B4 U READ THIS CHAPTER - I have included some elements from the Order of
the Phoenix in this chapter so if u haven't read it yet, u may want to
leave this chapter out. I don't give away so much, I just use, as I said
some elements from it, a new discovery of Harry's of the Wizarding World.
Sorry about this chapter taking so long to write, but it was the hardest
one to think of. *sighs* Not that many people read my stories anyway.
Again thank you to dragonsprincess and CNJ for their support and hope that
this work did not go to waste - TA!
ENJOY! Your truly Alexei James.
Defeat of the Serpent
"Harry! Harry!" an indigo robed wizard bent down over Harry Potter was slapping him across the face.
Harry opened his eyes and heaved himself up. His scar was stinging and his head was thumping with a headache.
Cho was stood with her back to him, with suppressed sobs.
"Cho?" he said groggily.
She turned and ran towards him, and embraced him, weeping into his robes.
"Cho, honey, it's okay," Harry said, with his arms around his wife.
He had noticed that there were six wizards in indigo robes; Hermione, Amy and Martine had also been brought back to life and were leaning against the stone walls, looking apparently very exhausted.
These six wizards were the remainder of the entire party that had gone out to the expedition. They were the Aurors who took the alternative route to Dr Crabbe and the others. But there seemed to be less people.
"How come there are only six of you?" Harry piped up.
The Ministry Aurors were scattered around the stone chamber and were all looking around, as if on tenterhooks. There was an enormous hole in the centre of the room, and it was smoking slightly. There was an eerie silence throughout the tunnels which allowed Harry to hear his own thumping heartbeat.
The nearest one, Michel, a French Auror who was the one trying to rouse Harry answered, "The route that we took was a dead end - or so we thought. The trick was to smear blood in a Pentagram shape on the wall and a vortex would open up to this room. However, when the married couple, Fairuza and Nicko Portacollis saw what they had let themselves in for, they Disapparated."
"Wait a minute," Harry said, suddenly remembering everything that had happened - Zabini.... The snakes.... Malfoy...Crabbe was dead...and the Kraken.
"Zabini!" Harry yelled so suddenly that Cho jerked backwards, "Where is he? And the Kraken! Did he kill it? Or did it go with him?"
A witch with bright orange curly hair who was standing on the other side of the room answered, "When we arrived there was a colossal hole which led down to a great pit, right into the seas. There was no one in here except Hermione Weasley, Amy Wexlar, Martine and Cho. For some reason they were frozen as statues, care to explain that Mr Potter?" she pointed her wand at him from across the room.
Harry gave Cho a meaningful look and stuttered, "I conjured up snakes to consume the Dark Wizards who were working for Zabini."
"And you say that you brought forth the legendary Kraken?" A square-jawed wizard from Harry's left called, nearing him. Leaning over him he whispered through gritted teeth, "Do you realise the seriousness of what you have done? The Kraken will not stop at the Tunnels of Sousoll - it will go forth and destroy all in its path!"
Harry suddenly got up and seized the square-jawed wizard by his robes, aware of his thumping headache more than ever now. Cho grabbed him by the shoulder to hold him back.
"Don't you dare blame me for trying to fight a Dark Wizard with the only power I could muster," he shook Cho's arm off irritably and then continued, "In these situations you have to fight fire with fire. I'm not going to go soft on Zabini. YOU can, but I don't want to see the rest of us fall before another Dark Wizard."
The square-jawed wizard released himself from Harry's grip irritably.
"Well if you get the chance to quell Zabini, remember to kill him and not just to let him go like you did with You-Know-Who," he snarled maliciously.
Harry looked as if he would have charged at the wizard and started fighting but before both of them had known what happened, there was a flash of purple light from across the chamber, which hit Harry and the square-jawed wizard.
The witch with luridly orange curly hair walked over to the two of them as their arms snapped to their sides, their legs clashed into one another and their jaws snapped shut - she had performed the Full Body Bind on them.
"Hmm, tut tut," she muttered looking at the two, "One's an Auror for the Ministry and the other is a School Governor of Hogwarts and bank manager at Gringotts. Fully grown men, both of whom are part of the Dark Arts Defence League and yet they bicker like schoolboys."
She bent down and sighed, Cho looking horrified. Hermione came over and performed the counter-curse.
"Ouch," Harry said, coming round, "I had a severe headache already and then I fall on my head..."
The curly haired witch sighed, "Well then remember that next you're in a room with Lacuna Coil, never to fight, okay?"
Harry scowled at her, nodding. The square-jawed wizard just glared at her angrily.
"You too, Hester," she said forcefully.
"You can't tell me what to do," he snarled.
Lacuna merely smiled at him condescendingly and suddenly her face exploded with scorpion tails, bulging black eyeballs and she roared in an unearthly way.
Hester's eyes widened and he let out a little yelp.
Lacuna got up, her face was back to normal now but she said, shaking her orange hair, "Remember not to mess with an Auror that also happens to be a Metamorphmagus."
Harry, still sat on the cold stone floor could see that Lacuna's hair was now raven-black, but beyond the black of his hair - it was almost an unnatural darkness.
Cho hauled Harry to his feet and muttered, "You should rest, your scar was bleeding earlier."
He looked at her with a meaningful expression but just looked to the ground.
"No they need me, we can all take on Zabini," he said in a low voice, "that is, if the Kraken didn't kill him already."
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Hours passed, but there was no sign of Zabini or the Kraken.
"It must have killed him off," Michel concluded looking at the rest of them hopelessly.
"Shall we all pack up and go home then?" Bruma Plat, a thin-lipped, aged witch queried.
But Lacuna was looking pensive, with her hair now being silvery and down to her waist - it was unusually stiff and flat looking, as if it was made of layers of shiny metal rather than hair.
"No, NO!" she yelled so suddenly that Bruma's wrinkly face seemed to spread out as she stared at Lacuna with disapproval.
