Return of the Unicorns, Chapter 27
Note: This chapter will be from the perspective of Hope Marshall, Amos Diggory, and Cho Chang.
One More Note: Thank you to my dear friend Annie, who was the one who initially gave me the expression "Don't die, that's rude." It has been a source of both humor and inspiration over the years. 3
As she fell, Hope could feel her soul fall away. The trouble was, she couldn't tell if she was falling into the depths of the Dementor's mouth or away into the darkness of Death, or just down to go splat at the bottom of the cliffs of Azkaban… from whence she would probably fall into the darkness of Death.
But instead, the falling sensation gave way to a bright light and she suddenly found herself standing, dry and healthy and energized, on a marble floor in the middle of some kind of train atrium.
Before her stood a man in full armor with golden hair and a gold beard and a red cape. He looked spectacularly heroic – kind of like Thor, but instead of carrying a hammer of thunder, he carried a broadsword whose handle was encrusted with rubies.
He was accompanied by a woman in a Medieval dress who had blonde curly hair, and by another woman with wavy brown hair and aquamarine eyes.
Hope could feel her head swim as she tried to remember them… "Holy Merlin!" she exclaimed. "You're Godric Gryffindor, you're Helga Hufflepuff, and you're Lady Rhea, Empress of the Afterlife and Goddess of Death!"
"Right in one, Cedric Diggory – or should we now call you Hope Marshall?" replied Helga.
"Oh my Merlin, Helga! You were my post-mortem therapist after the second time I died! And Lady Rhea, you recruited me to learn some things so you could study the phenomenon of post-mortem memory recovery in unicorns! And Godric Gryffindor, you work as part of a legion of warriors that fights demons! Did you rescue me from that Dementor?"
He grinned. "I fight all sorts of demons, which includes slashing open the stomachs of Dementors. We in the Afterlife believe that no one deserves to be subjected to the Dementor's Kiss, so we save the souls of those who've been Kissed by cutting open the Dementor's bellies and rescuing them from within. But I didn't quite have to rescue you, no. There's another Gryffindor doing that."
"Who-"
"Who do you think? Amos Diggory. Flawed as the man may be, he is your father and he truly loves you."
"So, if my dad rescued me, why am I here?" Hope asked frantically.
Rhea and Helga each took one of Hope's hands. "We haven't much time," said Rhea, "but we need to impart some messages to you. There are things you learned in the Afterlife-"
"Like surfing?"
"Yes, but besides the surfing, there are other things you don't remember for now. When the Dementor sucked your soul from your body, we took advantage of the moment of separation to talk to you. Try and remember the other things you learned with Helga and with me, Hope. Those things you learned, they'll help you along the way."
"What things?" pleaded Hope. She knew she had to remember something, but Merlin help her, she couldn't quite tell what it was.
"Other forms of magic, Hope! You gained other abilities while you were in my tutelage and if you can remember how to surf, you may be able to remember the other skills you learned, too! And remember – if you need help, just come seek us where our voices sound!"
"Come seek us where our voices sound? Like the song that was the clue to the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament? What does that even mean?"
"You'll know soon enough! Try and remember what else you've learned here and come seek us where our voices sound, when you're ready!"
"What?" bellowed Hope. She felt the need to raise her voice, since a rushing sound was filling her ears, like she was being dragged away from them.
"You're getting dragged away now, so we're afraid we have to let you go…"
XXX
Ever since breakfast that morning, Amos Diggory's day had gone to total shit.
What had started off as a reasonable attempt to convince his child to steer clear of the dangerous presence of werewolves had rapidly devolved into Hope accusing them both of questioning her life choices.
Well, forgive him for just wanting to keep his one and only beloved child alive!
Ever since the moment Cedric died, Amos had carried around a guilty conscience. He was the one to encourage his son to join that damned Triwizard Tournament, to encourage him toward a path that made him perform enormously risky tasks like fighting dragons and breathing underwater, and then he'd been the one to pressure Cedric to win, which had caused him to end up in that horrid little graveyard where he'd been murdered.
All of this was all his fault.
