Chapter 6
A/N: Haha! I live! And this time, the Doom Slayer has arrived in the wizarding world of "Harry Potter." Time to make some magic happen! To be honest, I had been toying with using this universe due to the massive difference in genre and style that the two franchises appeal to, but I figured there are plenty of beasts and evil creatures for the Doom Slayer to have fun with. I might consider doing more stories in the "Harry Potter" universe if it clicks well with the audience, but we will see. Either way, be sure to let me know what you thought! Also, I own none of this!
Harry paused to shake mud from his boot before continuing down the path. On his left, Ron and Hermione did the same. Harry heard Ron mutter under his breath about his boots being brand new. Hermione said nothing, she seemed more focused on making sure her camera was in working order.
"Remind me again what we are doing out in the middle of nowhere?" Ron asked, looking up from his boots.
"I told you, Ronald," Hermione answered with a roll of her eyes. "The Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures received an anonymous tip that someone was illegally breeding dragons out here. As a high-ranking member of the Department, such an important case has been passed on to me. If someone has really been breeding dragons illegally, who knows how many there could be out here? We've seen the damage just one can do, Harry more than anyone!"
"Right, dear," Ron said. "But then why are we out here by ourselves instead of with half the Ministry at our backs?"
"Because Ron…" Harry spoke. "This is purely a scouting mission. We don't know if anything is actually out here. If we come charging out here with a full batch of Aurors, and it turns out to be nothing, then we wasted all our resources on nothing, haven't we?"
"Possibly numerous dangerous dragons with no backup…got it," Ron said, grumpily kicking at a pebble in his path.
Harry understood Ron's unhappiness. The large forest they were walking through was certainly beautiful to look at, but the rain the night before had turned the ground into a thoroughly muddy mess. The overcast sky also didn't help the dour mood, giving everything a slightly grayish tint in color. The three of them had forgone apparating to their location due to the attention it would draw, and Harry tried not to miss the convenient mode of transportation as he trudged on.
"There!" Ron said excitedly, pointing through the thick trees.
The foliage was so dense that Harry could hardly see anything, but when he looked further, he could see the outline of a cabin appear a little way off the path. The cabin wasn't very large, certainly not something a dragon could fit in, but it was certainly worth a look.
The three of them turned off the path and started toward the cabin. The going was slow due to constant waist-high plants impeding their path. Ron muttered his disdain again, but Hermione shushed him, as they didn't want to alert to anyone that they were coming.
Reaching the door of the cabin, the trio shared a look before Harry reached out and knocked sharply against the wooden door. Silence followed. None of them heard any rustling from within, no voices, or no locks unlocking.
Harry knocked again, and still no answer came.
"Perhaps they're asleep?" Hermione ventured quietly.
"HELLO IN THERE!" Ron shouted, causing Hermione to flinch and smack Ron in the arm.
"Ouch…" Ron said, rubbing his now tender arm.
"What did I say, Ron?!" Hermione hissed at him through gritted teeth.
"Just trying to help us along is all," Ron said, deflated.
Deciding that keeping quiet was no longer an option, Harry reached out and tried the door handle.
Locked.
Producing his wand from within his robes, Harry pointed at the lock.
"Alohomora," Harry said clearly. There was a metallic clicking from inside the lock for a moment, then the handle turned, and the door opened slowly.
Harry spared a glance at the others before pushing through the door and into the cabin. Ron and Hermione followed behind him. Inside, the cabin appeared to be nothing extraordinary. There was a living room with a few chairs and a coffee table, a kitchen with everything one might expect in it, and what appeared to be a small dining room. Beyond that was a door leading out the back of the cabin, and to the side was another door that Harry supposed led to a bedroom of sorts.
Walking cautiously, wand at the ready, Harry made his way over to the bedroom door. Slowly, Harry turned the knob and pushed the door inward, revealing the room beyond. Inside, Harry's suspicious were confirmed true.
In addition to a bed in the corner of the small bedroom, there were tables and shelves stacked with parchment with hasty scribbled-notes filling the pages. More parchment hung from the walls, drawings and schematics of dragons pictured on nearly all of them. Glancing around the room, Harry saw that there was enough evidence to put someone away for a very long time. Harry turned back to Ron and Hermione, who had followed him through the door.
