Expecto Patronum

Harry lay under the flower bed in the dry, early August heat. The news had just gone off and he was going through the motions of relief that nothing horrible had happened yet and worry about what Voldemort might be planning. He caught little snippets of his aunt and uncle's conversation.

"Glad the boy's stopped trying to butt in," came Uncle Vernon's voice, "Watching the news. As if a normal boy cares what's going on. I'll bet Dudley doesn't even know who the Prime Minister is. It's not like there'd be anything about his lot on the news."

"Vernon, the window's open!"

"Oh, sorry, Tuney," said Uncle Vernon, lowering his voice a bit, "Where is the boy, anyway?"

"I don't know. Not in the house,"

There was a few minutes' silence before, "Dudders out for tea again?"

"Yes, at the Polkiss'," said Aunt Petunia.

Harry quickly got bored with the conversation and decided to move from his spot in the dirt. But as he rolled over to push himself up, he heard a loud, echoing crack. He immediately pulled his wand from his pocket and stood up, only to crack his head on the window ledge. After seeing double for a few seconds, his vision cleared up enough for him to look for the source of the disturbance. He saw a cat streak out from under a nearby car and a few neighbors were peeking out of their windows. Before he could see anything totally out of the ordinary, though, a pair of large, beefy hands made their way around his throat. Harry struggled against the hold for a minute until the slowly forming lump on his head gave a painful throb. Vernon suddenly released his grip as though electricity shot through him. Recovering quickly, he immediately smiled and waved at the neighbors and made his excuses. Harry was more worried about finding out what made the noise and staying away from his uncle.

"What do you mean by making a noise like a starting pistol right under our window, boy?" asked his uncle angrily.

"I didn't make that noise," Harry replied. Vernon gave a frustrated growl at his answer.

"Then what were you doing hiding under our window?" asked Petunia.

"Good point, Petunia. What were you doing, boy?"

"And don't give us any more of that 'listening to the news' rubbish. We're not stupid,"

"Well that's news to me," said Harry before taking off down the street before he could be punished.

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Diana came down a little while later after spending several hours studying her magic. She was becoming quite good at it. She was considering using it as sort of a secret weapon when she was able to become Wonder Woman again. She was so absorbed in her study that she failed to notice the commotion from earlier in the evening.

Walking into the living room, she saw the whale and the horse watching television, but the two teenagers were nowhere to be found. She looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was a little after nine.

"Where're Harry and Dudley; shouldn't they be home this late?"

"It's none of your business how late we allow Dudley out!" said Vernon.

Diana glared at the two before saying, "You don't even know where they are do you?"

"Yes we do. Dudley is at a friend's house for tea," said Petunia defiantly.

"Are you sure? Did you call his friend's mother?" Diana's tone dripped with sarcasm.

"I don't have to. He said he was going to be there."

"So you let your son go off without confirming he's going to be where he says?" said Diana, incredulous. All Petunia could do was glare back as she had nothing to say, "What about Harry? Do you know where he is?"

"He ran off earlier. Was downright rude to us," You probably deserved it; Diana thought to herself, "He's probably at the park," he pointed in the general direction of the park, "The neighbors say that he's been going there and scaring the children." The last part was a lie; but the neighbors were just as disapproving of Harry as the Dursleys.

Diana was angry, but hid it in a mocking tone of voice, "My, my, my, what would the neighbors think if they found out that you let the boys in your care run wild late at night?"

Vernon and Petunia exchanged worried glances. Diana turned her back on them and smirked to herself as she walked out the front door. Night was setting in as outside and the streetlamps were coming on. A warm breeze blew through her long, ebony hair as she looked at the first few stars in the sky. She then set off in the direction of the park. She knew where it was because she had t

She wasn't too concerned with Dudley; he was probably off somewhere with his gang. But it was too dangerous for Harry to be wondering around alone. She didn't know he'd been walking by himself to the park the past few weeks as she'd spent most every afternoon practicing her magic. I'll have to pay more attention. I don't want him to feel neglected by me as well. He had told her of his feelings of abandonment this summer because his friends were together without him and weren't telling him what was going on. Of course he hadn't told her the specifics of what they weren't telling him about, but she got the gist that he was feeling lonely and isolated.

She was pulled from her thoughts as she heard a whimpering voice ahead of her saying, "Don't kill Cedric! Who's Cedric, your boyfriend?" Looking forward, Diana saw Dudley and Harry both stopped in the middle of the road having some sort of an argument, "Don't let him kill me, mum!"

"Oh, this can't be good," Diana ran towards the two boys and stepped between them, "Be quiet, Dudley. You don't know what you're talking about," she yelled angrily at the robust teen.

Dudley was slightly surprised by her appearance, but then wore a nasty smirk as he said, "Diana, I can't sleep! I have bad dweams! I wet the bed!" he laughed cruelly.

Before Diana could do or say anything, she saw Dudley's smirk turn into a look of fear. Looking down, she saw that Harry had reached around her and was pointing his wand directly at Dudley's chest, "Don't ever mention that again, do you understand me?" he said in a harsh whisper.

Diana immediately got out from between them and stood to face both boys, "Harry, what are you doing?"

"Point that thing somewhere else!"

