Harry jumped to his feet, the forgotten dictionary falling with a bang to the floor. Ginny looked startled at the sudden movement, but stood also, waiting for Harry to speak. She had watched the play of emotions across his face over the last ten minutes, had seen a final look of fear enter his eyes and found that her stomach had clenched nervously when she saw it.
She didn’t know what it was that Harry had suddenly realised, but she found that she didn’t really want to know.
Harry turned towards her anxiously, pulling both her hands into his and gazing into her eyes. “Ginny get downstairs and find your mother. She needs to get hold of Professor Lupin and your father as soon as possible. It will take too long to get hold of Dumbledore…the others will have to do. Hurry,” he said urgently.
With a final squeeze of her hands, Harry turned and was already at the door, pulling out his wand as he went. “Hurry Ginny, do it now. And DO NOT follow me upstairs. Stay with your mother until the others arrive,” he said shooting her one last look.
He shot out the door and Ginny heard him run to the end of the corridor and begin to climb the stairs to the third floor. She pulled herself out of her stupor and rang downstairs, almost tripping in her haste to find her mother.
Harry had slowed his pace somewhat as he neared the top of the stairs. His heart was once again hammering in his chest. Dark misgivings overwhelmed him as he stepped off the stairway, feeling malevolent eyes watch his every move from the darkness.
He looked up and down the corridor, listening for any sign of movement. There was none. Everything was eerily quiet. Slowly he tiptoed along the corridor, deliberately going in the opposite direction to the partly open door of the library he had visited a few days ago.
He was careful. Not wanting to make any sound, but feeling at the same time that the whole place had to be able to hear his hammering heart and was aware of his presence.
He came to the first door on the right, and slowly pushed it open, wand at the ready. The room was empty and bare except for a few items of furniture, covered in plastic. As quietly as possible, Harry closed the door and moved on.
The first door he came to on his left, led to a large chamber containing a large bed and various pieces of furniture. It had a lived in appearance but was dusty as though it hadn’t been used in some time. Harry slowly realised whose room it was. This had been Sirius’s bedroom. The bed was neatly made, some clothes still lay folder on a chair at the foot of the bed. If it weren’t for the layer of dust covering every surface, one would have thought Sirius had merely left his room as normal that morning and would return to it at sometime that night. Harry could see a photo frame on the bedside locker. He didn’t have to get close to it to know that contained within it was a picture of the Marauders.
A smaller photo caught his eye. It was Sirius and the Raven-haired girl. This surprised Harry. He found himself watching their movements as he stood in the middle of the floor, momentarily forgetting where he was.
Eventually he dragged himself from his stupor, moving from the room and gently closing the door. Once back in the hallway, Harry’s anxiety increased. The remaining door on the right of the corridor was firmly closed. Harry listened with bated breath and then he heard it.
It was a faint moan and it was definitely emitting from the other side of the door. Wand at the ready, Harry turned the handle and opened the door. Still standing in the hallway, he waited for his eyes to get accustomed to the sudden light that poured from the open doorway. He found himself gazing at a large bedroom, and there directly in front of him was Hermione. She sat before a large ornate mirror and seemed entranced by what she saw there.
She didn’t even seem to hear Harry enter, so engrossed was she in the mirror before her. Harry slowly started to approach her, lowering his wand slightly as he went, but as soon as he crossed the threshold, he felt a blanket of cold sweep over him, almost knocking him to the ground.
He struggled to take a breath of air in the sudden cold, feeling light headed. It was then that he realised what else resided in the room as he heard the slow rattling breath.
Dementors. Harry had faced them before, but never had he felt them affect him this badly, not since that time on the train when he had first encountered them. He managed to turn away from Hermione and face them.
Harry felt his breath catch in his throat. There, behind the door that he had just entered lay a very white, very still Ron.
Three Dementors hovered around him, one was stooping over, its claw like hands grasping Ron’s wrist. Harry could feel the air leaving his lungs.
He couldn’t even hope. Ron had been there with Dementors and without a wand. Had they already removed his soul? He glanced back at Hermione, barely managing to hold his consciousness. He saw her wand lying idly on the dresser top. Why wasn’t she trying to help Ron?
She didn’t seem to notice his presence. Harry felt darkness threaten to overtake him as he watched Hermione stand and slowly raised her hand to the surface of the mirror. A feeling of anticipation crept over Harry, it was an emotion that he knew was not coming from him but from Voldemort.
A deep feeling of dread overwhelmed him as he watched. He had fallen to his knees in weakness moments before. But now fought with all his might to get to Hermione. He felt the Dementors pause, watching her also and knew that they were all on the brink of witnessing something terrible that was about to happen. He dragged himself across the room, using the last of his energy to rise to his feet and slam straight into Hermione knocking her from her stool to the ground seconds before her hand made contact with the glass.
He pulled out his wand and muttered the spell for the full body bind before Hermione could react. He watched her lie still and straight on the ground before turning his attention to the Dementors.
His actions seemed to have angered them. The turned towards him moving away from Ron, towering over him and their slow rattling breaths gradually pulled away all happy memories from Harry’s mind.
He tried to prepare himself for what he knew he would see, Sirius’s death being the worst memory of his young life thus far, but felt himself reel in shock when, instead, he heard Sirius’s cold insistent voice in his head “I suppose you want me to tell you that it was all meant to be. My premature death, the death of your parents… Is that what you want Harry, Is it? One final reassurance from beyond the grave? Oh yes Harry, because I am beyond. I haven’t been miraculously restored to life or anything. It seems to me that it is you who have been haunting me all these years. Haunting me, and eventually leading me to death as I sought to protect you. How misguided was that.
Harry shook his head and tried to focus “Expecto…” . You feel responsible for my death, despite what everyone said. You probably need to me tell you that it’s not your fault, but I cannot lie that easily."
He faltered, his mind overwhelmed with guilt and hurt, the cold seemed to invade his body even more. “ “Expecto Patronum,” “ Harry said again. But he words were weak and Harry could barely discern the wisp of silver that left his shaking wand. “…leading to my death as I sought to protect you”
Harry shook his head again feeling himself teeter on the edge of unconsciousness “Expecto Patronum,” he murmered, catching sight of Ron’s body. Ron, who would have done anything for him. Ron, who may not have lost his soul to the Dementors yet, his first and truest friend.
Harry felt his eyes darken. He could no longer see, but then a vision came to him unbidden. The vision of Ron’s reaction after Harry had defeated the Hungarian Horntail was burning in his memory. The vision of Ron trying to ask for his forgiveness after they had fallen out when Harry’s name had been pulled from the Goblet of Fire. He closed his eyes tighter and raising his wand shouted aloud, “EXPECTO PATRONUM.” In the gathering darkness of his mind he felt the blinding light of Prongs as it burst forth from his wand.
Then he fell back to the ground with a thud, the last vestiges of energy leaving him as a fathomless darkness took hold. His eyes rolled back and Harry knew no more.