"What now?" Hester asked tetchily.
She threw him a scowl, which made him flinch and gaze suddenly at the floor.
"We can't be sure whether Zabini is gone or not," she said, gaping thoughtfully at the high stone ceiling.
There was a murmur of agreement from the Ministry Aurors, Hermione and Cho.
"However," she said, licking her lips with relish, "there IS a way to find out what happened to the Kraken.... Mr Potter here," she indicated Harry, "can evoke the ancient creature, that is if he CAN. I'm sure it's perfectly impossible. Even Isis herself would not be able to do it in her early days when she was of the calibre of most highly skilled wizards of today."
"I DID evoke it!" Harry said, shaking slightly. His head seemed to be being hit on the head every few seconds with a large iron hammer, and his scar stung faintly.
"Oh really?" Bruma said, rounding on him and staring at him with her thin lips and ancient face, "Care to tell us HOW you did it then, Mr Potter? Because you see, the Kraken has not been evoked for millennia."
Harry let out a deep sigh.
"I'm not sure how I did it exactly -."
"AHA!" Hester cut in rudely, "he does not know! He is clearly lying!"
There was a vein throbbing at his temple, and he was seething with rage.
"I HAVEN'T FINISHED!" Harry yelled. Michel eyed him worriedly, Lacuna stared at him as if he was the basis of some deep reverie she was experiencing and Cho sat down on the stone floor, blatantly exasperated.
"Well do carry on then," Michel said, beaming politely.
"Right, well...." Harry seemed to have to lost his train of thought. He was wishing he could run Hester down with a large train... the Hogwarts Express maybe.
"As I was saying - I'm not EXACTLY sure how I evoked the Kraken, but I knew that I was so angry at Zabini as the snakes I had conjured up didn't affect him in the slightest," Hester made an impatient cough - obviously he was going to comment on Harry's use of snakes in fighting a Dark Wizard especially when snakes are used in the worst kinds of Dark Magick.
"And I felt this rage rising up inside of me, then I rose off the ground and yelled some kind of incantation -."
"Can you remember what it was?" Bruma snapped impatiently.
Harry frowned in concentration, "Um, no. It wasn't wand magic, so I'm not sure how it worked. The spell was in Parseltongue so I can't say it now, I need to be face to face with a snake to say it."
But some of the Aurors were looking thunderstruck, Harry had half expected this - it was common knowledge that Parselmouths like himself were looked upon with disgust.
"You did what?" Bruma asked in a breathless whisper that was barely audible.
"I - I uttered a Parseltongue incantation - why?" Harry said, flummoxed.
There was a sharp intake of breath, which Hermione broke, "Harry.... Magic in Parseltongue is one of the most deadly and powerful forms magick there is. You can perform such extreme spells that would be impossible with spoken wand magic."
A harsh silence followed this revelation. Obviously not all of the Aurors had known that much about Parseltongue Magick by the way they were eyeing Hermione.
"Well I say, you evoke the Kraken, Mr Potter," Lacuna said with utmost enthusiasm in her voice.
"You can't be serious!" Cho yelled abruptly, getting to her feet, "Do you know how heinous a creature it is? It's of a great magnitude, it would swallow us all up!"
"What are you talking about?" Martine roared, "There is no evidence that Potter here can conjure up a dragon!"
"It's not a dragon, we're talking about the Kraken, the ancient sea serpent -."
" - I don't care if it's an overgrown Basilisk, it's not being awoken!"
" - What do you mean CONJURE? You can't just make something as large as that appear suddenly!"
The bickering between the Aurors continued.
Hermione walked slowly towards Harry, amongst the arguing Aurors. She took his hands in hers and spoke in a faint, pleading voice that was of the school girl Harry had grown up with in Gryffindor Tower at Hogwarts, "Harry, I believe you. Remember what Luna Lovegood said before she killed herself? 'The truest magic is that which is inside your heart, not from the core of your wand'. She would have liked to see you bring justice to the world."
Harry, still with his hands clutched in Hermione's grip, felt a smile forming on his face and laughed, "She always did come up with all sorts of codswallop that girl!"
Hermione hugged Harry tightly, laughing.
And as she let him go, Harry closed his eyes - concentrating hard and holding his hands at his sides he felt himself rising up off the stone floor again.
The Ministry Aurors had stopped squabbling at the sight of him.
"I say!" Bruma gasped with an unmistakably impressed tone.
"Dear Lord..." Hester trailed off, his wand falling from his hand with a clatter.
Lacuna could not decide whether to keep her mouth open or shut, resulting in the impression that she was imitating a goldfish.
Harry was now at least five feet off the ground; he opened his eyes and looked down at them all. The pain in his scar and his head had numbed and he felt that same surge of power he did when he brought forth all those snakes.
Then he felt it, rising 15 feet above the ground now, he felt the serpent inside himself. He could hear its voice, its feelings, its wishes, its instincts and also seething, searing, serpentine anger. He could feel the red, it rose inside his chest and was at boiling point.
His breath was now harsh, slow and sharp. His heart was thumping so fast and furiously that it felt as if a fist was pounding into a hand under his chest.
With his animal instincts kicking in, he bared his teeth and with a final deep breath roared with a hiss, "EXPERGO KRAKEN!"
And then it happened - a deep rumbling from below the surface sounded throughout the tunnels. The Ministry Aurors all looked around in panic and Hester fell to the floor.
Bruma was paralyzed with horror, Michel seemed to be as well but Lacuna was backing away slowly.
Bits of rock fell from the top of the tunnels, the earth was shaking violently now.
Then suddenly a great explosion seemed to have taken place from the far end of the chamber, and out rose the Kraken - with its gleaming green scales as large as dinner plates tightly tessellated across its vast slimy body, it rose from the depths of the Irish Sea beneath them resembling a resurrected wreck. Its extensive fangs the size of lampposts glistened maliciously as it let out an ear piercing hiss.
