Chapter 318: Evil Pet Devours Its Master? Ominous True Identity
Ron chased Scabbers for a while, then dove and caught it in his hand.
The three people chasing him, however, stopped dead in their tracks, staring at a large tree behind Ron.
"Whomping Willow," Aaron forced a smile. "If I'm not mistaken, that rat is his pet, right?
Bringing him under the Whomping Willow... this is the rhythm of a master-eater!"
"Ron, run!" Harry shouted urgently.
The Whomping Willow seemed to sense an intrusion on the edge of its territory; several branches slowly swayed, poised to strike.
Ron heard the sound and instinctively looked up, but before he could even realize his predicament, he pointed at the three of them with a look of panic, his finger twitching uncontrollably.
"You guys run, it's the ominous one!"
The three immediately turned around, only to see a large black dog growling, its sharp eyes fixed on them.
"Harry," Aaron said with a hint of disdain, "the ominous one you saw is this guy?"
"It's terrifying, isn't it!" Harry said nervously. "I've seen him several times."
Aaron pursed his lips, drew his wand, and stood in front of the two. "Leave the ominous one to me; you two handle that unlucky fellow Ron."
Before he finished speaking, the large black dog roared and charged.
Aaron waved his wand, and several earth walls rose from the ground, blocking the black dog's path.
But to his surprise, the black dog had no intention of attacking them. It swiftly bypassed the first three walls, stepped onto the fourth earth wall, and leaped towards Ron.
It bit Ron's right leg and dragged him backward relentlessly.
"Harry!" Ron let out a desperate cry for help, but the large black dog was too strong, and his struggles were useless.
Harry rushed over, but Aaron was faster, grabbing Ron's arm in time to prevent him from being dragged away.
"Saved you once," Aaron said, then pointed his wand at the large black dog that was stubbornly biting him. "Petrificus Totalus."
Bang!
Harry collided with Aaron, causing the Petrificus Totalus to go astray.
"what the f..."
Aaron's eyes widened in disbelief, never expecting Ron's best friend to stop him.
Just as he was about to ask why, he heard a whistling sound, and a long willow branch whipped down where he had just stood, leaving a shallow furrow in the ground.
Seeing this, Aaron couldn't help but gasp.
If that willow branch had hit a person, it would have surely torn their skin; even he would probably be clutching his wound and crying out in pain.
The Whomping Willow seemed to be enraged; several thick branches tightened like fists, and countless willow branches creaked in the strong wind, lashing back and forth like whips.
Aaron immediately let go of Ron, narrowly dodging several thick branches that whipped down at him.
The large black dog suddenly exerted force, pulling Roninto the tree hollow, who only had time to let out a scream.
"Sorry, that really wasn't intentional," Aaron said awkwardly to Harry and Hermione, who had entered the Whomping Willow's attack range. The situation just now was truly beyond his control.
He held his wand in one hand and played tug-of-war with Ron and the large black dog with the other. For the active Whomping Willow, he was a living target, and his mobility was almost negligible.
In fact, he could have held on, but then Ron would have become a stationary target with no defense. If a few branches had hit him squarely, he would have at least been permanently disabled.
"Don't talk about that, we need to get in there and save him quickly," Harry said, panting, as he jumped left, right, up, and down, dodging the incoming branches.
"We need to get help," Hermione said anxiously. She looked even more disheveled than Harry, with blood on her arm.
"No, there's no time. By the time we come back, the ominous one will have eaten him."
"But we can't get in by ourselves," Hermione said, on the verge of tears. As she spoke, a branch swept her legs, knocking her to the ground, followed by the huge tree canopy striking down like a fist.
"Help, help..." Hermione cried out, lying on the ground, her heart filled with despair.
If this tree canopy, larger than her, hit her, she would at least be crippled for life, perhaps spending the rest of her days in bed.
Bang!
Several gray stone pillars rose from the ground, encircling Hermione and blocking the Whomping Willow's 'fist'.
Hermione nervously opened her eyes, then looked blankly at the surrounding gray stone pillars.
"No need to shout so loudly, I can hear you," Aaron said, rubbing his ear, and helped Hermione up.
"What about me?" Harry shouted eagerly.
"Hold on!"
Aaron took a deep breath and quickly rushed out of the circle of stone pillars.
He dodged several whipping branches, clenched his right fist, and a fiery red flame glowed conspicuously in the night.
"Iron Fist of the Dragon."
Boom!
Aaron punched the very center of the Whomping Willow, and the fiery shockwave instantly enveloped almost half of the tree's trunk.
The Whomping Willow seemed to fall into a daze, remaining motionless like an ordinary tree, but its green leaves fell almost instantly, leaving it bare.
"You... killed it?" Harry asked, somewhat stunned.
