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Spider

"If you must know, when I was three, Fred turned my - my teddy bear into a great big filthy spider because I broke his toy broomstick... You wouldn't like it either if you'd been holding your bear and suddenly it had too many legs and... "
— Ron Weasley on the origin of his arachnophobia[src]

Spiders are eight-legged and eight-eyed arachnids.[2]

Description[]

Spiders legs

Spider Legs

They are very common and come in many species, varying from region to region; all are carnivorous and some are venomous, but for the most part they are relatively harmless and could sometimes be used as a potion ingredient.[3][4]

The largest species of spider was the Acromantula, a wizard-bred species which also had the ability to speak, along with being extremely dangerous carnivores with a taste for human flesh.[1] Spiders are known for spinning webs. The webs of the Acromantula were large and dome-shaped.[5] Spiders of all sizes feared the Basilisk above all other things, could instinctively sense the presence of one and would flee en-masse if they did, such as during the second opening of the Chamber of Secrets where every spider in Hogwarts fled to the Forbidden Forest in the 1992–1993 school year.[3][5]

Arania Exumai was the incantation for a charm that could be used to repel spiders by blasting them away, including Acromantulas.[6][7][8][9] Spiders often inhabited dark environments, like the Cupboard Under the Stairs,[10] Broomsheds, and even the Forbidden Forest.[5]

History[]

Acromantulas had existed by the 1890–1891 school year. An Acromantula killed the house-elf Tobbs while in the Spinners Cavern, but was later defeated by the new fifth-year Hogwarts student.[11] Milo and his friend Edgar Adley went to the Forbidden Forest to extract venom from another Acromantula, which Milo named The Absconder, but Milo was killed and Edgar fled. The Absconder was later also vanquished by the new fifth-year student.[12]

Thornback spiders also existed commonly in the Scottish Highlands including the Forbidden Forest. Some infested Jackdaw's Tomb and were encountered by the new fifth-year student.[13] Mary Portman secretly bred Thornback spiders at the Aranshire hamlet, which led to an attack on the residents, and Mary herself was also killed in her house. The new fifth-year student later arrived to investigate, and rooted the spiders out from Mary's cellar.[14]

Boggart morph

A Boggart taking the form of a giant spider (Aragog), to represent Ron's greatest fear

Ronald Weasley was well-known for his arachnophobia, the irrational fear of spiders. However, he was fine if they were dead and he simply had to cut them up during potions.[3] During the 1993–1994 school year, Ron's Boggart manifested in the form of an Acromantula (Aragog) during a third-year Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson with Professor Lupin.[15]

The Cupboard Under the Stairs was said to have a large amount of spiders living in it alongside Harry Potter, who did not mind them in the least. When Vernon Dursley bellowed "Silence!" at Harry when the boy interrupted him, a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling in response, likely startled by the noise.[10]

In October 1992, spiders fled Hogwarts in swarms when a Basilisk was unleashed from the Chamber of Secrets. Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione Granger noted their strange behaviour[3] and Hermione used it to piece together what was petrifying people in the school.[16]

The tarantula was a family of spiders, examples of which could be found for sale in Knockturn Alley.[17] In Borgin and Burkes, there was a cage that had living, huge black spiders in it.[18] In 1993, there was a wizarding confection shaped like spiders called Mr. Spindle's Lick "O" Rish Spiders.[19]

B4C14M1 DADA Unforgivable Curses

Barty Crouch Junior (as Alastor Moody) teaching fourth year DADA students about the Unforgivable Curses using spiders

Barty Crouch Jnr, disguised as Alastor Moody, taught his fourth-year Defence Against the Dark Arts class the use of the Unforgivable Curses, performing one of each of the three curses on one of each of three spiders.[20] In 1995, the trio found spiders as big as saucers in a dresser in the dining room of 12 Grimmauld Place, with Ron leaving the room to make a cup of tea and did not return until they were gone, due to his aforementioned Arachnophobia.[21]

Types of spiders[]

Behind the scenes[]

Appearances[]

The Harry Potter Wiki has 106 images related to Spider.

Notes and references[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
  2. ↑ Spider on Wikipedia
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 9 (The Writing on the Wall)
  4. ↑ Pottermore
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 15 (Aragog)
  6. ↑ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film), Chapter 23 (Tom Riddle)
  7. ↑ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film), Chapter 27 (Spider Attack)
  8. ↑ Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Year 4, Chapter 14 (The Spider's Lair) - Private Transfiguration Lesson "Arania Exumai"
  9. ↑ Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Year 4, Chapter 16 (The Forest Vault)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 2 (The Vanishing Glass)
  11. ↑ Hogwarts Legacy, Side Quest "The Plight of the House-Elf"
  12. ↑ Hogwarts Legacy, Side Quest "Absconder Encounter"
  13. ↑ Hogwarts Legacy, Main Quest "Jackdaw's Rest"
  14. ↑ Hogwarts Legacy, Side Quest "Tangled Web"
  15. ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 7 (The Boggart in the Wardrobe)
  16. ↑ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 16 (The Chamber of Secrets)
  17. ↑ Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 6 (The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters)
  18. ↑ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 4 (At Flourish and Blotts)
  19. ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film) (see this image)
  20. ↑ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 14 (The Unforgivable Curses)
  21. ↑ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 6 (The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black)
  22. ↑ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film), Chapter 7 (Mad Eye Moody)
  23. ↑ The Lost Harry Potter Character You Never Got to Meet, io9