Damaged (A Marauders Era story)

First Year, Part 7 (The Hunt Begins)

All of the students scrambled off in different directions.

"Let's go this way," Lily said, pointing at a door to our right labeled 'Music Room.'

When Lily opened the door, a dark figure jumped into view.
The figure didn't look human. It wore all black, it looked like an old woman, but she had greyish skin, and her eyes were completely black. She had long, bloody scratches running down her face. It wasn't like the thing that popped out at us when we entered the house. It wasn't fake.

Lily, jumped back in surprise, looking up at the thing in horror.

Alice and I froze with fear. The boy, Jugson, reacted by punching at the thing. The old women opened her mouth to reveal a billion tiny pointed teeth. The thing had no tongue. Where her tongue should've been, there were only teeth. Her mouth opened so wide that her jaw went down to her chest.

Jugson's fist went straight into her mouth. Alice reacted at lightning fast speed and shoved Jugson out of the way. The women's sharp teeth just scraped against his skin.

"This isn't a joke," Lily's eyes were wide in fear. "This thing will hurt us."

The thing let out a loud screech of fury and lunged toward Lily, who screamed in terror.

Snapping out of my frozen state, I reached for my wand. In one quick motion, I cast the Tripping Jinx at the girl. It worked, but only for a moment. The girl was back up in a second, and her attention was focused on me now. It lunged toward me, wrapping its long bony fingers around my neck. It squeezed hard, and I felt my vision blur. A moment later it was knocked away. I gasped, chocking.

"Okay," Alice said in a calm, controlled voice. She had her wand pointed at the women. "One of us have to find the chest while the others distract this thing."

The women lunged at me again, but Lily sent a quick Leg Locking Curse it's way. All of the spells we used only seemed to work for a few seconds on this thing.

This time when the women recovered, instead of lunging at us, she jumped up. It clung to the ceiling like a spider, its head twisted at an odd angle, watching us with black eyes.

"Jhon, you look for the chest," Alice said. It took me a moment to realize she was speaking to me. I felt glad that it wasn't me who had to make the decisions in this situation and was grateful Alice was taking charge.

"Okay," I agreed.

I glanced around the room, looking for any small chest. It was the first time I was able to take in our surroundings. There were musical instruments everywhere. Hanging on the wall was a large rectangular picture frame. It was the list the twins spoke of. The numbers inside were 25. It changed to 24 as I looked at it. Somewhere in this house, a team had quit. I wondered how many teams there had been in the beginning.

There were many spots the chest could be hidden, but I went straight toward the piano. It stood out more than anything else in the room, and it was in the very center. Moonlight from outside shone on the dusty piano; All that had to mean something.

The thing on the ceiling hissed at me, and I paused.

"Keep going," Lily said reassuringly. Her eyes were fixed on the creature. "We've got your back."

"Hurry," Jugson said.

I ran towards the piano, trusting that the others would protect me. I heard the thing screech, and my team casting spell after spell on the thing, keeping it away from me.

The creature's angry screams were becoming louder and louder. It knocked Jugson across the room with an unnatural amount of force. Jugson fell to the floor, cradling his shoulder that had hit the wall hard.

As I was about to reach the piano, I was suddenly yanked down to the floor. I gasped and looked down. Two hands grasped my ankle. They had come up from the floorboards. It squeezed my ankle with such force I knew I would have a bruise. The hand that squeezed my wooden leg didn't hurt at all.