All of them finally climbed out from beneath the Whomping Willow and stepped back onto the Hogwarts grounds.
By then it was already deep into the night.
Cold wind moved across the dark grounds while clouds drifted slowly above the castle towers.
For the first time in years, Sirius Black looked upward at the open sky without the walls of Azkaban surrounding him.
Something quieter briefly appeared on his exhausted face while he stared upward.
If Snape had not been standing nearby with a wand pointed toward him every few seconds, Sirius probably would have spoken properly to Harry by now.
James and Lily had trusted him enough to make him Harry's godfather.
And for twelve years he had not been there for Harry at all.
"Walk, Black," Severus Snape said coldly from behind them. "Or are you becoming sentimental over memories of Azkaban?"
Sirius immediately looked irritated again but continued walking.
Lupin merely sighed tiredly beside them while keeping an eye on the Peter Pettigrew.
At this point there was finally hope.
Pettigrew had been found alive.
Which meant Sirius's crimes could finally be erased.
The group slowly crossed the grounds toward Hogwarts while Harry walked silently beside Ron and Hermione, still struggling to process everything he had learned that night.
Then suddenly the temperature dropped sharply.
A freezing wind swept violently across the grounds hard enough to stop everyone in place.
Snape's expression changed instantly.
A terrible feeling hit him at once.
Then dark shapes descended from the sky.
Dementors.
They flew rapidly through the darkness toward the group.
Before anyone could properly react, several Dementors rushed directly toward Harry while others surged toward Sirius Black.
Harry barely had time to step backward before icy hands seized him.
"Harry!" Hermione screamed in panic.
At the same moment, more Dementors grabbed Sirius and dragged him away across the grounds toward the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Harry tried resisting, but the cold flooding through his body was unbearable.
The screaming inside his head returned instantly.
The Dementors began dragging Harry away too toward the darkness near the forest.
"Potter!" Snape shouted sharply.
Ron instinctively tried limping forward despite his injured leg.
"Harry!"
But another wave of freezing cold forced him backward immediately.
Snape raised his wand at once.
"Expecto Patronum!"
A silver doe burst from his wand and charged into the darkness, driving several Dementors away for a brief moment.
But there were too many of them.
The Patronus barely slowed the swarm surrounding Harry and Sirius near the forest edge.
Snape's expression hardened immediately.
"Granger," he snapped, "give Professor Lupin his wand."
Hermione handed Lupin's wand back immediately without arguing.
Right now Snape needed every capable wizard he could get.
He didn't care what happened to Sirius, but nothing could happen to Harry Potter.
Snape then stunned Peter Pettigrew again to make absolutely certain he could not escape during the chaos.
The unconscious Pettigrew collapsed motionless into the grass.
"You three," Snape ordered sharply while aiming his wand toward the Dementors, "go to the castle and inform the professors immediately—"
Then he suddenly stopped speaking, his eyes moving quickly across them before he realized one person was missing, and Snape's expression darkened instantly.
"Where is Malfoy?" he demanded sharply.
Hermione looked confused for a second.
"He was right beside me…"
Then she stopped halfway through the sentence.
Because Victor was gone.
"Fuck these Dementors," Victor cursed while running through the darkness.
After everything had finally started going properly, these creatures had arrived and ruined everything within minutes.
And now Harry was being dragged away by soul-sucking monsters.
Victor sprinted toward the edge of the Forbidden Forest before jumping onto the trunk of a tree and launching himself upward through the branches.
He moved rapidly from tree to tree while freezing wind swept through the forest around him.
The deeper he went, the stronger the cold became.
Then Victor jumped from one of the higher branches—
And transformed midair.
His body twisted violently while black scales spread rapidly across his skin.
Bones cracked and reshaped as his body expanded larger and larger within seconds.
By the time he landed inside the forest, Victor was gone.
A massive basilisk crashed onto the ground instead.
Dark scales reflected faint moonlight between the trees while enormous golden eyes glowed unnaturally within the darkness.
The forest around him instantly became silent.
Small creatures fled deeper into the woods sensing the predator now moving among the trees.
The basilisk slowly raised its head.
The freezing presence of the Dementors.
Victor spread his magic outward through the forest while tracing the cold signatures dragging Harry and Sirius deeper through the woods.
A long hiss escaped from between massive fangs.
Then the enormous serpent surged forward through the forest, crushing roots and branches beneath its body while rapidly slithering toward the Dementors.
"Harry!"
Sirius Black shouted hoarsely while struggling weakly against the Dementors carrying him through the air.
Even through the freezing numbness spreading across his body, Sirius still tried forcing himself toward Harry.
Because several Dementors had completely surrounded him.
Harry could barely think anymore.
The cold flooding through his body felt unbearable while the screaming voices inside his head became louder and louder.
One of the Dementors drifted closer toward him in midair.
Its rotten hands tightened around Harry while the hood slowly lowered toward his face.
Harry felt his body weakening completely.
Then the Dementor started pulling at his soul.
Harry's eyes widened weakly as he felt something being dragged painfully out of him.
Suddenly the Dementor jerked backward violently.
A massive tail shot upward from below and wrapped tightly around Harry's waist before ripping him straight out of the air.
Harry barely even understood what happened before he was pulled rapidly downward through the freezing wind and directly behind an enormous dark shape beneath the trees.
Several Dementors immediately turned.
Something gigantic had emerged from the darkness of the Forbidden Forest.
A massive serpent towered between the trees, dark scales glinting faintly beneath the moonlight while its huge body curled protectively around Harry after pulling him away from the Dementors.
The enormous serpent kept Harry secured behind his coils while raising his head slowly toward the Dementors hovering above with Sirius trapped among them.
Then Victor hissed.
The sound tore violently through the forest loud enough to shake branches overhead.
Several Dementors recoiled slightly while freezing wind swept harder through the clearing.
*****
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