Looney Lupin! See what I did there? Alliteration! Bleah, too much studying for my literature exams.
There were several reasons why he would never turn up on Thursday night at eight. One, Potter was there. It would be uncomfortably awkward with him since Potter was convinced that Edward was the co-conspirator of Sirius Black. Two, he needed to use the hocus pocus stick. Three, Edward was on a mission. Four, he did not want to see another dementor again.
Edward tried not to hit himself repetitively against the wall as he abandoned Malfoy to a harmless game of impersonating Harry Potter and made his way to the History of Magic classroom.
He regretted it even more when a gaggle of giggling girls gawked at the sight of him and grimaced. One of the girls pushed a friend straight into Edward's path and shouted an encouragement. The girl's face was like a beetroot.
"Um... I'm Ruth from Hufflepuff," she said so softly that Edward had to strain his ears to hear. She handed him a box wrapped in pink heart-shaped paper. "I know it's l... late but Merry C... Christmas Edward!"
Edward took her present, dumbfounded. When the girl rejoined her girlfriends, the other girls began to pester her on Edward's reaction to her present. A round of 'I think he likes you!' and 'you bagged him, girl!' rose out from the group even though Edward was still standing right in front of them.
Eyes twitching, Edward continued searching for the History of Magic classroom.
A glance at his pocket watch told him he was fifteen minutes late when he arrived at the classroom. Knocking twice sharply, Edward opened the door and entered, aware of how his terse knocking reminded him of the military.
Potter glanced at Edward as he entered and looked away quickly, but not before Edward could see a burning look in his eyes.
"Ah! Edward! Harry said you might be coming but I didn't expect you to come after the clock turned eight." Lupin said, smiling genially.
A violent rattle from the cupboard under the teacher's desk made Edward raise an eyebrow in suspicion. Another boggart? Seeing where Edward was looking, Lupin explained,
"I've been combing the castle, and very luckily, I found this one hiding in Mr. Filch's filing cabinet. It's the nearest we'll get to a real dementor."
Edward nodded apprehensively. He found a table and sat on it, far away from Potter as he could while Lupin checked the latch holding the cupboard in place.
"So..." Lupin had taken out his wand and indicated that the boys do the same. Potter did so without hesitation but Edward's hand hovered over the real wand. The stick felt uncomfortably hot in his pocket. Edward pulled out the wand reluctantly but placed it on the table so that he would not have to touch it.
"The spell I'm going to teach you is highly advanced magic," Lupin was saying. "It's called the Patronus Charm."
The professor paused as if waiting to see if either boy recognised the term. Neither did. Potter was sitting at the edge of his table, fingers curling eagerly around his stick.
"How does it work?" Potter asked, licking his lips nervously.
"Well, when it works correctly, it conjures a Patronus, which is a kind of anti-dementor weapon. It's like a guardian that acts as a shield between you and the dementor."
Edward had a sudden vision of himself crouching behind Armstrong in full sparkle glory. The professor continued, "The patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the dementor feeds upon- hope, happiness, desire to survive- but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can. This is why the dementors can't hurt it. But I must warn you that the charm might be too advanced. Many qualified wizards have difficulty with it."
"What does a Patronus look like?" Potter said curiously.
"Each one is unique to the user who conjures it."
"How do you conjure it?"
"With an incantation, which will only work if you're concentrating, with all your might, on a single, very happy memory."
Potter's face screwed up as if he were concentrating on something very happy. Edward tried not to snort in laughter. This was ridiculous.
"Right," Potter said, his voice sounded misty. Edward wondered what his happy memory was. If it had anything to do with punching Malfoy on the face, that would make it to one of the top of Edward's happy memories.
"The incantation is this-" Lupin cleared his throat. "Expecto Patronum!"
Potter repeated the incantation under his breath and something silver whooshed out of his wand. It looked nothing like Armstrong or his sparkles. More like what happened when Mustang shot a fireball into the snow, giving out a dirty grey smoke.
Lupin was looking at Edward expectedly who shook his head rapidly.
"Sorry, I'm sitting out on this." Edward explained and Lupin lifted an eyebrow in surprise. Potter resolutely refused to look at him.
"Did you see that?" Potter exclaimed, drawing Lupin's attention back to him. Lupin smiled. There was something in the way he smiled that made him look like he was smiling at someone else, as if Potter were a different person.
"Very good!" Lupin exclaimed and walked to the cupboard. "Ready to try on a dementor?"
