27/4/22

A black figure came out, the lights got extinguished and it started to get cold.

"Expecto Patronum!" Harry said but nothing happened. Expecto... Expecto..."

He was down, the Boggart Dementor then turned to Annie and Elisa who both tried the spell as well, but they also fell.

Then it turned to Jack, who was feeling the effects of the Dementor, even if they were numbed because it was really a Boggart.

Gripping his wand tightly he stood as tall as he could and said firmly "Expecto Patronum."

Out of his wand came the silver dolphin as before, it circled around him a little before going to see if the others were alright, before head butting the Boggart Dementor back into the suitcase.

Quickly Lupin shut the lid, and relit the lights, before checking on everyone, bars of chocolate appearing in his hand.

Panting, Jack sank to his hands and knees jumping when Baby Tooth chirped at him and the Dolphin prodded him with its nose.

"I'm ok guys" he said trying to get up "Just didn't think it would be that hard."

"Well against a real Dementor it would be much worse," Lupin said from over where Harry was.

Slowly Jack pulled himself together, and went to check on the girls, his dolphin disappearing as he did.

They kept practicing for about half an hour, Harry, Elisa and Annie changing their memories, until they were all able to fight the Boggart Dementor without passing out.

"Well done everyone, very well done," Lupin said, putting the lid on the case down again and handing out another round of chocolate. "Make sure you have all of it, or Madam Pomfery will have my head."

"Can't we try just one more time, please?" Harry asked a mix of excited and a need to know how to do this coming out in his voice.

"Not tonight," Lupin said calmly "It's close to bedtime, and you're already all very tired."

"No we're not," Annie said failing to be truthful by yawning a little.

"Besides, you've already learnt so much on conjuring a Patronus, all you need is to find the right memory, and to practice – which we will not be doing tonight." he said quickly seeing Harry try to ask again. "How about we try again next week?"

Agreeing to that, the students left climbing the main stairs together until they split off, one going to Gryffindor Tower, and one going to Ravenclaw Tower.

Along the way they were asking each other what they thought their patronus' looked like.

"I bet mine's going to be something really cool!" Annie said, a little more awake than she was a few seconds ago (Jack suspected because of the chocolate), with Baby Tooth riding on her shoulder. "Like a dragon, or a unicorn, or – or a peregrine falcon!"

"No offense Annie," Jack said smiling a little "But I don't think your center fits any of those animal's traits."

"My center?" Annie asked confused.

"It's something Jack's family talk about when they try to show people who they are inside, buried under all the possible lies and outer-shells that protect it. It's what makes them, them." Harry explained so Jack didn't need to go over the whole speech.

"Oh, then please tell oh wise Center Seer, Jack Frost," Elisa said bowing to him a little and hugging her sister around the shoulders, being careful of the little fairy "What are our center's then?"

"Dunno, it's something you need to work out for yourself," Jack said shrugging pulling out a Russian doll baby, that looked like him, only with white hair "And I know it took... a long time for me to work out what mine is, even though I was using it almost every day."

"Well how did you find yours?" Annie asked asking to hold the doll.

"My family and I were backed up with a kid against a dead-end alley-way by a bad guy, and the kid said he was scared," Jack said ignoring Baby Tooth trying to tell him to be quiet. "So, to try and make him feel better, we said 'I know... But it's going to be alright. We're going to have some fun instead.' And then, thanks to me, we fought off the bad guy and his minions, by having fun and laughing the fear we were feeling away."

'But that won't work for you, you need to write your own story, find your own path, and center's. I'm sure they're both wonderful things – as you are both such wonderful people," he said bowing to both of them, making Elisa blush a little "But what I believe Annie's to be – which I won't tell you – doesn't fit the animals she said."

Frowning, Annie crossed her arms and looked away from Jack, his doll still in her hand.

"Well what about Harry's, or mine then?" Elisa asked curious.

"Well for you, I'd say something small and innocent," Jack said answering her "Not sure about Harry."

"Probably something that makes trouble, enjoys it, and sneaky," Harry said thinking "Do you think Gremlins can be a Patronus?"

Finally they reach the top of the stairs where they split up and went to their own towers.

As the Gryffindors reached their tower and after giving Sir Cadogan the password, Annie held out Jack's Russian doll.

"Nah, keep it until you work out what your center is, or until the end of the school year," Jack said thinking "Whatever comes first, just please don't lose it."

"I'm not going to lose your tiny wooden baby, Jack," Annie said, rolling her eyes.

"Annie, I am sure, that unless it was attached to your body, you would lose your head almost every other day." the voice of one of the Weasley twins said sounding like a big brother teasing their sibling.

The three returning Gryffindor's turned around to see them writing something, that might be homework, although Jack thought it might be their next prank instead, seeing it was Fred that spoke.

"Maybe, but I will not lose this, I swear." Annie said confidently.

"You swear?" George said, gasping over dramatically. "You swear? A young innocent thing like you should not swear. Who taught you how to swear, I ask you?"

This got a confused look from Annie, but Jack answered the question.

"Well if you must know, I'm sure I've heard Percy say some pretty bad words the other night when someone's cat knocked over a bottle of ink over the homework he'd been working on for the last few hours."

"Oh really, well we'll just have to talk to him about that," Fred said getting a nod from George.

"Yep but let's ask him tomorrow, he'd probably say more if we bug him at this time of night."

Everyone rolling their eyes they all went to bed.

Sorry for the long wait.

I've been distracted (and sick) and i had to get this just right.

I will try and not make the next update too far in the future, but no promises.