Ch 65 The Lord of the Dementors
It was the first of April, twenty-twenty-seven, and Gabriel Habsburg sat in the conference room in the offices of the Swiss Aurors, facing Harry Potter and his son Albus Peverell. A number of other members of the Swiss Department of Magical Law Enforcement were also in the room. Gabriel frowned, admitting, "I don't like this.
"Switzerland has always admitted Magi from anywhere in the world, being a safe refuge for anyone fleeing persecution. Witches and Wizards have too often been persecuted, and our magic cannot always keep us safe. But we have beings here, mostly Magi but some Goblin Elves, that I don't trust. Well over two hundred of them, way too many to easily keep track of.
"The maps don't help?" Harry wondered.
"They help, but there is no way to record what is happening on the maps, unlike Muggle recorders," Gabriel noted. "We have some Muggle cameras, but too much magic can mess with them. We try to make sure someone is watching wherever Albus and/or Cleo are, but it is not easy to see who may suddenly Apparate next to them, and we cannot charm a mobile anti-Apparition spell around them."
"You are watching them twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week?" Harry tried to confirm.
Gabriel admitted, "We do not have much of a night shift, so we really don't have anyone watching the maps full time, although we do have someone on duty in the office, close to the maps and cameras, all the time. It is a rather boring job, and keeping someone fully engaged is a problem."
"I lost my best night supervisor at the Battle of Malfoy Manor, although she was getting ready to retire and I probably would have lost her in any case," Harry mused, as much to himself as to Gabriel. He looked at Albus. "What would happen if you or Cleo had to leave in the middle of the night?"
"Frerin and Dis would go with us, and there is almost always a duty Auror that would as well," Albus replied. "I can make the maps ring if we leave from about midnight to six in the morning. Will that help?"
"Some, but I would rather you didn't do anything spontaneously," Gabriel noted, frowning.
"I cannot plan on when Cleo will go into labor," Albus responded. "We have been told that with this child labor may go reasonably quickly, too. He should be born towards the end of June, but you cannot plan the date when they will be born. I will make sure the DMLE knows if we have to leave to go to the hospital in the middle of the night."
"Some of the beings we don't trust like to roam around in the middle of the night," Gabriel let the group know. 'I'm going to make sure we have a little more coverage in the nighttime."
Cleo woke up Albus very early in the morning of June first, twenty-twenty-seven. "I need to go to the hospital, unless we want Samson to be born here in our bedroom," she told Albus.
Albus notified the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and then roused Dis and Frerin, along with the Auror who was on night shift duties that evening.
The Swiss valley was honeycombed with interior passageways, many of them without stairs. For most of the history of the valley they had been used by push handcarts, or an occasional animal drawn cart, but now the vehicles used resembled No-Maj electrical vehicles used for golf or in factories. Albus had one of them he used at times, run partly by electricity and partly by magic, and he led Cleo to the center seat, as he sat next to her. The Auror drove, and Frerin and Dis stood on the back touching Al and Cleo.
Albus was worried as they started to drive to the hospital. The passageways were quite public in places. A hospital was open twenty-four hours a day, and Albus was sure there would pass a smattering of people on the way.
They were about half way to the hospital when two beings appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Albus and Cleo. Frerin and Dis were able to hold on to Al and Cleo before they could disappear. All six of them were transported to the cave of The Lord of the Dementors.
Cleo had been warned that this baby was probably going to be born quickly. Her midwitch had noticed that her two previous deliveries were reasonably easy, and Cleo's body was ready for delivery. She quickly tried to think if there was any way to stop labor, but she didn't know of any way. She grabbed her battle wand, the one she had won from her great-grandmother, the first wand of the Magi, in her left hand and Albus's hand in her right hand, ready to fight.
Albus pulled out the Elder Wand, and tried to look at his surroundings. They were in a large underground room with several rooms or passageways off it. They were facing one smaller but still reasonably large room. The place felt evil. A figure, roughly in the shape of a man, arose and menacingly advanced towards them. Albus did not know why he knew, but he knew that this was The Lord of the Dementors, a being that was the personification of evil. Albus put up a shield charm and readied himself for a fight. Cleo grabbed his left hand, and he was aware that she had both wands out, and they were together the same way they were when they battled the Pirate Witch Queen, except that Cleo had transferred both wands to her left hand.
