Chapter 549: Cats and dogs made great contributions.

"Lumos!"

Harry quickly lit his wand, the soft glow only illuminating a small area around him, but the limited light brought some warmth to Harry's otherwise cold body.

"What, what, what have you done? Stop it, stop it."

Dudley's fearful voice pierced Harry's eardrums.

He looked around, and by the faint glow of his wand, he saw a dim, plump figure crouched in a ball, not far from him.

"I didn't do anything?! Shut up and don't move!"

Harry said, as he reached Dudley's side.

Realizing he could see again, Dudley, not caring about the magic he had feared, jumped to his feet and grabbed Harry's arm tightly.

"What's going on, you used magic! I'm going to tell Dad..."

Dudley shouted incoherently, making Harry's head hurt.

"I told you to shut up! I didn't do this!"

Harry tried to free himself from Dudley's hands, but he was nowhere near as strong as his cousin, and the terrified Dudley was already looking at Harry like a lifeline, he was gripping Harry's arms so tightly Harry felt like he was going to break them.

"Don't leave me, don't leave me!"

Dudley, almost twice Harry's size, was screaming like a baby, trying to hide his body behind Harry's, all the while not letting go of his grip.

Harry had to twist his arm back, in an awkward and uncomfortable position, holding the wand as high as he could, watching his surroundings warily.

"You idiot! Dudley!" shouted Harry through gritted teeth, both from the obstruction and the pain in his arm.

By the light of his wand, Harry could finally see two tall figures hovering, leaning towards them, one behind the other.

They were Dementors, indeed,

Harry's heart shrank and he shouted at Dudley, who was twisting his arm, "Let go of me! They're coming."

But his warning frightened Dudley even more, who shouted, "They? Who are they? Who are they coming?!"

And as he shouted, he continued to twist Harry's arm, so that Harry had to reach out to keep his arm from breaking.

"Expecto Patronum!"

Harry tried to concentrate his mind on summoning his Patronus.

But Dudley's actions prevented him from concentrating, and as grumpy as Harry was these days, the tip of his wand only emitted a cloud of silvery white smoke that stopped the Dementors in their tracks for an instant before disappearing.

"Let me go, I can't cast spells like that!" cried Harry anxiously.

But as the Dementor drew closer, Dudley had lost all sense of reason and was clinging to Harry for dear life, his body shaking and muttering incoherently.

Harry could only try helplessly to remember what was pleasing to him, and then, in an even more awkward position than before, he used the Patronus Charm again, "Patronum Expecto!".

An even thinner silver-white smoke flew from the tip of Harry's wand and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

As the Dementors drew closer and closer, a laugh rang in Harry's head, a harsh, piercing laugh... with less and less positive emotions in his mind, causing the Patronus he had summoned this time, to fail to even hinder the Dementors.

"Expecto...expecto.... Patronum!"

Harry plucked up his courage and tried again, but there was no more joy in his mind, the shrill, heart-breaking laughter was getting louder and louder.....

This time there was no more smoke, just an insignificant silver-white flash on the tip of his wand.

The two Dementors were already in front of Harry, who could feel the stinking, deathly cold breath of the Dementors filling his lungs, suffocating him, and he could even see the gray, slimy, crusty hands of the Dementors coming out of their robes and clawing at his and Dudley's face.

Am I going to die?

Harry was filled with despair.

"Nya!"

Just as the Dementors' hands were about to touch Harry, a harsh cat meow jolted Harry out of his senses, and he saw the bodies of the two Dementors stagger as if they had been hit by something.

"Nya!" "Nya!" "Nya...!" "Woof, Woof, Woof!" "Woof-Woof-Woof!" "Woof-Woof-Woof!"

There was a series of meows and barks from cats and dogs, and Harry realized that a large group of cats and dogs had gathered around them at some point.

Of course Harry knew these animals, they were all pets and stray dogs and cats that lived in the neighborhood, friends that Fish had asked to help protect him and that Harry had fed several times with Comey.

The dogs and cats, biting and scratching, attacked the two Dementors, doing them no harm, but preventing them from attacking him and Dudley.

Ah, yes, Sirius had escaped Azkaban by becoming an animagus.

Harry suddenly remembered that the Dementors' powers didn't seem to have much effect on the animals.

As the cats and dogs tangled with the Dementors, Harry struggled to free his arm from Dudley's grip, but even though Dudley nearly fainted, his fat hands now gripped his arm in a steel grip and Harry couldn't free them with his strength.

After sweating profusely from exhaustion, Harry realized he was a wizard!

"Desmaius!"

A red light hit Dudley's thick arm, knocking him limp, and the already unconscious Dudley went limp, letting go of Harry's arm and falling to the ground, but even so, his body was still shaking and sobbing.

Harry rubbed his aching arms and looked at the two Dementors.

They were in a terrible state, surrounded by small animals, their tattered black cloaks ripped and torn by cats and dogs, revealing their ugly bodies inside.

"Expecto Patronum!"

A huge silver stag sprang from the tip of Harry's wand, and as soon as it appeared, it charged one of the dementors with its head down, a pair of antlers sticking straight into the dementor's body, and then, with a nod of its head, the silver stag lifted the dementor up and launched it into the air.

The dementor, after being thrown, immediately fled into the air and disappeared into the darkness of the night sky.

The other dementor, who had been mauled by the dogs and cats, saw his companion depart and tried to escape, but he had barely risen half a meter off the ground when two huge dogs bit him on each hand and the other dogs and cats came at him, pulling him hard.

"Get out of the way!" shouted Harry to the dogs and cats as he directed the Patronus to attack the Dementor.

"Nya!"

With a feline meow, the animals quickly scattered. Before the Dementor could get up again, Harry's Patronus hit it square in the air.

"Nya!"

The cat meowed again, and the animals whirled again to stop the Dementor from escaping.

It was then that Harry realized there was a commander in the group, one he knew well, one of the four cats owned by Mrs. Figg's neighbor, named Mr. Paws.

He also found two other cats among the Dementors, Tibbles and Tufty, but not the one named Snowy.

Harry looked around worriedly, thinking that Snowy might have been hurt by a Dementor or something, but the light was too low for him to see clearly, so he had to keep his worries to himself and continued to direct his Patronus, working with the little creatures to defeat the Dementor.

As Harry and the dogs and cats became more and more adept at working together, the hapless Dementor not only had no chance of fighting, but no chance of even escaping, and was soon attacked by the silver stag, emitting a bloodcurdling howl before disappearing in a puff of black smoke, leaving nothing behind after vanishing.

With the Dementors gone, Harry's patron disappeared in a puff of silver smoke.

The moon, stars, and streetlights instantly glowed again. A warm breeze blew through the alley. The rustle of leaves in the neighbor's yard and the earthy sound of cars on Magnolia Crescent filled the night air again.