Chapter 8

'What on Earth is it?' Ron shouted to his brother as George ducked back down, narrowly escaping another barrage of what looked like lightning that slammed into the wall.

'It kind of looks familiar,' George replied loudly from his hunkered down position behind his wall, 'I'm sure I read about them somewhere. I can't remember specifics but I'm pretty sure the book said that they were highly dangerous.'

'Highly dangerous!' Ron exclaimed, 'thanks for the warning I doubt we could have worked that one out for ourselves!'

'Hang on,' George frowned, 'most magical creatures have some kind of weakness; we just have to work out what this things is and exploit it. Hey, how did you guys get past that three-headed dog again?'

'We were going to play it some soothing music,' Harry explained as Ron peaked over the wall causing the creature to fire off another bolt of lightning, 'except Quirrel had already done it by the time we had got there.'

'I guess it's worth a try,' George reasoned before jumping up and singing, 'Hogwarts, Hogwarts hoggy hoggy Hogwarts…'

George dropped down quickly on all fours just as a fresh lightning bolt came shooting over the wall, the bolt was followed by what looked like some kind of green sludge that slopped against the brickwork and slowly oozed down.

'Yeah I think we can discount soothing music as a tactic,' George said across to the other two, 'oh and it turns out that that thing has two heads, hence the goo,' he pointed to the green gunk now pooling at the bottom of the wall.

'So now what?' asked Harry wrinkling his nose as the funny odour emanating from the sludge, 'we can't just sit here while it takes pot-shots at us.'

'Lets just return the favour,' George held up his wand, 'these walls seem to be able to protect us, so I say we just fire off some spells at the thing and hopefully one of them will stop it. Ready?'

Harry got his wand out, as Ron did the same, both held onto them tightly as they prepared themselves. All the spells Harry had learnt during the year flicked through his memory as he tried to work out which one, if any, would be able to cause some damage to a creature that could fire lighting bolts out of its mouth.

'NOW!' shouted George leaping up from behind the wall and letting off a spell.

Harry followed suit, bringing his wand up, as he stood upright. The sight of the creature almost made him forget to cast his spell. It was a large beast, probably about the height of Hagrid and almost as wide too. Standing on it's hind legs it look a lot like a bear, if in this instance a bear happened to be covered in large scales, had two heads and a long snake like tail with a nasty looking curled spike on the end. Each head was identical, and had a very serpent-like appearance, except for the fact that each only had one eye in the dead centre and the long horn protruding from the end of snout.

Harry cast the first spell that came into his head. Magic shot out of the end of his wand and closed in on its intended target. George's spell was the first to hit home; it glanced off of the chest of the beast and ended up striking the wall. Ron's attempt was much worse and didn't even come close to hitting the creature, although if it had done it was unlikely to have caused it much trouble seeing as Ron had also cast the first spell that came into his head. The unlocking spell might be useful when dealing with a door, it's not so useful when a two-headed lightning bolt firing beast is concerned.

Harry's spell struck the beast in the dead centre of its body. His triumphant cry was cut short as his spell was rebounded by the scaly armour of the creature and fired straight back at him. His legs seized up as the Leg-Lock Curse took hold and he fell back landing hard on the stone floor.

'You alright?' Ron asked as he performed the counter-curse.

'Yeah, thanks,' Harry replied rubbing his shoulders after he could move his legs properly once again.

'Ok boys, I think I've remembered a bit more about this thing,' George called over, 'those scales on its front give it an immunity to magic so it'll rebounded our spells.'

'Really?' came Ron's retort, 'you don't think you could have remembered that a bit sooner? Like maybe just before we cast a load of spells at it?'

'What I meant to say, before you started getting all high-pitched Ron,' explained George, 'is that as far as I can remember those scales only cover its front. If we can get it to turn around we can fire spells at itsexposed back.'

'Oh well if that's all we have to do,' Ron snorted before raising his voice, 'excuse me Mr Two-Headed Beast, could you please turn around for us?' he had a quick look over the top of the wall then glanced over at his brother, 'you know I don't think it is going to.'

'Anyway,' George said ignoring his younger sibling, 'there area number of these walls dotted around the room that I can use for cover. I'll try to distract it and you two hit it with some spells when it turns its back.'

'Good idea… well actually it isn't, but it's the best one we have,' Harry corrected himself, 'except I think me or Ron should do the distracting and you should try hitting it with spells.'

'Are you crazy?' Ron whispered urgently, 'did you not get a good look at that thing?'

'I'm just saying that we might only get one chance to hit it with a spell,' Harry reassured his friend, 'and of all of us George will know the more powerful ones so he'll have a better chance of stopping that thing.'

'Unless of course there happens to be a locked door on itsback, then it's all yours little brother. Ok I'll cast the spell, you just be careful,' warned George.

