Dean, Seamus, Lavender, and Parvati peer around the threshold to the History of Magic Classroom, which is nearly as empty as they were expecting it to be. However, there are a few of the brilliant violet flowers growing along the walls, their petals fluttering in excitement as they sense the presence of the students. But before they can get a change to shoot their venomous barbs, Dean cuts them down with a few neatly-placed severing charms. The flowers fall to the floor, their petals opening and closing meekly in their last throws of life. With the coast clear, they all enter, Dean setting the game board down on Professor Binns' desk. "Right," he says, "Lavender."
She nods nervously, picking up the dice and giving them a quick roll, flinching slightly as she lets them go. The first lands on a one, and the other lands on a three, putting her rhinoceros token another four spaces to bring her total to thirteen.
All over the mire,
and up from the mud,
they're crawling this way
to suck out your blood.
"Ew!" Lavender says, the rhyme alone causing her to squirm in discomfort.
Standing up, they all scan the ground around them, looking for any sign of activity. It doesn't take Dean long to spot something. Crawling out from under a raised tree root, he sees what looks like a fat, jet black worm inching its way along the ground directly toward him. It has no eyes, nose, or ears – just a single, perfectly round sucker for a mouth, which winds its way over the ground almost like a metal detector, always honing in on Dean's direction.
It is not alone. Dean catches sight of another, pulling its limbless body over the forest floor like a purposeful inch worm. One more. Three more. Ten more. Dozens of these large worms, each measuring about three inches long, are creeping up through the muck, all of them making a bee line for the students.
"Let's get out of here!" Seamus says, picking up the game board and heading for the class exit. Neither Dean, Lavender, or Parvati need any convincing. They head for the exit, stepping over the hordes of hungry leeches as if playing a truly unnerving game of hop scotch. Luckily, the leeches still more at the pace of an inch worm, so it is very easy for the four Gryffindors to get past them and out the door. Parvati, being the last to leave, shuts the door firmly, the sound of the door slamming echoing loudly throughout the corridors.
"Not so loud!" Dean says, hoping he was only imagining the sound of laughter nearby.
"Seamus!" Lavender says, standing behind him and pointing at his neck.
"What?" Seamus asks, half confused, half terrified by her tone.
"You've… you've got one on your neck!" Lavender whispers.
Seamus isn't sure how to react. At first he wants to confirm it for himself, but he can't see out the back of his head, and he is not at all keen on reaching back to touch it. He freezes in place before saying, "Well, somebody, get it off! Quick!"
Dean goes up to Seamus from behind, seeing the leech grow steadily fatter as more and more of Seamus' blood flows into its bloated gut. Though nowhere as squeamish as Lavender, even he can't help but scrunch his nose in disgust at the sight. He picks up his wand and points the tip directly on the leech's body. "Incendio," he says softly, the tip of his wand glowing bright orange.
A soft hiss sounds from the point of contact, and the leech flails frantically in place, still anchored to Seamus' neck by its mouth parts. Finally, as its segmented body catches fire, it drops from his neck, falling to the ground.
"Thanks for that," Seamus says, rubbing the back of his neck and feeling a light trickle of blood.
Dean nods. "Let's all check ourselves, make sure we haven't got any more on us."
They spend the next couple of minutes check themselves thoroughly. In the end, despite the expansive covering their school uniforms give them, they discover one on Parvati's ankle, and two on Lavender: one by her shoulder and another in a spot so tender, she makes them all look away before torching the leech.
"Right then," Dean says, setting the game board down just outside the History of Magic classroom. "Back to me." He gives them all a brief moment to mentally ready themselves before he rolls the dice. He gets a six and a three, which not only puts his elephant token ahead nine more spaces, but also puts him only four spaces away from the center. "Almost there."
"Well, go on, let's read it," Seamus says as they all lean forward.
Rain for months;
the summer's gift.
But hills that are drowned
begin to shift.
At first, they wonder if the Bloody Baron has returned to them, given the long, painful groan that rings throughout the entire castle. But it soon becomes clear that this sound is coming from within the walls themselves. They follow the sound as it begins on the south end of the corridor, moving north over their heads. Next, they hear a deep rumbling sound from under their feet, which is accompanied by a sudden, violent shaking that nearly sends Seamus and Parvati colliding face first with the floor.
"What's happening?" a panicked Lavender shrieks over the rumbling ground.
