I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters and they are the copyright property of their owner(s).
Chapter 21-In the Forest Again.
Albus hit the ground hard again. Quickly, he turned his head, looking for that bird. He spotted it fluttering by a tree. It was about a foot tall, and bright red. Aside from the abnormal colour, it looked like a normal pigeon.
"Impedimenta!" Albus shouted, pointing his wand at it, but the bird evaded him easily, and took off in the opposite direction. He aimed more stunning spells at the the bird, but they all missed. He chased the bird for a good five minutes, trying to end the task quickly, but it was no use. The bird was too fast.
Over the next ridge, he saw the first major obstacle. An Acromantula, ten feet long and six feet high, was feeding on something right next to him.
The massive spider hadn't noticed him. He tried to move around to it's front so he could have a clear shot at it's eye.
"Stupefy!" He yelled, hitting the spider straight in one of its football-sized eyes. It fell backwards for a few moments, and Albus yelled, "Arania Eximai!" which sent it flying about twenty feet backwards, and it landed on its back.
This was a useful spell his father had shown him the night before. Apparently, his dad used it to fend off Acromantulae in his second year.
Albus saw no need to rid the spider of its legs. He watched it struggle, but it couldn't flip back onto his front. Instead, he remembered some more advice from his father.
"You there! Acromantula!" he called to it. "Do you understand me?"
Nothing. Assuming that the spider's hisses weren't some form of accented English, he looked around for the bird again.
"Impedimenta!" Albus shouted for a second time, but he missed again. He began chasing it again.
He'd been chasing the bird for a while, now. He checked Fabian Prewett's watch; twenty minutes had passed. He hurried up.
The bird flew faster than Albus ran, but it stopped every so often. It liked mocking him. He kept following it.
From the distance, he started hearing someone in pain. It was a man, for sure, but he knew it wasn't Vinschtein. The bird went towards it, and Albus followed. When they arrived at the source of the moans, Albus discovered what it was, and was surprised when he didn't guess it.
On the ground, he saw a Manticore, mostly lion, Scorpion's tail, man's head. But it was missing a leg.
"You!" It yelled to Albus. "What are you doing here?"
Albus approached it. "Don't worry!" he said. "I mean you no harm. Who did this to you?"
"It was a human, like yourself. I had taken him by surprise, and with my stinger to his neck, I told him to state his business in the forest."
Vinschtein, Albus thought. "Go on."
"He assured me that he meant no harm. He told me that he was here looking for something, and that I could help him. There was a treasure he sought hidden in the forest, and that if I spared his life, I would have equal share in it. I released him, but the double crosser turned around and blasted my leg off!"
Now he knew what everyone had been telling him about the Manticore's 'near-human intelligence'. Albus planned on leaving it there, but all of the sudden, he remembered the Haiku. "Only courage and cunning" . "What is your name?" Albus asked it.
"I am Boagrius." He said.
"My name is Albus. Listen, Boagrius, I could use your help. There is another beast in this forest, almost as mighty and as powerful as yourself. (flatteryIf I can reattach your leg, will you assist me in defeating it?"
"I would be in your debt, Albus. What beast is this?"
"It is called a Nundu. Its extremely strong and fast, and moves silently. All I would need from you is that you accompany me wherever I go for next half-hour, and kill it if comes. Are you clear with that?"
"Albus, if you can reattach my leg, I will destroy anything for you. Now help me!"
When Albus was fourteen, James was showing him a spell that would blast through any solid object. Once, James missed the tree and blast the leg off of a lynx, so Ginny had shown them a charm for reattaching the leg, without hurting the animal.
He approached the Manticore that lay on the ground, covered in his own blood.
"Accio leg!" He exclaimed, and the leg soared over to where they were sitting.
While Albus worked on the leg, he told the creature why he had really been in the forest, and what Vinschtein's real intentions were. The whole process of reattaching it took around ten minutes. The entire time, the bird sat on a tree, watching him.
When Albus and Boagrius stood up, the bird took off. They followed, still talking.
"It really was a mistake of that boy." Said Boagrius. "Humans usually only see me as a threat, like him. You, Albus, see me as an equal."
Albus was silent. He had to keep watching the bird.
"You are different from most humans." The Manticore said.
Albus checked his watch again. Fifteen minutes left.
