hear me?" repeated Ron in an unnaturally high voice. "Its already heard Fang!"

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

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

"Probably getting ready to pounce." said Ron.

We waited, shivering, hardly daring to move.

"Do you think it's gone?" I whispered, shivering. Harry seemed to notice as he put his arms around my waist and pulled me closer to him.

"Dunno-"

Then, to our right, came a sudden blaze of light, so bright in the darkness that all of us flung up our hands to shield their eyes. However, Harry didn't move his arm around my waist.

Fang yelped and tried to run, but got lodged in a tangle of thorns and yelped even louder.

"Harry! Julie" Ron shouted, his voice breaking with relief. "It's our car!"

"What?"

"Come on!"

Harry and I blundered after Ron towards the light, stumbling and tripping, and a moment later we had emerged into a clearing.

Mr Weasley'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, turquoise dog greeting its owner.

"It's been here all the time!" said Ron 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. Fang didn't seem at all keen on it; he kept close to Harry and I. We could feel him quivering. His breathing slowing down again, I stuffed my wand back into my robes.

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

Harry squinted around on the floodlit ground for signs of more spiders, but we had all scuttled away from the glare of the headlights.

"We've lost the trail." I said. "Come on, let's go and find them."

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

I didn't even have time to turn around. There was a loud clicking noise and suddenly I felt something long and hairy seize me around the middle and lift me off the ground, so that I was hanging, face down.

"DON'T HURT HER!" Harry shouted loudly. I couldn't help smiling. Harry always made me smile, even in the worst situations.

Struggling, I heard more clicking and saw Harry and Ron's leg leave the ground too, heard Fang whimpering and howling - next moment we were being swept away into the dark trees.