Train Wreck

Train Wreck

By Dimgwrthien

The hairy leg snuck back into the box as the two Weasley twins grinned at Lee. Lee Jordan fit the cover of the box snugly into place once more and looked up.

“What do you think?”

“Brilliant!” the two chorused. The compartment had been crowded not even five minutes before with students from every house wanting to see the large spider Lee had snuck into the train. However, all had left with a well-placed dung bomb that left the compartment smelling of methane gases. All had their sleeves pressed hard against their noses, trying to block out the stench.

“Where did you get it? It’s huge!”

“I found it outside the house,” Lee answered, opening the edge of the box and letting the hairy body crawl out for a second, legs sprawled out as though ready to jump at them and place the longer-than-normal fangs into their throats. It had a decidedly murderous look to it. “It was crawling on the wall and I… I hit it with an Engorgement Charm.” His grin was like a cat’s and would have been perfect if he had fangs like the spider.

“No letter?” Fred asked, shocked by the news. He leaned closer to the spider and heard a strange hissing noise from it before backing away.

“Nope. I think they thought it was my Mum or something.” He laughed with his eyes closed and did not notice the large spider crawl over his hands, nearing the wall. Fred and George elbowed each other as they pointed it out.

“Lee -”

“I think I could get away with doing plenty of things now. I mean, if they couldn’t get that -”

“LEE!”

Lee paused in his talking and frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s getting away - the spider!” Fred answered, standing up and watching the huge tarantula crawl up the wall, hooked legs pumping furiously.

Lee threw himself forward, trying to get the box over the escaping spider but missed, only managed to give it a several inch boast towards the open window.

Fred tried to scoop the spider in his hands but found that his hands became itchy once he came too close to it. George jumped over his identical twin, reaching out but falling his face as his ankle was pulled by Fred.

Lee let out a strangled cry (due to Fred’s arm being jammed in his throat) as the spider managed to get a leg out of the window and was swept out of view in the flying wind. Lee pushed the arm from his throat and glanced outside as though hoping the spider were still hanging on for its dear life.

“Oh!” he muttered, leaning against the wall and frowning as he left the other two to untangle themselves.

“There are other spiders,” George told him as he got to his feet. “I mean, you could get a brown recluse and set it loose in Filch’s office -”

“Or a ton of small ones to set loose around the place.”

Lee sighed as he placed the box down on the nearest seat. “Well, it was my first charmed object out of school -”

“Letters saying we can’t do anything stupid are only warnings.” Fred had a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “We can always break more rules.”