Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix [83]
As Harry felt some black cloth fall over his head, which was what he assumed was a hood, he felt his body become un-rigid. He got up to his feet (or what felt like feet, though Harry was sure he was floating in air) and tried to find some sign of Ron. But as he got up, a totally new sensation came over Harry, a new sense. He could sense happiness, joy, sadness, and death. Harry took a breath, and didn’t feel air rushing through him, but warmth. The warmth of happiness. He could feel it flowing through his veins, and all throughout his body. It was a feeling that could only have been compared with Cho’s kiss, but this, Harry thought, was even better.
Harry longed for another breath of pure joy, and he inhaled deeply. Only, this time, less joy spread throughout him. It was like taking a single short gasp rather than a long deep breath. Harry suddenly felt almost suffocated, he had to breathe in some joy. Harry ran frantically around, joining the mass of dementors, getting short gasps here and there, trying to feel full of it. All that mattered in life was sucking in happiness… nothing else… nothing else…. Harry suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder.
He turned around, and saw a brown-eyed dementor, whose eyes he recognized as Hermione’s. He shoved her off with a scabby hand, and returned to the mass of dementors, trying to suck in whatever happiness he could. Harry then felt two sets of arms on him, and saw that Ron had evidently assisted Hermione in attempting to subdue him. How was it that they were able to resist… breathing?
“Get off! I need to breathe!” yelled Harry, only it came out as a series of clatters and clicks through his fanged and pimply mouth.
“Come with us,” said Hermione, also as a sequence of odd noises, but Harry understood it as if she had spoken it in English. They pulled Harry back a little, while he was gasping for breath, barely able to get a whiff of joy, it was getting harder and harder to breathe. He couldn’t take in any air! He was suffocating.
Just when Harry thought he was going to asphyxiate, he felt a massive sense of happiness go through him, just like the first breath he had taken. He let it go all the way though him, and then exhaled cold and unhappy air. Wondering where this source of joy came from, Harry looked around for the source, and he saw the Stag Patronus. The closer Harry got to it, the more joy he felt flowing through him with every breath. Ron and Hermione were taking chattering breaths near it as well.
“Why isn’t the patronus driving us away?” asked Harry. Patronuses were supposed to drive dementors away, not attract them.
“Well, we’re still not sure,” said Ron, stroking the Patronus and drawing a deep breath. “But we think that they only drive dementors away because Patronuses are like too much of a good thing for them, and since they don’t know what they are because they can’t see them, they get scared, and go away. But since we can see it and know what it is, it doesn’t affect us.” Hermione shook her head, as if disapproving of his too simple theory.
“Oh well, let’s go in,” said Harry. “It’s time to rescue Sirius and Lupin!” Ron and Hermione floated over to him, and Harry immediately noticed a problem.
“What are we going to do about our eyes?” asked Harry. “I’m sure any non-dementor guard will notice something is wrong with them.”
Hermione sighed, and pulled her hood down, covering most of her face, including her eyes. She looked exactly like a dementor should.
“Common sense Harry, common sense!” she said, waving a crusty finger at Harry. Ron and Harry pulled their hoods down, just