Chapter 12
Cyclone
"W-what…" Hermione stepped back, her breath coming in forced gasps.
"Where's Ron?" Harry immediately sprang into action, grabbing the fake Ron by the shirt and pointing his wand at its head. "What have you done with him?" He snarled.
Something black snaked out and threw Harry against the wall. "Ron Weasley is dead. I killed him." The things eyes glowed red and a sort of black liquid began to snake up its arms. "Not before I found out everything about you, Harry Potter."
Harry was on the floor groaning, looking pale and sick. The fake Ron kneeled down and looked into Harry's eyes. "Harry Potter, Boy Who Lived, seventeen, parents killed by my master at age one. Great power dwells within you, you are supposed to bring about the fall of my master, but you are no match for me. Weaknesses: compulsive desire to save people, overactive loyalty and immense attachment to loved ones, prone to violent anger on tragedy, making yourself unable to do anything but scream and shoot spells, emotional damage. Sound about right?"
Suddenly the fake Ron found himself thrown against the wall with Hermione's wand point at his temple. Hermione had never felt so angry in her life. Rage clouded her vision. "Oh yeah? Know anything about me?"
The thing eyed her without fear. "A little too much. Seize the bookworm."
Slimy strong hands grabbed her; pulling her back and fake Ron plucked the wand from her grip as she struggled against the Inferi. He dropped it immediately however when Harry came catapulting out of nowhere, hitting him with spells. The thing stumbled back and Harry blasted fire at the Inferi, who released Hermione for a second, enough so she caught her wand when Harry threw it at her. The Inferi were now over the shock of Harry's small blast of fire and continued forward. Fake Ron was only slightly dazed by the onslaught of smells, and a black thing darted out once more, barely missing Hermione as she ducked a squealed. Harry was throwing every type of curse imaginable at the thing, even Unforgivables, but they merely seemed to phase through it. Hermione tried to keep the Inferi back with a fiery blaze coming from her wand, but it was not enough, the Inferi weren't even rattled by it, they continued coming and soon she was overwhelmed and being carried off. She screamed as loudly as she could, feeling the clammy deadness against her own warm skin, and struggled, but the grip was too strong. Harry turned to help her, but the black thing grabbed him by the head in this momentary distraction, but not before he's shot out a spell that cut the hands gripping her off the Inferi. She tumbled down, the severed hands still clenched on her wrists, making her gag, as Harry feel to the floor, screaming bloody murder, veins standing out on his paper white face as he rolled in agony.
"Harry!" Hermione vaulted forward, but another slippery black thing snaked toward her and she had to dodge out of the way.
"It's no use, Granger. Weasley is dead. All I had to do was touch him and he killed himself. Took his life with his own Killing Curse. He couldn't resist."
"That's…not...true," Hermione gasped, tears streaming down her face. "Ron…can't be…"
"He is. And you two never even got a chance to snog. Pity. Just grab the idiot girl, you zombies!"
The Inferi clasped her wrists once more and she dropped her wand. The same black power now tormenting Harry snaked toward her, but she managed to jerk her body up in time and it just caught her hands. It didn't matter, because and excruciating pain was racing through up through her arms, heading for her brain. Her mind…this thing was going to destroy her mind…
"Stop making this so damn hard, Potter," she heard the thing grumble as Harry's screams grew louder. "Give it up already, too- wha-?"
Hermione's eyes were rolling in her head, she couldn't see what was happening, but suddenly she was free and the Inferi had let go of her. Her eyes refocused and she saw two Ron's…as amazing as it seemed, an identical Ron had come out of nowhere and jammed his hand towards the fake things forehead, where it sunk in as if it was punching through some thick pudding.
"Meircer Erdom!" The second Ron cried and all of the sudden the thing turned totally black, a lurking black form with red eyes. Ron was thrown back against the wall and the thing growled and snaked its hands back towards Ron, who simply cried "Protego!"And the hand rebounded, snaking into the things own head. The black creature began to scream so loudly that Ron and Hermione covered their ears, Harry was too busy groaning beside them, and suddenly the thing completely evaporated, leaving the Inferi standing there, looking faintly confused.
They soon regrouped though, and headed toward the three threateningly. Her mind reeling, Hermione managed to let forth a blaze of fire, and Ron joined. Harry managed to join them as well and soon the fire was a giant ring, the Inferi hovered uncertainly at the edge of it. Hermione was sweating profusely, the fire was very hard to maintain, Ron pointed to a door that had somehow appeared in the maze and they ran through it.
I "Colloportus!" /I Hermione cried and the door was sealed behind her.
Gasping, Hermione collapsed on the floor, as did Harry and Ron.
"Well," Ron said slowly. "That was weird."
"It is far better to be trapped than to be dead."- The Ersatz Elevator, A Series of Unfortunate Events, By Lemony Snicket.