章 1073: 15
Chapter 14-Dementor Attack!
Harry stared at the scene before him in mind numbing horror. How? How were they here? Why were they here?! The black, tattered cloaks fluttered around the area, ominously floating towards a group of students as Harry watched on in terror.
The only way Harry knew to come here was the Veil! And even then, he was only here because of his damn dumbass LUCK! Was the Veil an actual portal to this reality?! What if anyone could use it?! But Sirius DIED when he fell into it!
Just…HOW?! How the hell…?!
Harry's mind began being plagued with his worst memoires. Most specifically, his mother's death. But it was weird. Before, the memory would play out like a scripted TV program when Dementors were around. Now, it was like watching a video feed with a shoddy connection, and the young Faunus was only catching every other word.
Almost like his memory had been altered somehow…
'Pup, above you!' Padfoot shouted in his head, causing Harry to jolt back into the present. Suddenly, the cold air around him intensified and a Dementor appeared before him. It tried grabbing him, but Harry reacted on instincts honed from two years of intense training. He grabbed his training sword and swung down hard, subconsciously channeling his Aura into the blade.
The blade sliced cleanly through the Dark Creature, causing it to screech deafeningly. Instantly, the cloaked monstrosity vanished in a cloud of dust, leaving Harry in shock. 'I killed it…' His mind shut down. 'I killed a Dementor…That shouldn't be possible…' Finally, a more important piece of information took his undivided attention. 'The Dementor DIED! They CAN be killed!'
'Or at least here on Remnant,' Padfoot mentioned. 'But if you don't get out of your reverie, you and your pack will lose their souls to these creatures. So get moving!'
Harry didn't need to be told twice. He turned around to tell everyone to scatter, but what he saw filled him with dread. Several of the floating corpses hovered around the group that followed him out. Harry panicked as he raced over to them, a wild, mad battle cry burst from his mouth as he charged the floating demons.
Summer, meanwhile, was staggering like a drunk. She hadn't even cleared the door when her mind was assaulted with every bad memory she had ever had. From her childhood with a Nomadic caravan outside of Vale's walls, to her disastrous initiation into Beacon, to her years stuck in the Death Eaters tunnels, and everything in-between. Voices of her team, people she couldn't save…her mother…they all screamed out in her head as her worst memories fought to take all of her attention.
But she wouldn't let it. Her daughters were right behind her, and that did wonders in clearing her mind. She growled lowly as her eyes glowed a dangerous shade of silver. Grabbing Hunter's Moon from her back, she brought the sword to bare against one of the cloaked monsters, which had a bone mask in the likeness of a Ghostface mask. With a loud yell, she stabbed the large sword into the Dementor's neck, easily decapitating it, and causing the creature to vanish with a loud screech.
Taiyang fared just about as well as Summer. His mind immediately flying back to that dark time when he thought Summer was dead. Back when he shut down, and his daughters nearly died because of him. However, like Summer, the thought that their daughters were alive right behind him spurred him into action. Taking out two large, odd looking brass knuckles. They were extremely bulky and even had what looked like bracers attached to them. Placing them on his hands and slamming them together, the two knuckle dusters transformed into two large yellowish-red gantlets that looked like dragon claws. Growling, the blonde Hunter slammed his fist into one with several bone spikes along its arms and caved its face it, causing it to also catch fire.
Adam was staggering. Images from the mines and all those he killed flashing in front of his eyes as he struggled to think coherently. However, just as he was close to a breakthrough, a black creature would come too close. "S-Stay back!" he growled and swung Wilt blindly. They would fly away for a moment, but would quickly return.
Yang and Lily were taking the Dementors' presence the worst out of the group. Yang's mind kept replying the day she had loaded Ruby into that cart and went looking for her mother, but only found Beowolves waiting for her. She also began to shiver violently. The cold air zapping at her Aura, seemingly draining it.
