At eight o'clock on Thursday evening, Vega and Harry left the Gryffindor Tower for the History of Magic classroom as Professor Lupin had asked them to. Harry glanced at Vega, who was looking around on the Marauder's Map as they made their way down the empty first-floor corridor.
"The common room is so crowded that it's difficult to make out everyone's names," Vega pointed out to Harry and he noticed that she was right. "It's pretty interesting, isn't it?"
"Aren't you a bit too interested in the map, Vega?" Harry asked, who had seen Vega observing the map far too often, seemingly entranced by everyone's movements.
"I've been trying to figure out what spells were used to make this map," Vega answered. "I think it wouldn't be that difficult to replicate something like this – Homonculous Charm, for one, here –"
"We're here," Harry informed Vega quickly before she started going on and on about different spells and make his head spin – especially since he was already nervous.
"Wait," Vega said and pressed her wand against the parchment. "Mischief managed," She folded up the map and slipped it off away into her robe pocket. "Let's go, Lupin's not here yet, but let's go in,"
Reaching ahead of Harry, Vega pushed the door to the History of Magic classroom, which was currently as dark and empty as she had expected it to be. Harry stopped by the doorway and watched as Vega went ahead and lit all the lamps in there with a flick of her long wand.
The two of them waited for their teacher to come up, and Vega stuffed her face into the map. When she abruptly turned it off five minutes later, Harry knew that Professor Lupin was on his way here.
Then, Lupin turned up, carrying a large packing case, which he heaved onto Professor Binn's desk.
"Good evening, Professor," Vega greeted as she looked at the large packing case with curiosity. "What is in there? Did you smuggle a Dementor inside?" Lupin chuckled and shook his head no.
"Another Boggart," Lupin told them, stripping off his cloak. "I've been combing the castle ever since Tuesday, and very luckily – I found this one lurking inside Mr. Filch's filing cabinet,"
Vega wondered if he noticed all those leftover detention slips from his time with his three friends.
"It's the nearest we'll get to a real Dementor," Lupin continued. "The Boggart will turn into a Dementor when he sees Harry, so we'll be able to practice on him. I can store him in my office when we're not using him; there's a cupboard under my desk he'll like,"
"Okay," Harry replied, trying to sound as though he wasn't apprehensive at all and merely glad that Lupin had found such a good substitute for a real Dementor. Vega was as curious as ever.
"So..." Professor Lupin said as he took out his wand, and motioned for Vega and Harry to do the same. "The spell I am going to try and teach you is highly advanced magic – well beyond Ordinary Wizarding Level. It is called the Patronus Charm,"
"Patronus Charm?" Vega repeated, finding the name rather familiar. "I think I have read about it somewhere," Lupin smiled.
"You do a lot of reading, don't you?" Lupin asked and Vega nodded. "I'd say that you'll do great but this spell does require more than just excellence in wandwork," She nodded again, slower this time.
"How does it work?" Harry asked nervously – if Vega was going to have a tough time with it, what would become of someone like him?
"Well, when it works correctly, it conjures up a Patronus," Lupin replied. "Which is a kind of anti-Dementor – a guardian that acts as a shield between you and the Dementor,"
"Was the name derived from 'Patronage'?" Vega asked and Lupin nodded.
"The Patronus is a kind of positive force," Lupin told them. "A projection of the very things that the Dementor feeds upon – hope, happiness, the desire to survive – but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the Dementors can't hurt it. But I must warn you 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," Lupin answered.
"And how do you conjure it?" Vega questioned.
"With an incantation," Lupin replied. "Which will work only if you are concentrating, with all your might, on a single, very happy memory,"
At this, Vega tried to rack her mind with some sort of happy memory. A very happy memory, too. There were a lot of happy moments in her short life thus far but she couldn't imagine any that was very happy. She had been a normal person all of her life – what made a memory extra happy?
Most of her happier memories were connected to Hogwarts. She wondered which one she should pick. Her head strayed over to the time they spent together during the previous Christmas holidays.
"Have you two thought of something?" Lupin inquired, watching the two students concentrating.
"Yes," replied both Vega and Harry in unison, and Lupin nodded at them.
"The incantation is this," Lupin told them, clearing his throat to make sure they got every syllable down properly. "Expecto patronum!"
"Expecto patronum," Vega repeated quietly, trying to get used to it before she went any further, and next to her, Harry was trying to do the same. "Expecto patronum..."
