Harry Potter and the Horcrux Quest

Chapter 8: The Disaster

Harry suddenly felt uneasy. He looked around the party and saw a number of other people also seemed to feel it. Someone grabbed his arm, and he looked down at the frightened face of Gabrielle.

"Harry, I am scared. There is something bad coming." The eleven year old shivered. The air was getting colder.

"Stay close. If we're attacked, hide under a table." She nodded, but didn't let go. Harry gave her his left hand and drew his wand. More people were feeling it. He saw other wands out. Suddenly there was a scream from the platform where the band was set up. Looking that way, he saw in horror that Dementors were coming over the small stone wall around the field. He looked elsewhere -- more were coming around the pond, and, though it was hard to see, he was pretty sure that there were some between the field and the house.

A shout rang out, "Dementors!" followed by screams.

Hermione looked around desperately and yelled, "Mum! Dad!"

Professor Flitwick's voice, magnified by a Sonorus charm, boomed (and squeaked) out, "Everybody, away from the walls. Patronus charms! Everyone who can cast them -- Patronus!"

Harry gestured towards Luna and Ginny. They all moved towards the center of the dance floor. Ron and Hermione had already gone off in search of her parents. Being Muggles, they wouldn't be able to see the Dementors.

Luna looked distraught. Others also had expressions of fear on their faces, but for some reason it was worse seeing it on the normally calm girl. She raised her wand, while they backed towards the center of the dance floor.

"Expectro Patronus," she said in a quavering voice. A silver mist flowed out of her wand and drifted towards the wall. There were other shouts of the spell invocation, and Harry saw more mist. He too cast the spell, and added a small cloud of mist.

Ginny, tears running down her face, spoke the words again, and again, but nothing happened. She collapsed at Harry's feet.

This was just like the night they almost kissed him and Sirius. There were too many of them. They kept coming. The floating lamps overhead seemed to lose their power to shine. The party was falling into darkness. Someone yelled, and ran towards the exit, only to run right into a Dementor. Harry's sight seemed to go at that point.

He heard the screaming in his head, the sound of his mother dieing, and knew that he had to get his Patronus cast. He tried thinking of Ginny -- their first kiss. But all that came to mind was the jealousy he felt when she kissed Dean, what he used to call his beast. He tried to think of her kindness, but remembered her snapping at her mother the first day he was at the Burrow last summer. And the names she used for Gabrielle and Fleur. He tried to think of her smile, but all he could see was her scowl as she walked down the isle at the wedding. And the screaming in his head got louder, as he listened once again to Voldemort's laugh. He thought he noticed fire flying through the air, but it was too late. He knew this was the end.

But then another sound came to him. Luna's voice, small and plaintive, whimpered, "Mommy! Why are you turning black?"

It was like a dash of cold water. He could see. There was only one or two fully corporal Patronuses trying to drive back the Dementors. Some of Fleur's Veela relatives were hurling fireballs at them, too. He didn't see any hit, but they held some at bay. He looked around. He was on the ground, with Gabrielle and Ginny clutching him, and Luna lying next to them, alone. She shouldn't be alone. She was such a fun person when you got to know her. And that smile....

"EXPECTRO PATRONUS!" Prongs suddenly appeared and charged the nearest Dementors. He reached down and lifted Ginny up.

"Ginny, you caught the Snitch! You won the game for Gryffindor, remember? Remember how happy you were?" She seemed to revive a little.

He lifted Luna up, and said, "Remember the Christmas party! Remember when I asked you to come with me?" She nodded, and gave him a small smile. She lifted her wand and cast the Patronus. A small stream of white smoke appeared, but soon dissipated.

"You can do it, Luna!" Harry encouraged, looking around. Several corporal Patronuses were running through the crowd of Dementors. They were too few. They couldn't protect the crowd. He saw the Veela fireballs flying towards the dark creatures. It heartened him, a little, and it gave him an idea. He looked around and saw Fred not too far away. Moving quickly over the people -- more than half were on the ground, probably re-living their worst horror -- he reached Fred. He was frantically trying to cast a Patronus, but was no longer even producing the white mist. Tears were streaming down his face.

"Fred!" Harry grabbed him to get his attention. "Can you set off the fireworks? Maybe it can help some people, and we can get a few more Patronuses out there."

