Year III: Dementors
Fear is like a phoenix. One can watch it burn a thousand times, and yet it will rise up from the ashes, reborn, and it will consume the being of any mortal man. It is as powerful as fire, yet it feels as if ice is creeping up the spine, enveloping one as they fill up with constant dread.
And that was what the passengers of Hogwarts Express were feeling, bar one very tired Professor and an alert student.
Fear. Ice-cold fear and dread. The temperature in the train compartment had dropped down to frighteningly low levels. At one moment, Harry was merrily chatting with Ron and Hermione but before he knew it, the train stopped dead in its tracks.
Ron asked, "Merlin's nuts, why did we stop?"
Harry answered back, "Reckon we already are at Hogwarts?"
"No, we still must be at least thirty minutes away," came from a very puzzled Hermione as she was also trying to think about the reasons why the train stopped in the middle of a bridge, built between two giant mountains, a normally lively river which had ice taking over most of its form now and all around the atmosphere was filled with dread, despair and fear.
Shallow breathing heard throughout the entire compartment, the silence was so deafening that Harry could hear his heart thrumming in his chest, threatening to burst out of his ribcage. Hermione clutched Crookshanks tighter with fear, Ron was rooted to the spot in fear and Harry was wary of the compartment door, he had his hand slowly inching for his wand, in case any fool tried to break in and take all of them out.
The air became so thick that he was sure that if he were to stick his tongue out, he could taste the disparity present in the atmosphere.
A really fast but quiet shuffling was heard throughout the entirety of the train, echoing all throughout.
Harry and Hermione looked at each other and only one thought crossed their minds.
Footsteps.
Harry slowly got up and as he was reaching his hand out for the door, he stopped dead in his tracks to listen for the footsteps. He needed to know if they were coming his way or not.
He was met with dead silence and then all of a sudden, two very distinct meaty thuds, which specifically sounded like bodies dropping.
His eyes widened at the sound and Hermione silently screamed.
Pushing on through his fear, Harry opened the door and at the very moment, he was met with the sight of countless other students peering through their compartments to see what was going on.
None of them found satisfactory answers, they were only met with more questions and all of them had only one constant thought running through their heads.
What the fuck was going on?
The essence of the atmosphere, the cold feeling of the glass against his fingers, and the tense atmosphere slowly made Harry's mind drift onto his memories of the torment he used to go under at the hands of the Dursleys. Each step he took felt heavier as the emotions he used to feel as a young kid began to magnify. His heartbeat began to quicken as the memories became more and more vivid. It was as if he was nine years old again, at the Dursley's and he was being beaten up by his Uncle.
He shakily sat down as he began to relieve all the emotions and memories from formative years. The guilt, regret, despair. All of it.
He began feeling echoes of harsh slaps on his face, back and stomach while simultaneously experiencing his own memories of the torment he faced.
"YOU ARE USELESS! YOUR FREAKISH BEHAVIOUR IS ONLY WORSENING MY NAME! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I WARNED YOU TO NOT TO DO YOUR FREAKISH THINGS? HUH? YOU ARE UTTERLY USELESS AND TOO FUCKING DUMB TO UNDERSTAND BASIC ENGLISH!"
Nine year old Harry screamed as he felt the harsh whips of his Uncle's meaty hand on his face, he wanted all of it to be over. He never meant to make Uncle Vernon angry, he never meant to overcook the bacon. He never meant to anger him. He managed to blubber out some words at last.
"I am sorry, Uncle! Please! Ple-Please don't hit me!"
But those words only seemed to infuriate and anger Vernon all the more as he increased the force behind each slap.
Harry sobbed due to the pain, anguish and despair he felt. However, the screaming and thrashing against Vernon's slaps never ceased.
As this went on, the air began to thicken and the temperature inside the room began to increase. It felt as if a fire began to form beneath Vernon's feet but in reality, fire, blue fire began to form all over Harry's face and his skin began to change color into a far more darker blue which looked like as if hot blue magma was taking the place of Harry's skin.
A really bright molten blue.
Vernon began to step back in sheer horror at the sight. His forehead began to form beads of sweat as he stuttered out, "B-Boy, stop this nonsense. S-Stop what you're DOING!"
Harry's answer shook him to the core. It wasn't his normal soft voice, no. It didn't even sound like his voice. But instead, the voice which sounded from Harry's vocal chords was one far more bigger, otherworldly and dangerous. A voice of a being of a higher plane.
"Enough."
