Chapter 51: 3/8
It's stalking approach was halted when Snape stepped up in front of them and cast a shield charm just in time to block the clawed swipe that would have either opened up the man's throat or at least insured he would be brewing the Wolfsbane Potion for himself from now on.
The wolf attacked ferociously and without pause, its paws and teeth running harmlessly off the invisible barrier Snape had erected, but not without cost. It was causing a visible strain to maintain the shield for so long under a prolonged assault from a magical beast. Harry wanted to do something to help, but his shield charm was not up to this standard and he couldn't do anything to subdue the wolf without probably hurting it (or, more likely, pissing it off).
Snape was having the same difficulty. If he released the shield, he might be able to fire of a spell in time, but he was not expert on handling magical creatures. His specialities were Potions and the Dark Arts, and any spell he could be sure would work on a werewolf would also probably cause Lupin lasting damage.
This wasn't going to stop him though as his defence was going to give out soon and he wouldn't risk his own life, much less the lives of the ones behind him, for the sake of Lupin of all people. He was just starting to read the wolf's timing so that he could take it down and fire off his counterattack, when he and the wolf were saved by Sirius who had jumped on the werewolf's back.
The man-turned dog had attacked fiercely in the split second he could before the much larger werewolf managed to buck him off. Padfoot rolled to a stop but got straight back up, ignoring the likely broken ribs the fall had caused, and attacked again. And again. And again.
He kept lunging at the gigantic wolf-man only to be batted away or thrown off after managing only a bite or a scratch. Each time he was sent to the hard ground, it took him a little longer to get back up.
With everyone's focus on the one-sided dog fight, Harry ducked out from behind Snape and ran to the side. He picked up a large rock and threw it as hard as he could at Moony who had grown tired of the small canine's interference and was now planning to finish it.
The rock flew straight and true and smacked the enormous hound on the back of the head. Harry hadn't thought it would knock Professor Lupin out or even stun him, it had been an impulsive move on his part to save his godfather.
Now that there was an angry werewolf focussing entirely on him and with no shield charm to protect him, Harry wondered if there might have been a better move to make.
He backed up as far as he could but ended up tripping on a root and was sent sprawling onto the ground. Sirius wasn't moving, and Snape looked about ready to cast something deadly at Lupin.
Harry wracked his brain but nothing would come to mind. There was nothing he could do. Either he was going to die, or Professor Lupin was.
The wolf, who had been very upset to begin with, was literally snarling after Harry had fallen over, taking the quick motion as a sign of aggression. Its snout was no more than five feet away from Harry's feet when a sandy blur flew out from behind the tree and struck Lupin across the face.
What Harry had at first thought and hoped might be Gaara's sand turned out to be the entirely unrelated little animal they had been chasing earlier. It had jumped up and swung its entire body to smack Lupin with its disproportionately large tail.
Instead of the soft pat from a tail with that much fluff around it that Harry would have expected, it had knocked the werewolf away like an iron mace.
Suddenly, Harry was no longer werewolf enemy number one. Moony had turned towards the significantly smaller animal and taken off after it when it darted around the Whomping Willow and out of sight.
In a matter of seconds, the werewolf was gone and they were safe. Harry's first thought was to check on Sirius, but where the dog had landed was now empty.
He swivelled to check on his best friends and his most hated professor, only to find them in a panic.
"Harry, it's Pettigrew, he's escaped!" Hermione yelled.
Ron was still unconscious and none the wiser, but Snape was looked very unhappy about the pathetic rat's escape, and Hermione was frantic as ever as she searched through the nearby plants to try and find the rodent. Harry wanted to do the same and together they might have a good chance of catching Pettigrew before he got too far, but the more pressing issue was Sirius.
Harry looked more closely at where Sirius had landed, and in the silver light of the full moon he could see the shiny black of blood leading off further down the hill to the forest.
"Potter, where do you think you're going? It cannot have escaped even your notice that there is a werewolf in the immediate vicinity. Are you honestly so foolhardy or arrogant that you want to chase after it?!"
Harry turned to Snape, "Sirius is hurt. I have to go and help him, sir."
"It's too dangerous, Harry!" Hermione said.
Ron seemed to stir with the renewed yelling but then went still again. If Snape were a betting man, which a life of bad luck and worse choices had precluded, he would have put money on Weasley sleeping through the entire night at this rate.
"We can't leave him. He's bleeding, and…and he's still a fugitive. We need to get him somewhere safe before a dementor finds him and Kisses him!"
