Some days earlier...
Remedial Potions, Harry thought ruefully. More like Defense Against the Dark Arts for Dummies...another week, another insight into the Dark side.
At Dumbledore's request, Harry was spending an evening each week learning advanced defensive techniques, in preparation for the battle ahead. He was being trained by the two people best qualified to teach him: his former DADA teacher, Remus Lupin, and the man who had wanted that position for years, Severus Snape. Nobody on this side of the Dark knew more about its machinations than Snape, and Lupin's effectiveness as Harry's DADA professor in his third year had helped Harry save a number of lives in the years since.
At the start of term, Dumbledore had contacted Lupin and had brought him back to Hogwarts for this purpose, despite Snape's reluctance to work with him. Old habits died hard, after all. But they did eventually die, and both men understood just how important it was to work together to prepare Harry for what was to come.
They split up the instruction to match their strengths. Lupin worked with Harry on Light Side defensive spells, strengthening and mental discipline, while Snape attempted to introduce Harry to the mindset of the Dark Side so that he could better understand and anticipate the enemy.
So it was that this evening, Harry stood in Snape's classroom facing a familiar old chest as Lupin explained the casting of a slightly altered version of the Patronus spell. After weeks of reading and mental training, Harry was looking forward to actually casting a powerful spell, and he waited impatiently as his professor spoke.
"The Adme is a very effective spell," Lupin said. "It is just as protective as the Patronus spell, but also draws energy from the target back to the wizard. The caster becomes stronger, and the target weakens rapidly. The drawn power doesn't last long for the caster, and is really only useful for reinforcing the spell...but in a situation when you have to use the Adme, chances are that things are desperate enough that you're not thinking long-term at any rate."
Harry nodded. "Can the drawn power be used for anything else?"
Lupin paused briefly. "It's possible, if you cast a powerful offensive spell. But the energy drains so quickly that you have to do that almost immediately, or it will be gone before you can use it. Once you've got this spell down, we'll rehearse some battle strategies with Professor Snape so that you can turn spells around quickly without stopping to think."
"Professor...this seems...well, rather Dark."
"Very close to it, Harry," Lupin replied."The taking of power from the target of the spell is a technique normally only seen in Dark magic...and if the happy memory you were to use for the Patronus involved any sort of Dark-inspired joy, it would constitute Dark magic. However, as long as the intention is good, and the thought is Light, then you shouldn't have any trouble." He smiled at Harry.
"The casting is identical to the regular Patronus, except with the addition of 'Adme' at the end of the incantation. You will have to imagine the power being taken from the subject and returning to you. That's where those visualization techniques we've been working on will really be useful. We can work up to it by practicing the Patronus spell until you've got it as strong as possible."
He patted the chest in front of him. "Luckily, Filch found this boggart hiding in a desk in a classroom over the summer. Professor McGonagall had him box it up for me just for this sort of practice. Remember what to do?"
Harry smiled nervously. "I don't think I could forget."
Lupin smiled kindly. "You did very well the first time you had to use this...Sirius would have died if you hadn't."
Harry's thoughts were written all over his face.
Lupin walked over to Harry and put an arm gently around his shoulder. "Harry, it's not your fault."
Harry looked up at him. "I'm not so sure of that...but I want to make sure that it never happens again, Professor." Lupin smiled.
"I'm sure that you don't have anything to worry about here. Do you need to take a break?"
Harry set his jaw and shook his head. "Let's do this."
Lupin's hand moved to the latch on the chest.
At that moment, Dumbledore's head appeared in the fireplace.
"My apologies for the interruption," he said, nodding at Harry. "Remus, would you mind popping up to see me for a moment? Severus and I have found something that we think might be useful, and we'd like a quick opinion."
"Of course, Professor. I'll be there shortly," Lupin replied.
Dumbledore disappeared, and Lupin turned to Harry.
"Let's take a short break, Harry. I'll be right back. While I'm gone, work on your concentration skills. You need to be able to bring up that happy memory as quickly and solidly as possible...you won't have time to build it up in the heat of battle."
And Lupin was gone.
Harry sighed. He'd been looking forward so much to finally getting to spell up something, anything...and it wasn't as if he was having any trouble dialing up a happy memory these days. The growing darkness in the world made the good times glitter in his memory like jewels against the void, and he could pluck one up and turn it around in his mind at will.
"Let's see if I can still do this," he said, and steeled himself, then motioned the chest open.
