Harry Chapter Twenty Four: In the Still of the Night
The pitch had been deserted for the better part of an hour before Warren and Aysha cast the charm that unlocked the handcuffs and released the line of students from each other. Most leapt to their feet for a good solid stretch, massaging their somewhat chafed wrists.
Lucy remained on the ground, trying to convince her well-meaning keepers to let her attempt to sit up.
"You're going to miss all the food," she pointed out. That was not exactly true, there was enough food stockpiled in the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff changing rooms to feed them for a week, but it was worth a shot, Dimitri especially seemed interested.
"The worst that will happen is I lay back down."
Finally, Misha and Warren let go of her arms and allowed her to sit up.
"See? I'm fine."
That wasn't exactly true, the world was spinning a bit, but if she told them that she'd be spending the night on the pitch. Besides, the sensation wasn't all that different from the time she and Diego had gotten into Professor Giraldi's stash of grippa, consumed the lot, and then stumbled off the roof; only without the singing.
With Marguerite supporting her, she finally made her way up into the shelter of the stands, where the internationals were preparing to camp for the night. Dinner was being served in the Hufflepuff changing room, and Lucy took a seat with her plate near where Katya, Maria Moray, Saori and Setsuko, and Alessandra were playing cards.
"Nice the way everyone came together, isn't it?" Audrey Su commented as she sat down beside her, handing her a glass of water.
"Lovely."
"Listen, I wanted to talk to you about the watches, no one really expects you to stay up now-"
"Really, I feel fine, and I don't think you are supposed to go to sleep with a concussion anyway." She added the last bit as Audrey looked ready to protest. But the Asian girl merely sighed and nodded.
"Right. You're on the forest/castle corner, and your shift starts in three hours."
The students had decided that, given the reaction of most of their classmates, it would be a good idea for some of them to keep watch during the night, in case anyone tried to play any dirty tricks. Especially since word had come from the hospital wing that the Slytherin beaters would not be able to play tomorrow and they would be forced to use reserves.
She dozed a bit after finishing her meal, but a gentle shake restored her to consciousness. She looked up into the face of a vaguely familiar blond Ravenclaw.
"Lucy? I'm Lukas, Lukas Getman. We ought to get going."
Before she could protest that she was just fine, Lukas helped her to her feet, tucked her arm into his, and slowly walked her toward the corner of the stands with the forest to the right and the castle to the left, nearest the forest.
"I didn't realize we were stationed in pairs."
"We thought it less likely that both sentries would fall asleep. As if anyone could sleep like this anyway," Lukas gestured to the forest, where the strong wind was shaking the tree limbs. The pennants of the pitch were snapping loudly in the gusts, and the howling was becoming louder.
They headed for their post, relieved Koji (or was it Kentaro?) and Ginger, and hunkered down to peer into the darkness. Nothing was moving that wasn't pushed by the wind, the trees were dark, and the moon was a slim thumbnail in the sky when it wasn't obscured by clouds.
Occasionally the moonlight would glint on a piece of metal far below, drawing Lucy's eyes to the pile of "loot" she and the others had liberated from the trophy room before the match. The pile included the Quidditch cup, which the boys had reverently carried away, and a few other prizes. The instructions had been to carry away pretty much anything large and shiny, and Lucy had helped to leviosa several sizable trophies over the grounds, well out of sight of students, and stashed them in some bushes near the forest. The pile lay untouched, but it was one of the reasons they suspected visitors in the night; once the teams found out the Quidditch cup had been abducted, all logic could be assumed to be thrown by the wayside. So far it looked to be a boring night, but something was buzzing in Lucy's head, and she wasn't sure that it was the concussion. She kept her eyes peeled and her shields up.
She kept them peeled for about ten minutes, after which she promptly fell asleep.
"Psst, wake up Lucy!"
Disorientated and with a terrible headache, she was prodded out of a lovely dream about dancing platypuses by Lukas's elbow.
"Hmph, what is it? I wasn't asleep."
"No, of course not, no one suggested you were. But look that way, William and Lesley have spotted something."
Indeed, there was a systematic blinking of a wand from the middle of the castle side of the stands.
"Whatsitmean?" She rubbed her eyes, which didn't help her head at all.
"Something's coming, in the air, from that way."
She followed Lukas's gaze toward the lakeside of the wall, around which several faintly glowing somethings were moving through the air. It only took a touch of farsight to get a better look.
The vision wasn't pretty.
"That's the Slytherin Quidditch team."