The Lord of the Dementors walked out of what they guessed was his room towards the six beings. Almost immediately four more Elves appeared, and the Elves were able to push The Lord of the Dementors back into his room. Albus and Cleo moved into the room, parried a couple of the beings' spells, and began to fight. Albus took a moment to petrify two guards that were in the room, as he and Cleo continued to battle the ancient wizard.
Two of the Elves were killed within the first five minutes of the battle, but the other four seemed to be able to hold off the few of the opposing Magi and Elves who were able to get close, putting up anti-Apparition spells so no one could get into the room where Albus and Cleopatra were battling The Lord of the Dementors.
The good news was that it was two to one again, Albus and Cleo against The Lord of the Dementors.
The bad news was that Cleo was in labor, and there was no way she could stop battling or stop her labor.
Immediately a call went out to the Honor Guard. Dis charmed a disk for the Honor Guard, so that the Portkeys had a place to go to, and members started to appear just outside the chamber.
An All Auror Alert, level five plus went out at the same time.
The disk Dis had charmed had been charmed to be where the various Portkeys would come, right outside the door to the room where Albus and Cleo were battling. The larger chamber outside the battle chamber had about a dozen people in it, and as soon as the Honor Guard started to appear they started to attack.
The room erupted into chaos, as more of the Honor Guard appeared, but more of the allies of The Lord of the Dementors also appeared.
One of the Aurors saw, as he appeared in the chamber, four dead Aurors and two dead Magi not Aurors, next to the door to the chamber where Albus and Cleo were battling. On the other side of him were several battling Aurors, and he thought several additional dead Aurors. He looked around, and saw that many of the beings battling the Aurors were hidden or shielded behind the structure of the cave, so the situation was desperate. He lay down on the floor for cover and using his magic mobile texted to Harry Potter, "We urgently need help. Outnumbered and without cover."
Harry received the call he had been dreading early in the morning. He awoke to his mobile screaming and a Patronus announcing, "This is no Drill. Albus and Cleo are in the cave of The Lord of the Dementors."
Harry knew that the Patronus belonged to Sammy Sun, and it appeared that he had confirmed what had just happened. Sammy slept with several maps in his bedroom, and either he or a helper was usually close to all the maps of the area they had made.
Harry dressed in his Auror uniform as quickly as he could. Knowing that there would be casualties, he called for Fawkes to accompany him. Taking a long ago prepared Portkey, left for the headquarters they had prepared years before.
Harry, Teddy, Ron, Sammy Sun and a variety of other beings appeared at the headquarters. Harry almost immediately saw that the Honor Guard needed help. The list of names was mostly red, indicating that, as Harry had feared, many or most of them were dead. Harry sent his Patronus to all of the groups he had recruited. One of the first groups to appear was a group from Hogwarts, Minerva McGonagall along with Hagrid, his brother Grawp, Olivia Ollivander, Pamona Sprout, and Horace Slughorn. Harry sent them into battle, into the cave.
Harry looked at the map in horror as it appeared that Hagrid and Grawp were already dead, and names keep turning from black to red. It looked like most of the people sent into battle were already dead or wounded. He looked at the text from the one Auror. It was not that they were outnumbered, but the allies of the Lord of the Dementors had shelter, had the high ground, and the Magi guarding Albus and Cleo were exposed.
Sammy pointed out that there was a major battle forming, with Magi getting ready to enter the cave from the outside. Sammy had experienced fighters, Magi who had been battling The Lord of the Dementors for years, ready to fight the Magi trying to get into the cave. Unfortunately, that meant that those people would not be available to Apparate into the cave. There also seemed to be a battle forming between Elves and Goblin Elves and the Elves, Goblins and Orcs allied with The Lord of the Dementors.
