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'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 they had all scuttled away from the glare of the head- lights.

'We've lost the trail,' he said. 'C'mon, 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. His face was livid with terror.

Harry didn't even have time to turn around. There was a loud clicking noise and suddenly he felt something long and hairy seize him around the middle and lift him off the ground, so that he was hanging, face down. Struggling, terrified, he heard more clicking, and saw Ron's legs leave the ground too, Amelia screamed; he heard Fang whimpering and howling – next moment, he was being swept away into the dark trees.

Head hanging, Harry saw that what had hold of him was marching on six immensely long, hairy legs, the front two clutching him tightly below a pair of shining black pincers. Behind him, he could hear another of the creatures, no doubt carrying Ron and Amelia who was yelling but bearly makeing a sound (Holly fuck! Holly fuck! Holly fuck! I thought Shelob was just a book chatater! Holly fuck!). They were moving into the very heart of the Forest. Harry could hear Fang fighting to free himself from a third monster, whining loudly, but Harry couldn't have yelled even if he had wanted to; he seemed to have left his voice back with the car in the clearing.

He never knew how long he was in the creature's clutches; he only knew that the darkness suddenly lifted enough for him to see that the leaf-strewn ground was now swarming with spiders. Craning his neck sideways, he realised that they had reached the rim of a vast hollow, a hollow which had been cleared of trees, so that the stars shone brightly onto the worst scene he had ever clapped eyes upon.

Spiders. Not tiny spiders like those surging over the leaves below. Spiders the size of carthorses, eight-eyed, eight-legged, black, hairy, gigantic. The massive specimen that was carrying Harry made its way down the steep slope, towards a misty domed web in the very centre of the hollow, while its fellows closed in all around it, clicking their pincers excitedly at the sight of its load.

Harry fell to the ground on all fours as the spider released him. Ron, Amelia, and Fang thudded down next to him. Fang wasn't howling any more, but cowering silently on the spot. Ron looked exactly

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