Bella and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Chapter Forty-Five

Out of nowhere, something hit me so hard across the face I was knocked off my feet again. I heard Harry and Hermione shriek with pain and fall, too. I groped for my wand, blinking blood out of my eyes. 

"Lumos!" I whispered.

The wand-light showed me the trunk of a thick tree; we had chased Scabbers into the shadow of the Whomping Willow and its branches were creaking as though in a high wind, whipping backwards and forwards to stop us going nearer. And there, at the base of the trunk, was the dog, dragging Ron backwards into a large gap in the roots - Ron was fighting furiously, but his head and torso were slipping out of sight -

"Ron!" Harry shouted, trying to follow, but a heavy branch whipped lethally through the air and he was forced backwards again. 

"Harry! Are you okay?" I asked, wiping the blood from my eyes. 

Harry groaned. "Just peachy"

I wanted to laugh but all we could see now was one of Ron's legs, which he had hooked around a root in an effort to stop the dog pulling him further underground. Then a horrible crack cut the air like a gunshot; Ron's leg had broken, and the next second, his foot had vanished from sight. 

"Guys - we've got to go for help -" Hermione cried; she was bleeding, too; the Willow had cut her across the shoulder. 

I shake my head. "No! That thing's big enough to eat him, we haven't got time -"

"Bella's right -"

"We're never going to get through without help -"

Another branch whipped down at us, twigs clenched like knuckles. 

"If that dog can get in, we can," I panted, darting here and there, trying to find a way through the vicious, swishing branches, but I couldn't get an inch nearer to the tree-roots without being in range of the tree's blows.

I chuckle. "Do you think it remembers us from last year?" 

"Maybe," Harry muttered, not taking his eyes off the tree.

Another blow comes our way and we all miss it by an inch. 

"Oh, help, help," Hermione whispered frantically, dancing uncertainly on the spot, "please..."

Crookshanks darted forwards. He slithered between the battering branches like a snake and placed his front paws upon a knot on the trunk. Abruptly, as though the tree had been turned to marble, it stopped moving. Not a leaf twitched or shook.

"Crookshanks," Hermione whispered uncertainly. She now grasped my arm painfully hard. "How did he know -?"

"He's friends with that dog," I said grimly. "I've seen them together. Come on - and keep your wands out -"

We covered the distance to the trunk in seconds, but before we reached the gap in the roots, Crookshanks had slid into it with a flick of his bottle-brush tail. I went next; I crawled forwards, headfirst, and slid down an earthy slope to the bottom of a very low tunnel. Crookshanks was a little way along, his eyes flashing in the light from my wand. Seconds later, Hermione slithered down beside me closely followed by Harry.

"Where's Ron?" Hermione whispered in a terrified voice. 

"This way," I said, setting off, bent-backed, after Crookshanks. 

"Where does this tunnel come out?" Harry asked breathlessly from behind me. 

"I don't know...it's marked on the Marauder's Map but Fred and George said no one's ever got into it. It goes off the edge of the map, but it looked like it ends up in Hogsmeade...you should know that, Harry"