"Are you concerned about the wrong thing?" Aaron said, exasperated. "If I didn't deal with it, we'd be in a lot of trouble.
Besides, I was careful; I didn't kill it, just knocked it out. I don't want to pay the school's money."
Gulp!
Harry and Hermione exchanged glances, both swallowing hard.
This was the Whomping Willow! One punch and it was subdued. No one would believe it if they told them.
But after the shock, came infinite relief.
With such a teammate, a mere ominous one shouldn't be a problem, right?
"We need to hurry."
Harry walked to the side of the trunk and slid down the tree hollow. Aaron and Hermione followed close behind.
"Lumos," a white light glowed from the tip of Aaron's wand, illuminating the dark tunnel. "This must be the secret passage from the marauder's map, right?
Harry, where does it lead?"
"I don't know," Harry shook his head. "Fred and Georgehaven't been in here either. It leads to the edge of the marauder's map, it should be Hogsmeade."
"Where's the map? Let me see."
"Professor Lupin confiscated it."
Aaron:...You're really something, getting such an important item confiscated.
The three hurried along the secret passage, and after an unknown distance, they finally saw a faint glimmer of light.
Passing through a trapdoor, the three carefully emerged from the secret passage, not daring to make a sound.
The exit led to a messy room with dilapidated furniture, as if it had been ransacked by robbers.
Aaron wiped some dust from the stairs and frowned slightly: "No one has been here for a long time."
"That's normal," Hermione said, looking at the windows boarded up with planks, swallowing hard. "This is the Shrieking Shack, Hogsmeade's famous haunted house. Legend says it makes eerie screaming sounds at night."
"Is that so? I don't think there are any ghosts here.
Even if there are, we're Wizards, who's going to deal with whom is still up in the air!"
"Shh!" Harry made a silencing gesture, then pointed upstairs. "Listen."
Ron's sobs came from upstairs. The three exchanged glances and carefully ascended the stairs.
There was an irregular track in the thick dust, clearly caused by Ron being dragged by the black dog.
The three followed the tracks cautiously, reaching the landing of the stairs.
Listening to the sobs coming from inside, Aaron frowned slightly, "Wait, don't go in yet, something seems off."
The ominous one, that is, the large black dog, had gone to such great lengths to capture Ron, but from the sound, it didn't seem to have done anything to him.
It neither treated him as food nor as an enemy, as if it had simply treated him as an irrelevant object and left him there.
"Can't worry about that now." Harry kicked open the dilapidated door.
Aaron tried to pull him back, but didn't manage in time, and Hermione accidentally slipped in after him.
Ron was sitting on a four-poster bed, clutching his still-bleeding injured leg, looking extremely disheveled but surprisingly not in mortal danger.
"Ron, it's good you're alright," Hermione sighed in relief.
"Where's the dog?"
"He is the big dog, he's an Animagus," Ron pointed bitterly to the opposite side. "Harry, this is a trap."
The two froze for a moment, then followed Ron's gaze.
At the end of a trail of paw prints stood a middle-aged man with messy hair, sunken eyes, and a skeletal frame, looking as if he had escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp. It was none other than Sirius Black, the man on the wanted poster.
"Expelliarmus!" Sirius shouted, casting the Disarming Charm with Ron's wand, knocking Harry's and Hermione's wands out of their hands, then calmly closed the door.
He grinned, revealing his yellowed, blackened teeth.
"I knew you'd come to save your friend. Your father would have done the same for me.
You're very brave for not running to find a Professor. This makes things much easier."
Harry heard this and felt it was a mockery of his father. His father had once treated a friend this way, but was betrayed by that friend, leading to his death.
He instinctively wanted to rush out and fight, but Ron and Hermione held him back tightly.
"No, Harry, no," Hermione pleaded.
"If you want to kill Harry, then kill us too," Ron said firmly.
A bittersweet relief flashed in Sirius's eyes, and he slowly shook his head. "No, only one person will die tonight.
Also, you'd best lie down, or your leg will be injured even worse."
Creak!
The door suddenly opened, and Aaron quickly cast the Disarming Charm.
"Expelliarmus!"
A white light flashed, and the wand in Sirius's hand was knocked away.
"Perhaps you're right, only one person will die tonight," Aaron said calmly, then walked up to the three. "I told you not to go in yet, why didn't you listen?
Luckily I was here, otherwise you all would have been in grave danger."
"Sorry," Hermione lowered her head awkwardly, not daring to meet Aaron's gaze.
Just as Sirius was about to pick up his wand, Aaron pointed his wand at him. "Don't move. While I haven't learned the Curse of Slaying, I'm quite good with the Crucio.
Believe me, you wouldn't want to try it."