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// Chapter 37:  The Patronus 
// Story: The Accidental Invasion 
// by computerneek 
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“Um, Hailey?”
Hailey looked around, and smiled, as Hermione trotted towards her on Platform Nine and Three Quarters.  She’d been looking at the trail of locomotives at the head of the Hogwarts Express, so long they stretched around a bend and out of sight.  “Yes, Hermione?”
Hermione stopped several feet away.  “Um…  I’ve been reading your report.  About the Chamber.”
She nodded.  “Okay,” she prompted.
“When…  When Voldemort cast the Killing Curse on you.  How did you ignore it?
She smiled.  “I didn’t.”
“Then how were you unaffected by it?”
“I wasn’t.”
She rolled her eyes.  “You know what I mean.  How did you withstand it, without even flinching?”
She shrugged.  “I was expecting the pain to my scar.”
“But what about the rest of you?  By all means, the killing curse should have done more than nothing!”
“I’m an Etrah,” she answered simply.
Hermione snorted.  “Of course you are.  But even being an Etrah won’t make you invincible!”
“Being an Etrah whose mother acts as a shield, and whose Unique Talent is the Impenetrable Defense, will.”
She raised an eyebrow.  “Really?”
She nodded.  “Really.  Though I do wonder how I became an Etrah in the first place- I mean, I never went through your Papa Tango, did I?”
“Ahh…  About that,” Hermione muttered.  “Where’s Ron?  I’d rather not explain it twice if I can help it.”
“I don’t think he’s here yet,” Hailey told her, glancing sideways at where Morning Sun was leaning casually against the side of the lead car, and grinned.  “According to Ron, their family always seems to be just barely in time, every time- means they’ve still got some twenty minutes or so.”
Hermione sighed.  “Oh, alright.  Remember the Potion in the bathroom?”
She blinked.  “Oh, yeah, I remember that.”
“I think that’s what did it.  I…”  She sighed.  “I’ll explain more fully when Ron’s here.  It’s a long one, but in short, I’m pretty sure it’s because Silver had already gone through the Papa Tango.”
Hailey chuckled.  “She’s the one we were ‘interviewing’, wasn’t she?”
“Yeah.  Wait, what?  How’d you-?”
She snickered.  “Just about anything is obvious if you look hard enough,” she told Hermione.  “I’m curious, have you flown any?”
Hermione stared.  “Wha- bu-!”  She took a deep breath.  “How did you know!?” she shrieked.
“Well, Pinkie said Harmonia said you’d ascended, and I happen to know what that means, so…”  She shrugged.  “If I’m ever able to talk to Harmonia myself, I know what I’m going to ask her.”
“Who’s Harmonia?”
Right at that moment, Bonbon trotted up.  “Hailey?”
“Mm?”
“Whaddya looking at?”
“The number of locomotives they’re using this time,” Hailey said, pointing.  “The driver said they’re working on upgraded coaches and locomotives, so the train should be quite a bit shorter on the way home- apparently, this is as many as they could find this year, and it still won’t be moving as fast as they want it to.”
“Ahh.  You should know, Professor Lupin is in compartment six of car nine, and he wants Harry invited to the same compartment with him.  Dumbledore’s instructions.”
Hailey rolled her eyes.  “Of course he does.  I bet it’s because they’re afraid of Sirius Black.”
“Who?” Bonbon asked.
“He escaped Azkaban,” Hailey supplied.
“Oh, him,” she nodded.  “Mass murderer, wasn’t it?”
“Yup.  And according to Rita, he’s hunting for Harry.  Only, I’ve met him, and he’s not so bad.”
“You’ve met him?” Hermione asked incredulously.
She nodded.  “I don’t think he realized who I am, but he just smiled and waved.”
“In any case, be that as it may,” Bonbon bowed, turned, and walked away.
Hailey looked at Hermione.  “Think I should show him?  I mean, he already knows I’m the HSI for DADA.  And that Harry didn’t get grades last year, either.”
“Are you sure it’s safe?”
“Oh My,” Hailey said facetiously.  “It might be dangerous to tell Dumbledore’s friend the identity of the person he’s protecting, when said person is indestructible!”  She giggled.  “Seriously.”