Lukas stared at her a moment, and then out to the specs.
"Are you sure?"
"I have excellent night vision, I eat a lot of carrots."
Just then Ravenclaw Magda Sclafani came running up.
"William says that the Slytherin Quidditch team is on its way."
"Told you so."
"How's your long distance hexing Lucy?"
"Awful."
"Well I'm pretty good, I'm going to see what I can do. Speaking of which, Magda, go round up the other Ravenclaws, they're all pretty accurate."
"Slytherins are pretty good at that stuff too, and there's more of them."
"You think they'll attack their own team?"
"I'm betting half of them are on the ramparts as we speak."
Lukas owed Lucy a galleon, for, indeed, every Slytherin was already assembled on the far side of the stands, watching the approaching figures intently by the time the Ravenclaws showed up. The Lanes, who had been hexing each other since birth, were also there. The rest of the students were awake, and spread around the stands. Maria Moray had come to sit with Lucy, who was watching Marguerite intently.
Meanwhile, the Ravenclaws and Slytherins were strategizing.
"Something noisy, they won't want to risk being caught by Filch."
"Need to get them out of the air."
"Transfigure them all into ducks."
"Blow them into the lake."
Quickly ideas were passed around, it was remarkable how many dirty hexes the unassuming Ravenclaws knew. They really did study EVERYTHING.
The Slytherins, however, were more adept at plotting, and quickly orders flew, students separated, and on Misha's signal, all hell broke lose.
From Lucy's corner, it was difficult to make out the exact sequence of spells, they all seemed to fly at once. But it was certainly a spectacle to behold. The team seemed to lose control of their brooms, which took an abrupt turn, flying the flabbergasted players away from the pitch, out towards and over the lake. In the meantime small noisy fireworks were exploding among the formation. After a few minutes, when the players were well over the lake, their brooms suddenly went quite vertical, dropping the Slytherins into the water with a loud splash, and zooming off into the nearest castle entrance. Some seconds later, the distinct voice of Peeves could be heard clearly as far as the pitch, howling "Students out of bed! Sneaky Slytherins, all awake, come and see them in the lake!" The arrival of Filch seemed imminent.
Lucy didn't think she could be more impressed, that is, until she saw the players clambering ashore with what appeared in the moonlight to be webbed feet and hands. She made a mental note to be nicer to Rasheph.
"Wow," Maria breathed.
"Wow."
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It would have been terribly boring if nothing more had happened that night, but Lucy didn't think terribly boring was all that terrible. An hour later she was still at her post, a drowsy Maria Moray at her side. Her head was still buzzing, at least, she thought it was her head. But a feeling deep in her gut told her it wasn't.
"Whazat sound?" Maria slurred.
The buzzing in her head was quite overriding Lucy's audible capabilities. She peered out, the moon had vanished and the ground was as near pitch black as it could be. There was a faint popping sound, and rustling.
"I don't know," she didn't know why she whispered, but she did.
Mangled, as her Sense was likely to be after the bludger scrambled her brains, it was better to be safe than sorry, and Lucy let down her shields to sense out the area near the pitch.
"Lucy, are you sick?"
"Shhhh."
She wretched, as quietly as she could, slamming her shields home. What in the name of all the-
With a leaden feeling in her stomach she felt a sort of deja vu. The last time she had felt this way it had been much worse, and Bet had been with her, asking her if she was sick...
Sweet merciful lights of the lady, it couldn't be.
A tiny drop of the shields reassured her as well as nausea could that there was no mistaking THAT energy trace.
What were they doing here?
"Maria," she whispered, "as quietly as you can, and as fast as you can, I need you to get everyone up, but keep them quiet, very quiet. And send the seventh years over this way."
"What is it?"
"Look, very very carefully towards the forest."
At that moment the clouds thinned a bit, and there was just enough moonlight to make out the shrouded forms of the Dementors assembling on the edge of the trees.
Maria gasped, nodded, slipped off her shoes, and silently made her way into the darkness.
Within minutes Audrey, Misha, Warren, and Maeve were peering over the stands towards the forest.
"How many?"
"At first it was four, then there were ten, now I think it is more like twenty."
"Where are they coming from?"
"The forest?"
"They can't apparate onto Hogwarts grounds, that includes the forest."
"What do they want?"
"Well they didn't exactly come to watch the Quidditch, did they Maeve."
"Well we certainly did the Slytherins a favor, if they headed over to get the Cup they would have run straight into them."
"The cup..."
"Yeah, the pile's just behind those bushes."