But before anyone can answer, a tremendously powerful jolt shoot through all of them as the entire floor beneath their feet lurches forward with an ear-splitting crack and a great, deep boom. The floor continues to shake, growing ever more violent as dust begins to fall from the ceiling. And then, in an instant, the floor cracks open about a few hundred feet in front of them, causing the corridor to tilt downwards sharply. All four of them begin to slide down, falling on to their bellies as they skid painfully over the uneven forest floor covering the stone ground.
All around them, gigantic chunks of stone begin to fall from the ceiling overhead, landing with a fantastic crash that splits their ears. More gigantic pieces of the castle begin to crack off and smash into pieces at every turn. Their senses bombarded with so much chaos raining down all around them, none of them can make heads or tails of what exactly is happening. For what little they can tell, it just appears as if, for no apparent reason, the entire Hogwarts castle is falling to pieces.
As they slide further and further down the corridor, Dean catches sight of the edge, and of the churning ground and waves of mud and debris rolling over outside, into the lake. And In that instant, Deans brain does several things at once. It supplies with adrenaline to give him extra strength while also telling his hands to reach out and grab something. As his fingers wrap themselves around a firmly anchored tree root, Dean shouts out to the others, "HOLD ON TO SOMETHING!"
They don't hear his exact words, but the sound of his voice draws their eyes toward him, and they see him clinging for dear life to the tree root. Each one of them also manages to find a point to ground themselves, keeping themselves from sliding down the fractured corridor into the brutal mudslide raging below, which would surely mash their frail bodies into a fine pulp.
Held in place against the fourth floor corridor, the entire castle continues to descend into the swirling mixture of water, mud, and rubble pouring in great white walls of water into the lake. The edge of the corridor collides with the great dark green waters, which soon envelops all four of them in frigid blackness. The sudden shock of ice cold water shocks their systems, causing all of them to let go and float up toward the surface, even as the corridor continues to sink below them.
Seamus's head is the first to clear the surface, followed by Parvati, Dean, and Lavender. They all watch in terrified awe as nearly one half of the entire castle breaks off from the rest. Towers crumble to ruin. Huge blocks of stone slam against the surface of the lake with loud splashes. The ground beneath the castle has turned to soft mud, lacking any kind of integrity, flowing like brown water over layers of grimy waves into the green depths of the lake.
"The game!" Dean cries out, seeing it bob up like a piece of drift wood from underwater. He swims over to it, putting his arms over it like a miniature life raft. His body supported, Dean begins to pant heavily as the exhaustion of the catastrophe begins to set in. He looks at the other three, who are also clearly drained by the disaster. "Come on," he says to them between pants, "we have to get to shore."
A few minutes later, and all four of them are lying defeated and covered in mud on the shores of the lake, still struggling to take in what they've just witnessed. Seamus' lies on his back staring straight up at the cloudy sky, his left hand over his chest. Lavender lays on her stomach, not having quite enough strength yet to sit up. Parvati sits on her knees, rubbing her thighs with her hands absentmindedly. Dean merely lays on his side, the game still under one of his arms
As they stare out across the surface of the lake, still rippling from the crumbling stones slapping the water and sinking to the bottom, they are left in pure shock. Hogwarts Castle looks almost as if it has been cut in half, with one half now partway to being submerged beneath the waters of the Great Lake. The remaining remnants still stand proud and resilient, even as dense weeds and vines snake their way across the stone surface, and numerous tree branches stick out from the sides.
"I can't do this," Lavender says in a quiet voice. "I can't do this."
Nobody answer her at first. It's not as if any one of them is keen to say 'oh don't worry Lavender, it's really not so bad.' After seeing half of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – one of the most powerfully secure wizarding fortresses in the world – crumble in half at the roll of a pair of dice, it becomes more apparent than ever just how dangerous this game is. Pitting them against the forces of nature – no matter how big or how small – makes them feel for the first time in their short lives how utterly insignificant and helpless they are as human beings. But as Lavender begins to sob quietly, they all know that somebody has to say something.
"We should never have started playing," Dean says. "We should never have agreed to hold on to it."
"What the hell is this…this thing?" she asks in a shaking voice, staring at the game board with wide eyes. "Where did it come from? How could it possibly have wound up at Hogwarts?"
"Who knows," Seamus says blankly.
