College is a very busy place, it's been so long that I've updated that I'm afraid that everyone has forgotten about this little story. I give major props to the guest that has been begging for an update since October seventh- this is for you Guest. It's a short chapter, but I hope that you all still enjoy it. After you read, leave me a review, I promise that I'll start to respond to everyone.
"Professor?"
"Granger."
"How do you cast a patronus?"
Severus drew a breath. His apprentice sat in a small desk next to his, her eyes too preoccupied with grading the first-year pretests to look at him, red ink flashed across the pages in a fashion that was all too similar to his.
"Joy." Her hand jerked and one poor first year's pretest was slashed across in red, she waved her hand, promptly removing her mistake. "Is that not a satisfying answer?"
"It's an answer from the books- all of them say something along the line of joy or happiness. I've casted spells with feeling, but to pinpoint joy is much harder to do than to pinpoint anger." She finished her stack of papers and waved another pile over, they floated off of his desk like birds, and landed on her desk in a neat pile. Severus frowned.
"Casting a patronus is an important skill, but in this school, you have no need to master it until your later years. At your age, a patronus could only be utilized as a silly party trick." Severus said it and she fell silence, her quill lazily swirled over parchment. "The books don't describe what a patronus really feels like." She perked up, a smile daring to stretch on her face. He continued, looking at the quill in his pen as he described it.
"It takes the form of your true self. If our reflections truly showed our nature that's what we would look like. It feels like relief when it's been summoned, like every hurt is numbed, and like the breath in your lungs is clear. It's a symbol of who you are." He spoke and he thought of a doe.
"What do you think my patronus will be?"
"I couldn't say, but I wouldn't be shocked if it likes fire."
Whether I'm going to change Hermione's patronus, or if I'm going to continue this story in the future is up in the air. Let me know what you think, and a great big thank you for reading this chapter!