Hermione hadn't managed to persuade Sirius to remain in the dormitories door the Slytherin versus Gryffindor quidditch match. Much to Harry's pleasure and Theo's chagrin, Slytherin had made every attempt to weasel out of playing in the foul weather but had been unsuccessful. Hermione had rolled her eyes at the boys, but had allowed Theo to talk her into wearing her house colours rather than remaining neutral. Harry had retaliated by cursing Theo's hair to a similar shade as Ginny and much to the Slytherin's dismay he hadn't been able to find the counter curse. He'd been forced to wear a hat.
Sirius bounced around with far too much excitement, playing fetch with the boys in the common room and snapping at the quidditch player's broomsticks whilst Cavella yipped excitedly and tripped over her own paws. The puppy was teething, and nobody dared let her determined jaws near their broomsticks.
Even from the common room beneath the lake, Hermione could tell that the weather would be foul. She stopped by the kitchens on her way up to the quidditch pitch, earning herself a thermos of vegetable soup, a large bone for Sirius and a smaller one for Cavella.
It was just as foul as she'd expected outside. Rain lashed the grounds, slashing across her skin like icy knives and ripping away the umbrella that Theo gallantly tried to use to shield them. Cavella yowled in miserable protest and became incorporeal. The bone fell through her insubstantial jaw, splashing into the mud. The puppy yowled again, glancing between the bone and Hermione miserably.
'Oh, stop being a wuss.' Hermione scolded, dragon hide gloves holding her fur lined hood in place even as it whipped around her legs with the force of an flooding river. Then she relented, opening up her arms. Her hood blew off immediately, but Cavella quickly became corporeal, scooped up her bone and bounded into Hermione's arms. She closed her cloak around them both, the puppy quickly warming up inside the thick fenrir skin garment.
Her hair whipped around her head as she battled her way down the grounds beside Theo.
'I don't get why we need to watch.' She said bitterly. 'It's not like we're going to be able to see anything.'
'The stands will shelter the pitch.' Theo yelled back over the howling wind. 'It won't be as bad.'
She certainly hoped so as she followed a bedraggled looking Sirius down to the pitch. Once or twice they passed other students, barely more than shadows in the rain. Fortunately, Theo had been correct. It was slightly more sheltered inside the stands and it was considerably warmer between the densely packed bodies. They found a seat near the front where Sirius could put his paws up on the barrier and see over the top, then huddled back into their seats to keep warm until the game started.
Hermione was on her fifth warming charm by the time the players strode out onto the pitch. The Gryffindors were visible in their crimson but the Slytherins were almost invisible in their green and silver robes. The commentator's words were barely audible over the howling wind as the players took off. Even the Slytherin team with their excellent brooms were being visibly buffeted by the wind and the Gryffindors were far worse off.
Yet, despite the challenges, the game went on. The scores ticked ever higher, the temperature continued to drop. Sirius provided entertainment for a while, barking whenever Gryffindor held the quaffle but after several hours of freezing rain and absolutely no sign of the snitch, even he lost his enthusiasm. Hermione cast a drying charm on his fur and he curled up beneath the bench to work at his bone.
'I hate this sport.' She muttered as the hour hand on her watch slid past two thirty. Theo gulped a mouthful of soup from her thermos and mumbled in agreement.
'At least you've got Cavella.' Theo mourned, eyeing the pale head that poked out of Hermione's cloak. 'I bet it's like having a hot water bottle.'
'Here.' Hermione, whose legs had gone numb from the not insubstantial weight hours ago, passed the puppy over. The young grim whined in protest, then fell into contented silence as Theo gratefully wrapped her into his own cloak. 'I bet Harry can't see a thing.' She muttered, taking advantage of the regained mobility to stretch her legs.
'Not with those glasses.' Theo agreed.
Lightning exploded above their heads, skittering across the sky and leaving a burning afterimage across her eyes. Cavella yelped and scrabbled at Theo, who groaned and released her, curling up in agony. Like a bolt of lightning herself, Cavella leapt back over to Hermione and buried herself back into the thick fur of her cloak.
'Bleeding dog.' Theo cursed.
Lightning crackled again, illuminating fourteen broomsticks heading for the ground.
'I didn't know they stopped for lightning.' Hermione commented.
'They don't.' Theo grunted, still cradling himself where Cavella had driven her paws in her efforts to get away. 'It's a time out.'
'Oh. I'm going to make sure he'd got an impervious charm on his glasses. We'll be here forever otherwise.'
She got up, pushing Cavella off her lap. The puppy yowled, then careened after her as she made her way down from the stands and onto the pitch.
It was muddier than Orkney - damp grass had been trampled over and squelched into a swamp. She waded her way across, angling towards the huddle of red at the far end of the pitch. Another flash of lightning forked across the sky.