"I can't keep playing," Lavender says, staring down at the muddy lakeshore. "What if something even worse than that happens? Even Dumbledore was no match for this thing."
"Come on, Lavender," Dean says, reaching out and putting a hand on her shoulder. "We've made it this far. Look, I'm only four spaces away. By my next turn-"
"By your next turn, we could all be dead already!" she snaps at him, throwing his hand off her shoulder. "What's next? A hurricane? An earthquake? A tidal wave?" Dean looks briefly at the closed game board, noticing the smoking mountains looming in the background behind the big white letters that spell out 'Jumanji.'
"Lav," Parvati says softly, scooting closer to her. "We have to keep playing. We don't have any other choice."
"I can't do it!" Lavender says more forcefully. "We're only thirteen! We can't be expected to fix this on our own!"
"That's not the point," Dean says. "Like Parvati said. We have no choice. Do you want to think about what this game might do to you if it thinks you'll stop playing?"
Lavender's face shows that she clearly has not considered this possibility. "I just…I just can't. I can't," she says quietly.
"Remember Lavender," Seamus says. "Once we finish the game, it'll all go away. Everything will be back to normal."
When Lavender still shows no signs of continuing, Dean says, "Oh come on, Lavender," in a tone that causes Parvati to look scandalized. "In our first year, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger all went up against all that stuff the teachers set up to guard the Philosopher's Stone. And when they reached the end, Harry had to fight against…against You-Know-Who. And at the end of last year, Harry went up against You-Know-Who and a basilisk! If he can do all that in just his first and second years, why can't we?"
"We're not Harry Potter," Lavender points out.
"Oh what's so damn special about Harry Potter anyway?" Dean asks, sounding annoyed, though not at Lavender. "He's had all this stuff happen, and gotten out on top, but…I mean, he's just a kid! You know him, I know him, there's nothing really special about him at all. He's not even top of our year for Christ's sake! If he can save the day, why can't we?"
All four of them exchange looks with one another. After nearly five minutes of silence, Lavender takes a deep breath and says in a voice that they can barely hear. "Fine."
Dean nods. "Okay," he says, picking up the game, "come on, let's find some place drier to play."
But as he stands back up again, something erupts from the water mere feet from them. The sudden sound, accompanied by a white sheet of water raining down on them, sends the four students bolting away from the lakeside. As the water falls to the muddy shore, it reveals the hippopotamus, having been let into the lake when the mud slide destroyed the Entrance Hall.
The sudden shock gives them a good head start, their legs propelling themselves over the grounds at the fastest speed they've ever moved at. But despite weighing a few tons, and trotting along on fast, stubby legs, the hippopotamus moves with surprising swiftness. Within no time at all, it closes the distance between them, its mouth opening with startling wideness to reveal a set of monstrous, ivory tusks. Parvati, having the shortest legs of the bunch, is the first to find herself the target of its rampage. She can feel its hot breath pushing up the hairs on the back of her neck; hear its deep, guttural grunts brewing from the back of its throat. She closes her eyes, awaiting the bear-trap-like jaws to slam shut over her, rending her in two.
But just as she expects to be bitten in half, the hippo comes to a complete stop. Gratefully curious, she spins around to see what had happened. When she does, she gives out a single cry. "Hagrid!"
Her cry causes the others to stop and look as well. When they do, they see the 12 foot frame of the Hogwarts gamekeeper, and recent Care of Magical Creatures teacher, Rubeus Hagrid, wrestling with the titanic herbivore. If any other man had tried this, they'd be chewed to bits within seconds. But standing at about twice as tall as an average man, and being three times as broad, Hagrid is able to wrap his arms around the hippo's torso and hold it in place.
"Oh no, you don't!" Hagrid calls out through clenched teeth, pushing his right hand against the hippo's face. Using all of this strength, Hagrid manages to push the hippo away from its course toward the students, swatting it over its eyes to try and get it to turn around. The angry hippo doesn't make it easy for him, snapping ferociously at him and throwing its weight on to his arms. But in the end, Hagrid wins the struggle. As he manages to turn the hippo around back toward the lake, he swats its backside and says, "Away with you, you silly creature."
When the hippopotamus is gone from sight, having disappeared below the surface of the lake once more, Hagrid turns to the four students with a look of utter bewilderment in his beetle-black eyes, shining from behind a tangled mane of long black hair and beard. "Wha' are you three doin' 'ere outside the castle?"
