Well, once again it is Friday, the end of another week and time for a new chapter. This time, we find out what form Katie's Patronus takes…easy enough to figure out if you think about it.

My thanks as always to those of you who have read, and even more thanks to those of you who have reviewed:

To the ever faithful (if belated) KRP – I'm really glad you liked this chapter! I'll answer all your questions about traitors at once, you're going to be very surprised by the events at the end of this story and beginning of the next. Oh, and never underestimate the Marines…ever. I figure that when a Dementor dies, their supersolenoid implodes, leaving no body, just their cloak and whatever fluids they bled out beforehand. About the Kiss, afterwards the recipient is basically brain dead, so for a Dementor to kill the remaining body is simply cleaning up after the job. This is why Esdras' order was to kill them, regardless of whether or not the Kiss was performed. I think what you're trying to explain about the Ministry's handling of the break out is basic damage control. By keeping the reporting of the damage minimal, there is less panic in the general population. And this is the first mention of the 45th Marines to date. As for Chapter 14, notice that I didn't say he actually got to eat, just that he wanted to. Poor guy can't even get a meal… Also, I assumed that Umbridge would know everything since she's in close enough contact with Fudge. As for the cadet casualties, the 26 died defending the transport platform, the other eight died in the initial assault at Personal Effects. And Dementors haven't died in combat in years and years. The whole exchange with Harry was designed to show exactly how much stress Esdras is under, but he'll be better soon. And I never said Dementor puberty was worse than mortal puberty, just different…

To the ever faithful Snood – Esdras probably should have given Harry a chance to explain himself, but keep in mind that he's been under a lot of stress lately what with his people on the brink of revolt and all. And as for Esdras not explaining things to Katie straight away, I figure if he started talking in Azkabaaner to Katie, not even Umbridge would be stupid enough to not realize what he was doing (okay, maybe she would be stupid enough, but still). Besides, after a battle of such magnitude, I would imagine he would only want to explain things once, and knowing that Dumbledore would be interested in what happened as well, that means getting the two together. And don't worry; Esdras will have plenty of stress reduction in this chapter.

Those of you who haven't reviewed really ought to. I'd like to hear from you and see what you all think about my plot, character development, etc. I enjoy hearing your opinions and all reviews will be taken seriously, whether positive or negative. So please, press the blue button and tell me what you think.

All that being said, there's sadly no Azkabaaner in this chapter, I must be slipping. And, as usual, I don't own HP.

Chapter 15 – Dementor Guardant in Argent

Katie had initially been startled when Harry had come to her telling her what had happened in town. But the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Esdras was under incredible stress and she knew it, but he always managed to deflect concern so well that she never gave it more than cursory thought. After a quick apology on his behalf and the promise that she would talk to him immediately, she was off to Madame Pomfrey in the Hospital Wing. The nurse was, of course, all business. "Are you feeling well, Katie?"

Katie smiled and nodded. "Just fine, but I was wondering if I could look at your copy of the Dementor Medical Reference. I can't check out the copy in the library since it's in the restricted section."

Pomfrey nodded and went to her bookshelf to get the tome. "I don't understand why you don't just ask Esdras to check it out for you. You know that he's able to go into the restricted section." When she turned to hand Katie the book, she caught the look in her eyes. "But you don't want him to know that you're looking something up. I understand. You're welcome to use my desk; I'll just be doing rounds."

Katie smiled kindly and sat down at the nurse's desk, opening the huge book to the index and thumbing through the pages until she came to the topic she was looking for. Turning to a chapter near the end of the massive text, she found exactly what she was looking for, the section on Dementor acupressure.

She quickly thumbed through the text and took copious notes. When she felt that she had a passable understanding, she collected her parchments, closed the book, thanked the nurse, and ran as fast as she could to the Ravenclaw common room. There was a quick wait while Esdras was paged to come to the door and soon, the suit of armor stepped away and opened the door to reveal the surprised Dementor. "Hey Katie, what's up?"

She smiled sweetly. "Can I come in?"

Esdras nodded and stepped aside, allowing her entrance. Katie gracefully guided him over to a couch near the fireplace and kicked two first years off, laying Esdras down on his stomach and immediately straddling him. Esdras was confused to say the least. "What's all this about, then?"

Katie smiled again. "Just shut up and relax." She unfolded her notes and consulted them before pressing the palms of her hands exactly six and a half inches below the float bladder exhaust port under his shoulder blades. The result was immediate; Esdras sighed in pleasure and went completely limp. Katie grinned. "Feel good?"

The Dementor remained immobile, merely making a sound of assent. As Katie worked her way to a second pressure point near his spine, Esdras shivered in pleasure, his voice a mere whisper. "What are you doing to me?"

