Chase the shadows away
Gimme Gimme Chapter Four
Harry had a perfectly normal week on midnight shift– chasing down a wizard using the imperius curse to rob people at night.
It did idly occur to him that Miss Disaster-prone might be a possible victim. That felt even more annoying – he felt that he still owed her after the embarrassing fiasco with the toilet bomb.
By Saturday night Harry was starting to relax in the office – only another ten 'Use of deadly force' forms to fill in, and his paperwork backlog would be done. Then the fireplace flared green, and a quite familiar woman's voice called out: "Aurors ! Emergency!"
Harry might have jolted out of the chair, and leapt through the fireplace – he OWED Daphne Greengrass, after all, and he wasn't waiting for any possible life-debts to kill him. He shivered as grates spun past, and had time to regret not having rolled into a ball, and attempt to do so while in the floo-stream, and land – in a painful sliding belly-flop on a familiar kitchen floor. The breath knocked out of him, Harry noticed it was firstly, quite clean, and secondly, and thankfully, not waxed. He didn't slide far, and got up, wincing, and dusting himself off.
"I'm going to ignore that" said Daphne Greengrass, in a dressing-gown over heavy flannel pyjamas. And slippers.
"What's going on?" asked Harry.
"It's very cold, and I'm having nightmarish thoughts" said Greengrass, and she lifted her eyebrows.
Harry stood very still and let his mind drift a bit. He did feel a bit cold, and the memory of Ginny calling him Tom bobbed to the top of his mind like a fishing float.
"Oh. This could be Dementors" said Harry.
"It shouldn't be – they're all supposed to be in Azkaban" said Greengrass, and she made a 'get-on-with-it' hand gesture.
Harry took a few deep breaths, cracked his back and neck, and went to her front door, opened it, and looked out. A freezing wind blew in, and he felt icicles down his back. He closed the door quickly.
"Well" said Greengrass.
"Feels like Dementors" said Harry, turning to Greengrass "Good thing you're in flannel pyjamas."
"I've packed away my light-weight night things, given the number of calamities that are occurring." said Greengrass drily. "Until my sister is disabused of the notion that you and I have some sort of thing going on."
"Which we don't" said Harry. "I am supposed to call for backup for Dementors."
"Well, go ahead" said Greengrass.
Harry shook his wand hand to limber up, and drew his wand.
"You just said you're supposed to call for backup" said Greengrass.
"And yet, I managed a hundred at fourteen" said Harry, turning back to the door.
"Bullsh- shivers!" exclaimed Greengrass as Harry opened the door. Harry cast the patronus charm, and sent Prongs out to scout. The light from Prongs lit the street - 'That should have street-lights' thought Harry, and Prongs circled back, and climbed.
Up by the roof of the shop a few doors down, a dark cloaked figure detached from the shadows and recoiled from Prongs. Harry stepped out onto the street, and had a good look. Looked like a Dementor.
"Get him, Prongs" said Harry, concentrating on his happy thought.
"Potter, behind you!" exclaimed Greengrass. Harry turned and swooping up the street was a second Dementor, arms extended.
'Bollocks,' thought Harry. He yanked on his wand and Prongs sprung back towards him, and headed to intercept the Dementor. But Prongs would not get there in time. Like a quidditch dive that was going to go wrong, thought Harry.
Just then, Greengrass incanted "Expecto Patronum!" and a jet of silvery smoke gouted past Harry, and formed a silvery mushroom shield. The Dementor slowed to a stop, but not before Harry could see its face. He shivered and concentrated. Prongs arrived and gave the Dementor a bloody good pronging, and the Dementor recoiled, and climbed. Prongs went on the offensive, and with a bit of wand-guidance, Harry managed to herd the cowering Dementor back towards the shop roof, and the other Dementor.
"What are you going to do now?" asked Greengrass, still holding up a passable silvery shield. One good enough to save my arse, thought Harry wryly. I'm so in life-debt shit now.
"Well" said Harry, feeling a little strained "Get Prongs to beat them up to the point they go home usually works."
"Don't you need backup – obliviators and…" said Greengrass.
"Keep them off my back while I get the duty obliviator" said Harry.
"Not on your life, Potter. You're the one with the fancy Patronus. I'll call them." said Greengrass.
Her wand moved with a sharp flick, and her patronus dissipated, and she made the frankly, quite tricky wand motion to cast the charm to call for Obliviators, and held her wand, watching the blue helix wind up and up.