The four of them exchange confused and exhausted looks, as if debating silently where the best place to begin the story is. "Well, I…er…" Dean says.
But Hagrid waves him off. "Nevermn' tha' now. Why don' you just tell me wha' the ruddy hell is goin' on aroun' here. I was jus' waterin' the pumpkin patch, an' I look up, an' the whole castle is covered in bloody vines. I try goin' up to the castle to see wha's goin' on, but I can' get in. The vines are too thick, and I can' get through them to the doors to the Entrance Hall. I was gettin' worried for a while there. Was even thinkin' of writin' to the ministry if somethin' didn' happen.
"But as I was headin' up to the owlery, I eard this huge noise comin' up from the castle. I looked out an'….well, it looked like…like the entire ground underneath jus' sor' of…collapsed, I mean…as if the entire Southern 'alf of the castle was caught in some kind of…mud slide. Never seen anythin' like it in nearly 50 years…an' now I see we've got a hippopotamus in the lake as well. Strange…very strange…I don' suppose any 'a you know what's goin' on, do ya?"
None of them are entirely sure of what to say. Explaining the situation to Hagrid feels like it would take too much time. But on the other hand, Hagrid has just saved them from an attacking hippo, and they can't help but feel bad for the confusion Hagrid is no doubt feeling. Rubbing the back of his head, Dean says, "Well…Professor…it…it's a bit of a long story…"
At first, Hagrid doesn't recognized being addressed as 'Professor' but when he gets over it, he sighs a little and says, "Why don' you come and have a cuppa tea at me hut. You can tell me wha' you know there, wha' do ya say?"
In the end, they all agree, thankful for finding a good reason to take a break from playing. Dean hopes to himself that this may help to calm Lavender enough for them to continue with renewed strength. They follow Hagrid through the grounds, turning around the half of Hogwarts still standing. They struggle to keep up with his enormous strides, Parvati having to jog just to keep pace. Eventually, they see the tall point at the top of Hagrid's hut sitting in front of the edge of the Forbidden Forest, a patch of gigantic pumpkins growing in a fenced off patch right next to it. The boarhound, Fang lays at the foot of Hagrid's front door. He doesn't react when he sees them.
"Poor Fang," Hagrid says, patting the sad-looking hound on the head a few times. "Was nearly eaten by a huge yellow pod plant by the fron' doors. I'd-a thought Professor Sprout woulda done summit about tha', bu' I guess not." They all take a seat at the table as Hagrid puts a kettle on the stove. As Dean takes his seat, he sets the game board down in front of them silently. Hagrid glances briefly at it before turning back to the kettle. "Wha's that ya got there, Dean?" he asks casually.
Dean takes a deep breath. "This," he begins, "is the reason everything's gone wrong today."
Hagrid furls his harry brow as he turns to look at Dean properly. "I…what do you mean?"
"This is board game," Dean says, "And it's cursed."
Hagrid listens intently as he prepares their tea, as well as a few of his home-made rock cakes for them to snack on. The more they tell him, they more enraptured he becomes. "Blimey," he says. "All that jus' from a little thing like that?" he says pointing to the game. They nod. "Merlin's Beard…gotta wonder how summit like that ended in Filch's office."
"We were wondering the same thing," Seamus says, taking a bite of one of the rock cakes, only to wince slightly.
Seeing Seamus' discomfort, Dean leans in closely and whispers, "Could be worse. Could be long pork." Seamus gives him a nasty look.
Not hearing them, Hagrid says, "What about the teachers. I'd-a thought they'd protect ya. I know Dumbledore'd never put students in danger like this."
"They did try to help us," Lavender says. "But they got caught up with other things, and Professor Dumbledore…well, he…."
Hagrid notices the trepidation in her voice immediately. "Is he alright!?" he asks.
"He's…well, he's sleeping, Professor," Parvati says to him.
Still not entirely used to the moniker, Hagrid shifts in his seat and says, "Sleepin'…why would Dumbledore be sleepin' at a time like this?"
"It was the game," Dean says, gesturing to the board. "It didn't like that he was helping us, so it put him into an enchanted sleep."
"That doesn' seem very fair," Hagrid says.
"The game has some really weird rules," Parvati says. "There's nothing in the rules that say that Dumbledore couldn't help us. So the game let Dean go twice as far along in exchange for putting Dumbledore to sleep."
