Eight-Legged Friends PV TW Arachnophobia Closed

Potential TW: Arachnophobia

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Since it was a fine Sunday morning, Koko had just finished her morning training routine, complete with a quick jog around the grounds, and she was feeling far better than usual. Her amber eyes sparkled with satisfaction, and although she had wiped off all traces of sweat from her face, her cheeks were still flushed pink from both the exercise and the wind.

However, she needed to come back to her dormitory before lunch ─ simply to clean up and look presentable, of course, but it was still important. Thus, she walked a bit more quickly than usual, her chin tilted up as she walked with her destination in mind. She ignored all else as she hurried to her dormitory, refusing to acknowledge one of the ghosts and some of the students who were passing by.

Her lack of acknowledgement would only go so far, though. She didn't initially notice the dark, hairy creature heading towards her. The dungeons were abhorrently dark, anyway. It could have been anything, she rationalised, at least until it touched her and she remembered exactly why she had been such a scared, pathetic hermit all those years.

She couldn't help it; she screamed. It was a short, shrill shriek, the type Koko had never thought she would emanate, and she scrambled backwards, almost falling over in vain attempts to get away from the thing that was on her body. Her breaths came in quick, panicked gulps as she reached for her wand before remembering that she had left it in her dormitory. She swallowed thickly and stared at the thing, squinting to try to see what it was, hoping with all her heart that she'd just overreacted, even if that would have been embarrassing. She took shaky, deep breaths as she counted the thing's legs, and once she made it to the number eight (and no further), she felt her throat begin to close.

She hated spiders. It was no secret that Slytherin had been attacked by cursed spiders, but that wasn't nearly all of it. Koko wasn't keen to relive it inside her head, but here she was, remembering the pain of being cursed multiple times, the humiliation of having to have someone else fix her like she was unable to help herself, all because of stupid, horrendous bugs.

She should have been angry. She should have been seething, swearing, trying to squash the damned thing. But it took all of her effort to avoid crying. Her breaths came in quick pants as she hunched over, somehow unable to tear her eyes from the object of her fear. Her arm hurt in the very place she'd initially been cursed all those years ago, and her eyes burned as she stubbornly kept years' worth of tears at bay.

She was, for once, defenceless. Her wand, her broom, both left where she couldn't grab them. She wasn't going to risk her arms by trying to move the creature (she wouldn't call it what it was). It would not even occur to her that the eight-legged menace might be someone's pet. All she could think of was being unable to stop the curse upon herself ─ and, of course an afterthought, she couldn't dispel the worry that the curse was back, that it would not only harm her but also take its revenge on others, and she would be powerless to stop it.

She could hear the desperation in her panicked wheezing. She tried to move one step backwards, but she doubted moving would do any good if the thing was still on her. Like the curse that just wouldn't leave. If it was back... She whimpered, hating herself for it, and blinked rapidly as she felt her eyes glaze over with unshed tears. It hurt, everything hurt.

Before noticing she had moved, she had slumped into a seated position on the cold ground, her back pressed against the dungeons' walls as she struggled for air. Her knuckled had turned white as she squeezed her hands into fists, doing as much as she could to stop herself from drawing her knees to her chest. She couldn't control her breathing anymore, and her shoulders shook with the vain efforts she made.

She gave up and hunched over, her face scrunched into a painful grimace as she tried to dispel her memories and avoid shedding tears. She wouldn't even rationalise with herself, would avoid the idea that the creature could have also been scared. She couldn't get past her own fear.

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@Pericles Dralt

@Koko Riddle

Pericles believed himself to be acclimated to the eeriness of the dungeons. He was unphased by its dark winding halls, its wandering ghosts, or its dour reputation. Yet when a blood-curdling scream echoed through the underground, he felt the fine hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He stopped spinning in frantic circles. The sound shot through him like lightning, freezing his limbs and eliciting a short gasp, until a spark of reasoning returned him to his senses. Oh, no. Not again. The Ravenclaw ripped an aspen wand from his sleeve and launched into a sprint.

