The Hogwarts Challenge: Evolving Magic

Hermione started setting wards frantically, her thoughts racing. There could be hundreds more of them. She tried not to think too hard about that, not to picture hundreds of massive flesh-eating slugs, so many they filled the corridor from floor to ceiling, pouring endlessly over them. She’d seem maggots pour from a piece of rotting meat once, it would be something like that, only if the maggots were the size of a small pony. She could always collapse the ceiling, but that could bring the entire tunnel down. What worked well against slugs? Maybe a wall of salt? And a wall of flame, just for good measure? Most things disliked flame walls.

“Ms. Granger! What are you doing?” Professor Snape looked up from the slug, his face set in its characteristic sneer.

“Preparing,” Hermione muttered, scratching symbols on the walls andor. or. She’d have to levitate herself to get to the ceiling. Professor Snape just leaned back and watched her, his face unreadable. Well, that was fair. He’d gotten the first slug, it was her turn to do something. With him watching her, she felt rather nervous about levitating, so she transfigured a rock into a stepladder instead. It was so unnerving, the way he stared at people. It didn’t help, knowing that he actually could read minds. As she scratched the last of the runes into the ceiling, she heard Professor Snape murmur something and felt the stepladder dissolve underneath her. She fell almost a meter to the floor, skinning her knee before professor Snape caught her by the back of her cloak. This was beginning to be a habit now, she thought as the clasp of her cloak dug painfully into her throat.

“Ms. Granger,” Professor Snape said softly, gleefully, “ten points from Gryffindor and detention, for casting spells with the intent to harm other students.”

“Harm other students?” Hermione exclaimed, “but I wasn’t, the slugs swarm, I was just preparing,” she tried to gasp out an explanation, but it was rather difficult to breathe. She wished he would put her down.

“Considering that I wiped out the main breeding area with flesh-eating slug repellant several weeks ago, there is no danger of massive swarms of slugs appearing. This trip was to eliminate any remaining stragglers. Therefore, I can only conclude,” Professor Snape hissed, his dark eyes gleaming, “that you set these wards with the intent to harm your fellow students, who will be arriving here tomorrow for their first Challenge Class.” With that last condemnation, he released the back of her cloak and she collapsed breathing in heaving gasps of air as she glared at him. It was unfair!

“I will leave you to remove these s, ws, while I take this specimen to my lab. It would appear that someone has been experimenting again.” He smiled coldly and swept off in a flurry of robes, the stunned slug bobbing through the air behind him.

Hermione bit her lip, this was bad. Very bad. Not the points and detention, that was standard Snape. But his suspicions about the origins of the super-sized flesh-eating slug were troublesome. She’d always thought that eventually one of Hagrid’s creatures would end up eating a student. He meant well, but he really didn’t seem to have any common sense when it came to magical creatures. But in the end, he’d never had a pet that hadn’t ended up helping them somehow, so she had always looked the other way. Maybe she shouldn’t have. If it turned out that he had been breeding these giant flesh-eating slugs, well he didn’t have a wand to break, but it would certainly be imprisonment or exile. The truth was that they were dangerous. They could hurt, or even kill someone. But Hagrid was her friend! And she couldn’t imagine anyone with less guile. He was one of the gentlest, kindest people she knew. Hermione attacked the runes with a rock, viciously scratching them out. Why wasn’t anything simple anymore?

Twenty minutes later, Hermione finished scrubbing out the last of the runes. Funny, normally it was faster to destroy someg thg than to create it. It would have been nice to use a scouring charm, but it was bad to mix magic, charms on runes could have un-expected side effects. She was sweating, strands of her unruly hair as well as dust and dirt from the passageway clung to her face. She wiped her forehead against the sleeve of her robe, but her robe was pretty filthy too. Breathing deeply, she cast a cleansing charm, smiling at the refreshing tingle as it rushed through her. She’d had time to calm down, but she was still frustrated with herself. She’d jumped to conclusions. She should know better by now. There was no point getting upset, there wasn’t enough information to say that the slugs had been purposefully bred or that Hagrid had been involved if they had, or that they were still flesh-eating, really. And it was just like Professor Snape to encourage someone to jump to the wrong conclusions. Sighing, she turned to walk back the way she’d come, but froze as she heard a noise. It was low, barely audible, but in a dungeon, you don’t take chances.

She whirled around, saw the black blur speeding towards her, and cried, “Stupefy!” Damn, it was fast. Was the speed magical, or was the extra mass devoted to it? She missed. It was on her. With that much mass, at that speed, she was knocked to the ground. It was like being slammed into a wall from both sides. There was a sharp pain in her calf and the tickle of wetness trickling down her ankle. But she’d managed to hold onto her wand, that was the important thing, that was what she’d practiced in all of those DA meetings. Her target was now very stationary, munching on her calf. It must be three or four times her weight she thought, struggling to free her wand hand. At last she managed to jerk her wand free from under the slug, it was covered in thick slime, hopefully the sticky coating wouldn’t interfere with the spell. “Stupefy!” she repeated, as strongly as she could, given the weight of the circumstances. The slug shuddered and went slack, but it was still on top of her. “Wingardium Leviosa,” she commanded it, and sucked in a deep breath as the crushing weight lifted from off of her chest. She finished it off with “Incendio,” getting an inordinate amount of satisfaction from watching the thing burn. Well, now she knew that they were definitely flesh-eating!