"That's just ruddy confusin' that is," Hagrid says, putting a balled fist on the table. "How does the game work? Wha'r the rules?" Dean decides to open up the game board and allow Hagrid to see for himself. Once Hagrid sees the pieces on the board, and reads the rules on the flaps, he strokes his beard. "Hmm..an' every time one of ya rolls the dice, the game conjures somethin' else for ya to face?"
"That's right," Dean says.
Hagrid doesns't say anything for a while. As he takes a sip of tea, he asks them, "Who's turn is next?"
They all take a moment to think. "Oh, I think it's mine," Seamus says.
"Would…would ya mind takin' yer turn, Seamus? I mean…righ' here an' now?" Hagrid asks cautiously.
"Oh no," Lavender says shaking her head. "Oh Hagrid, you don't want anything from this game inside your…house," she takes a second to pick the word. "What if it was destroyed?"
"Well, it's like ya said, innit?" Hagrid says. "Once one-a ya wins, everythin'll go back to normal, eh? And besides I…well, I'm actually a little curious to see what might come up next."
Dean actually manages to laugh a little. "I don't think you'd be very curious for long, Hagrid."
"Yeah well," Hagrid says with a shrug. "Besides, I migh' be able to protect ya if somethin' else dangerous comes out."
"No Hagrid, you can't!" Lavender says. "The game might do something horrible to you, like it did to Dumbledore!"
Hagrid waves her off, though he also can't help but smile a little. "Don' worry about me, Lavender," he says confidently, "I'm a big bloke, in case ya hadn't noticed." They all laugh at that comment. "I can look after me-self jus' fine."
After trading looks with one another, Seamus eventually picks up the dice and flicks his wrist to send them tumbling onto the game board. They land on a five and a six, and Seamus' monkey token glides along eleven spaces, putting him only two spaces away from the center. It is painful for them to see it stop so close, even as words begin to form in the inky black middle.
Neither camel nor spider
their name can deceive
But a more frightening creature
you'll never conceive
"Wonder wha' tha' can be, eh?" Hagrid asks in a perfectly conversational tone, oblivious to the nervous looks on the face of the four students.
Parvati and Lavender turn around in the chairs. "I thought I heard something!" Lavender says, clutching her knees to her chest and scanning the floor. Soon they can all hear it: a scuttling of many-jointed legs running over the floor, as well as along some of Hagrid's cabinets.
Far from afraid, Hagrid gets up and goes over to his cupboard. Rummaging through it for a bit, he proclaims, "Ahh! Gotcha, little bugger."
The creature he pulls out is every bit as frightening as the rhyme made it seem. Though dwarfed in Hagrid's immense hands, the creature is roughly the size of a small cat. It has what appear to be ten long, scurrying, spider-like legs, squirming madly and covered in thick hairs. There are two body segments: a rounded head, and an elongate, oblong abdomen. At first glance, it looks almost like a cross between a spider and a scorpion, though with neither fangs nor a stinger. Instead, a par of fat, crab-like pincers stick out from its face, snapping fiercely at Hagrid. The creature is dark brown, and looks as though it would be right at home under a log.
"What the bloody hell is that?" Seamus asks in utter disgust.
"It's a camel spider," Hagrid says, eyeing the creature with interest even as it continues to rapidly snap its claws at Hagrid's face. "Never seen one before, only ever read about 'em."
"Ew!" Lavender shrieks, looking away from it. "It's absolutely horrid looking!"
"Aw, I don' think so," Hagrid says fondly. "I think he's cute."
"Cute?!" Lavender says, as if Hagrid's statement is an insult to the very idea of cute.
Seamus laughs. "Just don't go showing it about in our next lesson."
Hagrid smiles but shakes his head. "No, I can' do that. They're not magic, ya see." There is a clear sound of disappointment in his voice.
An upturned bucket next to Parvati's right ankle gives a small shudder before it is pushed away by another camel spider. Parvati is much better able to appreciate the size and strangeness of the creature when it is mere inches away, staring at her with a pair of beady, black eyes one right next to the other. Parvati backs her chair up right into Lavender, and the two girls fall out of their chairs and onto the floor – only to discover another camel spider lurking under the table, its first pair of legs held up in a menacing position.
Dean has to suppress a smile at Lavender and Parvati's melodramatic reactions to the small creatures. But a thought does cross his mind. "Hagrid…are these dangerous?"
