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Chapter 16

Harry was a little surprised when, almost a week after returning to Hogwarts, an owl who wasn't Hedwig came swooping into the hall as he ate breakfast with a letter for him. He offered the owl a bit of sausage off his plate, but the owl refused it. Harry untied the envelope and saw it was from the Ministry so he opened it quickly and gave a read. Specifically, it was Amelia Bones telling him about what was going to happen with his aunt and uncle. Harry was a little surprised, as he had assumed they would have been executed quickly, However, it turned out that (just like Buckbeak) they had a right of appeal, which would take time. It was unlikely that his aunt and uncle would succeed, however, but not for the reasons most would consider, though - at least not in his uncle's case, as he probably wouldn't even survive long enough to complete the appeal. The diet of fried meats, greasy pastries and ridiculous amounts of both salt and sugar, did not leave his uncle with the strongest of constitutions. Because of this, the werewolf transformations were rather hard on him. The appeal hearing was set in five months' time, and the healers didn't think he would survive another transformation. His aunt was in better shape, but even so, five months was pushing it. Some healers thought she had a chance to live that long, others didn't.

His aunt and uncle were currently locked up in holding cells in the Ministry. Director Bones had pulled them from going to Azkaban, citing wanting to question them about anything they knew about who and where they had been held. To get them to cooperate, Madam Bones was also helping them get their affairs in order and helping them sort everything out for Dudley. Selling the house and using the money to set up trust funds for Dudley's education, arranging how Vernon's death would appear on mundane paperwork so that the life insurance policy that his aunt had taken out on her husband would pay out for Dudley, and of course arranging who was going to have custody of Dudley until he was eighteen.

She also told Harry that Dudley was visiting his parents every weekend, and that he had the right to visit them as well if he wanted to, but he didn't. Harry could easily imagine how that would go, he would walk in and his aunt and uncle would start screaming and shouting that it was his fault, and how they were good normal people until Harry brought all the freakishness into their lives. Eventually his uncle would lose all control and would try to physically attack him, and as it would be in the middle of the D.M.L.E. the result would be headaches for everyone. Then Harry found the main reason for why the incredibly busy director of the D.M.L.E. was writing to him. She wanted his opinion on what to do with his cousin. Dudley was violent by nature, and he not only knew of the magical world, he had good reason to actively hate it. Basically, he was a ticking time bomb as far as the Statute of Secrecy was concerned, yet he was legally allowed to know of the magical world.

Hermione asked what the letter was, so he gave it to her to read while he munched on the sausage and egg sandwich that was his breakfast. As he ate, he tried to think of a solution that didn't involve obliterating his cousin of all his knowledge of anything magical, but he couldn't think of one. Dudley was definitely too big a risk, he was too vindictive and had been hurt a lot by the magical world. Also, it wasn't like Harry was holding out hope that the two of them would go out for a beer one day. Any tie of family between them never formed, so it wasn't like he would be losing a cousin. And with Dudley being able to inherit properly now, it wasn't as if Harry had to feel any obligation to help any more either. Maybe a clean slate was best.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Hermione asked as she handed him back the letter.

"Not really. I will probably advise Director Bones to go ahead with the memory modification. It will give both Dudley and I a clean break to go our own ways," Harry answered her.

"Speaking of Director Bones, have you worked out where we are going to teach Susan and the others the Patronus Charm? The first lesson is tonight," Hermione changed the subject

" I was thinking we could just use an empty classroom in the Charms corridor. No need to overcomplicate things."

" True, but we do have to tell everyone where to meet us," Hermione pointed out, making Harry realise he had actually forgotten that part.

The Weasleys were the easiest; they were just down the table eating together. They had started doing that ever since they had gotten back. Despite how much they usually annoyed each other, ever since they had lost their father they wanted to be together. It was a family thing, something Harry was only recently starting to understand, but it was also making more sense every day. Harry just walked up and told them once he had finished his breakfast. He and Hermione would see Susan and Hannah in Herbology just before lunch, so that only left Luna. Harry asked Ginny if she could pass on the message as she was bound to have at least one class with House of the Eagles today. Ginny agreed, so Harry and Hermione made their way to their first lesson of the day, Care of Magical Creatures.

-ϟϟϟ-

When it came time for the first Patronus lesson, Harry and Hermione weren't the first to arrive at the classroom. They arrived ten minutes before they told everyone to be there, but Luna and Ginny were already there and it looked like Ginny had been crying again. She had spent a lot of time crying since she had gotten back to the school, and from what Ron and the twins had said in passing she had been the same ever since the truth of her father's death had hit her.

