The Silver Tongue

chapter 26

Chapter 26: Patronus charm

My loveable, twisted, people. Welcome back to a new chapter. As always I hope you all enjoy my work!
I

do not own Harry Potter…at all… Damn it. Nor do I own the songs mentioned in his story.
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"Talk"
'Think'
"Parseltongue"
Chapter 26 – Patronus Charm
September bled into October and then November quick enough for Harry. In that time he did his homework, traded letters with Tom, trained, mingled with his followers and his houses, all while doing his Alpha duties, independent research on dementors, spending time with all of his godparents, and learning the Patronus charm. Harry was running low on energy.
Harry sighed as he sunk into his chair in their common room. The fire was low keeping the room warm and dim. The founders greeted him but all he could muster was a nod and a tired smile. Nightshade scrambled up his leg when he stopped moving. She nuzzled under his shirt and worked her way up to lay where she could hear his heart. Harry had to wrap his arm around his chest to hold her in place but he didn't mind. Amara had spent the day around his shoulder so she just rearranged herself to let him lean his head back. She had grown to about five feet long and four inches thick. She has told him many times that this is as big as she will get, which was good because any bigger and he wouldn't be able to carry her comfortably anymore.
Harry didn't know when he dozed off but he did notice when he was dreaming. He watched as a beautiful red-haired woman hummed softly to a young child, swaying back and forth in a soft smooth rhythm. He couldn't see the woman's face but he could feel the love and warmth the woman emitted. He watched a man walk in, wrapping his arms around the woman and the child, swaying with them. Harry didn't need to see his face to know who he was. The messy hair was a giveaway. That man was his father, meaning the woman was his mother, and the child was him. With that realization the faces came into focus.
His mother was a true beauty. Her eyes were a shade lighter than his own. They held wisdom, love, happiness, and life. She stood 5 "7 with long flaming red hair that fell like silk down to her lower back, softly tanned skin, naturally blushed cheeks, and a smile that could light up a room. His father was handsome himself. His stood about 6 "1 with shaggy black wind swept hair, hazel eyes that sparkled with laughter love and life. He has darkly tanned skin from long hours outside, high cheekbone, chisel jaw, and a lazy smile of one who enjoyed laughing. Harry didn't look at himself as he was more preoccupied at watching his parents interact. This was his family; His parents who gave their lives to protect his.
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"Cub?" Remus called, shaking Harry's shoulders. Harry didn't want to wake up yet but he wasn't given a choice.
"Remus? What are you doing in here?" Harry took a minute to shake the sleep from his mind. His Pack sat in their normal seats. Draco, Hermione, and Ginny on the couch to his right, the twins on the floor, while Neville and Luna sat on the couch on his left. Remus stood in front of him with a fond smile. Sirius stood behind Remus staring at the founders in shock. "Hey Sirius how are you today?"
"Good. I'm good." The reply was muttered as his full attention was still on the founders.
Harry chuckled in amusement. He pushed himself out of his chair, being sure to hold his arm still to keep Nightshade in her place under his shirt. He pulled Remus to stand beside Sirius. "Sirius, Remus may I introduce the founders of Hogwarts. The woman on the far right is Lady Helga Hufflepuff. The woman next to her is Lady Rowena Ravenclaw. The man next to her is Lord Godric Gryffindor and the last man is Salazar Slytherin. Founders may I introduce my godfather and his mate, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin-Black."
"A pleasure. Welcome to the Silver Tongue's room." Rowena smile politely. Sirius snapped out of his shock and bowed in respect to the founders. Helga giggled when he almost fell over. Remus' bow was much calmer.
"I see Harry wasn't exaggerating about either of you being so beautiful my ladies." Remus, always a smooth talker like his mate, gave a charming smile to the portraits of the women.
Harry shook his head with a small smile blocking out the conversation that followed. He found his seat once again. 'Pack? Why are they here?'
'Sirius wanted to talk to you. He begged us to find you. We couldn't say no.' Ginny told him, smiling at the man in question who was happily talking to Godric about one thing or another.
'He's looking and acts so much better than when he first came here. Whatever you are doing to help him it is working.' Hermione noted.
Harry absentmindedly nodded his head. He didn't do much just reinforced a few things in his head. The rest was Sirius himself. 'Freedom does a lot and so does a mate by your side. I did very little compared to those things.'
'Have you been talking to him? Telling him everything he needs to know?' Neville asked.
Harry nodded. 'Yeah. Every time I'm around him we just talk. Remus has been telling him about my plans too so he is up to date. I've been hinting at the subject to Minerva and Severus. Minerva seems to be on board. She might join us. Severus… I trust him, with all of our lives but he wears another's mark. Tom has him.'
