Title: Harry Potter and the Ancient God King
By Nopporn Wongrassamee
Summary: The new DADA teacher is something else. Harry and the gang want to know what.
Disclaimer: All properties belong to their respective owners who I am too lazy to look up and list.
Author's Note: Yeah, yeah, HBP has officially rendered this AU. So sue me… Wait! Don't sue me!
Part 16 – Getting an Eyeful
As he approached the street, Harry came across a dozen students huddled at the mouth of the alley just off the street. They included Ron and Hermione as well as several other members of the DA.
"What's going on?" Harry asked as he trotted up.
"There's some… thing out there," Ron replied. "It's been hexing everyone left and right, demanding…"
A roar from the street interrupted him. "BRING ME THE OLD ONE AND I WILL SPARE YOUR WORTHLESS LIVES!"
"…that," Ron concluded.
"Old one?" Harry said. "It must mean Dumbledore."
"That's what we thought," Hermione said grimly. "It's already petrified several people when it got an answer it didn't like. And it seems to be resistant to spells too."
Harry leaned over to take a quick peak around the corner. There in the middle of the street was the strangest creature he had ever seen. Being a wizard, that was saying something. It was a globular sack of greenish flesh hovering some five feet above the cobblestones. Its face – if it could be called that – was dominated by a gargantuan, bloodshot eye with a drooling mouth filled with scraggly, rotting teeth under it. Five tentacles protruded from the top, the end of each holding an eyeball of its own.
One of the small eyes looked in Harry's direction. Harry immediately jerked back, narrowly avoiding a hex that reduced a chunk of wall behind him into so much goo.
"What the hell is that thing?" Harry asked, shaken.
"I don't know," Hermione replied. She shook her head in frustration. "I don't recall ever seeing anything like that in any Wizarding book."
"Luna?" Harry asked, spotting the girl among the assembled students. If it wasn't in any of Hermione's books, maybe it was one of things Luna Lovegood believed in that most everyone discounted as myth.
"Sorry," Luna said. She seemed disturbed. "I've never heard of anything like it." Luna brightened, then turned to Collin Creevey. "This is wonderful. I'm sure father would pay cash for an exclusive picture of it."
Creevey fumbled with his camera, his eyes practically lighting up with dollar signs.
"So we have no idea what it is?" Harry sighed, while Collin fumbled with his camera.
"It's a Beholder."
All eyes turned to Dean Thomas. Studywise, Dean was not an exceptional student. No one had ever noticed that he was especially studious or that he had anything like Luna's esoteric interests.
"I saw it in a book once," Dean added, a bit embarrassed at the attention.
"How do you know that?" Hermione demanded. It seemed that she was a bit put out that there was some worthy book that she hadn't read.
If anything, Dean looked even more embarrassed. "My dad," he mumbled. "He plays Dungeons and Dragons. I saw the Beholder in one of his books."
"What!" Hermione squawked indignantly. "Are you saying that creature came from a Muggle role playing game?"
"A what?" Ron asked. Several other Wizard raised kids were also looking a bit confused.
"Never mind that," Harry interrupted before Hermione could give a lecture – or a rant – on the subject. "Dean, how do we stop it?"
"I have no idea," Dean replied. "It's been years since I've seen that book. All I can remember is that those eyestalks each cast a different spell and, ah…" Dean trailed off, looking at something behind Harry. In fact, everyone was looking at something that was behind Harry.
With the sensation of his stomach sinking into his toes, Harry turned around to find the Beholder hovering just behind him. His head was just about level with the Beholder's mouth, not a comfortable place to be.
"WHERE IS THE OLD ONE!" the Beholder bellowed in Harry's face. Its breath stank, too. Its eyestalks were all trained on Harry.
As Harry whipped out his wand, everything seemed to slow down. He could actually see the Beholder's eyes start to glow as they cast whatever spells it had. Even as he brought his wand to bear and opened his mouth to speak, Harry knew the Beholder was going to cast first.
FLASH!
The light from Collin's camera was practically at point blank range, especially given the Beholder's large eye. The flash was bright enough and a complete surprise, causing the Beholder to flinch and squeeze its eyes shut for a moment. Curses in the middle of being cast went off course, raining harmlessly into the ground around Harry.
Harry, his back to Collin, was not so affected.
The Beholder had its big eye closed for only an instant. As the massive lid peeled back open, Harry cast his Hex straight at it. Had Harry time to think, he would have been gambling that the Beholder was like dragons; although resistant to magic, the eyes of a dragon were a weak spot. The Beholder had one very large eye. It made such a perfect target.
Apparently, all of Harry's friends agreed with him. Harry's own spell was followed by a dozen other curses.
The Beholder did not last long.
The teachers would scold them for putting their lives in danger. The Aurors would be miffed that a bunch of school children had done what they could not. Closet Death Eaters and would-be dark wizards would look on and furiously reevaluate how dangerous to their plans these kids were. Others, the average wizard and witch on the street, would take this as further proof that the Boy Who Lived was the Wizarding World's champion. But all that would come later.
Before all the rest, Professor Burkle was the first adult to reach them. Without looking at any of the students, she walked up to the steaming, shapeless pile that used to be the Beholder and looked down at in contempt.
"Adequate," she said disdainfully.
Without another word, she turned and strolled away, leaving behind a dozen baffled teenagers.