Yet, for some reason, her semblance seemed to act up with a vengeance. Her hair caught fire and her eyes turned a blazing red as a fire burned brightly inside her, begging to be released. The Dementors seemed to shuffle in place when they neared Yang, but whatever they felt didn't stop them from trying to steal her soul.
Lily, at the moment, was curled up into a ball and whimpering. Memories of the hospital incident raged through her mind as she ran out the auditorium to help her partner. But those memories weren't the ones that grounded her. They helped, but it was a bigger memory, one that she couldn't make sense of:
"NO! Don't kill them! Please! They've done nothing wrong!"
"Stand aside, silly girl! I have not come for your death tonight!"
"NO! I WON'T LET YOU! THEY'RE JUST CHILDREN! PLEASE! JUST KILL ME INSTEAD!"
"I will give you one last chance! Move aside, stupid girl!"
"AND HERE'S MY ANSWER! Aeternum Ardebit!"
"Avada Kadavra!"
A loud scream would accompany that last, two odd words. Lily curled further into her little ball, hoping the memories would leave as she blocked out the rest of the world.
Isabella tried to fight back the memories that were brought up by the black cloaked monsters. She was somewhat successful, but she was having even worse luck at warding off the Dementors than Adam was having.
Weiss was hyperventilating as three swirled around her. She knew what they were, and after training with Harry in Occulmency, she wasn't feeling the effects as bad as the others. Or rather, she was having a better time blocking out the memories that came up. Nevertheless, her attempts to fight back were hindered by her father's angered voice ricocheting through her skull. From a time before Harry saved her family. Back when her father had been on the verge of becoming a monster…
Blake was in a similar manner to Adam. Her past may not had been as bad as Adam's, but she before she could even try and defend herself, she felt…honestly, she couldn't describe the feeling. Like she was forgetting how to be happy…like all the cheer was being drained from her…
She screamed in agony.
Pyrrha was in the same boat as Blake. She had panicked when the Dementors surrounded them and started to flail wildly, her sword racking across the chest of one of the creatures. It shrieked loudly, but it didn't detour the monster. Two of them grabbed Pyrrha's flailing arms, securing her in place, while the one she cut glided up and started to try and suck her soul out of her body. Pyrrha screamed.
Nora, being a naturally cheery (albeit violent) person, by all logic should have been effected the most by the Dementors' presence. But sadly, for the Dementors at least, Nora sold her sense of logic to a horde Grimm at a very young age. So, as soon as she felt the presence of the Dementors, she sprang into action and slammed her hammer into the chest of one of the beasts, making it disperse into dust on impact. A loud screech resounding around the area as the wild girl let out a cheerful war whoop and charged the others.
Ren shot at the Dementors when he first saw them approaching the group. He had fallen to his knees for a moment before his training as a Lie kicked in. Acting quickly, he had jumped back up and started shooting at the black cloaked figures, though he soon learned Dust bullets weren't effective against these monsters.
Jaune, oddly enough, was only slightly effected. The depressing aura of the Dementors hit him hard at first, but it quickly faded. Shaking his head of its sudden fogginess, he saw that Pyrrha in distress. Eyes wide, he raced towards the ones who held her and unsheathed his sword, unconsciously channeling his Aura into the blade and making it glow bright white. His sword connected with one of the beast's shoulders and sliced it in two diagonally. The beast screamed and dissipated into nothingness as Jaune swung at the other beast holding Pyrrha, killing it and causing Pyrrha to fall. He caught her easily though, but the Dementor that was trying to suck out Pyrrha's soul glided towards them. Jaune moved to defend Pyrrha, but a fast, red blur took out the Dementor before it even got close.
Ruby had fallen to tears when she exited the auditorium. The cold presence of the demons before her caused her to relive the one memory that she knew that would forever haunt her. The one memory that strengthened her resolve to protect the innocent and to do what was right. The memory of her greatest failure…
Ruby quickly shook her head of the memory and felt absolute rage at…whatever these things were. Her anger rose up in response and her eyes unknowingly glowed silver for the briefest of moments. She unfurled Crescent Rose to its full scythe form and ran at the first creature she saw: the one in front of Pyrrha. She bisected the wraith at the waist with a speed enhanced swing, causing the wraith to scream in agony as it vanished into the wind.
