RISE OF THE FALL | R.B.

LXXVI.

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World belongs to J.K. Rowling.

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CHAPTER LXXVI.

Caelum dragged his feet down the hall to find his Uncle, with Ernie. He had insisted on coming with after realising that Caelum hadn't slept all night because of the Dementors.

"You didn't have to come," Caelum sighed as he rubbed at his tired eyes, "You could've slept in an extra twenty minutes."

"I know," Ernie shrugged, and that was all he said before the two of them reached the DADA classroom.

Truthfully, Caelum didn't know where Remus would be, and was just hoping that he would be in the classroom, preparing for his first lessons of the year.

Because if he wasn't there, Caelum would have to speak to Ariel and as much as he loved his younger sister, she was younger, and he didn't want to scare her or anything.

Even though she seemed to be practically fearless.

Brave Gryffindor, and all.

He also didn't want to worry his parents by sending them a letter about it. Also, if he sent a letter to his parents, it'd take a while for them to respond and he needed to talk to somebody now.

"Uncle Remus?" Caelum called out, knocking on the door, and he heard a muffled 'Come in'.

Remus was organising something on his desk, positioned at the front of the room, and Caelum went in, feeling the urge to be quiet even though there was no need to.

Ernie gave him a reassuring thumbs-up before Caelum shut the door behind him.

"Good morning, Caelum," Remus said, without looking up, "How are you?"

"Good, thanks," Caelum said uncertainly, "I wanted to talk to you about the Dementors."

His uncle finally looked up and said, observing Caelum's expression carefully as he asked, "What about them?"

Caelum sighed, sitting down on one of the desks, "It was—,"

"Did you sleep, at all?" Remus cut him off abruptly, noticing the dark circles underneath his nephew's eyes, and his slightly sleepy movements.

"A bit," Caelum said, running his hand through his hair, "To be honest, I was really scared."

"Dementors are very scary," Remus agreed, "What about them scares you?"

"I don't know—that's the thing," Caelum said, shaking his head, "I just hate them."

"I agree that since you are only in your Fourth Year, you should not have to deal with Dementors," Remus said, "In fact, none of the students here should have to deal with them. The only advice I can give you is to stay away from them—,"

"How did you get them to leave?"

Remus blinked at Caelum's sudden interruption, "What?"

"The bright light thing that got the Dementors to leave," Caelum clarified, running a hand through his hair again, "I...I want to know what you did. Can you teach me?"

"Caelum," Remus sighed, shaking his head, "Of course I can teach you. But," he paused, "you shouldn't be so worried. Dumbledore won't let the Dementors hurt any of the students—including you."

"Yeah, just like how he protected everyone from Quirrel and the Basilisk," Caelum retorted, "We're supposed to feel protected by the Dementors—they're meant to protect us from Sirius Black, right?" He scoffed, "Instead, they're creating fear throughout the school."