At the very word, Harry's head went up in the blue flames, the ember licking away at his skin, destroying his eyes and burning his hair, only for his skull to remain as the rest of his body took on a far darker blue color than the flames covering his head. Terrifying Vernon, who thought that the boy had finally died, Harry's skeleton spoke in that same deep voice.
"Enough of your tyranny."
Vernon's forearm caught on fire.
It was spreading fast. He tried to brush off the fire, but he couldn't. He tried to add water to extinguish it, but he couldn't. He tried to wrap his arm in a blanket, but he couldn't. Why?
The room was starting to be covered in the flames which covered Harry's frame. In terror, Vernon Dursley ran to his own bedroom to extinguish the fire, but to his horror and fright, the fire didn't die.
Whatever he did seemed to magnify and increase the speed of the inferno.
Before he knew it, the fire began licking away at his round body with the words of his nephew echoing within his ears.
"Enough of your tyranny."
Vernon then shook back to reality and fell to the ground, looking around at the room, at his hand and at Harry, who was terrified, quivering in terror and confused.
"Y-you we-"
Harry was confused.
As Vernon scrambled away, he felt heat on his hand only to find embers of blue fire sparking between his finger tips.
The rest of the memory was inaudible to the young wizard as blood pounded in his ears and a shrill scream sounded, making him lose his grip on the plane of his consciousness and what followed made no sense to him yet he somehow understood all of it.
The scream was that of a woman's, screaming his name.
A male voice sounded, "Lily! Take Harry and run! It's him! I'll hold him off!"
Loud menacing cackling followed, "Hold him off without a wand? AVADA KEDAVRA!"
A meaty thump of a body falling was heard but from somewhere, he heard his name being called.
"Harry?"
He couldn't recognise it, for the memories which were being played on the forefront of his mind, blocked out all sound as nothing else was audible but the memories.
"Please - please not Harry, I'll do anything, but please not him."
"Stand aside girl, stand aside NOW!"
Then the memories quieted as he was met with bars, bars of the crib of a baby and beyond them was the face of a kind woman with red hair going down below Harry's vision to what he assumed would be by her waist. The details of her face were as clear as a window on a chill winter morning, seeing nothing but the vague outline of her frame as she spoke with a soft motherly voice, instantly making Harry realize who she was.
"Harry, Muma loves you. Dada loves you. Be safe, stay strong."
Both of them heard footsteps and then a massive bright explosion, causing the door to fall apart.
A tall figure in a black cloak stepped inside the room, wand in hand.
Little Harry saw her figure stand up, facing the man who spoke in a quiet whisper, "Stand aside girl and let the boy be mine. Stand aside."
The woman raised both of her arms, shielding Harry from the man's view and said, "No, anything but my son - please."
The man, quick to temper, yelled, "Stand aside girl, stand aside NOW!"
The woman begged, "Please - please not Harry, I'll do anything, but please not him."
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
A green beam of light rushed out from his wand, making contact with his mother, pushing her soul out of her body, shutting down her nervous system, killing her.
He then watched the man slowly walk towards his crib and whisper, "It's just you and us now, boy."
The man raised his wand and began muttering the two words which killed the infant's mother, only for the memory to end with the green beam of light rushing towards him and a huge explosion following soon after.
He felt light slaps on his face and a foreign voice, entirely new to his ears yet intimately familiar, intoned, "Rennervate."
Darkness which covered Harry's vision slowly simmered away as he came back to consciousness, only to meet with the faces of a concerned Ronald Weasley, an anxious and worried Hermione Granger, a curious cat and one tired Professor who Harry realized was the one who brought him back to the realm of reality as he spoke.
"Hello there, I don't think we have met."
He offered his hand encouragingly, which Harry eagerly took hold of. As he got up, the man took out a bar of chocolate from his pocket, snapped it into pieces and began handing it to everyone, giving the biggest piece to Harry himself.
A still dazed Harry looked at the piece of chocolate and at the man, the man said, "It's alright it's chocolate. Eat up while I go and talk to the driver as to when we are moving again."
"Sir, what were those?"
The man's face crinkled in disgust and said, "Dementors - nasty creatures, those. They guard the Wizarding Prison, Azkaban. They were most probably on the train looking for Sirius Black. I told them that we didn't have him under our cloaks but they didn't buy it. So then I had to ward them off using a special charm called the Patronus charm."
"The Patronus charm? Interesting."
He took a bite out of a chocolate and felt sudden warmth at his fingertips. As he was about to gulp down the rest of it, the Professor got up and as he opened the glass door of the cabin, Harry called out with a bit of chocolate in his mouth, "Professor!"
Said teacher turned around and asked, "Yes?"
