CHAPTER XXV TO THE RESCUE!
Harry and the others waited for a few minutes behind the huddle of rocks they have been hiding when the moment they have been waiting arrived, It was another Slytherin that was about to go inside the castle. As he spoke, Ron had his Voice Grabber pointed at him; the Slytherin (Avery) had now walked inside after talking through the door.
"Let's give it a try," said Harry
Ron placed his mouth to one end of the Voice Grabber and talked through it, "Hello, hello," said Ron, but this time his voice had sounded like the Slytherin who had just went inside the gates to the castle
"Let me have a try," said Draco taking the device from Ron's hands " Hello, testing, testing… My name is Samuel Avery, I like Quiddtch, My mother and men for that matter," said Draco (With Avery's voice)
The four burst out into laughs. This time, Neville took the Voice Grabber.
"Hello Ron," said Neville (With Avery's voice) in a girlish seductive way, " My what big muscles you have, I hope you don't mind me saying that I, Samuel Avery, fancy, you,"
Once more, they didn't manage to stop their selves into laughing their heart out, but Ron didn't laugh as much as they did, he had a look of disgust on him, but he was still chuckling.
"Guys, I think we should go and get inside now," said Harry who was finally calmed himself down
"Go away you stupid bird!" shooed Ron at the same crow that was following them
"Now, now Weasley, is that how you treat a suitor?" said Draco, his face had that annoying grin he always has
"Shut up Malfoy!" snapped Ron
As the four had arrived in front of the castle gates, Ron took the Voice Grabber and placed his mouth at the other end of it again.
"Hey you inside! Let me in!" called Ron with Avery's voice once again
"Didn't you just came in a few minutes ago?" came the voice behind the gates
Ron was now looking alarmed at them, it looked to Harry that he didn't know what he was suppose to answer, Draco saw this and leaned his head over the Voice Grabber.
"It's magic," said Draco, he looked at the rest and shrugged at them, the next few seconds were soundless when they heard the voice again
"Oh! Right, sorry," he said, "Prove that you are who you say you are,"
Harry, Ron and Neville quickly turned to Draco; he spoke through the Voice Grabber again and said…
"I, Samuel Avery, am a superb perfect being that God had made only to tend the needs of all women kind," said Draco who appeared to be enjoying himself
The three looked at him disgusted, but once again, Draco gave them a shrug.
"Hey! I said that the last time! Don't copy my password Avery," said the voice, and then after that, the gates began to open, Harry signaled the rest to take their wands out
They waited for the person who was guarding the gate to show himself, and when he did, he was met by four stunning spells from four different directions.
"C'mon, let's go, hurry, hurry," said Harry
Snape has already finished his potion when he walked through the forest following Sirius (as a dog), Sirius was now sniffing the ground for his friend's scent; it took them about twenty minutes or less to find a battered tree that had deep scratches on its trunk, Sirius turned back to normal.
"He's here," said Sirius to Snape without looking behind where he is "But there's something not right in his scent, it smelled like he's not alone,"
By these words Snape had looked cautiously around while he took another vial of potion inside his robes, "Stunning him or them would be difficult Black, I suggest on slowing him down so I can use this potion on him," said Snape, his tone still carried grudge
"What does that thing do anyway?" said Sirius sounding irritated
"It stops the adrenaline of a person once this potion makes contact with the skin," said Snape "Stop asking me questions like a little child, you can do something called studying the subject,"
"The only thing I want to do is feed you to Remus, but I'm not that kind of friend that poisons their best friends," said Sirius
"Shut up you filthy dog," said Snape
"That's right Snivellus, I am filthy, at least I'm not a disappointment," said Sirius
"Funny you should say that, and here I am remembering your sweet old mother saying how proud she is to have a little parasite come out of her womb," said Snape
"You like my mother so much then why don't you just marry her, you look like her anyway so that would give you a couple of extra points for her, come to think of it, you are her, well… without breast anyway, hey Mom did you have surgery or breast feeding just didn't really agree with you," said Sirius
"Now, now Black, what would she say if she hears her sweet little Moroner talk like that about her, you have no respect you know that? Although I heard that street dogs are hard to teach manners, isn't that true Black?" said Snape
"Respect huh? Isn't that something that no one has for you?" said Sirius
"Black, there's a new trend around, you might want to go and try it, it's called suicide," said Snape
Sirius opened his mouth to retaliate when he was interrupted by a loud growl; they looked around and saw a massive silhouette of a beast standing on top of the mount near where they were bickering at each other.
