Had to cut this one in a weird place, sorry, but other wise part 4 would have been like ten thousand words.

Year 4 Part 2

It wasn't empty as I had hoped, but it was just one of the older Slytherin girls and she was more than happy to leave me on my own. I sat down and flipped open my notebook, opening the lid to my potion to make sure it was coming along. I stirred it as I was supposed to, checked the color to make sure it wasn't too dark, and recovered it in a silk cloth before refastening the lid. I fished my quill out of my bag and flipped a page in my journal to make a few notes when someone sat at the desk next to me.

"What smells like flowers?" Louk asked.

I gestured to my cauldron without saying a word.

"Are you working on a potion for Herbology?"

I shook my head.

He huffed. "I would have thought you above the silent treatment."

"You already know everything I'm going to say to you."

"He reasoned with me." Louk said it like he was both disgusted and impressed. "He said there was no way you'd let him go alone when the time came, and while I wouldn't care if he got his soul sucked out by a Dementor, I do care if it happens to you."

"I figured." I sighed, setting my quill down.

"He's gonna be stupid either way. If you refuse to learn he'll still go."

"Fine, but I still don't want to learn it. I get enough of failing at spells in class, I don't need it in my free time too."

"You not learning kind of derails his whole argument."

I scowled deeply, absorbing the feeling of hatred I'd feel in a few months. "Would you teach them anyway?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Amber was right, it's unfair of me to make him promise something then try and be an obstacle to keeping it. I don't want to learn it because I have enough stress on my plate, but you're the only one who can help Cad right now."

"Will you still be mad at us?"

"I'm mad because I know what it means." I looked up at him. "You know how dangerous it is in there, and it's impossible to tell if we'll ever be ready for everything we could possibly meet. We're only fourth years and yeah it's better than if we were younger, but we're still inexperienced. It would just be so easy to get murdered by a troll, or poisoned by-"

"And we could get poisoned in Potion's class or Herbology, or Death Eaters could swoop down at any second and murder us all in our sleep." he tried to give me a small smile. "I agree it's really stupid and unnecessary, but we're never totally safe, Amelia. There is always gonna be 'what if's', and some people don't understand that certain things increase those chances. Cad is going to do what he wants because there is danger in everything so 'what's a little more really'?"

"And it's stupid." I scowled, turning back to my journal.

He reached forward and took my hand, rubbing his thumb across my fingers. "And I feel the same way. We both know you'll never let him go alone. I'm mad you disregard the dangers just because some dunce can't leave well enough alone."

"I'm not so sure I will go."

"You will, and we all know it. Cad can get you to do anything." Louk's voice darkened, and his hand moved to let go of mine.

We fell into a beat of silence and I tried to think of something to lighten the mood. "I really enjoyed writing you this summer. It...helped. With my family and everything."

"I enjoyed it too. It helped the time go by faster."

I gave him a teasing smile. "Who knew I'd see the day you'd be defending Cad?"

"I'm defending myself more, but if you being nice to him is a by product then so be it." he smirked and I giggled softly. "You know, you don't just have to use the journal during summer. You can use it to get a hold of me. If you need to, I mean."

"If it can make summer go by faster, then I don't see why it wouldn't work in History of Magic." I smirked, sliding my potion's journal into my bag. "Come on, dinner starts in a minute."

We left the Slytherin girl alone, closing the door and heading up the stairs. We weren't far from the Great Hall but Louk held my hand and walked slowly, drawing out the time we had together.

"I enjoyed Hogsmeade with you last year. It's better than going with everyone and running around between shops."

"I liked it too. No one ever wants to read with me unless it's in the common room."

"The first weekend isn't until October, but would you want to go with me? I doubt they have the spell down by then so we shouldn't miss anything."

"As long as you promise not to buy me anything."

"You know, most girls in Slytherin have exactly the opposite requirement."

"Do I look like a girl from Slyth- how would you know?"

"The grapevine, don't worry." he chuckled. "Fine, I promise not to be a gentleman and let you purchase your own literature."

"And drinks. And potion ingredients."

"You're the worst." he rolled his eyes. "Fine, and fine."

"Then it's a date." I beamed, bouncing up the steps ahead of him.

I waved to him as we separated in the Great Hall before sliding into the seat next to Keeli. She glanced over at Louk before smirking at me. "You're so easily swayed."

