Bella and the Chamber (Book Two)

Chapter Forty-One

So I have some time spare so I'm updating before the alcoholic drinks begin! (Lord help me)

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He laughs at her growing weaker state. He was happy. Overjoyed. Thrilled. He was finally going to win and Harry Potter was going to lose. 

*

At the end of the lesson, Professor Snape escorted the class to our Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson. Myself and Ron lagged behind the others so we could talk out of earshot.

"We'll have to use the Invisibility Cloak again," I told Ron. "We can take Fang with us. He's used to going into the Forst with Hagrid, he might be some help."

"Right," Ron said, twirling his wand nervously in his fingers. "Er - aren't there - aren't there supposed to be werewolves in the Forest?" he added, as we took our usual places at the back of Lockhart's classroom.

Deciding not to answer that question, I said, "There are good things in there, too. The centaurs are all right, and the unicorns"

Ron had never been into the Forbidden Forest before. I had entered it one time and had hoped I would never have to go back into it again.

Lockhart bounded into the room and the class stared at him. Every other teacher in the castle was looking grimmer than usual, but Lockhart appeared nothing short but happy. It was strange. It was like everything that was happening wasn't bothering him at all.

"Come now," he cried, beaming around him, "why all these long faces?"

People swapped exasperated looks, but nobody answered. I glared at him. Why the long faces? Hmm, maybe because people are getting attacked including one of my best friends and someone is missing who just so happens to be one of my best friends. So yeah, we're all a bit down Lockhart!

"Don't you people realise," Lockhart said, speaking slowly as though we were all a bit dumb, "the danger has passed! The culprit has been taken away"

"Says who?" Dean asked loudly

"My dear young man, the Minister of Magic wouldn't have taken Hagrid if he hadn't been one hundred percent sure that he was guilty," Lockhart told us, in the tone of someone explaining that one and one made two.

I wonder if anyone would notice if Lockhart suddenly went missing...

"Oh, yes he would," Ron said, even louder than Dean. 

"I flatter myself I know a touch more about Hagrid's arrest than you do, Mr Weasley," Lockhart looked at Ron.

Ron started to say that he didn't so somehow, but stopped mid-sentence when I kicked him hard under the desk. He can be an idiot sometimes. 

"We weren't there, remember?" I muttered.

But Lockhart's disgusting cheeriness, his hints that he had always thought Hagrid was no good, his confidence that the whole business was now at an end, irritated me so much that I yearned to throw Gadding with Ghouls right in Lockhart's stupid face. Instead, I contented myself with scrawling a note to Ron: 'Let's do it tonight'.

Ron read the message, swallowed hard and looked sideways t the empty seat usually filled by Hermione. Bella normally sat next to me. The slight seemed to stiffen his resolve, and he nodded.

Good. This will all end. Soon.

*

The Gryffindor Common Room was very crowded these days because from six o'clock onwards the Gryffindors had nowhere else to go. They also had plenty to talk about, with the result that the Common Room often didn't empty until past midnight.

I went to get the Cloak out of my trunk right after dinner and spent the evening sitting on it, waiting for the room to clear. Fred and George challenged me and Ron to a few games of Exploding Snap and Gunny sat watching us, very subdued in Bella's usual chair. Me and Ron kept losing on purpose, trying to finish the games quickly, but even so, it was well past midnight when Fred, George and Ginny finally went to bed.

Me and Ron waited for the distant sounds of two Dormitory doors 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," Ron said 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 Hagrid's house, sad and sorry-looking with its black windows. When I 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.

I left the Cloak on Hagrid's table. There would be no need for it in the pitch-dark Forest.

"C'mon Fang, we're going to a walk," I said, patting my leg, and Fang bounded happily out of the house behind us, 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," Ron said to me. "I'd light mine too, but you know - it'd probably blow up or something..."

I tapped Ron on the shoulder, pointing at the grass. Two 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, we 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 our 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 me not to leave the Forest path the last time I had 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 I jumped backwards, crushing Ron's foot, but it was only Fang's nose.

"What d'you reckon?" I asked Ron, whose eyes I could just make out, reflecting the light from my wand.

"We've come this far," Ron said. 

I guess we're going off the path then.