Ch 39:- Back into Hell
After the bedlam of The Burrow, the silence of Number 12 was like a slap in the face. Harry's heart rate began to slow as he sat down behind the desk and tried to stop his hands trembling with reaction. He tried to imagine what was happening back at the Burrow.
The curses should have stopped and the Death Eaters would be disapparating from their hidden positions back the wherever they called base. The Dementors would be starting to leave, drifting up into the clouds and sweeping away, hidden from prying eyes.
Harry wondered who had got hurt.
He wondered if anyone had been killed.
He wondered how badly The Burrow was damaged.
He wondered about Ginny. The image of her happy face as she smiled at him under the mistletoe merged with the image of the shocked and bleeding visage he had seen before he left.
Was she hurt worse?
Was she even still alive?
Was anyone still alive?
He wanted to go back
He needed to go back.
He couldn't go back. The Burrow might be attacked again, if all the Death Eaters hadn't left.
Wait!
He could go back! To somewhere outside The Burrow - if he could find a reference point!
Harry stood once more, pulled his wand from his pocket, closed his eyes and remembered: Two trees, branches like skeletons against the sky, leaning on each other for support.
Time to go.
- o -
Snow!
Everywhere! - In Harry's eyes, in his ears, up his nose, down his collar, up his trouser legs; soft powdery snow. He'd forgotten the snow, and he'd managed to stumble on arrival, so now he was lying face down in his own private snowstorm. His glasses were gone, his wand was missing and he could hardly breathe. Blinded and helpless he lay still, feverishly trying to get the snow out of his eyes and nose. The knowledge that he was completely helpless close to a gang of Death Eaters and their dementor allies was making his insides seeth.
Eventually vision and breathing were restored. Harry could see he was in the clearing in front of the two trees, lying in a bowl of snow in a drift about two and a half feet deep. It looked as though the snow had been blasted out by the displaced air of his arrival. No wonder there was a huge cloud of snow above him; it was already blowing away in the cold breeze.
Harry couldn't see what was happening down the valley for the bushes that had trapped the snow drift, but a pair of explosions in the distance galvanised him into action.
'Accio Wand' brought the wand to his hand;
'Accio Glasses' brought those. He dragged his handkerchief out of his pocket and shook the snow out of it, then carefully cleaned the lenses and put them on. Briefly he wished he could do the cleaning spells Hermione managed so well, but at least he could see. Carefully he edged to the front of the clearing and peered over the bushes...
The Burrow was still under attack.
Harry could see jets of red and blue light sparking from various points surrounding the Burrow, hitting the structure, or disappearing into the windows. One or two parts of the building were beginning to smoke. Occasional bursts of light flashed back out of the house, but none seemed to come near to where the Death Eaters were hiding.
Harry didn't know who of the occupants of the house could hear spells, but it wouldn't be helping if the Death Eaters couldn't see them and were also hexing blind. He wondered who was still fighting back, but answered himself immediately – They would all have stayed if they couldn't get to Ron, Hermione and Ginny, or if they couldn't make a portkey for them for some reason.
More importantly, he wondered why the attack hadn't stopped! Surely the Death Eaters would know he had left? A cluster of dementors was circling above the house; they, at least, should be aware of his departure! As he watched, several dived down and seemed to peer into one of the window openings, to be driven back by a volley of curses. Harry wondered how many of the occupants actually knew how to cast a patronus charm, apart from Ginny and Hermione. He'd left them cowering in a stairway, unable to see out, so they might not even know the dementors were trying to get in.
Harry wondered what Dumbledore was doing to get help.
He made a decision. Obviously the help hadn't arrived and equally obviously the Death Eaters didn't know he had left. He was going to have to show them.
- o -
Harry's first incendio spell burst against the two bare branched trees in a gout of flame that died down immediately. So did the second, but a holly bush close to the base of the tree started to burn.
Ahah!
Several incendio spells later and several evergreen bushes were blazing fiercely round the top of the bluff. From freezing cold, Harry was rapidly becoming uncomfortably warm.
