CHAPTER FORTY-ONE - Monday Evening, Six O’Clock

Double potions were the first two classes on the morning of the first day back at school. Harry and Ron's moods were instantly darkened upon entering the dungeon, and for once, Attuoria didn't feel any better than them. She could sense Snape's gaze on her whenever her back was turned. It was making her feel all twisted inside, and she knew it was the human emotion of being "nervous".

What was there to be nervous for? It was a simple task. Half of her "summer break" was spent preparing for this. It was going to be easy. Snape had said two hours max, but Attuoria was confident she would get it done in one and a half.

After their final afternoon lesson, Attuoria and her friends went for an early dinner, since Harry needed to be at Occlumency at six. Harry looked listless, yet his nervousness was displayed clearly on his face. Attuoria wondered how his lesson would go. Harry's thoughts have always been extremely loud. Even louder, now, since Attuoria's abilities have grown stronger. She could feel the energy of fear, grudge, and hesitation radiating off of him. If Attuoria wasn't a heartless demon, she might've succumbed to his negative emotions, too.

"I've got to go," Harry mumbled, rising from the table. He barely touched any food. "I'll see you guys later."

"Good luck," said Ron, patting him on the shoulder.

"We'll be at the library!" said Hermione.

The two glanced at Attuoria expectantly, waiting for her to give Harry words of encouragement as well. But Attuoria was also deep in thought, planning out an excuse for her leave. In her past experiences, her excuses have never been good. She lacked the creativity many humans had, since her mind worked on pure rationality and logic.

"Oi, you're not gonna wish Harry good luck or anything? It's Snape he's having lessons with." Ron said, tapping Attuoria's empty plate with his fork.

Snape said to use Hagrid as cover… should I say I'm going over to help Hagrid out with lesson planning? Attuoria tapped her chin absently as she thought. No, what if they end up looking for me, and I'm not there? I should probably come up with an excuse that doesn't involve another person. They would be a liability.

"Attuoria?" Hermione tapped her gently on the shoulder.

If humans are a liability… then what about animals? Could I use my creature friends as an excuse? The knarl and bowtruckle both live in my room, so they won't be of much help. Eylense roams around in the forest a lot, so that could be an excuse for disappearing.

"Does she usually zone out for this long?" Ron asked Hermione, who shrugged.

"Do you think the lesson's gonna go well?" Attuoria finally said, redirecting her thoughts.

"It's Snape. Of course not." Ron immediately replied. "What, you think either of them want to be there? I doubt it."

"Yeah, that's the problem, isn't it?" said Attuoria. "I'm afraid that he'll get weaker, if you know what I mean."

Hermione nodded furiously, scaring Ron slightly. "That's what I was thinking. I know exactly what you mean. Snape's going to attempt to penetrate Harry's mind with Legilimency, except Legilimency from someone who's not born with it is going to be rather forceful. It'll leave Harry tired, vulnerable, even. I'm worried about that."

"Me too," Attuoria said quietly. "I want to help him, but I don't know how. I've never been good at teaching. Would I even be able to teach something that I was born with?"

"Maybe you could help him in a different way," said Ron.

"What do you mean?"

Ron shrugged. "I dunno."

"I know!" Hermione exclaimed, her eyes shining. "Remember how Attuoria was able to communicate with Hagrid's dragon during our first year? Attuoria, how did you do it?"

"I pushed my thoughts into his mind."

"Right, that's what I thought. If you can push thoughts into a creature's mind, can you push thoughts into a human's mind?"

"Probably. Haven't tried."

"Well try it now! If it works, then that means you could potentially distract Harry and in some way protect his mind!"

Attuoria had no clue what Hermione was trying to say. She glanced at Ron. Ron looked confused, too.

"Just try! Push a thought into my mind." Hermione widened her eyes and stared straight at Attuoria. Determination was written across her face, an odd situation for determination, Attuoria thought.

She entered Hermione's mind. It was mostly blank, surprisingly, except for a few hopeful thoughts about her new strategy to help Harry.

Simply placing a thought inside someone's mind was way too easy. Attuoria wanted to test the limits of her powers. Perhaps she could conjure up a scene for someone to view inside their mind. It would be like creating a nightmare, but in the form of a quick, lingering thought.

Attuoria pulled out her memory of her first contact with the baby unicorn in the forbidden forest, and slowly placed it into Hermione's mind. This was something nobody knew about. She watched as Hermione's eyes widened even more.