Fred looked at him blankly for a moment, and the words started to penetrate. He nodded, and shook himself. Straightening up, he yelled, "Weasley's Wizarding Weazes proudly presents -- Celebration!" The disembodied music started and was followed moments later by a rocket leaving a stream of red sparkles behind that exploded into a multi-colored sphere of smoke and fire. The Dementors may have paused for a moment, but only a moment.

Harry ran back to the edge of the crowd and concentrated on his Patronus again. It had been on auto pilot for the last few moments, but now he directed it towards Dementors who got too close to the crowd. It could keep them away from his part of the crowd, but it wasn't enough. If something didn't change, they'd soon be overwhelmed.

Hermione's parents had been dancing when the Dementors appeared, and were soon surrounded by people as they fled the monsters. Hermione and Ron found them on the ground, arms around each other, shivering in cold and fear. Hermione cleared her mind, and tried to think happy thoughts. She latched on to the excitement of her first Diagon Alley trip, and cast her Patronus. Her otter appeared, bouncing out of the crowd, and holding off the Dementors. She, like Harry, realized that there weren't enough Patronuses to keep back all the Dementors. She heard a scream, and saw a Dementor lifting someone. Hermione didn't recognize the man, but she knew so few of Bill's friends. Just then, the music started, and the first firework exploded overhead. She looked around and saw George, holding Alicia Spinnet behind him as he controlled his coyote Patronus. She made her way over to him.

"George! The tables and chairs, can they help?"

He thought for a moment, yelled, "Table rodeo!" and began the complicated process of controlling the chairs, and his Patronus.

Hermione looked around again. Ron was down. She ran to him, and found that he was just overwhelmed by the Dementors. Nothing she could say could get him up.

Bill and Fleur, like the Grangers, had been dancing when the attack came, but not with each other. When the band had been attacked, Bill left his partner and quickly found his wife, holding her protectively while he tried to get a Patronus off. His first attempt failed, and he muttered to himself, "Happy thoughts." Fleur looked at him, grabbed him around the neck, and kissed him hard. He broke the kiss, and created one of the largest Patronuses he had ever done. His eagle flew towards the Dementors who were kissing the band. It was too late for them, though.

Percy felt himself being overcome. He saw his just-married brother create a Patronus. Percy was a product of seven years of mostly poor instruction against the Dark Arts. Many of Bill's friends had the same problem. They couldn't cast a Patronus if their life depended on it. Which, unfortunately, it did.

Minister Scrimgeour also saw what the newlyweds did. He briefly wished his wife was here. With happy thoughts of her, he cast his own Patronus and started directing the owl to drive back Dementors. He had been an Auror for a long time, but this was the first time he had had to use his Patronus. He noticed, in a distracted way, that even though it was a bird, it didn't move very fast. He also knew, looking at the army of Dementors, that he was going to die.

Ginny gave up and collapsed in despair. Next to her, Neville kept trying to get his Patronus out. The white mist he was producing was uncrossable by the Dementors, but didn't have any staying power. Luna called his name, and he looked at her. She pointed her wand at him and cast a cheering charm. He felt better. He thought of the points he got in first year, and cast the Patronus spell again. This time the mist wasn't just smoke. It formed something. It moved on four legs, and was rather large, but it wasn't formed enough to tell what it was. Harry pointed to the left, and yelled that his Patronus was needed over there. Neville concentrated and the animal moved in the right direction. The Dementors were right up to the people over there. He saw several people being kissed. Then he screamed.

"No!" he yelled, and started running towards the Dementors. This part of the wedding party must not have had anyone who could cast a Patronus. Several Dementors were in the process of kissing people, including his grandmother. As he came up he cast the spell again, and a large volume of white mist appeared from his wand. Had he thought about it, he would have known his mostly corporal Patronus was disappearing at the same time -- you can only have one at a time. The mist wasn't enough. The Dementor dropped his grandmother. Neville screamed again and kept moving. He had no thought of what he should do, but just needed to help his grandmother, who he knew was beyond help. He reached her, and started bending over her, when he felt a freezing cold hand grab his left arm.

Draco waited beyond the pond, hearing some yells. He wasn't very close. He saw Crab and Goyle off to his left and right, at quite a distance. They were part of the team that had driven the Dementors like cattle to this place. The Dark Lord, and the Minister of Magic had some way to talk to them, but they didn't. It had taken days -- or rather nights, as they had moved them under cover of darkness. Around his neck a chain held the ugly black medallion that their Lord had given him. He didn't know how it worked, but felt disgust and nausea whenever he looked at it, or touched it. He couldn't even describe its shape, just that it seemed wrong. But it worked. The Dementors avoided all who wore them.

