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Note: The setting is near the beginning of Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts.

Harry Potter awoke suddenly in a cold sweat, the scar on his forehead throbbing. He had just had a nightmare, but couldn't remember what it had been about. Racking his brains, he vaguely remembered....Lord Voldemort? Well, that was a pretty easy guess, most of his nightmares had involved Lord Voldemort since he was a baby. But there had also been deep water, and the vague presence of something huge. The Dark Lord had been shouting some kind of incantation, despite being underwater. Harry reached under his pillow for his wand (he was keeping it near him at all times now, in case of emergency), used it to make a light, and pulled his glasses from his bedside table. He ran a finger over his scar. The pain had abated somewhat now, and the memory of the nightmare was fading fast. Clambering out of bed, Harry went over to the window, through which he could see the sky lightening gradually towards dawn, to get a drink of water.

"What's going on?" asked Ron Weasley's sleepy voice from the next bed to Harry's. He poked his fiery head through the hangings, rubbing his eyes.

"I had a nightmare." replied Harry softly.

"Was your scar hurting?" said Ron in a worried voice.

"Yeah. And you know what that means."

"Urk. What's You-Know-Who up to now?"

"I don't know. He was underwater, shouting a spell or something, and there was something massive nearby...then I woke up. I couldn't understand it - I mean, what would he be doing under water, unless he's taken up scuba-diving or something?"

"What's -" Ron began, but he was cut off by a deafening wailing noise that suddenly ripped through the dormitory, rising and falling in pitch like a siren. Not surprisingly, there were sudden yells of shock from the other three occupants of the dormitory. Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnegan and Neville Longbottom all leapt from behind their hangings in varying degrees of sleepy bewilderment.

"Is this someone's idea of a joke, or is there a fire?!" demanded Dean angrily, trying to make himself heard over the wailing, which suddenly cut off and was replaced by Professor Dumbledore's magically amplified voice.
"ALL STUDENTS. THIS IS AN EMERGENCY. GO DOWN TO YOUR COMMON ROOMS AT ONCE AND MEET YOUR HEADS OF HOUSES. I REPEAT, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY."

Moments later, they were down in the Gryffindor common room, which was full of half-awake people in dressing gowns. Professor McGonagall entered through the portrait hole, with a very grim expression on her face. She was immediately greeted by dozens of frightened voices demanding to know what was going on.
 

"Quiet!" she shouted firmly, holding up a hand for silence. "I will tell you what is going on when I can get a word in edgeways. Now, as Professor Dumbledore announced, this is indeed an emergency. We believe that Hogwarts is under attack. Ten minutes ago, this creature appeared from nowhere less than fifty miles away. It is now heading in our direction." She held up her wand, and a moving image appeared below it, like a television screen, showing a gigantic shape silhouetted against the grey morning sky. The creature it showed resembled an enormous lizard, green and scaly, with two massive hind legs on which it stood, two smaller forelimbs, a thick, stubby tail and large bony plates protruding from its back. The assembled students gasped collectively as the thing crushed a fair-sized house to dust beneath one of its enormous feet, swept another aside with a sweep of its tail and burnt a third to ashes with a blast of flame from its mouth. The scene seemed oddly familiar to Harry and he suddenly realized why.

"If I didn't know better," he said to Ron, "I'd say that was Godzilla!"

Chapter Two

"Who, or rather what, is Godzilla?" asked Ron.

"Harry, you're right!" said Hermione Granger's voice from Harry's other side. "But...he's just a film character. Why should he suddenly materialise fifty miles from Hogwarts?"

Other students who had been brought up by Muggles had come to the same conclusion as Harry and Hermione, and the frightened babble around them became tinged with confusion. Professor McGonagall had to shout for quiet again before going on. "Yes, yes, you are right, this is in fact the entity named Gojira, known in the West as Godzilla. And in answer to your queries, yes, it is very, very real. Godzilla is the last survivor of the species from which dragons evolved, hence his appearance and fiery breath. He was defeated in the year 774 by a group of Japanese wizards, who imprisoned him at the bottom of an ocean trench in the Pacific using supposedly unbreakable wards. How he escaped and how he got to Britain remain a mystery."

