Dranex

"DRANEX."

Chapter five-suspicions

(This chapter contains mild language)

After a few moments later, we couldn't hear the creature snarling outside. I got off of Harry.

"What the hell is that out there?" Harry demanded fixing his glasses.

"I don't know...it looked like a wolf...but yet it didn't," I said, hugging myself.

"I know...it looked like the skin was decaying or something," Harry said. "I'm going to wake Ron and Ian. Stay here."

Harry hurried off to the boy's dorms. A few minutes later, he came back out with Ron, but not Ian.

"Where's Ian?" I asked, shocked, looking around.

"We don't know! He's not in the dorm!" Ron said, looking pale.

"WHAT?" I cried. "He has to be! Where could he be?"

"I don't know! The only place I could think of is..." Harry's voice trailed off as he and I exchanged looks of realization.

"OUTSIDE!" we cried in unison.

"He must've went for a walk or something! We've got to warn him!" I cried.

"How? With that thing still out there?" Harry cried.

"We can't just leave him out there either!" I cried back.

"I don't know what we can do!" Harry cried.

"I can't believe we just leave him out there!" I said.

"We have no choice!" Ron cried.

I just flopped down on a chair and buried my face into my hands and tears started to form.

Harry crouched down in front of me.

"I'm sure he's fine. I'm sure he found some place to hide," Harry said, soothingly as I felt his hand on my knee.

I raised my eyes to his.

"I hope so,"

About a few hours later, the portrait swung open. We all jumped to our feet with our wands raised. It was Ian.

Relieved, I rushed forward and threw my arms around him and hugged him. He was surprised but hugged me back.

"What's going on?" Ian asked, surprised.

"There's something in this castle that's not...alive I guess you would say," Harry replied, eyeing Ian suspiciously.

"What?" Ian asked, startled.

"Something chased Hermione and I again...but we got a glimpse of it...a real good glimpse," Harry continued.

"What did it look like?"

"It had red flesh, like the skin was turned inside out, and it looked like the flesh was decaying...it also climbed the wall again," I said, as I released Ian and sat back down.

Ian's eyes widened. "Oh my God...."

"It killed Malfoy!" I said, shivering. "It broke his neck."

Harry then came over to me and put his hand on my shoulder.

"Ian, did you see anything out there?" Harry asked, tilting his head slightly.

"Nope...not a thing," Ian replied.

Ron and Harry exchanged looks.

"How is that possible?" I asked. "Harry and I saw it with our own eyes!"

Ian shrugged. "I dunno. I was in the library the whole time. I didn't see anything when I came out,"

We exchanged looks again.

That was really weird...how could he not see or hear it? Surely he would've heard it at some point.

Now, I was beginning to get suspicious of Ian, but I still needed proof that there was anything to be suspicious about.

It might've been quite possible that he didn't see it, but at some point, I think he would've heard it.

"Okay, well I think we should go back to Dumbledore tomorrow and tell him we saw it fully," Ron said, swallowing.

"Good idea. Let's try and get some sleep, huh?" Harry said, still eyeing Ian.

The boys headed off to their dorms and I headed off to mine.

The next morning, we were sitting at the Gryffindor table, eating breakfast. I just happened to look up at the Slytherin table. I dropped my fork and it clattered onto my plate.

"What's wrong now?" Ron asked, as his hand, which was holding a fork, froze halfway up to his mouth.

"I. Don't. Believe. It," I said, slowly as shock and confusion filled my chest.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"Malfoy," I whispered.

Ian, Ron and Harry turned around and followed my gaze, which was locked on the Slytherin table.

There was Malfoy, sitting with the rest of the Slytherin's.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Harry whispered.

I glared at him reprovingly.

He blushed. "Sorry for the foul language, but I just don't understand this!"

I had to admit it was frustrating and totally baffling.

"We saw that thing break his neck last night!" I whispered to Ian.

"What?" Ian asked, startled.

I nodded. "Yeah, whatever that thing was it pounced on him and broke his neck! How on earth can he be here now? He was dead!"

"He certainly seems alive now," Harry said, slowly. "I think half of this has to do with that TI virus."

