Magnus slowly approached the Deino with the piece of bloody chicken leg clutched in his hands.
Truthfully, he had no idea what he was supposed to achieve with this.
In fact, despite him telling Hagrid that the use of the leash might have made the Pokémon bite him, he didn't think it was entirely right. I mean biting stuff was the main way the blind creature interacted with their surrounding and since Hagrid was a constant presence in the Deino's surrounding, he might still have been bitten regardless.
He couldn't say this to them though, he could feel the hope and trust they were all bestowing on him... the twins were watching with bated breath...
Hagrid was looking quite confident and even beamed down on him encouragingly.
'Damn,' he cursed inwardly.
Lies had a sneaky way of catching up with a person.
See, he was here all because he had told Hagrid that his uncle had a similar Pokémon... at that moment it had been an easier way to avoid Hagrid's suspicion after he identified the hatchling but now... well now it was the time to live the lies.
"Try and stay calm Hagrid," he instructed just for the sake of saying something, to break the tension welling up in him.
"Aye," Hagrid agreed despite the fact that he had barely moved for several minutes now. "Think mi foot is growing numb," he added.
"Yeah, that will be because you can't put it to much use," he said as he crouched next to the Deino.
Immediately the Pokémon let out a low warning growl having sensed someone close. It however did not let go of Hagrid.
Carefully, Magnus brought the steak just above the Deino's head but his stance was now one of extra caution. While the Deino was blind, what it had lacked in sight was amplified twice in terms of speed. He might be trying to rescue Hagrid's foot only for his hand to end up in the Pokémon's maw.
The scent of meat seemed to finally register on the Deino and it was now twisting restlessly trying to extract itself from Hagrid's foot. The process however seemed to require quite some twisting which also meant Hagrid was enduring a lot of pain.
"Looks like the teeth had gone too deeper than I thought," Magnus said bringing the meat even closer so as to encourage the Pokémon to extract its teeth. "Hagrid, even after your foot is free you have to visit Madam Pomfrey, I think it got your bone," he added as they watched the struggle.
Hagrid grunted, he now had his eyes tightly shut facing anywhere but his foot.
From the looks of things Magnus could see the struggle was working. It was slow but at least he could now see half of the canines were out, the Pokémon however appeared to get restless as it fought to now free its trapped tooth.
They just had to be patient.
"Is it just me or did you guys see that?" Fred who had moved to the far right side of the Deino exclaimed as he pulled back from where he had been observing the Deino.
"See what..." George was already jumping towards his brother and Magnus did not have to hear his surprised voice to know there was something wrong with the Pokémon. He could already see for himself.
The reason for the Pokémon's restlessness became clear to them. Its neck was swelling and contracting rapidly like a snake that had just swallowed a rat...
"I will be damned," George cried in shock. "I swear that neck wasn't that size when we first saw it... it's... it's almost twice," he said pointing out what Magnus had just observed, the Deino was swelling at a rapid rate...
"Is he choking? We have to help him," Hagrid exclaimed trying to crouch to help the Pokémon but the pain that followed reminded him he was the one being helped.
"Lemme find someplace to sit, I will pull him out meself," he said suddenly ignoring the pain and dragging the half-lounged Pokémon.
The creature let out a muffled scream. Though the sound was dulled by its half-shut maw, it was clear it was in pain.
With a sudden snarl the Deino was finally able to pull itself free.
It staggered and crashed on its hind legs but quickly rolled up snarling even more menacingly.
Magnus heard something tearing away but didn't turn to look, his guess was Hagrid was tying his bleeding foot.
He did not wish to take away his eyes from the Pokémon which was now snarling and biting the empty air.
"You don't think he swallowed something?" Fred asked as they watched its neck grow even larger by the minute.
"Well it probably swallowed a gallon of Hagrid's blood," George countered while jumping back as the Deino lunged at him. Magnus noted its movements were focused on where the noise was coming from.
"Hagrid, you don't think it swallowed one of your bones?" George asked before immediately moving behind his brother. The blind Pokémon lunged at Fred instead.
"'Cause I got all mi bones," he said limping up toward the leash. "Thank you Magnus, you all should better head back...."
Magnus had however reached and grabbed Hagrid's hand.
"Don't," he said with his eyes still on the swelling, snarling Pokémon.
Hagrid however easily pushed past his hands. "Can't ya see he needs help," he said as he bent down and tried to grab the Deino.
For a moment Magnus actually thought he might succeed but just at the last second the Deino turned and lunged for the outstretched arms instead.
The twins squealed and Hagrid was only saved by rolling sideways.
He wasn't safe though, the Deino was swiftly following through with its attack and seeing Hagrid hadn't recovered yet, Magnus knew it might catch him somewhere fatal.
"Here... over here!" he stepped forward without thinking much, surprisingly the twins also followed his lead shouting all manner of words towards the Deino.
The Pokémon stopped before spinning around in confusion. The noise was working.
"What devil has gotten into him?"
Hagrid boomed as he regained his footing... "You think he might be stung?" he asked looking at the now totally stretched neck.
The twins looked at each other at Hagrid's revelation.
"Stung!" George cried, "That must be it... that explains the swelling."
Fred however wasn't going with either Hagrid or his twin. "Unless it swallowed the entire hive, no it doesn't explain anything... can't you see that movement?" he said pointing to where the flesh had now been stretched too tight that they could see something wriggling inside the Deino's throat.
Hagrid let out a terrified sound as did George. "Maybe he mighta have swallowed something without me seeing... it's... it's going to tear its throat."
Magnus however had exclaimed in excitement.
"Of course... I should have understood it... I'm a big idiot," he crouched now cautiously observing the groaning Pokémon. "I just didn't expect it to happen this early."
The others hearing him express a different thought seemed to gain hope from him.
"What is he talking about?" George asked no one in particular and no one answered him.
Hagrid however seemed to want assurance more than explanation. "You think he will be fine... is it normal... I mean yer uncle musta done this right?"
"What he talking about?" it was now Fred's turn to wonder.
"Of course it's normal, Hagrid... it's... it's just growing its second head."