CHAPTER 17:

THE PATRONUS

Despite his earlier fears, Hermione and Daniela got on surprisingly well. As long as they avoided discussing the fact that Daniela was a vampiric being with a large bodycount, anyway. Despite her ditzy demeanour, Daniela was practically a genius in her own right, and the two actually got to discussing all sorts of esoteric subjects.

After the success of that revelation, Harry decided to try and reveal who he was to Cassandra and Bela, albeit after considerable discussion with Alcina, after letting her and Heisenberg in on the secret. After more than a little debate, it was decided to let them know. And that was…interesting. In the cursed sense of the word…

"So what?"

Harry, in his form as Henric, blinked at Cassandra Dimitrescu's words. They were in the Duke's annex for the revelation. "Sorry, what?"

"No, I said so what?" Cassandra scoffed. "So Mother Miranda blackened your name. Big whoop. I'm loyal to Mother, first and foremost. As long as you're on her good side, then I honestly don't care if you guys are plotting against Mother Miranda. My worry is that you'll fucking break Daniela's heart, and I only care about a few people, including my sisters. I don't care how powerful you are, I don't care how famous you are as the Boy Who Lived. If you break her heart, or get her killed, your demise will be slow, protracted, and become the stuff of legends in this castle."

Bela rolled her eyes. "I'm not quite as…sadistic as Cassandra, but I do agree. We have no memories of you as Henric Stan, and as long as you're Mother's ally, I couldn't care less about what Mother Miranda thinks of you. But let Daniela get hurt or killed, and I will help Cassandra."

As the Duke chortled, Alcina chose to intervene. "Now, now, my daughters, there is little punishment that you could inflict that Henric would not inflict on himself through self-reproach. His devotion to Daniela is absolute. However, I am grateful that the two of you would have been discreet where Mother Miranda is concerned."

"Well, the Fidelius means we can't blab, from what you told us," Cassandra said. "And don't think we've seen the way you act towards her."

Bela nodded. "You yearn to be her favoured child, but she rarely gives you, or the other Four Lords, the time of day unless she summons you. Same with Uncle Karl. It's painful to watch you pine for her favour. If you're willing to cover for Henric, stop her from knowing he's been reincarnated as Harry Potter, then we're with you. You're our mother, not Miranda."

Cassandra also nodded. "We obey you, not her. She may have provided the Cadou, but you brought us back to life, and gave us lives as your daughters. And also, if Daniela really loves him, and he loves her…well, she can use more happiness in her life."

"Yeah. Cassandra and I, we're happy in our new lives, and we always have been," Bela pointed out. "But there was something in Daniela, in hindsight, that was lacking. Like a hole in her soul, with madness taking its place. Sorry, Daniela, if that offends you, but…"

"No, no, you're right, Bela," Daniela said. "But even if I am disgusted with myself for what I did…I know the love I shared with you two was real." She came over to them, and the three of them shared a group hug.

After they broke it off, Bela said, looking at Harry, "Okay, so, from what we know, if you're at Hogwarts, the Dementors are only there because Sirius Black is after you, Henric. So, how do we go about tracking this deranged man-thing down and granting him the…hospitality of House Dimitrescu?"

"It's not that simple, Bela," Harry said. "We have reason to believe that he is potentially innocent." He and Daniela explained the holes in the official story, as well as Harry's hypothesis.

Bela promptly scoffed. "Of course that'd be the case."

"I know, right?" Cassandra said. "I told you two that wizards are inbred retarded man-things. I mean, that was because of the fact they use fucking Dementors as guards…"

"Language, Cassandra," Alcina said, rolling her eyes.

"Umm, it's English, Mother? And fucking is an appropriate adjective for Dementors, given that they mind-raped my sister and her beau," Cassandra said.

"As the Duke told you, it doesn't mean Sirius Black is innocent, hypothesis or not," Bela said. "It also doesn't preclude Black being made cuckoo by over a decade's exposure to Dementors, and thus coming after you or someone else. He's still dangerous. But…if he wasn't the traitor, and this Pettigrew was, it begs the question, why is he coming to Hogwarts?"

