Chapter Ten... Somnambulist
I stumbled across the room and retched into Hagrid's wastebasket, my head spinning in so many directions that I couldn't help but be... oh god...
My chest burned as I threw up again, this time on the floor, and I collapsed onto the ground. Tears flowed beyond my control, and I began to cry. Hermione... that didn't happen... couldn't have happened... and Ron was at home, sitting in his room and eating chocolate frogs and...
I felt a hand on my back, much smaller than Hagrid's, and I heard Cho whisper into my ear, "Harry..."
"Leave me alone." I coughed, trying to catch my breath amid the rising bile. It felt as though somebody was stabbing me with a red-hot blade, slowly burning a trail through my heart with each second. I just couldn't... can't... Ron.
Cho was still there, but now she leaned onto my back with both hands, resting her head against the erratic rise and fall of my breathing. I futilely tried to thrust her off of my back, but she held onto me as I quaked and poured and cried into the floor, "Why won't you leave me? What is it you want from me!"
"I'm not going anywhere, Harry Potter." She whispered firmly, "I've got nowhere else to go."
"I don't have anyone."
"Well, neither do I!" Cho snapped, and then her breathing halted for a moment. I coughed again, and pulled myself to a sitting position. When I looked at her, it seemed as if all the color had drained from her and her eyes were too large for her face. She had clasped her hand to her mouth in shock and she turned away in embarrassment.
It took a minute for her to regain her composure, "Harry, look... that monster is after us. I don't plan to just let it take the only thing I care about from me, and I don't think that you have anything else to lose if you fight."
I wiped my eyes with my hand, and I saw her tears again... but a fire burned behind them. She leaned into me and cried into my shoulder, "We have to fight..."
Hagrid tossed another log into the fire and guided us to the rug in front of it. Cho and I sat in silence, watching the fire flare and dance for what felt like the longest time. Fang had curled up behind us, and I found myself slowly beginning to lean back into him as drowsiness crept into my mind.
"It's late," Cho remarked, still bundled up in one of Hagrid's over-sized quilts. Hagrid himself was already falling asleep on his lounger in the corner, his seismic breathing muted by the crackle of the fireplace. A dilapidated Grandfather Clock in the corner read Two-Thirty a.m.
"You're right," I replied, a yawn intruding upon my words, "I'm just trying to... process today... does that make any sense?"
She glanced at me lazily, "Yes, it does."
Boom!
A thunderous knock from the front door rattled the windows and nearly scared us to death. Hagrid woke with a start and was on his feet faster than I had ever seen him. He glanced warily to the door, and then to us.
"Get behind me." He whispered, and he reached over our heads and pulled a crossbow from the wall large enough to use saplings for bolts. We stood up and hid behind his massive form, walking slowly toward the door.
He opened it, and my heart stopped. Standing just outside was a short figure cloaked in black, with black-tinted spectacles that shimmered redly despite the dim light.
"Hello," It said in its violent, velvet voice, "I believe that the children and I have some unfinished business that must be attended to."
"I think that you 'ad better get out of 'ere, cause they ain't goin' anywhere." Hagrid growled between gritted teeth.
The Monster grinned with a smile like a scythe before licking his lips, "I'm afraid I must insist."
I couldn't catch its eyes from behind Hagrid, but the way he seemed at ease - almost mirthful - deeply unsettled me. Cho slowly reached for my hand, and I quietly obliged...
"Well... " Hagrid hadn't quite expected this stranger to size him up, but his brow furrowed when he addressed the Beast again, "... let's take this outside then."
The cloaked creature floated slowly backwards, the snowflakes swirling about him... but never quite touching him – as though they melted into nothing before coming into contact with it. Hagrid stepped outside, drawing the crossbow a little more with each step. Little bits of snow clung to his shaggy hair, and he drew himself to his full, undeniably impressive height.
"Let's get on with it then."
The beast leaped into the air, and Hagrid had it in his sights. With a loud thwhip the bolt flew and clipped the beast's cape. Already Hagrid had drawn another bolt and aimed directly at It's heart. He fired the bolt, and ran forward with a speed I hadn't seen from him before - and just after Hagrid broke into his run, the Creature dove right into the earth where he had been standing. It stayed affixed to the spot, crouched over with it's dark cape against the snow like limp wings. Hagrid turned to face it, and he raised an eyebrow at the sight of the Beast. Cho moved closer to the door, and I followed close behind her... trying to get a better view. She pulled me close, half holding me, half supporting herself. The hand clasped in mine was warm and damp, but I held it ever tighter when I saw the Monster slowly rise from it's crouch. It calmly rose to face Cho and I, and my breath left me at the sight of it.