"I know where they're coming from."
The little group turned to look at Maeve.
"When we cleaned out the trophy room, we took every big thing that was in there, right?"
"Anything shiny was pretty much the rule."
"And because of the weight, we didn't actually carry them out."
"You want to try lugging that pile of junk by hand, and what does that-"
"What do you want to bet that the TriWizard Cup was stashed in the trophy room?"
Lucy looked puzzled, but Maeve was a Hufflepuff, and they hadn't forgotten a single detail of the events of two years ago.
"I don't understand."
Audrey nodded, "Of course, I just assumed they- sorry Lucy. The Cup itself had been tampered with, it was a portkey, that's why Harry and Cedric disappeared. But how could it have been reactivated?"
"Someone would have to have come to Hogwarts first to set it up again, and you can't apparate into Hogwarts."
"You could a few days ago."
All eyes turned to Lucy.
"What?"
"Long story, but the Hogwarts wards collapsed for a few hours not too long ago. There was enough time that if someone was waiting for it they could have snuck in and reactivated the spell on the Cup."
Warren turned his eyes back to the forest. "There's about 30 of them now."
Lucy gulped, "Is there any way to hurt those things?"
Warren nodded grimly, "Expecto patronus, but there's so many."
Misha looked around, "But there are 60 of us."
"You really think that a bunch of students, some of them first years, can actually handle that many-"
"What choice do we have? If we stay here, they are bound to find us soon. You know they have some sort of way to smell us out."
"We need time to organize this."
"We need a distraction."
Lucy peered over to where three more Dementors were joining the herd.
"I can make a distraction."
The seventh years stared, and nodded. Lucy had always been a bit of an odd student, they didn't doubt her hidden talents.
"I can sort of make an illusion, it would lead them wherever you want."
Misha and Warren were already in discussion.
"Strategically, we're at the best spot, all sides, element of surprise. Right, Lucy, here's what we need..."
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There were about 40 of them now, and despite her strongest shields, she could still feel the "Dementor chill" that Warren had warned her about. All the chocolate they had was dispersed among the students, who were being briefed, and in some cases, being given hasty spell casting lessons at that very moment.
Lucy had never been very good with advanced spells, at least the ones she didn't make up herself, so it was best for everyone that she simply focus on leading the visitors away from the pitch to give the other students time to get organized. Fortunately, at the moment the Dementors didn't seem to be going anywhere. Her first task was to change that. But she knew very well she couldn't manage it by herself.
**Bet?**
**Lucy?** Bet sounded sleepy. **Lucy, what on earth are you doing? Are you still outside? You know the Quidditch team was talking-**
**Already taken care of. Listen, I need the BA, and there isn't any time. I need you to Look towards the forest.**
**But I need to trance-**
**Try it, just breathe and focus.**
There was a long pause, but Lucy could sense intense mental activity from Beth's end, and even her limited empathetic capabilities could feel the alarm a few minutes later.
**What on-**
**I don't know why they're here, but we need to keep them away from the castle, we have no idea what's going on, but we can only assume that they expected to come out in there rather than in the forest.**
**And what are we going to do?**
**I need to lead them about for a little bit, Warren and the others think they can handle them, but they need time. And we need to get Dumbledore.**
**He's not here.**
**What!**
**He wasn't at the game, word is that he went to London this morning, very urgent. No one knows why, some people think it has to do with your lot.**
That would make sense. Of course, if Hogwarts was overrun with Dementors because the headmaster had left to advocate for a small group of troublesome students, that wasn't going to look good on any of their resumes.
**Damn. Ok, first things first anyway. I need you to wake up the boys, now.**
**Why can't you?**
**As it is I am trying to shield the presence of 60 students from a growing mob of Dementors, my resources are being a bit stretched.**
**Right, sorry.**
**Just pull them into the linkage like it's a lesson...**
Soon enough she heard Lynx's very fuzzy mind voice, he wasn't any good at this and could not mindspeak on his own.
**Whatisit?**
**Explanations later. We all need to work together, we are going to use Bet as a link because she has the best Sensing of the three of you. See through her eyes for a minute. Bet, show them the edge of the forest.**
Rasheph's voice was a bit clearer, but still sounded like he was on the bottom of a pond.
