After a long wait, once the room had fallen silent and all the visitors were gone, the trio finally threw off their Invisibility Cloak. They had been so tense they hadn't even dared to breathe.
"They actually want Dumbledore to leave the school? And if he doesn't, they'll shut Hogwarts down?" Ron said first, his voice full of disbelief.
"That Malfoy—he clearly came with bad intentions," he added. "Just like Hagrid said: without Dumbledore, the school won't last a week."
"Those two—father and son—are exactly the same," Hermione said coldly. "They just want all the half-bloods and Muggle-borns gone."
"So we have to do something," she added with conviction.
"Like what?" Harry asked, though there was already a flicker of resolve in his voice.
"Hermione's right," Ron said, more serious now. "We can't let them throw Hagrid into Azkaban for something he didn't do, and we definitely can't let Hogwarts close."
"Could it be what Hagrid said just before he was taken? 'Follow the spiders'…?"
Ron visibly shuddered at the word.
Harry nodded slowly. The three of them turned to the window ledge of the hut. There, a line of small spiders was scurrying toward the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
The Forbidden Forest was darker than ever—its trees were like towering silhouettes of black bone, gnarled and twisted. The canopy above blocked all sunlight. The three of them moved forward slowly, the only illumination coming from the tip of Harry's wand.
They followed the trail of spiders deeper and deeper into the forest. Ron, already nervous, looked ready to faint. The trees grew denser, forming a shadowed corridor where even the forest sounds had gone still.
To distract himself from the eerie silence, Ron leaned toward Hermione.
"How are you so calm?"
Hermione glanced at him. "Why wouldn't I be? I'm not afraid of spiders."
"No—I mean…" Ron hesitated. "After what happened to Kai Adler. I thought you'd be more… I don't know, upset?"
Hermione gave him a look. "Upset? What good would that do? If he's hurt, wouldn't it be better to find the one responsible?"
She couldn't admit the truth, of course—that she knew Kai was unharmed. He might even be watching them right now. But she knew herself well enough to be certain: if Kai really were in danger, she would still be doing this.
No… she would be even more relentless.
She glanced at Harry, who was leading them with quiet determination. He truly saw Kai as a friend.
…But are they really just friends?
Her thoughts wandered. She remembered Kai casting the Patronus—his mind focused on Draco. There was something curious about that. Something that made her wonder.
Still, she shook the thought away. This wasn't the time.
"Stop," Harry said suddenly.
They had come to a dead tree trunk, its roots twisted and blackened. All around, thick webs clung to the bark and grass. The spiders had disappeared into the shadows ahead.
Then came a strange rustling sound, like chitin striking bark and stone. From the dark beyond the webs, shapes began to stir.
The tree trunk in front of them shifted. A massive, hairy limb appeared from behind it, tapping against the ground with weighty rhythm. Slowly, impossibly, a giant spider the size of a carriage stepped into the light.
Its eight milky-white eyes were blind, its pincers twitching.
Ron's wand hand trembled violently.
"Is that… Hagrid?" came a hoarse whisper from Ron.
A voice answered, low and ancient. "Who speaks?"
"We're friends of Hagrid," Harry said quickly. "My name is Harry Potter."
The spider shifted toward him, sensing his voice.
"Harry Potter…" the creature murmured. "I am Aragog. Hagrid has never sent strangers to me."
"That's because something's happened," Harry explained urgently. "They think Hagrid's responsible for the recent attacks. They've taken him to Azkaban."
"Again?" Aragog's voice sharpened. "They think Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets again?"
"He's innocent!" Harry insisted.
"I know. Hagrid would never open the Chamber. He protected me when I was young, hid me in this forest. He was blamed then, too."
Hermione stepped forward, her eyes sharp. "Do you know where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"
"No," Aragog replied. "I've never been within the castle walls. But when the Chamber was opened before, a girl was found dead—in the girls' bathroom."
Hermione's eyes widened. Moaning Myrtle.
But the tension around them was rising. From every shadow, dozens—perhaps hundreds—of spiders had emerged. Not as large as Aragog, but each the size of a large dog or small calf.
Hermione's wand was already in her hand.
"I think we should go," she said quietly.
"Go?" Aragog replied with unnerving calm. "I'm afraid that's not possible."
He turned toward the shadows.
"Under my command, my children will not harm Hagrid. But I cannot deny them fresh meat… especially meat that walks willingly into their web."
"Goodbye, friends of Hagrid."
The spiders surged forward.
"RUN!" Hermione shouted, raising her wand.
"Incendio!"
A wall of flame erupted between them and the oncoming swarm. The spiders recoiled with shrill clicking noises, limbs twitching away from the heat.
Hermione didn't stop. She moved her wand in a wide arc and cast again, combining her magic with practiced finesse. The flames twisted into a corridor of fire, forming a safe path through the forest—and holding the spiders at bay.
A compound spell. Transfiguration entwined with elemental magic. Not quite Fiendfyre, but a controlled cousin.
Harry stared at her in awe. "When did you become this good?"
"You go first!" Hermione shouted, sweat beading on her brow.
"But we're not leaving you—"
"Go!"
She couldn't move. Not while maintaining the magic.
But then, something strange happened.
One spider leapt toward the flames—and was consumed almost instantly. The fire roared unnaturally, turning deep blue at the edges. The smell of scorched chitin filled the air.
Hermione blinked. This wasn't her doing.
The wall of flame swelled to three meters tall, then surged outward in a flood of searing heat, driving the spiders back.
Blue flames. Cold. Controlled. Beautiful.
Kai…
She smiled faintly and lowered her wand.
"Hurry!"
Harry looked confused. "But—weren't you just—?"
"GO!"
The corridor ahead widened. The flames behind them surged like a tidal wave.
Harry and Ron didn't need to be told twice. They sprinted after Hermione as she ran ahead, the fire shielding them all the way out of the nest.
Behind them, the forest burned like a blue inferno—silent, precise, and entirely unnatural.