"How long will they take" asked Greengrass.
"Could be half an hour" said Harry. Expecto Oblivato was a good charm, but their office was only part of the ministry, not some force of nature.
"I'm not holding this bloody charm of half an hour" said Greengrass, looking overtired already.
"Well excuse me while I keep a Patronus going" said Harry, herding the Dementors back to the chimney-stack.
"How long can you keep it up for anyway?" asked Greengrass. Harry resisted the urge to make a smart remark. He was fairly sure he owed her a life debt, and that had him on edge. Prongs, on the other hand, showed now sign of fading. More annoyingly, the two Dementors were being surprisingly persistent. The Privet Drive ones had sodded off once he had Dudley had got home. Harry frowned – he wasn't actually sure about that. And he did suspect that Umbridge had sent the Dementors in the first place. He tried to remember where Umbridge was, but that ruined his happy thought, and Prongs sputtered out.
"Shit" Harry swore, and tried to get back into the right mindset to conjure a patronus. Don't think about Umbridge, he told himself.
"Potter!" said Greengrass sharply "Unless that's some fancy tactic for removing Dementors, I'd appreciate that showy bloody stag reappearing round about now!"
"Give me a second - I accidentally thought about Umbridge." said Harry.
"Good god. You're a sick man" said Greengrass. "Those detentions were worse than anyone said."
Harry suffered a momentary recollection of Umbridge's detention – which ruined the feeling of protection he was trying to recall.
"Shit" he swore again "Do not remind me – I'm Trying to cast a patronus here. And my head's not in it. Look – yours will do – recall your best Christmas with your family, the feeling of comfort and love."
Greengrass made a "hmm" noise behind Harry- and re-cast the charm. Harry glanced back at her wand, and the silver smoke kept coming and coming form her wand, forming an indistinct quadruped – then solidifying into a Horse that turned and whickered at Greengrass.
"Buttercup!" Greengrass exclaimed. "How do you steer these?"
"Wand and focussed intent" said Harry – and Greengrass's wand flicked, and the horse turned and started to trot towards the Dementors. But the horse patronus's gait was some strange contrived alternating leg stepping. And it's tail man mane were all plaited up.
"Why can't you be normal" muttered Harry, and the horse patronus climbed in the air, reached the Dementors who'd descended from the chimney to about first floor window-height
"And Kick!" said Greengrass loudly.
The horse Patronus reared up and descended, the front hooves came down on the nearer of the two Dementors, the Dementor let out a warbling shriek, descended quickly and started flying away from the Patronus at speed.
"And again Buttercup!" said Greengrass, and Harry watched as her trained horse Patronus stomped another Dementor, which again shrieked, and flew away.
"What do I do now!" said Greengrass urgently.
"Bring it back closer and keep it up till the Obliviators arrive" said Harry.
"Surely you can get it up again soon" said Greengrass, and she snorted.
Harry turned and fixed her – smiling face – with a stern glare. "Not funny." he said.
"Well I think Harry Potter being unable to get his showy great Patronus is quite amusing" said Greengrass "Up to the point where I was in actual danger."
The horse patronus came and snuffled Greengrass, who patted its spectral nose.
Harry concentrated on nothingness, and tried to use his Occulamancy skills to clear his mind, and thereby prepare to cast another Patronus.
"What on earth are you doing ?" asked Greengrass.
"Occulamancy. Clearing my mind" said Harry – closing his eyes and imagining nothingness.
He finally achieved the emptiness he needed, and opened his eyes. Greengrass was staring at him – and her horse Patronus was right next to him, staring side-on at him. The Patronus blinked.
Harry lifted his wand, spun a circle and hook with the tip, and cast the Patronus charm again. Silvery smoke gouted from his wand, and Prongs formed , mere feet away from Greengrass's horse Patronus. Prongs snorted, and swung his antlers about a little.
Harry concentrated on up, and Prongs ascended, walking on invisible stairs, trailing silver smoke and giving top-cover from swooping Dementors.
"Why do you know occulmancy?" asked Greengrass. "Whatever that is?"
"Secret defeating dark lords business" said Harry. "It's a mind-art." Harry concentrated on feeling the memory of his patronus, and urged Prongs in ever increasing spirals around him and Greengrass.
"Mind art?"
"Helps protect from being possessed, or having one's mind read by Legelimancy" said Harry, mentally balancing the Christmas memory with a feeling of calm.
