June 26, 2008
10:07 am

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Anyone may write what the runespoor is doing (use orange text).  It has emerged from Knockturn Ally after escaping from a house the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.  It is very big, and very dangerous. It will likely take lots of help to subdue it or destroy it.  So far, the end of this thread has not been planned.  Be bold! Have fun!

There is a thread here to discuss this plot.

A dark shadow fell across the steps of Gringott's marble steps.  The sudden darkness startled the precocious sparrow who was previously resting upon the stair, and sent it into fearful flight.  The universal avian signal for danger sent its neighbors into the sky as well, and Graham was left to exit the building alone.  It was a common note on an uncommon day.  It wasn't often that Graham sought society, but every once in a while it was unavoidable. The trip also served as a brief respite from his mother's company.  He could only spend so many hours in the garden before he was forced back into their small cottage.  His trip to Diagon would force him to miss the evening's storytime.   She was reading some rubbish muggle book aloud to expose them both to more 'culture.'  It was by some woman Dorna, Laura Roberts something or other, and he knew more about the MacGregors than he had ever wanted.

An ominous brown box was tucked beneath his arm, buzzing softly as he strode across the cobblestones.  The glumbumbles were getting into his nettles again, but these were the few beetles that Graham was happy to host.  Once they were drawn to the patch, Graham would cleverly trap them for future a future sale to the Magical Menagerie.  Those poor animals were in need of food, and feed didn't come cheaply.  He was more than happy to provide the pests for a few sickles.  

Unfortunately his pleasant walk was interrupted by several loud screams.  A hysterical woman ran into Graham, mumbling something incomprehensible before she rushed away.  The impact had shaken the box from its snug perch between his arm and armpit.  His sickles were scurrying away!  Torn between possible trampling and losing his profit, Graham hesitated a brief moment before he dropped to the ground, quickly trying to gather the beetles.  "Gotcha," he yelled, grabbing one by its shell.  He quickly dumped it into the box, only to realize that among the slight screams (Some dumb Quiddock* was probably signing autographs), he could hear a faint hissing.  Glumbumbles didn't hiss.

He looked up, peering between moving legs to see something large and all-too-snakelike for his comfort.  And it was coming this way.  He cursed whatever ignorant fool thought it would be a great lark to engorgio a runespoor.  Several words not fit for young ears left his mouth while he scrambled to his feet.  Unfortunately the other frightened inhabitants of Diagon and Knockturn Alley denied his action.  A careless woman knocked him on his back, and as the hissing grew louder, Graham realized his vocal chords had freezed.  Panic began to set in, the glumbumbles forgotten.   He felt dizzy, trying to watch for the creeping runespoor while people kept running and disappearing, apparating their way to safety.  Graham attempted to focus on apparating himself out of the alley, but was unable to focus enough on all his body parts.  He needed away.  Slowly, he gathered enough wit to unfreeze his voice, uttering a small "help!", softened by fear and unfortunately, pride.  Was this how he was to die, looking for glumbumbles?

"Get down!"  Niobe Thursby yelled and jumped up from the table.  She was grabbing a bite with some people from work and an enormous racket had accosted her senses, sending her into panic mode.

She was on her feet, looking around, wand out.  All she could see were people running from Knockturn Ally and spells firing.  Witches and wizards were coming out of shops to see what the commotion was, only to join in the stampede towards cover.

What was going on! Was it an attack? Being so involved with the news a million names ran through Niobe's mind.  Was it another attack by Gibson? Had Theodora Kingstreet finally been able to pull something violent off? Did it have something to do with Cinaed Tawse? Wild speculation went unchecked and she tried to suppress it.  When this dust settled, she'd need facts! She's need to keep her head and get to the bottom of this.

But she screamed! A large awning was collapsing over them and she had to run clear of the outdoor dining area and into the cobbled street, towards Diagon Ally.  She moved forward through the smoke that seemed to be coming from the apothecary.  She almost stumbled on a man lying on the ground. She bent to help him (Graham Bombay) to his feet.

"What's going on?" she asked in panicked tones.  Maybe he'd seen something.  From where she'd been she couldn't make out what was causing the riots.  "I can't see a thing!"

Amongst the cacophony of screams and hisses, a small witch in classic black robes ran in front of the orange and black serpent serpent, which was chasing her at top speed.  Whilst cursing in various languages—some human, some not so human—she tore through the crowds, doing her best to steer the beast away from soft fleshy things. 