Several additional contingents of Magi, from a variety of Ministries of Magic and Schools, appeared, and Harry sent them in as reinforcements. Kingsley Shacklebolt and a small group of Ministry employees appeared, and terrified that he was sending them to their deaths Harry sent them in. One after another small groups from schools or ministries appeared, and Harry sent them in to guard Albus and Cleo.
Al Van Lente showed up with his father Bert. "I understand you have a little problem here," Al told Harry.
"I think we lost most of the Honor Guard early on," Harry replied. "Albus and Cleo are fighting The Lord of the Dementors, and so far we have kept anyone from reinforcing him, but it is costly."
Bert and Al looked at the map. "I think if we Apparate here instead of where they expect us to appear we should be in better shape," Al suggested.
"I have one more battle left in me," Bert replied. The two Apparated to a corner of the cave, and Harry lost track of them.
The texting Auror kept Harry informed, texting at one point, "I think we are winning, but at a terrible cost."
The Weasley clan appeared, and as previously arranged Ron sent them outside to help guard the headquarters.
Teddy was trying to help Harry, looking at the maps of the cave of The Lord of the Dementors and trying to figure out a way to get more help into the cave. As additional groups appeared Teddy did find a way of sending some of the Magi into other areas of the cave where they could attack from the rear, something that seemed to be, although dangerous, not quite as bad as appearing in the middle of the cave.
Sammy was continuing to send Aurors to fight a large contingent of Magi who were appearing at the entrance to the cave of The Lord of the Dementors. There were also Elves, evil Goblin elves or worse, battling some of the High Elves. There were, Harry knew, not very many evil Elves, but there were also not many Elves, even Goblin Elves, willing to fight, so although the High Elves had more fighters, they did not have anything like an overwhelming number of fighters.
Harry had no clear idea how many Magi were fighting on their side, but he knew, because of messages he had been receiving, that there was chaos over all the magical world, and that there would not be as many reinforcements as there were when they battled Jezebel.
The next half an hour seemed to everyone to be just a blur of battle.
Andromeda Tonks looked at the beings attacking the headquarters, and became enraged. This was her chance to avenge all the evil that had taken her husband, her daughter and her daughter's husband, and so many others. She rushed into battle, killing several of the attackers before she was killed. Molly could see it as she too was battling, knowing that Andromeda was more than willing to die to avenge her husband and daughter, if she could be a hero and take out some of the enemy. The battle to protect the headquarters was not a major battle, and the defenders were reasonably well guarded, but of the over fifty people taking part it seemed like many of them were wounded, many with Sectumsempra curses.
Cleo had been in labor all this time, occasionally battling with both of her wands, and finally she pushed and the baby was out. There was no way she could concentrate on a spell coming from The Lord of the Dementors and grab hold of her baby. She was fighting for her and Albus's life, and if they died the baby would die. The baby rolled a very slight way away from Cleo. The baby was outside the shield that Albus was maintaining, and the Lord of the Dementors, sensing another being, concentrated on sending an Avada Kedavra curse towards the baby. This was just the distraction that Albus and Cleo needed, and as the Avada Kedavra curse hit baby Samson each hurled spells at The Lord of the Dementors. His wand exploded, his body shriveled, and he was down. The body was exposed as a dead thing, kept alive only by dark magic.
The body of The Lord of the Dementors fell back into his throne, and bands came around his chest, holding him upright. The same being who had come to take Jezebel's soul came for what was left of The Lord of the Dementors, as the body slowly turned to dust, until nothing but a skeleton was left, the bones held upright by the bands over the skeleton's chest, and by the clothes the skeleton still wore. The Devil tried to terrify Albus and Cleopatra, appearing as a terrifying movie version of the Devil, all black and horns and ghastly bat wings, behind and above the Lord of the Dementors, but they prayed, asking the Lord to protect them, and angelic beings took their place between Albus, Cleo and the demon confronting them.
The apparition of the demon disappeared.
Albus and Cleo relaxed just a moment, before focusing on their dead son. Albus tenderly picked him, up, his chest stuttering at the still face of their child. This was the prophecy they had been dreading. One of their children would die protecting them. If infant Samson had not distracted The Lord of the Dementors there was no way of knowing if they would have won.