And now he waited. He was behind some bushes, well beyond the limits of the property. He could barely see the lights of the party. He knew he was supposed to stay well away, but from the sounds of it, the Dementors were already wrecking havoc. Suddenly, the fireworks started going off. That was wrong. He looked, and saw where the rockets were being launched. If there was someone doing it, he had to stop them. He ran towards the pond, tripping over gnome hills, and catching his robes on thistles. He put on more speed. Then he ran into something.

He noticed he was flat on his back, watching the fireworks explode overhead. They were pretty good. He had a vague memory of clapping during a fireworks display when he was very young. He couldn't do that now -- his arm hurt way too much. It was as if someone had put a hot brand to it. Oh yes, someone had -- his master. But that had stopped hurting after a few seconds. The pain afterwards was much less than the pain of the dark mark being put on. But currently, the sharp, burning pain continued. Well, maybe it was lessening, a little. As it did, he realized that other parts of him hurt. His back and head. His face hurt. He couldn't tell, but it was burnt and blistering. All he knew was that it hurt. His legs didn't hurt. They didn't feel anything. Why didn't they feel anything? The rest of him felt pain.

Hermione kept concentrating on her Patronus, moving it swiftly to where it was needed. She kept encouraging Ron to get up and try to cast his own, but he didn't seem to have the strength. The chairs were working -- the Dementors couldn't detect them well, and were slowed from getting past them. If a Dementor could get a hold of one, it made short work of it. Hermione tried to attack the Dementors who succeeded in grabbing chairs, but there were too many past them -- she just couldn't take the time away from protecting the people. She heard Neville's yell, and after driving away another Dementor turned in time to see him being lifted by one. He was too far away -- there was nothing she could do. She watched in horror as he was pulled towards his doom.

Hagrid and Olympe tried to swat away the Dementors. They weren't as affected, at least at first, and neither could cast the Patronus spell. Hagrid couldn't because he really wasn't a wizard. Madame Maxime couldn't because it wasn't taught in the rest of Europe -- they had driven off the Dementors centuries ago, and didn't keep them around as cheap labor. They slowly were worn down, and ended up sitting on the dance floor, back to back, swatting any Demetors that came close.

Luna stopped casting cheering charms on the people around her when Neville ran off. She knew she was too shaken by the image of her mother's death to cast a successful Patronus. The cheering charm, on the other hand, didn't require her to think of a happy thought. She still felt as if she would never be happy again. But that didn't mean she couldn't help the people around her. She followed Neville, but at a slower pace. Her dress really wasn't made for running. She thought it just a matter of time until she, and the rest of the guests were kissed. Funny, although she didn't dance, she regretted that she hadn't. She wished she had more time to think about it. But Neville was caught by the Dementor.

"Expectro Patronus," she said, and as expected, there wasn't even any white mist. She made a wand movement and cast a cheering charm on Neville -- it was the only thing she could do. Maybe her spell would ease his last moments. She was close enough now to see Neville react to the spell. It must have worked. She cast another. His wand came up, and he shoved it in the demon's face.

"EXPECTRO PATRONUS!" Neville yelled. Luna was sure that would be his last words. They were, for a little while. For as he cast his spell, the creature -- there was no other way to describe it -- blew up. As it exploded, Neville was flung away, and was knocked unconscious. Luna was struck by flying gore -- purple ichor, bits of decayed flesh, and pieces of wet rags. But she was struck by something else -- something intangible. She was filled with happiness. She looked around, and ran at the nearest Dementor. Shoving her wand right in its mouth, she cast the Patronus spell, and the results were the same, it exploded. She ran to another, yelling Harry's name, and killed another. She was so incredibly happy, that she didn't notice that she was being surrounded by Dementors.

Hermione watched in amazement as Neville destroyed the Dementor. When Luna did the same thing, she turned away, and tried it herself. Letting one Dementor close, she too stuck her wand in its face, and cast the spell. The Dementor was driven back a few steps, but came after her. George ran up, stuck his wand in the creature's mouth, and cast the spell. The secret was out.

Ron appeared at Hermione's side, filled with what would later be called "undigested happiness". They started working together, Hermione's otter driving Dementors towards Ron, and protecting him from being overwhelmed. He blew them up.

