A/N>Ok folks, get ready for a little gore. Not for the faint of heart; you've been warned. I don't know
when I will get another chapter up. I've gotten this much done today, but I really don't know where it's
going to go from here. Please bare with me; I promise I am not going to abandon this story or any of my other ones.
Thanks for all of the wonderful reviews!!!
Phoenix and Harry stood on the bank of the stream, staring at the huge beast looming across from them. Cerberus continued to pace back and forth, watching their every move. "Are you sure about this?" Harry asked, looking at Phoenix.
"I thought you were the savior of the world Potter" taunted Phoenix "where's the great hero we heard so much about?"
Harry looked at Phoenix with a look of dislike on his face. 'Why couldn't I get someone different to work with?' Harry asked himself, staring at the cocky Greek standing next to him. "Alright, let's go."
Phoenix shook his head in agreement and said "On three, 1...2...3..." Both wizards apparated from sight and appeared on either side of the huge dog. Phoenix had agreed to take care of the heads of the beast while Harry had the dragon tail. Phoenix ran to the front, where he was face to face with the animal, and in quick succession yelled "conjunctiva! conjunctiva! conjunctiva!"
Owen watched as the beasts eyes turned red and swelled shut as it screamed in pain. Phoenix started dodging Cerberus's huge paws as it tried to strike him while pawing at it's eyes at the same time. Phoenix fired stunners at the giant jaws that were snapping at him, trying to keep them away, but it wasn't working.
At the same time, Harry was trying to cast an immobulus spell on the dragon tail, but it was moving to quickly to hit. Finally losing his patience, Harry felt his fire magic come alive inside of him, and making a slicing motion with his hand yelled "mutilo!"
The tail was completely severed from the beasts body and fell to the ground with a thud. When the head swung around to look at Harry, he knew he had made it really mad. Just as the dragon went to lunge at him, he repeated his actions from before and yelled "mutilo!" again. The dragons head went rolling across the floor, stopping at Harry's feet. Noticing that Phoenix wasn't having any luck with the three heads, he completely lost patience and waved his hand toward the dragons head and body and yelled "inflammatio!" Harry watched for a moment as the dragon's remains flared into a huge ball of fire, and then made his way to help Phoenix.
Harry walked up to the front and noticed that Phoenix had gotten the conjunctiva spell into the dogs eyes, but wasn't doing very well with the flailing heads and the huge paws that were trying to crush him. "Need some help?" he asked.
Phoenix shot him a nasty look before firing a couple of fireballs at the heads, hitting them a couple of times, which made the dog howl in pain.
"We need to sever the heads and then burn them" Harry said, evading one of the huge paws "that's what I did to the tail and it worked really well."
"What are you waiting for then?" Phoenix asked, glaring at him.
Harry went to repeat his actions from before, but before he could raise his hand, one of the huge paws connected with the side of his body and threw him up against the cavern wall. Harry slid down onto the ground, unconscious from the blow. Phoenix looked at him, not knowing whether to check on him or take care of the dog first. Making a quick decision, Phoenix made a slashing motion with his hand, repeating Harry's actions and yelled "mutilo!"
He watched with disgust as one of the heads was severed off of the beast's body, spraying blood on him and everywhere else, and then rolling off to the side. He looked over at Harry to see if he had moved at all, only to find him lying in the same position. As he brought his attention back to Cerberus, he saw one of the beasts huge mouths coming down on him and tried to get out of the way, only to feel one of the teeth slicing into his arm. Phoenix screamed in pain as he grabbed his arm, barely moving out of the way of another attack.
"Phoenix!" screamed Pyrena from the other side of the stream. She and Owen had been watching in horror as Harry and her brother had fought the dog. Now Harry was unconscious and her brother was injured badly; the cut on his arm was so deep that she could see the bone.
"I'm ok; do you think you could apparate over to Harry quickly and see if he is still alive?" asked Phoenix through gritted teeth.
"I can do that" she answered.
"I'll keep Cerberus busy" Phoenix said "just make it quick, ok?"
"Alright; I'm going now" said Pyrena, and then she apparated over to where Harry lay. Thankfully, Cerberus was focused on Phoenix, still trying to crush him under his paw. Feeling anger surge through him, Phoenix drew on his fire magic, made a huge slicing motion with his good hand and yelled "mutilo maximus!"