Sadly, she seemed to be failing miserably on that front.

Back in the beginning of May a house in Knockturn, which had been transformed into an illegal Runespoor breeding facility, had been raided by both her department and the MLE.  Their numbers included a goodly number of Hitwitches and Wizards, Tamis Raynor herself, a team of Wranglers and a couple Magizoologists.  The raid had been a success, resulting in a whole host of Smugglers and Breeders being chucked into Azkaban, a huge sum of runespoor eggs and serpents confiscated, and only one injured on their side.

Of course, that injured one was Covadonga Gertrudis, Department Head of the RCMC who later nearly succumbed to the venom of the vile beast in St. Mungo’s.  Thankfully, the quick actions of Moira Randall and Jason Marren had brought her back from the brink.

Once again, however, she had been wounded, her arm now punctured and stained with blood.  Yet Merlin had smiled upon her this day, for the witch had been bit by one of the non-venomous heads while diverting her attention away from her interns, whom she had dragged along the wee expedition to check and see if any animals had been left behind during the rush.

Yes, this particular snake was a feisty female, the only one who had been missed during the collection, which had been able to happily grow large and fat in the extra room she had over the past couple months, enraged by the fact that Covi had stolen her clutch of eggs, which was being cradled in her uninjured arm, but this rendered her unable to perform any spellwork as she was no longer able to swish and flick due to its current occupation.

“MORALES!  BLAAAKKKEEE!” she shrilly screamed back at the two witches scampering behind the bait and beast, “FOR THE LOVE OF MILLICENT BAGNOLD AND ALL THINGS BENEVOLENT AND MAGNIFICENT, REMEMBER YOUR AIM!  YOUR AIIIMMM!”

Fate hated her. There was no question about it. Fauna was a fast runner and Nina jogged most mornings, but even the two intrepid interns had a hard time keeping up with the snake on Covadonga’s tail. It wasn’t just any snake, either. A monstrous runespoor slithered and rumbled through Diagon Alley, leaving chaos in her wake. The enraged mother had already taken a chunk out of Covadonga’s arm while fighting for her eggs, and wouldn’t rest until she’d gobbled up the rest of her. The boss had her arms full, so it seemed up to Fauna and Nina to save the day!

Merlin help them all.

Fauna panted, trying to catch her breath and dodge around the mass of people. It was impossible to think with so much noise: the screaming, the crates and stalls knocked over, the menacing hiss of the three-headed snake, and Covi, screeching curses in languages that Fauna didn’t recognize. The meaning was clear though. They were in trouble. She looked up quickly as an awning collapsed over the crowd, but had to keep her attention on one disaster at a time, so she moved past it with her wand gripped in front of her.

When she caught a glimpse of Miss Gertrudis her heart sank. The runespoor was close, so close, and gaining speed. If she could just concentrate and block out the noise, she might be able to…

“FOR THE LOVE OF MILLICENT BAGNOLD AND ALL THINGS BENEVOLENT AND MAGNIFICENT, REMEMBER YOUR AIM!  YOUR AIIIMMM!”

Covadonga knew her well! Fauna rushed closer, pooling all her energy into the spell.

“Stupefy!” She shouted over the din. Her hand shook so badly that it missed the large target and she cringed, afraid she’d hit Covadonga, but the woman was still on the move. Fauna thought she saw a curious line of dark bugs topple over in a row, but she could only shake her head and focus.

“Stupefy!” She tried again, gripping her wand arm with her other hand to hold it steady. The spell shot over and hit the side of the snake’s long body, and Fauna felt a rush of relief. Everything seemed to stop for a moment. As the snake shuddered slightly she held her breath, waiting for it to fall to the ground.

Instead, the snake’s three long heads swiveled around to glare and the hissing became more pronounced, until all three pairs of eyes landed on Fauna.  The stupefy spell hadn’t done a damn thing except enrage the snake further.

Fauna took a trembling step back, only to bump into something solid. She didn’t dare glance at whoever she’d nudged.

Slowly, two snake heads turned around, seeming to seek out Covadonga and the precious eggs, but one head stayed focused on her as she stood, terrified, trying to think of anything else that might help defeat the runespoor. Fauna didn’t want to cast a spell that would hurt it, but Stupefy hadn’t even given it pause.