As Koko stumbled back, the sudden movement served to frighten Filos further. It clung to the limb it had found, hugging her shin like a bony hand, beady black eyes shining up at her in the low light. Despite having eight of them, its vision was horrible. All the creepy crawly seemed to understand was that it had found someone to scale for safety, only now, its perch was moving around way too much. It waited out her panic, gripping on tight for the ride. Things would only worsen when she shrunk against the wall. Once all was still again, two front legs reached out, giving an experimental tap-tap to her pantleg. Its body was hairy, heavy, and now dragging along her limb as it tentatively climbed onto a bent knee, bringing itself to eye level with Koko. Like a frightened kid peeking through his hands, it kept its front legs curled close to its face, sizing her up until- "Koko?"

Of course he knew Koko Riddle. Not well, regrettably, but they shared a few fond memories. A blurry one from years ago, of a snowball fight on the grounds. Somber prefect meetings. Her rather remarkable soprano in the Frog Choir. There was a darker memory that must have been one-sided, he imagined: passing the line of cursed Slytherins en route to their treatment. The image haunted him still. A first-year Pericles witnessed his peers, his friend Ruby, marked by black veins from a curse that- at the time- had no cure. They were but children, who could do little more than wait to know if they would live or die. Walking by them on the way to treatment was like passing a funeral procession, and he could only stare with wells of pity in his eyes, averting them if anyone glanced his way.

Seeing Koko curled up in dungeons, Peri began blurting things he'd wished he had the strength to say back then. "It's okay! You're alright!" Regret squeezed his heart as he trotted towards her. Seeing Filos perched on her leg, there was a flash of frustration, then guilt, but his voice remained gentle. He knelt across from her and snatched the spider up with both hands. Filos flailed his legs in a brief panic, but was quick to recognize the way he was held. "You're alright," he said again softly. "He won't hurt you. A ghost knocked him from my shoulder, and I... I'm so sorry, Koko...."

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Koko wiped at her cheeks with the rough material of her jumper as her lungs heaved with effort that rivalled what she put forth at Quidditch practice. Her breathing momentarily steadied as she counted inside her head, forcing herself to hold her breath before carefully exhaling. She was so focused on her careful inhales and shaky exhales that she forgot to think about the weight on her leg or the not-so-private nature of the dungeons.

(Anyone could be looking, really, seeing this. Seeing her. Like this. Broken. Pathetic. Useless.)

In. Out. In. Out. In. Out.

Koko squeezed her eyes shut and took a breath that, this time, was smooth. She held it and opened her eyes as she exhaled. She was fine, obviously. She was Koko Riddle, Quidditch co-Captain, prefect, resident hermit. She could hold her own, especially since she'd scared the creature away. She felt nothing on the leg of her trousers as she dabbed at her damp eyelashes. Her eyes were surely red and puffy, an aftereffect of crying that made tears seem like an awful prank.

She blinked, her eyelids sticking together, before opening her eyes to see a lump on her knee. Had she hit it in her blind panic? The girl squinted, her sight blurring with salty remnants of tears. Then, as she leaned forward, it was almost as if her vision sharpened: there it was, a decently-sized lump of beady eyes and menacing legs. And it. Was still. On her. She felt its weight now, heavy, sticking to her like blood.

This time, instead of screaming, Koko found her jaw clenching. The sharp tang of iron filled her mouth ─ she'd likely bit her tongue. She would attempt to scoot backwards, but her back would only press against the cold, hard, rough wall. Her fingernails scraped against the ground in her newfound frenzy. Her breathing quickened once again, her tangent of racing worries only interrupted by the concrete sound of a somewhat familiar voice.

Koko?

The blonde-haired Slytherin glanced up and squinted once again. The person in front of her seemed very much like a person indeed, and her sudden recognition of the pale figure distracted her from the reality of the spider on her leg. She remembered him, yes, largely from her earlier tenure as a prefect, more notably from the Frog Choir, but ─ and she had to glance up and to the left to remember this ─ also from a time before she had been so scared all the time, when they had both joined a snowball fight. The snow had been the same colour as his hair, or close enough, and the memory of the cold parted some of the fog that had accumulated in Koko's thoughts.