Sirius had pointed his wand at it already but it was too late, the werewolf had lunge at him and pinned both his shoulders to the ground, his wand flung from his hands and landed across a couple of tree trunks.
"Remus! It's me!" yelled Sirius as he prevented the werewolf's head from tearing his face out by elbowing its neck away from him
Snape was still trembling at the sight of the monster in front of him, and just then he saw Sirius's face as he struggled his self from the werewolf on top of him; he then remembered that he was holding a potion in his hands, Snape quickly threw the potion at the werewolf, it hit him, the vial crashed on to the beasts left shoulder, the green contents was now giving smoke and a strong stench, it smelled like rotting tomatoes from where Sirius was.
And then, just then, the werewolf was now walking away from Sirius, it looked like it was so weak, it was like the fury it was unleashing at Sirius was now quickly fading away, but nonetheless it mustered all of its strength and scurried away more deeply into the forest.
"We have to go after him," said Sirius getting up from the ground
"Where's your wand Black?" said Snape
Sirius turned around to look at Snape but then he saw another one, "Snape! Behind you!" yelled Sirius
Snape turned around instantly and saw another werewolf standing right behind him, he quickly rummaged for his pockets for another bottle of potion, it was already on his hand when he was knocked by the beast's long arms, Snape hit the ground, he was now on all four when the werewolf was now backing away to strike once more. Snape was immobile, it seemed that his whole body was paralyzed as he watched the werewolf in front of him advance, and then suddenly, Sirius as a big shaggy black dog had pounced at the werewolf before it could even touch Snape.
For a normal person it was hard to watch, the werewolf and Sirius would bite, each other and even scratch one another, Sirius who was already bloodied by fighting off Lupin far earlier was now having a hard time to stand up properly, then suddenly he was thrown through the air with one big wallop, Sirius hit the forest grounds yet again, he tried to stand up but he collapsed back, as the werewolf progressed menacingly towards him, a huge unmistakable shadow of a bat had covered the light coming from the orb from the sky, the werewolf stepped back and growled at what was causing the shadow, but Sirius didn't have time to think, he stretched his arm on the soil and reached for the potion that Snape had drop, he immediately threw it to the werewolf, it had hit it's chest and just like Lupin the strength of the monster seemed to drain away from it, and just like Lupin, it had ran through the deeper parts of the forest as well.
Sirius forced his self to stand up with great difficulty, even thought he was covered with blood he didn't seem to care, instead, he was busy looking at the sky.
"You're – you're a bat!" said Sirius pointing at Snape like
Snape's lips curled as he saw the puzzled look on Sirius's face, "You see Black, you are not the only person who can turn into an animal, and you didn't think that after I discovered you, Potter and Pettigrew are Animagis that I would let my self get left behind," said Snape
"Geez Snape, I always called you an old grumpy bat, now I can say it and actually mean it," said Sirius
Snape glared at him but Sirius attention was turned up to the sky.
"What are you looking at?" asked Snape suspiciously
"The orb thingy, it's starting to fade," said Sirius, Snape looked up and saw that it was true; the moon like orb that they had accidentally crated was now slowly getting smaller and more transparent
"You're bleeding," said Snape looking at the rest of Sirius clothes
Sirius looked at his self and turned back to Snape," Oh, this? The cuts aren't that deep, don't worry, I'll live," said Sirius
"Pity," said Snape
Sirius placed his hands on his waist and frowned at him, "Hey Snape, when I saw just earlier you really prove me wrong, I thought you could never get any more paler than usual," said Sirius
"Why you insignificant little pest," said Snape "Tell me Black, how's that whole flea community on your fur doing, have you each given them names yet?"
"You should talk, by the way, you should have seen your face earlier, you looked like you were having trouble with your bladder or something, do you need to use the little boys room Seviepuu?" said Sirius
"Oh look at me," said Snape in a high pitched mock voice "I'm a cute little puppy, somebody please come and pet me,"
"So Snape, don't you have to go back to your layer and be with your bat friends?" said Sirius.