**Sweet merciful Merlin-**
**Lynx, I need you to make a fireball, something small, it just has to be a spot of warmth to attract them. You can see through Bet, find an object you can carry for a bit, something you can set on fire. At the same time it lights, Rasheph, I need you to project over it the image of a student, any student, as clear as you can make it. Broadsend towards them, but don't try to touch their minds at all. Put enough power behind it and anyone should be able to see it. You guys should start at the doors of the castle, I need this thing to run towards the lake, then it is going to loop around, I'll tell you where to move him, but you need to be in sync.**
**You are going to lure the Dementors?**
**That's right, we aren't sure exactly how they see, but if they sense heat, that's what the fireball is for. I'm going to layer over that a very intense fear, they seem to feed off it. If we're lucky they won't be able to resist.**
Rasheph sounded worried, **What if I can't sustain it for that long?**
**All you have to do is focus, I'm going to be channeling energy out of our newly established ley lines, so you should be all right.**
She heard Lynx's faint voice. **I found something to burn up, and I moved it towards the side entrance to the castle.**
Lucy Looked, and grinned, **That's oddly poetic of you Lynx. Rasheph, are you ready?**
The mention of the ley lines brought to Lucy's attention a possible reason for the Dementor brigade. While Rasheph was perfecting his image she roused Seamus.
**Seamus wake up!**
**What the-**
**Seamus, wake up Harry. Just tell him that someone may be trying to tamper with the Things, the whodoeswhatsit.**
**The what?**
**Just wake him already!**
There was a pause. Rasheph was ready. She didn't have time.
When Seamus came back he had a noticeable cloud of concern. **He was already awake, said his scar had been hurting, and then he and Ron ran out of the room without their shoes. Lucy, what's-**
**Can't talk, go wake McGonagall, something's in the school, goodbye.**
After shutting Seamus out she mentally turned back to the BA.
**Ok Lynx, light her up.**
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Lucy was watching with both the Sight and her normal eyesight, a slightly disorienting experience, but it was essential she have as clear an idea of what they were showing the Dementors as possible. She Felt Rasheph calm himself before she saw a figure appear on the grass near the castle.
She had told Rasheph to pick a student, but he hadn't. In rather a brilliant decision, he had as clearly as possible replicated the form of Sirius Black. Lucy grinned, she was sure the Dementors would have little trouble recognizing or recollecting the only wizard to escape Azkaban.
It wasn't exactly Black, of course, Lucy had met him once. But this version matched perfectly with the wanted poster of three years ago Harry had shown her. That made sense, that was all Rasheph had seen of him.
Seconds later, Lynx lit his fire. Lucy was hiding the fire itself from sight, so that only Sirius showed, but the figure gave off enough heat to be alive. Lucy added a thick over layer of fear and anxiety, and they set Sirius moving.
It didn't take long for the Dementors to notice. They began to move in that eerie, gliding fashion of theirs almost as soon as she set the layer. She tried to focus on keeping the students on the pitch shielded from sense, and keeping the phantom's parts as coordinated as possible, but she did noticed a movement off to the side- Audrey and Misha using some obscure spell to freeze the portkey, stopping any more visitors from coming in. They then leviosa'd the cup up into a tree in the forest, gave Lucy a wave, and darted back to the pitch.
Sirius was running along the lake, leading the Dementors away from the castle. He had ducked precariously close to the Whomping Willow, and several Dementors had been momentarily stunned. But Sirius continued to evade them, drawing them safely away from the castle, closer to the forest.
Warren appeared at her side. "We're ready Luce, anytime now."
**Bet, have them speed up a little, and bring him into the pitch by the far entrance.**
Sirius was leading them on a merry chase indeed. He cut across the lawn, down to the pitch, and through the entrance.
The Dementors pooled through, spreading over the pitch, circling around Sirius's form, closing in.
At Lucy's signal, the BA ceased their ruse, and the Dementor's were left staring at the smoking remains of a badly burned Quaffle.
At the same instant, 60 students emerged from their hiding places in the stands, found a Dementor, took aim, and the pitch was filled with the cries of "Expecto Patronus!"
It didn't matter that not every spell was terribly strong, it didn't matter that not every spell hit its target. The Dementors were outnumbered, and, thanks to Lucy, still completely blind to their attackers. The ground of the pitch was awash in the silvery forms of lions, foxes, bears, hawks, wolves, elephants, reindeer, boars, whales, and a particularly effective sheep.
Lucy looked at her wand. It was tempting. It couldn't do any harm.
She cast a glance about and spied a Dementor getting dangerously close to an exit, that was where they were concentrating most of their attention. She breathed and took aim.
Dimitri had spotted the same Dementor as well, but his leopard was too late, Lucy's eagle was already there.
