Ch 22: Quidditch Battles
As he sat with the others listening as Katie Bell finished her Quidditch war speech, Harry tried to enjoy the moment. For the next hour or two, all he would focus on would be finding and capturing the elusive snitch. No extra training, no managing the Time Turner, no worrying about whether he was training fast enough or hard enough for the battles he knew would come eventually. This afternoon would give him that much needed break from the relentless grind of studying and training he had set himself. Walking into the bright sunshine with his beloved Firebolt on one shoulder, Harry paused and exulted in the moment.
The moment the Quaffle was released, Harry soared into the sky. He was not hunting particularly hard for the snitch, but was rather enjoying the warm sunshine and cool breeze as he zoomed over the playing field. "If anyone deserves a bit of a break, I do," he told himself. Avoiding the bludgers aimed at him by the menacing Slytherins, Harry amused himself by feinting towards an area now and again, drawing Draco after him. Ron's improved reflexes and intense training had paid off as he fended off goal after goal. The Gryffindors were in easy command of the game.
Cruising slowly above the level of the highest bleachers packed with students, faculty, and visitors, Harry kept one eye on the Slytherin beaters and another eye peeled for the snitch. Then he saw it, far off in the distance, in the direction of the Forbidden Forest. Not a glint of gold, but of red. For a moment, he froze in shock. As he refocused his eyes to try and discern for certain what he thought he saw, a Bludger whizzed by his head, missing him by inches.
"Don't sit there like a bloody target, Harry! Move!" encouraged Ron from the other end of the field.
"Hermione! Is that a … Can you tell if that's a …a dragon?"
"A what-did-you-say? A drag…Yes, Harry. And she's furious about something."
"Can you detect anything else out there, anything besides what's normally in the Forest?"
"Hate. Fear. Despair." Harry could almost feel Hermione shudder.
"So they're bringing Dementors, too. Great! I'll tell Dumbledore, you tell McGonagall. Go now!"
As Hermione pushed her way through the crowded stands to where the faculty were watching, Harry flew to where Dumbledore was seated with several important guests visiting from the Ministry.
Harry hovered several feet in front of Dumbledore and started to explain what he had seen. "Professor Dumbledore, they're coming. You need to alert…"
The Slytherin beaters again took advantage of Harry's distraction to fire a pair of bludgers at Harry. Suddenly, Harry pointed his broomstick almost straight down. As he moved forward and downward, he rolled hard to his right. A split second later, he had completely reversed direction and was staring straight at the oncoming bludgers. As he rolled, he flexed his right wrist and his wand seemed to materialize in his hand. He took quick aim at the first bludger and muttered, "Momentium reversis." Immediately the bludger stopped in midair and flew back towards the beater who had swatted it. Luckily for him, he had continued flying past the point from where he had launched it at Harry's head. The bludger dug an enormous hole in the ground of the field when it finally landed. The other bludger was less then ten feet away when Harry turned to it and spoke quickly, pointing his wand again "Incendio bludger."
As the bludger exploded, Harry turned his broom away from the shocked looks on the players' faces towards Dumbledore again. The cheering audience fell into an immediate silence following Harry's actions and watched for what Harry would do next. Harry spoke again in a low voice to Dumbledore. Hermione had reached the teachers' stand by then and was whispering quietly to McGonagall who stood looking stunned, along with almost everyone else, by Harry's actions.
"Professor, you need to evacuate the students. They're bringing a red dragon. And Dementors. Lots of Dementors. Voldemort is launching an attack on the school."
Before Dumbledore could reply, several of the ministers sputtered, "Preposterous!" "What is the boy saying?" "Nobody can attack Hogwarts! Its defenses are too strong! Unbelievable!"
Glaring at the bureaucrats, Harry warned, "Professor, we don't have time for a discussion or a committee meeting. The students don't have time for this. They need to go somewhere safer. We can't defend the Quidditch field. I will try and distract the dragon, but the students have to go. NOW! Please, Dumbledore, trust me."
Pointing his wand at his throat, Dumbledore intoned, "Sonorus. Attention everyone, the Quidditch match has been canceled. All first through fifth year students are to return to the Great Hall, with first years going first. The faculty will assist you. All visitors will please join them. Professors Moody, Lupin, McGonagall, Snape, and Hagrid please meet me on the eastern side of the Quidditch field. Sixth and seventh year students will meet there as well. You may all leave now in an orderly manner."
