The Four Apprentices Chapter 19, a harry potter fanfic

Chapter 19

Saturday the apprentices and Tonks went to the newly reopened Three Broomsticks pub for breakfast. Ginny wasn't able to go because of her class with the DA. They were finishing when Harry remembered that he had to go pick up a cloak at Gladrags Wizardwear down the street from the pub. The attendant handed him his package and was making small talk when Harry began to have a strange feeling. Having learned from experience not to ignore strange feelings, Harry told the attendant to go into the back room and not to come out. She didn't have to be told twice, and was gone within seconds.

Harry left his package on the counter, and transfigured his gray robes into a magenta set, believing that they would be passable. Certain that the attendant was cowering in the back room, he morphed into Dumbledore's form and walked out the door. Every dementor in Britain was nearby! Harry used the canon blast charm, hoping that Ginny and the DA would hear it. The witches came out of the Three Broomsticks and from across the street Harry said, "On three. One, two, three." They each cast their forms. Only Harry, and Hermione had thought to bring their blood staffs, which would produce a killer strength form. The Patronus forms began their work.

Meanwhile, Ginny was satisfied at the progress that the flying group was making. They did best when they were hovering and held their broom with their opposite hand while casting with their wand arm. The wand holders that Professor Potter had given them proved very helpful. She was about to send them back for the morning, when she heard the sound of the canon blast charm coming from the village. She was sure that it was Harry. In a command voice, she said, "Dennis, go tell the teachers that something is very wrong at the village, you others follow me. They need our help."

Back at the village, it was pandemonium. It seemed like half of the villagers had been outside and on their way when the dementors swooped into the village. A dozen Death Eaters had followed them. Within seconds, a dozen villagers had been circled and were being kissed. It looked like this would be the end of the village. It looked like this time there was no rescue team. Then the villagers heard the canon blast, and once again, felt hope.

Having cast their Patronus forms, the dementors were beginning to waver when the broom riders arrived. Ginny and those that could cast a Patronus made an attempt to corral the dementors, while Harry and Hermione's giant forms began to cut the dementors to bits.

She saw a green jet flash by her side, and fired a Reducto blast back at the attacker. It hit and he went down.

Standing outside watching the action for a moment, Susan was grabbed from behind. Using the moves that Kingsley had shown them last summer, she sidestepped her attacker and gave her a kick to the stomach. Before the Death Eater could recover, Susan stunned her attacker. Remembering Harry's advice, she stunned the downed Death Eater a second time for good measure.

Harry and Hermione kept casting Patronus forms, but it seemed like there were fewer and fewer dementors. The foul stench in the cold air was disgusting, but to Harry, it smelled like victory. Hermione would have to talk with Harry another time to find out why he had disguised himself as Professor Dumbledore.

From her position, Tonks was watching Harry working in the form of Dumbledore, and trying to cover him. She saw someone off to his side raise their wand against them. "Reducto," they both said at the same time.

Like Dumbledore, Harry's attention was focused elsewhere when he was hit by the blast. Fortunately there were two differences. The villager who had been forced to cast the spell has not a powerful witch, and her spell really wasn't that powerful. Second, Harry was wearing his Hungarian horntail armor vest, which absorbed 95 of the blast.

Tonks felt sick as she saw Harry get hit and blown off his feet from the blast. She was amazed when he got up a few moments later, his cloak smoking from the blast. She called out, "Professor, you're on fire."

Colin was busy taking photos from his broom when he saw Professor Dumbledore get hit. It had been good chance and habit that he'd brought his camera today. He had taken nearly thirty photos so far. With all the makings of a true paparazzi, he had just snapped another photo when a jet of green light hit the back of his shooting star broom. Somehow he managed to get close to the ground when the charms on the broom gave out. He fell the last fifteen feet.

Voldemort was shocked when he saw Dumbledore get up again after being hit with the Reducto blast. His sources had told him that Dumbledore was near death. He could see that the attack on the village had been lost, and did not wish to sacrifice the remainder of his Death Eaters on a losing cause. It had not been the brutal turning point in the war that he'd anticipated. He'd been certain that Dumbledore would have been holed up in the hospital wing, like a dying dog. Aside from the brainwashed villager, Riddle personally had only managed to kill two villagers and hit some idiot boy floating on a broom taking photos.

He apparated back to Riddle Manor and pressed the Mark, recalling the remaining Death Eaters. The dementors had largely met their match and the remaining ones would have to fend for themselves, or be killed. He would battle the old fool another day.

Harry felt terrible. He could hardly stand, and felt like he had been hit in the chest by an extra strength beater bat. He had a very difficult time breathing, and knew that he would collapse at any moment.

Tonks saw him waver, and knew that she would have to get him moved immediately. She called to Hermione to help her.

Amelia Bones received the message that Hogsmede was under attack. She rounded up the dozen Aurors and four Mediwitches that were available, and quickly informed them of the situation. As she was speaking, she wished that they were equipped as well as Harry's team. She wished them well and they vanished. She prayed that she would see each of them again alive and whole at the end of their shift.

