(Y/N)'s POV

We didn't stop until we reached Hagrid's hut, I almost jumped out of my skin when he opened the door suddenly, crossbow at the ready, we quickly ripped the cloak off and he let us in.

Instantly, I could tell something was wrong, his voice kept breaking and he was looking all around the room. We didn't get to ask him anything, there were several loud knocks on the door before we could, we quickly hid under the invisibility cloak in the corner of the hut.

It was Dumbledore, and a man I recognised as Cornelius Fudge, after some awkward greeting they got to business. "Bad business, Hagrid," said Fudge. "Four attacks on Muggle-borns. Things've gone far enough. Ministry's got to act."

"I never," said Hagrid, looking at Dumbledore. "You know I never, Professor Dumbledore, sir-" "I want it understood, Cornelius, that Hagrid has my full confidence," said Dumbledore, frowning at Fudge.

Despite being hidden, I still smiled at this widely, "Of course Dumbledore has Hagrid's back" I thought. "Look, Albus," said Fudge, uncomfortably. "Hagrid's records against him. Ministry's got to do something the school governors have been in touch." Dumbledore protested again looking very agitated.

"Look at it from my point of view," said Fudge, fidgeting with his bowler. "I'm under a lot of pressure. If it turns out it wasn't Hagrid, he'll be back and no more said. But I've got to take him. Got to. Wouldn't be doing my duty "

"Take me?" said Hagrid, who was trembling. "Take me where?" "No, they wouldn't" I thought before my fears where confirmed. "For a short stretch only" 

"Not Azkaban?" croaked Hagrid, Harry and Ron had to clamp their hands on my shoulders and over my mouth to stop me from protesting. Before Fudge could answer, there was another loud rap on the door. Dumbledore answered it.

Lucius Malfoy strode into Hagrid's hut, "Already here, Dumbledore," he said approvingly. "Good, good" "What're you doin' here?" said Hagrid furiously. "Get outta my house!" "And what exactly did you want with me, Lucius?" said Dumbledore. He spoke politely, but the fire was still blazing in his blue eyes.

"Dreadful thing, Dumbledore," said Malfoy lazily, taking out a long roll of parchment, "but the governors feel it's time for you to step aside. This is an Order of Suspension — you'll find all twelve signatures on it." 

"I'm afraid we feel you're losing your touch. How many attacks have there been now? At this rate, there'll be no Muggle-borns left at Hogwarts, and we all know what an awful loss that would be to the school."

Now it was Fudge who protested, arguing that they had no reason to make Dumbledore step aside. "The appointment, or suspension, of the headmaster is a matter for the governors, Fudge," said Malfoy with a smarmy grin on his face.

Hagrid leapt to his feet, 'An' how many did yeh have ter threaten an' blackmail before they agreed, Malfoy, eh?" he roared. "Dear, dear, you know, that temper of yours will lead you into trouble one of these days, Hagrid," said Mr. Malfoy. 

"I would advise you not to shout at the Azkaban guards like that. They won't like it at all." I wanted to punch him in the throat so badly. "Yeh can' take Dumbledore!" yelled Hagrid, making Fang the boarhound cower and whimper in his basket.

"Take him away, an' the Muggle-borns won' stand a chance! There'll be killin' next!" "Calm yourself, Hagrid," said Dumbledore sharply. He looked at Lucius Malfoy. "If the governors want my removal, Lucius, I shall of course step aside." I wanted to protest but couldn't reveal myself

"But-" stuttered Fudge. "No!" growled Hagrid. Dumbledore had not taken his bright blue eyes off Lucius Malfoy's cold grey ones. "However," said Dumbledore, speaking very slowly and clearly so that none of them could miss a word.

"You will find that I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me... Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it." For a second, I was almost sure Dumbledore's eyes flickered toward the corner where Me, Harry and Ron were hidden.

"Admirable sentiments," said Malfoy, bowing. "We shall all miss your highly individual way of running things, Albus, and only hope your successor will manage to prevent any, er, killins."

He strode to the cabin door, opened it, and bowed Dumbledore out. Hagrid followed "If anyone wanted ter find out some stuff, all they'd have ter do would be ter follow the spiders. That'd lead 'em right. That's all I'm sayin'." Fudge stared at him in amazement.

 "All right, I'm comin', said Hagrid, pulling on his moleskin overcoat. But as he was about to follow Fudge through the door, he stopped again and said loudly, "An' someone'll need ter feed Fang while I'm away." The door banged shut and Ron pulled off the Invisibility Cloak.