"I don't know," Harry said. "But I intend to find out. And if he is as guilty as so many think…well, if I capture him, I believe I will give him to the three of you as a plaything…"

This had gotten a predictably enthusiastic reaction from the Dimitrescu sisters. Even Daniela, though she had regained her conscience, was perfectly fine with torturing and murdering people who didn't pass her personal moral litmus test. And to be fair, so was Harry.

It was for that reason, amongst so many others, that he was apprehensive about the upcoming attempt to test the Patronus with Lupin. He'd read up on the theory, and learned about evil wizards being consumed by maggots when they tried to cast the charm. Harry, even with the memories of Henric, liked to think that he was, on balance, a decent person, but he had a very flexible morality, and while he did not condone the feeding habits of the Dimitrescu family, he hadn't pushed them hard enough to feed on those who weren't innocent. Alcina did say that it was rare that they killed their staff, but decades of killing did build up, and Cassandra was a sadist.

Harry and Hermione spent the time leading up to that lesson researching more cases relating to Buckbeak's plight, with Hermione also spending one session in his laboratory. Harry had to admit, her knowledge of microbiology would put many adult academics to shame, and she suggested more than a few avenues that he would never have considered. She was still a little uneasy around him, but there was also less tension, oddly enough, as if knowing who and what he was had set the majority of her fears to rest. And she was a sponge of information, and soaked it up about the Mutamycete.

Ron, however, had remained rather sulky and unable to try and reach out to Harry. Harry had tried a few more times to reach out to him, but had ultimately decided to let things happen naturally…if they would at all. He did gently suggest to the Twins that they talk to him (and NOT prank him), which they agreed to.

The New Year came, and with it, the return of the other students. Oliver Wood, of course, kicked up a stink when he learned about the Firebolt, and he was worse than Ron when he heard of McGonagall stripping it down. Whatever arguments he had for McGonagall availed him nothing, and Harry wondered whether Wood truly didn't care about Harry's welfare, as long as Wood won that trophy. Proper little sportsfan psychopath, Harry thought.

Ron did begin to speak to Harry again when lessons started, but the redhead was still somewhat surly and sullen. After their DADA lesson, Harry made arrangements with Lupin for a Patronus lesson. It would be on a Thursday in the History of Magic classroom.

And when the time finally came, Harry looked around the empty classroom. "I am honestly surprised Binns doesn't stay in this room 24/7," he remarked.

Lupin chuckled as he heaved a packing case onto the desk. "We used to make jokes about that. Outside of lessons, Binns does socialise with the other ghosts…well, as much as he can socialise when he's boring and pedantic. Now, there's a Boggart in this packing case. I've been scouring the castle for this since the DADA lesson. I was hoping that it would transform into a Dementor to help give you incentive, but just in case it doesn't, remember the Ridikkulus countercharm."

"You think it won't turn into a Dementor?"

"It turns into your greatest fear, Harry," Lupin said solemnly. "Given that you are a reincarnation, and have many other feared things in your life, it could be Voldemort, or Miranda, or Daniela as a deranged monster…or her corpse when she was human. Which is why, before subjecting you to that, I thought we could try a dry run. You've been studying the theory fervently for months now."

"And hope that maggots don't eat me alive," Harry snarked.

"Harry, despite my…disquiet at your rather flexible morality, I have seen wizards responsible for worse things able to cast a Patronus," Lupin said. "If I harboured any serious doubts about your ability to cast a Patronus safely, I would not be doing this. But the 'maggot' reaction only happens to the worst wizards, those too deeply steeped in the Dark Arts and their own dark natures. You, on the other hand, despite your darker nature and those you associate with, you desire to make the world a better place. You may have broken the Hippocratic Oath, but you desire to help others. I have faith in you."

