Chapter 2 Dementor's Attack

The next hour was nerve racking. Harry couldn't sit or stand. He couldn't help but feel that this was entirely his fault. Harry's intuition was right, Voldemort did get the Dursley's their lottery, but it was not entirely because he was trying to get Harry. Voldemort was not stupid, he knew that they would move Harry, and he was counting on that. He knew the security on Harry's friends would lessen. Then he could attack.

"Why didn't he see that before?" He kept asking himself.

It was now eight; Corra has been gone for one and a half hours now. And there is still no word from anyone. Harry looked up at the clock that hung over the fireplace; its hands seemed to creep at a snail's pace.

"They're going to be okay as long as Corra gets there." Lupin assured Harry, while drinking a goblet full of Wolfsbane Potion that smoked over the cup.

"Thanks." Harry replied.

It wasn't till eleven that they heard a knock on the door. Sirius quickly got up to open it.

The Weasleys were all there, everyone looked shaken and pale. There were dark, purple bruises here and there, and they were all was soaking wet.

"Sirius, get the fire ready in the living room." Corra ordered.

She then drew up a stretcher from nowhere and placed Ginny on it.

Lupin served hot chocolate to everyone in the living room. Soon all of Weasleys' color slowly returned to their cheeks and their wounds slowly healed. No one spoke much.

That is, until Corra broke the silence. "What happened?"

"The Dementors… they came with the Death-Eaters. They took no time to express that they're on you-know-who's side after Fudge took them off their job as Azkaban guards." Mr. Weasley said in disgust. "Thanks to Sirius' letter, we were at least prepared. The kids were already out and in the underground tunnel when they came. They tried to flood us out, but thanks to Corra they didn't succeed. Charlie got hit by a sword spell, not as bad as it could have been. Thank goodness Percy wasn't there. "

A soft knock came from the window.

"Pig!" Ron said breaking into a smile, "He's okay! I told him to go off for a while after he delivered Sirius' letter."

"You all will stay here for the summer." Corra announced.

"We can't possibly…" Mrs. Weasley started to say but was cut off. "No please I insist."

"Ron, are you okay?" Harry said seeing a long, deep cut on his arm that hadn't fully healed yet.

"I can handle it." Ron answered smiling sarcastically. "Its Ginny I'm worried about."

It wasn't until Ron said that, that Harry realized Ginny was shaking madly on the stretcher.

"The Dementors." Ron explained. Harry went and refilled her mug of hot chocolate.

"We should all get some rest." Corra proposed. She then led everyone upstairs. After everyone was settled in there own rooms, she suggested that Harry and Ron should get some rest. However they begged to stay up and wait for Hermione. About half past midnight the doorbell chimed.

Corra opened the door and Hermione and Dido were standing there.

"Harry! Ron! You're alright!" Hermione exclaimed, as she ran through the door. And before they could stop her, she put her arms around them and gave them a soft hug.

"Where are your mum and dad?" Harry asked looking around.

"My parents are under the muggle protection at the Ministry of Magic." Hermione explained.

"You three should get some rest, like the others." Corra reminded. "Hermione, your room is by Ron's and the password is Willow; your luggage is already placed inside. Harry, Ron, could you two show Hermione her room? And please, try to get some sleep."

"Sure." Harry agreed. The three walked up the stairs, making their way towards the room, which was placed behind a picture of a large tree.

"Woah." Hermione breathed, as she entered the room. It had a slightly different decor than Harry's room.

"I know. Its nice isn't it?" Ron said. "Wait until you see mine!"

"This is fabulous! So this is where Corra lived." Hermione said flopping down on her bed where Crookshanks was lying and purring loudly. "What happened?!" Hermione gasped when she saw Ron's arm.

"We were attacked." Ron answered in a low voice. Then, he changed the subject rather quickly. "What do you mean by 'so this is where Corra lived'? Did you know her or something?"

"You mean you don't remember?" Hermione questioned, surprised. Both Harry and Ron shook their heads. "For goodness sakes am I the only one who remembered anything from Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry?"

"Yes." Harry and Ron agreed together.

"Fine, I'll explain. Well … she was the first person to use a phoenix's tear as one of the ingredients in a potion. And she was the youngest person to be in Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorceress, and International Confederation of Witches and Wizards. She has the same level of magic as Dumbledore, but there's not much information about her. The book that has the most information on her is the Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry. And it was barely seven sentences." Hermione finished with a dreamy expression on her face. "It's amazing really. No one ever knew where she lived, or where she was born. She always kept most of the information about herself from the public. She also donated a lot of money to the Magical Star Foundation."

