DISCLAIMER: No, for the SEVENTEENTH time, I DON'T own YYH or HP. However, I own Gareth Leary, though if anyone wants him, they can buy him...

Chapter 17: Quidditch and All-out Battles

"What's the point of this sport again?"

Harry and Ron sighed in unison and began to explain the game of Quidditch to Yusuke and Kuwabara once more. Well, at least it took their minds off the upcoming game of Slytherin versus Gryffindor for the Cup. Which, Harry noted, was in about four hours.

He had been made the Gryffindor Team Captain in place of Angelina, who had left Hogwarts last year. Ron had been a little disappointed that he hadn't gotten the captainship, but like a true friend, had gotten over it. Personally, Harry thought that Ron was lucky not to have gotten it, because it was a serious hassle, trying to schedule practices that wouldn't interfere with Genkai's lessons (which were going quite well- they'd all been able to create some kind of attack, weak though the attacks may have been), boosting the team's spirits, finding a new Chaser, and trying to keep up with his schoolwork. No wonder Oliver and Angelina had been so stressed.

"You've got to get the most points by throwing the Quaffle into the rings at one end of the pitch, which is worth 10 points, and the Seeker's got to catch the Golden Snitch, which is worth 150 points," Harry explained vaguely.

"What's the Waffle again?"

It would have been a perfect April day if it hadn't been so windy. Some of the Gryffindor players were having trouble with the older model brooms, but otherwise the game was running smoothly. The replacement for Lee Jordan was Gryffindor's Gareth Leary, who was not nearly as... outspoken as Lee, but just as good an announcer.

"Ooh, Warrington hit by a Bludger from Sloper and he drops the Quaffle. Bell catches it, zooms towards the goal, she throws it, Bletchley's not able to stop it and it's 10- nothing, Gryffindor! Montague takes possession of the Quaffle, Spinnet and Bell close at his heels- And Malfoy slams into Alicia Spinnet!"

Thia was having trouble paying attention to the match. She was strangely conscious of Kurama's prescence next to her and this insecurity of a sort was starting to drive her crazy. For the third time in about 10 minutes, she un-did and then re-tied her hair into a ponytail.

"And that's a foul for Slytherin, Warrington takes it, c'mon Weasl- ooh, and it's 20-10, Gryffindor. Oh, Potter dives, Malfoy dives, apparently someone's seen the Snitch! But no, Harry breaks out of the dive and once again Malfoy eats grass. Will he ever learn to stop falling for that trick?"

Kurama noticed Thia's fidgeting and the way that she kept on twisting her ring around and around her finger. He was about to ask 'What's the matter?' when a cold feeling washed over him, as he was sure it had washed over everyone else in the stadium. Thia gave him a sharp look that said, 'This is not good.'

They looked up.

Dementors, all diving down for their prey. An unbelievable swarm of them, like silent, deadly killers in black.

Their heads snapped to Dumbledore, who was standing up and staring up, a look of fierce anger upon his face. It was frightening.

Up in the air, Harry had been scouting for the Snitch when the tell-tale feeling had set into his very bones, the icy chill and the draining of happiness from his entire being. It was automatic for Harry to draw his wand and turn to see the shrouded black beings.

If there was any moment during which Harry would have had a stroke, this would probably be it. It seemed as though the entire sky was blackened with the dreaded creatures. Almost unconsciously, Harry dived down, a wise move on his part. As he streaked down, he watched as the rest of the two teams (save for himself and Ron) fled, flying to the castle as fast as they could.

What a time to see the Snitch, darting around as though nothing was wrong!

"Tell me that's not Yusuke doing what I think he's doing!" Thia said, shaking Kurama's arm in a very alarmed manner, and pointing to the Spirit Detective, who was seemingly oblivious to the pandemonium around him.

He was in his Shot Gun pose.

"Does he even know what dementors are?!" she asked, horrified.

"I doubt it," was the reply.

