"Expecto Patronum!"
A film of silvery mist escaped his wand and immediately dissolved yet again. The whispered jeers of his classmates stung his pride, but they were nothing compared with Professor Baronova's glare. She tapped her wand against her fingernails.
"If you expect a N.E.W.T. credit this year, Igor, kindly pay more attention to the defense portions of my lectures. You are skilled; you should be capable of a corporeal Patronus by now. Sit."
Igor obeyed, ears red, inwardly fuming. She was right, though. All he needed was some happiness greater than his worst nightmares.
And therein lay the problem.