Koko's lips moved, but at first, no words came out. She tried again, and this time, she wheezed out a pained croak: 'Pericles?'

It was, to some degree, a genuine question, in her panicked-and-slightly-confused state. But she remembered him.

She watched, her brown eyes wide, as the boy reached for the creature on her leg. He said things, too. At first, 'It's okay! It's alright', which Koko knew was true ─ usually. She found herself distracted from Pericles's words, though, the sound of her breathing reverberating in her ears until it sounded like the wind at the beach sometimes did.

'He won't hurt you.'

The Slytherin's attention snapped back to Pericles, and her rapid, shallow breathing began to slow to more manageable, useful, deeper breaths. The boy had called the spider a 'he', which piqued her curiosity.

'A ghost knocked him from my shoulder.'

At first, she couldn't quite place who the 'him' was. Koko tilted her head and raised an eyebrow quizzically before she frowned. No, no way. What person in their right mind would befriend a spider? Except Pericles was, as far as Koko remembered, very much sane. Her frown deepened as she decided that she did, in fact, happen to trust the Ravenclaw's judgement.

She sat up a bit straighter. 'It's not your fault,' she said, her voice still weak and breathy as she struggled to calm herself down. Her sentences, never very long, were short, clipped, everything forced out as quickly as possible. 'It ─' She blinked and glanced away, this time at the ground. '─ He, he's yours?'

She would not ask for the spider's name, not yet, although if it did belong to Pericles, she would be curious. Now, though, she merely wanted confirmation, and perhaps a bit deeper, an answer to a more difficult question to ask: How?

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@Pericles Dralt

@Koko Riddle

Pericles could weather most negative reactions to his creepy crawly pet. He stood stoic in the face of disgust, kept calm in the wake of cruel comments, ignored the odd insult. Yet seeing someone terrorized was a harder pill to swallow. Witnessing the Quidditch co-captain relive her trauma was gut-wrenching, and the Ravenclaw couldn't help but feel a flash of irritation with Filos for crawling on a stranger. Once he scooped the spider up into his hands, however, the feeling passed as quick as it came. The Webber was frightened too. Its handler drew some comfort from the fact that, judging from his glance-over of both spider and Slytherin, no one had been hurt.

Fílos flexed his long legs in half-hearted protest, paddling the air. "Don't squirm," Peri muttered sternly, cradling it with one hand while the other fumbled through his bag, tacking on another apology as he did. Koko absolved him of fault, but as he tried to flash a grateful smile, he could only offer a grimace. Being blamed would have been more bearable than being the roundabout cause for her fear.

"He is. This is Fílos, a Black Webber: non-venomous, prone to leaping, and a bloody coward." Pericles managed an actual smile that time, albeit one that oozed contrition. He scanned Koko's face for a hint at how she was holding up, stalling when he met her gaze. Her eyelashes gleamed with tears, and as tragic though the sight may be, her reddened eyes made the amber of her irises stand out brilliantly. Recognizing the influence of a part-veela, the eagle eventually blinked away his distraction.

"I'm sorry all the same. I've been trying to acclimate him with walks, but I hadn't imagined he'd run off like this, let alone scale someone else for safety." Peri finally found what he'd been rummaging for: a large, lidless jar of dry moss. He scooped the tarantula into it. Filos fell in with a muted plop, and after feeling around for more experimental tap-taps, began burrowing in the moss. He hid himself like a child burying beneath safety blankets. After mindfully stowing the jar, Peri remained seated on his haunches, keeping on Koko's level until she recovered. He fished a kerchief from his bag: black silk, with a white Ouroboros stitched into its face. It was clean, albeit wrinkled with disuse, having sat in the satchel forgotten until now. He shook it out, offering the cloth with a quiet "Here. Toss it if you like. My parents keep sending them."

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Quickly, the weight on her leg was removed as Pericles picked up the creature. Koko's gaze remained on the spider, and she watched cautiously as Pericles began to rummage through his bag. She heard him say words, but her brain was still foggy. The spider was clear, sharp-edged, poised and ready to bite. Koko remained on-edge, her brow furrowed, her lips pressed into a firm line.

