meant to be (2)

47

Head hanging, I saw that what had hold of me was marching on six immensely long, hairy legs, the front two cutching me tightly below a pair of shining black pincers.

Behind me, I could hear two of the creatures, no doubt carying Harry and Ron. We were moving into the very heart of the forest.

I could hear Fang fighting to free himself from a fourth monster, whining loudly, but I couldn't have yelled even if I had wanted to; I seemed to have left my voice back with the car in the clearing.

I never knew how long I was in the creature's clutches; I only knew that the darkness suddenly lifted enough for me to see that the leaf-strewn ground was now swarming with spiders. Craning my neck sideways, I realised that we 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 I 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 carying me 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.

I fell to the ground on all fours as the spider released me. Harry, Ron and Fang thudded down next to me. Fang wasn't howling any more, but cowering silently on the spot. Ron looked exactly like I felt. His mouth was stretched wide in a kind of silent scream and his eyes were popping.

"Are you alright, Jules?" Harry asked me quietly the second he dropped next to me.

"Yeah, thanks." I answered, smiling at him. Harry Potter could make me smile even when we were surrounded by ginormous spiders.

I suddenly realised that the spider which had dropped me was saying something. It had been hard to tell, because he clicked his pincers
with every word he spoke.

"Aragog!" it called. "Aragog!"

And from the middle of the misty domed web, a spider the size of a small elephant emerged, very slowly. There was grey in the black of his body and legs, and each of the eyes on his ugly, pincered head was milky white. He was blind.

"What is it?" he said, clicking his pincers rapidly.

"Men." clicked the spider who had caught me.

"Is it Hagrid?" asked Aragog, moving closer, his eight milky eyes wandering vaguely.

"Strangers." clicked the spider who had brought Ron.

"Kill them." clicked Aragog fretfully. "I was sleeping..."

"We're friends of Hagrid's!" I shouted. My heart
seemed to have left my chest to pound in my throat. Click, click, click went the pincers of the spiders all around the hollow. Aragog paused.

"Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before." Aragog said slowly.

"Hagrids in trouble." said Harry, breathing very fast. "Thats why we've come!"

"In trouble?" repeated the aged spider, and I thought I heard concern beneath the clicking pincers. "But why has he sent you?"

I thought of getting to my feet, but decided against it; I didn't think my legs would support me. So I spoke from the ground, as calmly as I could.

"They think, up at the school, that Hagrid's been setting a-a-something on students. They've taken him to Azkaban." I said quickly.

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 me 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, his forehead sweaty.

"I?'' said Aragog, clicking angrily. "I was not born in the castle. I come from a distant land. A traveller 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 g00d 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."

I summoned what remained of my courage.

"So you never - never attacked anyone?" I asked hesitantly.

"Never." croaked the old spider. "It would have been my instinct, but from respect of 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?" asked 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 us.

"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?" I asked urgently. More loud clicking, more rustling; the spiders seemed to be closing in.

"We do not speak of it!" said Aragog fiercely. "We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dread creature, though he asked me, many times!"

I didn't want to press the subject, not with the spiders pressing closer on all sides. Aragog seemed to be tired of talking and was backing into his domed web, but his fellow spiders continued to inch towards Harry, Ron and I.

"We'll just go, then!" Harry called desperately to Aragog hearing leaves rustling behind us.

"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. Goodbye, friends of Hagrid."