The bolt protruded sickeningly from the Creature's chest.
It glanced down at the wound, and the violet lips curled into a smile. He turned to the side a bit, and my stomach turned a bit at the sight of the bolt jutting out of the Thing's profile. Hagrid's eyes widened as It reached up and slowly, achingly slowly pulled the bolt from it's chest... and a dark, viscous fluid stained the tip and steamed in the cold air. And just as meticulously, it turned to face us.
"I will be with you in a moment." It whispered.
The Thing suddenly dashed ahead with inhuman speed, it's cloak billowing behind. Hagrid charged at It, and they met halfway. With a thunderous quake they collided, and despite Hagrid's massive size, it bowled him over. With that same great momentum, Hagrid grabbed the Beast's shoulders and threw him over his head - he rose and found that the Monster had already recovered, and he punched the demonic thing with a fist the size of a trash-can lid. Again, the Creature was thrown back with the force of the blow, but by the time it landed, it had already righted itself and was charging him once more. This time it landed a blow if it's own, and Hagrid stumbled to the side. It struck again, this time in his stomach... and Hagrid sank to his knees.
"Filthy beast." It hissed as it reared back to strike again.
But Hagrid looked up, a fierce glint in his eyes. He caught the Monster's hand and stood up, swinging the thing like a ragdoll. He hurled It towards the forest and the Beast hit a tree with resounding crack. Snow came down in heaps onto the dark shape at the foot of the tree. It stirred though, and after a moment it pulled itself to it's feet.
"That... was uncalled for."
The Creature took a single, quivering step towards Hagrid... it's breath clouding around it's face. Hagrid braced himself for another powerful blow, but after a glance dropped his stance.
It tilted it's head to the left a bit, "Do you concede?"
"Don't even know what th' word means." Hagrid smirked, stepping backwards.
There was an odd groan that reverberated through the air, and the Beast looked up to see the great tree fall on top of him. It missed Hagrid by a matter of feet, but he didn't look too worried. Instead, a look of grim nervousness gleamed in his eyes as he treaded through the snow and back into the hut. As soon as he got there, rather than retreat to his chair, he began grabbed a large rucksack and began pulling books into it.
"What's going on?" I asked, pulling Cho away from the door.
He had moved on to canisters by the time he answered me, "We need teh git out of 'ere, th' sooner, th' better."
There was something in his voice that worried me... the underlying sense of urgency chilled me. Cho was already at Hagrid's side, asking him what else he needed to pack, but something else pressed me back to the open door. The air prickled my skin, and my eyes stayed fixed the the overturned tree. It had been at least five times Hagrid's height and about as much around; on it's side a good quarter of it was buried beneath the snow. Could it be possible that the thing, that grinning spectre had survived? I glanced at Hagrid once again - he and Cho were forcing the flap back down onto the sack – and wondered about that urgency... that distinct sense of hopelessness in his eyes. Hagrid was always the emotional sort, and for him to clam up like this was more telling than anything he may have accidentally blurted out in the past...
... and it hit me. We had to get out of there.
"Let's go... we have to leave." I whispered, and Cho met my gaze. Her eyes were like dark pools, and it hurt to have involved her in whatever this was we managed to get caught up in... whatever I managed to get caught up in. Hagrid locked the bag and heaved it over his shoulders – Was that rustling I heard? - and with his free hand, he tossed me his coat.
"Harry, you and Cho wrap this around yerselves... can't 'ave you two freezing after all this." Cho and I obliged, following him out of the hut, "and mind the dormice if ya' can."
It was difficult to keep up with Hagrid's great stride. Coupled with the fact we were thigh-deep in snow and wearing his heavy overcoat, I doubted we could be moving any more slowly. A creeping sense of dread filled me as we passed the broken tree, and my breath caught in my throat; there was a deep trough in the snow alongside the tree, perfectly parallel to it in fact, and the trunk was cracked and bent along the middle.
It had been pushed aside.
My breath came back to me, but Hagrid's pace quickened... and I knew that he knew.
We trekked deeper into the forest, and the snow became lighter as the sky grew lost in the leafy canopy. But the air still chilled, and steam escaped with every breath. I looked around from behind the protective coat, and didn't really recognize anything. I doubt even Ron and I had ventured this deep when we searched for Aragog. Ron...
Ginny...
A flash of black in the corner of my eye -
-and Hagrid was thrown sideways away from us, the rucksack and crossbow clattering to the ground. The Beast pounced upon Hagrid, beating on him with both fists like a mad ape. Hagrid flailed his hands around, trying in vain to get a hold on the thing. But it merely shrugged them off and resumed it's attack. Each blow rang with a crack of something, and soft flesh giving way – and Hagrid had stopped fighting...
