CHAPTER EIGHT
ATTACK FROM THE PAST
Classes were cancelled for the day as the instructors busied themselves with locating the culprit behind the mysterious attack on one of the divination teachers. There was an air of worry and fear lingering throughout the castle that night as students murmured to each other in the great hall. Lavender and Parvati were in tears as they worried over their favorite professor, Dean and Seamus had gone to comfort them.
"Did you see anything else, Harry?" Hermione whispered from across the table.
He shook his head slowly, recalling the scene. "No, just the welt on her neck. There wasn't any blood anywhere." He closed his eyes and thought harder. There has to be some clue as to what happened! He shouted at himself. "What leaves a mark like that? And on the neck even?" He wondered aloud.
"Any number of monsters, Harry." Ron gulped nervously. "What if it was a vampire or some other type of creature that fed on blood? Don't they always attach themselves to the neck?"
Hermione shook her head. "Honestly! If you would just sit down one afternoon and read Hogwarts: A History as I have suggested so many times, you'd know that the grounds, well outside of the forest, are a vampire free zone! They just can't get in without an invitation and I don't think Professor Dumbledore would invite anyone who would attack another teacher like that."
Ron dropped a scornful look on his girlfriend. "Why should I even have to read that book? You've practically got it memorized! All we have to do is ask a simple question and you'll give us the answer eventually!"
She looked back at the red-head and stuck out her tongue. "Well, since it obviously can't be vampires ..." Ron rolled his eyes and Hermione elbowed him. "... then it's got to be something else, hasn't it?"
Harry wasn't listening to their banter. He agreed with Hermione that it wasn't vampires; he'd seen the effect of their attacks on the wildlife in the forest when he went there with Hagrid. Thinking of his large friend, he looked up and scanned the instructor's table. Most of the faculty were about the castle and grounds looking for the perpetrator of this crime. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen Hagrid once since they'd arrived.
"I think we need to see Hagrid." Harry said as he stood up suddenly. His friends looked and saw the old twinkle in his eyes shining down at them. That same twinkle that told them he was on to something and an adventure was about to cross their path. "Let's see if Professor Dumbledore will come with us, he might want to hear what I'm thinking about. Ron and I have seen what might have caused that bite."
Ron looked at him in confusion. "What?" He croaked as it suddenly dawned on him what Harry might be on to. "Oh, no, I'm not going there again!"
Hermione shook her head and looked at how pale her boyfriend had just gotten. "Hold on, what's this about?"
"Come on, I'll explain on the way." Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny left the great hall at a brisk walk. "Remember second year?" Harry asked. "When you were petrified and Ron and I had to go into the forest?"
Hermione's eyes went wide. "You can't be serious! We can't go there! It's against the rules and far too dangerous!"
"I'm going to be following the rules this time." He chuckled. "I think that Hagrid can help and Dumbledore needs to know this."
They got to the statue that hid the entry way to the headmaster's office. Harry spoke the password and it slid out of the way revealing the spiraling staircase and they stepped upon it. They reached the top to find the door to the office open and their aged friend pacing steadily in front of his desk.
He looked up at the approaching students. "Ah, I was wondering when you'd show up." Albus said with a slightly worried smile. "Have you discovered something that we might have overlooked?"
"Professor, what do you know about the bite of an acromantula?" Harry asked with an urgent tone to his voice.
The wizened mage looked at him pointedly. "What would bring that to mind, Harry?" He asked with a sudden sense of dread.
"You remember the basilisk and everything we went through during second year." Harry began, "But you might not have known that Ron and I had gone to the heart of the forest, following the spiders that were fleeing the castle. Well, when we got there, we found a friend of Hagrid's."
"Yes ..." Dumbledore nodded knowingly, "I do seem to recall that his friend was confused with the beast that was locked in the chamber. I am well aware that Aragog now lives in the forest. But he's sworn that he will not attack humans. I have Hagrid's word on the matter."
"Yes, Professor, but what if Aragog is not in control anymore? Did you know that he had a wife and there were literally hundreds of giant spiders in the forest now?"
Dumbledore looked up at him in surprise. "A wife? This complicates things greatly. Wait just a moment, please." He walked across the room and picked up what looked like a small, golden cornucopia and held the wide opening to his face. "Attention, faculty and staff. I believe the culprit may have been identified. Please take all students to their towers and report to my office as soon as you are able." The headmaster's voice echoed through the halls of the castle and after a few minutes every teacher and staff member, including all the house elves, were standing in his office or just outside in the entryway, one Rubeus Hagrid was not present.
"It seems our resident trio may have provided us with an answer to our questions concerning the attack on Sibyll. I believe she can be saved. Severus. Poppy, could you two please brew up a large amount of acromantula anti-toxin? I fear we may need as much as you can handle in a short amount of time." The potions master and nurse both nodded briefly and exited the room. "Filius, if you would be so kind as to add wards against monstrous spiders to the grounds? I believe it will go swiftly if the house elves provided their special talents in this matter."
Professor Flitwick smiled and raised his wand in salute and left. The house elves whispered excitedly amongst themselves before one stepped forward, obviously recognizable due to his stack of hats on his head and the many pairs of mismatched socks on his feet.
