Chapter 53: Dementor, Dementor!
"In a somewhat misguided attempt to not look like a fool, he managed to make himself look completely incompetent, and students were injured." I tilt the chair in Albus' office back on two legs. "I can't believe Fudge is still in a position of power. Can you imagine if it was somebody like Draco that was directly attacked? Lucius would've had his head on a plate. Hell, I think Arthur is trying his best at the Ministry right now." Understandable, really. I believe that Arthur was riled up a lot by Hermione's father, who was completely furious. Fred and George said they saw him try and punch Fudge. I drop the chair back to all four legs. "I see that you have an ICW letter there." I rest my hands on his desk, dropping my chin onto them.
"A frequent thorn in my side since their 'deployment' to Hogwarts." He leans back tiredly in the chair. "Such things always happen when the dementors are anywhere outside of Azkaban."
"Any news on Crouch?"
"A private trial will be held by the Wizengamot in 3 days time. I have heard that veritaserum has been approved for this case, as using an unforgivable curse on a student is particularly..."
"Messed up?" I suggest. Albus just smiles.
"Quite. Under normal circumstances, you would be permitted to hold a seat, but as the victim, it was thought best to bar your entrance." He seems apologetic.
"I suppose I can live with that." I let out a long, deflating breath. "If it was Junior, though, I'd be in there, laws be damned." Albus sets his quill down on the desk, resting his hands in front of him.
"On the subject of the law, am I to understand that you do not intend to antagonise the dementors this evening? You seem fairly at ease, currently." He motions to the room.
"I thought about teaching some of my friends to cast a patronus, make it into a game, but after yesterday? We don't have the time any more. I'm going to wait until dinner, so there will be capable Aurors and staff with the rest of the students. It won't take much to scare them off the grounds, then they will flee back to Azkaban. Even Fudge wouldn't send them back after an event like this." I rub the grey skin on my hand, the point that I had touched the dementor. "They are clever. Strategic in their attacks, and their tortures. They are, however, able to feel fear. Able to hate."
"Hate?" Albus combs his fingers through his beard. "During our trip to Azkaban, you mentioned that dementors cannot differentiate between people, which is how the switch between Barty and his mother was possible. Could such a being hate without understanding the target of such emotion?"
"The running theory is that they can't tell, you're right, but I think they just didn't care?" I tilt my head from side to side. "I would hazard a guess that they assumed it was a new prisoner. They witness releases and admittances often enough." I shrug.
"The simple answers are oft those which elude us." His hands relax back onto the table. "Harry. Officially, I cannot condone this path. The risks to other students, and to yourself, are great. Despite the faith I have in you, there is still the consideration of safety.
"I-"
"However." He interrupts. "I find myself tiring of the presence the dementors have on the school, and with our foreign guests. This is not the way I wish for Hogwarts to greet our friends." He looks away, unfocused. "During my time as transfiguration professor, we had a particularly unlucky young man with a member of his family seeking to do him harm. The ministry wished to station a single dementor on the grounds to 'sniff out' this gentleman, should he make it that far. I swore to Headmaster Dippet that should a dementor ever enter Hogwarts, I would resign."
"Albus, I would sooner raze Azkaban to the ground than allow a dementor to enter the castle." He leans forward, lacing his fingers together, resting his lips against his knuckles as he frowns.
"The question that continually plays on my mind is 'Why do they not effect you?'." His eyes are fixed dead on me.
"I think it's the Hallows. They share a strange bond with me, quite evident in the way in which the wand decided upon me, to delay rather than to switch immediately. The magic they use just isn't like anything else I have encountered. I am as sure as I can be that the Potters have been handing down the cloak for generations, too. It's not often in Hogwarts, and it hides itself from me when it's activated, but I'm positive that it's not a coincidence that my ancestors were frequently giving their children new invisibility cloaks."
"But how does this relate to the dementors?"
"The Peverell brothers… They never attended Hogwarts, unusual for the time, but not unheard of. I don't think that they were entirely human, or not the same as you and I." I say slowly. "They created objects of power that has scarcely been matched, perhaps this was because it can't be matched with regular wizard magic."