Ruby turned to cut three more with one swing, eloquently spinning the blade around for another horizontal slash. She beheaded another as another came up behind her, to which she stabbed backwards and let the blade at the end of Crescent's handle gut the Dark Creature, which screeched loudly. She pushed button on the large scythe's handle, and the knife blade embedded in the Dementor glowed red with a mass concentration of Dust. The Dementor screeched again, and she pushed another button. The blade fractured, and the Dementor's stomach exploded, making the monster disperse as it died. She twirled around to two more, only to see them die by multiple slashes disperse into nothingness.
In their place was Harry, looking quite alarmed and very enraged. Ruby was knocked out of her anger by the sight of his disturbed look. Such a look on her crush's face made her nervous. So far, she had only seen him cheerful and irritated.
She didn't like the look on his face right now.
Harry, meanwhile, had flooded his body with fire Dust and cut another Dementor in two, burning it to cinders and creating a crater where it once hovered over the ground. Reflooding his body with ice Dust, he whirled around and stabbed one that was coming up behind him, turning it to a block of ice. One came up behind him, but Harry gathered water Dust into his leg and sent a high kick to the Dementor's face. A pressurized jet of water left his foot and cut the Dementor's head in two. Another came up to his side, but Harry pulled as much lightning Dust into hand and thrust it forward, destroying the demon's heart (which was funny to Harry, because he didn't think it had one). He pulled his sword back and shattered the ice sculpture and gathered a lot more Dust into his body, and expelled it outwardly with a loud war cry. Unfortunately, since it wasn't as concentrated as his last shots, the Dust wave didn't kill the Dementors, but only scared them off.
The wolf Faunus growled irately and pulled his wand out from a specialized holster on his belt. 'Dammit it all to hell! Aura might can kill them, but Dust is only effective in ridiculously high amounts!' He looked around and saw that while some students were fighting back, others were close to having their souls sucked out of their bodies. He cursed. 'And Aura seems to either help or hinder people, possibly depending on their Aura levels. I need to end this NOW. Guess I have no choice…'
'Wait! Hold it, Pup!' Padfoot screamed.
'What?! In case you haven't noticed, DEMENTORS have invaded Beacon!' Harry mentally shouted back.
'Hear me out! Yes, Dementors can die here, but what if it's because they are IMMUNE to magic?' Padfoot pondered. 'You would only be putting a bandage on the problem with a Patronus.'
Padfoot's deduction drew Harry short. The theory seemed improbable, but the possibility that it was right was there. 'So what do you suggest then?' he thought quickly and holstered his wand.
'Believe me when I say that I haven't just slept my time away since coming here with you,' Padfoot said, making Harry scoff in disbelief despite the situation. 'Ever since you started your attempts to recreate magic spells with Aura, I found myself pondering a way to recreate you best spell with Aura: your Patronus.'
'I really want to argue with you, but we don't have the time. Let's hear your idea.'
'Look, as you know, the Patronus is, simply put, positive emotions given physical form by magic; magic being the conduit that facilitates the charm. Given Aura's defensive capabilities, the Patronus charm's true nature, and its slight similarity to magic, it's not out of the realm of possibility that, with enough effort, one could theoretically use Aura as the conduit instead of magic.'
Harry thought about what Padfoot said. The theory was shaky, at best, but it was better than nothing right now. 'It will still take a lot of concentration to even work.'
'True,' the Grim nodded. 'But worth it if it can injure these monsters.'
Harry nodded and closed his eyes, gathering his Aura into his sword. The cries of students and teachers alike told the young Potter heir that he had only one shot to do this. He wasn't stupid enough to believe that the Dementors would leave him alone should he start failing to cast a Patronus.
