Love of a Leo and a Capricorn

Large wings suddenly batted at them and the Dementors hissed. The rank broke apart but they regrouped several feet away, and they all faced the wizard’s shield.

Harry’s Patronus was an Amphiptre, a huge, winged serpent. It hovered in the air, and coiled about itself as it waited for Harry to command it to attack. The Dementors let out a loud, rattling breath, and the serpent sprang into action. Another column of Dementors sprang forth but a silver creature that closely resembled a griffin appeared to scatter them.

The battle of Dementors and two wizards was done in relative silence, but it had seemed endless because as soon as Harry and Severus were successful in pushing a rank of Dementors away, another had taken their place. It was frustrating. Fifteen minutes passed, and Harry’s vision threatened to blur with weariness.

There was a sudden blast of fireworks up above their heads, but Harry was too careful not to show his relief.

The most terrifying roars shook the air and the Dementors halted their attack. The vibrations seemed to affect their cloak-like figures and they trembled in the air.

“How far do you think their fire range is?” Harry asked Severus absently. Both started to walk backwards slowly.

“I don’t know. I have never worked with them.”

The Patronii moved along with their creators, still positioned between the wizards and the Dark Creatures. Far in the distance, great wings flapped and the sounds it produced reached Harry’s ears with no trouble. Then an odd sort of whine and a howl came from behind him, and he froze. Slowly, Harry and Severus turned.

Awe filled Harry instantly as his eyes took in the magnificent, silver-black dragon, and like the others of its species, gold-colored scales streaked its neck and wings. This was a revival of a species that the wizarding world had thought were lost forever. Ironically, it was with the magic of Salazar Slytherin that their line was preserved. The dragon gave out a half-choke and snorted smoke as it landed on the ground.

“Harry! So good to see that you’re alive!” a familiar voice exclaimed.

“Charlie!”

“Yeah. Come on. Saerna is all worked up for a fight. There are others coming up behind me, so get a move on.”

Harry and Severus exchanged a quick look with each other and nodded. Their Patronii had vanished as they were now concentrating on how to get onto the dragon’s back without annoying her too much and before the arrival of the other dragons.

“Strap yourselves now! We’re going up!” Charlie warned, and Harry saw him tugging at the reins. The emerald-eyed wizard quickly ensured that Severus, who sat behind him, was securely tied to the dragon before strapping his own belts.

Again, the female dragon let out that strange whine before launching up into the air. Harry was somewhat distracted – he had been concentrating on the lurching feeling in his gut – when Severus had clutched at his waist without warning. Then he remembered that Severus had never ridden on Saerna before, or on any dragon’s back. As a sign of reassurance, Harry placed his left arm along Severus’ arms, and squeezed gently on an elbow.

“Just how are they going to fight the Dementors?” Severus muttered the question.

“It is not so much of a fight but annihilation, Professor,” Charlie answered succinctly. “They were grown to take care of such things.” Charlie raised his muscular arm and pointed a finger at the Dementors.

Thunderous flaps of wings joined that of Saerna's, and Harry felt Severus’ hands tightening. However, the dragon riders knew better than to form a column. In a minute, a line of flying dragons was formed. Severus’ arms relaxed but only a little.

“We are bracketing them,” a voice shouted, and it sounded very familiar.

“Ron just won’t stay home,” Charlie said casually. “But since he is brilliant at strategy, I think I’ll chance Hermione spelling my balls away.”

“Drive them to the east! Sun’s coming up soon!”

“Hermione will kill us,” Harry groaned.

Charlie just chuckled and slapped Saerna’s neck gently. The dragons moved forward at her lead.

“Saerna and her kind have magic that allows them to destroy the Dementors,” Harry said quietly and he felt Severus leaning against his back. He could feel the older wizard’s breath on his hair and all he could think of was to rest against Severus. “They don’t feel fear, just like a Patronus, and they are the complete opposites of the Dementors. Dementors bring rain, cold, despair, and death. Saerna’s kind bring light, warmth, hope and life.”

“Listen up!” Ron’s voice reached his ears again. “The West will begin their attack first. Please remember to tell your dragons that they should restrain themselves a little. Once we get to herd the blasted creatures to the east, we’ll converge, and your dragons can do their real stuff.”

“And what, in Slytherin’s name, does he mean by ‘real stuff’?” Severus asked sardonically.

“You’ll see.” Then Harry’s head swiveled to his right and his eyes narrowed as he studied the row of sleek, silver-black dragons in the west.

When the attack began, Harry noticed that the keepers commanded their dragons the same way they would with Patronii. Great billows of orange-red flames roared toward the Dementors and inhuman shrieks filled the air.

“They can catch fire?” Severus sounded surprised.

“The dragons are unlike their cousins, Severus. They were engineered specifically to deal with Dementors, and other Dark Creatures.”

“But that’s impossible...”

