There was no way to miss Hagrid’s hut even if Taylor wasn’t cheating and using her bugs to guide her steps. Everything was way too big around his house: the fences, the road, the dog, even the pumpkins!
Taylor felt like a character in a fantasy novel ready to knock on the giant’s door to bargain for a clue about the location of the dragon’s lair that had inevitably kidnapped the kingdom's lovely, innocent princess.
Before she banged at his door, something deep inside the forest brushed against her power, then retreated. Taylor’s head snapped in that direction, but there was no way she could see what it was with her own eyes. Her power somehow felt as confused as Taylor. She redirected bugs around trying to find what that had been. Her range expanded even more — she caught a distant feeling of an alien mind and saw the skittering of many giant hairy limbs on top of one of the trees — before whatever that was fled from her range and power.
She stayed there, hand raised and ready to knock, but too startled to even think.
What the heck was that? She had an impulsive desire to abandon her quest and enter the forest, but she held back. Entering the forest alone was a stupid idea.
Taylor tried to put that out of her mind and return to her original quest. She girded her loins, made sure her stick was safely ensconced in her back pocket, then hit the wooden door with the finality of someone marching onto an adventure that would change her life forever.
“Comin’,” was the response to her act of defiance to knock on the giant’s door.
With a loud creak and whoosh of displaced air, the gates to the giant’s castle opened and the big un’ himself poked his head out. He first looked ahead, then left and right, then down and then down a bit more. His face lit up in a welcoming smile that almost broke Taylor out of her fantasy.
It was like being David and facing a smiling, rugged, bearded and very hairy Goliath.
“Hello there,” he said.
It was surreal. If the man placed his hand down, Taylor could probably climb on top of it and have room to move around.
She smiled; Nap hooted.
“Hello Hagrid,” she greeted with an enthusiastic wave. “I’m Taylor Hebert. I saw you at the station; you took us across the lake. It was awesome, I wish I could do it again. Are there any other secret passages like that one? Are you free now? I’d like to ask you a few questions. About the grounds, about the forest, the magical creatures and a few bugs I have never seen before!”
“O’course, o’course,” he said, opening the door wider. “Want ter come in? I have rock cake an’ tea.”
Taylor was already nodding and stepping inside.
The huge boarhound dog followed them into the hut, tail waving lazily.
“Don’t yer mind Fang,” Hagrid said, petting his dog as it passed by.
The hut interior was cluttered in the best cozy way. Pots, dried herbs, curing meats and more, hung from the walls. Across from the door a lit hearth and a bubbling cauldron smelling of delicious stew completed the scene.
Hagrid seemed used to having visitors, because apart from his one chair, other pieces of furniture to sit on were sized for normal people, kinda-ish. She climbed on the couch — her feet didn’t reach the floor. Nap flapped her wings and landed on a large perch by the open window.
Fang plopped down near the couch, tail thumping the rough leather.
Her host busied himself grabbing a mug that was bigger than her head and filling it with some bubbling beverage, and a slice of cake that was even bigger than the mug. He placed it on the table with a smile. From his pocket, he took a handful of dried meat strips, then offered them to Nap one by one.
The greedy owl gobbled everything, while Taylor tried without much success to bite the cake. She guessed the rock in the name was more literal than she had thought.
“She’s goin’ ta be a big one,” Hagrid said once he finished feeding Nap. “Beautiful too, yer hardly see ‘em with that many white feathers.”
Taylor used her teeth to break a piece of the cake, then dipped it into the hot creamy tea. Once it was soaked, she plopped it into her mouth. It was delicious.
“What do yer want ter ask about?”
“Rainbow-silk spiders,” Hagrid said, nodding and pointing to a drawing in one of the books he got from somewhere inside the hut.
Taylor nodded along, reading the book entry:
Rainbow-silk Spider (Araneus iridosericus)
A rare small, jewel-bright spider about the size of a thumbnail, found nesting in warm, sheltered corners of magical gardens and old stone walls. Its silk shifts color depending on its mood and diet: calm spiders spin pale gold or silver webs, while agitated or well-fed ones produce threads in vivid pinks, blues, and greens. The color isn't just decorative: the silk retains a faint shimmer even after the spider abandons the web, and collectors prize it for use in ornamental thread-work and minor charm-craft (they can be used as an ingredient in cheerfulness charms, given its naturally uplifting hue). The Rainbow-silk Spiders are entirely harmless to humans and they're considered a good sign by witches and wizards who find them nesting nearby, as their presence indicates a magically healthy garden.
“Very rare nowadays,” Hagrid added, “they bring good luck, they do.”
Taylor nodded along. She didn’t tell Hagrid about the hive she found nesting in the dark tunnels beneath Hogwarts. They numbered in the thousands. It made her mind, and power, buzz with possibilities. Could she make the spiders spin different coloured webbing without having to be mean to them? Just imagining it left Taylor wanting to scamper back to a quiet corner to experiment with the pretty spiders.
Perhaps influenced by Dream-Taylor, now she wanted to weave something out of their silk. The things she could do!
