Harry Potter And The Forger Of Worlds 32 Tea Time Rifts

"It was Snape," Ron was explaining, "Hermione and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, muttering, he wouldn't take his eyes off you."

"Rubbish," said Hagrid, who hadn't heard a word of what had gone on next to him in the stands. "Why would Snape do somethin' like that?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at one another, wondering what to tell him. Harry decided on the truth.

"I found out something about him," he told Hagrid. "He tried to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it's guarding."

Hagrid dropped the teapot. "How do you know about Fluffy?" he said.

"Fluffy?"

"The big puppy on the third floor belongs to you. Sigh. . . Oh well, I guess I can accept that." Nova said.

"Yeah -- he's mine -- bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year -- I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the . . ."

"Yes?" said Harry eagerly.

"Now, don't ask me anymore," said Hagrid gruffly. "That's top secret, that is."

"But Snape's trying to steal it."

"Rubbish," said Hagrid again. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort."

"So why did he just try and kill Harry?" cried Hermione. The afternoon's events certainly seemed to have changed her mind about Snape. I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid, I've read all about them! You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all, I saw him!"

"I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong!" said Hagrid hotly.

"I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student! Now, listen to me, all three of yeh -- yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel --"

"Aha!" said Harry, "so there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?" Hagrid looked furious with himself.

"I have to agree with Hagrid on this Harry." Nova said. "I watched the spell he was trying to form, it didn't have anything to do with messing with your broom."

Hearing Nova say this all four of them just stared at him, "What? Did you forget I can see magic?"

"Oh yeah." Ron said. Hearing Ron's response Nova just shook his head. Then as he took a bite out of one of the rock cakes. They weren't too bad. A little hard though.

Seeing that it was getting late the group of four packed up and after Hagrid gave them some more cakes, they headed back to the school. As dinner time approached the Great Hall started to fill with students and teachers still talking about the outcome of the Quidditch match.

As the dinner was going on, Nova started to feel a strange change to the surrounding air, and as he looked he saw the magic in the air start to tremble and suddenly a loud tearing sound was heard from the air above the ceiling and if you looked up to where the noise was coming from you could visibly see a tear in the s.p.a.ce start to form.

When Nova looked up, and saw this happen he immediately felt the blood drain from his face. The people who were watching could see the tear getting wider and wider. Suddenly many long dark tentacles started to sprout from out of the tear.

Seeing this happen, many people started to panic and run, making the situation much worse as they all headed for the door at once. Many teachers tried to construct a barrier around the area to seal off the threat but it just simply pa.s.sed through the magic as if it wasn't there.

"Teachers quickly lead all the students to safety!" Dumbledore's voice could be heard from the table.

Coming out of his shock, Nova quickly pushed through the crowd of panicked people and soon arrived in front of the rift.

When he arrived in front of the largest tentacle, Nova took a deep breath and let out a loud roar at the creature. When it heard him, it froze in fear and then Nova said in a loud voice, "Leave". Hearing his instructions, the tentacles quickly retreated back into the tear.

After the tentacles had left, Nova turned his arms into dragon form and grabbed the edges of the tear and pulled the s.p.a.ce back together. When the edges over lapped Nova breathed a thin stream of flame out and slowly melted the s.p.a.ce into a whole section. If anyone who was a welder saw this they would have to applause to the technique Nova was using. When the last part of the edge was welded shut the s.p.a.ce was sealed but if you looked closely one could still see the distortion that was there along with the glowing edge of melted s.p.a.ce.

The next thing Nova did was weave the magic in the surrounding area and start working on a temporary barrier with a timer so that Nova could keep track of how long it would last. As the tear showed that the world had deteriorated far quicker than he had imagined, but at the same time Nova was unaware of what had happened in the Sanctuary.

When he had finished, Nova let out a long drawn out sigh, then reverting his arms back, he turned around to see that everyone had cleared out of the Great Hall. But by everyone he meant students and teachers, the only ones left were him and Dumbledore, who was still at his chair.

"We need to talk." Nova said.

*********************************

3/15