Ch 23: Helping Dragons
Harry and Hermione reappeared on the other side of the dragon, hidden from the view of the students and faculty. Harry got off his broom, set it on the ground, and moved by Hermione's side.
"Why didn't you tell me you were going to teleport us? I hate it when you do that!"
"Well, I wasn't going to until I felt all those spells coming at us. Believe me, we're much better off here than there. Can you talk to the dragon at all?"
"Give me a minute… No. She's in too much pain right now. And she's nearly mad with fear over her children. I think we've got to do something for the pain first, before I can try talking to her." Reaching out with her wand, Hermione concentrated intently and muttered "Dolorium obscurint." The dragon seemed to breathe a little easier.
"Can't you heal her bones or something?"
"And do what? Turn her wing into jelly like that git Lockhart did to your arm? I don't know dragon anatomy well enough to do it properly, and this is hardly the time or place to try something like that. No, I just masked her pain for a little while. I'm afraid it's the best I can do for now. Maybe Hagrid can help later."
"Fine, can you talk to her now?"
After a moment, "Yes, but she's still so worried about her dragon hatchlings, that she's not listening to me."
"All right. Let me try something." Moving around to the dragon's head, where she could see him, Harry slowly stepped closer with his hands up and his wand out of sight. When she turned to see him, her eye filled with anger. "Calm her down for a minute if you can. Tell her I'm sorry, that we didn't understand why she attacked us. Tell her I'm sorry and that I would like to help." As he told Hermione to do this, he slowly shapechanged to his dragon form. The look of anger was replaced by one of shock.
"She's listening to me! She can't believe what she just saw! She's never heard of a human who could take on the form of a dragon."
"Tell her I am sorry again for adding to her pain. Ask her if there is any way we could be of service to her."
"I can hear you Dragon Princeling. I am sorry for attacking. I wish you could help me, but you cannot. And now my dragonlings will die"
"Do you know where they are? Can you tell us?"
"I can show you the place as they see it. But it is of no use. It is magically guarded and much too small for me to enter. I have already tried. And several of those men are guarding my children. They will kill them if this attack fails."
"Show me where they are. We will go and rescue them."
"Very well. I would be most grateful if you could help." She opened her mind to Harry and Hermione, giving them a view of a small cavern. There appeared to be three other dragon hatchlings, besides the one they seemed to be seeing the cavern through, and five Death Eaters.
"You can see through their eyes then? Can you talk to them as well?" asked Harry.
"Of course. Why do you ask?"
"Tell them to calm down, everything will be OK. And tell them not to attack the two young humans they are about to see appear in front of them." Looking over at Hermione, Harry asked, "Ready?" She nodded. "You take the two in the back of the cavern, and I'll tackle the three in front." He shifted back to his human form and stood by Hermione. With their wands out, Harry stood by her side and grasped her left shoulder with his left hand, so they were facing opposite directions, and then visualized the cavern as they teleported.
"Stupefy!" shouted Hermione. "Impedimenta!" The two Death Eaters in the back of the room crumpled before they fully realized the two were there.
"Bauttuerum Martel!" The three shocked Death Eaters in the front of the cavern flew back ten feet and slammed against the wall hard. Not one of them stirred. As they looked around quickly for other opponents, Harry quickly examined the three. All three were bleeding and unconscious, but alive.
"What was that spell? I've never seen anything like it." asked Hermione.
"It's the one I used on the dragon's wing. It's called the Thundering Hammer. It was used during medieval sieges to knock down castle walls or gates. I used a light version on our friends over there. I figured that would probably be enough. But I gave the dragon everything I had. Tough old bird."
Walking back to the four dragon hatchlings, Harry held up his hands again and mindspoke to them. "Your mother sent us to take you home. Can you picture your home for me?" Seeing the enormous cavern surrounded by steaming craters, Harry and Hermione gasped at the mounds of treasure they saw lying around in scattered piles. Reaching out to one of the dragonlings, he reassured them all. "It's OK now. I've come to take you home." In the blink of an eye, he and the small dragon were gone, then Harry reappeared alone. In less than thirty seconds, he had returned the four dragonlings to their home. Grasping Hermione's hand, they returned to the side of the wounded mother dragon.
"I can think of no way that I could ever repay you, young princeling. No amount of treasure, no favor is large enough to repay the gift you have given me this day."
"I was only too glad to help, after having wounded you earlier. I hate to ask it of you, with you still wounded and wanting to see your children, but we could use your help here to defeat the Dementors. Their only wish is to destroy the other children who are looking for shelter in the castle."
"I would be only too glad to assist you, Princeling."
"We deeply appreciate whatever aid you can give to us. We must go now to another part of the battle."
"Before you go, young Princeling, I would know your name."
"I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. I am Harry Potter and this is Hermione Granger."
