Blood and Fire
Days, weeks and months past as Nova, Nell and Meg tried to figure out a plan, but it just seemed impossible, and their mood dropped every time one of them would bring up their big problem they had to solve. Eventually they stopped talking about it altogether, it felt better to just focus on homework and other activities, Nova was allowed to dance with the group again, so that made her feel a little better. Sometimes when she thought about her encounter with the Boy she wondered if it had even been real, the whole thing seemed so surreal, she had been on some heavy medication during the year, perhaps there was some pretty weird side effects to them. She was the only one who had seen anything out of the three of them, for all Meg and Nell knew, she could've been lying or tripping. Sometimes she caught herself going a whole school day not thinking about it a single time, but when she lay down to sleep her worries always returned. It had to have been real, her brain was just trying to make up excuses in order for her to not feel so stressed out about it…
The Easter holidays eventually came and went, once again they had used the Weasley theme park campaign to keep students in school. After that, students begun to worry about the exams, Nova had caught up with her homework somewhat and learned a few more spells, she had noticed a clear pattern in what type of spells that worked well for her, anything that was pretty straight forward and based in emotions rather than logic worked well enough, like Incendio, but spells that required a fine touch, like Wingardium Leviosa, was so god damn hard to pull off it was ridiculous. Looking at her wand, she thought it made sense, it reminded her more of a baton rather than any wand she had ever seen, and it was completely unbending with that weird river troll whisker core.
But what truly worried her was that it was only one and a half months left now, on May thirty-first; seven months would have passed since Halloween, and the ritual would be complete… and a fear that loomed greatly in her mind was that the ritual would require a lot more sacrifices then the Boy had wanted to tell Hagrid about… All those months ago it had felt easier to think that someone was coming to save them, but it had become painfully clear that they were on their own…
"FUCK!" Nova screamed and pushed herself up from her bed, a sudden fit of panic had just overwhelmed her, she breathed heavily and her heart pounded. Nell and Meg had both jumped but then went back to try and fall asleep, nobody said anything. It was like that a lot nowadays, one of them would have a small breakdown but any words of comfort were half-hearted or they didn't say anything at all, all of them had realized there would be no saving, so why even bother telling themselves that. Nell would sometimes cry silently on the toilet, Meg just stare into the void for tens of minutes and Nova unleash a barrage of punches on her pillows.
But time didn't stop, it was relentless, all of a sudden it had become May first. They agreed to take on even greater risks at that point and sneaked onto the Third Floor Corridor, but the door that lead to the Boy wouldn't budge, Nell's Alohomora spell did nothing and Nova became ant-sized to try and crawl in under the door, but some sort of force field kept her out… Not that she knew what they would have done if it had worked, imitate Harry Potter and have a showdown with a much more powerful foe? If they even would have reached him, if Professor McGonagall's chess game still protected the way down they would've been screwed, none of them where expert chess players.
They also tried to break out from one of the windows in the dance hall, but all the windows in the school had been enchanted as well and had force fields put upon them so even in ant-from Nova couldn't sneak outside.
Nova made new batches of potions, why? She didn't know, but being prepared was always something… If they could get Hagrid's help somehow, he was the only one they knew for sure wasn't controlled… but he was always in company of another teacher. Another week passed, and then one more… they were counting days now.
"Nine more days to go… two more until the final week begins…" Nell said distraught, all three of them sat in the dance hall alone.
"We only have days left to live…" Meg said with a shaky voice. Several months ago they had discussed the possibility of the Boy being truthful, saying only seven sacrifices were needed, but now that the end was so close; all three of them felt sure hundreds of students would die as part of the ritual. They just didn't want to let the Boy decide their fates, didn't want to be like lambs before the slaughter.
"…" Nova had intended to say something but lost it, she just thought about her mom and the fact that they would never meet again and she started to cry. She wished some Harry Potter-esk person had been the one to discover the Boy's plot instead of a useless person like herself, she felt so inadequate, and each person that would die as a result of her incompetence would be on her…
Nell and Meg both started to sob as well and they just sat there for several minutes in silence.
"Well," Nell said while trying to hold her tears back as best she could. "Who knows when it'll start… But we might not get many more chances to talk to each other… so… I j-just wanted to s-say… that the two of you, not only are you my f-first friends ever… but better friends that I could ever have h-hoped for."
Nova's lip began trebling violently and she hugged Nell tightly with Meg.
"I just w-wished we would've gotten more time together…" Nova said. "I had so many p-plans for us… all the dance shows, s-summer activities…"
"I can't believe it's come to this…" Meg said. "What can we do…"
"I don't know… Let's just listen to our favorite songs one last time…" Nova didn't even feel like listening to music right now, but it might be the last chance she'd ever get.
They listened to music for an hour or so, it didn't bring her much comfort, if anything she felt it made her even more sad, she just began reminiscing about all the wonderful things she had experienced to that point, all her muggle friends that were a blast to hang out with, Nell and Meg who wasn't nearly as wild as her other friends, but there was a different kind of charm of hanging out with them that she enjoyed a lot. Her father that she didn't remember much of, she had vague pictures in her head of him carrying her and dancing around with her to rock music, she was laughing and she could remember the strong bond of love between them, the memory of that love for him was clear as day. And then there was her mother, they did everything together, she was Nova's hero and she had always been there for her, she wanted to feel her soothing touch more than anything else right now…
A song had ended, Meg leaned forward towards the Wave Sphere. "Another favorite song of mine… let's see… ah, this one was a while ago, play Arapyzzodion by Diatribe of Magic." The power metal song began playing, Nova remembered Meg playing the song for her at the beginning of their friendship, it brought back good memories.
#
A shadow's rising in my mind, the healers say I'm going blind
I have to find a way to see, such horrors that are hunting me!
#
Great crooked one of ages gone, I'll trade my ears for eyes this dawn
A desperate man a fool can be, yes I will grant your wish to see.
