Hey my Lovelies! So this is a new story that I literally woke up in the middle of the night to outline. It just wouldn't leave me alone! This story starts the summer before Harry's fifth year, and my outline goes through the Battle of Hogwarts, so I'm signing up for the long haul on this one. There will be both canon and non-canon to this tale, so anything you recognize is the property of J.K. Rowling, but anything new is all mine! Enjoy and let me know what you all think!
Chapter 1 – Dementors in Little Whinging
She watched him as he made his way down the street. He walked slowly, but purposefully, as if he weren't quite sure where he was going. He meandered up one street and down an alley connecting it to another. She watched from the shadows as he sat alone in the deserted park. Harry Potter should not have been left alone, of that she was certain. She took more rounds on guard duty than anyone else, because she was positive that the boy needed more care than what Dumbledore had provided for him.
She shook her head as she watched a group of boys make their way through the park. They were talking amongst themselves and they didn't even notice when Harry quietly disappeared into the shadows right in front of them. When the group disbanded he joined one of the boys and together they headed back the way Harry had come.
As they passed the shadows where she crept, watching for a sign of anything strange or peculiar, her tail twitched, and her eyes narrowed. This wasn't just any boy, this was Harry's cousin, and what a terrible person he was. She shook her entire body when she stood to follow them. They had turned a corner into the little alley just as she finished stretching out.
Suddenly the air all around her turned cold, it felt as if all the happiness was being drained from the world. She took off at a run, trying to reach Harry before it did. She flew around the corner and up the alley, shifting mid step to put herself in front of her charge. She threw up a partial patronus between them and the dementor before turning to look at Harry.
"Mr. Potter, are you alright?" She was checking him over carefully, he seemed to be in good enough shape that a couple spells and some chocolate would fix him right up.
When he nodded shakily to her she turned back around to face the creature that was battling through her weak patronus shield. Another wave of her wand and this time a sleek, silver cat with rectangular markings round its eyes came darting out of the end of it. Harry watched amazed as the tiny feline scratched and fought at the dementor until it fled.
McGonagall turned on her heel as soon as the creature was gone and started to speak, but Harry interrupted her. "Professor, I don't mean to be rude, but what are you doing here?"
She looked down her nose at him, but her eyes were softer than normal, "I am on guard duty Mr. Potter. You didn't honestly believe we were leaving you here unprotected did you?" She took Harry's lack of response as affirmation that that was indeed what he had been thinking. "Potter, Professor Dumbledore is a lot of things, but stupid isn't one of them." She fixed her lecturing gaze on him and he nodded.
Her attention shifted to Dudley, who was cowering against the brick wall of the alley. "First time exposed to dementors I'm afraid. Everyone reacts differently." She shot a slight smirk Harry's direction, "Though he's doing better than you. I seem to recall Mr. Lupin telling me you fainted."
"Ah." His ears turned slightly pink and he was thankful for the dimmed light of the alley. "Yeah, I did." He returned her smirk with one of his own cocky grins, "I got better though."
"I can see that." A rare smile turned up the corners of her mouth. "Come on," she made her way to Dudley and Harry helped her pull him to his feet, "we better get the two of you home."
They hadn't made it five steps down the alley when the sense of cold and dread washed over her again. A second dementor came sweeping towards them, headed straight for Harry. She watched him freeze, barely able to hold himself upright, let alone support his massive cousin. She allowed the muggle boy to lower to the ground and then she looked back up at Harry. He hadn't taken out his wand he wasn't fighting back.
She did the only thing she could think of in that moment. It didn't occur to her to cast a shield charm, or to evoke another patronus. Instead she jumped between them, she put herself between the dementor and Harry, letting the full brunt of the feelings it caused wash over her instead. Distantly she heard Harry move behind her, but all she could focus on were the images in her mind.
The images of her parents, of her brothers, dying in the war with Grindlewald. The death of her husband. The memories of feeling lost and alone, that she would never be happy again. She tried to lift her wand more than once, to defend against this horrible creature, but she couldn't muster the strength. She couldn't fix long enough on a single memory that was happy enough to cast the patronus.
Suddenly, as if someone had turned a faucet of steaming water on, the world seemed warmer. The feelings, the memories of happiness returned and she opened her eyes. A radiant, silver stag was standing in front of her, she reached out one shaking hand to pat its head. Thankful for the strength it seemed to share with her.
Realization swept over her and she spun around to look for the stag's caster. "Potter! That was a foolish thing to do you shouldn't have used magic! You should have taken your cousin and run for the safety of your house."
"But you were screaming, you were hurting, and I couldn't leave you here to fend for yourself! You would never have survived that! Besides you jumped in front of that thing to save me, I had to try." His voice lowered as he spoke, and she would have sworn she saw a glint of a tear in the boy's eye.
"Harry," his eyes shot up to meet hers, she never used his first name, "Thank you. You didn't have to do that."