"We're in trouble now," Harry said hoarsely. "No Dumbledore. They might as well close the school tonight. There'll be an attack a day with him gone." Fang started howling, scratching at the closed door. 

I tried to pet him and calm him down, he stopped scratching but still whined every so often. "Not if I have anything to say about it, well boys, guess it's time to follow the spiders."

Easier said than done, with Dumbledore gone the castle was in a panic, we weren't allowed to visit the hospital wing anymore as "Precaution", Draco was being a smarmy prat as usual, just like his scumbag father.

In potions. He was trying to sweet talk Snape. Sitting right behind Malfoy, I overheard him. "I always thought Father might be the one who got rid of Dumbledore, I told you he thinks Dumbledore's the worst headmaster the schools ever had." 

"Maybe we'll get a decent headmaster now. Someone who won't want the Chamber of Secrets closed." I threw a quill at his head, he just turned and glared at me and continued louder. "McGonagall won't last long, she's only filling in "Sir," said Malfoy loudly.

"Sir, why don't you apply for the headmaster's job?" "Now, now, Malfoy," said Snape "Professor Dumbledore has only been suspended by the governors. I daresay he'll be back with us soon enough."

"Yeah, right," said Malfoy, smirking. "I expect you'd have Father's vote, sir, if you wanted to apply for the job— I'll tell Father you're the best teacher here, sir", Snape smirked, and Malfoy continued, "Bet you five Galleons the next one dies. Pity it wasn't Granger." 

I threw my entire book at the back of his head as hard as I could, he collapsed to the floor, his head whipped round to face me, I was about to kick off. Unfortunately, the bell rang at that moment.

Which was lucky; for Malfoy at least, I was going to say something, but I had to stop Ron. "I'll get you for this, you delinquent" he spat, scrambling to his feet and sauntering off. "Let me at him," Ron growled as I hung onto his arms. 

"I don't care, I don't need my wand, I'm going to kill him with my bare hands", "He's not worth it" I reasoned, but I knew how he felt, I had been debating punching him again for the entire class, I didn't even care if I got expelled, the only reason I didn't was because I thought Hermione wouldn't want me to.

I looked down at my now dog-eared potions book and for some reason this sparked an idea in my head, "BONES!" I said as I sprinted off to the dorm, Harry and Ron followed me looking confused, when we got there I found her immediately, "Ok princess, I was wondering if you could show me the spiders again?" she cocked her head but mewled like an "Ok?" gesture, but did as I asked.

We were following her for ages when she finally led us to some spiders, "Looks like they're heading for the Forbidden Forest". I scratched Bones behind the ears, and she purred happily, "Clever girl."

We planned to go after Herbology but couldn't, at the end of the lesson Professor Sprout escorted the class to their Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, honestly if the teachers didn't escort us, I would have already headed into the forest by now, but because of Dumbledore leaving, they did headcounts at every period.

"We'll have to use the Invisibility Cloak again," Said Harry, I added. "We can take Fang with us. He's used to going into the forest with Hagrid, he might be some help." "I can't wait any longer, we are going tonight" I said firmly, as if to state a fact.

"Right," said Ron as we walked into class, I had moved my seat to the back, so I wasn't tempted to try my hand at murdering a teacher again.

"Why all these long faces?" Said Lockhart, nobody answered. "Don't you people realize," said Lockhart, speaking slowly, as though we were all a bit dim, "the danger has passed! The culprit has been taken away."

"Says who?" said Dean Thomas 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," said Lockhart, in the tone of someone explaining that one and one made two.

"Oh, yes he would," argued Ron, even more loudly than Dean. "I flatter myself I know a touch more about Hagrid's arrest than you do, Mr. Weasley," said Lockhart. "Oh please, you barely know how to hold a wand, I wonder if you even know how to spell 'arrest'" I said from the back.

"Well, I could hardly be a best selling author if I couldn't" he said, smiling at me. "Did you get someone to help you with the difficult words?" he paled for some reason. 

"That's enough out of you Mr. (L/N), unless you think you know more about the dark arts then the man who defeated the Bandon Banshee?" "Probably" I answered. "Nonsense, you don't have to pretend not to be intimidated by my ability, especially as it dwarfs your own"

"Oh, shut up you pillock!" I said from my seat at the back of class, throwing another book, "Break with a banshee" sailed over his head as he turned away, there were some gasps, Lavender Brown looked terrified, but Lockhart apparently had selective hearing and didn't notice.

