Harry-Dementor

19- Actions Have Consequences

Deciding on a course of action, Harry just draped himself over the crumpled form and wrapped his arms over the wings and as much of his friend as possible, hanging on for dear life. Graham seemed to unclench slightly as the spells were prevented from trying to pull him apart with Harry and his magical robe completely covering him. Just to be safe, Harry made sure a corner of his robe specifically covered the gargoyle's face, magically spreading it out farther, because he definitely didn't want his friend to start panicking when he realized just what was hugging him.

Now, to get out…going forward was easier than going back since some of the transport spells did actually work. Harry hovered them both forward, shoving through the crashes of spells pulling them back and around and apart. After what seemed an eternity, they crashed down hard onto the wooden floor of a tall cabinet.

The gargoyle underneath Harry let out a weak groan and slightly shifted its scaly tail. The dementor took a deep breath, happy that Graham seemed to be alive at least. He was seriously going to have to talk to the Weasley twins. There was no way someone less indestructible than a gargoyle or a dementor could have survived that hellish trip without being ripped apart. While Graham seemed to still be coming to, Harry carefully opened the door of the cabinet and looked out.

Unfortunately, he knew exactly where they were. "Merlin's pants, can't we catch a break?!" He grumbled seeing the shrunken heads, dark tomes, and questionable talismans that could only be associated with Borgin and Burke's, even though he had only had the displeasure of experiencing the place once before.

At the sight of the dementor emerging from his cupboard, either Mr. Borgin or Mr. Burke, Harry wasn't sure which, gave a scream of terror and promptly passed out behind the counter. Luckily there were no customers at that moment, so Harry just hovered over to check that the older man was ok. He let out another sigh of relief when he realized the man was breathing…it was a little concerning how tasty his soul felt though…just how evil was the man anyway? Harry decided his decision on whether to eat the man or not could wait. He wasn't really hungry or injured, and he didn't want to just go about eating people because they would taste good and that probably meant they were evil.

A gasp behind him, turned Harry's attention from his ethical dilemma to check back in on a Montague now in human form. "Stay away!" Graham gasped, obviously searching in his pockets for his wand from where he was still halfway jammed into the cabinet.

"Winky!" Harry immediately called out, not wanting to deal with a panic attack when he couldn't communicate. He waited…and waited…and Graham had definitely found his wand and was trying to cast the patronus charm, with little success because of how shaken he was.

Harry sighed deeply, causing Montague to redouble his efforts. "I guess it makes sense for a dark artifact store to have some kind of ward to keep out house elves. Their clientele probably aren't very trustworthy, and definitely have elves," he remarked to himself. Now, how to pantomime who he was and that we wouldn't eat the teen before he was chased out into Knockturn Alley with a glowy creature of pain?

Having an idea, Harry raised both hands up in his best show of peace before sliding one hand slowly into his pocket. "Expecto patronum!" Montague yelled, and he didn't even get vapor again.

"It's me…Harry," he said as slowly and calmly as possible while he took out his lip balm and put it on his lips in a move that had become such a habit to Harry that Montague immediately stopped and took notice. "That's right…ignore the dementor, it's just me…Harry. See, vanilla lip balm, a dementor who wanted to eat you wouldn't be putting on vanilla lip balm, would he?" That wasn't entirely true, Harry could see Drake doing just that, but that was beside the point.

Next, he hovered until he sat cross-legged on the floor and put the lip balm between them while he also pulled out of his robes the very familiar looking locket that he had finally figured out how to make travel to his dementor form like the ring did. Graham looked at the little tube and the locket he'd seen a hundred times while he studied the dementor in front of him. "Harry?" He finally questioned.