"That happen a lot then?" asked Greengrass.
"Can't say" said Harry, watching Prongs who was at about a hundred yards now. "Secret defeating dark lords business means not telling people."
Greengrass's horse patronus faded, and she re-cast the charm, summoning it again.
"How is that not a strain?" she asked.
"Balance you mind like a knife balancing on its point" said Harry. He thought that sounded suitably profound. Professor Dumbledore would be proud of its mystical obscurity.
Time passed, Prongs herded the Dementors over to the chimney-stack again, and Greengrass's horse patronus – which she'd called Buttercup, mused Harry – re-appeared over and over, and kept the Dementors pinned in place.
"Why have they not fled?" asked Greengrass.
"That is odd" said Harry.
"Go on, divulge your secret knowledge of Dementors?" asked Greengrass.
"I don't" said Harry feeling tired – the sun was nearly rising "know anything except they're not beings – they're non-beings. I wasn't really that interested in them, just getting rid of them. My experience of them is that when pronged sufficiently, they sod off. These two are acting oddly." Harry paused to think about that "Apart from your sister, does someone powerful not like you?" he asked.
"I'm, apart from a lethifold infestation, a humble witch working in the Central Records Office" said Greengrass.
Harry thought that describing herself as a humble witch working in the Central Records Office was a bit … self-deprecating. She'd been a nonenitity at Hogwarts as far as he recalled, but she was calm in a crisis – and he owed her for the toilet bomb thing. She had quite decent wand-skills, and a line in sarcastic remarks that were quite… well sarcastic. The insane, romance-novel obsessed sister had been a bit of menace, but seemed to have got over it.
Harry mused about taking a trip to Wales to go see that salad farm. The dread beast of Caernobog need to be put down. Hard. It'd put him in hospital, after all. And bitten Daphne Greengrass's pretty hand. Not that he was thinking about her like that. Well, the odd dream.
Time passed awkwardly, Greengrass shivering a bit in her dressing-gown. Harry would have cast a warming charm, but he was still very busy with that patronus charm.
"Are you still thinking about quitting?" asked Greengrass.
"What?" asked Harry, Prongs flickering as he lost concentration.
"Quitting. Going to teach Defence at Hogwarts" said Greengrass.
"Now is not the time" muttered Harry, re-casting the patronus.
"You do realise the Hogwarts Defence Professor's position is cursed." said Greengrass. "You'd be stupid to take a cursed job."
"Its not cursed, the curse is gone." said Harry.
"gone?"
"I destroyed it in the war. The trouble Hogwarts has had since has been perfectly normal problems." said Harry.
"You" said Daphne Greengrass firmly "Have no idea what perfectly normal problems ARE."
"I feel personally attacked" said Harry mildly.
"I'm freezing" complained Greengrass.
"Kreacher!" Harry called out, and Kreacher appeared with a pop.
"Master" croaked Kreacker like a bullfrog "and Masters' guest."
"Warm Miss Greengrass will you Kreacher – we're busy with the Dementors" said Harry.
Kreacher spun around and caught sight of the Dementors, positioned between the stag and horse patronus. "Not that please" croaked Kreacher, shivering with, well probably fear.
"Kreacher just warm her up a bit and go" said Harry.
"You can't just… tell you house elf to warm me up!" said Daphne Greengrass "I'm not a teapot!"
Kreacher clicked his fingers, and Greengrass gulped "Ohhh" she sighed "Ohh… that's glorious. I take that back. I'm a teapot."
"Thank you Kreacher," said Harry, "you may go home."
"Master and Master's … guest should be inside. Nasty things are out here." said Kreacher.
"Kreacher – go" said Harry and Kreacher vanished. Harry suspected he'd just gone invisible, as he hadn't heard a pop of air displacement.
Somewhat later, Harry was starting to feel cold and tired, and a wizard in a dark cloak apparated into the street.
They strode over, wand out.
"What's the commotion?" asked – it looked like Baldwin, who was totally up himself.
"Dementors that won't leave over on that roof." said Harry "All the muggles on this street."
"Potter, I should have known "said Baldwin. "Got any paperwork?"
"Been busy with Dementors" said Harry tiredly.
"And what are the Aurors going to do about them?" asked Baldwin.
Harry checked his watch and kept his patronus going at the same time. It was well into the start of morning shift now.
"Call in reinforcements" said Harry. "Now they're at work."
