Chapter Twenty
"You shouldn't have run after her." Daphne said, not for the first time that evening, piling the chairs up in one corner of Professor McGonagall's classroom after an early dinner.
"Anything could of happened." Neville added, "It was a bit careless."
Daphne, Pansy and Draco had taken great delight in passing the dishes of food over very slowly at dinner as Harry was starving after missing lunch chasing after Gemini.
Cho had brought his food wrapped up in a napkin after Ron had rushed in, telling them what had happened which as very kind of her and had left Harry with another awkward moment of wanting to kiss her. He thought that she might have been about to lean into kiss him but the moment was broken as a group of noisy third years pushed passed to get into the castle.
The cake had been lovely if a bit squashed and not very filling but it turned out that cheese and onion toasies weren't good when they were stone cold.
Not one of his friends had doubted that Harry was correct in having spotted her in Hogsmead, they were just angry he'd put himself in danger when it would have taken less than ten seconds to get them to go with him as back up.
"I know. You've said, you're totally right. I'm sorry." Harry said, Pansy's long rant about her attacking him or him falling or something and ending up hurt as he let himself be reckless yet again.
"We'll forgive you tomorrow, how does that sound?" Draco smirked.
"Make it this evening?" Harry laughed, "I want to tell you all about my next lesson with Dumbledore…"
"Ooo bargaining material. Fair enough, you will be forgiven the moment you get back from your lesson with Dumbledore and not a second before hand." Daphne grinned. She checked the clock just as there was a knock on the door, "That will be everyone starting to arrive."
"What are you planning today Potter?" Professor McGonagall asked, coming through from her private rooms exactly on time as always and taking her seat in the corner.
"Working a little more on Patronus charms and their uses." Harry explained briefly.
"Very good Mr Potter." Professor McGonagall nodded approvingly and opened her book.
Hermione pushed the last of the chairs out the way and flinched, clutching at her stomach, just above her hip.
"Hermione, are you all right?" Harry asked.
Hermione nodded, a little weakly and forced a smile, "Yeah, something just twinged, I'll be fine. We should get started."
Harry nodded and walked quickly over to the door and opened it, welcoming the students in with a smile.
It was a smaller class than there had been at the start of the year, just over a dozen; not including Harry and his circle of friends, most students had dropped out once homework and lessons had really kicked off. In many ways it was better this way. It meant he could focus on each student more and help them out when they got stuck, as everyone had at some point or another.
"Hello everyone, thanks for coming a bit earlier today." Harry began.
"Why did you need it early, Harry?" Zacharias Smith asked, always one for prying.
"I had an extra class this evening so it was earlier or not at all." Harry explained quickly, having no desire to dwell on the topic so moving on quickly before Smith could ask any more questions, "Today we will be working more on Patronus charms. I know that most of you have gotten them pretty sussed out but there is more that you can use a fully formed Patronus for."
Daphne walked over to the other side of the room and turned her back to the class. She flicked her wand, muttering the charm. A small rabbit spun round and sat in front of Daphne, glowing softly.
Daphne bent down and whispered to the Patronus. It hopped away from her, towards the class and sat on it's back legs, one ear flopped down over an eye, the other staying bolt upright.
"Hello!" it said clearly, with Daphne's voice, "kinda cool huh?"
The class clapped in amazement as the rabbit vanished. Daphne turned round and gave a small curtsey before skipping back to Harry.
"So that's the aim." Harry said with a shrug, "For those of you who haven't yet managed to get a full Patronus every time, we'll keep working there but when you've got that it's time to try messages! These are super useful as they are harder to stop than an owl and don't need a fire like floo powder does. I'll show you a little more closely how it all works."
Harry took a deep breath and summoned his stag, it stood waiting patiently before him.
"Go to Pansy Parkinson and tell her her hair looks lovely today." Harry said clearly.
The stage gave a slight nod and trotted over to Pansy, repeating the message that Harry had given it.
"Why thank you!" Pansy laughed.
"Hey, have I got competition here, Potter?" William joked.
Harry laughed and stuck his tongue out at him.
"Don't worry, there's no competition." Pansy smiled, blowing a kiss to William but winking at Harry, making them both laugh.
"So pair off everyone, stand at opposite sides of the room and, lets stick to nice messages shall we?" Hermione instructed.
The students nodded and paired off.
"Draco will you go with Luna?" Harry asked, seeing that she, not for the first time, was left till last.
"Yep." Draco said.
Harry gave him a small frown, "That was a quick answer… is there something I should know?"
"No, yes… what?" Draco said quickly, fighting not to blush, something that showed all too quickly on his pale skin, "Shut up, Potter."
Harry smirked, making a mental note to talk to Draco about Luna sometime when it was just the two of them, he wouldn't want to embarrass his friend or Luna in that way.
"Sorry you're stuck with me again." Luna shrugged, giving him a quick smile.
"I don't mind." Draco smiled. He loved the way she tucked her hair behind her ears when she was nervous, it seemed to be the only time she wasn't trying to hide behind her hair, "You're rather brilliant really."
Luna let out a laughed, "Thanks. Most people just think I'm weird."