Up rose the swirl of blackness, the boggart as dementor, and its cold breath chilled Harry to the bone. But he did not flinch. He raised his wand, and objects in the room rattled and shook in their places. He focused his mind and cried "EXPECTO PATRONEM!"
White light flooded outward to block off the dementor, and as Harry gradually lowered his wand, the shield confining the dementor pushed it back into the chest, which slammed shut.
Entirely successful. Harry smiled. That was almost too easy. But he'd grown a lot since the battle by the lake over Sirius' body, and teaching the DAs had honed his own skills further...perhaps this was to be expected. And nothing was going to stop him from protecting those he cared about.
He tried it again, and managed to produce a stronger, whiter light more quickly with a little more effort. The whole room vibrated as if a heavy truck was going by, but the dementor was back in its trunk in a matter of seconds.
Harry felt energized. It was so good to be doing powerful magic again!
The Patronus was going well...wouldn't Professor Lupin be proud of him if he could...
He lifted his wand, and the trunk flew open again. The dementor floated up lazily. Harry concentrated, drawing up his power. The room shook as if it were about to implode.
"EXPECTO PATRONEM ADME!"
The blinding white light erupted from Harry's wand. As the stream of energy poured forth, a small mirror sitting at the edge of a high shelf finally vibrated off of the shelf and fell downward...
Harry didn't see the flash of light from the turning glass, didn't see the metal of the mirror frame, saw nothing but the dementor in front of him. The mirror fell in front of the dementor and straight into the path of the light. The energy hit the mirror, pushing it back, and bounced off and reflected straight back at Harry.
Harry was hit with the full force of the spell. He was thrown up and backward across the room, and his wand fell from his hand. He slammed hard into the stone wall, ten feet above the ground. His breath burst from his lips, and he fell heavily to the floor.
His head bounced once, then he lay still.
The next morning found Dumbledore, Snape, Lupin and Madam Pomfrey gathered around Harry's bedside in the hospital wing. He lay in the bed motionless, and his face was bloodless. His breathing was soft.
Madam Pomfrey bent to smooth the covers over his chest. Her hand brushed the stray black hair from his brow. His scar blazed red against the white skin.
"No change," she said as she stood up.
Dumbledore turned to Pomfrey. "May I?" he asked her.
She nodded, and he put a strong locking spell on the door to the wing before motioning the group over to the desk in the corner of the room.
"Have you found anything?" Madam Pomfrey asked.
Lupin shook his head. His face was haggard. "Severus and I were in the library all night. We looked in every medical text we could find. As far as we can tell, nothing like this has happened before."
"Or at least, it has not been recorded." Snape looked even more pale and drawn than usual. "Such an injury usually seems to be accompanied by death. Survival in this state is unheard of." His gaze went back to the single occupied bed. "Leave it to Potter to beat the odds once again."
Dumbledore nodded. "Do we know of any way to repair the damaged parts of his brain?"
The other three shook their heads. "His skull was cracked, and a small piece was driven into his brain," Pomfrey said.
"And we have found no magic to repair the injured areas," Snape added.
"The damage is irreparable, then."
"Perhaps another part of his brain could be somehow made to compensate?" asked Pomfrey, hopefully, turning to Snape. Snape shook his head.
"Such a thing is apparently possible for Muggle-type injuries…but no other area of the brain can be trained to develop the ability to handle magic. The specialization of the area is too high. No other part of the brain can develop in that manner."
"So…Harry has lost his magic forever?"
"It would seem so. Yet he may live."
Lupin shook his head. "Even if he wakes up, how will he react?" He looked around the small circle of people. "Harry's spent his entire life either being harried by Muggles or bearing the burden of being the Boy Who Lived. Nobody is more conscious of the need to eliminate Voldemort than Harry. He's thought of nothing else since Sirius' death. He can't be the savior of the wizarding world without his magic, and who knows how he would be able to handle living as a squib or as a Muggle, especially if he could not fulfill what he believes to be his purpose. He's strong, very strong…but every strength has its limit."
"What can we do, then?" Pomfrey asked.
"Nothing, it seems," Dumbledore replied.
They turned to look at the still, white body. How strange, Snape thought, to see him lying there so motionless…normally, he's a blur of activity, but not now. A unique student…none like him...
Lupin saw the subtle change in Snape's expression before anyone else did.
"Severus…what is it?" he asked. They all turned back around.
"There may be … one more option," Snape said slowly.