A Day in the Life of a Spider

Rosa sat perfectly still in the middle of her web, the glistening strands she’d carefully created earlier this morning quivering just ever so slightly in the corner of the greenhouse. Even though he knew Maia would have bought her any number of crickets or other large bugs if she had shown signs of being hungry, hunting was any spider’s first instinct. She wasn’t about to give it up now. Besides, this as much more cost-effective, as she knew Maia was constantly troubled by this “money” thing humans troubled themselves with. The hall of the school itself were a bit too cold and dry for her taste, but the greenhouse never failed to provide a nice environment to set up her web and just wait.

Time didn’t mean much to a spider, so Rosa paid no mind as the hours ticked by. Her owner was used to her being off and away for a long portion of time. She caught several loud, juicy flies and one unfortunate moth before she allowed her web to go to ruins and abandoned it. From there, she took off deep into the forbidden forest, crawling rapidly over stone, leaves, and fallen trees. A centaur thundered past and she froze, waiting until long after the hoofbeats had stopped reverberating through the ground. Then off again she went, moving quickly and with purpose. It was a long distance and dusk had fallen before she finally reached her destination: the home of the acromantulas.

The gigantic spiders themselves took little interest in Rosa, and she didn’t feel comfortable having much in the way of conversation with them either, but the area was a great place for spider gatherings. All of the spiders in Hogwarts had probably visited the area at one point or another. It was rumored that this was even where the spiders of Hogwarts had fled when the school had awoken one of the You-Know-What’s (Basilisks). The sheer number of the species was greater here than any other place Rosa had ever seen.

Gossip was common among them. They saw and heard much, while they themselves were rarely seen, and with such a lifestyle, there was really not much else to do besides talk. As she wandered through the groups, she heard snippets of different stories. The recent inferius scare was one she’d heard before. She’d panicked when she’d heard that some students had gotten injured, but Maia had turned out alright and that was all that mattered. Then there was a tree that had fallen near the lake. It had crushed a few spiders and sent a fire ant colony into a frenzy, what a disaster. Several other spiders had laid eggs, of which a couple had been eaten for the greater good. The hot summer this past year had caused little water pockets near the lake to proliferate tasty mosquitos even more than usual.

Whispers like this flew through the crowd. Some were mundane and common, others were a little unusual, like that unicorn that had gotten its horn stuck in a tree for hours. Now that had been a funny one to hear about. But the truly shocking ones always came from the school of magic. The chatter was never dull with that disaster-bucket so close by. In the first year, Rosa had heard a funny story about a girl with blonde hair who always choked, spluttered, and swore in the shower. Even now, spiders would come out with some new inventive curse the girl had introduced them to. Her name was apparently Stella, but most people called her the shower girl. And then there was that girl that could talk to spiders. She’d caused a major stir in the spider community. Everybody talked about, and sometimes to, her quite a lot. It was fun to speak to a human that could actually talk back. Rosa often wished Maia was the same, so they could have proper talks, but no use wishing for the impossible.

She stopped abruptly and joined a groups whispering about the werewolf boy. Sethen Lockett, aka the werewolf boy, had been another favored topic for a while, especially as shower girl would visit him a lot, but the stories about him had never been tinged by excitement before. Tonight was different. One spider was relating with animated glee, a story about how he’d tried to attack shower girl. That had never happened before, but maybe it would happen again. One of the other spiders was displeased. They did not get much chance to read, and the monthly meetings of the two had often resulted in a previously unheard story of some kind. It would be upsetting if she were scared off. Still, it was an interesting new development and many of the spiders were discussing it, trying to guess what would happen next. If they had anything to bet, they probably would have been betting it.

Rosa spent much of the evening in this manner, exchanging new stories, offering her opinions on ones she’d heard, but she had to return before midnight. Maia always worried if she returned unusually late, another case in which being unable to communicate with her owner was a hassle. So she scuttled away again, over the familiar path to return to the school. She narrowly dodged a snake before slipping through tiny cracks to get into the imposing building. She traveled up the outer walls towards Ravenclaw tower, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep it up forever. On the fifth floor, she found a good window and snuck inside.

Almost immediately, she was attacked by a cat. Detestable creatures. It wasn’t that Ms. Norris again, was it? Oh wait, no. That was Layla, a kneazle. These were cleverer than cats, curse that long-haired boy who brought in a creature like that. Whatever did Ms. Charlotte see in him? Her recently developed crush on him had been talked about for days. All those students that brought in their cats and owls, how stupid could they be? Spiders were obviously the superior species. The way cats played with them was downright barbaric. Cretins. Rosa dove into a nearby coat of armor, knowing that Layla was much too clever to get her owner in trouble by taking the bait. She was right, of course, and the dark-pelted creature didn’t dive for the suit of armor, but she did watch, grey eyes glittering intently in the dark. The patience with which the kneazle waited sometimes made Rosa respect her, as a spider, but she shook that thought off. No sense respecting a barbarian like that, even if it did know how to stay spider-still. Two could play at that game, and there was one thing that separated the two of them. Their owners.

Sure enough, after what seemed like hours, Layla’s large ears twitched and a look of discontent appeared on her cat-like face. She gave a quiet purr and tapped her claws several times in a very specific manner. There was a pause and a long silence, and the cat did it again, this time more insistently, looking warily down the dark hall. Taps in reply this time. She gave one more, soft tap with her claws, then sat where she was, no movement but her tail waving slightly. Not long after, the boy with long hair came down the hall, then crouched down in front of Layla. “Ho there.” He said quietly, petting her head and smiling gently at her. “You want to stay out longer tonight? I’m going to have to return to the dorms before someone catches me, and I don’t think anyone will be able to open the door for you.” Layla purred and pressed her back against his hand in a fluid motion. The boy chuckled quietly and picked her up. “Alright then.” With that, he walked off, leaving the spider to clack her pincers twice in satisfaction. Rosa had seen this strange exchange before. It did not always happen, but it was not unusual, either. The two seemed to have a… connection, or understanding, despite being completely unable to speak the other’s language. It made Rosa half-mad with jealousy sometimes. It wasn’t so easy with Maia, spiders couldn’t be so expressive. Whatever, it didn’t matter. It meant that she was almost always triumphant in these rare stand-stills so she should be grateful, not jealous.

She raced back to the Ravenclaw dorms, well before eleven o’clock, slipping in through secret ways only spiders knew and only spiders could access. Appearing out of a crack in Maia’s room, she slid into her tank and settled down, having had enough excitement for the day and enough food to last her a month. Her owner was busy doing something with the light, and she was feeling dry, so settled over her water bowl. She had just closed her eyes to take a nap, when she felt her tank bump slightly, a sign that Maia was reaching in. Opening her eyes, she grumpily flicked some leg hairs at the proffered hand, telling the human that she didn’t want to play now. The hand was obediently withdrawn, and Rosa fell asleep, prepared to face an exciting day at the castle tomorrow.

(Original date written unknown as it is saved from a blog post now deleted.)