" Expecto Patronum!"
Harry had lost count of how many times he had used the Patronus Charm, but he must have broken his record from when he practiced under Lupin's guidance.
With a splitting headache, Harry was experiencing the feeling of draining his own magic for the first time. He felt that if he closed his eyes, he would collapse on his feet immediately.
" Expecto Patronum!"
At this moment, he desperately hoped a miracle would happen to him—wasn't he supposed to be the Chosen One? If he was the protagonist of the world, why wasn't he allowed to release his Patronus without any instruction? Why wasn't he allowed to refresh his state and learn new spells?
See? This title is so detestable. It's not the connotation that's detestable, but the fact that I'm completely unworthy of it. I can't be the Chosen One, I can't save Hermione and Ron, and I can't save Sirius behind me.
He was just a third-year student at Hogwarts, a kid looking forward to meeting his friends for the holidays after his final exams.
Harry didn't know how long he stood there. He saw the Dementor seem to be confronting him, or perhaps they saw through his weakness and were waiting for him to collapse.
He wanted to call for help, but Hermione and Ron in the background were too busy to help themselves, their black robes obscuring their figures, cutting Harry off from all contact with the outside world.
"Puff—" Harry tried to make his voice as loud as possible, whether to give Hermione and Ron some hope or to force himself not to fall asleep or collapse.
A wisp of silver thread wrapped around his fingertip, and the silver mist in the wand no longer spread outwards, but instead enveloped him like a fog.
"--Guardian!" Harry knelt down, as if using all the strength to keep himself standing on the spell, " Expecto Patronum..."
He desperately tried to recall happy memories: the room Director Lorne provided for him, the moment he crushed Draco in the game, Sirius mentioning that he wanted to live with him...
Spots of light appeared in Harry's eyes, and he could no longer see clearly; everything seemed shrouded in a thin veil.
In a hazy vision, he saw the Dementor advancing in a dark mass. One of them ran up to him, its withered claws hovering above his head, and a chill was drawn from his mind.
He saw above Sirius, who was already unconscious, a Dementor using its wet hands to remove its hood, revealing a face like scabs, without eyes or a nose, only an empty mouth.
Harry knew that, the way Azkaban executed prisoners, the Dementor's Kiss.
"No—" Harry ignored the Dementor above him, raised his wand, and cried out desperately towards Sirius, " Expecto Patronum!"
Expecto Patronum... Someone, please save him! Just a little magic from him is enough... He doesn't want to lose another loved one. They only just met today, they could already travel together... Expecto Patronum, Expecto Patronum, Expecto Patronum...
A strong stench of decay brought Harry back to his senses. He looked up and saw that the Dementor were also approaching his neck. Were they going to attack him too? It didn't matter. If he couldn't save anything, he should die with the world.
Before I closed my eyes, the Black Lake was still shimmering.
The moonlight remained the same, but a single star gradually grew larger, speeding across the lake's surface. This sudden change rekindled Harry's hope, and as he struggled with all his might, he saw a stag suddenly emerge gracefully from the lake's surface.
Immediately afterward, a significantly larger doe appeared beside him, while the Dementor overhead twisted and fled, Harry landed heavily on the ground.
Who came to save me?
Are the stag and the doe my parents? Are they still alive? Or is it some kind of magical power that can appear and save my life in times of danger?
His consciousness was hazy. Harry desperately wanted to see if those were his parents, but his eyelids had already gone limp before his thoughts could process them, and everything fell into silence and darkness.
When Harry woke up again, he was in a bed in the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey was standing at the head of Harry bed with a notebook in her hand. Seeing that he was awake, she couldn't help but chuckle, "I thought you wouldn't be coming this year. I was already preparing for my vacation. I didn't expect you to come right at the end of the term—you come every year. If you'd like, get a VIP pass. Are you comfortable, Mr. Potter? This is your private bed."
Madam Pomfrey thought Harry's hospitalization was already a Hogwarts curse, along with the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor's inability to be re-elected. She joked about it, but Harry, sitting up in his hospital bed, grabbed her sleeve. "Where's Sirius? Ron and Hermione? Are they hurt?"
"No, Harry, we woke up before you—oh, there's a huge bird outside the window!" Ron, sitting on the bed opposite Harry.
Hermione greeted them, then answered Harry's question, " Madam Pomfrey gave Sirius a quick treatment, after which he was taken away by Professor Dumbledore and Minister Fudge. Nobody knows what they're going to do with him."
"We have to go and explain to Dumbledore," Harry said, getting out of bed. " Sirius is innocent; it was Peter ruined my parents—"
"Look, Minister Fudge, this kid's head's all muddled," Snape, pushing open the door to let Minister Fudge, along with Dumbledore and Lorne, into the Hospital Wing. " Black must have used Confundus Charm on them, but it was their help that almost allowed Sirius to escape."
Fudge, puffing out his not-too-fat belly, said, "Thanks to you there, Snape, I'll apply for the Order of Merlin, Second Class, and if we can get it, First Class wouldn't be out of the question."
"Thank you, Minister."
Four adults entered the Hospital Wing. Harry saw Dumbledore and Lorne, and immediately got out of bed to protest, " Sirius is not the murderer, he's been framed! The real murderer is Pettigrew Peter, Professor Snape has gone to arrest him—"
At this point, Harry frowned, looking at Snape incredulously. "You deliberately let Peter go, just to get revenge on Sirius and my father?"
"What is he saying, Snape? Didn't Peter die a long time ago?" Fudge turned to look at Snape.
"Without a doubt, Minister Fudge," Snape said coldly to Harry, "His stupid mind is in utter chaos right now, and not just him, but Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley as well. I've been wondering if the school has given them too many privileges, and Headmaster Dumbledore has been too lenient with them."
"We took so many measures to protect him, even forcing the students to sleep in the Great Hall, yet he openly skipped school to try and take on Sirius alone. Clearly, they misjudged their own abilities; they were arrogant and conceited... Director Lorne once said that teaching should be tailored to individual students, and I readily agree. The most suitable method I can think of for dealing with students who don't know their place and are always causing trouble is to suspend their studies—at least suspend their studies."
Snape looked around, and whenever Hermione and Ron tried to speak, he would emphasize his words and add a sentence, preventing the three children from saying anything for the time being.
"You can't blame them," Fudge said, adopting the bad cop role again. " Sirius seduced them. The Dementor captured Sirius, and given his escape attempt and intention to harm the students, we've decided to carry out the Dementor's Kiss tonight."
"What? You can't do this! You've arrested the wrong person! You always arrest the wrong people!"
Fudge squinted, seemingly unhappy with Harry's remarks.
Harry became agitated, Madam Pomfrey immediately blocked Harry way, shooing the four people away. " Mr. Potter is my patient now. You've made him too agitated. Now, please leave."