#
So many places my sight cover not, my mind's heavy of terrible fraught
Then offer me another bodily part, gaining eyes to soothe your heart
To be hunted, for your rotten flesh
To be lonely, hiding in the darkness
To be fleeing, at a single glance
Your cowardice, is a tale of legends!
#
He traded his nose, he traded his skin, he traded the organs residing within
But when he finally offered his heart, the crooked one just gave him a laugh
#
You lost your heart the day you fled, leaving your wife for the dead
For all the things that you can see, you missed the omens telling ye
#
Inside your wife there grew a boy, for all your enemies he'd destroy
And as she was devoured in terrible pain, she wished for you to always remain.
To be hunted, for your rotten flesh
To be lonely, hiding in the darkness
To be fleeing, at a single glance
Your cowardice, is a tale of legends!
#
You'll live through cursed eternity, the omens of evil will torture ye
Now come into the forest my dear, for here lives all the creatures you fear…
#
Meg just stared, Nova had zoomed out but Meg's weird expression brought her back to reality.
"Meg? Wha-"
"Rotten flesh! The Boy made them eat rotten flesh right!?" Meg said as she continued to stare into the distance, her body had gotten all tense. "Oh how could I be so dumb! It's one of my favorite songs! It's a tale about a man who was cursed and transformed into a monster, I don't know the details of it, but the song mentions rotten flesh, it might be just what we're looking for right!?"
Nova swallowed hard, it certainly could… "Holy shit… Meg!" She jumped her and hugged her hard enough to crush bones, she had not even considered what good this new revelation would do for them or if it was likely to be what they were looking for, but she was just immensely relieved they had finally made some sort of progress.
They quickly put the song on again and wrote down the lyrics.
"But this story is about a unique creature, I think the Boy said he had it planted in the Forbidden Forest several years ago, he said it needed time to grow and reach adulthood," Nova said. "If it was this legendary beast it would already be an adult…"
"Well, my mother told me about these old fairytales," Meg said. "She said that some creatures had legends built up around them, the creature might have existed for a long time, but when parents didn't want their children to engage with certain creatures or scare them away from certain places, they would tell these types of stories about existing creatures and make them seem really scary, or tell tales of certain morals. Like in the story about Arapyzzodion, it's a story about not making deals with hags and not abandoning your loved ones. But for all we know, that story could be completely made up, only taking inspiration from a certain creature."
"But if that's the case, how do we know any of this is true?"
"I guess we don't… but now that we have this clue we could search the library for the name, perhaps we'll find something right?"
They agreed and spent the rest of the day in the library, but the story about the creature must be really obscure, they scoured through books about creatures and old fairytales, but to no avail.
"I don't think we have time to search the library, the final week is about to begin," Nova said that night as the three of them lay down in the same bed to sleep. "I think we'll have to do something more drastic, we'll need to talk to Hagrid, he's the expert on magical creatures after all."
"But he's always accompanied by another teacher," Nell said. "How are we going to get a moment alone with him?"
"I thought about it, there are a few methods, some of them really risky, like attacking said teacher when nobody else is close by. But since none of us can use memory charms I think that is a pretty bad idea," Nova said. "We could also try and distract the teacher and maybe slip a note over to Hagrid, but if that note is found they will see what type of information it is we seek and that would mean the end of our ventures as well… I think the best way is for us to communicate with him directly, and I have a plan of how to accomplish that."
"What plan?" Meg said.
"I'll tell you about it tomorrow," Nova said. "Let's just say that 'food that speaks to you' will be a key element."
Nell and Meg looked at her as if she had gone insane, but Nova just gave them a cheeky smile. Truth was she didn't know if her plan was all that good, she was really nervous about it, but she tried to act really confident about it in order to bolster her friend's courage.
#
The next day they had prepared Nova's plan. While Nell and Meg had their evening meals in the Great Hall, Nova had become ant-sized and sat inside a small glass tube that Nell held under the table. Nell also had Nova's Extendable Ear underneath her hair and clothes, and she let it slip out under the table and Nova saw how she guided it away towards the High Table where the teachers sat. This was the moment of truth, the ear would extend over several feet of open ground, the ear was pretty small and they had painted it in a similar color as the floor, using the art class's supplies, in order to make it harder to spot.
Once it reached Hagrid he would see what they had written on the backside of it; 'You're it! Send back to friends, sneakily!' There was limited space to write on the ear, but hopefully he would understand, Meg and Nell were supposed to give him a small smile if he scouted for whoever sent it. And if a teacher caught them they would say it was just some silly game of theirs, they had already done it a few times during classes earlier that day in order for the excuse to work so other students could back up their story.
Nova had limited vision of what was happening, she mostly saw a whole lot of legs of other students, but she saw the ear getting reeled in, she just hoped it was Hagrid. Soon enough the ear came back and Nell fumbled with her other hand under the table until she caught it. She carefully placed the ear against the opening of the glass tube that Nova was inside of so she could hold it all in one hand, then she continued to eat with her other hand as if nothing was happening. She tilted the glass tube horizontally so Nova could approach the, in comparison to Nova, huge ear. They had already tried it out earlier, it was possible for Nova in her ant-sized form to scream into the ear and make herself heard to whoever was on the other end of it, even though she was very small at the moment.
"Make sure the ear is hidden! We're playing a game, act natural!" she screamed. "I will ask you questions and you will respond by doing different actions. If you eat a piece of meat, that means you say 'yes' to my question, if you eat a vegetable that means 'no', if you take a sip of your drink that means 'I don't know', eating something with a lot of sauce on it means 'maybe', Meg will observe your responses, do you understand? To say yes, eat a piece of meat."
Nova looked toward the other side of the table where Meg sat, she had one of her hands under the table, she gave a thumbs up which meant Hagrid had signaled 'yes'. Nova felt a rush of adrenalin flow through her, she felt invigorated!
"Alright Hagrid, here's the situation! Just remember, continue to act natural, no sudden movements. We know what's been happening at this school, what you've been going through, you're not alone. We need to know something very important, do you know of a creature called 'Arapyzzodion', eat meat for 'yes'."