"I said do you understand?" Harry's voice was beginning to rise.

Everyone began talking at once, voices varying from forced calm to yelling in either anger or fear.

"Harry, I need you to calm down,"

"Point it somewhere else!"

"Calm down, Harry; Put the wand away before you do something that you'll both regret,"

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

"GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!"

Suddenly, the world went dark. The street lights and the stars were nowhere to be found. Then the cold settled in. All three began shivering heavily. Diana could just make out the expression on Harry's face. It started out as surprise, and then it morphed into comprehension. He began looking left and right for something.

"Harry, what's happening?" asked Diana, getting ready to defend herself and the boys if necessary. Harry held up his hand to show that he needed silence.

"W-what are you doing? St-stop it!"

"I'm not doing anything! Shut up and don't move!"

"I c-can't see! I've g-gone blind! I-"

"Dudley, be quiet. He needs to hear." Diana whispered, trying to calm the large boy.

Diana could see her breath rising in front of her face now. She held her arms, trying to retain some warmth.

"I'll t-tell Dad!" Dudley whimpered. "W-where are you? What are you d-do-?"

"Will you shut up?" Harry hissed, "I'm trying to lis-"

All of a sudden, they all heard something. It sounded like something was in the alley with them. It was drawing long, rattling breathes. It was coming from the other end of the alley. Harry got his wand ready, pointing his wand towards the- whatever it was. Suddenly- WHAM! Diana heard something and she saw Harry fall down to her right as Dudley punched him in his head.

"Harry!" Diana reached out to help the skinny teen up, but there was the sound of wood clattering on concrete: Harry's wand.

"You moron, Dudley!" Harry began crawling on the ground looking for his wand.

Dudley took off at a run down the alley.

"DUDLEY, COME BACK! YOU'RE RUNNING RIGHT AT IT!" yelled Harry from the ground.

Diana acted without thinking. She extended her arms and began to twirl in the middle of the alley and then-

…nothing, "Oh, no!" Diana began to panic. She had never felt so defenseless. She had always had Wonder Woman to fall back on when she ran into trouble. There was suddenly the sound of Dudley screaming as he encountered the creature.

"DUDLEY, KEEP YOU'RE MOUTH SHUT! WHATEVER YOU DO. KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!" Harry was still scrambling for his wand, "Can't you do anything? I know you're Wonder Woman!"

Diana didn't even have time to be surprised, "I can't! I don't have my powers!"

Harry didn't respond, though he did start to panic, "Where's- wand- come on- Lumos!"

Just as Harry's wand lit up, Diana realized that she did have something now that she didn't have as Wonder Woman. Unfortunately, just as she pulled her own wand out, and as Harry picked his up off of the ground, they heard another long, rattling breath behind them. There were two of them!

"You get this one, I'll go help Dudley!" shouted Diana as she charged the other one, wand raised. She started swiping through the air frantically, shooting balls of gold light at the thing that seemed to be lowering itself on Dudley as if to kiss him.

Although barely fazed, the creature did look up to see what was attacking. When it saw Diana, it began to descend upon her instead.

"Expecto Patronum!" Harry was trying to think of a happy memory. Concentrate! Nothing but silvery wisps of vapor came out of his wand, "Expecto Patronum!"

The cloaked dementor was gliding towards him, its scaly hands extended. They began to circle his throat. He began to hear high pitched laughter and the cold voice. Bow to death, Harry… It might even be painless… I would not know… I have never died.

This is it. Harry thought to himself as the dementor sucked all of the happiness out of him and he began to despair, I'll never see Ron or Hermione again. At the last minute, both of their faces popped into his head as clear as if he was looking at a photo of the two.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" a silver stag came out of his wand and its antlers caught the dementor in the chest. It immediately retreated into the shadows, leaving behind the warm night and the stars and the street lamps, "Dudley! Diana!" he called to the other end of the alley. He then instructed the stag to follow as he ran toward them.

Diana was doing a spectacular job of keeping the dementor at bay by shooting jets of light at it. But it was still coming. Dudley was curled into a quivering ball on the ground.

"GET IT!" Harry shouted at the stag, which charged down the dementor. Like the other one, this dementor retreated. Diana and Harry looked at each other in relief now that the danger had passed. Once he was calm enough, though, Harry finally took notice of the wand in her hand. Before he could inquire about it, they both heard footsteps running toward them. Turning around, Harry saw his batty, cat-loving neighbor carrying a bag of cat food.

"Mrs. Figg!"

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For the record, the first part is a compressed summary of the first part of the Order of the Phoenix book. I'm trying not to use exact dialogue in this story because of the fact that it would make this story waaaay too long. Plus we all know what happens in the original novel. But there were a few spots in this chapter where I thought it would make more sense if I kept the dialogue as close to how it was in the book as possible. Not trying to take credit for JK Rowling here. Also, any thoughts on how Diana reacted in the dementor situation? I imagine anyone who had her power on call at any time they wanted just to have it taken away would feel pretty helpless. But we're gonna work on that later on *hint*hint*. I also originally intended to name this chapter Diana Demented, to sort of homage the first chapter of the book. But I read somewhere that that title implied that because of the dementor attack there was question of Dudley's sanity. And I wouldn't dare imply that about Diana. Any thoughts?