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"Simple, we're not. Mobilicorpus." Harry incanted, lifting the pudgy man off the ground. "I don't imagine that many students actually know what Sirius Black looks like, I only did because of all the pictures Mom has. So as long as you're with us Professor Lupin, I imagine we shouldn't have too many issues." Harry said, beginning to walk out the door.
"Oh! We musn't forget Ron, Ginny would be rather cross with me if I let you all simply leave him here." Luna said. In all the excitement, Harry had indeed forgotten about the youngest Weasley male.
"Mobilicorpus." Lupin cast, levitating the boy. "We'll take him in the castle and leave him on a bench. He's fallen asleep in my class enough times that I imagine such a phenomenon wouldn't be new to him."
Leaving the small shack they were in, Harry recognized it as the Shrieking Shack that was just outside of Hogsmeade. "The Shrieking Shack? Why were we in there?" Harry asked, it seemed like an odd place to hold that meeting, surely somewhere closer to Hogwarts would have been easier.
"It's… familiar." Lupin said, brushing it off.
"Is that where you went for your werewolf transformations?" Luna asked, causing everyone to pause.
"How… how did you know that?" Lupin asked.
"Oh, you've always been ill just after the full moon, and there were some deep scratch marks all in that building, especially along the floor. Plus your Boggart is the moon, it makes sense really." Luna said, idly walking along.
"I'll admit I had my suspicions as well, especially after Snape had us study the werewolf chapter so close to the Full Moon." Hermione said.
"Well, I suppose that cat is out of the bag. Yes, I am a werewolf. It's one of the reasons finding work was so hard for me." Lupin said.
"Wait… isn't tonight the full moon?" Harry asked, thinking back on it. Astronomy class had made him keep tabs on the moon cycles.
"Oh no, you're right. Wolfsbane, Wolfsbane." Lupin said, rifling through his pockets looking for the potion. "I… don't have it."
"It's okay, we just have to get to Dumbledore before sundown. How long do we have?" Harry asked, making his way towards the castle.
"About half an hour." Hermione said, her voice tense.
"We"ll be cutting it close, but we can make it." Harry said, continuing on.
A tense silence fell over the group as they began their march towards the castle. The Mobilicorpus spell was limited in how fast it could move individuals, so that largely dictated their pace.
Harry felt a deep chill go down his spine, as he heard a scream. The hairs on his neck stood up on end. "Did anyone else hear that?" Harry asked, looking around.
"No, but why is it so cold? It's June, it shouldn't be this chilly." Hermione said.
"Dementors!" Lupin yelled, pointing his wand at the creature, forcing the body of Ron Weasley to flop to the ground.
Lupin's silver wolf shot forth from his wand, before running circles around the group, trying to drive away the half dozen or so spectral figures that surrounded them.
The spectral canine lunged towards one of the shadows that surrounded them, snapping at it with its jaws. The force of the bite sent the specter back, before the wolf moved on to the next phantom, repeating it.
This was doing a fine job at repelling the dementors, until the moon began peeking over the horizon. In that moment, the wolf simply vanished from reality, and Professor Lupin began to double over.
"No! Moony! Kids, run! I'll hold him off." Sirius said, as he began to shift from an emaciated man to a large black dog.
Lupin's transformation looked visceral and uncomfortable. Muscles and tendons moved underneath the surface of his skin as his form shifted to more closely resemble wolf than man.
Sirius lunged at Lupin as he turned his attention toward the group, and a sense of overwhelming fear was sent through the children. Harry had faced these kinds of things before, a troll and Quirrel in his first year, and a Basilisk and Tom's spirit in the second. His fear was muted, tempered by having faced more directly frightening creatures. Hermione and Luna however, weren't so lucky. While Hermione herself had been there for the troll, she had been mostly paralyzed in fear then as well, and the Basilisk had literally petrified the pair of them the prior year. They didn't have the same experience in dealing with this fear that Harry had been forced to cultivate.
With that outcropping of fear coming from the girls, it acted as a beacon for the Dementors, who began making their way towards them. Harry was torn for a moment. He knew the spell, he'd practiced it over and over, for months now. He could form an ample mist, but… would that be enough? More dementors poured from the area around them, now numbering a dozen. Two dozen. Three. More and more poured out. There must have been a hundred now.
Harry turned to look at Hermione and Luna… and saw the unbridled fear on their faces. Even Luna, who would put up a brave face in the most dire of circumstances… was scared. Of course she was, she was still a little girl, suddenly about to lose her life to a horrible monster who would take away everything that made her Luna.
Harry broke, no matter what, they would be safe. He wouldn't allow any other outcome.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Harry incanted, and the mist he had formed so many times before, began to solidify. First forming a pair of back legs, then the front, and then the head. What stood before him was a creature of grace, of stature, of power. Tied up in the muscles of the beast was power unmatched, and it responded to Harry's call, in one mind with his soul. In front of Harry, wings outstretched and claws at the ready, was an androsphinx.
Harry had awaited a protector, and one had came for him.