Pyrena turned as she heard her brother yell and watched as the two remaining dogs heads were cut from its body. She turned towards the stream and vomited, sick from the sight of all of the blood. As she turned back towards Harry, she noticed his eyes were fluttering as he fought for consciousness. "Harry?" she said softly, patting his cheek lightly, trying to rouse him. "Harry, come on, wake up. Phoenix needs your help."
As she said this, Phoenix stood in front of the three heads, waved his hand in front of them and yelled "inflammatio maximus!" The heads erupted in fire and burned quickly, the intensity of the flames making quick work of them. Thinking he was done, Phoenix looked up at the body that still stood in front of him, and noticed in horror that the snakes that made up Cerberus's body were now detaching and making their way towards him. "Pyrena!" he yelled.
Pyrena looked over at her brother and saw what looked to be hundreds of snakes making their way towards him. "Oh hell!" she said, and then turned to Harry. 'Hope this works' she thought to herself as she whipped out her wand, pointed it at Harry and said "ennervate!" She watched as Harry fully came around and sighed in relief. Remembering her brothers peril, she said "Harry, you have to help Phoenix!"
Harry looked at her, confused, and then looked towards Phoenix. His eyes grew wide as he saw the numerous snakes making their way towards Phoenix. He stood up slowly, his whole body wracked with pain, and started to make his way over to help. Noticing that not all of the snakes were off of the body yet, Harry waved his hand over the length of it and shouted "corpus glubo!"
He watched as the skin made of snakes peeled off of the body and fell to the ground. "Flammo" he yelled, pointing at the pile, watching as it erupted into flames just as the heads and tail did. Once that was done, he carefully made his way over to where Phoenix stood fighting off the many snakes. Noticing that he wasn't having any luck, Harry pointed one finger from the roof of the cavern, down to where one of the snakes lay and yelled "flamma!"
Owen and Pyrena watched as a bolt of lightening followed the path that Harry's finger had made and struck the snake dead. Harry kept repeating the action over and over, while Phoenix finally caught on and had started to do the same. Once all of the snakes were taken care of, Harry turned towards what remained of the body and shouted "templis ignes inferre!"
Owen, Phoenix, Pyrena and Harry watched as the remains caught fire and burned, quickly reducing them to ash. As Harry watched the last of the flames die out, he started to notice the blackness that started to creep into the corners of his vision. Next thing he knew, Pyrena was screaming his name and the ground was coming at him at an incredible speed.
Phoenix fished through Harry's pockets as he lay unconscious on the ground. "What are you doing?" Owen asked.
"Mr. Weasley gave him a coin that he could use to contact the other groups if there was any trouble or if we found Hermione. We need to contact the other groups so that they can come and help us" explained Phoenix.
"Why don't we just wake Harry up again and continue through the cave?" asked Owen.
"Because I'm pretty sure this is where they are keeping Hermione; why else would they post the hound from Hell as a guard?" asked Phoenix, trying to cast a healing charm on himself, but failing. "Pyrena, could you come do this for me?"
Pyrena walked over to him and cast the charm. They both watched as the cut closed up almost completely; Pyrena ripped part of the bottom of her shirt off and tied it around the wound to stop any seepage. "My brother is right Owen, we need to get the other groups here with us before we go any further." Owen just looked at her for a second and then shrugged his shoulders, not arguing any further.
Phoenix took the coin in his bad hand, his wand in his good hand and tapped the wand tip to the coin three times and said "Diktaian Cave".
"Now what?" asked Owen.
"Now we wait" said Phoenix, who then laid down on the ground to rest.
Mr. Weasley jumped when he felt the coin in his pocket start to vibrate. He quickly pulled it out and looked at it. The words 'Diktaian Cave' kept flashing on the face of it. He looked at Zarek and said "It looks like Harry's group has found Hermione."
"Really?" asked Ginny, walking up to her Dad and looking at the coin.
"What do you want to do with these Death Eaters?" asked Zarek.
"Can you take them to the Ministry?" asked Arthur. Zarek nodded his head yes and made sure all of them were immobilized. After tying rope around all three of them, making them one big bunch, he picked a rock up off of the ground. Tapping his wand tip to it, he said "portus" and the rock glowed for a second. "Please wait here and I will be right back." And with that, he was gone.
Remus felt the coin in his pocket start to vibrate, so he took it out and saw the words 'Diktaian Cave' flashing on the front of it. "Tonks, Eli, it seems that Harry's group has found Hermione."
Tonks walked over and looked at the coin in Remus's hand. "So I guess we're going there now?"
