Into the Labyrinth - Dramione/Blinny

Ch. 7

Hermione and Ginny walked quietly through the hedge maze, the two of them silently agreeing on which turns to take. It was surprising to Hermione just how silent the hedge maze was; were there no creatures or other inhabitants in this art of the maze?

"It's awfully quiet here," Ginny said then, echoing Hermione's thoughts. "I'm not sure if I like it."

"Let's not judge things too quickly," Hermione said, looking around a nearby corner. "Remember, nothing is what it seems in this place."

"You say that, but it doesn't really help my concerns," Ginny said in a forced light-hearted voice that made Hermione smile.

"Well, we've made it this far; I'd say we're doing quite well!"

The sound of footsteps and metal clanging together caught their attention and Hermione looked to Ginny. "Do you hear something?"

"Yeah, what is that?" Ginny looked around as they continued to walk, rolling her eyes slightly. "Of course, as we're commenting on how quiet it is, something has to show up."

They turned a corner as the clanking sound disappeared into the distance and Hermione smiled as she said, "That's just how it goes. It doesn't sound like it's coming towards us anymore-"

A sudden roar made them both freeze where they were standing, their eyes widening. Neither of them moved or even dared to breathed, jumping again when another loud roar was heard.

"What the hell is that?!" Ginny frantically whispered, taking a step back and getting ready to bolt if needed.

Hermione didn't answer, continuing to stare straight ahead where the loud roars were coming from. She could hear more metal clanking against metal and strange voices taunting something; something in her gut told her that the voices were taunting whatever was roaring, and that did not give her a good feeling.

She gestured for Ginny to follow slowly as they creeped up to the edge of the wall, peeking their heads around the corner. There was a large hairy creature with dark brown fur strung upside down from a tree with three short creatures wearing helmets with spikes standing around it. The smaller creatures had sticks with something on the end of them that they were poking the large creature with, giggling madly and shouting in what sounded like complete gibberish.

A fourth small creature appeared and Hermione realized that these were goblins, and the something on the end of the sticks was a little animal with a large mouth that would bite the large creature, causing it to roar with each bite.

"Are they torturing it?" Ginny asked angrily, looking up at Hermione.

"It sure seems like it." Hermione looked around, muttering, "If only I had something to throw..."

Ginny had already beat her to it, wandering a short distance to reach under the hedges for something. She returned with a small pile of rocks in her arms, handing them off to Hermione.

"Hold these," She said, keeping one and stepping out slightly from the hedge.

She aimed at the nearest goblin, throwing the rock; it landed squarely in the middle of the back of the goblin's helmet, effectively turning the helmet around and blinding the goblin. The goblin seemed to panic, turning around a couple of times before attempting to use the biter again on the large beast. Instead, it only managed to swing the stick towards the nearest goblin and the stick made contact, the small creature instead biting the second goblin's rear.

The second goblin jumped and shouted something similar to, "Don't bite me!" before focusing on the upside-down beast again.

Ginny grabbed a second rock from Hermione's arms, a large grin on her face as she aimed at a third goblin, throwing and hearing the satisfying clunk of the rock hitting the goblin's helmet. This goblin was blinded as well as the helmet turned around and the goblin's stick made contact with another rear end, the bitten goblin jumping and his stick hitting another goblin's helmet. This caused a chain reaction of sticks hitting helmets and a chorus of clangs were heard as the goblins all panicked and accidentally hit their fellow goblins' helmets, until one of them shouted, "Retreat!"