Summer slashed another Dementor's throat when she noticed Harry standing still, eyes closed in concentration. "Hey! Get your head into the game, Green eyes!" she shouted, but he didn't respond. She was about to yell at him again until she saw his sword glow a bright green. Her eyes widened. He was planning something. Looking around, she noticed that Taiyang, the Valkyrie kid, the Lie clan kid, along with her youngest daughter and Scrawny were the only ones that were actually able to fight back against these new Grimm, whatever they were. The others were in varying stages of feebly fighting off the monsters or were being assaulted by the monsters.
Quickly making a snap decision, Summer barked, "Ruby! Valkyrie! Lie! Scrawny! Tai!" The five turned to her suddenly. "Converge around Potter! I think he's got something planned! Protect him at all cost! I'll protect the others!" None questioned her as they moved to Harry, but before they neared him, he reversed his grip on his sword and held it close to his arm.
"GET DOWN!" Harry shouted, as he fell into a stance, his sword held up for a strike. The group was confused but otherwise obeyed, taking Adam down with them, who was still blindly swinging at nothing. Harry opened his eyes and glared at the black cloaked creatures, digging up his happiest, most treasured memory, knowing this shot needed to count. He gritted his teeth as he swung the blade out, screaming, "EXPECTO…PATRONUUUUUUUM!"
His emerald green Aura left his sword in a wide, arching wave of power that hit several Dementors, causing them to scream as their skin began to burn! However, Harry only barely noticed that as his attention was right in front of him, where his emerald green Aura converged into a large, green glowing stag that stood proudly. The massive stag turned to look at Harry, before trotting over to him and circling him and coming to a stop at his right side.
Harry was amazed for a moment before he glared at the dark cloaked monsters. He thrust his sword forward, and Prongs shot forward, a trail of green light tailing behind him. Fortunately, it seemed that there wasn't too many Dementors to deal with now that some were dead, and they were localized around the area.
Very good news to Harry.
Prongs pranced around area, his presence burning all Dementors too dumb to be near him as he moved around the area at breakneck speeds that had Ruby envious as the stag chased off all the cloaked corpses. One, however, turned to look in Harry's general direction. It had, unusually, bones sticking out its back like wings and horns on its head. It screaked at the young hunter and glided off. The cold, horrid presence slowly started leaving the area.
Harry fell to the ground, exhausted from both the presence of the Dementors and pulling off his first (and surprisingly successful!) Aura based Patronus. He breathed heavily for a moment as he tried to catch his breath. Prongs showed up next to him and nodded to him before he vanished.
"Harry!" Ruby shouted and appeared in front of him in whirlwind of rose petals. "Are you ok?! Those weird Grimm didn't get you too, did they?! Why did they run off?! What did you do to scare them off?!" she rambled almost incoherently.
Harry couldn't help but chuckle at her and shook his head, quickly rebooting his mind. "I'll tell you later, Ruby," he said. He stood and said, "Right now, everyone needs to get to the infirmary, stat!"
Ruby nodded, remembering everyone was almost still in shock. "And we need chocolate!" the wolf Faunus continued. "Lots of chocolate!"
Ruby stumbled backwards and blinked cutely. "Chocolate?"
Summer had watched her daughter's interaction with Harry as she checked up on Yang, who was shivering like a leaf in her lap, looked up at the odd request. "Why chocolate?" she asked.
"Because, for reasons I have no answers to, chocolate is the best remedy to the presence of a Dementor," Harry said, making the few still not in shock eyes' widen.
"D-Dementors?" Jaune asked. "A-Aren't those…?"
"The soul sucking demons from my old home," Harry confirmed with a grim nod. "That's why we need a lot of chocolate! For some reason, it's the best remedy, and the only remedy we got right now!"
Safe house, somewhere in Vale
Cinder smiled as she watched Harry take command of the situation after the Dementors left. The fact that the soulless beings were in Remnant in the first place was…disturbing to the amber eyed beauty…but the fact that Harry was able to scare them off with a powerful Patronus did fill her with pride.