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The pitch had been deserted for the better part of an hour before Warren and Aysha cast the charm that unlocked the handcuffs and released the line of students from each other. Most leapt to their feet for a good solid stretch, massaging their somewhat chafed wrists.
Lucy remained on the ground, trying to convince her well-meaning keepers to let her attempt to sit up.
"You're going to miss all the food," she pointed out. That was not exactly true, there was enough food stockpiled in the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff changing rooms to feed them for a week, but it was worth a shot, Dimitri especially seemed interested.
"The worst that will happen is I lay back down."
Finally, Misha and Warren let go of her arms and allowed her to sit up.
"See? I'm fine."
That wasn't exactly true, the world was spinning a bit, but if she told them that she'd be spending the night on the pitch. Besides, the sensation wasn't all that different from the time she and Diego had gotten into Professor Giraldi's stash of grippa, consumed the lot, and then stumbled off the roof; only without the singing.
With Marguerite supporting her, she finally made her way up into the shelter of the stands, where the internationals were preparing to camp for the night. Dinner was being served in the Hufflepuff changing room, and Lucy took a seat with her plate near where Katya, Maria Moray, Saori and Setsuko, and Alessandra were playing cards.
"Nice the way everyone came together, isn't it?" Audrey Su commented as she sat down beside her, handing her a glass of water.
"Lovely."
"Listen, I wanted to talk to you about the watches, no one really expects you to stay up now-"
"Really, I feel fine, and I don't think you are supposed to go to sleep with a concussion anyway." She added the last bit as Audrey looked ready to protest. But the Asian girl merely sighed and nodded.
"Right. You're on the forest/castle corner, and your shift starts in three hours."
The students had decided that, given the reaction of most of their classmates, it would be a good idea for some of them to keep watch during the night, in case anyone tried to play any dirty tricks. Especially since word had come from the hospital wing that the Slytherin beaters would not be able to play tomorrow and they would be forced to use reserves.
She dozed a bit after finishing her meal, but a gentle shake restored her to consciousness. She looked up into the face of a vaguely familiar blond Ravenclaw.
"Lucy? I'm Lukas, Lukas Getman. We ought to get going."
Before she could protest that she was just fine, Lukas helped her to her feet, tucked her arm into his, and slowly walked her toward the corner of the stands with the forest to the right and the castle to the left, nearest the forest.
"I didn't realize we were stationed in pairs."
"We thought it less likely that both sentries would fall asleep. As if anyone could sleep like this anyway," Lukas gestured to the forest, where the strong wind was shaking the tree limbs. The pennants of the pitch were snapping loudly in the gusts, and the howling was becoming louder.
They headed for their post, relieved Koji (or was it Kentaro?) and Ginger, and hunkered down to peer into the darkness. Nothing was moving that wasn't pushed by the wind, the trees were dark, and the moon was a slim thumbnail in the sky when it wasn't obscured by clouds.
Occasionally the moonlight would glint on a piece of metal far below, drawing Lucy's eyes to the pile of "loot" she and the others had liberated from the trophy room before the match. The pile included the Quidditch cup, which the boys had reverently carried away, and a few other prizes. The instructions had been to carry away pretty much anything large and shiny, and Lucy had helped to leviosa several sizable trophies over the grounds, well out of sight of students, and stashed them in some bushes near the forest. The pile lay untouched, but it was one of the reasons they suspected visitors in the night; once the teams found out the Quidditch cup had been abducted, all logic could be assumed to be thrown by the wayside. So far it looked to be a boring night, but something was buzzing in Lucy's head, and she wasn't sure that it was the concussion. She kept her eyes peeled and her shields up.
She kept them peeled for about ten minutes, after which she promptly fell asleep.
"Psst, wake up Lucy!"
Disorientated and with a terrible headache, she was prodded out of a lovely dream about dancing platypuses by Lukas's elbow.
"Hmph, what is it? I wasn't asleep."
"No, of course not, no one suggested you were. But look that way, William and Lesley have spotted something."
Indeed, there was a systematic blinking of a wand from the middle of the castle side of the stands.
"Whatsitmean?" She rubbed her eyes, which didn't help her head at all.
"Something's coming, in the air, from that way."
She followed Lukas's gaze toward the lakeside of the wall, around which several faintly glowing somethings were moving through the air. It only took a touch of farsight to get a better look.
The vision wasn't pretty.
"That's the Slytherin Quidditch team."
Lukas stared at her a moment, and then out to the specs.