Its deafening roars shook the walls of the Tunnels of Sousoll. Harry was sure the tunnels would collapse and cave in if the Kraken kept up its vulgar displays of power.
The Aurors were looking at the beast with utter terror, some looking over at Harry whose eyes were now glowing bright green.
Harry began hissing instructions at the Kraken who was beginning to look at the Aurors hungrily.
The Kraken understood Harry and began to look around for signs of Zabini, its enormous forked tongue as big as a lorry flicking in and out.
However, as it turned to look in the darker parts of the tunnels, it abruptly turned and faced Harry.
Harry motioned it to go and look, but there seemed to be a sense of rebellion within the beast that caused it to lunge at him suddenly.
Cho screamed as Harry pulled out of the Kraken's way quickly.
He did not understand what was going on - surely Hester was not serious about the Kraken being a reckless, untameable creature.
The Kraken made fresh attempts to attack Harry, and so Harry, knowing that it was too risky to keep everyone safe, turned all the Aurors and Cho to stone with a click of his fingers.
This did not make any sense - the Kraken was obeying him fully when he evoked it before. No serpent disobeyed a Parselmouth, even enormous, ancient sea serpents who had been asleep for thousands of years.
Harry was getting tired now of trying to evade the Kraken's lunges. It was lucky that the beast was so large because it took a while for it to get back up and try to attack Harry again.
Then it hit him - he HAD lost his authority over the Kraken, but not because it had some antediluvian instinct to kill, but because it was under someone else's control. And Harry a pretty clear idea who was controlling it - Who else had such Dark powers as have not been seen since the Dark Wizard Voldemort or Grindelwald? Who had absorbed such Dark Magicks as darkness from the Lake of Fire and the Spells of Isis?
Of course Harry had no idea where Zabini WAS. He was nowhere in sight, so the only other options were that he was either invisible or he was inside the Kraken.
But Harry couldn't keep flying like this - he felt himself weakening.,,,,,,,
He prepared himself for another dead faint, which would result in his inevitable death....
.....But then a tiny voice in his head spoke 'Don't give up now!'
Harry jolted awake and was surprised to find himself on the ground.
"What?" he asked, shocked.
'Get up off the floor, and show that snake what you're made of! Don't give up now!'
The voice was shouting so loudly at Harry, he ran out of the way just in time as the Kraken slammed its tail down at him.
'Come on! Fly like you did before, FLY!'
"I can't!" Harry cried but as he did, felt his shoulders hunching and the skin on his shoulder blades breaking.
He let out a gasp as two magnificent bat-like wings grew out of his back, unfurling quickly.
Harry had no idea how to use these, but he did not need to, as they flapped of their own accord and pulled him out of the way of the Kraken's elephantine tail as it smashed its way through some stalactites and stalagmites.
But Harry couldn't continue to fly about aimlessly evading the Kraken, what he wanted..... What he really NEEDED was some sort of weapon.
And as if his prayers had been answered, two gleaming gold bladed swords hovered before him. With their thin gold blades and sapphire hilts, they outshone the Kraken's gleaming yellow eyes. They were so long; they could have sliced a man in half with one blow.
The Kraken seemed to be under the Impediment Jinx, because its tail was twenty feet from hitting Harry but appearing to be in slow motion.
'Take them,' the voice whispered in a girlish whisper.
"What are they? And who are you?" Harry asked, utterly perplexed.
'Oh never mind that now - use these to kill the Kraken. They are the Katana of Schwarzewald, ram them into the Kraken's throat and it will die.'
"You want me to KILL the Kraken?" Harry enquired; he didn't know why he was concerned about the Kraken's wellbeing, seeing as it had attempted to kill him so many times but still felt it shameful to slaughter a creature so ancient and magical.
'Oh don't worry, the Kraken doesn't stay dead for long! No - it will melt and soon enough when all its body parts will have reconnected and become whole it will live again. Remember the Kraken is immortal, so there is no way it can DIE. But Blaise is controlling it and I have not seen Dark Magick this powerful since Grindelwald.'
Harry was not sure this voice was real, it sounded so confusing and far- fetched that he almost decided that he was becoming Schizophrenic.
However, he noticed that the Kraken's tail had stopped dead, now less than ten feet away from him.
'Well you ready?' the voice asked. It was strangely booming and masculine now, which reinforced his idea that he was imagining the voice.
Nevertheless he looked down at the Katana in his hand, six feet in length, he was not sure he could hold them without dropping them -
'Don't worry about their weight, seeing as you're human," the voice added, now sounding aged like some sort of old woman, with an air of derision, 'I made them feather-light.'
Right, Harry thought, I was clearly knocked silly by the fall and now I'm dreaming that there's a small voice in my head who's given me wings, weapons and a way to kill an ancient and magical sea serpent. I just hope I wake up in time to tell Cho this dream she'll laugh so m -
' - Would you listen!?' the voice cut in, 'Remember the THROAT of the Kraken, do not go for its eyes, its mouth or its belly. Not because it will kill it - it CAN'T die; because it will be in so much pain that it might smash the Tunnels to rubble....'
Shut up, Harry thought, Please just shut up and stop going on like some sort of senile old bat.
'Senile am I?' the voice, now booming and masculine again asked, 'Well if this was a dream, would this happen -.'
And suddenly, the Kraken's tail aimed for Harry with a deafening plunge. The wings, however, had heaved him out of the way just in time, although one of the wings merely brushed its tail.
Harry noticed the swords in his hand and decided that the only way he was going to either wake up from this dream or beat Zabini was to quell the Kraken.
And as the voice had said, he looked to see where its throat was, but it didn't seem to have one - just loose scaly skin under its long jaws.
"Well I'll have to slash at something," Harry said to himself, and he flew forwards to the Kraken.
