Endless darkness completely filled the Quidditch pitch, and the young wizards silently watched the Dementors floating over them, with terrible things flooding their minds.
They felt depressed, powerless, and terrified, as if the end of the world had come.
"Expecto Patronum!"
Just when everyone was in despair, a slightly young but firm voice rang from the Gryffindor stand.
Like a ray of dawn in the darkness, a silver-white animal popped up, becoming the only source of colour and light to that black and white dark world.
The little wizards turned their heads together. They saw a thin boy with his wand standing up to over a hundred hideous Dementors. The light from the tip of his wand formed a strong wall in front of the Dementors, just like the light of dawn ends the darkness.
This picture is to be printed in their memories for many years to come.
"It's Evan Mason, that's his Patronus."
Nobody knew who shouted that, but everyone suddenly remembered that they saw an article on the Dementors in the "Hogwarts Magic New", and how "Patronus Charm" was the only thing that can resist them.
The little wizards hurriedly pulled out their wands and casted the spell at the sky.
Like little stars in the night's sky, silver-white lights shined on the stands.
Soon, Evan knew how many people secretly practiced the Patronus Charm. About 600 silver-white lights appeared in the grandstand.
The thick fog of light made by all of their wands blew away the fear and coldness of the moment.
Many of them began to condense a corporeal Patronus.
Percy's Patronus took the lead in rushing out of the fog. It was like a weasel. Behind it were more than a dozen patronuses of all kinds.
Evan also saw an otter on the tip of Hermione's wand. It circled around twice then flew to the Dementors.
Following those complete ones, the white light fog floated upwards and countless Auras began to emerge.
Like a sharp arrow, the light fog hit the Dementors under its caster's will.
The Dementors never seemed to have encountered such a situation. Faced with so many Patronuses and a large amount of smoke made out of happy emotions, they panicked and retreated. These creatures that have always brought fear and despair to others, felt for the first time the taste of fear themselves and they instinctively wanted to run away.
A moment later, a beautiful voice came from the top of the castle.
That was the Phoenix's voice. Evan once heard it in the secret room in the previous semester. He turned back and saw a giant silver-white phoenix flying out of the Headmaster's office. It was the Patronus of Dumbledore, a very rare and powerful magical creature.
It moved closer to the Quidditch pitch with a huge white Aura more dazzling than all the other Patronuses. Under its illumination, the Dementors, who were slow to escape, turned into a cloud of smoke under the sight of everyone present and completely vanished.
Common Patronuses can only chase away the Dementors, but Dumbledore's Phoenix can actually kill them.
The Dementors who broke into the castle, made the greatest White Wizard of modern Times really angry.
Next to the path of the Phoenix flight, Evan saw Harry falling from high altitude and hurried to the centre of the Quidditch pitch.
Ron and Hermione were stunned for a moment and hurried to follow.
.............. ......….
"Luckily the ground is so soft."
"I thought he would die, but he didn't even break his glasses."
Harry heard their whispers, but he couldn't understand what they were talking about.
He didn't know where he was, nor did he know how he came there, or what he was doing before he got there.
All he knew was that he was feeling pain all over his body, as if he had taken a beating.
"Fortunately, Evan and his Patronus woke us up from fear and despair!"
"A hundred Dementors, this is the most terrible thing I have ever seen in my life."
Yeah, the most terrible and scariest thing! Harry remembered the dark shadows of the scarfs and the terror underneath it…
And also, he remembered the chilling screams that constantly slammed his mind, and the man who seemed to say something in the end.
The next time Harry opened his eyes he was lying in the hospital's bed.
Gryffindor's Quidditch team members were splashed with mud from head to toe, and they were surrounding his bed. Evan, Ron, and Hermione were also there, looking like they just climbed up from the swimming pool.
"Harry, Harry! How do you feel?" Ron's face looked pale.
"What happened?" Harry's consciousness came back quickly; he suddenly sat up and saw several people around him startled.
"You fell down from above fifty feet." said Ron.
"We thought you were dead!" Alicia followed. She was standing there trembling.
When she heard her, Hermione uttered a shrill, low-pitched voice, and her eyes went red.
"But the game…" Harry said. "What happened? Can we play again?"
No one spoke, and Harry started realizing the horrible truth.
"We haven't… lost?"
"Diggory caught the Snitch!" said Fred. "Just after you fell, he didn't understand what was going on. When he looked down and saw you fall to the ground, he planned to interrupt the game to replay it later."
