Harry Potter (year six) and the Shadows of Azkaban

CHAPTER ONE: Unexpected Awakening

"Harry – help!"

Harry's eyes shot open as he heard his name eerily screamed into the night. He threw his torso into the air, and sat strait up on his bed trying to remember if that scream was from his nightmare or if it was from reality.

"HARRY!" the voice screamed again and closer than before. He knew it was real! Without another thought, Harry threw himself out of bed and grabbed his wand from under his mattress. In bare feet and a pair of old pajamas, Harry ran out of his door, his wand pointed strait in front of him.

"What in hells name is going on in he –" Uncle Vernon, wearing nothing but his underwear (which was very disturbing sight) thundered out of his door and barred Harry's path.

"Sorry uncle…" Harry panted as he jumped to the left and was about to run past his lumbering uncle. But uncle Vernon wouldn't take it and he grabbed Harry by the shoulders. The large, chubby fingers dug into his shoulder blades, and Harry winced in pain.

"Harry – please hellllp!" the voice was now on the edge of hysterics. But what was worse was that Harry knew whom the voice belonged to.

It was Hermionie. And she needed help.

"Sorry Vernon." Harry, still in his uncle's grasp, pointed his wand upwards. He muttered a quiet curse and a mound of black substance shot out of the tip. It hit Uncle Vernon right in the face and splattered over his eyes, nose, and mouth. Vernon stumbled backwards, his chubby fingers trying to reach the black substance off of his face. His screams were muffled and incomprehensible, but Harry knew that his uncle was angry enough and he had to leave.

Collecting his wits, Harry ran down the stairs and was unlocking the front door when he heard Hermionie's horrible screams again. Her screams were followed by the unnatural sound of spells being cast, and then of horrible explosions. Harry wretched open the door and stepped into utter chaos.

The street lamps outside seemed to be magically enhanced, and he could easily see what was happening around him. Hermionie was standing in the middle of the street, dozens of difficult spells and curses flying from her wand into the distance. Harry looked to see where the spells were flying, and saw what looked to be a horrible monster.

"Hermionie!" Harry shouted as he ran towards his panicked friend.

"Harry!" Hermionie panted, her eyes wide with fear and shock. She was wearing normal muggle clothes, but they were in tatters. Great gashes lined her jeans, and the edges were soaked with blood. Hermionie had a black eye; a cheek covered in dirt and blood, and long scratch running from her chin to the right half of her collarbone.

"Hermionie what's hap–" Harry began, but was cut off by a horrible screaming sound. He looked and saw the great beast from down the street lumbering towards them. Each bound of his run left a great pothole in the road, and every time the beast landed Harry felt a small tremor beneath the earth.

The thing was huge – easily thirty feet tall and as wide as the two-lane road – and covered in what looked like a giant mass of fur, scales, and spikes. It had four huge limbs that were jointed in the opposite direction than that of human legs. The things head was almost like a giant canine, except that it had two scorpion-like tails where horns of cattle usually are. The two scorpion tails – that were covered in the same mixture of fur, scales, and spikes – would shiver and then lash forward as if they had a mind of their own. The teeth were also far too long and too sharp to be canine teeth – they looked almost snake-like.

"Oh no!" Hermionie whispered as she pointed her wand at the charging beast. Harry too stuck out his wand and together they sent out a stream of curses. Three giant arrows of indigo fire flew out of Harry's wand, and the air rippled from Hermionie's, and hit the beast with such a force that it's right front leg was thrown out from under it, and it stumbled slightly. Harry's three arrows shot the beast in the flank, and the fire could spread. But before the beast could become incinerated, something unnatural happened. The beast let out a steam of impossibly fast shivers, and the shaking caused the flames to be doused.

"Fire doesn't work on it!" Hermionie screamed, as she turned on her heels and fled, Harry right next to him. "Nor do hexes, unconscious curses, or the Great Linkas spells!"

