Vanished amongst the spiders, and with a great scurrying, a foul

Swarming movement, they retreated under the onslaught of spells,

Hagrid buried in their midst.

"HAGRID!" Harry heard someone calling his own name, whether friend

or foe he did not care: He was springint down the front steps into

The dark grounds, and the spiders were swarming away with their

Prey, and he could see nothing of Hagrid at all.

"HAGRID!"

He thought he could make out an enormous arm waving from the mdist

Of the spider swarm, but as he made to chase after them, his way

Was impeded by a monumental foot, which swung down out of the

Darkness and made the ground on which he stood shudder. He looked

Up: A giant stood before him, twenty feet high, its head ihidden in

Shadow, nothing but its treelike, hairy shins illuminated by light

From the castle doors. With one brutal, fluid movement, it smashed

A massive fist through an upper window, and glass rained down upon

Harryk, forcing him back under the shelter of the doorway.

"Oh my--!" shrieked Hermione, as she and ron caught up with Harry

And gazed upward at the giant now trying to seize people through

The window above.

"DON'T!" ron yelled, grabbing Hermione's hand as she raised her

wand. "Stun him and he'll crush half the castle--"

"HAGGER?"

Grawp came lurching around the corner of the castle; only dnow did

Harry realzie that Grawp was, indeed, an undersized giant. The

Gargantuan monster trying to crush people on the upper floors

Turned around and let out a rorar. The stone steps tremebled as he

stomped toward his smaller kin, and Grawp's lopsided mouth fell

Open, showing yellow, half brick-sized teeth; and then they

Launched themselves at each other with the savagery of lions.

"RUN!" Harry roared; the ngiht was full of hideous yells and blows

as the giants wrestled, and he seized Hermione's hand and tore down

The steps into the grounds, Ron bringing up the rear. Harry had not

Lost hope of finding and saving Hagrid; he ran so fast that they

Were halfway toward the forest before they were brought up short

Again.

The air around them had frozen: Harry's breath caught and

Solidified in his chest. Shapes moved out in the darkness, swirling

Figures of concentrated blackness, moving in a great wave towards

The castles, their faces hooded and their breath rattling...

Ron and Hermione closed in beside him as the sounds of fighting

Behind them grew suddenly muted, deadened, because a silence only

Dementors could bring was falling thickly through the night, and

Fred was gone, and Hagrid was suurely dying or already dead...

"come on, Harry!" said Hermione's voice from a very long way away.

"Patronuses, Harry, come on!"

He raised his wand, but a dull hopelessness was spreading

throughout him: How many more lay dead that he did not yet know

about? He felt as though his soul had already half left his body....

"HARRY, COME ON!" screamed Hermione.

A hundred dementors were advancing, gliding toward them, sucking

their way closer to Harry's despair, which was like a promise of a

Feast...

He saw Ron's silver terrier burst into the air, flicker feebly, and

expire; he saw Hermione's otter twist in midair and fade, and his

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 582