18. Blowing Goats and Flipping Hedgehogs

With exams approaching in just weeks everyone was tense. The Quidditch match that coming Saturday afternoon was an event much anticipated by the students. The last match of the season was between Gryffindor and unexpectedly, Ravenclaw. Honestly, isn't it always Slytherin!

Darian's Saturday morning was always spent at Quidditch practice as he only got Sundays off. During a mock game he had invited Duo to the match and they portkeyed back together. Darian was a bit concerned about Duo's behavioural problems, he was a bit like an oversized 5 year old when it came to Quidditch. As Darian showed Duo around the castle fans rushed to get Duo's autograph, sure they saw Everson everyday, but Maxwell was a once inna lifetime thing!

Tired of fans Darian took him outside where they found Neville, Dean and Seamus. "Hey!" he called getting their attention. They made a sprint and met up with them. "Duo this is Neville, that's Dean and Seamus. Guys, Duo Maxwell. He's on my team, self proclaimed "better" chaser."

"Damn straight", Duo said. Slightly egotistical, but that's okay. Neville clearly knew who he was as he was staring and appeared to be itching for an autograph. Dean and Seamus apparently didn't care a whole lot, either they didn't follow Quidditch or they just weren't fans. "Darry here invited me to the game today and now I'm trying to avoid insane school girls. How long till the game?" Duo asked.

"Ah, bbb, duhh" Neville sputtered. This made no sense whatsoever, he didn't remember Neville being a Tornados fan.

"Ahh crap!" Seamus swore. "Any minute now, we're gunna be late!" With that they took off at a run for the pitch. "We are going to get the worst seats ever - if any" Seamus complained between breaths.

"This blows goats!" Duo exclaimed and immediately everyone stopped running to look at him funny.

"Sweet flippin' hedgehogs and horny knarls!" Dean added randomly. That being more retarded than anything they'd ever heard set them running for the pitch again trying not to laugh.

They made it to the stands in time and a few girls squashed together to make room. One seventh year girl claimed that she lost her spot and had nowhere to sit and so saying gently lowered herself to sit on Duo's lap, her face uber red. You kinda got the idea that because there certainly was room she just wanted to sit with Duo. He clearly didn't mind though as he shifted slightly and got comfortable in a position that isn't going to be described. Darian himself was slightly jealous as he had been single for a few months now. He had been taking a break from it as last time he actually got dumped and had decided that girls are evil demons.

Getting his mind back on track Darian looked around a bit. Two rows behind him was Tonks with purple hair, she was probably on Harry duty and had watched him since Dumbledore's office. He had recently discovered that he always had one of them following him pretty close over the weekends.

"Hey everyone shut up and listen!"-

"This is the final game of the year"-

"The big kanhuna"-

"And right after this match"-

"You want to go to the front entrance and buy lots of stress relieving goodies from The Weasley Wizard Wheezes!"-

"McGonnagal is threatening to take our mike, guess we'll get on with the game."

"It's Gryffindor verses Ravenclaw!"

The Quaffle was released. He had to admit, the Gryffindor team was pretty good. The beaters were better than their previous game. Ten minutes in Gryffindor was up 40 -10 and they weren't backing down. He didn't expect them to win this one though, he had seen the Ravenclaw seeker play before, Ginny was screwed. It was odd, everyone had expected to hear booing from the Slytherin's when a goal was scored but none came. That had never happened before either!

Ravenclaw had just scored their second goal against Ron when the audience lost all interest in the game. Unheard by the players a great shriek of terror rang out. The voice sounded femine and was coming from the castle. In a second what looked like half the teachering staff was on the ground and Dumbledore's voice rang out "everyone please stay seated! Remain calm; we do not want to panic." His loud voice reached Madam Hooch who halted the game, brooms grounded and silence reigned.

Cornelious Fudge, Minister for Magic approached the pitch closely followed by the teachers. He yelled his voice magically louder "Death Eater attack! You-Know-Who is at the Ministry! Heellllllpppppp!" A dark shadow whipped across the grass from the castle to appear as Lord Voldemort before Fudge. "Help" was the last thing that man ever said as green light shot from Voldemort's wand and Fudge immediately crumpled to the ground, very dead.

Harry's scar had burst into pain of 1000 knives at Voldemort's arrival, it felt worse but then he wasn't used to it anymore. He tried to keep from holding his head or showing the pain, having Voldemort find out he was alive was the last thing he needed.

By now the students were running down the stairs in the stands. The teachers on the pitch clearly knew they were no match as they made a dash for the castle not daring to try running past the Dark Lord. Darian was pressed against people in a rush to get to the ground and consequently couldn't see anything until he was out. Once he was down though he sincerely wished he was back in his seat.

The teachers that had headed for the castle had changed direction and were going for the Forbidden Forest. This may seem like a stupid thing to do, but if one were to take into consideration the rather large number of Death Eaters flying over the top of the castle it may seem more like a self preservation thing.