Once again Meg gave a thumbs up.
"Great!" Nova burst out in a series of laughter, she couldn't help herself, it was just a weird combination of extreme nerves and finally getting somewhere. She began asking questions such as; "is it bigger than an elephant?" and "does it have a certain weakness" and "is it weak to fire?" and so on, she asked questions for about fifteen minutes and eventually she had gathered several points of information, but she was still confused on the whole picture of what it actually was.
It was larger than an elephant, smaller then a blue whale, had thirteen large eyes, was weak to fire, could move extremely quickly or teleport away from you if it saw you, it had a lot more arms than an octopus, it did indeed have rotten skin or flesh but it wasn't a zombie or even undead. Nova remembered when she had played roleplaying games with her muggle friends, because she had no idea of what the creature might look like, she began asking for certain creature types she remembered existing within that game. "Is it a fiend, devil or demon?" Meg closed her fist which meant maybe. "Is it an aberration? It's a sort of alien creature that is very weird." Another closed fist. Nova continued and got a lot of no's until she asked; "is it a plant?" Meg did a thumbs up.
So it was a plant with many arms, larger than an elephant. "Is it a tree!?" Nova screamed. Another thumbs up. She jumped in happiness, then she tried to gather her thoughts, she had to solve this quickly, every minute they spent like this was risky. According to the song, it feared the creatures of the forest. "Does it have any natural enemies!?" Thumbs up again. Nova was suddenly hit by a revelation. "Is it the Thestrals!?" Once again, thumbs up. Of course! According to the song, the creature traded his nose, traded his skin and traded the organs residing within, along with its ears. "Can the creature only detect enemies via sight!? Is it deaf? Is that why the Thestrals can approach it freely?"
Just then something must have happened, Nell suddenly pushed the bottle into her bag and Nova fell. Her heart pounded, had they been discovered? All she could do was to sit and wait, it took ages, then she finally felt movement. A few minutes later the bottle she was inside was pulled out, they were alone inside a toilet, Nell and Meg seemed taken by panic. Nell carefully placed the bottle on the floor so Nova could jump out of it and take the antidote to turn big again.
"What happened?" she said as soon as she had returned to normal size.
"Professor McGonagall stepped on the ear, it broke in the middle," Meg said, speaking as fast as she could. "Fuck! I think they're on to us! Professor McGonagall took Hagrid into the side room in the Great Hall after that, it seemed like she was very unhappy with him!"
Nova's heart had begun to pound like crazy, she had to think fast now. "Uh, okay… what can we do… wait, Meg! Before Professor McGonagall, did Hagrid respond? My last question was very important…"
"I don't know, I'm sorry, but I just stared in fear at Professor McGonagall, but I don't think she noticed it was us he communicated with, Nell reeled the ear in quickly, although she knows it was one of us Slytherins… Shit! We're screwed!"
"Calm down!" Nell shouted forcefully. Both of them looked at Nell in pure shock, she never expressed herself like that, it got both of them to calm down a little. "We have to think our excuse might hold up, there is no use panicking," she said while taking huge breaths between her words.
Now that the plan had somewhat failed Nova felt a hell of a lot more uncertain that their excuse would actually hold up, Professor McGonagall would probably wipe their memories at the very least just to be safe.
"What did you find out Nova?" Nell said.
"It's some type of monstrous tree, weak to fire and maybe weak to acid, able to teleport or move fast, its natural enemies are Thestrals, they can probably approach it freely because they're invisible for it."
"Thestrals… Oh," Nell said. "Remember the text line 'the omens of evil will torture ye'? So it's meant literary, Thestrals are seen as omens of evil by some I think, and they will torture it… they hunt it for its rotten flesh…"
"Why would they want to eat its rotten flesh?" Nova said.
"Maybe it's part of the curse, if there is one," Meg said. "But… what shall we do now!? We still can't get out of the school!"
"What if we can get the help of the Thestrals?" Nova said. "Arapyzzodion has a limited number of creatures it can control, so the Thestrals should no longer be under its influence or the Boy's influence. If we can just escape we can ask them to take us to London just like Harry Potter did in his fifth year and we can tell everything we know to him once we get there, he can then search for Arapyzzodion and destroy it! We'll just need some meat for the Thestrals right?"
"Uh, yes, I guess so," Meg said. "But still, how do we get out?"
"I don't know…" Nova said. "But let's start with this, I haven't been seen in the Great Hall yet, so it's not weird if I turn up there, I'll go and fetch our meat. You two go back to our dormitories and prepare, if they catch me, it's on you guys, I know it looks bleak but… what else can we do?"
Nell and Meg both nodded stoically, but it was obvious to Nova they were about to break down completely. But all three hurried out of the toilet and Nova soon entered the Great Hall casually. Less than half the students were still there and a few teachers, she could not see Hagrid or Professor McGonagall, the thought of Professor McGonagall torturing information out of Hagrid in this very moment struck her hard. She looked at the side door over at the High Table and imagined that a scream of immense pain might come from there at any moment, but Professor McGonagall had probably made it soundproof. She sat down and begun to grab lots of food, she ate a little and then slipped sausages into her bag, she wasn't well prepared for this so the food just had to lay unprotected among her books causing it all to get covered in grease. Nova hoped for a moment there was some magic that could clean that up later, before she realized what a silly thing it was to be concerned with under the circumstances. Once she had gathered quite a bit of food she left for their dorms with her heart in her throat, she couldn't believe she had actually gotten away with it.
Once she entered their room ten minutes later, Nell and Meg both breathed a sigh of relief, Nova locked the door and walked over to them and they hugged.
"I didn't see Hagrid or Professor McGonagall there, it may only be a matter of time before they come after us," Nova said. "Let's see, we need to open a window somehow in order to get to the Thestrals."