"My dad told me about that foundation. They helped many families and friends of the people that had been killed by You-Know-Who." Ron added

Hermione nodded. "But the thing is. She somehow disappeared about fourteen years ago. The only person who supposedly knew of her whereabouts was Dumbledore."

"But how do you think Sirius and Lupin knew her then?" Ron asked.

"She was in school with them." Harry answered.

"Really?" Hermione asked with great interest. "How interesting, I have always admired Corra."

"Yeah … and she's going to defend Sirius in the trial too."

"She is?"

"There's going to be a trial?"

"Didn't you guys know?" Ron and Hermione was both more in tuned to the magical community than Harry was. "The trial is to be held on Friday."

"Dad told me about the trial, but he didn't know who was going to defend Sirius."

"The trial would be big news if Corra showed up as the defender." Hermione said in awe.

"I don't think that would be a good thing." Harry warned. A soft knock came from the painting.

"Corra thought you would like something to eat." It was Dido's voice.

"Come in!" Hermione replied. Dido was carrying a huge plate of sandwiches over her head, and three glasses filled with pumpkin juice.

"Thank you Dido." Harry said as Dido put the sandwiches and juice on the floor between Harry and Ron.

"Dido will be picking them up later, just leave it outside the painting." Then Dido slid out.

Both Ron and Harry were looking at Hermione as if expecting something.

"What?" Hermione asked picking up a sandwich.

"We're surprised that you didn't make a fuss about Dido." Harry said.

"That's," Hermione began then remembered to swallow the piece of sandwich in her mouth. "…Well … Dido's a free elf."

"How do you know?" Ron asked.

"Normal house elves aren't allowed to wear gold or silver. Besides, Dido told me that she was freed by Corra, and she wanted to thank her so she stayed here and worked as a house elf." Hermonine explained.

They ate and chatted till four in the morning, then Harry and Ron went to their bedrooms.

Knowing that his friends were safe, Sirius was with him, and everyone was okay, Harry slept well that night.

* * *

It was high noon when Harry woke up. To his surprise he was one of the first to rise. Hermione was asleep, and the Weasleys were all still resting in their rooms, except for Bill who was up and studying the tapestries that hung on the walls.

As Harry walked down the spiral staircase, he saw Corra reading a large book placed on a long oak table, which stood at where the couch and sofa were last night. Light was shining through the enchanted ceiling, brightening the room.

"How?" Harry began to say, and then he remembered that he was not in an ordinary house.

"Oh good Harry, you're up." Corra said looking up, taking off her reading glasses. "Sirius and Lupin are probably in the lab. I'll take you there."

This was the first time that Harry realized that there was no door in the living room. As he looked around for the entrance, the picture of a grand castle seemed to stand out.

"Is that?" Harry Began.

"Yes, It's Hogwarts. And the passage to the rest of the house." Corra said. "Shall we?"

Corra tapped the frame of the picture with her wand "Dumbledore." It swung open, revealing a beautiful hall. On the right there were pictures of people, some of them Harry recognizes as the same pictures that hung in Dumbledore's office. On the left were statues of strange animals, one with two heads that hissed at Harry when he got too close.

When they reached the end of the hall, there was a huge room. A fountain was in the middle, with a few wooden benches around it. The ceiling was also enchanted like the one in the living room. There were three huge archways, the one to Harry's right revealed a huge green house, the arch to Harry's left revealed a gym like room, and the arch in front of Harry, beyond the fountain, exposed a room full of shelves packed with books.

As Harry followed Corra into the library, he was amazed by the size of the room. There were two floors and rows upon rows of books. This library was a lot bigger than the one in Hogwarts.

"The upper level books are more powerful than the ones here. There are also some musical instruments on the upper level." Corra informed. She then placed the book that she was holding in something that looked a lot like a laundry shoot.

"The lab's this way," Corra said leading to the furthest left corner of the library. Another thing that was different in this library than the one in Hogwarts was that it had glass cases here and there, like the ones in muggle library that held special memorabilia. But in these cases there were special magical items. They reached a glass case that had a flowery stand, which held up an ancient wand.