Thia grabbed at any idea in her mind, quickly, before she had time to refine it and before Yusuke decided to attack.

"Sonorus!" she whispered, and then, "IDIOT!!! Silencio!"

Heads snapped around, disbelieving, and Yusuke's was among them. Both Kurama and Thia gave him murderous looks before attending to the trouble at hand.

About twelve voices shouted, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" at the same moment, most of them teachers, but a good few were students. Twelve Patronuses appeared. Among them were Harry's stag, Kurama's fox (a.n.: What else would it be, a butterfly?), and Thia's rabbit.

And then the true trouble started.

Demons, hordes of them, appeared on the Quidditch pitch, all horrifically ugly. Screeches could be heard everywhere, not from the monsters, but rather from the students, first years and seventh years alike, all of whom were frightened out of their wits of creatures that had not been in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and were hardly explainable by any means. There was no way to get back to the castle short of flying or Apparating, and both were virtually impossible at the moment.

"Argh... We're going to have to blow our cover once and for all," Kuwabara pointed out to Yusuke, who nodded grimly. Somehow, Dumbledore caught their eye, and gave them a sharp nod that said it all.

Kurama and Thia got the same type of nod, but Hiei was already on the field, his katana slashing away. In bare minutes, the rest of them were down there as well, Kuwabara with his Spirit Sword, Yusuke with his Shot Gun, Kurama with his Rose Whip, and Thia with her Damage Spheres. Their fight was soon the center of attention, though with so many of the students passed out from fright, not much attention was left.

It was like perfect teamwork. Kuwabara and Hiei attacked outright with their swords, and Yusuke fought quite a few with his fists before resorting to the Spirit Gun. Kurama's whip reached those that were out of range, and Thia's spheres swallowed the attacks that were headed towards them as well as quite a few of the demons who produced those attacks.

And then, for some reason, Hermione decided to join the fray, soon followed by Harry (who had left his Firebolt Lord knows where) and a reluctant Ron, all battling with their minimal amounts of Spirit Energy, not fully harnessed.

"Stupid humans. Get yourselves killed, see if any of us care," Hiei yelled over the noise around them, hacking down three demons in one fell swoop.

"Hello, we're trying to help!" Hermione cried out, desperately battling one whose purple teeth were bared and who seemed to want to eat her. It was hit from behind by a green sphere by Thia, who was in turn hit square in the jaw by a very vicious and very strong demon.

And so the battle went, staff and students scattering the dementors above and other students fighting off the demons below. Harry, Hermione, and Ron were deadly tired, though they worked as hard as they could to vanquish the demons. The others were picking up more and more of their slack, but it was not as though they couldn't handle it.

"Go back! It's fine!" Thia told them when she got near to them once again.

It was far from fine, as Tsurin's demons never seemed to end, but the way that the three of them moved, they were more of a hindrance than a help.

"No! We want to help you!"

Thia sighed, but knew that determination was determination.

"Where's Genkai? Why isn't she here helping?" Harry asked Yusuke all of a sudden.

"How'm I supposed to know?"

"She said that she had something with the Order of the Pidgeon or something like that," Kuwabara filled in for his friend.

Phoenix, Harry thought.

It was at that point when several of the dementors suddenly dove down and started to head towards the group, sucking the happiness right out of them. Yet there was nothing that the eight of them could do, being already occupied with fighting. They depended on the others above them to take care of it.

No Patronuses came dashing down to help.

Lily Potter's scream rang through Harry's head. Fight it... Concentrate on the fight...

An image flashed across Thia's field of vision. A deathly pale face, its once happy eyes now vacant and staring out at her, accusing her, as blood pooled out from the woman's wrist.

Still no Patronuses.

"Kuronue!" That was his own voice calling out... No, he would not listen.

"Shut up, shut up, shut UP!" Thia yelled at the top of her lungs, trying to block out whatever it was that was apparently invading her head. And then: "Dammit, EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

The silvery rabbit shot out of her wand and joined the stag and the fox, who had both burst out of their respective wands just moments before, and together they drove off the dementors.

