Harry Potter: A New Low (Part 3)
The sneering beast clawed its way free with savage intent, hissing venomously as the light hit its eyes for the first time before flopping onto the floor and floundering like some kind of limbless gymnast.
Its body was seal-like and jet black in colour, and were it not for that evil, noseless face, most taxonomists would be satisfied to classify it as a harmless species of sea lion. But taxonomy is not always an exact science as any fisheries department may inform you…
Hermione's eyes, though wild, bloodshot, and rimmed with dark circles, bore that distinct, unmistakable gleam that can only be found in the orbs of a proud mother.
"My darling!" She droned, conveying a mixture of exhaustion and wonder in her laser beam shocking, eclectic, english whine that cut into Harry's soul like spider. "What a beautiful baby boy," she gushed. "My pulse…. My heart…. My treasure…. My revenge!"
If the creature noticed the doting words of its mother, it showed no indication. Presently, it had gained some measure of control over its cumbersome body and was steadying itself, looking this way and that, surveying its new surroundings.
"Yes, my baby, it is time to meet your father!" Hermione intoned in slow reverie.
Harry, still utterly spellbound by the events unfolding before him, could do nothing but watch as the cruel, dark eyes of the abomination with the face that he knew so well locked onto his. There was a moment of odd bonding between them; the creature seemed to recognise both a life sworn enemy and a father figure in that young wizard's eyes.
"My…my son?" Harry slurred, his mind a veritable anticyclone of profound, unfamiliar and colourful emotion; always reacting, always at the whim of events around him, as though his life, running like a tap, had spilled from the brain of some conceited, yet tired hack.
Slowly, painfully, his longing gaze was returned by the creature, its black soulless eyes pools of infant-like wonder.
Thus, that sacred moment drifted on in spite of the enormous inconsistency with the previous events and general history of these two arch-nemeses. Would there be an embrace? A peace finally achieved through the only true and tangible love left in this pitiless world: that existing between parent and child?
…Sadly it would not be so.
The attack was as quick as it was unexpected. With unbelievable speed the creature propelled itself with pinnipedic agility, tracing a graceful arc of doom through the crackling skies until its noseless face filled the reflective surface of Harry's spectacles.
To his credit, Harry took the blow like a trooper; grunting ever so reservedly as the black mass slammed into his schoolboy physique and latched onto him like a clothes peg. His front was covered with a profusion of acrid-to-taste liquid which seemed to coat the entirety of the creature. Presently, this liquid served as an admirable solvent and Harry's hand finally slipped free of the doorknob. Perhaps he now had a fighting chance against this abominable spectre of his childhood and young, pubescent life.
However, the soiling of Harry's immaculate Quidditch uniform, which now bore a sew-on patch for 'most fated', had the unfortunate side effect of unhinging his already bruised and reeling sanity. Thus, his defence consisted of using his liberated hands to cover his face while screaming, "So dirty", in a ragged soprano.
Curiously, the creature seemed to be drawn to his gaping mouth, seemingly attempting to burrow in. It nuzzled almost affectionately at the wall of fingers which latticed the young wizard's face. Try as it might, however, Harry's state had rendered his extremities deathly rigid and the creature could coax no entry.
Logically, it headed south, towards the only gate left unguarded.
Pinnipeds are marine animals falling within the suborder of Caniforma which include such iconic sea mammals as the walrus and sea lion.
(NB Pinnipedic is perhaps not a real word)
