Petrification

The giant snake’s eyes snapped open, casting a sickly yellow light onto Myrtle’s pale, tear-drenched cheeks and stunned expression. She stiffened with fear, her entire body frozen in place by the glare of the slithering thing. Her mouth hung open in shock, and her eyes were wide and staring.

Thoughts raced through her mind, “I’ve got to move, I’ve got to say something! What is that thing doing here, does the boy have something to do with it? Of course he does, I can see his smirking grin. I need to get out of here, why can’t I turn and run away, what’s happening to me?”

Myrtle tried to move, but found that she couldn’t. She was past the initial panicky moment of fear and knew that she should be able to run, but something stopped her. She tried to look down at her feet to see if they were stuck, maybe to the sticky floor, or worse, coiled in the snake’s tail! But she found herself unable to even glance away from the beast’s eyes.

The snake blinked at her, and the boy chuckled wickedly to himself. “I was wondering when I’d run into a mudblood, alone, looks like now’s the time!” He closed the distance between them, and still she couldn’t budge. “This will be sooo much fun.” He hissed the whisper into her ear. He reached to her shoulder and adjusted her robes, clearly taking his time with his new toy.