And now that Amos was trying to induce his child to have a little common sense and steer clear of danger, he was being THWARTED?!
To make matters worse, he and Natalie (his one and only beacon of blessed sanity amid all this mess) couldn't even discuss the aftermath of the argument with Hope because the moment after she left, Marcus Pierce's Patronus had appeared in the kitchen, telling Amos that he was needed to help corral Dementors and read their minds after a break-in had occurred at Azkaban.
There was no room left for negotiation and Amos was made to disapparate to the Ministry right that very minute.
Amos could barely comprehend what was being said, but then again, he could barely comprehend the outlandish proportions of the disasters occurring these days.
"Who else is at Azkaban?" Amos asked Martin the moment he arrived at the Ministry. If the break-in had occurred at 6am this morning, then surely other people had to be on the scene.
"The Auror Office. Basically every Auror. I heard they even brought along their trainee!"
Their trainee… Hope… His worst nightmares were coming true. Here he'd been lecturing her this morning about the dangers of associating oneself with werewolves like Remus Lupin, only to have her run away from his helpful advice and get thrown into a pit full of Dementors. If only he'd kept her close a moment longer, he could've at least tried to keep her away from the dementors!
It was all his fault, it was all his fault, it was all his fault…
"We need all hands on deck," Martin Pierce finished explaining. "Are you all right to come? We'll get there and assign partners – one to conjure the Patronus and one to read the Dementors' minds. Are you in? Are you ready?"
Amos nodded. Ever since his time at Hogwarts, he'd been extremely skilled in the areas of Defense Against the Dark Arts and Care of Magical Creatures – it's why he was such a great fit for his job at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, where he was basically tasked with the wrangling (and sometimes killing) of out-of-control beasts.
He and Pierce apparated right to Azkaban together and as luck would have it, Amos wasn't paired with his friend Pierce, but instead with the most odious person in the department: Walden McNair. The man had few skills wrangling beasts, but he was good with damaging spells, which is how he'd ended up being charged to execute the hippogriff Buckbeak a year and a half ago.
If Amos had thought McNair was a bloodthirsty brute before, that notion was only confirmed when the man conjured his Patronus, which was a vulture. A bloody vulture?! Are you kidding me?! Who has a vulture for a Patronus?!
Well, McNair did, that's who. To make matters even worse, Amos was so fazed from the fight with Hope this morning that he couldn't manage to conjure his own corporeal Patronus, which took the form of a grizzly bear. So, he was instead tasked with reading the minds of the Dementors. And since he had to stay paired with McNair or risk getting attacked by a Dementor himself, he couldn't even go search for Hope. This whole situation was the epitome of disaster.
XXX
Hours went by in which Amos had no choice but to keep reading the Dementors' minds.
Well, technically, he could have asked for a break to apparate back to the Ministry and get some hot chocolate. But he didn't want to leave and miss the possibility of seeing Hope, and McNair didn't seem to be wanting any breaks from the Dementors either. That spiteful git seemed to be taking entirely too much pleasure seeing the suffering of the prisoners of Azkaban.
So, for over 5 hours, Amos kept on reading Dementors' minds, trying to uncover any clues about the massive break-in and finding absolutely none.
It was easily the most depressing, anxiety-inducing job he'd ever had to do for the Ministry… and considering that he'd had to fight dangerous creatures for them during the First Wizarding War, that was saying something.
And how was his precious Ced, his precious Hope, holding up through all of this? Maybe she could transform into her unicorn form and avoid being affected by the Dementors that way.
Transform into your unicorn form, please transform into your unicorn form… Please just be safe… Amos held no delusions that Hope would be able to resist the Dementors. When they had showed up at Cedric's Quidditch match against Gryffindor, Ced hadn't been affected too badly by the Dementors… but that was because he didn't remember dying when he was a unicorn. Hope now had the memory of dying as a unicorn, and the memory of dying as Cedric, and the Dementors were sure to be able to use both memories against her, no matter how strong she was.
When he was finishing his way down the top hallway, where had to interrogate not just the Dementors but also the prisoners themselves about what'd happened, he saw someone dashing down the hall towards him.
