CHAPTER FIFTEEN
is my good friend, and a good man. When I was discovered, and
blamed for the death of a girl, he protected me. I have lived here in
the forest ever since, where Hagrid still visits me. He even found
me a wife, Mosag, and you see how our family has grown, all
through Hagrid’s goodness. . . .”
Harry summoned what remained of his courage.
“So you never — never attacked anyone?”
“Never,” croaked the old spider. “It would have been my in-
stinct, but out of respect for Hagrid, I never harmed a human. The
body of the girl who was killed was discovered in a bathroom. I
never saw any part of the castle but the cupboard in which I grew
up. Our kind like the dark and the quiet. . . .”
“But then . . . Do you know what did kill that girl?” said Harry.
“Because whatever it is, it’s back and attacking people again —”
His words were drowned by a loud outbreak of clicking and the
rustling of many long legs shifting angrily; large black shapes
shifted all around him.
“The thing that lives in the castle,” said Aragog, “is an ancient
creature we spiders fear above all others. Well do I remember how
I pleaded with Hagrid to let me go, when I sensed the beast mov-
ing about the school.”
“What is it?” said Harry urgently.
More loud clicking, more rustling; the spiders seemed to be clos-
ing in.
“We do not speak of it!” said Aragog fiercely. “We do not name
it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dread creature,
though he asked me, many times.”
Harry didn’t want to press the subject, not with the spiders
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