Spiders
From UnknowableWiki
| Creature profile | |
|---|---|
| Spider | |
| Ministry of Magic Classification | up to XXXXX (Acromantula) |
| Appearance | invertebrate, two body segments, eight legs |
| Origin | worldwide |
| Known specimens | Acromantula |
| First appearance in canon | The Vanishing Glass (PS) |
Spiders are predatory invertebrate animals that have two body segments, eight legs, no chewing mouth parts and no wings (WP). They are used as a potion ingredient (CS9). While most spiders are plain, non-magical creatures, the Acromantula, a venomous, gigantic spider that is capable of human speech, is a magical creature and probably wizard-bred (FBAZ). A colony of Acromantula lives in the Forbidden Forest (CS15). All spiders fear the Basilisk, their mortal enemy. They flee when they sense its presence (CS16).
Ron Weasley has suffered from arachnophobia since his brother Fred turned his teddy bear into a spider when he was three (CS9). His boggart is a huge spider (PA7). Harry Potter, on the other hand, is used to spiders because the cupboard under the stairs at number four, Privet Drive in which he lived for several years was full of them (PS2).
Mentions in the Series
Before his Hogwarts letters arrives, Harry shares his cupboard with numerous spiders, which he often has to pick from his clothes (PS2).
Much to the Weasley twins' delight, Lee Jordan brings a giant tarantula to Hogwarts in 1991 (PS6).
A shop in Knockturn Alley sells live large black spiders (CS4).
Terrified by the Basilisk that haunts the castle, the Hogwarts spiders flee to the Acromantula colony in the Forbidden Forest in the school year of 1992 to 1993. Harry, Ron and Hermione Granger see about twenty spiders trying to escape from the corridor outside Moaning Myrtle's bathroom through a crack in the castle walls after the first attack (CS9). Harry also notices spiders fleeing from the spot where Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly Headless Nick were attacked (CS11). When Rubeus Hagrid is arrested as a suspect, he tells Harry and Ron to follow the spiders. The boys at first have trouble to find any spiders left in the castle, but finally meet some near the Greenhouses. At night, they follow them into the forest with Fang and are captured by Acromantula. They speak to the colony's leader Aragog, who wants to feed them to his children and are rescued by the Flying Ford Anglia (CS15).
When Remus Lupin teaches his third-year students how to defeat Boggarts in Defence Against the Dark Arts, Ron's Boggart becomes a spider. He ridicules it by robbing it of its legs (PA7).
Barty Crouch, Jr., disguised as Mad-Eye Moody demonstrates the three Unforgivable Curses on spiders in his first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson. First, he forces one of them to do acrobatics and tap-dance with Imperio. He then enlarges a second (making Ron back away in horror) and tortures it with Crucio, and finally he uses the Killing Curse on the last one (GF14).
The sphinx inside the maze of the third task of the Triwizard Tournament asks Harry a riddle to which the correct answer is "spider". The maze also contains a gigantic, hairy black spider that attacks Cedric Diggory. Harry Potter comes to his aid, but all his spells can do nothing against the monster. He is lifted into the air and dropped again when he casts Expelliarmus on the spider. Only two simultaneous Stunners by Harry and Cedric knock out the creature (GF31). Cho Chang later claims that the spider is an Acromantula during the DA's formative meeting in the Hog's Head, and Harry does not correct her. However, the spider never talks and Harry does not explicitly identify it as an Acromantula during the task, so it is possible that Cho is mistaken (OP16).
Spiders as large as saucers inhabit the dining room at number twelve, Grimmauld Place in the summer of 1995. Ron leaves the room at their sight and does not return for an hour and a half (OP6).
Spiders also populate the Weasleys' broom shed, into which Albus Dumbledore pulls Harry to tell him that he is proud of how well the boy copes with the death of his godfather in the summer of 1996. Trying to control his emotions, Harry fixes a spider that is climbing up Dumbledore's hat. Dumbledore states that he would pull his hat for Harry were he not afraid of showering him in spiders (HBP4).
Aragog dies in April 1997 and Harry and Horace Slughorn attend his funeral with Hagrid. Harry is able to coerce Slughorn into giving him the correct memory of Tom Marvolo Riddle's question about Horcruxes after the burial (HBP22).
After Ron has rejoined Harry and Hermione in the Forest of Dean, Harry practises with the new wand Ron has given him on a spider. He tries to enlarge it until Ron voices his discomfort (DH20).
Acromantula from the Forbidden Forest attack the castle after Voldemort occupies their lair. Hagrid tries to protect them and is carried away by them (DH32).