Whispering a quick thank you, Harry flew to the center of the field, where the rest of the Gryffindor team flew to meet him, followed by a few of the Slytherin Quidditch players.
"What the bloody hell was that all about Harry?" demanded Ron. Harry glanced at him and Ginny briefly before Malfoy marched up. All three bore looks of complete surprise mixed with growing anger.
"You've got some explaining to do, Potter," sneered Draco.
"There's a red dragon heading this way. Voldemort is attacking the school. He's sending Dementors as well. I've got to find a way to distract the dragon, keep it away from the students until they can get safely inside," Harry explained to the whitening faces of his fellow students.
"What can we do?" asked Ron quietly.
"You can help get the others in safely," Harry turned to fly off.
"I think what he meant to say, is how can we help you distract the dragon?" explained Draco. Ginny shook her head almost violently in agreement.
Harry looked quickly at Draco and then at the shocked looks on the Gryffindors. Concentrating briefly on the various wands used by his friends in Gryffindor, Harry opened his eyes and commanded, "Accio wands." All of the Gryffindors' wands appeared, but of the Slytherins, only Draco's came as summoned.
"Yours is the only one I've seen often enough," smirked Harry. Draco grinned back. "You're probably not going to be able to bring the dragon down," he instructed them quickly, "Our job is just to harass it and keep it away from the other students until they're safely in the castle and try not to get ourselves killed in the process. That's it. Now let's go."
As they rose above the level of the stands again, all of them could easily see the enormous form of a red dragon flying over the Forbidden Forest towards the school. With only moments to spare before the dragon would overtake the column of students heading towards the castle, Harry led the charge of Quidditch players. As they flew towards the dragon, they could hear the shouts and screams of students as they, too, spotted its hurtling form. The slowly moving orderly line quickly panicked and fell into confusion as students began running as fast as possible for the safety of the school, despite the best attempts of the teachers to maintain order.
Flying straight at the dragon's head, Harry watched as the mouth slowly opened and then he dodged as if to drop down and to his right, then flew up and to his left. Hissing in fury, the dragon tried to turn to snap again at him, but was unable to maneuver as quickly as the Quidditch flier. By that time, there was a swarm of Quidditch players flying around, above, and below the dragon, hitting it with stunning spells and sleeping charms. None of the spells seemed to have any other effect but to further enrage the dragon. But it had turned its attention from the fleeing students to focus its anger on the buzzing gnats that continued to annoy it.
Harry felt it first. The slow, mind-numbing fear that gradually sapped all of your joy and will to live. A quick glance told him that the Dementors were emerging from the forest. He could sense their anticipation at the feast of students lying before them that Voldemort had no doubt promised would be theirs for the taking. It looked like there were Death Eaters mixed in but he didn't have time to actually count their numbers. A brief look at the Quidditch field revealed Dumbledore with several of the faculty organizing themselves and the sixth and seventh year students into a protective arc that guarded the retreat of the remaining students. It looked like most of the students would be able to get to the castle before the Dementors would arrive. Harry breathed a sigh of relief as he focused his attention back on the dragon.
As a blast of green shot by him, Harry shouted out, "Watch out for rebounding spells. Dragons are fairly resistant to spells! And watch for the claws and fire it can breathe!"
"Why didn't you mention that before, Potter," grimaced Draco as he narrowly avoided a sleeping charm that bounced off the dragon's thick hide. One of the Gryffindor beaters wasn't so lucky. A stunning spell struck him in the middle of the back, and he plummeted fifty feet to the ground, striking the ground soundly, flat on his back. Ron barely avoided a narrow stream of fire as he dashed quickly in front of the dragon and then off to its right. However, the blast caught Katie Bell in the side, knocking her clear from her broomstick and igniting the side of her Quidditch robes and her long braid of hair. Harry glanced at her quickly and extinguished the flames, storing the energy for his next spell.
Ron shouted "Wingardium leviosa!" as he pointed his wand at her to soften her fall. As he concentrated on easing her to the ground, he forgot about the dragon momentarily. At the last second, he sensed the raking claws of the dragon and dodged to the side, preventing his head from being completely severed from his trunk. The sharp talons ripped into his shoulder and slashed a bloody swath across his left cheek. Fighting to maintain consciousness and control of his broom, Ron fell from the sky and landed heavily, bouncing on the ground as he skidded to a halt not too far from where Katie Bell had fallen.
