"Hagrid, what should we do?" Hermione hissed.
Hagrid's crossbow was pointed at the Tarasque and he loosed a bolt, it flew straight at the Tarasque and hit one of its legs and stuck. The creature bellowed loudly in anger and pain.
Harry turned to Hagrid and asked, "How'd it get through the thick hide?"
"Special tipped bolts, they have Nix saliva on them." Hagrid informed them while loading another bolt.
"Are you telling me, that the only thing to cure Nix eggs is Tarasque venom and the only thing to pierce Tarasque skin is Nix saliva?" Ron said astounded.
"They're natural enemies through and through." Hagrid said.
"Wait, are you telling me that you have Nix saliva, when there aren't even any Nixes here, but you don't have Tarasque venom when WE HAVE ONE RIGHT HERE!" Ron shouted the last part.
"Yep." Hagrid said and fired another bolt into the Tarasque's other leg.
"Why aren't you aiming for its face?" Ron asked annoyed.
"I don't want to kill it." Hagrid told him, shocked that Ron would suggest such a thing. Ron noticed the tone and muttered something about 'why would anyone want to keep this thing alive'
The Tarasque roared again and charged at them. Hermione shouted, "Protego!" A large shield charm burst forth and the Tarasque ran into it head long.
It staggered back, but what was most shocking was that there was a crack in Hermione's charm. Harry didn't think charms could crack, be dispelled, broken, maybe even shattered, but cracked? Hermione seemed just as stunned.
"The Tower has strange affects on magic." She yelled back to them after recovering.
Harry nodded and pointed his wand at the Tarasque, well not exactly at the Tarasque, and shouted, "Deprimo!" The bolt dug deeper and deeper into the Tarasque's leg. It screeched and thrashed about, stamping its legs and roaring.
Hagrid cried out, "No Harry, don't! Don't hurt him too bad!" Hagrid slapped Harry's wand upward, but didn't knock it out of his hand, though that ended his spell.
"Hagrid!" Harry shouted.
Hagrid said, "Harry don't. You can't hurt him. Don't hurt him too bad. Don't." He was almost begging and Harry sighed.
"Then what are we suppose to do?"
"I don't know. Just don't hurt him to bad." Hagrid pleaded and Harry sighed again.
Hermione raised her wand and shouted, "Accio Bolt!" The bolt from the crossbow flew into her hand, covered in greenish blue blood and some sort of light reddish gunk that wasn't blood. As soon as she had it in her hand she dropped it and shrieked, "Ew, ew, ew, ew!"
"Hermione, what'd you do that for?" Ron asked as the Tarasque roared again from having the painful bolt extracted from its leg.
"Watch." Which was all she said as she pointed her wand at the creature, "Hagrid, can you shoot another bolt right over the one I just pulled out, so the holes connect?"
Hagrid looked at her perplexed, but nodded. He pointed his crossbow again, but never got the chance to fire because the Tarasque charged again. It let out its high pitched scream that was agonizing. Harry raised his hands to his ears, plugging them tight, it worked for awhile, but the sound was slowly rising making it impossible to completely block. He turned and saw Hermione and Ron doing the same, and Hagrid had dropped his crossbow so he could stop the pain.
Harry didn't know what to do, last time Snape had saved them by making it so that they couldn't hear until the creature stopped, but he wasn't here at the moment. Hermione was yelling something at Hagrid, but he couldn't hear it over the shrieking. He watched as Hagrid unplugged his ears and with great effort picked up the crossbow again. He loaded it with another bolt, fumbling with it once, and wincing with pain. Once it was loaded he aimed, but it was hard since his hands were shaking and his eyes watering. After thirty seconds of trying to aim he fired. The bolt soared at the Tarasque and hit exactly over the other one, connecting the two holes.
For a moment the Tarasque let out a deeper roar, that wasn't painful, but after only a cry of agony, it returned to the high pitched yelling. It seemed to have realized this incapacitated them, giving it the advantage. Harry watched as Hagrid dropped the crossbow again without care and collapsed to the ground to cover his ears.
He saw someone move to his right and turned to see that Hermione had unplugged her ears now and was pointing her wand at the creature.
Harry couldn't understand why the beast hadn't charged, but he supposed the Tarasque was waiting, screaming and waiting for them all to collapse.
Hermione shouted something, but he couldn't hear her, he watched as the bolt flew out of the creature and landed in Hermione's hand as she dropped it in disgust. Once again, the creature roared in agony, it seemed unable to not do this. For one brief moment they had relief before the Tarasque began again.
He watched as Hermione raised her wand again and he realized that this time, she wasn't going to summon something, she was going to attack, there was just something in her grimacing face, something determined and almost wild.
