Chapter 9: A Portrait of Disaster



Hermoine awoke in a fairly good mood. Her favourite class, Defense Against the Dark Arts, was a double period today. She looked over at Patrice's bed. It was empty. Athena, however, was sleeping soundly, perched on the headboard. Crookshanks appeared out of nowhere. Hermoine stroked her beloved cat.

"So, Crookshanks, is she a real owl?" Crookshanks purred contentedly. Hermoine felt better about the owl with Crookshanks's's approval.

"I've gotta go now. It will be breakfast time soon." Hermoine put her cat on the foot of her bed. As she headed to the bathroom, she passed her portrait. She dropped her clothes on the floor, and stumbled back.

Her portrait face was now set in a scream. It had changed all right. For the worst.

"What is it?" asked Lavender Brown, coming out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her head. Hermoine pointed at her picture. Lavender let out a little gasp.

"It wasn't like that yesterday," protested Lavender. She ran to where her portrait was hanging. Her portrait, too, looked frightened, but not nearly as much as Hermoine's did.

The two girls headed into the common room. There was quite a commotion. Hermoine found Harry and Ron. Both were pale as sheets.

"What happened?" Hermoine asked.

"The unthinkable," replied Harry softly. He held up a copy of "The Daily Prophet". At first, Hermoine thought there would be something about Sirius. It was much worse.

"The Dementors?" she breathed. A wave of sickness passed over her. The Dementors had rebelled against the Ministry. They had allowed countless Death Eaters free. Hermoine nearly burst into tears.

Harry clenched and unclenched his fists.

"Voldemort's going to send them after me," he whispered.

"You're safe in the school," protested Hermoine. "Dumbledore won't let anything happen to any of his students."

"There's a huge army of them, Hermoine," replied Harry bitterly.

"There's a student or teacher for every one of them," Ron put in, his hand resting on Harry's shoulder. "It will be okay."

Hermoine could not keep her mind on her classes that day. It was only in Defense Against the Dark Arts that she snapped out of her trance. Mrs Coeur was looking unusually grim.

"Today, class, I must do something I hoped I would never have to do." She swept her gaze across all of them. "In this closet is a Boggart. With Mr. Potter's help, in will become a Dementor." Hermoine shuddered . How did she know it would do that? "Today you will all learn how to cast a Patronus Charm."

Hermoine cast a reluctant glance at Harry. He had gone deathly pale.

"Mrs. Coeur, that spell's not in our books," protested a Ravenclaw.

"No. I never wanted to have to teach you this, but there is no choice. Everyone, from a first year to a seventh year, must know how the spell works. It may be the only chance they have should the Dementors continue to rage against the wizarding world."

A deep fear settled in Hermoine's chest before the Boggart-Dementor was even released. Coeur had known something that only Hermoine, Ron, Harry and Professor Lupin should have known. Something about this felt wrong. Very wrong indeed.



* * * * * * *



Nothing happened until Hallowe'en. In fact, the others had forgotten about the lessons on the Patronus charm. Only Hermoine and a few older students seemed to remember at all. Harry had no clue. He had become paranoid. Even Quiddich held no distraction for him. The first game was quickly approaching. They were playing against the Hufflepuffs. This had Harry even more paranoid. The only time he had ever lost as Seeker was against the Hufflepuffs.

The decorations in the great hall were as impressive as always. It was a Friday. The first scheduled trip to Hogsmeade was the next day. Hermoine was looking forward to it. She still had a rotten feeling in her stomach. Something was going to happen.

"I got word from Sirius," Harry whispered. "Meet me in the History of Magic class after supper." Hermoine nodded. She hoped it was good news.

They were all sitting down to eat lunch when a horrific explosion rocked the school.

"Prefects, gets the students to their common rooms now!" ordered Dumbledore. Without hesitation, Hermoine, Harry and Patrice hurried after the prefects.

"Where's Ron?" asked Hermoine.

"He's in the bathroom! He won't know!" Harry started off toward the exit many of the teachers had taken.

"If you go after him, you'll be killed." Patrice grabbed Harry, and dragged him along. "I need you, Harry. Don't be stupid and get us all killed."

Patrice didn't explain herself. When all the students had returned to the common room, she pulled Harry and Hermoine aside.

"You two can both cast the Patronus spell." Harry looked over at Hermoine. His eyes went wide in disbelief.

"When did this happen?" he asked. Hermoine waved him off.

"What does it matter?" Hermoine asked Patrice. She desperately wanted to take off after Ron too. Only Patrice stood in her way. For some reason, Hermoine knew that it was important that she stay here.

Patrice lowered her voice.

"Ever heard of the combined spell effect?" Hermoine shook her head, furious to not know the answer at such a critical time. "If more then two wizards cast the same spell, their spells can be combined, and the power double exponentially." She looked pointedly at the full common room. "There are roughly eighty people here. All of them know how the Patronus charm works. I need you two to channel the energy into my wand, and I will cast the Combining spell. We might save the teachers." Hermoine looked at Harry.

"It's worth a shot."

Hermoine jumped up onto a table. She felt odd.

"I need you all to think back to your lesson two weeks ago with Coeur. Remember the work on the Patronus Charm. Picture your happiest memory!"

At her words, each head bowed in concentration. Hermoine raised her want above her head, and with everything in her, every good feeling she had ever had, yelled out "expecto patronum!" Harry copied her. Huge bolts of silver blue light shot out from their wands, wrapping around Patrice. She screamed something unintelligible. The twin bolts fused. The room was filled with the silver-blue light. Hermoine poured out everything she had.

The light snaked, and formed a gigantic dragon. The dragon flew through the walls as if they did not exist. Patrice was the only thing Hermoine could see, draped in a cloak of blue and silver light, before Hermoine passed out.



He didn't like that there were members of the Phoenix Order within the walls of the school. He had always thought that they should be educated separately. This was the first time he had been glad that they were there.

The teachers had been hopelessly outnumbered by the Dementors. There were at least six Dementors to a teacher. Everyone was ready to die for the students. Even he was, he , Severus Snape, the most hated of the teachers, was ready to die to save the troublesome and brilliant alike.

No one had been more surprised then Snape when four gigantic dragons had risen from the castle almost simultaneously. Coeur had done her job. The Patronus Charms formed by the good thoughts of hundreds of children breathed fire of hope down on them all.

The Dementors fell quickly. Even the Dark Wizards fighting at the sides of the Dementors had been afraid. Severus had been afraid. These dragons had awesome powers. They were pure and innocent as a child's prayer, but fiercer then any true dragon.

Severus surveyed the damage. No one was seriously hurt. Dumbledore had seen to that. Somehow the old man had known all along that the members of the Phoenix order would succeed. He trusted them way too much, the fool. He admired Dumbledore for the same reasons that many loathed him. Dumbledore never backed away from taking a stand. if anyone should have been a Phoenix, it was that man.

"Well done, Severus," said Coeur, coming up behind him. He scowled at the foreign woman. She was still young, but she had managed to steal the job out from under him again. She was pretty enough under her guise of foolish hair and Muggle makeup. She wielded power far beyond his own.

"I don't think that I helped much. It was all the work of your precious students, Kalina." She grinned.

"How kind of you to say so, Severus." She patted his sore arm in a patronizing manner. "Better get that looked after, eh?" Then she was gone.

Severus was boiling inside. That woman aggravated him to no end. Her mightier then thou attitude made him want to strike her down.

"Do it," hissed the voice inside him. "Kill her, and be done with it." Severus shook his head. He suddenly felt sick. The voice was back. . . . Could things get any worse?