Glory be, it was Hope!
But was she doing in such a place? He was going to lose her, yet again. He could feel the mist encroaching toward him…
Suddenly, the mist dispersed as her honey badger Patronus made its way to save him. It made sense – he'd been having such powerful thoughts of losing his child because the Dementors were drawing near!
The fog vanished from his vision and his thoughts when he looked at his daughter.
…His daughter, who was now being attacked by Dementors because she'd sent her Patronus over to save her own dad. The Dementor drew closer to her, grasped her by her throat, and dragged her out the window of the prison, dangling her precariously over the cliffs of Azkaban.
Because of what was going on, Amos should've been despairing. He was about to lose his one and only child all over again. But somehow, he didn't despair. Instead, every happy memory of his Cedric, his Hope, came welling to the surface of his mind and then blasting through the tip of his wand when he yelled, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
"You're my child and you always will be. No matter what," he reminded himself. "You were my boy when you were Cedric and you're my girl now that you're Hope. I think you were even mine in a way when you were a unicorn and when we hadn't even met each other.
"You've taught me so much, my Cedric, my Hope. Do you even know what I would've BEEN if it weren't for you and your mother gracing my life just by being there? You're mine. You always will be. You always will be. You always will be…"
The moment when it initially erupted from his wand, his Patronus took its usual form: a grizzly bear. But as it ran toward Hope, as he concentrated on her, his Patronus morphed and changed into a unicorn. And it was that unicorn that headbutted the Dementor head-on with its horn and sent the creature flying away.
Unfortunately, when the Dementor flew away, it'd dropped Hope, leaving her falling toward the Azkaban cliffs.
So once again, Amos didn't think. He acted. One moment, he was standing on the precipice of a window overlooking Azkaban and the next, he had apparated next to Hope and he was grabbing her as she fell toward the ground…
And then he had apparated into Diggory Hollow, he and his soaked daughter landing on the soft living room carpet.
Amos heaved a sigh of relief as his unicorn Patronus nuzzled his daughter on the cheek and then faded. As his daughter's extravagant lashes blinked raindrops away from her bright gray eyes, he could see she still had her soul. She was fine. They were fine.
In light of what'd just happened, he should be hugging her close and kissing her cheeks the way he had when Cedric was a toddler, but first, he had one thing he absolutely had to lecture her about.
"Don't die. You're absolutely not allowed to die on me because that's rude," he admonished, waving a finger in her face.
She rolled her eyes and grinned. "Love you too, Dad."
That was the last thing she said before she fainted.
XXX
Ever since she'd seen the article in the Daily Prophet about the break-in to Azkaban, Cho Chang had felt utterly panicked about Hope. The situation was surely urgent enough where every Auror – even their trainee – would have to be at Azkaban to help. And just thinking of her Cedric – her Hope – being subjected to the presence of all those Dementors… it was more than Cho could bear!
So, when Luna and Marietta urged her to go find Hope – even if she had to steal some floo powder from Professor Flitwick's office to do it – Cho took off like a shot to do it.
But once she got to Professor Flitwick's office and had the floo powder in hand while she stood in the fireplace, Cho faced a dilemma: where should she go? She knew that Hope was part of a secret organization called the Order of the Phoenix, but she didn't know where that organization was headquartered. She did know that as an Auror trainee, Hope would be going to work at the Ministry's Auror Office, where she'd also be completing her training. But she couldn't go there, either, because what if a Ministry employee saw her? She'd be ushered out before could even hope to get to Hope. Then, she considered going to either Amos Diggory's office or to Natalie Diggory's office. But Amos was probably still cross with her for rejecting Hope. And Gringotts (where Natalie Diggory worked) was off-limits to a large portion of the floo network, as a precaution against thieves.
So, in the end, Cho went to the one place where she knew she could go: Diggory Hollow, where Cedric lived with his parents. And where Hope now lived.
Brushing ash from the fireplace off of her Hogwarts robes, she walked into the living room of Diggory Hollow. The place was empty. But maybe she could find some letter or hint to where any member of the Diggory family was – and then work from there.
