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"Are... are we really going in there, Big D?"
Staring at the dark, empty corridor ahead, Ron gripped his wand nervously. His fingers were so tense that his knuckles had already turned white.
With Dudley leading the way, they had arrived at the place they had avoided the last time they snuck out at night.
The corridor on the right side of the fourth floor.
Ron's tense expression ended up affecting Harry, Malfoy, and the others as well.
Dumbledore's words from the beginning of the year were still echoing in their ears.
Anyone who did not wish to suffer an accident or a painful death was to stay away from the corridor on the right.
"Of course. This is Professor Dumbledore's test."
As he spoke, Dudley took several pendants from his pocket and handed them out, telling the others to put them on.
"What are these?"
No one understood.
"Lucky charms."
Dudley answered and immediately took the lead. The others exchanged confused looks, but in the end they put the pendants on and followed right after him.
At the end of the corridor stood a locked door.
Dudley could not even be bothered to bring his hands together. He simply grabbed the lock and snapped it apart by force. The iron padlock, which had looked quite sturdy, split cleanly in two.
"Alohomora... physical version."
With a creak, he pushed the door open.
The first thing that appeared before them was an enormous three-headed dog.
"A three-headed dog."
It was the very same creature that had bitten Snape.
At that moment, the beast was looking down at the group from above, six huge yellow eyes fixed on them.
Under the three-headed dog's gaze, Harry and the others froze where they stood.
They were too close. So close they could feel the hot, foul breath pouring from the creature's three abyssal mouths.
They were only children, young wizards just beginning their first steps in the magical world. They had never seen anything like this before. Under the dog's gaze, they froze as if they had been struck by a Body-Bind Curse.
This was a creature powerful enough to injure even a professor.
It definitely was not something first-years could fight.
Fortunately, a thick iron chain was fastened around the dog's neck. It could not run out of the room, much less attack them directly.
"You go on ahead. I'll handle this myself."
Dudley's voice was like a shot of courage, giving the others a sudden surge of courage.
He pulled an iron ingot from the pouch at his waist, brought his hands together, and the metal transformed into countless chains that bound the three-headed dog's four legs from multiple directions.
Harry and the others seized the chance, opened the trapdoor beside the dog, and jumped down one by one.
Before jumping, Hermione cast Dudley a worried look.
Dudley only smiled at her calmly.
Only then did she jump.
After confirming that Hermione and the others were already gone, Dudley released the chains restraining the dog.
The instant it was free, the three-headed dog lunged straight at Dudley.
Its job was to guard that room and keep anyone from entering.
But several people had already gotten through.
The least it could do was make sure not all of them did.
In the next second, all three heads froze in shock.
Because Dudley, who had originally stood at around 6'2, began expanding as though he were being inflated, until he reached something around 7'5.
Then he calmly walked up to the dog, and the moment two of the heads tried to bite him, he grabbed one in each hand and smashed them together hard.
"You like biting, huh?"
THUMP.
"Then bite now."
THUMP.
"Go on. Try biting one more time."
THUMP.
The dull impacts echoed through the room again and again.
When Dudley let go, the two heads dropped to the floor with a heavy thud.
They looked as if they were seeing stars spinning endlessly around their heads. Their eyes had gone crooked, their mouths hung loose, and their tongues lolled out helplessly in utterly ruined expressions.
The sensation felt familiar to them.
The strength felt familiar too.
That monstrous strength...
In that moment, the middle head, the only one that had not been struck, remembered the master who had put them there.
It reminded him of Hagrid.
Hagrid used to "play" with them like that too. And every single time, he left them thoroughly wrecked.
At this point, it was basically trauma.
So with that one display, Dudley truly frightened the three-headed dog. The only head still conscious no longer dared attack. It merely stared at Dudley, its eyes full of caution.
It was big, but it was not stupid.
It knew very well the difference between someone it could fight and someone it could not.
Dudley took one step forward, and the dog took one step back.
Dudley advanced another step... and it retreated again.
Until it reached the wall.
There was nowhere left to go.
Then Dudley took one more step.
That final step seemed to trigger some invisible switch inside the dog. The creature let out a pitiful whine.
"Awoooo..."
Then it squeezed its eyes shut and began flailing its paws wildly in the air, clawing at empty space as if it had gone mad.
Had the three-headed dog lost its mind?
Dudley had no idea why the beast had suddenly snapped like that. He gave it a suspicious look, but though he could understand the language of magical creatures, he had no clue what those random, senseless barks were supposed to mean. So he opened the trapdoor and jumped down.
He truly had not planned on hitting the dog again.
But that panicked fit made Dudley seriously suspect the creature might have rabies.
He sincerely hoped Snape was all right.
After all, he had been bitten, and it had been a nasty bite.
...
Some time after Dudley had already left, the three-headed dog, still keeping its eyes shut, began sniffing hard at the air. When it realized Dudley's scent was growing fainter and fainter, it finally cracked one eye open and peeked around.
He left?
Only after confirming that Dudley really was gone did it open both eyes and let out a long sigh that seemed startlingly human.
It was absolutely certain that guy possessed strength similar to its master's.
If it insisted on fighting, it would definitely get beaten senseless.
And there was another crucial point.
Back then, it had caught a faint smell of Rock Cake on Dudley.
That was right.
It was definitely Hagrid's Rock Cake smell.
Better to play dumb.
Everyone called it a stupid dog, but in truth, it was not stupid at all.
Sometimes, it was surprisingly clever.
But before it could even try to wake the other two heads Dudley had knocked out, it caught the scent of a stranger again.
'I don't care who you are. This time I'm going to finish you.'
The three-headed dog bared its teeth, exposing its sharp fangs.
But after waiting for quite some time, no one appeared.
Instead, a soft harp melody began to drift in from outside and spread through the room.
Before long, a harp with two legs came hopping into the chamber.
The only head still awake began lowering slowly... as if it had been hit by a sleeping spell. Its eyelids grew heavier... and heavier... until the room was filled with thunderous snoring.
At that moment, a man wearing a turban peeked half his head through the doorway, furtively checking the situation inside.
After confirming that the three-headed dog had fallen deeply asleep, he finally relaxed and shifted from silent creeping to long, decisive strides.
The fact that the three-headed dog fell asleep when it heard music was something he had managed to wring out of that idiot Hagrid at no small cost.
A dragon egg.
What the man in the turban did not know, however, was that under normal circumstances, the three-headed dog really did fall asleep to music.
But when it had a mild concussion from being smacked in the head... that was another matter entirely.
The very moment he opened the trapdoor, the two heads Dudley had knocked out suddenly woke up.
One with an eye rolled upward, the other with an eye rolled downward, both with crooked necks and drool hanging from their mouths as they crept toward him.
And then they opened their jaws right at his backside.
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