Harry was a boy with a mission, catch the snitch or die trying, that was what Oliver had said before the match. So Harry flew high into the air, ziping between players and bludgers. The air was cold and the heavy rain difficulting the search of the snitch, but that wasn't a excuse for the young seeker, he would found the snitch no matter what.
The voices grew higher and higher, a woman benning for help, he could almost see her. His vision started to get black at the corners, he could see the dementors getting closer and closer. The air was colder each pasing second, his fingers closed arround the broom freezing. The dementors were over him now, surrounding him, he couldn't escape, his broom starting to malfuncion, stoping midair and plumbering down to the rest of the dementors. He could smell the death around him, the putrefactor edor emanating from the creatures.
He closed his eyes, as if he was having a nightmare, and when he would open them again he would be back to his bed in the Griffindor tower. He opened them again, hoping to be back in his bed, but he wasn't. The back around him weren't the courtains around his bed, it was a swarm of dementors feasting on the indefence students.
Harry looked at his hands, semitransparents, he could see trough them now. He could see and heard without problem, but it was disconcerting feeling, the drops of water cross him from head to toe without him getting wet, the air moving him gently around. He couldn't feel the cold anymore, and he was oddly calm about the whole thing.
And then he remembered, the snitch, he had to find the snitch, or else Oliver... He would find it. Dead or alive, he would catch the snitch and would end the match, because he was a seeker and it was his job. He didn't know how he did, it was like an instint, he willed himself to fly arround the pitch. The dementors not afecting him anymore, he could fly across them. The bludgers didn't hurt anymore, flying through him as if he wasn't there. And then, after some minutes of frantic searching, he saw it, the golden snitch. He went to it, and close his hand around it, but his hand just went across the snitch. He tried again, he thought that it he wanted it more the snitch will respond, and after a couple of tries something happen. The snitch wings stoped moving, grapped arround the golden ball, and the snitch plumbered to the ground. The match had concluded, not that anyone cared about at the moment.
Thinking that his job was done Harry decided to look arround Curiosity getting the best of him, like others time before, so he willed himself to descend to the stands. Dementors were kissing students, even if some silverly patronus were trying to get them away. Finally the teachers were able to drive away the dark creatures from the ground, and the grim task to recount the students began.
The numbers of kissed students were high, across all houses and years. The more affected had been Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, as their whole houses had went to the stadium to cheer their house team. Just the more avid quidditch fans from Ravenclaw and Slytherin had went, the rest prefering staying indoors, due to the bad weather. The older students of Slytherin and Ravenclaw had all survive, running away as soon as they saw the dementors descend, those knowing the patronus covered their escape with them, letting the rest of his housemates to save themselves. The upper years of hufflepuff and gryffindor were almost all kissed, they had tried to cover the younger students, giving them a chance to escape the stadium, even those that couldn't cast a patronus had bravery stay behind to help, their sacrifices would be remembered. But even with their help not a lot of students were able to reach the castle.
It was soon aparent to the teachers the great number of students that had been kissed, most had perised, but some of them had, somehow, returned as ghost.
A red head boy wandered the castle corridors, he had heard the rumors flying around about the school closing after the Christmas holidays. He had see how his best friends had both been kissed, how a number of his classmates had too. Ron could consider himself to be lucky, he hadn't be kissed, nor had been his brothers and sister. Percy had been the only survivor of the seventh year, as he had stay in the library. The twins, Fred and George, had been close to be kissed more than one, but the duo had made an incredible job and with the Hufflepuff beaters had used the bludgers to hit the dementors and driving them away from themselves and some of the students, heroes for the students saved. Ginny had been with him in the stands, and that was what probably save her, close to them had been their DADA teacher who had cast a patronus to protect their group.
Hermione had decided to stay some seats up to them, wanting to study and at the same time cheer their friend Harry. Ron would always feel guilty that he hadn't tried more to convice her friend to sit with him.
And Harry, everyone had seem how he had been following the snitch, broom perpendiculary to the ground, up and up, fighting the wind trying to throw him out of the broom. He had almost reach it, and the the dementors started to surround him by the sides and them over and under him. Ron hadn't see it happening, but the body of his friend suddenly falled trough the mass of dementors and crashed into the ground with a sicking sound.
