This Harry Potter story was written for fun. All rights belong to the wonderful lady (JK Rowling) who gave the world Harry Potter to read and enjoy.
"Regular conversation."
Printed Word in letters and newspapers.
{Parseltongue conversation}
[Iggy talking with Harry and Neville.]
"The Sorting Hat speaking and pontificating."
Chapter 17 Dementors and QuidditchHarry's third year began with the Dementors on the Hogwarts Express and the first use of Invisible Fire to defend students from the soul-eating demons.
The fiery ends of the five dementors that day only left Harry angry – that he and the other students were exposed to the feelings of cold, helplessness and despair.
Alone in his bed, certain that Neville was asleep and not listening, Harry ranted, [Cornelius Fudge sent the Dementors to encircle Hogwarts!]
[And Albus Dumblemore permitted it! The headmaster's claims to be powerful, but he allowed that buffoon to place those monsters around Hogwarts!]
Iggy sat back and listened quietly as Heir Peverell vented his spleen against both old wizards. The magical cloak felt the same things his owner did and never in his centuries of existence had he felt the depths of despair that were present when the Dementors had been present.
Slipping from bed, Harry quietly made his way from the Gryffindor tower and climbed the many flights of stairs to the astronomy tower. There he gazed out at the moonlight night and found the floating spectres that were the fifty Dementors 'guarding' Hogwarts.
[Is there a spell to measure distance?] he asked Iggy. The cloak taught Heir Peverell the spell and Harry cast it.
[They are a quarter mile away… Just beyond the wards,] Iggy replied reading the results of the spell.
Harry said, [We need to figure out how to cast invisible fire a quarter mile then and come kill them at night.]
[A shooting gallery?] suggested Iggy. [We'll need to figure out how to cast a full mile because they'll back up after the first shots each night and we'll have to be able to go further with the spell to kill more that just the first ones.]
[How about a fireworks display following an shell exploding among them?] asked Harry.
The entity that was the cloak asked, [I know you don't like these things…]
[They made me 'see' that red-eyed thing kill my first mom. I was eighteen months old and watched Volde-snot kill my mother. And they make me see it again,] explained Harry.
Iggy 'nodded' and said, [We'll research spells, casting at a distance, and explosions. But you will not overtax your core and damage it. That I will not allow even if I have to get Neville to write your Mum and Dad.]
At breakfast one morning in the second week of the fall term, Ginny Weasley asked Harry to talk with Luna. The youngest Weasley confided, "Last night, she had night terrors and cried for an hour."
Harry looked up just as Professor McGonagall found Luna seated alone at the end of the Gryffindor table dressed in a school robe but with a black hood attached to the back of the robe and thrown over her head. Before the sour-faced professor could harangue the young seer for more than two caustic remarks, Iggy unleashed his protective magics on Luna and the girl's form twinkled and vanished. Fearing a headache, McGonagall handed the remainder of the Gryffindor time schedules to Hermione Granger and told her to hand out the schedules before fleeing the Great Hall.
Harry came and sat beside Luna, his arms slipping around her to hold her close while Hermione split the schedules with Neville who helped her distribute them to the other students.
"I want to talk to Iggy," Luna whispered to Harry. "Those shrouds floating around the castle will change people if they are here for the whole year. If the dementors stay around Hogwarts, little Dennis will become a terrible dark lord who violates the statue of secrecy so many times that the muggles figure out what's going on and there are new witch hunts that leave us all dead."
Looking up she added, "That will be Dennis's plan all along. To destroy magic because… because the dementors kill so many muggleborn children at the Quidditch match on Saturday. Colin is one who dies and nobody does anything because he's muggleborn. The headmaster and the professors snatch away the purebloods first."
[Let her talk to Lady Hogwarts,] Iggy instructed Harry. [Take her over to the alcove just beside the doors to the entrance hall and have her place her hands on the wall. No one will bother you.]
With Luna communing with Lady Hogwarts, Harry went back to his seat, determined to find a way to prevent the deaths at the Quidditch match. At the DADA class, Professor Lupin introduced them to the Bogart. Neville's greatest fear was his brother turning into a terrible Dark Lord and Harry's Bogart was a Dementor. Rather than riddikulus, the spell to throw off the Bogart's spell, Harry cast invisible fire at the creature that screamed in its Dementor shape and turned to ashes almost immediately.
