The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part One

It Was a Distraction

"Bloody brilliant!"

Gideon Prewett hooted in appreciation as he was joined by members of the Order in the tunnel, holding back the dementors. Caradoc Dearborn and Edgar Bones leaped onto the tracks and, being older and more experienced than Gideon, they began a complicated sort of containment spell that seemed to engulf the dementors, something like a shield charm wrapping about them, encasing them in the forcefield. Gideon slid back down from the platform to join the other two as they started to move the contained dementors lower, tightening up so that the charm seemed to deflate, like a net, pressing the dementors together and squeezing them down, seeming to shrink the cloud of them into a smaller and smaller ball.

"Right terrifying bit of magic that is," Gideon said, nodding at the knot of magic and black smoke that made up the contained dementors by the time they were finished with them.

"A regular bubble of nightmares," Caradoc agreed, chuckling. "Oi, conjure up some sort of container to put these blithering things in so we can dispose of them properly."

"Minchum will want them," Edgar advised.

Caradoc shuddered, "Minchum's a nutter."

Gideon raised an eyebrow, "He'd use even ones proven to have defected?"

"They're loyal to any who'd give them souls to feed on," Edgar said. "Using the dementors at all is questionable, but there's no difference really between one who's not defected to one who has. They have no souls themselves - they don't care whose side they're on. Send these to Azkaban and they'll feed there as merrily for the Ministry as they would have done here for He Who Must Not Be Named."

Gideon shook his head in clear disapproval of the idea, but he waved his wand and conjured a small metal box, opening the lid and laying it down on the tracks. Caradoc and Edgar moved in unison, pushing the pulsating bubble of dementors into the box, their raspy, rattling breaths fading into a whisper. The moment they'd been squeezed in, Gideon kicked the box shut and waved his wand, sealing it properly.

The box shook as the dementors inside fought to be freed.

Caradoc bent and lifted the box up from the rails. "Well, there you have it." He said. He examined the seal. "And who's to take this to the Ministry?"

Edgar and Gideon both said in unison, "Not it."

"Blast you chaps," Caradoc swore.

Dumbledore kicked a charred skull and watched as it rolled back into the smoldering pile of the inferius remains that cluttered the tracks. Steam rose from them and the air was heavy with smoke and burned flesh. Dumbledore sighed, looking over the mess.

James and Lily stared on solemnly from a safe distance as Moody, Underhill, and Dumbledore picked their way through the rubble. 

Frank Longbottom appeared at their side, tucking his wand into his auror robes. "Dunno 'bout you," he said lowly, leaning in so that the elders wouldn't overhear him, "But I doubt very much if I'll be 'round for broiled roast for a bit after smelling this lot."

James laughed loudly and Lily looked slightly sick at the comparison.

Frank  stuffed his fists in his pockets, "What d'you reckon the point of all this was? Sending the inferi and dementors down into the Underground like this?"

"Dementors?" James looked confused, "What dementors?"

"The ones that were back at the station... attacking Rey and Sirius?"