Chapter 91 - 92

After breakfast, Evan walked out of the castle under the heavy rain.

The cold rain made him shiver. He saw Hermione, Colin, and Ginny beside him trembling.

Even so, they did not lose their enthusiasm.

As a pseudo-fan with severe fear of heights and not much enthusiasm about Quidditch, Evan did not understand why the sport was so popular.

The weather outside the castle was raging with winds and heavy rain, but in order to watch this game, the teachers and students of the school rushed outside as usual. They ran across the lawn to the Quidditch pitch, sat down in the wet stands, and lowered their heads to resist the strong winds.

He felt bad. Half an hour earlier, Evan intended to spend the day in the comfortable, warm library.

He had already made up his mind that no matter what Colin would say, he would never take a step outside the castle under such weather conditions, it was out of question!

But Colin did not even come to call him; he actually went to Hermione and Ginny directly. Evan was pulled out by both of them, saying that he should go out to support the team, because this game was very important to Gryffindor.

Looking at their faces, Evan felt that if he would not agree to come out, and Gryffindor lost, then he would be held responsible by the two of them.

With no way out, he sighed and followed them out of the castle.

Unlike him, Colin, Hermione and Ginny were all smiling.

Needless to say, Colin's smile was honest. Over the past two years, he knew Evan well enough to know how to pressure him.

Ginny smiled because she found Evan's appearance funny. After all, his usual image, that of one who's too mature, calm, and omniscient, is nothing like the twelve-year-old boy that he looks like now.

As for Hermione's smile, it was relatively more complex. Sure, she shared the same reasons as Colin and Ginny, but that wasn't the main factor that created her smile. Pulling Even out of the castle, she felt like laughing. She didn't know the source of that laughter, but deep down in her heart, she felt happy. Could it be "that kind of laughter"?

The four of them had different expressions as they went to the stands.

Ron had already kept places for them. Even didn't know if this was just in his mind, but he felt that Ron was staring strangely at his eyes. It's hard to say, but it actually reminded him of the way Snape stares at him.

Evan shook his head. It must've been a wrong impression!

In fact, Evan's conjecture was right. Looking at Hermione and Ginny, who were laughing and walking with Evan behind them, Ron didn't know why he had a weird feeling; constituted mostly out of envy and jealousy.

These two emotions, he has been very familiar with, in the past few years, he had this feeling for his brother, and for his best friend Harry.

But he is now looking at Evan. Apart from jealousy; there was a strange sense of distaste in his heart that he had never felt before.

Ron suddenly remembered the dream he had been repeatedly having in the few past nights, and the girl who appeared frequently in them. She looked a bit like Hermione… He shook his head ruthlessly. Hermione appeared in his dreams. Could it be just a coincidence?

Besides, why did he dream of doing that kind of thing with Hermione…?

Hermione was just his friend, but when he saw her with Evan sitting together, Ron felt very uncomfortable inside.

Intuition told him that there must be something he did not know between the two of them.

These things make up the main source of this unfamiliar hatred in his heart.

Under the influence of this sentiment, Ron's attention shifted from the Quidditch match to people beside him.

He found that the more he looked at Evan, the worse he felt.

He was obviously one year younger than him. What makes him any better?

Ron forced himself to not think about it. After all Evan managed to save him last year. The thoughts in his mind were definitely bad. He took a deep breath and suddenly it came back to his mind: what happened last year, the black diary, and what was written in it for him by Tom Riddle.

Although it was the incarnation of Voldemort as a Student, although he was evil, deep down inside, Ron had to admit that he found some truth within his words. Against Malfoy's bad treatment, he stepped up to protect her, causing him to spend a week vomiting disgusting slugs. In face of Snape's unreasonable manners, he stood up for her, and was punished by being obliged to spend a full night cleaning urinal. Faced with…

He clearly, did all of this for her. But now, the one by her side, is Evan. It's really like Tom Riddle said.

No, no! There must something wrong with him to have such dangerous ideas.

Ron forced his eyes away from Evan and Hermione, looking in the centre of the court. Gryffindor and Hufflepuff Quidditch teams began to appear.

Under the cheers of the audience, Evan saw the Gryffindor Quidditch players walking out of the locker room; the wind blew badly, and when they walked into the stadium, they all staggered. He could not even see clearly Harry's thin silhouette.

