All in the Family

Chapter 33: Aragog

"Not again!" Was the most intelligible thing to be understood through the multitude of cursing ensuing around them all.

They were somehow, imposibly, in an even smaller space than Harry's cupurd had been! Not one of them could even sit upright without cracking their heads, all forced in a bent angle with their knees in their face, the miracle it was even wide enough for the eight of them to all be squashed into one another achieved only by magic.

"Where the bloody hell are we!"

"Who cares, somebody get us out!"

As muffled and in pain as they all were, the one that rose above them all was the only one they could care about, Regulus miraculsly having the book and giving absolutly no care to anything of the pleasent openings as he sped his way through the opening chapter, caring no more than the others who or what an Aragog was.

"I would follow a horde or angry goblins into a dragons den to get out of this place, Ron's spider phobia is laughable," Peter moaned right beside him, fidgeting so much James swore he was knocking into everyone around him purpose.

Truly a wrenching scene though it was to hear Ron agreeing to track down the spiders into the Forbidden Forest all from one look at his friends empty seat, Regulus couldn't pay much of anything a mind when he was only squinting at words with the book mashed into his nose because he couldn't stretch it one bloody centimeter from his face as cramped as they all were. He'd certainly never had a will to go looking for spiders, but that task sounded like a blessing right now compared to their current conditions.

The trek the two boys were making was long and far more arduous than anyone wanted it to be! All the tension being built up would surely cause their current encasement to explode before they even reached where ever these spiders were heading! The car making a reappearance only left them temporarily distracted, but finally the boys had a run in with the real spiders of the forest. Any other day Regulus would have been sympathetic and partially afraid for his own life at such large beasts dragging off two twelve year olds. Some part of him was even thanking his lucky stars someones foot was smashed into his backside rather than currently in the hold of those pincers where they just as likely could have ended up.

Aragog, it turned out, was the arachnid father to all others in this bloody castle apparently, and his interactions with Harry weren't leading to any of them having much envy of Harry getting to stretch his legs more than them at the moment.

Either way, he was more than grateful Aragog was keeping this conversation short, not so much when the spider then sentenced Harry and Ron to death for it. The idea still settled uneasily in the back of his mind what would happen when Harry died, where would they get sent next? Thankfully the car made a comeback and they escaped with their lives. At this point Regulus wasn't convinced he'd get out of this space with all his organs where they were supposed to be he was scrunched so tight, so he eagerly finished with Harry's epiphany and didn't get a second to dwell on it himself, not one second to breath properly as he finished.