"But they won with fair play, and even Wood admitted this." George followed.
"Where's Wood?" Harry looked around and suddenly realized that Wood wasn't there.
"He's still in the rain!" Fred said. "We think he's going to drown himself."
Harry buried his face between his knees and grabbed his hair with both hands.
"Well, Harry, you used to always catch the Snitch," Fred said.
"You're going to miss so of them!" Said George. "The tournament is not over yet!"
"We lost a hundred points, didn't we? So, if Hufflepuff loses against Ravenclaw and we defeat Ravenclaw and Slytherin…"
"Hufflepuff must lose at least two hundred points," said George. "But if they beat Ravenclaw…"
"No way, Ravenclaw is great. But if Slytherin loses against Hufflepuff…"
"It all depends on their scores; whoever wins gets a hundred points."
Harry laid in his bed and listened to the discussion between Fred and George. He didn't say a word.
They lost because of him. He lost for the first time in Quidditch.
About ten minutes later, Madam Poppy Pomfrey came to tell the team members to let Harry rest.
"We'll see you later." Fred told Harry, "Don't blame yourself, Harry! You're still our best Seeker."
The team went out leaving a trail of mud behind them. Madam Pomfrey closed the door behind them and looked unhappy.
Evan, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other and stayed.
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"He needs rest. You three don't stay too long."
Madam Pomfrey looked at Evan, Ron, and Hermione with dissatisfaction; and she drew their attention to the water stains and mud falling down from their clothes.
"Besides, I need one of you to come get his nutritional supplements. This will help him regain his strength!"
"I'll come."
Evan saw that Ron had something to say to Harry, and that he shouldn't make a girl do madam Pomfrey's task. He rose and followed her out of the ward.
"Did I actually see a hundred Dementors?" Harry whispered, but in his mind, he was thinking about the dog's appearance once again.
"It was more than a hundred Dementors, Harry!" said Hermione in a trembling voice. "I was scared and I didn't know what to do. All I could think about was terrible things. But thanks to Evan and His Patronus, we were able to wake up…"
She suddenly thought of Evan's Patronus which was exactly the same as the strange black cat she met at the Leaky Cauldron that night before the school started.
Would there be any connection between the two? Hermione remembered that Evan had told her himself, he learned Animagus in the summer vacation, but he always refused to tell her what his deformation form was. She was a little sceptical when she first met Evan's Patronus on the train. It was too similar to the black cat she had seen before, and Evan was obstinate at the time. Is that strange black cat his Animagus form?!
Hermione's face instantly turned red as she remembered holding the cat in her arms.
God, if it is really true, that means she got undressed in front of Evan…
"OK, Hermione!" Ron looked furious as he watched Hermione. He shouted, "Evan's Patronus was useless. It was Dumbledore who saved Harry and drove the Dementors away."
"What…" Hermione yelled.
"Everyone saw it, Evan's Patronus rushed to those Monsters and they escaped and couldn't take it for more than seconds." Ron didn't look at Hermione and said to her, "His Patronus was of no use at all. Harry finally fainted and we lost the game!"
"But it was Evan's Patronus that brought courage and hope to everyone. All the others could release their Patronuses. I also released my complete Patronus for the first time, it was like an otter."
"Don't you still understand?!" Ron gasped. "There were so many Dementors out there. If there wasn't Evan's Patronus, maybe Diggory would have fainted too. If that happened, Gryffindor wouldn't have lost."
"What are you talking about, Ron!" Hermione said in surprise. "If Evan did not gain time for Dumbledore, Harry would have fallen earlier from a higher distance!"
When he saw Hermione's look, Ron became more and more irritated.
There was an inexplicable anger within his heart that he wanted to let go. He was at the Quidditch pitch as well and wand glow for a little while, then the light immediately disappeared.
It was far from being comparable to the complete Patronus of Evan, or even to that of Hermione.
This made him feel very uncomfortable. He shouted, "He was more of a hindrance than a help, and nothing of all this would have happened if it was not for him. Percy was just slower than him…"
"Okay, you two can't let me have some quiet for a bit!" Harry whispered.
Ron's voice went low and the room was embarrassingly silent.
Harry did not understand what happened between Ron and Hermione. It was weird that they did not care about his physical condition. Instead, they were discussing whether Evan's Patronus played a role in saving him or not. In particular, the fact that they were talking behind Evan's back, made Harry feel bad.