"That may be, but it doesn't account for how his neck was broken and now he's sitting with the Slytherin's as if nothing happened!" I said.

"I really think we're in deep trouble here," Ron said, swallowing some pumpkin juice.

"I agree. But what can we do about it? How do we kill it?" I asked, leaning forward.

"Kill it? First we've got to find out what it is and how it got here!" Harry said.

"One word..." I began.

"Library," the four of us said in unison.

So, for like the third time, we headed to the library to see if there's any type of animal that fits the description of what we saw last night. I was sitting beside Harry flipping through a book called "Magical and Legendary Beasts of the Modern Times" and Harry was reading "Wolves, Dogs and Canine Breeds of the Magical Era"

Ron and Ian were flipping through spell books to try and see if anyone of the spells could take down an animal. I told him the Avada Kedavra spell would take down anything alive, but we couldn't be sure. We really didn't know enough about this thing.

Harry sighed and closed his book.

"There's nothing in this book that suggests that this is any kind of normal wolf, dog or anything like that,"

"Weird...it certainly has the characteristics of a wolf or dog," I said, looking at him shocked.

"I know it does," Harry said. "Any luck in that book?"

"No. The closest that comes to it is the Revexl. A wolf-lizard that was thought to be around in the early 1200's, before the medieval times,"

"Weird...totally weird. So what you're saying is that this thing isn't known anywhere?" Ian asked, slowly.

"Gee...you're the brightest bulb," Ron said, rolling his eyes.

Ian sneered at Ron before turning his eyes onto Harry and I.

"So what do we do now?"

"I'd say try and capture it," I said, slowly.

"How would we do that?"

"I dunno...like a net or we can use the Binding Charm,"

"You think that would work?" Ron asked.

"It might. We'd have to get close enough for the charm to work," I said.

"I say, let's do it!" Ron cried.

"I agree," Ian said.

Harry looked at me.

"We have no choice. We have to find out what's going on here,"

I sighed and reluctantly agreed.

En Route to Potions, Malfoy came up to us. His skin looked gray and there were dark circles under his eyes.

"Hello, Potty, Weasel and the Mudblood," he said, smirking.

Oddly, Ian didn't say anything to him like he did the last time.

I think Harry realized that as well. But what had me creeping out was the way Ian and Malfoy were looking at each other...smug like.

Amy sauntered over as well. Then stood by Malfoy.

"Well, did you tell Dumbledore I was looking for him?" Amy asked, smiling.

Her skin was looking exactly the same way that Malfoy's was. With the three of them standing near each other, I really got freaked out.

"Um, he's been busy...don't worry. I won't forget to tell him," I said, forcing a smile.

It was just the whole situation right now. Malfoy had his neck broken by that thing and he's standing here talking, and Amy had her throat torn out and she's standing here talking like nothing at all happened.

And the way they were looking at each other...smug and like they were long lost friends!

"Erm, we really have to get going. We're going to be late for Potions," Ron said, also looking from Malfoy to Amy to Ian.

"Yeah. We'll talk to you soon," I said, as I felt a shiver running down my spine.

"We've got Potions too...you forget," Malfoy said, smiling.

Ron, Harry, Ian and I began walking with Malfoy behind me. I was nearly jumping out of my skin with him behind me. I could feel his eyes on me the entire time. Ron, Harry, Ian and I entered the Potions dungeon. As I went to walk in, I felt someone trip me. I fell forward flat on my face. As I went down, I ended up biting my bottom lip.

"Hermione!" Harry cried, as he immediately crouched down in front of me and extended his hand.

I took it and he helped me up. He kept holding onto my shoulders.

"Are you okay?" he demanded worriedly.

"Yeah. Someone tripped me," I said, wiping my bottom lip with the sleeve of my robe, but it kept bleeding.

I saw Harry look behind my shoulder as Malfoy walked past us into the dungeon and he took his seats with Crabbe and Goyle. Malfoy just looked back defiantly and for a fleeting moment, I saw him smile and his eyes locked on my bleeding lip. I thought I saw him start to drool and his eyes changed. I blinked. Malfoy's eyes had turned onto Professor Snape.

