Hermione awoke to a terrible scream. She snapped open her eyes to see an enormous brown wolf grappling with Harry in the dim light. Harry was trying, but failing to push the wolf off himself. The beast kept leaping up to pierce Harry's neck with its fangs, and she knew that with one leap more its teeth would be sinking in. 

Untangling her arm from around Ron's shoulder, she shot a Stunning Spell straight at the wolf's head. The wolf sprang back with a snort of pain, then shrank to the floor and began transforming itself into the naked form of a bearded young man. Harry was swaying slightly, steadying himself. 

"Whass goin' on?" Ron rasped. He blinked and sat up. 

"Oh sh*t, it's him," Harry groaned. He crouched beside the unconscious man, staring down at him. 

Hermione was out of bed in an instant, stumbling across the floor. 

"Who is it, Harry?" 

"It's that effing warrior who dissed me in the restaurant. I might have known he was a werewolf." 

Harry stooped and hooked his hands under the man's armpits and began dragging him toward the bed. Hermione signaled to Ron, who grumpily slipped out from the covers and helped lift the man onto the bed. 

Hermione shot a terrified gaze at Harry. 

"He'll come to in a few hours. What are we going to do?" 

Harry scratched his forehead. "Leave him here and tiptoe out of this place. What else can we do?" 

A half hour later, the three travelers stumbled out of the inn, clutching their rucksacks and yawning. It was barely dawn and the village was dark and shadowy. Harry felt a twinge of nostalgia gazing down the deserted cobbled street that led away from the inn. It looked as familiar as Hogsmeade High Street. He noticed the outline of black mountains beyond the village. 

"There we are, guys, the Magic Mountains. If we start walking now we'll get there in six hours." 

Hermione tugged at her long black hair. "Six hours! No way, we've only had three hours' sleep." 

Harry looked at Ron, eyebrows raised. "What do you think, Ron?" 

Ron swallowed hard. It was clear he no more relished the idea of a six-hour slog through a damp and gloomy forest than Hermione did, but he was also a boy and not supposed to winge. 

"Why don't we just hike it to the nearest road and see if we can hitch a ride?" 

Harry clenched his fists till his knuckles were white. He felt angry that Ron had no more backbone than a girl like Hermione, but a part of him was as tired as the others. 

"Okay, we'll try hitching for half an hour, but we'll be lucky to see anything other than donkey carts. It's too early for motorized transport in this part of Melloria. It's the remotest place in Europe." 

Hermione wrapped her arm around Ron's neck and kissed him. 

"Thanks for saving us from walking our feet off," she whispered in his ear. 

Leaving the village behind, they trudged on through long grass until they came to a potholed road that was completely empty. Ron took his backpack off at the side of the road and sat on it. 

"Don't want to sound sexist, but it's better if you stand and thumb, Hermione. Guys always stop for a pretty girl." 

Hermione glowered, but took up her place beside the road. Harry took off his pack and sat next to Ron. They settled down to wait in the freshening dawn. 

Harry began to dream he was in another world, where he was just another nineteen-year-old backpacker with no reputation to keep up and no one to impress with heroics. He looked down at Ron who was napping, stretched full length, his head resting on his backpack and his feet on the grass. 

"Get up, Ron, you lazy b*gger," Hermione called. "You can at least stand here with me." 

Just then they heard the sound of a vehicle and a rattling Range Rover came into sight. The vehicle sank and rose in the ruts and potholes, and Harry stood up to wave it down. 

"Oi, that's supposed to be my job," Hermione said. 

The vehicle swerved to the side of the road and stopped in a lumpy morass of grass and mud. The driver's side door flew open with a crash. 

A huge boarhound jumped out and began to nuzzle Harry who looked like he was having minor heart palpitations. 

"Hagrid?" Harry stammered, fighting off the boarhound's slobbering attentions. An enormous bearded figure in a lumberjack shirt and hunter's cap was climbing out of the vehicle. 

"Harry, it is you - an' Hermione! Ron, too!" 

Hagrid caught Harry in a rib-crushing hug with one bearlike paw and seized Hermione with the other. Ron sleepily rose to his feet. 