As those three dealt with that problem, Hiei zipped around, cutting down demons faster than the blink of an eye. Kuwabara was behind him, trying to match him kill for kill, though with the human's inferior speed, it was becoming increasingly hard. And then... Hiei had the gnawing feeling that if he took off his bandana and opened his Jagan, the pinprick would be back, ready to annoy him.

Like he'd be so stupid as to let that happen.

Yusuke, meanwhile, was extremely frustrated with the fact that he couldn't just use his Shot Gun to take out all of the remaining demons, because he didn't want to hit any of his friends. At least he could use this frustration to take out quite a few with his fists.

Kuwabara was doing quite well with his orange sword, and was keeping up with Hiei as best as he could. Erratic blows and changing sword sizes were all part of his plan, and it worked almost as efficiently as Hiei's speed.

And then they all realized that there were only three living demons left on the field (though there certainly were a lot on that were dead) and no more dementors left in the sky.

"Bindings," Thia said before any of the three left could escape, and they were all bound by green glowing rings. Above, where there were still students, the eight of them heard sobs and hysterical yelling. Then they were all led back to the castle by their Heads of House as the sky above darkened and it threatened to rain, a severe contradiction to the beautiful day it had been only hours before.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron all plopped down onto the floor, careful not to sit on any of the dead bodies. From inside his pocket, Harry pulled out the Snitch, sighing at the game that had been won, and yet, would not be celebrated. Hiei sheathed his katana and Kuwabara's Spirit Sword dissipated. Yusuke rubbed his knuckles a bit before scuffing at the grass beneath his feet. Thia took deep, calming breaths and tried to empty her mind of the terrible memory that had plagued her from so long ago. Kurama surveyed the damage inflicted upon the pitch and echoed Harry's sigh as the first drops of April rain began to fall.

Snape came to them first, silent, though he had a look of reluctant approval in his eyes, and took the three captives with him, undoubtedly to the dungeons.

It was then that Albus Dumbledore decided to swoop down on them, and uttered a single word: "Come."

Author's Notes: Um... I'm extremely sorry that I haven't updated in a few days. I've been trying to fix up my... erm... novel-in-the-works. embarrassed grin (Yes, I want to be the next JK Rowling.) In any case: I have over 100 reviews!!! Thanks sooooo much for putting up with me!!! happy dance... happy dance... happy dance... I hope that my attempt at a Quidditch game as well as an all-out battle were all right. Also, about the Quidditch players: I remembered the Beaters, I remembered the Seekers, I remembered the Keepers, but I wasn't sure about the Chasers... If any of them (Slytherins or Gryffindors) were seventh years in OotP (like I think Warrington was), well then let's say that they got left behind for another year. I was too lazy to look it up... sue me... On second thought, don't. About the memories: I know, I suck. But I couldn't think anything up for the rest of them (I didn't even want to dream about Hiei's... shiver) and I wasn't all too sure of Kurama's, though I did try. And finally, I'd like to know if anyone would like another look at the Dark Side. Firstly, it's my specialty, and secondly... actually, my 'secondly' is a secret that includes a clue no one seems to have picked up on in the last Dark Side chapter (or at least no one's asked me about)... Then again, I don't know if y'all want another chapter like the last one. Well, vote and review, if you feel like it...

Responses:

Lobs-StAcEy-Ters, shadowkitsune, TTrunks, EverKitsune and Slave2anime Thank you so much for the reviews!!! (And the information.)

Kurapika-Kuruta It's a bit late, but at least it's here, right? Thank you!

Rose lol... I'm very proud to say that I finally got two Yu Yu Hakusho manga! It put me in a very happy mood, which is why this chapter finally got written.

Mike the Great Woohoo! Someone got it!!! The conniving and delusional Gollum was my inspiration for Lord Tsurin, whose original name was Lord Bob! No, seriously, it was...