“And that fly I asked earlier? Striped yellow and grey. About this big,” Taylor said, spacing her index and thumb a smidge to show the mosquito size.
Hagrid took the book, flipped pages until he found what he was looking for. He handed it back, and Taylor read the passage and looked at the drawings.
Itchgnat (Culicidae vexans)
A small grey-and-yellow striped mosquito-like insect found near magical bogs, enchanted ponds, and overgrown hedgerows. Itchgnats are mostly harmless but notoriously irritating: their bite injects a mild magical irritant that causes a raised, itchy welt lasting several days — noticeably longer and itchier than an ordinary mosquito bite, though entirely non-toxic. The itching tends to flare up at dusk, mimicking the gnat's natural feeding hours, which many find the most maddening part. Pepperup potions have no effect on the welts, but a simple dab of Stinging Solution or even crushed dittany usually settles them within a day. Itchgnats are considered a nuisance rather than a danger.
That was a good find. Irritating, but not dangerous was something she could use to terrorize, err, re-educate the annoying students if they kept trying to bully her and Luna.
“Very annoyin’ they are,” Hagrid said, scratching his chin. “They—”
But Taylor wasn’t paying attention anymore. She’d shot up from the couch, looking toward the castle.
“Taylor? Somethin’ wrong?”
“I have to go,” Taylor said, thrusting the book toward the gentle giant, hopping off the couch and toward the door. She collected a napping Nap, then stopped at the door. “I enjoyed talking with you, and sorry about leaving like this.”
Hagrid nodded, walking closer and looking worried.
“Can I come back another day? I’d love to talk some more.”
“Yer can visit whenever yer want, just send yer owl tellin’ when.”
Taylor nodded, waved goodbye then ran toward the castle. She’d been keeping an eye on all of Slytherin; Callun had just spotted Luna and Harriet. She caught him discussing the ‘prank’ with the older students and the snickering, growing crowd following her friends and planning an ambush.
All the while, Taylor worked furiously with her bugs. Small flies hauled the thin, almost invisible silk she had her spiders weave overnight, pixies ferried the larger, scarier-looking spiders, while she drew from around the lake the few itchgnats near the castle.
Taylor ran past startled students, complaining prefects (“No running in the corridors!”), indifferent ghosts and once, she had to duck to another passage to avoid Filch and his cat. She managed to reach Luna just before Callun and the Slytherin gang surrounded her friends in one of the castle’s many corridors. Callun had his wand in hand, though not pointed at anyone.
“Luna!” Taylor gasped between pained and ragged breaths.
“Hi, Taylor,” Luna greeted her with the same serenity she always did. Being surrounded by older, mean-looking Slytherins didn’t seem to bother her any. Harriet, on the other hand, looked ready to bolt, like a spring coiled too tight.
“Isn’t that just our luck?” Callun gloated, sneering at Taylor. “Loony, Harri-et and the tell-tale tit.” He said Harriet’s name like it was an insult.
Taylor stood straight in front of Luna, glaring at the crowd. “What do you want, Callun?”
“To teach you your place,” he said, raising his wand without fanfare.
Taylor stared Callun in the eye, a strange calm washing over her. From atop her head, Nap spread her wings and hooted in a distinctly mean way. “Leave my friends alone. It won’t end well.” She didn’t see a need to voice a threat. Her eyes promised hell if he tried anything.
Callun’s wand wavered and for a moment it looked like he was going to give up, until an older boy mocked him.
“What, you’re afraid of the Loony Two?”
Callun gritted his teeth and raised his wand again. He opened his mouth. “Calvo—”
A fat, hairy spider dropped on his face. The pixies pulled the silk tied around Callun’s wand, and the stick flew from his hand before he could complete whatever curse he was about to cast. He was too startled by the spider on his face, letting out a girlish squeal, to notice losing his wand or Taylor until she was in front of him.
Taylor’s body moved in a way it never had before. She kicked him between the legs with all the force she could muster, putting her whole body behind the movement.
Callun let out an agonized wail, crumpling onto a fetal ball. There was a moment of silence, then the surrounding students started yelling, and crowding closer.
“What is this?” A bellow from behind the crowd stopped everyone in their tracks. Filch muscled past the students to find Taylor standing over Callun.
“She’s gone mental! She attacked him without provocation!” the same boy from before said, pointing at Taylor. More and more of Slytherin joined, declaring Taylor the aggressor.
“No, she didn’t,” Luna said at the same time Harriet yelled: “He was going to curse her.”
But Filch either didn’t hear or ignored both.
“I’ll see you punished for striking another student!” he bellowed even louder, grabbing Taylor by the arm and dragging her away from the crowd, and leaving a hurt Callun rolling on the ground.
Taylor kept glaring at Callun until Filch pulled her around a bend in the corridor. She had her bugs drag his wand out of view and hide it in some hard-to-find corner. It was petty, but deserved. She had her itchgnats bite, a couple of times, the boy who spurred Callun into casting his curse and lied about this whole fiasco, then sent the rest toward that Flint boy, the mastermind behind it all.
She didn’t skimp on him. She had the gnats bite several times, in very visible places. She lost almost all of them, but it was for a good cause.