Still the attack continued, though. Now the Dementors were looking into all the windows, though those that tried the ground floor seemed to stagger back from the openings before rising to the next floor level to try their luck again.
Again the attack was repulsed. Harry even saw the occasional flicker of what could have been a patronus, but the dementors pressed forward. He wondered what else he had to do to attract their attention. He could try hexing at the nearest Death Eaters, but he might need to get out quickly if he did. He refreshed his memory of the study at Grimmauld place and fired a stupefy spell at the nearest Death Eater.
It was too far.
Harry swore loudly.
Another Wheel of Death lashed out from the side of the house nearest to Harry and disappeared diagonally through a window. He heard the howl and the crash as it tore through the house and appeared through the side-wall in a gout of timber shards. A part of the wall on that side of the house toppled away from the main building and smashed into the garden. That had been where Charlie and Dora had been sleeping.
Harry screamed at the Death Eaters in frustration and rising panic. He was beginning to realise he could be the only witness to the murder of the entire Weasley family. He had to do something more.
The nearest Death Eater had raised the Wheel of Death. Whoever it was had a slightly smaller companion and they were both hiding behind the garage, concentrating on the house. They weren't keeping a lookout at all. Harry quickly noted the locations of the other Death Eaters as best he could, then stared at the nearest two, fixing their position and as much detail as possible of the adjacent garage and bushes. Gripping his wand tightly, Harry mentally hauled the location towards him.
There was another flurry of snow - but this time Harry was ready and had raised a stupefy spell against the larger Death Eater before either had time to even think. As the first toppled over, Harry dived sideways and fired a curse at the second figure. That figure also collapsed, allowing Harry to roll sideways in the snow once more, before rising to his feet in the lee of the garage and carefully approaching the two fallen figures.
Bellatrix Lestrange and Draco Malfoy.
Harry had a wolfish grin on his face as he pointed his wand at Bellatrix
'Petrificus Maximila Totalis' he intoned. Now, only he could free her.
He looked round the corner of the garage, the Dementors were still trying to gain entry, but almost immediately a voice began to sound in his head 'Stup-' He ducked back as the curse flashed past his nose and turned a patch of snow to steam.
Great! Under attack from his friends. Still, he thought, at least this side of the house wasn't being attacked now and he was gratified to know that someone was on their toes.
Turning to Malfoy, Harry hauled Draco over on his back and applied the same Petrificus charm. Two down, maybe another five or six to go – but where were they? He settled down to try to pinpoint their locations and plan a means of attack.
Harry's cogitations were halted in their tracks by the appearance of a figure in front of him. They had apparated out of thin air, in full view of the house, and their curse was already echoing in his brain.
Harry's protego was just too late, and his protection charm threw him sideways – straight into the wall of the garage.
- o -
'HARRY!'
A shout tearing through his head
'HARRY!'
He grunted, the only reply he could manage.
'Oh, Bloody Hell, thank Merlin for that! I never could get the hang of the enervate charm!'
The voice sounded desperately relieved. Charlie?
Harry opened his eyes. He had snow in his hair and down his neck, his jersey and trousers were snowy and damp and he had a thumping headache from a bruise on the side of his head. He tried unsuccessfully to sit up.
'No, just lie there.' urged Charlie ' The reinforcements are going to be here soon.'
Desperation was still driving Harry though. 'Got to get up! Got to help!' he managed to gasp.
Charlie helped him out of the snow and onto his feet, and leaned him against the wall of the garage.
'OK, just stay here. Got it? We'll get the rest of the Death Eaters, now we can get out of the house.'
Harry nodded. He brushed feebly at the snow on his clothes and in his hair.
'OK, just don't move!' said Charlie, and he vanished round the corner of the garage.
Harry stood for a while getting his breath and his sense of balance back, then looked carefully round the corner of the building. Several battles were going on around the house, where whoever it was duelled with the remaining Death Eaters, but the Dementors were still circling the house, and one or two dived into an upstairs window as he watched. It looked like a few too many people had apparated out to fight the Death Eaters.