It had not seen him yet, but turning its head sideways, it glimpsed him and opened its gargantuan jaws wide, baring its fangs and tried to swallow Harry as it made yet another furious attempt to swallow him.
Harry did not have to worry about evading capture though - the wings seemed to have a mind of their own.
The wings now brought him behind the serpent, and immediately made for the back of its head.
It turned around just as Harry was about to slash the back of its neck, instead hacking at its fangs.
The Kraken yelled in pain, again shaking the walls of the tunnels but as its enormous fangs fell the ground, it bashed its tail straight at one of the statues that were the Aurors and crushed it to pieces.
Harry stomach gave a somersault - Cho was motionless as well, she could have been smashed.
Then Harry felt the anger rise in him, it rose and bubbled to the top. And snarling with a primal cry he swooped beneath the Kraken's lower jaw and pierced the skin underneath it with one of the Katana.
The beast yelled in pain, with a horribly unearthly roar sounding like a lion, cat and elephant at the same time.
It quickly changed to deep, demonic moan as Harry rammed the second Katana in the creature's throat.
Harry shuddered at the frightening sound it made and flew backwards hastily as it fell with a deafening CRASH.
He now soared down to where the creature had landed, it was lucky that the rest of the Aurors were unscathed, as the Kraken had taken up most of the room in the chamber.
Glancing at the Kraken, he let out a horrified gasp, as he saw a bloody and severely charred hand groping its way out of the cuts on the Kraken's throat.
Harry took his wand out cautiously, and could feel his heart playing a thunderous drum roll under his ribs.
His wand aimed at the hand, he saw a horrendously wounded Zabini, crawling his way out. But he only had one arm remaining and his chest seemed to have been slashed by the Katana.
Harry was sure that Zabini would not make it and lowered his wand.
"You...." Zabini uttered in a voiceless croak, "You....will pay...."
"Oh really?" Harry said confidently, grabbing hold of Zabini's robes, lifted him up off his feet and threw him forwards so that he hit the Kraken's jaws.
He aimed his wand back at Zabini and looked over to the frozen Aurors, trying not to think about the crushed one.
"You know," Harry said in a quiet and threatening whisper, "there was once a man called Bartemius Crouch Senior who loathed Dark Wizards with such a passion that he would sink to their pathetic level.... and kill them."
Zabini merely blinked at Harry through his bloody face
"Look at you," Harry continued in a bitter voice that did not seem like his own, "cowering there in your beautiful velvet robes, great Dark Wizard," he let out a derisive and scathing laugh, "When will people understand? When will they understand that there is no good magic or bad magic - it's a neutral force that can be used in different ways.
"You, who's lived his life in Slytherin, the last to be sorted in our year if I remember correctly," he walked closer to Zabini, who was now shaking with terror, "I don't understand, Zabini WHY you have such a great dislike for Half-Bloods and Muggle-born Wizards. I've never understood it, I always hated Voldemort for it, you see he would not have any reason to be frustrated if there weren't any Muggle-Born or Half-Bloods.
"That is how all prejudice works, Zabini," his voice was becoming bizarrely throaty and was more of a coarse hiss than a voice.
"Anyway, enough talk, it is time for you to feel pain, such as never been felt by you before," Harry raised his wand and pointed it at Zabini's chest, the bleeding stump that was his severed left arm flailed about madly but caused one of the statues to crumble.
Harry's heart was racing again, but before he knew what he did, he said, "Avada Kedavra!" and watched in horror as a blinding green light flew out of the end of his wand and hit Zabini in the stomach.
His yells echoed off the walls, and Harry's eyes widened, and breathing became sharp and rapid as he stood there, poised with his wand still pointing at the carcass that was once Blaise Zabini.
Harry walked over to the statues and with a wave of his wand the Aurors came back to life.
With warm relief he found that Cho was still intact, and ran over to her.
She looked at him confusedly as he embraced her in a tight hug.
"Hey!" she cried with a laugh, "come on, you're all sweaty and bloody...whoa, where did those wings come from?"
Harry turned his head and realised that the bat-like wings that that strange voice had bequeathed unto him were still there.
The Aurors were all talking, utterly flummoxed amongst each other and were now eyeing Harry with suspicion and astonishment, catching sight of his wings.
"Look, I'll explain everything, even these," he said audibly, indicating the wings, "lets just get out of here first."
The Aurors looked at Harry with further confusion but nodded with assent.
He turned back to Cho and said in a quiet voice, "Come on, let's find Hermione and go - I need a shower and a good meal."
There was a cry from some of the Aurors and Harry heard Lacuna scream.
"What's up?" Cho said in a low voice.
Harry shook his head and, hand in hand with Cho walked over to the circle that the Aurors had made.
Lacuna was sobbing hysterically on the stone floor now, Bruma's face had a thunderstruck expression on it and Michel was crouched on the floor rocking back and forth, muttering to himself.
Harry made his way over to the circle of Aurors and saw with absolute horror that Hester was one of the statues which was crushed by the Kraken, but there was another one... it's arms were broken but it's face was so clear, for the other statue that had been crushed was -
"HERMIONE!" Harry wailed, his stomach dropped right to the bottom of his thorax, his breathing became fast once more and his heart, instead of beating, seemed to have stopped completely.
He fell to the ground and grabbed his face with both hands, pulling the skin down as he dragged them downwards.
He didn't know what to say, what to do. He was just in such a state of shock and anguish that he felt as if he did not exist.
Now it seemed he WAS having a dream, a very despondent one at that.
No, he thought, Hermione isn't dead, she's at home with Ron sitting by the fire and arguing like they do and then making up once more.
Cho put a reassuring hand on Harry's shoulder, though he barely acknowledged it.
He took hold of Hermione's hand which was almost completely crushed, but because she had been broken as a statue, it was detached from her torso.
And so he sat there for what seemed like hours, until other Ministry Officials had been called and insisted that he let go of the hand.
