Summary: The birth of the Patronus Charm was, as the birth of most things are, messy and painful.
An: Hey all TwistedTale here, this story may have a few errors, I am sorry about that. But I am in a competition with my new friend Amy is rockin and don't have the time to edit as carefully as I would like. Enjoy reading though! Reviews are always loved.
Chapter 1 Dementor
The morning air was sweet with the smell of new flowers, a gentle breeze carefully carried the sent far and wide. On the way to its unknown destination the invisible wind caressed the tall lush grass making it ripple and sway. The lead stallion of the small herd that had come across the fresh grass snorted loudly as the tips brushed against his nose before continuing to graze contentedly while the mares all around him did the same. High above the meadow birds trilled to one another as they dipped and twirled on the air currents and sought out materials for the new nests that the would build in the trees in the forest close by.
There was one oddity amongst the idyllic nature scene though and that was the small shack at the far edge of the meadow, carefully huddled against the tree line and hidden in their shadows. The roof was missing shingles the door was non existent and the windows hung loosely from their hinges. There were large gaps in the wooden walls of the building that would let all manner of creatures and things inside, spiders and mice had found the place to their liking and had set up webs and nests scattered around inside. You would never have known they were there though if not for the tiny foot prints scattered across the dust on the floor. Mice had always went as they pleased undisturbed the entire winter cold and during the spring naturally they expected no different.
Although there was one place no animal in the rundown home had gone into and that was a single room sealed away by a large, solid, oak door. It was almost always quiet behind the door, but occasionally the rodents would pause in alarm at the sounds of scuffling and wailing. It always stopped as randomly as it started though and life would go on. One day though, the door was open.
A mouse on her way back to her nest paused at stared the oddity of the door being open. Carefully she scurried across the dust covered floor, paused briefly to groom her whiskers, and stopped at the crack that would lead into the unknown area. Her nose twitched as she attempted to sent any danger that she might come across but she smelt nothing that worried her. In fact she smelled something….eatable. With an excited quiver the mouse scurried inside scrambling from one hiding place to another. This room had many places for her to do so, a large oak table with a single chair, a small iron pot that was full of water, and a bed with a large patchwork blanket that hid the gap under it.
The bed was where the smell was coming from and the mouse made her way over there. She sniffed at the blanket and considered briefly to tear some of the cloth off to use as a lining in her warm nest, but there would be time for that later, there was food to be had. She climbed the blanket quickly and found herself on a large solid lump. With quivering whiskers she moved across the lump that smelled like food until she got to the edge of the blanket and finally saw the source of the smell. She delicately placed her paws on the wrinkly surface and nibbled around, looking for the softest place she could sink her teeth into. She didn't notice the figure hovering over her until it was too late.
A hand snatched the mouse off of the dead face of the woman. The flesh of the hand was graying and clung loosely to the bones and the dull pointed nails dug into the mouse's furry body causing it to squeak in alarm. The creature brought the mouse to its mouth and inhaled with a sharp, raspy breath. The mouse was frozen as the tiny soul started to peel away from her body, a glowing brownish light exited from the mouse and the figure opened its mouth filled with greenish black teeth to take it in.
'Not nourishing.' the creature thought, and tossed the soulless body of the mouse to the side, it hit the wall with a thud and fell to the ground, sill breathing but not moving. The creature didn't notice this though and went back to the chair it had been sitting in by the bed and huddled over the corpse under the covers. It could no longer see her, its eyes had long ago sealed themselves together, but it knew she was there its hands told him so, that her body remained even though he had consumed her soul when she had died. But the real reason it remained was because of her burning, nurturing, light inside of its body.
As of late though she had started fading away and it couldn't understand why. It was starting to get hungry for the first time in ages but this distressed it, it wanted no other soul but hers to linger inside it.
You must eat something else. Her tiny voice murmured, her soul flickered as the creature was forced to draw on the energy to nourish itself. The mouse had little in its soul for the creature to consume, it had caused no change in its rapidly growing appetite.
'No! No I will not,' it groaned, 'I will find more animals.' it thought and shakily stood only for its rotting legs to stop working, forcing it to draw on more energy from her soul to keep itself upright.
Wont work, need stronger souls. She whispered and what was left of its heart shattered as she lost her ability to speak.
'No!' it howled as she faded away, it tried to draw on her energy again, bring the light back into the void inside, but it couldn't. It needed the light, it needed the peace it brought! The last of its humanity broke, and its mind snapped.
Despair was almost tangible around the creature as it rocked back and forth in horror as it suddenly felt blind and helpless, but fortunately for the creature it was sightless but not senseless. It felt the small spots of light in the shack it had lingered in and eagerly tried to absorb it into his body. It opened its jaws and sucked and sucked and tried to retain the warmth and light around it. Warmth drained from the area and frost started to inch its way over the entire surface of the room, the water it had needed before iced over, the table and bed slowly turned blue and the corpse of the woman froze into place. But the warmth quickly faded away. It needed more, and to find it it would have to seek it else ware.
With a harsh mental screech the creature rocketed out of the room, slamming into walls in its haste to exit the building. It couldn't find its way out!
The creatures senses opened again after it had crashed for the third time and it could sense everything around it, but it focused on the scattering mice, and the spiders crawling all over the shack.
Light and energy.
It opened its mouth and sucked, animals started falling left and right. But as the lights of their souls started to fade, the room started to disappear to its sightless eyes and the creature was blind once more. It had to find more light. It bolted through the door and it felt the sun on its skin for the first time in months. It shrieked, ducking back into the shadows and desperately covered itself with its wretched black cloak. With a snarl the creature proceeded outside much more cautiously then before. It glided silently over the clean meadow grass, absorbing the light and warmth from the area.
