Chapter 43
Taylor’s mum spent the night at the castle. The talk she was expecting didn’t happen, even if Taylor felt compelled to justify her actions.
“I couldn’t put it into letters, Mum,” Taylor said once they were alone and there was no one nearby to overhear. “What if they stole your letters again? And I couldn’t let Ginny get hurt.”
Annette pulled Taylor into a warm embrace. “I know, sweetie. But a mother worries.”
“I’m sorry,” Taylor mumbled.
Annette gently pushed Taylor away until they locked eyes. “Do not ever apologise for doing the right thing.”
Taylor nodded, hugging her mum again.
That night, she had a dream.
Dreaming wasn’t something new to Taylor. Her dreams were rare and always involved Brunette-Taylor in one way or another, but this dream was different.
The first glaring change was that, unlike her other dreams, she didn’t see herself as the person in the dream. The closest Taylor could explain was that she was standing by a huge TV, watching from over the shoulder of the person in the dream.
The second change was that she wasn’t alone. Or, she was alone, but it felt like she wasn’t. Taylor couldn’t put away this impression that there was someone — or something — watching the dream with her. This something felt as big as a mountain, but also simplistic and welcoming in ways Taylor couldn’t explain.
The third, most alarming change was that she wasn’t dreaming about Brunette-Taylor.
The dream-cinema followed a young boy around. He was about nine or ten, and looked an awful lot like Tom Riddle. Over the course of the dream-movie, Taylor saw young Tom torture other kids with his magic, steal trinkets for his collection and behave like he was twenty instead of ten. The look in his eyes when there was no one else to see him would have sent Taylor running for the hills and screaming for help.
When she woke up in the morning, Taylor had only vague recollections about the dream. She knew she had dreamt about a boy, and that said boy was a nasty piece of work, but not much more than that.
Annette left soon after breakfast.
With classes returning to normal, Taylor didn’t have the free time to give her mum another tour. Worse yet, it was only Wednesday. Taylor had three whole days of classes before she had the time to work on her own projects. Still, there were things she could do.
Later that day, Taylor grabbed her loot. She hadn’t taken much from the chamber. Four fist-sized emeralds that still glowed. They were probably magic. She took two and gave two to Luna. A few feet of glowing snake skin, which she divided between her and her friend, leaving Luna the bigger piece.
Aside from checking out their loot, they started to brew a new batch of shrinking solutions. Luna would brew the correct version that didn’t have a time limit for Arabelle, while Taylor would try to replicate Luna’s early work. With a bit of luck and help from her helpers, the potions should be ready by the weekend, and she would be able to deliver Aragog back to his hollow.
The most annoying (and a bit interesting) part for Taylor was her new status among the student population. It was like she had donned a Harry Potter mask and painted a lightning scar on her forehead. Every student, except the usual green standouts, wanted to shake hands, talk, be friends, and ask questions about the Chamber of Secrets.
More often than not, those same students would get angry when Taylor didn’t tell them where to find the super secret Chamber of Secrets, like they were entitled to know just because they wanted to explore it as well.
It ended up with the quartet (because Nneka tagged along with Ginny), hiding in their tea room and helping brew the potions.
“What is this?” Nneka asked, looking at the bubbling cauldrons and feeding Nap her due.
“Shrinking Solution,” Luna said.
“What for?” Nneka asked. She was petting Nap, after having received permission to do so by means of food bribes.
“For Bell,” Luna smiled.
Arabelle scurried from under the table, crawling on Luna and stopping at her head.
“Mum,” Arabelle said, her many legs petting the top of Luna’s head. “Enka friend?”
“Yes, Nneka is our friend, so no biting, alright?”
“Oh, she talks!” Nneka said with wide eyes.
Ginny smiled, but her smile looked more like she was about to cry. “I wish Ron was here so I could scare him with Bell.”
That killed the mood, but it ended up with the girls cuddle-piling Ginny for the rest of the tea party, so it was all worth it.
Aside from spending time with her friends, Taylor also tried to care for the Horror. She didn’t know if it was a girl or boy Horror, or even what kind of Horror it was, but it wasn’t getting any better as the days passed. The spider bites along its body were festering and had started to smell of rot. Taylor did what she could. She had her smallest bugs crawl inside the Horror and remove the squashed bugs inside it, letting the Horror breathe easier. She even risked discovery by taking it to the bathroom and using the warm water to clean its many injuries. Mira had barged inside the bathroom before Taylor could fully hide the noodle, so she just pretended it was a normal, if very hurt, snake.
Taylor also decided that calling it Horror all the time wasn’t going to work. She needed a new name. She went with Noodle, because it seemed gender neutral enough. It would work if it was a boy or girl Horror.
On the school side of things, Lockhart had fled the same night Ginny had been taken and there was no sign he was returning, which meant they had DADA as an official free period now. Taylor said official because it had already been a free period before. Lockhart never taught them anything anyway.
Hagrid arrived back at the school on Friday. The first thing he did was meet with the Headmaster, who broke the news about Aragog. Hagrid went into the forest soon after his meeting with Dumbledore, returning hours later looking like he had had to fight for his life.