"I think we can call that backup now."
A loud rumbling suddenly came from outside the house, and the three of them turned to the source of the noise. It had come from the back of the property, and Harry did not want to entertain any vile possibilities that the noise could have come from.
"Right then!" Ron said whipping out his wand with haste. "Let's get that batch of Aurors!"
Harry and Hermione watched as Ron then…stayed where he was. There was no crack, no sudden disappearance, no whip of wind as the apparition occurred. Ron stayed right where he was. After a few moments, Ron seemed to realize that he was still in the cabin, and a confused and slightly panicked look appeared on his face.
"You feeling ill, Ron?" Harry asked.
Ron gave his wand a frantic shake, then really began to panic.
"It's not working! I can't apparate!"
Harry and Hermione both pulled out their wands and attempted to apparate as well to no avail. There must have been some protective charms placed on the cabin to prevent anyone from apparating in or out.
The rumbling noise came again. Harry heard the walls of the cabin slightly shake in response. Even the cabin itself seemed nervous as to what was out there.
Slowly, Harry walked out of the bedroom and to the back door of the cabin.
"Are you mad!?" Ron whispered as Harry placed his hand on the door handle. Harry spared him a look, then cautiously opened the door and stepped outside.
The scene out the back door of the cabin proved to be not much different than the front. The back yard of the cabin was a small clearing barely larger than the cabin itself. Around the small clearing, the forest foliage resumed its thick and robust presence.
Harry scanned the area as Ron and Hermione emerged from the cabin behind him. Harry couldn't see anything past the trees and plants at the edge of the clearing. All was still.
Then the trees at the far end of the clearing exploded, and out through the hole emerged the largest dragon Harry had ever seen. It was even larger than the dragon that had been guarding the Lestrange vault in Gringotts, which was a difficult feat to math. The dragon itself appeared to be mostly black in color, except for on its legs and its face, which melted into a pale white color. Harry caught a sense of familiarity before Hermione roughly shoved him out of the way as the dragon roared and breathed fire at the trio.
Harry stumbled for a moment, but then picked up the pace as the heat of the flames licked at his robes. The cabin had been right in the way, and the old wood had easily caught, rendering the structure in flames in a matter of seconds. The three of them quickly jumped behind the nearest tree as the dragon roared again. It's roar sounded like a deep yowling that reverberated through Harry's entire being.
The three of them cringed at the noise from behind the tree, and Hermione turned to face them.
"It's worse than I thought!" she shouted over the roaring flames of the cabin. "That is the first successful hybrid between a Ukrainian Ironbelly and a Hungarian Horntail!"
"Horntail!?" Ron said back. "You mean the most temperamental of dragons?!"
"And the Ukrainian Ironbelly! The largest species of dragon!" Hermione yelled back.
"Just our bloody luck! Why do you keep doing this to us, Harry!?" Ron grabbed Harry by the shoulders and shook him violently.
Ron's outburst was cut short as the dragon ripped the tree they were hiding behind straight out from the ground. The trio stumbled backward as the dragon threw the tree to the side with its powerful jaws. It then growled and lunged for them.
Harry prepared to roll to the side, but Hermione already had her wand at the ready.
"Reducto!"
A bright flash erupted from the tip of Hermione's wand and exploded against the hybrid dragon's snout. The creature roared in pain and reeled backward. Giving Harry just enough time to roll over and dash to the dragon's rear. As long as Harry stayed behind the creature, he was in its blind spot. Ron and Hermione dashed after him.
The dragon recovered from Hermione's well-placed spell and looked around for its prey. Harry stood perfectly still behind the creature as it looked from left to right. While dragons had always been some of the most dangerous creatures in the world, a recent discovery had unearthed that the safest spot from a dragon was behind it. Because despite having a rather high amount of intelligence, for some reason, dragons often refused to look behind themselves. It had no logical or magical explanation, but that did not stop Harry from being eternally grateful for it at this moment.
The gargantuan dragon then sniffed the air, then turned its head and looked directly at the three of them.
Harry stood frozen in fear and shock as their best line of defense had just been shattered against the beast before them. So much for that plan. The dragon growled yet again, but Harry could not will himself to move as the beast turned around and prepared to strike.