"I want to express my admiration for you Black, I loved the way you smell other dogs behinds, but there's one thing, you're still in human form when you do that," said Snape
"I can't believe your Animagus form is a bat, are you sure you didn't turn into a Jackass?" said Sirius
"I'm not even going to answer that, you see bigger men like me tend to walk away rather than take that from the likes of you," said Snape
"What do you mean by the likes of me?" said Sirius
"I knew disadvantaged people like you couldn't understand," said Snape
"Are you saying that I'm a retard or something?" said Sirius
"Oh my, did I say that, if it were me I would have said something harsher," said Snape
"Snape if your hair would get any greasier, it would have probably produced free diesel," said Sirius
"Oh, and if you would get anymore arrogant, you'd start thinking that it rains Leprechauns at August," said Snape
"Come on Snape, you can do better than that," said Sirius "By the way, I didn't know what happened to that chemistry set you always play with back then, what did you do? Did you give them back to your husband?"
"My, my Black, I'm quite surprised that you can say such difficult sentences, doesn't your brain hurt whenever that happens?" said Snape
Harry and the others were now walking along on a long dark Hallway inside the castle; Harry was leading the way as he held his lighted wand up. A few minutes after they had walked at the corridor, Harry suddenly heard something…
"Ouch!"
Harry turned around and got annoyed at what he saw; Draco was holding both Ron and Neville in a headlock. Ron and Neville seemed to be fighting their way for more oxygen.
"What the bloody hell are you three doing!" said Harry
"He called me a wimp," said Ron with difficulty
"Judging by the way you couldn't get yourself out of this situation, I'd say you are," said Draco
"Draco I can't breath," said Neville in a muffled voice
"You three are acting like ten year olds! Could you just focus for one lousy minute," snapped Harry
Draco had let the two go, Ron and Neville quickly gasped for dear life giving air. Harry shrugged; he didn't know what he was going to do with them. After walking through the long corridor, they turned left and followed Harry's lead, they were just steps away from the next turn when they had suddenly heard some voices coming.
"Somebody's coming this way," said Ron
Harry quickly glanced around; there was nothing there to hide them with.
"If only I brought my Dad's invisibility cloak with me," said Harry
"Hang on, I almost forgot," said Neville, he waved his wand and a silvery cloak had appeared on his hands
"That's an invisibility cloak," said Ron
"We'll talk about it later, just get under it," said Harry
Then immediately, the four quickly covered their selves under the cloak just in time, two men had now arrived at where the four were earlier, it was Crabbe and Goyle, Draco's old cronies.
"I'm so bored, Potter's never going to come," said Crabbe
"Don't worry, we can find someway to pass time," said Goyle grinning at him
The two looked at each other, their eyes were staring to another's, whatever this is, Harry didn't like it, he didn't like at all, and then unexpectedly, the worst thing that Harry was dreading to happen HAPPENED! Harry couldn't believe it, the two gorillas kissed! This was unbearable; Harry would have given up anything, and absolutely EVERYTHING just not to be there right now, Harry felt Draco's hand on his shoulder tighten its grip, it was numbing, but after seeing that horrible, horrible scene, he thought that he wouldn't be able to feel anything anymore… anything, Harry could also hear Ron and Neville's breaths become funny, it was like they wanted to scream but all that they can muster was a little gasping noise.
"Please! Please! I would give the ability to see again just stop this right now!" said Harry's mind "I'll do anything just to go blind right now, anything! And I'd like to go deaf too!" he added as he heard the disgusting sound that Crabbe and Goyle's lip lock was making
At last, the two gorillas had separated themselves from one another, they appeared to be proud of what they had done, Harry wouldn't know because he closed his eyes so tightly that it has enough force to crack a walnut, he wouldn't be able to hear them because he held his hands to his ears that it would have done better to squeeze his brain.
