Arachnia

~Chapter 2~

Harry felt an arm shaking him violently when he woke up. He saw some red hair and instantly knew that it was Ron.

"Harry! Get up! We over-slept!" Harry jumped out of his bed and they quickly got dressed to go downstairs.

"So, who do we have to share our first class with?" Harry asked between breaths as they ran quickly down the hall.

"Slytherin," Ron huffed. When they reached the door Ron stopped abruptly and Harry ran into him.

"Why'd you stop for-" Harry fell silent. He saw McGonagall standing at the door tapping her foot.

"Late again? Potter? Weasely?" She said as they were always late.

"We over-slept...Professor..." Harry managed to say.

"Perhaps you should sleep earlier." She walked back into the classroom and they followed her in. Hermione looked at them disapprovingly while they took a seat on either side of her.

"How long have you been here?" Ron whispered.

"I have been here about ten minutes now." She reread the notes that she had taken. "While I was here McGonagall was reviewing the stuff we should have covered over the summer from homework."

"So we didn't miss anything..." Harry sighed. He inspected the classroom. It was just the way he had left it the year before. But wait...who was that?

"Hermione, who is that girl sitting behind Malfoy?" he asked her.

"Huh? ...Oh, I don't know." She looked over Ron's shoulder. "I never saw her before, or noticed her..." Ron, too, was now looking over his shoulder.

"Maybe she is a new student?" he guessed.

"No, no I don't think so, Ron." Hermione returned to her notes and reviewed them. Harry and Ron shrugged and pulled out some parchment and quill for the class.

~|~

"Don't tell me that she's at the Library on the first day of school!" Ron exclaimed as they walked into the Great Hall for lunch. He and Harry took a seat at the Gryffindor table. It wasn't long when Hermione and Ginny had joined them.

"Hello," Ginny said to her brother and Harry. They both greeted her back. She took a seat next to Hermione and grabbed some food to put on her plate.

"Guess who I ran into at the library just a while ago..." Hermione started.

"See, I told you she'd be at the library," Ron told Harry. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Anyways, I met that girl from Transfiguration class. Her name is Alina Dervies but the Slytherins call her Arachnia." Ron shuddered at that word.

"Doesn't that have to do with spiders or something?"

"Yes." Hermione and Harry knew that he was Arachnophobic. Ginny smirked.

"Is poor widdle-Ronniekins scared of a little spider?" Ginny teased him imitating Fred and George.

"Shut up Gin!" Ron turned red.

"Really Ron, you should give that fear up." Hermione drank from her goblet.

"Why is that her nickname?" Harry asked her.

"I don' know really. She didn't say. Maybe she likes spiders a lot." Hermione guessed.

Spiders...It reminded Harry of the time in his second year when he and Ron we in the Forbidden Forest with Aragog. He knew it traumatized Ron for life.

There was a loud commotion coming from the Slytherin table. Pansy was screaming "Get it off me! Get it off me!" Harry, Hermione, and Ron turned around to see what was going on.

"It's just a spider!" A seventh-year Slytherin boy said. "Stop moving!" Pansy was jumping all over the place. The boy managed to get it off of her. "See?" He placed it on the ground and squished it with his shoe.

Ron, who was watching through small cracks in his hands, was repeating, "That wasn't necessary..." Hermione shook her head and returned to her lunch. Harry grinned and returned to his food. Ginny and Hermione had started a conversation and Ron was ranting on about how he had lost his appetite.

"I mean if there was a spider on her then there could be spiders all over this place! What if it's in the food?!..." Harry laughed.

"Sure Ron, I wonder why haven't found any spiders legs swarming in our food for the past four years." He looked up at the entrance. He saw somebody run from the spot he just glanced at. He looked again, there was nobody there. Eyes...I'm just seeing stuff.