"Yes I did. What you did, jumping in front of me, I couldn't save the last person who did that. I could save you."
There were tears pricking the back of Minerva's eyes now as she looked at the young man standing in front of her. She had a feeling she knew exactly what Harry relived each time there was a dementor attack. She gave him a gentle nod, but didn't trust her voice. Instead she moved back to Dudley, both witch and wizard were shaky on their feet, but they managed to hoist the boy up and propel him forwards again.
By the time the little group had made it back to Privet Drive both Harry and Minerva were weak and unsteady. The attack from the dementors had taken more out of the two of them than they had originally thought.
When Petunia pulled the front door open she was surprised to see that the boys were not alone, and that all three of them looked worse for the wear. "What is going on here? Who are you?" The questions were directed towards McGonagall, and Harry decided that even weak and shaky she could hold her own against Aunt Petunia.
"My name is Minerva McGonagall. I am Harry's deputy headmistress and a member of the Order of the Phoenix. An organization that has taken on Harry's protection." She looked up when Uncle Vernon joined them in the living room, and nodded to acknowledge his presence but continued to speak to Petunia.
"There was a dementor attack. All three of us were attacked, Harry and myself directly, and your son only felt some of the effects."
"What the ruddy hell are dementors?" Uncle Vernon was looking back and forth between the two, ghostly white, boys and the two women.
To both Harry and Minerva's surprise it was Aunt Petunia that answered him. "They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban." Her eyes went wide when it dawned on her that she had said that out loud.
"Aunt Petunia?" Harry was looking at her as if the entire world as he knew it had just changed.
"I remember that boy telling her about them." She spat the words at him, and he understood instantly where she had learned the information.
Minerva caught Harry's eye and she saw the recognition there. Just as she was about to say something an owl came swooping through the window and dropped a letter in her outstretched hand. She read it with a small smile and then passed it to Harry, who also visibly relaxed at what it said.
The Ministry was admonishing Minerva for using magic in front of a muggle; they didn't seem to be aware that Harry had cast the same spell minutes later. He wasn't going to be punished for saving her soul, and they weren't doing anything besides verbally chastising her for saving his.
McGonagall moved away from Aunt Petunia towards the boys. She waved her wand over Dudley and some of his color seemed to come back. "Give him chocolate, it'll help with everything." She took Aunt Petunia's nod in and turned to face Harry. "You are coming with me, go and collect your things."
Harry nodded and, moving slowly, headed up the stairs to collect everything he owned. When he returned Dudley was eating a piece of chocolate cake and Uncle Vernon looked like he wanted nothing more than to kill the owl that was now sitting on McGonagall's shoulder. "Hedwig!" Harry reached out one, still shaky, hand and petted his bird. "When did she get here?"
"While you were upstairs. She brought this." She handed him a slip of paper that read, in familiar, loopy handwriting, "The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix is located at Number 12 Grimmauld Place, London."
He read it over and looked up at her, but she shook her head. "It will make sense when we get there, are you ready to go?" He nodded and with a brief goodbye to the Dursleys the pair leaned on each other for support as they made their way to the sidewalk. "Have you ever been apparated before Harry?"
"No." He looked even more ill at the thought.
"That's alright, I must ask that you try not to vomit on me when we arrive. I'm afraid that would end rather badly for us both." He nodded and she offered him her arm, which he took without question. There was a slight squeezing sensation all around his body and then as soon as it started it stopped. They were standing on a quiet street in London in front of a townhouse labeled Number 12.
Harry was a bit wobbly on his feet, but he had successfully avoided vomiting. "Who lives here?"
"Ah, I thought you might ask." She smiled at him as they made their way together towards the door. "This is the Black family home."
"Sirius!" His eyes lit up at the thought of seeing his godfather again.
"Yes, but I'm afraid everyone is usually in bed by this hour. We should head to the library, we will see everyone in the morning." She led him through the door and up the stairs to the library. "Here now, let me see you." She stopped and turned to face him. Waving her wand over him she fixed the majority of the damage that the night had caused, before doing the same thing to her self.
"Thank you." He checked himself over as she moved to the fire and took a box off of the mantle.
"Here," she opened the box and extended it towards him. To his surprise it was filled with chocolate. "Eat. It'll help."
"You sound like Lupin." He grinned at her as she sat on the sofa in front of him.
"On the contrary Mr. Potter, Mr. Lupin sounds like me." Her cat-like green eyes glinted in the firelight and Harry didn't know why he did it, but he leaned in and kissed her.
Her breath caught in her throat, but before she could pull away from him he had jerked back and retreated to the other sofa. "Harry…" She tried to speak, but he cut her off.
"I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me, I just meant to say thank you, and," he paused and stared at her across the dimly lit room, "I'm sorry."
"It's okay Harry. Get some sleep." She waved her wand towards the couch he was sitting on and blankets and pillows appeared for him.
"Good night." He met her eyes one more time before he lay down and let sleep over take him.