Expecto Patronum

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At eight o'clock in the evening, Harry left Gryffindor Tower for the History of Magic classroom.

The room was dark and empty when he arrived, but he switched on the lights with his wand and had waited about five minutes when Professor Nathaniel appeared.

He was carrying a large box, which he placed on Professor Binns' desk.

"What's that?" Harry asked curiously.

"A bogeyman," Nathaniel replied, taking off his cloak. "Professor Lupin has been searching the castle since Tuesday and luckily found this one hidden in Mr Filch's archive," he explained.

"Where is Professor Lupin?" Harry asked, more used to the presence of his late father's friend.

"Lupin has some business with Headmaster Dumbledore, he told me about the lesson where you faced the Boogeyman and it turned into a Dementor," Nathaniel told Harry about Lupin's whereabouts.

"Yeah, but he wouldn't let me face him," Harry said sulkily.

"He came up with the idea of using the Bogeyman to train you to defend yourself against Dementors, as the real ones can be dangerous for a young boy who's still learning," the wizard explained of Harry's task for the evening.

"All right, I can do it," the boy replied confidently.

"OK, let's get on with it then," Nathaniel said as he prepared to release the creature. "Have you been practising moving your wand?" he asked the Gryffindor boy.

"Yes, all afternoon," Harry confirmed.

"So this is the closest we'll get to a real Dementor for now," he asked, using the phrase "for now" because Harry would have to face a real Dementor as he progressed in his studies.

"The bogeyman will turn into a Dementor when he sees you, then we can practise. I can keep it in my room when I'm not using it; there's a cupboard under my desk that it will like," Nathaniel explained.

"All right," Harry said, trying to speak as if he wasn't worried at all, just happy that Nathaniel and Lupin had found such a good substitute for a real Dementor.

"So..." the professor picked up his wand and gestured for Harry to imitate him.

"The spell I'm going to try to teach you is part of very advanced magic, Harry, far above the normal level of witchcraft. It's called the Patronus Charm," he began to explain about the spell Harry was going to learn to defend himself.

"What does it do?" asked Harry nervously.

"Well, when it works properly, it conjures up a Patronus, which is a sort of Anti-Dementor, a guardian that acts as a shield between you and the Dementor," Nathaniel explained. "When you were attacked in the game, I used the spell to ward off the dementors around you," he reminded the boy.

"Ah yes! The Silver Eagle, everyone's been talking about it for weeks," Harry recalled.

"Yes, but a physical Patronus like the one I used is still a long way off, we'll start with the basics of the spell," Nathaniel played down the high expectations Harry had dreamed up.

"Of course," Harry agreed sadly.

"The Patronus is a kind of positive energy, a projection of what the Dementor feeds on: hope, happiness, the desire to survive," Nathaniel told Harry about how the Dementors attack and what they take from their prey.

"That's why I felt lonely when I was attacked, they took away my happy moments," Harry felt sad, as he had few happy moments in his life.

"Something like that, but now you can defend yourself," Nathaniel tried to cheer the boy up.

"But I must warn you, Harry, that the spell may be too advanced for you. Many skilled wizards find it difficult to perform," he made clear the difficulty of learning the spell.

"I understand! I want to try, I need to try and succeed," Harry said, no longer wanting to feel vulnerable to the creatures.

"All right," Nathaniel was pleased to see Harry's commitment.

"Professor, are all Patrons the same as yours?" he asked curiously.

"Each one is unique to the wizard who conjures it," Nathaniel replied, adding to Harry's curiosity.

"And how is it conjured?" Harry asked.

"With a magical formula that only works when you concentrate on a single, very happy memory," the professor explained, explaining how the Patronus worked.

Harry searched his mind for a happy memory, but he had very few.

Surely nothing that had happened to him at the Dursleys' would qualify as a happy moment.

Finally, he decided on the moment he flew on a broomstick for the first time. "Right, I'm ready," he said, trying to remember the wonderful feeling of flying as accurately as possible.

"Here's the formula," Nathaniel cleared his throat. "Expecto Patronum!"

"Expecto Patronum," Harry repeated in a low voice, "Expecto Patronum.

"Are you concentrating with all your might on your happy memory?" Nathaniel asked.

"Ah... I am," Harry replied, quickly forcing his thoughts back to that first broomstick flight. "Expecto Patron, no, Patronum... sorry... Expecto Patronum, Expecto Patronum," Harry was determined to complete the spell.

Suddenly, something protruded from the tip of his wand; it looked like a streak of silvery gas.

"Did you see that?" asked Harry excitedly. "Something happened!"

"Very good," Nathaniel agreed. "Good, now are you ready to take on the Bogeyman in the form of a Dementor?" he asked.

"I am," the boy said, clutching his wand tightly and making his way to the centre of the deserted classroom.

He tried to concentrate on his escape, but something kept interrupting his thoughts.

In his mind he could hear his mother's voice... but he shouldn't think about it or he would hear it again and he didn't want that... or did he?

Nathaniel grabbed the lid of the box and lifted it.

A Dementor slowly rose from the box, its hooded face turned towards Harry, a glowing hand, covered in wounded husks, clutching its cloak.

The lights in the classroom flickered on and off.

The Dementor stepped out of the box and began to move silently towards Harry, breathing deeply, a pulsing breath.

A wave of intense cold enveloped the boy. "Expecto Patronum!" shouted Harry. "Expecto Patronum! Expecto," he forced himself to cast the spell.

But the room and the Dementor darkened in his vision and Harry found himself falling through a thick white mist again, his mother's voice echoing in his head, louder than ever.

"Harry, no! Harry, no! Please... I'll do anything," his mother's cries filled Harry's mind.

"Go away. Go away, woman..." an evil voice was heard at the back of Harry's mind.

"Harry! Harry," the screaming stopped and he suddenly came to.

Harry was lying on his back on the floor and the lights in the room had come back on.

He didn't need to ask what had happened, "Sorry," he muttered, sitting up and feeling cold sweat trickle down his glasses.

"Are you all right?" asked Nathaniel.

"I'm..." Harry used a desk to stand up, leaning on it.

"Here, take this," the professor handed him a chocolate frog. "Lupin prepared it for you for just such an occasion. Eat it before we try again." Nathaniel knew the young man must have had a hard time, but if Harry really wanted to learn the spell, he had to fight his fears.

"I didn't expect you to succeed the first time, in fact I'd be surprised if you did. -

"The voices are back and they're getting worse," Harry muttered, biting the frog's head, "I heard them louder this time... and him... Voldemort."

"If you don't want to go on, I'll understand," Nathaniel knew it wouldn't be easy for the young wizard to face these memories.

"I want to!" Harry exclaimed forcefully, stuffing the rest of the chocolate frog into his mouth. "I have to go on! What will happen if the Dementors show up for the match against Ravenclaw? I can't afford to fall again. If we lose the match, we lose the Quidditch Cup!"

"Very well, then..." said Nathaniel.

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