Harry wasn't going to wait any longer, so he trudged through the bushes and down the hill towards the Dark Forest to find his missing godfather. Hermione wanted to rush after him but a stern cough reminded her that Professor Snape needed a little help carrying Ron.
The following duo struggled considerably hefting Ron's limp weight through the undergrowth after their determined 'leader.'
They couldn't leave Ron out in the open like this, but Snape also couldn't send Harry into the forest alone, nor could he leave Hermione to try and carry Ron up to the castle on her own (not that she would walk away from Harry's plight either), so the odd pair had to heft the unconscious ginger around with them.
Harry had followed the trail of blood for as long as he could see it, but then he had to rely on guesswork as the canopy blocked out all light for metres at a time and he was stumbling through in total darkness. When he walked back into the light, he had to search all over again to pick up the trail.
Obviously Sirius had been acting entirely on instinct after his injury, limping away with his tail between his legs despite safety lying in the opposite direction.
OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Running about twenty feet in front of a snarling werewolf, Gaara was considering whether there might have been a better solution to Potter's impeding lycanthropic problems. He didn't have sand, chakra, or magic, nor the physical ability to actually fight the man-wolf, so really his choices had been limited to begin with.
As he skirted close to a tree, hoping his smaller size would give him the manoeuvrability to get away, he also thought on whether Potter wouldn't have liked to be a werewolf…
Lupin was obviously untreated, which set him on a high level of aggression to begin with. Add to that the fight with a dog, a rock thrown at his head, morsels hiding behind shields, and now small animals clubbing him with their tails, and you got a very upset wolf.
Gaara's tail was waving in the wind as he ran like he had never run before. Most of his life had involved standing still and letting his sand slaughter those around him. Once in a while he had been required to make a tactical retreat, but never before had he had to flee for his life so desperately. There might have been some insight to take from this experience, but Gaara was struggling to keep ahead of the larger beast behind him so he couldn't afford to let his mind wander for more than a second.
When he heard the wolf gaining on him, he decided to risk imminent death and take action, rather than keep running aimlessly and eventually get snapped up like a fleeing rabbit.
The action was not nearly as decisive or violent as he would have liked, but jumping on to a low branch and scrambling up the trunk of a tall tree to safety was effective. He watched the wolf jump at the tree and try to climb it after him, but it's awkwardly proportioned body wasn't good for much beyond running and fighting.
After a few attempts, the werewolf gave up on trying to reach the uppity snack and began circling the tree trunk.
Gaara supposed this was an acceptable solution. Either the werewolf would eventually get bored and go away, or they would both be able to wait until the moon fell and the sun rose. Granted, there would be a fair amount of initial awkwardness with the public nudity and discovery that Lupin wasn't the only one concealing a lunar secret, but compared to being mauled it was a (somewhat) preferable choice.
Then again, with the way Lupin had been savaging Padfoot earlier, Gaara wanted to go and make sure the man/dog was okay. Not that Gaara could offer much practical help, but he wouldn't be able to sit idle with the possibility that Sirius was out in the forest somewhere, bleeding to death.
So, contrary to his dignity, Gaara started trying to communicate with the angry wolf in the only way he could.
As an animal, he tried to be as silent as his human form because it would have drawn attention to his secret problem, and because tanuki made the worst noises. Still, he had to do what he had to do…
He made a couple of urgent yips and whines which seemed to grab Lupin's attention. He received a few barks and growls in return. Gaara wasn't entirely sure what he was 'saying' or what Lupin was replying with, but he hoped his intents were being communicated.
The two exchanged a few more noises before Gaara remembered what had been nagging on the back of his neck: the bone he had originally brought to distract the wolf . He struggled reaching over his back to pull of the cloth bundle, but when he did, it immediately caught Moony's attention, the more powerful wolf nose zeroing in on the meaty bone in an instant.
Making a couple more pathetic whining sounds, Gaara then threw the bone to Mooney and watched the beast catch it. The wolf huffed rather angrily with the bone in his teeth and then ran off like it had lost interest in Gaara, which it probably had considering the treat it was now savouring.
So, disbelieving, he stayed on the branch for ten more minutes, waiting for Moony to come running back at the drop of a hat. When he couldn't hear anyone coming nor could he see or smell anyone or anything nearby, he took the risk and descended to the forest floor and took off back the way he came.
He swerved when he could scent of Potter and his group in the forest and ran after that.
