As Harry held the umbrella in his hands, wind now rapidly whipping his face, as their ride sped up. Was he supposed to open it to use as a shield? Or was going to whack whatever came near them with it? He just stared at the umbrella.
"Hold it yer hand and point it at those ruddy things!", Hagrid now roaring, as adrenaline started pumping through their veins.
Harry hurriedly sat backwards and braced. He then pointed the umbrella tip, at whatever was there to come. He couldn't see, it was too dark. But he had to deal with it. Hagrid clearly couldn't do another thing right now.
"Atta boy, Harry! Now ye just have to listen to what I say! You got me!?", Hagrid asked. Harry nodded his assent.
"Good! Ye have to think okay! Think about blasting things! Boom! Ya got me? And when ya wanna do it in real say 'Ardere Flatus'…! Yeh gotcha?", Hagrid instructed, momentarily looking at Harry.
Harry nodded. That was simple. He had an umbrella instead of a wand to do magic with...but Hagrid looked confident enough. He had read it. He just had to chant it. Just think of blasting....things. Uncle Vernon's car? Dudley's old game console? Aunt Petunia's beloved vase? This bit was easy enough.
'Ardere Flatus...Ardere Flatus...Ardere Flat--' as he was practising it in his mind, their ride was impacted again. As he braced himself again, he noticed the flying menaces. They were kind of blur. But they had wings and looked strikingly similar to the blood drinking--oh well, vampire he saw.
"Curse yeh!", Hagrid yelled as a flying vampire was clinging to his overcoat. He violently shook his hand and the vampire was flung off.
"How many do yeh see, Harry?", he asked.
Harry looked again and answered, "3! I saw 3 of them! To your back!"
"One on this side! So four of 'em! It's manageable! Yeh remember my chant!?", He asked.
As they sped over, the vampires tried to attack Hagrid again and again. Apparently, they had brains. They thought to take him out, so the motorcycle will fall down. But Hagrid was sturdy as they come. He shrugged them off. One of them even was grabbed by the neck and thrown down.
Harry had tried to attack and chant, he had even done so half-way, many times, but he wasn't fast enough. He even completed the chant once, and had hoped the vampire, closing in on their would blast like he imagined Aunt Petunia's vase blasting, but nothing happened. So he had just whacked it on its head.
As they passed over various areas, the clusters of towns, houses started reducing. It was just expanse of greenery. A little cottage here and there. Nothing significant that would indicate their location in this unknown place. But Hagrid rode as though he knew exactly where they were supposed to go.
"We're nearly there! Just a little more! Hold it!", Hagrid urged.
Harry didn't know how much more he could hold. For the last 15? 20 minutes? Merlin knows, for an eternity they were dodging these things. It was a simple day of relaxing. Holidays were on. Although, Dudley was annoying, Harry handled it or just disappeared wherever they couldn't find him. Mostly it was just fantasizing while reading those books. Sometimes too embarrassed to try out the spells, or getting hyped up about curious beasts he could find, but wasn't allowed to find.
What had it devolved into?
For next few minutes, nothing bothered them, and that bothered Hagrid. Harry didn't understand why would it bother him. They were gone and it was all good, wasn't it? Why question it?
"Maybe yer right, Harry. I worry meself too much. But where did they drop off?", Hagrid muttered to himself. But as they went over a small hill, they noticed an unusual house at a distance.
"Ay! Here we are! Just in--", as though deja vu, Hagrid was cut off again. As from nowhere, all of a sudden the motorcycle started tilting on Harry's side. As he looked down, he noticed that all their bloodthirsty friends had started pulling the side car.
Harry paled. After all this hassle, NOW they were going for him? It was just a short distance dammit. Hagrid was doing his best to reduce their height from the ground and land safely, when two of the vampires, switched sides and got into middle, where the car was connected.
They started hammering down on the joint. Harry, initially very confident in the durability of the structure, lost all of it when the vampires lost all sense of self and started at the weak part of the car, where it was screwed to attach.
Harry with burst of bravado, and with a dash of desperation, continued whacking the vampires, but they got knocked back and they returned. Again and again and again.
***
This tussle went on for a few moments, which was enough to rouse the residents in the unusual house. A red haired man and woman looked out of the house through their window.
"What's going on, Arthur?", asked the woman, somewhat anxiously.
"Hold on, Molly. Let me focus.", said the man, Arthur.