Harry gave him a sad smile, touched somewhat by the werewolf's faith in him, before preparing himself. The Patronus, from his study, worked only if you concentrated on a happy memory with everything you could while doing the incantation. And despite his earlier fears that he wouldn't, he found one.

It was one of their picnics near House Beneviento, sharing a bottle of Ţuică that Alcina had gifted to them. Trying to forget the horrors of the Second World War that raged throughout Europe, as well as the latest argument he'd had with his aunt, and for one sun-soaked afternoon, succeeding. Not a perfectly happy memory, but one of his happiest that he could recall. He remembered the taste of the drink on his tongue, the birdsong, the roar of the waterfall…and the passionate kiss they shared. Not their first kiss, but one of their most passionate.

With that in mind, he yelled, "Expecto Patronum!"

To his surprise and delight, it wasn't just the formless silvery mist most wizards who succeeded in using the charm created. It had a coherent form. And a surprising one at that.

Lupin recoiled at the hulking, muscled form, wielding a hammer and seemingly covered in fur and with a thick beard. "What on Earth…?"

Harry laughed bitterly. "Of course it would be. A source of my guilt would protect me. Professor, this is a Uriaş. A powerful variant of the Mutamycete-created Lycans, named for the Romanian giant legends. The first created was a chieftain of the village, and he was still alive when I died. He may yet still be alive. Seeing his creation, along with that of so many other Lycans, was partly what started driving a wedge between Miranda and I. I remembered, he used to babysit me when Miranda was busy or out of the village when I was younger. I mean, back when he was human. He was like Hagrid a bit, only less simple, and with one hell of a temper. I guess he was the closest thing I had to a father figure, and I thought he was the strongest person I had known. I never learned his name, though. He just was called Şef by just about everyone."

"Interesting. And this is unprecedented. I doubt that he is remotely human, but Patronuses are generally more mundane animals. Rarely, they can be of magical creatures: Dumbledore is said to have a Phoenix Patronus. I have even heard of one being a woolly mammoth. But a mutated human? Best to pass him off as a Giant. That's not impossible, just extremely unlikely."

"I half-expected Alcina in her mutated form, actually," Harry remarked. "Or maybe Daniela's flies."

"It may be because of your connection to the Mutamycete, Harry. I actually half-expected a stag." On Harry's look, Lupin clarified, "You father had a stag for a Patronus, and your mother had a doe."

"Huh. Neat."

"Well, what you did was more than neat, Harry. It's rare for a wizard to be able to even cast a Patronus, let alone one that's fully corporeal. Perhaps later, I can teach you how to keep it as a mist. I do so to mine deliberately, as it is a wolf, partly due to my lycanthropy. It doesn't stop it from being effective at protecting you from Dementors. Of course, the proof is when facing a Dementor itself…or the next best thing." Lupin went over to the packing case. "I'll be unleashing it. Be prepared for the possibility that this may be something other than a Dementor, so remember the Riddikulus charm."

"Not that I got a chance to use it last time," Harry snarked.

Lupin gave him a rueful smile, before saying, "Ready? Set…go!" And he opened the case.

What boiled out of the case, though, was no Dementor. It was fire. Fire that burned in the shapes of beasts and demons. He remembered the Fiendfyre Grindlewald had burned him with, and knew this was only part of it. The Boggart was only setting the scene.

And out of the flames, she came. The woman he once loved as a mother, but now feared and hated with so much of his being. Cold, cruel, and calm, dressed in a dark parody of Catholic robes, with an embryo-like symbol in the centre. Six wings sprouted from her back like she was a fallen angel. Her face was beautiful, but in a cruel way.

And at her feet were the corpses of the Dimitrescus and Heisenberg, their bodies crystallising and crumbling as he watched in horror.

Miranda laughed coldly. "You think that you're somehow better than me, Henric? That your desire to save the world is better than my desire to save my only true child? Tâmpit. You are a coward and a hypocrite, who only got in my way with his false trappings of morality. All that matters is Eva, and you should have remained dead."