It was still hours until dawn and his transformation back to being a human and he could only pray to whatever gods might still listen to a monster's prayers that nothing else would happen before he was re-empowered.
Outside of the castle, Draco had finally arrived back at the tree line with Gaara's pile of clothes under his arm and his gourd floating in front of his wand, only to find the boy-tanuki had run off somewhere.
He sighed and wondered whether he could get away with going back inside and waiting for his friend to return where it was warm and much safer. The howling he could hear in the distance reminded him of Gaara's terrifying jokes about there being a werewolf in the forest.
Probably not.
Though, as much as he cared for Gaara, there was no way he was ever stepping foot inside of the forest at night ever again. He had strolled through the Forbidden Forest at night during his first year, and he had vowed then that he never would again.
He had also vowed never to say more than five consecutive words to Potter again, but he might have broken that one already. For one, he was pretty sure one of the insults he had flung at him in second year had been around seven highly creative and insulting words long.
The Boy-Who-Lived himself was starting to fear that one of the acromantulas had happened across the wounded dog and had taken if for an easy meal, when he finally happened upon the man next to a small lake. Sirius had at some point transformed back into a human, and was lying next to the water's edge, unconscious and not visibly breathing.
Fearing for the worst all over again, Harry darted forward and checked his godfather's pulse as he had seen doctors do on the television. The soft pulse took him too long to find for his peace of mind, but by the time Snape and Hermione had dragged Ron into the clearing, he thought he might have located the beat he was looking for.
Luckily, Severus was much more adept at checking for vitals and, after dumping Ron onto the ground, he quickly confirmed that Sirius was alive and not in immediate danger of dying. He did urge them to move the waste of skin to somewhere warm if they wanted his living to continue beyond the next five or six hours, but he didn't try too hard to persuade them.
"Whassatiting…?" Ron mumbled as he came too again. He looked around from where he was on the floor, very much out of it.
"Ron, we're in the forest. You hurt your leg, remember?" Hermione said, moving back over to him.
"Oh… right." Ron said, none too pleased to wake up to this reality.
Hermione helped Ron get to his feet, supporting him as he hopped on with his working foot, while Snape levitated Sirius. The look on Severus' face made it clear he didn't like even his magic coming into contact with the pile of rags called Black.
It took them hours to shamble towards the castle, being held back by Ron most of all who was barely able to limp through the uneven ground and root systems with Hermione supporting him. Harry had been lighting the way, but as they slowed to a crawl to make sure his friends didn't get left behind, he went back and helped Hermione carry Ron.
Snape, hating his task, got progressively more and more agitated the longer they lingered in the forest. He spared the children his musings, but he knew the dementors routinely wandered beyond the school ground's boundaries and into the Forbidden Forest, and as soon as one of them caught the scent of Black, they would all flock towards them.
Even with a Patronus or two, there was no hope if they were surrounded.
While the teenagers were ignorant of that risk, they too had their own share of anxieties. Harry's mostly revolved around not getting back to the castle in time to save his godfather. Hermione was concerned that Professor Lupin might reappear once he had eaten whatever that small animal was that had distracted the werewolf. It looked very similar to the drawings Luna Lovegood had distributed a while back, but Hermione couldn't fathom why the Ravenclaw's missing pet would be involved in all of this.
Ron, as ever, was just terrified of running into spiders; although, his mind was preoccupied by all of the pain he was in too.
Had any of them been able to see beyond the trees, they would have known they were only a mile away from the castle, but then a chill started to spread along the ground and into their minds and spirits.
As Snape had predicted, one of the wraiths had strayed off of its mandated patrol route and had wandered into their path. It would have taken great joy in attacking simply for the five delicious souls there, but when it sensed Sirius Black, it shrieked in jubilation and swooped down to claim its sanctioned prey.
Snape had dropped Sirius to the ground as soon as he had seen the cloak floating up by the branches and stretched his wand out towards the monster. "Expecto Patronum." He declared, calmly but resolutely, calling up memories from years before. The silvery mist burst from his wand and shooed the dementor away.
This might have scared the thing off had it not smelt Black's distinct soul. Instead, it swooped past the incorporeal Patronus, trying to feed of the light magic until it had exhausted the flimsy protection. At that point, Severus cast a full powered Patronus that formed an impassable barrier that would protect them.
Harry might have considered why Professor Snape had a doe as his Patronus, but instead his eyes flew to the other side of the clearing where a second dementor had appeared from amongst the dark woods. It flew right at them; so, without bothering Snape, Harry shouted, "Expecto Patronum!" Casting his own silvery mist to fend off the dementor at the other side.