Fílos. The spider was his. Her lips quirked upwards at the edges when he called Fílos a coward. The word was familiar to Koko after all these years of hiding, and it, strangely enough, helped her to relax. Her shoulders levelled, and she glanced up at Pericles before blinking. Her eyes were still sticky, but her tears were beginning to dry. If Fílos was a 'coward' and if he was non-venomous to boot... maybe he wasn't like the other spiders.

That distinction was, of course, still muddled by his arachnid shape. Eight legs equalled danger in Koko's mind. She watched, her caution now mixing with mild, jaded curiosity, as Pericles produced a jar from his satchel and put Fílos in it. The solid, real barrier between Koko and the spider made the girl let out a small, relieved sigh, but she frowned slightly when noticing how Fílos tried to hide himself. His mannerisms were vaguely familiar, much like her own had once been ─ that strong, primal instinct to hide from danger rather than face it head-on.

She tore her eyes from the creature once again and focused on Pericles, noticing that her breathing was no longer as rapid or as shallow as it had been before. Her heartbeat had slowed notably, and although she still felt as if her senses were on overdrive, she herself had managed to calm down enough to where she no longer felt the need to run. Sitting was, for now, enough.

She blinked and the spider was gone. Her muted disappoint was swallowed up by a heavy blanket of relief. Slowly, she registered that Pericles was offering her a handkerchief. The realisation that he had seen her after tears caused her lips to pull into a small frown, but she gratefully took the handkerchief. The Ouroboros was an interesting touch ─ while Koko had never learned the symbolism behind she shape, she knew reptiles were more often associated with Slytherin than Ravenclaw, which meant this handkerchief was probably not relevant to their schooling but perhaps something from his home, or something he had found somewhere. His words confirmed her suspicions, and Koko nodded slowly, dabbing at her eyelashes. Once all the evidence of tears was gone, she would feel better ─ safer.

'Thank you,' she said slowly. Her voice sounded gravelly even to her own ears, nothing like the smooth sound she had grown accustomed to. 'I really am sorry about that,' she mumbled, folding the handkerchief in her lap before clasping her hands atop it. 'I'm sure he's a good, ah, pet.' Merlin, she was bad at this. 'It's just, spi...' She trailed off and offered a bitter half-smile and a shrug to the Ravenclaw. 'It's hard sometimes, is all.'

She was quiet for a moment, surveying the boy in front of her. She had freaked out over his pet. Surely she would be horrified if someone had a similar reaction towards Jax. 'I don't know what came over me,' she said, beginning with the truth, 'but if there's something I can do to make it up to you ─ or him, I suppose ─ please let me know.' The offer was genuine, but she had to spit out the last few words through an ultimately-thickening lump in her throat. She wanted to see Fílos as a harmless pet, she really did, and somewhere, she really did believe at least Fílos was harmless... But he was a spider. The connection would not disappear so easily.

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@Pericles Dralt

@Koko Riddle

Pericles saw some of the stiffness bleed out of her, noting that sigh of relief once Filos was out of sight. Pity and guilt were still nibbling at him from either side. He tried to afford Koko some dignity as she dabbed at her tears by looking away, wondering where to take this next. Was now a good time to apologize and leave? Help her to her feet? He glanced down the hall, then up it, eventually coming to the conclusion that he'd rather just join her. The Ravenclaw turned to brace his back against the wall, sliding into a seated position and cradling his satchel in his lap. The Slytherin said she was sorry, though it wasn't her fault she was unable to even finish the word "spider". "Don't be." His voice came low yet resolute. She even offered to make it up to them, at which point Peri looked over to meet her with the resurgence of a sorrowful smile.