"Oi! Potter!" complained Ron Weasley. "Now what are we supposed to do for a Boggart?"
Hermione spoke up, "Hagrid. Go to Mr. Hagrid. He probably has a couple as pets or knows where some are lurking in the castle."
Ron sneered, "Oi! Who asked you muggle?"
Professor Lupin assigned 'Mr. Weasley' detention for insulting 'Miss Granger' and lectured everyone about the gloom the dementors were casting over the entire castle. Harry frowned, thinking furiously, 'Ron's not said anything mean to anyone in over a year. The dementors are affecting us already.'
Professor Lupin invited Harry to stay behind after the end of class one day and the man was surprized when several other students remained as well. He was most surprized that there were three Slytherins in the group that stayed with Harry.
"I just wanted to speak with Harry," Lupin said.
[Neville, correct the professor but do it politely,] Iggy instructed the blonde.
"Excuse me Professor Lupin, but it is proper for you to refer to my brother as Mr. Potter. We have never met you before starting your DADA class."
Lupin smiled sadly and said, "Actually, I knew Har… Mr. Potter when he was a baby. I was good friends with his parents."
Harry had no reaction to the statement and waited silently, as did Hermione, Neville, Draco, Daphne, and Tracy. After a moment of silence, Draco asked, "I wonder why there's been no contact in the dozen years since Mr. Potter lost his parents. You must not have been very close friends after all. We understand that Mr. Potter's situation with his relatives was terrible. They treated him so poorly that Director Amelia Bones removed him from their care and was investigating them before they suddenly 'vanished'."
Hermione smiled as she asked, "I wonder if they will reappear in a dozen years or so?"
Having listened and learned from the Slytherin students, Hermione turned her gaze back to the DADA professor and said, "Like you have."
"Magic does things like that regularly," Tracy said. "I think Mr. Potter can disappear anytime he wants."
Daphne asked, "What about you professor? Do you disappear?"
Now nervous, Professor Lupin said, "Headmaster Dumbledore…"
The man noticed that everyone of the students brought out their wands as soon as he'd pronounced 'headmaster'. Their eyes flittered around the room and all the portraits froze as if someone powerful was in control of the magic in the room. In three locations, listening charms were over-powered and popped.
Now Neville announced, "Professor, before you listen to the tripe that flows from the headmaster's mouth, I recommend you speak with Professor Flitwick. Since Christmas of our first year, Professor Dumbledore has not been able to 'see' my brother because he has plans to harm him. Lily Potter's protections on her boy keep anyone with ill-intent from seeing him."
"I had heard rumours," Remus said. "But Professor McGonagall told me…"
The students all snickered and Harry finally spoke, "The elves used to call Professor McGonagall 'Miss Kitty' because of her animagus form. Now they call her 'Scared Kitty' because she hasn't seen me or my brother since last Christmas."
"And gets headaches when she plans something," added Hermione, who remained fascinated by the combination of protective charms and spells that experts speculated were woven into the protections around the 'boy-who-lived'. After a few longs talks with Percy Weasley, Hermione had begun to help every student in Gryffindor and to organize any meetings the younger students needed with Madam Pomphrey or the other professors. Sadly, she'd learned that Professor McGonagall didn't have time for any student in Gryffindor House.
"We think you have good intentions because you can see us," Harry continued. "Now why did you want to talk to me? We have other classes to attend and other students to protect from the Dementors."
Embarrassed to be called out by students, Lupin sighed and said, "I wanted to offer to train Mr. Potter in the Patronus spell. It is the only spell that can repel the Dementors."
[Accept. Act like you do not have another spell to 'repel' the demons,] Iggy instructed Heir Peverell.
"That's great professor," Harry replied. "I think we'll all feel better learning that spell in class. We can figure out the piercing spell ourselves."
Surprized by Harry's response to include all the students in the DADA class, Remus Lupin immediately worked on how to change his class plans.
"Yes, professor," Daphne spoke up as she gathered her books and signalled the others that it was time to leave. The students left with Harry in the centre of their group instead of at the head or at the back as was their usual order when moving about the castle this year. Lupin noticed that none of them put their wands away.