Harry waited for George to get prepared and then he slowly edged his head up over the parapet of the wall. As he studied the layout of the room his eyes occasionally flicked up, distracted by the beast. He'd missed what the room looked like previously, as he had been somewhat preoccupied with dodging the lightning and sludge provided by the room's host. There were four doors out of the room, including the one they came in through, within the room dotted around at varying angles were walls similar to the one Harry was hiding behind. In the centre was a large circular pedestal on which the creature stood. As long as Harry kept low and behind the walls he would be safe.

Harry moved, using a slight crab-like waddle, passed Ron and over to the far side of their wall. He could see the next closest wall to him; it was straight in from of him. He would be exposed for a couple of seconds but he knew he was fast enough to make it. With one last nod to George, Harry sprang forward.

Hedived towards the wall and safety. His heart pounding hard in his chest he leaned back against the wall and looked at the stone floor he had just sprinted across, right in the middle was a blob of green slime next to a singed flagstone.

'Well done Harry,' shouted George, 'you just need to get further around the room so he turns around more.'

Harry nodded at the instructions and peaked over the top of the wall to work out his next destination. There was another wall to the far right; it was a further distance then the last one so he was going to be exposed for much longer.

'George, I don't think I'll be quick enough to make it across,' Harry worried.

'No problem Harry,' came the reply, 'I'll make a distraction over here and when it firing at me you can dash across to the other wall.'

'Ok, on the count of three,' Harry waited for George to give him a thumbs up to say he was prepared, 'ready? One… two… three…'

'Hey! Over here you great ugly brute!' George shouted whilst bouncing up and down as he waved his arms wildly.

As beast turned it's attention to George, Harry made his move. In his haste he slipped slightly on the stone floor but recovered quickly, closing the gap to the next wall swiftly. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the creature turn one of its heads in his direction and he instinctively went into a dive, rolling roughly behind the wall as green goo erupted from the beast's mouth.

Harry gave a loud sigh of relief as he caught his breath back, it was only then he realised that there was something wrong. Ron was calling out to his older brother but there was no response.

'Ron, what's wrong?' called Harry.

'It's George,' replied Ron desperately, 'when he ducked back down he smacked his head off of the wall and well… knocked himself out.'

'So he's safe?' Harry clarified.

'Yeah, just unconscious… I don't believe it,' Ron's astounded voice echoed around the room, 'I think he's snoring.'

'Ok it looks like you are going to have to be the one the cast the spells,'

'But why me?' asked Ron, 'we both know you are better them then me.'

'Well its either that or you get to be the bait,' explained Harry.

'You know I've always enjoyed the spell casting part of being a wizard,' Ron said hurriedly

'Er… there is one more thing you'll need to do,' Harry said cautiously.

'Yeah?' came Ron's sceptical response.

'It's just that the next wall is a bit far off again,' Harry knew Ron wasn't going to like the next thing he had to say, 'so… you're going to have distract it like George did.'

'Distract it? Like George did?'

'Yeah.'

'This would be the same George who is currently unconscious?'

'To be fair the beast didn't knock him out, the wall did,' Harry said in what he hope was a reassuring voice.

'Fine.' Ron conceded, 'I guess we don't have much choice. On the count of three then, ready?'

'One… two… three,' they counted in unison.

'Hey over here,' cried Ron matching his brother's earlier bouncing and arm waving, 'you smelly two-headed…arrghh!'

Ron's reactions hadn't been as fast as his brother's. The beast had fired a bolt of lightning straight at him and although it struck the top of the wall there was still enough power in the blast to fling Ron back across the room. He landed heavily on the ground and crumpled to the floor.

Harry watched all this in horror before he realised that he had stopped moving. He managed to turn his head in time to see a sea of green liquid bearing down on him. Harry threw his arms up to protect his face and the force of the wave threw him against the wall. His glasses were knockedfrom his face as he collided against the stone and they fell away to the ground. However Harry didn't fall as well because the green sludge had stuck him to the wall. It took him a few seconds to realise what happened, and when he did he tried as hard as he could to free himself, but it was like he had become enveloped in superglue. Only his feet and his face weren't covered in the sticky foul smelling substance, the sides of his head were also covered causing his hearing to be muffled. Harry desperately writhed and wriggled trying to break free from its grasp.

THUD!

Harry looked up, through his blurred vision he could see the outline of the beast, it had jumped off of it's pedestal in the centre of the room and was slowly approaching Harry. As it got closer and closer Harry's attempts to escapes became more frantic. Soon the rotten smell of the creature invaded Harry's nose almost causing him to gag. Harry could feel the goo giving way a bit as he moved his feet back and forth. The beast was standing right in front of him. It stopped. Harry waited…and waited. But the creature just stood there not moving an inch.

Then it very slowly toppled over, and collapsed on the floor. A confused Harry could see that there was a shape standing behind where the beast had been, but without his glasses it was nothing more then a shaky outline.

'Thanks mate,' Harry said gratefully.

'No problem Harry,' said a familiar voice, 'and what do you mean 'mate'? I'm sure we had all agreed that I was to be called Sir Fred.'