Cleo turned to Albus and started to weep as she held out her arms to take her son. This was her worst nightmare, losing a child. Her legs began to give out. The umbilical cord had severed as Samson had rolled away from, but part of it was still attached to Cleo, and Albus could see that Cleo was not through with the delivery process.
Albus charmed a birthing bed for Cleo, who still had to deliver the afterbirth. He looked around the chamber. The two Magi who had been petrified were still lying there; Albus decided that they could just lie there until others could reverse the curse.
Cleo strained to deliver the afterbirth, her whole body shaking, as the tears continued to flow, her fingers running over the still face of her son. He looked like, she couldn't tell. It wasn't the beautiful face of a sleeping child, more like the shocked face of one that was just born and wasn't at all sure about being thrust into the cold hard world outside the womb. For poor Samson, the world was cruel indeed, for those brief very few moments after he was born.
Albus asked, "Is there anything I need to do?"
"Just stay with me," Cleo sobbed. "My body knows what to do." She cried and groaned as she delivered the afterbirth, still rocking her poor dead baby.
All took a moment to look at their surroundings The room was gloomy, lit by torches that had left hundreds of years of soot on the ceiling. It was partly a natural cavern, although it had obviously been expanded and worked on. On one end of the cavern there were instruments of torture, with a large pile of bones in one niche in the wall. There was a bookcase with evil looking books in it, and a number of uncomfortable chairs that looked evil, like you were risking your life to sit in them. The paintings on the wall were scenes of terror, torture, and unimaginable depravity.
Al and Cleo knew that they had not won the war between the Devil and the world, but they had won an important battle.
Everybody in the battle knew, for some reason, when The Lord of the Dementors was defeated. It wasn't the end of the battles, but it was the beginning of the end. Many of the beings allied with The Lord of the Dementors fled or gave up, although others continued to fight. Teddy and Harry had found ways of getting Aurors and others in behind the beings in the cave, and when they saw that The Lord of the Dementors was dead some of them gave up.
Harry had been in contact with various people through the magical text messaging parts of their mobiles. He and Teddy conferred, and then Harry announced, "It looks like Albus and Cleo won, and we are now in the mopping up stage."
Ron saw on his map of the area outside of the headquarters many beings, but it looked as if the battle was almost over. "I ought to look before calling in the healers," he told Harry, and then carefully left the headquarters.
Maybe fifteen minutes later Bill Weasley stumbled in. "We need healers right away," he told Harry.
"Where is Ron?" Harry wondered.
"I don't know," Bill replied. "We have many wounded with gashes, and need healers as soon as possible."
Healers had been appearing at the Apparation point inside the headquarters, and directed to places near some of the battles. Some Magi had been levitated into the headquarters, and were being treated inside. Two of the healers left with Bill.
About this time Ginny showed up. Harry saw her, and curtly told her, "Help guard the entrance!"
Ginny looked to where Harry was pointing, and moved over to the entrance, where she and Mitzi helped two other Magi guard it.
Harry finally saw on his map Albus and Cleo moving towards the entrance to the cave. In red, traveling with them, was the name of Samson Preverell. Albus and Cleo's baby. Dead.
It took an hour after the Lord of the Dementors was killed before Harry was satisfied that the battle was won, an hour when Albus and Cleo were still in the cave
An hour and a half after the battle had begun, it really seemed to be over around the building that was serving as headquarters for Harry and the other Aurors. One of the Aurors looked at Bill, and asked, "Are you Bill Weasley, Harry's brother-in-law?"
"Yes," Bill replied.
"Can you identify your family members, please," the Auror wondered. "We can identify all the Aurors who were killed or wounded, but it is not quite as easy for the others."
"I will do my best to identify people," Bill replied, and he tried to identify as many of his family as he could.
Fleur was alive, but she had a large ugly slash on her face, through one eye. She was sitting down, holding something over the eye, obviously in pain, but apparently not in danger of dying. Fleur told Bill, "I'm not going to be able to help right now, but you keep guarding the area. I will survive. Just help others right now."
Bill did as he was told, trying to see how he could help.
Andromeda was dead, one of the first to fall.