Almost at once, Harry heard a muffled voice from inside the house
'Expecto Patronum'
An intense white light erupted inside the house and blazed out of the window that the dementors had entered. They tumbled back out in disarray, but immediately regrouped and turned back towards the opening.
Now the patronus itself appeared – Ginny's tigress. She seemed to stand poised on the windowsill for ages, but then threw herself onto the nearest dementor and began to tear at it with teeth and claws. At first the other dementors seemed to be taken aback, but they quickly got braver and returned to the advance, beginning to surround Ginny's patronus and the dementor she was attacking. She released the first and tore at another, but Harry could see she was actually outnumbered.
Harry tried to raise Prongs to help, he really did. He raised his wand and was about to say the charm, but the memories of Dora seemed to be far away and insubstantial, there was no power in them at all. Panicking, Harry looked up once more to Ginny's struggling patronus.
Harry could see Ginny now, in his minds eye; wand outstretched, concentration on her face, struggling with all her might to save her brother and his girlfriend; knowing that everyone but them could get out; knowing she had to hold the dementors off until someone realised what was happening.
The memory of Ginny's face beneath the mistletoe came back to Harry, unbidden. The look of joy and glee in her eyes, the feel of her lips on his. Other times and other places flashed across the canvas of his memory; the Quidditch game, Ginny's kiss afterwards, the sudden unbidden smile and giggle; all the times from the past when Ginny's giggle and flashing eyes had suddenly held his attention. The image of Ginny's face under the mistletoe returned. Smiling, giving him what affection she could, daring her family to condemn her. He held that image in front of his eyes.
'Expecto Patronum!'
Prongs burst from the end of Harry's wand with the brilliance of the sun and charged into the sky.
- o -
The tide of the battle turned at that point. Ginny's tigress had suddenly gained strength and brilliance as Ginny realised someone was going to help. Between them, Prongs and the tigress forced the dementors back from the house, before attacking the nearest with a sudden and quite astounding ferocity. Teeth, antlers, hooves and claws spun a web of destruction that seemed to be tearing the dementor apart. Strips of cloth began to fall away from its cloak as it struggled against the combined might of the two patronuses.
The rest of the dementors rose away from the battle, persuaded by yet another patronus that launched itself from the window opening. Hermione's Otter was a tenacious and lightning quick little animal that harried the remaining dementors as they circled above the battle that was playing itself out beneath them.
The single dementor seemed to be growing weaker, its struggles more sporadic. It suddenly gave out a hoarse cry, like the sound of a hundred crows calling at once. A single croak from those circling above was the only reply. The desperate dementor gave another hoarse cry that turned suddenly to a howl, rising in pitch and volume to a banshee shriek, before seeming to fade away by degrees into the distance. The cloak fluttered down from between the two patronuses to land somewhere in the kitchen garden.
The effect on the other dementors was electric. They seemed to recoil further from Prongs and the tigress, beginning to gain altitude in a tight group and continually harried by Hermione's otter and a new patronus that sprang from the far side of the house. This new patronus flapped upwards on wings with just a hint of red and gold. Harry briefly wondered who had a phoenix for a patronus, before the realisation hit him that Professor Dumbledore had finally arrived. Immediately, Harry urged Prongs upwards to help. Ginny must have seen the Phoenix too because her tigress followed Prongs.
The dementors were very quickly in full retreat, with the Patronuses rounding up the stragglers and chasing them up towards the clouds. At some unvoiced command, the dementors all turned tail and raced off westwards, finally vanishing into the clouds with the Phoenix in hot pursuit.
Prongs, the tigress and the otter had halted in mid air together looking towards the west before Harry called Prongs back to him. The stag's hooves had barely reached the ground when Harry relaxed the charm to let his patronus vanish. Looking up he saw the tigress and the otter also disperse into silver mist and disappear.
- o -
Harry leaned against the garage door, staring empty eyed at the burned and battered house before him. The Burrow was heavily damaged, whole sections torn away and black with smoke and ash. Windows were gaping holes with tattered curtains still blowing in the freezing wind from the North West. The remains of the Christmas lights hung in festoons from the eaves and trailed in the garden, the shapes twisted and torn by the ferocity of the battle.