"Are you sure?"
"I have excellent night vision, I eat a lot of carrots."
Just then Ravenclaw Magda Sclafani came running up.
"William says that the Slytherin Quidditch team is on its way."
"Told you so."
"How's your long distance hexing Lucy?"
"Awful."
"Well I'm pretty good, I'm going to see what I can do. Speaking of which, Magda, go round up the other Ravenclaws, they're all pretty accurate."
"Slytherins are pretty good at that stuff too, and there's more of them."
"You think they'll attack their own team?"
"I'm betting half of them are on the ramparts as we speak."
Lukas owed Lucy a galleon, for, indeed, every Slytherin was already assembled on the far side of the stands, watching the approaching figures intently by the time the Ravenclaws showed up. The Lanes, who had been hexing each other since birth, were also there. The rest of the students were awake, and spread around the stands. Maria Moray had come to sit with Lucy, who was watching Marguerite intently.
Meanwhile, the Ravenclaws and Slytherins were strategizing.
"Something noisy, they won't want to risk being caught by Filch."
"Need to get them out of the air."
"Transfigure them all into ducks."
"Blow them into the lake."
Quickly ideas were passed around, it was remarkable how many dirty hexes the unassuming Ravenclaws knew. They really did study EVERYTHING.
The Slytherins, however, were more adept at plotting, and quickly orders flew, students separated, and on Misha's signal, all hell broke lose.
From Lucy's corner, it was difficult to make out the exact sequence of spells, they all seemed to fly at once. But it was certainly a spectacle to behold. The team seemed to lose control of their brooms, which took an abrupt turn, flying the flabbergasted players away from the pitch, out towards and over the lake. In the meantime small noisy fireworks were exploding among the formation. After a few minutes, when the players were well over the lake, their brooms suddenly went quite vertical, dropping the Slytherins into the water with a loud splash, and zooming off into the nearest castle entrance. Some seconds later, the distinct voice of Peeves could be heard clearly as far as the pitch, howling "Students out of bed! Sneaky Slytherins, all awake, come and see them in the lake!" The arrival of Filch seemed imminent.
Lucy didn't think she could be more impressed, that is, until she saw the players clambering ashore with what appeared in the moonlight to be webbed feet and hands. She made a mental note to be nicer to Rasheph.
"Wow," Maria breathed.
"Wow."
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It would have been terribly boring if nothing more had happened that night, but Lucy didn't think terribly boring was all that terrible. An hour later she was still at her post, a drowsy Maria Moray at her side. Her head was still buzzing, at least, she thought it was her head. But a feeling deep in her gut told her it wasn't.
"Whazat sound?" Maria slurred.
The buzzing in her head was quite overriding Lucy's audible capabilities. She peered out, the moon had vanished and the ground was as near pitch black as it could be. There was a faint popping sound, and rustling.
"I don't know," she didn't know why she whispered, but she did.
Mangled, as her Sense was likely to be after the bludger scrambled her brains, it was better to be safe than sorry, and Lucy let down her shields to sense out the area near the pitch.
"Lucy, are you sick?"
"Shhhh."
She wretched, as quietly as she could, slamming her shields home. What in the name of all the-
With a leaden feeling in her stomach she felt a sort of deja vu. The last time she had felt this way it had been much worse, and Bet had been with her, asking her if she was sick...
Sweet merciful lights of the lady, it couldn't be.
A tiny drop of the shields reassured her as well as nausea could that there was no mistaking THAT energy trace.
What were they doing here?
"Maria," she whispered, "as quietly as you can, and as fast as you can, I need you to get everyone up, but keep them quiet, very quiet. And send the seventh years over this way."
"What is it?"
"Look, very very carefully towards the forest."
At that moment the clouds thinned a bit, and there was just enough moonlight to make out the shrouded forms of the Dementors assembling on the edge of the trees.
Maria gasped, nodded, slipped off her shoes, and silently made her way into the darkness.
Within minutes Audrey, Misha, Warren, and Maeve were peering over the stands towards the forest.
"How many?"
"At first it was four, then there were ten, now I think it is more like twenty."
"Where are they coming from?"
"The forest?"
"They can't apparate onto Hogwarts grounds, that includes the forest."
"What do they want?"
"Well they didn't exactly come to watch the Quidditch, did they Maeve."
"Well we certainly did the Slytherins a favor, if they headed over to get the Cup they would have run straight into them."
"The cup..."
"Yeah, the pile's just behind those bushes."