They began talking ideas while Nova readied her potions belt, she took her sturdy bottles she had bought from 'The Druid's Dream' and filled one with a Blood Replenishing Potion, one with Shrinking Solution and one with its antidote and then two bottles with Dragon Salt; its corrosive properties might come in handy. She put her wand into the belts wand-protecting holster and hanged the belt on her chair.
"What if the windows are only indestructible against certain types of damage?" Nova said. "What if we can corrode them or something."
"We could certainly try…" Nell said. "So we dissolve the Dragon Salt in water and coat the windows in the stuff?"
"Yeah, something like that," Nova said. "Do we have other things we can try?"
They gathered a bunch of stuff they might be able to use, mostly potions and a bunch of different products from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Then it knocked on the door, Nova thought her heart would stop right in that moment, she froze up completely, none of them dared approach the door.
"Is there anyone inside? It's Angelica." None of them answered, all three just held their breaths, and then they heard an; "Alohomora." It was over… they would stand no chance overpowering their prefect, she was probably controlled. The perfect looking Angelica opened the door and saw the whole scene with the three of them standing at Nova's and Nell's workstations with hundreds of items on the table, preparing for the escape.
She raised an eyebrow. "And what's going on here? Why didn't you answer?"
Nova let air escape from her mouth in what sounded like some sort of farting sound. "Fuuuuck…" was all she could say as her heart sunk, but then she thought quickly. "We were gonna pull a prank on the Gryffindors…"
"Oh… nice," Angelica said with a smirk. "Well, I won't stop you. But it'll have to wait, there's been a rather serious incident, someone has used dark magic on a teacher apparently, they don't know who's responsible for it so everybody's wands will have to be confiscated for now and checked to see who cast the curse, so I'm supposed to collect your wands and bring you to the Great Hall."
'Oh god…' Nova thought, this was it, they were unarming all the students and bringing them in to keep them hostages now. Nell and Meg seemed to have the same thoughts but had no choice but to reluctantly pull out their wands from their belts, Nova put her hand where she usually had her wand as well and noticed it was gone, then she remembered she had just put it in her potions belt!
"Oh shit! Angelica, I think I forgot my wand in the dance hall earlier…" she stared at Angelica hoping for her life that she would believe the lie.
"Oh… that's worrying, that means the culprit could've used your wand to commit the crime, where in the dance hall did you leave it? I'll go and check if it's still there once all of you are safe inside the Great Hall."
"Probably next to the Wave Sphere," Nova said.
"Alright," Angelica said and grabbed the other wands, she waved her own and a label was put on each wand that said; 'Petronelle Carrow' and 'Megan Harris,' and then she put both wands into a bag. "We're all going to meet out in the common room in ten minutes and depart for the Great Hall together, see you soon."
Angelica walked out and closed the door behind her.
"Oh no no no…" Nell said with a tear falling down her cheek.
"Nell, calm down, it will be alright, I got this!" Nova lied. "I got to keep my wand."
"It's over!" Nell said desperately. Meg was silently shaking in her entire body.
"Meg, take care of her," Nova said. She walked over to the door and took a sneak peak, there were people moving through the halls outside and she could hear a lot of people had gathered in the common room already, there would be no way for her to get past all of them from there, and she would have to be among them in ten minutes… unless someone took her place!
She closed the door and darted over to their workstations and began rummaging through all the items. "Where is it!"
"What are you l-looking for?" Nell said while sobbing.
"There!" Nova pulled out a certain balloon they had bought some time ago just in case, she began blowing air into it as fast as she could.
Meg's eyes lit up. "The No-Nag? You're gonna let it take your place, tricking them into thinking you're there while you try and figure all this out?"
Nova nodded, the balloon required a lot of air, she was getting lightheaded from blowing it to full size, but eventually it was the same size as her and she put it down on the floor and it transformed into a copy of herself. It was extremely weird to look at a copy of yourself, the copy did have a slight plastic quality to it, but it was probably only noticeable because Nova were investigating it so thoroughly.
She remembered from Ron's demonstration during Halloween that you could give it one command and a phrase it could say. "Look casual and follow these girls, if anyone asks you a question you say 'I don't know.' Okay?"
"I don't know," her clone said with a rather lifeless expression.
"Okay, good…" Nova said, the thing was rather creepy…
Then she turned around and changed into jogging shoes and put on her potions belt.
"Okay, Nell, Meg…" Nova felt a clump in her throat form as she looked at her wonderful friends, she was going to have to send them into a deadly situation while she stayed back and tried to solve the situation without any real plan on how to accomplish that. "I know this is scary, but you're gonna have to take my No-Nag with you and just act like nothing is wrong, okay? You should go and join the others now… I love both of you so much!" Tears began flowing, had she sent them away to die?
They hugged hard and then wiped away their tears, nodded to each other and then Nell and Meg took deep breaths, readying themselves mentally and left for the common room, Meg held Nova's No-Nag's hand, it followed them, it looked pretty convincing at a distance. Nova tried to remain focused on her task as she remained in their room, she sat against their door listening for what was happening outside. She wanted to just cry and break down completely but forced herself to stay strong, she had to stay strong for Nell and Meg's sake.
Eventually she heard Angelica telling them all to walk in a line, four by four. She heard them march away and how the door shut behind them. With a pounding heart she sneaked out to take a look, the room was empty. The portraits were watching her as she sneaked past them up towards the exit.
"Hey, what are you doing sneaking about like that?" Professor Slughorn's portrait said.
Nova ignored him and walked up to the door and put her ear against it, she didn't hear anything but waited for a while and then opened it. She had to hurry to a window… but the group of Slytherins were marching before her, she could only wait for them to arrive in the Great Hall first, and who knew what would happen once they had arrived there? Would Meg and Nell be found out? She hoped Hagrid had not revealed who it was that had talked to him.
She arrived at the statue of Old Mucalinda, the king cobra with several snake heads in its neck hood, and she hid behind it, she had almost caught up with the group, she would have to wait for them to proceed. She laid her head against the statue and took a deep breath.