Baldwin scoffed, but Harry slapped his badge and waited for it to squeal.
"Potter calling for reinforcements. Two persistent Dementors, Rosyton Veysey. Obliviators on site" said Harry and tapped his badge. His badge vibrated gently.
Dawlish, of all people, appeared a minute later, wand out.
"Where?" he snapped.
"Roof – herded onto that chimney pot" said Harry pointing with his free hand.
"Whos the civilian? "asked Dawlish.
"Daphne Greengrass, resident. Ministry staffer, called in the disturbance last night just after midnight. Helpfully Greengrass can cast a Patronus."
"Another one of yours then" muttered Dawlish, eyeing the Dementors with difficulty. 'Was he getting short-sighted in his old age,' wondered Harry. In keeping with one of the fine traditions of British law enforcement, it started to drizzle. The cobbles on the street started to glisten, and the orange tiled roofs got wet. A first raindrop went icily down the back of Harry's neck. Great.
"Right. They've been there… how many hours?" asked Dawlish.
"Nine and a half" said Greengrass, yawning, and setting Harry off.
"Nonsense. The Patronus charm for nine hours?" said Dawlish.
"His Stamina is enviable." said Greengrass "I really need to go inside, call in sick, and go to sleep."
"Why ask me?" asked Dawlish. Greengrass wiggled her wand and the silvery horse reared at the Dementors.
"Just so you know to cast a Patronus" said Greengrass, yawning again.
Dawlish snapped off a patronus charm, which it transpired was an eagle. Dawlish waited till the eagle had screamed and attacked a Dementor before mentioning casually "I was in Ravenclaw, you know." Harry added that to 'reasons to hate Dawlish' which was a fairly long list now.
"Well I'll leave you two to it" said Greengrass, and she went to her flat door, opened it, and shut it behind her.
"She been helping all night?" asked Dawlish, in the faux causal way he had.
"Stayed out here. They should have sodded off after a good pronging." said Harry.
"Bugger" said Dawlish, and he tapped his badge. "Office – get us a sodding Unspeakable. This is class one weird shit." He tapped his badge again. "I fucking hate them."
"I don't like Dementors either" said Harry sarcastically.
"You'd better hope their lazy grey areses get here quick, boy wonder. You're holding the Dementors up till they get here."
"What if I got tired and couldn't" said Harry, trying not to fantasize about taping Daphne Greengrass's bed off as a crime scene and 'investigating' it by spending ten hours face-first unconscious on it.
"You'll be fine. You're young." said Dawlish. "And you can have tonight off." he added.
Harry yawned again.
The three grey-robed hooded Unspeakables took an hour to turn up.
Dawlish was very brisk with them.
"Two Dementors bailed up since just after midnight by Potter here" said Dawlish, keeping his eagle Patronus going. "They didn't flee when attacked by multiple Patronuses."
The widest of the three Unspeakables walked over to Harry "And how is Harry Potter?" the buzzed in a parody of human speech.
"I'm fine" said Harry uncomfortably.
"How often are you re-casting the charm?" asked the Unspeakable, their shadowed hood pointed straight at Harry.
Harry cleared his throat "Um, just if my concentration slips." he said. "This one's been since about two, I think."
The Unspeakable tilted their head sideways. "Remarkable." they said, and they turned and pointed a gloved finger at the Dementors "Binder, Peaky, get them out of here."
"Auror Potter" buzzed another Unspeakable "If you'd move the Dementors so we could investigate that chimney-stack."
Harry flicked his wand and Prongs butted Dementors down the rooftops, sliding along the wet tiles. The Unspeakable who'd asked jump-apparated up to the chimney-stack and slipped and fell, clinging to the brickwork by their gloved hands.
"Cast a colloshoo, Honestly" buzzed the biggest Unspeakable. Which Harry suspected was the boss.
The Unsepaekeable on the roof got to their feet, cast a few charms, and started to investigate, and if Harry wasn't mistaken, they pocketed a sort of black brick off the chimney-top that had been sitting loose.
"No obvious reason for them to linger" buzzed the Unspeakable on the roof. The biggest one nodded, and they one on the roof apparated down, and the three huddled.
Baldwin sidled over to Dawlish. "I've obliviated the muggles on the street, and put up some muggle-repelling charms till you're done"
Dawlish flicked his wand, his eagle patronus starting to peck the Dementors viciously. They flew off to the north.
"Going back to Azkaban" said Harry. The Unspeakables vanished with a pop.
