Ambush in the Dark
Harry didn't stay surprised for long. He raised a finger, and suddenly the ground in front of him rose almost instantly into a wall of earth.
It stopped every spell.
They exploded on impact… but didn't break through.
Harry raised his hand.
He pushed.
Then the wall turned into a wave of earth, moving toward the forest where the attacks came from. He picked out at least a dozen wizards hidden in the shadows.
Harry glanced at Red for a moment and gave him a small nod. Red, without needing anything else, started running at high speed behind the wave of earth.
At once, one of the attackers hidden in the darkness of the forest raised his wand and brought it down hard, and a cutting spell shot toward the wave of earth, slicing it in half and splitting it into two smaller waves.
Then he saw it.
A red flash.
Too fast.
He looked down.
But by the time he recognized Red's red scales… it was already too late. The dragon was already on top of him, jaws wide open. And even though the attacker tried to launch a desperate attack, raising his wand, Red caught his arms with his sharp teeth, and blood spilled instantly as the attacker fell backward, letting out a pained scream.
"Aaah!" he shouted, while the other attackers around him froze for a moment in shock before trying to help their ally, to free him from that beast.
But they didn't have much time to react, because the split wave, now in two, was still moving toward them.
So they only had time to jump, trying to dodge, since they couldn't use Apparition within the castle grounds, they had to rely on their bodies. But being wizards, there wasn't much confidence in that.
Only a couple of them managed to avoid the waves, and only because they were at the edges, while around four of them were buried in the earth.
Harry, who closed his hand as if he were squeezing the air, made the ground solidify like stone in an instant, not giving the attackers inside any time to escape.
Harry's face was cold as ice. Between the annoyance of being interrupted and being attacked, it wasn't clear which angered him more.
Another attacker looked at Harry with a fear that went deeper than reason, and tried to raise his wand to attack him directly, but before he could, Red appeared, leaping at him, and without time to react, he only felt how his arm was chewed by what felt like a meat grinder.
"Aaah!" Another scream echoed through the dark forest.
"Attack! Our target, just attack!" one of the wizards shouted, trying to regain control of the field. "Don't face him head-on! Spread out! Surround him!" another wizard yelled urgently.
At once, the attackers stopped acting like a disorganized group.
They split.
Some fell back, others shifted positions between the trees, using the darkness as cover while casting spells from different angles.
Harry raised an eyebrow slightly when he saw they weren't amateurs.
But before they could do anything, Harry raised both hands for a moment.
The red aura of his chaos magic ran through the surrounding trees instantly, and they began to tremble violently, sudden wooden spikes emerging from their bark, pointing at every single wizard present.
Their eyes widened as dozens of those spikes aimed at each of them, no matter if they moved or not. Panic hit them as if they realized there was no escape, quickly creating magical shields to protect themselves.
But before Harry could move his hands to finish it—
Harry tensed his hands just before closing them.
He stopped.
The aura around him flickered for an instant.
And Harry lowered his hands.
Then…
she appeared.
The aggressors, completely confused seeing that nothing happened for a few seconds, turned their gaze toward him. But they noticed something strange, because right next to this young wizard there had only been a beautiful blonde girl and a decrepit old man. But now there was a red-haired beauty with a cold gaze staring them down, freezing them in place the moment her eyes landed on them.
"Red," Wanda said, who had just appeared out of nowhere beside Harry, toward the dragon that was shaking its head with something that was better left unnamed because of how violent it was.
Red, hearing his name, lifted his head, dropping what he had in his mouth, and instantly ran toward Wanda, very happy, looking proud, like he was waiting for praise after helping his master.
"Aah… you guys overdid it," Wanda said, letting out a small sigh as she looked at two solid stone graves made by Harry, and two men lying on the ground bleeding out thanks to Red. Though she wasn't really upset, since it was easy to understand they had been defending themselves.
Even so, Red, seeing Wanda's sigh, felt like he might be punished, so he quickly stopped midway and instead ran toward Fleur, hiding behind her.
Which snapped Fleur out of her stunned state at what had just happened, what felt like long minutes but had actually been seconds. She looked at Harry for a moment in surprise, since she had never seen him use his magic like that, even without a wand, and she blinked a couple of times while staring at him.
Harry turned slightly when he felt her gaze and gave her a charming smile. Fleur looked away instantly.
Meanwhile, Wanda glanced at Crouch for a moment, raising an eyebrow, then barely moved one hand, as vines burst out of nowhere and bound each of the attackers, capturing them effortlessly.