"We house elves are humbled that you would ask us to do such an important task." Dobby said with reverence. "We will be sure to eradicate any such spiders should they show themselves during our normal duties as well." He bowed dramatically with the other house elves quickly following suit. They all snapped their fingers and were gone in a puff of smoke.
Dumbledore smiled at their theatrics before turning to the rest of them. "If the rest of you ..." He pointedly looked at the four students as he said this, "... would be so kind as to join me in a rescue mission? I believe we may need to help our wayward groundskeeper and care of magical creatures professor."
"Albus, you don't mean to bring these students with us, do you? I mean, I do understand that Mr. Potter is one of them, but this might be far too dangerous for them." Professor Durkell pointedly suggested.
The headmaster smiled gently at his newest staff member. "I'm sure you are well aware of the potency of our Dream Team, Argent. They have proven time and again that there is rarely a task that they cannot triumph over. Besides, they will be needed as guides as our young Mr. Potter and Weasley know exactly where the nest is." He looked at the students and slipped in a sly wink.
The new defense against the dark arts teacher thought about this new bit of information. "Very well then, whatever you think is best, Albus." He turned to Harry and the others. "Do you know the spell to fend off spider fiends?" His piercing blue eyes scanned over their faces.
Harry beat Hermione to the punch. "Yes. It's ARANEA EXIME." Hermione looked at Harry with a cross expression for a moment before smiling. It had been the first time that he answered a question correctly before she had.
"Alright then," said the new professor. "Make sure your friends know the spell as well, we'll need it quite a bit tonight."
The four of them took out their wands and nodded. Hermione took Ron's hand and squeezed it gently. "You don't have to go if you don't want to, Ron. We all know how bad your arachnophobia is."
It took a lot of effort for Ron to steady himself as he swallowed hard. "It's ok. I can do this. I have to face my fears, don't I?" He looked pleadingly to his friends and sister and sighed in relief at their nods of encouragement and reassuring smiles.
"I have to warn everyone that there could be hundreds of them in the forests by now. Ron and I were lucky that we were able to get away last time." Harry said as they all headed towards the room's exit. The adults looked back at him with grim expressions as they nodded and one by one all descended the staircase to the battle that they were not looking forward to.
It had been a rather uneventful trek into the forbidden forest, everyone hoping against hope that they were wrong in their assessment that the spider population had outstripped the forest and started encroaching on the surrounding bits of civilization. They had split up in pairs once they got past the new batch of wards that Flitwick and the house elves had recently laid around the school grounds. Each group had been instructed to stay in sight of the group to the right at all costs and if there were any signs of danger they were to yell out or send red sparks into the sky if either of the team were able.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were in their own group at the center of the search line providing guidance and moral support for one another. It had only been an hour after entering that they knew their suspicions were correct.
Ron had been glancing all around him nervously looking into the trees, on the ground, and in every direction he could possibly think of. His friends were surrounding him making sure that they were the first buffer should any spiders actually decide they liked the scent of pure fear over the other search party members. Ron had just looked up at the rustling trees when he tripped and fell flat-out on the ground.
"Stupid tree root!" He growled as he got back to his feet. He hadn't noticed that Hermione and Ginny had gasped in horror and that Harry had sent up the signal.
"What's going on?" He looked around at his friends with a blank look on his face. "We weren't attacked were we? Th-there aren't any sp-sp-spiders on me are there?" He began to frantically brush himself off as he imagined hundreds of small spiders were swarming over his body.
Hermione walked up to him and slapped him hard across the face. "Pull yourself together, Ron!" She said in exasperation. "There aren't any spiders on you, but your clumsy luck has given us some proof that Hagrid could be in real trouble!"
Ron looked at her tear streaked face then looked to the ground where the half-eaten body of Fang lay. "Fang?! Fang, what did they do to you?" Tears streamed down his cheeks as he looked and saw the same emotions and questions rippled across everyone else's face.
Harry turned away seething in anger and began to systematically scour the landscape with his new-found ability to see in the dark. "Whatever did this, if spiders didn't, isn't around to be seen. That or it's gone invisible." He reported to the group.
"I think we should stick closer together, Albus." Professor Durkell suggested a moment later. "Acromantula are very quick and dark as pitch. It will be difficult to fight them off with only two to a group."
Dumbledore nodded in agreement. "That is an excellent suggestion under the present circumstances." He replied.
Harry froze in place and closed his eyes. "Shh! I think I hear something."
"What do you hear? I don't hear anything, Harry." Ron blurted out just before Hermione and Ginny simultaneously slapped their hands over his mouth.
"SHHH!" they both warned.
He listened carefully, reaching out with invisible tendrils attempting to pick up the faint sound he had barely heard. He stood up straight and spun around. "This way." He said with determination.
Harry found himself moving with great determination as he started to recognize the path they were following. They pushed aside thorns and briars and all manner of undergrowth until they arrived at the clearing where many trees seemed to have been ripped from the earth and lie about like a can of spilled pickup sticks.
Hermione gasped in terror at the sight. The blood drained from Ron's face as he started to back peddle from the horror in front of his eyes. Ginny opened her mouth to scream but only a weak whimper fell from her lips. The adults stood in shock and disbelief. Harry clenched his fists and leveled his wand.
"Hagrid's under there." He said with a flat, cold voice that startled everyone to action.