"Concentrating hard on your happy memory?" Lupin asked.
"Oh – yeah –" Harry replied, his forehead creasing as he tried to concentrate back to the momenet he first rode his broomstick. "Expecto patrono – no, patronum – sorry – expecto patronum, expecto patronum,"
"Expecto patronum," Vega said with focus, holding her wand out and concentrating on the memory of first Christmas she spent with her friends – how happy she had been.
The tip of her wand lit up with an orb of light – similar to Lumos but it didn't change or form into any shape. Next to her, something whooshed suddenly out of the end of Harry wand; it looked like a wisp of silvery gas but it, too, did not take up any decipherable shape or form.
It didn't seem as strong as Vega had expected her spell to be, and that sort of disappointed her – that her memory wasn't strong enough. But unlike her, Harry seemed to be feeling the opposite.
"Did you see that?" Harry asked excitedly. "Something happened!"
"Very good," Lupin replied, smiling. "Right, then – ready to try it on a Dementor?" Vega and Harry nodded. "Stay a few steps in front of Vega, Harry – so that the Boggart will focus on your fear,"
In accordance to Lupin's instructions, Vega moved to stand in the middle of the deserted classroom while Harry stood two feet ahead of her and closer to the teacher's desk, both of them holding onto their wands tightly and focusing on what they had just been taught.
Vega was concerned about the fact that she heard her aunt and brother every time she came across a Dementor, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to hear that, no matter how much she prepared herself for it. She swallowed her fear and instead, focused on her happy memories instead.
Lupin grasped the lid of the packing case and pulled.
A Dementor rose slowly from the box, its hooded face turned toward Vega and Harry, one glistening, scabbed hand gripping its cloak. The lamps around the classroom flickered and went out.
The Dementor stepped from the box and started to sweep silently toward the two students, drawing a deep, rattling breath. Immediately, Vega felt the familiar wave of piercing cold break over her –
"Expecto patronum!" Harry yelled first. "Expecto patronum! Expecto –"
But all of a sudden, Vega watched in shock as he just collapsed under the weight of the Dementor.
"Expecto patronum!" Vega shouted, holding her wand out in front of her, concentrating on her selected memory but nothing happened to the Boggart-Dementor.
It's too weak.
Desperately searching for her all memories spent at Hogwarts, Vega came to a stop on the time when Gryffindor had won the House Cup last year, when Hermione got better, when Hagrid returned, when they managed to save Ginny, and prove that she really belonged in Gryffindor.
"Expecto Patronum!" Vega shouted, squinting her eyes as a huge, silver shadow burst out of the tip of her wand and spread itself widely in the room, lighting up the darkened room.
Vega stepped back, shivering, as Lupin move between her and the Boggart, sending it back into the packing case and closing it. Her Patronus disappeared and Vega dropped her arms down, blinking.
"That was excellent for your first try," Lupin told her as he quickly lit the room back up and walked over to check on Harry, who was lying on the ground. "I feared he would faint,"
"Will he be okay?" Vega asked quietly as Lupin straightened up, looking rather white but nodding at her question. "It must've been worse for him since it was his Boggart,"
"I'm amazed," Lupin said as he quickly got out some chocolate and held it out to her to have. "You managed to get a noncorporeal Patronus on your first try. Focus more on that memory for now,"
"It didn't have a shape?" Vega inquired, taking a bite of the chocolate and feeling the warmth travel through her body in relief. "Ah... I guess I have to work harder..."
It was quiet for a moment as they waited for Harry to come back around, and Vega finished eating the chocolate. She stood to the side, staring at the packing case anxiously, wondering what her Boggart would be and how it would impact her – would she also freeze-up like Harry did with his?
"You have a peculiar way of holding your wand," Lupin said and Vega looked up at him in surprise.
But Lupin's eyes were observing the way she was holding her wand. Vega looked down to recognise that even thought she was fairly relaxed, her grasp on her wand was rather the duellist hold.
"Ah, I didn't realise," Vega replied, loosening her hold on the wand and putting her right forefinger on the wand's tip as if she was keeping it capped. Lupin raised his eyebrows at her actions.
"Oh, I didn't mean it in a disrespectful way," Lupin told her. He paused and then let out a weary chuckle. "It reminded me of someone I knew when I attended Hogwarts, even your stance now..."
