94 hp Diagon Alley

How about ghosts? cried another Death Eater. "Let them out, they'll find him soon!" "

"The Dark Lord wants to kill Potter himself—"

"—the dementors won't kill him! The Dark Lord wants Potter's life, not his soul. It would be easier to kill him if he had been kissed first!"

The Death Eaters yelled their agreement.A wave of fear flitted through Harry's mind: to dispel the dementors he would have to summon the Patronus, and that would expose him immediately.

"Just try to Apparate, Harry!" whispered Hermione.

As soon as she had finished speaking, Harry felt an uncharacteristic chill hit the street.The lights all around were sucked away, even the stars disappeared.In the pitch blackness, he felt Hermione grab his arm and they spun around together.

The air they had to travel through seemed to become solid: they couldn't Apparate anymore.The Death Eater's spell is really powerful.The chill seeped into Harry's skin bit by bit.He, Ron, and Hermione backed up step by step in the small street, groping along the walls, trying not to make a sound.Then, Dementors appeared on the corner of the street. There were more than a dozen of them, drifting over without a sound.He could see them because their black cloaks, scabbed and rotting hands were deeper than the surrounding darkness.Can they sense fear nearby?Harry knew it would.They seemed to be moving faster now, taking one of those long, slow, rattling breaths that loathed him, tasting the desperation in the air, and closing in on—

He raised his wand.No matter what happened next, he couldn't and wouldn't be kissed by a dementor. "Call God!" he whispered, thinking of Ron and Hermione.

The silver stag darted out of his wand and rushed forward.The dementors fled in all directions, and from out of sight came a yell of triumph.

"It's him, right there, right there, and I see his Patronus, a stag!"

The dementors receded, the stars began blinking again, and the footsteps of the Death Eaters grew louder.In desperation, Harry didn't know how to deal with it for a while.Just then there was the creaking of a latch nearby, a door on the left side of the side street opened, and a brusque voice said, "Come in, Potter, come in!"

Harry complied without hesitation, and the three rushed through the open door.

"Go upstairs, don't take off the invisibility cloak, don't make a sound!" said a tall figure, walked from them to the side street, and closed the door heavily.

"This way," Gwen pointed to the direction of Aberforth's room above the stairs, and then made a silent gesture, "I'll help him, you guys stay well hidden."

Harry hadn't known where they were, but now, in the flickering light of a lone candle, he saw the dingy, sawdust-strewn counter of the Hog's Head.They ran behind the counter and through another door leading to a rickety wooden staircase, which they climbed as fast as they could.At the top of the stairs was the living room, with its worn carpet and a small fireplace, above which hung a large oil painting of a fair-haired girl looking blankly and tenderly into the room.

Shouts came from the street below.Still wearing the cloak of invisibility, they crept up to the grimy windows and looked down.Their savior - who Harry recognized now as the owner of the Hog's Head - was the only one not wearing a hood.

"What's the matter?" he yelled at a hooded face, "what's the matter? You dare bring dementors into my alley, I'm going to call Patronuses on them! I can't let them near me , I told you, absolutely not!"

"That's not your Patronus!" said a Death Eater. "That's a stag, Potter's!"

"Stag!" bellowed the innkeeper, drawing his wand. "Stag! You idiot—call God to protect you!"

From the tip of his staff came a huge horned thing: it rushed down the street with its head buried, and disappeared.

"That's not what I saw—" said the Death Eater, not as sure as before.

"Somebody's breaking the curfew, you hear it," one of his accomplices said to the barkeeper, "somebody's breaking the rules and running into the street—"

"If I want to let the cat out, of course I will, what the hell curfew!"

"You triggered the Screaming Curse?"

"So what if it's me? Are you going to take me to Azkaban? Just because I stuck my nose out of my house and kill me? Well, if you want to do this, you can do it! But for You think about it, I advise you not to press your little dark mark to summon him. He will not be happy when he comes and only sees me and my old cats, will he?"

"Don't worry about us," said one of the Death Eaters, "think about yourself, breaking curfew!"

