After Ron saw the true form of the Acromantula clearly in Morris's hand with all eight eyes, all eight bristly legs, the body covered in coarse black hair, the glistening mandibles, he instinctively shrank back. His entire body jerked away as if Morris were holding a live grenade.
His face, already pale from blood loss and pain, somehow managed to turn even paler than before, taking on an almost grayish color in the torchlight.
Seeing him react with such extremeness, Morris asked in genuine confusion, tilting his head slightly. "Are you afraid of spiders? It's perfectly alright—it's completely unconscious. Can't hurt you now. See?"
He thought perhaps a closer look would help Ron see it was harmless in its current state.
"Look!" Morris said enthusiastically, bringing the spider right up close to Ron's face with interest. The fuzzy legs nearly brushed against Ron's nose, the creature's multiple eyes were at point-blank range.
"Ahh—!" Ron let out a strangled scream.
His mind felt like it was exploding with a buzzing, overwhelming sound. Every childhood nightmare about spiders came flooding back at once. The memory of waking up with a giant spider sitting on his chest, its legs on his face, its weight pressing down...
His vision went completely black. His body fell backward beyond his control, all strength was leaving his legs. His consciousness drifted away like a kite with a severed string, floating into darkness.
He'd fainted dead away.
"Ron!" Harry cried out in alarm. He quickly reached out to catch his new friend, but Ron had already begun toppling backward stiffly, his body was going stiff.
George, standing nearby and clearly familiar with this particular reaction, moved with speed. He caught Ron before the boy could crack his head open on the stone floor, supporting his weight easily.
"Careful—his head," George muttered, carefully lowering Ron to lie flat on the cold stones.
Seeing this intense reaction, Morris froze in surprise, his mouth fell slightly open. The unconscious spider still dangled from his hand forgotten.
He had only been joking to lighten the mood, trying to break the tension with a bit of humor. How had the guy actually fainted?
Could wizards really be this terrified of spiders? This seemed like an extreme phobia, not just normal fear.
George sighed heavily and helplessly, checking Ron's pulse and breathing to make sure he'd just fainted rather than suffered some kind of shock. Satisfied his brother was physically fine, he laid Ron completely flat on the ground in the recovery position.
Then he looked up at Morris and explained patiently, "Don't worry about it too much, Morris. This isn't your fault—well, not entirely. This guy has been absolutely terrified of spiders since he was little, scared completely out of his wits by them."
He paused, looking slightly guilty. "When we were young... well, we just played a little prank on him. But it left him with psychological trauma that's apparently permanent."
"What exactly did you do?" Morris asked with growing curiosity, sensing this story would be both entertaining and horrifying.
"A little mischief," Fred grinned shamelessly. "Nothing too serious. When Ron was about three years old, he had a toy broomstick he loved, slept with it every single night, wouldn't let it out of his sight."
"One day," Fred continued, his grin widening, "we turned it into a giant spider while he was sleeping."
"But it was our accidental magic surging out of control," George added quickly, shrugging with exaggerated innocence. "Unintentional childhood magic. We couldn't help it. We were only five or six ourselves."
Poor Ron, Morris thought immediately, feeling sympathy welling up. Having two brothers like these really was an absolute disaster.
Sometimes, as psychology research showed, childhood trauma takes a lifetime to heal.
Harry looked down at the unconscious Ron, his best friend's face was peaceful in his faint, and asked helplessly, "So what do we do now? Should we get him to the hospital wing? Will he be alright?"
"Leave it to us," Fred and George said in unison. They hoisted Ron up between them with ease, each taking an arm over their shoulders. They'd clearly done this before, probably multiple times.
"Once we get back to the Gryffindor common room, we'll give him some Pepperup Potion," George explained, adjusting his grip on Ron's arm. "That'll wake him right up. Might steam from the ears a bit, but he'll be fine. Good as new."
Harry nodded, breathing a long, shuddering sigh of relief. The tension in his shoulders eased slightly.
What an absolutely disastrous day this had been, especially for Ron. Lost in the castle, attacked by a giant spider, bitten and bleeding, then fainting from fear. All on their first full day at Hogwarts.
"One more thing," Fred looked at Harry with sudden seriousness, his playful expression vanishing. His voice dropped lower. "Don't tell anyone about this incident."
"Okay, I won't say anything," Harry replied immediately, understanding the importance.
He hadn't planned on telling anyone anyway, honestly. Or rather, he didn't really have anyone he could discuss this with besides Ron.
"Ahem."
Suddenly, the sound of someone clearing their throat echoed abruptly in the corridor, breaking the moment.
All four conscious students turned their heads in startled unison to see an extremely short figure approaching from the shadows. The person was even shorter than Morris, who was only a first-year and naturally small for his age.
But this was clearly an adult, an adult who happened to be extraordinarily short.
"Professor Flitwick?" Fred said in surprise, his voice was rising slightly with worry. His eyes widened.
"I believe curfew is nearly upon us, Mr. Weasley," Professor Flitwick said, walking a few steps closer with small, quick strides. His voice carried a serious, stern tone that didn't match his size at all.
"And Mr. Weasley as well," he added, nodding to George. "You both should return to your dormitories as quickly as possible. It's past appropriate hours for students to be wandering the corridors..."
"Wait a moment... what happened to that student?" Professor Flitwick's sharp gaze suddenly landed on the unconscious Ron being supported between the twins.
His eyes narrowed behind his glasses, taking in Ron's pale face.
Fred forced an unconvincing smile, using what he hoped was a casual, unconcerned tone. "Nothing serious, Professor. Ron just fainted from seeing a little spider that startled him. We're taking him back to the dormitory to rest and recover. We should be going. Goodbye, Professor."
He tried to edge past, hoping they could escape before more questions arose.
