The Sleeping Princess

21- Dangerous Dream

"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered them. "Can't you see that it's making it worse?!"

"Yeah, we noticed that," snarled Ron, leaning back, trying to stop the plant from curling around his neck.

"Shut up, I'm trying to think of a way out of this!" Hermione screamed.

"Well, hurry up, I can't breathe!" Harry gasped, wrestling with it as it curled around his chest.

"Vines—plants… what stops a plant…?" Hermione was crying out to herself before she suddenly gasped and looked around desperately. She spotted a house nearby and had an idea! She went charging inside it, not caring as the thorns cut her and tore her clothes.

'Please let one be here, please let one be here,' she kept thinking over and over again as she went bursting through the door and looking around wildly for it.

The boys watched as she went running into the house, with Ron shouting after her, "HAVE YOU GONE MAD? What's that gonna do?!"

The thorns were cutting into Harry's skin and he was having a hard time breathing as he felt blood dripping down his arms. But then, Hermione came dashing out of the house, something small in her hands. She knelt down to the side of the road and stuck against the greenery, and Harry realized that it was a flint.

Almost at once, yellow flames began to burn and crept up the tendrils. And as they spred, the grip around them was lessening and the boys were able to pull themselves free. Harry then grabbed the sword and Ron his mace while Hermione jumped in and together, the three of them were able to take out enough that they drew away.

"I think I'm going to kill Dumbledore for this," Harry hissed to himself before he turned to hug Hermione. "Don't know what we would've done without you here," he gasped. "We owe you big time for that."

She smiled. "Anytime," she whispered, pulling back. "We'll kill Dumbledore later. The sooner we get this over, the happier I'll be."

Pulling themselves up, they ran forward, the pathway cleared. But when they reached the stone steps, they met another challenge.

As they ran up the stairs, they saw them—there were four statues there… a statue of a tall King, a cold-looking Queen, and two white knights on horses. "We're almost there," Ron gasped, in the lead. "I know a way inside…"

But as they ran past the statue of the king, Harry felt goosebumps going up his spine, and the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Something was wrong. But before he could figure out what this bad feeling was, he heard Hermione screaming.

He looked up just in time for the arm of the king shot out, trying to hit him with his stone sword. He ducked in time, feeling the wind from his hand blow his hair. The statue king, queen, and knights came to life and headed towards them.

"Run around them!" Harry called, getting into a sword fight with the king.

"There's another way in!" Ron shouted, backing away from one of the knights. "There's a statue of an ugly witch with a hump! Around the castle's other side! It's right over a secret passage! All you have to do is…" but he never had the chance to finish for at that moment, the queen had charged up behind him and struck him so hard that he was out before his head hit the ground.

Hermione screamed and ran from the knight that she was fighting to him.

Harry had left behind his fight with the king as well and almost flew to their side. "Ron? RON?!"

Hermione was kneeling beside him, Ron was groaning slightly at her touch, a blood lump on his head. "He's out," Hermione cried out, starting to panic, staring around her, as if hoping for someone to help them. Harry bit his lip as the statues began to advance on them. He began weighing his options… this wasn't good. They couldn't fight them like this. Though the statues were big and strong, but he could also see that they were slow too; they could outrun them, but with Ron like this…?