On Saturday, when the potions were ready, Taylor had been planning another excursion to the Chamber of Secrets with Luna and Ginny when she received an owl from Hagrid.
“We should talk with Hagrid,” Luna said.
Taylor nodded. “But let’s get Aragog’s body first.”
Luna had decided Arabelle’s shrinking could wait until they had dealt with Aragog, which was fine for Taylor.
Getting back to the Chamber was a whole production. First Taylor had to blast the wall with a Reducto, then, with the help of her pixies, load the girls into the pipe and use a Reparo to hide their passage. It was very unwieldy, and Taylor was already planning a different way to reach the Chamber.
There was a secret passageway closer to the classroom, and Taylor had been thinking of just carving her way through the stone until she reached the pipe. It would be a lot of work, but better than doing the whole song and dance of destroying the classroom wall every time they wanted to visit the Chamber of Secrets.
She just needed to find out how to open the secret passage. Easy peasy.
Returning to the Chamber left her conflicted. There was a lot to explore and find here. Now with more time to look around, her bugs found several passages leading into different tunnels. Taylor avoided exploring those with her bugs. She didn’t want to spoil any more of the surprises. But again, she just didn’t have the time at the moment. While Taylor grabbed Aragog’s body, Ginny and Luna busied themselves looking around (and collecting more shed skin).
The return trip was the same as before, with the difference that they had to wait inside the pipe for almost an hour. The first hurdle was Myrtle, who had found the hole in the pipe and spent almost half an hour poking around it. Then it was Filch. It was like he had smelled they were up to no good. He hid inside the room, probably waiting for someone to do something they shouldn’t so he could try to use his precious chains as punishment.
It was a good thing Taylor had created more than one dose of the shrinking solution, otherwise they’d have been in big trouble.
Thankfully, Filch didn’t stay for long. A crash far away and screams of “Peeves!” had the caretaker rushing out of the classroom like someone had lit a fire under his bum.
Taylor didn’t waste time. She blasted open the wall, led her friends out, and used another Reparo to hide their crimes. The girls were all covered in dirt and slime, but that wasn’t a big problem.
A quick Scourgify dealt with the worst of it, and then the trio was running towards Hagrid’s hut, rushing past students who wanted to talk (and probably ask about the Chamber).
Ginny knocked at the hut’s door.
Hagrid poked his head out, then opened the door, looking wary.
“Come in, come in,” he said.
“We don’t have time, Hagrid,” Taylor said. “Will you come with us?”
“What fer?”
“Aragog,” Taylor said.
Hagrid studied them for a while. “Where to?”
“The hollow.”
Not long after, Hagrid and Fang were following Taylor, Luna and Ginny into the forest. And not a moment too soon. The potion lost effect and Aragog grew to the house size he actually was.
As soon as the spider was visible, Hagrid burst out into tears, hugging the dead spider.
They tried to comfort the giant, but nothing they said helped.
Once the man had calmed down, Taylor recounted their version of what had happened and how they owed their lives to Aragog.
“He fought the Horror, and saved us.”
Hagrid sniffled, his huge hand wiping away snot.
“Thank yer,” he said, nodding. “We gotta bury ‘im.”
Taylor shook her head. “We can’t.”
“Why not?”
Taylor looked around. Luna was hugging Ginny, who looked very spooked by the giant spider.
“He asked me to return his body to the hollow. To let his descendants feast on his flesh.”
“We can’t,” Hagrid said, crying again. “That— we, we should bury ‘im.”
“That isn’t what he wanted, Hagrid,” Luna said.
After that, with Hagrid’s help, they dragged Aragog’s body into the hollow. Their passage wasn’t unnoticed. In the distance, Taylor saw a group of centaurs watching. From another side, the family of unicorns.
All manner of spiders, giant or otherwise followed their passage.
Hagrid deposited the body in front of the nest, and had to be pulled away by Luna and Ginny.
The hollow was silent, even if they were surrounded by countless spiders.
“Aragog perished vanquishing your ancestral foe,” Taylor said to the gathered spiders. Rhythmic clicking was her answer. “He asked to be brought back, so you may feast on his flesh.”
She hadn’t finished speaking when the tide of arachnids descended on the corpse like a school of starved piranhas descending on fresh prey. Even Arabelle joined in. Which Taylor found disturbing. Bell had had the opportunity to snack on the body several times and hadn’t displayed the slight interest in that.
Now, Arabelle charged furiously along with the rest of the tide, trying to get a bite of their patriarch.
Taylor had a mind to stop her, but ended up not interfering. This felt like something important to them.
Fang was the first to react. The huge dog whined and fled for his life, like there was a tide of giant dog-eating spiders on his tail.
Luna held Taylor’s hand and pulled her away. She guided them out of the hollow while the eating was still ongoing.
“What about Bell?” Taylor asked.
“She can find her way back on her own,” Luna said.
Hagrid had been inconsolable the whole way back. They ended up spending the rest of the afternoon and start of the evening keeping the giant company (and eating a hard-as-rock cake soaked in herbal tea).
