Andante - R. Lupin

53.

{.53. Patronus}

Alcyone Montague's return to school had felt extremely difficult this year. She had felt so guilty about leaving her brothers at home in the absence of their father while she and Perseus returned to Hogwarts, it almost felt unfair. It felt unfair that they had to grieve at home in the big space while Ally could be distracted by her friends and school work. It was like she could almost put her grief on the back burner until she thought about everything else first.

She was also tempted to not ride the Hogwarts express because she couldn't bear the thought of going face to face with Arlo Jones or any of those idiotic Slytherin's. However, her brothers had told her she would now only have two more journeys left on the Hogwarts express and she must embrace every last opportunity possible, she thought it was a fair enough point. She needed to embrace every last opportunity because she never knew when things would be her last time. Especially after the loss of Arcturus.

They were now in the second week of school and they were still learning the theories behind patronuses but toward the end of the lesson, they were able to start practising. Ally was partnered with Toby and they were discussing what they'd like their Patronus to be.

Toby was dead set on having a dog but Ally didn't know, she wanted one that complimented her personality fairly anyway. She read that the Patronus reflected you but could also change to reflect the person that you're in love with. She knew that Wolf was a Wolf, she wanted to think that Perseus was some type of bird but she had never asked any of her other brothers.

If ally was being honest, she didn't think she'd be able to conjure a Patronus and wanted to try it with her hand. She hadn't heard of anyone ever producing a Patronus with their hand but she just felt much more comfortable doing it that way. However, Professor McGonagall had told her in their last meeting that Dumbledore had feared she'd become too powerful if she was constantly relying on her wandless magic.

Ally didn't understand it because she didn't want to neglect her craft. Wandless magic was something she'd struggled to come to terms with for most of her life, especially through the period of significant change in Hogwarts but it was part of who she was. She always remembered showing the muggles in the primary school she went to tricks and they all thought they were like muggle magic but she was incredibly savvy and had been trying to practice her magic most of the time when she was little, which meant the muggles could never tell the difference.

It was odd to Ally that Dumbledore hadn't wanted to help her and her brother all them years ago and now feared that she would be powerful. Was there something that Dumbledore had known and she hadn't? Was there something wrong with her? She honestly had no idea and the thoughts kept constantly plaguing her mind.