"You never told me your name."
The man smiled at that and walked away saying, "You'll soon know Harry, you'll soon know."
—-
Turns out the man who saved him from the Dementors on the train nearly two weeks ago now was Professor Remus John Lupin, who coincidentally was a close friend of his dad and mum, but there was this friend Padfoot about whom he refused to talk about, wonder who he may be? Anyways, he had more pressing matters to deal about.
Like a very certain right hand man of Voldemort after him. Sirius Black.
But what was another psycho hunting for his hide?
After all, the essence of death plagued him wherever it went. It always clung onto his figure like a disease, as much as he wanted to be normal for one school year, something or someone was always after for his hide. Something was always wanting to kill him, be it his own fucking guardians of some psycho wizard or if he remembers correctly, a freaky woman when he was just seven years old.
To list it accordingly, first it was Voldemort when he was merely a fucking infant, then it was the Dursleys, then it was that freaky lady, then the Dursleys again, then Quirrelmort, the Basilisk and now th-this Sirius Black who was apparently a close friend of his parents.
Reports allegedly said that a single blasting curse by his wand killed thirteen people in one sweep. He even killed Peter Pettigrew.
"Merlin's arse, why don't I get a break from serial killers after my arse? Why me? Why always me?"
Unfortunately, he would never know the answer to that question because simply of the damnable Potter luck. Apart from ever-enlightening news of another psycho wanting to kill him, the prospect of him getting to play Quidditch again and starting to really notice Hermione, there was one thing that plagued his mind. It was a fairly recent event.
And that was the class on Boggarts which Professor Lupin taught.
What really baffled Harry was that when it was his turn, the Professor jumped in front of him and banished the Boggart away back into the wardrobe. As if he was afraid that he would not be able to defend himself from the Boggart.
Why?
Did he think it was going to transform into Voldemort? Or did he think he was too weak to take on the Boggart?
Just as his Aunt and Uncle said, he was too fucking weak.
He never could win his battles without the aid of someone or something. He, the runt with the freaky glasses, eyes and always the loner needing the help of someone in everything he did. Nothing around him was good, nothing made sense anymore to him. Nothing felt right nor nothing felt worth it to him. It was truly pathetic. Always pathetic.
Lost in his self-deprecating thought process, he didn't realize where he was going and bumped into Professor Lupin, who in his tattered robes was just taking a stroll through the hallways of Hogwarts.
"Umpf, Harry, shouldn't you be in your common room right now?"
Harry put on a fake smile and said, "Yes sir, it's just that I was a little bored and I was a tad restless so here I am, walking through the halls of this beautiful castle. It really is a beauty."
Knowing the lie, Professor Lupin pressed, "You do know you can tell me anything which is troubling you, I am all ears."
At that, Harry muttered, "Why? You don't even know me all that well. Why even bother helping me?"
"I will try to help, Harry. I will try to help."
Seeing the opportunity, it was as if someone had opened the floodgates and all that was on his mind spilled out like a fast flowing river, All the troubling thoughts fell out and there he was a few minutes later, in Professor Lupin's office, nursing a warm cup of cocoa, telling him whatever was on his mind.
Taking a deep sip of his cup of cocoa, Professor Lupin summarised, "So, you want to learn a method to push back or possibly kill Dementors because of your past encounters with them and you want to ask why I didn't let you banish the Boggart, correct?"
"Yes sir."
"And you want to know why you got a vision on the train where your entire being is covered with blue magma and your head with blue fire, correct?"
"Yes sir."
Taking a swig, Professor Lupin said, "Why didn't I let you fight the Boggart? Well the thing is that - uh - Harry, I had suspected your Boggart would take the form of Lord Voldemort and that would've terrified the entire class and-"
"But I am not afraid of Voldemort!"
Hastily, the Professor continued, "Yes yes I did get that - I am coming to that point. As I was saying, I suspected your Boggart would take the form of Lord Voldemort and terrify the entire class, which would've put everybody there in panic but boy, I was wrong. The thing you fear the most turned out to be fear itself - very wise Harry. Very wise."
"But sir - what of a way to fight the Dementors?"
"You will be taught the Patronus charm in your NEWT year, don't you worry Harry, don't you worry. But for the thing about the vision, I'm afraid I don't have an answer to that."
A dejected Harry could only nod in response.
"If that is all?"
"It is sir."
"Alright then, off you go to your common room now."
After Harry left, with a sweep of his wand, Remus cleaned the cups, put them back in the drawer and cracked open an old book of his, to find the meaning behind Harry's vision.
His efforts were for naught - or so he thought.