It was the same for Hufflepuff, and Evan could only vaguely see seven people dressed in canary yellow robes standing on the court. The guy who was shaking hands with Wood was supposed to be Cedric Diggory.

Although he had never met him, Evan was very impressed by the name.

In addition to remembering that he was in the next year's Triwizard Tournament, which ended up by getting him killed by Voldemort, Diggory made many contributions to the Hogwarts Magical News this year.

From his submissions, it could be seen that Diggory was an excellent Wizard, and had very in-depth research on Metamorphosis.

But Evan didn't know how good he would be in Quidditch, especially in such a bad weather. If he and Harry couldn't see the Snitch, it would be very bad for everyone to sit all day in the cold rain.

A few seconds later, with the whistle of Mrs. Hooch, the game began!

A blur of red and yellow figures leaped up and down the pitch. Evan couldn't know how the game was progressing, and couldn't even hear the commentary in the wind.

Although he had a raincoat on, he became soaked in water. He felt like he was freezing. Through the intensive rain, he saw Harry moving at top of the pitch, and his condition was much worse than his.

Evan saw Hermione sitting beside him cold and shivering, but she seemed to be in high spirits, as if someone had given her a Potion of Happiness!

It was strange to him that Hermione liked Quidditch so much. How did it not show before? He remembered that when Gryffindor played against Hufflepuff last year, Hermione chose to not come see the game in order to speed up the making of the Polyjuice potion.

If there was any difference between this year and the previous one, it was that Cedric Diggory became Hufflepuff's captain.

He also remembered that Angelina said yesterday that the guy was very handsome. Evan suddenly became inexplicably nervous, and he unconsciously looked up and searched for Diggory's presence. Then he saw that Ron was still looking at him and his expression was becoming more and more bizarre.

What's going on today? What is it with these two?

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Evan saw Ron panicking and turning as if he wanted to avoid eye contact.

"That's not good. Is he hiding something from me?!" He looked at Ron thoughtfully.

Does it have anything to do with Peter Pettigrew? But from Ron's expression, that doesn't seem to be the case, it looks like…

The next second, thunder roared in the air, and Evan turned his head as a fork-shaped lightning bolt crossed the sky. He saw Harry flying over his head.

In the air, Harry was so cold and numb that he had to press himself down on his broom, directing it through the turbulent airstream and looking for the Snitch everywhere. As he avoided a Bludger coming from his right, he saw Diggory sneak down under him. Diggory was flying in the opposite direction. Did he spot the Snitch?!

They could no longer go on like this and the situation was becoming more and more dangerous.

Harry turned quickly and wanted to go back to the middle of the pitch. But just then, a flash of lightning lit up the stands. Harry saw something that completely distracted him: the silhouette of a huge black dog, which was clearly reflected in the sky above the empty seats of the Slytherin stand.

Harry's numb hands slid on the broomstick, and his Nimbus 2000 fell several feet.

He moved his wet hair away from his eyes, and squinted to look up. The dog had disappeared.

"Harry!" Wood's distressed cry came from Gryffindor's goal. "Harry, behind you!"

Harry panicked and Diggory went down to the field. A small Golden Snitch flashed between them in the rain. Harry panicked on the broomstick and rushed towards it.

Everyone stopped straight away and looked at the two seekers who were approaching the Snitch. Diggory was closer to the snitch, but Harry was faster.

On the stands, Hermione's cold little hand suddenly gripped Evan's left arm and she screamed in horror. "Look, look!".

Turning to where she was looking, Evan's heart shook fiercely as he saw the sky behind Harry and Diggory turning pitch black.

Like ink spreading out in the water, more than a hundred Dementors were attracted by the cheerful atmosphere on the Quidditch pitch, and they came quickly with the terrible cold currents.

The Dementors seemed to be invited to a feast. They were dressed in dark grey, tattered cloaks, floating in the air. A pair of hand rotting with pus slowly shook both sides of their hoods, and the air got filled with the smell of rotten meat.

Along the strings of Ice being formed around the Dementors, Evan saw something flying out of the stands to be taken away by the Dementors above. It was their happiness.

The whole world instantly became black and white, and there was nothing left but silence on the stepped stands around the runway. Although the wind was still as strong as before, he couldn't hear it howling anymore, as if someone had turned off the sound.

Evan saw Hermione shouting at him, but he couldn't hear anything.

