Chapter 54: Natural One
A wave of rage swept through Danil's body; his hands clenched the wood of his ax. This – Inferior being dared to look him in the eye!
Three teenagers who had magically found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time were staring at him, frozen still as if they were statues. But only Potter looked him in the eye. Weasley was more worried about the huge axe, while Granger was staring at its armor.
'What are these idiots doing in my room?! Suka, why today–!'
With difficulty, he pushed his rage down, forcing his jaw to move and began to speak.
"Don't look away and don't blink, worm." Danil hissed, shaking the trio out of their stupor. Harry winced, but on instinct he did as he was told. "No one else should look me in the eyes. As soon as this idiot blinks, I will immediately start attacking. Girl, run as fast as you can and drag one of the professors here."
Hermione didn't move, her wand pointed at Danil. "Why should we–"
"Now! The faster you go, the faster you can save your idiot friends!" Danil barked, still looking into Harry's eyes. He saw cold sweat break out on the boy's face. Anger built up in his mind like poison, slowly spreading through his veins and filling his body with hate.
"Hermione, do as he say!" Ron also took out his wand, holding it close to his body so that he could quickly react to any movement.
Without waiting for the girl's decision, Danil continued speaking, his voice becoming even deeper than usual. "You stupid bastards will slowly walk out of my room without breaking eye contact and run after your friend as quickly as possible. All projectiles won't be able to harm me. Use conjured water and transfiguration to slow me down."
Ron and Harry looked confused. The boys could not understand why he was telling them all this. He was clearly going to attack them, he said it himself, right?
"Why–?" Ron started but was quickly interrupted.
"Boy wonder doesn't have much time, move your limbs, ya twat!" Danil barked, throwing the ax to the side and tearing off his breastplate, purple smoke coming out of his mouth. "The scarhead looked me in the eye. Now I'll either kill him, or you run for long enough to give me time to calm down. Now move. He doesn't have long."
And it was true. Harry's eyes were already starting to water from the tension, he wouldn't be able to hold out much longer. A strange, low-frequency sound began to come from the monster's throat, its eyes began to shine in the dim lighting of the corridor.
Ron ran out of the room second – Hermione had run to find help a few minutes ago – and helped Harry out backwards so he could continue to look into the monster's eyes. That strange sound became even louder, causing the hairs on the back of the boys' necks to stand on end. Never in their lives had they felt such fear as they did today.
The two teenagers' feet clattered on the stone floor as they clumsily tried to exit the narrow passage. The monster turned slowly, its eyes following Harry's every move, waiting for the moment when its target blinked so that it could rush and rip out the throat of the rabble that dared to look into the eyes of a representative of a superior race.
Danil felt his jaw drop down, depriving him of the ability to speak. Plumes of purple smoke fell to the floor, melting the breastplate he had thrown aside in his haste.
"Blinking!" Harry screamed and waved his wand, raising a stone wall between himself and the monster.
As soon as their line of sight broke, the monster let out a blood-curdling scream, ripping off its claustrophobic helmet and setting off in pursuit of the lesser creatures that dared to enter its territory.
Harry and Ron ran as fast as they could. The nearest office belonged to Professor Lupin, who was on the third floor. So, the chances were high that Hermione ran there.
They didn't even have time to take ten steps when the wall that Harry had put up was broken like glass and the monster that began to chase them was madly looking around in search of its prey.
His violet eyes immediately caught the figures of the two intruders. Emitting a non-human screech, the monster began to move. His long, wiry body was much faster than anyone would have expected from a creature of his size.
"Aquosus Flagellum!" Harry chanted, cutting the air behind him with his wand.
Drops of water immediately gathered at the tip of his wand, lengthening within seconds and becoming a long whip of water. Without looking behind him, he sent a line of water flying, hoping to hit the monster and slow it down.
The whip hit the stone floor, leaving a shallow abrasion on it, but the monster managed to jump to the side without even being hit.
"Vapor Murum!" Ron immediately shouted, throwing a spell over his shoulder.
Instead of the expected appearance of water, a wall of scalding steam appeared before the monster. He didn't have time to stop and flew into it at full speed.
Pain raced through every inch of his skin, causing the monster to scream in pain and trip over its own feet. He fell to the ground, rolling and jumping upward, continuing the chase again.
A couple of Hufflepuff students noticed the chase and immediately ran away with a squeak of fear. The corridors were not as empty as the two friends had hoped.
"It didn't work!" Ron shouted as he sprinted towards the stairs. "Any further and we risk bumping into more people!"
Harry, making a quick decision, turned to the side without saying anything. He was the fastest of the two of them and without Ron he could run ahead.
As he expected, the monster zeroed on him.
"Harry!" Ron shouted in shock, but he suddenly understood his friend's plan.
