The Gryffindor common room was filled with students when McGonagall arrived with Harry, Ron and Ben. Everyone was talking loudly, but it all stopped at once when the teacher spoke up.

"All students will return to their House common rooms by six o'clock in the evening. No student is to leave the dormitories after that time. You will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No student is to use the bathroom unaccompanied by a teacher. All further Quidditch training and matches are to be postponed. There will be no more evening activities."

She rolled up the parchment which she had been reading, before adding in a choked voice "I need hardly add that I have rarely been so distressed. It is likely that the school will be closed unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught. I would urge anyone who thinks they might know anything about them to come forward."

She climbed awkwardly out of the portrait hole, and the Gryffindors went back to their loud chatter immediately.

Ben, his mind spinning with thoughts, pushed Harry and Ron away towards the stairs. "We can't let them close the school."

"We can't," agreed Harry, who clearly and reasonably didn't want to go back to the Dursleys.

"So what do we do, then?" asked Ron quietly. "Should we snitch on Hagrid?" He didn't seem to like the idea, but he looked desperate ever since they saw Hermione in the infirmary.

"We don't even know if it was him, Ron."

"Ben's right, we should talk to him," suggested Harry. "I can't believe it's him this time, but if he set the monster loose last time he'll know how to get inside the Chamber of Secrets, and that's a start."

"But McGonagall said we've got to stay in our tower unless we're in class-"

Harry lowered his volume even more. "I think it's time to get my dad's old cloak out again."

Neville, Seamus and Dean spent a long time talking about what happened before falling asleep. Harry, Ron and Ben had planned to wait for them to finally fall asleep, so they had to stay silent the whole time to avoid adding fuel to the fire, or the conversation would drag on even longer.

Ben took advantage of all that time to clear his mind.

It couldn't be Hagrid. Even though a large part of everything they knew pointed at him as guilty, it was nearly impossible to believe someone as kind, humble and charming as Hagrid could ever do such a thing, especially to Hermione.

And that meant it had to have been someone else. Ben remembered what happened the year before, when it ended up being Quirrell who was trying to get the stone instead of Snape, who he, Harry, Ron and Hermione suspected of.

He ignored the terrible pang in his heart as he abruptly remembered the image of Hermione lying on the bed in the hospital wing, motionless as if she had been frozen.

They needed to get her back. They couldn't do it without her.

And, out of the blue, he was reminded of Ginny's bloody fingers just a few minutes before discovering the message on the wall.

For a moment, a fleeting idea crossed his mind, but he dismissed it almost immediately, feeling ridiculous for even considering the possibility that Ginny, his best friend's little sister, the only daughter of one of the families of pure blood that accepted muggles and muggleborns the most, a girl who was barely eleven years old, could be behind such terrible actions.

And suddenly, his dark eyes met a couple of emerald green ones. He had been silent, deep in thought more than he thought, and he came face to face with Harry, who was squatting beside his bed, with Ron behind him, both already wearing the clothes they had worn during the day.

"Are you alright?" asked Harry as Ben sat up on the bed and brushed unruly strands of hair out of his face.

"Yeah, yeah, I was just thinking."

"I thought you'd fallen asleep," whispered Ron.

Ben looked at him, and the redhead gave him a small smile, which made him feel terribly guilty for thinking what he had just thought about Ginny. Ron would've been furious at him if he found out he had doubted his sister's loyalties.

So he redirected his eyes back to Harry. They usually glowed in curiosity and excitement, but they also produced this sense of calmness every now and then. Ben didn't know how to explain it, but he really liked his eyes.

"Okay, so now that we've cleared up that Ben isn't asleep, but was in the middle of a mind trip to another world-" Ron spoke in a hushed voice. "We should go see Hagrid now before it's too late."

Harry went to take his invisibility cloak out of his trunk, as Ron made sure none of the other Gryffindors woke up, and Ben quickly changed. When they were ready, Harry pulled the cloak over them, and they left the bedroom.

