The Serpent that Devours Us

Chapter 8

During Harry’s second year at Hogwarts, Hagrid had taken Harry into the Forbidden Forest one Saturday afternoon to meet his best friend, Aragog. Harry had been secretly a little terrified of Aragog, but since Hagrid clearly loved the giant spider, Harry had kept it together during their meeting.

Harry hadn’t kept it together, however, when after their meeting with the old spider, Aragog’s many offspring had decided to turn Harry into dinner. Apparently, Aragog’s kids had promised their daddy they wouldn’t ever eat Hagrid, but they had made no such promises about any guests Hagrid was stupid enough to bring into their lair.

To make a long story very short, Hagrid and Harry had barely made it out of there alive, and Harry had learned a very important lesson. No, two very important lessons.

One, that he despised acromantulas with a vengeance, and two, that not all magical creatures should be preserved at all costs.

Newt and Hagrid were the kind of men to see the good in any creature, even an enormous man-eating spider, and would never think to harm them.

Harry, on the other hand, had no problems killing the crap out of eight-legged beasts that bred like rabbits and had the potential to destroy entire ecosystems should they establish themselves somewhere they weren’t native. Hagrid had been unknowingly very lucky he’d released Aragog into a forest that housed centaurs who kept the acromantula population in check by hunting the beasts and using their silk and fangs for all manner of objects. If Aragog’s offspring hadn’t been kept in check there wouldn’t have been a single living animal found in the Forbidden Forest, magical or not, after a decade or so. Acromantulas were not picky eaters and killed anything they could find.

Harry portkeyed to Calcutta and flooed to Gosaba, on the edge of the Sundarbans. From there he took his broomstick while hiding under his invisibility cloak and took off across the largest mangrove forest in the world. The trees were thick and the ground soaked, if there was ground at all, because a lot of the forest was a crisscross of streams, rivers and tidal areas.

It was a stunning place, but not without any risks. Aside from the invasive acromantula population, the local tiger population was also a very real threat to people who visited the area, wizard or muggle. Because even for a wizard with magic, a tiger was a fierce opponent, especially because it was very difficult to see them coming in the shadowy undergrowth of a dense forest. Therefore, Harry stayed on his broom and kept above the treetops until he found the area where the acromantulas had their nest.

Before travelling south, Harry and Tom had discussed their plan, which was incredibly simple, so Harry knew he could get started on the attack right away.

While hovering on his broomstick above the colony, Harry got his suitcase out of his backpack and kept it ready in one hand, while with the other he steered his broom down at a high speed, bursting through the canopy and taking the many, many man-eating spiders completely by surprise.

“Now!” Harry yelled, dropping the suitcase to the floor and kicking it open with his foot. At once, Tom burst out the opening, yellow eyes blazing and all around them acromantulas started screaming, a noise so high pitched that it hurt Harry’s ears.

Well, that was something Harry had to write down in his journal as soon as he could, because before that moment Harry hadn’t known acromantulas could scream. Tom slithered around in a circle while all around them spiders that hadn’t yet met his killing gaze fled in all directions. Many, though, did meet their end and fell from the trees around them, legs curled inward as the hit the ground with dull thuds.

The chaos only lasted less than a minute and after that the quiet returned and Harry looked around in awe. There had to be at least thirty or so carcasses spread around them, in all sizes, from very young spiders the size of French bulldogs to full grown specimens the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.