I dropped the cloak, hardly thinking the entire time, and reached for the fallen crossbow. The mechanism was nearly as big as I was, and perhaps as heavy... but a strength beyond fear came to me... I heaved it across my chest and aimed.
The bolt flew, and the recoil threw me off of my feet, the crossbow clattering to the ground next to me. When I sat up again, the first thing I saw was Cho... her eyes wide with disgust and fear. I saw the Monster... and saw the bolt coming out of either side of it's head. It for all the world looked like a gag, like a hidden loop held the two pieces in place while we stood in shock. But it was no gag, no punchline to this hideous visage. The bolt had entered cleanly from just behind the thing's left ear, and the tip (plus a good hands-length) protruded from it's right temple, dripping that steaming, black tar.
The Thing swooned, stepping off of Hagrid and loping in a near-drunken gait. Once it managed to keep to both it's feet, it grabbed the dripping end of the bolt and proceeded to yank the bolt out, flecks of black staining the ground. Viscous fluid poured out of the wound, covering one hidden eye and dripping down. It craned it's neck, catching me in it's vision. Before I could move it was on me, pinning me to the ground. The Thing's face inches away from mine, I could see my reflection in those dark spectacles.
"I am going to savor you," it intimated, a black tongue darting through it's lips, "I'll start slowly, bits at first... things you don't need, like your eyes, or your tongue. I can make a meal last for days."
That cable-thick black tongue escaped it's mouth and licked my neck, the Beast grinning like a foul cheshire cat the whole time, "and when I'm done, I'll let her have you."
Her.
Ginny.
"What are you?" I hissed, fighting my revulsion.
"I am Mujaki."
Wham! Cho swung the butt of the crossbow at Mujaki's head, and the beast tumbled off. I scrambled backwards, and aimed my left hand at the crawling thing... concentrating, wanting.
"Reducto!"
Mujaki took the blast, and it grimaced as the spell broke it's chest inward with a sound like a muted drum. It inhaled as deeply as it could, and I could hear every bone pop back into place. Finally, he sighed as a grin played across his lips.
"Is that the best you could manage, boy?" It said with that tilt of it's head, as if each word were to drill right into my mind, "I would have thought a strength like yourself would have been capable of greater."
I tried to raise my hand again, but the burning of my palms let me know that my fight was done.
"That taste... the most exquisite light, and I should know. All of this you have, and not the faintest idea to use it."
It was standing right next to me now, and it leaned in close to whisper, "She can use it, the light. I showed her how... I could show you, if you let me. I had to beg and plead, and finally fate turned her lovely eye to me. Fate delivered me the girl, and now her darkness is my light."
"Tastes goooood..." it hissed, and that tongue darted out of it's maw.
And without a sound, the Creature disappeared.
Cho blinked a few times, and her eyes darted to and fro. Yet I remained standing... knowing that he was gone, at least for a while. How did it... what did it do to her? Bile burned in my throat, and I clenched my fist... that thing couldn't leave her dead, instead bringing her into this mockery of life. She didn't know what she was doing - not at all. Ginny was just a twisted puppet and Mujaki the master drawing her strings.
And now it wanted me.
I blinked, and ran to Hagrid's side. He was trying to sit himself up, and between Cho and I we got the big man to his feet. His breathing was shallow, and blood dotted his face... but he was able to walk away from our nightmare. At least for a little while.
"It is gone?"
A voice... clear and very much not Hagrid or Cho's. I looked around, hearing the light crunching of ice behind us. A familiar gait, and it's steps echoed around us.
"Yes, it is." A centaur stepped out from behind the tree in front of it, it's sleek palomino body fitting with the icy ground.
"Good. The Darkling troubles us no more." A shaggy, dark-haired centaur I remembered as Bane galloped lightly from behind us, stopping short of Hagrid's crossbow on the ground. More centaurs gathered around us, bows at hand but not drawn. The palomino stepped towards me, it's eyes slightly hidden behind it's white-blonde hair.
"For now, Bane, for now." Firenze said, the ice crunching beneath his hooves, "It is unfortunate, Harry Potter, that we should meet again under such dire circumstances."
Bane stood at his full height and glanced about the herd, "Take them to the camp with the others."
Others? Did they survive? My pace quickened, even while helping to bear Hagrid's considerable weight. If the others were alive... what could that mean? And that monster... too many questions began to pour into my mind. But at the very least, the camp would give us something we dearly needed... a chance to breathe.