(Y/N)'s POV

After what felt like an eternity, we reached Hagrid's house, when I pushed the door open, Fang went mad with joy at the sight of us, I stroked him to calm him down, we left the Invisibility Cloak on Hagrid's table. 

There would be no need for it in the pitch-dark forest. "C'mon, Fang buddy, we're going for a walk," I said, patting his leg, and Fang bounded happily out of the house behind us.

Me and Harry took out our wands, "Lumos!" and a tiny light appeared at the end of them, "Mine's bigger than yours" I joked as we stepped into the forest.

We spent what must have been at least an hour looking for whatever the spiders found so interesting, "What d'you reckon?" Harry said to me and Ron, debating giving up. "We've come this far," said Ron.

"I'm not turning back now" I said as I trudged on. So, we followed the darting shadows of the spiders into the trees. After a while, the ground seemed to be sloping downward, though the trees were as thick as ever. Ron suddenly stopped.

"(Y/N)!" Ron shouted, his voice breaking with relief "(Y/N), it's our car!" "What?" "Come on!" as I chased after Ron, Mr. Weasley's car was standing, empty, in the middle of a circle of thick trees under a roof of dense branches, its headlights ablaze.

"It's been here all the time!" said Ron delightedly, walking around the car. "Look at it. The forest's turned it wild" I was so confused, "Cars can go wild?" was my only thought. "And we thought it was going to attack us!" said Ron, leaning against the car and patting it. 

"I wondered where it had gone!" We squinted around on the floodlit ground for signs of more spiders, but they had all scuttled away from the glare of the headlights. 

"We've lost the trail," said Harry, that was when I felt it, a throbbing in my head, a wave of fear came over me, a chill slid down my spine. "Away from the monster, away from the monster." I thought, I just walked towards wherever my legs wanted to take me.

Harry and Ron followed after me, I could tell they were confused. To be honest, so was I. Eventually we made our way to a clearing, it was surrounded by spiderwebs, as soon as we entered, there where spiders the size of dogs in front of us, I paused, wand at the ready.

They moved aside as if giving permission for us to go forward, and then trailed behind us, this entire time Ron had been quivering and shaking, open mouthed and whimpering, and frankly, I don't blame him.

usually I was pretty good with animals, but even I was terrified of this situation. "Aragog!" one of the spiders called, much to my surprise. "Aragog!" And from the middle of the misty, domed web, a spider the size of a small elephant emerged, very slowly. 

There was grey in the black of his body and legs, and each of the eyes on his ugly, pincered head was milky white. He was blind. My head stopped throbbing when he finally spoke. "What is it?" he said, clicking his pincers rapidly. 

For some reason, his voice calmed me, this wasn't a monster, this was an old, tired, blind creature. "Men," clicked the spider. "Is it Hagrid?" said Aragog, moving closer, his eight milky eyes wandering vaguely. 

"So, they know Hagrid? Good, hopefully that means they're friendly" I thought trying to calm myself. "Strangers," clicked another. "Kill them," clicked Aragog fretfully. "I was sleeping..." "OR NOT!" they cynical voice in my head said.

"We're friends of Hagrid's!" I shouted, trying to stop them. They paused, "See, we even have Fang with us." I said, pointing to the dog who was whimpering behind Ron, who was also whimpering.

Aragog paused. "Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before," he said slowly. "Hagrid's in trouble," said Harry breathing very fast. "That's why we've come." "In trouble?" said the aged spider, and I thought there was concern beneath the clicking pincers. "But why has he sent you? Are you his kin?" 

My first thought was lying to him and saying yes, in the hopes to avoid an attack but decided against it; there was no way this spider lived this long if it would be fooled by a trick like that, Ironically this blind spider would probably see through any lie I thought up. 

I simply said "No, just very good friends", as calmly as I could. "Something is attacking students at the school, it hurt friends of mine, we were coming to see if you knew anything, Hagrid told us to come" Aragog clicked his pincers furiously.

"But that was years ago," said Aragog fretfully. "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?" I enquired. "I!" said Aragog, clicking angrily. "I was not born in the castle. I come from a distant land. A traveller 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..." "Of course, I meant no offence, he is our good friend too, and a great man, the best I've met" I said trying to calm him.

"So, you never attacked anyone?" asked Harry, I looked at him, trying my best to tell him to "Shut up" without words.

"Never," croaked the old spider. "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..."