Much like how when Aegis killed the Dragon Grimm.
'Oh Harry,' she thought in exasperation. 'Honestly. How do you get into these situations? Well, I guess it's no matter. You're still alive, after all. But more curious…' She zoomed a camera in on Ruby. 'Is Summer's daughter's apparent ability to resist the Dementors. Most curious indeed…' Her smile turned cold. 'I wonder…'
Infirmary, Beacon Academy
Fortunately, it appeared that Dementors weren't used to trying to suck out the souls of people who actively fought using their soul for combat.
Harry wasn't too sure on the actual theory, but Aura apparently made it difficult for the soul sucking demons to suck out a person's soul with they had their Aura unlocked. Harry had shrugged it off because he really didn't need the headache alongside the aftereffects of a Dementor's presence.
Currently, he was sitting on a cot next to Lily as she shakily tried to bring a cup of hot chocolate to her trembling lips. He placed a calming hand on hers and helped her so she wouldn't spill the contents into her lap. She smiled gratefully as she started to sip of the warm liquid.
Meanwhile, sitting across from them, Adam and Isabella were quietly munching on chocolate bars. On the floor in front of the cots, Nora sat eating a large pile of chocolate chip pancake drowned in chocolate gravy.
…Don't question her.
Ren sat beside her with his own plate of chocolate chip pancakes, though he was eating them at a much slower pace. Pyrrha and Jaune sat on a cot behind Harry and Lily and were eating their own chocolate bars at a subdued pace with Weiss and Blake on the floor in front of their cot, a mug of hot chocolate and a chocolate chip muffin in their hands, respectively.
On a cot behind Adam and Isabella's, Summer, Ruby, and Yang sat on another eating chocolate chip cookies with Taiyang standing guard nearby. Eating his own cookie. Yang was shivering less, but Ruby seemed lost in thought, casually kicking her feet as they dangled off the cot. Summer sat between her two daughters and held them both close, trying to comfort them.
The other students affected by the Dementors were scattered around the infirmary, being checked on and eating their chocolate, as per Harry's orders. Harry looked around and grimaced, wincing at those suffering the effects of the cloaked creatures. He knew all too well how bad it could be…
His thoughts were broken when Professor Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch walked in. Both didn't look too happy. In fact, Ozpin looked down right murderous. Not that Harry blamed him. He was feeling the same way. The two made their way over to Harry's group, and Ozpin asked in a calmly deceptive voice, "From what the other professors have told me, and what Summer confirmed before coming here herself, those things are Grimm you faced before?"
"Well, they aren't Grimm first off, but yes, those were Dementors," Harry stated. "Fear incarnate."
Ozpin nodded. Meanwhile, Pyrrha's eyes widened. "B-But those were Grimm," Pyrrha said, still a bit shaken from her experience.
Harry shook his head. "They've never had the bone armor before, so why they do now is confusing," he admitted.
Ozpin nodded again. "And that spell you used to drive them off?"
"The Patronus charm," Harry said. "It's a powerful shield charm created specially to counter Dementors, utilizing positive emotions. Though, that particular Patronus was created using Aura instead of magic."
That raised some eyebrows. "But Harry!" Weiss interjected. "Didn't you say that the Patronus was created because magic made the positive emotions used to power the charm into a physical construct?"
"That's what I thought too, but Padfoot apparently worked out that a Patronus should work with Aura as well, seeing as the two energies are similar, if only slightly."
"Padfoot?" Adam asked.
Harry winced. "Uh, yeah? You remember I told you about that Animagus form I got from my godfather? Well, the Animagus form can talk to the wizard. He suggested the theory that I could create a Patronus with Aura."
The more he heard about Mr. Potter's magic, the more Glynda couldn't help but be impressed. "Though I take it it's extremely difficult," Glynda observed.
