The Fall of Dumbledore: The White King

Dementors

The raucous chatter and merrymaking of the Hogwarts students gathering on the platform faded into a dull roar around Hades as he stepped through the steam billowing from the scarlet engine. An almost preternatural chill seemed to have descended, raising gooseflesh along his forearms despite the lingering summer warmth.

Beside him, Draco shuddered dramatically. "Bloody hell, you'd think they could afford to heat this miserable cattle car properly. Let's go claim the best compartment before they're all—"

His words choked off in a harsh gasp as a rattling, sepulchral breath cut through the crowded din. Hades went rigid, his hand reflexively dropping to the comforting grip of his wand, as a towering shadow darker than the blackest night emerged from the swirling fog.

A cold so intense it stole the warmth from the very air around them crashed over the platform in waves, along with an encompassing aura of infinite sorrow and despair. Incoherent screams and panicked cries began to erupt all around as the hulking dementor drifted inexorably closer. Its decaying robes fluttered in a nonexistent wind and the eyeless pits of its sunken hood seemed to bore hungrily into Hades' very soul.

"Wh-what in the name of Salazar...?" Draco's trembling voice barely registered in the back of Hades' petrified mind. He could feel the gelid tendrils of the dementor's devouring essence creeping over his psyche, dredging up every horrific memory and buried trauma he'd endured at the Dursley's hands.

A series of brutal recollections exploded across his consciousness in rapid strobe flashes:

A seven-year-old Harry huddled in the darkness of the cupboard under the stairs, cradling his broken wrist and sobbing in silent agony after being beaten for burning Petunia's evening roast...

A nine-year-old Harry writhing on the frost-covered earth behind the tool shed, a boiling slice through his back from Vernon's belt after being caught levitating his cousin's bicycle for "freakishness"...

A twelve-year-old Harry pinned facedown against the living room carpet, the crack of his nose muffled by Dudley's meaty fists pulverizing his face for daring to outperform him at primary school...

Hades collapsed to his knees on the platform with a gargled scream as the full weight of the dementor's Arctic chill enveloped his psyche in a cocoon of unending anguish and fear. Dudley, The Dursleys, Quirrell - all those who had tormented and persecuted him throughout his wretched childhood - their sneering faces towered over him as twisted shrieks of mocking laughter echoed inside his skull.

Just as Hades felt himself beginning to slip into the blessed void of oblivion to escape the onslaught of horrific memories, a shimmering silver light blossomed at the edge of his fading vision. An enormous serpent-like creature composed of dazzling energy materialized, letting loose a haunting battle cry that seemed to reverberate at a molecular level. It coiled and lashed toward the dementor, striking with the force of a spectral freight train.

The grim reaper-like entity recoiled with an eerie wail before dispersing back into the ether. As the oppressive chill and aura of despair lifted from the platform, Hades gasped in ragged breaths of the warm summer air.

A pair of strong hands gripped his shoulders as a weathered but kindly voice spoke close to his ear.

"Easy there, son, take it slowly now. You're alright, the dementor has been driven away."

Blinking the tears of anguish from his eyes, Hades looked up into the lined face of a shabbily dressed middle-aged wizard with rich brown hair despite the streaks of gray at his temples. Warm amber eyes regarded him with profound relief tinged by lingering concern.

"R-Remus Lupin," the man supplied reading the confused recognition in Hades' gaze. "I'm the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor this term."

Hades felt the pieces slowly locking together in his rattled psyche - this was the brilliant former member of the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbeldore's lapdog now feigning obeisance to the Dark Lord's agenda. The realization stirred a flicker of righteous hatred within his chest, yet he still felt overcome by gratitude and sapped in the aftermath of the dementor's brutalization.

"You...you drove off that thing?" he rasped hoarsely. "But how...?"

"The Patronus Charm," Lupin replied gently. "It's a tremendously difficult conjuration of pure positive energy, a construct tailored uniquely to each caster to act as a shield against beings like dementors."

As if suddenly remembering himself, Lupin straightened and looked around brusquely. "We must get you inside and rested after that ordeal. Your friends too."

Hades became aware of Draco and the others hovering close behind, their faces all twisted in varying shades of shell-shocked horror. He allowed Lupin to pull him to his feet, steadying himself as the others quickly masked their fear behind the haughty Slytherin exteriors.

Soon enough they were ensconced within a private compartment, the scarlet steam engine already beginning to pull away from King's Cross Station. As Lupin handed Hades a steaming mug of tea fortified with a rejuvenation draught, the young wizard noticed the amber eyes studying him with more than a hint of tenderness.

Almost as if sensing the unspoken question, Lupin's expression sobered. "I also wanted to have a word with you, Harry - about Sirius Black."

Draco instantly stiffened, his fair features contorting into a sneer of revulsion. "That psychotic butcher has escaped to finish off—"

"Not another word, Malfoy," Lupin held up a hand, his expression inscrutable as he regarded the shaken teens.

"What you must understand about Sirius Black," he began heavily, "is that despite the atrocities he was convicted of, he was once one of the closest friends to your parents, Harry. He was your legal godfather, in fact, and loved you like his own flesh and blood."

Hades felt as though the very earth had been yanked from beneath him with whiplash force. Sirius Black...his GODFATHER? The man responsible for his parent's deaths who had rotted in Azkaban Prison for over a decade for his crimes - that monster had been the one entrusted to raise him in the Potters' absence?

"He could not have been my godparent," Hades hissed, shaking his head forcefully in denial. "Not after betraying my parents, handing them over to the Dark Lord, and slaughtering all those people!"

For the first time, genuine pain filtered across Lupin's careworn features. He leaned forward, gently clasping Hades by the shoulders with a beseeching look in those amber eyes.

"Your parents loved Sirius Black like a brother, Harry. And in those last terrifying days of the first Wizarding War, they went into hiding and made him their Secret Keeper. Neither James nor Lily had any inkling he would turn on them..."

Lupin trailed off, seeming lost in the tormented haze of bitter memories. When he spoke again, his voice dropped to a haunted rasp.

"The events of that Halloween night have long been shrouded, the truth obscured behind assumptions and false accusations. When you face Sirius Black, I implore you to listen with an open heart. For I fear there may be far more to the tragic tale of your parents' deaths than even I fully understand."

Hades could only stare, transfixed and shaken to his core as the Hogwarts Express rumbled relentlessly onward through the Scottish Highlands. The path forward had just taken yet another dizzying turn into shadows and uncertain truths...