The castle was crowded, filled with teachers, prefects and ghosts who were marching in pairs, in the search for anything odd, so the three Gryffindors had to make sure they were as silent as ever.

When they were finally outside the castle, they sped up until they were right in front of Hagrid's hut. Harry knocked, and Hagrid flung it open just a second later, aiming a crossbow at them.

"What's that for?" gasped Harry, wide-eyed.

"Nothin', nothin'..." muttered Hagrid. "I've been expectin'- doesn' matter... Sit down, I'll make tea."

He was acting very oddly, as though he didn't even know what he was doing. He seemed so lost in his thoughts he broke the kettle with a nervous jerk of his huge hand.

"Are you okay, Hagrid?" asked Harry worriedly. "Did you hear about Hermione?"

"Oh, yeah, I heard..." said Hagrid, a slight break in his voice as he poured boiling water into large mugs and gave them to the Gryffindors without adding tea bags.

He kept glancing nervously at the windows, and there was a sudden knock on the door that caused Hagrid to drop the fruitcake he was holding.

Ben bolted towards his friends, so fast that he head-butted Harry. They threw the Invisibility Cloak back over themselves and retreated into a corner as Hagrid seized his crossbow and flung the door open.

"Good evening, Hagrid," said a humble voice from outside.

It was the headmaster, who walked in when Hagrid motioned him to, looking as serious as ever. There was another man following him, with grey hair and an anxious expression. His clothes looked like he had picked them with his eyes closed: a pinstriped suit, a scarlet tie, a long black cloak, and pointed purple boots.

"That's Dad's boss!" Ron breathed. "Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic!"

Harry elbowed Ron to make him shut up, and accidentally hit Ben too.

"Bad business, Hagrid," said Fudge with a piercing tone. "Very bad business. Had to come. Four attacks on muggleborns. Things've gone far enough. Ministry's got to act."

"I never..." stuttered Hagrid, pale and sweaty. "You know I never, Professor Dumbledore, sir-"

"I want it understood, Cornelius, that Hagrid has my full confidence," Dumbledore frowned at Fudge.

The Minister looked uncomfortable. "Look, Albus. Hagrid's record is against him. The Ministry's got to do something. The school governors have been in touch-"

"Yet again, Cornelius, I tell you that taking Hagrid away will not help in the slightest," snapped Dumbledore, with a strange glow in his sparkling blue eyes. He looked angry, but calm at the same time.

"Look at it from my point of view," Fudge began fidgeting with his bowler. "I'm under a lot of pressure. Got to be seen to be doing something. 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?" Hagrid interrupted him, with panic overcoming him. "Take me where?"

Fudge refused to meet Hagrid's eyes. "For a short stretch only. Not a punishment, Hagrid, more a precaution. If someone else is caught, you'll be let out with a full apology."

"Not Azkaban?" croaked Hagrid.

As Fudge opened his mouth, another knock was heard on the door. Dumbledore was the one who opened it that time, letting none other than Lucius Malfoy in.

Ben took a deep breath as his heart raced in fear.

"Already here, Fudge," he smiled approvingly. "Good, good..."

Hagrid was furious. "What're you doin' here?" he roared. "Get outta my house!"

"My dear man, please believe me, I have no pleasure at all in being inside your- er... d'you call this a house?" sneered Lucius Malfoy as he looked around the small cabin. "I simply called at the school and was told that the headmaster was here."

"And what exactly did you want with me, Lucius?" asked Dumbledore politely.

"Dreadful thing, Dumbledore," said Mr. Malfoy lazily, before 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-" he handed it to Dumbledore. "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? Two more this afternoon, wasn't it? At this rate, there'll be no muggleborns left at Hogwarts, and we all know what an awful loss that would be to the school."

"Oh, come on, we all know he wishes there weren't any muggleborns at school," Ben hissed under his breath, angrily.

