The Patronus

In October, the Incorruptibles advanced much faster with their tough curriculum than Harry had done in the DA lessons he had taught as a fifth-year. No wonder: He himself had much deeper knowledge than he had then, four of his six students were sixth and seventh-years, whose previous lessons in Defense Against the Dark Arts had moreover all been given by competent teachers – unlike his own at that time – and all of them were highly gifted. Even Albus was keeping up well, especially as he practised alone or with one of the older students between their DA meetings.

When Harry Apparated on the first Monday in November, he therefore felt that the time had come to give his students a treat:

"Today we're starting with the Patronus!"

The Incorruptibles were thrilled. Conjuring a Patronus belonged to the most advanced forms of magic and was, among other things, the only known means of defence against Dementors. Since Hermione had called the Dementors back from exile and ordered them to Azkaban at the end of October, learning to call a Patronus had become a matter of particularly urgency. The Incorruptibles hung spellbound on his lips.

"The Patronus Charm," Harry explained, "is too challenging for many wizards and so is usually not taught at Hogwarts. It requires a high level of magical energy that you cannot learn – you either have it or you don't. It's simply a question of talent. But it requires even more than that, namely the highest concentration and above all – and this is crucial – a certain inner attitude: The moment you conjure it, you have to be happy. You see the problem: Just when you need it most, that is, when your life is at stake and Dementors are trying to drain all happiness out of you, it's the hardest to conjure."

"How can I arbitrarily make myself happy?" asked Orpheus. "With a Cheering Potion?"

"In principle, that's not a bad idea," Harry confirmed, "but often you won't have the time to quickly cheer yourself up this way. No, you have to do it in your mind. You may imagine something that makes you happy, like winning the Quidditch cup," he said to Julian with a smile, "but most reliable are happy memories. To conjure the Patronus, you have to imagine the happiest event you can find in your memory as vividly as possible. I'm doing the spell for you once now."

For a moment Harry focused, waved his wand and called: "Expecto Patronum!"

Involuntarily, the Incorruptibles had to squint as the rather small room was abruptly flooded with glistening silvery light. When they could look at it again, they saw a huge, shiny silver stag. They couldn't help letting out admiring "Wow!" and "Cooool!" Harry made the Patronus disappear with another flick of his wand.

"That's how it has to look in the end. But don't feel discouraged if it doesn't work right away. You have to practise a lot to get it. I don't think you can manage to get more than a rather cloudy Patronus today, but that's the first step."

The students started practising with utmost zeal, but with varying degrees of success.

Albus had a luxury problem: For as long as he could remember, he had never really been unhappy, and when he thought about which of his experiences had been the happiest, so many came to him that he was spoilt for choice. In the last few weeks alone, he had been really happy at least three times: when he realised that he had found a real friend in Scorpius, when Roy said how proud he was of him, and most of all when his dad entrusted him with the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map. The latter was what he decided to focus on, when he was calling out "Expecto Patronum" for the first time.

The result was remarkable. Of course, there was no clearly shaped Patronus right away, but the silvery cloud his wand brought about was remarkable and instantly showed some kind of contours, while the wands of his much older friends rather produced a kind of vapour that immediately faded away, and some of them did not even that. Spurred on by this success, Albus continued to practise with fervour, and it seemed to him that his Patronus grew a little bigger and more clearly shaped with each new attempt.

Then, however, a certain deadlock seemed to have been reached. However hard Albus struggled in the following hour: His shapeless Patronus was good, it was better than the others', but made no effort to mature into a well-defined shape. The memory of receiving the map and the Invisibility Cloak seemed to wear off somehow – maybe that's why he wasn't advancing anymore? Albus pondered. Wasn't there anything he had always thought back to with joy and happiness? Again, he was spoilt for choice, but one experience seemed particularly fitting. Yes, he would try that …

The DA session was coming to an end. Harry had quickly realised that his son was well on his way and didn't need much support. When Albus looked up once and their eyes met, Harry merely winked at him encouragingly and raised his thumb. Then he turned again to Roy and Arabella, who were his problem children that evening.

While Orpheus', Julian's, and Ares' shapeless Patroni gradually grew in size and contour, though not as impressively as Albus', Roy and Arabella were still struggling with little clouds any spray can would have produced more imposingly.

Harry could not explain it. Roy in particular was one of the most gifted wizard students he had ever seen – all the spells they had practised in the weeks before had caused him less trouble than all the others, and Arabella was hardly inferior to him. The Patronus, however, seemed to be an insurmountable hurdle.