"Why didn't those wizards just kill him, instead of imprisoning him?" someone shouted.
Professor McGonagall smiled mirthlessly. "Because they were Dark wizards. They hoped they might one day learn to control Godzilla and use him as a weapon, or that they could threaten to remove the wards only they could break, and unleash him uncontrolled on the world once again. But before they could do either, they were exposed for what they were and excecuted. Naturally, the story of Godzilla became a legend among Muggles, resulting in its transformation into popular entertainment. Be that as it may, this creature is now heading straight for us, and we have little means to defend ourselves. Godzilla is much more powerfully magical than a dragon, and so is resistant to most spells, and the magic used against him in the past has been forgotten. Likewise, physical weapons are all but useless against him. We expect the Muggle armed forces to make some futile attack on him soon."

"Harry, your dream!" said Ron suddenly. "You said You-Know-Who was underwater and there was something big nearby!"

"What dream?" put in Hermione. Harry described his dream again, realising as he did so that Ron was right - it looked as though he had seen Voldemort freeing Godzilla.

"I'd better tell McGonagall and Dumbledore." he said grimly. "If Voldemort's involved in this, they need to know." The three of them pushed through the crowd to Professor McGonagall. They managed to attract her attention and Harry briefly recounted his nightmare for the fourth time. Her normally stern face turned white with fear.

"Professor Dumbledore must hear of this at once." she said at last, visibly controlling her terror. "Come with me, Potter."

Professor McGonagall hurried Harry down to the Great Hall, where Dumbledore was standing giving orders as the staff dashed to and fro. It seemed that Godzilla had already cut the railway line, thus preventing any escape on the Hogwarts Express, and they were trying to find another way to evacuate the school before he arrived. Professor McGonagall led Harry up to Dumbledore, who made him recount everything he could remember about his dream. He sighed heavily as Harry finished. "It appears you are correct, Harry. Voldemort has freed Godzilla from the imprisoning spells and has transported him here to attack Hogwarts, possibly uncontrolled, but more likely under some form of command spell. I cannot think how he is controlling him, though - the Imperius Curse would not work against such a powerful creature. Minerva, this only increases the danger. We must make haste to evacuate the students - by Floo powder, by broomstick, on foot if necessary. Harry, you return to your common room for now."

Chapter Three

Harry returned to the Gryffindor tower, dressed and hurriedly told Ron and Hermione what he had heard and seen in the hall. "You mean they're just giving in without a fight?" said Ron angrily when Harry had finished. "Abandoning the school?"

"Ron, you heard what Professor McGonagall said." warned Hermione. "No normal magic will work against Godzilla, and if You-Know-Who - oh, all, right, Harry - Voldemort is controlling him, then he's probably nearby too."

"Ron's right, though, we can't just let Voldemort win!" said Harry fiercely. "There-" He was interrupted by a loud outburst of screaming from the whole room. The trio looked up and saw, to their horror, the head of Lord Voldemort floating in mid-air in the centre of the room. Gryffindors were pushing up against the walls, scrambling madly to get away from the apparition. Voldemort's snakelike face wore an expression of cruel, triumphant amusement. He spoke in his cold high voice. "Students and teachers! In less than an hour the Godzilla creature, which is under my complete control thanks to the knowledge of his mind passed down by my Japanese Dark brothers and which I have transported here by Portkey - useful things those, for bringing what you need to you - will reach your precious castle and crush and burn it to rubble and ash! Unless, of course...." He paused, his evil smile growing broader. "I am delivered the boy Harry Potter! If he is handed over to me, I will take my creature away and do the rest of you no harm. You have forty-five minutes to decide."

Suddenly Dumbledore's head appeared in front of Voldemort's and spoke to it, the headmaster letting the whole school hear his reply. "Never mind your ultimatum! The answer is no, fervently no! Even if we were so callous, we know better than to trust your word. Do not insult my intelligence, Tom."

