Emma Potter

69: Gift by a prisioner

 "What's that?" said Harry. 

"Another boggart," said Lupin, stripping off his cloak. "I've beencombing the castle ever since Tuesday, and very luckily, I found thisone lurking inside Mr. Filch's filing cabinet. It's the nearest we'll getto a real dementor. The boggart will turn into a dementor when hesees you, so we'll be able to practice on him. I can store him in myoffice when we're not using him; there's a cupboard under my deskhe'll like." 

"Okay," I said trying to sound as though I wasn't apprehensive at all and merely glad that Lupin had found such a goodsubstitute for a real dementor.

 "So . . ." Professor Lupin had taken out his own wand, and indicated that Harry  and I should do the same. "The spell I am going to tryand teach you is highly advanced magic, Harry and Emma — well beyondOrdinary Wizarding Level. It is called the Patronus Charm."

 "How does it work?" I asked

 "Well, when it works correctly, it conjures up a Patronus," saidLupin, "which is a kind of anti-dementor — a guardian that acts asa shield between you and the dementor." 

ThePatronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very thingsthat the dementor feeds upon — hope, happiness, the desire tosurvive — but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the dementors can't hurt it. But I must warn you, that the charmmight be too advanced for you. Many qualified wizards have difficulty with it." 

"What does a Patronus look like?" said Harry curiously.

 "Each one is unique to the wizard who conjures it." 

"And how do you conjure it?" I said

 "With an incantation, which will work only if you are concentrating, with all your might, on a single, very happy memory." 

I cast my mind about for a happy memory. Certainly, nothingthat had happened to me at the Dursleys' was going to do. Finally, I settled on the moment when I had  been sorted into Slytherin.

Right," Harry said,I was trying to recall as exactly as possible the wonderful, soaring sensation of my stomach.

"The incantation is this —" Lupin cleared his throat. "Expectopatronum!" 

"Expecto patronum," Harry repeated under his breath, "expectopatronum." I repeated it in my  mind

"Concentrating hard on your happy memory?"

 "Oh — yeah —" said Harry. I nodded

"Expecto patrono — no, patronum —sorry — expecto patronum, expecto patronum —" I mumbled

Something whooshed suddenly out of the end of my wand; itlooked like a wisp of silvery gas. Harry's did the same a second later

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

"Very good," said Lupin, smiling. "Right, then — ready to try iton a dementor?" 

"Yes," Harry said, gripping his wand very tightly, and movinginto the middle of the deserted classroom. 

"Emma?"

"Yes" I said joining

I tried to keep hismind on sorting, but something else kept intruding. . . . Any secondnow, I might hear my mother again . . . but I shouldn't think that,or I would hear her again, and I didn't want to . . . or did I? 

Lupin grasped the lid of the packing case and pulled.A dementor rose slowly from the box, its hooded face turnedtoward Harry and me, one glistening, scabbed hand gripping its cloak. Thelamps around the classroom flickered and went out.