Chapter Fourteen:
Demented Fight
"Who's she calling for?" Hermione asked.
"Her minions," Draco replied, grimacing.
"Her minions? Who are they?"
Ron and Draco exchanged worried glances. "It's not who they are, it's what they are," said Ron. "Eh, let's just say we'll need alot of wands."
"Oh, God. Please don't tell me they're Death Eaters."
"Her minions used to be fellow Death Eaters, but now she uses dementors."
Hermione gasped. That was worse than Death Eaters. Dementors were cloaked figures that guarded Azkaban. They sucked the life out of their victims, giving them terrible thoughts, making them feel all doom. They could only be beaten with a Patronus. The witch would point her wand at the dementor, think of her most happiest memory, and shout, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" A silver mass would emit from the end of the wand and form into the animal the caster's personality was most like. The "animal" was a positive force. The dementors were a negative force. Apparently, positive defeats negative.
"I-I-I don't know if I can fight off a dementor," Hermione said. "It takes a powerful witch to defeat one."
"We'll need wands," said Ron.
Hermione held Christina's in her hand. "Yours has to be here somewhere. She wouldn't throw them out, would she?"
"Dunno."
"Why are we just standing around?" Draco asked.
"Because, we don't know where the exit is," explained Hermione.
"Well, we should get started--" he paused. "Do you feel that?"
Now that I think about it, I do, Hermione thought.
She felt a chill. The chill you feel when you are in an unpleasant situation. The kind of chill you feel when you are afraid. The kind of chill you feel in the preasence of a dementor.
Draco's face went pale--paler than usual.
"What? What's wronge?" Hermione asked.
Draco lifted his hand and pointed a bony finger to something behind her shoulder.
Hermione turned around and what she saw almost made her heart explode into a million beats.
Dementors. Lots of them.
"RUN!" Ron cried.
They started running down the hall as fast as they could. Their feet pounded the floor. But Hermione noticed someone was missing. She looked behind her shoulder to see Draco scared stiff, unable to move. The dementors were now floating towards him, about to suck the life out of him.
"Malfoy!" she called.
"Leave him!" said Ron. "It's too late!"
"NO!" Hermione growled. She refused to let the dementors "have their way" with Draco.
She ran to him, ignoring her fear, and grabbed his skinny arm. She pulled him down the hall and finally he started running for himself.
Hermione, Ron, and Draco's feet once again pounded the stone floor.
Then they met a dead end.
"Where to now?" Ron asked panicky.
Hermione had no answer.
The dementors were now nearing them.
She did not waste time. She pulled out her wand. Then she thought about her most happiest moment: The moment she met Ron Weasley, when she was on the Hogwarts Express when she was eleven.
Hermione held on to that memory and played it over and over in her head. She pointed her want at the dementors and shouted, "Expecto Patronum!"
Nothing.
She had to thing of something better. She thought of one even better:
"Hermione," Ron had said. "I-I really like you."
"And I like you, too, Ron."
Then, for the first time, they had kissed.
She remembered that and said, "Expecto Patronum."
Oh, no! That was the happiest moment she could think of. What was she going to do?
Then she remembered the time Lord Voldemort was defeated. She felt a surge of victory, one she never felt before.
She held on to that memory tightly. Then she pointed her wand at the dementors and shouted, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
A silver mass emitted from the end of her wand and formed into a lioness.
I'm like a lion.
The dementors tried to strike the three of them, but hit the Patronus instead. The Patronus stayed stronge and acted as a shield for Hermione, Ron, and Draco.
Some dementors jumped back in disgust at the positive force. Others also striked, but failed.
They quickly ran--or rather glided--away.
Hermione lowered her wand and the Patronus disapeared.
She let out the breath she had been holding in. "Come on," Hermione said. "We need to go."" She and Draco headed away, but Ron didn't.
Hermione realized he was just standing there. "Are you coming?"
"I don't want to leave," he replied.
"But...I don't understand. I thought--"
"I want Christina to pay for the pain she's caused us." Ron took her hand. "If we leave now, we may never see her again. I want to get justice now."
"Well, I want to get out of here now!" Draco whined.
The two ignored him. "But Ron, I just warded off dementors after failing two times before. It took a lot out of me. I don't know if I could win again if I had another run-in with them."
"Hermione, if we leave now, we may never get justice! We have to stop her from hurting others. She owns the Anti-Mudblood group. Come on! Don't you want to get back at her for the pain she's caused us--the pain she's caused others?"
Hermione thought. As dangerous as it would be, it would be even more dangerous to leave her. She would just get revenge on them and continue hurting muggle-borns (and maybe even pure bloods who got in her way, like Ron and Draco).
She made up her mind. "I'm in."
Ron smiled the smile she loved.
"Well, count me out!" Draco said. "I don't care about that psycho. As long as she stays away from me."
"Then you find the exit alone," Hermione said with a smirk. "Wandless."
She and Ron turned to walk away.
"Um, on the other hand," said Draco. "I'd rather get revenge. No one crosses a Malfoy and gets by with it."
Hermione knew mentioning he was wandless would work.
They started down the hall. It was all silent except their reverberating footsteps.
"Speaking of wandless," Ron said, breaking the silence, "What are we going to get Christina with?"
Hermione glanced at the wand in her hand. They certainly need more than one. Suddenly, it hit her.
She grinned. "I have an idea--one you can do without wands."
I really, really enjoy people's reviews. I'll update later. I actually only have two chapters to type up next.
To the guy who said my fanfic was boring : Hey, I'd like to see you write. It's not so easy.