Luna took out another before she realized she was surrounded. She screamed as the cold, decayed hands grabbed her. She couldn't get her wand into position. The happiness was fast draining out of her.

Then she was free. A stag Patronus knocked several Dementors away, and raced at the others. Luna was free, and cast the spell into the mouth of another Dementor. She eliminated four of the crowd that had surrounded her before she felt confident enough to take stock of the situation.

All around the dance floor people had found Hermione's and Ron's method -- one person controlling a corporal Patronus to direct the Dementors, another killing them. She saw the demons fleeing, and the strange sight of Patronuses driving them towards people. Not every Dementor's death caused a wave of happiness, but it certainly caused joy among the fighters. Soon the Dementors were out of range of the Patronuses, and no more were killed. George stopped the chairs.

The music reached its climax; dozens of rockets exploded overhead -- the grand finale. Everyone who was still able to clapped and cheered.

The pain eventually subsided enough for Draco to think about moving. His right arm with the dark mark still hurt so much that he didn't want to move it. His left arm could move, but didn't seem to have anything to do. He could lift his head, and found that if he looked towards his feet he could now see the floating lights of the party. But they kept getting obscured. He wondered what was getting between him and the lights. Then he saw the Dementors. They were coming his way. Was the party done? Was everyone kissed? Good thing he had his medallion. He reached for it with his left hand. He couldn't find it. The Dementors were coming closer. He could feel them. His legs still didn't move. The Dementors were almost upon him. As he started screaming, he heard cheers from the party.

The fireworks ended. The music stopped. People started taking stock of who was still standing, and who was gone. Neville woke to people congratulating him on discovering how to kill the Dementors. He stared dumbly at them a moment, got up, and walked to his grandmother's body. Luna came over and put her hand on his shoulder, letting him know that he still had friends. Bill and Fleur had started arranging the bodies. They enlarged the tables, and laid the victims on them. Other people, seeing what they were doing, helped. Greg's body was placed on one of the tables.

Bill and Fleur knew all the guests, and despite the earlier exuberance over the destruction of the Dementors, they saw dozens of their friends and relatives laid out, not dead, but not living. The first big shock was when they discovered Fleur's father had been kissed. Bill liked the man, and wished that such a thing hadn't happened to his wife on their wedding day.

He was holding his crying wife next to the body of her father, when Charlie came over to him. He brought them further down the line of bodies, to where Arthur and Fred were lying on the tables. Ginny was crying in Harry's arms, Ron in Hermione's, and George and Molly held each other and sobbed. Percy, Angelina, and Alicia stood awkwardly nearby. Angelina was quietly crying. Luna and Neville showed up about the same time, and Luna took Angelina in her arms to comfort the former chaser. Angelina and Fred hadn't been serious, but they were good friends, and who knew what might have happened?

Aurors and Healers from St. Mungo's soon showed up. The guests were escorted outside the anti-apportation wards, or were portkeyed home. The Healers started taking the victims away, and the family went into the Burrow. Gabrielle, who hadn't gone more than three feet from Harry since the attack, stayed right by his side as he started walking towards the house. Harry looked around and saw Luna and Neville standing where they had been before, looking lost. He walked over to them, despite Ginny's protest.

"Hey guys. What's wrong? Besides just being attacked by hundreds of Dementors."

"My grandmother was kissed, Harry. I don't know what to do."

"Daddy's disappeared. He wasn't kissed, but he's not here, either. I don't know what happened to him. And I don't want to go home if he's not there."

"Then you both better come in. We'll expand some rooms or something. You don't have to be alone."

"Thank you, Harry. Do you think Mrs. Weasley will mind?" Neville asked.

"I doubt it. What do you think, Ginny? Would your mother mind?"

"What? Oh, no. She wouldn't mind. Come on in. Plenty of room for everyone. I just want to go to bed."

"Good suggestion. Come on, Neville, Luna. Let's get in and get settled."

Harry awkwardly turned around. It was awkward because Ginny was holding on to one arm, and Gabrielle held tight to the other.

Luna whispered to Neville, "If we didn't just survive a deadly battle with over fifty casualties, I'd tease him about his girlfriends."

Neville nodded, and said, "It would be a great opportunity. Too bad things are so bad right now."

They walked the rest of the way in silence. Except for a few spell incantations increasing the bed room sizes, creating a couple of extra beds, and cleaning dead Dementor off of clothes, most of the house was quiet the rest of the night.