As he waited for his first year Puffs and Ravens to arrive, Lupin wondered, 'Dumbledore and Minerva both failed to mention that they can't see Harry or Neville. What is going on?'
With the arrival of the first of his students, he decided to speak with Professor Flitwick at the earliest moment possible for the Charms professor.
Over the next two weeks, word spread among the houses and the different years about Professor Lupin teaching the Patronus spell to the third year Grffindor/Slytherin class. Percy and Penelope as head boy and head girl appeared in the professor's door during the office hours and they 'requested' that he provide instruction on the spell immediately to all classes third year and above.
Motivated students began appearing in his office and lingering after class to practice the spell so often that Lupin organized study and practice sessions in the evenings and on the weekends. Before Halloween, almost thirty students could cast the spell with enough power to create the shield. Another forty students could cast the shield and when they worked together, their shields would repel the Dementors. And fourteen students could cast a corporeal Patronus. There were rabbits, roosters, one horse, and three cats among the menagerie of Patronus creatures. Neville Longbottom was the youngest student to cast a corporeal Patronus and his was a lizard of some kind that had smoke coming from its nostrils.
Iggy giggled and praised Neville endlessly after the first appearance of the lizard. The cloak told the boys, [Just wait until you see that thing in action.]
Harry asked, [Why haven't I got the spell right?]
Now Iggy snorted as best he could in the minds of the brothers and said, [When a Dementor gets close to you or to anyone around you, you will attack the beast. Hier Peverell will burn every Dementor in Britain with Invisible Fire.]
Neville smirked and said, [We trust Iggy so let's ask about the bomb spell… explosive shell for Invisible Fire.]
[I ain't got it right yet,] Iggy replied immediately.
Harry frowned and asked, [What has Lady Hogwarts got to say about it?]
It was Ginny Weasley who began the next interesting conversation among the students. She was reading her latest letter from her parents and said, "My mum and dad haven't said anything about the Dementors. They laughed about those terrible jokes at the sorting feast, but they act like the Dementors aren't here."
There were many questions whispered between the tables and it was quickly determined that none of the parents recognized that the Dementors had attacked the Hogwarts Express. Percy despaired at getting the news out – the headmaster's wards around the tower where the owls lived allowed him to edit letters and prevent the news from Hogwarts from being reported properly now.
"Mum and Dad aren't reading our reports of Dementors in our letters either," Neville told Harry.
Then on Halloween, someone tried to break into the Gryffindor tower. The portrait that guarded the door was slashed and damaged almost beyond repair during the silent hours between 1AM and 6AM. Professor Lupin was seen by several students leaning in very close to the painting as if he was smelling of it, and then walking back to the statue of the misshapen witch that guarded a secret exit to the castle.
Per her usual behaviour this fall, Luna Lovegood leaned against the nearest wall with her hands pressed flat against the wall to maintain contact whenever she stood still. When she sat at the table to eat, she always removed her shoes and kept her feet flatfooted on the floor through out the meal.
[Lady Hogwarts really likes Luna and is using her memories to rid the castle of blibbering humdingers and nargles, but they argue about keeping some wrackspurts around to confuse the headmaster and a few other people on the faculty,] Iggy explained to Harry and Neville.
[Are all those creatures real?] Neville asked once.
Iggy snickered and replied, [As real as a magical cape of invisibility that's able to talk and teach!]
The first quidditch match that fall was to be the Slytherins playing against Hufflepuff. There'd been some question about which team would play when that fall and there were unnecessary arguments between students and professors about the schedule that everyone blamed on the Dementors. At Iggy's insistence Harry and Neville spoke to all their friends with magical parents to 'invite' their parents to attend the game. Several letters also carefully mentioned how exciting it would be to have the Daily Prophet reporters and photographers here to capture pictures of the students enjoying the match in the November sunshine.
The night before the match, the dormitory for the boys in Gryffindor was awakened by Ron Weasley's screams in the early hours of the morning. A filthy man – a wild-eyed wizard stood over Ron in his bed muttering, "I will kill you! I will kill you, Peter!"
[Elves!] yelled Iggy.
Harry and Neville both yelled out, "Elves!"
Instantly, the crazy man was popped away before Percy arrived with his wand smoking with spells.