“Wait, he’s Dumbledore’s friend?” Hermione asked.
“Yup,” Hailey answered.  “According to Dumbledore, he’s an old friend that kindly agreed to take the slot.  That’s why everyone’s got DADA textbooks this year.”
She sighed.  “Well…  Might as well, then.  But how are you going to tell him?”
“Carefully,” she smiled.





Professor Remus Lupin looked up when someone knocked on the door to his compartment.  Dumbledore had asked him to be a ‘silent observer’ in Harry’s car- preferably ‘asleep’ or the like, but from the moment he’d stepped on the platform, he’d revised his plans.  Given the length of the train, it would be nearly impossible to guarantee Harry would choose his compartment, so he’d instead picked a favorable compartment and went out of his way to invite Harry and his friends to join him.
He still wasn’t sure exactly why Dumbledore wanted him to be with Harry specifically; it wasn’t like Black would be on the Hogwarts Express.
“Good morning,” he greeted, as the unlocked door slid open.
Unfortunately, though, it wasn’t Harry.  It was two girls- no, three girls; it looked like there was a third one just around the corner.  The first one, opening the door, bowed theatrically.  “Good morning, Professor Lupin,” she greeted.  “We’re, ah, friends, of Harry’s.  Do you mind if we join you while we wait for him?”  She reminded him of James’ wife, Lily, but she didn’t look quite like her.  A niece, maybe?
He wasn’t sure he liked the way she said ‘friends’, but they looked friendly enough.  “Sure,” he decided.
They filed in, just the three; the last of the three, whose hair strongly resembled the plumage of a phoenix, closed the door.
“I’m Hailey,” the first girl smiled, bowing again.  She turned to indicate her first companion, whose hair was a bright, metallic red, with icy blue fringes.  “This is Hermione Granger, and at the end of the line is Morning Sun.  Speaking of?” She looked inquisitively at Morning Sun.
The phoenix-haired girl only nodded.
Hailey gave a short nod, and turned back to Lupin, who was certain he was missing something.  “I’m also occasionally known as Harry Potter,” she said, and melted into him, about three inches taller.  Even her clothes changed!  “Though I’ll have to admit, I don’t really like being male, so-!”  He melted back into Hailey.  “I’m almost always Hailey Potter, Head Student Instructor for Defense Against the Dark Arts…  and, apparently, the Goddess of Reports.”  She giggled softly.
“Wha-!” Hermione began.  “Since when was that voluntary?  Didn’t you still have to hit yourself in the face?”
Hailey grinned, and waved her left hand in the air.  “Ever since I got my hand back, it’s been at will.  No doubt it’s going to save me a lot of sore noses.”  She laughed.  “Well, unless you count the part where I’m completely indestructible,” she told Lupin.  “Harry’s not, but I imagine the next person to punch me in the face will earn themselves a sore fist, rather than giving me a sore nose.”
“You’re-!” Morning began.  “You’re also Harry?”
Hailey looked.  “Uh, yes?  I thought the whole team knew.”
“Team?” Lupin asked.
She smiled at him.  “The Hogwarts Student Instructor Program Management Team,” she answered him.  “We’re both on it.  Meet Head Student Instructor for Transfiguration, Morning Sun.”
“And…  Miss Granger?”
Hermione shook her head.  “Nope.”
“Though,” Hailey mused.  “There has been some lively debate on whether or not you should be the HSI for Charms instead of Twilight.  In the end, I think the main reason it wasn’t offered is because you don’t know the Foreigner’s secret.”
“Why would that matter?” Hermione asked, confused.
She shrugged.  “Because once they told me, the whole team got a lot more comfortable, and we saw pretty close to a twenty percent efficiency increase because of it.  But I don’t expect that’s going to be a problem for much longer, after the Papa Tango.”
Very suddenly, Morning Sun opened the door and stuck her head out.  “Good morning, Draco!  Think you could send for Silversong?”  She retreated rapidly back into the compartment, and closed the door.