A thin layer of frost followed the creatures silent movements, and anything unlucky enough to touch it froze completely. The lack of warmth and joy was instantly felt by the creatures around. Birds desperately took flight, their wings having to move that much faster to keep them aloft in the cold air, their twitters of terror filled the sky. Across the meadow the stallion's ears went flat against his head and he neighed a challenge to the creature as it moved toward his herd. But it continued to the horses, the mares edged away in alarm, nudging young foals into the trees while the stallion held his ground. He pawed the earth, he kicked up his heels, he reared and slashed at the air with his hooves.
But the creature wouldn't stop and when it was close enough it inhaled deeply. The stallion was a creature filled with energy, something it could consume, something it could use to maintain its form. It opened its jaws wide and the stallions nose flared at the stench of decay that came from the creatures mouth, and when it finally started to suck the soul from the animal, the horse's eyes rolled back in panic. With a squeal of alarm he tried to flee but he found his body was too weak to comply and collapsed, his legs flailed in a useless attempt to escape and the strange feeling of despair overcame the animal. The creature fed on all of the happy memories of the stallion leaving it suddenly remembering all of the bad moments in its existence, the winters with too little food, being chased away from his home herd by his sire, the attack of the wolf pack that had almost cost him his life.
Slowly the horse started to stop struggling as his mind was assaulted again and again. Soon it stopped moving all together and only stared blankly forward as it soul floated out of its parted lips, the soul was white tinged with green and it quivered with energy. The soul quickly disappeared into the greedy maw of the creature and it hummed in contentment as the horse's soul screamed inside it's body. It wouldn't last long though, the creature instinctively knew this, it needed more energy and soon. It sniffed around the area.
The other horses had moved away and had taken their light with them, it quivered in disappointment and used the little energy it had acquired from the horse to rise into the sky. The creature inhaled again, energy was all around it, but something to the north caught its attention. It was like looking into the sun, spots of bright energy hovered around a single area and didn't move from that space. 'Town.' The creature remembered the name suddenly and moved toward it with frightening speed.
Old Greg owned a small store in a small town in a small part of the world and he was content with that. He sold goods to the townsfolk that came in every week or so from a trader by the name of Kyte Weasley, a young lad with hair that was much too red and a large family with hair that was just as red as his. But their hair color wasn't important, what was though were the rumors the were going around town about the family. One of the young girls in the village, Skye Clearwater, had claimed to see the eldest girl in the house brewing something unnatural in a cauldron.
No one took her seriously though, at least that was what they all told one another as the gossip spread. But Greg knew that the seeds of curiosity had been planted and with careful watering they would bloom into the flowers of suspicion and the story would spread growing more and more outrageous with each telling.
The family would most likely burn at the stake before the month was up and old Greg thought it was a pity it had to happen to such a nice young man. There was nothing he could do about it though so he tried not to think of it. But until it actually happened he would take advantage of the lad's ability to trade and make sure his shop flourished. He would have to seek out another trader soon though, to be sure he had a supplier when the time came. He stood and arched his back, making it creak in protest at the action and shuffled outside.
'One day,' He thought grimly as he shuffled closer to the privy by the trees 'One day, bathrooms will be indoors for everyone, not just kings, and they will smell nice too!' He grumbled and groaned until he was finished before making his way back to his shop but a sudden movement by the well in the middle of the town made him pause. A figure was standing there that looked like a man but was much to tall to be normal person, it was almost as tall as a bear Greg had come across as a young boy. 'In fact he might be taller' Greg thought looking at the thing standing by the well.
It was late in the evening and no one was around but the strange tall thing that resembled a man in shape, and Greg standing by his lonesome in front of his shop. Moving slowly so the thing that was completely shrouded in black from head to toe wouldn't notice him, Greg inched closer to the door to his store. He would hide there until the man left or someone chased him out. But alas it wasn't meant to be, the person turned slowly to where Greg was standing and started toward him.
Something funny happened in the minute it took the man-thing to approach Greg. Despair and heartache flowed through his veins so strongly that he crumpled. Memories of things long past came to mind once more, he was holding the lifeless body of his infant daughter, he was fighting and loosing against a large gang of thugs who took everything he had, he was arguing with his brother before he had left home. The bad memories assaulted him and Greg surrendered to the emotions of utter desolation and sorrow. He hardly noticed when the man thing gently caressed his wizened features with rotted looking grey hands. He didn't flinch when the hood fell away from the creatures head and revealed smooth grey skin where the eyes and hair should have been and he didn't bat an eyelash as the creatures foul mouth descended onto his.
This kiss didn't last long, it didn't need to, Greg's soul came in a wisp of blue/white energy. It passed through the creatures throat in a manner very similar to water and joined the stallions. They screamed together in harmony in the creature, and peace returned briefly to the creatures mind as it lowered Greg's warm body to the ground. The creature hummed in pleasure and floated away, back to the cold dank shack where it could digest in peace.
Greg's body remained laying in front of his shop the entire night, his eyes looking blankly out, his breathing smooth, deep, and even. Completely unresponsive to any and all stimulus. He was found the next morning by the widow, Sara Greengrass, and instantly rushed to the only doctor in the town.
The doctor examined him but to no avail, he could find nothing wrong with Greg. There was no reason for him to be in that state, the doctor clamed, and the people started talking once more. Because the last person Greg had spoken to was Kyte Weasley, and just as Greg predicted people were starting to grow suspicious of the strange family who lived on the outskirts of the village….