Chapter
6
"Think of the happiest memory you can.
The one thing that filled you with the most joy you have ever felt. Concentrate
on that memory. Turn every lobe of your brain and every fiber of your should
toward it."
The class listened intently to my lecture.
Many scribbled notes, though most just sat taking it in.
"The Patronus Charm takes extreme
concentration. You must be without distraction. The dementors thrive on happy
thoughts and memories. Basically, it is what they eat. Now, does anyone know
why the Patronus can protect us from the dementor? They are pure good after
all. Why can't the dementor just have a nice hefty feast?"
A girl with bushy brown hair sitting next
to Harry shot her hand up immediately. Ron Weasley gained a large grin on his
face from the sight of it.
"Yes, Hermione," I said to her
nodding my head toward her.
"A patronus is pure good as you said.
Without the presence of anything sad or evil, the dementor is powerless. There
must be something left to fill the place of the memory they took."
"Excellent," I replied,
"Without something to take the place of the happy or good thing the
dementor takes, the memory cannot be removed. So you want it to be a good one.
Would anyone like to try?"
Many hands rose at this. One of them being
Harry's.
"Harry, why don't you try it?"
Harry and Ron both had semi-mischievous grins on their faces as Harry walked to
the front of the classroom.
"All right Harry, a happy
thought," I said to him. He was still grinning madly.
"Ok, got one, er, what was the spell
again?"
"Expecto Patronum Harry," I
replied. I stepped out of the way of Harry's wand. Though Harry didn't have the
experience to produce an actual patronus, he might shoot something out of the
end of his wand.
"Ok," said Harry, "Here
goes. Expecto Patronum!"
A brilliant silver stag shot straight from
the end of the wand. A perfect patronus as far as I could see. It galloped
around the room and, in another shimmering light show, the stag disapeered in a
cloud of silver smoke.
"Brilliant Harry! Absolutely
brilliant!" I said so him, clapping him on the shoulder.
"I've, er, had some practice,"
Harry replied a bit sheepishly.
"It certainly seems so!" i said,
still amazed that a fifth year could do such a difficult spell, "You may
take your seat now." Harry walked back to his seat at the back of the
classroom and sat down.
I continued my lesson explaining more about
how the patronus worked.
"I want a one meter report on my desk
by next friday."
the rest of my classes went about the same
for the most part with varying lengths of parchment depending on the grade
level. None of the volunteer demonstrators were quite as good as Harry though.
Most were blue shadows if anything at all.
I was still thinking about what my animagus
form would be. Maybe something a bit smaller than what I was thinking of
before. I would like to be able to fly. Perhaps a falcon or something of the
sort.
* * *
"How immensely idiotic must you
be?"
The voice of Snape blasted loudly through
the door of the Teachers' Lounge.
"They didn't seem to be working very
well did they?" replied another voice I did not recognize.
"When a muggle wears mosquito
repellent and one mosquito bites, the repellent has not failed. If one removes
the repellent, the onslaught of mosquitoes will be so great that the scratching
will go on for months!"
"There is a difference between mosquito
repellent and the safety of this school Professor Snape. The fact that there
was a breech at all means that the charms were broken-"
"NO! The fact that there was a breech
means that a spot was missed. You-Know-Who's forces have been trying to take over
this school ever since the rise of the Dark Lord. You, in a stupid moronic
gesture, have removed the most protective charm which, by the way, has worked
for the PAST THIRTY YEARS!"
"I planned to replace the charm as
soon as I had found the problem." The voice was seething with anger.
Snape, however did not seem to feel his usual sneer and smooth voice
appropriate for this conversation.
"YOU HAD NO AUTHORITY TO MAKE THAT
CHOICE! THIS IS YOUR FIRST YEAR TEACCHING, NOT YOUR FIRST YEAR AS
HEADMASTER!"
"I know that I am not headmaster, Snape, but your headmaster has
done close to nothing to prevent further attack. Dennis Creevey was only the
first casualty."
"No, he wasn't," I said, stepping
into the room.
"Rutleg, what in the name of
everything that I hold dear are you doing in here?" Snape asked, his face
going a shade redder than it already was.
"I was just walking by and overheard a
bit of bickering in the Teachers' Lounge."
"Did you hear..."
"Yes"
"Rutleg, if this gets out of this
room, you will be held personally respons-"
"If this leaves this room, Snape, it
won't be because of me."
"What do you mean about Creevey not
being the first?" asked the small man that Severus had been arguing with.
His hair was dark with a streak of grey across the front. his skin was deeply
tanned. I recognized him from somewhere, but I couldn't quite place it.
"Cedric Diggory was killed with the
dark Lord's own wand at the end of last year. You remember, the third
task."
"Yes yes, so another was killed. What
importance does that have now?"
"You also remember how he fell into
You-Know-Who's hands then?"
"A portkey in the middle of the maze
meant for Harry Potter, yes I know-"
"And who placed it there?"
"Well, Alastor Moody as far as I know
but-"
"Wrong," said Snape, speaking up
once again, "It was Bartemius Crouch Junior, disguised as Alastor."
"Precisely. The Dark Lord could not
get to Harry on campus at the time of the third task meaning that Bartemius
Crouch must have done some sort of sabotage during the third task. So first,
you must redo whatever charm you removed and then we will begin looking in
those places that Crouch visited during the task."
"There is a problem with that,"
said Snape, regaining his sneer, "the charm that our bungling friend
Professor Titus removed was the one that physically hides the school. Now
anyone can see it for what it really is."
"And that isn't a charm that can be
redone easily."
"Oh dear."