She went over to a desk adjoining the living room – she wasn't sure whose it was – and shuffled around through the papers. There had to be some clue…
After much shuffling, Cho encountered a letter to Amos and Natalie Diggory from Professor Dumbledore. Her eyes scanned the slender, slanting script of Professor Dumbledore's writing until she got to a portion that said:
If you wish to discuss your findings with me further, please feel free to seek me out either in my office at Hogwarts or at the Grimmauld Place headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix…
Well, Cho didn't know where the Grimmauld Place headquarters to the Order of the Phoenix were, but maybe the floo network – and this letter – could direct her there. Or maybe she could go to Professor Dumbledore's office.
Cho waved away the idea of going to Dumbledore, though, because if the man hadn't told her about Cedric's return from the dead at the beginning of winter break when he'd known of it, he sure wasn't going to tell her about it now. So, off to the Order of the Phoenix headquarters it was.
Cho grabbed a handful of floo powder from a pot on the Diggorys' fireplace (she hoped they wouldn't mind her mooching, but Natalie Diggory had advised Cho to seek their help whenever possible), stepped into the fireplace, and shouted, "The Order of the Phoenix Headquarters at Grimmauld Place!"
The fire momentarily surged beneath Cho, so powerfully that she thought she was about to be misdirected to some obscure part of the floo network – or not even get transported at all – but all too soon, she felt the familiar spinning sensation of floo network transportation while visions of green fire danced around her. The floo network was working as it should.
XXX
When she was spat out of a fireplace, Cho didn't immediately recognize her surroundings. The fact that she'd been spat out of the fireplace and was now laying on the floor probably didn't help, to be fair. She was looking at the ceiling of a living room, which had grown musty with age. Dark grime smeared the ceiling mural that seemed to depict fat little cherubs spreading a tapestry of dark sky across the ceiling. That tapestry was dotted with constellations that were labeled with names like Wallaburga Black, Narcissa Black, Bellatrix Black, and – one that'd been smudged out with ugly purple paint – Sirius Black.
Cho pondered over the smudges of paint obscuring Sirius Black's name. So, the notorious criminal Sirius Black had been rejected by his own family? Well, fancy that!
"Well…" intoned an amused voice, "Who have we here?"
"Cho Chang, 6th year student at Hogwarts?" she winced.
"Well, get on up, Cho Chang. You ought to tell us how you even got here," said the voice. Then, a tattooed hand extended itself to help up from the floor and when Cho was standing on her own two feet, she was gazing into the face of a handsome man with gray eyes. He had long silky black hair and skin that looked quite healthy. And though he looked much better than in the magical mug shots posted all over the news and all over the Hogwarts corridors during her fourth year, Cho could tell that he was none other than Sirius Black.
She backed away. This was the notorious murderer, Sirius Black. Who was apparently so evil, he'd been rejected by his own family – who mostly consisted of Death Eaters. And yet instead of attacking her, he was giving her a warm smile. Cho let her eyes flick around the room. Standing next to Sirius Black was the former Defense Against the Dark Arts professor – and werewolf – Remus Lupin. And beside them both, stood Professor Albus Dumbledore.
"Holy Merlin, you're Sirius Black!" Cho exclaimed, drawing a deep breath. "And… And you're standing next to Professor Lupin and he's holding your hand! But Professor Lupin, I thought you were against the Dark Arts! And Professor Dumbledore is with you both! Oh, jeez, wait… if Dumbledore is powerful enough not to be confounded by most people and if he's ok with you being here, then… you're not actually a dangerous criminal, are you?"
Sirius grinned and nodded.
Professor Lupin also grinned and waggled his eyebrows at Sirius. "See, darling? I told you she was smart."
"Might even get ahead of Hermione Granger," laughed Sirius.
"Uh… Sorry if I interrupted your meeting. Sirius Black, Professor Lupin, Professor Dumbledore."
"No need to worry, Miss Chang. But I'm afraid that since this place is protected by the Fidelius Charm, you will need to tell me what happened," Professor Dumbledore said calmly.
