Chapter 29
LB
I was waiting outside the great hall, waiting for Harry to finish his dinner. When he finally appeared with Ron, I locked my arm with his. "Ready?" I asked and he nodded grinning.
"Where are you going?" Ron asked with a frown.
"Professor Lupin, remember?" Harry looked to Ron. "I'll be back later."
"Right." Ron mumbled and walked up the stairs. I started to lead him through the corridor. When he noticed that we weren't going to the DADA classroom, he looked at me with a frown.
"Uhm, isn't the classroom that way?" He asked pointing over his shoulder.
"It is." I said but kept walking. I chuckled as I looked at him. "He's meeting us in History of Magic."
"Why-" He asked, but we were already there, and I pushed the door open. The classroom was dark and empty, and with a wave of my wand, I lit the candles. I shrugged off my robes and hopped on the desk. Harry did the same and hopped on next to me. "Where is your tie?" He asked, looking at my collar.
"I'm a disaster at tying it. I can't understand how you do it every day." I huffed. "Lupin is the one who's always tying it for me." I shook my head with a laugh. "I miss my Beauxbatons robes."
"I wouldn't mind seeing it around Hogwarts too." Harry said cheekily. I gasped as I slapped his arm. I never heard him openly say something like that, something flirty. It took me by surprise and couldn't help the laughter that escaped.
"Something funny?" My uncle's voice came from the door. I stopped laughing, wiping a tear away as I saw him haul a case in the room and placed it on Professor Binn's desk.
"What's that?" Harry asked.
"Another Boggart." He said as he shrugged off his coat. "I've been combing the castle ever since Tuesday, and very luckily, I found this one. It's the nearest we get to a dementor." He explained. "The Boggart will turn into a dementor when he sees you, so we'll be able to practice on him. I can store him in my office when we're not using him, there is a cupboard under my desk he'll like."
"Okay." Harry said slowly. And I nudged him with a grin.
"So." Remus said as he took out his wand and gestured for Harry to do the same. We both jumped off from the desk. Harry took out his wand from his back pocket and I slide over to Remus. "The spell I'm going to try and teach you, Harry, is very advanced magic. Well beyond OWL-level. It's called the Patronus charm.
"How does it work?" Harry asked nervously, as his grip on his wand tightened.
"Well, when it works correctly, it conjures up a Patronus. Which is kind of Anti-dementor – a guardian which acts as a shield between you and the dementor. The Patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the dementor feeds on – hope, happiness, the desire to survive. But I must warn you, Harry, that the charm might be too advanced for you. Many qualified wizards have difficulty with it."
"What does a Patronus look like?" Harry asked curiously.
"Each one is unique to the wizard who conjures it."
"What's yours?" He asked Remus.
"A wolf."
He then turned to me. "And yours? I heard you could cast one, but since I was unconscious, I haven't seen it."
"An artic wolf."
"Both a wolf?" He looked between me and Remus with surprised and raised brows.
"Yeah, but different ones." Remus winked at me.
"Can you show me?"
"What about a deal? The moment you can produce a Patronus, we'll show you ours." I grinned.
"Professor Lupin said there is a chance I can't produce one."
"I have faith." I grinned.
"Oh, okay." He blushed. "You have a deal." I looked from Harry to Remus, who looked amused for some reason. "So, how do you conjure it?"
"With an incantation, which will only work if you are concentrating with all your might-" Remus said as he glanced quickly to me, before looking back to Harry. "On a single, very happy memory."
I watched as Harry racked his brain for the right memory. It's not easy to choose the right one, a powerful one. And with Harry being raised by the Dursleys...
"Right." Harry nodded.
"The incantation is this." Remus cleared his throat. "Expecto Patronum."
"Expecto Patronum." Harry repeated under his breath a couple of times.
"Concentrating hard on your happy memory?"
"Oh, yeah." Harry said, making me chuckle softly. He repeated the charm a few times before something silver whooshed out of the end of his wand. "Did you see that?" Harry said excitedly. Remus and I smiled at each other before turning to Harry. "Something happened."
"Very good. Ready to try it on a dementor?"
"Yes." He nodded as his gripped his wand tightly and moved to the middle of the classroom. Remus grasped the lid of the case and pulled. A dementor rose swiftly from the box, its hooded face turned towards Harry. Subconsciously, I took my wand out of my boot, I didn't even know I was doing it until Remus stopped me by placed a hand on my wrist. I lowered my wand but only slightly. The candles around the room flickered and went out. "Expecto Patronum." Harry yelled in the silent classroom. "Expecto Patronum. Expecto-" Harry fainted in front of me. I slide over the ground to him in one swift movement, putting his head on my lap. The dementor looked at me, turning in the green bolt before it turned again, now in a full moon. Remus forcefully said Riddikulus and the Boggart flew back in the case with a whistling sound.
"Harry." I shook him as Remus lit the candles back up. "Harry!" His eyes flew open and looked at me with terrified eyes. When he noticed his position, he blushed and pushed himself up.