She steeled herself, then looked down at her calf and quickly away again. It was not pretty. The monster had taken a chunk out, was the bluntest way of putting it. The wound was probably worse than it looked though, extensive muscle damage, but the bone and ligament were completely intact. They’d glimmered wetly, pearlescent in the dim light. She could have done without the anatomy diagram. The blood loss was probably the most immediate problem. Feeling the earth lurch sickeningly beneath her feet, she fumbled her tie off and knotted it above the wound, forming a tourniquet. The ground wobbled again, gravel and rocks skittering across the floor of the tunnel. It wasn’t just her, the ground was actually moving! She swore softly under her breath, scrambling to her feet. It must be something big. That was bad. The full-body attack and hex spells didn’t work as well on bigger creatures. There was no time to set wards. Standard battle charms then, she decided, casting a full-body cushioning charm followed by an armoring charm in quick succession. She wished that she had potions for speed and strength, and while she was at it, a bezoar stone. She was fairly certain there was something in that slug’s saliva or slime, some sort of toxin. This was the best she could do with what she had though. The thuds were louder now, more resonant. It was closer. Leaning against the side of the stone tunnel, she extended her wand and shot a few flares down the tunnel. Nothing damaging, just for illumination. She was still hoping that it might be something harmless.

The flares sped through the passage like a train lighting up a tunnel. After a few seconds had passed, there was a flash and for a brief moment the flares illuminated the body of a cave troll, hunched over to fit its five meter height into the four meter tall tunnel and casually swinging a club larger than she was atuddtudded with jagged bits of bone and metal. She swallowed, trying to fight down her panic. This wouldn’t be like the last time. This was different. She wasn’t some scared little first year. She had studied for this, she had prepared for this. Cutting or puncturing spells and hexes worked the best against trolls, since trolls could shrug off most stunning spells, they were just too massive. Something sharp and focused was best. First to slow it down though, she couldn’t let it get too close, the slug had provided a graphic lesson in the dangers of proximity. “Aranea Casses” she intoned, and massive sprays of webbing shot out of the tip of her wand sheeting across the corridor. Her first “Seco” cut the troll shallowly across the the ribs, unfortunately that only seemed to aggravate it, as it batted the cobweb strands aside with greater fury, drawing rapidly closer. Her second “Seco” caught its right arm, severing it just above the elbow. The appendage thudded to the ground and the troll stopped for a moment, regarding the stumpits its arm with astonishment as it blossomed red, spewing blood everywhere. Then, with a roar of rage, it lunged forward once again, almost upon her. Her last severing charm cut the trolls head off cleanly and its decapitated body collapsed at her feet, barely missing her while the head rolled past her down the tunnel.

She sagged in relief against the wall, dripping troll blood. She’d done it. She’d done it!!! She jumped excitedly and let out a shriek of victory, then quickly stopped as her leg throbbed in protest and dizziness washed over her. She’d done it though, no Harry, no Ron, just her. Calming a bit, she looked around warily. She really shouldn’t have shrieked like that, who knew what else was out there. But then, between the ogre’s bellows, the battle spells, and the fountains of blood and gore, not to mention the smell of burning slug, this place would be a magnet for anything else unpleasant in the area. She set off towards the exit at amblimbling jog, keeping one arm against the wall for balance, her right leg was almost useless, she could barely put any weight on it.

She grit her teeth, trying not to make any noise, but her leg was throbbing. Pain radiated out from that one point in her calf, throughout her body, which was starting to stiffen and protest as the adrenalin wore off. She knew that despite the make-shift tourniquet, she was leaving a trail of blood behind her. The combined smell of her blood, the troll’s blood, and snail slime was overpowering. She’d like to stop and cast a cleaning charm, transfigure a crutch and bandages, any number of things. But it would have to wait until she got out of this insane pgewageway. What was Professor Snape thinking, leaving her in a place like this anyway? He was cruel, yes. Certainly, he hated Gryffindors, Harry, know it-alls, and by extension, her. But he’d never deliberately endangered any of them. More often then not, he was rescuing her, Harry, or Ron. Had she somehow managed to activate the first challenge prematurely? That would explain the sudden wave of monsters. Each challenge was supposed to be faced by an entire Challenge Class, around 20-30 students. Was it just her though, alone in the dungeon? Had Professor Snape gotten out before the waves of monsters started? More to the point, would she be able to leave without defeating the challenge? If not, how did she defeat the challenge? She didn’t think she could handle much more in the way of battle. Suddenly, she missed Harry and Ron.


A/N: Snarky Snape, and blood and gore what more could a reader want, right? Ok, so there’s been a serious lack of smut lately. I’m really sorry, it’s just that Hermione and Snape areit mit more difficult then Harry and Draco. Starting the next chapter, the smut level should be rising (and hopefully my reviews will too . . .ase?ase?). Anyway, how did everyone like the chapter? Was the action fun? I really tried to write a more kick-ass Hermione. Was it understandable? Please please let me know, it’s the only way that I’ll get better.


Melagic: \\^o^/ I’m so excited, another regular reader! Only, I’ve left you hanging again [hides]. But thanks so much for the regular reviews! I’ll try to make the next chapter less of a cliffhanger for you.