After concentrating on the whizzing figures in the sky, he gasped. He immediately turned to Molly and started instructing.
"Molly, that's the motorcycle I had borrowed from Hagrid. I gave it back to Hagrid a few days ago. That's definitely him. And the ones attacking are definitely some dark creatures, I couldn't manage to see which.
Don't let the kids come out. Especially the twins. Start putting the protection charms Dumbledore gave us. I'm going to call for help and aid Hagrid out there."
She nodded and they both went out of the house. They took out their wands and started chanting. The house doors and windows closed with a bang. A slight, yellow and blue colored ripple, in the shape of a sphere went over their house.
Arthur took out a badge. It was inscribed with something on the back. It read, 'Auxilius'. On the front, there was a large 'M' and a line through it, which was a wand.
He clenched the badge and said, "Aid me."
He then turned to her said, "Help must be on the way. Any moment now." Though he wondered, whether he should've fired a spell to aid Hagrid, struggling in the sky.
As they watched with tepidation, the bike did full roll-over. They both gasped, as thet noticed a small figure nearly fall off from the side car. The figure kept whacking the creatures on the head with something.
"It's a child! Arthur! What's a child doing with Hagrid?", Molly clutched her wand in one hand anxiously, as she asked.
"No idea, dear. I just hope, it's not who I suspect it to be.", Arthur replied grimly.
He knew about the increased incidents of dark creatures invading and attacking isolated wizards and witches. Or rather, he knew the 'supposed' reason. He didn't believe it, as it was possible for them to come out of nowhere.
Just as Molly was going to ask further, a figure suddenly appeared near them with a whoosh. It was a 6 foot tall, bald man, with dark brown skin. He had large, deep eyes and he wore a grey robe.
"Kingsley Shacklebolt!", Arthur exclaimed. One of the most capable Aurors of the Ministry, was here to aid them.
The man, Kingsley, gave a nod to them and looked at the tussle going on in the air.
"Is that man Rubeus Hagrid? The Gameskeeper of Hogwarts?", he asked stoically.
"Yes.", Arthur replied.
"Do you have a broomstick in your shed?", Kingsley asked. Upon seeing Arthur nod, he waved his wand and chanted.
"Accio Broomstick!"
The broomstick came hurtling towards them and Kingsley caught it.
"Anything else I should know?", Kingsley asked as he got ready on the broomstick.
"Yes! In the side car--", but he was cut off by a loud explosion, that flung the bike and Hagrid near the house and the side car in opposite direction.
Kingsley immediately kicked off and flew off saying, "Fire the Impediment jinx at Hagrid, he'll be fine! I'll go get the boy!" He had noticed what Arthur was talking about.
Arthur obliged and fired the Impediment jinx at Hagrid, repeatedly. Hagrid's trajectory was broken, as he haltingly fell to the ground.
"Molliare!", Molly also helped by using the Cushioning charm on him.
"Good thinking.", Arthur said as he gasped and hurried towards the groaning Hagrid, not before seeing the bike crash and burn.
Up above in the air, things were much hectic for the Auror. As he neared the place where the explosion too place, he saw a vampire still in flight, albeit badly burned. He immediately fired a spell at it.
"Arderio!" And with a flash of yellow and orange, the vampire was burnt to ashes.
He then fired number of spells at the falling boy.
"Impedimenta! Impedimenta! Carpe Retractum!", As the falling figure halted 2 times in the air, something bound him and pulled towards Kingsley.
As the boy came near him he again waved his wand and said, "Brachitenere."
The boy was then floating beside his broomstick. As he moved towards the ground, he noticed the umbrella tightly grapsed in the boy's hands.
He landed gently on the ground and dismounted. He gently carried the boy in his arms and walked towards the duo from the house. They both hurriedly came to him.
"Are you alright, Shacklebolt?", asked Arthur as he looked at him.
"I'm fine. The blast killed off majority of the vampires. The boy was quite tenacious. How is Hagrid?", Kingsley asked.
"Oh he's fine. He was muttering about we getting the boy. I assured him and he fell unconscious. We took in the outer shed...err, he was too big to enter house, you see.
Right! We need to tend to the boy and maybe find out who he --" but he choked on his words when Molly said something.
"W-What!?"
"Harry Potter." Molly gasped, pale, as she stared at the scar on the boy's forehead. She unconsciously traced it and said again, "Arthur, it's Harry Potter."