Crabbe and Goyle left the spot leaving the Harry, Ron, Draco and Neville dangling by the short threads of sanity. Minutes had passed when the four of them had gathered the strength to move out of the invisibility cloak, they stood there with there mouths hanging, afraid to stat the conversation, they stood still for a couple more minutes before…
"Oh my god!" yelled Draco
"I'd give up anything to erase my mind about that," said Ron weakly
"That was wrong, that was very, very wrong," said Neville who was going paler and paler
"Guys I don't want to talk about this," said Harry
"I think my manhood had been just offended," said Ron
"I think I'm never going to be the same after this," said Neville
"Guys really," said Harry
"No wonder those two were so persistent to get me go and have a shower with them," said Draco in pure disgust
"I feel so filthy, and not in a good way," said Neville
"Please guys, let's not talk about it," begged Harry "Lets change the subject, Neville, where did you get the invisibility cloak again?" asked Harry, keen to make every effort to change the subject
"Uh… um… oh yeah… my dad sent it to me as a present last Christmas," said Neville
"It would be so easier to take a quill and stab my eyes with it," said Draco
"Damn it Draco! Let it go! Please! I'm begging you!" snapped Harry
"It would have been better if it were women instead of those two stooges, and to think that I was always around them," said Draco
"Draco I swear to god if you don't let it go-"
"Okay! Fine, there's no need to be so sensitive," said Draco raising his hands on the air to calm Harry down
"So where to now?" asked Neville
"We probably should split up, the two of us can go ahead while another pair should (Gulp) go and follow Crabbe and Goyle," said Harry sweating madly
"Me and Potter will go on ahead," said Draco quickly
Harry gave a sigh of relief, "Thank you Draco, who ever thought that your way of thinking will prevent us follow those two Homos," though Harry
"What! No! We want to go ahead," said Ron
"We don't want to follow those two freak shows," protested Neville
"Too bad, I almost feel so sorry for you two… almost," said Draco dragging Harry out of there leaving the two unwilling volunteers behind
Harry and Draco had passed a number of hallways before reaching one big wooden door, Draco looked at him and he nodded back, they opened the door slowly, they found a rather large but filthy dining room, Draco urged Harry to go back when they heard voices coming from a door across the room.
Harry rummaged for his pocket instantly, he pulled out what seemed a normal Muggle lighter, he pointed it at the lantern that was placed on the Dining room table, and in an instant, the light coming from the lamp went zooming towards the Put Outer, they waited for the men to arrive at the now dark and murky room before Stunning them.
"Nice Put Outer Potter, where did you get it?" asked Draco
"Moody gave it to me, remember him?" said Harry
"Don't remind me," said Draco frowning at him
"Nothing there," said Harry peaking at the room where the stunned Slytherins came from "I guess they were just raiding the fridge,"
"The what?"
"Never mind," said Harry "C'mon, maybe Ron and Neville found something out by now,"
Just seconds after emerging out of the Dining room, Harry and Draco were threw to the ground by something, but before Harry passed out, he saw a Slytherin pointing his wand at them and he knew he and Draco had just been stunned.
As Snape and Sirius had walked threw the deeper parts of the forest (Still doing nothing but insult each other), they had reached a clearing, they walked around and saw (To Sirius's relief) Lupin lying down naked on the cold ground under a couple of tree roots, but there's only one thing, he was not alone, next to him was a beautiful shoulder length black haired women in her late twenties with her hands enfolded to Lupin, Sirius didn't know why she was also in the nude, but he did the right thing and magically dressed her up with just a flick of his wand, he did the same with his best friend.
A big smile broke on Sirius's face as he looked at the unconscious form of his best friend, "Well, well, at least one of us got lucky this night," said Sirius
"They look like they were busy, honestly, haven't people today hear of Motels," said Snape
"Looks like my friend here just got lucky," said Sirius, at that moment Lupin had gained consciousness
"What happened?" asked Lupin rubbing his temple "And why are you two smiling like idiots? Wait, why are two smiling together?"
And then at that moment the woman that was lying next him sat up rubbing her eyes, the moment Lupin and her eyes met, two high pitch shrieks field the entire forest.
"Oh my goodness!" said Lupin in what seems to be a potential panic attack, without realizing it, his head had wandered on the half naked beautiful woman beside him "OH MY GOODNESSS!"
Even it was dark inside the forest, they could all see the woman blushing shyly and Remus who appeared to have swallowed a skin color alternating potion; meanwhile, his best fiend was laughing madly at him holding his ribs in pain.
"Remus, you little beast you, who's your new little friend?" said Sirius with difficulty in breathing
"Sirius I-I,"
"We try to save you from a fate worst than death and we find you a happy man," said Sirius
"Miss I I I'm so, so, so sorry," said Lupin nervously to the woman, "Cut that out Sirius and help us out!" he snapped at his best friend in a poisonous tone
"Looks like someone got lucky," cooed Sirius
"Look at her chest," said Snape
Lupin absentmindedly followed, when he saw the woman's almost revealed err… upper body, he quickly turned around and apologized again and again to her with the fear of turning his head to her direction.