"Courage, and don't tense up", he encouraged the two, who were already shaking their heads in slight resignation. "You must keep relaxed to make the Patronus, it is one of the few spells you cannot force to succeed by sheer effort of will. I think your mistake is ..."

He didn't get a chance to explain the mistake, because at that very moment the room, once again, was abruptly flooded with brilliant silvery light. Arabella who happened to be looking in the direction of the light let out a shrill scream. Harry wheeled around and needed a moment to realise what he was seeing: On the ground, a huge, silvery shining Cobra was wriggling, just now majestically and proudly raising its head with the hood. Everyone stared in awe at the magical beast. No one dared to speak.

"Whose Patronus is this?" asked Harry finally in a low voice.

"It's m ... mine, Dad."

Harry could hardly believe it. His son – his son! – had made it first! He bolted over to Albus and flung his arms around him.

"You're better than I was!" he cheered. "It took me much longer then, and I was even thirteen!"

Brimming with euphoria, his arm still around Albus' shoulder, he feasted his eyes once more on the sublime sight of the Patronus.

The others also slowly regained their composure. Ares came over to Albus to pat his shoulder, laughing: "My goodness, a snake as a Patronus! No way to be more Slytherin than that!"

After all of them had congratulated their youngest, Harry looked at his watch and said: "It's now half past eight, time to stop. We won't get a better finish today! – And besides," he murmured to Albus, "I can't wait to tell your mother."

While the others had gone ahead, Roy and Albus were the last to leave the secret room. Roy, though really delighted with Albus's triumph, was a little depressed by his own poor performance.

"May I ask you something?"

"Go ahead," Albus said elatedly.

"What were you thinking of when you conjured this Patronus?"

"Oh ... er, well" Albus said a little hesitantly, "ah ... it was really nothing big."

Roy saw his friend flush and said quickly:

"Of course, if you want to keep it to yourself, you don't have to tell me, that's perfectly fine."

Albus looked up at him. He was actually a little embarrassed, but after all, Roy had already trusted him with secrets.

"I have ..." He faltered, then gave himself a jolt. "I was thinking of Hermione."

Roy stopped dead and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Of Hermione?" he asked incredulously.

"Not like she is now, of course, but like she really is. It was Christmas six or seven years ago. Rose and I cuddled up to her and she read to us for hours from The Tales of Beedle the Bard ... As I told you, it was no big thing, but at that moment I was just happy!" he exclaimed with a certain defiance, as if he feared Roy would reprimand him for it.

Roy, however, only looked at him with a certain melancholic smile that Albus had never seen on him before, nodded, and murmured:

"I see ..."

In the next DA meeting on Wednesday, Orpheus created the Patronus – a fox –, on Friday Julian produced a Patronus in the shape of a puma, and Ares' turned out to be a bull. Only Roy and Arabella kept treading water since Monday. Their Patroni, though still shapeless, were no longer as feeble as they had been at the beginning, but by far less impressive than the cloud Albus had conjured at first go.

When Harry had Disapparated at the end of the lesson and Albus read from the Marauder's Map that they could confidently leave the secret room, Arabella said:

"Go ahead, Roy and I will keep practicing."

"Oh, will we?" asked Roy, puzzled.

"Yes, we will!" she replied firmly. "We're not going to leave here without a Patronus!"

"May I help you?" offered Albus.

Before Roy could say anything, Julian intervened:

"Let them alone, Al." A slight smile was curling his lips. "I think the two of them will manage quite well on their own." And he pushed the bewildered Albus towards the exit.

Arabella waited until she was alone with Roy, then looked at him half questioningly, half searchingly.

"You know why we don't get to create a Patronus?"

Roy nodded. "I don't know what it's like with you, with me it's the damned memories thing!" He groaned. "I can rack my brain again and again, but I don't find anything! Of course, there are many pleasant memories, but happiness ..."

"It's the same with me," Arabella cut him off, slowly moving towards him.

"Happiness ..." repeated Roy hesitantly. "I simply don't have a really all-round happy memory."

Now, Arabella stepped so close to him that their faces were barely a hand's breadth apart and he could feel her breasts on his chest.

"So why don't you help yourself to it, you idiot ..." she whispered tenderly, "and me too?"

Roy hardly dared to breathe. He hesitated for a moment, then gently took the glasses from her nose and pulled her body close to his ...

That very same evening, Roy's Patronus turned out to be a bear, Arabella's, a she-wolf.