Harry didn't really know what he was doing comforting people, so he just followed Hermione's lead and wrapped the girl in a hug. Ginny burrowed her head into his chest and started crying again. Harry was worried he had done something wrong, but both Hermione and Luna gave him a sad smile telling him that he was doing the right thing. It took Ginny five minutes to compose herself again, and once she had she was embarrassed about how she had acted, but Harry waved it off saying that she had nothing to apologise for. Everyone needs a good cry sometimes, and he was just glad that he was able to help.

Luna helped Ginny with a few charms to clean up her face a little after her cry, and Hermione hit Harry's robes with a Scouring Charm as Ginny had left some tear and snot stains on his robes. Daphne and Tracey were the next to arrive, and the two of them instantly joined Harry and Hermione in one corner of the room. Then came Neville, who stood off on his own not wanting to interrupt either group. He wasn't alone for more than two minutes, though, until Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones arrived and joined him. Daphne made a comment that she wouldn't be surprised to see Hannah and Neville dating soon, and after a look at them Harry wouldn't be surprised either. It was obvious that the girl had a crush on Neville and Harry couldn't see Neville turning down the mousy-haired Hufflepuff from the way she had quickly gotten him smiling and laughing.

The rest of the Weasleys arrived last, a little past the time Harry and Hermione had said to be there but not late enough to say anything about. Harry gave them a few minutes to settle in, mostly so he could use it to psych himself up a little. He and Hermione had talked, and she wanted Harry to lead the teaching. For some reason he couldn't understand, she seemed to think that he would be a better teacher than her. Harry personally thought that was dragon-shit, Hermione would be a brilliant teacher. Harry even suspected that Hermione pushing him had more to do with Hermione wanting to live out some "hot for teacher" fantasy, which Harry had to admit sounded like fun as long as he was the teacher.

Harry stepped up so that he was half sitting on, half standing in front of the old teachers desk and waited. It only took about 35 seconds for everyone to finish their conversations and turn to listen to him.

"Well, you all know why we are here. We are going to try and learn the Patronus charm. The Patronus charm has one main use, and that is to ward off Dementors. There are a few other creatures such as Lethifolds that it works against, but it's almost unheard of to encounter one of those in Britain as such creatures tend to live in the tropics. The Patronus is what I have heard people call true magic, magic that has an emotional component to it. An emotion that you need to be feeling while you cast that is as important or even more important to casting as the incantation and the wand movements. The Patronus charm is a projection of positive emotions that are anathema to Dementors.

Now, people say that memories are the key to calling up the right emotions. But I have found that thoughts, ideas, or even dreams can work. The key is that whatever you are thinking of has to make you happy, you need to really feel it. It can be an event, a time, a place, or even a person. The first time I cast a fully corporeal Patronus I was thinking of a person." He flashed Hermione a smile and she blushed a little. "Luckily, you don't need to tell anyone what you're thinking of, so if it's embarrassing you don't need to worry. Now watch while I demonstrate the charm."

Harry pointed his wand where they could all see and first spun the end of his wand in a circle going deosil, or clockwise as it was called in the mundane world, and then when the tip of his wand returned to were it started he dropped it down though the imaginary circle he had just made cutting it in half while saying firmly "Expecto Patronum!" All the time he was thinking about Hermione and Fleur, the two loves of his life.

The silvery mist shot out of his wand and formed into a solid mass and landed on the ground silently between Harry and everyone else. Only it wasn't Prongs, his stag Patronus; looking around and stretching its wings was a massive gryphon. Harry stood there and stared at it in shock for a minute, before his brain re-engaged and he thought about what this meant for him. His Patronus had always meant family. Prongs was his father, the family he was supposed to have had. The gryphon was two parts - part lion and part eagle. The lion part would represent Hermione, his lioness: strong and proud but also a big old house cat who loved ear scratches. The eagle half was Fleur: her Veela heritage, her strength of character, and her ability to be alone with people she hasn't opened up to like she was soaring above them. There may even be a little of him in there as well, considering his animagus form.

"Harry, what happened to your Patronus?" Hermione asked, just as surprised as he was.

"I'm not sure. But I think it represents you and Fleur, my new idea of family, instead of Prongs, my dad's animagus form which represented my old idea of family," Harry had already completely forgotten about everyone else in the room.

"That's actually really interesting. So the form of your Patronus can change?" asked Hannah.

"I guess so? I didn't know that before now either. I will have to talk to Professor Lupin, he was the one who taught me the charm originally." Harry answered. "But none of that matters right now. We are here to learn the basics, not speculate on the weirdness that a fully corporeal Patronus can achieve."