It seemed that Ron had died instead of Hermione, as his expression was such as if his soul had been sucked out by a Dementor.
But Harry felt that night as he climbed into bed, as though he had lost a vital organ. For Hermione was the only other person apart from Ron who could truly comprehend him, Cho was no match. Hermione really was dead....
Defeat of the Serpent
"Harry! Harry!" an indigo robed wizard bent down over Harry Potter was slapping him across the face.
Harry opened his eyes and heaved himself up. His scar was stinging and his head was thumping with a headache.
Cho was stood with her back to him, with suppressed sobs.
"Cho?" he said groggily.
She turned and ran towards him, and embraced him, weeping into his robes.
"Cho, honey, it's okay," Harry said, with his arms around his wife.
He had noticed that there were six wizards in indigo robes; Hermione, Amy and Martine had also been brought back to life and were leaning against the stone walls, looking apparently very exhausted.
These six wizards were the remainder of the entire party that had gone out to the expedition. They were the Aurors who took the alternative route to Dr Crabbe and the others. But there seemed to be less people.
"How come there are only six of you?" Harry piped up.
The Ministry Aurors were scattered around the stone chamber and were all looking around, as if on tenterhooks. There was an enormous hole in the centre of the room, and it was smoking slightly. There was an eerie silence throughout the tunnels which allowed Harry to hear his own thumping heartbeat.
The nearest one, Michel, a French Auror who was the one trying to rouse Harry answered, "The route that we took was a dead end - or so we thought. The trick was to smear blood in a Pentagram shape on the wall and a vortex would open up to this room. However, when the married couple, Fairuza and Nicko Portacollis saw what they had let themselves in for, they Disapparated."
"Wait a minute," Harry said, suddenly remembering everything that had happened - Zabini.... The snakes.... Malfoy...Crabbe was dead...and the Kraken.
"Zabini!" Harry yelled so suddenly that Cho jerked backwards, "Where is he? And the Kraken! Did he kill it? Or did it go with him?"
A witch with bright orange curly hair who was standing on the other side of the room answered, "When we arrived there was a colossal hole which led down to a great pit, right into the seas. There was no one in here except Hermione Weasley, Amy Wexlar, Martine and Cho. For some reason they were frozen as statues, care to explain that Mr Potter?" she pointed her wand at him from across the room.
Harry gave Cho a meaningful look and stuttered, "I conjured up snakes to consume the Dark Wizards who were working for Zabini."
"And you say that you brought forth the legendary Kraken?" A square-jawed wizard from Harry's left called, nearing him. Leaning over him he whispered through gritted teeth, "Do you realise the seriousness of what you have done? The Kraken will not stop at the Tunnels of Sousoll - it will go forth and destroy all in its path!"
Harry suddenly got up and seized the square-jawed wizard by his robes, aware of his thumping headache more than ever now. Cho grabbed him by the shoulder to hold him back.
"Don't you dare blame me for trying to fight a Dark Wizard with the only power I could muster," he shook Cho's arm off irritably and then continued, "In these situations you have to fight fire with fire. I'm not going to go soft on Zabini. YOU can, but I don't want to see the rest of us fall before another Dark Wizard."
The square-jawed wizard released himself from Harry's grip irritably.
"Well if you get the chance to quell Zabini, remember to kill him and not just to let him go like you did with You-Know-Who," he snarled maliciously.
Harry looked as if he would have charged at the wizard and started fighting but before both of them had known what happened, there was a flash of purple light from across the chamber, which hit Harry and the square-jawed wizard.
The witch with luridly orange curly hair walked over to the two of them as their arms snapped to their sides, their legs clashed into one another and their jaws snapped shut - she had performed the Full Body Bind on them.
"Hmm, tut tut," she muttered looking at the two, "One's an Auror for the Ministry and the other is a School Governor of Hogwarts and bank manager at Gringotts. Fully grown men, both of whom are part of the Dark Arts Defence League and yet they bicker like schoolboys."
She bent down and sighed, Cho looking horrified. Hermione came over and performed the counter-curse.
"Ouch," Harry said, coming round, "I had a severe headache already and then I fall on my head..."
The curly haired witch sighed, "Well then remember that next you're in a room with Lacuna Coil, never to fight, okay?"
Harry scowled at her, nodding. The square-jawed wizard just glared at her angrily.
"You too, Hester," she said forcefully.
"You can't tell me what to do," he snarled.
Lacuna merely smiled at him condescendingly and suddenly her face exploded with scorpion tails, bulging black eyeballs and she roared in an unearthly way.
Hester's eyes widened and he let out a little yelp.
Lacuna got up, her face was back to normal now but she said, shaking her orange hair, "Remember not to mess with an Auror that also happens to be a Metamorphmagus."
Harry, still sat on the cold stone floor could see that Lacuna's hair was now raven-black, but beyond the black of his hair - it was almost an unnatural darkness.
Cho hauled Harry to his feet and muttered, "You should rest, your scar was bleeding earlier."
He looked at her with a meaningful expression but just looked to the ground.
"No they need me, we can all take on Zabini," he said in a low voice, "that is, if the Kraken didn't kill him already."
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Hours passed, but there was no sign of Zabini or the Kraken.
"It must have killed him off," Michel concluded looking at the rest of them hopelessly.
"Shall we all pack up and go home then?" Bruma Plat, a thin-lipped, aged witch queried.
But Lacuna was looking pensive, with her hair now being silvery and down to her waist - it was unusually stiff and flat looking, as if it was made of layers of shiny metal rather than hair.
"No, NO!" she yelled so suddenly that Bruma's wrinkly face seemed to spread out as she stared at Lacuna with disapproval.
"What now?" Hester asked tetchily.
She threw him a scowl, which made him flinch and gaze suddenly at the floor.
"We can't be sure whether Zabini is gone or not," she said, gaping thoughtfully at the high stone ceiling.
