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Hermione was petrified and Ron's messed up wand had ended up giving him eels for feet. That meant if he's going to follow Hagrid's advice Harry had to find someone else to go with him.
That other person ended up being Neville who's scared but still game to find out what's been attacking Hogwarts' students.
Hagrid had told Harry to 'follow the spiders'. Which was very vague but he was being hauled away by Ministry people when he'd said it, so he could be forgiven for not wording his clue better. Harry had already scoured the school by the time he'd talked to Neville and there wasn't a single spider anywhere in the entire castle, not even in the cool dampness of the dungeons near the Slytherin common room.
Neville said that he had seen spiders down by the greenhouses but with the strictness of the rules, the only time the two of them had to investigate was at night. Beneath the invisibility cloak Harry and Neville sneaked out into the school grounds successfully avoiding the ghosts, teachers, Filch and his cat.
There were a few close moments, Neville wasn't as used to walking under the cloak as Ron and Hermione were and that had led to a great deal of standing on one another's toes. Which was painful and had almost made both boys fall head first down one of the moving staircases at one point.
Finding the spiders in the darkness was challenging, neither of them felt comfortable letting off more than the absolute bare minimum of light lest they be seen by someone from the castle. Professor Snape or Professor McGonagall would have Harry and Neville in detention for the rest of their school lives if they were found.
Assuming that Hogwarts would remain open long enough.
When they finally managed to find a spider, it was a money spider, tiny, barely bigger than a cake crumb crawling along the pathway at an alarming speed for it's size.
It only took a few seconds for them to lose it among the roots of a holly bush. They panicked then, a chance like this would be unlikely to come again the professors were already saying that if there was to be another attack then the school might be closed down.
Neither of the boys wanted that.
If they were older than second year students, then the thought of summoning a spider to them, releasing it and following it might have come into their heads but unfortunately they were twelve. Twelve and scared.
Fortunately they didn't have to, for as Harry and Neville searched the ground behind the bush they found a stream of tiny spiders fleeing the castle into the forbidden forest.
So they followed the spiders to the edge of the forest, where the stream of spiders became an ocean of them. They carpeted the forest floor and climbed the trunks of many of the trees.
Both boys tentatively took steps forward, scared to step on any of the creatures underfoot. Squashing them would not help in finding their destination.
Whether it was the light from their wands or the vibration of their footsteps the spiders began to make space for them to walk among them.
The confines of the cloak made little sense as they both climbed over the snarled roots of the trees and pushed themselves through the bushy undergrowth. So they shed it and Harry carried it draped over one of his arms.
As they travelled deeper into the forest the taller the trees grew and the larger the gaps between them became. Now and then, they could see glimpses of the moon through the gaps in the canopy of the leaves.
The spiders were getting bigger too.
At first that wasn't scary, until they became the size of small dogs but they only continued increasing in size. When it truly got scary was when they started speaking English. That's when Harry grabbed hold of Neville's hand and doesn't let go even if both their palms were clammy with sweat.
"Acromantula." said Neville, looking at Harry with wide eyes but still forcing himself to walk forwards.
"What's an acromantula?" Harry asked adjusting the hold he had on his wand in the hand not currently holding onto Neville's.
"Giant spiders capable of human speech they're supposed to be from Brazil, I can't imagine they like living here all that much."
Them being capable of talking would possibly mean that they might be able to answer some questions about where they were going but no matter how politely Harry asked them, all they would say was Aragog. Over and over again, they repeated the word until it became a chant taken up by the caravan of spiders headed to the heart of the forest.
Neville let out a whimper as one the size of a small pony brushed past them and almost knocked him off of his feet.
"I won't think bad about you if you want to go back Neville." Harry said, in all honesty he didn't want to be here either. Only the thought of Hermione laying stiffly in the hospital wing was spurring him on.
"I dont want to... I wont leave you here alone." Neville responded taking Harry's cloak he was currently awkwardly carrying jammed under his arm and placing it in the bag he was carrying.
It was nice not to be doing this alone.
How much distance they had covered was hard to tell, neither had a good grasp on quite how much time had passed either. Harry's old semi-broken wristwatch never kept good time and he wore it more out of habit than it providing any actual practical use.
The ground beneath their feet began sloping downwards with increasing steepness, until Harry was forced to let go of Neville's hand so that he could keep his balance.
Beneath their feet the loam dry leaves and twigs slipped, moving as they did, threatening to take them with it. In a few short moments the ground had gone from softly undulating to almost shear. A wolf howled much closer to them than was comfortable and clear in the eery silence that surrounded them punctured only by the scuttling of fleeing spiders.
Neville turned to look back up the path possibly to see where the howling was coming from, or because he'd seen something but the movement caused him to slip before he could say anything. He fell on his stomach with an uncomfortable sounding groan before disappearing down the slope before Harry could attempt to reach out and grab him.
There was only a cut off scream and then he disappeared out of sight. All Harry could do was throw himself down after him.
An action that wasn't one of the smartest things he'd ever done.
The elves of Greenwood the Great have spent many centuries attempting to eradicate the spiders who have infested their homeland. Unlike Lothlorien, Imladris and the Havens, the forest is touched by darkness. There is need for all who can bear arms to help hold back the threat so that the forest is not entirely over run.
All of that means, that the forest had been separated out into the sectors in order to make it easier to patrol.
Sector twelve was one of the most spider heavy areas. In the past there had been several nests found there. Eradicating established spider nesting areas was very labour intensive and dangerous. So the King made sure that it was regularly patrolled in order to deal with the problem before it ballooned into something that could easily get out of control.
Even with such regular patrols, spiders were fast. A web capable of ensnaring an elf could take one of the larger spiders less than an hour to weave.
The entire way there, nothing was amiss but the moment that they could see the distinctive oak tree that marked the border line.
There were webs everywhere.
Floor to ceiling webs.
As one the entire patrol group pulled out arrows and notched them in their bows. Something scuttled by in the undergrowth.
A spider the size of a lap dog lunged out at them and was swiftly dispatched by a flurry of arrows.
They fought the spiders that began to pour out of the trees and slowly started to deal with the eggs and webs. Here and there living animals were freed from the sticky strings before being set free.
Several deer and even a moose were given a second chance at life.
A cry went up.
Someone had found human children that have fallen down into a narrow space between the roots of a large oak tree.
The children fled when they send someone down to try and help them get out. They were fast enough to slip out of their fingers, disappearing into the forest and out of sight.
They searched but try as they might, no-one could find them.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Apparently the spiders can speak common now.
King Thranduil isn't going to like that.