"I need your strength today o-mighty Mucalinda," she whispered nervously. The presence of the statue made her feel calmer. "I am your Nagini, lend me your protection, for I have to defend the school from evil, I have to defend all your children..."
'May my prayer be heard,' she thought and kissed the statue… She thought back on the night they had first walked this dungeon, it seemed like such a long time ago, like such a different time. She had been really skeptical towards Slytherin until they had sung the song 'Slither home young Nagini,' it taught students to navigate the dungeons and talked about protective guardians like Old Mucalinda who were watching over them. They had later arrived and she had seen the common room for the first time, to her, it had seemed rather cozy. And Angelica had told them about Slytherin, painting a completely new picture of him as a very protective person who cared for the students deeply, the whole reason their common room were located in the dungeons was that it was a lot safer, if Hogwarts would burn in a siege, then they would be safe in the dungeons, it even had windows… windows one could escape from the school via during an emergency… She rushed like a mad man back towards the common room as the realization hit her like a hammer, how could she have been so stupid!
"Fumarase!" she almost screamed at the wall. It opened for her slowly, she pressed herself through the opening, flew through the room and slammed into the windows to the Great Lake, it was glowing faintly of green.
"Please let me escape the school! I have to save the school, the students and the teachers! Please open!" She was praying for it to work. "Please Great Salazar, let me pass through, the teachers are under control, please tear down any restriction they may have put on your will to help me, your young Nagini. Please Great Salazar, and Great Mucalinda, I'm a true Slytherin, please let me save the school!" Every word she had said felt true to her and then a force grabbed hold of her!
The window liquefied and she was flung out into the lake, with a bubble around her, she saw the window become solid behind her again.
Adrenalin filled her body as she was sent across, she prayed for the bubble to be fast and just as she thought about it, it transformed into the shape of a snake that in incredible speed began slithering through the lake. She laid on the floor of the bubble, it felt a bit rubbery, it wasn't wet. With force she was spat out of the water and landed on a beach a minute later.
She knew exactly where she was, it was where she and Hagrid had stayed to eat and talk during her detention. The sun was on its way down behind the horizon and fresh cold spring winds flowed around her, it was so insanely refreshing to feel it after having spent such a long time inside. But she had no time to relax, the teachers in the castle could at any time find out about her No-Nag and that might mean… she didn't even want to think about it.
She ran into the forest and picked the meat up from her bag and lay it in a pile under a tree. Hopefully a Thestral would arrive soon, she would go to London on it and… but that would take hours, she didn't have hours, she possibly only had minutes! She swallowed hard, would she actually have to face off against Arapyzzodion herself? Hogsmeade were not that far away, but it was probably filled with lackeys of the Boy, she knew he had a team of people checking any in and outgoing mail, they might see and catch her if she would fly out of Hogwarts grounds… She tried to think quickly but saw no other alternatives then… to do it herself.
But one would have to be invisible to even approach Arapyzzodion… unless… If Arapyzzodion flees at a single glance of a creature, that must mean the creature it sees must be of a certain size, if it fled for every insect it would never have a moment to stop, and even a magical creature like Arapyzzodion must run out of stamina at some point… So if she turned ant-sized, perhaps she could approach it like that… and try to make something happen from there. She sighed, it was worth a shot, as insane as it sounded.
She figured she could climb up on a branch, become small and jump down on a Thestral as it ate from the pile of meat. She took a deep breath and began climbing, but she heard something behind her. She screamed and fell to the ground, petrified by fear. What must be a Thestral was already eating the meat. She tried to slowly pull herself up, shaking with fear, trying to calm her breathing.
It had stopped eating, where was it, she would die now! It licked her face!
A short scream escaped her and then she began crying a little, of relief. It was not mad. She took a deep breath and carefully stroked its head.
"Would you… allow me the honor… to travel on your back?" She said carefully, still breathing heavily. She felt the Thestral brush past her with its big wing and she felt the back of its body against her.
"Rimmturr? Is it you?" Rimmturr did what sounded like stomping his hooves happily and shrieked.
She exhaled, she felt a lot calmer now. "It's nice to meet the real you."
Rimmturr lowered himself down and Nova carefully grabbed the wing of the other side and pulled herself up on Rimmturr.
"Okay Rimmturr, I'm in a real hurry here, I need you to take me to the tree with thirteen eyes, it smells of rotten meat, it's very foul and I'm going to destroy it!" Nova said. "I don't know how much of my speaking you understand, but I hope it's a lot, because this is very important."
She grabbed her shrinking solution. "I'm going to become as small as an ant and at that point you will probably not be able to hear me anymore. But I will still be on your back, you will just have to give me some time so I can tie your hair around me, otherwise I will be thrown off by your speed. So what I want you to do is this." She spoke loud and clear. "Two minutes after I disappear, I want you to track the tree and when you find it; hold your head close to the middle of the tree top so I can climb over to it! Understand? Good, you're the best."
She had no idea if he understood, but he had to! She took another deep breath and drank from her Shrinking Solution. She popped into her ant-state and fell down, she knew at some point she would hit Rimmturr's back, she had to be ready for the impact; but it was hard to be ready when you could not see the surface you were going to land on. She slammed into the horse, luckily it was rather soft. Her readiness had not done a lot; her head had still bopped into the horseback.
She felt a little disoriented as she got up and tried to remember what was forward on the horse, she ran across its back and felt the spine. She ran on the spine and simply hoped for it to be the right way. It was such a long way to run when you were ant sized. She waved her hands in front of her and finally they met with the horse mane.
She felt a lot of relief wash over her and she began climbing up the neck, she still had about a minute before liftoff. When there was about twenty seconds left she grabbed strands of hair and tied them around herself as big ropes. She was so stressed out, but she had to be as effective as possible, any lost time could cost her friends their lives!
Just as she had finished the knot, she was rocketed away in breakneck speed, the hair around her stomach still held but she was folded together, her face against her legs. A deafening storm of wind pressed her together and she desperately gasped for air, she might have to cut the hair holding her!