Snape's Patronus' light quickly moved to encompass the entire group from all sides, but Harry kept up his own less powerful attempt to supplement their barrier. They would have been fine with just Snape's doe protecting them but for the dementors that had started drifting towards them.
Unlike the first one that had sounded the war cry, the rest floated down like jellyfish descending en masse to overwhelm their targets.
Dumbledore, as per usual, had definitely been correct when he had warned at the beginning of the year that dementors didn't distinguish between those they hunted and those that got in their way.
With both Harry and Snape casting Patroni, there was no way to move both Sirius and Ron at the same time, so the group was pinned down.
Fortunately, with Severus' magical power, a few dozen dementors weren't enough to drain him or his Patronus.
It was after the minutes turned into hours, the hours wore on and the flow of dementors never seemed to end, that Snape began to struggle under the combined weight. The dozens had turned into hundreds and his Patronus that could hold back three dozen dementors indefinitely had begun to dim and falter. Harry kept on casting his own shield, but that got sucked up within minutes and had to be recast.
Ron and Hermione were helpless in the bubble of light, the only use they could offer was occasionally screaming when the light had thinned too much in one area and a dementor was getting too close. All through this, Sirius hadn't regained consciousness, which Ron envied a great deal.
Under the increased burden, Snape knew his doe was minutes away from fading altogether and leaving them at the nonexistent mercy of the hundreds of dementors that had entered the school grounds to fulfil the only directive they were interested in following: find Sirius Black and feed.
Harry panicked and in a moment of both desperation and hope, he called forth his own corporeal Patronus, conjuring forth memories, hopes and dreams of happiness.
The stag stood next to the doe and together they were able to hold the horde at bay, as long as Harry's and Serverus' magic held out.
Stuck under the swarm that was circling around their protected patch, the group couldn't see nor could they stop the remaining majority of the dementors from drifting over them to the castle.
The hundreds surrounding Harry, Snape, Ron, Hermione and the injured Sirius, did not stop in their assault, but the rest of the entirety of the dementors that had been bred and brought to Hogwarts had not been able to sense their target through their brethren. They had gone to the next most attractive thing: the castle full of anguished teenagers, ripe for the Kissing.
Maybe three or four hundred black cloaks were surrounding Harry and Severus' dwarfed enclosure, but at least five hundred had begun to move to the school where they sensed their meal.
When the first cry had gone out hours ago, the dementors had immediately wanted to rush to the scene but their wranglers had tried to stop them fearing exactly this eventuality. Sadly, they had been isolated from one another and had been overwhelmed in time from the sheer numbers.
OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Gaara had found Sirius about the same time as Harry had, being able to run through the dense, dark forest much quicker than the Boy-Who-Lived, who had to visually track his godfather. The red-head was unhappy to be beaten to the rescue, but he accepted that there wasn't a whole lot he could have done anyway had he arrived first; he couldn't even drag the man when he was this small.
With Snape and Hermione showing up to help, and Weasley to hinder, he figured he wasn't needed at the moment anyway. Even though he hated Snape (for good reason), the sadistic Potions professor wasn't likely to do anything malicious now after helping Sirius earlier.
It didn't escape Gaara's notice that Pettigrew was missing from their little group, presumably having escaped during Lupin's transformation. In this form, he didn't hold out much hope that he would be able to track the rat down after he had such a lead. Plus, no matter that he could not actually offer any assistance as he was, Gaara didn't like the idea of leaving
He followed behind the group as far as he could manage without losing sight of them. Luckily Snape was able to magically find his way back to the castle, or at least head in what Gaara thought was the right direction.
Gaara contented himself by swatting away the occasional stray spider he came across that were fortunately smaller than himself. He had no doubt Snape or even one of the others would have been able to banish or otherwise vanquish such meagre giant spiders, but they had enough on their plates and Gaara felt utterly useless as he was. Anything he could do to help.
And he would never tire of killing those spiders.
He felt them in his fur long before he saw the dementors approaching. The first one came from the far side of the clearing the group had been passing through and he had almost dashed out to warn them when Snape had spotted it and reacted immediately. The entirely inhuman shriek it had released had Gaara more worried than ever. He had rarely heard such a cry, and it had almost always been shortly before or after he had murdered one of them, and then a group were always soon to follow.
True to memory, another came soon after, right passed Gaara.