“Nina…” she croaked. Maybe they could get an awning to collapse on the creature, trap it somehow… but then all rational thought left her as the snake reared one of her heads…

Small black spots began appearing in front of his eyes, symptoms  of the sudden death he was about to face.  To think that he might never again have to break in a new crop of first years was somewhat relieving, but overall Graham was not yet ready to part with this world.  Fortunately a strong hand clasped his own and he was able to unfreeze his feet.  He shakily stood, glad to no longer risk being trampled.  As for the glumbumbles, he fervently wished every one of them had been crushed, obliterated and completely destroyed.  Fie.

From his new height, Graham was a bit embarassed to see the runespoor was not towering over them, but rather a distance away.  Panic often overtook one's sense of spatial relations, Graham reasoned, thus sending the blame to panic rather than his own lapse of judgment.  "Thank you," he started, turning to see who his Good Samaritan might be. Instead of perhaps a slender, sexy blonde woman who would fall in love with him and live happily ever after, Graham beheld quite the opposite.  Instead, there was a bushy-haired, big-nosed, gaff of a reporter with whom he was already acquainted.  "Thursby?"  Graham blinked twice, more surprised by his rescue now that he knew the identity of the rescuer.

"Runespoors," he barked, once his eyes locked back onto the creature.  It was getting closer, and Graham had no idea what one did with a Giant Runespoor, except to run from it or hope it spits an egg.  This one still had all three heads, making it that much more terrifying.  Over the noises of panic and fear from the alley, one voice reached over them all, carrying two names that he hoped weren't what he thought they were.  Blake? Morales?  A quick search through the crowd confirmed the two students running for their lives.  Graham fumbled in his robes, finding his wand, five sickles, pocket lint, a sachet of rosemary and finally his packet of crushed chili peppers.  "I hope you've got a plan brewing, girl," he yelled back to Thursby over the crowd's screams.  As he looked back up at the oncoming beast, every nerve in Graham's body screamed to run.  He had no choice, though:  students were at stake.  Years of Hogwarts speeches and lectures instilled a devotion to the snot-nosed brats. 

Wand in one hand and pepper in the other, Graham did the only thing he could think of.  "Mobilicapsicum," he shouted, throwing up  of the powdered pepper and directing it straight into the runespoor's closest set of eyes. 

Niobe snapped her gaze back to the stranger she was helping up - he'd said her name.  It took her a moment to organize his dark features.  "Graham Bombay!" she shouted in surprise.  Inwardly, she groaned.  They'd dated her sixth year and it had been one of her least favorite school years memories. 

But a slathering, three-headed witch-eating serpent had a way of pushing those inward discussions away for another time.  Graham had acted quickly with with looked like a well done spell.  At that same moment, Niobe was acting on her own plan: Quill and Parchment!

She started in immediately with everything she saw around her, the Verbatis Quill rapidly recording her every word.

"Diagon Ally, June 26, mid-morning! A Runespoor, no two! Two Runespoors have come from the direction of Knockturn Ally!"

She was breathing hard.  Graham's black powder spell, hit the left-most head directly in the eyes.   That head shrieked and flung itself forward.  The other heads, oblivious to the pain of the wounded head, continued to lash out against Graham.

"Graham Bombay, Ravenclaw, acts against one of them, but they're moving towards us - Move!" Niobe swore fearfully as the middle head struck out at her.

She stumbled backwards and gasped as she looked down at her hand.  It was covered in blood and where was her finger?! She groped around on the ground, panicked and her vision blurring.  Where was her wand? Where was her quill? WHERE WAS HER FINGER?!

If Nina made it through the day, she was going to kill her father for forcing this internship on her. What was so wrong about spending the summer outside playing Muggle football? Or spending some time with her eldest brother in Puerto Rico? Or even watching her younger siblings?

Did he have a problem with her wanting to get some practice time in so that she wasn't completely out of shape for Quidditch? Was is such an issue for her to lay outside with a book (okay, a Quidditch book, but still)? No. No, it was not. But tell that to Papa and he would pitch a fit. And then the kitchen would look like it had been through a war. 'Nina, you have to start doing something real with your life.' he said. And he had said that for three months until he forced her to get an internship in a department that she cared nothing about. The only reason she had taken the bloody 'job' was because her father threatened to burn her broom. And, he reasoned with her, the job had the potential to be dangerous.