There was a murmur of agreement from the Ministry Aurors, Hermione and Cho.
"However," she said, licking her lips with relish, "there IS a way to find out what happened to the Kraken.... Mr Potter here," she indicated Harry, "can evoke the ancient creature, that is if he CAN. I'm sure it's perfectly impossible. Even Isis herself would not be able to do it in her early days when she was of the calibre of most highly skilled wizards of today."
"I DID evoke it!" Harry said, shaking slightly. His head seemed to be being hit on the head every few seconds with a large iron hammer, and his scar stung faintly.
"Oh really?" Bruma said, rounding on him and staring at him with her thin lips and ancient face, "Care to tell us HOW you did it then, Mr Potter? Because you see, the Kraken has not been evoked for millennia."
Harry let out a deep sigh.
"I'm not sure how I did it exactly -."
"AHA!" Hester cut in rudely, "he does not know! He is clearly lying!"
There was a vein throbbing at his temple, and he was seething with rage.
"I HAVEN'T FINISHED!" Harry yelled. Michel eyed him worriedly, Lacuna stared at him as if he was the basis of some deep reverie she was experiencing and Cho sat down on the stone floor, blatantly exasperated.
"Well do carry on then," Michel said, beaming politely.
"Right, well...." Harry seemed to have to lost his train of thought. He was wishing he could run Hester down with a large train... the Hogwarts Express maybe.
"As I was saying - I'm not EXACTLY sure how I evoked the Kraken, but I knew that I was so angry at Zabini as the snakes I had conjured up didn't affect him in the slightest," Hester made an impatient cough - obviously he was going to comment on Harry's use of snakes in fighting a Dark Wizard especially when snakes are used in the worst kinds of Dark Magick.
"And I felt this rage rising up inside of me, then I rose off the ground and yelled some kind of incantation -."
"Can you remember what it was?" Bruma snapped impatiently.
Harry frowned in concentration, "Um, no. It wasn't wand magic, so I'm not sure how it worked. The spell was in Parseltongue so I can't say it now, I need to be face to face with a snake to say it."
But some of the Aurors were looking thunderstruck, Harry had half expected this - it was common knowledge that Parselmouths like himself were looked upon with disgust.
"You did what?" Bruma asked in a breathless whisper that was barely audible.
"I - I uttered a Parseltongue incantation - why?" Harry said, flummoxed.
There was a sharp intake of breath, which Hermione broke, "Harry.... Magic in Parseltongue is one of the most deadly and powerful forms magick there is. You can perform such extreme spells that would be impossible with spoken wand magic."
A harsh silence followed this revelation. Obviously not all of the Aurors had known that much about Parseltongue Magick by the way they were eyeing Hermione.
"Well I say, you evoke the Kraken, Mr Potter," Lacuna said with utmost enthusiasm in her voice.
"You can't be serious!" Cho yelled abruptly, getting to her feet, "Do you know how heinous a creature it is? It's of a great magnitude, it would swallow us all up!"
"What are you talking about?" Martine roared, "There is no evidence that Potter here can conjure up a dragon!"
"It's not a dragon, we're talking about the Kraken, the ancient sea serpent -."
" - I don't care if it's an overgrown Basilisk, it's not being awoken!"
" - What do you mean CONJURE? You can't just make something as large as that appear suddenly!"
The bickering between the Aurors continued.
Hermione walked slowly towards Harry, amongst the arguing Aurors. She took his hands in hers and spoke in a faint, pleading voice that was of the school girl Harry had grown up with in Gryffindor Tower at Hogwarts, "Harry, I believe you. Remember what Luna Lovegood said before she killed herself? 'The truest magic is that which is inside your heart, not from the core of your wand'. She would have liked to see you bring justice to the world."
Harry, still with his hands clutched in Hermione's grip, felt a smile forming on his face and laughed, "She always did come up with all sorts of codswallop that girl!"
Hermione hugged Harry tightly, laughing.
And as she let him go, Harry closed his eyes - concentrating hard and holding his hands at his sides he felt himself rising up off the stone floor again.
The Ministry Aurors had stopped squabbling at the sight of him.
"I say!" Bruma gasped with an unmistakably impressed tone.
"Dear Lord..." Hester trailed off, his wand falling from his hand with a clatter.
Lacuna could not decide whether to keep her mouth open or shut, resulting in the impression that she was imitating a goldfish.
Harry was now at least five feet off the ground; he opened his eyes and looked down at them all. The pain in his scar and his head had numbed and he felt that same surge of power he did when he brought forth all those snakes.
Then he felt it, rising 15 feet above the ground now, he felt the serpent inside himself. He could hear its voice, its feelings, its wishes, its instincts and also seething, searing, serpentine anger. He could feel the red, it rose inside his chest and was at boiling point.
His breath was now harsh, slow and sharp. His heart was thumping so fast and furiously that it felt as if a fist was pounding into a hand under his chest.
With his animal instincts kicking in, he bared his teeth and with a final deep breath roared with a hiss, "EXPERGO KRAKEN!"
And then it happened - a deep rumbling from below the surface sounded throughout the tunnels. The Ministry Aurors all looked around in panic and Hester fell to the floor.
Bruma was paralyzed with horror, Michel seemed to be as well but Lacuna was backing away slowly.
Bits of rock fell from the top of the tunnels, the earth was shaking violently now.
Then suddenly a great explosion seemed to have taken place from the far end of the chamber, and out rose the Kraken - with its gleaming green scales as large as dinner plates tightly tessellated across its vast slimy body, it rose from the depths of the Irish Sea beneath them resembling a resurrected wreck. Its extensive fangs the size of lampposts glistened maliciously as it let out an ear piercing hiss.
Its deafening roars shook the walls of the Tunnels of Sousoll. Harry was sure the tunnels would collapse and cave in if the Kraken kept up its vulgar displays of power.