Percy was alive and, maybe not injured but without any major injuries.
His mother seemed to be uninjured. She had her wand out and was looking around, obviously still afraid of more attacks, but was sitting on the ground next to Arthur, holding his hand while she was conferring with a healer.
Bill heard Molly tell the healer, "Take and duplicate as much of my blood as you need. If you think you can heal ten of the wounded, do it!"
"Thank you!" the healer said. She did something and blood ran into a bag, and with spells the bag swelled until it held what Bill guessed were ten units of blood.
The healer turned to Bill and told him, "Your mother is type O negative, so we can give her blood to anyone. We can also expand the amount of the blood, but only so far. We are out of blood replenishment potions at the moment. Your father was going to need at least three units, and both your mother and father wanted us to heal as many other people as possible."
Once the blood had been removed Molly was almost unconscious, having donated as much blood as her body could. Arthur was still bleeding, but the bleeding had slowed to a trickle, and he was lying in a pool of his blood. As Bill watched Arthur's body took one final breath and then lie still.
The healers were frantically working on ten of the wounded Magi. Bill noted that there were other wounded Magi, and there were not enough healers, nor enough blood or blood replenishment potion, for all the wounded.
One of the Aurors who was trying to help triage the people outside saw Bill and motioned for him. Bill came over and the Auror led him to a body. Ron. Bill thought Ron was inside, but apparently he had come outside. "It is my brother Ron Weasley," Bill told the Auror.
"I thought so," the Auror replied. He made a note on a parchment he was compiling.
Bill was close to tears, but there was too much to do. He was not sure the battle was over, and he didn't want any additional casualties, so Bill jointed a small group of Magi who were continuing to guard the area. More healers were finally appearing, and Bill helped set up a tent, and then another tent, and finally a third tent to serve as field hospitals.
"We need to get the wounded out of the cave," Harry told Sammy, when the Honor Guard member that had been communicating with Harry texted him, "All fighting seems to have ended."
Just then one of the people Harry had send into help with the battle Apparated back into the headquarters, and told everyone, "The battle seems to be over. I need to know where to side-along with wounded."
Harry sent the wizard out to the healing tents, and a short time later Harry could see on his maps beings disappearing from the cave and surrounding areas and appearing in the field hospital.
Harry noticed Albus and Cleo on the map. They had moved towards the cave entrance of The Lord of the Dementors, so when he could Harry sent four Aurors to the entrance, where they waited.
Albus found the last of the three prophesied Crystal Balls. He transformed a chair into a wheelchair with a bag on the back of it for the Crystal Ball, thinking as he put the object in the bag of the terrible cost to claim the last of the prophesied objects. Albus had to pass through the huge pile of mostly dead but some wounded bodies to get out of the chamber.
The knowledge of all the death shook him to his core. There was no way he could ever repay those families who had lost love ones for their sacrifice.
Albus gently picked up Cleo and put her in the chair he had charmed into a wheelchair. Al pushed the wheelchair, Cleo carrying Samson, to the entrance of the Cave of the Dementors. Albus wasn't sure why, but something was calling him to appear at the mouth of the cave. Similar to what had happened once before, Dementors appeared. Three beings appeared, and Albus thought one of them might be Jesus, so he asked, "Who are you?"
"I am Joshua, the Jesus you pray to," the man answered.
"Who are they?" Albus asked, pointing to the other two.
"Mohammad and the Buddha," Jesus answered. "You know from reading scripture that I do not ask at the last judgement if you have been baptized, but ask how you lived your life. I have the authority to offer salvation to all men of good will."
Albus and Cleo took out their wands, and not knowing how they did it began to summon Dementors. Many of the Dementors seemed to dissolve, some of the bodies going on to judgement, others going no one knew where, maybe back into more Dementors. To Albus and Cleo this seemed to take hours, although to anyone else it was less than half an hour.
As the last of the Dementors disappeared, four Magi appeared. "Harry has sent us to convey you to the headquarters," one of them said. "They are setting up a tent hospital."
Cleo asked, "What is that noise? I thought I heard a baby cry?"