'What are you going to do about that?' Fred watched Harry who just watched his godfather.
Harry pulled his eyes from his healthy godfather to look at each of his other Pack members. 'For now I leave him out of it. I need to assess if Tom is a threat or a possible ally.'
'Haven't you been trading letters with him for three months?' George pointed out. 'Shouldn't you know that by now?'
'Letters are a horrible way to get to know a person. It is much too easy to fool the other person with prettyl.l words that have no meaning.' Ginny sent a glare at her brother for asking such a stupid question.
"Pup?" Harry turned back to Sirius who finished talking to Godric.
"Hey Sirius. How are you today? Didn't you have an appointment with the mind healer?" Harry truly wanted to know. His godfather was fun to be around and felt like family, Pack.
Sirius started bouncing excited. His lips broke out into a large smile that looked like it could hurt with how far it stretched. "I've been released. I'm all healed up. Madam Bones asked me if I wanted my old job back and in a week I go take my test to see if I can be reinstated."
Remus chuckled pulling his mate back into his arms to stop his bouncing around like a hyper five year old on sugar. "Sirius calm down. I know you are happy to be able to start rebuilding your life but please, you are making me dizzy with all your movement."
Sirius pouted while the rest of the Pack stifled their giggles and chuckles. He became serious a minute later. "Harry?" Harry gave him his full attention at seeing the smile gone from his face. "If everything you and Remus have been telling me, how magic is dying and wanting the Old Ways to return is true then I want to help. I was raised with the Old Ways. I don't want them to die out."
Harry closed his eyes with a smirk. This was what he wanted. He wanted his godfather beside him. Harry might be Lord but he can't touch his seats or votes until he was 17 or unless he appointed a family member to be him stand in. The seats and votes were frozen until he became Lord and now they just sat unused. He wanted Sirius to be his stand in. Harry opened his eyes to look back at Sirius. "I will gladly welcome your help."
Sirius smirked as he stepped up to stand right before Harry's chair. He kneeled and with confidence swore his oath the same oath that the rest of the Pack swore months before. Harry felt the crescent moon knot take shape on back of Sirius' neck, accepting the oath. Remus pulled his mate back into his arms when Sirius stood. The Pack was almost complete, Harry could feel it.
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"A truly happy memory. The happiest you have ever felt, what is it?" Remus asked Harry who was still struggling with the Patronus charm even after months of training.
Harry sat heavily on the desk behind him as he caught his breath in the DADA classroom where they practiced. "I was thinking of when I am in my core, my heart."
Remus sighed. "Try another. Happy memory Harry, happy."
"I've thought of my Pack, of my aunt, of my past birthdays, my time with you and Sirius, when I got my Hogwarts letter, when I got Amara and Nightshade, when I got Hedwig, and many others. They all give good shields, why are they not enough to give me a corporeal patronus?" Harry wanted to pull his hair out. He was so close, why wasn't he getting it?
Remus looked on at his Alpha and godson. All the memories he has been using were all strong happy memories. He didn't even understand why he wasn't getting a corporeal patronus as Harry had the power to make one. "Let's try one more time before we call it a day and get some dinner."
"Pup try a memory that just fills you with warmth. Don't think about if the memory was of happy time but concentrate on the warmth that fills you. Choose the one that fills you with the most warmth." Sirius had been quiet the whole lesson, just watching, but even the smallest advice was welcome at this point.
Harry took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He thought back to all the memories with his aunt. Many filled him a lot of warmth, same with memories of his Pack, familiars, and many others. Then one memory popped into his head. It was his dream of his parents. The dream of when his father was holding his mother, who was in turn was holding and humming to him as a baby. They were both swaying to his mother's humming. Harry felt warmth fill him. It wrapped around him like a blanket, keeping him safe.
With his eyes still closed he lifted his wand and cast the charm, a his voice barely a whisper. "Expecto Patronum." The warmth that was around him instantly rushed forward. He felt him magic move, twisting and curling with in itself in front of him. He heard Remus and Sirius gasp in unison. He must have done it. He opened his eyes to be met with the sight of a silvery mist that took the shape of a large 12 point stag.
"James." His father's name was whispered by Sirius in shock. He could understand though because of all of the stories told to him about his parents he knew that his father's animagus form was the same creature standing proud before him.
"What memory did you use Harry because it worked perfectly." Remus asked a little breathlessly watching the stag nuzzled Harry before disappearing.
Harry fell back against the desk once again feeling accomplished. "A dream. Yesterday I had a dream of my parents. Mom was humming and swaying as I was asleep in her arms. Dad came in, wrapping his arms around us and swaying with her. It was peaceful."