Voldemort's face contorted with rage at the sound of the name his mother had given him, and his eyes flashed fiery red. "THAT IS NOT MY NAME! I AM NO LONGER TOM RIDDLE! I AM LORD VOLDEMORT, THE GREATEST WIZARD IN THE WORLD! Very well, keep the boy. Prepare yourselves, all of you, for death!" His head vanished, as did Dumbledore's.

"Don't even think about it, Harry." said Hermione quietly.

"Think of what?" asked Harry, suspecting he already knew.

"Handing yourself over to save everyone else!" said Ron, who had had the same idea as Hermione. "It won't do any good - he'll just laugh and say he had his fingers crossed and destroy Hogwarts anyway."

"I know." replied Harry softly. "Even I'm not that stupidly heroic."

"There has to be a way to stop that thing!" exploded Ron, slamming his fist into the palm of his hand. "You two - how would the good guys beat him in the films?"

"Sometimes he was on the good side." said Hermione knowledgeably. "But when he was defeated, it was either by some sort of poorly explained hi-tech weapon or by another creature of similar size."

"I don't think we're likely to find any hi-tech weapons lying around Hogwarts, and they probably wouldn't work anyway," said Harry, "and as far as we know there aren't really any other creatures that big in existence. McGonagall said Godzilla was the last of his species."

"If only we could make ourselves that big," mused Ron, "then we could gang up on him and..what's the Muggle expression? Kick his donkey?"

"Ron, that's it!!!!" cried Hermione excitedly, but then her face fell. "No, that won't work after all."

"What?" asked Harry.

"I was remembering the time you two turned yourselves into Crabbe and Goyle with Polyjuice Potion, but we know it doesn't work properly for animal transformations. Remember what happened to me when I took some with a hair off Millicent Bulstrode's cat in it? We'd just get scales for a week."

"Maybe there's another potion for turning into animals, though!" said Harry hopefully. "We've got to find out, it could be the only chance!"

Chapter Four

They sneaked out of the common room and headed for the library, concealed under Harry's Invisibility Cloak. "Hey, Hermione, how come you know so much about Godzilla anyway?" Harry asked as they ran along a deserted corridor. "It's not exactly educational stuff!" There was no reply other than a slightly strangled noise. Harry could not see Hermione's face as it was invisible, but he guessed she was blushing.

"I'm surprised you do!" put in Ron. "I thought your aunt and uncle didn't like you getting ideas from stuff like that?"

"Dudley has every single one of the films on video." replied Harry, grinning invisibly. "He probably likes seeing creatures that weigh more than he does." Despite the circumstances, everyone snorted with laughter.
They reached the library, which was deserted and dark. Making light with their wands, they entered the restricted section and Hermione pulled Moste Potente Potions off the shelves. She flicked to the pages on the Polyjuice Potion and ran her finger down the text while Harry and Ron shone light on the book. At last she stopped at a small footnote. "Here it is!" she whispered. "Polyjuice Potion alone is suitable only be used for transformation into another human. For transformation into other species, the final stanza of the Animagus Charm must be cast before the potion is drunk and a source of transfiguration magic, such as a Stone of Change, dissolved in it prior to drinking (for amount, roughly one Stone or equivalent is required per standard one-hour dose). Transformation into particularly large animals may also require a source of raw magical energy, such as any substance used in making magic wands."

"What's a Stone of Change?" asked Ron.

"It's what it says there - a source of transfiguration magic." answered Hermione, who had her forehead screwed up in thought. "Professor McGonagall has one in her office, I think - I heard the sixth years talking about her showing it to them."

"This won't work." said Harry desperately. "We don't have a powerful source of raw magic - and we'd need a huge one for something that big - and besides, we don't have any Polyjuice Potion to start with! Not to mention the fact that the Animagus Charm is probably too hard for us to do without preparation."

"It is, but the last bit isn't!" said Hermione. "For a temporary transformation like this, you don't need all the fundamental adjustment of your body, which is the tough bit. So we might be able to manage it. And remember what Professor McGonagall said about Godzilla being more powerfully magical than a dragon - the part of him we use for the transformation will provide the energy!"

"That still leaves us with no Polyjuice Potion, and no month or so to make it in!"

