Chapter 187
Chapter 187
After the incident on the train, everyone looked thoroughly miserable.
The Dementors’ intrusion seemed to have left them feeling as though someone had forced several lumps of stinking sludge into their mouths. Suer would wager that a great many of them would write home the moment they reached school.
Fudge was about to be bombarded with Howlers again.
The train was much warmer than the outside, yet everyone still surged off it. They would rather endure the cold wind on the platform than remain aboard the Hogwarts Express, which now held such unpleasant memories.
The weather on the final day before September was unnaturally bitter. Torrential rain hammered noisily upon the station’s little roof.
“First years, this way!” Hagrid was once again there to welcome the new students. They would make the traditional journey across the lake.
Suer heard Hagrid call a greeting, but the crowd pushing them in the opposite direction left him time only to wave. He had no idea whether the big man saw.
At the far end of the other side of the platform, Thestrals stood in the rain, lightly stamping in the mud and occasionally tossing the water from their heads.
Very few wizards, however, seemed able to see them.
“Hello, Wuwu.” Suer recognised the Thestral at the head of one of the carriages. It was Hagrid’s favourite and easy to identify by the small mark upon its forehead. Hagrid had said Wuwu received it in a fight with another creature in the Forbidden Forest when it was young.
“Neeeeigh.” Wuwu evidently remembered the young wizard. It lowered its head and affectionately rubbed against Suer’s shoulder.
“You can see the creatures pulling the carriages?” Hermione caught up behind him and asked.
“I can.” Suer nodded. “They’re Thestrals.”
“Then why can’t I see them?” Hermione was still asking as she climbed into the carriage. She appeared to have recovered from her earlier fright.
Hannah answered for Suer. “Because only people who have seen death with their own eyes can see them.”
“I can’t see them either. I read the description in a book by Mr Scamander.”
The carriage was full once Suer, Hermione, Hannah and Neville boarded, so Harry and Ron had to take the next one. Suer saw Malfoy rudely shove others aside and climb into that carriage too. Hopefully they would not start fighting before they reached the school.
The carriage held a faint smell of mildew and the scent of straw. It kept the rain outside perfectly, without letting a single drop seep in.
Wuwu soon drew them to a pair of magnificent wrought-iron gates. Though they had seen them before, the gates still made one feel the weight of history. The winged boars atop the stone pillars on either side remained as lifelike and pristine as they had been a thousand years ago.
The carriages should have gone straight through the main gates and along the rising drive towards the castle, but they stopped.
A group of hooded figures blocked the entrance. The one at their head was exceptionally tall.
Neville stuck half his head outside, then quickly pulled it back. His expression changed as he whispered, “Dementors.”
Hermione’s breath caught, and she gave Suer a worried look.
Suer leant calmly back in his seat, paying no attention to the Dementors outside. He did not need to guess why they had come. They wanted trouble with him.
But did they have any idea where they were? This was not some deserted railway line. They were standing at the gates of Hogwarts!
Sure enough, before long, a voice came from outside.
“Get out.”
Neville mustered his courage and cautiously poked his head out of the carriage to gather information. Now that they were at Hogwarts, he seemed rather braver.
“It’s Professor Snape,” he said.
No surprise there. As Potter’s unseen protector, of course Snape would be the one to appear. How fitting.
“The Dementor at the front is trying to speak to Professor Snape.”
“But Professor Snape has drawn his wand. He doesn’t seem interested in talking.”
“The Dementors are retreating.”
“We can go in now.”
Neville narrated the situation as he watched. The moment he finished speaking, the carriage began moving.
It drove straight through the gates. Perhaps it was only his imagination, but Suer felt a gaze fixed upon the place where he sat.
Professor McGonagall was already waiting before the castle doors, along with Filch, the castle caretaker, who stood slightly stooped with his hands clasped behind his back.
Everyone climbed out before the castle’s oak doors and crowded beneath the stone steps.
“Mr Bones, come with me.” Professor McGonagall called to him across the crowd, undisguised anger on her face. Hermione immediately caught Suer’s robe in concern.
“It’s all right.” Suer reassuringly took Hermione’s hand. “The professor probably wants to ask what happened earlier. You go on to the Great Hall.”
Hermione nodded and withdrew her hand. Suer stepped out from the crowd, climbed the steps and followed Professor McGonagall through the oak doors into the wide, shadowy entrance hall.
Without saying a word, Professor McGonagall led Suer directly across the hall and into a torchlit corridor beside the Great Hall.
She then turned into a small room at the end of the passage. A fire had made it wonderfully warm, and Professor Dumbledore sat calmly upon a sofa before the hearth.
“Albus, I have brought Mr Bones,” Professor McGonagall said, speaking for the first time since collecting Suer.
“Thank you, Minerva.” Dumbledore smiled and looked at Suer behind her. “I apologise for calling you here before the opening feast, Mr Bones. I have heard about what happened on the train.”
“Would you please describe the scene to us, including…”
“How you killed a Dementor.”
“Of course, Professor.” Suer met Dumbledore’s pale-blue eyes behind his spectacles. “We were talking in our compartment about returning to the castle when… a Dementor…”
Suer described what had happened as briefly as he could, though he deliberately emphasised the danger they had faced and the Dementor’s attempt to steal the souls of everyone present.
“I said it before, Albus. How can those Dementors be allowed to come to Hogwarts? They pose a grave threat to the students’ safety.” Professor McGonagall could not stop herself from speaking, dissatisfaction plain on her face.
“It was an oversight on my part, Minerva. I believed the Ministry of Magic could keep the Dementors entirely under control.” A trace of apology entered Dumbledore’s calm voice.
“I must offer you a formal apology. It is what an educator owes his student.”
Suer was at a loss and shook his head repeatedly. “It’s all right, Professor. None of us suffered any lasting harm.”
“Albus, I believe we must write to Cornelius at once. Those revolting creatures must be punished. One condition of Cornelius allowing them to come to Hogwarts was that they must not disturb the students’ peace. But look at what they have done! They nearly sucked out the souls of an entire group of students!”
Professor McGonagall spoke with indignation.
“I will. It is only right that I do so, Minerva,” Dumbledore said calmly.