"I know where they're coming from."
The little group turned to look at Maeve.
"When we cleaned out the trophy room, we took every big thing that was in there, right?"
"Anything shiny was pretty much the rule."
"And because of the weight, we didn't actually carry them out."
"You want to try lugging that pile of junk by hand, and what does that-"
"What do you want to bet that the TriWizard Cup was stashed in the trophy room?"
Lucy looked puzzled, but Maeve was a Hufflepuff, and they hadn't forgotten a single detail of the events of two years ago.
"I don't understand."
Audrey nodded, "Of course, I just assumed they- sorry Lucy. The Cup itself had been tampered with, it was a portkey, that's why Harry and Cedric disappeared. But how could it have been reactivated?"
"Someone would have to have come to Hogwarts first to set it up again, and you can't apparate into Hogwarts."
"You could a few days ago."
All eyes turned to Lucy.
"What?"
"Long story, but the Hogwarts wards collapsed for a few hours not too long ago. There was enough time that if someone was waiting for it they could have snuck in and reactivated the spell on the Cup."
Warren turned his eyes back to the forest. "There's about 30 of them now."
Lucy gulped, "Is there any way to hurt those things?"
Warren nodded grimly, "Expecto patronus, but there's so many."
Misha looked around, "But there are 60 of us."
"You really think that a bunch of students, some of them first years, can actually handle that many-"
"What choice do we have? If we stay here, they are bound to find us soon. You know they have some sort of way to smell us out."
"We need time to organize this."
"We need a distraction."
Lucy peered over to where three more Dementors were joining the herd.
"I can make a distraction."
The seventh years stared, and nodded. Lucy had always been a bit of an odd student, they didn't doubt her hidden talents.
"I can sort of make an illusion, it would lead them wherever you want."
Misha and Warren were already in discussion.
"Strategically, we're at the best spot, all sides, element of surprise. Right, Lucy, here's what we need..."
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There were about 40 of them now, and despite her strongest shields, she could still feel the "Dementor chill" that Warren had warned her about. All the chocolate they had was dispersed among the students, who were being briefed, and in some cases, being given hasty spell casting lessons at that very moment.
Lucy had never been very good with advanced spells, at least the ones she didn't make up herself, so it was best for everyone that she simply focus on leading the visitors away from the pitch to give the other students time to get organized. Fortunately, at the moment the Dementors didn't seem to be going anywhere. Her first task was to change that. But she knew very well she couldn't manage it by herself.
**Bet?**
**Lucy?** Bet sounded sleepy. **Lucy, what on earth are you doing? Are you still outside? You know the Quidditch team was talking-**
**Already taken care of. Listen, I need the BA, and there isn't any time. I need you to Look towards the forest.**
**But I need to trance-**
**Try it, just breathe and focus.**
There was a long pause, but Lucy could sense intense mental activity from Beth's end, and even her limited empathetic capabilities could feel the alarm a few minutes later.
**What on-**
**I don't know why they're here, but we need to keep them away from the castle, we have no idea what's going on, but we can only assume that they expected to come out in there rather than in the forest.**
**And what are we going to do?**
**I need to lead them about for a little bit, Warren and the others think they can handle them, but they need time. And we need to get Dumbledore.**
**He's not here.**
**What!**
**He wasn't at the game, word is that he went to London this morning, very urgent. No one knows why, some people think it has to do with your lot.**
That would make sense. Of course, if Hogwarts was overrun with Dementors because the headmaster had left to advocate for a small group of troublesome students, that wasn't going to look good on any of their resumes.
**Damn. Ok, first things first anyway. I need you to wake up the boys, now.**
**Why can't you?**
**As it is I am trying to shield the presence of 60 students from a growing mob of Dementors, my resources are being a bit stretched.**
**Right, sorry.**
**Just pull them into the linkage like it's a lesson...**
Soon enough she heard Lynx's very fuzzy mind voice, he wasn't any good at this and could not mindspeak on his own.
**Whatisit?**
**Explanations later. We all need to work together, we are going to use Bet as a link because she has the best Sensing of the three of you. See through her eyes for a minute. Bet, show them the edge of the forest.**
Rasheph's voice was a bit clearer, but still sounded like he was on the bottom of a pond.
