The shadow radiated a suffocating cold, as if it could swallow all light whole. One look at it was enough to turn your blood to ice, fear crashing in like a wave.
Harry was closest to the door. He bore the brunt of it.
He was staring straight into the shadow's featureless face.
The shadow opened its mouth, pressing it against Harry's, and began to feed.
Harry's consciousness blurred instantly. Darkness and despair swallowed him whole.
He tried to scream. No sound came out.
Lupin shot to his feet, ready to move.
But Hermione was already ahead of him.
"Expecto Patronum!"
She swung her wand. A blinding burst of silver light erupted from the tip.
A silvery-white otter phantom blazed forward, warm and radiant, and slammed into the shadow.
The shadow recoiled like it had been struck by something it feared, let out a shriek of pain, and released Harry.
It spun around to run.
Hermione didn't let it.
The otter phantom exploded outward into a vast curtain of light that wrapped around the shadow entirely, sealing it inside a massive sphere of pale silver.
Inside the sphere, the shadow thrashed wildly, hurling itself left and right. It couldn't break through. Not even close.
It was like a caged animal. The desperate screams proved it.
Under Hermione's control, the sphere began to shrink.
Two meters in diameter. Then one. Then basketball-sized.
The shadow compressed with it, its struggles growing weaker with every passing second.
THUD!
The sphere hit its limit. The shadow couldn't take it anymore. It detonated, scattering into black mist that dissolved into nothing.
The compartment went quiet.
,
[Dark Creature: Dementor (Collected)]
[Cloaked entirely in black robes. Featureless. Feeds on happy memories. Prolonged exposure to the Dementor's Kiss will result in the soul being extracted.]
,
Dementors have no blood, but the black mist released by the explosion served as a substitute. The magic book absorbed it, and the entry was recorded.
Lupin steadied the unconscious Harry, easing him back against the seat. Once he confirmed Harry was breathing fine, he looked up at Hermione.
Something flickered in his eyes.
Astonishment.
He found himself thinking back to the first time he'd successfully cast the Patronus Charm. James and Sirius had both been there to help him, and even then, after straining himself to his limit, what he'd managed to produce was barely a blurry silver smear.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
Compared to Hermione's shapeshifting otter, his effort had been embarrassing. Genuinely embarrassing. He was starting to wonder if what he'd learned back then was even the real spell.
"Ahem."
Lupin cleared his throat, breaking the silence.
"Miss Granger," he said, "your Patronus Charm is... truly remarkable."
"I've never seen anyone use it to trap and kill a Dementor before."
A Patronus was supposed to drive them off. Killing one was considered nearly impossible. He'd never once heard of a Dementor being literally squeezed to death by one.
He couldn't help himself.
"How exactly did you do that just now?" he asked. "Turn the Patronus into a... a ball?"
He gestured vaguely with his hands to illustrate.
Hermione blinked, her expression perfectly casual. "Oh, that? It's actually pretty simple."
"You just imagine the Patronus as a piece of modeling clay. Something that can be shaped into whatever you want."
"Then you push your magic through it and mold it. Whatever shape you picture, that's what it becomes."
"That's it?"
Lupin stared at her.
"That's it," Hermione confirmed, shrugging.
Lupin said nothing.
His intelligence felt like it had just been run over.
Simple. If this was simple, then every wizard on Earth should be kicking their Patronuses around like footballs by now.
He exhaled slowly and tried to compose himself.
The Patronus Charm was advanced magic. Many fully-trained adult wizards couldn't cast it at all, let alone do anything remotely like this. And here Hermione was treating it like arts and crafts.
"Genius" didn't cover it. This was just... cheating.
Lupin stared at nothing for a long moment.
So that's why Dumbledore chose her, he thought. Having someone like this around would make teaching considerably easier. And more importantly, on that one day each month when he couldn't be there himself, she would be more than capable of taking his place.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Dementors , those that had been hovering outside the compartment , had witnessed the entire thing. They watched one of their own get played with and destroyed.
They froze for exactly one second.
Then they fled.
Light flooded back into the compartment. The train lurched into motion again, wheels clicking steadily against the tracks.
A few minutes passed.
Harry stirred.
His eyes opened , and the first thing he saw was Lupin's stubble-covered face hovering about two inches from his nose.
"AH!"
Harry jolted upright with enough force to nearly crack his head on the luggage rack.
Lupin startled, rocking back fast, putting a respectable distance between them.
Harry pressed against the seat, heart hammering, staring at Lupin with an expression that combined genuine alarm and something that looked a lot like disgust. He shifted sideways without thinking, putting more space between them.
"I — what happened to me?" He looked at Hermione, voice unsteady.
"You fainted, Harry," Ron said, beating anyone else to it.
Harry swallowed. Fragments drifted through his head, hazy and unpleasant.
Cold. Dark. Despair.
And a face. Very close.
He looked sharply at Lupin. Wariness. Suspicion.
"So, uh..." Harry chose his words carefully, his voice cautious in a way that signaled he already didn't want to know the answer. "No one did anything... weird to me while I was out, right?"
"Please tell me no one gave me mouth-to-mouth."
His voice cracked slightly on the last part.
He let the image form in his mind. His face went greenish almost immediately.
The corner of Hermione's mouth curved up.
She let the silence stretch. Just long enough to be cruel.
"Hmm," she said finally. "You're more perceptive than I'd have guessed."
The words hit Harry like a wall.
He went completely rigid. His eyes glazed over. His memory supplied the image of Lupin looming over him when he first opened his eyes, and his stomach lurched violently.
He had been kissed by a scruffy, middle-aged man ,
"No," Harry whispered. Then louder: "No —"
He let out a sound that was something between a moan and a wail, and flattened himself against the compartment door.
Lupin blinked. He hadn't seen that coming at all. But once he registered what Harry was clearly imagining, the color drained from his own face.
"Miss Granger," he said, in a very measured tone, "please don't phrase things in ways that are so open to misinterpretation."
That did it. Hermione burst out laughing.
"Pfft —"
"Alright, alright." She waved a hand, pulling herself together. "I was winding you up."
"Technically speaking, you were kissed. Just not by Professor Lupin."
She tilted her head toward the space below. "Don't believe me? See for yourself."
➤ Next: Time-Turner
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
Read 100+ advanced chapters on Patreon
Visit: patreon.com/DarkGolds
Free track there updates daily — stays AHEAD of here.
Why wait?
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~