He yanked his wand out and aimed at the Dementors in the centre of the field.

"Expecto Patronum!" he shouted, but he couldn't hear his own voice.

His wand emitted a silver light, swaying like a flame in the wind and rain, bringing a moment of colour to this black and white world of savagery.

But no, this filament dissipated instantly and turned into a faint green smoke.

"Damn, there are too many Dementors!" Evan uttered the spell again, and kept thinking about happy memories.

The surprise of receiving Hogwarts' letter, the joy of learning his first spell, the happy times he had with his friends, and the light of the tip of his wand grew stronger and stronger.

A complete animal was gradually being formed.

But this wasn't enough, and the dark fear brought by the Dementors came from all sides.

Evan tightened his wand and remembered the scene when he first released the complete Patronus on the train. At the time, he also couldn't hold on. Hermione gave him hope and he tried to recall that feeling.

Evan suddenly felt a quivering, weak body clinging to him; he turned to see Hermione staring at him nervously.

Yeah, that was the feeling!

The next second, a dazzling silver-white animal emerged from Evan's wand.

The power of the Patronus Charm comes from the positive energy of one's heart. Apart from the happy moments that one can remember, it comes also from hope, the desire to live and from the desire to protect.

When you want deep down in your heart to protect someone, you become able to send out a complete corporeal guardian.

The Patronus released is stronger as long as the determination to defend is stronger.

It was not a happy memory; it's Evan's determination to protect Hermione that inspired the spell.

His Patronus was a cat, but one that's much stronger and more ferocious than an ordinary one. It was dotted with silver bands and it was like a tiger.

"Is that a cat or a tiger?"

All the little wizards in the stands exclaimed loudly, they have never seen such a strange, rare creature.

But Evan knew that his Patronus and Animagus had the same image and were all black cats.

Because at that moment, his desire to guard Hermione was deep inside, it made this guardian really powerful.

The Patronus represents that which is hidden, unknown but necessary within the personality. It is the awakened secret self that lies dormant until needed. Evan's Patronus majestically took his determination to protect Hermione, fiercely rushing over to the Dementors in the centre of the field, and chasing them away.

In the air, Harry quickly approached the Snitch.

He was only a little bit behind, but was faster than Diggory. But then, it seemed like time froze.

Harry felt like he had entered a black hole from which he could never fly out. He helplessly tried moving forward. The surrounding temperatures were getting lower and lower. His breathing began slowing down as if his lungs were freezing, and the frozen Rain drilled into his body cutting him up from the inside out.

He heard the voice that he heard that time on the train. Someone was screaming in his head. It was the voice of a woman.

"Not Harry, Not Harry, Please, Not Harry!"

"Stand aside you silly girl, stand aside now…"

"Not Harry, please no! Take me! Kill me instead!"

Harry's brain got numb. He didn't what was going on or what he was doing; he didn't know why he was flying. He getting closer and closer to the snitch, but his attention was focused on the woman in his mind.

He must help her. She's going to die. No, she's going to be murdered!

"Not harry, please! Have mercy! Have mercy!"

Answering her, there was only a sharp cold laughter. In face of her pleading voice, it sounded extremely cruel.

Harry felt lost. He couldn't help the woman. He felt like he's about to slide down from his broom. Just as he thought he was going to fall like this, a silver-white animal suddenly flew over from below.

It was Evan's Patronus that was, just like his Animagus, a black cat.

As harry regained some vague awareness, he found himself surrounded by Dementors. Their faces hidden under their headscarf's were all facing him.

Behind their headscarf, the darkness looked like it had nothing within it.

No, Harry saw something in it. It was…

His eyes went wide open and he was full of horror. He wanted to pull out his wand, but he found himself falling off his broomstick. His Nimbus 2000 flew towards Forbidden Forest along its original trajectory.

The cold rain fell rapidly and slammed Harry's pale face. He could not reach out to his broom with his right hand.

His efforts were in vain. More and more Dementors were approaching the place. The light of Evan's Patronus was getting weaker and weaker. The woman's plea and the harsh laughter were re-emerging in Harry's mind. They are still talking, and the man seemed to have said something terrible.

Harry tried to recall what the man just said, but he couldn't remember anything.

He was trying to withstand this, but his eyelids get heavier and heavier.

Then, all saw was darkness.