"How come these spiders can talk?" Harry looked at the ring of spiders around them, marveling at how their clicking noises could form human speech.
Tris didn't know either. He only remembered that Aragog could talk in the films.
But it didn't matter. They all had to die anyway. The only question was which magic to kill them with.
"Spiders are annoying enough. Talking spiders are even worse," Ron said darkly.
"Then I'll help you kill a few extra in a minute," Harry said with a grin.
Ron gave Harry a long look, then nodded emphatically. What made a true friend? This was a true friend right here.
"Hagrid, is that you?" Just as Harry and Ron were considering which spider to attack first, a deep but much clearer voice came from the far end of the hollow.
Surprise spread across both Harry's and Ron's faces.
Although they had already guessed that these spiders might have something to do with Hagrid, hearing the spider inside actually call out his name still gave them quite a shock.
At the bottom of the hollow, an enormous black shape slowly crawled out of the "hill" woven from spiderwebs.
"Whoa, that's a big spider!" Harry's eyes went wide at the sight of the huge creature crawling out of the webs. Even Tris, who had remained calm throughout, couldn't help raising an eyebrow. As for Ron, his knees were already going weak.
The spider before them was simply too big. Even without counting his eight spear-like legs, his body was larger than a rhinoceros, about the size of a small elephant.
On his enormous, hideous head, all eight eyes, which should have been jet-black, were covered in a cloudy film. He was clearly blind.
"Hagrid?" the giant spider called again. "Is that you?"
"No, someone