A scream of rage burst from Harry's throat, "NOOOOOO!!!" He looked at the still form of his best friend, bleeding heavily on the ground. His heart seemed to burst. He cast another stunning spell at the dragon, right below the throat and put all the stored up energy he had into it. It simply bounced off, narrowly missing the other Gryffindor chaser and Draco. It merely singed their robes as it passed by them. Rolling around the side of the dragon, Harry stole another glance at his fallen friend. Katie was somehow conscious despite the blast of fire which had knocked her from the sky and had crawled over to Ron to try and slow the bleeding. As he caught her eyes, she nodded in answer to the pleading question in his look. Ron was still alive. Right now at least. But he was bleeding heavily and probably wouldn't last long-especially if the Dementors or the dragon got to him.
The Quidditch players quickly realized that they had to watch out not only for the dragon's attacks, but also those of the Death Eaters. Dumbledore was able to stun a few, but there were dozens, and most of the remaining faculty and guests who had remained with the older students were trying to drive away the several hundred Dementors trying to reach the school. With most of the Hogwarts' staff focused on protecting the students from the Dementors, the Death Eaters were trying to knock the Quidditch players out of the sky. Luckily for the Quidditch players, they were extremely difficult targets to hit. But they were not impossible to hit, as one of the Slytherin beaters found out when he was hit with an Avada Kedavra curse that killed him instantly.
Wracking his brain for a spell potent enough to bring down a dragon, Harry dodged a pair of spells from Death Eaters. He flew below the beast, dodged another reflected spell and turned around to approach the slower moving dragon from behind. Finally thinking of a spell that might work, Harry chanted, "Bauttuerum Martel!" A blast of white light shot from his wandtip and hit the dragon right where the right wing met the body at the joint.
A scream of pain erupted from the dragon unlike Harry had ever heard before. Its right wing now bent at an odd angle, the dragon began to plummet to the ground, no longer able to remain aloft with one uninjured wing. The heavy dragon plowed a huge furrow between the castle and the Quidditch field as it landed roughly.
"Let's go back and help the others with the Dementors," shouted Harry at the others as he turned back to lead the way. He wondered briefly if he should stop and help Ron, but very little of his training had focused on healing, mostly just its opposite. He saw Katie finish tying some loose strips of robe and begin waving her wand over Ron.
"Harry, we've got to help her!"
"Who?"
"The dragon. She's only attacking because…"
"…because she's working with Voldemort? Are you insane Hermione? Didn't you see her nearly take off Ron's head!?!?"
"No, I've been a little busy down here with all the Dementors and Death Eaters who came to play. But listen to me for a minute. They kidnapped her clutch of dragonlings. That's how they forced her to attack the school. That's why she is so upset."
"Well, I don't think she's going to accept our help now after we just knocked her from the sky. Do you?"
"Well, we've got to try. Come and get me and let me see if we can reason with her."
"Have you been hanging out with Hagrid again?"
"Just come and get me. I have a feeling we can help her."
"But what about the rest of the Dementors and Death Eaters? And Ron?"
"Harry, if we can get her help, maybe we can turn the tide."
"OK, OK. Maybe you're right. I'm coming. I don't think I could do much more than Katie is right now for Ron anyways."
Harry spotted Hermione in the middle of the defensive arc, just behind the professors. He swooped down low and slowed down, as if to catch her by the arm to swing her up behind him on his broom. He didn't seem to notice the half dozen or so Death Eaters who were anxiously watching his approach. As Harry's hand brushed Hermione's there was a sizzling explosion of lights, as they simultaneously cast a variety of curses at the pair. There was a puff of smoke and then when it cleared-Harry and Hermione were gone. Nothing remained where they had been but scorched earth.
The professors looked dumbfounded, unable to believe what they had just seen. Several of the students who had seen it dropped their wands. Even Dumbledore looked shocked and concerned. With renewed fury, despite the hopelessness that now gripped their hearts, they turned back to the enemies that confronted them, trying to buy more time for the students in the school. But what was the point? If Harry was dead, who would defeat Voldemort?
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