He then picked up a piece of old chalk from a ridge under the dirty blackboard. He gave the blackboard a tap with his wand and hit it with a cleaning charm. It wasn't perfect, but it would be a lot easier now to make out what he wrote on the blackboard. He then drew out the shape of the wand movement, nice and large so they could all see it.

"This is the one movement, it's actually pretty simple given how complicated the charm is. It is a complete circle going deosil that's then cut in half by a vertical line, and the incantation is Expecto Patronum. Now you all try saying it, one at a time starting on my left, so Fred you're up first," Harry called on the Weasley twin who was wearing a jumper with a large letter F on it.

One by one they all went through saying the incantation, with Harry and Hermione correcting a few on their pronunciation. Tracey was the one who had the hardest time with it; she kept saying Patronus instead of Patronum. Then Harry had them all doing the same for the wand movements, and this time it was Ron who had the most trouble. He was gripping his wand more like a knife he was going to try stabbing someone with, as compared to an instrument to channel his magic.

Once Harry and Hermione were happy with their wand movements and pronunciation, Harry stood in front of them all again. "Right, all that's left is your happy memories. Those are of course individual to each of you, so I'm going to give you all five minutes, then the first person can come and try to cast it. You can have three attempts, then you will let someone else take a turn. The spell is a powerful one, and as such trying to cast it too much and too quickly will wear you out and possibly land you an overnight stay in the hospital wing. You wouldn't enjoy that, and I'm sure Madam Pomfrey will make sure I enjoy even less than you do when she finishes with me," Harry's joke got a chuckle out of all of them.

He gave them five minutes and watched as they all tried to find their happiest memories. As they thought, Hermione came to stand next to him. "Do you think they will all be able to do it?" she asked quietly so that none of them could hear.

" I think they will all be able to at least get the mist by the end of the first couple of lessons. As for the corporeal, that more depends on whether or not they can summon up the needed emotion. I think Ginny and Ron will struggle, Ron is rightly angry and Ginny is depressed. Fred, George, and Tracey are all also grieving so it won't be easy for them either."

"That's pretty much what I thought as well. I was thinking, do you think if we had our Patronuses out that we lift the mood in here a little? Make it a bit easier for everyone?" Hermione suggested.

Harry thought about it for a few moments before he said, "I don't think that's a good idea. They need to be able to cast the spell while under attack by Dementors, which will bring up all the memories they are currently struggling with. This is exactly what they will need to overcome. It's best if they learn to do it this way from the start." It was clear from the look on Hermione's face that she disagreed, but she also trusted Harry and didn't say anything more about it.

The five minutes came to an end, and Harry looked at them all examining their expressions looking for whomever looked the happiest. Harry selected Susan first and had her come forward. As expected, Susan's first try was a flop, but Harry talked her through it again and she gave it her second try. Her grin grew wider as a wisp of silvery mist shot out of the tip of her wand.

"The mist Patronus is called the shield Patronus and it will shield not only you, but also anyone else inside it, from a Dementor. If there are two of you and the Dementor effect is making it difficult for you to summon a full Patronus, if one of you casts the shield around you both the other will then have a much easier time calling their Patronus. This was something I had to work out myself when Hermione and I were attacked at the end of our third year."

They then cycled through everyone. Susan got mist on her next attempt as well. Tracey got nothing until she had been through a few times and finally got mist on her fifth attempt. Daphne got it on her fourth. Fred and George both got mist on their first try, while Ron got mist on his sixth and last attempt of the day. Luna got her mist on the first try, and it was trying to come together into a corporeal form by the end of the first lesson.

Ginny was the only one who got nothing, and it was clear that she was upset about that. Harry tried to encourage her, telling her that it wasn't the easiest of spells and to not think too much of it, but all he was able to do was to get her more upset and she ran out of the room crying. Harry went to run after her, but Luna grabbed him by the arm before he could and said, "You did not say the wrong thing Harry Potter. Ginny is confused and upset because the dancing penumbra is giving her bad dreams and she can't sleep. I will go after her." And with that Luna ran after her friend.

"Dancing penumbra?" Harry asked, confused.

"Well penumbra is another word for shadow, perhaps it's Luna's way of saying Ginny is graving?" said Tracey. "It's kind of a poetic way to say it. I know I often feel like I'm living in a world of shadow." That quickly got her a hug from Daphne, though only the type of hug a girl may give her best friend. Daphne and Tracey were still hiding their relationship from most people, including people she barely knew like Ron, Susan, and Hannah. Harry also put a supportive hand on her shoulder. Ever since he had brought her into the House of Potter, he had started to see her as something like a sister, and he didn't like to think of her hurting like that. He just wished he could do something for both Tracey and Ginny, but unfortunately no matter how many spells he learned, the only thing to heal grief like the loss of a parent was time.