"Seems that way" he replied. "The way these coins work is that one of us holds it in our hand and links hands with the other. Just concentrate on the name of the cave, and it should take us there."
"I know where it's at already, so I'll go ahead and apparate there" said Eli.
"Alright, we'll see you there in a minute." Eli nodded and was gone. "Ready?" Remus asked as he held the coin and grasped on to Tonks hand.
"Ready" she replied, smiling at him.
"Concentrate on the name, and 3...2...1...'pop'!" and they both disappeared.
Remus and Tonks re-appeared inside the cavern where Harry's group was currently resting. When they saw the carnage around them, all Tonks could say was "bloody hell!"
Remus noticed Harry lying on the ground and ran up to him. "What's wrong with Harry?" he asked Pyrena.
"Cerberus, the dog that guarded the gateway into Hades, was waiting for us when we entered this cavern. Phoenix and Harry decided to fight him with their fire magic. Harry was slammed into the wall by one of the paws; I woke him up and he went back to help Phoenix, who was hurt pretty badly. Anyway, he must have exhausted himself with all of the magic he used because once Cerberus was dead, he collapsed."
"Have you tried to wake him again?" asked Remus.
"No, I figured I'd let him rest until everyone else got here" she answered.
Remus looked towards Phoenix and asked "are you ok?"
"Yeah; my arm was sliced open by one of the teeth, but it's almost stopped bleeding" Phoenix replied. Tonks walked towards him and knelt down beside him. She unwrapped the bandage on his arm, which was now blood soaked, and examined the red-raw gash.
"Let me try one of the healing spells they teach us in Auror training" she said, putting her wand tip to the wound and saying "sanguineus coagulus!"
Phoenix hissed in pain as his wound burned; as soon as the burning stopped, he looked at it to see that it was hardly visible anymore. "Thank you" he said, smiling at Tonks.
Tonks smiled back at him and made her way over to where Remus knelt next to Harry. Remus waved his wand over Harry's body, performing one of the medical spells that Madam Pomfrey had taught them. "How is he?" she asked.
"His magical energy levels are almost back to normal" he said, looking at the different colors glowing over Harry's body. "It should be safe to wake him up." Finishing the spell, he pointed his wand at Harry's chest and said "ennervate!"
Harry's eyes opened and he squinted up at Tonks and Remus. Looking at his surroundings, realization dawned on his face and he slowly sat up. "Careful Harry; you exhausted yourself again using your fire abilities" explained Remus.
"What are you guys doing here?" Harry asked.
"Well, Phoenix summoned us. He figures that since Cerberus was guarding the doorway into the deeper part of the tunnel, that this is where Lucius is hiding Hermione."
"Nice of him to make that decision on his own" said Harry sarcastically. He sat there for a moment, trying to will away the pain he felt in every part of his body. He needed to get to Hermione before Lucius hurt her; he had a promise to their son to keep.
Zarek finally returned to the cave where the Weasley's were waiting for him. "Ready to go?" he asked. When everyone nodded their heads yes, he took an old hat out of his back pocket, closed his eyes in concentration and said "portus" while tapping the hat with his wand. Giving the hat to Mr. Weasley, he said "as soon as all three of you touch it, it will take you to the cave. I'm going to apparate there since I know where they are."
Mr. Weasley held the hat out for Ron and Ginny to take hold of, and the three of them disappeared. As soon as they left, Zarek closed his eyes and with a quiet 'pop' left the cave also.
Soon the four of them stood just outside the opening of the cavern. When they heard other voices, they walked inside and noticed everyone else was already there. They also noticed Harry and Phoenix lying on the ground, looking pretty beat up. Zarek walked up to the edge of the stream and put one foot into the water. Noticing that it was only ankle deep, he proceeded to walk across to where everyone else was gathered. Arthur, Ron and Ginny followed him, carefully stepping in the same places he did. Once on the other side, all three Weasley's made their way over to where Harry was.
"Alright there Harry?" asked Arthur, looking at him concerned.
"I'm ok; just had a run in with a dog from hell" he quipped, trying to make light of the situation. When he saw the Weasley's confused faces, he explained "we encountered Cerberus. It's a long story; just know that we killed it."
"Is that what all of this mess is, what's left of the dog?" asked Ron, looking around at the ashes on the ground and the blood splattered walls. "Looks like it put up one heck of a fight."
"You can say that again" said Harry, slowly standing up. "Now that it's gone, why don't we go explore the rest of the cave and see if Phoenix's assumption is true."
"You mean you're not sure if Hermione is in this cave or not?" asked Mr. Weasley.