"I wouldn' think so, no," Hagrid says, still holding the camel spider. "They're not venomous. Could give ya a nasty pinch if yer not careful, but nothin' ya can' avoid if yer smart."
As if on cue, one of the camel spiders nips Lavender on her right ankle. She gives a painful yelp before kicking the pest away. "They're horrible!" she says in a face filled with disgust.
"Oh settle down, settle down," Hagrid says, picking up the camel spider Lavender had kicked. He puts it as well as the first in a bucket the size of a small barrel. By the time he's done, he's collected seven camel spiders from inside his hut, none of which are particularly happy to be shoved into a barrel. "There, that should take care of 'em," Hagrid says, sitting the barrel down in a corner of the room. "Is the game always like this?" he asks.
"No," Dean says. "Usually, it's way worse."
"Worse?" asks Hagrid curiously. "How so?"
"Army ants, man eating plants, flowers that shoot venomous barbs, hippos, monkeys, hyenas, cannibals, leeches, mud slides…" Dean says, trailing off.
"An' don' forget abou' that stampede," Hagrid points out.
The others look at him confusedly. "What stampede?" Seamus asks.
"Why- didn' ya hear? Didn' ya see?" Hagrid asks disbelievingly. "Abou' an hour ago, I saw this bloody grea' stampedin' herd of beasts come burstin' outta the castle. Rhinos and elephants and zebras an' all. They came burstin' through the walls on the first floor before tearin' off across the grounds, 'round the edge of the forest."
"That must have been your second roll," Dean says to Seamus.
"Blimey," Hagrid says, putting a handkerchief to his forehead. "Tha's quite a lot for a little thin' like that." He looks at the four of them for a second before giving a few chuckles.
"What is it?" Parvati asks, confused.
"Oh, it's, it's nothin'" he says with a smile. "It's jus'… I was thinkin', and…well, I'd of thought that it'd be Harry Potter, an' his friends, Ron an' Hermione who'd be in this situation."
"Why's that?" Seamus asks.
"Oh I dunnno," Hagrid says with a small shrug. "It's jus' those three seem to have a real knack for getting into trouble, stickin' their noses where they don' belong, see. Whereas you four, well…" and he trails off without finishing.
"We just sort of fade into the background," Dean says with a clear hint of bitterness. "That's what Fred and George Weasley said. It's why they gave it to us in the first place. Didn't think McGonagall would think to search us…and they were right."
Hagrid gives him a concerned look. "Whaddya mean?"
"It's like you said, Hagrid," Dean says. "It's Harry, Ron, and Hermione that are always off going on adventure, getting into trouble. Meanwhile, the rest of us just try to be good students, get our work done, pass our exams. Just a bunch of Gryffindors keeping their heads down, totally unremarkable."
"You say tha' as if it was a bad thing," Hagrid says, somewhat perplexed. "I wouldn' of minded a normal school life meself. I was expelled durin' me third year, see. Never even had a wand since," he says, his eyes darting ever so briefly to the vibrant pink umbrella sitting by the fireplace.
Dean looks suddenly away from Hagrid, a guilty expression on his face. "I'm sorry," he says, "I had no idea.
"Yeah, well," Hagrid says with a shrug, "Not as if I go 'round braggin' abou' it to folks now, is it?"
"Why…" Lavender begins tentatively, pausing. "Why were you expelled, Hagrid?"
Hagrid says nothing at first. " I, er… well, I'd rather not get into it now. Long story short, I got blamed fer doin' summit terrible to another student. Me name's been cleared officially, thanks to Dumbledore," and Hagrid takes a brief pause. "Great man, Dumbledore, Great man."
"I'm sorry Hagrid," Dean says again. "I didn't mean to-"
But Hagrid waves him off with a wave of his giant hand. "S'alright, Dean," he says, "I know ye didn' mean anythin' by it. But there's nothin' wrong with jus' leadin' a normal life, doing yer school work an' gettin' through yer exams. Harry and his friends get into these sorts of…predicaments 'cause they stick their noses where they don' belong, let me tell you," he says, waving a finger at Dean. "I love the three of 'em, but they can be a ruddy nightmare sometimes. Never know what to say 'round 'em."
"So basically," Seamus says, "what you're saying is that we could be getting into adventures too, if we just stuck our noses in other peoples' business."