The mortal leaned in, and whispered in his ear. "You've been under a lot of stress lately. I thought it might help if you got a proper massage, so I looked up the acupressure points on a Dementor."

Esdras merely nodded and surrendered himself to the feeling of her hands on his body. By the time Katie had reached the last spot on his back, he was already asleep.

The effects of Katie's new weapon in her bedroom arsenal did not go unnoticed by the rest of the school. The Dementor was much calmer and even reacted in a reasonable manner when news of a second Marine Division's defection was brought to him. Katie was nervous, but Esdras did his best to calm her down by changing the topic. "Did you read Harry's interview in the Quibbler?"

Katie nodded slightly. "I thought he came off well. It's good that someone is finally printing his side of the story. It's a shame you can't tell people that Voldemort has been in contact with you."

Esdras shrugged. "I would, but I doubt many people would take a Dementor's word on anything except how tasty a soul is. Besides, the Ministry has strict regulations on what Azkaban Guards can and cannot say to the public. This is one of those things we can't mention." His companion sighed and he continued, changing the topic to something more pleasant. "With all the excitement over the Quibbler article, I guess no one read in the Daily Prophet that Sasha has started touring with the Weird Sisters."

The mortal turned and stared at him in shock. "You're serious? She took their offer?"

The Dementor nodded and grinned. "She did. And it was a sell out concert. The Weird Sisters did a lot of promoting to their fans, saying that they should give her a chance. Magical Law Enforcement was worried about some kind of riot but nothing like that happened. Sasha even came out for an encore."

Katie clapped her hands together happily. "This is fantastic! Oh, people are going to love her. How long will she be on tour?"

Esdras shrugged. "The tour is supposed to last until the end of summer, and after that, she's going to try to get time in the studio and see if she can release an album if she has enough of a following."

Smiling brightly, Katie linked arms with Esdras as they walked towards the Gryffindor common room to get her books. "Wow, I can now say that I know two famous Dementors." They came to the portrait hole and Esdras waited outside. At least he did until the portrait hole opened again to reveal Katie. "Esdras, get in here and see this."

The Dementor floated in and followed her to the bulletin board where a new Educational Decree had been posted. Esdras sighed. "Number twenty seven, no Quibbler. Well, this will only affect Luna. And everyone has already seen the article anyway, so it doesn't really matter."

Katie nodded. "And it's not like she can prevent people outside Hogwarts from reading it. This is completely pointless."

Esdras sighed and shrugged. "Is there anything about that woman that's not completely pointless?" At Katie's barely hidden smirk, the Dementor smiled. "Come on, we need to get to class."

Harry looked over at the Dementor, who had remained in the corner of the room in his natural form. His only addition was a long platinum needle stabbed into his abdomen, just below his stomach. The needle was attached to a tube leading to a crystal carboy, which was slowly filling with silvery ichor. The mortal raised an eyebrow in concern. "Are you sure you want to be here for this, Esdras?" He watched as a silvery swan floated through the air, Cho was happily guiding the Patronus in circles around the room. "This is pretty dangerous for you, right?"

Esdras nodded. "A little, but I drained most of my ichor reserve before coming. I'm feeding right now, and all the new ichor is being drained off, so I should be safe as long as I don't fill up. Besides, I really wanted to see what everyone was capable of." He held out a small black box, a measuring device for Patroni. "And I wanted to see how strong everyone was. Maybe ask if you all would be willing to help with the feedings at New Demnin."

The mortal smiled. "Well, how are they doing so far?"

The Dementor looked to his box and arched his hood. "Cho's swan is nearly twenty five soul equivalents. That's pretty good for a beginner."

Harry laughed. "To be honest, I'm surprised we're getting such good results. Everyone must have had a good day today."

Esdras nodded absently as he pointed the Patronus meter at Hermione's otter, then Ron's Jack Russell Terrier. "Hermione…ninety five soul equivalents. Ron…forty seven soul equivalents. Not bad, not bad at all."

The captain of the DA smirked. "You said mine was a thousand soul equivalents?"

The Dementor cast his pitch black hood over to the grinning mortal and sighed. "Closer to one thousand one hundred, actually. And yes, it's the second strongest Patronus we have on record after Dumbledore."

And so the practice continued, with Esdras watching the floating silver animals and occasionally changing the crystal carboy attached to his platinum needle when it became full. Katie eventually made her way over and looked at the long line of bottles. "Donations for the ichor bank?"

Esdras nodded. "I have the time and the access to the energy. Each one of these bottles can save a dozen lives."

Katie smiled, and then looked sad. "I still can't get mine to work."

The Dementor scratched his head. "Remember when I taught you Avada Kedavra? I told you to put all your hatred and anger into the attack. That you had to really and truly want your opponent to die by your hand."