"Come on...you need to go to Madam Pomfrey," Harry said. "Ron? Ian? I'm taking her to the hospital wing. Tell Snape where we are."

They nodded. Harry led me up to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey touched my lip with the tip of her wand and the cut sealed itself.

We began heading back to the dungeon. I decided to tell Harry what I saw.

"Really? You think Malfoy tripped you?" Harry asked, shocked.

"Yes. Why look so shocked? We all know his behavior," I said as we walked slowly down the corridor.

"I know...I just can't believe he would do that out in the open like that,"

"If anyone saw him, that is," I said, sighing.

I stopped walking. Harry stopped also and faced me.

I just hugged myself and felt tears forming in my eyes.

"I'm just scared! I don't know what's going on here! I'm also scared that I'm losing my mind! I know we saw that thing break Malfoy's neck! How on earth could he be alive now?" I asked as I felt a single tear stream down my cheek.

Harry's face filled with sympathy.

"No, Hermione. You're not losing your mind. I saw it too. I'm scared too. I think the only thing that will work is to try and catch it alive and maybe stun it to show Dumbledore. He'll know what to do with it,"

"I know...it's just so scary!" I sobbed.

Harry stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close. I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face into his shoulder. His chin was resting on my shoulder. I closed my eyes against the gentle blackness of his robe. I enjoyed the embrace. He just seemed to calm me down immediately.

I felt him stroking my hair and he lightly pressed his face into it.

"I know. I'm scared too. But we'll get through this and figure it all out...don't worry," he whispered.

I stood, sobbing for a bit before we released each other and took a step back.

Our faces were inches apart. I wanted him to kiss me, but I wasn't sure how he'd react to it.

"Let's get back to class," he suggested clearing his throat.

Nodding, we headed back to Potions.

Once all our classes were over, we came up with a plan that night to try and trap it.

Harry and I were taking one corridor, while Ron and Ian would take the other and we'd lure it into one part of the corridor before hitting it with four stunning spells at the same time.

It was around nine o'clock. Harry and I were waiting in our corridor. Ron and Ian were in the other corridor.

"I hope we can stop this thing," I whispered, as I gripped my wand tightly.

Harry had his wand out as well like a sword.

"I think we will," Harry said, reassuringly.

Just then, I heard low growls coming from the end of the corridor. I gripped Harry's arm and we froze. It was the creature. It was loping toward us...but then, fear gripped us even more...there were three of them!

"Three?" I squeaked out. "There was only one the last time!"

"Ron! Abandon plan! There's three of them!"

"But there's four of us! We should be able to handle four against three!" I cried.

"No! There are only three of us! Ian disappeared again!" we heard Ron yell from the other corridor.

"WHAT?" I shrieked as the creatures were getting closer. They were snarling.

"Ian's disappeared again!" Ron cried as he soon joined us in the corridor.

"So it's three against three! We wouldn't have a chance!"

"RUN!" Harry cried.

"STUPEFY!" I yelled aiming my wand over my shoulder.

I heard some sort of a 'yelp' indicating that I must've hit one.

The other two were galloping behind us, covering a good amount of ground.

They were gaining on us fast.

"An empty classroom!" Ron cried as he yanked open the door and we flew in.

He closed the door and locked it behind us. We backed further into the classroom, which was lit only by a full moon, which cast a silvery glow into the classroom through the window.

We could hear the creatures outside the door, clawing at it.

We could start to see splints falling as the creature's nails gouged the wood.

I clung to Harry. He wrapped his arm around me protectively. Ron was holding his wand at the door like a sword.

We could hear the snarling as well.

After what seemed like 20 minutes, the creatures finally gave up and there was silence outside.

"They're gone!" Ron cried.

"I'm not going anywhere...suppose they're still out there and this is a trick?" I demanded.

"I agree. I say we spend the night here for now," Harry said.

Ron sighed and we found spots on the floor and got comfortable. I was lying on my side curled up. I felt Harry lying beside me. Feeling a bit safer, I soon dozed off. But one question kept burning into my mind...

Each time Ian disappears, those creatures seem to show up. Why was that? And where does he go?