"Your mom used to hold you for hours rocking and dancing as she sang or hummed. Your father would join just watching or he would dance with you both. We used to walk in on them doing that almost three times a day. It got to the point we would know if they were doing that by the song your mom sang or hummed. It was always the same one." Sirius spoke softly as he always did when talking about Harry's parents. "When we heard the other song we knew you were just being fussy."
"What song was it? I couldn't make it out in my dream." He was curious about that because Aunt Petunia always told him he would only calm or fall to sleep with two songs.
Remus handed Harry some chocolate. "It was called Nocturne. It was you mother's favorite. I asked her why when we were still in school. She used to sing or hum it when she was in thought." He smiled at the memory of Lily singing in potions class. It used to make everyone, including the Slytherins, relax and work better. "She told me that her mother sang it to her and your aunt growing up."
"The other song was Princess Toyotomi." Harry muttered looking out the window eating his chocolate. Remus nodded. "Aunty told me those were the only songs that would work with me. They were also her favorites. She told me her and mom used to sing them together."
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Harry groaned, setting the book he had been reading down. He was in the founder's library trying to find all the information he could on the dementors. He had just finished the last book with any mentions of them and all he found was the same information he had known from the beginning. He wanted to do was blow something up. He could find nothing, even after three month of researching the topic. He looked at his watch to see it was already 3 am. He had sent the Pack to bed around 10 thinking he would be in bed soon after. He left the pile of books he had gone through where they lay not wishing to put them away at that moment. He pulled his tired body up from the cushioned seat he had been in for the past seven hours.
He made his way through the common room to the bedroom in the dim light the smoldering fire gave off. The bedroom was quiet. Harry didn't even change into pajamas before he fell into his bed. He shuffled over only to freeze. He looked over to his right to see Hermione curled up under his blanket holding his pillow to her chest and Luna curled up behind her using Hermione's shoulder as a pillow. Harry hadn't felt any distress from two of his girl so he didn't know why they took comfort in his bed.
Harry pushed his senses out to find where the others were. Ginny was with her brothers on one bed. Neville and Draco were in their own beds. Harry set the thoughts aside for morning. He turned onto his side and slipped his pillow from Hermione's tight grip. He got it under his head with a sigh before Hermione latched onto him, wrapping her arm around his waist and used his chest for a pillow. Luna had to move her head from Hermione's shoulder to her shoulder blade to accommodate Hermione's new position. Harry slipped off to sleep with the feel of Hermione's heart beat against his arm.
Three hours later Harry woke with a seizing shiver. His eyes snapped open to see a dementor not five feet from his bed. His Pack was shivering from their places but none of them were in any pain of any kind. Hermione was pressed tightly against his left side making it so he couldn't move most of his body. Harry's mind was shifting through different plans on defending himself and his Pack from the dementor in lighting fast speed. A mangled hiss stops all thoughts. He peered at the dementor in curiosity. His magic swept out gently to brush against the creature in a hesitant search. The dementor let his magic scan it, gently brushing its own icy magic against him.
To Harry it felt like the dementor wasn't here to cause any harm, just observe. It's magic moved to sweep over Harry's body, not imposing on his magic or safety in anyway. It felt just as curious as he was. The mangled hiss sounded through the room again. It almost sounded like a dialect of Parseltongue.
Harry took a breath, making a snap decision in caution of protecting His. "Leave here. You are not welcome around my Pack. Leave." He proceeded to cast the patronus charm. The stag formed in front of him, flooding the room with warmth. His Pack stopped shivering.
"… different… death… magic… gift…" Harry could only make out a few words of the mangled hissing. The creature's magic kept brushing across his skin especially his face even with Prongs standing guard.
"Leave and I will meet you at sunset. Leave now." Harry knew the dementor could understand him because it slowly, reluctantly, pulled it's magic away from him. Harry drew his own magic back.
The dementor hesitated, giving one last mangled hiss as it left. "Meet…forest…death… child…"
Harry watched the dementor leave through the wall. He fell back wrapping his magic out and around the others to help settle them back into a calm, deep sleep. He released Prongs and the stag faded away. The Pack was not going to be happy about this. His godparents weren't going to be happy about this, fascinated about the Parseltongue dialect theory but still pissed that the dementors were able to be in the castle with anyone knowing. He was going to be bringing this breach of security up to all of his marked. Severus and Minerva had told him that they were going to take care of it so parents didn't get involved but that approach didn't look to be working, so he was going to have the parents made aware by their children.
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I know it was shorter than you are all used to but I didn't want to combine this and the next chapter. I hope you all enjoyed this. Keep telling me what you think, give observations, and things you might like to see. I like all feedback and if it fits into my plot I will try to put your ideas in. Thanks for staying with me!