"Dementors?" Asriel asked, looking at Frisk in confusion. "What are Dementors?"

"Later!" exclaimed Chara. She had taken off the moment Frisk had said the word, pausing only to make sure Asriel and Frisk were keeping up with her.

Frisk's mind was already starting to feel foggy. The memory of being powerless and paralyzed on the shores of the Hogwart's Lake had bubbled back up in her mind. The feeling of the dementor's cold dead hands... she was snapped out of the memory by Chara grabbing her by the arm and pulling her around a corner.

The kept running on another deserted street. Down that road and onto another. The one time they would have happy to see a non-magical Brit, and the streets were absolutely deserted. Even the only noise was the sound of their sneakers pounding down the sidewalk. They turned a corner, back onto what Frisk recognized belatedly as the high street. "What are we going to do?" she asked.

Nobody answered her, they were still running. They went around another corner, into an alley behind a store. It was even darker there, the beams from the girls flashlights seemed barely able to penetrate the gloom. They ducked behind a large green dumpster, and Chara pulled her cell phone out. She dialed, her fingers dancing along the digits, the phone nearly slipping out of her hand. "We're behind the green grocerier's," She said urgently. "Dementors! Dementors are chasing us. Hurry! Please!"

Frisk looked at Chara, not quite comprehending what her sister had done. There had been something in her mind for just a moment. Then it was gone again. Beside her, Asriel was whimpering that he was turning back into a flower. She looked back at the entrance of the alley, and saw the cloaked figure turning into it. Frisk backed up, towards the exit at the far end.

But a second cloak had entered that side of the alley too. They were boxed in, like rats in a trap.

"Help me, Frisk," Chara hissed, then she stood up from behind the dumpster, and shined her flashlight directly at the dementor's hood. Was that going to work? Frisk couldn't even remember if a dementor had eyes. "Frisk!" Chara cried. Frisk raised her flashlight up, the combined light illuminating the dementor in a way Frisk had never seen before.

To Frisk's shock, the dementor recoiled. It swiped at the empty air in front of it, sensing its prey but unable to properly locate it.

"Run past it!" Chara cried, grabbing hold of Asriel, and the three of them charged back out of the alley. Frisk was third, and the dementor's thrashing slashes caught her in the arm. It cut through her shirt's short sleeve, leaving fingernail like gashes. The hand itself felt slimy, like a dead fish. Though when it tried to close around Frisk's arm, she managed to pull away.

Chara turned back onto the street, Frisk and Asriel close behind. There was a third dementor blocking their path toward home. They turned the other way. Chara was pointing her flashlight up near the top of the nearby buildings, clicking it on and off, though Frisk was sure nobody could possibly notice that.

They ran down the block, turned a corner, down another block, and another corner. They ended up, to Frisk's surprise, in the same alley they started in, panting and out of breath. "Chara?" Asriel asked, "Why are we back here?"

"We can't go too far," Chara whispered. They crouched, trying to stay hidden the best they could. They watched the ends of the alley, waiting to see if the dementors would come back. For about two minutes, Frisk thought they had gotten away. Then all three of the dementors swooped in at once. The temperature of the alley dropped rapidly. Frisk sat paralyzed as the cloaked figures pushed their way toward the three terrified children.

She watched, helpless and horrified as the dementors homed in on their position. Frisk had to fight the memory of leaving Asriel, as Flowey, alone in the underground. It had been undone, she had fixed it, she had saved him. But the memory was as fresh as if it just happened. Her wand. It was in her pocket. Did she know anything that could help? Anything at all? But nothing came to mind. Just that picture of Asriel, waiting to turn into Flowey.

Around her, her siblings were doing no better. Asriel was whimpering about how many people he had hurt. Chara was on her knees, crying uncontrollably about how "She didn't stop it," and tormenting herself about why she hadn't done anything.

The dementors didn't care about any of this, they had found their quarry. Frisk watched as they approached, then passed her. Two of them reached down to pick up to pick up Asriel by the arms.

"NO!" screamed Frisk, fighting the depression and the lethargy. The third one grabbed Frisk's upper arms with those cold, dead, hands. "Not my brother! Me! You want me!" Frisk was forced to watch as she struggled as the lead dementor pulled down its hood. She could see Asriel's multicolored soul, brought to the surface, fighting to resist the Dementor's kiss.

A ball of silvery fire passed close enough to Frisk that she felt the heat. It struck the dementor holding Asriel in the side, igniting its robe in brilliant orange fire. Until that moment, Frisk did not know that a dementor could scream. It was no simple sound, not even a loud shout. The scream simply echoed in her head, and Frisk realized they were her screams, the memory of when Asgore and Undyne had broken her soul despite her desperation not to attack them.

The other dementors fled down the alley as more fire flew after them. At the other end of the assault was Toriel, wearing an expression of rage that Frisk had never seen before in her life, not even when Mom had rescued Frisk from Flowey's initial assault.