"Am not. He reasoned with me and it made sense, so it's fine now."

"Good. I really want to know what my Patronus is." she smiled as she spooned Shepherd's Pie onto her plate. "It's supposed to tell you a lot about your personality."

"What do you think yours is?"

We talked all through dinner about it, Dorothy and Eunice even chiming in. There was supposedly a book about what your Patronus said about you, so after dinner we all went to the library to hunt it down. We were there until curfew just about, even checking it out to continue reading in the common room. A few people were willing to tell us their Patronus' and we ran what we knew about them against what the book said, deeming it relatively accurate to what we knew. A few things seemed to be off but that made sense, as human personalities were always hard to quantify into a paragraph.

The others lost no time about their little project, starting the very next day as we all sat by the lake. I worked on my Charms essay with Damian while the others listened to all Louk had to say about the Patronus Charm and practised the wand movements. No one made any real progress but Louk said it might take a few months, so they resolved to try it against the next time we all got together. As we walked back to the castle for dinner I tugged on Louk's arm to make him hang back, whispering softly so the others wouldn't hear.

"It's made by a happy memory?"

"Or a thought, yeah."

"What do you think about when you summon yours?"

"Oh, you'll have to poison me to find out." he just shook his head, picking up his pace to catch back up with the others.

I huffed as we walked back into the Great Hall, matched only by Keeli's sigh as she picked at her food. "I don't even know what happy memories I would choose."

"What about getting your Hogwarts letter?"

"I was excited, yeah, but I was more terrified than happy. I was thinking more of my first Transfiguration lesson."

"I don't even know what I would choose." I admitted. "I'm not unhappy by any means, but it's hard to think of a singular moment where I was just so full of happiness it could burst out of me."

"Well, now I'm depressed." she sighed, turning back to her food.

The second week was no better than the first and not only did I not want to partake in their extra Patronus practice sessions, I genuinely probably wouldn't have been able to anyway. Even the next few weekends were full for the others with all the houses holding their Quidditch tryouts and clubs holding first meetings. Both Cad and Damian only made reserve spots again, but they didn't seem too plussed about it either way. Louk and Amber made the starting Seeker position on their respective teams, again for Louk, and Molly made third Chaser. Between Quidditch, Chess Club, the British and Irish Quidditch League Club, Potions Club, and just general studying we barely got to see each other through the week. They really only had time to work on their special spell on the weekends when there was a lull in homework, and I was at least sated enough to see it would take them a while to get such a difficult spell. Damian and I still had Slughorn's dinners about once a month, but it wasn't awful. Damian was a good conversationalist and Sluhorn always made it a point to come by Potions Club to look at what I was working on after.

September flew by in a flash of warm sun and meter long essays, and finally halfway through October the first Hogsmeade visit came around. The others were going, just in groups of their other friends, but we all stood in the foyer and waited for Filch to scan our permission slips while we waited. Amber and Cad had an entire crowd of Gryffindors they were going with, Damian was tagging along with Molly and a few Quidditch players, and Keeli and Matt had agreed to go together. It was odd splitting ways once we left the castle but Louk seemed to relax more once we were alone.

"You okay?" I asked worriedly, adjusting the strap of my bag so it'd stop catching on the end of my skirt.

"Just a little stressed, it's alright. Who knew fourth year would be so difficult?"

"We're only one year away from our O.W.L.'s."

"Don't remind me." he groaned.

"Like you'll suffer. You've gotten all O's since first year."

"Not easily, let me assure you."

"You at least can." I kicked a rock as we walked down the path.

"Don't worry, I'm sure your wandwork will get better. And hey, if it doesn't you at least won't have to take those classes sixth and seventh years."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." I sighed, stepping closer to him so our gaits could line up easier. A warm breeze blew by and I caught a whiff of something musky. It wasn't unpleasant, but it was definitely new. I leaned over and sniffed Louk's jacket. "Are you wearing cologne?"

"Uh, yeah. I usually do."

"I've never smelled this before."

"I might have just changed. The place in Diagon Alley isn't so bad when you're not having to follow you girls around." he got that defensive look on his face.

"I'm sure there are a lot of places that are better without everyone being there. Like the apothecary so I can browse in peace."