**Sweet merciful Merlin-**
**Lynx, I need you to make a fireball, something small, it just has to be a spot of warmth to attract them. You can see through Bet, find an object you can carry for a bit, something you can set on fire. At the same time it lights, Rasheph, I need you to project over it the image of a student, any student, as clear as you can make it. Broadsend towards them, but don't try to touch their minds at all. Put enough power behind it and anyone should be able to see it. You guys should start at the doors of the castle, I need this thing to run towards the lake, then it is going to loop around, I'll tell you where to move him, but you need to be in sync.**
**You are going to lure the Dementors?**
**That's right, we aren't sure exactly how they see, but if they sense heat, that's what the fireball is for. I'm going to layer over that a very intense fear, they seem to feed off it. If we're lucky they won't be able to resist.**
Rasheph sounded worried, **What if I can't sustain it for that long?**
**All you have to do is focus, I'm going to be channeling energy out of our newly established ley lines, so you should be all right.**
She heard Lynx's faint voice. **I found something to burn up, and I moved it towards the side entrance to the castle.**
Lucy Looked, and grinned, **That's oddly poetic of you Lynx. Rasheph, are you ready?**
The mention of the ley lines brought to Lucy's attention a possible reason for the Dementor brigade. While Rasheph was perfecting his image she roused Seamus.
**Seamus wake up!**
**What the-**
**Seamus, wake up Harry. Just tell him that someone may be trying to tamper with the Things, the whodoeswhatsit.**
**The what?**
**Just wake him already!**
There was a pause. Rasheph was ready. She didn't have time.
When Seamus came back he had a noticeable cloud of concern. **He was already awake, said his scar had been hurting, and then he and Ron ran out of the room without their shoes. Lucy, what's-**
**Can't talk, go wake McGonagall, something's in the school, goodbye.**
After shutting Seamus out she mentally turned back to the BA.
**Ok Lynx, light her up.**
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Lucy was watching with both the Sight and her normal eyesight, a slightly disorienting experience, but it was essential she have as clear an idea of what they were showing the Dementors as possible. She Felt Rasheph calm himself before she saw a figure appear on the grass near the castle.
She had told Rasheph to pick a student, but he hadn't. In rather a brilliant decision, he had as clearly as possible replicated the form of Sirius Black. Lucy grinned, she was sure the Dementors would have little trouble recognizing or recollecting the only wizard to escape Azkaban.
It wasn't exactly Black, of course, Lucy had met him once. But this version matched perfectly with the wanted poster of three years ago Harry had shown her. That made sense, that was all Rasheph had seen of him.
Seconds later, Lynx lit his fire. Lucy was hiding the fire itself from sight, so that only Sirius showed, but the figure gave off enough heat to be alive. Lucy added a thick over layer of fear and anxiety, and they set Sirius moving.
It didn't take long for the Dementors to notice. They began to move in that eerie, gliding fashion of theirs almost as soon as she set the layer. She tried to focus on keeping the students on the pitch shielded from sense, and keeping the phantom's parts as coordinated as possible, but she did noticed a movement off to the side- Audrey and Misha using some obscure spell to freeze the portkey, stopping any more visitors from coming in. They then leviosa'd the cup up into a tree in the forest, gave Lucy a wave, and darted back to the pitch.
Sirius was running along the lake, leading the Dementors away from the castle. He had ducked precariously close to the Whomping Willow, and several Dementors had been momentarily stunned. But Sirius continued to evade them, drawing them safely away from the castle, closer to the forest.
Warren appeared at her side. "We're ready Luce, anytime now."
**Bet, have them speed up a little, and bring him into the pitch by the far entrance.**
Sirius was leading them on a merry chase indeed. He cut across the lawn, down to the pitch, and through the entrance.
The Dementors pooled through, spreading over the pitch, circling around Sirius's form, closing in.
At Lucy's signal, the BA ceased their ruse, and the Dementor's were left staring at the smoking remains of a badly burned Quaffle.
At the same instant, 60 students emerged from their hiding places in the stands, found a Dementor, took aim, and the pitch was filled with the cries of "Expecto Patronus!"
It didn't matter that not every spell was terribly strong, it didn't matter that not every spell hit its target. The Dementors were outnumbered, and, thanks to Lucy, still completely blind to their attackers. The ground of the pitch was awash in the silvery forms of lions, foxes, bears, hawks, wolves, elephants, reindeer, boars, whales, and a particularly effective sheep.
Lucy looked at her wand. It was tempting. It couldn't do any harm.
She cast a glance about and spied a Dementor getting dangerously close to an exit, that was where they were concentrating most of their attention. She breathed and took aim.
Dimitri had spotted the same Dementor as well, but his leopard was too late, Lucy's eagle was already there.
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