The air immediately warmed. "Mom?" Asriel asked, or at least tried to ask, before Toriel enveloped him in a hug of relief.

"Are you alright?" she asked. "Are all of you alright?" she repeated, looking at Frisk and Chara.

"Torii? Did you find them?" Asgore appeared just outside the alley. "Oh, thank the heavens."

"I'm alright," Asriel finally said. "I think. But it was awful. I saw..." he stared up at his father, his breath coming in short bursts. "I don't want to see that ever again."

"I want to hear all about it," Asgore said, "But not here. We need to get back under cover. Before the muggles come." He knelt down, looking at Chara, kneeling on the pavement in the alley. "It's over, Chara. You're safe. They're gone."

Chara looked up at their adopted father with tear stained, haunted looking eyes. "I should have helped them. It's my fault."

"Chara!" Frisk said. "You just saved our lives," she went to help her sister off the ground. "I don't know what it is, but it couldn't have been your fault. I promise."

Toriel and Asgore didn't allow for any more discussion, instead escorting them all to the safety of their home.

"Is there anything you need?" Asgore asked them, as Toriel sat down the three kids in their kitchen. "Anything at all? A hot drink?"

"Do we have any chocolate?" Frisk asked. It was one of the things Madam Pomfrey had told her in Frisk's first year. Chocolate to treat Dementor attacks. "And something warm to drink?"

"I'll put the kettle on," Asgore promised. "And I think we still have some chocolate frogs from the last time we were in Diagon Alley."

"I'll go find them," Toriel said.

Frisk didn't really want them to leave, never mind that they were just going into the next room. But, soon enough, the tea kettle was whistling, and they had returned. Toriel handed out the chocolate frogs, and Asgore put steaming cups of golden flower tea in front of each of them. Frisk took a sip. It felt good, if slightly bitter, going down. They were all just nibbling at the chocolate, even Chara.

Toriel sipped her drink, her wide green eyes taking in each of her children in turn. "Can you tell us what happened?" she finally asked.

Frisk, Asriel, and Chara all looked at each other. None of them actually wanted to speak, each of them knew that one of them should. It was Asriel who finally did, explaining what had happened. Frisk added very little, Chara nothing at all.

Through it all, both Toriel and Asgore listened with rapt attention, saying nothing. When Asriel was finished, Toriel took a sip of her own drink. She wasn't showing it, but Frisk was pretty sure that her rage had barely cooled from the rescue in the alleyway.

Asgore was less restrained. "I will go see Fudge tomorrow," he rumbled. "And I will demand an answer. Dementors aren't supposed to leave Azkaban prison without ministry approval. This is out of control."

"Thank you Asgore," Toriel said. There was silence around the table for several minutes before she spoke again, and her voice was notably softer. "As I understand them, dementors make people live through their worst memories. Do any of you want to tell me what you experienced?"

Frisk finished the last bite of chocolate frog. Asriel and Chara were shaking their heads negatively. "I remembered leaving Asriel in the underground," she said quietly. "I remembered abandoning him, in the dark."

"Frisk," Asriel said, looking up at her. "There was nothing you could have done then. If there was, you would have done it."

"I know," Frisk said. "But that doesn't stop it. It felt so wrong. I thought about it for a week after. And it would show up in my nightmares. It wasn't until I found out about the time turner and started the plan that I was finally able to put it behind me." She looked up at the larger monsters. It was the first time she would admit this to them. "I was terrified about what you would think, if you knew I had left him behind."

"Frisk!" Toriel said. "I promise you, I would not have been upset in the slightest."

"Do not think like that, Frisk. Asriel is right. You were an eleven year old child. And you had just finished saving us all. Did you think that I would believe you would ever, ever, intentionally leave someone behind? Of course not. You are my daughter. And I couldn't be more proud of you."

"Thanks," whispered Frisk. The words were genuine, she knew that. But the memory was fresh in her mind. Maybe sleep would help.

"Asriel? Chara? I will not press you for what you remembered, my children. If you ever want to talk about it, though, you know I will always listen," she said. "But, if you have finished your tea, and your chocolates, I think it is time for bed." She smiled. "Maybe I could read to you before you go to sleep."

Maybe they were a little old for that. But tonight, it felt like a really good idea.

When Asgrore came home from the ministry the next night, he wasn't alone. One might of thought he'd had the Minister with him, but it turned out that wasn't the case.

"Did you finally get a chance to meet with the minister?" Toriel began, then did a double take. "Chara? Could you set an extra place for dinner, please?" she called out. "Good evening, Madam Bones, how can we help you tonight, and may I interest you in some lasagna?"

Frisk looked out of the kitchen in surprise. The witch that had come home with Asgore was an older grey-haired witch with crystal blue eyes, and a square jaw. Frisk had to think. She remembered the name, but couldn't quite place where. "Who's she?" she whispered to Asriel.

