Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 84: The Guard's Unfortunate Fate
"Hey, I told you not to eat the ones in the cells." Harry saw that one of the dreagnauts had grabbed one of the inmates.
This one was now staring at its cut arm and making some whimpering noises.
"Oh, come on…" Harry rolled his eyes. "I know you can attach it back on."
The demon seemed to understand his words and grabbed hold of its arm before placing it back in its place.
The grey flesh came alive and grabbed onto itself, fusing back together.
The large demon looked happy now as it moved its healed arm, while still holding onto the decapitated inmate.
Harry sighed. "These guys have the intelligence of a rock…" Dreagnauts were incredibly resilient and powerful, but they needed someone to keep an eye on them and direct them.
It became obvious to him that if left by themselves, they weren't going to be very useful.
'I need to get a high-rank demon as soon as possible, so this one can serve as a commander for my troops.' Without that, the demons would need his constant supervision, or they would go off the rails.
However, to bring such a demon to the mortal realm, he would need a big offering. Much more than what he had done so far with those two small villages.
Harry noticed that the dreagnaut was now staring at him while pointing at the corpse in its hand.
It did not take much to figure out what the creature wanted. "Fine…eat it. But that is quite enough. You have a job to do!"
The five other dreagnauts behind him let out some whimpering noises.
"Not now!" Harry shouted. "If you are so hungry, go eat the four remaining humans waiting for you down there."
He turned around and noticed that something was missing. "Where are the imps?"
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"We should go check," one of the guards said.
"You go check! I already finished my shift," the other one responded.
"We all finished our shift, but the replacements are not here, so technically, we are still on duty. If something happens in the prison, we nee—"
"It's just a few noises. I'm sure it's nothing. Maybe the prisoners are getting a bit rowdy."
The third auror was grasping at his robes as he began to tremble. "It's suddenly getting very cold in here…"
"Yes, this feels almost like… dementors!" the guard shouted.
"There is no way that—ahh!" It was then that the other one saw it. A dozen dementors entered the hall through the windows and hovered above them.
"What are they doing in here? They are not allowed on the lower floors."
The aurors glanced at each other with concern on their faces. This was a situation they never expected to encounter. Dementors had always been tricky to handle, but at the very least, they had always obeyed the basic rules established by the Ministry.
"Go away already!" one of the aurors shouted at them and pointed with his wand.
But the creatures continued to hover above them while emitting eerie noises.
The temperature continued to get lower, and their minds began to be affected by their mere proximity.
Then, they saw even more dementors flying inside.
"I had enough of this," a guard exclaimed before pointing his wand up. "Expecto Patronum!" A lion made of white light emerged and rushed at the dementors, who were now trying to move away.
One of the requirements for being a guard in Azkaban was to learn this particular charm, so they could defend themselves if a dementor were to turn against them.
Another one of the aurors was going to follow his companion's example and fire his own Patronus at the creatures. He was the one standing closer to the stairs leading up, and just as he was about to cast his charm, he heard loud shrieks coming from behind him.
"What the…"
He saw some small red figures jumping and running. They descended the stairs and went directly for him, moving at an incredible speed.
"Hiii!" The imps appeared to be laughing in their own disturbing way as they jumped at the nearby guard, who was unable to react in time to defend himself from the assault.
A dozen tiny red demons began to claw and bite, ripping his robes and flesh in the process.
This alerted the other three aurors in the room, who had to take their focus away from the dementors to assess this new threat.
There were over twenty imps in the hall and almost the same number of dementors.
The previous Patronus was losing its effect, and the dementors were starting to return.
"Help me with those red things. Graham, you keep the dementors away!" The most veteran of the aurors decided to take charge of the situation after seeing their companion dying in such a gruesome way.
"Expecto Patronum!" Another white lion was conjured, and this one stood in front of the aurors, protecting them from the dementors.
"Depulso!"
"Diffindo!"
"Reducto!"
The other two aurors began to launch a series of attacks on the small imps.
Some of them were pushed away, hurt, or even killed.
But there were too many, and they moved extremely quickly, attacking them from all sides.
"Ahh!" One of the guards screamed when an imp managed to grab hold of his leg with its sharp claws. "Reducto!" he responded by blowing the imp's head into pieces.
However, this also created an opening for more of those nimble demons to get the jump on him, clawing and biting at his body while others did the same to his partner.
"N-no…" The last auror could no longer hold the Patronus in place as he had no choice but to run away.
He was paying so much attention to the approaching imps that he didn't even notice the two dementors blocking the exit ahead of him.
Before he could react, the dementors clutched at him with their ethereal fingers. One held his body while the other one took hold of his face.
"P-please… n…" The auror tried to beg. A futile action in front of creatures that were incapable of feeling pity.
The dementor got closer and opened its mouth, sucking in the soul of the man.
Once the dementors were done with their feast, they dropped the corpse, and just a second later, a dozen imps shrieked and jumped on the body before they began feasting. Even an empty husk like this one could make for a decent snack.
By the time Harry and the rest of the demons made it downstairs, the job was already done.
Azkaban was once again under his control, and this time, he was not going to give it away.
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