Tiresome Efforts.

'Damn, that gives me basically nothing.'

'Is there some dark magic that can help shield my mind from Dementors?'

'But why doesn't occlumency work on them in the first place?'

'Would Professor Lupin have an answer?'

'Wait, didn't he tell me he'd recommend me books about Dementors if I ever wanted to learn about it?'

Finding nothing that would directly help him, Loki took a short break before leaving the Library to refresh himself and find some other angle to tackle the problem of facing Dementors and stealing souls from them to feed his starving Ring of Harvest.

Checking the Marauder's map to see if Professor Lupin was still in his office, and he was, Loki pocketed the map and walked to it.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

"Come in." A weak voice spoke from inside the office.

"Good evening Professor Lupin."

"Ah! Loki. I haven't seen you out of class before. Tell me, what happened? Do you want me to give you an extension on your homework?"

"Haha~ Although an extension does sound nice, I've already finished writing the twelve-inch essay on Grindylows and Hinkypunks."

"Oh? You have? Then you'll be excited for our next class, I managed to snag a few of them, they're in the cage right there." Lupin said pointing at a suspiciously silent cage that was covered with a purple satin cloth.

"I will be looking forward to them Professor. I'm here to ask you about the books that you wanted to recommend to me regarding the Dementors and the charm that can be used to defend against them."

"Oh? Oh! I remember. I promised you something like that on the train now, didn't I? Give me a second." Lupin said plucking a feather quill off his desk and writing up a list of books from the back of his mind on a parchment which he handed over to Loki.

"Thank you Professor." Loki said with a smile. "I was wondering if there are any other ways to defend oneself against dementors, for example, something like occlumency?"

"...." Lupin's eyes widened for a second, but Loki pretended not to catch the detail and just stared at him, waiting for an answer, "Why do you want to know about that Mr. Loki?"

"Ah, I just wanted a backup option, in cases I don't have my wand on me or something like that while in the presence of a dementor.", Loki explained his reasoning.

Lupin slowly nodded, understanding and accepting Loki's reasoning before explaining with a slightly reluctant face, "It is not possible to even protect yourself using Occlumency against the depression effect Dementors have on emotionally complex creatures. That is because the Dementors don't attack your mind, they attack your soul."

"Emotionally complex?" Loki caught the key term in Lupin's explanation.

Loki saw Lupin sigh a little when he asked this question, but he explained nonetheless, "Yes, emotionally complex, because although Dementors attack your soul, they detect you through your mind, through your emotions. They can feel your mind buzz. This is also why they don't attack animals. Because they are not emotionally complex."

Loki's eyes widened and he immediately thought of a solution to the problem he was thinking about, "Is that how Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban?"

Lupin's eyes widened slightly but then he gave out a pitying smile, Loki didn't know why Lupin looked so vulnerable but he was distracted by Lupin's answer which tossed a bucket of cold water over him, "Although possible that Sirius Black is an unregistered Animagus, it shouldn't be possible."

"Huh? Why?"

"Because an Animagus in their animal form retains their mental complexity. After all, they have to be able to think to transform back. You can ask Professor McGonagall more about this."

"Ah…yes, you are right. I did not think about that. Thank you for taking your time to teach me, professor." Loki said with a smile and nodded, leaving to go back to the library so that he could borrow the books Lupin had recommended to him before dinner.

Once Loki had dinner, he went back to his room, ready to dive into the books he'd picked from the library on the dementors.

'I've got about a week before the Ring of Harvest consumes me.'

'...come on Loki, you can do this!' Loki pumped himself up so that he wouldn't feel scared and hinder his own mind from researching the topic.

Loki read about the Patronous charm and its many uses, but he found it extremely difficult to practice by himself.

Days ticked by as Loki read the books one by one, even setting everything else aside for the last few days but he didn't get any closer to his mission of producing a corporal patronus since there seemed to be something he couldn't understand stopping it from completing.

He could get out a thick white mist from the wand, but Loki knew that wouldn't be enough to stop the dementor whose bone his wand was made out of.

"Are you alright?" Hermione asked as she saw Loki buried in a book with dark circles around his eyes.

Daphne too was looking at Loki with a worried look.

"Do you need some help?" she asked in a neutral tone.

Loki looked at the two of them and shook his head, but then thought about how this was the last day that he'd be able to keep the Ring of Harvest outside the sefirah castle and asked them anyway.

"Do the two of you happen to know of a way to escape a dementor's senses?"

Hermione looked stumped causing Loki to look at Daphne.

'Perhaps ancient families know about how to escape a dementor?'

"Sorry, I do not." Daphne said after opening her eyes after a bit of thinking.

"*sigh* Alright." Loki nodded and walked back to his room with heavy steps, wondering if he would have to toss the Ring of Harvest above the grey fog and be done with it.

'But I feel like I'm naked without it.'

'I do have the amulets that I made out of the Twilight Giant Beyonder Characteristic but it still feels difficult to part with the Ring of Harvest.'

'And what about my future telling business?'

'All my plans regarding it will go into the compost bin if I don't figure out how to sort this out.'

'But there doesn't seem to be any other solution.'

Loki fell into his pillow, face first, and screamed into it for a good twenty seconds.

Finally raising his head from the pillow, Loki looked around the room, wondering about how to fix his problem.

'*sigh* I can't think of a way for now, let's think about something else, perhaps my brain just needs a kick start to come up with a great idea.'

Loki bestowed upon himself the letter he'd gotten from Salazar Slytherin, he'd put the letter at the back of his mind since he was distracted the past week, and so when he finally found it he picked it up and re-read the letter multiple times.

But that was when he noticed something.

'Wait a second.'

His brain suddenly clicked like a lighter and sprouted an idea that flickered into a bright flame bringing a large grin to his positively dull face.

'How did I miss this!?'

'Oh God, I'm so stupid!'

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