Chapter 8

            The island shook. Every building slightly moved, creating squeaks in the floors and rumbling down the halls. Almost all prisoners inside their cells jumped up and ran to their doors, expecting food. Guards stopped their conversations because they also thought someone was coming.

            However, the second rumbling was much louder, and the sands shifted even more. Miriam and Demora left their dining table and rushed out the doors. As they left, a few house elves snuck in by a side door, grabbed their dishes and cups and ran off just as quickly.

            The red haired guard, Miriam, poked her head outside the door. She squinted her very round eyes until she saw one very white figure standing in the middle of the island. Suddenly, she gasped, jolted back inside and turned to Demora.

            "What is it?" asked Demora.

            "It's a Yeti!"

            "No really, what is it?"

            But Miriam's face was completely still. She wasn't joking. A furry, huge Yeti was just standing in the middle of the island. Each time he shifted his weight, the ground shook.

            "A Yeti wasn't scheduled to arrive, was it?"

            "We don't enough food to feed that thing," Miriam said. "Whose bright idea was lock one of those here?"

            "It was mine," said a scratchy voice. A black haired woman walked forward with slit eyes. It was Arianna Chang. "The International Task Force in Tibet needed a highly shielded place to store their most dangerous and murderous Yeti.  He has eaten over a hundred Muggles and has even recently killed a wizard who tried to stop him from harming a Muggle."

            "And your father approved of this?"

            "He was the one who signed him over… Now, this Yeti is to be locked up in the second Northern Tower, cell number 199."

            Demora laughed. "You expect us to hand cuff a Yeti? He'll eat us whole."

            "Then I hope he doesn't have bad stomach acid."

            Arianna smirked, snapped her fingers and Disapparated.

            "I hate it that she can do that," remarked Demora.

            "Only because her father built this place. Don't worry. She'll get what's coming to her one day. We better gather the Guardian Rule. It'll take a miracle to chain that bloody Yeti up."

            Word spread like a juicy rumor, gossiping from ear to ear. It only took fifteen minutes for a majority of the guards to meet in the middle of island called the Midpoint. They stood horrified at the white beast before them. The Yeti was slightly being than a man, very broad, very white and with gigantic sharp teeth protruding out its mouth.

            Demora was second in command of the Guardian Rule, right underneath Arianna. Of course, Arianna was nowhere in sight, so Demora had to lead the group. She nervously walked forward, her staff-like wand in hand.

            The Yeti turned around, its thick, dark brown gums sticking one. Globs of saliva dripped off its jaw and meshed into its unstained white fur.

            "Guards, prepare to lock him," Demora commanded.

            Each and every wizard or witch now pointed his or her wands at the Yeti. Hands shook tremendously, legs battered side by side, and even one wizard urinated himself, creating a large wet spot on the front of his robe.

            "Graaaaa!" the Yeti roared, spitting out a chunk of slimy mucus from his throat.

            Half a dozen guards drew back, but Demora motioned them with her hand to stay where they were. Taking charge, she was the first to step forward completely.

            "You have no rights here," she said loudly. "All personal items, if you have any, will be taken away now."

            She focused her wand and pointed it at the Yeti. It didn't even look like she did anything. Maybe it was because the Yeti had nothing with him except his bad temper.

            "Guards! Stay where you are! Now!" Demora shouted and jumped forward with her wand.

However, the Yeti flung out its arm, punching her in the stomach. Demora flew backward, her spine cracking as it hit the ground. She lay twitching, her body screaming in agonizing pain.

Without their leader, the Guardian Rule scattered. But their legs weren't fast enough. The Yeti turned around and leapt toward the first two witches he saw. He grabbed them by the legs as they desperately tried to hang onto the sand.

He opened his jaw, letting a putrid odor out. Inside his mouth were two sets of razor blade teeth, all yellowish white and gooey with spit. The Yeti bit into the first witches' leg, right underneath her knee. He chomped right through the bone and at the shin whole.

Blood poured down his lips, trickled down his chin and stained his white fur.

A tall wizard snuck up behind the Yeti as he chewed on the dead witches' body. After the beast spat out the thighbone, the wizard struck the Yeti and attempted to put him in a Bewitched Sleep, much like Dumbledore did for a group of a students who were held prisoner by the merpeople. But the difference was that this wizard failed.

The Yeti merely yawned, shook his head and then turned around. A set of bleeding toes stuck out of his mouth. He quickly swallowed them without chewing and opened his mouth again.

The wizard raised his staff, ready to use a spell on him, when the beast stabbed him with his long, sword-like fingernails. He created a round, open wound in the wizard's chest, right through his robe. Then, the Yeti stuck out its tongue and collected the sweet red juice pouring out. He licked his lips and sucked down the blood.

            Their cell no longer rumbled. Whatever sound Hermione heard before was replaced with terrifying screams outside.

            "It sounds awful out there," said Hermione.

            "Maybe they're torturing the prisoners."

            "Let's hope not," said Harry as his stomach growled. "When are we gonna be fed again?"

            "I don't know. Better be sometime soon."