Ron shaked his head slightly, trying to focus on his task and not on his memories. With the school closing he wouldn't be able to see more his friends, who both had somehow returned as ghost. They usually had diferent classes than him, and it was difficult to spend time with them now. The trio had grown appart this past weeks and he though that their friendship at least deserved a goodbye from his part, Hermione and Harry would continue at the school and they may go to their next adventure before he returned to Hogwarts. Ron just wanted to say goodbye one last time.
Hermione had went to the match just to support Harry, she knew how much it mean for his friend that she came to the match. She would cheer of course, she was a good friend after all, but she had so much homework to do, and it was not as if Harry will notice that she was cheering all the time or just some minutes between homework. Ron and the rest of the Griffindor third year had went to the lower part of seats, closer to the players, he had tried to convince her to leave the books aside for the game and join the rest of the group, but she had homework to do and had declined.
She was finished her transformation homework when she started to feel the cold, she had a blue flame to stay warm and a spell to keep the rain and wind away. She looked arround and then saw them, dementors coming down from the sky. She took her wand, and having read about a spell to keep the dementors away, she tried it. A small silvery fog surrounded her, the cold lessing for a little bit. The spell dispersed, the dementors were closer now, almost reaching the stands. Professor Lupin had cast a patronus covering the group of students in a protecting fog. She casted the spell again, while trying to get close to the group, she could she Ron hugging a scared Ginny in the middle of the group. This time the spell formed an smaller fog, she was almost there when a hand grabed her arm. It was as all happiness left her, a putric smell was in the air. She screamed but the sound was covered by the mouth of the monsters. Hermione closed her eyes and prayed that it would be fast and painless.
She didn't know how long she kept her eyes close but when she opened them it was at the words of her friend Harry. He was infront of him, with his air messy and his green eyes looking saddly at him. He was foating slightly over the stands, as if gravity didn't matter. She looked around her, she was in the stands, bodies round them. Some students were floating around the stadium in the air, most with sad or confused looks. They were dead. They were all dead, Harry, the students and her. She though oddly calm. She was dead, she couldn't see her parents again. She hadn't go to the other side, she was a ghost, she would never see her parents, even after their deaths, nor her grandparents or the rest of her family.
She looked arround, looking for the third part of their small group of friends. She was half expecting Ron to hover up, crossing the ground of seats and hugging both of them with a goofy grin, as if saying that even death couldn't keep them apart. But Ron didn't appeard and for a second she though that maybe he had gone to the next adventure, but she didn't see a body with red hair, and Harry soon informed her that he was alive, at the castle with all his siblings.
It was sometime later, as the darkness fall into the castle that both teens were found by Nick Nearly Headless, hugged and still trying to confort each other and figured why they had turned into ghost as they weren't scared of death. The ghost guided to the Great Hall, explaning that more than a docen of students were now ghosts and that almost half the students have been kissed.
The Headmaster had explain that they could continue to go to clasess if they desired and the other ghost of the castle will help them adapt to their new circunstances. As noone knew why so many students were now ghosts or if they could move to the next adventure. Dumbledore told them that he would try to find answers, as noone that had been kisses by a dementor had returned as a ghost.
At first the ghost students had gone to classes with their non kissed yearmates, but soon was apparent of the difficulties that it entailed. The ghost could just do their homework with dictaquil and couldn't consult any book as they couldn't turn the pages on their own most of the time, as the book didn't have enough magic to be afected by the ghost actions. And it was difficult in most of the classes the practical aspect of them, potions was imposible, same was true with hermology. The spells in charms just worked in the other ghosts, but most of the ones that were casted over objects didn't. Transfiguration from object to object didn't work, but human (or ghost) transfiguration on oneself or other ghost worked. In astronomy they couldn't move their telescopes, but could see the stars and planets through them. Similar in other subjects were they could read or see the results but couldn't write them without dictaquil, and doing that turned the class into a screaming match so the dictaquil would write what one student wanted instead of what other was saying.
So students were separated, ghosts had classes were the practical part that required writing was individual ,while the rest of the non kissed students got their practical clases normaly. The theory classes were converted into one class per year, as the disminution of students didn't require to have more than one. But new ghosts had other classes to with the other ghosts of the castle, things that ghost needed to know, which keep them ocupied most of their free time.
But the ghost soon started to not going to the magic classes, as they couldn't participate as before, and most of them had lost friends or family and just didn't want to join the same activities that those alive. Some had just remain at the school waiting for the answer of why they hadn't fully die.