"What happened?" he demanded to know and as Neville explained that there'd been a crazy-looking man standing on Ron's bed and saying he was going to 'Kill Peter'.
Percy doubted the story for a time but then he went down to the common room and found the porthole standing open, the portrait of the knight who had guarded the door since Halloween ripped to shreds and scattered on the floor. The other portraits were deserted – their inhabitants fled from whatever horrible thing or person attacked the portrait frame guarding the entrance to Gryffindor.
Professor McGonagall finally arrived though Professor Dumbledore never made an appearance. She insisted that Percy had done something to the door to try and create issues or gain favour. The head boy managed to contain his temper while his friends from seventh year yelled at Professor McGonagall and the younger students gathered in the common room. She refused to even enter the dormitory, transfigured a temporary door and returned to bed.
With every Gryffindor gathered in the common room, all the students used the finite spell to remove McGonagall's temporary door. Collin made extensive photographs that he hurried to develop in an abandoned room on the boy's side of the dormitory. Luna interviewed Ron Weasley, Seamus and Neville about what they'd seen and heard. Percy gave a statement about protecting the dormitory and only mentioned that the students didn't receive any help from their head of house.
With the duplicates of the photos and story, Harry Potter called his elves who popped away with a copy for the Daily Prophet and another for the Quibbler.
Percy and three other seventh years sat up all night guarding the door. Lady Hogwarts sent her house elves with a replacement door from the Room of Requirement that was made of solid gold, saturated in so much magic, persons with ill-intent could not enter the Gryffindor Tower. The students covered the new door with photos of themselves that Colin had made and handed out – no one would ever know the door was solid gold.
Pepper-up potions were handed out freely to the Gryffindor students that next morning as Hermione gently got everyone into groups of older and younger students to provide protection from the crazy wizard that had attacked their dorm twice now.
The morning owls were late with the Daily Prophet – the newspaper had stopped the presses to get a new cover and page 2 done with all the photos of the damage to the doorway into Gryffindor Tower the previous night. As soon as the owls departed, the howlers began arriving for Professor McGonagall and Headmaster Dumbledore. Taking clues from Professors Flitwick and Sprout, the other faculty members moved their chairs away from the centre of the table where McGonagall hid under the table while Dumbledore shredded howler after howler from angry parents.
The Great Hall appeared to be returning to normal without howlers exploding with one final red, steaming howler envelope appeared suddenly without an owl delivering it. This envelope appeared to be floating slowly down, tumbling over and over, toward Dumbledore and McGonagall.
The elderly wizard sighed, lifted his wand and cast a spell to banish the envelope. Some of the students watched but many looked away. Harry noticed that Neville was watching the envelope with a grin on his face.
[What?] Harry thought to his brother.
[Gran always told me this story about Mum. When she was mad at Dad one summer, she sent him a howler. It was a little envelope like that one and it just appeared over his head. He cast a spell to banish it…]
Just as Neville said those words, Dumbledore's spell hit the little envelope that suddenly began duplicating itself over and over.
[Yep, that's Alice Longbottom's infamous Geminio Howler,] Neville proudly told his brother.
Aloud for everyone to hear, Neville Longbottom announced, "My Mum is a powerful and angry witch this morning. Watch what happens!"
Within five seconds there were fifty howlers and they each continued duplicating and began dripping streams of sticky honey over Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, their chairs, the head table and the floor.
Now, Alice Longbottom's voice thundered from four hundred envelopes at one time, "You pitiful excuses for a wizard and witch! My children and the others were threatened by some mad man and you can't be bothered to protect them! The next time I see you I shall introduce you both to Albus Dumbledore's namesake in clouds and swarms of bumblebees!"
"Wow! Mum is creative and sneaky," Harry remarked. The girls in the Great Hall were proud that a witch had taken Dumbledore and McGonagall down a notch or two so simply. During the loud discussions that followed as everyone watched the headmaster and deputy headmistress slip and slide out of the Great Hall, Fred and George looked over at Harry and Neville and said, "Ten galleons to make certain your Mum doesn't teach that spell to our Mum."
From further down the table, Percy said, "Twenty galleons to not teach Mum but do teach me."