Several minutes passed, and she heard nothing. She decided to go and see for herself.

At the school, Dumbledore and McGonagall directed a school lineup to identify who was missing. Within five minutes, it was obvious that the apprentices, Miss Tonks, and fourteen members of the DA club were missing, and presumed to be engaged in the fight.

Dennis Creevey did not have the names of everyone who had been on brooms, but confirmed that Ginny, Colin, Neville, Hanna, Ernie, Terry and Michael Corner were among those who had been out training. Minerva asked that the students please return to their common rooms until lunch time.

Pop, pop, … pop!

When the sixteen Aurors and Medi-Witches arrived at the village, the carnage was sickening. There were bodies, walking wounded, dazed villagers and cloaks littering the ground everywhere on the streets of the small village. A horrible stench lingered in the air.

The Medi-Witches treated the wounded while the Aurors manacled the Death Eaters and rounded up those who had been kissed by the dementors.

When the final tally was listed, the Aurors were astonished.

146 dementors destroyed

18 villagers kissed

3 villagers killed by unknown means

2 villagers killed by killing curse

1 villager killed by Tonks (self defense under Imperious)

26 villagers with minor injuries sustained running away

4 Death Eaters captured including Narcissa Malfoy

2 Death Eaters killed including former Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge

1 student injured from a spell cast by a Death Eater

Amelia saw Tonks leading Dumbledore down the street. She went up to them and saw that Dumbledore was injured. Waving off her offer of help, Tonks explained that she needed to get him back to the castle right away. Amelia noticed that she was carrying a blood staff that was not hers, but elected not to say anything about it.

The reality was that she had never seen such a one-sided victory in her life. She would nominate him personally for the Order of Merlin First class, except she knew that he'd already earned one many years ago.

Hermione rounded up the students and sent them walking back to the castle carrying their brooms. She wasn't sure if they would be cheered upon their return, or expelled. Unlike the first attack with the dementors, this time they really had no where to go, and most perished within 200 yards of the Three Broomsticks.

Silently she praised herself for having brought her blood staff along with her. She heard Tonks call her over to help someone.

Ginny was carrying Colin's camera as she flew back to the castle. She met Flitwick, Dumbledore and McGonagall at the front door. They were astonished when she provided them with the details as she knew them. They could see the students beginning to walk up the front lawn to the castle. Behind them, Colin was being brought in on a stretcher in with a broken wrist, arm and shoulder.

Ginny was equally astonished. She had been all but certain that she'd seen Dumbledore in the village. In all of the confusion, she must have been wrong.

After treating or transporting the injured citizens, the Medi-Witches had the unpleasant duty of transporting the eighteen dementor kissed citizens to St. Mungo's. Their families would be notified upon their arrival.

Most were amazed that there was a village to return from. They had heard that the heaps of black cloth lying on the ground had been the remains of at least a hundred of the hellish dementors. Whatever had destroyed them was power beyond their comprehension.

The Aurors transported the captured Death Eaters, then they returned a second time to transport the dead. They returned a third time to bring the large pile of dementor cloaks back to the holding cells.

Finally Hermione and Tonks conjured a floating stretcher to carry Harry (still in the form of Dumbledore) back to the castle. About a hundred yards from the castle Tonks cast a cloud of fog around them to obscure the vision of anyone who might be looking at them. She said, "Harry, you have to change back now." With nearly all of his remaining strength, he changed back. She transfigured his robes back to the original gray shape and they continued their journey back to the castle. Understanding what had happened, Dumbledore retired to his quarters and changed into robes that resembled those that he'd seen Harry wearing.

Healer Crabtree had received word that Hogsmede was under attack by a large force. She anticipated a large quantity of casualties, perhaps as many as two hundred.. She had her aid go round up the other off duty healers in preparation for a very unpleasant morning. Within fifteen minutes, she had six additional healers on duty. When the wounded, and the citizens who had been kissed began coming in, she was sickened to hear that over a hundred dementors had attacked the village. She re-evaluated her estimate upwards to at least half of the village would be entering the lobby that afternoon.

She was amazed and delighted to hear that other than the eighteen villagers kissed, there were only a handful of people with injuries requiring advanced treatment. Rumors began to spread that Albus Dumbledore had almost single-handedly destroyed the dementors. Based on her examination of him a few days earlier, she viewed the report somewhere between amazement and outright disbelief.

Rita Skeeter received word that Hogsmede had been nearly destroyed by a massive Death Eater and dementor attack. She grabbed Bozo and immediately apparated to the Three Broomsticks. By the time that they got there, the fighting was over and she was able to get a few photos of several of the Aurors, cloaks that were large enough to have belonged to dementors.

Bozo took another handful of photos of the injured citizens, but the real action was over ten minutes ago. He had missed the opportunity to capture what would have been priceless photos of the battle in progress.