But Hermione went to evey class that she could, dragging Harry with her, as they didn't had anything else to do and Hermione though that you couldn't pass the opportunity to learn.
They tried to hang out with Ron, but being ghost made things dificult. It wasn't only their diferent schedules now, but not being able to touch each others wasn't easy. They still found time to play wizard chess with Ron, and talk about quidditch or classes, but exploding snap or other games couldn't be played now. As ssuch, to the sadness of the three they started to fall apart, Ron spending more time with Seamus, Dean and Neville, and his siblins and Harry and Hermione together with other ghosts.
Hermione had heard the rumors, the school would close soon, the lack of students made imposible to keep the castle open for classes. The alive students would leave the castle for Christmas and wouldn't come back. Hermione was sad, even if the relationship of the trio of friends had cold down, she would miss greatly Ron. She was with Harry seeing the snow fall when their favourite red head appeared. He looked sad, but smiled when he saw them.
They spend the rest of the afternoon and past dinner remembering past times and saying goodbye.
The troll.
"I still remember the edor. I thought that i would be a smear in the wall" said Hermione
"And then Harry jumped into the troll and put his wand into his nose. And I used the levitation charm to knock it out, as you told me Hermione" remembered Ron.
The basilic.
"I was so worried about you and Ginny. I could only hear crashing sounds, and didn't knew what was happening" added Ron.
"I swear it could have eat me whole. His fangs were longer that my arm" said Harry.
And their first class after the students turned ghost with McGonnagal.
"I just only told her what she said the previous class" said Harry
"But she was right Harry, you could have done your homework before the match" Hermione told him.
"But it was quidditch Hermione, it's not as if Harry knew what would happend. And you didn't have it either" added Ron.
"But I had done it, it was at the stands but nione wanted to go and get it for me" said Hermione.
"Well i had detention fir that" Harry remembered them.
"For your chick, mister Potter" he mimicked the voice of their teacher, between the muffled sound of laughter coming from his friends.
And so on, the stories of their first year, second year and the begining of their third. Their shared laughs one last time. Until finaly it was time to say goodbyes.
Ron left the ghost, looking back one last time at his two first best friends, trying to hold his tears as he walked back to the common room, for his last night at the castle. The train woukd leave the next morning, with the surviving students.
It was after the alive students that the headmaster found the answer to the mistery of the students kissed turned into ghost.
Lily's protection had tried to keep his son alive but it had failed as Harry hadn't been as loved as it would had been necesary for it to work. The dementor had kissed the fragment of Voldemort in the scar but once it had tried the same with Harry's soul it couldn't. His sould had felt his body but hadn't been consumed and Harry had turned into a ghost. Having failed to fully protect Harry, the protection had turned into the rest of the student body, as it was a protection that was supossed to keep children save. If there hadn't been so many dementors, theoreticaly, Dumbledore had made all the pertinent arithmetic calculations, the protection could have keep the students, Harry included, save and wouldn't have been kissed. If the protection had used Harry's magic as fueling it could have keep everyone save. If only Petunia had loved her nephew, noone would have died.
Albus broke the news to the ghost, he had found a way to help them go to the next adventure, if they so desired. They could write letters saying goodbye if they wanted and then he could help them pass. Everyone decided to go to the next adventure, and had been decided to do so at the winter solstide.
But before he did that he asked Harry to talk to him. And then he explain Harry everything, how his kother had died to save him, the protection that it had created and the reasons he had to leaving him at his aunt. He told him how sorry he was to had do so, as it had cleary not work and had made him have a miserable childhood. Finaly he told about the Horrocruxes, how Voldemort hadn't die and what will happen to him once Harry move on. Harry's scar had been an horrocrux, but as Voldemort hadn't finish the ritual to made them it hadn't been perfect, it was acting as an anchor to the rest, once Harry died the rest horrocruxes will desintegrate and Tom Riddle shadow would banish too.
Finaly the day came, 21st December, the profesors lined at the Great Hall, a last goodbye to their students. The Headmaster started an intrincated incantation and the ghost started to banish. Soon the teachers were the only beings there, the students taking their trip to the beyond, to meet their lost loved ones and wait for those that were still alive.
For the fisrt time that Harry remembered, he hugged his parents. It was nice to be with them, he had missed them.