With the three travelers and their packs crammed into the Range Rover, Hagrid started the engine and they rumbled along the road toward the church of Our Lady of Mania. Bunched up in the back with Ron and Hermione, Harry bounced painfully as the vehicle hit each pothole. Fang, the boarhound lay curled up at their feet. 

"Hagrid, what brings you here?" he asked. 

"Money!" Hagrid growled from the front. "After Hogwarts burnt to the ground durin' the battle, I got laid off, didn't I? So I joined a private security company that protec's folk from zombies an' that - an' here I am!" 

"Who are you protecting from zombies, Hagrid?" Hermione said. 

"Ain't s'pposed to say but as it's you - the archbishop hisself called us in to keep 'em out the church today, while he does an exor-, exor - " 

"An exorcism?" 

"Thass it! Me an' Fang are gonna flush 'em out the church, once an' for all." 

"Would you like us to help you, Hagrid?" Harry said. "And after, perhaps you could take us to the Magic Mountains." 

"Would you? Oh, bless you - 'course I will, that woul' be real nice." 

The three tired travelers were soon dozing, and when Hagrid pulled to a halt outside the church, only Fang perked up, wagging his tail and jostling to be let out. 

"'Ere we are then!"  

At Hagrid's booming call, Harry snapped fully awake. 

"Come on, guys, we've got work to do." 

They hurried together up to the church entrance, Fang lolloping beside them, and were greeted by the Archbishop of Melloria, robed for a religious ceremony inside the church. 

"I'm so glad you're here," he gushed, pumping Harry's hand while Hagrid loomed over them. "These, er, undead people are threatening to invade the church, all because I'm calling on Our Lady to remove a presence that's been seen flitting across the nave." 

"Don' worry, Your Grace, we'll keep 'em outta your way," Hagrid growled. 

"Good. I'll just let you get on with it then," the archbishop said, patting one of the two stone gargoyles that guarded the entrance to the church. 

"Just one question, sir," Hagrid rumbled. "Where do we find these zombies?" 

"Why, down in the vault of course," the archbishop said. "Be careful, that place hasn't been opened for fifty years." 

Armed with flashlights and their wands, Harry, Ron and Hermione followed Hagrid and Fang down a flight of stone steps inside the chancel. At the bottom, all they could see in the beams of their flashlights were blank walls and stone pillars. There were ancient coffins at the far end of the vault and an oppressive silence reigned. 

The slam of an iron door made them all jump. Footsteps echoed through the dust and cobwebs, and the foul smell of corpses filled their nostrils. 

"It's all righ', Fang - it's all righ'!" Hagrid bellowed, but the boarhound took flight as more and more muffled figures appeared, and Hagrid pounded off after the terrified dog, leaving Harry, Ron and Hermione to face the zombies. 

"Oh my god, there must be a hundred of them!" 

Hermione's shocked face, reflected in the flashlight's glare, prompted Harry to reach for his wand. 

The approaching figures stopped, and one of their number shuffled forward. 

"You've no right here - begone!" 

The creature's face was half rotted away and a bloodlike substance, dark and tarry, leaked from its suppurating decay. 

"We are commanded by the archbishop to tell you: Keep away from this church, it's holy ground." 

"Get out of our way or you'll join us in the realm of the undead!" 

Harry spoke and the creature responded, then it lurched forward, clawing at the three young people. 

Ron, Harry and Hermione shouted together, and the force of their combined spell blew the creature backward, its body jerking, into the darkness. More creatures surged forward and the three wizards fired Stunning Spells at them, knocking the monsters back. Their curses were so bloodcurdling that Harry felt his hair blown back. 

"Oh god, there are just too many of them," Harry said as another wave of monsters rose out of their coffins. "Desperate situations call for desperate remedies. Here goes..." 

Summoning all his efforts, Harry yelled "Expecto Patronum!" A stag burst from the end of his wand and cantered toward the creatures, scattering them into the darkness. 

"Phew, just in the nick of time," Harry said. "What are you two - " 

His jaw dropped as he turned and saw that Hermione had flung her arms around Ron's neck and was snogging him for all she was worth. Ron was smashing face with her and his arms were wrapped around her waist.  

Harry sighed and stuffed his wand back in his rucksack. He began walking back to the staircase.

Sad ending for Harry this time. Seems he's the solo wheel. Read, vote and comment, please!