"Um, head of magical law enforcement?" Asriel offered. "Didn't she stop by after the muggles were attacked at the campsite last year?"

"Oh, I can't stay that long," Madam Bones. "But you said your children were attacked by Dementors, and you weren't able to see Fudge. I think this actually very important, and I would like to take a statement from you." She sat down at the table, moved a plate aside, and pulled out parchment and a quill. "Can you tell me what happened, in detail?"

Both Toriel and Asgore looked to their children. "Would one of you be willing to tell Ms. Bones what happened a few nights ago?" Asgore asked. Frisk looked down. She really didn't want to relive that night. There was an uneasy silence, and Frisk finally mustered her courage and started the story.

Madam Bones interrupted her almost immediately. "Do you go out often?" she asked, making notes on her parchment. "With Asriel, that is?"

"Sometimes. Always at night. Asriel has to cover up, in case the non magical humans are out," Toriel explained. "But we did not leave the barrier to remain trapped in our own home."

"I understand," Madam Bones said, "Continue, Frisk, please."

Frisk swallowed, and told the story. She was questioned a second time when she described the dementors. Madam Bones got a serious look on her face, and asked if she was sure. "You're positive? It wasn't a boggart masquerading as a dementor, was it?"

"No," Frisk said. There was a reason it wouldn't have been a boggart, and Professor Lupin would have been upset if she couldn't come up with it "There were three of us," Frisk finally remembered. "Asriel and Chara have never seen a dementor before, so it would have been confused about what to become to scare us." Technically, Chara had seen dementors before, but that would have been harder to explain.

"Ah, yes. Very true," Madam Bones said. "How did you finally escape? We had no record of anyone using magic in the area."

"Chara called us from her cell phone," Toriel told them. "We have cloaks with disillusionment charms for emergencies. When I reached my children, I used soul magic to drive the dementors off. In the form of fire, like we used at the World Cup."

"I remember that," Madam Bones said. She tapped her quill on the parchment a few times. "That would certainly explain everything. I don't know my magical creatures well enough. I shall have to research on whether dementors are particularly vulnerable to fire, or if it was something about monster soul magic." She scanned her notes. "I think that's everything that I need," she said finally. "I promise, I will look into appearance of dementors and get back to you."

"Thank you very much, Madam Bones," Asgore said, reaching out to shake her hand. "I look forward to hearing from you."

That was all they heard for several days. Life somewhat got back to normal. They were allowed to go out, though with one of their parents each time. Frisk and Chara had more Tae Kwan Do classes, and they had settled back into their established routine. If Asgore and Toriel had heard anything from the minister, or Madam Bones, they weren't sharing it. For Frisk's part, she was just fine not thinking about it any more.

The Wednesday after, Asgore came home with a request. "Torii?" He said after they'd all sat down for finner. "Madam Bones would like you and Frisk to come in to the ministry tomorrow."

"What?" Toriel asked. "Why?"

"Apparently, there is going to be some sort of trial tomorrow, involving Harry Potter's use of underage magic," Asgore explained. "Madam Bones says he's accused of using the Patronus charm in a muggle area. She would like you two there to give testimony."

"Testimony?" Toriel asked, perplexed. "What testimony could we possibly give? I was not present to witness the incident."

The Patronus charm? Frisk had heard of it before, though it wasn't one she had been taught to use. But, if they wanted them to give testimony, then... "It's the charm used as a defense against dementors," Frisk told them.

Asgore and Toriel both reacted with horror. "Do you mean someone else was attacked by dementors?" Asgore asked.

"Maybe?" Frisk said. "But that's the only effect I know of from the Patronus charm. Lupin mentioned it my first year."

"When do they want us there?" Toriel asked.

Asgore stood up to fetch a piece of parchment from his briefcase. "Harry Potter's hearing is scheduled for 9 AM at my office. If Ms. Dreemurr and Frisk are available, I would like them there about an hour earlier, maybe a little bit more. I think it will help smooth the hearing, if you can make it." He put the paper down. "I know you don't want to relive the experience again, Frisk, but if your testimony is useful to them, would you be willing to give it?"

Frisk shuddered. "It would be just a small hearing, right? Just a few people?"

"Madam Bones, Harry Potter, and his advocate. I think that's suppose to be Mr. Weasley," Asgore confirmed. "And your mother will be with you, of course."

"Of course I will," Toriel said. "I cannot believe that anyone else was attacked by those horrible creatures. Frisk, if it stops it from happening again, I really would appreciate it. And I think it has to be you," she said, forestalling Frisk's next question. "You were the one that recognized them."

Asriel and Chara didn't say anything, but Frisk's opinion, they looked a bit relieved. Frisk couldn't blame them. "Okay," Frisk said, looking up at Toriel and Asgore. "I guess I get to wake up early tomorrow."