"Oh, well…"
Cho was sure that something about Dumbledore magically compelled people to part with their secrets when in his presence, but she tried to act like she didn't mind. And besides, Dumbledore was an important person – the only wizard that the infamous You-Know-Who had ever feared! If Cho couldn't trust him, then who could she even trust?
So, Cho found herself spilling her secrets to the elderly headmaster of Hogwarts: how Hope had told her about her past lives and reincarnation, her shocked reaction to the news, how Hope had sent Natalie Diggory to comfort her over the holidays, and how she was just trying to find Hope because she was so worried about how she'd fair in the presence of the Dementors.
"I reacted badly to Hope's return. But I love her, Professor Dumbledore, I honestly do, no matter what name she takes of what she looks like! The thought of her being attacked by all those Dementors was too much for me to bear, so stole into Professor Flitwick's office and used the Floo Network to get to Diggory Hollow. Then once I got there and didn't find anyone, I saw this letter on the Diggorys' desk and it got me right here!"
Cho held up the letter for Professor Dumbledore to see.
"I would encourage you not to punish you for breaking school rules, as the poor child was just acting out of concern-" Professor Lupin began.
Dumbledore nodded and scanned the letter. "The fault is mine. As secret-keeper for the Order of the Phoenix, it seems that I have accidentally divulged the location of our headquarters to Miss Chang. I really ought to be more careful about the syntax I use in my letters."
"You're not… you're not mad, professor?" Cho asked nervously.
"No, dear girl. Now, come and wait with us while we wait to hear back of news from Azkaban."
As she sat on the sofas in the living room of 12 Grimmauld Place, Cho pondered the revelations that Sirius Black and his fiancé Remus Lupin and their friend the sage Professor Dumbledore told her. Ever since Lord Voldemort's return, the Order of the Phoenix – an organization that'd fought him during the First Wizarding War – had reunited once more. They were trying to thwart his efforts to take over the Wizarding community again, along with other efforts like thwarting the capture of the innocent convict, Sirius Black. They had recruited Hope based on the fact that she was a reincarnated unicorn and had helped her enter into Auror training once they learned the extent of her magical skills – and the secret of who she'd been in her past lives.
Still, despite the stories she heard – of Sirius Black getting disowned from his family, of the Mararuders' shenanigans at Hogwarts, of Sirius's recent engagement to Remus Lupin, of the joy that Hope's revelations (and Cedric's return from the dead) had brought to the Order – Cho was getting impatient. It'd been hours and they'd yet to hear back from anyone who worked at the Order.
After hours, a unicorn Patronus appeared in the living room.
"I don't recognize you! Whose Patronus are you?" Dumbledore interrogated it.
"I'm Amos Diggory! Get to Diggory Hollow! Hurry!" the Patronus announced.
"That could be anyone's Patronus-" warned Remus.
"Since when has a unicorn wand holder – let alone a unicorn, let alone a person with a unicorn Patronus – been guilty of evil? I bet you anything, Amos's Patronus has changed after he realized his kid is a reincarnated unicorn!" protested Sirius.
Dumbledore nodded at Sirius and extended his hand to Cho. "We ought to go to Diggory Hollow, then. Remus, Sirius, you can apparate yourselves there. Cho, you can side-along apparate with me since you haven't had your apparition lessons yet.
Cho nodded and took Professor Dumbledore's hand.
XXX
Apparition had to be one of the worst bodily sensations Cho Chang had ever experienced. It was like getting stuffed into a tube and suffocated, and the overall experience was enough to make Cho want to puke.
Once she saw Hope, wet and bedraggled, sprawled out on the living room carpet of Diggory Hollow, hand in hand with her dad, the awful Apparition sensation to get there had been with it.
"Hope! Thank Merlin you're okay!" Cho exclaimed, running over to her and cradling Hope's head in her hands.
"Cho… I've never had anyone come looking for me like that," Hope breathed.
"Well, now you have," said Cho.
"Indeed. Now, I have." Hope smiled and snuggled into Cho's embrace as she closed her eyes.