"Well met, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. I am known as Brunjildtha. Again I thank you for saving the lives of my children."
Bowing deeply, "One can never be too polite to a dragon," he thought, Harry squeezed Hermione's hand and they disappeared again. The dragon rose unsteadily, turned around and charged the nearest ranks of Dementors giving them a full blast of firebreath which incinerated them completely.
*-*-*
Harry and Hermione reappeared at the edge of the Forbidden Forest under the cover of the overhanging trees. Looking out, they could tell that the battle continued to rage fiercely. Suddenly they saw an enormous white stag charging through the ranks of the Dementors. Those too slow to move from its path were impaled on its horns and torn asunder, leaving their dark robes to flap in the breeze as their horrid bodies evaporated under the powerful magic of the Patronus charm. Wheeling around the stag charged again through the ranks, leaving a trail of black robes fluttering to the ground.
With a shocked look on her face, Hermione wheeled on Harry. "I have never seen your Patronus look so powerful, Harry. It looked like it had assumed a solid shape. I didn't know that was possible. But how did you do it?" Then her eyes narrowed. "And when did you cast it Harry? You've been with me the entire time. The last time you cast a Patronus that powerful it was because you had already seen it when we used the…" Reaching at the collar of Harry's robes, Hermione grabbed at the silver chain, nearly yanking it off of Harry's neck.
"Hey, ouch! That hurt!"
"And just how long have you been using this, Harry Potter?!?! And why didn't you tell me?"
"Well, you didn't tell me when you had yours, now did you? Besides, how did you think I was managing to keep up with all of the reading we were doing? I'm not as smart as you are Hermione."
"Don't try using flattery to get out of this one, Harry"
"We can talk about this later. Right now we need to jump back in time so that I can cast that Patronus charm and we can help finish off this battle. OK?"
"Fine, but we're not through discussing this yet."
Looping the chain around both of their necks, Harry flipped the hourglass over, counting under his breath as about a dozen grains flowed from one end to the other.
"What are you doing?"
"Just trust me. It's not like this is the first time I've used it. I know what I'm doing."
Hermione remembered the queer sensation of time travel and opened her eyes to see the same forest surrounding them. At her side, Harry pulled out his Invisibility Cloak from the leather pouch that Fred and George had given them while Hermione looked at him curiously.
"This isn't any ordinary pouch, Hermione. Fred and George created this magical pouch so that I could just reach in anytime I wanted and pull out a joke from their shop to use. That way I wouldn't have to bother with owling them requests or anything. Well, I modified it a bit using Dumbledore's books and now I can pull any of my own possessions whenever I need them."
Hermione looked fairly impressed. "Altering magical items takes a lot of time and study Harry. Where did you find the time for it?"
Harry just grinned, but Hermione felt a cold shiver run down her spine. He continued, "Look, I'll go up in my dragonform, invisible of course, and watch the battle unfold. Then right after we almost get hit by those spells I'll come back and teleport us a few feet away from it, hiding under the Invisibility Cloak. Sound like a good plan?"
"Yeah, it sounds fine."
Harry disappeared and Hermione waited under the Invisibility Cloak in the form of an owl. She had no desire for one of the Dementors to sense her hiding here.
After about ten minutes, Harry reappeared. Hermione shifted back to her normal shape, and lifted the cloak for Harry to slip under as well.
"Not much room here anymore is there?" he seemed to laugh.
Hermione grinned back as Harry draped his arm around her shoulders, trying to get close enough to her so that they both fit under the cloak.
"Ready?" he asked.
She hesitated, enjoying the moment alone with Harry and nodded. He teleported them back to the middle of the battlefield. Lifting the cloak, Harry and Hermione peered out. They were several feet to the side of a scorched crater, behind Dumbledore and several of the other professors. Sizing up the situation, Harry raised his wand and aimed it where it seemed several of the sixth year students were faltering in holding back the Dementors.
Thinking how nice it had felt to have his arm around Hermione's shoulders a moment ago, Harry boomed "EXPECTO PATRONUS!" The white stag burst forth from his wand, leaped over the heads of several of the students, and charged through the front line of the Dementors sending them fleeing. Some of the students and several of the professors turned around with surprise in their eyes.
"Harry! Hermione! What happened to you two! Where did you go?" shouted McGonagall. "We thought you were dead!"
"I…uhh…fell off of my broom trying to pick up Hermione, and we rolled a few feet away from where all of those spells hit. With all that smoke in the air, Hermione pulled out my Invisibility Cloak and put it over us while I caught my breath for a minute."
McGonagall looked dubiously at Harry and then Hermione, while Dumbledore merely smiled. Thankfully, nobody asked where Harry's broom was.
"I'm very glad you both are OK. I don't suppose you two would have any idea why the dragon seems to have turned on the Dementors, would you?" asked Dumbledore with a twinkle in his eye.