'DON'T YOU DARE!' she thought. She felt like puking and then it stopped. She gasped for breath desperately and was hit by overwhelmingly foul smelling air, the smell of blood, the smell of rot and the smell of something twisted. She puked over her side, it was just too much to bear, and then she looked around herself... It was towering above her, a gargantuan tree with huge disgusting slimy eyes that constantly spun about inside their eye sockets, keeping watch in all directions, the eyes sat in clusters where the branches began sprouting out into the tree's crown, some of them sat on branches as well. Each of the multitude of eyes were sickly yellow with small black pupils surrounded by irises that had an irritated red color. The tree had what first looked like black knotty bark but she quickly discovered it wasn't bark at all, it looked like dark flesh without skin and small streams of blood were flowing through the knotty landscape down its stem.
What an insane creation she was looking at… she felt her body shake both from fear and from the revolting foul air, it was so disgusting. But she had to go on, she untied herself and began running up Rimmturr's neck; he had placed himself nicely in the air so she could jump over to its stem close to the crown of the tree. Arapyzzodion wasn't as tall as the other trees around it, probably only about twelve to fifteen feet. She would never badmouth a Thestral again, they were amazing animals that could aid her like this and she thanked Rimmturr even if he could not hear her in her current size. She finally arrived and jumped over to the tree, landing on a sticky surface with a splash.
Nova coughed, the smell got even worse there, she had to find a good spot to become big at, she saw a branch close by, it was next to a cluster of eyes, she was going to try and climb over there but the stickiness made it almost impossible to move. It seemed she would have to become big right there, she would just have to try and grab on to Arapyzzodion as quickly as possible and then… then it was up to fate if she would be enough to take it down…
She felt a strong sudden pull to her left and then it was over. 'What the…' Nova thought, but then she understood. Arapyzzodion had seen some animal and moved. 'Yes! It takes me with it!' she thought. The strong pull she had felt probably meant the tree actually moved really quickly somehow rather than teleporting, it probably had some sort of magical field it must encase itself in that allowed it to move like that, or that kind of speed should break its branches and Nova's neck.
'Okay, time to do this…' she thought. She focused and tried to enter a calmer state of mind, grabbed her antidote, uncorked it, and held the bottle with her mouth. Then she made herself ready to grab on to the tree as she got large… This was it, her heart was racing like crazy, she thought about Nell and Meg, she had to do it now!
'Time to die, fucking coward!' she thought, trying to bolster herself. She pulled her head back so the antidote entered her mouth.
She became big and instantly slapped her arms and legs around the stem. Forces of movement began pulling her left and right almost immediately, then back and forth, over and over again without rest. She had to strengthen her whole body and neck to keep herself in place, it was quickly draining her stamina to stay where she was. She looked towards the closest eye, it was looking at her while furiously rolling in its eye socket. The scenery around her changed each second as she was carried away by Arapyzzodion. She gritted her teeth and managed to throw her right leg over the branch that was close to the cluster of eyes, and she pull herself into a better position where she had some support under her. Then she pulled a bottle of Dragon Salt up, she held it with some trouble in her right hand, almost making her fall off the tree as it moved and she uncorked the bottle.
She would have to time it just after it had moved! She made a big sweeping movement and!
"FUCK!" she screamed as the pink Dragon Salt flew into the air but just before it hit its target, the tree had moved again… she had one more try, she pulled up her second bottle of Dragon Salt and uncorked it. The timing was going to have to be tighter, she would have to time it with a movement to the right from the tree; then the force from the movement of the tree would help propel the Dragon Salt quicker into its eye.
She felt each movement Arapyzzodion did, it was completely panic-stricken. Her neck had begun to hurt from all the sudden changes in direction. 'Concentrate!' she had to be purely reactive to pull it off. Left, Back, Left, Right, Left, Right, Forward… It was so much harder then she thought… She tried to notice a pattern in its movements, Left, Back, Left, Right, Left, and she threw it just as it moved to the Right again!
A dark overwhelmingly loud scream sounded through the entire area, it was so full of pain and fear, it sounded like the scream came from the very earth and Nova could feel the vibrations pass through her. The sudden movements had stopped and the branches were twitching and had begun to move! She saw she had managed to hit the eye with the Dragon Salt; it was rolling around and the slimy surface of the eye had corroded, creating several small holes from where streams of yellow liquid were gushing out of.
It was time to set fire to this fucking thing! Nova was going to pull out her wand but something hit her hard in her back and knocked the breath out of her. She looked towards her other side and saw a big branch that was pulling away from her again; it had one of the eyes placed on it. Then another branch smashed into her from the right, she almost fell off the tree, she felt something rip into her shoulder and she gave a cry of pain.
She pulled her wand out just as the branch on her left came back to hit her again, she lashed out towards it in rage as the branch propelled towards her and stabbed it in the eye with the wand! Another hellish scream elapsed from the tree and the branch recoiled in immense pain, she could feel its entire being just bulge with panic, she even felt something moving under the surface of the so called 'bark'.
Nova's wand had made a good wound into the eye, it was lucky her wand was so thick and sturdy. A stream of yellow liquid shot out from where she had pierced the eye and she saw her wand was covered in that crap as well. But she had no time to waste!
"INCENDIO!" she screamed on top of her lungs and aimed at the eye she had pierced just before the next branch would hit her. Her little fireball shot out and… it hit! The dark forest was lit up as the stream of liquid took fire and burned into the eye and then the entire eye exploded in flames! Nova was about to scream in triumph but she got smashed from the side and in her excitement she had lost her good grip and was knocked off the tree, she fell into a few branches on her way down and then slammed into the ground, losing her breath.
The ground was vibrating with the terrible scream of the tree as its branch was burning.
