"I told you there'd be no problem." Newt said happily. Then he frowned. "But where are we… This doesn't look like Ottery St Catchpole."
"So the Portkey was set for Ottery St Catchpole?" Kael's voice rose slightly.
"Of course." Newt said, "I already agreed with Chris that as soon as things were over, I'd bring you home."
"Phew..." Kael took a deep breath. As expected, he really shouldn't have trusted Newt.
"But don't worry, I'm sure we're in the United Kingdom," Newt continued.
"Why's that?"
"Because of these…" Newt pointed at the faint black mist hanging in the air. "You only get this stuff in the United Kingdom."
"Famous fog of London, huh." Kael almost laughed—he didn't expect Newt to know about that, since it's a nickname mostly used by Muggles; wizards rarely know it.
"Fog? What fog are you talking about? How do you know this is London?" Newt blinked, looking a bit puzzled. "What I meant is, Dementors only exist in the United Kingdom. This mist is caused by them."
"Wait, Dementors?" Kael didn't even have the mood to wonder if he'd misunderstood—he hurriedly asked, "Weren't the Dementors who left Azkaban already dealt with?"
"That's not wrong." Newt said, "But the rest have already joined the Death Eaters. On the day your holidays began, there was another massive jailbreak at Azkaban—and this time, even more escaped.
You-Know-Who promised the Dementors they could feast as much as they wanted, devour anyone's soul at will, so nearly all of them defected to the Death Eaters."
"So what do we do?" Kael asked.
"Nothing." Newt sighed, "This time the Dementors aren't grouped up. They've scattered all over the place—it's impossible to take care of them all at once."
"Then we just kill them one by one when we see them." Kael narrowed his eyes. "If we walk around enough, we'll finish them off eventually."
"That's exactly what Dumbledore is doing." Newt replied. "But it's way too slow, and regular wizards can't kill Dementors at all."
"Not even the Patronus Charm?"
"Nope." Newt shook his head. "Dementors can only be destroyed after long contact with a Patronus. But they're not dumb—once a Patronus gets close, they run for it.
And most Patronuses are just ordinary animals—they can't catch Dementors. So usually that charm only drives them away… Unless it's something like Dumbledore's Phoenix Patronus, which can easily grab Dementors and peck them to pieces."
Kael raised his eyebrows and couldn't help saying, "I think my Patronus works too." His Patronus wasn't a Phoenix, but it seemed to work just as well—he'd already proved that before.
Even more importantly, his jellyfish Patronus could trap several Dementors at once—a proper area attack, more efficient than the Phoenix.
"Oh, right." Newt suddenly remembered, "Your Patronus is a… octopus?"
"It's a jellyfish," Kael corrected him.
He'd learned the Patronus Charm at the Romanian Fire Dragon Reserve—and it was Newt who'd taught him! Incredible that Newt could even forget the species.
"Sorry. I don't know much about ordinary animals," Newt said apologetically, "Mind showing me your Patronus one more time?"
Kael drew his wand on the spot.
Soon, a glowing silvery-white jellyfish appeared in front of them, and the annoying gray mist in the air dispersed almost instantly.
"I've meant to say—it's really beautiful," Newt couldn't help but comment, his eyes fixed on the jellyfish's thin, long tentacles.
"Yes." Newt said in amazement. "Those tentacles aren't as obvious as most Patronuses—even when they approach Dementors, the Dementors don't sense a threat."
"Oh, I should've realized—you're better off here, not coming with me to deal with the Giants."
"It's not too late now," Kael said.
"Right, it's not too late." Newt nodded. "But before that, I've got to take you back—grab my hand, Kael.
"Even if we don't know exactly where we are, as long as it's in the United Kingdom, we can Apparate."
"It's alright, I can Apparate too," Kael said.
"But you haven't taken your test yet," Newt reminded him. "I remember this year's Apparition Test got pushed to July thirtieth because of some special circumstances."
Kael really wanted to say that, test or not, he could Apparate just fine… At least Fudge wouldn't mind.
But before he could say anything, he suddenly thought he heard someone calling his name.
At first, Kael thought he was mistaken, but a second later…
"Kae…l…"
This time he heard it clearly—it was definitely someone calling him.
Brilliant—late at night, in a remote village he didn't even know the name of, and someone was calling his name… That was pure nightmare fuel.
Even though Kael could calmly sit and drink tea with ghosts, he still felt his scalp tingle. Instinctively, he drew his wand and pointed it in the direction of the voice.
"Who's there? Show yourself!"
A dozen golden-red tongues of flame started dancing around him.
Now, Kael immediately felt much steadier. He believed, whatever was coming, Periculum would happily teach them that jump-scaring people at midnight just wasn't proper.
"Oh, don't get jumpy."
As a familiar voice rang out, Kael's vision blurred, and suddenly, someone stood right in front of him.