Lucy Snape and the Tale of the Knights (Book One)

17: What She Fears

Chapter 17: What she fears. 

??? 

What was that? It was definitely not a student or teacher and even animals were identified with their own little banner but this was not either of them. Lucy thought the map was faulty so she tried it again but when the ink had flooded back on it was still there. 

It wasn't motionless at all, it was moving around in the entrance hall waiting for someone or something. She then saw a sixth year boy heading down a corridor towards this monster but as he approached the entrance hall he stopped dead. 

For a moment they both had stopped until the sixth years footprints ran, they weren't walking they were running far away from whatever the ??? was. The sixth year knew what it was but Lucy didn't and she had to find out. 

She put the map in her bag (after muttering mischief managed) then headed downstairs and headed straight over to Shona, Fred and George. She sat down next to Shona then looked at her worriedly. 

"Shona, can we go down to the entrance hall? I-I just want to see how many points Gryffindor has got," Lucy said in the most convincing way she could. 

"What are you five? You can go on your own!" Shona laughed 

"But, I wanted some company! You know? We could go for a walk for a while!" 

"I'm not leaving the common room again, sorry." 

"I'll go with you!" Fred piped up. 

"Er..." Lucy stammered. 

"Fred's volunteered, why don't you go with him?" Shona smiled. 

"Sure..." 

Lucy got up and Fred followed her out of the common room. They headed down the many flights of stairs but Fred seemed very eager despite the fact Lucy was now walking extremely slowly down the stairs. 

"What's wrong?" Fred asked. 

"Nothing much," she shook her head to dismiss her mood. 

"You wanted Shona to come with you, didn't you?" 

Lucy sighed then opened up her bag and pulled out the marauders map and opened it up and showed Fred the entrance hall on the map. He frowned then took the map off of her. 

"That's impossible! There's never been anything like that on the map!" 

"Well it's obviously not impossible because the map never lies! That's why I wanted to leave the common room to see what it was!" 

"Do you have any idea what it might be?" 

"I don't know but I was thinking when I was up in the girls dormitories that it was something to do with the tale of the knights but even then it's completely pathetic as the tale isn't even real." 

"Well it doesn't matter about the tale of the knights, all we've got to do is see what's in the great hall..." 

When the two of them reached the bottom of the stairs they took a deep breath and prepared themselves for what was to come. They turned the corner slowly and there before them stood possibly one of the most strange creatures know to man and Lucy gasped, not out of shock. She'd seen this before. 

"What is it, Lucy?" Fred stammered, he couldn't take the eyes off the monster in case it decided to attack them at any moment. 

"I've seen this thing before! It - " she paused and tried to think of the best way to explain it. Then she told Fred all about how she didn't know the ending of the tale of the knights and someone had stuck a picture of this monster on the back of the book.