"It'd be better if you walk Fleur back to her carriage, Harry. Let your godfather handle this," Wanda said simply.
For an instant…
everything fell silent.
And that alone made Wanda frown.
"Of course," Harry said calmly, turning to look at Fleur. But the moment he turned, his eyes widened in shock as he saw something leap toward her at high speed. Harry moved his hand instantly. Even Wanda turned around, just as surprised as him when she saw something appear that even she hadn't noticed until it was already jumping straight at Fleur.
Fleur, right then, turned around with a confused look. And then she saw why both mother and son had reacted that way. In front of her was what looked like a massive mole-like creature. Red veins covered its skin, pulsing. Two large, wild red eyes. And huge claws, black as obsidian, just like its teeth, which looked like they were drenched in blood.
And it was attacking her directly, its claw just inches from her neck. Fleur, on reflex, moved her hand toward her wand in her pocket, but she wouldn't make it in time.
Luckily, before it even reached her, suddenly Red, who had been behind Fleur, leapt toward the strange creature, slamming it to the ground and sinking his teeth into its neck.
"KYAAAAAA!" the strange creature screeched, as Red released his bite before opening his jaws right at its face. A burst of red fire, point-blank, erupted from his throat, completely incinerating the creature's head, which stopped twitching instantly.
Red snuffed out the flames, letting smoke trail from his nose before stepping off the creature's corpse, now lifting his head again, proudly toward Wanda.
But Wanda was so surprised she didn't even look at Red, still staring at the creature, which she hadn't sensed at all until it was too late. Even if it wouldn't have hurt Fleur, since Wanda had created a defense instantly for her, it still caught her off guard that, just like the sea monsters, she hadn't been able to feel it while it was there.
"Again…" Wanda said, her tone caught somewhere between surprise, shock, and irritation.
Meanwhile, Harry quickly stepped toward Fleur and grabbed her by the shoulders, his face truly serious as he checked if she was hurt anywhere.
"You… are you okay?" he asked, his voice carrying real concern.
"Yes… yes, I'm fine," Fleur said, still breathing a little unevenly, touching her neck, feeling just how close that claw had been. She looked down and noticed a hole not far from her, realizing the creature had come out from there.
"Harry, take her. Red, go with them," Wanda said more seriously, her gaze fixed on the creature for a moment, her brow furrowed.
And the reason was because that creature, or rather its corpse, suddenly started to rot right there, decaying like pure putrefaction.
Harry also looked at it for a moment, but nodded and led Fleur away with him. Meanwhile, Red followed Wanda's order and began walking beside Harry and Fleur, looking around like an imperial guard. And even with a faint, lingering pride in the small, foolish dragon.
As for Wanda, who stayed behind, she looked around for a moment with an annoyed expression, her gaze settling on Crouch, who was curled up on the ground in a fetal position, trembling and shaking, muttering incoherent words.
She let out another sigh before moving her hand, and what remained of the corpse, now nothing more than a strange puddle, vanished… or maybe it was moved somewhere else.
Then she reached her hand into the air for a moment, before pulling sharply, and Sirius dropped right in front of her with a completely confused expression.
"Huh? What's going on?" he asked, utterly confused, his gaze scanning around before landing on Wanda.
"You handle it," Wanda said, nothing more, before disappearing in a red flash.
Sirius, still looking confused, took a more careful look around. And he saw two small mounds of solid stone. Two men covered in blood who were no longer moving. Another four or five tied up by vines, writhing, but every movement only seemed to drive the thorns deeper into their skin.
And then the man shaking in a fetal position right beneath him.
"I'm going to need more expla—" Sirius turned to where Wanda had been a moment ago, but she was already gone, leaving him alone. "Ah… damn it. The moment I decided to become the substitute headmaster of this place. It was already obvious it wasn't just the Defense Against the Dark Arts position that was cursed, but the whole damn school," he muttered, annoyed.
Especially noticing that the half-crazed, decrepit old man was none other than Barty Crouch.
"It was my fault… all mine. Bertha… dead… my fault… my son… I have to tell Dumbledore… the demon… the demon… my son… Dumbledore…" Barty Crouch muttered, broken and incoherent.
"Oh, yeah… great. Just great," Sirius said. With everything already complicated, things piling up one after another, adding a completely unhinged Crouch rambling about even worse things… all Sirius could do was laugh, feeling like maybe that Black blood, the one people said carried madness, didn't sound so strange anymore.