"Have you tried gravity incantations?" Harry panted as he sensed the beast coming closer. Hermione bit her lip, as if trying to decide, and then pointed her wand over her shoulder. A sphere of never ending shadows erupted from her wand, with a crack that would wake up the entire neighborhood. The sphere hit the beast in the center of its forehead, and caused the monster to suddenly collapse.

Harry and Hermionie paused as they looked at the monster. It was almost as if a great hand had grasped its midsection and pulled it down into the road. It's skull and torso crashed onto the pavement with a horrible crash, and small pieces of the blacktop flew into the air. The beasts' legs' buckled and were firmly pressed against its body. It let out a pitiful whine – a mixture of pain and anger.

"I-is it down?" Harry asked, as he leaned on his knees to catch his breath.

"I don't know…" Hermione whispered as she continued to point her wand at the fallen beast. The creature let out a booming bellow and tried to lift its head off of the ground. Giant muscles pulsed and throbbed in the monster's neck, and it's red eyes blazed with anger. It looked as if was trying to lift up an entire building, but in reality it was just trying to lift its head off the ground. It let out one more horrible scream and succeeded in lifting its head a couple inches off of the ground. It bellowed through its clenched jaws and then let its head crash into the ground, sending a booming crash throughout the night.

"It's wearing off!" Harry said with alarm. "We have to contain the – whatever it is!"

Hermione was way ahead of him and was already ahead of him and was shooting a series of spells towards the fallen beast. Harry followed suit and began to create a thick brick wall around the great monster. Hermione was creating a cage of iron that surrounded the entire creature. Harry was in the middle of filling the tank with a magical mist that would confuse the beast for a while.

"Harry – we have to hurry." Hermione said as she finished weaving a net of thick plastic around Harry's brick fence. "Oh! I have it – stand back!"

Harry did what Hermione asked and watched in fascination as Hermione began a incantation that he had never even heard before. Her wand hand swung in a series of intricate arcs, and unknown words spewed from her mouth. A loud roar filled the air, and Hermione worked quicker.

"– Narifta mortalius QUAKEISU!" Hermione shouted as a ring of white fire shot from her wand. It grew larger and larger until it was about twenty-five feet wide and large enough to fit the beast and its containment in its middle. The white fire landed on the road around the caged beast, and sunk into the ground.

"Oh no!" Hermione said in a panicked voice, as she looked at the crowds of civilians that had formed in panicked groups around the neighborhood. "I am so going to be expelled – if not sent to Azkaban!" She looked at a group of muggles talking worriedly on their phone, calling the police. "Dumbledore will be so angry!"

"Hermione what was that spell that you ju–" Harry was interrupted as the world suddenly flipped over. He fell to his knees, and saw that all the muggle's and Hermione had fallen as well. He got to his feet but had to balance as Privet Drive suffered a series of violent earthquakes that made many of the houses around him crumble.

"Luna!" Hermione suddenly screamed.

"What are you talking about?" Harry screamed over the violent shaking. He looked to his left to see Luna Lovegood running down the street, dressed in ripped, silk pajamas.

"Luna – where'd you go?" Hermione said as she tried to hold her balance over the ever-constant earthquakes.

"There's Feckle-horned Jarbears in this area! If you give them some berries they'll do whatever you want and I thought that they could help us defeat that monster or chim—" Luna was interrupted as the point of Hermione's spell finally took place. In that great ring where her white ring of fire had touched, the earth was ripped out of the ground. With a horrible roaring noise, a giant ring of earth and gravel was ripped out of the ground, fifty feet long and fifty feet tall. It rose above the ground, causing more than fifty muggle's to scream in terror, and it then collapsed onto the contained monster. It crashed down with a pile of smoke and dirt, and the muffled screams of the monster could be heard below.

"Hermione – what was that?" Harry asked, too shaken up to react to anything that just happened. "And Luna – what are you doing here? What's going on?"

"Well," Luna began, "It's actually a really great story – I think I'll write about it in the Quibbler – anyway, I was at my house and then –"

"Oh no!" Hermione gasped as she saw the great mound of earth began to shake, and large portions slid off and fell into the water-less moat around it. "The gravity incantation – it's wearing off! And the beast – it's growing!"