I lay upon a bed of soft leaves and chaff, covered in the softest quilt I had felt in a long while. When we arrived, there was a meeting of sorts at the campfire, where Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey sat. Hagrid being tended to by Centaur healers. McGonagall's eyes were closed while she sit thinking, but Madam Pomfrey could only glare into the fire. It pained me to sit here, not knowing when the Mujaki beast would return... if he could strike at any time. I remembered talking faster than I could think, my words simply pouring out of my mouth... it felt good to get it out. Between Cho's testimony and my memories, a continuous time line began to emerge. My visions and exchanges with the monster complementing her views. McGonagall could only nod at our tale, and Madam Pomfrey grew more and more unsettled with each word. And now she sat thinking across from us... the other houses and teachers had evacuated to Hogsmeade, where they were relatively safe – considering that the threat was after me.
We were told to get some rest, so now I lay on that soft bed hidden in a makeshift tent shielded from the elements. My eyes were heavy with sleep, but I couldn't really bring myself to close my eyes... it felt as though today could not have possibly happened. That I woke alone with nothing wrong and now I lay in my own bed, ready to sleep alone. I couldn't sleep, not after that, so instead I watched the clouds drift by through the vent above.
"Harry?" Cho whispered... I could vaguely make out her shadow through the thick material of the tent, "Are you there?"
"Yes."
"Could I come in?" I contemplated this for a moment, but curiosity got the better of me and I let her in. She was still wrapped in Hagrid's coat, and I welcomed the warmth. I sat up, and we huddled together beneath it.
She looked at me, and I could see her eyes... wide and dark, even with the light as dim as it was, "You don't mind me here, do you?"
"No."
There was silence for a few moments, and I refused to let slumber get the better of me. There was still too much to do, to think and-
"I don't want to sleep." I thought aloud, my voice barely audible, "I know when I wake up, this will still have happened... I didn't save anyone."
"It's all my fault... if I had saved her, I know if I had just pushed off a little quicker, reached out to her a little sooner she would still be alive and that horrible monster would have never found it's way here."
"Shh.." she held a finger to my lips, and I silenced. I couldn't hold the tears back anymore, and the first ones fell on her hands.
"I want to forget." I quietly sobbed into her shoulder, "I want to forget."
"You don't forget, Harry," she whispered in my ear, "You never forget. Everything that has ever happened to you rests in your heart and now it's ready to burst. You can't do this alone. I won't let you."
"My parents didn't want me, Harry."
I sat up at this, and she continued, "They couldn't handle my grief last year, over someone they didn't know doing something they could never, ever understand. Rather than learn, they more or less decided to drift away... it's not that they refused me, they just thought it easier to not have a daughter at all. They didn't kick me out, they just forgot. I didn't even get invited home."
"So I'm alone now..." she sighed, her hands trembling, "Except for you."
"I don't know how anyone could ignore you." I said, feeling my face flush with each word, "and you are not alone."
"And neither are you," she whispered, pulling her hair loose of the black ribbon that bound it, "so don't you forget it."
She set the ribbon on the ground next to the bed, and began to unbutton her blouse.
"Cho... what are you doing?" I couldn't help but turn away, and I heard her laugh softly.
"It's okay, Harry, " She said, stopping just beneath the soft swell of her breasts, "I'm going to do something for you, for us. We need to finish something we started."
Her wand began to glow a vibrant blue, and she held the wand above her chest, the tip grazing just below her collarbone.. A brilliant blue spark coursed through her wand and into her chest, and she set the wand beside the ribbon.
"This is the hard part," Cho whispered, and she gently lay me down on the bed. I didn't fight, instead my eyes were transfixed by the light... beneath her skin, her breasts, in her heart itself, the soft blue held my gaze. I felt her crawl atop me, laying down until our eyes met again. Her smile was warm, and she gently kissed me.
Again, she guided my arms around her waist, feeling her weight on top of me. We breathed together, and another sensation took hold of me... the light...
We sat at the low table, a magnificent dinner laying before us; steaming fowl and steaks, sweet melon halves and loaves of crusty bread with iced goblets of butterbeer and pumpkin juice ringing the set. Cho sat at the other end of the table, beautiful in her silken, violet blouse her hair held up by two golden ribbons. She smiled, and a sweet laugh escaped her lips. I looked at myself, seeing no wounds, nor signs of battle.
"How did you do that?" I wondered aloud, a grin spreading across my face, "I mean, how could you have learned such a-"
"-enough, Harry Potter," she said coyly, "We have a wonderful dinner and good company. Let's enjoy this small comfort while we can."
She came around to my side of the round table and sat on the ground next to me. I gazed into her dark eyes and couldn't hold back my smile.
"Yes, we should."