Aragog shuffled to the entrance. "My descendants are savage, greedy, and hungry. They do not understand human rules, nor do they wish to. If I had sought you out, you would only have seen them as a pack of dangerous, troublesome beasts."
Douglas smiled.
"Aren't they?"
Aragog's four eyes narrowed slightly.
"Yes."
"So I waited for you to come."
"Until I was close to death, until my colony had no choice but to find a new home, until you could see both the risks they posed and the value they could offer."
He raised a trembling foreleg.
"Webs, underground patrols, the ability to sense things in darkness. We are not without value."
"We can trade."
Hagrid was utterly stunned.
"Aragog, you... you're negotiating terms with Douglas?"
"Hagrid."
Aragog's voice softened a little.
"You brought me out of fear and taught me to believe that not all humans were cruel."
"But you should also understand that a friend cannot ensure an entire colony's survival."
"I must leave my children a way forward. Once I am gone, if no one can keep them in check, my colony will meet its end sooner or later."
Douglas rubbed his chin. "So you deliberately let them intercept me in the valley, partly to test my abilities and partly to let me intimidate them. Is that right?"
"That was merely children behaving foolishly, playing around. Clearly, you did not kill them," Aragog said leisurely.
"You're quite ruthless, using dozens of descendants to test my attitude," Douglas sneered.
"A group of disobedient children. If they were eliminated early, they would not drag the other well-behaved children into trouble."
"Heh. Do Acromantulas even have good little babies?"
Newt had remained silent.
Now, he carefully examined Aragog's abdomen, chelicerae, and eyes.
Aragog did not attack him.
Newt said quietly,