Chapter 142 "Harry's Effort"

As soon as Christmas passed, it was time for Sherlock to train Harry again. When Harry came to Sherlock's office that night, he was in a bad mood. Hermione told Professor McGonagall that he had received a broomstick from an unknown person and had taken it away.

Although Harry understood that Hermione was doing it for his own good, he couldn't help being angry with her in his heart. Sherlock noticed Harry's emotions, so he tapped the table with his wand and said,

"I suggest that you clean up your mood better because I invited an individual who would be your sparring partner today."

Harry was immediately attracted by Sherlock's words, "Who is it? Professor Lupin?"

"How could Lupin be your sparring partner for the Patronus Charm?" Sherlock shrugged. 

He waved his wand lightly at the cabinet by the corner. The silver strands tied to it disappeared immediately, and a black-robed creature rolled out from it. Harry was stunned for a moment when he saw this thing, and when he looked closely at the creature that was collapsed on the ground, he realized that it was a living Dementor.

After seeing it, Harry jumped back subconsciously.

"Professor, is this what you meant by a little sparring?"

The half-dead Dementor that Sherlock tortured these two days wriggled on the ground for a long time before it floated up. It will not die, and its self-healing ability is powerful. Even if it does not eat, it will slowly recover its strength. Of course, if it eats food, it will recover faster.

Hearing Harry's question, Sherlock nodded, "I invited this one to my office some time ago, and not only graciously agreed but also politely expressed that he wanted to help me by becoming your sparring partner."

Hearing Sherlock's words, Harry looked that made him feel like he didn't believe him. He knows a lot about creatures like Dementors and knows very well that they can't communicate at all under normal circumstances, not to mention asking them to come to help him.

This one must have been caught directly by Sherlock. Just as they were talking, the Dementor slowly regained some energy and sensed the presence of fresh and delicious food in the room. 

At the same time, Harry felt a cold, and his mother's dying cry rang in his ear again. The Dementor floated over from the edge of the cabinet. Sherlock doesn't stop the Dementor from absorbing Harry's emotions, but he shouts loudly to wake Harry up.

"Use the Patronus Charm I taught you."

Harry immediately woke up from that state, but he still felt the coldness in his heart, and his whole body was trembling uncontrollably. He gritted his teeth and raised his wand at the Dementor that was slowly drifting towards him.

"Expecto Patronum!"

But no strands of light emerged from the tip of his wand, and the Dementor was not affected at all. Instead, it had already floated in front of Harry. At this moment, a silver strand suddenly tied it up, retracted, and pulled the DementorDementor back into the cabinet.

Harry's eyes regained their firmness, and he gasped as if he had just come back from the brink of death. Sherlock put down his wand and handed him a cup of hot chocolate that had already been prepared on the table.

Harry took the cup with trembling hands and said sadly, "I'm sorry, professor. My mother's voice rang in my ear as soon as I saw it, and I couldn't concentrate and use the spell."

Sherlock had expected this. The feeling and experience of using the Patronus Charm under normal practice are completely different from using it when facing Dementors directly. The fear emanating from the Dementor's body was enough to frighten a wizard.

It made them unable to recall any happy emotions from their minds, so the spells that might have been used could not have been used efficiently.

Sherlock comforted Harry, "You're going to have a lot more fear than anyone else when you're dealing with a Dementor. But it can also be your motivation, Harry. Don't think about your mother's situation but the courage and strength she showed in trying to protect you."

Harry held the hot chocolate and listened to what Sherlock said to him. His eyes gradually became firmer. After sitting in a chair and resting for a while, he stood up.

"I want to try again, Professor."

Sherlock complied with his request. He waved his wand again, the cabinet door was reopened, and the Dementor was untied again and slowly floated out of the cabinet. But after coming out this time, it shrank to one side and did not dare to move forward.

It knows very well that the food is simply baiting him. 

Seeing that it didn't cooperate, Sherlock raised his brows, and a silver strand shot out from the tip of his wand. But even so, the Dementor still didn't cooperate. It restrained its own desires, not showing its usual predatory behavior but exuding the kind of coldness that it couldn't control.

"Cooperate. When my student learns the spell, I will let you go. But if you don't, when my experiment is over, I will sell you to other wizards in the black market."

The Dementor seemed to understand what he said, trembled all over, and hesitantly showed Harry that he was ready to attack him again. Seeing Sherlock bullying the Dementor like this, Harry couldn't help but feel a little bad, and the fear was not as strong as before.

