One of the Death Eaters raised his wand, and...
One of the Death Eaters raised his wand, and the
scream stopped, still echoing around the distant mountains
"\iAccio Cloak!"\i roared one of the Death Eaters
Harry seized his folds, but it made no attempt to escapeThe Summoning Charm had not
worked on it
"Not under your wrapper, then, Potter?" yelled the Death Eater who had tried the charm and
then to his fellows
Six of the Death Eaters ran toward them: Harry, Ron and Hermione backed as quickly as
possible down the nearest side street, and the Death Eaters missed them by inchesThey waited
in the darkness, listening to the footsteps running up and down, beams of light flying along the street
from the Death Eaters' searching wands
"Let's just leave!" Hermione whispered"Disapparate now!"
"Great idea," said Ron, but before Harry could reply, a Death Eater shouted,
"We know you are here, Potter, and there's no getting away! We'll find you!"
"They were ready for us," whispered Harry"They set up that spell to tell them we'd come
I reckon they've done something to keep us here, trap us - "
"What about dementors?" called another Death Eater"Let'em have free rein, they'd find him
quick enough!"
"The Dark Lord wants Potter dead by no hands but his - "
" 'an dementors won't kill him! The cartier ronde Dark Lord wants Potter's life, nor his soulHe'll be easier to
kill if he's been Kissed first!"
There were noises of agreementDread filled Harry: To repel dementors they would have to produce
Patronuses which would give them away immediately
"We're going to have to try to Disapparate, Harry!" Hermione whispered
Even as she said it, he felt the unnatural cold being spread over the streetLight was sucked from
the environment right up to the stars, which vanishedIn the pitch blackness, he felt Hermione take hold
of his arm and together, they turned on the spot
The air through which they needed to move, seemed to have become solid: They could not
Disapparate; the Death Eaters had cast their charms wellThe cold was biting deeper and deeper
into Harry's fleshHe, Ron and Hermione retreated down the side street, groping their way along the wall
trying not to make a soundThen, around the corner, gliding noiselessly, came dementors, ten or more
of them, visible because they were of a denser darkness than their surroundings, with their black cloaks
and their scabbed and rotting handsCould they sense fear in the vicinity? Harry was sure of it: They
seemed to be coming more quickly now, taking those dragging, rattling breaths he detested, gucci clearance tasting
despair in the air, closing in -
He raised his wand: He could not, would not suffer the Dementor's Kiss, whatever happened afterward
It was of Ron and Hermione that he thought as he whispered "\iExpecto Patronum!\i"
The silver stag burst from his wand and charged: The Dementors scattered and there was a triumphant
yell from somewhere out of sight
"It's him, down there, down there, I saw his Patronus, it was a stag!"
The Dementors have retreated, the stars were popping out again and the footsteps of the Death Eaters
were becoming louder; but before Harry in his panic could decide what to do, there was a grinding of bolts
nearby, a door opened on the left-side of the narrow street, and a rough voice said: "Potter, in here, quick!"
He obeyed without hesitation, the three of them hurried through the open doorway
"Upstairs, keep the Cloak on, keep quiet!" muttered a tall figure, passing them on his way into the street
and slammed the door behind him
Harry had had no idea where they were, but now he saw, by the stuttering light of a single candle,
the grubby, sawdust bar of the Hog's Head InnThey ran behind the counter and through a second doorway,
which led to a trickery wooden staircase, that they climbed as fast as they couldThe fendi b bag stairs opened into
a sitting room with a durable carpet and a small fireplace, above which hung a single large oil painting of a blonde
girl who gazed out at the room with a kind of a vacant sweetness
Shouts reached from the streets belowStill wearing the Invisibility Cloak on, they hurried toward the
grimy window and looked downTheir savior, whom Harry now recognized as the Hog's Head's barman, was
the only person not wearing a hood
"So what?" he was bellowing into one of the hooded faces"So what? You send dementors down my street,
I'll send a Patronus back at'em! I'm not having'em near me, I've told you thatI'm not having it!"
"That wasn't your Patronus," said a Death EaterIt was Potter's!"
"Stag!" roared the barman, and he pulled out a wand"Stag! You idiot - \iExpecto Patronum!\i"
Something huge and horned erupted from the wandHead down, it charged toward the High Street, and
out of sight
"That's not what I saw" said the Death Eater, though was less certainly
"Curfew's been broken, you heard the noise," one of his companions told the barman"Someone was
out on the streets against regulations - "
"If I want to put my cat out, I will, and be damned to your curfew!"
"You set off the Caterwauling Charm?"
"What if I did? Going to balenciaga first cart me off to Azkaban? Kill me for sticking my nose out my own front door? Do it,
then, if you want to! But I hope for your sakes you haven't pressed your little Dark Marks, and summoned himHe's
not going to like being called here, for me and my old cat, is he, now?"
"Don't worry about us said one of the Death Eaters, "worry about yourself, breaking curfew!"
"And where will you lot traffic potions and poisons when my pub's closed down? What will happen to your
little sidelines then?"
"Are you threatening - ?"
"I keep my mouth shut, it's why you come here, isn't it?"
"I still say I saw a stag Patronus!" shouted the first Death Eater
"Stag?" roared the barman"It's a \igoat,\i idiot!"
"He's dead," said Harry, "Bellatrix Lestrange killed him
The barman face was impassiveAfter a few moments he said, "I'm sorry to hear it, I liked that elf
He turned away, lightning lamps with prods of his wand, not looking at any of them
"You're Aberforth," said Harry to the man's back
He neither confirmed or denied it, but bent to light the fire
"How did you get this?" Harry asked, walking across to Sirius's mirror, the twin of the one he had broken
nearly two years before
"Bought it from Dung 'bout a year ago," said Aberforth"Albus told me what it spy bag fendi w