"Koko...." A little firmer this time, in an effort to get through to her, but somehow still just as delicate. "You haven't done anything wrong. I would've felt very differently if you'd smashed him, but all things considered, you hardly have anything to apologize for." His lips thinned and brows pinched in an expression of earnestness. Something she'd said was still troubling him, however, words he kept coming back to in his head. 'It's hard sometimes, is all.' It was an honest line, simple but exceedingly vulnerable. No one liked to admit when they were struggling, particularly not those with pure-blood heritage, and he found her honesty inspiring. Maybe that was how he conjured up the courage for a moment of honesty himself. "I used to see Slytherins on their way to treatment. It practically looked like an every-day routine, the way I remember it. It was impossible to imagine what that must be like. I passed you, once, though I couldn't think of what to say." Pericles' confession came quietly, almost conspiratorial, despite all indications that they were alone. "Not to sound cliche, but would you want to talk about it?" It didn't take a sleuth to see some aspects of that curse had yet to be cured.

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No one ever talked about the aftermath of tears. Everything was 'ugly crying' or 'the unabashed vulnerability of pretty tears' but never the sticky, uncomfortably-crusty aftermath of salty eyelashes and red eyeballs. Koko rarely cried, and if it was this miserable every time, she didn't want to cry ever again not even because of the humiliation but because of the discomfort.

Pericles was too kind, really. Koko's lips twisted into a wry yet grateful smile when he told her not to be sorry. She nodded slowly, still keeping the dry, bittersweet smile on her lips when he noted she hadn't smashed him. It wasn't as if she hadn't thought about it, especially in hindsight. But it was safer not to fight back. She hadn't frozen for Fílos. She'd done it for herself.

Now that the spider was gone, she wanted to stand up and leave. Forgetting this had happened would help her move on. But since Pericles was still here, she remained seated ─ it wouldn't be fair to him if she were to just leave him here, not after he had helped her. He hadn't had to do that. She glanced up at him and took a deep breath, almost wanting to apologise again, or thank him, or something, when he spoke and spared her the shame.

The words were probably meant to be a kindness, but as Pericles spoke, Koko's gaze wavered and ultimately returned to the handkerchief in her lap. Her knuckles whitened as she gripped the cloth tightly. He had seen them. Her lips pressed into a firm line. No, more than that, he had seen her. It wasn't his fault, of course, none of it was, but that didn't mean Koko had to like that someone she respected had seen her in such vulnerability then ─ and again, now.

'Well, it wasn't fun.' The dry tone of her voice was rather unusual for her, along with the nasal tone it had taken as an aftermath from the stuffy nose her tears had given her. 'And really, there wasn't much to say. It was just routine, something we had to do. Like eating or sleeping.' She forced a shrug and finally looked up at him again. Any previous brightness in her eyes was gone, replaced by a dull, tired, defeated gaze. 'We were just kids. There wasn't anything either of us could have done.'

Not to mention that they were still kids dealing with the aftermath of it all. As much as the curse had faded, it had come in the form of spider bites, and bites often left scars. There wasn't much the children could do now, either. But Koko was grateful to Pericles for being here, at least ─ for trying.

She frowned when he asked if she would like to talk about it. 'Not particularly,' she said, her tone still relatively flat. 'What is there to say?' She made air quotes with her fingers. ' "I was cursed by spiders years ago and haven't quite gotten over it?" That sounds kind of silly.' She laughed at her own likely-not-funny observation. 'But in all seriousness, I don't think talking will do much. However, ah... I think it would help to learn more, well, about "good"... arachnids. It would be nice to be able to coexist with them, since they are everywhere.' The wry smile was back, and she accompanied it with a halfhearted shrug before glancing up at Pericles. 'By the way ─ thanks.'

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@Pericles Dralt

@Koko Riddle

Pericles was not always the most socially graceful guy. While well-trained in pureblood proprieties, he considered them more of a necessary evil than a means to live by, operating instead by his own idea of eloquence. He wasn't interested in cutlery placement or whose family made what figures. He was interested in people for who they were, their dreams, fears, and the experiences which molded them. If Koko's grief-stained gaze met his, she would fail to find any trace of judgment. He held only compassion and curiosity towards her. As much as being vulnerable may have felt like a weakness, he viewed it instead as an exceedingly rare chance to see an authentic aspect of the upperclassmen. He and Koko weren't all too familiar with one another, but there was a benefit to that, wasn't there? Pericles was enough of a stranger for his opinions to lack significance in her life, yet familiar enough to stop and talk to. It might have been a shame that they weren't meeting under better circumstances, the circumstance being that his creepy crawly pet had triggered a heinous trauma for her, but he'd take it. Opportunities came in all shades.