"You are." Draco said before thinking, "I mean, it's not a bad thing."
"OK stop talking and get practising!" Harry said, checking his watch. He was painfully aware of how quickly time seemed to be slipping passed them.
He let the class practice for half an hour or so before walking round and helping to correct those who were still struggling. It wasn't tricky to get them to send messages once they were strong enough anyway, it was just getting them to that point of strength in the first place and the constant dark feeling in the air was making it difficult for them to focus on their happiness, something Harry had noticed as well.
If they didn't have that strength you got one of two things; they either would fade to nothing long before they reached whoever the message was for or the message would be so jumbled it often made no sense at all, sometimes with hilarious results, for example when Hermione sent her Patronus to Daphne, saying her clothes looked nice, the poor otter actually said Daphne looked nice WITHOUT clothes.
Needless to say the class had erupted in laughter, Professor McGonagall had scolded Hermione, as that was not an appropriate message while in public leaving Hermione tomato red and wishing the floor would swallow her whole while she tried to explain that was not what she had meant.
At twenty to eight Harry stopped the class, most of them having managed to send at least one full message. Ron seemed to be really struggling though, it was mostly a confidence issue to Harry's mind but currently Ron could barely produce a shield Patronus.
"Well done all of you." Harry grinned, he always had such a sense of pride after a good lesson like this had been, "I feel like you're all getting a brilliant grounding in this stuff. Now are there any questions?"
A young Gryffindor raised her hand slowly, feeling all eyes turn to her.
"Rebecca right?" Harry asked, hoping he'd gotten the name right.
She nodded and gave him a small smile, "What happens if the message is intercepted?"
Harry hopped onto one of the desks, swinging his legs, his legs now long enough to brush the ground, "Well if you mean by someone who the message isn't meant for, nothing. At worst it will just puff into thin air. Normally, however, it will just sit there until it can get through to continue to the correct person. However it will say the message even if there are other people around unless you tell it specifically not to."
"So it could be followed?" Ron asked.
"In theory." Professor McGonagall answered, gracefully closing her book. Harry was slightly surprised she'd been paying enough attention to answer before he had the chance, "But they are far quicker than humans, being made of light. I've not heard of a single case where one was followed successfully."
There was a murmur of relief around the class.
"I heard you can change your Patronus." Cadwallader, a member of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team said, "Are you planning on teaching us that?"
Harry shrugged, "Well I can try but it's not quite as simple as just changing it. Your Patronus takes the form of your happy memory so it mostly depends on that. I do know of three, well four, instances though where it has changed."
"Go on." William said, encouragingly.
Harry smiled, it felt rather more personal than he'd planned on sharing, although it wasn't exactly private knowledge.
He took a deep breath, "Well the first two are Sirius and Nikka, Nikka's became a shaggy dog and Sirius became a tiger when they got together, just under a year ago in fact, which is why I mostly count it as one. The next one is Tonks, her's has become a wolf lately and… and the first one I ever heard about was Mum. Her's has changed twice really, more recently to a kitten, as her happy memory is now the first time I met Danica and the first time it changed was while she was at school. Her's was an owl to start with and then, it changed to a doe, to match Severus's when he learnt the spell."
"That's so sweet." Pansy smiled.
Harry nodded and grinned, it was sweet, "So in answer to the question, if you want to try and change your Patronus form then go ahead, I can see why it would be a useful skill, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to actually manage it… and with that I'm going to have to dash off in a few minutes so I will see you all soon."
There was a chorus of 'thank you' and 'bye' as the group of students left the room, leaving Harry, Pansy, William, Cho, Daphne, Hermione and Neville to start dragging desks and chairs back to their proper places.
Harry spotted Draco darting from the classroom with Luna and grinned to himself.
"My classroom, exactly how you found it please." Professor McGonagall smiled to them, "It was a very interesting lesson today Mr Potter, you've clearly worked hard and researched the subject thoroughly."
"Thank you Professor." Harry said humbly, "And we'll put everything right in here, I promise."
"You know you have a real knack for teaching." Professor McGonagall continued, "Have you considered making it your profession after you've finished here?"
Harry looked at her blankly for a moment before his brain caught up, "Umm… not really no. My careers interview last year didn't go so great. I've not really thought about after school at all." I'm just hoping to make it to after school in one piece he thought to himself.
"Well, I suggest you think about it." Professor McGonagall said, "I need to leave, I trust I can leave you here without it causing you to get into mischief?"
"Well Harry's about to leave…" Neville sniggered, earning him an eye roll from McGonagall.
She gave Harry a final nod before leaving them alone.
"Professor Potter… has a nice ring to it." Pansy mused.
"Is it what you want though Harry?" Hermione asked.
Harry felt an inappropriate flare of annoyance, "I don't know!" he said, trying not to snap, "I've not thought about it… I don't know if I'm going to make it to after school. It's not like my life has been normal up until now, is it?"
"Harry… sorry." Hermione said, lowering her head.
Harry let out a deep breath, "It's fine. I shouldn't of snapped, I… I just feel like everyone is looking forward to the future and I'm just not sure I have one."