Vega tensed up slightly as she looked away from Lupin, hiding away her face and grey eyes behind her wavy black hair. She was well aware who he was talking about – she was sure he didn't know her mother aside from her antics in the name of Voldemort but he knew her mother's cousin very well.
For a moment, there was an inkling in Vega that pushed at her to inquire Lupin if he knew James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. She turned to look back at him to say something but –
A sudden gasp interrupted their conversation, causing them both to turn and look at Harry.
"Harry?" Vega asked as she hurried over to his side, helping him sit up as she came back around.
"Sorry," Harry muttered, sitting up and feeling cold sweat trickling down behind his glasses.
"Are you all right?" Lupin inquired.
"Yes..." Harry replied as he pulled himself up on one of the desks and leaned against it with Vega's help, who was still peering at him with a little concern.
"Here –" Lupin said as handed him a Chocolate Frog as well. "Eat this before we try again. I didn't expect you to do it your first time; in fact, I would have been astounded if you had,"
"It's getting worse," Harry muttered, biting off the Frog's head. "I could hear her louder that time – and him – Voldemort –" Lupin turned even paler at this.
"Harry, if you don't want to continue," Lupin said. "I will more than understand –"
"I do!" Harry replied fiercely, stuffing the rest of the Chocolate Frog into his mouth. "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 Quidditch Cup!"
"All right then..." Lupin said. "You might want to select another memory, a happy memory, I mean, to concentrate on... That one doesn't seem to have been strong enough... Vega, will you be...?"
"Um, I think I will sit it out for now," Vega replied quietly, and Lupin nodded in understanding. "I think Harry should focus on his Patronus as well..."
"You got it with your first try?" Harry asked, his shoulders slacking and Vega frowned at him.
"Oh, not quite," Vega replied quickly. "I was able to produce some light – I think you should be able to do it this time, too,"
"Which memory did you use?" Harry questioned, knowing that she must be thinking of something they all experienced together for that result.
"Last year's end-of-year feast," Vega answered. "But Harry – you do realise that every person has different attachments to a memory, right? It might not work for you,"
"But it also might," Harry replied, deciding his feelings when Gryffindor had won the House Championship last year had definitely qualified as very happy. "It wouldn't hurt to try,"
"Harry," Lupin said. "Vega's right,"
But Harry gripped his wand tightly again and took up his position in the middle of the classroom.
"Ready?" Lupin asked, gripping the box lid as he sighed. Vega moved away from Harry.
"Ready," Harry answered, trying hard to fill his head with happy thoughts about Gryffindor winning, and not dark thoughts about what was going to happen when the box opened.
"Go!" Lupin said, pulling off the lid. The room went icily cold and dark once more.
The Dementor glided forward, drawing its breath; one rotting hand was extending toward Harry –
"Expecto patronum!" Harry yelled. "Expecto patronum! Expecto Pat –"
Harry fainted once more and Vega flicked her wand to catch him before he fell onto the dusty classroom floor again while Lupin hurriedly got rid of the Dementor, and Vega caught sight of his Boggart again – that full moon. She looked down at Harry's sweaty and tear-stricken face.
"Harry?" Vega asked, patting his cheek to bring him back around. "Harry, you need to wake up,"
"I heard my dad," Harry mumbled. "That's the first time I've ever heard him – he tried to take on Voldemort himself, to give my mum time to run for it..."
Vega frowned and watched as he bent his face as low as he could go and wiped his face off on his robes, although pretending as he was redoing his shoelaces. For a moment, she couldn't understand why he had done this but then remembered that Lupin was there and he didn't want him to see.
"You heard James?" Lupin asked in a strange voice that Vega caught immediately.
"Yeah..." Harry replied once he was done drying his face and then looked up at them. "Why – you didn't know my dad, did you?"
"I – I did, as a matter of fact," Lupin said. "We were friends at Hogwarts. Listen, Harry – perhaps we should leave it here for tonight. This charm is ridiculously advanced... I shouldn't have suggested putting you through this..."
"No!" Harry responded as he got out of Vega's spell that was keeping him from falling. "I'll have one more go! I'm not thinking of happy enough things, that's what it is... hang on..."
Once he had decided on a new memory, Harry got to his feet and faced the packing case once more.
"Ready?" Lupin asked, who looked as though he were doing this against his better judgment. "Concentrating hard? All right – go!"