Hagrid raises an eyebrow at him. "Not sure tha's how I'd put it, but basically, yeah, I spose so. But anyway, looks like ya found yer adventure after all," he says, looking at the game board.
"Though I don't think anyone's going to be cheering for us when it's all over," Dean says. "Even if everything goes back to normal, it will still have been our fault all along."
"Yeah, well," Hagrid says with a shrug. "As long as no harm's done, people tend to be more forgivin'. That's what I've found at least. Speaking of which-" he says, pointing to the game, "who's turn is it next?"
"Er, mine, I think," Parvati says, counting back past the last few turns to make sure.
"Well, no poin'n stallin, I say. Might as well get to it," Hagrid says decisively.
The four students look at one another nervously. "Are you sure about this Hagrid?" Seamus asks. "I mean, these… things weren't so bad, you know," he says pointing to the barrel of camel spiders. "But some of this stuff can be really dangerous. And if the game thinks you're trying to help us-"
But Hagrid cuts him off. "Don' you worry about me, Seamus. I'm made of tougher stuff than most folks give me credit for."
With Hagrid sounding final on his last words, the group's attention turns to Parvati, who picks up the dice and gives it a quick roll, landing on one and three, bringing her grand total to thirteen spaces from start. The crocodile moves forward the appropriate number of spaces, inching ever closer to victory. Reading the center, they see the words:
Try though you might,
you'll never see
their hides of purest
ebony.
Before they can even begin to contemplate what the rhyme means, they are interrupted by the loud, terrified barking of Fang outside. Their heads all spin toward the front door, as if expecting Fang to come inside and tell them what's going on. When this invariably fails to happen, Hagrid gets back up. "Wha' are you on about now, ya bloody coward," he says, moving toward the front door.
When he opens it up, he sees exactly what they all expect to be there, a frightened, energized Fang bounding up and down by Hagrid's hut. Hagrid puts his hand on the dog's head, trying his best to calm it. "Now now, Fang, Wha' are you on abou' now, eh?"
Standing behind Hagrid, Dean peers around his waist to look out at the grounds surrounding them at every turn. Given the volume and nature of the barking, Dean half expects the grounds to be swarming with dementors, but as far as he can tell, there's nothing. Except, he knows that's not true. It's as if his eyes have seen something, but his brain has yet to properly process the information to the point where he can tell what's going on. He can see something, he just can't tell what it is.
By the time he figures out what it is, it's too late. Out in front of Hagrid's hut, the grass flattens itself in small spaces and at several points. At first, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to where, when, or how these odd movements of the grass are caused. But the answer soon makes itself apparent as the phenomenon shifts to a more recognizable pattern. The flattening of the grass begins to occur in a linear procession, looking to Dean most like –
Footsteps!
By the time the word comes to mind, Fang is hoisted upwards from the ground, floating in mid air as if suspended from his chest. The poor boarhound gives an agonized yelping howl as it paws at the invisible mas in front of it, holding it up by unknown means. Along Fang's side, a trickle of dark, warm blood begins to drip slowly from the point where Fang seems to be held. The unknown assailant shakes Fang from side to side like a ragdoll, making deep snorting grunts as it moves, until finally tossing Fang aside. Fang struggles to get back up, pawing at the damp earth with his front paws, each feeble attempt ending with him slouching back to the ground
"FANG!" Hagrid roars with a mixture of rage and sorrow. He steps back inside and picks up a cross bow that suits a man of his size, already armed with a formidable arrow. He kicks the door open in one swift, sweeping motion of his left leg. "Get back!" he calls back to Dean, Seamus, Lavender, and Parvati. "It's invisible!"
With the knowledge that this new hazard, whatever it may be, is invisible, Dean pays less attention to his sense of sight, as if hoping the other senses will heighten to pick up the slack. Only now does Dean recognize the sound of the footsteps – like hooves pounding against firm ground. He also notices the faint, musky odor slipping inconspicuously up his nose. "What is it, Hagrid?" Dean asks.
Hagrid ignores the question. "Parvati, hand me tha' bucket on the counter, next to that jug of whiskey."
Parvati obeys, picking up the bucket, a look of pure revulsion growing on her face. She turns her face away from it. "Hagrid, what on earth is this?" she says, holding her nose.