"You're fucked!" she said, trying to catch her breath, holding her stomach. It hurt really badly and the insanely disgusting smell didn't help. She saw her wand lying a few feet from the tree, everything except the handle was burning… 'Oh shit!' she thought. The screaming was about to reach a crescendo, Nova could see how the bark of the tree was bulging about violently and then it sounded like a hundred water hoses was turned on, but instead of water, blood sprayed out from small pours in the tree, covering the entire area in a cloud of blood that began slowly falling to the ground.
It was trying to put the fire out! And… maybe it would try to take control over her! She had to make sure to not inhale the blood, she took a deep breath and sprinted towards her wand! But the roots of the tree suddenly lashed up against her as she got closer, she jumped backwards just before it hit her. The rain of blood reached her now, she kept her head down and ran for her burning wand, jumped and rolled as the roots lashed towards her again and barely managed to avoid them, picking up her wand in the momentum of the roll. When she got up on her feet from the roll she continued to run out of the area with the rain.
She tried to put out the fire on her wand, throwing her bag over it, but it just wouldn't go out… "SHIT!" In fact, the wand seemed to be malfunctioning, a stream of fire was shooting out from the tip, causing it to spin around on the ground, the fire hit her legs quickly, luckily it wasn't enough to set her on fire. She picked up the wand with the stream of fire still flowing from it. She looked behind her towards the tree, her heart was pumping like crazy, she had never felt such adrenalin fill her body. She saw the burning branch was about to have its fire put out by the rain of blood, she took a deep breath and looked at her burning wand, she had to do this now, even if her wand would go down in the fight, even if it was malfunctioning.
She ran into the rain of blood again in order to get into range for another spell, she held her head down so the blood wouldn't cover her sight. She got closer to the stem and its lashing roots, the scream echoed through the forest, she looked at her wand, it felt strangely powerful and she thought about Nell, Meg and her beloved mother, this was it!
She used her momentum and jumped just as she screamed; "DUCO!" and the spell propelled her up in the air a lot further then she would've thought, she got very close to the crown, some of the blood sprayed her face but she aimed her wand towards a group of branches where three eyes sat close together, "INCENDIO!"
She felt a major recoil as a red flash bolted out of her wand and the branch that took the full impact from the fireball was blown clean off, she felt the shockwave from the explosion and burning liquid was thrown all over the place, some of it hit her right lower leg and then she continued in her momentum, she slammed into the tree stem and fell down again. She landed, expelling a tormented grunt at the same time the branch hit the ground with a load thud and then the two other eyes that had sat next to it exploded in flames, more burning liquid were thrown all over the place, setting fire to the leaves of the tree and to the ground around her, she just managed to barely roll away from some of it. The screaming got deafeningly loud, she felt the roots under her move, she could not believe how she had managed to do such a powerful spell, but she had no time to spare, she pushed herself up a lot slower then she had expected, her body was drained and hurt and she had begun feeling dizzy. She gave a short scream, she had gotten blood into her mouth and began spitting furiously, holding her head down.
She felt something strange twitch inside her, she could feel the overwhelming pain Arapyzzodion was feeling, the complete panic. She suddenly felt like she wanted to help it, like she wanted to protect it! But she also wanted to puke and her leg was burning, she had to put the fire out! She felt the blood pour down her neck and face from the blood rain. That disgusting smell she hated so much was overwhelming her senses, the taste of it in her mouth, she could not stand it! It was completely revolting! With fury burning inside her she turned her head up to look at Arapyzzodion. The Madness was trying to control her, but it was weakened, and she was still able to force her body to move, but her problems were far from over…
She heard cracking sounds as roots were getting pulled out of the ground, she jumped away from the roots system but her right leg had lost a lot of strength so she didn't get too far away from it, she began desperately dragging her leg against the ground and she dropped her want in order to dig up dirt and throw over her burning leg. Meanwhile Arapyzzodion began falling over to the side, for one moment she thought she had defeated it but when the branches reached the ground it supported itself as if it's branches were legs, and the roots at the other end propelled it up in the air and underneath its stem Nova could see what the source of the screaming was; there was a round mouth covered with teeth on all sides, and around the mouth were all the roots that lashed about like huge tentacles. It was such a terrifying sight she just stared at it for a moment in shock, then a root grabbed hold of her ankle and pulled her down towards the mouth, she screamed in panic, clawing after her wand but to no avail. She could feel wind blow about her from the screaming mouth that got closer, the fear got her body go rigid, she was going to die!
She saw the face of her wonderful mother in front of her and tears streamed down her face, they were never going to meet again…
"HELL NO!" she screamed! With pure willpower she forced her body to move, she pushed up against the sides of the mouth, feeling teeth pierce her shoes and she screamed in pain! The roots was about to surround her and push her inside. Quicker than she ever thought it possible for her to move she pulled the shrinking solution, opened it and threw the entire flask into its gaping hole.
The tree got smaller… but not by that much; it must be resistant, it might still be able to eat her! She screamed, and fought against the roots, she could not get away from them! The foliage was burning, it had become a major fire at this point, and she heard more explosions, if she could only hold out! She grabbed on to the roots and fought furiously to break them, releasing her inner animal rage with a scream… but it was way too sturdy for her to break, however, she noticed the roots had lost a lot of strength and the screaming from the tree had decreased in volume. She crawled away from the roots and grabbed her wand, that wand had almost stopped burning, the wand was burnt black and she aimed into the mouth of the creature.
"INCENDIO!" The wand just puffed out smoke... but the fire she had already caused was spreading on its own. Eye after eye took fire and exploded in big bright flames and threw more burning liquid all around itself, Arapyzzodion had gone completely limp.
Nova stood up and limped away from the abomination on her hurting feet and burning leg… when she was outside its range she fell down from pure exhaustion and began digging up more dirt and managed to put out the fire on her leg and wand. It lay dead before her, all she heard was the crackling fire. She put the piece of coal that had once been her wand into her wand protector. She had done it… she had actually done it… she began giggling even though she were becoming aware of the extreme pain that was coursing through her body and especially in her right leg. She felt completely spent, she wanted to sleep… but then she heard something move…
She looked behind her and saw several giant spiders were looking at her with their big black eyes glowing in the red flames.
