Magic? || Years 1-5

Aragog: Year 2

The forest was easy to navigate through at first.

The spiders stayed right on the path, the tree's were thin and they could rely on the tiny amount of moonlight and starlight that made it through the cover of the leaves.

Slowly the two spiders gained in numbers, and soon they were following a group instead.

Unfortunately, as the number of spiders increased, the number of trees did as well.

The stars were covered by the trees, the only light coming from the ends of Amisty and Harry's wands. The trio walked along in silence, their eyes luminous in the dim lighting as they listened for anything.

Anything other than the leaves and twigs snapping and crackling beneath their footsteps.

And then the spiders started to leave the worn path they had been following for so long.

Harry stopped in his tracks, prompting Amisty and Ron to do the same. Fang brushed against Amisty's leg, and she covered her mouth with her hand to keep from screaming.

They couldn't see anything through the darkness of the forest, only what was just in front of them with the help of their wands.

Harry leaped backward suddenly, landing right on Ron's foot.

Fang was the reason why.

"What d'you reckon?" Harry asked, the lenses of his glasses reflecting the light of his wand.

"We've come this far," Ron replied, his face steely.

He was, after all, facing one of his biggest fears.

"No point in turning back now," Amisty nodded, squinting off into the shadows of the trees.

She knew it was no use, her eyes had adjusted as best they could to the little light they had.

They had to move with caution now, stepping over tree roots and stumps to keep up with the steady pace of the spiders.

Every now and again they would stop, searching for the spiders to make sure they were on the right track.

Getting lost this deep in the forest this late at night, especially when even without the new rules it was forbidden, wouldn't bode well.

Amisty nearly fell flat on her face when a particularly thorny bush caught hold of her robes, only kept from falling when Harry and Ron grabbed her arms and pulled her back to her feet.

They continued on, the ground slowly sloping down.

The stifling silence that the forest held gave way as Fang let out a roaring bark. The three of them all jumped, eyes wide and hearts beating a mile a minute.

"What?" Ron asked, not even bothering to keep his voice down as his gaze darted along the forest.

"There's something moving over there. Listen... sounds like something big..." Harry replied, his own voice barely more than a whisper.

Amisty didn't even need to strain her ears to hear it. Branches snapped threateningly, followed by the sounds of large foot falls.

"Oh, no. Oh, no, oh, no, oh -- " Ron ranted, backing up into a tree and shaking his head.

"Shut up. It'll hear you," Harry hissed, unable to tear his gaze away from where the sounds were coming from.

"Hear me? It's already heard Fang!" Ron's voice rose a few octaves in pitch with his panic.