"Well, knowing Voldemort, he probably found some way of forcing her to help him. Maybe she changed her mind. I think we should just be grateful that she's no longer attacking us," answered Hermione. They both watched for a moment as the dragon blasted another small group of Dementors with her fiery breath as she mauled two Death Eaters foolish enough to get close to her claws.
"Yes, perhaps you'll help me thank her later." Dumbledore smiled and returned to the battle.
"How much does he suspect?" Hermione wondered to herself and then she too turned back to the battle at hand. She could see that while Harry's stag was still galloping among the Dementors, most of the other Patronus charms were weakening. The students as well as the faculty were getting tired from the continuing strain of trying to hold back the hundreds of Dementors that still remained. She could tell that they wouldn't be able to hold them back from the castle much longer. "Why hadn't the Ministry sent help? Didn't they know we were under attack?"
On her right side, Harry saw as several students down the line fell beneath the spells of several Death Eaters. Like Hermione, he too could tell that there was not much time left. As his fellow wizards and witches grew increasingly more tired, their numbers continued to decline as they were picked off by the Death Eaters. As he prepared to cast a stunning spell at them, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a trio of Death Eaters take aim at Hermione and himself. Spinning, he aimed his wand at the three and shouted, "Incantantum Reducto!" and pushed Hermione down to the ground in front of him. One of the spells was a death curse. Harry's spell crossed with it and the two spells altered course, sailing over the heads of the warring factions. The second curse was a powerful stunning curse, strong enough to stop the beating of a heart or the expansion of the lungs. This curse hit Hermione in the shoulder, sending her spinning away from Harry and flying backwards. Harry heard a sickening crack as her shoulder separated but was thankful the curse hadn't struck her in the chest as intended. He was sure it would have killed her. His relief was short lived as the third spell, a Cruciatus curse, struck him in the side.
The pain was severe at first and then intensified as the caster concentrated. On his hands and knees by Dumbledore, Harry grimaced in pain but made no sound. Instead of trying to ignore the pain, Harry used it to feed his growing rage.
Dumbledore cast a stunning spell at the Death Eater casting the Cruciatus curse and broke the spell on Harry. Turning to help Harry to his feet, Dumbledore stopped at the look on Harry's face.
"Leave me alone. Let me finish it now," whispered Harry harshly, his voice raspy. "Whatever happens next, you need to take credit for it. Tell them it was a defensive ward of Hogwarts you invoked or something. Nobody can know about my power yet. Not yet. Promise me Dumbledore. And take care of Hermione. And Ron." Then Harry slumped to the ground.
Dumbledore raised his arms and noticed that the air was suddenly very dry. Then he saw a few dark clouds forming at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. As he looked over the field of battle, he noticed that the grass and bushes no longer looked as green, they seemed to be drying out even as he watched.
He noticed that on the right side of the defensive arc, the Dementors had broken through. Several of the Dementors were bending over fallen students, but many more were now headed towards the school. Suddenly, Harry's stag was there routing the Dementors, attacking those that were trying to suck the souls from the fallen defenders.
A moment later a flash of light lit up the afternoon sky followed by a massive clap of thunder. A lightening bolt struck the Dementor closest to the school. The massive burst of electricity then branched out and pierced the robes of the Dementors behind it. In less than a second, nearly fifty Dementors had collapsed into smoking piles of robes on the ground. With a surging cheer, the Hogwarts defenders redoubled their efforts and strengthened their defensive arc. Another lightening bolt struck in the middle of another group of Dementors and lit a small tree on fire. The flames from the tree quickly spread along the grass and formed a slightly rounded line, one that ran roughly parallel to the defensive arc, only larger because it was farther away from the school. A third bolt of lightening struck the ground right in front of the professors, knocking everyone within twenty feet to the ground. A similar line of fire quickly spread, separating the Hogwarts defenders from the attacking Dementors and Death Eaters, who now looked with growing concern back and forth between the fire lines that had them trapped.
Oddly, the defenders felt no heat from the raging inferno just feet in front of them. They could tell that was not the case from the looks on the faces of the Death Eaters. Many of them were beginning to panic as the fire lines slowly converged, trapping them in the middle. Some tried to Apparate away only to discover that they couldn't. Dumbledore looked around and noticed Dobby leading most of the elves from the castle watching closely, deep in concentration.
Dumbledore then raised his voice, hoping Harry was listening. "Your only chance at survival is to toss aside your wands and masks, and gather in a circle between the converging lines of fire. Surrender and your lives may be spared. Continue your present course of action, and you will perish in the flames." He could not see what effect his words had, since the flame and smoke soon obscured all view of what was happening within the flame arcs.