"Don't be such a pervert Snape, why don't you help me tease Remus some more?" said Sirius
"No, she's wounded at the same area as the second werewolf that had attacked us," said Snape
"What?" asked a clueless Lupin
"She's a werewolf Lupin, just like you" said Snape
Harry woke up and found himself and Draco chained against the wall inside a spooky dark room, he tried to free himself but it was no use, without their wands there was no way to get out of those chains. Harry hoped that Ron and Neville weren't captured with them, for all he knew he and Ron might still be following Crabbe and Goyle around the castle, which was a more horrid situation than he and Draco were in now.
"You don't look too good Potter," came a voice
Harry focused his attention to the figure of a man walking in front of him; it was Derek Dolohov and a couple of sniggering Slytherins.
"You!" Harry heard Draco "Where's Luna?"
"Doesn't really matter really," said Dolohov
"If you even so much as touches her, I swear to god I'm going to nail you to a cross," said Draco through gritted teeth
"You're not in the position to be threatening us moron," said Rookwood who was behind Draco
"When we get out of here the only position you're going to be in is your body lying staggered, face down on the floor DEAD!" said Harry
Draco looked at him and gave a smile "Ooohh, nice one Potter," then turning back to the Slytherins
"Dead man talking," said one of the Slytherins
"Where do you get all those cheesy lines? Is there an evil guide, cheap one-liners book out there that I don't know about?" asked Harry
"No Potter, don't be ridiculous," said Draco "Everybody knows that it comes in a Magazine," Harry stared at him
"Enough of this rubbish!" snapped Dolohov
"Enough of this rubbish," mocked Draco
A few seconds later, the large figures of Crabbe and Goyle had entered the room holding Harry and Draco prisoner.
"Where did you two went off to?" asked Rookwood
"Err… patrolling," said Goyle nervously
"Yeah right," muttered Harry
"You might want to step back Dolohov, because if he puts his hands on your shoulder, then that might mean something else," said Draco
"What?"
"Hey you two, I see that you're both happy and Mary- whoops, I meant Merry," said Draco before giving the air a kiss
"What are you talking about?" asked Rookwood
"Oh, I forgot you don't know a thing because you didn't see them locking lips together at the hallway," said Draco
"Aaahhhh! Don't make me remember!" shouted Harry
Crabbe and Goyle turned scarlet while Dolohov and the others quickly took several steps away from the two.
"Why don't you two keep on patrolling outside just in case," said Dolohov "Separate if possible," he added
"Why Dolohov, does it turn you on a bit?" asked Draco with his vintage grin
"Shut up!" he snapped at him
"Why the hell did you take the girls anyway, well sure it's because you want to lure us here, but why?" asked Harry
"Isn't it obvious Potter? You two were the only ones who dared to humiliate me!" said Dolohov
"Actually, there's a lot of people out there who would dare to humiliate you, they just don't think you're worth the time," said Draco
Dolohov walked towards him and gave Draco a poisonous look.
"You better get out of my face before something bad happens to it," Draco said dangerously
Dolohov just ignored him and turned back to Harry, "Be it as it may, you two should be proud to be here right now,"
"Wait a minute, is this the part were you say 'You are a worthy adversary, I yield to you for now, but before I kill you, I want to tell you all my plans, Blah, Blah, Blah, I suck on an egg'" said Harry
"How dare you speak to me like that!" snapped Dolohov
"Is it me, or does he like using the word 'Dare' a bit?" Draco whispered to Harry
"How dare you insult the next Dark Lord!" bellowed Dolohov
There was a deafening silence that had followed immediately after that on Harry and Draco's side, they have seemed to be taken surprise by what Dolohov had said, something about… about… about…
"The next dark Lord?" said Harry weakly
"That's it? That's the whole big plan? The whole idea of it all? The thing that would make us all tremble in fear?" said Draco in disbelief
Another moment of silence had followed. And then suddenly, Harry and Draco burst into hysterical laughs; their noise filled the whole room they were held in while Dolohov and the other Slytherins had their turn of their own silence.
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard my entire life! (Laughs)" said Harry
"I've seen more surprising things in a funeral!" said Draco
"I've seen more shocking things back in school," said Harry
"(Laughs) hey… hey, do you, do you have a dark mark?" asked Draco with difficulty of breathing
"Maybe your Dark Mark is a drawing of a little pony," said Harry
"A pink pony," said Draco
"A pink cute girly pony," said Harry
"A pink cute girly pony that looks like a baboon with a disfigured face," said Draco
Harry and Draco's eyes met again and burst into laughs, it didn't occur to them that cackling was getting louder and louder by the minute.
