The Hogwarts Paradox // Harry Potter

018- Patronus

Y/N enjoyed her first Christmas at Hogwarts very dearly. She had loads of fun with her new friends whom she had known all her life.

Everyday was filled with excitement and laughs. Though, she wasn't under the illusion that their happiness was permanent. She knew that far worse darker forces were under work right that second and were planning furiously to kill Harry. But she still tried to cheer herself up and focus on what was actually in front of her and not worry about the future...

The quartet played wizard's chess, played in the snow and helped Hagrid with his magical creatures all throughout the winter break.

They were informed that Buckbeak was sentenced to death after attacking Malfoy, and they couldn't do anything about it. Hagrid told the devastated group one evening that the right thing to do was to make sure that Buckbeak lives a happy life till the very end.

There was a muggle saying that Y/N remembered- 'Time flies when you're having fun.'

And indeed, it did. After afternoons of snowball fighting in the snow and pranking Percy and Filch with the twins, the break quickly came to an end.

*****

Lessons started again the next day. The last thing anyone felt like doing was spending two hours in the grounds on a raw January morning, but Hagrid had provided a bonfire full of salamanders for their enjoyment, and they spent an unusually good lesson collecting dry wood and leaves to keep the fire blazing, while the flame-loving lizards scampered up and down the crumbling, white-hot logs. The first Divination lesson of the new term was much less fun; Professor Trelawney was now teaching them palmistry, and she lost no time in informing Harry and Y/N that they had the shortest life-lines she had ever seen.

It was Defence Against the Dark Arts that Harry was keen to get to; He wanted to get started on his Anti-Dementor lessons as soon as possible.

"Ah yes," said Lupin, when Harry reminded him of his promise at the end of class. "Let me see... how about eight o'clock on Thursday evening?"

*****

At eight o'clock on Thursday evening, Harry and Y/N left Gryffindor Tower to go meet Lupin for their Dementor defense lesson.

Lupin was already waiting for them in his office. His expression was fine, but he looked as tired as ever. His under eyes were dark and Y/N could see that his hair had turned greyer than usual.

"Good evening, Y/N, Harry." He said with a soft smile.

"Hello, Professor." Y/N and Harry smiled back.

"Come in, come in." Lupin gestured them inside his wife office. As the two stepped in, Y/N's eyes fell unconsciously on the large tanks that were kept at the back of the room.

"Are- are those Grindylows, sir?" She asked, her eyes grew excitedly.

"Why, yes they are Y/N. We'll be learning about them in a few days." Lupin chuckled.

Harry grinned at Y/N's childish expressions.

Then Harry saw the huge suitcase kept on Lupin's desk.

"What's that?" said Harry.

"Another Boggart," said Lupin, 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. It's the nearest we'll get to a real Dementor. The Boggart will turn into a Dementor when he sees you, so we'll be able to practise on him."

"OK," said Harry, 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.