'Well, it wasn't fun.' The soft snort Pericles drew was as dry as her tone. "No, I don't imagine it was," he drawled back before listening intently. The way Koko described their dose as routine was somehow more disheartening. It didn't feel right, normalizing a slog to take a life-sustaining potion, an everyday reminder that the golden concoction was the only thing standing between several cursed students and certain death. 'We were just kids. There wasn't anything either of us could have done.' Their tired eyes met. Hers were like mirrors, in which Pericles saw the sullen acceptance he himself had come to harbor towards the ceaseless horrors of Hogwarts. Still, he had to disagree. He resented not saying something, anything, instead of gawking in mute mortification. At least they were here now. He scratched idly at a bent knee, averting his stare towards the opposite wall with a mumbled agreement. "Right."

At first, when Koko claimed she was uninterested in discussing it further, Peri's smile was apologetic. He would have been quick to agree it was a silly thing to ask- that it wasn't his business, or there wasn't much to say, et cetera et cetera- but she quickly clarified that conversation wasn't the absurd aspect. '"I was cursed by spiders years ago and haven't quite gotten over it?" That sounds kind of silly.' Peri's guilty look was replaced by a sudden, solemn frown. "I don't think it does," he murmured. What closure had she gotten? And then, of all the brilliant things she could have suggested in that moment, Koko admitted she was willing to learn about what she called "good arachnids". It was as if she'd dropped the activation phrase of a sleeper agent. Peri perked, arching his eyebrows with interest. One could practically see the turning cogs and sparks of inspiration behind the ghostly Ravenclaw's eyes. He blinked them away when thanked, trying to pin what he'd done to deserve it; the kerchief? No, the conversation. He ought to be thanking her for humoring him, instead of screaming about how he should have kept a better handle on his skittish spider. Peri shook his head abashedly, shifted against the wall, started a sentence with "Well..." only to trail off. The eccentric recovered by nerding out over the damned things.

"Arachnophobia is incredibly common. It's usually the result of some related trauma, though the majority are taught to be frightened by them as children. Their parents pass on their anxieties about spiders, under the pretense that otherwise, they'll become curious and get bit. But see, only about one percent of spiders are actually dangerous to humans. Even less than that are lethal. The mundane kind, at least. I'm not referring to living curses or acromantulas. I met one of those, once... sorry, story for another time. My point is, few pose any real threat. They're incredibly delicate creatures, less durable than the average insect, all with their own personalities and idiosyncrasies." Was this the most he'd spoken at once to the renown Koko Riddle? Probably. Was he going to keep going on about spiders? Absolutely. "Filos is one in a collection of twenty. I have this juvenile leucorchestris arenicola who won't eat crickets. She doesn't like how quickly they jump, I think. They make her so nervous that the first time I dropped one into her tank, she hid her face with her pedipalps." Peri held his palms by the sides of his eyes in reenactment, grinning, as the notion of a whatever-it-was being scared of its food was much more silly than Koko having arachnophobia. As his hands settled against the stone floor, the sly humor faded for a look of understanding. "Everyone is afraid of something. Even spiders. There's no shame in it... but if I can, I'd like to help you."

Date: Sunday, 5 November 2023
Time: before lunch
Location: Dungeons

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The Slytherin kept her eyes open not out of wariness and not even out of politeness, but instead to allow them to dry out. In doing so, her round amber eyes met Pericles's pale gaze to see... what looked like understanding. Granted, she had never been the most observant, had never been the best at reading people, and of course, she didn't know Pericles very well at all. But he hadn't sneered at her, and he had offered her compassion despite not knowing her very well.

There was something to be said for kindness at a place like Hogwarts.

