Harry Potter: The Golden Viper

0599 Their Talks

To Harry, Ron, Hermione and the others who had unexpectedly been transported a full millennium back into Hogwarts' past, the earlier conversation between the legendary founders Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw had already been mind-bogglingly shocking in its startling intimacy and raw vulnerability.

If the academics and historians of their own time were to somehow learn of the tragic secret romance that had apparently once smoldered between two of the school's founders, who could possibly predict the shockwaves it would send rippling through the entire wizarding world?

The scandal would be earth-shattering, rewriting centuries of established lore!

But to Rowena and Helga such weighty matters seemed to be simply idle chatter regularly between the very closest of female friends.

However, as soon as the mysterious island in the North Sea and the terrible creatures lurking upon it were mentioned, Helga and Rowena's expressions turned much more solemn. The lingering power emanating from the two witches restored the legendary and formidable aura of the founders in Harry and his friends' eyes!

But what could possibly be so dire as to cause such an extreme reaction in them?

Hermione immediately had a guess. Her eyes darted sideways to Professor Watson, seeking further explanation into this, but to her great disappointment, this time Professor Watson did not kindly explain their doubts as he himself was listening with a serious expression.

Rowena Ravenclaw did not speak any further on the matter. Under everyone's gaze, a wand quietly appeared in her hand. She left her seat and walked to an open space in the office.

Then, with a single fluid motion almost too swift to follow, Ravenclaw slashed her wand through the air in a dizzyingly complex pattern. Shining silver sparks erupted from the wand's tip, swirling in the air like stardust carried on the wind.

Before their astonished eyes, the glimmering specks merged into a single glowing form - an enormous eagle of purest white.

"That's a Patronus!" Harry exclaimed at once.

The Patronus Charm was the most advanced magic Harry had learned last year from Remus in order to defend against Dementors.

"And unless I'm barking mad, it's a bleeding eagle, just like on the Ravenclaws coat of arms!" Ron chimed in with amazement as the ethereal raptor flew over their heads.

'Lady Ravenclaw had summoned her Patronus' - the light in Hermione's brown eyes condensed a little as this further confirmed her speculation.

The specific mention of the dreaded island being "in the North Sea" had already begun leading her to a single certain conclusion - the notorious Azkaban prison. And if that were true...then the horrors Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw spoke of in such dire tones must surely be none other than the Dementors!

As if to lend credibility to Hermione's silent deductions, Ravenclaw twisted her wrist in a precise flourish, causing the conjured eagle to freeze in place with its wings outstretched as if pinned to an invisible wire.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, with a piercing shriek that sent shivers down every spine, the Patronus raised its head and expelled a vague mass of squirming shadows enveloped in white light from its beak.

Upon hitting the air, this shadowy mass rapidly expanded, transforming into a creature as frightening as the Grim Reaper, shrouded in a black cloak. Just looking at it made one's heart fill with chill!n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Clang!

Faced with the horror of his own worst fears and traumas made manifest, Harry reacted on pure instinct before his conscious mind could catch up. He hastily retreated and his back slammed heavily against the wall, but he felt no pain. Instead, he quickly grabbed his wand and aimed it at the Dementor, breathing heavily!

"Easy, mate! It's not real!" Alarmed by Harry's extreme reaction, Ron lunged forward to seize Harry's wrist, forcibly casting his wand away and said hurriedly. "You're safe! It can't hurt you!"

'Not real...of course it wasn't real', Harry realized as the ringing fog of panic began to withdraw from his overclocked brain. Protected within the protective barrier of Ravenclaw's eagle Patronus, the Dementor thrashed impotently, unable to project its aura of despair beyond the shimmering walls of its ethereal prison.

As his thundering heart rate gradually slowed and the black spots faded from his vision, Harry felt a wave of burning shame crash over him.

Dementors had too great an impact on him. In their adventure last year to rescue Sirius from the Forbidden Forest, Sirius was discovered by several dozen Dementors sent by the Ministry of Magic. At that time, both Sirius and Hermione had fallen unconscious, leaving Harry alone to face those terrifying Dementors. Harry could say with certainty that those were absolutely the most desperate two minutes of his life.

Harry nervously glanced at Professor Watson, and seeing that the professor did not cast him a displeased look for his panicked, ridiculous reaction, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Clutching his pounding heart, he continued to watch.

"Have you made any progress on finding a way to destroy them further, Rowena?" Helga Hufflepuff's voice rang out, shattering the silence. She had left her desk to stand shoulder-to-shoulder beside Ravenclaw. Even though this wasn't the first time Rowena had shown them, upon seeing the Dementor, Helga's expression still turned serious, and a hint of anger was subtly leaking through her tone.

"I've made many attempts -" Ravenclaw said in a voice as clear and chilling as an icy spring,

"As we've discussed in the past, these specter-like entities occupy a strange space between true life and death. They seem to operate according to their own set of rules, which makes them devilishly difficult to eradicate through conventional magical means."