Harry, desperately, thought of the only way he could make this funny, and cast the charm while screaming, desperately, "RIDDIKULUS!"

Miranda's clothes fell off, her wings moulting their feathers, and she covered her admittedly lovely naked body with a shriek of dismay, before her victims came back to life, and the Dimitrescu sisters began chasing her around the classroom in their swarm forms, biting at her naked body with their insects, while Alcina and Heisenberg laughed and even shared a high-five. The Boggart in her form dove into the packing case, and shut itself in, with the rest of the tableau fading.

Lupin, who was watching on, muttered in bemusement, "That just happened. Who…?"

"Mother Miranda."

"Your aunt? I mean in your past life?"

"Yeah. Well, I guess it wasn't Voldemort or a Dementor after all," Harry said.

After a moment, Lupin mopped his brow. "I can see why you fear her. She didn't show any power, but the way she held herself…Voldemort held himself in a similar manner."

"True. But unlike Voldemort, she has the decency to confine her activities to Cioarăfsat. And she's not a wizarding neo-Nazi. She's only a megalomaniac on a relatively small scale. That being said, her power over the Megamycete was greater than mine even before I died. Unless she's been lazy, which is admittedly possible, her skill has only increased with time. In other words, she has about five decades of research and training on me. My main asset was that, being younger than she was when exposed to the Megamycete, my control over it is far more instinctive. It's been a part of my body since I was five years old. Miranda was already in her thirties."

"Hmm. And yet she hurt you, and badly. She treats these people like lab experiments. Harry, I am not happy with your continued friendship with these people, the Dimitrescus. But…I could see what you were like with Daniela Dimitrescu. And I believe you're still a good person. And it's not like I can talk about giving people chances: your parents reached out to me, despite knowing that I am a werewolf. Even werewolves who are good people are often treated on a par with murderers, rapists and paedophiles in the wizarding world, especially in Britain. And I have helped the Duke on some…rather dubious jobs. I know the world is not black and white. Just…promise me, you'll never lose sight of the light. That you'll be able to look back on what you did, and say you made a difference for the better."

"That was always my intention, Professor."

"No, Remus, while we're in private, please," Lupin said. "You're technically some years older than I am, and we're both men of learning. It feels odd to think of you as an honorary nephew now. In many ways, we are peers, aren't we?"

Harry was struck by the gesture, before giving him a smile. "Yes, I suppose so, Remus…"

CHAPTER 17 ANNOTATIONS:

So, there you have it. The Dimitrescus are all on Harry's side, and Harry has had an enlightening lesson with Lupin.

Oh, and for those who didn't get it, the sneezing alien in the last chapter was Mordin Solus from the Mass Effect games.

Review-answering time! edboy4926: That's a good question to which I don't know the answer. I did reverse Lisa Trevor's transformation in my prior crossover Henry Ashford and the Goblet of Fire, but that was due to Alexia Ashford using a new virus on her and directing the mutation to give her a human form, basically turning her into Gwendoline Christie. Maybe Henric could do the same, I dunno.

Soul Reaper with a Core Drill: Hermione being Spencer's granddaughter? Well, it's funny you should say that. I actually had a notion some time ago, albeit one I haven't written into the story yet, that Hermione's mother is actually Spencer's bastard daughter, and that he knows it, but neither she nor Hermione know. It's why he has a certain fondness for her. I'm not sure whether this will come into play later, though.

Hellraptor: You seem to be the only person who recognised Mordin, you know that? And Hermione is someone who considered an advanced, thick textbook on alchemy 'light reading' as early as her first year. I wouldn't go as far as to call her a genius, but she's far in advance of her years, especially where microbiology, thanks to her godfather, is concerned. She understands things to somewhere between a high school and bachelor's degree level. I think this was partly to impress his godfather, and to give Spencer a little credit, he was. Hermione may not be Alexia Ashford or William Birkin, but she is still an intellectual powerhouse.

No numbered annotations this time.