"Baldwin, we're going back to the office, the muggles can have the bloody street back" said Dawlish, and he pointed to Harry "You my office. Now." and vanished with a crack of disapparation.
Harry apparated to the Auror office Ready Room, dried himself a bit with a hot air charm, snagged a cup of tea from the urn, gagging at the taste – did Nobody ever clean it? And went to see Dawlish. In his office. Piles of files covered every flat surface, except, ominously, the visitors chair.
Dawlish himself was sitting at his desk, looking dry and composed. But he'd had sleep in the last twenty-four hours, thought Harry.
"Close the door" said Dawlish "And sit."
Harry closed the door and sat down.
"That was the biggest load of suspicious shit since Mundungus Fletcher got into the Dragon dung business" said Dawlish. "My working theory is those fucks from the Department of Mysteries did this. Just to do some measurements on you. Lucky for you one of your lot was there as backup."
"My lot?"
"From the war, Hogwarts, what was it you kids called it? Dumbledore's Army?"
"Oh. Greengrass wasn't in Dumbledore's Army" said Harry "I'm just lucky she can cast a Patronus. The second one damn nearly got me. She cast a shield, and once they were both in the same place, I gave her some pointers on doing a full Corporal, and her horse Patronus – sodding thing doesn't' walk normally , some sort of " Harry wiggled both hands in font of him like they way Greengrass's horse had walked.
"What, Dressage?" asked Dawlish "Her sodding horse Patronus does dressage?"
"Well you would have seen the braids. Who braids horse hair anyway?" asked Harry.
"It's a thing. Dressage. Wanking with horses." said Dawlish, rubbing his face. He drew his wand "Accio Dumbledore's Army register!" he called out, and from the pile of paperwork, a file shot into Dawlish's hand. Harry lurched forward and stabilised the pile on his desk. Well apart from a few that refiled themselves on the floor.
Dawlish opened the file and flicked through it. "You're right" he said "She's not on the list."
"You've got a file on Dumbledore's army. We were just kids" said Harry.
"Who went on to destroy large chunks of the Department of Mysteries." said Dawlish.
"That was just a few of us" said Harry "Some of the DA died in the Battle of Hogwarts" he added.
"Yeah it's in the file" said Dawlish. "Ginny Weasley, Patronus Horse. Wow, you really do have a type."
Dawlish closed the file. Harry felt a stirring of annoyance. He wasn't anything-ing Greengrass.
"I'm not seeing her" said Harry.
"You've attended six disturbances at Miss Greengrass's flat" said Dawlish. "That's more than nothing."
Harry sighed. He still needed to dissuade her mad sister, and investigate the farm in Wales.
"Go home, get some sleep. Take the night off, I'll get someone to cover for you" said Dawlish. "Tomorrow night write it up. I want a proper report, and we'll try to work out what the hell the Unspeakables were up to." said Dawlish.
Harry yawned.
"Floo." said Dawlish. "You're too tired to apparate safely."
-==0==-
Harry woke up with a stiff neck lying on the rather elderly sofa in the parlour. It was light. Still or again. The light coming in through the erm, still a bit rotten curtains made the cloth on the chair look grey. The colour of the Unspeakables robes, mused Harry. Grey Robes.
Something about grey robes bothered him. Perhaps it was the secrecy the Unspeakables operated under, the gloves and disguised voices.
He staggered upstairs, stripped and fell into his proper bed, dragging the covers over and trying to find sleep. His bed, he realised, was old and lumpy and smelt. He should totally have taped off Greengrass's bed.
A minute later Harry jackknifed upright, suddenly deeply suspicious. Greengrass wanted to do experiments. And… had a lot of grey robes, and surely someone as young as that didn't work at the Central Records Office. They were all dried up old fossils. Not… witches with pretty smiles. Who were bad liars.
Harry got out of bed and went over to his desk, Sirius's old desk and wrote down 'Greengrass unspeakable.' then frowned and added 'Check Welsh salad farm.' The dread beast of Caerbannog
was going to be the dead beast of Caerbannog if he had anything to do with it. It'd put him in hospital, and badly injured Greengrass. He still owed her a life debt, and maybe killing it would get him off the hook, without putting him at risk of… experiments by Unspeakables. Like, mused Harry, those Dementors.
Feeling somewhat miffed with Greengrass, Harry went back to bed. You can't trust anyone, he mused, not even pretty blondes in their nighties.