Hermione couldn't cast a Patronus Charm, so she ran toward where Harry lay. In her mind, something tried to guess how long it had been already. Was it twenty seconds? More?
There was a dreadful agony and bewilderment on the face of Albus Dumbledore. His long black wand was in his hand, but he spoke no spells, only looked down at Harry's convulsing body in horror -
Hermione didn't know what to do, she didn't know what to do, she didn't understand what was happening, and the most powerful wizard in the world seemed equally at a loss.
"Use your phoenix!" bellowed Professor Quirrell. "Take him far away from that Dementor!"
Without a single word the Headmaster scooped up Harry in his arms and vanished in a crack of fire along with the suddenly appearing Fawkes; and the Headmaster's Patronus winked out, where it had guarded the Dementor.
Horror and confusion and sudden babble.
"Mr. Potter should recover," Professor Quirrell said, raising his voice, but his tone now calm once again, "I think it was just over twenty seconds."
Then the blazing white phoenix appeared again, like it was flying before them from elsewhere, to Hermione Granger came the creature of moonlight, and it cried to her in Albus Dumbledore's voice:
"It still feeds on him, even here! How? If you know, Hermione Granger, you must tell me! Tell me!"
The senior Auror turned to stare at her, and so did many students. Professor Flitwick didn't turn, he was now leveling his wand on Professor Quirrell, who was holding out clearly empty hands.
Seconds ticked past, uncounted.
She couldn't remember it, she couldn't remember the nightmare clearly, she couldn't remember why she had thought it was possible, why she had been afraid -
Hermione realized then what she ought to do, and it was the hardest decision of her life.
What if whatever had happened to Harry, happened to her too?
All her limbs cold as death, her vision gone dark, fear overwhelming everything; she'd seen Harry dying, Mum and Dad dying, all her friends dying, everyone dying, so that in the end, when she died, she would be alone. That was her secret nightmare she'd never talked about with anyone, that had given the Dementor its power over her, the loneliest thing was to die alone.
She didn't want to go to that place again, she, she didn't, she didn't want to stay there forever -
You have courage enough for Gryffindor, said the calm voice of the Sorting Hat in her memory, but you will do what is right in any House I give you. You will learn, you will stand by your friends, in any House you choose. So don't be afraid, Hermione Granger, just decide where you belong...
There was no time for deciding, Harry was dying.
"I can't remember now," said Hermione, her voice cracking, "but just hold on, I'll go in front of the Dementor again..."
She started to run toward the Dementor.
"Miss Granger!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, but he made no move to stop her, only kept holding his wand on Professor Quirrell.
"Everyone!" shouted Auror Komodo in a voice of military command. "Get your Patronuses out of her way!"
"FLITWICK!" roared Professor Quirrell. "SUMMON POTTER'S WAND!"
Even as Hermione understood, Professor Flitwick was already crying "Accio!", and she saw the stick of wood zooming up from where it had lain almost touching the Dementor's cage.
The eyes opened, dead and vacant.
"Harry!" gasped a voice in the colorless world. "Harry! Speak to me!"
The face of Albus Dumbledore leaned over into the field of vision, which had been occupied by a distant marble ceiling.
"You're annoying," said the empty voice. "You should die."
Chapter 44: Humanism, Pt 2
"Fawkes," said Albus Dumbledore, his voice cracking, "help him, please -"
A brilliant creature of red-gold shuffled into the field of vision, looking down quizzically; and it began to croon.
The meaningless chirps slid off the emptiness, there was nothing onto which they could hold.
"You're noisy," said the voice, "you should die."
"Chocolate," Albus Dumbledore said, "you need chocolate, and your friends - but I dare not take you back -"
Then a shining raven came, and spoke in Professor Flitwick's voice; whereupon Albus Dumbledore gasped in sudden comprehension, and cursed aloud at his own stupidity.
The empty thing laughed at that, for it had retained the capacity to be amused.
And a moment later they had all vanished in another flash of fire.
It was only a moment, it seemed, between when Flitwick's raven had flown to elsewhere, and when Albus Dumbledore reappeared in another crack of red and golden fire with Harry in his arms; but somehow in that time Hermione had already managed to fill her hands with chocolate.
Before Hermione even got there, chocolate had zoomed off the table and straight into Harry's mouth, which a tiny part of her mind said was unfair, he'd gotten a chance to do it for her -
Harry spat the chocolate back out again.
"Go away," said a voice so empty it wasn't even cold.
...
Everything seemed to freeze, everyone who had been moving toward Harry halted, all movements broken by the shock of those two dead words.
Then: "No," said Albus Dumbledore, "I will not," and time resumed again, even as another piece of chocolate zoomed off the table and into Harry's mouth.
Hermione was close enough now that she could see Harry's expression become more hateful, as his mouth chewed with a mechanical, unnatural rhythm.
The Headmaster's voice was grim as iron. "Filius, call Minerva, tell her she must come at speed."
Professor Flitwick whispered to his silver raven, and it flew into the air and vanished.
Another piece of chocolate floated into Harry's mouth, and the mechanical chewing continued.
There were more students gathering around where the Headmaster watched over Harry with grim eyes: Neville, Seamus, Dean, Lavender, Ernie, Terry, Anthony, none of them daring to approach any closer than Hermione had.
"What can we do?" said Dean in a trembling voice.
"Back off and give him more space -" said the dry voice of Professor Quirrell.
"No!" interrupted the Headmaster. "Let him be surrounded by his friends."
Harry swallowed his chocolate, and said in that empty voice, "They're stupid. They should diemmmppphhh" as another piece of chocolate entered his mouth.
Hermione saw the looks of shock that crossed their faces.
"He doesn't mean it, does he?" Seamus said it like he was begging.
"You don't understand," Hermione said, her voice breaking, "that's not Harry -" and she shut up before she said anything more, but she had to say that much.
She saw from the look on his face that Neville understood, and she also saw that the others didn't. If Harry had really never thought anything like that, then being exposed to a Dementor for less than a minute wouldn't have made him say it. That's what they were probably thinking.
Less than a minute of Dementor exposure couldn't create a whole new evil person inside you out of nothing.
But if that person was already there -
Does the Headmaster know?
Hermione looked up at the Headmaster, and found that Albus Dumbledore was gazing at her, and that his blue eyes had grown suddenly piercing -
Words came into her mind.
Do not speak of it, said the will of Dumbledore to her.
You know, thought Hermione. About his dark side.
I know. But this is beyond even that. Fawkes's song cannot reach him, where he is lost.