The mortal nodded slowly. "Yes, but what does that have to do with a Patronus?"

Esdras spun her around and wrapped his arms around her. "You have to do the same thing, only with positive emotions. I want you to close your eyes and think of the happiest memory you have." He watched as her beautiful brown eyes closed and eventually, a soft smile came to her face. "What are you thinking about?"

Katie leaned back into his embrace. "The first time you kissed me."

He placed his right hand overtop of hers and pointed her wand out to face the room. "You're ready. Now, cast the spell."

She sighed happily, and then opened her eyes. Her voice was calm and serene. "Expecto Patronum."

From the tip of the wand, a blinding light erupted. Both looked on in amazement as the light formed itself into a humanoid shape and expanded to an unnatural height. The Patronus resolved slowly and, when it had finally formed completely, Katie stood in awe of what she had created. Cast in pure white and silver and standing nine feet tall, a Patronus Dementor floated in front of her.

Esdras stood hood to hood with the Patronus and immediately checked his meter. He looked incredulously at it, and then shook it. "This can't be right." He looked to Katie, his hood wide in surprise. "It registers at over half a million soul equivalents…"

Katie looked up in shock. "But, how can you be standing here if it's that strong?"

The Dementor shook his head. "I don't know. I don't feel any energy coming off of it. It's like it's not there." He thought for a second, and then snapped his fingers. "The joining of our souls. That must be it. I can't feed off you, and by extension I can't feed off your Patronus."

Harry approached and watched as the Patronus Dementor floated around, regarding his surroundings curiously. "I can understand her Patronus taking Dementor form, but how can it be so strong?"

Esdras regarded the silver Dementor and floated around it as it floated around him. "The same reason, it has to be some kind of feedback between our souls. Dementors are able to cast stronger spells than mortals. It's been theorized that if a Dementor attempted to cast his own Patronus, the Dementor would be destroyed in the process. Katie must be able to harness my power through our joining."

Katie, however, wrapped an arm around Esdras and leaned against him. "I think there's a simpler explanation. It's so strong because it is powered by my love for you."

Katie's Dementor floated off to examine the other Patroni in the room and Harry returned to helping those who were still struggling to cast theirs. Esdras had managed to fill another two more crystal carboys with ichor before the door to the Room of Requirement opened. As head of security, Esdras immediately drew his wand and pointed it at the door, wondering who or what was able to bypass his Azkaban security spells. The answer came when he quickly screamed and held his hands to his eyes. "Who let the house elf in?"

As Katie ran to the blinded Dementor, Harry ran to Dobby. "Dobby, what's wrong?"

The house elf whined and pointed to the hallway before tugging on his ears. "She doesn't want anyone to know she's coming, but Dobby couldn't let you get caught. Dobby had to warn Harry Potter."

Harry knelt down to stand face to face with the small creature. "Is it Umbridge? Is she coming?" The elf nodded and Harry turned to face the rest of the army. "What are you waiting for? Everybody get out of here!"

Esdras narrowed his hood. "I can't fly like this, Katie. I can't see where I'm going. It'll take at least a minute to heal my eyes." He tried to take mortal form, but failed. "I can't take mortal form, either. There's still too much residual Patronus energy in the room.

Katie, however, jumped on his back anyway. "We don't have a minute and we can't wait for the energy to subside. Now don't worry, I have a plan. Go forward!"

The Dementor glided forward with Katie on his back, using his shoulders to get him to bank properly and make the turn into the hallway. Once out in the hallway, Katie banked Esdras up into the shadows covering the ceiling and told him to stop. The Dementor looked around. "Where are we?"

Katie put her hands over his mouth and whispered quickly. "Shut up, someone's coming."

The pair waited in the darkness, giving Esdras time for his eyes to heal. When he finally looked down, he could see Umbridge dragging Harry away to some unknown fate. Esdras sighed quietly. "That was close."

The mortal nodded as they floated through the shadows near the ceiling. "Very close. I figured that if we couldn't outrun her, we'd hide in the one place she wouldn't think to look in." She leaned forward and kissed Esdras on the cheek. "Lucky thing you can float."

Esdras nodded and floated through the shadows of the high ceiling. Once they reached the Gryffindor common room he returned to floor level. The Fat Lady sighed in relief when she saw the pair of them. "Thank goodness you two made it, I was starting to worry. Now get in quickly."

The pair smiled gratefully to the portrait and quickly climbed through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room. Esdras moved immediately to the window. "I have to go to Ravenclaw and make sure that everyone made it back there."

Katie nodded and gave him a quick kiss. "Hermione and Ron are probably making sure we're all accounted for here as well. I'll see you tomorrow."

Esdras nodded and floated out the window, disappearing into the night.