And that was why Nina was going to kill him. She liked a little danger and risk now and then, but a GIANT THREE-HEADED SNAKE was not something that she wanted to encounter. Ever. And the second Covadonga started yelling, Nina quickly lost faith that any of them would make it out of this... predicament with all their limbs and major organs in tact.

“Nina…” she croaked.

Fauna's voice drew Nina out of her slightly terrified trance. The Runespoor continued to attack the man and woman, who Nina had never seen before but felt sorry for, and she knew she had to do something, anything.

"Incendio!" she cried, her arm shaking. She had hit the Runespoor's right head, and said head turned towards the two Seventh Year girls, still menacing but on fire. This is not good! yelled Nina's thoughts (if thoughts could yell). She had to think rationally.

"Fauna," she said, trying to stop her voice from squeaking. "What if we cut the heads off? Help me, okay? Diffindo on three. One, two..."

Graham was pleased to see his pepper hit the target.  It was the left-most head he was worried about, and as long as it couldn't see, it wouldn't be able to directly strike the children.  "BLAKE, MORALES," he called out, not liking how common their names were becoming throughout the crisis, "GET OUT OF THERE!"  Hogwarts might have some of the most rigorous tests in the country, but no Hogwarts student was ever required to fight an engorged runespoor in order to graduate.  This was not their fight.

"Move!"

Graham jumped aside as the middle head attacked, narrowly escaping a painful death.  Blast it, another thing he owed to Thursby. Graham disliked how the snake was putting him in Thursby's debt.  He turned back to at least acknowledge her for the help, only to see her scribbling away some start of a report.  He bristled at her refusal to help, and wished he could send the snake to eat her instead of him.  "Forgive me for not specifying what kind of plan," he growled, "I simply thought after all these years your bushy-haired bird-brain might be good for something."  Graham glanced back again, only to catch sight of blood.  Thursby's blood.  His conscience sank slightly at having insulted a bleeding woman (literally), but put the matter aside.

A more analytical gaze discovered the blood was only coming from a bloody hand that was missing one finger.  Her ravings meant nothing to him.  Herbologists lost and reattached fingers all the time, it was almost a commonplace accident for their field, at least where students were involved.  Ducking to the ground for safety and to find the missing finger, Graham was fortunate enough to see the small appendage roll under a nearby table.  "Hold on," he told her, "I think I see it.  Just...be careful, will you, Thursby?" With one eye on the flailing runespoor and the other on the table, Graham made his way, securing what was Thursby's missing appendage.  As he thought about it, however, without her finger, Thursby would find it a touch more difficult to hold that damned quill of hers. 

Without a second thought, Graham took the finger and quickly threw it down the alley, letting it roll further down the cobblestone street, and possibly into Knockturn.  He sincerely hoped a kneazle would eat it before the finger could be found again. He quickly returned to the injured woman's side,  "No luck, just a glumbumble."  Graham fervently hoped the runespoor had not eaten the students while he was searching for the appendage. 

Hearing a stupendous Stupefy, Covi slowed down went behind one of the carts and bent over, her face red from all the exertion.

“Excellent, Miss Blake!” she cheered her intern on.  But then… oh Merlin… the spell hadn’t been strong enough?!  If higher powers existed, they must be laughing their asses off now.

As The Thinker head turned on Fauna she stood up to try and grab its attention, there was a shout and a black powdered whistled up through the air and rained down on the serpent’s head… which pissed it off even further, so much so that The Dreamer head lashed out, attacking one of the other bystanders.

Her heart dropped and an old Goblin curse was plastered all over her lips as her eyes were drawn to the blood red color staining the middle head’s fangs and dribbled onto the floor.  Then there was another painful opened mouth hiss as The Critic’s cranium burst into flames.  With wild blue eyes Covadonga looked back down from where the blast had come from to see Nina Morales’ wand raised.

"What if we cut the heads off? Help me, okay? Diffindo on three. One, two..."

No… no… no… this was not happening.  This was NOT happening!

“NO!” she shouted.  No animal would die tonight because of her ill-planning, because of her search was not thorough enough to catch the Runespoor before today.  No, this would not happen.  “LOWER YOUR WANDS!” the witch shouted, darting out from behind the cart, hoping not only to distract the snake, but to instruct all those around her.

