As soon as he could, Harry dragged Abdul back to his tent to discuss Lockhart. "I think he's up to something," he said.

"He's a prat but I can't see him do anything serious," Abdul said. "We see his type lots. Big boasters coming through to bag some exotic game but they're nearly always harmless."

"So you don't think he could be the Animagus?"

"I'll eat his silly hat if he is. Deon said he'd been lost for a few days. What wizard can't Apparate himself back to civilisation? He's an idiot."

Despite thinking all of that, Abdul was very much interested in following the newcomer under Harry's cloak—because who wouldn't want to play with an invisibility cloak?—and the two of them set off to spy on him. Outside, Abdul pointed Harry to the hard-packed earth and whispered that they should only walk there, not to leave tracks. He doubted Lockhart would see them, but they didn't want to be exposed by the rest of the camp, did they?

They found him with Sam, talking the tracker's ears off about an award he had received for his smile. Sam was trying his best not to look as incredulous as Harry and Abdul felt. The two of them had no problem pulling faces under the cloak.

Sam finally managed to extricate himself from the wizard, saying he heard his name called. Did Harry imagine him looking straight at them? Surely not, they were as quiet as mice. Nothing happened, and Lockhart seemed intent on taking a walk to the river so Harry and Abdul followed him through to the small hill Harry had sat on earlier the morning. From there you had a good vantage point on the whole valley. But Lockhart seemed to think it was better to walk around, taking the long way, through the tall elephant grass.

Erumpents had tunnelled a narrow path through the sharp grass, the over two-metre tall blades bending to form a canopy overhead, and Lockhart followed this, the tip of his violet hat barely touching the grassy ceiling. They slipped in after him, careful to walk lightly on the crunching vegetation but they needn't have bothered, Lockhart was making enough noise for ten.

It instantly felt like they were submerged in a green river and Harry shivered. Abdul's warm shoulder next to him helped ground him and he did his best not to think of the previous night but instead concentrated on what Deon had told him and Charlie about the grass. It looked more like reeds than grass but it was actually a grass that was extremely tough and had sharp edges that would cut you if you brushed against it. Erumpents had no such worries with their thick skin and often made tunnels through it that they and other animals used.

An invasive species the grass covered nearly forty percent of Tanzania's highlands, and according to Deon part of the reason they were camping there was to help the government eradicate it. Deon had promised to teach them a charm that would wither the grass down to the root, making it compost. They were to spend a few days on this while searching for the dragons, as part payment for the trip. He was looking forward to learning all the magic.

Up ahead Lockhart stumbled into a flock of Diricrawls, plump, flightless birds that the Muggles knew as Dodo's, and he squeaked when they disappeared in puffs around his legs, dancing out of their way. Harry and Abdul snickered and Harry thought maybe Lockhart wasn't the Animagus. But he could also be putting on a show. Like Professor Quirrell who had hidden behind a stutter... Why was he wandering away from the camp anyway?

The question wouldn't get an answer soon because just then something more serious than Diricrawls came upon the wizard and he and Harry realised at the same moment that there was no escape. It stood to reason that a tunnel made by Erumpents would fit Erumpents only, with no place for anyone else in it to sidestep out of the large animal's way. A rustle ahead was all warning that the three of them got that the small Erumpent family was returning from the waterhole and then they were nearly on Lockhart.

Besides Harry, Abdul swore and grab Harry's elbow. "Retreat, my friend!" he hissed and they started backwards as fast as they could. "They can't see past their horns!"

All might have been fine had Lockhart up ahead thought to do the same. Erumpents weren't as a rule aggressive unless bothered, and the stinging hex the wizard sent their way did just that. His high, fearful scream might not have helped either. His hex got the largest of the three animals in the eye and it so smoothly went from a walk to a run that there was little time to react. The other two Erumpents looked confused for all of a moment and then they joined in the stampede, probably thinking the more the merrier. Lockhart fired another hex at them, this time catching the baby on its ear. It squealed and the sound fired the male up more.

"Apparate, you fool!" Abdul shouted, dragging Harry away. Up ahead the Erumpent had turned into a steamroller.

"We have to help him!" Harry yelled, hanging back.