"Oh, now, see here, Lucius," began Fudge, alarmed, "Dumbledore suspended- No, no. That's the last thing we want just now."

"You can't take Professor Dumbledore away!" yelled Hagrid, getting up from his chair. "Take him away, the muggleborns won't stand a chance! You mark my words, there'll be killings next."

Lucius Malfoy lifted his eyebrows in sarcastic surprise. "You think so?"

"Calm yourself, Hagrid. If the governors desire my removal, I will, of course, step aside," Dumbledore hummed calmly, walking up to Lucius. "However... you will find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it."

His eyes flickered to where Harry, Ron and Ben were standing, and looked right at them, as though they weren't under the cloak, sending shivers down their spines.

Could he see them, or did he just have a feeling that there was someone there?

Mr. Malfoy noticed Dumbledore was staring at something, and he followed his gaze, trying to find out what had caught the headmaster's interest. However, a confused look appeared on his face, making it obvious that he didn't see them.

"Admirable sentiments," the man walked over to the door, which was still open, and stood there, awaiting. "Shall we?"

Dumbledore gave the three boys a last quick glance before leaving the hut.

"Come Hagrid," said Fudge, waiting. "Well?"

Hagrid cleared his throat, "If- um, if anybody was looking for some stuff, then all they'd have to do would be to follow the spiders. Yep, that would lead them right. That's all I have to say." Ben exchanged looks with Harry and Ron, as Fudge stared at Hagrid, confused. "Oh, and someone'll need to feed Fang while I'm away."

As on cue, the dog growled, and the two men left, the door closing behind them with a bang. Ron took the cloak off.

"Hagrid's right!" he gasped. "With Dumbledore gone, there'll be an attack a day."

"That's why we need to do something," said Ben, nodding. "We need to find out who's behind these attacks, and stop them!"

"Look!" exclaimed Harry, pointing at the kitchen window. Several spiders crawled up the wall and went through the window in two rows, like the ones they had seen before finding the message on the wall.

It seemed like it had been years since that happened.

"Follow the spiders..." Ben repeated Hagrid's words.

"Come on," said Harry, grabbing a lantern and heading for the door, with Ron and Ben following, and Fang joining them before they left.

There was a much bigger row of spiders outside, going down the hut, and leading towards the forest. Ben could sense Ron shivering next to him, and felt terribly sorry for him.

"Ron, are you okay?" he asked.

Ron began stuttering so much that Harry turned around too. When the redhead realised they weren't understanding what he was trying to say at all, he nodded, assuring them that he was fine.

Harry and Ben shared looks.

"They're heading into the dark forest," stammered Ron.

"We'll be fine," assured Ben calmly. "We've already been there."

Harry nodded in agreement, and the three of them continued walking after the insects.

"Why spiders?" asked Ron, complaining to the universe. "Why couldn't it be 'follow the butterflies'?"

"Butterflies are quite scary up close, to be honest," commented Ben. "But not as much as- you know... slugs."

With Fang scampering around them, sniffing tree roots and leaves, they entered the forest. They managed to keep track of the spiders thanks to Harry's idea of bringing a lantern. Neither of them said a single word during the at least twenty minutes they walked through the forest; they were too busy carefully checking for any signals of danger.

Harry suddenly let out a gasp. "There's something moving over there, listen."

The sound of branches breaking echoed through the forest, making them shiver. Then, to their right, came a sudden blaze of light, so bright in the darkness that they had to cover their eyes.

"Oh!" shouted Ron, sounding relieved. "It's our car!"

"What?"

There was a small light blue car in the middle of a circle of thick trees. The sides of the car were scratched and smeared with mud. Ron was looking delighted to see it. "It's been here all the time! Look at it. The forest's turned it wild..."

"Why is there a car here?" asked Ben, as confused as ever.

Ron turned to him. "Remember when we came flying to school?" Ben nodded, and the boy continued. "So, after we crashed into the Whomping Willow, the car kind of... escaped, and now it's here."

"Ohh..."

