Harry and Ron crashed through the woods. The car followed a route it clearly knew well, deftly swerving left and right in search of the widest gaps.
They emerged from the Forbidden Forest with no pursuers behind them.
Harry turned to look at Ron. His mouth was still open as though in a silent scream, but his eyes were no longer bulging.
"Are you all right?"
Ron stared straight ahead, unable to say a word. Only after a long while did he open the car door, crawl into the Pumpkin Patch, and vomit violently.
"Follow the spiders," Ron said weakly, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "I'll never forgive Hagrid! We were lucky to get out alive!"
"When he gets back from Azkaban, I'm going to kill him!" Ron viciously pulled out his broken wand!
"I bet he thought Aragog wouldn't hurt his friends," Harry said.
"That's Hagrid's problem!" Ron said, pounding on the wall of the hut. "He always thinks monsters aren't as bad as people make them out to be. Just look where he's ended up! In a cell in Azkaban!" He began trembling uncontrollably. "What was the point of sending us there? I'd like to know what we actually found out!"
"We found out Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets. He's innocent," Harry said.
Ron gave a loud snort.
Clearly, as far as he was concerned, Hagrid had ceased to be innocent the moment he hatched Aragog in a cupboard.
Harry went into Hagrid's hut to retrieve the Invisibility Cloak and draped it over himself and Ron. Huddled together, they found somewhere to sit and gazed back into the depths of the Forbidden Forest, waiting for Cyrus.
"If you ask me, it's a good thing Mr. Riddle falsely accused Hagrid fifty years ago!" Ron said. "Otherwise,