Chapter 350: Patronus (Edited)

"Minerva~"

?●ω●?

Fish and Harry arrived at the Great Dining Hall, just as Professor McGonagall was there, and the kitten immediately pounced on her.

"Why are you two so early today?"

There was a Quidditch match yesterday, so it was odd for the lazy cat to be up early, but what happened today?

Professor McGonagall was a little puzzled.

"Fish wants to learn how to conjure an early cat with you, Minerva, and Harry said he wanted to learn too nya."

(●?ω?●)

The kitten pouted in Professor McGonagall's arms for a moment before pointing at Harry behind him.

"Potter?" Professor McGonagall nodded thoughtfully as she looked at a fidgeting Harry, "I see."

She patted Fish on the head and said, "Let's have breakfast first, then I'll show you."

"Yes!"

?(●≧?≦●)?

Fish quickly sat down next to Professor McGonagall, and immediately had the breakfast Comey had prepared in front of her.

Harry, who was not far away, also sighed in relief, although he also thought it unlikely that Professor McGonagall would turn him down, he really had to confirm this before he felt relieved.

Harry went to sit at the long Gryffindor table and, like Fish, ate his breakfast as fast as he could.

Both young wizards finished their breakfast as fast as they could, even a little faster than Professor McGonagall, who had already started eating.

"Come on."

Professor McGonagall wiped her mouth with her handkerchief and stood up, turning to Harry and Fish, who were already anxious.

She led them to the Transfiguration classroom, which was empty on Sundays when there were no classes.

Professor McGonagall closed the door behind her as the three of them entered the classroom, then took her place on the dais, which she knew well, while Harry and Fish took a seat in the front row, as they normally did in class.

"Before I teach you the Patronus Charm, I would like to explain what the Patronus Charm is."

Professor McGonagall was stern again as she entered the classroom, which made Harry sit up straighter.

"The Patronus Charm, one of the most powerful and ancient defense spells..."

She began by repeating what she told Fish yesterday, and said it again to Harry, and then said in more depth, "The Patronus is a positive force, an outward manifestation of the things that Dementors live for: hope, happiness, the desire to live ...but it doesn't sense the despair of a real person, so Dementors can't do anything about it."

Professor McGonagall explained how the Patronus Charm was capable of defeating Dementors, and then moved on.

"Of course, to truly defeat a Dementor you must summon a Corporeal Patronus, however this is something many skilled wizards have not mastered, most of them can only summon a vague image... however this will not allow you to defeat Dementors, at best it will only slightly deter them."

"I'll show you first." He pulled out his wand, "Patronus!"

The silver and white kitten reappeared, flew around Professor McGonagall and landed firmly on the podium.

When he saw that Professor McGonagall's supposed Patronus Charm had only transformed into a silvery white kitten, Harry was skeptical, he couldn't imagine how such a kitten could defeat a Dementor...

Oh no, he could still imagine it.

If this kitten had been Fish, he would have had no trouble fighting a Dementor, but the problem was....

This wasn't Fish, it looked more like Professor McGonagall's Animagus form, after all Fish's cat form was much younger.

"The power of a Patronus never lies in its size."

Professor McGonagall was well aware of Harry's skepticism, and was not offended, but patiently explained, "It represents the powerful positive emotions a wizard can have, and that is why it is especially effective when fighting the forces of evil."

To prove her point, Professor McGonagall cited a well-known example in the wizarding world.

Once upon a time, there was a wizard named Illyius, whose Patronus was a rat, and who had been ridiculed by the townspeople. Until one day, a dark wizard named Raczidian led an army of Dementors into his village.

At first, the Patronus of the other villagers (bears, wolves, boars, etc.) were able to hold off the Dementors, but they were soon outnumbered. The Patronus weakened and the wizards collapsed or fled.

At that moment, the mouse-shaped Patronus summoned by Illyius shone brightly, defeating all the Dementors and forcing the dark wizard Raczidian to take up the fight himself, and he also used the Patronus Charm....

As a result, worms came out of Raczidian's wand and soon consumed his body.

"... So, a dark wizard with too much evil in his heart cannot summon a Patronus, and the spell will backfire on him." Professor McGonagall eloquently addressed Fish and Harry, "And Symposia Rawle, your Patronus is a sissy, but it's also very powerful."

"Minerva, so the smaller the Patronus, the better nya?"

?ω?

Fish asked curiously.

"Of course not," Professor McGonagall smiled and shook her head as she continued to explain, "I mean there is no direct correlation between the power of a Patronus and its size."

He paused before adding, "And until your Patronus is invoked, no one knows exactly what they look like, and while there are some who have come up with a less than complete set of rules, it is not unheard of for them not to match, and there are even accounts of wizards who have experienced something that changed the shape of their Patronus."

Professor McGonagall had gone to the library yesterday to find out more about the Patronus Charm so she could give Fish some insight.

After telling Fish and Harry all this additional knowledge, Professor McGonagall finally got to the point.

"Actually, the Patronus Charm itself is not that difficult to learn." She said, "Compared to other spells, the wand movements are not too complicated and there is not much variation in the pronunciation of the spell, the difficulty in practicing it is finding the most appropriate positive emotions for you and infusing them into the spell."

"You must concentrate all your thoughts on a particularly happy or proud moment for the spell to work." Professor McGonagall released her Patronus, raising her wand once more, "Otherwise, here's what will happen.... Patronus!"

She shouted the Patronus Charm once more, and once more a silver-white mist shot out from the tip of her wand, only this time, instead of turning into a cat, the mist gathered and floated in front of Professor McGonagall like a small cloud.

"Well, you try it yourselves," said Professor McGonagall to Fish and Harry as she dispelled the fuzzy Patronus.

Fish, who couldn't resist, pulled out his wand and jumped into the space between the lectern and the desks.

"Patronus!"

(●ΦωΦ●)つ━☆*.

As Professor McGonagall had said, it was not difficult to cast the Patronus Charm, it was just a matter of drawing a few circles with the wand, and the spell was simple.

To be precise, many of the old spells were like that, as long as the spell was correct and the gestures were minor, they had more to do with the power of the mind at the time of the spell... like the positive emotions required for a Patronus Charm.

And positive emotions are so easy for Fish, knowing that cats can have a lot of fun chasing their tails.

So on his first attempt, the spell took effect, a large silver-white mist shot out from the tip of his wand, covering him, Professor McGonagall on the podium, and Harry sitting in the front row.

The exaggerated mist of light churned for a while and then subsided.

"Nya?"

?ω?

Fish blinked in confusion.

He could feel the cloud's presence, and Fish was clearly aware that he could move it at will, and control it to "envelop" both Professor McGonagall and Harry.

Just.

"Minerva, what about Fish's Patronus?"

?(●?ω?●)?

Fish controlled the large "cloud" in the air above the classroom, revealing the three of them again, and then looked up at an equally confused Professor McGonagall.