Vega stood tensely with her grey eyes locked on Harry as Lupin pulled off the lid of the case for the third time, and the Dementor rose out of it; the room fell cold and dark –
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Harry bellowed. "EXPECTO PATRONUM! EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
This time, Harry didn't faint – instead, something large and silvery came bursting out of the end of Harry's wand, to hover between him and the Dementor, and though Vega could see that his legs were still shaking, he somehow managed to hold it in this time around.
"Riddikulus!" Lupin roared, springing forward.
There was a loud crack, and Harry's cloudy Patronus vanished along with the Dementor; he sank into a chair, feeling as exhausted as if he'd just run a mile, and felt his legs shaking. Vega placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him but her eyes were on Lupin forcing the Boggart back into the packing case with his wand; it had turned into a full moon again. It was his third time facing that fear, too.
"Excellent!" Lupin said, striding over to where Vega and Harry were. "Excellent, Harry! That was definitely a start!"
"Can we have another go?" Harry asked. "Just one more go?"
"Not now," Lupin responded firmly. "You've had enough for one night. You're both on the same level now. Here –" He handed both of them a large bar of Honeydukes' best chocolate each. "Eat the lot, or Madam Pomfrey will be after my blood. You, too, Vega,"
"Thank you," Vega replied. "Um, Professor, when will we be doing it again?"
"Same time next week?" Lupin suggested.
"Okay," Vega said and Harry nodded in agreement as he took a bit of the chocolate. She herself slowly unwrapped the chocolate, watching Lupin extinguish the lamps that had rekindled with the disappearance of the Dementor.
"Professor Lupin?" Harry spoke up suddenly. "If you knew my dad, you must've known Sirius Black as well," Vega almost choked on the chocolate.
Lupin turned very quickly, asking rather sharply, "What gives you that idea?"
"Nothing – I mean, I just knew they were friends at Hogwarts, too..." Harry trailed off, and Vega watched as Lupin's expression relaxed greatly.
"Yes, I knew him," Lupin said shortly, his eyes strayed toward Vega and she pretended she had been eying her chocolate. "Or I thought I did. You'd better be off, Harry and Vega, it's getting late,"
"Thank you for the lesson and chocolate," Vega said to Lupin before motioning Harry to come along. "Let's go... I don't want Filch to accuse us of something absurd,"
It was true that Filch treated Vega and Harry's lurking as if hell was going to break lose any moment. Vega disliked Filch for the way he had treated her last year but she also wondered if he had some sort of trauma with two individuals running around like them, as well as Fred and George.
Without even deciding it, Vega and Harry walked along the deserted corridor and around the first corner, taking a quick detour behind the nearest suit of armour to finish off their chocolates.
Harry sank down to sit on its plinth while Vega leaned against the wall next to him, lost in her mind.
Lupin's reaction to his friendship with Sirius Black was something Vega had both expected and not expected. She was, at the very least, glad to see that he wasn't happy with what Sirius had done.
But that also opened the same door in her head again – what was Sirius Black really like? Why does everyone she hears about him from always mention, in one way or another, that he wasn't this kind of person when they knew them – the kind of person that he turned out to be all of a sudden?
Yet, he wasn't a madman?
"I guess I shouldn't have mentioned Sirius Black to him," Harry spoke up quietly and Vega glanced over toward him. "I don't think he is very keen on that subject. But I wanted to know, you know?"
"I can understand," Vega replied just as quietly, wondering what he was really thinking. "I wonder if Sirius Black had fooled everyone, really..." She decided to keep her words to herself from then on.
"Vega," Harry said. "Do you... feel like listening to the Dementor again and again?" Vega tilted her head at him but he didn't look at her. "You know ... to listen to your family again?"
"That's not quite a wise thing to do, Harry," Vega said, slightly sternly. "I understand that you would like to hear them but this is just like the Mirror of Erised – it's just an illusion in the end,"
"Yeah... but this is the only time I've heard their voices," Harry confessed. "Ever since I was a kid. How will I be able to produce a Patronus if I do it so half-heartedly? I heard my dad, today,"
"You heard your mum and dad trying to protect you, didn't you?" Vega asked. "The one thing you know that your parents wanted for you was that they wished to protect you. This spell is a protection for you against such foul creatures – you should try and to protect yourself as they wanted to protect you. Even if it takes a while... we're all here to help you get through it, Harry,"
"You're right," Harry replied strangely as stood up and crammed the last bit of chocolate into his mouth. "Come on, let's go back before Filch catches us,"
Vega nodded slowly as she followed him on their way back to the Gryffindor Tower.
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