Amelia Potter and the Chamber of Secrets PART 1

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for signs of spiders.
'Good thinking,' said Ron. 'I'd light mine too, but you know – it'd probably blow up or something ...'

Amelia giggled reached into her never-filling bag and pulled out her wand which glowed in the dark. 'Lumos!' she muttered her wand lighting up even more.

'Your wand still does that?" questioned Ron.

Harry tapped Ron on the shoulder, pointing 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 them, sniffing tree roots and leaves, they entered the Forest. By the glow of Harry's and Amelia'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 Harry's wand shone alone in the sea of dark, they saw their spider guides leaving the path.

Harry paused, trying to see where the spiders were going, but everything outside his little sphere of light was pitch black. He had never been this deep into the Forest before. He could vividly remember Hagrid advising him not to leave the Forest path last time he'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 Harry's hand and he jumped back- wards, crushing Ron's foot, but it was only Fang's nose.

'Jesus guys calm down,' Amelia shook her head. 

'What d'you reckon?' Harry said to Ron, whose eyes he could just make out, reflecting the light from his wand.

'We've come this far,' said Ron.

So 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. Harry could feel Fang's hot breath on his hand. More than once, they had to stop, so that Harry 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 down- wards, though the trees were as thick as ever.

Then Fang suddenly let loose a great, echoing bark, making the three friends jump out of their skins.