Fear of a Name

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Dementors

"Arresto momentum!" I yelled, pointing my hand at Harry, who was falling rapidly to the ground. There were hundreds of Dementors flying around him, feeding off his happy memories, and I guessed that they were the reason he had fallen from his broom in the first place.
I watched anxiously as he slowed, then finally came to a stop just inches above the ground before gently dropping the rest of the way, the Dementors crowding around him.

Hermione, Ron and I all ran down onto the pitch as one of the Dementors seemed to consider Harry for a moment, then slowly lowered its hood.
"They're going to perform the kiss!" Hermione gasped, and I shook my head furiously.
"Over my dead body," I growled, quickly focusing on the memory of when my Hogwarts letter first came, as well as all the good times I'd had with my friends over the past couple of months.

A huge dog shot from my fingertips and ran towards the Dementors, glowing an almost blindingly bright silver. It ran straight to Harry, scattering Dementors either side of it, and sending them back to their stations outside the grounds. I directed it in a circle, clearing the last of the Dementors from the pitch, then let it fade back into nothingness.
"My Patronus grew up..." I murmured, slightly confused.

Ron, Hermione and I hurried over to Harry as Professors Lupin, McGonagall, and Dumbledore finally came onto the pitch, the latter looking utterly furious.
"Miss Riddle, did you just—" Professor McGonagall started to say.
"Produce a wandless and nonverbal Patronus? Yes I did, but now really isn't the time to be discussing this," I said, conjuring a floating stretcher out of thin air and levitating Harry onto it.

"Is he ok?" Ginny asked, leading a group of Gryffindors over to us. "What happened?"
Everyone crowded around to try and see Harry, pushing others out of the way. Out of the corner of my eye, I could just about see Cedric Diggory, Hufflepuff's seeker, flying down to the ground with the golden snitch clutched in his hand.
"Never mind that; has he got the snitch?" asked Oliver Wood, captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team.

"OLIVER!" I yelled, and people started to back away. "HE NEARLY DIED, AND ALL YOU CAN THINK ABOUT IS WHETHER HE CAUGHT THE SNITCH OR NOT?!"
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Oliver said quickly, holding his hands up in surrender and looking a little scared.
"Good," I said, my voice suddenly calm again. Everyone nearby was looking at me, Lupin, McGonagall and Dumbledore included. "Now we should probably get him up to the hospital wing."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Lucky the ground was so soft."
"Actually it was—" Ron started to say, but I stood on his foot quickly and gave him a look that clearly said 'shut up'.
"I thought he was dead for sure."
"But he didn't even break his glasses."
"That was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life."
Harry's eyes snapped open.

"Harry!" said Fred Weasley. "How're you feeling?"
"What happened?" asked Harry, sitting up so suddenly we all gasped.
"You fell off," explained Fred, looking extremely pale under the mud that was covering most of his body. "Must've been — what — fifty feet?"
"We thought you'd died," said Alicia Spinnet, one of the chasers.
"But the match," said Harry. "What happened? Are we having a replay?"
Oh Merlin, he's as bad as Oliver...

Nobody said anything.

"We didn't — lose?"
"Diggory got the snitch," said George. "Just after you fell. He didn't realise what happened. When he looked back and saw you on the ground, he tried to call it off. Wanted a rematch. But they won fair and square... even Wood admits it."
"Where is Wood?" Harry asked, looking and sounding like he hadn't noticed Oliver was missing — which, in all honesty, was probably true.
"Still in the showers," said Fred. "We think he's trying to drown himself."

Harry put his face to his knees, his hands gripping his tousled hair. Fred grabbed his shoulder and shook it roughly.
"C'mon, Harry, you've never missed the snitch before."
"There had to be one time you didn't get it," said George.
"It's not over yet," said Fred. "We lost by a hundred points, right? So if Hufflepuff lose to Ravenclaw, and we beat Ravenclaw and Slytherin..."

After about ten minutes of Quidditch talk that I could make neither head nor tail of, Madam Pomfrey came over to tell the team to leave Harry in peace.
"We'll come and see you later," Fred told Harry. "Don't beat yourself up, Harry, you're still the best seeker we've ever had."

The team trooped out of the room, leaving a trail of mud behind them, much to Madam Pomfrey's obvious disapproval. She shut the door behind them as Ron, Hermione, and I moved closer to Harry's bed.
"Dumbledore was really angry," said Hermione, her voice shaking a little. "I've never seen him like that before. He was furious the Dementors had come into the grounds, we heard him—"
"Then Ivory magicked you onto a stretcher and we walked up to school with you floating on it, Dumbledore came too," said Ron. "Everyone thought you were..."
His voice faded away, but we all knew what he was going to say.

Everyone thought he was dead.

The screaming, the woman screaming... why do they affect me so badly?
I heard Harry's thoughts like you would a badly tuned radio.
"Did somebody get my Nimbus?" he said, after casting around his mind for something matter-of-fact to say.
What in Merlin's name is a Nimbus?
Ron and Hermione looked quickly at each other.
"Er—"
"What?" said Harry, looking from one to the other.

"Well... when you fell off, it got blown away..." Hermione said hesitantly, and I guessed she was talking about his broomstick.
"And?"
"And it hit — it hit — oh, Harry — it hit the Whomping Willow."
"And?" he said again, obviously dreading the answer.
"Well, you know the Whomping Willow," said Ron. "It — it doesn't like being hit."
"Professor Flitwick brought into back just before you came round," said Hermione in a very small voice.
She reached down slowly, took a bag from by her feet, and tipped it up, letting about a dozen bits of splintered wood and twig fall out onto the bed.

Harry stared hopelessly at the only remains of his once perfect broomstick.

(A/n: Aaand I finally published another chapter! Sorry for the delay!)