Monday was a bad day for Mina. Potions was terrible as always, and Hagrid seemed to have lost his nerve after the incident with the Malfoy boy, who was still complaining about his arm and keeping it in a sling, and was only teaching the class about flobberworms, which managed to be both disgusting and boring at the same time. While Mina had only been to the hospital wing for flu medicines she had heard that if you weren't cured after a day in the hospital wing then your brains were messed up. Naturally her dislike for Malfoy was continuing to grow.

After class she approached Hagrid and asked him about the hippogriffs and Buckbeak in particular. Hagrid was very upset about the matter, but took her to his cabin, outside of which was Buckbeak, chained by the neck and separated from the rest of the hippogriffs by ministry decree. The proud beast's sadness struck Mina hard, as if she could sense its misery. Though he had been ordered to keep Buckbeak away from students, Hagrid was touched enough by her concern to let Mina bow to and approach it.

Buckbeak gave an affectionate hoot as Mina petted him. She smiled and asked Hagrid "The ministry isn't gonna keep him chained up here forever, is it?"

Hagrid looked away. "Lucius Malfoy's trying to get 'em to execute Buckbeak."

"They can't do that!"

"Yeh don' know Lucius Malfoy. He gets what he wants. He even got Dumbledore to stop bein' headmaster fer a bit last year. This is jus' small potatoes to him." Hagrid took a large handkerchief out of his pocket and blew his nose. The resulting sound was so loud that both Mina and Buckbeak cringed.

"I'm sorry, professor."

"There's not really anything yeh can do, but thanks fer caring. It really means a lot teh me." He motioned for her to go back to the castle. "Yeh'd best be headin' teh yer next class. I don' want teh make yeh late."/

Mina had to wait until seven at night for the thing she had been looking forward to all day, the anti-dementor lesson with Professor Lupin, who had acquired another boggart in a crate.

"The spell that counters the dementors is called the Patronus charm. It involves the creation of a figure of positive energy, fueled by the emotions and power of the caster. The true patronus can drive away and even combat dementors, though less complete ones can still be effective against a single dementor. The patronus is also the only spell known to effect the lethifold, though the odds of your ever encountering a lethifold are nonexistent outside of the tropics and even there are very slim.

"The key is to focus on a single happy thought or memory, and when the image is strongest in your mind to say the words 'expecto patronum.'"

"And what does a patronus look like, professor?"

"The patronus is always a glowing silver, but the form of the true patronus is unique to each caster. You will not know what shape your patronus will take until you cast it.

"Now think of the happiest thing you possibly can and cast the spell."

Mina focused on her memories of playing volleyball in her muggle school and yelled "expecto patronum!" A burst of silver smoke escaped her wand and floated before her. It was largely transparent, but stable.

"How was that?" The moment she asked the patronus dissolved into nothingness.

"Good for a first attempt. You'll need to concentrate harder for the patronus to stay with you though. Try not talking after casting it."

"Got it."

"Then lets see how well it will hold up against a dementor." He backed away so as to not affect the boggart's form and pointed his wand at the crate. "Ready?"

Mina concentrated on the volleyball memory again. "Yes."

"Alohamora."

Mina began to cast her spell the instant the crate began to open. By the time the dementor had fully formed she had her smoke patronus ready to shield her.

The dementor stayed still for a few seconds, then glided towards Mina. It passed through the patronus like it was nothing but steam. Mina tried to think of volleyball again, but flashes of a battle kept popping into her mind, disjointed from Mina's fighting them. She stumbled backwards, nearly falling down.

But then professor Lupin was in front of her, and the dementor changed into the moon. With a wave of his wand he made it pop in the direction facing him, sending it back into the crate which closed over it.

Mina felt dejected. "It just walked through the patronus like it wasn't there."

"Don't worry about it. I would have been astounded if you succeeded on the first try. This isn't the same thing as levitating a cup of tea, or a chocolate bar." He handed her another piece of chocolate. "Eat up before we start again."

Once he was sure that she had eaten enough to regain her strength he observed "You stayed on your feet then entire time this time."

"I don't think I could have kept it up much longer."

"It is still an improvement. Did you have another vision like the others?"

"Just flashes, sir. Nothing I can really remember."

"You see? We're already making progress! What do you say we try it again? This time, though, try a different memory. The one you chose may not have been happy enough."

"Ok." She thought again, and picked the first time she rode a broomstick.

The result was the same; the dementor passed through the patronus again without any difficulty, though Professor Lupin said that the second patronus was somewhat thicker than the first and harder to see through.

The third time Mina did not improve at all.

"I think that that's it for today."

"But-"

"No buts, Mina. There's only so much of this a person can handle. We'll meet again the same time next week, but I'm not going to be responsible for you ending up in the hospital wing."/

The next day Mina absentmindedly doodled her way through history of magic again, and again drew a picture of someone she had seen in a dementor vision-the girl with the meatball head.