"I'm not the one who summoned you here; Phoenix did that while I was unconscious. He figures that since Cerberus was here, Voldemort must be here also" explained Harry.
"You better hope we find her here" said Mr. Weasley, looking at Phoenix "because if we don't, then we've wasted an entire afternoon chasing after a hunch, which puts Hermione in even more danger."
"Why else would Cerberus, the guardian dog of Hades, be in a cave in Crete?" asked Phoenix, exhasperated. "I think someone would have noticed him before now, don't you?"
Mr. Weasley just stared at Phoenix, an angry look on his face. "Right, well then, we had best get going."
The group of eleven gathered in front of the opening that lead down into the heart of the cave. The three guides, Eli, Zarek and Owen went first and everyone else followed behind. They made their way through the twisting tunnels, the temperature dropping the farther they went. After about thirty more minutes of walking, they entered a part of the tunnel that had lit torches on the wall. They heard voices up ahead and Eli put his hand out to stop everyone from going any further.
It sounded like one of them was definitely Lucius Malfoy, but the other two didn't sound familiar. Eli turned toward Remus, Tonks and Mr. Weasley and asked "do you have a plan?"
"Screw the plan, I want my wife" said Harry, marching ahead.
"Harry, wait!" said Remus, unsuccessfully trying to stop him.
Harry continued to walk along the tunnel until he came to another huge cavern. He could hear the rest of the group catching up to him, but he didn't turn around to acknowledge them. His eyes were glued to the image of Hermione, who seemed to be magically suspended upside down, over a huge tank that held something that was moving. "Bloody hell..." Harry said, staring at his wife. He turned to Eli, who was standing right behind him, and asked "do you know what is in that tank?"
Eli stood staring at the tank for a moment, a look of fear on his face, as he said "Scorpions".
"What?!" said Harry "why would Voldemort put her over a tank of scorpions?"
Zarek walked up next to Harry and said "those scorpions are the deadliest on Earth. If he drops her in there, she will die a slow, painful death."
Eli looked at Harry and said "it is one of the worst ways to die; it doesn't matter how much venom is injected into your body, it will still take weeks to kill you. Basically, it eats you from the inside out. No one, not even Voldemort, deserves to die that way."
Harry stood looking at Hermione, his heart felt like it was in his throat, wondering what he could do to help her. He watched as her eyes scanned the room and came to rest on him. Her eyes went wide and she started to shake her head side to side, as if telling him 'no'. The fear he saw in those eyes was his undoing; Harry started to run into the cavern and came face to face with Lucius, who's eyes were two glowing red slits, just like Voldemort's.
"Where do you think you're going Potter?" he calmly asked. Lucius started walking circles around Harry, as if sizing him up. "I knew you'd find her sooner or later; St. Potter, the Hero of the World." He stopped in front of Harry, mere inches away from his face and said "she'll get to watch you die and then die herself; a slow, painful death, all alone. See, once the two of you are gone, I plan to find that son of yours. When I get my hands on him, I'm not going to use magic on him, oh no that would be too easy. I want the satisfaction of killing him with my own two hands, so I think I'll just snap his neck!"
Harry lost it; he went to grab Lucius's neck and try to strangle him, but he never even got close. Nott and Rookwood came from behind Lucius and grabbed him, punching him once in the stomach and once in the face. "See, you're not the only one who can fight like a muggle."
The rest of the group came running in, ready to help Harry, when they suddenly bounced off of an invisible wall. "I'm afraid Potter won't be needing your help. You see, if he wants to save his wife, he has to do it alone."
Harry looked at Lucius, his eyes glowing brightly with the intensity of his fire ability, and spat in his face. "I WILL kill you Voldemort, make no mistake about that. And this time, I'll make sure that it's slow and painful, since that seems to be the way you like it."
Lucius wiped the spit off of his face and glanced at Nott and Rookwood. He nodded at them and 'pop', they both apparated away from Harry. Smiling a very evil, happy smile, Lucius said "we'll see about that" and also disappeared. A second later, Harry heard Lucius say "Harry, do you like dogs?"
Harry looked up to see Lucius, Nott and Rookwood standing on a ledge high above him. With a wave of his hand, the cavern wall beneath him opened up, and standing there was Cerberus. "I already killed this monster" shouted Harry, looking confused.
"No Potter, that was just a warm up. This is the real Cerberus, and he's been waiting to play with you."
~There you go, did you like it? As always, please review!! :)