Harry looked and saw the piles of dirt slide off into the ground, uncovering bits of spiked, furred, and scaled hide. Suddenly a giant clawed hand flew from the dirt, much larger than the paw was before.

"Run!" Luna said and Harry and Hermione didn't need telling twice. They took off down the road and kept looking back at the beast. It wretched itself free from its containment and shook all the dirt and brick and steel bars off of its coat like a dog trying to get dry would. It bucked into the air, on only its hind legs, and let out a horrible beastly

scream.

"It's huge!" Luna screamed, as she kept looking behind her, her eyes wide with excitement. Harry guessed that she was probably trying to get a full description of the beast for an article in her dad's newspaper. And Luna wouldn't be lying – the thing was colossal. It was at least twice as big as before and in each bound it crushed someone's porch, or even put a clawed foot through someone's kitchen.

Harry was running down the street, through the enhanced streetlights. He saw the lights fly from the lamp portion, and zoom across the street towards a shadowed figure down the street. All the other streetlights were following suit, and soon the whole street would be bathed in darkness. But he didn't need light to know that the colossal beast was right behind them and that it would catch up any moment.

"Mrs. Figg!" Hermione screeched as she pointed to the dark figure where the light was headed. "She'll contact Dumbledore – run there!" Harry ran forward, and being the tallest and strongest he was soon in the lead with Hermione close behind him. They were running and they were only about twenty feet from Mrs. Figg when they heard Luna scream.

Harry looked behind him to see that Luna had tripped on the road, and the horrible monster was standing right above her. The beast growled, blood-tainted drool dripping from his jaws. He opened his mouth up wide, and it retracted almost like a lizards. It was now wide enough for a large human to easily fit in. Luna was about to get up and try running when the forked tongue lashed out of the monster's mouth. It wrapped around Luna's body, coiling her arms to her torso. She was pulled into the air, and was beginning to be dragged into the creature's mouth. Her leg snagged on one of the monster's pointed fang, and Luna screamed out as her skin and muscle were ripped in a devastating gash.

A flap in the top of the beast's mouth opened up and Harry swore that he could see two figures within the shadowy depths. Even if he couldn't see the two figures, he could definitely hear their screams.

"Harry!" Luna screamed as the monster closed its mouth. And let out a smug snarl.

"Luna!" Hermione gasped, as she was about to run towards the beast. But she quickly changed her mind as she saw the monster fix its eyes on her, and start charging. Hermione screamed and ran in the other direction when Mrs. Figg suddenly appeared.

"Oh no you don't, you filthy chimera!" Mrs. Figg screamed as she held her arms over her head. She was wearing checkered oven mittens and was holding a nice china teapot. "Go far from here!" She screamed and flung the painted pottery and the oncoming beast. The teapot shattered on impact, sending fragments of good china into the beast's eyes and face. But it didn't have time to scream in pain, for the second the teapot hit the creature it had disappeared in a whoosh of air.

Harry heard police cars in the distance and the realization of what just occurred hit him.

"Let's get you two inside before anything else happens." Mrs. Figg said. She went to go put her arm around Hermione, but before she could reach the young witch Hermione collapsed onto the ground.

"Oh dear…" Mrs. Figg sighed and slung Hermione over her shoulders, showing surprising strength for someone of her age and size. Harry looked at the chaotic scene around him, and gratefully followed Mrs. Figg inside.

AUTHOTS NOTE: Hey! I hope you liked it – if so please review! Thanks. This started out just as a writing exercise, and will turn into a story. That's really how all my writing exercises start. I start with like one small idea or sentence, and then the first chapter happens with a lot of action and questions, and then the second chapter is a recuperating chapter with a lot of questions. By the way, I never really found a place to mention this in this chapter, but incase you were wondering, this happens about three weeks after Harry returned from Hogwarts. Please review and except a new chapter up in a day or two – I can write all that I want now that school is over!