The Aurors were looking at the beast with utter terror, some looking over at Harry whose eyes were now glowing bright green.
Harry began hissing instructions at the Kraken who was beginning to look at the Aurors hungrily.
The Kraken understood Harry and began to look around for signs of Zabini, its enormous forked tongue as big as a lorry flicking in and out.
However, as it turned to look in the darker parts of the tunnels, it abruptly turned and faced Harry.
Harry motioned it to go and look, but there seemed to be a sense of rebellion within the beast that caused it to lunge at him suddenly.
Cho screamed as Harry pulled out of the Kraken's way quickly.
He did not understand what was going on - surely Hester was not serious about the Kraken being a reckless, untameable creature.
The Kraken made fresh attempts to attack Harry, and so Harry, knowing that it was too risky to keep everyone safe, turned all the Aurors and Cho to stone with a click of his fingers.
This did not make any sense - the Kraken was obeying him fully when he evoked it before. No serpent disobeyed a Parselmouth, even enormous, ancient sea serpents who had been asleep for thousands of years.
Harry was getting tired now of trying to evade the Kraken's lunges. It was lucky that the beast was so large because it took a while for it to get back up and try to attack Harry again.
Then it hit him - he HAD lost his authority over the Kraken, but not because it had some antediluvian instinct to kill, but because it was under someone else's control. And Harry a pretty clear idea who was controlling it - Who else had such Dark powers as have not been seen since the Dark Wizard Voldemort or Grindelwald? Who had absorbed such Dark Magicks as darkness from the Lake of Fire and the Spells of Isis?
Of course Harry had no idea where Zabini WAS. He was nowhere in sight, so the only other options were that he was either invisible or he was inside the Kraken.
But Harry couldn't keep flying like this - he felt himself weakening.,,,,,,,
He prepared himself for another dead faint, which would result in his inevitable death....
.....But then a tiny voice in his head spoke 'Don't give up now!'
Harry jolted awake and was surprised to find himself on the ground.
"What?" he asked, shocked.
'Get up off the floor, and show that snake what you're made of! Don't give up now!'
The voice was shouting so loudly at Harry, he ran out of the way just in time as the Kraken slammed its tail down at him.
'Come on! Fly like you did before, FLY!'
"I can't!" Harry cried but as he did, felt his shoulders hunching and the skin on his shoulder blades breaking.
He let out a gasp as two magnificent bat-like wings grew out of his back, unfurling quickly.
Harry had no idea how to use these, but he did not need to, as they flapped of their own accord and pulled him out of the way of the Kraken's elephantine tail as it smashed its way through some stalactites and stalagmites.
But Harry couldn't continue to fly about aimlessly evading the Kraken, what he wanted..... What he really NEEDED was some sort of weapon.
And as if his prayers had been answered, two gleaming gold bladed swords hovered before him. With their thin gold blades and sapphire hilts, they outshone the Kraken's gleaming yellow eyes. They were so long; they could have sliced a man in half with one blow.
The Kraken seemed to be under the Impediment Jinx, because its tail was twenty feet from hitting Harry but appearing to be in slow motion.
'Take them,' the voice whispered in a girlish whisper.
"What are they? And who are you?" Harry asked, utterly perplexed.
'Oh never mind that now - use these to kill the Kraken. They are the Katana of Schwarzewald, ram them into the Kraken's throat and it will die.'
"You want me to KILL the Kraken?" Harry enquired; he didn't know why he was concerned about the Kraken's wellbeing, seeing as it had attempted to kill him so many times but still felt it shameful to slaughter a creature so ancient and magical.
'Oh don't worry, the Kraken doesn't stay dead for long! No - it will melt and soon enough when all its body parts will have reconnected and become whole it will live again. Remember the Kraken is immortal, so there is no way it can DIE. But Blaise is controlling it and I have not seen Dark Magick this powerful since Grindelwald.'
Harry was not sure this voice was real, it sounded so confusing and far- fetched that he almost decided that he was becoming Schizophrenic.
However, he noticed that the Kraken's tail had stopped dead, now less than ten feet away from him.
'Well you ready?' the voice asked. It was strangely booming and masculine now, which reinforced his idea that he was imagining the voice.
Nevertheless he looked down at the Katana in his hand, six feet in length, he was not sure he could hold them without dropping them -
'Don't worry about their weight, seeing as you're human," the voice added, now sounding aged like some sort of old woman, with an air of derision, 'I made them feather-light.'
Right, Harry thought, I was clearly knocked silly by the fall and now I'm dreaming that there's a small voice in my head who's given me wings, weapons and a way to kill an ancient and magical sea serpent. I just hope I wake up in time to tell Cho this dream she'll laugh so m -
' - Would you listen!?' the voice cut in, 'Remember the THROAT of the Kraken, do not go for its eyes, its mouth or its belly. Not because it will kill it - it CAN'T die; because it will be in so much pain that it might smash the Tunnels to rubble....'
Shut up, Harry thought, Please just shut up and stop going on like some sort of senile old bat.
'Senile am I?' the voice, now booming and masculine again asked, 'Well if this was a dream, would this happen -.'
And suddenly, the Kraken's tail aimed for Harry with a deafening plunge. The wings, however, had heaved him out of the way just in time, although one of the wings merely brushed its tail.
Harry noticed the swords in his hand and decided that the only way he was going to either wake up from this dream or beat Zabini was to quell the Kraken.
And as the voice had said, he looked to see where its throat was, but it didn't seem to have one - just loose scaly skin under its long jaws.
"Well I'll have to slash at something," Harry said to himself, and he flew forwards to the Kraken.
It had not seen him yet, but turning its head sideways, it glimpsed him and opened its gargantuan jaws wide, baring its fangs and tried to swallow Harry as it made yet another furious attempt to swallow him.
Harry did not have to worry about evading capture though - the wings seemed to have a mind of their own.
The wings now brought him behind the serpent, and immediately made for the back of its head.