People were shouting round the other side of the house and Harry could hear more shouting from inside The Burrow itself, but no one came near him. He knew Dumbledore and the Aurors were far more competent at dealing with the aftermath of the attack - and tending the wounded – or the dead.
Harry wondered dully whether he ought to tell the others he was alright, but he decided they would know anyway, having seen Prongs. Besides, just then he didn't really want to go back inside. He didn't want to see the wrecked rooms and smashed furniture, didn't want to find out who had been hurt or even killed. Most of all, Harry didn't want to see Mr. and Mrs Weasley's anguish at the destruction that his presence had brought to their beloved home. It had been his presence, no one else's. He should have stayed in London, instead of selfishly coming here and bringing ruin upon those who cared for him.
Harry would have left there and then, but he didn't have the mental energy to visualise the study at number 12. He was just so tired now. He wanted nothing more than to sleep.
Slowly, head bowed and quivering violently with reaction and cold, Harry slid down the garage door until he was sitting in the snow with his head in his hands, wishing he had never been born.
- o -
It seemed to be a long time before footsteps crunching in the snow gave Harry warning of someone approaching, but he didn't look up. In his frozen wretched state, he almost hoped it was a Death Eater, come to finish him off
'Harry?'
It was Dumbledore.
'P-Please go away P-Professor.' stammered Harry, through chattering teeth. He still didn't look up. Dumbledore's boots were now right in front of him, poking out from beneath the headmaster's robes.
'I think not, Harry.' said the Professor firmly. 'You need warmth and food.'
Harry heard a mumbled incantation and his skin began to tingle with a gentle heat that slowly began to penetrate a little way inside him. It couldn't reach the icy core of his self-loathing, but the shivering began to ease. Harry raised his head to look up into Dumbledore's eyes. He could see only pity, not hatred.
There should have been hatred.
'Food and w-warmth are for the i-innocent, Professor.' Harry stammered. 'I'm the g-guilty one today.'
Dumbledore crouched down in front of Harry. 'And why do you say that?' he asked gently.
'I should have s-stayed at home.' Harry said sadly. Then the anger and frustration burst out. 'All this is my f-fault! – But I went back to Grimmauld place - Just like you told me to! I promise I did, Professor! - They just kept attacking!'
'Why did you return, Harry?' Again, the gentle voice.
Harry stared at the dirty snow in front of him. His anger had vanished as quickly as it arrived. 'Just to be sure the Death Eaters had gone, Professor. – I didn't come straight here though.'
'Where did you go?'
Harry sighed. 'On the hill – over there.' He pointed over to the other side of the valley and the smoking bushes.
Dumbledore studied the bluff carefully. 'Who set the fire then, Harry,' he asked.
'Oh, er – I did, to try to get the Death Eaters attention. It didn't work - so I had to jump here.' He sighed again. 'I got Bellatrix Lestrange, look.' He pointed at the petrified Bellatrix and Malfoy half buried in the snow. 'Maximalia'd 'em.'
A small smile appeared amidst the Headmaster's beard. He stood up. 'I am impressed, Harry, though I hope you were going to un-petrify them before the hour was out?'
Harry nodded, slowly. He wondered if he really would have...
I will arrange for restraints, so you can release them,' murmured Dumbledore, 'and then I think we must get you to St Mungo's for examination.'
'But Professor, All this was my fault – '
The Headmaster sighed. 'You take too much upon yourself, Harry. I have had a chance to carry out a short interrogation of one of the captured Death Eaters. The reason the attack continued after you left - was that you were not the target.'
Harry felt totally bewildered. 'Who then?'
'The attack was aimed at Arthur Weasley and his family. I informed Arthur before he was taken to St Mungo's. I think you may find they are all pleased you were here, Harry - very pleased indeed.'