Said Death Eaters abandoned the castle and shot for the ground, more specifically the area with all the students. They came up around the pitch and started attacking everyone, even the little first years. All around him people very screaming and running. They were all making it for the forest which made no sense. Lord Voldemort planned this, why would he leave an escape route? Harry felt the crackle of magic stirring behind him and dove for the ground which he soon discovered was a bad idea. Even under attack a grass stain sucks and gravel digging into your hands still really hurts like a . Spitting out grass that somehow had made its way into his mouth he stood up and glared at his attacker. He had his wand but this would feel much better without it. In a second he gathered his magic and sent it out to the Death Eater. Poor sod went flying and crashed headlong into the stands; he wasn't getting up any time soon.

He spotted a red head that looked like Ginny and moved to run to her when a death eater jumped in his way. The idiot expected Harry to come to a dead halt and probably do the potty dance in circles he was so scared. He was disappointed as Harry kept running straight past him and "accidentally" bumped into him. He lost Ginny in the crowd of people but he did have one small consolation. He pocketed a third wand and moved into another fight.

Hundreds of the students were at the Forests edge now. He felt someone grab his elbow and spun around to give 'em one in the gut but stopped just in time when he saw that it was Duo. He had no time for surprise, Duo was still holding tight to his elbow when he started off for the Forest taking him with him. Now, supposedly this is a nice thing to do, Duo was only trying to help but he had a bad feeling about the forest. Why were they allowed to go in?

They made it to the edge themselves before the trap was sprung. The first sign was a few of the students running for their lives from the forest, the second was the trees that ominously went crashing to the ground just behind them. Looking back to the pitch Harry finally understood they had been herded to the forest on purpose. Something not so good was in there. Unfortunately they had no choice as half a dozen Death Eaters were chasing more students their way, he sure as hell didn't want to risk that!

"Duo, how good are you at fighting?" Harry asked.

"Dirt", was the disappointing answer. "I can hold my own in a fist fight if that helps!"

"Err, not really. Crap, come on!" He rushed to help the kids coming their way; the Death Eaters behind them had just killed one of them. They looked pretty young. He had no problems cursing the ass off their attackers, it was easier than he thought but he couldn't take the ones coming up after that, this was ridiculous! He turned and ran into the forest only to find Duo hiding behind one of the larger trees hands over his head in the fetal position. It might be funny to look back on in the future, if they get to have a future. For now the latter statement is the one to be concerned with. He and Duo ran around the area where all the commotion seemed to be and delved deep into the forest running the whole way.

They came to a small clearing and sat down. This was no good; it gave them time to think. Soon more people joined them and they formed a smallish group of nearly a dozen students. There was a seventh year guy there that he didn't know but he wouldn't be a lot of help. If you looked at the crotch of his pants for any reason you would see clearly a darker shade. The guy had wet himself he was so scared. Somehow Fred, George and Ron had stuck together and were there. Lavender Brown was also there but they had tactfully decided to ignore that fact. There was nothing they could do but wait, he didn't have his time turner and he wasn't going to portkey off somewhere unless he had too.

They sat there for what seemed like hours without incident. The crashing of trees and screams had subsided somewhat but every now and then another sound would reach their ears and it was never a cry of victory. The silence in their group was disturbed whenever Harry growled in frustration or laughed with glee. It was creepy but it did keep at least one person up to date on the happenings. So far it didn't appear that anybody had won.

Harry smiled with satisfaction before he gasped at the sudden rush of memories and the cold. Nobody else seemed to notice anything; dementors affected him worse than most people.

He stood up and turned to where he felt it came from. He took out his wand and indicated that everyone else should do the same. "Can anyone here get rid of a dementor?"

"There is one spell, I'm outta practice on it though." Ron ventured. "Can anyone do the patronus charm?"

Only a few said they could sorta get a mist thing. There was no time to practice as the dementors drifted across the clearing. Harry tried to fight it, tried to ignore the voices and images in his head. There were so many dementors though! And nobody except him could do this thing right. He couldn't though, he just... Take Harry and Run! Go! Sirius falling through the veil... He couldn't see anyone, he couldn't think. He was crying and he didn't even know it. Cedric lying next to him, his eyes blank...Voldemort rising from the cauldron, he was alive…

Fuck it. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts. "Expecto Patronum!" Darian yelled. He knew he shouldn't have done it, a stag charged fully corporal from his wand and the dementors turned and would have run, as it was they simply glided in a very quick fashion. He didn't dare relax until the last one was gone.

He fell on the grass gasping for air and shivering, he realized his face was wet from sweat and tears and hastily wiped his face on his grass stained robe. (hopefully Sirius didn't like that particular robe too much)

Fighting back the urge to up-chuck his lunch he looked at the others gathered. He saw respect and gratefulness in most eyes. The Weasleys and Lavender were shocked; from the way they were staring at him he knew they recognized his patronus. If Fred and George had never actually seen it they sure as hell had heard about it.

"Harry?" Ron asked.