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The hag cried out over her snapped wrist and waved her other hand. 'Nothing from you,' she hissed. At the motion of the hag's hand, the wolves that were patiently waiting to attack let out a howl before charging at the spheres.

Aiden carefully balanced on the thin metal rope and glanced upward. He pushed himself off the bottom and extended his arms towards the upper ropes and managed to cling onto them. One of his hands slipped at the sudden weight of his body, scraping against the sharp edges. He hissed at the throbbing in his hand, but continued to lift himself in order to put his legs through the holes higher up in the sphere.

Harry noticed what he was doing and followed his lead. The wolves reached their sphere first, but the two boys were too high up in the sphere to reach.

The vast canines resorted to jumping and bit into the metal to try and tear it apart. The sphere shook violently as the first cracks began to appear in the metal and the large tree branch it was attached to.

'A little help would be great,' Aiden grunted, his muscles burning with exhaustion to keep himself hanging at the top of the sphere.

Hermione yelped when some of the wolves' attention focused on her sphere, whereas the hags seemed to be more interested in the other two spheres. 'Would've loved to help if we weren't wolf supper as well,' she retorted. She was hanging at the top of her sphere together with Charlotte, not daring to look down at the wolves trying to destroy their trap.

Her mind was racing about everything she knew about wolves. From where they resided, to what they ate, to their habits and finally, how to scare them off. She had no idea, however, how to appear taller and scarier than she was. She remembered one thing very vividly from her studies about wolves; never turn your back on one.

She slowly brought her arms and legs back into the sphere and with great caution, she struggled to turn her entire body around so she was now facing the pack of wolves beneath her.

'What are you doing?!' Charlotte shrieked.

'We have to scare them if we don't want to get eaten by them. Show them we're not afraid,' Hermione answered, puffed up her chest and squared her shoulders. 'I haven't quite figured out how to seem threatening.'

For a moment, Charlotte thought that Hermione was out of her mind, but then it dawned on her that if they didn't try anything, the branch that held their sphere would snap eventually and they would be trapped within the pack of wolves. After seeing how Hermione turned around, it was easier for Charlotte to copy her movements. She swallowed at the sight of the hungry wolves.

'I am not afraid,' she mumbled to herself. She repeated the short phrase in her head until she started to slowly believe in it. She'd fought against some of the strongest witches and wizards as a mere teenager, surviving a wizarding war that even many adults hadn't gotten through.

She bared her teeth, imitating the gestures of the wolves, and lowered herself a little. She cleared her throat, before screaming as loudly as she could. Her throat started to hurt immediately from the straining of her vocal cords, but she kept going on. She moved around like a monkey stuck in a cage. If one wouldn't have known any better, they would've thought she'd somehow escaped a psychiatric hospital.

As the Hogwarts graduates tried their hardest to scare off the wolves, the hags and the alpha wolf were now face to face with the people in the other two spheres.

Peter, Raiden, Caspian and Edmund had all retrieved their swords, feeling much more secure knowing they at least had their weapons and the upper ground to defend themselves, though they were also reminded by the metal ropes blocking their vision that they were still imprisoned.