Irelia is innocent. Truly.
Because there are always scheming mortals trying to harm her.
"She's too strong. Let's nerf Irelia."
And later, this sentence evolved into:
"The weather's great today. Let's chop Irelia."
Irelia suffers deeply, but has no words to defend herself.
Likewise, there was someone else suffering in silence.
To be precise, not someone, a spider.
It was born blind. At most, it hunted small animals.
It didn't even get the chance to commit any grand "harm-the-chosen-one" kind of crime… yet its family had already suffered losses once.
Who could have expected, today, while Allen was still technically in detention, he suddenly felt inspired, noticing an opportunity too good to waste.
Voldemort had already taken so many blame-pots by now, what was one more?
So, Allen decided to earn a little money to moisturize his extremely dry, extremely sad wallet.
Yes, no problem there.
These spiders weren't good guys anyway.
Allen would never hesitate to kill them.
••┈┈┈┈┈༓┈┈┈┈┈•••
Sera was an ordinary little spider, well, ordinary only in comparison to the larger members of its clan.
In truth, as a descendant of the Acromantulas, it was in no way small, but compared to Aragog, Sera's body, only about the size of a chair, was indeed considered tiny.
As descendants of Hagrid's very first pet, these spiders enjoyed great freedom and good treatment in the Forbidden Forest.
The only annoyance was: because of Hagrid's restrictions, they were forbidden from leaving the forest or attacking the occasional foolish student who wandered in by mistake.
Their diet was diverse.
It even included centaurs, yes, sapient beings, which had caused plenty of conflict in the forest.
Of course, all of this was done behind Hagrid's back.
Aragog never wanted to make him sad.
And even though Aragog was now old and blind, its children still followed its rule.
As one of the apex predators of the forest, the spider colony had lived comfortably, growing from two spiders to a massive swarm.
But then the problem appeared.
Their population grew too large.
The Forbidden Forest simply did not have enough food to sustain them.
Even though Hagrid brought large amounts of food each visit, it was nowhere near enough.
The area slowly became known among forest creatures as a dead zone, the spiders would devour anything. Even bones rarely remained.
And yet, the famine continued.
But one day, the problem eased.
A few of the second-generation spiders, large and heavy eaters, were killed while chasing prey by some unknown force.
Aragog was furious.
But even after much searching, no culprit could be found.
However… food became slightly more abundant.
Which was miraculous.
Unfortunately, the relief didn't last.
More baby spiders hatched.
Food became scarce again.
So, Sera, who considered itself clever, kept thinking about a solution.
But found none.
Tonight, while standing guard and pondering hunger, an intruder appeared in the nest.
A human.
Food.
But this kind of food could not be touched lightly, Hagrid didn't want them harming humans.
Even with an empty stomach, Sera held back its killing instinct.
Aragog didn't want to trouble Hagrid.
So Sera lazily nudged a smaller spider beside it, signaling it to show itself, scare away the little wizard, and be done with it.
But just then,
A signal pulsed through the web, straight from the center.
A command.
A kill command.
Aragog's command.
Sera didn't understand why.
Maybe Aragog was finally willing to break Hagrid's rule.
Or maybe the old king was simply starving beyond reason.
But none of that mattered.
The spiders surged forward to attack the wizard.
What they didn't know was that Aragog acted out of fear.
Even blind, its sense for danger had only sharpened.
And Aragog felt death radiating from the human in its nest.
So it ordered the swarm to strike first.
But it was useless.
Pathetically useless.
As Allen stepped forward, dozens of shapes formed from swirling yellow sand rose beside him.
If he intended to frame Voldemort, then he needed to do it properly.
This sand-based heritage magic was something Voldemort had once used at Hogwarts.
So even if someone investigated later, this blame would fall perfectly where he wanted it to.
With a swing of his wand, the forms grew clearer,
The sand soldiers took up spears, glowing with a metal-like edge.
Each spear pulsed faintly with magical force.
If any magical tool-maker had seen this, they would have dropped their teeth in shock.
Sadly, only the spiders saw it,
And even as half the colony was out hunting, the remaining spiders formed a living tidal wave, crashing toward Allen.
But the center of their attack was not ice that could break,
It was a stone reef, immovable.
The sand soldiers were immune to damage; a few grains lost to bites meant nothing, and their venom had no effect.
Meanwhile, every thrust of a sand spear skewered several spiders at once, like sugar-glazed candied fruit on sticks.
The soldier dissolved into sand.
A new soldier rose again.
When Sera felt a spear pierce through its body, it finally understood the answer to the food problem.
Food shortage was easy to solve…
Just let there be fewer spiders.
••┈┈┈┈┈༓┈┈┈┈┈•••
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