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Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 83: The Strange Intruders
"Come here!" The large man behind bars shouted as he tried to grab hold of the young female officer.
"Ahh!" She let out a shriek as she moved backwards.
"I warned you not to get too close to the bars…" said the Captain of the guards, who had to accompany the two rookies on their patrol so they wouldn't do anything stupid like what she had just done.
"Are the prisoners always so rowdy?" the other rookie asked.
"Tsk…" The Captain clicked his teeth for not noticing it earlier.
The prisoners were indeed being very energetic and noisy tonight. This should not be possible if the dementors had been doing their jobs.
For the past couple of months, the creatures had been acting strange, but still continued to perform their duties in keeping the prisoners in check.
This was supposed to be the part that the dementors enjoyed the most.
But now the Captain realized that for the entire duration of their patrol, he had not seen a single dementor wandering around the cells.
"Something is going on…"
The two rookies turned to look at the Captain. "What is it, Sir?"
"We first need to go back, so I can speak with the other guards." The Captain was not willing to continue with the two newbies at his side. If things got dangerous, he wanted to have the most experienced men to count on.
The female guard suddenly gasped. "Sir! I think I heard something behind us."
"Shhh, be quiet. Let's return to the third floor. Keep your wands out." The Captain had heard it too and knew that the sound didn't come from one of the prisoners.
They were one floor away from the roof. It was going to be a long way down, so he didn't want to alarm the rookies.
The sound had come from the direction where the stairs leading to the roof were located, so the Captain guided them in the opposite direction at a brisk pace.
If someone had infiltrated the prison again, they would need to call for reinforcements immediately.
"Urgg!… what is that smell?" The rookie covered his nose.
"It's like… rotten eggs mixed with sweat." The face of the female officer was turning green.
The Captain was too concerned to be bothered by a bad smell. He spotted something moving around the shadows before them.
"AhhhH!"
Loud screams were then heard from the corridor ahead.
"The prisoners!" the rookie exclaimed.
It was obvious that something or someone was attacking them.
"Let's go!" The Captain could not stand by if the inmates were in danger. They may be dangerous criminals, but they were still his responsibility.
With his wand gripped tightly in hand, he rushed forward.
The shadowy figure was becoming more visible. At first, he thought it was a troll, judging by its tremendous size.
The disgusting smell was also getting stronger as the creature came into view.
It was a humanoid mass of flesh with grey skin. It had somehow broken into one of the cells and grabbed hold of a prisoner.
The Captain arrived just in time to see the creature lifting the body of the prisoner with one hand and taking his head off with one bite before it started chewing on it like a tasty snack.
"What is that thing?!" the female rookie shouted in horror.
"It doesn't matter. Let's take it down!" the other rookie added.
The Captain was already on it, and fired a barrage of bone-breaking hexes at the creature.
The demon let out a painful grunt as its arm broke apart and was separated from the rest of its body, falling down along with the prisoner it had been holding.
'We can do this.' The Guard Captain felt hope as he realized that his spells were effective on the unknown creature. It didn't matter what this monster was, just that they could kill it.
The two rookies were about to join in. Neither of them noticed the shadows deforming behind them.
Black cloaked figures emerged from the darkness and moved their bony fingers closer to the guards.
Their nails were long and sharp as razor blades. The moment they touched their skin, it was cut apart while offering no resistance.
Until the last moment, none of the rookies even understood what had killed them, as they had been completely focused on the ugly creature before them to detect the deadly shadow demons moving next to them.
The Captain heard some strange noises behind him and turned his head to look, just to see the rookies standing very straight while blood poured from their mouths like a fountain.
He had only taken his eyes off them for a couple of seconds and they were already dead.
"Noo!" The Captain screamed and fired his magic at the bizarre black figures still holding onto them.
The shadowy creatures moved away, releasing their prey and disappearing into the darkness of the corridor.
"Hii!" A large number of cries and shrieks came from the other side of the corridor, forcing the Captain to once more change his focus.
His eyes opened widely when he saw countless small red creatures that resembled monkeys, running past the large monster and rushing towards him.
"Stop!" The Auror fired a curse and managed to take out one of the strange monkeys, but this only made the others more excited as they jumped at him, clawing and biting different parts of his body.
"Ahhh!" The Captain tried to get them off him, but the creatures were deceptively strong for their size. Their claws and teeth were also incredibly sharp and had no difficulty cutting into his flesh and bones.
It took one agonizing minute that felt like an eternity for the poor Guard Captain to finally succumb to the nasty wounds inflicted on his body.
The imps cared little for their fallen comrade and were just happy to chomp on their newly acquired meal, consuming away the human's flesh and soul.
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