The Chamber of Secrets Through Another's Eyes

Chapter 19: A Giant Spider?!

Hey! It's Tess again! I have a really awesome, exciting, and terrifying chapter for you! So read it! Read it now! I know you will. (Winks at you even though you can't see me.) Okay, enough joking around! I need to tell you what happened after Cornelius Fudge sent Hagrid to Azkaban!

Two weeks went by as normal. No attacks. Regular classes. Only the Muggle-borns and a ghost missing. We still had the same information about the Chamber of Secrets, and blah blah blah blah blah.

One day after classes Aura, Morana, Xenia, and I went into the girls' bathroom. I told them I was about to get a vision. By now I could predict when they were coming. (Bad joke. I'm sorry.) I always got the same tired and dizzy feeling right before I had a vision. We were sitting on the bathroom floor when I gasped. Morana, Aura, and Xenia looked a little concerned, but it was just a vision I was getting.

I saw Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley at Hagrid's hut, putting their Invisibility Cloak on the table. This time I couldn't hear anything yet, but I saw them walking into the Forbidden Forest. Harry took out his wand and a light appeared at the end of it. Harry and Ron were following spiders. An odd thing to follow.

Nothing much happened, but...Harry and Ron got taken away by giant spiders deeper into the forest. They looked so creepy! And the creepiest part? I felt like they knew I was there, and they were going to attack me next. The spiders put Harry and Ron down. I could hear what was going on. It sounded like the spiders were speaking.

"Aragog! Aragog!" the spiders seemed to cry. In the middle of a web was a giant spider about as big as an elephant!

"What is it?" the giant spider (who must have been Aragog) asked the smaller spiders.

"Men," one of them answered.

"Is it Hagrid?" Aragog asked, moving closer to Harry and Ron.

"Strangers," the other spiders answered.

"Kill them. I was sleeping," Aragog ordered the spiders. (Honestly though, I would say the same thing.)

"We're friends of Hagrid!" Harry shouted at Aragog.

Aragog didn't say anything for a second. "Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before."

"Hagrid's in trouble," Harry spoke. "That's why we've come."

"In trouble?" Aragog sounded concerned. "But why has he sent you?"

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

Aragog spoke again, "But that was years ago. 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?" Harry spoke. (Psst. Hey, Ron? Are you okay? Speak to the spider! What's wrong?)

"I!" Aragog said angrily. "I was not born in the castle. I come from a distant land. A traveler 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 good 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..."

"So you never - never attacked anyone?" Harry asked.

"Never," Aragog answered. "It would have been my instinct, but out of respect for 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..." Harry tried to be courageous. (Ron?! You okay, dude? Come on! Speak! I'll tell Xenia how brave you were! She likes you. Oh well. I guess you can't hear me.) "Do you know what did kill that girl? Because whatever it is, it's back and attacking people again - " The spiders started clicking over Harry's voice.

"That thing that lives in the castle is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others," Aragog answered. "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?" Harry asked. There was more clicking from the spiders, and they were getting closer to Ron and Harry.

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

"We'll just go, then," Harry told Aragog.

"Go?" Aragog asked. "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. Good-bye, friend of Hagrid," Aragog said.

I gasped again and I was back in the girls' bathroom.

"You are never going to believe what I just saw!" I told the other three.

"Aragog isn't the monster of the Chamber of Secrets?" Morana asked.

"Aragog is a giant spider?" Aura asked.

"Hagrid didn't let the monster out, and the guy I have a crush on didn't say anything to Aragog?" Xenia asked.

"My crush is braver than your crush," Aura sang to Xenia.

"How'd you guys know?" I asked them.

"You told us what was happening as you were having your vision," Morana answered.

"Oh," I said. "Well, we know that it wasn't Hagrid. And we already know it's a basilisk. Who else could it be?"

"Well..." Xenia was thinking. "Before it was You-Know-Who. Now...it couldn't possibly be him. I mean, he's dead, right?"

Aura's eyes widened. "Okay first off, is anybody else concerned about Harry and Ron's safety?!"

"Oh yeah," I said. "That-that's important. They're about to get eaten by giant spiders..."

"Hey, did you hear of the crazy adventures they had last year?" Xenia said. "They'll most likely make it out of this one."

Morana rolled her eyes. "Good point."

"Anyway, You-Know-Who," Aura said. "He's not dead. Hermione told me what happened during the year of the Sorcerer's Stone. Hermione said that You-Know-Who was sort of...hosting Professor Quirrell. You-Know-Who's face was on the back of Quirrell's head. That's why he wore the turban on his head. And Harry...Harry touched Quirrell and killed You-Know-Who. If he came back last year, there is a possibility that he came back again."

"Guys!" Morana said. "Remember the diary that Harry found? Who did it belong to?"

"Tom Riddle," I gasped. "It belonged to You-Know-Who!"

"That doesn't mean anything!" Xenia said. "Just because he left a diary doesn't mean that he's back!"

"Or could it?" Aura asked.

"I don't know," I said with a shrug.

"Well..." Aura began. "I'm pretty sure that You-Know-Who was a Parselmouth. A basilisk is a giant snake, he could just control it. He could have also written the message on the wall or tied Mrs. Norris by her tail to the bracket thing."

"Come on," I said as I stood up dramatically. "I think it's time we gave Tom Riddle's basilisk a visit."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A GIANT SPIDER?!~~~~~~~~~~~~~