'Harry!' She yelled, her voice barely carrying over the wind and roll of thunder. The team huddle broke open.
'What's a Slytherin doing here?' The burly captain grumbled.
'Hermione!' Harry moaned. He looked utterly miserable, freezing cold and his glasses were speckled with rain. 'And Cavella.' Harry bent over and petted the mud golem which slopped against his already muddy quidditch uniform. A pick tongue flickered out and lapped at his fingers.
'Don't even think about it!' Hermione cautioned her messy dog as it abandoned Harry and bounded back over to her. With practiced ease, she sidestepped the dog and pulled her cloak out of the reach of snapping jaws. 'Did you remember to cast an impervious charm over your glasses, Harry?'
'Oh, brilliant, Hermione. Good idea!' Harry whipped off his glasses, then passed them to her when he remembered that he didn't have his wand on him. She pulled out her own, tapped them twice and then handed them back. 'Much better.'
'Good. Now catch that snitch quickly. This is miserable.' She turned on her heel, ignoring the Gryffindor captain, who looked like he was about to kiss her, then squelched off across the field again. Hopefully, he'd catch the snitch quickly and end the whole miserable experience.
'What did you do to Cavella?' Theo demanded as she returned to her seat, mud running off her enchanted cloak in streams. She glanced back at the mud golem, whose little pink eyes blinked owlishly from beneath grassy eyebrows. The puppy was cold again, and she sulked under the bench with Sirius when Hermione refused to let her inside her cloak.
Out on the pitch, play resumed.
The difference became apparent almost immediately. Within minutes, one of the crimson figures who'd been drifting around near the Gryffindor stands rocketed off towards the Slytherin hoops. A second figure, this one in green, shot off in hot pursuit.
The crowd rose as one, a roar of excited voiced building over the grumbling of the sky and the screaming wind. Sirius bolted out from beneath the bench, jumped up on the rail, then whined and staggered back. Unnoticed by the rest of the crowd, who were hung on the fierce pursuit up in the air, Hermione turned and crouched down.
'What's wrong, Snuffles?' She asked, peering under the bench. The volume of the crowd around her built to a crescendo. Sirius whined, tucking his face beneath his paws. His breath clouded around his muzzle as he puffed an exaggerated breath. With a start, Hermione realised that her own breath was clouding as well. She spun, peering back out over the barrier.
'Dementors!' She screeched, her voice cutting through the cheering Slytherin students. She pointed towards the entrance to the pitch, where hundreds of black cloaked beings were pouring out onto the muddy enclosure, hooded faces turned up in what Hermione could only be described as ecstasy.
'Harry!' Theo yelled. She glanced up, then saw the tumbling crimson figure, plummeting towards the ground. Her wand was out in seconds, but she didn't know what to do. He was at the far end of the pitch; too far for her to try and thicken the air with Mordred's methods and she didn't know any spells that could do the same.
All she could do was watch in horror as he plummeted. Her magic swelled, the family magic answering her call but with no outlet it just simmered and swirled around her and stirred the already powerful winds to even greater fury.
Then Dumbledore was there, in the middle of the pitch, wand pointed up into the air. Harry's fall slowed, slowed, and stopped, just before the grass. A beat later and he dropped down almost gently.
For a breath, Hermione could only feel relief. The a rush of rage roared through her, more powerful than anything she'd ever felt and directed at the dementors who'd almost caused the death of one of her allies. Her wand slashed through the air violently, her magic surging towards the outlet that she'd provided. Bright white light flared at the tip. A bolt of lightning arched down, mirroring her movement and hit the middle of the swarm like a bomb.
It took a second for the afterimage to clear, revealing the stunned dementors and several scraps of drifting black fabric, which twirled on the wind like handkerchiefs, devoid of the corporeal form within.
'Circe's armpit.' Theo swore, staring at her like she'd just turned into a centaur. All around her, students looked somewhere between terrified and awestruck. Dumbledore was waving his wand, wisps of silver rounding up the scattered creatures and shepherding them from the stadium, but Hermione was certain that he was looking at her all the while.
'We're learning patronuses as soon as Harry's allowed out of the hospital wing.' She gritted, her knuckles still white around her wand. Sirius cautiously crept out from beneath the bench and Cavella poked her cold nose up Hermione's cloak in a manner that was oddly comforting.
'Sure.' Theo agreed quickly, still looking at her with wide eyes.
'We're going to the hospital wing now.' She announced. Immediately, the students made a clear path, scrambling over their benches to do so. She ignored them, striding from the sands before she went back to scream at Dumbledore for ever letting the dementors onto the pitch.
But even as she thought that, Hermione knew that it wasn't Dumbledore's fault. She should have known how to save them, she should have made sure that they all knew the patronus charm as soon as she found out that dementors would be a risk that year. Her coven's safety was her responsibility and she'd almost lost one of her own before she'd even really begun.