When the guests and students gathered in the Quidditch pitch after lunch, no one had seen the headmistress or deputy headmistress since breakfast. By lunchtime, the house elves had managed to clean the head table well enough but the professors chose to sit with their students for the meal. And several students cast spells that transfigured bits of bread into bumblebees that flew around the Great Hall making some students shriek.
There were more smiles on faces as the students headed toward the pitch for the game and a couple Patronus animals flew overhead all along the path. There were many questions from parents and the reporters about why the professors and older students were casting the Patronus continually. But as the size of the crowd grew, the emotions of so many magical persons attracted the Dementors away from the castle and toward the pitch.
Alice Longbottom gathered both of her sons in her arms and made room for children without a parent there. Gran and Dad were quick to cast their Patronus animals to join the menagerie that drove the creatures away.
"We have them around us all the time," Harry explained to his parents and Dowager Lady Longbottom cursed worse than anyone – child or adult – had ever heard. The fact that Frank and Alice were just as angry meant that they didn't castigate the old witch for her language.
With the Dementors driven away, Professor Hooch proceeded with the start of the match. Harry saw Mrs. Malfoy there to support Draco who would play seeker once again this year though he didn't see Mr. and Mrs. Tonks or their daughter who wanted to be an Auror.
Play began normally between Slytherins and Hufflepuff. Draco was keeping up with the Puff's seeker, Cedric Diggory, while the other players bashed each other with blungers and tried to score with the quaffle. The Slytherins usually played dirty but Professor Sinistra's time as Head of House in the dungeons had made a difference and there were few underhanded plays this year. With the score 40 to 60 favouring Hufflepuff, the air once again grew cold as the Dementors flew high in the air to chase the two seekers who chased the snitch.
"Draco!" screamed Mrs. Malfoy seeing the creatures headed for the son. Mr. and Mrs. Diggory were casting their Patronus to send it up to protect Cedric. Every adult in the stadium and the student capable, were also casting. Neville's little lizard flew up and it seemed to grab hold of the many Invisible Fire spells tath Harry was casting as well.
With each spell the lizard grabbed, it grew larger and larger. Once it was above the pitch and near the Dementors it was a full-sized dragon bellowing invisible fire and catching each of the Dementors with invisible flames. The entire swarm of fifty Dementors flew around frantically trying to escape the fire, but the flames became visible as each demon fell from the sky their shrouds and their magic burning away.
[Did I tell you that lizard would be spectacular or what?] asked Iggy as cheers filled the stadium.
Draco Malfoy received another round of cheers when he revealed that he had caught and held onto the snitch during the attack by the Dementors. Mrs. Malfoy held him with tears in her eyes as Mr. and Mrs. Diggory hugged their son to make certain he was whole and well.
As the reporters and photographers made certain to interview the players from both teams, Professor Flitwick and Professor Lupin along with four other wizards banished the ashes from the dementors before anyone thought to gather any for experimentation with potions.
Frank Longbottom leaned close to his sons and said, "Last night, the elves brought someone very scary to one of the barns. They threw a madman into a tub of soapy hot water and mixed in an entire bottle of No.6 Perfume. They report that the man cried and splashed around for a time but then a big black dog fell out of the tub. Once he settled down, they dried and brushed him out. He's been fed three small meals already and they moved him into the greenhouse with the roses where he sleeps. The visiting elves all cast healing spells toward your new dog."
"The crazy man is a dog?" asked Neville and Harry seemed to be fighting with his memories.
[Padfoot. He's Padfoot,] Iggy said sadly. [That's Sirius Black.]
[Tell Dad,] Neville said and so without much discussion, Frank Longbottom learned that the madman and dog were apparently the escaped convict Sirius Black.
"What will you do?" asked Harry, trusting his father but a little fearful. "We said we'd use the Breathe of Magic to help him. And his cousins are that nice healer and Draco's mum."
Frank nodded and said, "Your Mum and I agree that we'll get in touch with Healer Tonks." Nodding toward the knots of different parents, Frank pointed his mother and wife approaching Mrs. Malfoy to tell her of their discovery of a 'seriously black dog' in their greenhouse that morning.