"And being a descendant of this 'inhuman' magic has given you some resistance?"
"I think so. Albus, it could even be the reason that I can do the things I can. Everything I touch – That's not a regular wizard thing. I'm just trying to make sense of things, so I might be completely off target, but things slot together too conveniently."
"Could there be others like you, I wonder?" Albus has taken to his more classic pose, along with stroking his beard thoughtfully. "Well documented is cross-species relationships between magical races, part-goblins, half-giants, and Veela being quite typical examples."
"I don't think it's anything quite so direct, and it's been watered down many generations over to get to me. Perhaps the ability is psionic, rather than magical? A power of the mind."
I don't think it would be too far-fetched to say that, considering the colour of magic surrounding the Hallows, and the same magic beneath Azkaban, that the Hallows may be the key to the inter-dimensional travel Ekrizdis sought. I certainly wouldn't try passing the barrier without also having the resurrection stone, too. The old tale says to master the deathly hallows is to master death, but maybe it's something more? Could the Peverells have been from the other side? They could be what a dementor should look like if they had the means to safely travel past the barrier. The magical beings they were able to be here somehow didn't form right when the dementors were pulled through by Ekrizdis. A small part of me could be the same sort of creature, so I am unable to be effected.
A shiver runs down my spine.
"I can see you have a lot to think about, Harry." My eyes focus back on Albus. "I shall see you after dinner? I will ensure students will not wander astray."
"Yeah, after dinner." I nod, slightly shaken. "I'll tell Hagrid to lock his door, too."
222
The sun has long since dipped below the horizon as I make my way out into the rain. Albus has cleared the halls so that every student currently sit safely within the Great Hall. Plenty of proficient professors capable of defending them alongside the Aurors. Tonks had given me a wink as she saw me splitting off from my classmates after being marched towards dinner. I suspect she will crash in bed tonight after starting so early this morning.
There is a light rain, which caused Fang to shake himself right next to Hagrid as they walked in earlier, having received my note. I stroll across the courtyard, a wand in each hand. Dementors sail lazily near the boundaries of the grounds proper, but no further. A good sixty to seventy "guardians" are present from my vantage point. I know there to be at least thrice that amount elsewhere on the grounds, but none have ventured into the castle. I intend to make sure that isn't a pressing issue for a long time.
I use my holly wand to cast my original patronus. The slightly off-white blue hue illuminates the area, light glinting off the wet cobbles as the wolf circles around my legs obediently. I take a deep breath and lift the Elder Wand towards the sky.
"Custodes congrego."I whisper.
A pulse of energy rockets from the tip in a sphere, disrupting the flow of the rain for a moment.
"Custodes congrego."
Another pulse. The ancient spell being cast for the first time since the fall of Ekrizdis' wards around the island of Azkaban.
"Custodes Congrego!"
Watchers gather.
The Dementors twist angrily in the air. They freeze and all turn to me in unison, for a moment, nothing happens.
Then slowly, they drift towards the purple light of the Elder Wand. The entire length alight in my hands. An almost smoking wisp pouring out onto my outstretched arm before vanishing.
As one entity, they approach likes moths to a flame. The slight swaying as they descend upon me, stopping to form a big sphere, blotting out the sight of my surroundings like a wall. I involuntarily swallow at the sight.
They tighten the sphere around me, closing the space. Their heads appear to be staring at me, rather than the wand now. If Scar could growl, I'm sure he would be doing so right now.
"I really hate Dementors." I say. None of them react.
I spin the Elder Wand over my head, dropping the beacon spell in favour of conjuring the containment runes straight onto the pillars in the courtyard. Before they can react, I concentrate the patronus charm through my wand and blast the nearest cloaked figure. The hood is disintegrated and the mottled skin beneath is exposed, now glowing red with embers.
Then they start shrieking.
I drop to the floor, trying my best to cover my ears from the sound, but it pierces through. I feel Scar vanish at the sheer power behind the collective scream of over two hundred Dementors. Barely holding onto the containment runes, I keep trying as hard as possible to continue engraving the runes.