"Oh yeah, great Idea, you don't get to be a Dark Lord just because you say you want to be one, you actually have to have talent, real talent, and not the kind of talent that you can hang your spit to your mouth and swallowing it back," said Harry
"Hey, I can do that, here watch…"
"Shut up Draco, how you actually got the idea I'll never know, how did you convince yourself that you can actually do it, I'll never know. What? Just because you have a grudge on us that means you can turn dark master or whatever you want to be, do go on ahead, you can be as dark as you want to be but that doesn't get an I.Q. increase," nagged Harry
(AN Wow! Harry? A nagger?)
"Stop laughing!" bellowed Dolohov who was turning red
"Or what? You'd do the unimaginable horror of setting Crabbe and Goyle on us?" asked Draco
"Stop it Draco! My sides are hurting," cried Harry
"Enough! How dare you insult me! Don't you know what horrors awaits your fates?" bellowed Dolohov
"We'll take our chances," said Harry
Then the whole room was filled by Draco's laughs once more, Dolohov tried several times to speak again but he couldn't quite do it because he was often interfered by the laughs of the two ("You're killing us, (laughs) you're killing us really," said Draco wiping a tear on his shoulder).
"Shut up or I won't tell you where the girls are!" shouted Dolohov
That seemed to do the trick, Harry and Draco had now stopped laughing their guts out and glared at Dolohov, he insultingly smiled at them as if daring them to say something.
"Well, that certainly got your attention," said Dolohov with Draco's usual grin
"Where did you take Hermione?" said Harry "where are they! Tell me!" he demanded
"There's no use on telling you would it, after all, you've drank your last Butterbeer," said Dolohov "This is the day you die,"
"I swear if you did something to Luna I'm going to rip you apart with my own bare hands," said Draco, his gaze as cold as ice
Dolohov and the other Slytherins pointed their wands at Harry and Draco, the two just stood there helplessly.
"Good bye Potter," said Dolohov, but before he could even chant a spell, the light of the room had suddenly vanish, leaving Dolohov and the others confused
"What happened?"
"Who turned off the lights?"
"Where's Potter! I can't see anything,"
"Ouch! You stepped on my foot!"
"Sorry,"
"Turn the lights back on! Hurry,"
In an instant, flashes of jet red light had erupted.
Miraculously, one of the idiots had remembered to use 'Lumos', when he looked around, only Dolohov, Rookwood, and Nott were the only ones he saw standing, he saw the rest lying flat on the floor stunned, when the lights had returned, Dolohov saw Harry and Draco grinning at them by the switch.
"Sorry, we didn't really want to go hard on them, we wanted to do worse," said Draco
"Thanks you two," said Harry behind Dolohov's shoulder
When Dolohov turned around, he saw Neville Longbottom and Ron Weasley standing there with their wands out. Without thinking twice, he, Rookwood, Nott and Moon rushed out of the room, Harry and the others gave chase.
"Why don't we stun them?" asked Ron as they passed an armored statue
"They'll lead us to where Hermione is," said Harry
"Are they that thick?" asked Neville
"Yes," Harry, Draco and Ron answered
Along the corridor, Dolohov and his company took separate ways, he and Rookwood took the left turn while Moon and Nott ran to the right.
"Ron! Neville! You go after Moon and Nott!" said Harry "Me and Draco will go after Dolohov and Rookwood!"
Ron and Neville followed Harry and went after Nott and Moon, Harry and Draco had chased Dolohov and Rookwood to another tower, when Harry and Draco ran inside they saw Dolohov and Rookwood against the wall frightened out of their wits, the reason was a large monster was standing there growling threateningly at them, it was a Sphinx, Harry had recognized it from the one he saw at the Tri-Wizard Tournament, it's long claws were scratching the brick floor while it's tail brandishing behind it like a whip, it's Lion like head was fixed upon the two shivering Slytherins on the wall.
Harry pointed his wand at the monster as Draco went behind it.
"Over here!" shouted Harry trying to distract it "What's the matter, too moody to talk?"
But like it had eyes behind it, it's whip like tail struck Draco sending him smashing to the wall that made him unconscious, for a flitting moment Harry thought that he heard a voice somewhere, but he was too busy to be interrupted by anything at the moment, the Sphinx was now fixated on him, following his every move, as Harry tried to move away from harm's way, he saw an old wooden door behind the Beast.