—-
Excitement, anxiety, nervousness and euphoria.
These were the things Harry felt as he woke up in his Gryfinndor common room, excited for his upcoming Quidditch match - the first one in fact of the year - and they were up against Hufflepuff.
He was sure that Gryffindor would be able to beat them, he was sure that they'll win, but from what he had heard about their seeker - Cedric Diggory - he was pretty sure that if there was anything to come between him and victory, it would be the opponent seeker.
The match had begun and everything went just as usual. The chasers scrambling after the Quaffle while Harry and the other seeker, circling the ground for the golden snitch.
The snitch had caught the younger eye and the movement of the younger one caught the attention of the opponent seeker. Both of them put on bursts of speed as they flew after the Golden Snitch. It was going well, a bit too well until Harry noticed the older Seeker fly back down. Fly in the opposite direction the snitch was going in.
He was confused.
Confusion displaying across his facial features, Harry looked down at the retreating figure of the Hufflepuff seeker then at the Snitch, which was flying away. Back to Diggory, and then the snitch.
As he put on a burst of speed to catch the Snitch as he saw it increase its speed directly up into the air, his glasses began to have ice forming upon them.
The air around him began to become colder as each breath he took extorted a lot of energy from him. The atmosphere began to channel the energy of dread and despair as each waking moment was starting to become the very manifestation of the underworld.
As his fingers were mere inches away from the Snitch, a flash of lightning momentarily blinded him and made him lose sight of the Snitch, and alongside being temporarily blinded, the final words of his parents began to flash across his mind. The very same green beam of light, the very same cackling, the very same yells of anger, despair and sadistic glee.
Ah great, Dementors.
The air was filled with screams of souls unknown, voices unfamiliar and faces he never knew. All were screaming to be freed from the damnation they had gone through, all were screaming to be freed of their demons. All were screaming for mercy.
Naught could've been done to prevent the inevitable.
Before he could go on, he felt a cold and slimy hand grasp his neck, making it difficult for him to breath and to properly think.
The same taunting green beam of light, the same mocking and maniacal laughter, the same pungent smell of death and the very same pair of red eyes. The very same that have been inside his nightmares, taunting him, scaring him and downright haunting him ever since he was all but just an infant.
God did Harry hate this.
As the Dementor lowered its hood, the sight positively unnerved Harry, he hadn't expected to see something like that - and hoped that for a good part of his life he never had to witness anything like that ever again. Ever.
What he saw was a mere shell of what a human being was supposed to be. A thin greyish membrane was stretched across the entirety of a cranium, riddled with scabs. Faint blue lines ran thin across the skin, to show what once it was , but not what it is.
Vivid white lines akin to the color of dried bone ran across the face of the being, with faint spectres of spiders crawling underneath the skin, and a faint thrumming could be felt.
Being within the sheer proximity of the being sent cold shivers down Harry's spine - as if the weather wasn't chilly enough. As Harry's eyes fully took in the sight, he was utterly confused and surprised at the sight.
The being had hollowed out holes for eyes, holes which were darker than the very robes it had dragged on it's corpse - holes which had a darkness within them that was darker than the darkest of nights. Looking into those cold black hollow holes - which were meant to be eyes, filled Harry with dread.
Cold dread.
Looking around a bit to break eye-contact, he saw a particularly unnerving sight of the being's mouth opening - opening wide, impossibly wide like that of a snake within which he could see nothing but rows and rows of razor sharp teeth who's jaws were widening to accommodate the size of Harry's head akin to that of a snake.
It's ash-coloured jaws were widening as it's teeth began unfurling outwards with a gradual and slow squelching sound which sounded like muscles straining themselves to properly accommodate the girth of Harry's head, but as it went on, the canines began seeping a particular liquid as the teeth closed in on Harry's neck and he began screaming.
He could see nothing but the dark insides of the Dementor, which in its appearance, was grisly.
All of its innards were moving themselves, everything that was meant to be inside a being and completely immobilie were functioning as if they were alive. At this point in time, it was as if the color seeped out from his eyes as he saw no other color but shades of black and grey.
As he was thrashing around in the firm grasp of the Dementor, legs and arms kicking around but however, a particular sight unnerved him.
A long, slimy tentacle raised from the multiple other grisly, slimy and thick innards and shot down Harry's throat, rendering him immobile and he began seeing nothing but the traumatic events of his life - the Halloween of 1981, the Dursley's, Riddle - everything.
His irises had turned completely white and his skin was turning black and blue, signalling poor blood circulation. Tendrils of dark magic began to seep out of Harry's mouth and cover his entire face as it began to eat away at his skin.