            And soon the soup did arrive with an unexpected person delivering it.

            Dobby awoke alone on a netted cot. He swung gently between two sturdy mops anchored in buckets of soapy water. When he tried to get off of it, his toes jammed in between the holes, and he fell face forward onto the cold ground.

            For some odd reason, his bones had been mended from running to that wall. The only pain he felt at all was in his left cheek, right where he had just landed.

            "Stupid Dobby," he said to himself.

            He shook his head and made a 'bur' sound with his lips.

            "Are you ok?" a high voice asked.

            Dobby spun around to see a very pretty house elf. She had dark, purple eyes with small slivers of silver in them. Her lips were plump and glossy. And her bare breasts hung… Dobby quickly looked away from them and put his hands over his eyes.

            "What is wrong?"

            "You do not wear clothes," he hissed. "I can see, well, everything."

            "Clothes?" she said in an extremely high-pitched voice. "You're the one who claims he's free… Is it true?"

            "Dobby does not lie!" he shouted and pointed his nose up high in the air.

            "I never said he did. That is your name then? Dobby?"

            "Yes. What is yours?"

            "A name? I have none," she said.

            "Then what does your master call you?"

            "The keeper is everyone's master."

            Dobby never heard that name mentioned before. The keeper? It must have been someone rather important on the island.

            "And does this keeper have a name?"

            She shook her head. "We never speak his name. It is bad luck."

            Dobby was shocked. Typical house elves didn't believe in superstition. Actually, they believed whatever their masters believed and that was it.

            "Well, just say it to Dobby then. Dobby won't tell anyone."

            "All right… Only because Dobby is free," she said. "And I wishes to be free as well."

            "Really?" Dobby asked surprised. "Dobby didn't think any of you natives wanted that."

            "Some of us want to leave and go work elsewhere… We've been here too long."

            Dobby nodded. "If Dobby helps you and your friends find clothes, then we go to your keeper, and Dobby will make sure he gives you clothes. And then we goes and find Dobby's friend, Harry Potter."

            She hesitated to answer. In the distance, rumbling could be heard and terrible moans. Blocking out the sounds, eventually, she nodded her head.

            "The keeper lives on the top of the tallest tower in the north. He built this island long ago."

            "What is the keeper's real name?" Dobby asked again.

            In a low, whispering voice she answered, "Mister Chang."

            "Chang? Dobby knows of a Chang back in Hogwarts!"

            "What is this Hogwarts?" she asked.

            "It's a school for wizards like Harry Potter… Dobby used to work there after having terrible master Malfoy… Harry Potter studies there with friends. Dobby remembers Harry talking about a Chang. Cho Chang."

            "I've never heard of a Cho Chang. Only Mister Chang and Arianna. She is a different type of keeper."

            Dobby nodded, but didn't really understand. Before he could respond, another female house elf entered the room. It was the one from before who seemed to be in charge of all the other kitchen elves.

            "So the liar found a friend," she said harshly. "I should have both of you hung for this get-together. Conspiracy!"

            She stood next to a wooden doorway with her long arms dangling near her knees. They were in a very large storage room full of brooms, mops, bowls and boxes. The nasty female elf approached the other two; her pointy teeth stuck out of her lips, and she motioned to strangle Dobby. However, the new, beautiful house elf stepped in front.

            "No! Dobby doesn't know our rules!"

            "Silence!" she snapped her fingers, and her glossy mouth disappeared.

            "Bad! Very bad! Very very very BAD!" yelled Dobby.

            Suddenly, Dobby flung his hand forward, and using a power hidden inside of him, he forced the nasty elf to fly across the room and smack her head into a wall. She fell down, her skull cracked. Then, Dobby snapped his fingers, and the beautiful elf's lips returned.

            "Dobby is very strong," she said right away.

            "So are you…Dobby and you must go now before others sees this… You, You needs a name," Dobby said.

            "Poppy."

            "What?"

            "P-o-p-p-y," she spelled out.

            Dobby smiled. "Poppy… Dobby likes it."

            The two sneaky house elves fled from the storage room. They were one floor above the kitchen area. It wasn't very hard to get out. All they had to do was grab some soup bowls and pretend to walk to another tower nearby.

            Dobby found his way out the corridor with Poppy behind him. First, they had to find her clothes. It didn't take very long to find some… But a dead wizard wore them.

            Horribly, the Midpoint was littered in bodies. The Yeti continued to fight off any guard that tried to put a spell on it. No wonder Tiber had such a problem with it. He was resistant to a majority of magical enchantments. Dobby tried not to look at the bloody mess. Instead, he tiptoed near a dead body far away from the Yeti's rampage.

            Carefully, he grabbed the bottom part where there was little blood and ripped it off. Dobby turned, ready to give it to Poppy to hold, but she was gone.

            "Poppy!" Dobby yelled. "Poppy!"

            He panicked. His eyes darted back and forth, and he started to tremble all over his frail, little body. Then, he felt very warm breathe prickling his neck.

            "Grraaa," a voice howled behind him.

            Dobby gulped loudly and turned his head to see a set of bloody teeth only a few inches from his head.