Harry shouted to her, "NO! Hermione, spells don't work!" But she either couldn't hear him or chose to ignore him. Her arm was shaking as Hagrid's had and she seemed to be forcing herself to stay conscious. She had, had her hands off her ears for awhile now. Her body shuddered and she staggered a bit, but she managed to hold her ground. Her eyes rolled back for one brief instant and Harry thought she had surely passed out, but she was, amazingly, able to pull herself out of it.
She aimed her wand and then shouted something, Harry couldn't hear her, but he knew what she had said, "Stupefy."
Harry watched in horror, expecting to see the spell to bounce off the Tarasque and come ricocheting back. He kept expecting Hermione to fall to the ground, stunned, but this never happened. The spell hit the open wound that had been created by Hagrid's bolts. It seemed to go inside the Tarasque. The Tarasque had a dumbstruck look on its face, its whole body immobile. It blinked once and then collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Harry sighed loudly as soon as he realized the screaming had stopped. His ears were ringing loudly and he felt light headed, but relief washed over him as the pain ceased.
He began to walk toward the Tarasque when he heard Ron shout, "Hermione!" Harry whipped around in time to see Hermione collapsed into Ron's arms. As soon as he saw this he whipped around the other direction, back toward the Tarasque. She'd be fine, she'd collapsed before. There was no need for him to spoil Ron's knight in shining armor moment.
Harry saw Hagrid get up and walk over to the creature and pat its head.
"Gave us a good fight, didn't he?" Hagrid said beaming and Harry couldn't help but laugh, Hagrid was always the same.
"So, how do we get the h...spine off?"
"Yank it." Hagrid informed him.
"Won't that hurt it though?" Harry asked, he didn't really care, but Hagrid did.
"Naw. Tarasque's lose their horns anyway, like deer and antlers. It'll grow back, promise." Hagrid said, seeming to think Harry was really worried.
"Well, do you want to do the honors?" Harry asked.
"Sure thing." Hagrid said and lumbered over. He wrapped his large hand around one horn, and yanked hard. There was a sickening sucking or slurping noise as the spine was pulled out and then Hagrid was presenting him with it as if it were a trophy or a prize he had won. It didn't look like a prize though.
It was long, fat, and a dull red color, well the spine was. The liquid that was seeping off of it was that same greenish blue. The horn was pock marked, scored, and scratched, there didn't seem to be a smooth part on it. Harry examined it closely, trying to find where the venom was, but he couldn't seem to locate it.
"Hagrid, where's the venom?" Harry asked.
"Inside the horn, it comes out the tip, only a Small hole. One drop could...drop a bull. Only dangerous if you swallow it or it get into yer blood stream though. So don't eat it or prick yerself with it." He said grinning.
Harry grinned back and turned to see Hermione getting to her feet.
"Why me?" She grumbled.
Ron helped her to her feet and said, "At least you don't have eggs in your hand." Hermione nodded slowly.
"You alrigh'?" Hagrid asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Did we get it?" She asked nervously and sighed when Harry showed her, then she asked, "Will it be ok?"
"You want to know if the thing that almost killed you is alright?" Ron asked incredulous, but Hermione ignored him.
Hagrid nodded and said, "It'll be fine."
"Shall we get down now?" Ron suggested.
Hermione nodded again and said, "Go near the edge."
"What?"
"Go near the edge."
"Why?"
"Ron, just do it!" She commanded and he complied, Harry and Hagrid following.
Hermione walked over, waved her wand, and said, "Descendo!" Just like before, except they went down now, they were carried along by an invisible platform and just like before, Harry felt nervous. They got to the ground without a hitch though, to Harry's great relief. Maybe things were looking up.
Then Ron screamed a bloodcurdling yell.
Harry turned and saw Ron running around in circles, flapping his hand about as if it were on fire. Harry just watched horrified, Hermione had an alarmed look on her face, and Hagrid stood stock still.
Ron collapsed onto the ground and began to roll around, maybe he did think it was on fire. Harry looked at his hand and saw that it was almost glowing a bright white. While they had been trying to get the spine, they hadn't noticed that Ron's hand had steadily been getting a lighter and lighter blue until it became a white.
Harry watched as Ron's hand went from white to a vibrant yellow, the same color as Snape's hair when Hermione had first changed it. Ron was still crying out, but it was softer and he had stopped rolling around. Eventually he was only moaning which brought Harry out of his stunned silence.
He ran over, Hermione and Hagrid in pursuit. Harry reached over and grabbed Ron's hand, which was covered in bright yellow scales, but that wasn't all that was covered. His wrist and about halfway up his forearm was now just as scaly as his hand was. Plus Harry notices, spread out around Ron's hand, minuscule bumps forming. This wasn't good.
So, maybe things weren't looking up.