"It must have been guarding something important inside, but what?… Hermione! But how's that possible, Dolohov is not stupid enough to let something so uncontrollable guard a hostage, something's not right in this picture!" thought Harry
"Get out of the way! I don't have anything to do with you!" yelled Harry
"You are not wanted here stranger, go away while you still can," said the Sphinx
" I need to save my friend," said Harry
"Is a friend more important than your own life?" said the Sphinx
"Yes!" said Harry "And she's… she's more than a friend to me, now please let me through," said Harry
"I could kill you any moment I choose," said the Sphinx
"Well you'll just have to wait, the minute I've made sure that Hermione's alright, then we can talk about that," said Harry stubbornly
"Why is she so important, does she even feel the same way about you as you do about her?" said the Sphinx
Harry stood still gazing upon the monster's eye's, the subject didn't really occur to Harry, after a few minutes he had made his answer.
"Because I love her, and nothing matters more than that, if she does feel the same way or if she doesn't, it won't really make a difference, it won't change the way I feel about her, nothing can change it, not Dolohov, not her Uncle, not anyone, not even you could make me feel otherwise," said Harry
The Sphinx raised its left front leg ready to strike Harry, but Harry had his wand ready at it.
"I'm not allowed to die until I see her," said Harry
The Sphinx didn't attack, instead it smiled at Harry and moved aside, Harry was surprised when he saw the chained figures of Luna, Ginny, Parvati and Hermione on the wall where the wooden door was suppose to be, it must have been some kind of magic that camouflaged the girls, now he knows that Hermione really did call him earlier, Hermione was smiling at him with her cheeks as red as Ginny's hair.
"Hermione!" said Harry
"Harry I—"
"Draco!" said Luna
Harry had almost forgot about Draco, he wheeled around and saw him gaining back consciousness as he sat up.
"Round two," he said massaging the back of his head
"Are you alright?" asked Luna
At those words, Draco looked at Luna and quickly hurried to her; he didn't even notice the giant figure of the Sphinx as he passes it by.
"My love, what have they done to you? Did they hurt you, did they—" Draco didn't got to finish what he was about to when he saw the wound on Luna's cheeks, "Who did that?" he asked her seriously
"Oh nothing, it's just a scratch," said Luna
"Who-did-that?" Draco repeated
"He did," said Luna nervously, nodding at Rookwood's direction
Draco turned around, Harry saw the coldness in his eyes, it was almost like seeing Lucius Malfoy in them, he knew what Draco was going to do so he when he tried to stop Draco, he was knocked down by him.
Draco reached on Rookwood's collar and forced him to get up, he started banging him against the wall, again and again, every time it gets stronger, every time it gets more painful to look at, the four girls watched helplessly while Harry was still at the floor as Draco punishes Rookwood for the unforgivable crime of inflicting pain on Luna.
"Draco stop!" cried Hermione
"You're going to kill him!" said Luna
"That's the Idea," said Draco as he slammed Rookwood on the wall once more, "Give me a reason, give me one good reason why I shouldn't finish you off?"
In fear, Rookwood didn't answer him, this only made Draco angrier, he tightened his grip on Rookwood's collar and slammed him once more against the wall.
"I can be a murderer when I'm really pissed, can you?" Draco asked him
"Draco I said stop it, I don't want you to be like your father," cried Luna
Luna's words seemed to have an effect on Draco, he released Rookwood's collar, but before he would turn around, he gave Rookwood a punch that knocked him out.
"I'm not like my father," said Draco to Luna as he unchained her
A couple of minutes later, Ron and Neville appeared and were met by Parvati and Ginny.
(AN They were stunned to see a giant Sphinx in the room)
"Harry, what's that?" asked a paralyzed Ron while Parvati was still busy squeezing the air out of him
"It's a Sphinx Ron," said Hermione excitedly "I've seen a picture of it from 'Monsters' book of Monsters Grade Seven before,"
"It's one of the Creatures I saw at the Third task at the Tri-Wizard Tournament," said Harry "Don't be surprised,"
"But what if I do this," said the Sphinx, and in an instant, the Sphinx changed itself to a person, it had became Madam Pomfrey
"Madam Pomfrey?" said Hermione
"It can't be," said Harry
"How did it…." said Luna
"But that's impossible," said Ginny
The Sphinx that is now Madam Pomfrey snapped its fingers again, now Harry and the others were staring at Euan Abercrombie.