Suddenly, a violent burst of blue light exploded in front of the dragon, and both human and beast were temporarily blinded by the light as a loud bang resounded through the clearing.
Harry blinked rapidly and looked to the source as the light faded suddenly. Directly between the trio and the dragon now stood a figure. The figure was wearing a dark green armor with a helm to match, and at first sight, Harry thought the figure looked like one of the suits of armor that stood in the hallways of Hogwarts. Upon closer inspection, Harry saw that the suit was indeed a different style, and though it did bear resemblance to the suits that Harry was accustomed to, this one seemed different. It seemed to be made of a combination of metal and other materials, and Harry remembered that he had indeed seen something like this in some children's action comics from the muggle world. Muggles themselves had always been fascinated with men from space and heroes wearing futuristic armor to save them. This suit matched that description perfectly.
The suit was facing the three of them, and Harry saw it take in the sight of the three of them.
Harry stared dumbfounded at the suit in return, but his attention was quickly diverted to the massive dragon that had recovered behind it. The dragon saw the suit standing in front of it as well, and Harry barely had time to yell out a warning before the dragon grabbed the suit in its jaws and swallowed it whole.
Hermione screamed from behind him, and the dragon turned to them again, seemingly not satisfied from its snack from earlier.
Harry scrambled backward as the dragon lumbered towards them, but he abruptly stopped as the dragon stumbled and began making hacking noises deep in its throat. A muffled boom came from inside the dragon, and the beast began making many grotesque noises with its mouth as it struggled to breathe.
"Is it…is it choking?" Ron asked in disbelief.
His question was answered as another boom sounded from within the dragon's throat, and this time, the dragon retched hard and spat out the suit of armor it had swallowed a few seconds ago.
The suit stood up, its armor now slick with the dragon's blood and digestive juices.
"Bloody hell!" Ron said behind harry, who was also in disbelief at what he was seeing.
Harry noticed that the suit had no sword or shield, but it was now carrying what appeared to be an item made of wood with two metal cylinders protruding out the end. With a start, Harry realized that it was a shotgun. It had been at least a decade since he had seen one. Uncle Vernon had attempted to threaten Hagrid with it, but Hagrid had easily broken the weapon. But in the suit's hands, the weapon appeared quite a bit more formidable.
As if to emphasize the point, the dragon roared in pain and blood dripped from its mouth. Its own blood. It growled at the suit, baring its teeth and preparing to attack again. In response, the suit opened the shotgun and placed two more cartridges into the chamber. Then in one smooth motion, the suit brought the weapon up and fired the weapon at the dragon. This time, the weapon only seemed to agitate the dragon even more, as the pellets from the blast bounced harmlessly off of the dragon's metallic scales.
The dragon then breathed fire at the suit, which jumped into a roll just in time to avoid the searing hot flames. As the suit stood up again, Harry was startled to see that it was now holding what Harry could only guess was another firearm. It was larger than the shotgun, and it glowed and whirred mysteriously.
Harry was suddenly grabbed by his shoulder. He looked and saw Ron pulling him to the tree line.
"Let's go! While its distracted!"
Harry glanced back to the suit just in time to see it fire its new weapon. A blue beam shot forth from it and struck the dragon on the side of its face. The dragon's head snapped to the side from the force, and when Harry looked closely, he could see that the dragon now had a large metal rod stuck between its scales.
"C'mon Harry!" Hermione yelled.
Harry turned and ran with the others as he heard the suit's weapon go off again. Harry heard the dragon scream in agony as they reached the nearest trees.
"Wait!" Harry yelled, stopping in his tracks.
"Wait?! For that monster to eat us?!" Ron yelled whirling around to Harry.
"We have to help! We can't let that dragon escape!"
"I'd say that suit is doing just fine on its own!" Ron said back. As if on cue, the suit came crashing through the trees just to their left, breaking branches and trunks alike as it sailed into the ground. Ron shook his head in defeat.
"If we die here, I'm gonna kill you, Harry!" Ron said before drawing his wand.
The three of them turned and ran over to where the suit was picking itself up from the ground. A plan was already forming in Harry's mind, but it wouldn't work if the suit was unaware of it. Most animated objects couldn't communicate, but Harry had to try and convey his plan.
