𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 [𝐏𝐉𝐎 𝐗 𝐇𝐏]

xxi: ariana finds out the truth pt. 1

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chapter xxi

(prisoner of azkaban)

ariana finds out the truth pt. 1

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ARIANA REACHED FOR HER WAND, but too late -- the dog had made an enormous leap and the front paws hit Harry on the chest; he keeled over backward in a whirl of hair...

But the force of its leap had carried it too far; it rolled off him. Dazed, feeling as though his ribs were broken, Harry tried to stand up; he could hear it growling as it skidded around for a new attack.

Ron was on his feet. As the dog sprang back toward them, he pushed Harry aside; the dog's jaws fastened instead around Ron's outstretched arm. Ariana lunged forward, she seized a handful of the brute's hair, but it was dragging Ron away as easily as though he were a rag doll --

Then, out of nowhere, something hit Ariana so hard across the face she was knocked off her feet again. She heard Harry and Hermione shriek with pain and fall too.

She lay on the ground, her head aching and eyes blurry. She blinked it away as a soft light lit up their surroundings.

The wandlight showed him the trunk of a thick tree; they had chased Scabbers into the shadow of the Whomping Willow and its branches were creaking as though in a high wind, whipping backward and forward to stop them going nearer.

And there, at the base of the trunk, was the dog, dragging Ron backward into a large gap in the roots -- Ron was fighting furiously, but his head and torso were slipping out of sight --

"Ron!" Harry shouted, trying to follow, but a heavy branch whipped lethally through the air and he was forced backward again.

All they could see now was one of Ron's legs, which he had hooked around a root in an effort to stop the dog from pulling him farther underground -- but a horrible crack cut the air like a gunshot; Ron's leg had broken, and a moment later, his foot vanished from sight.

"Harry -- we've got to go for help --" Hermione gasped; she was bleeding too; the Willow had cut her across the shoulder.

"Guys-"

"No! That thing's big enough to eat him; we haven't got time --"

"Harry -- we're never going to get through without help --"

Guys-"

Another branch whipped down at them, twigs clenched like knuckles. Ariana rolled her eyes. They clearly weren't going to listen.

"If that dog can get in, we can," Harry panted, darting here and there, trying to find a way through the vicious, swishing branches, but he couldn't get an inch nearer to the tree roots without being in range of the tree's blows.