Chapter 171

"That's a rather bold assumption, isn't it? Dumbledore couldn't possibly know all the magic from everywhere in the world. And that Beast, whatever it is, couldn't possibly have survived in the chamber for a thousand years," Harry refuted.

Hermione gave a small shrug, "It's just a thought I had."

As she spoke, they turned a corner and found themselves at the end of the very corridor where the first attack had happened. They stopped and looked. The scene was almost just as it had been that night, except that there was no stiff cat hanging from the torch bracket, and an empty chair stood against the wall bearing the message.

The Chamber of Secrets has been Opened

"Filch hasn't stopped his guard huh?" Harry muttered as they walked closer to the message. Harry's observe on the paint only showed it as conjured permanent colour, giving him no clue as to what might have happened. He stared long and hard at the letters, hoping that some sort of pattern would emerge, but nothing did.

"Come and look at this!" said Hermione, "This is funny…"

Harry turned around and crossed to the window next to the message on the wall. Hermione was pointing at the topmost pane, where around twenty spiders were scuttling, apparently fighting to get through a small crack. A long, silvery thread was dangling like a rope, as though they had all climbed it in their hurry to get outside.

"Have you ever seen spiders act like that?" said Hermione wonderingly.

"No," muttered Harry.

A strange daze seemed to fall over him. Half forgetting that Hermione was even there, he placed his finger against the wall near the spiders with an open palm. Some sort of mind control seemed to take hold of the arachnids, as they instantly stopped struggling, and as one turned around and scuttled over Harry's fingers onto his palm.

Hermione watched with an open mouth as Harry opened the window and extended the palm with the spiders outside the window.

As one, the spiders organized themselves in a circle and released several silk threads from their spinnerets into the air, which condensed into one triangular shaped parachute. A small gust of wind came and carried the spiders away on the updraft of the wind towards the direction of the forbidden forest.

Harry stared at his hand wondrously for a second, before he seemed to regain his bearings and quickly shut the window close.

"How did you get them to do that?" Hermione asked in a wondrous whisper.

Harry looked at Hermione, feeling slightly dazed as a memory that even he himself had forgotten bought itself to the front of his mind.

"I…I don't know" Harry absently muttered back, "I think…I think I've been able to for a long time…can't quite remember…"

"But how?" she pushed on.

Harry looked her in the eye. Almost as if moving out of his own control, he heard his own voice start speaking, "Back with the Dursleys, before they enrolled me in school, I didn't have any friends. Spiders…spiders were good company back then. Lived with me in my cupboard, scared off my cousin when he'd come for me, kept all the other bugs away…"

He took a deep breath before continuing, "I remember one day I'd sliced my arm open in the kitchen. It was a big cut, but I didn't want to bother my Uncle, so I just tried to bandage it up in myself with an old shirt. I remember the dry cloth just hurting a lot and crying myself to sleep."

He rubbed the thin scar that ran down his left arm as Hermione looked on with pitying eyes.

"Next morning, I woke up, and there was not a shred of pain in my arm. My entire arm was fully covered in spider silk, and when I washed the silk off, it was almost completely healed. I still don't know how it happened…I remember thinking it was some sort of weird science thing related to spiders…but in retrospect it was probably accidental magic. Ever since then, I've always been good with spiders."

Ping!

By to revisiting an old forgotten memory of magic, you have gained a new skill!

Animal Empathy, Lv-1 (10%)

This skill can be used to sense and understand the emotions of animals and vice versa, allowing a mutual understanding to form between the user and the animal he's understanding. It is not a form of mind control, so aggressive animals may still attack user, although eventually this power may grow to the point where the user can exert some degree of control over the creature.

Unlocked Animals:

Arachnid Empathy: User can use this skill on arachnids.

Snake Empathy: User can use this skill on snakes.

"So you gained some sort of control over spiders?" Hermione finally seemed to ask, and Harry was glad that she didn't comment on the cupboard or ask how he'd sliced his arm open. He waved away the new skill window before replying.

"Not control…empathy is a better way to put it. I can understand them, and they can understand me. If they know that I don't mean them harm, they'll listen to me," Harry said, pausing for a moment before he added, "We'd better go. The others must've arrived by now," and started walking towards the Arithmancy classroom.

Hermione didn't speak again on their way to the Arithmancy classroom, where they met up with the others.

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