"Yer much happier not knowin'" Hagrid says, taking the bucket from her, setting the crossbow down for a moment. "Come on, a little closer now…" he says quietly, watching the pounding hooves turning up dirt and tearing through grass. He steps down a few steps from his front door, as if trying to lure them closer to him by getting closer to them first.
Dean sees it again – the wave of churning blades of grass, like the wake of something large moving underwater, coming directly at Hagrid. But Hagrid smiles, thrusting the bucket forward and throwing its contents toward the oncoming assailant. The foul mixture of brown and black substances appears to splatter in mid-air as it collides with something about as tall as a horse. The substance takes on the contours of the unseen mass, creating a facial profile like that of a gigantic boar. The frustrated beast shakes its head from side to side, trying to throw off as much as the substance as it can. But the muddy mixture clings to its bristly hair tightly.
Apparently deciding that there is little point in trying to remain invisible, the rest of the creature materializes from the surrounding air. The rest of the beast's profile matches its revealed head well. Like a warthog the size of a mustang, the creature is covered in thick, bristly hair covered a deep black, with a long mane running down its neck. A pair of upward curving tusks protrude from underneath its wide snout. Unlike other warthogs, this giant form possess a large dome of solid bone sticking up from its forehead, surrounded by a series of smaller knobs and bosses. It grunts in frustration, pawing at the ground beneath its hooves.
Hagrid turns around quickly to retrieve the cross bow by his door frame, but as he does, Dean catches sight of something else. A second path of torn-up terrain comes into view heading directly toward Hagrid. Dean shouts, "Hagrid! Watch out! There's another-"
But before Hagrid can react, something charges right into his backside, causing Hagrid to cry out in pain. He stops in his tracks, falling to one knee and cursing madly. But before can anyone can react to the sudden appearance of a second warthog, the first one, having recovered from the shock of being sprayed with what everyone hopes was mud, begins galloping directly toward Hagrid as well. As it gets nearer, it lowers its head briefly before thrusting upwards, goring Hagrid in his side, precisely over his right leg.
The force of the assault causes Hagrid to turn over on his back, his eyes shut tight to try and keep the pain from escaping in the form of agonized screams. Cursing through clenched teeth, Hagrid does his best to try batting them away, but with each passing second, more and more of his strength drains away from him, gathering in dark pools around his body.
"HAGRID!" Dean shouts out. He points his wand at the two giant warthogs and cries out, "Diffindo!" But far from severing anything, the charm doesn't appear to leave so much as a dent on them. "Incendio!" Dean calls out, but the pigs prove to be fireproof as well.
Before Dean can try a third spell, Seamus reaches and grabs his arm. "It's no use, mate," Seamus says. "They must be resistant to magic."
But Dean refuses to let this stop him from trying to help Hagrid. He turns around to look inside Hagrid's hut, seeing it filled with an assortment of nick-knacks and flotsam, at least some of which must be of some kind of use. That's when he sees it.
"Seamus, give me a hand," Dean says, going over to the bucket of camel spiders. Reluctantly, Seamus goes over with Dean, and together, they manage to pick up the bucket and haul it over toward the threshold to Hagrid's hut.
"Are you sure about this?" Seamus asks.
"Not unless you've got a better idea," Dean asks, genuinely hoping that maybe Seamus does. When it becomes clear that he doesn't, Dean says, "On the count of three, alright?" Seamus nods. "One… Two…Three!"
On the mention of 'three', they both hurl the bucket outside toward the two oversized warthogs, the collection of camel spiders falling on top of them. The camel spiders use their pincers to get a grip on the pigs' bristly black hairs. When the camel spiders pinch the ebony hides of the warthogs, the pigs squeal in pain, bucking their back legs, throwing their massive heads from side to side, and flashing in and out of being invisible.
With the pigs distracted, Dean suddenly sees it – Hagrid's crossbow. Being fit for a man of Hagrid's stature, Dean has no hope of holding it up on his own. Instead, he sits down and balances it on his lap, taking aim at one of the pigs; the one half covered in mud. Pulling the trigger, the taught string releases the arrow in a single, lighting-fast motion, sending it straight into the haunches of the pig.
The squeal let out by the pig is so loud that all four of them have to cover their ears. It rears up on its hind legs, though can't maintain the position, given the arrow imbedded in the back of its thigh. Eventually deciding that attacking Hagrid is too much trouble, the warthog trots away, into the nearby forest to seek cover, followed closely by its mate.