“Thank yer,” he said, after seeing them out of the hut. “And I’m sorry.”
Taylor hugged the big lug, followed by Luna and Ginny.
They returned to the castle to find a pissed-off Nneka.
“Where the hell have you been?” she demanded. “Been looking for you all over the castle.”
Taylor looked at Luna and both looked at Ginny.
“Ginny, you take this one,” Luna and Taylor said at the same time.
Ginny scowled.
School returned to a sort of frantic rhythm that left Taylor with no time whatsoever to work on her own interests, aside from her daily letters to her mum. Those she didn’t skip.
A lot of things happened in the weeks that followed.
The first one was that their official DADA free period wasn’t free anymore. Two seventh-years, the Head Boy and Girl, took over teaching the class. A Hufflepuff named Ian Pilling and a Slytherin called Octavia Burke.
And what cruel taskmasters they were. It was like the duo was trying to cram a whole year of classes in just a few months.
If Taylor thought she didn’t have time before, now she really didn’t.
Ian focused on the practical side of the class, often helping them master their charms and protections. The Head Boy kept a meticulous list of every student, with what they could and couldn’t do and every practical class, he compared their results, keeping students behind for more practice when they didn’t improve.
Octavia was worse.
The girl had an obsession with essays and doled them out like they were sweets. Essay about the history of a particular spell and how it could be used. Essay about dark creatures and how to fight (or flee) from them. Essay about anything and everything under the magical sun.
Arabelle had taken a few days to return to the castle, but once she did, she asked for the potion and drank it with gusto. The spider, now the size of a tarantula, went about taunting Nap for some reason, often perching on Luna or Taylor’s head, waving her legs every time Nap was nearby.
Nap, of course, attempted to retaliate. The owl tried to reclaim her perch, but she’d grown so much that Taylor and Luna’s head were too small for the owl. She ended up in that awkward position of staying half on top of the head, with the rest of her body precariously perched on the shoulders.
Taylor had to visit the Hospital Wing a few times because of all the literal pain in her neck and shoulders, but she didn’t have the heart to deny Nap her pleasures.
Noodle’s health didn’t improve, but didn’t grow worse either. The vibrant green snake’s injuries had stopped rotting, but they weren’t mending. There was this awkward moment Taylor would have sworn she heard Noodle (and it sounded like a boy Horror) saying he was hungry. She tried to pay attention to his hisses after that, but they were all just hisses.
Still, Taylor took care to feed him every week, maybe more. For some reason Noodle was a fan of eating whole eggs. How could a small noodle-like serpent devour whole eggs was a mystery Taylor didn’t want to know the answer for.
The one time she spied on Noodle eating, it was all very yuck.
The Quibbler released a new story, which set the whole school talking again. It was an interview with an ‘anonymous’ student about the Chamber of Secrets, with never before released information about the events.
Everyone knew the anonymous student was Luna, and they weren’t even pretending they didn’t know it.
Luna had asked Taylor if it was alright to tell her dad about it and Taylor didn’t see a problem. Luna kept her story very close to what they had told Dumbledore and didn’t mention any of the secrets they were keeping.
The only snag Taylor found was that Xeno had tied the whole story to the Rotfang Conspiracy. In his words: “Another attempt to smother our students before they can become wizards on their own merit.”
The Daily Prophet wasn’t far behind. Their new front-page news was an exposé on Gilderoy Lockhart. A reporter called Rita Skeeter had tracked down the source of his stories and discovered that none of them were actually his own feats. Lockhart would track his victim, learn everything he could about their accomplishments, wipe their memories with an Obliviate spell, and publish the story as his own.
That left Taylor very suspicious. Wasn’t this exactly what had happened to her mum? Had Lockhart been the culprit all along? Taylor kept that information on the back of her mind, reviewing everything she knew about the fake professor. In the end, she couldn’t say he had been the one to tamper with her mum’s memories, but she also didn’t know that he hadn’t. It also didn’t make much sense Lockhart would do that. Her mum hadn’t done anything that warranted a fantasy book.
Her best clue was still Luna’s father and his anonymous source.
And apart from studying, trying to master new spells (including the ones in her mum’s handwritten book), advancing her practice with non-verbal charms (Taylor could cast several of them without having to say the incantation), having tea parties with Nneka, Ginny, Luna and sometimes Mira, she tried to find out how to open the secret passage that would let them reach the Chamber of Secrets easier.
With all that, the weeks flew by and before Taylor knew it, it was April and the Easter holidays. Taylor was going to spend them at Luna’s house. Her mum would visit on the weekends, but on weekdays she had to return home because of work. The quartet (because Mira wouldn’t be able to visit) had decided to meet at Ginny’s house. That way, Taylor would be able to see Luna and Ginny’s house in one holiday trip.
Ginny even promised they’d be able to practice magic and (more importantly) play Quidditch.
And so, on a Thursday morning, Taylor boarded the train back to London, to meet her mum, then go on with Luna and her dad to their house. She was looking forward to that.