Somehow, his voice managed to mirror the sarcasm she had expressed, and she found her reluctant lips curving in a wry, halfhearted smile to combat the crusty redness of her eyes. A small, dry chuckle would attempt to worm its way out of her throat, and it would be stifled by a firm swallow. Somehow, she drew humour from this entire thing. Call it shock. Call it hindsight. Call it denial. Whatever it was, it made the horror that had strung up her mind like a puppet earlier fall away as reality sunk in like a hook to a fish's mouth.

Koko's eyes narrowed slightly when Pericles noted that he didn't think her admission was 'silly', but if he were to look at her, he would see that she wasn't upset or suspicious; rather, her lips were still caught in a fragile half-smile, and her gaze, although still glassy and red from the earlier tears, would betray perhaps the slightest bit of mirth.

She shifted in her seated position, this time making an effort to keep that wry smile on her lips. She was Koko Riddle, after all, an upper-year who always had some sort of smile on her face. She would keep that shred of dignity even now, as she prepared to open her mind to the concept of spiders that weren't cursed, as she prepared to confront reality hook, line and sinker.

'Arachnophobia is incredibly common.'

Koko's brow furrowed slightly, but the small, resting smile remained on her face. Of course arachnophobia was common – well, at least, of course it was common here. But her expression relaxed as she realised he was talking about the world as a whole – a perspective she hadn't quite looked at yet.

'But see, only about one percent of spiders are actually dangerous to humans.'

As much as Koko relied on her feelings, as much as she trusted them to guide her, numbers spoke more than anything else. She wouldn't have believed then coming from most people, would have thought them just a fabrication, but she knew a few things about Pericles Dralt. One, he was very smart – that much, she didn't have to know him to know. Two, he owned a spider. One plus Two equalled Three: a very smart person who owned a spider would have to know quite a bit about spiders.

So he had to be right.

Without her knowing it, Koko's smile had faded, and she had begun to chew the inside of her cheek. She glanced away from Pericles momentarily only to maintain eye contact again a few seconds later.

'...incredibly delicate creatures, less durable than the average insect, all with their own personalities and idiosyncrasies.'

She nodded slowly, recalling how Fílos had been scared – a stark contrast when he was compared to the magical spiders that had attacked the Slytherins all those years ago. As much as she didn't like it, spiders were living, breathing creatures, apparently each with its own personality. She had to at least respect that.

'Filos is one in a collection of twenty. I have this juvenile leucorchestris arenicola who won't eat crickets. She doesn't like how quickly they jump, I think. They make her so nervous that the first time I dropped one into her tank, she hid her face with her pedipalps.'

She had no idea what a 'leuchorchestris arenicola' looked like, and she didn't know if she would ever find out, but this time, a more genuine slight-smile crossed her lips as she snickered. The sound stopped almost as suddenly as it had begun, and her smile faded slightly before she noticed that Pericles, too, was smiling.

How odd. She hadn't wanted to laugh at a spider... for fear of... offending it? Politeness transcended the boundary of species, she supposed.

Even more – she hadn't wanted to potentially come across as making fun of something Pericles liked. Because, as much as she disliked spiders, she couldn't have helped but notice that his entire being had lit up when he had begun to talk about spiders. People only used specific names for things they were truly interested in, and Pericles's grin only confirmed that. She slowly began to mirror his smile, albeit not to the same gleeful extent.

'Everyone is afraid of something. Even spiders. There's no shame in it... but if I can, I'd like to help you.'

Koko tilted her head to the side and stared up at him before glancing away. Her mouth closed, the smile hidden behind lips set in a firm line. She glanced up at Pericles again, her eyes narrowed as she searched his expression only to, of course, find nothing menacing. Why would he want to hurt her?

Even spiders were scared of things. And if they could get over it, she could.

She smiled again, although this time it was more of a jaded smirk, and she gave a small, gravelly chuckle of appreciation. 'I think I would appreciate that.' She paused. 'Just, ah, slowly. I don't think I could handle seeing all twenty of them.' Although it was mostly a joke, there was some truth to her words – there was a steep uphill battle in front of her, but she was willing to begin the hike towards a more peaceful life, and with someone (and maybe twenty spiders) by her side, perhaps the trek wouldn't be quite as difficult.

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@Pericles Dralt