Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures
Chapter 1311: The Dying Spider King

To be honest, Hagrid cried a lot, but it was mostly because of emotional matters.

For example, he was often moved by others’ trust in him, or when talking about his family and his parents’ past, or…

No one expected that Evan, Harry, Hermione, and Ron not choosing his class would upset him so much.

Or maybe it wasn’t just that — perhaps there were other things piling on at the same time!

Hermione gently put her arm around Hagrid’s shaking shoulders and asked, “What is it?”

“It’s … him …” gulped Hagrid, his beetle-black eyes streaming as he mopped his face with his apron. “It’s … Aragog. … I think he’s dyin’. … Ever since his lair collapsed and Evan rescued him tha’ time, he’s been in poor health. … This summer, he got ill the whole time, and I wasn’t aroun’ ter look after him. It wasn’t until recently that I found out he’s barely hangin’ on. … I don’ know what I’ll do if he … if he … We’ve bin tergether so long. …”

Hermione patted Hagrid’s shoulder, looking at a complete loss for anything to say.

Harry knew how she felt. He had known Hagrid to present a vicious baby dragon with a teddy bear, seen him croon over giant scorpions with suckers and stingers, attempt to reason with his brutal giant of a half-brother, but this was perhaps the most incomprehensible of all his monster fancies: the gigantic talking spider, Aragog, who dwelled deep in the Forbidden Forest.

Among them, Evan was the most familiar with Aragog, yet even he didn’t know what to say.

Three years ago, it was he who destroyed the ruins beneath Aragog’s lair and the eyeball monster inside. Without the source of Dark power, Aragog was just an ordinary Acromantula. The fact that he had survived this long was already remarkable!

That said, even if Evan hadn’t been involved, Aragog would likely still be nearing the end around this time.

As the power of the seal left by Slytherin weakened, the power of the eyeball monster grew stronger. Maintaining control over Aragog and the Acromantulas became increasingly pointless; they were of diminishing use to the creature.

He likely would have abandoned the Acromantulas, opting for new servants to aid him — more powerful thralls, like wizards…

“Come on, Hagrid. Is there — is there anything we can do?” Hermione asked sadly.

“I don’ think there is, Hermione,” choked Hagrid, attempting to stem the flood of his tears. “I’ve asked Dumbledore to take a look, but it was no use. Poor Aragog, his lair has collapsed, his tribe’s finished, his offspring are mostly dead, and now even he himself…”

He wiped his tears vigorously and blew his nose hard on his apron.

“Thanks fer offerin’, Hermione. … It means a lot. …” he said, looking up at them. “Dumbledore says he probably won’ make it through the winter. If yer willing, yeh could go visit him. Especially yeh, Evan — Aragog still remembers that yeh saved his life back then. Every time I go see him, old Aragog always asks about yeh.”

The four of them looked at each other, and the atmosphere became a little dull again. Everyone knew what was going on.

The old spider didn’t feel grateful toward Evan, but hated him. They hadn’t told Hagrid the full truth about what had happened in the lair, but changed the story to say that there had been a landslide there, and Evan happened to be there and rescued Aragog. …

Aragog must hate Evan to death. The spider didn’t think of the Eyeball monster’s Dark power as evil. To Aragog, that power — transforming him and his offspring into fearsome creatures — was a blessing. He delighted in that power.

And Evan, who had destroyed all of this and killed a large number of Aragog’s offspring, was his biggest enemy!

If he had the chance, Aragog would certainly bite him to death before leaving this world.

Evan didn’t want to visit the spider, but with Hagrid looking at him so expectantly, it was hard to refuse outright.

Aragog didn’t have the energy to hurt them now, so going to see him could at least help cheer up Hagrid.

“If time permits, we’ll go!” said Evan.

“Oh, thanks, Evan, I dunno how ter thank yeh, you’ve helped me so much!” said Hagrid.

After that, the atmosphere lightened considerably!

Since Hagrid thought they were going to visit Aragog, he quickly forgave them for not choosing his class. He returned to his usual self.

“Ar, I always knew yeh’d find it hard ter squeeze me inter yer timetables,” he said gruffly, pouring them more tea. “Even if yeh applied fer Time-Turners —!”

“We couldn’t have done,” said Hermione. “We smashed the entire stock of Ministry Time-Turners when we were there last summer. It was in the papers.”

For historical reasons, the British Ministry of Magic kept all the Time-Turners in the world.

Theoretically, after all the Time-Turners in the Ministry of Magic were smashed, there should be no more Time-Turners in the Wizarding World!

But this was definitely not absolute, the Time-Turner in Evan’s hand was not yet complete. He would need to find its missing parts to restore its full power.

Then there were the events of fifteen years in the future — the matter of Voldemort’s daughter attempting to alter history by traveling to the past.

All these clues indicated that there were other Time-Turners scattered in other places waiting to be discovered.

“Ar, well then, there’s no way yeh could’ve done it. …” said Hagrid, suddenly enlightened. “Other subjects are much more useful than Care of Magical Creatures. If you’d like, yeh can always come by to visit me and the animals — no need to officially sign up. … Should have realized this earlier. I’m sorry I’ve bin — yeh know — I’ve jus’ bin worried abou’ Aragog … an’ I did wonder whether, if Professor Grubbly-Plank had bin teachin’ yeh —”

At which all three of them stated categorically and untruthfully that Professor Grubbly-Plank, who had substituted for Hagrid a few times, was a dreadful teacher. Hagrid seemed especially pleased when he found out they hadn’t signed up for her N.E.W.T. class either!

He also asked them about Ron’s absence and the Quidditch trials that had just ended.

As for Elaine’s request for a chance to visit Grawp, Hagrid was so moved that he couldn’t even speak.

As a result, by the time Hagrid waved them off the premises at dusk, he looked quite cheerful.

He repeatedly invited them to come back next weekend, either to visit Grawp or Aragog.

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