-ϟϟϟ-

Harry and Hermione caught up with Daphne and Tracey in the Room of Requirement again over the weekend. Harry wanted to make sure that the two Slytherin girls were being treated okay now that they had joined the House of Potter. Daphne had set the Room up before Harry and Hermione had got there; Harry knew it was Daphne and not Tracey, even though the layout was the same as any of them would have made, a comfortable cross between a sitting room and a meeting room that they had come to favour recently that let them lounge comfortably but still have a place to work on their homework. The difference was the decoration, Tracey may find Harry's idea of interior design to be almost cavemanish but Daphne's design choices always seemed a touch more elegant and flowery than Tracey's.

"So how are things for the two of you in Slytherin?" Harry asked after half an hour of just general chit chat. "Anyone giving you trouble?"

"Nope, well nothing big anyway," Tracey answered for them as Daphne was chewing on a small handful of nibbles that Dobby had popped in with.

"I'm surprised, I would have thought that at least Malfoy and his Death Eater wannabes would have been all over you for joining Harry's side." Hermione said.

Daphne swallowed her mouthfuls and smiled as she said, "Not likely, given that most of them are cowards. Someone may have told them that you were just looking for an excuse to challenge them to a formal duel, Harry, and Professor Sinistra is no Professor Snape. She won't let Slytherins off with a warning if she catches any bullying. She had Goyle cleaning every toilet in the Slytherin dungeon with a toothbrush after he pushed a second year out of his way at the start of the year. Once he was done, she told him that if he ever did anything like that again, not only would she make him do it again, she'd then force him to use the same brush to brush his teeth with." Everyone looked a little sick at that, but Harry and Tracey couldn't keep from smirking a little. Daphne continued. "I doubt she would do that, at least not without using cleaning charms on the brush first, but can you imagine? Goyle, and every other thug in the dungeon, has been much more wary of bullying anyone since then."

"What about your relationship?" Hermione asked. "After you followed Tracey to the House of Potter, I would have thought it would have gotten people wondering about the two of you."

"You just need a story they are willing to accept and a lie they want to believe more than they want to believe the truth. I told them that if I had stayed in the House of Greengrass my grandfather would have married me off as soon as I left Hogwarts. I of course have a far more ambitious vision of my future than just being some trophy wife and broodmother, so I had to go elsewhere. The House of Potter has a few things that make it perfect for me. A friendly Warlock who wouldn't ask too much of me, especially as he already has two beautiful betrotheds. Of course he doesn't give two flying fucks about whom I marry, because my kids are never going to be inline to inherit any of the Potter legacy. And my best friend was there." Shs finished her list. "True, that last one is more Hufflepuff loyalty than Slytherin ambition and cunning, but it's a motivation that they can understand."

"That's interesting, but what is the lie they want to believe?" asked Harry, impressed by the story Daphne had woven. If he didn't know better he would have been worried that it was the truth.

"The lie they want to believe is that I am still available. And in a way where all they need to do is woo me rather than get their fathers or grandfathers to deal with my grandfather. So all I have to do is say I'm more focused on my O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s right now. After all, I need them if I'm going to do my own thing rather than be a trophy wife.

"How are your parents taking it?" Hermione asked carefully.

Daphne shrugged. "I'm not sure, as I haven't seen them in person, but both of them are writing to me regularly and their letters are supportive. Tracey was my best friend long before Hogwarts, they knew her growing up and not being allowed to help her is something they hate. And dad has already told me as soon as my grandfather kicks the bucket and he is the Warlock he will invite me back into the family as his Heir. He also set up a vault at Gringotts in my name, and it has more than enough gold in it to see me through Hogwarts and two masteries if I want them."

Both Harry and Hermione were stunned by the last statement, as while you could fast track a mastery if you were skilled enough or had enough money to employ the master doing the teaching full time, most masteries still took between three to five years to finish, and some like healing took seven years. Basically, Daphne was saying her parents had given her enough gold to live off for the next ten-fifteen years, which Harry felt was a lot to give as a stipend to a minor.

Leaving that topic behind, they spent the rest of the time going over homework and Harry's plans for his latest runic invention, the doorway that vanished water, making a number of edits to the array so that it would target better. He was still having targeting issues, but instead of all the water everywhere, it was now targeting all the water within an inch of the skin of whatever passed through it. Unfortunately, that was still the skin on both the inside and the outside, so it was still unusable but it was progress. Now he just needed to find a use for all the freeze dried fruit he was making while he tested the frames.

A/N

I hope everyone had a good new years. Remember my writing is fuelled by energy drinks and your comments and if you're not supplying energy drinks...