Several minutes later, the fires extinguished themselves, leaving only a smoldering, charred surface. Sending the students back to the castle doors, Dumbledore left McGonagall and Hagrid to watch over Hermione and Harry and the other fallen students, while he and Lupin, Moody, and Snape searched the smoky area for survivors. In the very center of the burn area, they found a ten foot ring that seemed untouched, filled with about ten Death Eaters lying on the ground coughing. There was not a single trace of a Dementor. Leaving the three Professors to take care of the surviving Death Eaters until Aurors from the Ministry of Magic arrived, Dumbledore returned to McGonagall and Hagrid.
McGonagall looked at him questioningly with an eyebrow raised. "Albus, what was that? What did you do?"
"It was an ancient magic, a strong defensive ward of Hogwarts, that was invoked to protect the students."
"Oh really, Albus. I thought I was fairly familiar with all of Hogwarts' defenses, but I've never heard of that one. One so powerful."
"That is the story we will tell, Minerva."
"Of course Headmaster." Minerva headed back to the students gathered at the front door to begin organizing them to take the various wounded students from the battlefield to the Great Hall, which they would convert into a temporary infirmary. She sent several of the students inside to tell the other students the battle was over and to return to their common rooms to await further instructions.
Leaning down to Harry, Dumbledore grasped his shoulder and whispered, "Thank you for showing mercy, Harry. It is perhaps more than they deserve, but it is noble of you to extend it nevertheless. Thank you. I'm very proud of you. You saved us all today."
Raggedly drawing breath, Harry whispered back, "Is Hermione OK? Ron? Is everyone else OK?"
"I do not know yet, Harry. It is too soon to tell. We may have lost several students, but all of us would have perished today without your efforts. Thank you again. Do not blame yourself, Harry. You did the best you could. We all did."
"Dumbledore, have Hagrid help the dragon. I think her wing is broke. I'll talk to her. Make sure nobody knows that I did this. He can't know yet of the powers I'm developing." Harry sent a quick mental message to Brunjildtha that Hagrid would be able to help her heal until she could return home. Then he closed his eyes and muttered, "I am so tired. Sooo tired." As Harry's head rolled slowly to the side, Dumbledore's eyes widened in surprise. Harry's face became much paler, much thinner. Most surprising of all, he appeared almost transparent, ghostly even. Sucking in his breath, Dumbledore reached down as if to lift him up. Unbelievably, his hands seemed to pass right through Harry's body. Reaching for his wand, Dumbledore muttered "Corpilus integris," and then "Mobilicorpus." Placing Harry's Invisibility Cloak over Harry's body, he directed it to the castle.
Passing by McGonagall, Dumbledore whispered, "Make sure the rest of the wounded students get to the Great Hall. Have Miss Granger sent to the infirmary. I'm taking Harry there myself, now. Have Moody inform the Ministry and St. Mungo's to send as much help as possible. Get in touch with Arthur and Molly Weasley and have them come here to organize a system for the students to get in touch with their parents. As soon as the Ministry learns of this, we're going to be swamped with owls and concerned parents. Take a few minutes and reassure your Gryffindor students. But as soon as you can, I need you to round up all of Harry's special instructors and have them meet me in the infirmary. Have Severus come as well."
"But where is Harry? I don't see him."
"I will explain later, Minerva. Be sure to bring them. Oh, and I would like a word with Dobby as well." Dumbledore headed into the castle, ignoring the very puzzled look on McGonagall's face.
Half an hour later, both Hermione and Harry were settled in beds in the infirmary. Dumbledore sat between them, looking mostly at Harry. He turned as the door opened and in walked McGonagall, Snape, Moody, Lupin, Tonks and Winkley.
"Headmaster, I'm afraid we have lost fifteen students. Another seven are in very critical condition, but are expected to survive. Ron Weasley is one of the most severely injured, but they think he will recover as well. There are a number of other students with minor injuries, nothing too serious. We are still receiving help from St. Mungo's and the Ministry has sent every spare person they have to help as well. Arthur and Molly have started organizing visits for the parents of those students who are injured and notified the parents of all those who escaped without harm to the castle. I informed the families of the students who…who did not make it through today. They are visiting with the Weasleys right now," reported McGonagall.
"Thank you Minerva. I will go visit them as well shortly. But first there is another important matter I must discuss with all of you. It concerns the extra training of Mr. Potter," announced Dumbledore, turning to Harry.
There was a number of gasps as the professors got their first good look at Harry. His face was deathly white and his cheek bones seemed to jut out through his thin skin. His breathing was extremely shallow and labored. Most incredible of all, he appeared to have all the mass of a ghost. They could easily see the bedsheets he was lying on right through his chest.
"Is he dying?" choked McGonagall.
"I do not believe so," Dumbledore looked around at the concerned and perplexed professors. "But I am not sure how much longer he will be with us in this time."
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