Harry let out a huge sigh of relief as the feelings of guilt faded away. So it hadn't been his fault, after all. He'd have rejoiced, but the results of the attack were far too severe to allow that. He struggled to his feet, still shivering despite the warming spell Dumbledore had used, but now there was also a spark of warmth deep inside him that hadn't been there before.
Now for the hardest question of all.
'How many are hurt, Professor?' he asked. He didn't dare ask if any were dead.
The Headmaster sounded grave, but his news was better than Harry had dared hope.
'Fleur Delacour is badly injured but she will recover, as will Bill Weasley, who was injured defending her. Fred Weasley is still unconscious, but he is not badly hurt. The others have some cuts, bruises and minor burns, but they are all alive.'
Harry breathed a sigh of relief and started towards the house, but the Headmaster took his arm. 'Where are you going, Harry?' he queried.
Harry turned back in confusion. 'To see them, of course, Professor.'
Dumbledore shook his head. 'They have already been taken to St Mungo's, as have two of the Death Eaters, who were hurt. The rest are at the Ministry. The Headmaster looked vague for a second. 'Aurors will be here in a short time to secure Lestrange and Malfoy.'
'I'm also a bit cold, Professor.' muttered Harry, through chattering teeth.
'That, I can prevent.' said Dumbledore and, with a whisk of his wand, Harry was wearing a heavy fur coat, rather like those worn by the pupils of Durmstrang, and was beginning to warm up from another warming spell.
Once Bellatrix Lestrange and Malfoy had been taken away, Harry started off towards the house again.
'Harry?' The Headmaster had a quizzical look on his face.
Harry turned. 'My broom and my presents and all my things are in there, Professor.' he said.
Dumbledore's questioning look changed to one of understanding. 'The house is already being emptied of all possessions, Harry. Most are being taken to the Ministry for safe keeping but I instructed that the more personal ones should be taken to St Mungo's.'
Harry paused, 'Oh. - Well - fine, but there's something you need to take yourself, Professor, if it's still in one piece – and there's something else I really want to check out before I go.'
Dumbledore sighed. 'Very well, Harry.' he said. 'Lead on.'
- o -
The Headmaster was cradling the metal artefact in his hands as he and Harry left the Burrow.
'So, you believe this machine started itself, Harry?' he queried.
'Yes, Professor, I'm almost certain.'
'And it also repelled dementors?'
Harry sighed. 'I think so. There's nothing else can have made them back away from the windows as far as I know. I didn't see any spells raised against them from inside.'
The Headmaster remained silent for a while.
'Very well.' he said finally. 'We must ask the other occupants of the house if they either started the machine or drove the dementors from the ground floor windows. Now what is so important that we must wander round the kitchen garden, poking at the undergrowth?'
Harry stopped and pointed at a ragged black piece of cloth draped over the back of the garden shed.
'That's what I was after, Professor.' Dumbledore looked on politely. 'It fell from the dementor that Ginny's and my Patronus were attacking.'
The Headmaster peered at the cloth through his spectacles.
'I must say, Harry, that I did not see the cloak fall, but then I was somewhat occupied during a large part of that action. Are you telling me that this was a dementor's cloak?'
'I – I think so – Professor.'
Dumbledore continued to inspect the cloth with considerable care.
'Do you think we killed it?' asked Harry hesitantly.
The Headmaster turned slowly. 'It is very difficult to kill a dementor, Harry. Under normal circumstances I believe they are invulnerable, but – '
'But? Professor?'
'I am unaware of a situation in which a dementor may be destroyed by a patronus - or even two of them, but I admit that I am not the repository of all knowledge, Harry. I recall you own a book on the subject of dementors, the one that you left in my study. I did not have a chance to study it, perhaps you should do so.'
Harry began to unsnag the cloak from the shed and the brambles behind it.
'No, leave it. I will instruct that it is taken to the Department of Mysteries for investigation.' Dumbledore waved over a pair of Aurors from by the house and gave them instructions. 'Now, I think we should delay our journey to St Mungo's no longer. I am sure the Weasley family will be more than just relieved to see you are safe.'
- o -