"Pardon me for trying to keep you from buying the entire store."

"Maybe I need the entire store."

"You were going to buy an entire trunk just for your potions equipment because you have entirely too much."

"I have just enough, thank you very much. I use every single one of my cauldrons, and not a single ingredient has reached its expiration date."

"Then maybe you're making too many potions." he finally reasoned. "What are you working on now?"

"Amortentia."

"A love potion? You're not getting any ideas, are you?"

"Of course not, it's just to see. When you smell it, it's supposed to smell like the things you love the most. I want to know what those are for me."

"You're brewing an illegal potion because you want to know what smells you already like enough to probably figure out?"

"You can't tell me that's not a good portion of the reason you probably worked for months yourself to learn the Patronus charm."

"Well of course not, Dementors are a real threat and-" he looked over to see my expression. "Maybe a fraction of the reason, if anything."

"Keeli and I got a book about what your Patronus says about you."

"Sounds like a Witch Weekly cast off article."

"It says those with the wolf Patronus are loyal to those they love and defend them fiercely, but can tend to be solitary creatures to those they feel distanced from."

"Wow, direct contradictions. How intuitive." he smirked. "It's all nonsense. A Patronus is the manifestation of your soul, but the reasoning could be different for everyone."

"We figured, I just thought it'd be interesting to talk about the connections of corporeal Patronus forms and the personalities of their casters."

"I have a running theory, but I don't know how accurate it is."

"Do share."

"I think it's about what the caster desires most, what would make them most happy. There are a lot of documented cases about married couples eventually getting the same Patronus because their happy memories so often consist of each other. What if the forms they take give an insight deeper into the mind than we originally thought? Take Damian for example. He wants to follow his Dad's footsteps, take on the family business, and his Patronus happens to be a shark, one of the most common symbols of business savvy."

"But it can also be associated with a ruthless businessman, one who isn't afraid to trample others to get what he wants."

"We're Slytherins, people think that about us anyway."

"Well I know, I was just mentioning it. So what would yours say about you?"

He broke eye contact with me. "Who knows? Maybe I just really like steak."

"You've analyzed the correlation between your best friends Patronus and future life ambitions, and you think yours means you just really like steak?" I raised my eyebrow.

"I do really like steak."

"I suppose you do." I said finally, letting him dodge it.

He steered the conversation back to my potions work to deter me from any more questions as we walked into the village. We held off from going to the library until later, instead walking around Hogsmeade's other shops. He let me go to the potions shop and look at the abundance of brews on the shelves, and I tolerated him dragging me through the crowded Quidditch shop and talking to me about every broom we saw. We talked about him getting the starting Seeker position while I got a few quills at the quill shop before finally stepping into the dusty smelling bookstore. I followed him to the Defense Against the Dark Arts section first so he'd have something to look at while I was browsing. He didn't find anything he liked, but he finally found a book in the Charms section that had an extensive passage on the Patronus Charm he figured would be handy. He leaned against the shelf next to me as I flipped through the books. I got an Herbology one detailing some ingredients I'd be using in potions I wanted to try next semester, and a suspense book about a wizard left on the moon for an entire year.

We went to our usual table in the Three Broomsticks and sipped on Butterbeer as we read. Amber and Cad popped in around lunch with their extensive group of friends, but they just waved instead of coming over to bother us. I didn't see the others but I was particularly glued to a few chapters about the wizard's broom getting smashed and his bag being melted by acidic moon slugs. The sun was setting as Louk finally convinced me to leave and we stepped in the Great Hall to immediately sit with our tables so we could eat before it disappeared.

Sunday they spent the entire day by the lake practicing their spell so I got to read my book in peace while Damian worked on his Muggle Studies homework. They didn't make much more progress until just before dinner when a light silver vapor emitted out of Keeli's wand. She was so excited she squealed and the vapor disappeared, but she was over the moon. She couldn't recreate it for the rest of their practice but it was all she would talk about during dinner and in the common room when we drug ourselves through the essays that were due. She only finally stopped when Wednesday morning in Care of Magical Creatures she accidentally removed the Silencing Charm from our Fwooper instead of reinforcing it, and it's insanity inducing scream sounded out for a few seconds before she fixed it. We all were a little foggy the rest of the day, and I woke up the next morning with my robes on backwards.