There were loud voices in the Great Hall at dinner. First Headmaster Dumbledore and Deputy Headmistress McGonagall arrived three minutes late for dinner and when the elves provided Meade at the head table as the beverage for the adults, there were exclamations from both headmaster and professor. Then there was disbelief from Albus and Minerva that the Dementors had all be destroyed by a mysterious spell that came from the Patronus menagerie that rose to drive them from the field. While neither one seemed to be convinced totally, offers to share their memories from Lupin and Flitwick seemed to mollify the discussions at the table.
Then the doors of the Great Hall opened and Cornelius Fudge thundered into the room, shouting about Dementors refusing to patrol at Azkaban, howlers from parents bombarding his office, and the final question, 'where were the Dementors that were supposed to protect Hogwarts?'
A few students transfigured bumblebees that they released into the room that evening. Without fail, they all flew to the head table to land on Dumbledore or McGonagall causing the two to slap at the insects. More bumblebees fell from the magical ceiling as Lady Hogwarts decided to act and Minister Fudge fled the building.
There were regular letters from Mum and Dad for the rest of November and when everyone boarded the Hogwarts Express for the winter holiday, Harry and Neville wondered how they'd like the new dog at home. Frank was at the station to collect his sons and he allowed them to walk out into the muggle section of Kings Cross to make certain that Colin and Dennis found their parents, and that Hermione met her parents.
Once all their friends had been collected by their parents, Frank and the boys returned to platform 9¾ where he apparated them home. In the reception room, they hugged Mum and Gran before following all three adults to the lounge where Mr. and Mrs. Tonks sat talking with Mrs. Malfoy and Draco. The three boys worked together in all their study groups so there wasn't any problem with Draco being in their home.
While everyone sat down, Neville and Harry on either side of their Mum with Gran in a chair just slightly to one side, Frank stood in the centre of the room and called for an elf to bring Padfoot into the room. But rather than popping the dog into the room, the door opened and the elf rode the large Grim into the room.
From the expressions on their faces, Harry thought the size of the dog didn't surprise any of the adults so they'd seen the dog previously. But Draco, Neville and Harry were taken aback by how large the dog was.
Andromeda Tonks rose slowly as the dog sat on his haunches and elf slid off before moving out of the way. He was sniffing the air continually and she made certain to let the dog smell of her hands before she caressed his head.
"Sirius, I need you to come out for a time. There's some boys you need to meet," the healer said in a motherly tone that Harry had begun to recognize.
Now Narcissa rose and approached the dog, also holding out her hands and then rubbing the dog's head gently. "Siri, we need your help today. Just for a little while."
The dog whined just slightly before Alicee stood up and said in her firm mother's voice, "Sirius Black, get your mangy carcass out here and meet your godson. Harry's here and needs to see you!"
The man who appeared in a globe of light as the dog vanished was clean and well-dressed, with trimmed hair and beard. There was still a wild look in his eye but with a familiar face standing on either side and helping to hold him up, he didn't panic. The elf pushed a chair behind the man and he sat down with his cousins remaining on either side.
Frank said, "Good afternoon, Sirius. We thought you should meet the boys today. They've just come home from Hogwarts for Yule and Christmas."
"Boys?" a weak voice said. "Do I know boys? James, Remus and Peter… Want to kill Peter."
Sirius, this is Harry. He is the son of our cousin James Potter," andromeda said gently as she motioned for Harry to stand. Frank would not allow the boy to step closer than his side.
"And this is Alice's son, Neville," Frank said as Neville rose and stepped to his father's side.
Alice rose and moved to stand beside Draco as Narcissa said, "And this is Draco, my son."
"Cissy, you have a boy?"
"Yes, Sirius. His name is Draconis, just like every boy in the Black family has a star for a name."
"Is that James? He shrunk?"
"That is Harry," Andromeda said quietly. "James was his father."
"Poor James…" Sirius said before he sat back and whimpered. Then he glowed and the elf pulled the chair back before the large Grim appeared again.
That evening, the Grim followed the two boys up the stairs at bedtime and curled up in a comfortable dog bed at the foot of Harry's bed. In the morning, he was curled up at the foot of Harry's bed that an elf had expanded during the night. Through out the first day, the dog followed Harry around and often sat with his shoulder pressed against the boy's chair or side. Harry simply threw an arm around the dog's neck while Neville teased his brother about smelling 'like a dog'.
++***++ End Chapter Scene