Lily entered the defense classroom right before class started. She hurried to her seat, and took out a quill and parchment. Alice whispered to her. "Wands today." Professor Kaits had deviated from his usual 'theory based' methods in favor of some practical knowledge.
"Today"spoke the tired teacher "We're having some fun. There are exactly ninety minutes separating us form our Christmas Holiday. So as a gift to you, we will we conjuring patronuses." The entire class cheered.
Lily leaned over to Alice. "I was just practicing mine yesterday. I think I've almost got it down."
Alice looked excited. "What form did it take? I've tried it a few times myself, but I never get more than vapors."
Lily grinned "A doe." She whispered confidentially."I saw it last time I tried. Alice she's beautiful."
"You can show me today then." Alice said perkily. "And then you can help me."
The girls turned their attention back to Kaits "We've discussed the theory. So you should all be fine."
The class started to spread out. Alice and Lily went to a spot on the wall. They pulled out their wands, and each searched for a memory. Lily, concentrated "Expecto Patronum." She said. Not expecting anything to have happened, Lily looked around the room surveying the other students. Nobody had managed to produce a corpeal patronus yet, there was just a lot of mist.
Lily searched again for a memory. She cast again and a silver mist began eaking out of her wand. She concentrated harder and the mist swirled becoming more solid. Exausted, Lily lowered her wand.
One more time, she tried. Happy memory, concentration, "Expecto Patronum." This time, a deer burst out of her wand and cantered across the room. She watched in awe, nearly losing sight of it through the haze that others' patronus attempts had made. The deer returned.
Lily gaped. That was not supposed to happen. There was no way that a doe had antlers. The patronus in front of her definitely had antlers. Patronuses only changed after great emotional upheaval. In the four days that Lily had cast her patronus, nothing had happened. There was no reason for antlers.
Lily turned to Alice who had her face screwed up in concentration. There were only wisps of silver coming out of her wand, nothing solid. Not wanting to break her friend's concentration, Lily turned back to the stag. It hadn't moved. He stood patiently in front of Lily accepting her astonishment. Then, he swung his head to the left. Lily looked in the same direction. He had seen a doe, her doe.
Lily relaxed; she didn't think that the stag could really be hers. The stag picked his way over to her doe, leaving Lily to ponder.
'If patronuses are based on emotions,' Lily thought 'then who has the stag?' She wanted to meet her male counterpart. She watched the patronuses as they touched noses. The stag glowed brighter, nearly becoming solid. Feeling the happiness that rolled off the patronuses in waves, Lily began to smile. The doe glowed brighter as well. Lily took her eyes off of the deer and scanned the room. Out of the seventeen in the class, only a handful had been able to produce a corpeal patronus. There was a great shaggy dog, a sparrow, a steer, and a spider monkey. There was also a large silver elephant that Alice had finally been able to produce. The pachyderm blinked docilely at its surroundings before fading into mist.
Lily looked for the caster of the stag. Many had mist emitting from their wands, it wasn't them. Colleen O'Malley held her wand up in concentration. She was a nice girl, but definitely a monkey person. Micheal Lewis whispered as he waved his wand in front of him. He was the steer. Lily didn't know how she knew this, maybe it was the way he blinked. There was Remus Lupin. But his patronus was a sparrow. He had told her a little while ago. That left, Lily groaned, James Potter and Sirius Black. She wanted neither of them to be as she had thought of it earlier 'her male counterpart.'
The two boys were laughing and gesturing at the deer who were still enjoying each other's company. The dog bounded over to Lily with a silly grin on its face. Lily looked at the dog, and then at Black. She looked at the dog again. The two of them shared the same shaggy locks, and Lily was willing to bet that the dog's hair was black as well.
That left Potter. The stag was his. Figures. Of all the people that could have the same patrounus as her, it had to be the one she absolutely loathed. At least they didn't know the doe was hers she hoped.
No such luck. Sirius had begun gesturing towards her obviously trying to send James over. She panicked. With the arrival of her worry, the doe vanished. Lily felt a little lost without her patronus. As if James could hear her thoughts, he started over to her. Lucky for Lily, at that moment, Alice's Elephant reappeared, effectively blocking Lily from James' view.