"We should keep moving," said Harry. "Or we'll lose the spiders."

"You're right."

They resumed their march swiftly. Ben ended up taking out his wand and whispering "Lumos" so he could check they weren't missing anything on the right, since Harry and the lantern were on the left.

The forest was getting darker and darker, the trees were much thicker, and their roots made it difficult to pass. To make matters worse, the spiders seemed to have multiplied, and now there were so many that it was impossible not to step on any of them.

"I don't like this..." stuttered Ron, as his whole body shook in terror. Ben gave him an apologetic look, but they didn't stop. "Harry, I don't like this at all!"

"Shush!" demanded Harry, stopping a bit ahead of them.

Ben hurried to join him. There was some sort of dark tunnel in front of them. The spiders weren't only on the ground, but on the walls and the "ceiling" of the tunnel, too.

"I think we need to cross it," whispered Harry.

Ben nodded in agreement. "Ron won't like to hear that, though..."

Harry sighed, knowing he was right. He turned to look at Ron, who was stumbling towards them. "Ron, we need to go through this."

Ron's usually pale face turned even paler. "A-Alright."

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Ben asked Ron softly.

"We'll help Hermione with this, right?"

"Yes."

Ron nodded, first a bit shakily, but then firmly. "Okay, then, let's go."

So they did, they crouched down a little, Ron the most, and walked to the end of the tunnel, the annoying sound of spiders crawling getting stronger and stronger.

They came to what looked like some sort of gigantic clearing. The ground was covered with thick roots from the trees that surrounded them. There was a thick white mist that wouldn't allow them to see if it was at their height but, fortunately, it only covered them up to their knees.

The spiders weren't there anymore.

They walked for a few seconds, until suddenly there was a creaking sound, as if something very large was moving, and then a deep and terrifying voice rumbled, "Who is it?"

Ben's heart was pounding madly.

"Hagrid? Is that you?" the voice came again.

Harry was the first one to speak. "We're friends of Hagrid's!"

And then it slowly emerged from the dark. It was a spider as big as an elephant, its body a dark shade of grey. It was an acromantula. All of a sudden, Ben noticed something weird about the creature's eyes. They were white, but a milky kind of white: the colour of blind people's eyes.

"You're..." stuttered Harry. "You're Aragog, aren't you?"

"Yes..." the spider hissed. "Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before."

"Hagrid's in trouble," breathed Harry. "That's why we've come."

"In trouble?" asked Aragog, a hint of concern evident.

"The Chamber of Secrets, it's been opened again," explained Ben, shakily.

"There have been attacks on muggleborns," continued Harry. "They've taken him to Azkaban. People think Hagrid's behind them, that he set- something on the students again."

"That's a lie!" said Aragog, clicking his pinces furiously. "Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets."

"Then... you are not the monster?"

A sense of tension crept over Ben. Perhaps, just maybe, his theory was close to being confirmed...

"No... The monster was born in the castle. I came to Hagrid from a distant land, in the pocket of a traveller."

"Harry..." uttered Ron, unable to speak.

"Shush!" snapped Harry. "But, if you're not the monster. Then what killed that girl all those years ago?"

"We do not speak of it. It is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others."

Ben felt like when you've been putting together a puzzle for a long time, and you're only left with two pieces that you know how to fit together. He was right. He was almost sure since he thought of it in the infirmary, but he wasn't going to say anything until it was confirmed.

Ben's sensation reminded him of the feeling of meticulously putting a puzzle together for a long time, until only two pieces remained, and they were destined to fit together. He was on the mark, his intuition almost certain from the moment the idea had taken root in the infirmary. Yet, he held back, abstaining from sharing his suspicions until it was irrefutably confirmed.

"But... have you seen it?"

Ron was breathing heavily. Since Harry was ignoring him, the redhead grabbed Ben's arm, who spun around, startled by the sudden physical contact.