Potter nodded earnestly as Lupin pulled open the cupboard. A dementor rose slightly from the compartment and Edward forced down a shiver. The dementor's face turned towards Potter and one glistening, scabbed hand gripped its cloak.
The lights in the room flickered and the air grew colder. Edward grasped the edge of the table. Dark purple lights began to colour the room. No, not now!
"Expecto Patronum! Expecto Patronum!" Potter shouted desperately but his voice grew weaker and weaker. The air became as cold as winter.
Suddenly, the purple lights were gone as Lupin shouted,
"Ridikulous!"
The dementor was back in the cupboard. Edward shakily jumped off from his perch on the table and hurried to Potter's side. The boy was unconscious, sprawled against the floor. His glasses were askew on his ashen face. Edward felt for his pulse and was stunned that his skin was as cold as his.
"Professor..." Edward said as Lupin pushed him gently aside. Lupin muttered a spell and Potter jerked back to life.
"Sorry," Potter muttered, sitting up. Cold sweat was trickling down behind his glasses. Edward breathed a sigh of relief and Potter looked at him in astonishment.
"Dude, are you alright?" Edward asked and Potter, looking even more surprised, nodded. The professor handed him a chocolate frog which Harry bit down. He looked considerably calmer after that.
"It's getting worse," Potter admitted. "I could hear her louder this time. And him- Voldemort."
Edward had no clue what Potter was talking about but Lupin apparently did. Lupin paled and took a shaky breath.
"Harry, if you don't want to continue, you don't have to."
"I do!" Potter protested, shoving the chocolate into his mouth and standing up quickly to prove that he was alright.
"Alright but try to find a happier memory. That one doesn't seem to be happy enough."
Potter nodded resolutely as Lupin pulled open the cupboard. Edward wished he had gotten as far as he could from Potter this time. The dementor was so close to both of them that Edward felt the air colder than before.
"Expecto Patronum!" Potter shouted.
The purple lights bathed the classroom and they were so bright Edward shielded his eyes. He bit down on his lip until he tasted blood. It was a vision. It's not real. Just a vision.
"Expecto Patronum!" Potter screamed again but his voice cracked and Edward knew he was drifting off into unconsciousness again. Fear crashed over Edward. He was alone. Potter's spell was not there to save him anymore. Edward suppressed a scream as his mother's corpse suddenly appeared on the transmutation circle. She lifted her head and stared at Edward with soulless eyes.
"Ridikulous!" Lupin shouted. The air warmed considerably again and the thing disappeared. Edward was tethering on the edge of unconsciousness but he forced himself to stay awake. His throat felt blocked and he could hardly breathe.
"Here, eat it," Lupin commanded, pushing chocolate into Edward's hands. He had unwrapped the chocolate for him which made Edward feel grateful. He could not imagine trying to open the packaging when his fingers were shaking so violently.
"I heard my dad," Potter said breathlessly when Edward regained control over his senses. His throat still felt blocked and his head pounded horribly.
"You heard James?" Lupin said in a strange voice. Potter said something inaudible in reply and Lupin lowered his head a little.
"I did, as a matter of fact. We were friends at Hogwarts. Listen, Harry. Perhaps we should leave it here for tonight."
"No!" Potter said, standing up. Edward was surprised the boy could still stand. "I've got it! I can do this!"
Lupin gazed at the younger boy and wordlessly returned to the front of the desk. Before he opened the cupboard, he glanced at Edward and the chocolate in his hand. Edward hastily bit it down.
The dementor drifted slowly out of the cupboard but Potter's eyes flashed with resolution.
"Expecto Patronum!" Potter bellowed. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
The purple lights appeared, but this time, they were dim and muted. The transmutation circle looked smudged. It looked like Edward was seeing everything through a pair of sunglasses with the wrong prescription.
A silver shadow stood between the dementor and the boys. Edward could see that Potter's legs were shaking. He would not hold out for any much longer. Edward noticed that in one hand, he held the chocolate, in the other, he was holding the abomination- the hocus pocus stick.
But Potter, no, Harry was not going to last forever.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Edward roared, focusing the memory of the sight of his brother in the school yesterday. Edward had expected the thing coming out of his stick to be a faint shadow like Harry's. But the silver thing spinning out of his wand was clear and distinct.
The python's body reared up so it was taller than the dementor. It struck the dementor with blinding speed. The dementor shrank back frantically and almost hurriedly until disappeared into the desk.
Edward stared in wonderment as the python's coils bunched up magnificently and disappeared. The alchemist remembered why the animal looked so familiar. It was the same python from the Flamel cross on his red jacket.