"Wait!" cried Ron suddenly. "I think there might be some around - the seventh years did it in Potions a while ago. Surely Fred and George'll have kept some to use for pranks, even if no-one else did!"

*Author's Note: If you think (quite rightly) that it shouldn't be this easy to transform into a skyscraper-sized fire-breathing lizard, remember that this is a Godzilla story! Not pulling some totally improbable solution out of thin air just isn't allowed!*

"We haven't got much time." said Harry. "There's no time to explain all this to everyone - we have to do it now. Hermione, you take the Invisibility Cloak when we get back to the common room and go steal the Stone of Change from McGonagall's office. Ron, you ask around and try to get some potion from someone."

"What about you?" asked Hermione.

"I'm going to get a piece of Godzilla. I can fly out to where he's already been on my Firebolt - he must shed scales or scrape bits of skin off or something occasionally."

"You're off your head!" said Ron, while Hermione just looked horrified. "If You-Know-Who or one of his goons sees you, you're dead!"

"I'll just have to be careful." said Harry. "It's our only hope, and at least they won't be expecting me."

Chapter Five

The others still looked highly dubious, but there was no time to argue. They sneaked back to the common room, still hidden by the cloak, then split up. Two minutes later, Harry was zooming along on his Firebolt, having flown straight out the dormitory window,flying as high as he dared go to avoid detection. He could see Godzilla with his own eyes now, marching with slow, gigantic strides towards Hogsmeade, which lay directly between him and the school. A few hundred metres behind the enormous creature, moving along the wide swath of destruction he had cut across the countryside, Harry could see a few tiny black specks - Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Maybe five miles up the flattened trail, there were several burning wrecks of what looked like Muggle aircraft, doubtless brought down while making a hopeless assault on the monster. Glancing back at Godzilla, Harry saw that there were a few insignificant scrapes and cuts in his back armour - the only impression the planes' guns and missiles had made on him.

Scrapes and cuts - perhaps the Muggle attack had not been entirely useless! Flying towards the site of the wrecks, Harry scanned the ground for any material Godzilla might have lost from his wounds. There seemed to be nothing - time seemed to be speeding up - but at last he spotted a small poisonous green patch amid the scorched earth. Flying down to earth, Harry scooped up the wet, muddy fragments of Godzilla's hide and flew high up again, heading back to Hogwarts.

Hermione and Ron met him back in the dormitory. Hermione triumphantly displayed a small, slightly glowing rock, while Ron clutched a small beaker of Polyjuice Potion. Harry jumped off his broom and showed them the piece of skin he had collected. Hermione hastily handed both him and Ron identical pieces of paper torn from Advanced Transfiguration. "I got them from the seventh-year dorms." she explained. "The last stanza of the Animagus Charm is described there as an example of that sort of magic. But Harry, there won't be enough Potion to go round! Fred and George barely had enough left for one dose, and anyway we need three Stones of Change! Only one of us will be able to transform!"

"No, we'll just all transform for twenty minutes rather than an hour." said Harry grimly. "There's no guarantee that one of us transformed could win a one-on-one fight with Godzilla. We'll just have to move quickly."

"All right, but that means we'll have to defeat Godzilla fast before we change back!." replied Hermione doubtfully, adding the Stone of Change and the piece of skin to the beaker of potion. Both dissolved instantly and the potion changed colour to fiery red.

"McGonagall's going to kill us." moaned Ron.

"Better her than Voldemort." said Harry, as Hermione divided the potion into three portions
Hastily he explained the plan he had worked out in the air. He would ferry the other two down to the school broomshed, then each of them would take a third of the potion and fly to a place well away from the others and any structures to give them room to transform then perform the spell and take the potion on a signal from Harry once Godzilla was near. Moments later all three were hovering high in the air above Hogsmeade. "Don't forget to take your robes off before you transform." said Harry shortly before they parted, trying to inject a little humour into the situation and implying that they would survive to put them on again. They clasped hands silently and flew to positions between Godzilla and the village. Harry landed in a clump of trees where he would hopefully be screened from both Godzilla and the Death Eaters who followed him.