As an animal, one of the few perks, he was unaffected and ignored by the dementor as it passed him by. He could have been a woodlouse for all the dementor cared about the small tanuki crouched by the clearing's edge. A meal was in front of it and dementors were voracious.
It had been proven before that while he might struggle against large spiders and even fight a werewolf (briefly), he had no way of combating a dementor in this form. So Gaara was forced to watch helplessly as the dementors multiplied exponentially, submerging Potter and Snape's Patroni bubble in a maelstrom of black cloaks.
The concentrated effects of the mass of dementors had even started to seep into Gaara's animal mind so he had been forced away from the edge of the action and back into the treeline. Further away from the ones in front of him, he took notice of the countless number that were slowly floating over towards the castle, overlooking the attack below them.
The sun was going to be rising soon, he hoped, and he needed to get back to his sand otherwise he would transform in the midst of a dementor incursion the likes of which had not been seen in fifteen hundred years, before wizards had started employing them to guard their criminals. If he transformed unarmed where he was, he would likely be Kissed within minutes.
It was after a shameful delay that he remembered one vital piece of information connected to his sand and clothes: he had left Draco outside holding them.
Outside of the castle, where a flock of dementors were about to sweep through.
Draco didn't know the Patronus Charm, he couldn't even slow them down! Gaara started running as fast as he could back to the castle, faster even than when Lupin had been on his tail.
He had to beat them there at all costs.
When he was nearing the castle, within a hundred metres or so, he could hear the faintest screaming from terrified or traumatised students being protected by a combination of their remaining professors' Patroni and Hogwarts' own wards and protective stone walls. The dementors were mostly clustered around the towers, presumably smelling the rich Gryffindor and Ravenclaw souls within, just out of reach.
Without the Headmaster there, the professors couldn't activate any of the more substantial wards to repel the dementors, so they were resorting to using their own Patroni and barricading themselves and students in their Houses. Fortunately, all of the students were together in their dormitories since it was before dawn, but the teachers themselves had to struggle towards their students through the hallways that were all too quickly infested.
It had been luck that had woken Hagrid and a couple of other professors in the castle when the dementors had started communicating across the skies. They had seen the impending attack through the windows and had rallied the rest of the staff to either get to the students or protect themselves.
All of this was pretty dire, but Gaara had no time for it. He didn't care about the hundreds that could lose their souls in the castle. In that moment, he didn't even think to care about the five out in the forest, including a dear friend, who might lose theirs.
In that moment as he broke the tree line, all Gaara could think about was that his other dear friend was being approached by two dementors and had no defence against them.
Draco had obviously spotted the threat just a little while ago and had tried making a break for the castle entrance, but two dementors had glided down and cut him off, and were now lazily flying towards him to take what couldn't be recovered.
He looked so scared he might throw up, both the despair of the situation and the multiplied depressive effect of the dementors' presence taking their toll on his mind and soul. He had his wand out, and tried casting a blasting hex and something dark that he had probably learned from his father, but neither had the slightest effect. They either passed through or slipped harmlessly off the incoming pair, without slowing them or discouraging them.
Gaara ran forward to try and bash one of them with his tail only to deal a glancing blow against the insubstantial body that similarly failed to impede its movements. He jumped at the other with his claws out to try and…
He didn't have any sort of strategy. His only thinking was that Draco was doomed if he didn't do something. The intended target swung its arms and batted Gaara away without sparing a glance for the inedible creature.
OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
In the upper areas of the Ministry, far away from where the sealed and secluded meeting was still taking place, Crabbe and Goyle ranted. They furiously, and in hushed voices, complained to each other about Lucius' many failings. Including how he had not taken a stronger anti-muggle, anti-mudblood stance as both a high-ranking member of the Wizengamot and prominent member of the Hogwarts Board of Governors.
He had made himself rich but he hadn't done much of anything for the Dark Lords followers besides making sure they didn't starve. But worst of all, besides failing to recognise Gerald and Anthony's skills and worth, Lucius had not brought the Dark Lord back as he promised he would.
After the Dark Lord had disappeared (because he had not fallen), and the Lestranges and Crouch had been sent to Azkaban, Lucius had stepped up and taken charge of the purists, promising all the while that he would work 'tirelessly' to find the Dark Lord and return him to Britain so that he could resume his good works.
Instead, the ponce had pocketed all of that goodwill and had climbed the political ladder on their backs and ignored the real issues.