It turned around just as Harry was about to slash the back of its neck, instead hacking at its fangs.
The Kraken yelled in pain, again shaking the walls of the tunnels but as its enormous fangs fell the ground, it bashed its tail straight at one of the statues that were the Aurors and crushed it to pieces.
Harry stomach gave a somersault - Cho was motionless as well, she could have been smashed.
Then Harry felt the anger rise in him, it rose and bubbled to the top. And snarling with a primal cry he swooped beneath the Kraken's lower jaw and pierced the skin underneath it with one of the Katana.
The beast yelled in pain, with a horribly unearthly roar sounding like a lion, cat and elephant at the same time.
It quickly changed to deep, demonic moan as Harry rammed the second Katana in the creature's throat.
Harry shuddered at the frightening sound it made and flew backwards hastily as it fell with a deafening CRASH.
He now soared down to where the creature had landed, it was lucky that the rest of the Aurors were unscathed, as the Kraken had taken up most of the room in the chamber.
Glancing at the Kraken, he let out a horrified gasp, as he saw a bloody and severely charred hand groping its way out of the cuts on the Kraken's throat.
Harry took his wand out cautiously, and could feel his heart playing a thunderous drum roll under his ribs.
His wand aimed at the hand, he saw a horrendously wounded Zabini, crawling his way out. But he only had one arm remaining and his chest seemed to have been slashed by the Katana.
Harry was sure that Zabini would not make it and lowered his wand.
"You...." Zabini uttered in a voiceless croak, "You....will pay...."
"Oh really?" Harry said confidently, grabbing hold of Zabini's robes, lifted him up off his feet and threw him forwards so that he hit the Kraken's jaws.
He aimed his wand back at Zabini and looked over to the frozen Aurors, trying not to think about the crushed one.
"You know," Harry said in a quiet and threatening whisper, "there was once a man called Bartemius Crouch Senior who loathed Dark Wizards with such a passion that he would sink to their pathetic level.... and kill them."
Zabini merely blinked at Harry through his bloody face
"Look at you," Harry continued in a bitter voice that did not seem like his own, "cowering there in your beautiful velvet robes, great Dark Wizard," he let out a derisive and scathing laugh, "When will people understand? When will they understand that there is no good magic or bad magic - it's a neutral force that can be used in different ways.
"You, who's lived his life in Slytherin, the last to be sorted in our year if I remember correctly," he walked closer to Zabini, who was now shaking with terror, "I don't understand, Zabini WHY you have such a great dislike for Half-Bloods and Muggle-born Wizards. I've never understood it, I always hated Voldemort for it, you see he would not have any reason to be frustrated if there weren't any Muggle-Born or Half-Bloods.
"That is how all prejudice works, Zabini," his voice was becoming bizarrely throaty and was more of a coarse hiss than a voice.
"Anyway, enough talk, it is time for you to feel pain, such as never been felt by you before," Harry raised his wand and pointed it at Zabini's chest, the bleeding stump that was his severed left arm flailed about madly but caused one of the statues to crumble.
Harry's heart was racing again, but before he knew what he did, he said, "Avada Kedavra!" and watched in horror as a blinding green light flew out of the end of his wand and hit Zabini in the stomach.
His yells echoed off the walls, and Harry's eyes widened, and breathing became sharp and rapid as he stood there, poised with his wand still pointing at the carcass that was once Blaise Zabini.
Harry walked over to the statues and with a wave of his wand the Aurors came back to life.
With warm relief he found that Cho was still intact, and ran over to her.
She looked at him confusedly as he embraced her in a tight hug.
"Hey!" she cried with a laugh, "come on, you're all sweaty and bloody...whoa, where did those wings come from?"
Harry turned his head and realised that the bat-like wings that that strange voice had bequeathed unto him were still there.
The Aurors were all talking, utterly flummoxed amongst each other and were now eyeing Harry with suspicion and astonishment, catching sight of his wings.
"Look, I'll explain everything, even these," he said audibly, indicating the wings, "lets just get out of here first."
The Aurors looked at Harry with further confusion but nodded with assent.
He turned back to Cho and said in a quiet voice, "Come on, let's find Hermione and go - I need a shower and a good meal."
There was a cry from some of the Aurors and Harry heard Lacuna scream.
"What's up?" Cho said in a low voice.
Harry shook his head and, hand in hand with Cho walked over to the circle that the Aurors had made.
Lacuna was sobbing hysterically on the stone floor now, Bruma's face had a thunderstruck expression on it and Michel was crouched on the floor rocking back and forth, muttering to himself.
Harry made his way over to the circle of Aurors and saw with absolute horror that Hester was one of the statues which was crushed by the Kraken, but there was another one... it's arms were broken but it's face was so clear, for the other statue that had been crushed was -
"HERMIONE!" Harry wailed, his stomach dropped right to the bottom of his thorax, his breathing became fast once more and his heart, instead of beating, seemed to have stopped completely.
He fell to the ground and grabbed his face with both hands, pulling the skin down as he dragged them downwards.
He didn't know what to say, what to do. He was just in such a state of shock and anguish that he felt as if he did not exist.
Now it seemed he WAS having a dream, a very despondent one at that.
No, he thought, Hermione isn't dead, she's at home with Ron sitting by the fire and arguing like they do and then making up once more.
Cho put a reassuring hand on Harry's shoulder, though he barely acknowledged it.
He took hold of Hermione's hand which was almost completely crushed, but because she had been broken as a statue, it was detached from her torso.
And so he sat there for what seemed like hours, until other Ministry Officials had been called and insisted that he let go of the hand.
It seemed that Ron had died instead of Hermione, as his expression was such as if his soul had been sucked out by a Dementor.
But Harry felt that night as he climbed into bed, as though he had lost a vital organ. For Hermione was the only other person apart from Ron who could truly comprehend him, Cho was no match. Hermione really was dead....