Thick stone walls rose behind Harry, only for the monster to walk through them as if there was nothing in front of him. The armor sets came to life and jumped to the boys' defense, but were scattered to pieces with just a couple of hits. Waves of steam and whips of water flew around, not even touching the Enderman – he just teleported away.
But all this slowed him down. For a second or two, he began to lose speed.
Seeing his goal, Harry threw all his strength into the final push. He knocked down the door to the room with his shoulder and slammed it behind him, buying himself a few precious seconds.
The boys' toilet on the fourth floor greeted him with a dozen sinks along the wall. The toilet stalls and urinals were a little deeper into the room, but for his plan, it was perfect.
Without hesitating for a second, the boy twirled the stick around his head and shouted: "Aqua Eruptio!"
The pipes that were hidden in the walls of the room began to tremble under tension and, one by one, each sink and toilet began to spew an incredible amount of water directly onto the floor.
"What the heck?!" He heard screaming from one of the closed toilet stalls. "Whose ass do I need to kick?!"
Harry didn't have time to answer because the monster didn't even try to break down the door, he teleported inside directly. Water quickly filled the floor of the room, but not fast enough. The flooding had just begun and could not help him with its protection.
With a scream, the monster swung its clawed hand, aiming to take off the lower race's head with just one blow. But Harry saw it from a mile away, the monster had no desire other than to kill him. Pure rage filled his movements, there was no higher thought behind them.
"What– what's going on here?" The same voice asked in shock, but no one had time to answer this question.
Every time the monster attacked, Harry dodged by a hair's breath, waving his wand and dousing Danil with water. This helped keep the monster at a distance and stall for time until help arrived.
Suddenly, the monster cried out in pain, teleporting to the side to escape another attack, but not before his fist connected with Harry's chest, sending him flying straight into the door of one of the stalls.
Harry's plan began to work, the monster simply could not stand in the water that filled the floor, the slightest touch of the liquid brought him pain.
It was clear that Danil was the one who suffered more. Pieces of skin on his body looked burned, as if he had been doused with acid. Harry's body, meanwhile, was covered in scratches and bruises from close calls with the monster's claws.
Struggling to breathe, Harry glanced towards the other booth. Two disheveled students stood there, a boy from Ravenclaw and a... girl from Hufflepuff. He didn't need to be a genius to figure out what they were doing here.
Danil stood at the entrance to the loo, where the water had not yet reached. His leather sandals were of an open design, he couldn't take even one step before the water would cause him even more damage. The hatred in his eyes subsided a little, and his jaw returned to its normal position, but he did not stop staring at Harry.
"Hey… Sorry about that." The Boy Who Lived said holding his wand at the ready. Just because the monster stopped didn't mean it wouldn't try to attack again.
"What did you do?!" The girl immediately screamed, stomping towards Harry and not even paying attention to how the water soaked into her clothes.
"What?" He rasped in confusion, turning to the girl. He noticed how the Ravenclaw boy slowly approached the monster, carefully looking only at the ground.
Harry raised his wand again and pointed it at the monster. "Stay back! He–!" His hand was immediately pulled aside.
"Shut up and let him do his thing!" She forced his head down so that Harry wouldn't even have the chance to look into the monster's eyes again.
Harry didn't know what this madman was going to do and was ready to stun both of them, but the boy was already too close to the monster.
"Danil? Buddy, do you understand me?" Gabriel began slowly, drawing the monster's attention to himself. "Easy, easy. I know you're angry. He looked into your eyes, right? I won't make that mistake. Are you okay?"
The hatred slowly left Danil's eyes. He tore his eyes away from Harry and looked at Gabriel. His friend from the Divination class was tearing off the hem of his white shirt, which only miraculously remained dry.
{"... This scum allowed itself to look at its betters."} He answered, but then winced.
"That wasn't English, let's try it again. Take a deep breath," Danil did, "and let it all out. Are you still with us?"
Danil was silent for a couple of seconds. His entire body was sending signals of pain, his feet still tingling from the water that had seeped into his boots. He couldn't feel his left side – and that was very, very bad.
"I feel like I ran through a meat grinder." He said in the end.
Gabriel and Jamie breathed a sigh of relief and the boy handed Danil a piece of cloth. Without any argument, he wrapped it around his eyes, removing even the slightest chance that this horror would happen again.
{"Perspicuus."} He said, touching the blindfold and within a second it became perfectly transparent for him, as if it was not there. "Done, you can look up."
"What the hell happened here?! Why were you chasing Potter?!" Jamie asked impatiently, placing her hands on her hips.
"I'd like to know that too."
All four of them turned to leave and Harry's stomach dropped. A breathless Ron and Hermione stood behind a furious looking Professor Snape.
"So, Potter? Would you like to explain yourself?"
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