Chapter 336: Patronus (Edited)

"The timeout is coming to an end, so if you want to eat something, hurry up," Richie reminded his teammates, telling them to watch their time and hurry.

Hermione appeared once again, running up to Tom and placing a still-warm ribbon around his neck. It was a ribbon made up of small hollow squares, with a silver rose embedded in it.

It was the white-rose bracelet that Tom had given Hermione before.

Tom stroked the ribbon that still retained Hermione's body heat, feeling a warm current flowing from the ribbon to his chest, spreading throughout his body. Suddenly, his numb body from the cold warmed up.

"It's very warm and fragrant," Tom caressed the ribbon, adjusting its position.

After tying the ribbon around Tom's neck, Hermione didn't rush to leave. She rushed down from the stands to deliver the "warmer," not just for that, but also to tell Tom something that had occurred to her.

"Be careful with the Dementors!" Hermione quickly said, "I read in a book that Dementors feed on happiness, and now in this environment, I'm afraid that-"

"Exactly what I was thinking," Tom stroked Hermione's head, fixing her messy hair falling over her forehead. "I'll be careful."

Seeing that Tom was prepared, Hermione breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'll be watching you from the stands, so keep playing," Hermione said before leaving without looking back, returning to the Ravenclaw stands. The halftime break was over, and the fourteen players flew back into the sky.

The quality of the bracelet was excellent, and while flying in the air, Tom didn't feel the cold at all; it was as if he had a heated pad stuck to his body.

"Ugh!" Tom threw the Quaffle into Gryffindor's goal, and there was a groan from the Gryffindor stands right in front of him, but it was immediately drowned out by cheers from the Ravenclaw stands behind.

Tom took the opportunity to move away from the goalposts, looking for an advantageous position after Wood threw the Quaffle.

At that moment, a zigzag-shaped lightning bolt illuminated the playing field, and Tom's gaze shifted to the Gryffindor stands in front of him. A dark figure caught his attention: a large black dog with unruly fur, crouching in the highest row of empty seats in the stands.

Just at that moment, Wood, next to Tom, shouted desperately, "Harry, behind you!"

Immediately, Tom saw Harry move his broom and fly into the sky, followed by Albert. Tom felt the urge to follow them but ultimately stopped his broom and glided toward the Ravenclaw stands. He knew that, without surprises, the match was about to end.

At this moment, the players from both teams were exhausted and had no intention of launching more attacks; they all watched the two black dots in the sky, awaiting the final outcome. Even Wood was only holding the Quaffle and panting, determined to delay the throw as much as possible. At this moment, Gryffindor could no longer afford to lose more points; even if Harry caught the Golden Snitch, they couldn't win.

If the point difference between the two teams exceeded one hundred and fifty points, even if the losing team caught the Golden Snitch, they couldn't win the match. This situation had occurred more than once, and the reason was the peculiar rule that the match would only end when the Golden Snitch was caught. If a Quidditch match lasted a long time, the point difference could easily exceed one hundred and fifty points, so the possession of the Golden Snitch wasn't as crucial.

There was no need to keep fighting; Tom was happy to rest. Unlike his teammates, the two people suspended in the air didn't interest him at all. Instead, he was more interested in the young wizards around him. Tom looked toward the Ravenclaw stands, and the first thing he saw was a massive raven, the size of an eagle. Of course, the raven was just an ornament, and its owner was Luna, who had added a raven to her hat as decoration.

Luna saw Tom looking at her and stroked the raven, which opened its beak and cried out loudly, "Cheer up, Tom Yodel! Ravenclaw will triumph!"

"A little interesting thing," Tom chuckled at the comical appearance of the raven. However, he was more interested in finding Hermione. His gaze wandered until he finally spotted her near Luna. She stood at the front of the Ravenclaw stands, where there was no shelter from the rain, but she was closer to the players on the field.

Tom froze when he saw rainwater cascading from Hermione's forehead, running through her hair and face, soaking her completely. In the midst of the storm, Hermione's figure seemed fragile, as if she would collapse at any moment.

She was like a stubborn and beautiful flower.

In a flash of lightning, Tom saw that Hermione's face was pale, colorless, but her eyes still gleamed, staring at him without wavering.

Tom felt a pang in his chest and quickly gestured for her to come to a place without wind and rain, otherwise, she would surely get sick if she continued to be soaked like that.

Hermione could clearly see Tom's movements, but she just waved her hand without paying attention. Suddenly, her expression changed, and she anxiously pointed toward the sky. Tom followed the direction of her finger and saw how the horizon turned strangely dark, not the darkness of a rainy day but a color of death.

The Dementors had arrived.

"What's happening?" A young wizard noticed the anomaly with his sharp instinct. "Why does it look like that?"

He pointed to the deathly sky in the distance and exclaimed. His voice attracted the attention of others, and more and more people noticed the anomaly.

Hermione felt a chill run through her body, and she staggered a bit before reacting. She drew her wand and shouted into the sky, "They're Dementors! Tom, come back quickly!"

Whether out of fear or from the cold, her voice trembled.

The young wizards around her were bewildered by her words and instinctively didn't believe such claims. But the next moment, the Dementors personally demonstrated Hermione's words.

Hundreds of Dementors emerged from the clouds and circled high in the sky like tattered bags. Albert, who was closest to them, pulled back abruptly and began descending rapidly from a great height, with a thin layer of ice even forming on his broom.

Harry's situation was even worse; he appeared to have lost consciousness and fell headfirst from the sky.

Hermione's fingers trembled slightly as she aimed her wand at the group of Dementors and spoke the incantation with a trembling yet firm voice, "Expecto Patronum!"

Tom, who was close to her, also instinctively drew his own wand and shouted after Hermione, "Expecto Patronum!"

This time, his Patronus changed.