Author's Note: Merry/Happy Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a Happy Holidays in general to all my readers. I hope you enjoy this chapter and enjoyed the previous two holiday related ones.
The day that the students returned to Hogwarts, Oliver Wood sought out Alex after dinner. "Had a good Christmas?" he asked, and then, without waiting for an answer, he sat down, lowered his voice, and said, "I'm been doing some thinking over Christmas, Alex. After last match, you know. If the dementors come to the next one...I mean...we can't afford you to-well-you know. Maybe Beth should play as Seeker and you should be the reserve?"
"Professor Lupin is going to teach me the Patronus Charm, starting this week," Alex said quickly. "He said that he'd have time after the holidays. He's also teaching Beth, my friends, and cousins, except for Vera, who already learned, and Jonas and David, who are too young."
"Ah," said Oliver, his expression clearing. "Well, in that case-I really didn't want to make you the reserve Seeker and have your sister play in your place, since she's better at being Chaser than Seeker. At least you don't have to rush to replace your broom, since we've got the team brooms."
"Actually, I got a Firebolt for Christmas," Alex said. "Beth did too. Sirius Black bought me one to replace my Nimbus, and decided to get Beth one too since we're twins and all and he didn't want her to feel left out."
"A Firebolt? No! Seriously? You both got real Firebolts? That's great! Er, why would Sirius Black buy you and Beth such expensive brooms anyway?"
"My family was the one who discovered that Ron's pet rat was really Peter Pettigrew," Alex pointed out. "Since we were instrumental in helping free Sirius, he's been friends of the family and likes doing things for us to show his gratitude. Also, he says that I remind him of what his godson might be like, you know, the missing Harry Potter, so that makes him want to spoil me and Beth even more."
"That's understandable," said Oliver. "I wonder if Harry Potter will ever be found. For all we know, the person that took him from his awful relatives could have given him a different name, since she wasn't told his name, and taken him to another country. Or she could have been a horrid person and he's dead."
"Who knows," said Alex, who currently had no intention of revealing his actual identity to the wizarding world at large. The ones that needed to know and could be trusted to keep a secret did, and that was enough for him.
Oliver shrugged and said, "Well, good luck with your lessons on the Patronus Charm, Alex, and I'll schedule some practices later in the month."
Classes started again the next day. The last thing anyone felt like doing was spending tow hours on the grounds on a raw January morning, but Hagrid had provided a bonfire full of salamanders (the magical kind, not the Muggle amphibian) for their enjoyment, and they spent an unusually good lesson collecting dry wood and leaves to keep the fire blazing while the flame-loving lizards scampered up and down the crumbling, white-hot logs. The first Arithmancy lesson was less fun, for Professor Vector had them work on a new and much harder number chart than they had before.
It was Defense Against the Dark Arts that Alex was keen to getting to; after his conversation with Oliver, he wanted to get started on his Patronus Charm lessons as soon as possible.
"Ah yes," Professor Lupin said, when the Gryffindor quintet reminded him of his promise at the end of class. "Cara brought it up at the end of her class this morning. I told her that it would be at eight o'clock on Thursday evening, in the History of Magic classroom, which should be large enough for us. Could you pass on the message to Ivan, Fred, and George, since I won't be seeing them in a class until tomorrow? Since we can't bring a real dementor into the castle to practice on, I'll have to find some substitute."
"You could always use a boggart," Hermione suggested. "Dementors are Alex's worst fear, and Beth says that she thinks it would be the same for her."
"Good idea, Hermione," said Professor Lupin with a smile. "I'll comb the castle for a boggart that we can use for Thursday's lesson."
On Thursday evening, ten minutes before eight, the Gryffindor quintet headed for the History of Magic classroom. Ivan, Cara, and Fred and George met them on the way there. They had only been waiting in the classroom for about five minutes when Remus walked in with a large packing case, which he heaved on Professor Binn's desk.
"Is that the boggart, Professor Lupin?" Ron asked.
"Yes," replied Remus. "I've been combing the castle ever since Tuesday and very luckily, I found this one lurking inside Mr. Filch's filing cabinet. I've decided that Alex and Beth can take turns standing in front of the boggart so that it can turn into a dementor for you all the practice on. Now, you have all done some reading on the Patronus Charm like I asked, correct?"
They all said yes or nodded, so Remus had them take out their wands and, thinking happy thoughts, practice the incantation for awhile. Wisps of silver all appeared out of their wands, but nothing definite formed. "It's all right. Nobody has ever had a corporeal Patronus appear the first time they attempted the spell, to my knowledge. It all takes time."
"Uncle Remus?" said Alex. "What form does your Patronus take? Hermione said that the one you did on the train was incorporeal."
Remus hesitated for a second, for he normally used the incorporeal form due to his reluctance to reveal the corporeal form. However, he figured that it wouldn't do any harm to show the group, since they knew they wouldn't go spreading it around. So he raised his wand and said, "Expecto Patronum!" A silver wolf shot out of the tip of the wand and loped around the classroom before disappearing.
"Oh, that suits you really well, Professor Lupin," said Cara. "Wolves are very protective of their packs and family-oriented. And they're not aggressive at all unless something threatens them or someone else in their pack, or if there's a fight over who gets to be the alpha wolf."