Breathing hard, she watched carefully as the third-blinded and third-burnt snake rolled and slithered toward her.  She showed the new mother her eggs and taunted, “Heeeere snakey, snakey…” slowly stepping backward,  “Yessss…” she hissed back as it continued to follow her, “that’s a good mommy sssnakey.”

The Runespoor, hissing a wailing in pain continued after her upon seeing her yet born children still in the clutches of the human woman, but suddenly… was distracted as a small piece of flesh flew through the air. Ooo!  Food! it seemed to say as its tail flipped about across the Alley, knocking down yet more people and carts and breaking windows as it made the 180* turn.

If there had been any color left in the Department Head’s face, there sure as hell wasn’t any now.  Her mouth agape her eyes darted right and left to see what action she could take next.  OK, so at least it was no longer after the girls (or anyone else for that matter), only following the scent of blood and dead tissue, but it was still heading back toward a heavily populated area.

Making up her mind, she ran full tilt at the beast, toward the flung finger, and stepped on its bloody tail as she grabbed a “Used and Abused” brooms out of one of the barrels sitting outside QQS with her bad arm, using it as a springboard to launch herself in front of it and jump up so she could get the broom under her.  Reaching the finger, she left one of her feet drag across the ground, and using the sharp turning radius she could achieve with a broom, used her momentum to punt the finger back toward Diagon, the appendage sailing over the snake’s heads.

To keep the young mother’s attention, she bellowed, “OY!  BIG MOMMA!”

And dropped one of the eggs… letting it shatter toward the ground.

The Runespoor, after tripping up over the cobblestones when stepped on, sat very… very… still, all stunned that a human, a human had dared to steal their clutch, have them chase them, and then... and then... have the nerve, the gall to murder one before its very eyes!  The Critic was the first to snap out of the shock, biting at The Dreamer in the middle.  The Thinker took great offense to all of this and bit The Critic back.

And thus… the common fight between the Runespoor Heads began.  It was a wonder how it had gone on this long with all three intact.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!"

A high pitched girly squeal emanated shrilly from the Hufflepuff's mouth. What in Aphrodite’s left elbow was going on? Was it just not possible for someone to walk down the streets of Diagon anymore without something crazy, dangerous, and life-threatening happening? Beyond that, you’d think that with a reporter for a mother and an Auror for a father, the kid would be used to the action by now… granted, no one really got used to seeing a giant three-headed serpent slithering down the lane.

Now was the moment of truth; should Charlie run forward and attempt to kill the raging snake, or did he fall back and run home? It was a split second decision, he didn’t have time to think, didn’t really have time to breathe, was his own life more important than all the other innocent bystanders there?

In mere seconds the wizarding paraphernalia found itself flung into the air, all thoughts of a nice quiet evening at home forgotten. “I’LL SAVE YOU DIAGON!” Charlie yelled, racing into the danger. He reached into his robes, felt for his wand, and then realized that it wasn’t there. “Uh-oh.” Charlie whispered, feeling frantically in his pockets.

That’s right… he had his wand in the Flourish and Blott’s bag… and that bag was a few feet back… on the ground. “Uh… I’LL BE RIGHT BACK!” He called out again… he didn’t want everyone to think he was abandoning them, just because he was turning around and running all out the other way. It did look a little unpromising.

“AHHHHHHH!” He charged back, wand in hand. What was he going to do when he actually reached the magical beast? No clue. Was he ready to give up his life? Not at all. Oh well… sometimes you don’t get to choose your fate.

As one snake head lit up like a firecracker and another head was blinded, Fauna thought she heard her last name shouted by a voice that was a heck of a lot more wizard than witch. She doubted it was Covadonga, so she shot a cursory glance at the crowd until she spotted Bombay, the herbology professor!

She stared at him for a moment, then turned back to Nina when she suggested attempting to cut off the Runespoor’s heads. Fauna’s eyes widened and she bit her lip. Did it really come to that? She could either listen to her professor and skidaddle, or listen to Nina, and-

“NO! LOWER YOUR WANDS!”

That was definitely Covadonga’s voice! Feeling somewhat relieved, Fauna quickly lowered her wand and waited for the right moment to jump into the action again.

Suddenly, the Runespoor turned swiftly around, her tail crashing into people and shops. Fauna cringed at the impact it made, and then gasped when her boss stepped on the snake’s tail, threw something over her shoulder, leapt upon a broom, and then dropped one of the eggs. On the ground. Right in front of the Runespoor’s watchful and wrathful gaze.