"Forget the Dementors. Did anyone get my Nimbus 2000?"
When they heard him, Ron and Hermione quickly glanced at each other.
"Oh..."
"What?!" Harry suddenly had a bad feeling.
"Oh, when you fell down, it was blown away." Hermione said hesitantly. "Then it crashed and hit the Whomping Willow."
Harry felt anguish in his heart. He saw the Whomping Willow the last semester. It even shattered Mr. Weasley's car.
"And then?" Harry whispered, afraid to hear the answer.
"Harry, you know that Whomping Willow," said Ron. "It doesn't like anything bumping into it."
"Professor Flitwick has just brought it back before you awoke." said Hermione in a low voice.
She slowly reached for her schoolbag at her feet and turned it upside down.
A dozen pieces of wood and debris from the broom's tail landed on the bed. That was the wreckage of Harry's defeated loyal Broomstick.
When Evan returned to the ward with nutrients, he saw that none of them was speaking. The atmosphere was terrible.
Harry sat in bed and stared at his broomstick fragments in a daze. Ron and Hermione also sat silently on the chairs as though they had just quarrelled.
"Don't be sad, Harry!" said Evan, putting the potion on the table aside, comforting him and saying, "You can use my Nimbus 2001. I'll give it to you. You know that thing is of no use to me."
After receiving the broomstick, Evan threw it under the bed. It hadn't been moved except for a few times when it was borrowed by Ron.
"Thank you, Evan! I just…" Harry looked at the fragments of his Nimbus 2000 and didn't know what to say.
This broomstick was beyond repair. He should throw it. But Harry did not want to do that. He felt like he had lost one of his best friends.
By nine o'clock in the evening, Evan, Ron, and Hermione left Harry.
They just came out of the school hospital, and Evan saw that Ron walked alone in the common room, without waiting for him and Hermione.
"What's the matter with him?" Evan said.
"Maybe the Dementors had an impact on him!" Hermione didn't know what to say, nor did she know if she should tell him about what Ron said.
Then, when she thought of the black cat, Hermione's face suddenly turned red. She did not know whether to confirm it with Evan.
In case there was a misunderstanding, there should not necessarily be a link between the Patronus and the Animagus, and if so, wouldn't it be too embarrassing to ask?
Hermione thought for a moment that this matter should be a secret for a while, at least until she would find out the truth.
Wait, if the black cat is really Evan, what should she do?
Evan and Hermione walked back in silence. They had just turned the corner of the stairs on the second floor, and they saw Nearly Headless Nick suddenly coming in through the wall. His long hair was curled with a very stylish, plumed hat, wearing a knee-length tunic, with a wheel-shaped wrinkled collar.
Just like he was made out of thin cigarette smoke, Evan could look at the dark sky and heavy rain outside through his body.
Because Nick had often provided articles to the "Hogwarts Magic News" over the past year, Evan and Hermione became very familiar with him.
"You are good!" Nick said in a melancholy voice. "I just heard what happened at the Quidditch pitch. It's terrible. There's nothing wrong with Harry, is it?"
"He is fine. He has no choice but to accept reality" Hermione whispered. "You know, this is his first Quidditch loss."
"Yes, yes, Gryffindor is clearly the most powerful, but we always lose the game for a variety of reasons." Nick took a deep breath. "This time it was because of Dementors. I had already been…"
Nick's words were not finished yet, and Evan saw a cat with yellow lamp-like eyes that suddenly came out from behind him and screeched.
It was Mrs. Norris, the dust coloured cat that was raised by the caretaker Filch and that served as his deputy in the never-ending battle between him and the students.
"You'd better get out of here!" Nick quickly said. "Filch is not in a good mood. He caught a cold. When he was in the Quidditch pitch, someone turned his office upside down. Things were thrown everywhere. He is looking for the assailant in the castle."
"You're right!" Evan pulled Hermione hurriedly up the stairs and was about to go to bed. He didn't want to be stopped by Filch and interrogated again.
But it was strange, who would go to Filch's office to make trouble?!
Fred and George may do this, but they've just been in the Quidditch game and obviously didn't have time; Peeves is also possible, but it shouldn't be him, and it's not his style to run away without bragging about his deeds.
In addition to them, who else would it be?!
Nick said that Filch's office has been turned upside down. Maybe someone wanted to find something in it. Filch had confiscated a lot of things from the students.