I Love You, Lily (A Scorily Fanfiction) -COMPLETED-

Chapter Thirty: Sp-p-iders?

Rose's POV:

Jake was getting on my nerves. He was constantly at my elbow saying something I expect he thought was witty, trying to get my attention- and he was getting it in the COMPLETE wrong way.

I was annoyed. So annoyed I could have used Aunt Ginny's Bat-Bogey Hex on him and laugh.

I was beginning to see why Lils had used it so many times on so many boys over the years. One boy was bad enough; imagine several!

Currently, however, I was a bit distracted from Jake. Those spiders in Hagrid's pen were Acromantulas- I knew that well. They popped up in all sorts of accounts of my uncle's adventures.

And, well, let's just say I shared my dad's fear of spiders.

I was sure I looked a right little coward, but I didn't care. I squealed and hid my face in the nearest convenient shoulder.

It was Jake's.

Crap.

"You know, if you wanted to hug me, all you had to do was ask," he winked as I looked up, mortified, at him.

Faith slapped him. "You idiot. She did NOT want to hug you. She was scared. And to be honest, so am I." She said this last bit in an undertone, as she and Lily had been friends and talked long enough for her to know about Hagrid's obsession with monstrous creatures and the hurt she might inflict on him by saying the creatures were scary.

"Erm- Hagrid?" Lily asked nervously. "Didn't you say- didn't you say Aragog's descendants wanted to eat you?"

Hagrid beamed at her as the Zabini twins rolled their eyes. "Righ' you are, Lily, but these particular ones were runts, as you might say. Kicked outta the nest soon as they were born. I bin raisin' 'em out back, an' they've sorta taken a fancy to me."

"Where did you say you were keeping them?" Sean Davies asked.

"Out back," Hagrid repeated, somewhat vaguely. He waved his arm in the direction of the Forest borders nearest the lake.

"Couldn't that be bad- er- sir? Keeping them there?" Park Zabini asked carefully, his malicious eyes gleaming.

Hagrid's great brow wrinkled. "Now, why would that be bad, Zabini?"

Pansy Zabini giggled slightly. "Well, it's obvious, isn't it?" she asked. "The spiders breed quicker than rabbits, my dad says, and Acromantulas eat- eat humans." She gulped and suddenly seemed less malicious.

Hagrid scratched his head. "Hadn' thoughta that," he said, "but I guess you're right. I could ship 'em off to Saudi Arabia- but I thought they might like- like-"

"What were you going to teach us about them, Hagrid?" Lily cut in, her voice compassionate. I knew she didn't like Hagrid's classes to fail.

That seemed to give our giant teacher an opportunity to regain lost ground.

"Righ' you are, Lily! Maybe you know that Acromantulas can learn English?"

The other American student, Alex, nodded. "Didn't you teach English to an Acromantula, Hagrid?"

"Now, who are you, laddie?" Hagrid asked curiously.

Alex smiled. "I'm an American student. From Catmeer. My name is Alex."

"But if yer from America- how'd you know about Aragog?"

"I have a picture of you on my Wizarding Wall of Fame- it's a bulletin board in my room," Alex explained. "I put pictures of talented or influential witches and wizards up there, and your picture is next to Lily's. I've always loved your part in Headmaster Potter's story."

Rose saw Lily beam at him and smirked slightly. Yes, Lily was talented, and yes, she was fantastically intelligent- but she was NOT very influential, and she somehow thought Lily's huge blue eyes rimmed with long, sooty black lashes and her long, smooth auburn curls had had more to do with her placement on this Wizarding Wall of Fame than any of her accomplishments.

Poor Scorpius. He was ten times the wizard Alex was, in Rose's opinion, and deserved Lily far more than Alex. But it seemed the less qualified wizard was going to get her.

Maybe that was why Scorpius had been acting so gloomy lately.

With a slight sensation of shock, she realized that she didn't feel nearly as attached to Scorpius as she had in the past. In fact, she felt rather indifferent towards him.

It's good to be free, she thought absentmindedly as she watched Hagrid's face turn progressively redder at Alex's praise.

"Righ'," he mumbled finally, once he had somewhat regained composure, "well, I've been teachin' English to this lot of 'em, and they can speak it pretty well now. I got 'em trained so they know you're not food-"

I squeaked slightly.

"-an' then you'll just be talkin' to them this lesson."

Jake leaned in and whispered, "it's alright. I'm scared, too," before walking off to choose the spider he would be talking to.

What had that been about? Had he actually said something sensitive and nice?

"Don't even think about it, Rosie," I muttered to myself, before practically gluing myself to Lily's side and going to do the same thing he had.