"Ah, just because of that? Kids these days, really..." Professor Flitwick shook his head, seemingly both amused and exasperated by the apparent fragility of modern students. "In my day, we weren't afraid of simple spiders..."
But then his keen gaze fell once more on Ron's pale, unconscious face, lingering on the distinctive paleness. Then down to the blood stains, quite a lot of blood, actually and the bandages wrapped around his calf.
Something wasn't right here! This did not seem like a simple fainting from fear.
Professor Flitwick frowned deeply. His eyes darted around, searching for more clues.
Then he caught sight of the Acromantula hatchling still clutched in Morris's hand.
His expression changed.
"Wait just one moment!" He pointed at the spider with a short finger, his voice was rising to a shrill, commanding pitch. "This is what you call a 'little spider'?"
His tone dripped with disbelief and growing anger.
The Weasley brothers and Morris nodded stiffly, jerkily, like guilty puppets.
In perfect synchronization, which only made them look more suspicious.
Professor Flitwick stepped forward decisively and waved his wand at the spider with a precise flicking motion.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
The spider in Morris's hand immediately floated up smoothly, lifting from his palm and flying through the air to hover in front of the professor for his inspection. It turned slowly, displayed like evidence.
"..."
The scene fell into dead, heavy silence.
Nobody dared speak or move.
"An Acromantula, no less?" Professor Flitwick looked genuinely quite angry now, his small face was flushed. His white beard seemed to bristle up with indignation. "Whose is this? Who brought this into the castle?"
Morris opened his mouth, about to explain and take responsibility after all, he'd been the one to catch it originally, when Fred discreetly tugged sharply at his sleeve under cover of supporting Ron.
The twin spoke first, smoothly and quickly, "Professor, George and I accidentally... uh, found it at the very edge of the Forbidden Forest this afternoon. We were just walking near the boundary, not inside or anything. And we thought it was interesting, so we..."
"I would certainly think you recognize this as a prohibited creature," Professor Flitwick interrupted, his voice was sharp with displeasure. "Class XXXXX, highly dangerous, illegal to possess or transport. Why didn't you turn it over to a professor immediately upon discovery? Or to Hagrid, at the very least?"
"We're very sorry, Professor," Fred said, lowering his head with what appeared to be sincere remorse. Though the corner of his eye was still subtly observing Professor Flitwick's expression, gauging the level of trouble they were in.
George quickly nodded in agreement, bowing his head as well. "We apologize, Professor. We should have known better."
From their skillful, graceful movements and well-rehearsed tones, Morris correctly assumed they were quite accustomed to making such apologies to various professors. This seemed routine for them.
Professor Flitwick's anger seemed to diminish slightly at their instant repentance. He walked quickly over to Ron and examined the boy's injuries with his wand, running diagnostic charms, checking the wound's depth and the treatment that had been applied.
After a moment, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Fortunately, the bite isn't too serious. The treatment was also appropriate and competently done, so there shouldn't be any need to trouble Madam Pomfrey in the hospital wing. The Dittany will handle it."
Then he turned to look at Morris and Harry. "So, you two were also attacked by this spider, is that correct?"
His gaze seemed to linger on Harry for a moment longer.
Both Harry and Morris nodded obediently, not trusting themselves to speak.
"First, take the injured student back to the dormitory to rest," Professor Flitwick instructed everyone with a firm tone, taking charge of the situation.
Then he turned specifically to the Weasley twins, his expression becoming considerably more serious again. "Fred, George, you two come to my office afterward. We need to have a good talk about this spider, how you really acquired it, and all your behavior tonight."
His tone showed he allowed absolutely no argument or excuse.
The twins exchanged a helpless glance. They both knew they couldn't escape this time as Professor Flitwick was too smart to fool, and they'd been caught too red-handed. They could only nod in resigned agreement.
After all, they were quite used to this scenario.
As they began to move, Fred leaned in close and whispered at a volume only Morris could hear,, "Don't worry about any of this, Morris. We won't give you up or mention your involvement. Professor Flitwick won't give us too hard a time—he's actually quite reasonable compared to some. At most, he'll deduct some house points and give us a few days of detention. Same old routine. We know how to handle it."
George also winked at Morris from over Ron's unconscious body, signaling with exaggerated facial expressions that he shouldn't worry or feel guilty.
"Thank you both," Morris said quietly, meaning it sincerely.
Although the twins had caused most of this trouble through their carelessness, at the end of the day, he was the one who had originally caught the Acromantula in the Forbidden Forest. So logically, he bore some responsibility for the entire chain of events.
Since the twins were willing to handle it this way, take the blame totally on themselves, accepting their kindness and protection was the best outcome for everyone.
These twins, while clearly not entirely reliable or responsible in many ways, weren't bad people at their core. They had good hearts beneath the chaos.
Making friends with them might not be a bad idea at all, Morris thought.
And so, Morris returned to his dormitory alone some time later.
Though it was definitely past the official nine o'clock curfew by a considerable margin, it was no particularly big deal for someone returning to their own dormitory.
As for the spider, Professor Flitwick hadn't returned it to him, and had kept it floating alongside him as he'd escorted the twins away. So, Morris probably wouldn't be getting his Acromantula back for study.
A pity, but understandable. Dangerous creatures belonged in proper custody.
Speaking of which, Morris thought as he changed into his nightclothes, that Professor Flitwick was remarkably short for an adult wizard. And his face and body was somewhat unusual.
Was it some form of dwarfism? A medical condition? Or did he perhaps have some special lineage?
Morris was slightly curious about the answer. The magical world had so many hybrid possibilities.
And he seemed to remember seeing Flitwick's name on his class schedule—this was his Charms professor.
He wondered just how truly skilled this short professor was at charms and spellwork. His Levitation Charm had been flawlessly smooth, executed with barely a thought.