For years now, there had been persistent rumours in the right circles that something dark was lurking out in Eastern Europe, and that it could be Him. The rumours were definitely reaching Lucius' ears as they had reached everyone else's, but when they tired of him doing nothing, they broached the subject and he had played none the wiser and then dismissed it as just gossip.
Gerald was just about to suggest something radical when a commotion arrived outside their shared office in the main foyer. It was far too late (or early) for anybody to be up to any good, so they disappeared lest they come under even more suspicion.
The ruckus had been caused by the arrival of the majority of the Auror corps. Coming in from their homes under orders from their watch commander, they all marched straight for the Magical Law Enforcement offices to join those on-call and get their orders.
An urgent report had been flooed in from Hogwarts: that the entire school was under attack from the full force of dementors that had been stationed up there. The floo-call had been from a professor who explained, in a panic, that the school was besieged and the headmaster wasn't there, so the floos wouldn't allow anyone to pass through. To escape or to help.
The clerk manning the desk on the early shift had fallen out of his chair in shock and had then proceeded to notify the Auror watch commander who called in every Auror they had on roster, some of which had only gone home three hours before.
The issue then became, when they were all assembled, that Minister Fudge had ordered not only himself but the Head Auror and the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement as well as the Chief Warlock into a sealed meeting and they had no way of contacting any of them to request orders.
The Auror corps. had very little in the way of autonomy to avoid any possibility of a coup. In other words, they were expressly forbidden to act unless they received orders from a superior. For a full and rapid deployment (and the resulting overtime authorisation), they needed one of the people currently stuck in the one room they couldn't get into.
The watch commander was stuck, as any action could be seen as treasonous, but the fact remained that a school was under attack from dementors. He asked for volunteers to come with him, knowing full well they could go to a place where they have to deal with dementors on a daily basis if things didn't go well, and half of the corps. raised their hands.
The other half, he ordered with what was left of his authority to go and try anything to break down the Ministry Meeting Room doors so that an official action could be taken and also so Hogwarts could get its Headmaster back.
The two groups split and went their separate ways: one down into the bowels of the Ministry to break down doors that were specifically designed and warded against such assaults, and the other went to the many floos along the Ministry Atrium.
They had to go to the nearest connected and open floo in Hogsmeade and from there they would travel to the castle that, as they understood it, had already been flooded with dementors.
OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Gaara panicked, but he was powerless to do anything but watch as one of the dementors grabbed Draco around the throat while the other leaned in close and started to suck in Draco's happiness, then his essence, and then… a light.
Gaara was no expert on the matter, many having denied him having one, but he was pretty sure the light now starting to drift out of Draco's lips was his very soul. And the dementors were watching and waiting for it to flow out of him entirely before they tucked in for their early breakfast.
The pure white light, as he stared at it, seemed to turn a shade of light pink and even seemed to dim a little. Gaara looked around and realised the sun had just peeked over the horizon and the sky had turned a wondrous colour belying the horrors that were happening under it.
Gaara had never wished or urged the change back to his human self so desperately before and he couldn't be sure if his wishing had any effect; but in moments, where the small ineffectual tanuki had been, now stood a short, incredibly angry Jinchūriki.
His gourd was only a few feet away, and with it he called out a sand cover for himself, and then went to work, all the while the same words running around his head on a loop: "The dementors Kiss is said to be a fate worse than death!"
Draco's soul had been drawn out of his body, and Gaara was angry like this world had never seen before.
His eyes filling with all of the old malice and hatred, his hand reached out and directed the sand to surround the dementors. He didn't spare them another thought, simply clenching his fist and crushing both. His sand caught Draco's husk before he could reach the hard ground, but he left him there.
He would return soon and decide what to do then. If it truly was a fate worse than death, he would be forced to…
He couldn't even think it.
Rendering the two in front of him into dust had done nothing to sate his insane malice, so Gaara rose into the air where the slow incoming dementors were still floating towards the castle.
His raging sadness, hatred and bloodlust and now outpouring of chakra began acting like a beacon for the wraiths. The ones not already in the castle or crawling all over the towers or trying to get into the dorms, flew at Gaara now, in order to taste this powerful delicacy.
He sand speared through them like they were no more than tissues in the wind but as he tore apart of crushed three or seven or a dozen, three dozen more replaced them. Even his sand soon reached the limits of its attacks when he was surrounded by the absurd number of creatures. He resorted to hiding in his sand shell and using what little spare sand he had to attack from safety. If this continued, he would not only fail to protect anyone else, he would never manage to slaughter these things before he was exhausted.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone