The
Burning Pen
Heroes
by Ruth Solomon
The story content is adult in nature and can
contain graphic sex and violence. Those under the age of 18 are asked
to leave this site immediately. You
are not welcome here. The author is not responsible for those under-aged
who view these works.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to JKR.
All original characters and situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
*******************************
Chapter 2 ~ A Grave Misunderstanding
“All right, yeh two. Yer goin’ ta hafta go see the Headmaster, Severus Snape,”
Hagrid said, holding out his huge hand, palm up, “hand over yer wands.”
Artimus and Dahlia looked at the half-giant as if he had asked them for their
heads.
”Our wands?” Dahlia responded, her hazel eyes narrowing. “No!”
”Listen, yeh haf ter give me yer wands, ‘til we find out ifn yer friends or
foes,” Hagrid said, trying to be reasonable.
”I’m afraid that’s impossible,” Artimus said, his eyes hard as diamond, “because
we don’t know if you or this Headmaster are our friends or foes. It wouldn’t pay
to be wandless if it’s the latter.”
Frowning, Hagrid backed up, pulling out his own wand. The right to use magic had
been restored to him years ago, after he was cleared of opening the Chamber of
Secrets.
”All right, we kin do this tha hard way,” he growled as both Dahlia and Artimus
quickly pulled out their own wands, dismounting. “And I tell yeh, it takes a lot
of magic to bring me down. Yeh should jest give me yer wands.”
Dahlia conjured her sword as did Artimus.
“This might make it a little easier . . . the bigger they are . . .” the
sorcerer said.
Both Dahlia and Artimus were used to slipping spells. The clerics fired them at
them all the time during battle.
Hagrid stared at both of them. Dahlia was about five foot seven, with a very tan
complexion, broad nose and full mouth. She was no petite woman, weighing in at
one hundred and sixty-five pounds. She had wide hips and a plump bottom even her
tunic couldn’t hide. But she was in excellent shape. She had to be. She was one
of the Protectors.
Artimus was six-feet tall, weighing in at about one hundred and ninety-five
pounds, broad-shoulders, well-muscled and fast as lightning when he needed to
be. He was no Protector, but he’d had more than his share of battling clerics,
having even been taken by them on several occasions. To date, he was the only
sorcerer who had ever escaped their holy city alive.
”Swords?” Hagrid said, “yeh’d do better wit wands. Incarcerous!”
Both sorcerer and sorceress spun out of the way as ropes shot out of the tip of
Hagrid’s wand and flew writhing past them.
Dahlia stared at the giant.
”What kind of magic is that?” she asked him as Artimus attempted to rush Hagrid
while he was distracted, but the wizard turned his wand on him.
”Expelliarmus!” Hagrid cried, blasting Artimus.
The sorcerer stopped running forward, but didn’t fly backwards and
still retained a hold on his sword.
Hagrid blinked at him.
”Yeh should be on yer arse!” the bewildered giant said to Artimus, who merely
looked aggravated at being thwarted.
Dahlia ran around Hagrid so she was behind him, and Hagrid turned his body as he
stood between both tresspassers, looking from one to the other. Artimus
eyed Dahlia who nodded slightly, making her sword disappear. Artimus did
likewise.
”Good ter see yeh come to yer senses,” Hagrid said as the weapons disappeared,
“now . . . jest give me yer wands and we kin go . . .”
He was looking at Artimus because he was the one the giant was most wary of,
being he was a man.
Not wise.
Suddenly, Dahlia rushed forward, dropping on her hands and knees behind Hagrid,
who looked down as he felt her against his lower legs. She didn’t come near his
calves.
”Hey now!” he yelled reaching for her as Artimus ran at him full speed, leapt
off the ground and kicked him in the chest with both feet, throwing him off
balance. His arms whirling for a moment, Hagrid fell over Dahlia and hit the
ground as if cut down off a beanstalk.
”Stone!” Artimus cried and a boulder appeared on the giant’s chest pinning him
down as Dahlia quickly snatched his wand out of his hand. Hagrid was down for
the count.
”Hey! Tha weren’t cricket!” the struggling giant cried, trying to push the stone
off him. It wasn’t a huge stone, but Hagrid couldn’t budge it, try as he might.
”You’re damn right it wasn’t cricket,” Artimus replied, dusting himself off.
“Where I come from, partner, we play baseball.”
Steede walked up.
”Let’s try and get out of here,” the horse said, looking about.
”Good idea,” Dahlia said, swinging up on to the white horse and Artimus mounting
Steede.
Hagrid struggled with the stone, not understanding why he couldn’t push it off
of himself. Dahlia tossed his wand down close to him, but not close enough where
he could reach it.
”Hey! Yeh not jes goin ter leave me ‘ere like this?” Hagrid said to the pair as
Artimus wheeled Steede around, and looked down at the pinned wizard.
”What? Do you mean breathing?” he asked with a wicked smirk.
”Artimus! Just come on,” Dahlia said to him, frowning.
Dahlia hated violence, but found it to be a necessary evil. Still, the big man
was down and pinned and couldn’t do anything to them until he got the boulder
off. He’d have a time doing it, considering it was made of Ununoctium, also
known as “No. 118,” the heaviest substance known to man. In the real world,
scientists could only create the substance for a thousandth of a second by
bombarding californium with calcium ions, but a sorcerer with a good grasp of
nuclear physics could recreate it for a short period of time. Short enough to
get away that is. It would eventually fade and free the half-giant.
Dahlia and Artimus planned to be long gone when that happened.
They took off across the grounds of Hogwarts, not noticing the broom riders had
all disappeared. That was because Madam Hooch saw the face-off and went to
inform the Headmaster immediately.
Artimus and Dahlia soon found there was a fence that ran the entire perimeter of
the grounds which was quite large. They managed to find a gate and Artimus
attempted to unlatch it with his wand, but couldn’t get it to open. Then he
conjured a chain and hooked both Steede and the stallion to the gate, hoping
they could pull it open, but that didn’t work either.
”Maybe we could climb over,” Dahlia suggested.
”What do you mean, climb over? What about me?” Steede said, “I can’t climb and
it’s too high to jump. And even if I managed not to get caught by sunset and
found a puddle, I can’t go through without you, Artimus.”
The white stallion wasn’t the least bit concerned. He’d be dissolving at the end
of the day, and if he were killed, he’d still come back the next time Dahlia
needed him, not that he understood any of the conversation anyway. He was a
construct, but as much a horse as the next one. Steede was an intelligent
familiar, but for some reason, he couldn’t pass through shimmers. Artimus
thought he was an accident of nature rather than a magical creature. He had
acquired him years ago, keeping him from being slaughtered by his angry owner
who had put out a large amount of money to put on a show featuring his talking
horse.
Steede got stage fright and wouldn’t say a word, making the man a laughingstock.
Artimus rescued him after hearing the horse scream for help in English. He’d
been out hunting rabbits in Montana. He lost his catch in the process.
”We’re not going to leave you, Steede,” Artimus said as he made the chains
disappear. “But we’re going to have to go back into that forest
. . .”
”I’m afraid you won’t be going anyplace,” a silken voice purred.
Both Dahlia and Artimus spun to see a tall, gaunt looking wizard with lank black
hair, narrowed, glinting black eyes, a huge, hawkish nose and thin, slightly
downturned mouth addressing them. He wore severe black robes with a large number
of fasteners. He had his wand drawn, resting on them. Dahlia couldn’t ever
remember seeing a more sinister looking man.
Next to him, her brown eyes equally narrowed stood a short, attractive woman of
about five-foot three with curling brown hair, also in black robes, wand held
steadily on the pair. Behind them stood Hagrid as well a group of likewise
dressed individuals, all with their wands drawn, their faces sober.
”As you can see,” Severus Snape purred, “the odds are slightly better than two
against one this time. I advise you both to drop your wands. Now. This is your
first and last warning.”
Artimus and Severus stared at each other, both sets of dark eyes glinting
dangerously. Then Artimus looked at the rest of the group of Hogwarts teachers
and reluctantly dropped his wand on the ground, clearly outnumbered.
Dahlia did likewise, her face stoic as she studied her captors.
Damn, they should have gone to the Serengeti like Artimus suggested.
“Bind their hands, Hagrid,” Snape said, keeping his wand on Artimus.
Hermione focused on Dahlia, daring her to move. How dare they pin Hagrid to the
ground with a stone? But she couldn’t help being impressed by it and was just
starting to examine it when it suddenly disappeared. She couldn’t understand how
a stone of that size could hold Hagrid down the way it did. She couldn’t detect
any magical spell and she was an expert at sniffing out dark magic.
Hagrid strode over and used his wand to bind Dahlia’s and Artimus’ hands behind
their backs, then pushed them forward.
Suddenly Steede reared, whinnying, attempting to kick Hagrid with his front
hooves.
”Stupefy!” Snape hissed, blasting the horse with a red light.
”No! Steede!” Dahlia cried as the horse fell heavily to the ground unconscious.
Even Hagrid looked upset. He loved animals, even if they were trying to kick his
head off. Dahlia whirled on Snape, hatred in her eyes as she struggled against
her bonds..
”You didn’t have to kill him!” she said to the dark wizard, who quirked his lip
at her unpleasantly.
”I didn’t kill the animal. It’s simply been knocked out. Hagrid will take both
horses to the stables once he reawakens. You two will come with us,” he said
softly. “Now.”
”Come on,” Hermione said, gesturing with her wand for them to approach.
Dahlia looked back at the fallen Steede and saw Hagrid bent over him, stroking
his head gently. It didn’t seem as if he’d hurt him.
Both Artimus and Dahlia walked forward, passing Snape and Hermione to be
surrounded by the rest of the staff. Hermione retrieved their wands, looking at
them curiously as they all began walking toward the castle.
”Oh, and welcome to Hogwarts,” Severus added.
**************************************
A/N: Nice meeting there. Lol. I seem to be getting my groove and I think this is
a good way to introduce my characters to my HG/SS readers. So I think I have one
more HG/SS story left in me, even though it is a showcase story. That still
shouldn’t make it any less interesting. ;) Seems I’m suspending the novel for a
bit. On another note, man, I should have made Hagrid talk plain English. He’s
hell to write dialogue-wise. I might have to look on the web for Hagrid-related
stuff. Maybe there’s something about the way he talks I can use.
PLEASE REVIEW "Heroes"
>>> NEXT CHAPTER
Return to Index Page
Number of Visits: 