"Wow," she breathed. "A unicorn! I never thought a unicorn would look so… angelic. It's more beautiful than the books could ever describe."

"Attuoria, what have you done to Hermione?" Ron commented, gazing at Hermione, who seemed to be in deep shock.

"Experiencing a once in a lifetime experience, I suppose." Attuoria said, standing up and grabbing her bag from the bench. "I've got to go. I told Eylense I'd meet him tonight."

"From the way you talk, I forget your bird is in fact a bird and not a human." said Ron.

"Human or bird, does it matter? It's all the same to me." Attuoria shrugged. "For all I know, Pigwidgeon might be more intelligent than you."

Ron clicked his tongue, smiling. "I would get mad at you right now, but I know for a fact that you've never bothered to listen to my stupid owl's thoughts, so your statement was probably just another weak attempt at a joke."

"You're a joke," said Attuoria lamely, knowing that that was yet another weak attempt at a joke. Ron was right. She had no clue how to be funny like him or his brothers.

Ron waved her off. "Go find your bird friend, I'll take care of whatever you've done to Hermione."

They both glanced at their brown-haired friend, who was now staring at her plate and mumbling something like "no wonder unicorn tail hair can be used in wand cores."

Attuoria dropped her bag off at her dorm before running up at least fifteen flights of stairs to the Astronomy Tower. The sun was laying on the horizon of the Great Lake, mixing the water with a warm shade of orange and red. A lilac hue tinted the sky, fading into a deeper purple the further it was from the sun.

"Don't be seen," Snape had warned her. A simple disillusionment charm would do the trick. The effects run out in around half an hour, which would be enough time for her to get to Azkaban.

After performing the charm on herself, Attuoria stored her wand into a temporary sleeve she made out of the misty material Draco had returned to her on Christmas. She willed it to wrap around her arm, which bound her wand safely against her forearm. It would be accessible without getting in the way.

Her hands gripped the railing on the edge of the Astronomy Tower. Flying to Azkaban from Hogwarts was closer than flying from Malfoy Manor. She would have a higher view of the area to begin with, which would be helpful. The North Sea was hard to maneuver through, even in the air. After all, it was just a vast ocean of never-ending blue. Attuoria relied on following the energy of auras and dementors to get to Azkaban. Since the dementors were similar to her on a spiritual level, their presence was hard to miss, even when separated by thousands of miles.

Taking a deep breath in, Attuoria jumped onto the railing and launched herself off the tower. The cool evening air blew past her as she fell, but only for a brief second. Her skills in unsupported flight brought her right back up until she was hovering above the tip of the Astronomy Tower.

Unsupported flight, as Voldemort had taught her, wasn't the manipulation of self, but rather the environment. It was much simpler than many realised, yet extremely difficult to successfully implement.

The key was the manipulation of air. Simple as that. Non-livings were much easier to manipulate, since they don't have a will of their own. If you could manipulate the air to do as you wish, then you could fly in any direction. But the issue with air is that the particles are scattered. Each individual particle of air moves on its own. Unsupported flight means the witch or wizard in question has to control trillions, quadrillions, quintillion of air molecules all at once. Every inch of your body has to be radiating magical energy in order to command all the air surrounding you.

It was difficult to learn. Very difficult. It required focus, yet not too much focus. Balance was needed in order not to have one leg being dragged down by gravity while the rest of the body continued flying, or vice versa, where one leg was flying and the rest of the body was hanging on by a thread.

The balance in focus was natural for Attuoria, now. Her mind was wired to do multiple things at once. While humans had one conscience and one sub-conscience, Attuoria had many "sub-consciences" that could be brought forth any time to become the "main conscience", or so to say.

Attuoria crossed the Hogwarts Great Lake by air within a few minutes. She was going faster than she'd ever gone, knowing that the quicker she got back, the easier things would be.

Long mountainous ranges spread out underneath her- the Scotland Highlands were much bigger than she realised. The scenery was different from when she'd flown from Malfoy Manor. From Wiltshire to the North Sea, civilization was evident all the way to the coast. But right now, not a single red, brown, or black rooftop was in sight. The forests below were glowing a warm orange from the setting sun in the west, accompanied by the shuffling sounds of the evening breeze grazing through the branches and leaves.