"Listen!" Harry said throwing his arms up. "Its skin is too difficult to penetrate on the outside. Let us try to stun it, then you can fire into its soft points!"
Harry was relieved when the suit nodded back to Harry before pulling out yet another weapon. This one was big as well, but Harry sensed it was fundamentally different from the weapon it had used just moments before. It then ran back to the clearing, Harry, Ron and Hermione following close behind.
The suit burst through the clearing and began firing its new weapon, which appeared to shoot fireworks, or what the deadly equivalent of fireworks were. Rockets. That's right. It fired rockets. And each time the rocket made contact with the dragon, it exploded violently, staggering the beast and charring its scales. This angered the dragon even more, and the beast turned away from Harry, Ron, and Hermione to swipe at the suit.
"Harry!" Hermione said. "We don't have nearly enough wand power to stun it, even for a moment!"
"I know, but we have to try something!" Harry said. The dragon swiped at the suit again, and the metal man jumped out of the way just in time. Harry's mind raced to come up with a solution.
"Ok! On three, use a binding spell on the legs!" Harry shouted over the exploding rockets and dragon's roars. The three of them raised their wands to the dragon's hind legs.
"1…2…3!"
"Incarcerous!" The three of them shouted in unison.
Ropes shot from each of their wands, and quickly found their mark around the dragon's hind legs before the beast could move again. The ropes wound themselves around the dragon's legs and began winding tighter and tighter, and the dragon bellowed before losing its balance and falling to the ground. Its head crashed into the dirt as it fell forward, and the suit wasted no time. The shotgun was in its hands again, and the suit jumped up on to the dragon's head, grabbing on of the massive horns that protruded from the dragon's head to steady itself as the dragon weakly tried to shake it off.
With its shotgun hand, the suit cocked its arm back, then jammed the business end of the shotgun straight into one of the dragon's massive eyes, puncturing through the eyeball and into the socket. The dragon bellowed in agony and shook its head wildly, blood spurting forth and dripping from the wound. The suit then fired the shotgun, end still crammed into the socket. The dragon abruptly stopped roaring and twitched once before falling completely still. Dead.
With a heave, the suit wrenched the shotgun from the dead beast's eye. Harry caught a good look at the hole and saw that in addition to the penetration into the socket, the blast from the shotgun had pierced into the skull and had likely liquified the beast's brain.
Hermione gagged for a moment and stepped to the side as she and Ron saw the damage that had been done. The suit itself was standing next to the dragon's dead head, seemingly examining the charred and mangled corpse.
The trio walked up to the suit.
"Blimey," Ron said as he eyed the shotgun in the suit's hands. "We could really use some of those at the ministry."
"Ron!" Hermione wheezed, still trying to control her stomach. "These weapons can kill people! They're dangerous! Plus, you don't even know how to use one!"
Ron didn't seem to even be listening to her.
"Bloody hell, Hermione! Does every muggle have one of these? Do you think they'd let me have one?"
"Ron!"
"Hey guys," Harry interrupted forcefully. "Save it."
He turned back to the suit. Up close, the metal armor was actually quite intimidating, and Harry felt an almost overwhelming determination emanating from the figure in front of them.
"Well, I don't know who you are, or really what you are, but…thank you. For helping us out I mean." Harry turned back to the cabin, which was still burning. "We wouldn't have been able to fight that dragon on our own, but I think we can take it from here."
The suit examined the three wizards before it, then to the dragon's carcass at its feet. It then turned back and gave a thumbs up to Harry, Ron, and Hermione before a blue light flashed and a loud bang rang out. Then it was gone.
"This is going to be a lot of paperwork isn't it?" Ron asked, his shoulders slumping as he looked from the dragon to the burning cabin.
"Don't worry, Ron," Harry said with a slight smirk. "We will say that you killed the dragon with a lucky shot to the eye. You'll be a hero. A dragon-slayer."
Ron seemed to perk up as Harry spoke. His smile growing more and more.
Hermione frowned at Harry and frowned before shaking her head and turning to check her camera.
Harry tried to fight back a laugh as he saw that the machine was completely charred and destroyed on the ground nearby.