Did I bite off more than I can chew?
The dementor with the burns has approached me, coming closer than any of the others, despite Scar no longer being present. A leader in the ranks? One bony hand reaches towards my face, I feel compelled to look up into the lifeless sockets. I struggle onto my feet as more of them approach me. My holly wand is lying on the floor by my feet. When did I drop it? The black cold burns on my hands are more evident now than before.
Is this it?
I scowl and glare at the burned creature, screwing my hand into a fist. The face stops inches from mine. The air starts to swirl around it's mouth just as I finish the containment circle. It's trying to kiss me.
Gellert experimented many times with the human soul. Trying to create wizards, trying to strip a person of their magic for good. Even attempts to imbue a golem body with a human soul transfer. He never completed his research into souls, and neither did Ekrizdis. But together? They kind of fill in the blanks to eachother.
"Get the fuck away from my home." I growl.
I pull my fist back and scream as I punch the dementor in the sternum. The resounding crack, and almost gong-like sound, resonates loudly across the castle grounds as the soul departs from the gangly body. The ethereal visage of something humanoid clear to my sight sprawls out of the back as if punched in the gut. The bony form falls to the floor in it's cloak. As the soul fades into the air, I squat down and retrieve my wand from the floor. Once again holding one in each hand.
I look up at the dementors hanging in the air.
"I thought I told you all to fuck off?"
Then all hell breaks loose.
The scream starts again, but it's not so bad now that I've felt it once. Scar appears with a swish of holly, dementors are blasted against the edges of the containment circle with a flick of elder.
They swoop down on me. I twist and turn to fire curses off with the Death Stick, nimbly evading the clawed hands while Scar bites at anything that flies too low. Reminding me oddly of the manor I was held captive in, they are stuck in here with me. I start to use both wands to fire the compressed patronus blasts at the swirling masses. One grabs onto my left arm, only to be missing the bottom of it's jaw a moment later. Scorch marks scatter against the flagstones as more dementors take damage from the beams of blue and white light.
The imperfect creation of the barrier quickly begins to show itself as holes start to appear thanks to the flurry of dementors wailing on the edge of the barrier. They screech in pain from the presence of my original patronus. I let off a powerful flipendo to give myself the space to pull the Elder Scar into the space as I feel my strength waning. Through the thinned herd, I spot the runes smoking on the pillars outside just before they give up for good.
In a final push, I send both wolves away from me as the circle breaks, causing the cloaked guardians of Azkaban to flee into the night sky, two brilliant lights chasing them down.
"And stay out!" I shout after then, barely managing a smile as I look around at the courtyard.
Masonry scuffed up, but still structurally sound, is covered in ice. Completely coating every surface is a thick layer of white. The floor is littered with hundreds of thousands of tiny frozen raindrops, which are quickly starting to melt as the lack of dementors no longer cause the rain to freeze. I stow my wands and watch as the two lights in the sky blink out. I rub my hands on the still-pristine invisibility cloak hanging inertly around my shoulders.
Kneeling beside the pile of bones and rags, I bundle up the dementor corpse into my cloak. No need for anyone to know what's inside, and this even stops Moody's blasted eye.
A negligent flick of the Elder Wand repairs the burn-in on the pillars used for the runes, restoring them back to normal, along with removing the ice from the courtyard. No trace of the battle remains as I walk back into the castle, now very safe from Dementors. Small scratch marks litter my arms and face, but the ice has melted from the temperature of my skin now. Only the deepest ones, and my hand, show the blackened skin.
I reach the Great Hall, ready for something hot and hopefully a very chocolatey dessert. Pushing the grand double doors open theatrically, I rejoin my fellow students.
Every eye turns to me as awkwardly limp over to Hermione and Ginny. I slump down beside Hermione and let out a groan.
Sitting is nice.
"I really hate dementors."
A/N: I've wanted Harry to punch a soul out since I first came up with the Azkaban plot.
User "Lord Makurus" of FFnet is kindly translating the story into Spanish! Send them lots of love.
Once again, after this long break, I am proud to finally add another one of these.
Enjoy ~