"How? He's done for and after him it's us!"

But Harry already had his wand in hand. There was nothing he could do to the Erumpents, he had listened well when Deon had discussed the animals, so he pointed it at Lockhart. "Leviosa!"

Lockhart raised in the air but it was hardly enough. Next to Harry, Abdul swore, but he slipped his wand out also and followed Harry's spell with his own. "Leviosa!" he yelled and this time Lockhart raised in the air, high up towards the grassy canopy and out of the storming animal's way.

Only the animals didn't stop.

"Fling him and run," Abdul grunted.

It seemed the best plan and together they flicked their wands upwards, letting the wizard fly in a beautiful arc through the canopy. Lockhart's screams increased two-fold and his wand and hat tumbled down but thankfully not him.

This time Harry did not have any reason to hang back, in fact, he had three good reasons to follow on Abdul's heels and he did so. The Erumpent family had not reduced their speed at all. The cloak went flying and they hadn't taken a few steps when he felt hot air on his neck. He sped up, wishing for his broom. Thinking he could levitate Abdul out of the way at least with another Leviosa, he tried to point his wand at his friend but instead he stumbled and fell flat on his face.

The last thing he remembered was casting a shield over himself and curling into a small ball, praying the animals would just power over him and not think to stab him with their explosive horns. Then the world turned inside out and everything went dark.

Something was crushing the breath out of him.

"I got you," Charlie said and released his tight grip. Harry opened his eyes and found himself in the middle of the camp, next to the cooking fire. "You two gave us quite the scare there."

Two. Harry's relief at being saved fled as soon as he remembered his friend. "Abdul!"

"Here," Abdul said behind him and Harry twisted around to find his friend with Sam, the older Nigerian wizard brushing grass out of Abdul's short hair. "I'm fine. They apparated us out in the nick of time. You should have seen it!" His wide grin nearly split his face in half. "I thought we were goners for a second there!"

"You nearly were," Sam huffed. "Luckily I followed what I thought was the Animagus, come back for some more trouble, or we might not have reached the two of you in time."

"I saw Sam tracking," Charlie supplied, "and told him about your cloak." Charlie let go of Harry to sink down on a bench. Released out of what had certainly not been a hug, Harry felt strangely bereft but shook it off.

Sam nodded. "The two pairs of footprints did confuse me there for a moment. What were you two up to?"

Harry could feel his face heat up but it didn't occur to him to lie. "We were following Lockhart," he admitted. "I thought he was up to something." He certainly didn't think so anymore. What an idiot. "It was all my idea," he added in case they would get into trouble.

"Lockhart was in there?" Charlie asked, surging back to his feet.

"We levitated him out," Abdul said. "He should be fine."

"You levitated him out?"

Harry and Abdul took turns telling them what they had done once the Erumpent charged; Harry half expecting the two men to be upset, tried to minimise it but Abdul wasn't having it. "If it wasn't for Harry he'd be toast."

"We needed saving too," Harry reminded him.

Sam said that was how it went in Africa. People needed each other to survive and worked in groups for that reason.

"We should go see if he's fine," Charlie said.

He needn't have bothered, the wizard chose that moment to stumble into the camp looking like he had gone a few rounds with the paper shredder Harry's uncle got one Christmas. Dudley, Harry's cousin, had enjoyed shredding all Harry's schoolwork until the shredder 'mysteriously' broke. Harry hadn't minded being blamed for that since it was in fact his doing.

"There you are," Lockhart said snidely. "Sitting around while I'm singlehandedly saving the camp from danger!"

"You did?" Charlie asked mildly. "How so?"

Lockhart ignored him and turned to Sam with a derisive sniff. "I certainly don't know what kind of camp you're running with wild animals all over the place."

"That tends to happen in Africa," Charlie said unperturbed at being ignored. "Animals seem to like the place." He sat back down on the bench, pulling Harry with him and slung his arm around Harry's tense shoulders. "Was it another Clabbert?"

"An Erumpent," Lockhart told Sam, playing deaf to Charlie. "It took some doing but I got the best of him. The other two beasts escaped, animals know when they've met their match."