"Euan!" said Ron
"Hello Harry, I see you got to the others," said the Sphinx that is now in the appearance of Euan
"You were the one who told us that Dolohov kidnapped Hermione and the others," said Harry
"Well I wouldn't have if they weren't so stupid not to leave a note," said Euan, he snapped his fingers once more and to Hermione's surprise, Euan turned into her uncle
"Uncle Waynard!" said Hermione
"You're an-an Metamorphogus," said Luna
"Correct, I'm not surprised that you'd notice, you are a Ravenclaw after all," said Waynard with a bright smile on her
"But why?" asked Neville
"He's been keeping an eye on me haven't you?" said Harry
"Why yes, even before you had disrespectfully yelled at me off that morning, I have been keeping an eye on you since I have arrived at Hogwarts, I've been disguising myself as other students, teachers and sometime I have someone watching you for me," said Waynard
Suddenly, a black feathery figure had flew inside the tower and landed on Waynard's shoulder.
"That's the bloody crow that kept following us earlier," said Ron pointing at the Raven on Waynard's shoulder
"Ah, I've seen you've met Mel, my delivery crow," said Waynard
"He pooped on me!" said Ron glaring at the Raven
"Oh, sorry about that, it's just her way of saying hello," said Waynard
"Why would you do all of this?" asked Hermione
"Oh trust me, I have nothing to do about this, I was just tagging along to see what would Mr. Potter do to save you, and it seems that he has passed," said Waynard
"Passed?" said everyone in unison
"I approve of him," said Waynard
Hermione was now turning slightly red while everyone was cheering for the two ("Nice one Potter!" said Draco).
"Well, now all of that is settled, I think I will go back now, I have some papers to do before I go back to Brighton, you can ride your Brooms back to school, I was the one responsible for your misfortunes at the forest you see," said Waynard, and in one flash, he had Disapparated in front of their eyes
"Your Uncle Is weird Granger," said Draco
"Yeah, like mental," said Ron
"Hey, do you guys hear that? I think someone's coming," said Ginny
Ginny was right, they all heard it too, footsteps were coming from the hall they came in, they all gripped their wand at the ready when they saw the three men dash inside.
"Professor Lupin! Professor Black!" said Parvati
"Professor Snape," said Draco
They all looked at their appearances, they clothes were ripped in every corner, dirt was on their skins and their hair was too untidy, it made Harry's hair look like a nice clean cut.
"Are you all alright?" asked Lupin
"What happened?" asked Sirius
"Explain yourselves!" demanded Snape
"It's alright Professors, the Slytherins are taken care of, the rest of them might still be stunned downstairs," said Luna
"What happened to you guys anyway?' asked Harry
"Nothing Harry, it's just err… we decided to take a little detour that's all," said Lupin
"Are you guys alright?" asked Sirius
"Yes Professor, in fact, we were about to go back to Hogwarts," said Ginny
"We're going to fly?" asked Hermione with a worried look
"Oh, then I guess we'll see you there, we're just going to stay a while and take care of the Slytherins," said Sirius
"What are you all waiting for? The day of reckoning? Go!" said Snape
Harry, Ron, Neville and Draco conjured their Brooms and mounted on it with the girls along with them (It took a while before all seven of them could convince Hermione to come). They kicked off to the air and soared across the night sky.
"Well, I'm glad that's all over," said Lupin as he watched them fly
"Remus has a girlfriend! Remus has a girlfriend! Remus has a girlfriend!" Sirius sang over and over
"I said stop it! I don't have a girlfriend!" snapped Lupin
"No he doesn't, all he has is one hot babe in his hands," said Snape
"What!"
As Harry and the others were enjoying the flight back (Except Hermione) he somehow felt that Hermione was about to say something.
"Harry," said Hermione
"What is it Hermione?' asked Harry hopefully wishing that she was about to say something about them
"Nothing," said Hermione, that made Harry's stomach feel empty inside, but then again Hermione called his name once more
"What is it?" he asked again
Hermione had reached for Harry's neck and pulled him towards her, she then gave him a kiss, when they have separated, they were both smiling at each other.
"Thanks for rescuing me," said Hermione
"Anytime," said Harry through a breath
AN Oh my god I'm finally done! Only a few more chapters to go, I would like to thank all of my reviewers specially Babyruth. Thank you all for waiting for some period of times, I just want to make sure that it would live up to your expectations or it would be close. I'm sorry I can't all your names particularly there's so many (blush) anyway, the story is coming to a close, hope you guys still watch out for my updates, I know they take so long, I'm just really haggard right now. Luv you all.
Muggleborn