"Where are you guys going to resell potions and drugs if the Hog's Head is closed? What about your little side business?" Gwen emerged from behind him, threatening in a fake hoarse voice.

"How dare you threaten—?"

"I promise to keep it to myself, that's what you're here for, isn't it?"

"I still think I saw a stag Patronus!" shouted the first Death Eater.

"A stag?" roared the barman. "That's a goat, idiot!"

"Okay, okay, we got it wrong," said the second Death Eater, "If you dare to violate the curfew, we will not be so polite!"

"Did you hear, you two idiots—I'm talking about my cats, gentlemen," Gwen yelled into the street, waving Dog and Crookshanks back, "Stop wobbling around, idiots, come on Go back to your nest and stay."

The Death Eaters turned and returned to the street.With a sigh of relief, Hermione slipped out from under the cloak and sat down on a rickety chair.Harry drew the curtains shut and pulled the Invisibility Cloak off himself and Ron.They heard the barkeeper bolting the bar door below and going up the stairs.

The barkeeper entered the room.

"You bloody fools," he said roughly, looking at the three of them one by one, "what do you think you've come here?"

"Thank you," said Harry, "I can't thank you enough. You saved our lives."

The barkeeper muttered angrily.Harry stepped forward and looked up at his face, trying to see him through the wispy strands of gray hair and beard.He wore glasses, and behind the dirty lenses, his blue eyes were bright and piercing.

He turned around, no longer looked at the three of them, and lit the lamps with his wand.

Gwen returned Crookshanks to Hermione, and the cat was overjoyed, and jumped straight into Hermione's arms, snoring on her lap.The clever little witch looked a little embarrassed, but she did not forget to thank Gwen.

"You're Aberforth," Harry said into the shopkeeper's back.

Noncommittal, he bent over to light the fire.

Aberforth said, "Albus told me about you. I've been keeping an eye on you."

Ron was gasping for breath.

"That silver doe!" he said excitedly, "is that you too?"

"What are you talking about?" Aberforth asked.

"Someone sent a doe Patronus to find us!"

"Such a brain, you can be a Death Eater, boy. Didn't I just prove that my Patronus is a goat?"

"Oh," said Ron, "yes... well, I'm hungry!" his stomach rumbled suddenly, and he said it defensively.

"I have something to eat," said Aberforth.He gave Gwen a look, and she had to give up reminiscing with her three friends, and went out of the room, only to return a moment later with a large loaf of bread, a few slices of cheese, and a pitcher of mead, and put them on the stove. On a small table in front of the fire.The three of them ate and drank hungrily, and the room fell silent for a while, save for the crackling of the fire, the clinking of goblets, and the sound of chewing food.

"Lucky, I'm the one who baked the bread today," said Gwen, sighing again, "you three freaked me out—just showing up—"

"Okay," said Aberforth, by this time they'd had their fill, and Harry and Ron slumped sleepily in their chairs, "need to figure out the best way to get you out of here. Not at night, as you heard just now, what happens if someone is outdoors at night: touch the Howling Charm and they'll jump at you like a Bowtruckle on a fox egg. I'm afraid I can't use it a second time The goat has gone to pretend to be a stag. Wait until dawn, when the curfew is lifted, you can put on the invisibility cloak again and start on foot. Leave Hogsmeade quickly and go to the mountains, where you can Apparate and maybe see the sea G. He's been hiding in a cave with Glop since they tried to get him."

"We're not leaving," said Harry, "we need to get into Hogwarts."

"Don't be a fool, boy," said Aberforth.

"We have to go," said Harry.

"What you must do," said Aberforth, leaning forward, "is to get as far away from here as possible."

"You don't understand. Time is running out, we must enter the castle. Dumbledore - your brother - wants us to -"

The firelight shone on Aberforth's spectacles, and the grimy lenses suddenly turned an opaque, splint-like bright white, and Harry thought of the blind eyes of the giant spider Aragog.

"My brother Abu Si wants many things