She paused, her eyes flashing like chips of frozen lightning in her pale face. "I have experimented with a wide range of methods, including some ancient magics that have shown promise in suppressing their influence. Of all the techniques I have tried, the Patronus Charm was the most consistently effective. Yet even it is not a true solution, merely a stopgap measure..."

This was the expected result. Helga Hufflepuff did not seem surprised, simply saying softly, "So, the only method is the one we discussed before -" 

Ravenclaw gave a slight nod in wordless consensus. But while the two legendary witches seemed to instinctively understand the unspoken words of their cryptic exchange, Bryan's brow furrowed.

During the Azkaban trip, as Bryan followed the memories of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, the two founders had discussed this topic at that time. They had stated that the Dementors must be destroyed. Bryan had been puzzled by this then.

These Dementors, Bryan knew, were not natural creatures. They were the twisted byproduct of some of the darkest magic known to wizardkind – the creation of Horcruxes. When a Dark wizard tore their soul in pieces multiple times in pursuit of immortality, the split fragment or the empty shells would sometimes take on a hideous half-life of its own, becoming one of the soul-sucking abominations known as Dementors.

To complete themselves, these empty shells would absorb all positive emotions from living creatures and use those emotions as feed to create more of their own kind.

No creature possessing an independent soul would like Dementors, but Bryan never understood why the four Hogwarts founders were so determined to destroy the Dementors.

Was it simply because these creatures were evil? The truth was probably not that simple.

He thought back to the fragment of conversation he'd witnessed between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw in Azkaban. They had spoken of dire warnings received by Helga Hufflepuff, hinting that she had foreseen a future in which Herpo the Foul, the twisted genius who had first discovered the secret of crafting Horcruxes, would find a way to return from beyond the veil of death. If such a thing were to happen, they feared the consequences would be beyond catastrophic.

It seemed that at least some of the precautions put in place by Merlin and the Hogwarts founders were specifically designed to prevent this scenario from unfolding. That suggested there had to be some important connection between the destruction of the Dementors and ensuring that Herpo was never able to return back to the land of the living...

Bryan's mind raced, but he always felt separated from the truth by a thin membrane he couldn't break through!

"Our only choice is to entrust this vital work to the hands of time," Rowena said softly and her gaze became distant and unfocused. "In the short term, our priority must be to find a way to limit the Dementors' numbers and constrain their movements. I had considered the possibility of erecting a soul magic-based barrier around Azkaban, but ultimately, such a ward would only hold as long as our own souls endured to power it. After we are gone, it would quickly crumble, and nothing would remain to stop the Dementors driven by the desire to absorb more emotions from spreading like a plague across the face of the earth."

Rowena's words sent a bolt of sickening dread piercing through Harry's gut. The thought of a world swarming with Dementors was almost too terrible to even think of. What hope could there be for a world like that?

"What, then, do you suggest?" Helga asked, her brow furrowed with concern.

In answer, Rowena raised her wand once more, moving it through the air in a series of intricate patterns that left shimmering patterns of light in its trail. As she chanted words in a language none of them recognized, the chill blue glow emanating from her silhouette intensified until she was barely more than a dazzlingly luminous outline.

Rustle rustle!

In the air before her, an ethereal sheet of parchment took shape, wreathed in a green radiance. Once it had fully merged, a tangled bundle of glowing chains burst forth from its surface, each one tipped with an ominous-looking padlock. The chains shot toward the captive Dementor, who thrashed and writhed within its glowing prison in a futile effort to evade them.

But there could be no escape from Rowena Ravenclaw's magic. The chains wrapped themselves around the Dementor, sinking into its shadowy flesh like hooks into the hide of some deep-sea leviathan. The creature's struggles only seemed to make the chains constrict more tightly, until it hung motionless, paralyzed by the intense agony.

"What is that?" Unable to contain her curiosity, Hermione looked to Professor Watson. She had assumed her question would go unanswered, but after a few moments, Professor Watson hesitantly said,

"I'm not entirely certain," he said slowly, "but if I had to guess... I would say that Ravenclaw has just created some sort of binding contract filled with tremendous power, and supported by life force… perhaps of her own. If I'm right... then those chains may well represent the Dementors' prison for centuries to come."

"Stop, Rowena!" Suddenly realizing something, Hufflepuff's suddenly shouted to Ravenclaw in a unusually stern voice and her face was filled with worried alarm. 

"There is a peculiar connection between the individuals and the collective of this species. This makes destroying their individuals meaningless. Fortunately, we can also exploit this - as long as the individuals are restrained, the behavior of the entire race can be restricted -"

Ravenclaw did not mind Helga's harsh tone just now. However, she did cease her actions, waving her hand to dispel the 'parchment' and 'chains'. She then turned to the anxiously caring Helga Hufflepuff, smiling as she said,

"It's a good idea, isn't it?"

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