𝐄𝐭𝐨𝐢𝐥𝐞 | Harry Potter

↳𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 - 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐩

"No" said Harry gloomily.

Lupin sighed, "they planted that tree when I was in my first year. People tried to play a game, trying to get near enough to touch the trunk. In the end, a boy named Davey Gudgeon nearly lost an eye and we were forbidden to go anywhere near it. No broomstick would stand a chance"

"Did you hear about the dementors?" Estella asked.

"Yes, I did. I don't think any of us have seen Professor Dumbledore that angry. They have been growing restless for some time ... furious at his refusal to let them inside the grounds ... I suppose they were the reason you fell?"

"Yes" Harry said, he looked as if he wanted to say something more, but hesitated until he finally got the courage to ask what him and Estella were both wondering, "why do they affect us like that? Why do they go after us? Are we just-"

"It is nothing to do with weakness" Lupin said sharply, as though he knew exactly what Harry was going to say, "they affect you both because there are horrors in your past that others don't have"

Estella looked at him in confusion, what horrors did she have? As far as she was aware, she had a decent upbringing, of course she had grown up in an orphanage but she wouldn't have considered it a horrible experience. She knew plenty of children who grew up like her that didn't get as affected by the dementors as she did.

"Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope and happiness out of the air around them. Even Muggles feel their presence, though they can't see them. Get too near a Dementor and ev- ery good feeling, every happy memory, will be sucked out of you. If it can, the Dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself – soulless and evil. You'll be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life. And the worst that has happened to you, Harry, is enough to make anyone fall off their broom. You have nothing to feel ashamed of"

"When they get near me" Harry said staring at Lupin's desk, "I can hear Voldemort murdering my mum, and Ella hears a woman screaming"

Lupin turned around to look at them, an expression of shock horror on his face. There was a moment of silence before Harry spoke again.

"Why did they come to the match?"

"They're getting hungry" Lupin said cooly, "Dumbledore won't let them into the school, so their supply of human prey has dried up ... I don't think they could resist the large crowd around the Quidditch pitch. All that excitement ... emotions running high ... it was their idea of a feast"

"Azkaban must be horrible" Estella shuddered, and for a moment she felt sorry for Grace and her dad for what he must've been through.

"The fortress is set on a tiny island, way out to sea, but they don't need walls and water to keep the prisoners in, not when they're all trapped inside their own heads, incapable of a single cheerful thought. Most of them go mad within weeks."

"But Sirius Black escaped" Estella said slowly, "he got away"

"Yes" Lupin said, sliding his briefcase off od his desk, "Black must've found a way to fight them. I wouldn't have believed it possible, dementors are meant to suck the life out of a man"

"The dementors on the train" Harry said, "you made it back off"

"There are certain defenses you can use against them" Lupin said, "but that dementor on the train, it was only one. The more of them there are, the harder it becomes to resist"

"What defenses?" Estella asked, "can you teach us?"

Lupin looked at both Harry and Estella's determined faces, considering carefully as to what he was about to say, "Okay" he said, "I'll help you. But it'll have to wait until next term I'm afraid, I have things I have to get done. I have chosen quite an inconvenient time to fall ill"