"Bathroom?" I said aloud, making a mental note. "But then... Do you know what did kill that girl?" said Harry. "Because whatever it is, it's back and attacking people again" His words were drowned by a loud outbreak of clicking and the rustling of many long legs shifting angrily; large black shapes shifted all around us.

"The thing that lives in the castle," said Aragog, "Is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others. 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?" said Harry urgently. More loud clicking, more rustling; the spiders seemed to be closing in. "We do not speak of it!" said Aragog fiercely. "We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dread creature, though he asked me, many times." "That's fine, thank you for your help, I'm sure Hagrid will be very grateful."

Aragog seemed to be tired of talking. He was backing slowly into his domed web, but his fellow spiders continued to inch slowly toward Harry and Ron. "We'll just go, then," Harry called desperately to Aragog, there were leaves rustling behind us.

"Go?" said Aragog slowly. "I think not..." "But...but..." was all I could manage through my shock. "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, friends of Hagrid."

"WAIT. YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS! PLEASE!" I yelled. "You said you wouldn't harm humans, out of respe-" I started, he interrupted my train of thought. "Enough mind games, good friend of Hagrid."

I spun around. Feet away, was a solid wall of spiders, clicking, their many eyes gleaming in their ugly black heads. Even as I reached for my wand, in my heart I knew it was no good, there were too many of them, "Might as well give it a go" I thought. "Stupefy" I yelled into the mass of spiders rushing at us, knocking a few down.

To my relief, a long note sounded, and a blaze of light flamed through the hollow. Mr. Weasley's car was thundering down the slope, headlights glaring, its horn screeching, knocking spiders aside; several were thrown onto their backs, their endless legs waving in the air. The car screeched to a halt in front of me, Harry and Ron and the doors flew open.

"Get Fang!" I yelled, diving into the driving seat; Ron seized the boarhound around the middle and threw him, yelping, into the back of the car, the doors slammed shut, we didn't touch the accelerator but the car didn't need us to.

The engine roared and we were off, hitting more spiders. But they were still gaining on us, "Where is Hermione when you need her?" bellowed Ron, looking at the mass of legs that was following.

I had a lightbulb moment at the mention of her name, the spell she taught me this year, I leaned out of the back window, like I did ages ago when freeing Harry from Privet drive, "IMMOBULUS" I shouted with all the conviction I could. The spiders seemed to stop dead, some in mid-air lunges, and they disappeared into the night behind us.

We sped up the slope, out of the hollow, and they were soon crashing through the forest, branches whipping the windows as the car wound its way cleverly through the widest gaps, following a path it obviously knew. When we arrived, I gave the car a grateful pat as it reversed back into the forest and disappeared.

I went back into Hagrid's cabin to get the Invisibility Cloak. Fang was trembling under a blanket in his basket, I pet him until he was calm, putting some food in his bowl. When I got outside again, Ron was being violently sick in the pumpkin patch, Harry patting his back. 

"Follow the spiders why couldn't it have been follow the Butterflies?" said Ron weakly, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "I'll never forgive Hagrid. We're lucky to be alive." "Well, at least we have a cool story to tell Hermione later." Trying to find a silver lining.

 "I bet he thought Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his," said Harry. "That's exactly Hagrid's problem!" said Ron, thumping the wall of the cabin. "He always thinks monsters aren't as bad as they're made out and look where it's got him! A cell in Azkaban!" 

He was shivering uncontrollably now. "What was the point of sending us in there? What have we found out; I'd like to know?" "That Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets," I said confidently, throwing the cloak over Ron and Harry and prodding Ron in the arm to make him walk. "He was innocent." I said, giving Harry some side eye to say, "I told you so"

Ron gave a loud snort. As the castle loomed nearer Harry twitched the cloak to make sure our feet were hidden, then pushed the creaking front doors ajar. We rushed off to bed, it was fair to say we were all too tired to stay up much and talk that night.

But something didn't sit right, something was bugging me, I couldn't get comfortable, then I clocked it. I lay down, still thinking about what Aragog had said I suddenly couldn't take it anymore and sat bolt upright. "Harry," I hissed through the dark.

"Harry!" Harry woke with a yelp like Fang's, stared wildly around, and saw me. "Harry... that girl who died. Aragog said she was found in a bathroom," he nodded sleepily "What if she never left the bathroom? What if she's still there?" 

Harry rubbed his eyes, frowning through the moonlight. And then he understood, too. "You don't think - not Moaning Myrtle?" I gave a slow nod in the darkness.