PRONGSLET AND THE CERYNEIAN GUARDIAN

Chapter Forty-Nine

"That is because you don't come across as fine, Milo, you've been coming across as troubled lately. Does it have to do with Harry-"

If someone else brought up Harry one more time, Milo was going to flip shit.

 Everything seemed to always revolve around Harry and he couldn't take it anymore. At this point, Harry was the least of his worries, the boy was so back and forth that Milo couldn't be bothered putting any more time and effort into the relationship between the brothers if it was just going to be spat back into his face every time that Harry didn't like something.

'Mum, please," Milo said in a begging tone, "I would like to figure this all out for myself. I appreciate everyone trying to help but this is one thing that I want to figure out and solve on my own."

It probably went against his mother's natural instinct to let him do it all on his own, especially since he was currently upset. It seemed all she wanted to do was protect him and it wasn't like Milo didn't appreciate but he really didn't think it was best to confide in her in that moment. He had already tried with Remus and Minerva was closer to Dumbledore more than he was. He was right to believe that it wasn't a good idea to do anything without evidence as he already made the mistake with Remus, after all, his theories while good, didn't hold up against Dumbledore. 

Of course, as Milo thought about it, the other side hardly had any evidence against Sirius either, however, it was Dumbledore's word against his. Perhaps if he was the By-Who-Lived, it would hold some merit, but for the time being, he was just Milo Potter. 

While his mother didn't look like she wanted to agree, he saw her nod her head before she allowed him to leave. He had only taken a few steps away from her before coming to a complete halt and turning around. She was still standing there, leaving him the opportunity to walk back to her and wrap his arms around her in a hug.

 It seemed with their schedules that he only saw her in class time, and he hated that more than anything, but he was also distancing himself without realising with everything else he had been doing. But he wanted to remind his mother that he still loved her, more than anything. 

"Thank you for everything," he told her, "I love you, Mum."

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Milo sat on his bed in the Hufflepuff dorm, with the Mandrake leaf in his mouth, he had foolishly waited too long like the other boys and now with Christmas starting the next day, the amount of time they were going to have to get adjusted seemed to be dwindling. The feast tomorrow was going to be a spectacular one and Fred and George begged him to at last wait until the feast was over before they had to endure the taste of a leaf in their mouth for a full month or possibly even longer as they would have to wait until the next full moon. 

However, there was one part that they all neglected and if they were going to fully commit themselves to sticking their leaves in their mouth to add to the potion, they needed to have their corporeal Patronus down. It was said that it would give them insight as to possibly what animal they would be when the process was complete. But Milo did read up that it was possible for them to be different, curiosity was getting the best of him as he sat in his room. Paden was asleep, apparently having a long day with Cedric, and Cedric was in the showers, leaving Milo to grab his wand off the nightstand. 

With no one else in the dorms, it was the perfect opportunity as he stood up and closed the door over before heading back to his textbook. The spell also worked to deflect dementors and lethifolds, and Milo could assume that it was what Remus was going to teach Harry during the lessons so the boy could defend himself against the dementors. 

"Expecto Patronum," he muttered under his breath, reading over the incantation. As he read on about it in his textbook, he was beginning to feel nervous about it all. Especially since they were claiming it was incredibly difficult for even adult wizards and witches to produce a full corporeal one. 

According to the book, only those pure of heart could produce one as long as they were in the right mind to do so, they could not have any ill intent. As Milo read over the story of Illyius, he learned about the man who had been faced with a dark wizard called Raczidian and his army of dementors. Milo had to wonder what Hades' explanation was behind that seeing as the dementors were his, but he continued on with the story. 

The army of dementors came and attacked Illyius' village, however, to drive them all away, the man produced his Patronus, but it came in the form of a mouse. One would probably underestimate the power of such a small Patronus, but it managed to drive hundreds of dementors away. Raczidian was furious and attempted to produce his own Patronus to go after Illyius', but it was a poor decision on the wizards behalf as he neglected that only those pure of heart were allowed to summon their guardian of protection. During his attempt, maggots shot out of his wand instead and devoured the dark wizard whole. 

"Ew," Milo shuddered before closing the textbook over, that was the last mental image he needed racing through his mind at the moment. But he decided to dive right into working on it, only, while the textbook claimed it was going to be difficult, he didn't expect it to be that difficult. 

Milo was struggling to even produce the patronus itself but he wasn't sure what he was doing wrong, to make matters worse, he was only working against himself as he was getting frustrated and angry with the whole ordeal. He had woken Paden from his nap and the bowtruckle was concerned as Milo flopped down onto the bottom of his bed, muttering angrily to himself. He had been the one to ask Fred, George, and Lee to accompany him on the journey but what if he was the only one who wasn't able to produce a patronus?

The door opened and it was Cedric, who came in after his shower to see what Milo was up to. He could see the frustrated look on Milo's face, who didn't even look up as he snatched up his textbook and began rummaging through the pages. 

"Milo, what's wrong?" Cedric asked making his way over to sit beside the boy. "You look about ready to pull out your hair." In fact, Cedric wasn't far off as Milo was already reaching his hand up to twist a lock of it, however, he was stopped by Cedric before he could.

"I've been working on this patronus spell and nothing, I can't get anything out of it. Nothing!" He looked fully prepared to throw the book away from him, but instead, he placed it aside gently, bringing no harm to the hardcover. Cedric reached over and grabbed it, opening it up and reading it over quietly to himself. It seemed he reached the part of Illyius and the maggots when Milo heard him mutter "ew" under his breath.

"Well, here's your problem," Cedric said finally, "it says you have to focus on a positive memory to conjure up enough strength behind producing a patronus. Think about it, they are used to drive away the dark, so you have to produce the light, Milo. Light doesn't come from you being angry and frustrated. Is something else on your mind?"

"There about a million things on my mind, Cedric, pinpointing it to just one topic is impossible at this point," Milo rubbed his forehead.

"Well, you're not going to be able to produce any patronus if you're all worked up and being negative. Now be happy, dammit."

While it didn't cheer up Milo entirely, it certainly made the boy laugh, and another idea popped into Cedric's head.

"Oh, I know what I have to do now," he said, bringing Milo to look over at him in confusion. He wasn't sure if he liked that tone at all.  Just as he was preparing to scoot himself away to place himself at a safe distance, Cedric attacked and the two boys fell off the bed crashing to the floor. Milo didn't even have the chance to recover before he was under a full-blown tickle attack. Of course, in that moment, he couldn't defend himself as his body entered the humorous state of panic and all he could do was laugh and jerk his body about to escape. But Cedric had always been much stronger and had him pinned down. 

Eventually, Cedric stopped and pulled his hands away. "Ready to talk about what is bothering you now?" He questioned.

"Cedric, I already told I don't want to talk-" He was cut off as Cedric began tickling him again in order to get the appropriate answer out of him. 

"That's fine, you don't have to talk, Milo, but until you tell me what's going on, this is how the rest of your evening is going to play out."