"Noo…" horror filled her heart again, she was going to die after all… She stood up on her knees weakly, there was no fight left in her, she just reached up with her right arm as some measly form of protection, she heard them hiss, one spider slowly walked closer to her and then something cut deep into the flesh of her arm with a powerful pull, it hurt like crazy! She screamed in pain and death agony filled her… wind was blowing all around her… wind? She opened her eyes, she was flying!
"RIMMTURR!" she screamed, crying of happiness. Her arm was in his mouth she assumed and the pain was insane, it felt like her arm would be cut clean off at any moment but then they landed at Hagrid's hut and Rimmturr released her. Rimmturr stomped with his hooves against Hagrid's door as Nova looked at the deep cuts into her arm, she grabbed her last potion, the Blood Replenisher and drank the entire thing.
"Rimmturr, Hagrid is in the castle…" she said with slurred speech. She was completely exhausted and just lay on the ground, watching the dark clouds, feeling the fresh air against her cheek. But Hagrid wasn't in the castle; she saw him running towards her in her periphery vision. He lifted her up and began crying.
#
Nova slowly opened her eyes, the room was lit by candles and it was dark outside. The first thing she saw was Professor McGonagall's face with a warm loving smile. Then she saw Hagrid, sitting on her left taking up most of the space on that side and on her right was Nell, Meg… and her mother.
When she saw her mother's face her tears just came welling out. All the stress she had felt the entire year, all the pressure and the insanity she had just been through. It all came welling out as Gabrielle hugged her deeply. Nell and Meg began crying as well and Hagrid cried loudest of them all, it was almost comical and it made Nova laugh unwillingly, she smiled at him.
"OOOHOHOH NOOOOVA!" he cried.
Nova just realized. "Are everybody fine!? Where are we?" she said and felt a huge sting of pain just above her right elbow.
"Nobody died…" Professor McGonagall said, wiping tears away. "Thanks to you, as I understand it. We're in St. Mungo's hospital."
"And thanks to Nell, Meg and Hagrid…" Nova said. Gabrielle released her a little and stroked her wet cheek. Nova had gotten new robes and had been cleaned up, her right arm was resting against her stomach in a shoulder sling, it was heavily bandaged and it felt like her feet and right leg were bandaged as well.
"I can't believe… what has happened…" Gabrielle cried. "This is unreal…"
Nova just felt happy, it was over… she felt a lot calmer than the others seemed to be. She just kissed her mom.
"I love you mom, so much… it's been so hard to go through all this, but… it's over now… I assume?"
"All of us, the teachers… felt a terrible scream inside us and then complete panic, and then we lost the connection to… Arapyzzodion…" Professor McGonagall said. "When it was obvious we were back to normal, Ms. Harris and Ms. Carrow told us about what had happened, we figured we should rush into the forest to aid whoever had handled the monster, Hagrid was the first to rush out and then he saw you laying by his hut. Luckily we got to you before any of the trolls patrolling the grounds… It has been a few hours now, Hogwarts has been evacuated and Harry Potter and his team has entered the school and are trying to reach the person that is behind all of this as we speak, but during this year… I have let a lot of people into the school during the nights and I think they have set up a lot of additional defenses on the way there, more defenses than those I put up myself..."
"Oh, she's awake?" Madam Pomfrey said and walked over to them together with a St. Mungo's nurse. "You need your rest! You will all have to leave, say good bye to her for now, you'll get the chance to talk later."
"Thank yeh," Hagrid said. "This year has bin absolutely terrible…" Nova got his huge bushy beard all over her as he hugged her, it hurt her arm, but it was worth it.
"You have been very brave," Professor McGonagall said with a proud look at her. "Perhaps you should've been a Gryffindor."
It was probably just meant as a complement, but Nova felt a little insulted by her comment, as if Slytherins couldn't save people.
"Professor McGonagall..." Nova said. "I don't want anyone to know it was me… the enemy is still out there, he had lackeys…" It was way more important to stay safe then any glory her actions could bring.
Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow at her. "As you wish, we won't tell anyone… only those inside this room knows right now except for Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley."
"Did anyone notice my No-Nag?" Nova looked at Meg and Nell.
"No," Meg said with a smile. "The confusion was so great when the teachers began running about and then everyone was ordered to exit the school… I don't think anyone noticed…"
So it would seem like she had been in the Great Hall with everyone else then… good.
"Hurry up, she needs to rest," Madam Pomfrey said.
"I love you guys," Nova said to Nell and Meg, trying not to cry, they hugged her deeply. The three of them had been through such an ordeal. Nell and Meg had been essential in figuring out what the creature had been and without their friendship, Nova would have gotten nowhere. There had been a lot of luck, but in the end, they had made it...
"Hey, stop ruining my makeup," Meg said and wiped her tears.
Nell laughed and kissed Nova. "I was so worried, I… couldn't handle the pressure."
"Yes you could," Meg said. "You just needed help, we all need help."
"We all need to cover each other's weak spots," Professor McGonagall said with a big smile. "Come here now, let's go."
Everyone but Gabrielle left. Nova looked at her mother and the tears began pouring out again.
"Can you sleep here tonight?"
Gabrielle wiped Nova's cheeks. "Of course… let's see if I can do this…"
She pulled up her wand and thought for a while, then swished it. Nova's bed increased in width, but also in length.
"Whoops," Gabrielle said and both began laughing. "Oh well, someone else can fix the length later."
Gabrielle covered their area of the hospital with drapes and lay down beside Nova. Nova had to struggle to get into a good position with her arm so her mother could hold her without it hurting too much, but when she finally found it, she could relax.
"You are something else…" Gabrielle said in a higher pitch than usual. "I don't know what to do with myself; I weren't there for you for the whole time you were under this immense pressure…"
"You were there mom… I read your letters over and over again, they helped me pull through..."
"…Oh honey…"