Remus blinked in surprise at Cara's words, for he hadn't expected any of them to look at it that way. In fact, he rarely looked at it that way himself, instead seeing it as a reminder of his lycanthropy. "What you said is true, Cara," he said finally. "However, considering what I am, my Patronus doesn't exactly please me. I would rather that it was some form other than a wolf. That is why I don't usually produce the corporeal form."
"We understand, Professor," said Fred, looking very serious instead of his usual merry self.
"Don't worry, we won't tell anyone else what form your Patronus takes," added George.
Remus forced a smile on his face and then asked Alex to stand in front of the packing case so that they could all practice the Patronus Charm on the boggart turned dementor. Of course, none of them were able to repel the 'dementor' the first time, and Alex came to close to passing out again. Remus hurriedly shut the boggart back up and handed everyone a chocolate frog, saying, "It's all right, I didn't expect any of you to get it on the first try. In fact, I would have been astounded if you had. Now eat these and we can try again. Beth, you can take Alex's spot with the boggart."
"It's getting worse," Alex said grimly. "I could hear my biological mother louder that time, and Riddle as well. No, I don't want to stop. I want to be able to fend of the dementors so that I don't have to hear the voices again."
"You may want to select a different happy memory then," Remus suggested. "The first one might not be strong enough."
Alex nodded and decided to switch from the memory of his adoptive parents giving him his first real broom and the subsequent flight to try it out to the memory of winning the Quidditch Cup last year. That ought to be happy enough, considering that it was the first time Gryffindor had won since Charlie Weasley had been on the team, and that instance had been almost seven years prior to the previous year.
Beth took his place and Remus removed the lid of the case. The room went icily cold and dark once more. The dementor glided forward, drawing its breath; one rotting hand was extending toward Beth-
"Expecto patronum!" the students yelled. "Expecto patronum!"
Despite the fact that he was no longer in front of the boggart-dementor, Alex was still affected. White fog obscured his senses...big, blurred shapes were moving around him...then came a new voice, a man's voice, shouting, panicking -
"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off-" The sounds of someone stumbling from a room-a door-bursting open-a cackle of high-pitched laughter-
"Alex! Alex...wake up..." Remus was tapping Alex hard on the face, while the others were clustered around looking on in concern. It took Alex a minute before he understood why he was lying on a dusty classroom floor.
"I heard my dad," Alex mumbled. "You know, my biological one. That's the first time I've ever heard him-he tried to take on Voldy himself, to give my mum time to run for it..." He suddenly realized that there were tears on his face mingling with the sweat. He bent his face as low as possible, wiping them off on his robes, pretending to do up his shoelace, so that the others wouldn't see.
"You heard James?" asked Remus in a strange voice.
"Yeah," said Alex, knowing that the news strongly affected Remus, as he and James, along with Sirius, had been best friends and practically brothers.
"Listen, Alex, perhaps we should leave it here for tonight. This charm is ridiculously advanced...I shouldn't have suggested putting you through this. Your friends should go as well. The rest of you, you can stay and practice the charm, since you're older, though it won't be on a boggart turned-"
"No!" Alex interrupted, getting to his feet. "I'll have one more go! I'm not thinking of happy enough things, that's what it is...Hang on..." He racked his brains. A really, really happy memory...one that he could turn into a good, strong Patronus...
A vision of when the Gryffindor quintet first formed appeared in his mind. It had been after the incident with the troll, and they had all sworn eternal friendship, with magical gold cords appearing on their wrists for a few seconds, signifying how strong their bond was. After that, Alex had revealed his true identity to Hermione, who had promised to keep it secret, then the five of them had spent the rest of the evening relaxing and having a wonderful time as they ate the food from the Halloween feast they had missed. His friendships were one of the best things in his life, and if the formation of the bond between them wasn't a happy memory, then Alex didn't know what was.
This time when the dementor appeared, more than just some silvery vapor came out of the wands of the Gryffindor quintet. A great quantity of mist shot out of Neville's wand, a large, silvery shadow of no particular shape came out of Ron's and Beth's, and vapor that looked like it was starting to take shape shot of Hermione's and Alex's. Meanwhile, forms appeared from Ivan, Fred's, and George's wand, though it was only of some vague four-legged shape and not anything definite enough that the could make out what the Patronuses actually were. As for Cara, she only had a great quantity of mist shoot out her wand, like it did for Neville.
Remus stepped forward and took over. The boggart transformed into the silvery orb that was the moon and he shoved it back into the case. Everyone sat down and he complimented them all on their progress, telling the three oldest that they would likely get corporeal Patronuses a couple of lessons later. Then he handed them all bars of chocolate, saying, "Eat the lot, or I'll have both Madam Pomfrey and Mrs. Romanov after my blood." They knew that he was referring to Grandmum Lise, since Maria and Ana, the other Mrs. Romanovs in the clan, were his friends and contemporaries and so he called them by their first names.
After the group had eaten their chocolate, they were dismissed, with Remus saying that they could meet for another lesson on Sunday afternoon, from four o'clock until dinnertime.