Chapter 19

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"Go? I think not. 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, friend of Hagrid." Aragog turned and disappeared into the shadows of the cavern.

"Can we panic now?" Ron asked and Olivia nodded.

"I'm panicking!" Olivia yelled as more clicking was heard. She whipped her head around trying to look for an escape. "I never had problems with spiders till now!" Olivia yelled panic evident in her voice.

Harry, Olivia, and Ron spun around. A gang of five-foot spider blocked the path ahead and begin to move forward. Harry and Ron spun around again spiders. Everywhere. Closing in.  

Desperately, Harry swung the lantern in his hand. The spiders faltered then creep forward again as the arc of the light chased itself away.

Around and around. The lantern went out and Harry pitched it aside. As one, he and Ron drew their wands. "Nice knowing you." 

They're done for. Olivia grabbed Fang's collar as he whimpered. The spiders drew closer, clicking feverishly, when a long, loud horn blared.

Seconds later, a blaze of light ignited the hollow and the Ford Anglia came thundering over the rim and down the slope, knocking spiders out of its path.

As it screeched to a halt and the doors flung open. "Let's go!" Harry yelled as they leaped inside. Ron shifted frantically. A spider appeared at Harry's open window. "THE WINDOWS! ROLL UP THE WINDOWS!"

"I CAN'T! IT'S STUCK!" Just then, a hairy leg reached through Ron's window. Instantly, Ron hit the gas, throwing the car into reversed.

Spiders scattered, but the two clinging to the side windows hold tight. As the car zoomed forward out of the hollow, Harry rolled  his window tight, snapping off his spider legs.

Olivia had blood running down her face from a cut above her eyebrow. She was breathing heavy from running from the spiders.

The Anglia jetted out of the hollow and landed with a thud. Olivia screamed and Harry turned. The other spider was pulling Olivia from the car.

Harry pointed his wand, uttering a spell and a blinding flash of white light blasted the spider into the shadows whipping past. "Thanks for that." Olivia muttered as she breathed hard.

"Don't mention it." They stopped, both hear it a distant clicking. As the car flow over a ridge, they saw them, a sea of spider heading straight for them like a herd of raging wildebeest.

Olivia now had another cut on her arm. She quickly pulled her sleeve over it. Not wanting to worry the two.

Ron put his foot to the floor and spun the wheel and sending the car sliding away. The spiders stampeded after.

The Anglia slalomed through the forest, skimming past trees as the spiders charged after.

Harry peered ahead and saw an area of fallen trees. There was an opening, one narrow escape route. "That way! It's the only way out!" Olivia yelled as she looked back. "Hurry! They're catching up!" Ron jammed the accelerator just as a giant Tarantula dropped in front of the escape route.

Harry, Olivia and Ron were as good as dead. "Can you get us in the air?" Harry asked as he kept an eye on his sister; who was clutching fang tightly.

"Flying gear's jammed!" Ron yelled as the spiders behind drew closer. The Tarantula waited ahead. Harry clapped his hand over Ron's on the gear shift and pushed.

The tarantula's pincers opened, ready to kill, when the gear shift gave and the Anglia's wheels lifted and the car flew, leaving the furious spiders below.

The car barely avoided the rearing tarantula, then sailed over the trees.

As they land Fang bolted free and Olivia followed. Harry and Ron exited the car wearily and then watched it turn and rumbled back into the forest. "'Follow the spiders'! Follow the spiders'! If he ever gets out of Azkaban, I'll kill Hagrid. I mean, what was the point of sending us in there? What have we found out?" Ron ranted as Harry looked over his younger sister.

"We know one thing. Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets. He was innocent."

——

Madam Pomfrey opened the door and frowned at Harry and Ron. "There's no point in talking to an petrified person. She won't hear a word you're saying." Ron and Olivia shifted uncomfortably.

"We know that, Madam Pomfrey. It's just, well, you see, we thought, maybe, we could... be with her for a bit. She's our... friend, you see, and... even if she can't hear us... I mean, it can't hurt, can it?" A glint of sympathy flickered in Pomfrey's eyes.

"Very well then. But be quick about it." As she exited, the boys stepped to her bed. Absently, Ron picked up the circular mirror that laid on the nightstand.

He eyes Lockhart's Get Well card. "You don't think Lockhart could be the heir of Slytherin, do you?" Ron asked as Olivia and Harry looked away. "Right. Forget I said it." Harry studied Hermione's face.

"Wish you were here, Hermione. We need you. Now more than ever..." Just then, the mirror in Ron's hand caught the late afternoon sunlight and casted a jagged flame across Hermione's hand.

Olivia watched the light dance over her fingers then looks closer. She saw the paper clutched there.

Harry and Ron ducked into an alcove and took out the crinkled paper. Which is torn from a library book. "'Of the many fearsome beasts that roam our land, none is more deadly than the Basilisk. Capable of living for hundreds of years, instant death awaits any who meet this giant serpent's eye. Spiders flee before it and only the crowing of the rooster can kill it.'" Olivia read and looked up.

"Ron! Harry! This is it! The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a Basilisk. That's why I can hear it speak. It's a snake." Olivia quickly slapped a hand over her mouth.

"But it kills by looking people in the eye. Why is it no one's dead?" Harry frowned, contemplating this, then caught his and Ron's reflection in the window opposite.

"Because no one did look it in the eye. Not directly at least." Harry said in a rush. "Colin saw it through his camera. Justin -- Justin must've seen the Basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he's a ghost -- he couldn't die again."Harry took a deep breath.

"And Hermione... had the mirror! I bet you anything she was using it to look round corners, in case it came along."

"And Mrs. Norris? I'm pretty sure she didn't have a camera or a mirror, Harry." Ron told them and Olivia shook her head.

"The water... there was water on the floor that night. She only saw the Basilisk's reflection..." Olivia scanned the page again.

"The crowing of the rooster is fatal to it! That's why Hagrid's roosters were killed! Spiders flee before it! It all fits!"

"The crowing of the rooster is fatal to it! That's why Hagrid's roosters were killed! Spiders flee before it! It all fits!"

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