Good Enough | hp

25| Webs of Doom

It was a difficult journey through the castle, dodging all the teachers. At last, they reached the Entrance Hall, slid back the lock on the oak front doors, squeezed between them, trying to stop any creaking, and stepped out into the moonlit grounds.

"Course," said Ron abruptly, as they strode across the black grass, "we might get to the Forest and find there's nothing to follow. Those spiders might not've been going there at all. I know it looked like they were moving in that sort of general direction, but..."

His voice tailed away hopefully.

Estella shot him a disbelieving look.

They reached Hagrid's house, sad and sorry-looking with its blank windows.

When Harry pushed the door open, Fang went mad with joy at the sight of them. Worried he might wake everyone at the castle with his deep, booming barks, they hastily fed him treacle fudge from a tin on the mantelpiece, which glued his teeth together.

Estella could almost picture her parents' horrified looks. Which reminds me...I need to write to them soon.

Harry left the Invisibility Cloak on Hagrid's table. There would be no need for it in the pitch-dark Forest.

"C'mon, Fang, we're going for a walk," said Harry, patting his leg.

Estella frowned. "Are you sure it's safe? I mean," she added quickly at the look on Ron's face, "for Fang. Should he really be going in there?"

"It should be fine," Harry's brow furrowed. "He came with us last year during our detention with Malfoy."

Estella exhaled a long breath, then nodded. 

Fang bounded happily out of the house behind them, dashed to the edge of the Forest and lifted his leg against a large sycamore tree.

Almost in sync, Harry and Estella pulled out their wands and murmured, "Lumos!"

Two tiny lights appeared like stars in the vast darkness.

"Good thinking," said Ron. "I'd light mine too, but you know- it'd probably blow up or something..."

Estella couldn't help her smile. "Why don't you ask your mum for a new one?" she inquired.

"So she can skin me alive?" Ron snorted. "Ronald Weasley," he said in a false falsetto pitch, "It's your own fault your wand broke- stealing the car. If you put another toe out of line-!"

Estella muffled her laugh with her hand.

Harry tapped Estella and Ron on the shoulder, pointing at the grass.

She blinked and looked in the direction of his wand. Two solitary spiders were hurrying away from the wandlight into the shade of the trees.

"Ok," Ron sighed, as though resigned to the worst, "I'm ready. Let's go."

So, with Fang scampering around them, sniffing tree roots and leaves, they entered the Forest. 

By the glow of Harry and Estella's wands, they followed the steady trickle of spiders moving along the path. They walked for about twenty minutes, not speaking, listening hard for noises other than breaking twigs and rustling leaves.

Then, when the trees had become thicker than ever, so that the stars overhead were no longer visible, and the pinpricks of light shone alone in a sea of dark, they saw their spider guides leaving the path.

Estella paused, trying to gauge where the spiders were going from the minuscule gleam of their bodies. It was to no avail, however, and she was resigned to staring at the two boys' eyes reflected in the light from her wand.