Corra pushed a button that was on the side of the case. (The button was camouflaged to look like the design itself.) The case slid away from them, exposing a stairwell. Unlike the rest of the house, the staircase was made of rugged gray stones. The stairs seem to go down forever, but as Harry dissented down the stairs, it was only a few steps before he saw a wooden door. It opened to reveal a bright room. It was not as Harry imagined it to be, and it couldn't possibly be more different than the dungeon that was used for their potion class in Hogwarts.

For one thing, floating orbs of light brightly lighted the room, and there were two light gray tables buried under books, parchments, and strange bottles holding different colored chemicals. A bubbling caldron was placed in the middle of the room.

"Harry, you're up!" Sirius said, looking up.

"Care to join us?" Lupin added, putting a form of green liquid in the cauldron that made it sizzle and smoke, giving it a rather nasty odor.

"What are you making?" Harry asked his finger pinching his nose.

"Finite Incantatum! It was not supposed to smoke like this." Sirius coughed.

"It's supposed to be a new, improved version of the Wolfsbane Potion." Lupin added.

"I think you need to use less mandrican roots." Corra advised looking into the cloud of smoke that hovered over the cauldron. "It is suppose to smoke, but not this much. Exactly how much did you put in anyway?"

"Three clumps." Lupin answered.

"Cut it to two clumps." Corra advised. "We need to hurry, the next full moon is two days after the trial."

"That reminds me, Hermione wants to testify." Harry responded.

"She does?"

"I don't think is a good idea, Corra." Sirius said.

"But if she does then, there might be a better chance that you will be cleared." Corra responded thoughtfully.

"Brunch is served." A small voice said coming from behind the lighted orbs.

"Thank you, Dido!" Corra answered, signaling the end of the conversation. "We can discuss this later."

Ron and Hermione were already there when the four came through the painting.

"Good afternoon, everyone." Sirius greeted.

"Good afternoon to you, too." Hermione answered back.

"Dido, did you tend to Mr. and Mrs. Weasely and the others?" Corra asked.

"Yes, of course."

"Well then, lets eat shall we?" Lupin insisted. It was a relatively good brunch; there was talk about the up coming Quidditch match between the two champion teams of England, but there were few words exchanged about the trial though. When the table was magically cleared away, Corra insisted to give Ron, Hermione, and Harry a tour of the house. They walked through the hallway of pictures and statues of animals. Harry and Ron was surprised that Hermione named almost all of the strange creatures and the pictures of the people on the wall, but then again it was Hermione after all. When Corra finished showing them the gym, the green house, and the Library (which Hermione was extremely excited about) they returned to the living room.

"So I hear that you want to testify in the trial, Hermione." Corra mentioned.

"Yes, I was hoping to testify. Besides I want to see the ministry's court. I've read so much about them." Hermione answered.

"Sirius might have a better chance if I go too." Harry said.

"Very well. I think I can convince Sirius to let you two testify." Corra said parting them and walked up to her room. Ron who was looking reluctant as to where this conversation was leading to sighed for relief.

"Hi, Harry." Greeted George and Fred, they were each carrying a large brown boxes.

"What are in those?" Ron puzzled.

"We asked Corra to lend us some things that we might need." The twins answered.

"Are you starting the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes again?" Hermione scowled. The twins just grinned.

Harry and Ron spent the rest of the day exploring the rest of the mansion while Hermione redid all her homework in the library. They had a good dinner, and then Harry, who was content and full, went to his room. While brushing his teeth, he overheard a few words from Sirius' room.

"Look, Sirius they'll be fine." It was Corra's voice.

"I just don't think that Harry and Hermione going to the trial is a good idea." It was Sirius, who sounded worried.

"Dumbledore and I will both be there. They will be well protected. Don't worry. Besides you will be for the closing arguments." Corra assured Sirius.

"I know that you and Dumbledore are very capable to protect them but what if…"

"Let them go. Trust me they WILL be fine." Corra said. Then Harry heard a door closing, which signaled Corra leaving Sirius' room. Harry, whose head was flat against the wall to hear the conversation clearer, gave a sigh of relief, changed, and then went to bed.

Tuesday came faster than Harry's liking. He found himself half asleep, dressed in his school robes, seated in a black muggle van, which was driven by Dido. Sitting beside him was Hermione, who looked extremely alert and excited. Harry tried to look out the window, but had no chance of identifying the rolling hills and the green pastures, so he sat back to his seat again, and thought about the trial.