Asides from the swaying wildgrass and tall evergreen trees, the only company Attuoria had were the eagles that soared some distance underneath her, of which their wingspans would have appeared rather menacing if her bird friend wasn't the largest eagle species in the world. If Eylense were here, he would've gladly shown off his magnificent half-meter-long feathers.

Soon, the green hills racing below her were replaced by navy water. The sun was gone, and a waning moon was the only illumination left in this calm winter night.

The rest of the flight was peaceful. Usually, the North Sea was ridden with nightly storms, but today was unusually quiet. There were no gulls or auks as Attuoria flew by. Perhaps this was a sign that a storm was approaching. Not now, but soon. Soon enough that the birds have taken cover.

Attuoria was beginning to hear the voices. The monotonous droning of a dementor's aura (yes, their auras made a sound), and the pulsing auras of the human prisoners. She could feel it, too. The temperature was dropping towards the north-east.

Slowly redirecting the wind onto the right track, Attuoria glanced at her surroundings. It really was an endless ocean. Even under the aid of the moonlight, she could see nothing but black sky and black sea. To a human who relied on their five senses to make sense of the world, this environment would've caused panic. But to a demon who relied on intuition and a "sixth sense", this felt like home. Lack of vision, lack of sound, lack of touch, lack of grasp with reality. Floating in the middle of nowhere, shrouded in the darkness.

Attuoria shuddered, feeling the temperature grow colder still. A small but tall island was revealing itself through the mist up ahead. The looming, iron prism. Strong, relentless, and intimidating, despite being surrounded by waves that angrily pushed at it from all sides.

The dementors came out to meet her, as if greeting an old friend. They floated by her side as she flew towards the building, washing her in a wave of sudden iciness. Attuoria was shivering by the time she landed safely on the rooftop.

"At last, the demon has returned," the dementors echoed around her.

Among the dementors, there were no formalities. Every entity was equal, and everything else was inferior.

"I'm here to take a few prisoners," Attuoria voiced directly, glancing up at the wispy black cloaks that swirled in the air above her. "You don't have to do anything except let them leave."

"Do as you wish," the dementors answered curtly. "As long as your promise still holds, and his as well."

"It is out of my full control, but I promise to fulfil your requests to the best of my ability," Attuoria reassured. "Now show me the prisoners."

***

Manic laughter. Screaming. Freedom.

Attuoria watched as the ten Death Eaters she rallied jumped out of the iron prism and into the ocean below. A giant hole bore into the side of this legendary unbreakable prison. It wasn't unbreakable anymore.

"The place of the first kill, the place of the first kill…" A man mumbled as he paced back and forth. Everyone had fled. He was the last of the lot.

"Have you forgotten the place of the first kill?" Attuoria asked curiously, startling him.

"Oh! No- no of course not!" The man said hurriedly, fear flashing through his eyes. "No, no, uh, the kill- um, what kill?" He gave her a pleading gaze.

"I don't know where the place of the first kill is." Attuoria said, answering his unspoken plea.

"But you must know, you're the one giving the orders here- aren't you heading there too? Is this a test? Of- of our loyalty?"

Attuoria stared at him blankly. His thoughts were very, very loud. Louder even than the howling wind that came through the hole and blew Attuoria's hair above her head. He was panicking, confused, scared, desperate-

It took less than a second before the pieces of this situation clicked into place. How many Death Eaters had escaped already?

Attuoria ran through her memory of the past few minutes. One, two, three… ten… eleven, twelve-

Of course. This hole in the wall was less than conspicuous. It was only natural that the other prisoners wanted to take this chance to escape as well.

She glanced at the panicking man. Why was he hesitating? Why was he troubling himself over the meeting point of the Death Eaters, when he clearly wasn't one himself?

A sudden rush of eagerness from the dementors answered her questions, followed by screams. Attuoria glanced down over the edge of the broken building. Down in the water, being roughly beaten by the waves and rocks, were a cluster of escapees. They were surrounded by dementors.

The dementors had been told which of the ten prisoners were going to escape. Those ten were given amnesty- but no others were pardoned. The dementors wanted to keep their current food source as plentiful as possible.

Those escapees down there were going to drown. If they were lucky, they'd make it back on shore.

Attuoria snapped her gaze towards the last man who stood at the edge. He was frozen, eyes wide as he stared down at the swarm of dementors near the ocean surface.

"Good luck," Attuoria said quietly. The man didn't respond.

