Chapter 3: Soggy Confrontations
"Gives uss ze boy now or we vill destroies you!" pulsed one of the many glutinous-like creatures in the shadows. Their smell was so horrid it made Harry how be and the boy had been surrounded without their noticing.
Harry pulled out his wand, centering it on any movement the moonlight cared to reveal.
"What are you doing!" yelled the boy, pulling Harry's arm down quickly "There has to be more than twenty of these things! We don't want to intimidate them!"
"Do you even know what these things are?" snapped Harry.
"What does it matter!"
Harry let out a frustrated groan but it was lost under the impatient gurgles of the pulsing creatures.
"Yousss hasss hadsst your warningssss…" the creatures slowly slid into the moonlight "Nowss we takess by forcess."
Harry felt the boy grip onto the side of his cloak, tightly. The creatures looked repulsive. Like poorly made people slopped in mud. They had dark gouging eyes and as there slowly slumped forward a sickening type of squelch could be heard.
"W-what are they?" gasped the boy.
"You just told me it doesn't matter what they are!" Said Harry quickly.
"So? You're the one with the wand. Do something!"
Harry grit his teeth. This boy was really getting on his nerves.
"You can not escapesss!" gurgled the closest one "We are the earthss and the earthss surroundsss you!"
"You mean you're made of mud?" asked Harry who could feel the boy loosening his grip a little. All the creatures paused. Harry tried to make out an expression out of the clay-like-muck. It almost looked –
"Ouch!" yelled Harry now clutching his foot and glaring angrily at the boy. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to get you to magic us out of here!" snapped the boy. "Well, what're you waiting for? Conjure some fire or something, or do I have to stamp your foot again?"
"OK," said Harry, still somewhat peeved. He flicked his wand and said "Aqua emersum!"
There was a small vibration from the ground and all the creatures looked down at their mud-piled bodies. Harry supposed this was their feet because within moments they were surrounded in water like small muddy islands. Some still attempted to struggle forwards to attack but it was no use. All of them were melting into the water like ice-cream in the sun.
Soon all the creatures had submerged completely into the waist-height water to leave Harry and the boy shivering alone in the cold.
"Didn't I tell you to use a fire spell?" gasped the boy now struggling to stay afloat. Harry felt like snapping a few choice words at the boy and maybe even threaten to drown the boy. Instead, he offered his hand and helped pull the boy out of the new miniature lake he'd created.
"Oh wow!" gasped the boy, stepping out of the water starring at Hogwarts ."Is that a real castle?"
"Uh yeah," said Harry. "But before we go there I have to ask – hey, wait!" he hadn't even been able to summon a drying charm and the boy was already running toward the school entrance; his shoes squelching in quick succession along the grass. "Don't you know any rules?" yelled Harry chasing after him. Eventually he managed to catch the boy again by snagging onto his drenched robes. Together they fell head-first onto the front steps to the entrance hall.
"Well, Mr Potter." sneered a looming shadow. Both Harry and the boy's head snapped up to attention. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to find your self in some type of pandemonium." It was Snape. "Now why is it that within the short amount of time before detention tonight you thought it would be smart to go for a midnight dip in the lake?"
"Why are you here?" asked Harry
"Manners Potter," Snape crossed his arms "I could ask the same about your little… friend." He gazed at the boy with a disgusted look on his face. It was just the kind of look Aunt Petunia had given Harry all his life. "What is someone as young as he doing on school grounds? Answer me!"
"How should I know? I just found him wandering in the forest-"
"And what were you doing in there?" said Snape. "Getting yourself into more trouble, obviously. Honestly, how dim can your brain -"
"Hey, back off!" retorted the boy quite suddenly making Snap's eyebrows rise ever so slightly. "He saved me so just leave him alone!"
Harry was surprised too and for a few short seconds, both he and Snape were staring at the boy with disbelieving expressions. That boy just didn't know when to shut-up, thought Harry.
"And what's a little runt like you-" Snape gasped. Well came as close to a gasp as his sense of decency would allow. Harry picked himself up from the steps and saw Snape looking at the boy as if it were the first time he'd really noticed him. The last time Harry had seen Snape's expression this calculating was back in second year when he spoke Pastel mouth in front of the school by accident.
Once Snape composed himself, he hauled the boy bodily up by the back of his sopping robes and snarled: "Potter! My office! Now!"
Harry didn't feel particularly like testing his patience.
Snape dragged the boy trough the entrance hall while Harry followed behind. They passed Great Hall which was now full of students, dinner and warmth and stepped down the small stairway just beyond. It was a stark contrast to standing in the cold dungeons moments later. Harry felt the dark air bite at his wet-robed skin. He imagined it must've been just as cold for the boy whose robes were even wetter. It just made Snape look even more vindictive. Yet why was he so angry about the boy?
Sure, he was annoying but to Snape almost anyone was annoying; especially if they didn't belong in Slytherin.
They were all in Snape office now left to watch Snape pacing beyond the other side of his desk. Harry had helped the boy get to his feet after Snape had just dumped him onto the stone floor.
"Explain." snarled Snape
"Explain what?" asked Harry, genuinely confused.
Snape stopped pacing and slammed his desk with a pale white fist.
"Stop trying my patience Potter and explain!"
"I don't know what – "
"Explain to me Potter," said Snape who's patience had ebbed "why that brat of a father is standing right beside you!"