"I thought Erumpents exploded their enemies," Abdul said, joining Charlie in his fun. "It looks more to me that you had a fight with some elephant grass and lost."

Perhaps Lockhart didn't know about the exploding horns because he looked uncertain for a moment but he gathered himself quick enough.

"It's teeth marks," he insisted. "You would look like this too if you fought a five-ton animal. Sadly it seems none of you had the presence of mind to keep the camp safe and it was left to me."

"Didn't I see you flying?" Harry asked. He didn't think it half as funny as the others and was seething. "That's a good show without a broom."

"Of course, after I overcame the beast I disapparated out of there."

He continued to give a blow-by-blow account of his fictitious fight and had Harry not known what had actually happened he might have thought it was real. The more he talked the more he puffed his chest up until he looked like a peacock. It seemed he believed every word he said.

They might have had some more fun with him or Harry might have exploded had Deon not returned just then with some of the trackers and an enormous black spider in a cage. The spider was nearly as large as a small car and three men were needed to levitate it into the camp.

"Let's go see," Charlie said and it was all they needed to leave Lockhart speaking to empty air.

"It's an Acromantula," Deon told them when they stopped next to the cage to stare in awe at the longhaired spider. "We got a tip that a family had imported one as a guard dog. Thank Merlin they didn't bring a pair over or we'd be dealing with packs of them within the month."

"What will you do with it?" Harry asked. Deon, he knew was a Magizooligist who worked for the International Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. If they find the mythical dragon they would see to bind it to a Magical Reserve, which would keep Muggles safe from it.

"We'll see to return it to Borneo—"

"Stand back!" Lockhart shouted behind them. "I'll take care of this abomination!"

He was waving his wand at the cage, his face beet red with excitement. He opened his mouth and six stunners hit him as one. He slowly toppled like a felled tree. One of the trackers caught him before he could hit the ground and lowered him down gently.

Charlie, Harry saw, had his wand out also and sported an extremely satisfied look. "Perhaps we should send Mr Lockhart along," Charlie said, putting his wand away. "They can drop him off on the way."

"No," the spider said slowly, the word nearly obscured by the clicking of his pincers. "Kill him. Food."

"It talked!" Abdul shouted, grabbing a similarly shocked Harry by the arm and shaking him. "It talked!"

"He would sooner eat you than talk to you," Deon warned. "Mind you stay out of its reach."

"Food," the spider said, sticking two legs through the bars in the direction of Lockhart. Its pincers clicked loudly and Harry thought it was salivating. "Give me."

"He's smart," Harry said. "Can we give him to the spider? Who will know?"

The consensus was that they will know even though they might all want to, and two of the men left for the village to go barter for some meat. Another levitated Lockhart to his tent and Deon drew a wide circle in the dust around the cage, making sure Harry and Abdul knew not to cross it.

"What's your name?" Abdul asked the moment they were alone.

"Kill."

"Your name is Kill? Neat! I'm Abdul and this is my friend, Harry. Where are you from?"

"Kill."

Either its name was 'Kill' or he wasn't interested in talking to them for that was the only word he wanted to say and when he grew tired of Abdul's questions he repeated it over and over. "Kill, kill, kill, kill…"

"It's too bad," sighed Abdul when he gave up. "Imagine if all animals could talk. That would be so neat."

"We might have to be vegan then," Harry imagined. A few of the girls at school were vegan and it didn't seem much fun. Abdul thought it might not be either.

Abdul went home and Harry went off to make tea for Charlie. He found Charlie with a very tired Errol and a letter from Ron. A note really, demanding that Harry write and tell him everything already. Harry wanted to laugh since he's barely been there a day and then he realised he did have a lot to tell and dug out some parchment from his trunk. Afterwards, he asked Charlie to teach him some spells which he practised the rest of the afternoon, staying within sight of the camp.

He made Charlie two more cups of tea.

Lockhart needed time to recover from all the stunners and they didn't see the odd wizard the rest of the day which Harry thought was excellent. That night he lay in the bottom bunk, listening to Charlie's snores and did not think of Quirrell at all, nor the water, which was a new thing, but instead thought of the next day when they would finally go in search of the dragon. He couldn't wait.