But before much could happen, blue fire began arising from the tips of his fingers and they caught the Dementor on fire - as it began to face retaliation.
Two belts of fire unfurled out of Harry's arms took hold of the Dementor and began pulling its jaws apart and licking its skin away, resulting in the dark creature to writhe in pain as it's insides were being burnt simultaneously as it's jaws were being wretched apart.
Seeing this, more Dementors arrived at the scene only to be swept away by a brilliant white ethereal phoenix.
Harry was plummeting - fast.
Everyone at the stands gasped at what they saw and despite the hard battering rain, Dumbledore pulled up his wand and cast, "Arresto Momentum."
And all went to black.
—-scene break—-
As the rest of the school year went by, apparently Professor Lupin was a werewolf and had to leave the school, Peter Pettigrew was alive - and Sirius Black was his godfather.
Well shit. He finally has a family.
As the trees whizzed past his face as he is sitting on the windowsill seat in his usual carriage aboard the Hogwarts Express, he was pondering about what the future would bring for him since now he knows he has someone who cares - he has a goddamn parent now for christ's sake.
As he was resting his head on the window deep in thought, he saw something very small and grey was bobbing in and out of sight beyond the glass. He stood up for a better look and saw that it was a tiny grey owl, carrying a letter which was much too big for it. It positively looked comical. The owl was so small, in fact, that it kept tumbling over in the air, buffeted this way and that in the train's slipstream
Harry quickly pulled down the window, stuck out his arm and caught the owl that he may very well say was a fluffy snitch that had claws and a letter.
He brought it carefully inside. The owl dropped its letter onto Harry's seat and began zooming around their compartment, very pleased with itself for accomplishing its task. Hedwig clicked her beak with a sort of distinguished disapproval. Crookshanks sat up in his seat, following the owl with his great yellow eyes - wanting to eat it.
Ron, noticing this, snatched the owl safely out of harm's way. Harry picked up the letter. It was addressed to him. He ripped open the letter and shouted, "It's from Sirius!"
"What?"said Ron and Hermione excitedly. "Read it aloud!"
Dear Harry,
I hope this letter finds you before you reach your relatives. I have no clue whether they are accustomed to owl post or not.
Buckbeak and I are in hiding. I cannot tell you where in case this falls into the wrong hands.. I have some doubt about how reliable the owl is. I mean just look at it, it looks like as if a mere gush of some flatulence out of a bear's rear can knock it over - but anyway, we here are not to talk about whether the fart of a bear can knock over this owl or no, but he is the best I could find, and he did seem eager for the job. I believe the Dementors are still searching for me, but they haven't a hope of finding me here. I am planning to allow some Muggles to glimpse me soon, a long way from Hogwarts, so that the security on the castle will be lifted. There is something I never got round to telling you during our brief meeting. It was I who sent you the Firebolt –
"Ha!"said Hermione triumphantly. 'See! I told you it was from him!' 'Yes, but he hadn't jinxed it, had he?" said Ron."Ouch!" The tiny owl, now hooting happily in his hand, had nibbled one of his fingers in what it seemed to think was an affectionate way.
Crookshanks took the order to the Owl Office for me. I used your name but told them to take the gold from Gringotts vault number seven hundred and eleven – my own. Please consider it as thirteen birthdays' worth of presents from your godfather. I would also like to apologise for the fright I think I gave you, that night last year when you left your uncle's house. I had only hoped to get a glimpse of you before starting my journey north, but I think the sight of me alarmed you. I am enclosing something else for you, which I think will make your next year at Hogwarts more enjoyable. If ever you need me, write to me. Your owl will find me. I'll write again soon.
Sirius
Harry looked eagerly inside the envelope. There was another piece of parchment in there. He read it through quickly and felt suddenly as warm and content as though he'd swallowed a bottle of hot Butterbeer in one go.
I, Sirius Black, Harry Potter's godfather, hereby give him permission to visit Hogsmeade at weekends.
As soon as he read those words, another bunch of sentences formed beneath it giving Harry one of the most vital artefacts that he would be needing in the coming years.
Harry, Dumbledore has told me all about your lizard situation and the Titan thingamajig - here, as soon as you read this, an old book should be forming in front of you right about now.
And boy it did. It was an old hefty book with the words "Spirits of the Gods Within" across it's crimson red cover in bright gold letters.
There was nothing else to note about the book until he opened it apart from the fact that it was about as thick as the length of his palm.
"Guess let's see what all the fuss is about," Harry openly mused.
—-end—-