6 Jun 1994

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

The time travelling raven haired boy shouted at the top of his lungs. And just like his prior experience, silver stuff shot out from his outstretched wand.

But he could tell that this time it was different. He could feel it in his very bones – this silver mist was very different from what he had managed to produce so far in Professor Lupin's class. One, it was not very mist-like at all; it was rather more like a solid concrete wall of pure silvery light. Two, he could feel his wand vibrate and could almost hear his magic flowing through it, which had never happened before. But most importantly, this time he couldn't feel any effects whatsoever of the roughly hundred-odd, soul hungry dementors circling right in front of him. For the first time since watching Pettigrew transform and escape, Harry felt hopeful.

But then, without any warning, the white light started condensing. It kept on getting brighter and brighter, smaller and smaller, until it became a tiny ball, as bright as the noon sun, that kept on getting smaller and brighter still. And then it suddenly vanished! A very shocked Harry and Hermione looked as the darkness of night once again seeped through. Harry was inwardly panicking – was he doomed to fail saving his godfather – and his best friend and himself – after all, even with the help of the time turner? Were all his efforts in learning the Patronus charm in vain?

But that didn't sound right – he could still feel his magic flowing through his wand, if anything even more fiercely now. He still couldn't feel the effects of dementors. Nor were any of the dementors daring to approach the duo, something they should be doing as soon as Harry's pre-Patronus mist disappeared. In fact, he felt that the shrouded circling creatures seemed rather… confused?

He wondered if dementors could even feel confusion. Well, they could at least give off that impression, if how they looked right now was any indication.

Suddenly, the dementor circling nearest to the spot where the white mist earlier stood stopped circling, and started shaking violently, as though it were shuddering from arctic cold. Very soon, all the dementors nearby to it – and then all in the eyesight – started shaking too, in a strangely synchronized manner. Harry and Hermione spent an unknown amount of time watching the shaking horde of soul eaters, absolutely terrified now. Were the creatures performing some foul ritual before attacking? Who knew of such things with dementors...

An instant later, the first dementor that had stopped circling and started shaking, stopped shaking. In fact, it stayed perfectly still, stopping all movement. And then it started withering. It began from its hood – the hood withered away into nothingness, first slowly and then picking up speed, as rusted iron would if seen in fast forward. As Harry and Hermione watched, transfixed, at the newly unveiled 'mouth' of the dementor, it too started withering. Soon the head, the hands and the body of the dementor vanished, leaving behind nothing but the fabric of its black cloak, if that's what it was, which promptly fell, before it, too, rotted and withered away.

That seemed to have started a chain reaction – all dementors within the eyesight started going perfectly still and withering away. Harry and Hermione spend next few minutes enthralled and uncomprehending, watching as the most terrifying creatures known to wizardkind fell one by one. Very soon, there was no dementor left in the nearby area.

Harry heaved a sigh of relief as he felt his godfather tremble.

30 YEARS LATER

12 September 2023

Journal entry of the head of the Creature Experimentation and Vivisection Division, Department of Mysteries, Ministry of Magic, Great Britain (known only as Hr to those with sufficient clearance, and a virtual unknown to all those without):

Page 233

Location / taxonomy: Kingdom: Creatures (Unclassified) - Class: Invisibles - Division: Magical viruses (colloq. Magiviruses)

Name: Dementophage patroniviridae

Family: Patroniviridae

Size and dimensions: Ellipsoidal body with a mean diameter of 14 x 10 ^ (-8) ft

First recorded outbreak: 6 Jun 1994

Mode of transmission:

Typical: airborne

Capable of instant noiseless apparition in presence of Dementors (Dementa dementa) in an estimated radius of 1500 ft.

Targets:

All known dark creatures as defined in Dark, Darker, Darkest: A Primer and a Bible to Everything Dark (7th Ed.) by Lovegood, X., Chapter 2.

Known to be exceptionally lethal to members of Dementa and Horcroi families.

Symptoms:

Typical: Similar to the symptoms displayed by victims of Patroniviridae family of Magical viruses (For a detailed list, see pages 722 – 748)

Known to induce flesh rotting and subatomic magirealignment in members of Dementa and Horcroi families

Rate of reproduction:

Typical: Doubling estimated to happen within 11 milliseconds in presence of dark creatures (defined in Dark, Darker, Darkest: A Primer and a Bible to Everything Dark (7th Ed.) by Lovegood, X., Chapter 2).

Rate of doubling expected to increase by a hundredfold in presence of members of Dementa and Horcroi families

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it!