Chapter Six

Within minutes, Godzilla had cleared the last ridge between him and Hogsmeade. Harry sent up red sparks to alert Ron and Hermione to transform, then performed the last stanza of the Animagus Charm, stowed his wand, robes and broomstick under a dead tree and gulped down the potion.

The all too familiar sensation of melting washed over him as the potion took effect. He seemed to be rising through the air as he grew taller and broader, his skin transforming into thick green scales, fingers disappearing or changing into claws, huge bony plates erupting from his back.....and all the while he grew ever larger. Twisting his head (which was lengthening relative to the rest of him as his face became Godzilla's snoutlike visage) to both sides, he saw an identical creatures erupting on each side of him.

At last, the metamorphosis stopped. Harry's eyes were now a hundred metres from the ground, trees looked like blades of grass and houses like tiny models. Ahead of him the real Godzilla had paused in confusion. Suddenly he roared a challenge, straining against Voldemort's control as he recognised rival members of his own kind, and let out a blast of flame at Harry, who was nearest to him. Harry ducked, but his vast new body was too large to move quickly. The flames washed over his neck and chest, but he felt little or no pain. He tried to flame back as he lumbered forward one clumsy, earth-shaking step at a time, but nothing happened. He felt only a mild burning sensation somewhere in his throat. Concentrating carefully, Harry worked out how to open a vent in his windpipe, and a small trickle of flame escaped. Breathing out hard again, he managed to spew a gout of fire at Godzilla, catching him across the shoulder.

To his right and left, Ron and Hermione worked out how to flame as well, and Godzilla was suddenly at the centre of a blazing inferno as the trio's wild blasts torched everything around him. Gaining better control of their breath, they all focussed their fire on the giant lizard, almost blotting him from view with the engulfing flames. Godzilla lumbered forward, ignoring the intense heat which was blistering and scorching his scaly hide. He made straight for Harry, roaring so loudly that nearby trees were knocked over. Harry yelled a wordless challenge, which became a similar thunderous roar, and charged forward, lowering his head to slam into Godzilla with full force.

They met with a crash that could have been heard a hundred miles away. Godzilla reeled back from Harry momentarily from the force of the blow, but recovered quickly. Harry, still unused to being so big, was unable to react in time and one of Godzilla's titanic foreclaws smashed into the top of his head. He fell forward and hit the ground, which shook even more than before. Dazed, Harry raised his head and saw Godzilla above him, raising his claws and lowering his head to bite and tear at him.

Then Godzilla was suddenly hurled backwards as two copies of himself hit him simultaneously, miraculously keeping his balance. Ron and Hermione breathed fire over him at point-blank range as they advanced, claws at the ready. Harry used his own forelimbs to drag himself upright and saw several tiny black figures scurrying to one side, away from the battle. Voldemort.......Trusting to Ron and Hermione to keep the real Godzilla occupied, Harry lumbered towards the Death Eaters and spewed flames in their direction, which fell short. The Death Eaters began to Disapparate hurriedly, the tall figure of Voldemort vanishing just before another blast seared the ground where the group had stood, carbonising two Death Eaters who were too slow in Disapparating.

Bellowing with anger, Harry turned back to the battle between Ron, Hermione and Godzilla, which was going badly for his friends. Godzilla, although outnumbered, knew how to use his own abilities far better than Ron or Hermione ever would, and was taking advantage of this. One of them (being identical, it was impossible to tell which) was lying on the ground with a nasty claw-wound to the back of the head while Godzilla wrestled with the other. Even as Harry approached, the copy was pushed to the ground and Godzilla raised his head to the sky and roared in triumph.

Then Harry charged him from the side and smashed a clawed fist against the side of his head with an unpleasant crunching sound. Godzilla swayed, blinded in one eye by a luckily placed clawtip and partially stunned. Harry followed up, using one of his vast clawed feet to kick Godzilla's right leg from under him. The monster hit the ground but once again recovered almost instantly, swinging his tail round to trip Harry up and send him sprawling backwards. Clambering upright again with terrifying speed, Godzilla gouted fire all over Harry as he lay amid shattered trees and burning grass, only to be caught himself in blasts of flame from Ron and Hermione, who launched themselves at Godzilla from both sides, grasping him by the shoulders and driving his head into the earth.