It didn’t take long for Professor Lupin to find out that Hailey had quite a few friends, unlike the ‘couple’ Dumbledore had suggested that Harry had.  Silversong had turned out to be a brilliantly cheerful girl with bright silver hair, split evenly into thirds by royal blue stripes.  After her, Hailey had stuck her head out the door to invite Ron and Ginny Weasley to join them.  The former had rather unspectacularly brown hair, though it still gleamed red in the sunlight from the window, while the latter had bright crimson hair to match her blush, split into thirds by fiery yellow stripes.  She’d dragged Ariel with her, a cheerful, shimmery girl with aquamarine hair, who looked like some kind of hybrid between a human and a ghost, even though she’d been able to close the door.  After those three, a girl named Diamond Tiara had appeared- or more accurately, Hailey had stuck her head out the door again to invite her.  Diamond’s purple hair was split in half by a wide white stripe down the middle, and when she was introduced to Silversong, she’d gazed at the girl and said ‘Hi’ in a stern, no-nonsense tone.  Silver had, for some reason, found it funny.
Out of all of them, Diamond was the one that surprised Lupin the most.  Yes, Morning Sun was a Ravenclaw, and Silversong didn’t wear a House Badge, but Diamond wore her Slytherin badge with pride.  All the others were Gryffindors, yet for as different as she was, her friendship with the rest of them didn’t seem any less real.
They chattered harmlessly about Hogsmeade, for the most part.  Apparently, a fair majority of them had never even heard of the village until they got the permission form, but none of them had any trouble getting it signed.  Apparently, Morning Sun was her own legal guardian, and Hailey’s Uncle Vernon had signed her form almost before he’d known she had it, in direct contradiction of Dumbledore’s expectations.  The others all had parents- or, in Diamond’s case, mothers- that had cheerfully signed their forms as well.  Well, aside from Ginny and Ariel, who were second-years- even though Ariel was just starting at Hogwarts.  No matter how hard he thought about it, Lupin couldn’t fathom how that might have happened- and commenting on it didn’t help.  He’d have to ask Dumbledore.
Eventually, though, there came the part he was worried about:  The dementors searched the train.  Perhaps the first thing he noticed was that, when the train came to a halt, the sound of the steam locomotive went away with the lights…  but he could still hear the deep, basso growl of the ‘diesel’ locomotives the muggles had supplemented it with.
It was near-instant pandemonium in the compartment- but, even though he’d had a fireball spell prepared to provide light, Hailey was the first to shed a light on it.  Thanks to his enhanced werewolf senses, he felt her arm shoot upwards from across the compartment before the brilliance of a bright ball of light shimmered into existence above her open, wandless hand.  She tossed the ball into the air, where it hovered near the lantern that had gone out.
“Calmly,” Hailey called, standing up.  “Calm down, girls!”
“Girls?” Hermione asked, half standing.
“Neither Ron nor Lupin are panicking,” Hailey retorted.
The compartment went suddenly silent, except for a distant crack of thunder- interesting, it wasn’t a rainy night.
Hailey let out a sigh.  “That’s better.  We’ll never get anything done if we panic.”
Lupin sighed, casting his fire spell into his left hand, and stood up.  “Stay where you-!” he began.
The door suddenly slid open behind Hailey.  She whirled to look- but Lupin already knew what was opening the door; she was short enough he could look comfortably over her head.  “Well hello there,” Hailey said conversationally, to the dementor.
It looked, silently, around the compartment…  then drew a long, rattling breath.  Lupin felt the unnatural cold wash over the compartment, and saw Hailey flinch.
She wasn’t the only one.  Ron shivered; Diamond’s arms clenched.  Ginny and Ariel hugged one another, and Hermione curled up into a ball.  Only Morning Sun seemed to be unaffected.
It also sucked all the warmth out of Hailey’s voice.  “What are you doing?” she demanded coldly.
The dementor didn’t respond.
“None of us are hiding Black under our cloaks,” Lupin told it.
Again, though, it made no response.  Its hands came free from its robes, though- that was never a good sign.  Lupin drew his wand, but Hailey was faster.  She raised hers at the same moment, having apparently had an idea, so he hesitated even as he concentrated on his happiest memory.  What was she going to do?
Then…  she spoke.  She spoke very softly, but her voice carried a deadly calm.
“Expecto Patronum.”