This was probably the largest battle between the light and dark forces in her lifetime. Several of the villagers had told Skeeter incredible stories that the large pile of black cloaks being collected had previously belonged to dementors. That was preposterous. Everyone knew that you couldn't kill a dementor.

The villagers' stories were conflicting, but the common elements seemed to be that somehow Dumbledore seemed to have driven off over a hundred dementors and at least a dozen Death Eaters. Several even swore that they'd seen Voldemort himself. Fortunately no one had talked with the clerk from Gladrags who had been scared witless by the attack after having been warned by Harry Potter to go and hide.

The hospital wing of Hogwarts was busy, but not overwhelmed. Poppy was looking at Colin's shoulder when Harry was brought in on a stretcher by Hermione and Tonks. Setting Colin aside for a moment, she closed his curtain and went to examine Harry.

The witches had carefully removed Harry's shredded cloak and armor vest. Poppy was looking at him with concern. He had broken his sternum, and four ribs. Looking at his badly damaged vest, Susan and Hermione realized that he probably should be dead.

Hermione and Susan went to find her auntie and the house heads. They were meeting in Dumbledore's office with Tonks.

With some effort Dumbledore stood from behind his desk and greeted the young warriors. "Welcome back, Miss Bones and Miss Granger. You each reacted with admirable skill and courage. It appears that the group of you have secured a major victory against Tom and his followers. Please tell me what happened."

Susan spoke, "Hermione was awesome Professor! You must have seen her from the other end of the street where we saw you. Your Patronus charms met, like mine and Harry's did, and they killed all of those hideous dementors."

Hermione looked at Dumbledore, who nodded, but didn't say anything yet. They both knew that it was Harry who had cast the charms. He asked, "How is Professor Potter?"

Susan said, "He's badly bruised, has some internal bleeding, a broken sternum and a few broken ribs. He must have been hit with a bad spell or curse."

Hermione was going to say that he'd been saved by wearing his armor vest, but it didn't seem like the right time.

Amelia took her niece back to the common room. When they had left, the ancient wizard asked, "Who else knows about Harry's morphing this morning?"

Hermione replied, "To the best of my knowledge, Tonks, Ginny, myself, you, and anyone that you may have told. Based on her actions, I presume that Director Bones knows. Colin was taking photos Professor. I'm not certain where his camera went to when he was hit. He may have taken a photo of Harry morphed to look like you."

The ancient wizard nodded. "I believe that Miss Weasley has it. I shall get it from her. It would be highly advantageous to our side if the illusion of my health could be maintained for a bit longer. Thank you for performing such an admirable service in the village, Hermione. You doubtless saved dozens of lives this morning."

"Thank you Professor. I really appreciate it. If you have a moment this afternoon, I would like to show you the results of my research. I really would like you to see the possibilities."

"I would be delighted to. Perhaps you and the others would like to check in on young Harry. He does seem to have a knack for getting himself hurt."

She smiled sadly, having been dismissed. "Of course. Thank you, Professor."

Ginny found Harry in the hospital wing. "Harry, I didn't know that you'd been hurt. What happened?"

"I'll be fine in a bit, Gin. Madam Pomfrey has been taking good care of me, as usual. I should be up in no time."

"What can I do to help?"

"Six really squashy sleeping bags in front of the fireplace would be fantastic. I hope to be out of here in an hour."

Poppy came by. "You must be delusional Professor Potter. I hope that I didn't hear you making plans on leaving my company so soon. We haven't had a chance to visit much lately, and…" She smiled at him, knowing that he would be in very caring hands with the young witches. "Please be gentle with him, Miss Weasley. He was hurt rather badly this time. Please stop by and see me in the morning, Professor."

Harry thanked her again and they limped back to the common room. True to her word, Ginny transfigured six of the squashiest sleeping bags that there could be and gently laid Harry down on the floor in front of the fireplace.

She snuggled up to him as carefully as she could. As the other witches returned from lunch, they joined them, letting their magical energies co-mix. By dinner time, Harry was healed. He gently hugged each of the witches, and thanked them for helping him heal.

As they walked into the dining hall, the students and staff stood to honor them. Professor Dumbledore said, "I would like to honor the students and apprentices who so capability aided the villagers of Hogsmede this morning. House points do not seem to be adequate for the occasion, so I will consult with your heads of houses and find something that would be more appropriate. Please enjoy your meal."

After dinner, Dumbledore conferred with the heads of house for a moment. They nodded, and Dumbledore stood to address the students before they left for the evening. "Due to the unprecedented approval of the last informal dance, the other professors and I would like to announce another, next Saturday evening. You may attend by yourself or invite a partner as you wish. Everyone is welcome. Enjoy your evening."

Inspiration comes at the strangest times. Harry got his thinking about the dance next Saturday. He decided that he wanted to think about the feel of the lovely women that he'd be dancing with, not Riddle. He excused himself and went to his room to write a letter.

Dear Tom,