"Sorry." He muttered, but I smiled as I handed him a towel to wipe the sweat from his face.
"Are you alright?" I asked as Remus leaned against Binn's desk.
"Yeah." He said as I helped him stand on his feet.
"Here." He tossed him and chocolate frog. I pouted as I looked at my uncle and he just grinned before tossing me one too. "Eat this before we try again, it -"
"Helps, it always helps." I grinned as I opened my package.
"I didn't expect you to do it in the first time, Harry." Remus said as we munched on our frog. "In fact, I would be astounded if you had."
"It's getting worse." Harry said softly, avoiding my gaze. "I could hear her louder that time, and him, Voldemort."
I looked from Harry to a pale Remus. I didn't know exactly what he saw, but I had a vague idea, since I saw the same thing every time too.
"Harry, if you don't want to continue..."
"I do." Harry interrupted fiercely. "I've got to. What if the dementors turn up at our match against Ravenclaw. I can't afford to fall off again. If we lose this game, we've lost the cup."
"Alright then." Lupin said slowly, but I rolled my eyes at the fact he was thinking about the game. "You better choose another memory then; it didn't seem like this one was strong enough." I nibbled on my frog, as Harry swallowed the last piece and gripped his wand tightly again.
"Ready?"
"Ready."
"Go!" Remus called out as he lifted the lid again. The dementor was back as his hooded face found Harry.
"Expecto Patronum! Expecto-" He came crashing to the ground again. I was kneeling next to him in a second and placed his head on my lap again.
"Harry." I pushed his hair from his face. "Harry!" I said a little louder and prodded his face. "Wake up!"
"I heard my dad." Was the first thing he said, before he opened his eyes. I stiffened under him, my eyes darting between him and my uncle. "It's the first time I've ever heard him. He tried to take on Voldemort. To give my mum time to run for it..." I saw tears rolling down his cheeks, and I had a hard time to push my own tears back. I grabbed the towel and dapped his face, not saying anything as I pretended to dap the sweat away.
"You heard James?" Remus's voice was shaking. I looked back to him, he was even paler than before, his eyes were sad.
"Yeah." He whispered.
"Lister, Harry – perhaps we should leave it here tonight. This charm is ridiculously advanced. I shouldn't have suggested putting you through this. I should have known after..." He drifted off, as he avoided my gaze.
"No." He shot up from my lap and stood up again. "I'll have one more go. I'm not thinking of happy enough memories. Hold on." I stood up and walked over to Remus as Harry paced, franticly searching for the best memory. I wrapped my arm around him and leaned my head against his arm. Neither of us said a word, knowing this wasn't the time to talk about it.
"Ready?" Remus asked, reluctantly when Harry took his stance again. With a nod from Harry, he lifted the lid again. And for the third time, the dementor rose from the case, its cloak grazing the floor beneath it.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Harry bellowed. A silver mist shot out of his wand, I saw Harry's knees buckle, and I know he couldn't hold on any longer. But Remus saw it too, and jumped in front of the dementor, his wand already at the boggart.
"Riddikulus!" He said, making it disappear.
I walked to Harry quickly, my hands coming under his arms as I led him to a chair. His legs were shaking as I crouched down in front of him with a beaming smile.
"You did great, Harry."
"Excellent." Remus said, striding over to us. "Excellent work, Harry. Great start."
"Can we have another go?"
"Not now." Remus said firmly. A tone I recognized; one you couldn't persuade him otherwise. "You had enough for one night. Here-" He handed over a large bar of chocolate. "Eat the lot, or Madam Pomfrey will have my head."
"Okay." He said biting a large piece of the bar. When I saw his knees had stopped trembling, I stood up and hopped on the desk.
"Alright, you better get going, Harry. It's getting late."
"I'll walk you back." I offered, and Remus nodded with a smile.
LB
"How do you feel?" I asked after we walked in silence for a while.
"I'm okay." He said looking down at the ground. The castle was dark and empty, it was nearly curfew when we walked back to the tower.
"Harry, -" I started quietly. "I know you probably didn't want to share all of that information with me..."
"No, it's okay." He shook his head and looked to me. "Seeing your situation, I think you are the best person I could talk to about this."
"Harry, do you remember what my Boggart turned into in the beginning of the school year?"
He frowned as he thought back to the class. "The green streak."
"Yeah." I nodded slowly, and I saw Harry's eyes turn wide when it clicked.
"Who?" His voice was so soft, I almost missed it.
I took in a deep breath. "My mum." I whispered and stopped in my tracks in the middle of the staircase. Harry wrapped me in a hug.
"I'm sorry. Want to talk about it?"
"After you shared... that. I do." I had sunk to the cold steps of the staircase and Harry followed suit. I cast a Muffliato charm around us. "Me and my mum only had each other for four years -" I started. I finally let someone in, let someone know what exactly happened the years I spend with my mum and how it ended. We sat on the staircase for over an hour talking. The castle must've known something because the staircase didn't move once when we talked.