Without taking another look underneath her, Attuoria lept out of the building. She flew with ease, higher and higher into the sky until she was on the same level as the clouds.

The flight back was quiet. The moon guided her way through the darkness, it's silvery light filtering through the clouds and shimmering against the black ocean below. It wasn't long before the ocean underneath her became forests, then mountains, then the familiar Great Lake of Hogwarts. Eylense flew up to meet her once she was above the Forbidden Forest, and the two descended down onto the dirt, keeping a good distance from the border that led to Hagrid's hut.

"Why didn't you bring me food?" was Eylense's first question once they were safely on the ground.

"You've got to be kidding," said Attuoria, flattening down her clothes. She glanced around, figured out which part of the forest she was in, and began walking. "Since when have I ever brought food back for you? You're the hunter, and you're great at it."

"I know but that weird giant human keeps taking my food! The animals in the forest don't even come out anymore." Eylense complained, scuttling forward to catch up to her using his clumsy feet.

"You mean Hagrid's brother? Grawp?" Attuoria answered using her thoughts, projecting them into Eylense's mind. She really was getting good at this. She didn't even have to maintain eye contact.

"Yeah, whatever his name. I've resorted to eating bats and squirrels because of him. And let me tell you, bats have got no meat whatsoever."

"Thanks for sharing."

Eylense slapped the back of Attuoria's leg with his wing, making her stumble slightly. She glared at him.

"Food." He demanded.

"Sassy bird." Attuoria retorted, but then swerved and stomped back into the forest. "What do you want to eat?"

"You're going to hunt?" Eylense asked with a tone of disbelief and skepticism. "You're a weak little human."

"And you're a bird that lets the giant human take your food. Shut your beak."

"My beak is shut."

Wow. Even the bird had a better sense of humour than her. Attuoria's eyes narrowed as she looked around.

"What does Grawp eat…?" Attuoria asked aloud, both to herself and to Eylense.

"Deers." Eylense sounded like he was ordering from a restaurant. "They're so big and juicy. Only Hagrid ever catches those. Could you catch one for me?"

Deers. Attuoria the Nightmare Demon in human form catching a deer in the Forbidden Forest. Sounds like a task.

"Okay, let's split the work. Can you fly around the forest and locate a deer for me? And I'll take care of the rest." Attuoria explained, and Eylense dipped his head.

"Will do." He spread his wings and took off into the sky again. Attuoria didn't have to wait long before he came back.

"Found one, really close. I'll bring you there, but can you not walk? You're very loud when you walk." Eylense commented, landing on a branch above her.

"Will do." Attuoria used her unsupported flight to hover slightly above the ground. Eylense took off again, and she followed from below. It took less than a minute to get to the spot, and Attuoria could see a large male deer behind the trees across from a small stream. It had large antlers that spread out like a staghorn coral. No wonder Eylense refused to take on a deer in a fight.

"Good luck." Eylense said, gently resting on a high branch so he could get a good view of the forest below.

"Remind me why I still keep you around?" Attuoria asked sarcastically, but then brought her focus to the prey in front of her.

Slowly, she slipped her wand out from the sleeve on her forearm. It slid smoothly into her palm, and she felt the cool wood on her skin. The best spell for this situation was the arrow-shooting spell. It would be able to travel a long distance relatively accurately, and wouldn't cause too much unnecessary damage to the deer's body.

Just as she raised her wand up to cast the spell, something hit her hand and her wand fell to the ground. The force against her hand was so strong that she was flung to the side, her hand hitting a tree and latching itself there as her body jerked to the momentum of her fall.

A high pitched screech echoed across the forest, a large shadow casted across Attuoria's body as her big bird flew to land in front of her. She slowly pulled her eyes open to see that Eylense was standing in front of her with his wings wide open, as if shielding her.

Attuoria glanced up at her hand, which hadn't moved from the position where it hit the tree. A long arrow had pierced through the back of her hand and into the wood, so she was stuck fast. Blood was trickling down the back of her hand and onto her forearm.

Eylense's wings really were huge, and so was his body. He was almost a meter tall in height, and his wings spread to nearly three. Behind this mass of feathers, Attuoria really couldn't see a thing. She lowered her head as much as she could without tugging too much on her injured arm, trying to peek outside through Eylense's feet.

On top of the dirt and fallen leaves, was a pair of hooves.