Suddenly, they came to a clearing, where Albus saw a great tree in the back. It wasn't the regular Oak tree that were in the forest. This one was a tall maple tree, about five times the size of the rest of them.
There was a hollow part, that they could go inside. The bird flew right over and inside of it, and Albus and Boagrius followed.
They were less than twenty feet from the entrance, when Boagrius shouted, "Albus, look out!" and pushed him down. At the same time, a low-pitched snarl came from behind them.
Boagrius had stepped in front of him, eyeing the massive leopard. The Nundu recognized Boagrius as an actual opponent rather than just prey, and took his time. They circled each other for about ten seconds, Albus staying behind the Manticore at all times, before there was another low-pitched snarl, and the Nundu leapt.
It dug its teeth deep into Boagrius's neck, and Boagrius yelled out with another gasp of pain. It turned on Albus, but all of the sudden, stopped dead in its tracks.
Albus saw the stinger that was now deep inside the beast's stomach. It fell to the ground with a thud, but Boagrius went unconscious also.
Ten minutes left. Nothing separated him from the bird now, so he needed to catch it quick.
Around the outside of the tree, there was what looked like was a spiralling ramp, that lead all the way up the trunk. The bird went straight up, and Albus sprinted up the ramp behind it. There wasn't much time. He saw the top.
There was the bird, perched on top of what looked like a large mirror. It didn't move as Albus approached.
He caught his reflection in the mirror, and noticed something odd.
There he was standing there like normal, but he was all cut up. His face was bloodied, his clothes were covered in twigs and dirt, and in his hand was the blue, shining Triwizard cup.
In the reflection, his entire family had appeared around him, congratulating him. But no one was there.
Ron, Hermione, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Hagrid, his grandparents, his mum, they were all patting him on the back. In the reflection.
And where was Harry Potter in the reflection? In Albus's shadow, holding his smaller cup.
Where was James Potter in the reflection? Shining his rusty captain's badge, again, in Albus's shadow.
Even his little sister, who despite not having achieved as much, far outshone Albus on the Quidditch pitch. But there she was, in Albus's shadow, with her old record trophies that now bore the name Albus Potter.
More people had begun crowding around. People that he'd never even met. He'd recognized the faces of James and Lily Potter the first. He saw Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, even the great Albus Dumbledore...
The haiku from the cube came to mind. Ignore Vanity, it is the only true beast... A voice screamed at him to pull out his wand and smash it, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. What was it?
Then the great, low-pitched roar came from behind him, and he managed to throw himself out of the way just in time. He looked over and saw the second Nundu, who must have followed him up the tree. He caught his reflection in the magical mirror again, and this time, there weren't people around him, there was just him. The red bird was in his hands.
He remembered the real red bird. It had left the mirror, and began soaring down the hollow maple tree.
Take a leap of faith...
The Nundu prepared to strike again. Without thinking, he leapt from the edge, flying down the tree.
Thirty feet from the ground. Twenty, Ten.
He seized the bird in his hands, and braced himself for the impact...
But there was no impact. He looked up, and the tree was gone, as was the forest. He was in the great hall, with cheers all around him.
A familiar voice came from above. "Just in time," Said Harry Potter, eyeing the clock. It was, indeed, the real Harry Potter this time. "You finished with less the two minutes left."
His father helped him stand. He took a few minutes to looked around, and the same group of people who had been eating with him the night before were muttering congratulations to him, but Albus did not care to listen. He was still trying to figure out what had happened.
"The bird was a portkey," Said the voice of Percy Weasley. "Soon as you touched it, you were brought back here."
"Is anyone else back?" Albus asked.
"Ya," His father began, "Vinschtein, but you won the event. He got back about twenty seconds later. Your in first."
All of the sudden, Harry turned and left. No explanation, no goodbye, he muttered something is Ginny's ear then walked out. Albus wanted to follow, but there were people everywhere.
"Unfortunately, we couldn't watch this event." Said Ron.
"Desmond told us that things that could happen in the woods were too personal." Added James.
So the mirror was part of the event, Albus thought.
"You'll have to tell us all about it. How did you get past the Nundu?" Hermione asked.
Albus jumped into the story about the Acromantula, seeing the bloody Manticore, how it killed the first Nundu for him, and the great maple tree. He left out the mirror.