"Are you sure this is the training Albert talked about?"
Kenneth held up his Night Vision Goggles with trembling hands, staring at the army of Dementors and Inferi pouring into Hogwarts through the blasted-open iron gates. The muscles in his cheeks twitched slightly.
If not for the large group of Defence Association companions around him, he would have turned and fled immediately.
There was no helping it. Those were only the enemies they could barely make out on the surface. Who knew how many Death Eaters or Dark wizards were secretly controlling the Inferi and attacking Hogwarts?
No matter how he looked at it, this did not seem like a mere diversion meant to draw the Hogwarts professors' attention from the front. Kenneth felt that Albert's definition of "not much risk" needed to be reconsidered.
"Stop making such a fuss." George soothed everyone's nerves. "Inferi fear light and fire. As long as you've been properly studying Defence Against the Dark Arts, there's no need to fear these pieces of rubbish."
"There's even less reason to fear an army of Dementors. We've practised the Patronus Charm for so long, and now we finally have Dementors to test its effects on." George's words quickly calmed the agitated group.
"You seem to have forgotten," Fred said, glancing at Kenneth with a teasing smile, "that someone apparently hasn't managed to summon a Corporeal Patronus."
Kenneth's cheeks flushed crimson. After all, he was that someone. Oddly enough, apart from Kenneth and another unlucky one, nearly everyone who had joined the Defence Association had successfully summoned their own Corporeal Patronus.
If the Ministry Aurors learned of this, they would probably shed tears of humiliation.
"Stop arguing. Those Dark Creatures have already entered the school and are heading this way," Cedric reminded them. Although he was a