And he saw them. There were hundreds, thousands of spiders slowly crawling to them. But they weren't the spiders they had been following before, no. They were huge, almost as big as Fang, though their size varied a bit.

"I never saw any part of the castle but the box in which Hagrid kept me," breathed Aragog. "The girl was discovered in a bathroom. When I was accused, Hagrid brought me here."

"Harry..." cried Ron.

"Harry," whispered Ben, and Harry finally turned to them.

"What?!"

Ron let out a cry, and pointed to the spiders hanging from their webs, which were getting closer and closer to their heads. Everywhere they looked, there were spiders approaching them.

Harry tried to calm himself down before speaking to Aragog. "Well, thank you!" he nodded, taking a step back. "We'll just- go..."

"Go?" Aragog repeated. "I think not. 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. Goodbye, friends of Hagrid's!"

"Can we panic now?" whimpered Ron.

"Yep."

Harry grabbed the lantern and slammed a spider that was getting dangerously close to Ben with it. "Thanks," he panted.

Aragog didn't seem to like the fact that Harry had attacked one of his sons, and roared "KILL!"

The spiders obeyed, and they increased their speed, cornering the boys in the centre.

"Know any spells?" asked Ron desperately trying to get rid of a spider that had grabbed his leg.

"One," breathed Harry.

"Where's Hermione when you need her?" cried the redhead.

It didn't matter how many spells they threw at the insects, they didn't have any chance of surviving by just doing that. They needed to think of something else.

Ben suddenly let out an excited gasp. "Harry!"

The boy turned his head a bit, "What?"

"That spell Malfoy used in the Duelling Club!" yelled Ben, knocking a spider off with a kick. "The snake one!"

"What about it?"

"What was it?"

"Serpen... something!" Harry exclaimed before shooting a spell at the spiders in front of him, which got sent flying backwards. However, they were replaced by others almost instantly. "Why?"

"Spiders are afraid of snakes!" he explained quickly, racking his brain to remember the spell. "Serpensortia!"

Look, Ben knew conjuring a snake in the middle of all that animal racket might sound ridiculous, but if the reptile did its part, they could have an escape route and they could have a chance of escaping.

A dark spider got shot out of Ben's wand. It began hissing loudly at the spiders, who stopped clicking their pinces. The circle in which they were trapped began to deform, widening.

"Harry," called Ron. "Do you think you can- erm... you know..."

Harry miraculously understood what he was talking about.

He took a deep breath and hissed something at the snake, which slowly looked up at him. Ron and Ben made their best effort to cover for Harry, in case the spiders decided to attack him while he was off guard.

Ben listened as he hissed something else, forcing himself to focus on the creatures instead of looking at his friend as he gave the snake instructions. The animal headed for the place the boys had gone before, and the crowd of arachnids parted, avoiding it.

"Run!" shouted Harry.

And so they did.

They ran as fast as they could, with Fang after them, avoiding the trees and roots as they heard the spiders chasing them hungrily. Ben mentally wished he had come up with a second part of this plan, because he had no idea of what to do next.

Perhaps, if they kept running at that speed, the spiders would get tired of it, and let them escape. But they were already past the tunnel, and they could still hear them after them.

"What are we going to do?" choked Harry.

"That's what I was going to ask!" Ben admitted, panting.

"The car!" shouted Ron, wide-eyed. "My dad's car, it's still out there!" He stopped talking to catch his breath. "We need to find it!"

And suddenly a beam of light almost blinded them. They stopped running instantly, covering their eyes with their hands, and almost falling over due to inertia.

"Looks like the car found us."

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 them and the doors flew open.

Ron and Harry hurried to get inside, as Ben seized Fang's leash, and pulled the dog to the back seats, muttering "sorry," over and over, in case he'd hurt him.

The doors slammed shut and, before Ron had the chance to touch the accelerator, the engine roared. They were off, hitting spiders out of their way, and crashing through the trees and branches.

And, after a long and rocky way, they finally arrived right beside Hagrid's hut, safe and away from the forest.