“The Founder had been someone capable to do what most would find impossible,” Harry said absently. “I am beginning to think that this might have been what Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor had argued. Surely they could not have argued about Salazar being strictly specific with who goes into his House – look at all the Slytherins with peculiar, magic standards.”

“No time for chitchat, gentlemen. I’m going to ask Saerna to begin her attack now,” Charlie interrupted. Severus, who had sounded like he was about to retort in return, had muttered something inaudible before keeping quiet.

Saerna the dragon took a huge breath, and Harry heard her rumble deeply in her throat. He could feel the scales of her back reverberating and she was suddenly hunching her back. The tight hold around Harry’s waist had suddenly become a death grip.

“Severus,” Harry choked and breathed uncomfortably. Severus did not loosen, however.

Loud growls pierced Harry’s eardrums and he winced automatically. The dragons on each side of Saerna were letting out great puffs of smoke, and so did Charlie’s dragon.

“Smoke?” Severus uttered incredulously.

Seated out just behind a crown of huge spikes, Charlie snorted. “It seems you have yet to witness Draconic warfare, Professor.”

“I think they’re confusing the Dementors, Severus,” Harry informed Severus in a meek tone.

“I did not know that Dementors can be confused.”

Harry heard Charlie let out sigh. “The Gods only know that this is a war. I don’t have time to play the teacher,” the dragon keeper said grouchily. “It is not smoke, Professor, and I can assure you, we are not even attempting to reduce visibility. I don’t think sight plays a significant role in a Dementor’s existence. A Dementor hunts by using fear to guide it to its prey. The ... smoke, helps to veil our fear, and this will confuse the Dementors, because their target has suddenly disappeared. Ron hopes, that by playing on their vulnerability, we’ll be able to drive them to the east, and expose them to the Sun.”

“The Sun does not affect them at all.”

“Not without special ceremony,” Charlie agreed.

“What ceremony?” Harry inquired.

“I’m not sure, but Hermione and the Ancient Runes teacher are in the thick of it all.”

Saerna let out a loud shriek then. Harry gasped as the dragon lurched several hundred feet higher and let out a fiery breath. The Dementors were trying to escape to the west by trying to outmaneuver the dragons, but the creatures of earth and fire had responded to block them immediately.

“Timing is important! But whatever happens, we must not let them get past us!” Ron shouted.

The air reeked with smoke and sulfur. Harry was getting a bit warm in his black robes, and it did not help that Saerna’s scales were heating up quite a bit in all the excitement. The eastern sky was slowly brightening and all around Harry, the dragons were producing clicking sounds.

“It is something like a whistle. We managed to train them to do it in time. This means that the West will advance, and the rest will converge into a wide arc. The dragons in the West are able to produce very powerful blasts of fire. They also have a long firing range compared to those of the North and South. So, it is their job to drive the Dementors into that direction.”

“So, I guess that those of you in the north and south are for show.”

“Severus,” Harry said reproachfully.

“Yes, something like that,” Charlie answered blandly. “But that’s because we get to show you a grand showdown.”

There was no more talking after that because the dragons in the west were already moving. Angry, red fires shot out of the dragons’ snouts like huge, columns of spears. The Dementors were still moving. It was clear that they did not like being burned at all.

“They’re pulling in their breaths!” someone shouted.

“Are you sure? I can’t see them!” another dragon keeper asked.

“They are, damn it!”

“Everyone! Get down!” a hoarse voice commanded.

“Harry, Snape. Press yourselves against Saerna’s back now! The dragons can take care of themselves.”

Harry did as Charlie had suggested and had hunched as low as he could. However, although it was comforting to feel Severus draping over his back, he did not like the feeling that he was being protected. All his instincts were telling him that he should be the one to hold Severus. He clasped his hands over Severus’ – they felt cold – and rubbed them reassuringly. A sick feeling came over him but Harry heard no voices screaming in his head.

“The smoke must be working,” he mumbled against a lump on the dragon’s back. He closed his eyes. After several moments of concentration, he could tell that Saerna was no longer facing south but that she was slowing turning toward the east.

“NOW!” Ron shouted with authority, although his voice sounded a bit shaky.

Before Harry could wonder what that was supposed to mean, scorching heat had suddenly exploded and it was followed by terrible growls. He gasped and covered his ears with his hands, and then he started to cough, totally unprepared for the acrid smoke that filled the air.

Like Severus, most of the dragon keepers were swearing rather colorfully. This was probably the reason why Charlie had said that the dragons in the west were more powerful. Harry already felt as though a layer of soot had enveloped him.

The Dementors shrieked and Harry lifted his face. He blinked furiously and saw some of the burning Dementors fleeing desperately to the east. There was another great burst of fire and the army of Dementors had turned as one. They were flying directly to the east and the dragons were keeping up to make sure the Dementors did not have a chance to escape.

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