Thinking There isn't much time! We have to destroy him NOW! through his pain, Harry struggled upright again and lumbered towards the struggling figures. Godzilla was now wrestling one of his doubles off his back and breathing flames all over the other. As he threw off his assailant, Harry reached the battle and drove his fist into the back of Godzilla's neck. For the first time, the monster roared in pain rather than anger as Harry clawed at his spine, but he struck out with his tail again, knocking Harry off balance. Freed from Voldemort's control, Godzilla was fighting with unrestrained fury, lashing out at Ron and Hermione as they closed in on him. Both crashed into him from opposite sides, grabbing his forelimbs and smashing him backwards into the ground. He clawed, kicked and flamed at them, but they endured it, holding Godzilla down as Harry stood above him, raised a claw and drove it into his throat, cracking open the scaly armour and driving it inwards. The creature spasmed briefly, blood pouring from his ruptured throat, then lay still.

Godzilla was dead.

*Author's Note: All this graphic violence may seem a bit out of character for our heroes, but remember, this is Hogwarts they're fighting to save and as I said before, this is a Godzilla story! Anything can happen, no matter how inexplicable! Also note that this is not the first time they have dealt with killing stuff, after all Harry killed the Basilisk in Book 2.*

Chapter Seven

It was several hours later. The teachers had stopped alternately shouting at them and praising them, the students had stopped cheering them and the trio sat in a corner of the Gryffindor common room, having asked to be left alone for a while. Madam Pomfrey had treated the Godzilla-inflicted wounds which had remained when they transformed back into themselves, and Dumbledore had awarded them all Special Awards for Services to the School (Harry and Ron's second ones) and given Gryffindor enough points to make winning the House Cup a virtual certainty. They were all still a little shocked and subdued from the battle, not to mention disoriented at not being several hundred feet high any more.

"If we hadn't been fighting for our lives, being Godzilla for twenty minutes would've been quite fun." said Ron sadly. "Too bad we can't do it again, what with him being dead and therefore useless for making Polyjuice Potion."

"It's just as well nobody can transform into him now," said Hermione sternly, "otherwise the Death Eaters would all do it and we'd have an army of Godzillas to deal with."

"I feel sorry for him." said Harry, who had been silent for a while. "I mean, I know we had to kill him to stop Voldemort using him as a weapon again, but he was the last of his kind and he was just an animal. He didn't want to kill us, he thought we were rival males."

"An attitude like that can get you into real trouble." grinned Ron. "Do you feel sorry for You-Know-Who as well?" Hermione gave him a glare that said that's not funny and Harry simply said: "He deserves everything he gets." in a low, dangerous voice, remembering how narrowly Voldemort had escaped his fire attack. Ron blanched, said "Sorry. That wasn't funny." and they all said nothing for a while.

"Well, there's no way the Ministry'll keep this one secret!" said Hermione at last in a brisk voice, changing the subject. "After all, the Muggles tried to attack Godzilla. In fact, our fight with him was probably caught on camera!"

"I always wanted to be on TV." said Harry, cheering up.

"Wonder how they'll explain three more of him suddenly sprouting up out of nowhere?" mused Ron.

"Well, I expect the Ministry'll be able to cover up magical involvement somehow or other." said Harry. "Muggle's'll believe anything if it's not true."

"I wonder if your aunt and uncle saw the fight on TV." said Hermione. "If only they knew who they were really watching!"

"Hmm...." said Harry thoughtfully. "If they did know...they might think I can turn into Godzilla whenever I want! This has definite possibilities..."

All three burst out laughing and didn't stop for a long time.

Epilogue

Dudley Dursley sauntered (insofar as it is possible for someone wider than he is tall to saunter) into his Smeltings dormitory, his pockets jingling with the protection money he had just extracted from a couple of unfortunate first years. Piers Polkiss was sitting on his bed by the window. "Hey Dudley," he called "there's a bird here with a letter for you."

Ninety seconds later, the whole of Smeltings was rocked by a truly epic scream of horror, which almost shocked Hedwig into hitting a tree as she flew gratefully back towards Hogwarts.