Harry nodded. "I'm surprised I got it to work straight the first time, then again, that was probably my crappy luck kicking in," he admitted. Weiss snickered, making Harry glare at her.
"Could you teach the students here?" Ozpin asked. "From the brief explanation of those 'Dementors' that you gave us before, and what we have seen firsthand, your technique could help save countless lives."
Harry turned and frowned at Ozpin, his eyes narrowed in concentration. "…I'm not sure," he admitted. "I mean…theoretically, yes, but I'm not even sure I can recreate the results again."
Ozpin nodded in understanding. "Then perhaps if you should, would you be able to then?" he pressed. While he only saw the beings leave, he did feel their presence; and he'd be damned if he allowed those creatures back into Beacon without his students able to fend them off.
"Yes," Harry replied instantly. "Not only would it help people, a trait that seems inherently coded into my DNA, it also seems to harm them more than a magical Patronus can. But it might take a while to even get it to work."
"Take your time," Ozpin told him. "While the Dementors are a major problem now, I would like the most effective weapon we know against them to be at its best."
"As do I, Professor," Harry agreed.
"How can you stand them?" Isabella called out to Harry, getting everyone's attention. "I mean, the memories I saw, coupled with their horrible Aura, I…I thought…I felt like I should just die," she finished quietly.
Harry looked to her and looked at her for a moment. He sighed after a moment. "Truth be told," he said, "I can't stand them. Not in the way you're asking. They affect me just as much as they did with you guys. Occulmency, an ability to shield and protect one's mind, helps, but Dementors have always affected me more than other people. And if that last encounter is any indication, they still do."
He sighed tiredly. "The reason I can stand and fight them is because I had to learn quickly to stand up to them. My entire third year in Hogwarts those monsters tried to kill me every chance they got."
Blake looked over at him. "Why are they so attracted to you?" she asked in concern.
"Search's me," Harry shrugged.
"Regardless," Ozpin spoke. "You saved countless lives today, Mr. Potter. I can't thank you enough."
Harry chuckled sheepishly. "Seriously, it was nothing," he said humbly.
A scoff reached his ears. "Don't delude yourself, Green Eyes," was Summer's sarcastic remark. "Without you, some of these kids would have died. I guarantee it."
Ruby shivered at her mother's blunt statement. Yang was silent, which was very odd for the normally outgoing girl.
"And you kept a clear head when fighting them," Ren added from beside Nora, who was eating her pancakes without a care in the world.
Harry looked uncomfortable, but sighed and shrugged uselessly anyway. "Experience. Sadly, now that you guys have to deal with them, you will gain that too."
That didn't sit well with the group.
"Why chocolate, Mr. Potter?" Glynda asked, deciding a subject chance was in order.
"Heck if I know. That's the prescribed method to help after Dementor attacks, but as you can see, it's pretty darn effective," Harry explained. Glynda nodded, seeing the explanation as acceptable for now.
"Where do you think those…Dementor Grimm went?" Ruby asked.
"I don't know," Harry admitted. "But wherever it is, I can't shake the feeling that it's going to end badly for us."
?
They were angry.
No. Angry didn't describe the boiling anger in their veins. There was NO word to describe it.
Truly, the scarred one proved why he was an Enemy.
But more frightening to the decomposing corpses was the loss of their invulnerability. They could be hurt by something other than the silver light. They could be killed.
However, they supposed it was worth it. Their prey could fight back. They had forgotten how fun it was to have prey that could fight back.
But the silver light hurt worse now. And the scarred one created a green one now. Granted, it wasn't like the killing one, but it made their bones shiver in fright.
They had begun to travel to where their memories said the Pathway was. The mountains were in sight as they descended down to a split between two mountains. The ruins of the Pathway sat there and…
"Oh?" a dark, cold, soft voice broke the silence of the night. "And what might you all be…?" They turned to see a white skinned woman with black veins running across her face and demonic looking eyes smiling up at them.
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