Fauna tried to move closer to where Covadonga was, afraid that the small woman was about to take a trip down the Runespoor’s throat and never return, but then, the snake surprised her. The heads began biting at each other, consumed with inner turmoil! This was their chance if they ever had one.

“Nina!” She called behind her, pointing at the trampled awning a few stores away.  “If we can levitate the curtain- no, the… blanket… canopy… thingy!” Fauna sputtered and made gesturing motions towards the Runespoor, hoping Nina would understand her inarticule directions. She wanted to help trap the Runespoor with the awning, while more capable folks stunned the creature.

Raising her wand, Fauna called out, “Wingardium Leviosa!”

The success of a charm she’d learned during her first year had never been so important!

"A-a-ntisangrum!" Niobe stuttered, trying to cast a spell to stop the bleeding.  The ring finger on her right hand was gone after the first knuckle and the pain washed over her in waves that sent her stomach churning.  She was shaking and all she could see what a blurry, bloody hand in front of her face.

All around her, things were now catching on fire, as one of the snake's heads had been set aflame.  An explosion from the apothecary shook Diagon - something volatile must have caught a spark.  The explosion knocked her from her revelry.  She put pressure on her wound and steeled herself.  She had to do her duty and provide any aid she could. Luckily, Graham seemed alright and was on his feet.  

"Oh, don't act so high and mighty," she said hotly, her voice still quivering a bit, "I'm a reporter, not an Auror.  Oh Merlin, what are those kids doing?"  Niobe could now see teenagers running around wands out firing spells.

The diminutive woman who Niobe could now recognized as Covadonga Gertrudis seemed to be taking control of the situation - which was still very out of control.  But luckily the Runespoor was now only attacking itself, but causing a great deal of damage in the process.

And then, Niobe turned again to her sacred onus: she began narrating to her quill.  

"Gertrudis is wrangling the Runespoor, and teenagers are involved in the fray.  The apothecary just suffered a large explosion, and fires are spreading.  The smoke is beginning to fill the streets and I see many injured witches and wizards trying to make their way to safety.  At this time, I can see no Healers or Aurors on the scene, but able-bodied citizens seem to be doing their best."

The first thing Aberdeen Spencer heard as she apparated into Diagon Alley was a resounding explosion that effectively shook her cool-as-a-cucumber auror facade.

'What the hell was that?' she blurted out, staggering with the sheer physical force of the noise. Fortunately, her momentary lapse in composure went unnoticed in the chaos, or so she hoped; aurors were meant to be calm and collected in situations like these.

She was about to start forward towards the source of the explosion when she stopped, midstep, her eye catching something unusual on the ground a moment before she would have stepped on it. Bending closer to examine it, she felt her eyebrows shoot involuntarily upward. Was that... was that a finger? Oh, hell... It's got to be a fake, hasn't it? Something from Weasley's? she thought, but she couldn't kid herself. The blood, the bite marks... Even George Weasley wasn't that good (or even if he was, he wouldn't be that morbid).

Figuring she could figure out who the finger belonged to after the crisis had been dealt with, she muttered a quick preservation charm on it and stowed it in a pocket. Thankfully she'd been through enough gory cases not to get squeemish easily, though all the same, she avoided looking at the apendage too closely.

After those few seconds' delay, Aberdeen straightened up and marched forward, wand held high and eyes darting about to take in the situation. The report to the Auror Office had been of a runespoor, but things seemed to have gone even further downhill from there, so far downhill that they were subterranean. Fires breaking out, the sounds of shattering glass, panicked civilians seemingly unable to disapparate, and even more worrying, people thrown into the fray who were definitely not aurors. Even as she approached the scene, a young man who could barely have been of age was barrelling into the mayhem, shouting that he'd save them.

'The runespoor!' Catching sight of a flash of orange, Aberdeen broke into a run, her red auror's cloak flapping wildly behind her. The threat had to be neutralised; who knew how venomous the left head would be if the runespoor really was the size that had been reported? At the very least, she had to get any civilians away from the creature.

As soon as Samuel Apparated, he was off running towards the Runespoor. " Spencer, Laura, stick close by me." He called to the two Aurors who had Apparated with him. One was his wife, the other an old trainee of his. He drew his wand as he ran, his Auror robes billowing out behind him. he could see the runespoor heads arguing with each other now, Merlin only knew how the runespoor had kept all three heads.