That biting cold appeared again. Harry clenched his wand this time, and his mother's voice sounded again in his head as the Dementors began to eat the positive emotions out of his body. He didn't tremble anymore but tensed his body and waved his wand steadily.

"Expecto Patronum!" The pronunciation of the spell was perfect.

The next moment, the tip of his wand suddenly spewed out huge silver strands, hovering between him and the Dementor. Although Harry felt his legs were weak, he was still standing, even though he didn't know how long he could stand.

At the same time, Harry's Patronus came into play, and the Dementor took a step backward and retracted into the cabinet. Seeing that Harry had taken a huge step towards success, Sherlock clapped his hands without hesitation in admiration.

"Very good, Harry. I didn't expect you to progress so quickly under pressure."

This is indeed beyond Sherlock's expectations. He thought that it would take some time for Harry to summon the Patronus, but he did not expect him to be doing well under the pressure.

He took another piece from the drawer and handed Harry the chocolate he had prepared earlier.

"Eat all this. You've done a good job. The rest is just long-term practice and familiarity with that feeling."

But Harry didn't seem so excited, "I still couldn't summon the Patronus like you did, Professor."

Sherlock laughed, "Don't be too harsh on yourself. Do you know how long it took me to learn the Patronus Charm?"

Harry looked at him suspiciously, and Sherlock held out a finger to him, "It took me a year to fully master this spell. If you can use it in less than a month, doesn't it mean that I'm way worse than you?"

Harry said sullenly, "You must have no one to teach you, and no one got the Dementor for you as a sparring partner."

Sherlock shrugged, "True, but you are already good enough, Harry. There is no quick shortcut. To master the power, you need long-term consistent efforts."

Harry looked around the rows of bookcases in Sherlock's office and could feel that what Sherlock said was what he was doing.

"I will try my best, Professor."

"Work hard again next week. It's late now, and you seem tired. Go back and rest well."

Harry returned to Gryffindor's common room. He didn't tell Sherlock what he found about Black, and he didn't mention it again. Hermione and Ron thought he had forgotten it, but in fact, he kept it firmly in his heart, and he could only remember it in his heart. 

After the Christmas break, the students returned to the castle, making Hogwarts lively again. With the start of the second half of this year, the fifth—and seventh-grade students have also entered the final stage before the exam.

Sherlock made a study plan for them so that they could hardly waste their time every day.

Even George and Fred, who were usually mischievous and played pranks all the time, are now studying hard. It's not because they found out that they want to get good grades and find jobs in the Ministry of Magic easily—it's because the surrounding atmosphere has changed.

When all the fifth graders were studying, their shenanigans were no longer appreciated, and their creativity no longer cheered. Fred and George joined the others to keep up with them.

In the fifth-grade class, Sherlock brought them a test paper that was half the height of a person using the Levitation Charm.

"In the past, there was little information on the test. These were compiled by me last year, and I added some more from other sources. There are seventeen test papers in total, which contain all the questions of the previous year's test. It's simple to get a full score on this test."

"I will put them into a booklet and give them to you later. You will have to complete one of these seventeen papers a week in the next semester, and I will explain them one by one in class. After all the papers are finished, we will enter combat training again for the combat test."

"The combat test in the OWL exam is the easiest test for scoring points. The Ministry of Magic will not pick out such troublesome dark magic creatures for you, and the highest danger level will only be XXX. I can say that you would be familiar with these creatures, their weaknesses, and how to deal with them because we've talked about it multiple times before."

The students below listened carefully. The fifth-grade OWL exam can be said to be the most important exam in any wizard's career. This exam is equivalent to their future basic education in the wizarding world. There is only one chance for them to get a good or bad result.

The seventh-grade NEWT exam is more like an advanced exam version of OWL. Sherlock waved his wand and handed out the papers to every student.

"I hope from the previous holiday, you haven't forgotten much about the knowledge I taught you last semester. The first is the Protego Charm. Does anyone still remember what the spell does?"

Soon, the students below raised their hands in unison, and Sherlock randomly picked a boy. 

"The spell is for all kinds of protection, Professor."

"Can you tell me how Protego Charm will go when it is used in a more advanced way?"

The boy had a particularly deep grasp of this knowledge and answered without hesitation, "The Protego Charm will expand the range of protection and protect the caster from all sides. However, if the spell is not mastered fully, the wizard must cast the spell in advance to make sure everything is fine, or there will be some flaws."

"Perfect, five points for Ravenclaw."