"That cursed village?" one of the Magi replied. "They fought furiously, against us, for uncounted years. Some of the most vicious beings you could ever encounter. I think they were all killed in the battle. At least I hope so."
"What will you do with the survivors?" Albus wondered.
"I don't think there are any. I hope not," was the answer. The Auror who answered knew that the people of the village had, young and old, been fighting them just minutes before, and that he had lose two good friends fighting these people.
Two of the four cautiously went down the mountain to the little village, where as they had hoped they found all of the inhabitants dead, except for one crying baby. One of the Magi brought the baby up to Cleo, telling her, "No one from around here would want anything to do with a descendant of people from that accursed village."
Cleo took the baby, saying, "I'll take her, until we can find someone else to take her."
The baby was hungry, and without thinking about it Cleo put the baby to her breast to feed it. When she was finished Cleo fell asleep, totally exhausted.
One Auror Apparated Albus and the Crystal Ball to the headquarters, and the others took Cleo and the two babies, one alive, one dead. They were brought to one of the field hospitals, where a midwitch looked after Cleo and the two babies.
"I'm going into the cave to supervise taking the wounded out, and identifying the dead," Sammy told Harry.
"I would like to go with you," Bob Hudson told Sammy. Bob had been recording the battle from the headquarters, but he wanted to get out in the field too.
"You may come," Sammy replied.
The two Apparated into the spot on the floor the Elves had left. They were met by a blood covered young wizard who announced, "Honor Guard Arnold Castro, Auror Sun, sir."
The young man held a bloody mobile in his hand, and Sammy asked him, "Where you the one who was texting Harry, keeping us informed about the battle?"
"Yes, sir," was the reply.
"Thank you," Sammy told Arnold. "We really needed the information, and you did much more to help us win the battle by keeping yourself safe and texting Harry than you would have if you had joined the battle.
Another Magi there told them, "He also helped to keep a number of us safe by pointing out where some of the enemy was hiding."
"What is the status of the rest of the Honor Guard?" Sammy wondered.
"I know of two wounded, one seriously, one critically," Arnold sighed.
"The rest?" Sammy asked.
Arnold pointed to the pile of bodies.
They started to go through the pile of bodies guarding the room of The Lord of the Dementors, where they found a few wounded Magi. As soon as they found someone who was wounded they Apparated them to a triage area in one of the field hospitals.
They didn't find any more living Honor Guard, however.
Bob spent about half his time taking pictures, and the other half helping the Magi, along with a couple of Elves, try to make sense of the chaos that was in the chamber, trying to find anyone alive among the pile of bodies. The others had their wands out, being very cautious, but Bob was just focusing on his camera, when someone sent a curse at him, and he fell. One of the Aurors disarmed the enemy, and put portkey handcuffs on him, and the enemy wizard disappeared.
Bob sat down, unable to stand, but kept photographing the evolving scene. He had spent most of his adult life preparing for this, and he was not going to let a wound stop him. One of the Aurors used some emergency first aid on Bob, but told him that it was urgent to get his wound treated as soon as possible.
Bob stayed in the cave for hours, until the last body was removed, and the last Magi left. He needed to be taken out by side along Apparating by this time, as the cursed in his leg was beginning to cause serious damage.
Harry tried to get a status report. No one was fighting. Captured Magi and Elves were being transported to a variety of places where they could be guarded. Wounded were being transported as quickly as they could to hospitals close to their home, or if the wounds were too serious for a local hospital to the nearest to their home major hospital.
Fawkes and another phoenix, a less colorful one, were helping to heal a few of the wounded, but there were limits to how many they could heal, and what types of wounds the phoenix tears could heal. Their tears could not heal Sectumsempra curses, unfortunately.
The dead were being identified, and coroner charms were being put on them so they could be held until … Harry wasn't sure how they were going to handle all the dead, most of them far away from their homes.
Someone had found a spare oxygen concentrator for Ginny, and she was still at the entrance to the headquarters, helping to make sure no one could get in unless they were known and needed.
Sometimes Harry wished battles ended with 'And They Lived Happily Ever After,' but it was never that neat.
2023