Faery Heroes

Chapter 45: In Pursuit of Justice

Disclaimer: Was the Patronus introduced as a spell that only a few adult witches and wizards could cast, yet Harry taught a bunch of students, some barely teenagers, how to do it without a problem? If so, I don't own the Harry Potter franchise; it belongs to J.K. Rowling, Scholastic Press, Warner Bros., and whomever else she sold the rights to.

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Keep it in. Keep it in… A stream of vapor poured from the tip of her wand, and Astoria lost control of her beaming smile as she watched it coalesce into a blob. The effect of filling herself up with her happiest thoughts, then casting what she was sure was about to become a corporeal Patronus at only fourteen was just too much to hide behind a cold mask. "I think I got it. I think I got it!"

"Hold it together!" Harry called, rushing over from where he had been giving Longbottom – Neville – some guidance. "Almost there. Remember, it's all will and intent at this point. Don't get too excited, or it'll fall apart on you."

She nodded, focusing even harder. This was the second week they had worked on this spell alone, and no one – not Susan, niece of the head of the DMLE; not Ernie, whom she had seen was a powerful wizard; not even Neville, Harry's 'pet project' in the same way she could be said to be Luna's – had yet managed more than a misty shield. She herself had not gotten even that the first day, prompting Harry to pull her to the side for a little one-on-one chat. It had been beyond embarrassing to explain that she could not come up with even a single happy memory, but to her surprise, he had confessed to having the same problem when he had first learned the spell.

'For those of us with shitty pasts, this can be a little difficult', he had said. 'Personally, I don't try to come up with anything good that happened to me so far back; too many bad memories get in the way and make those times lose their luster. Instead I focus on something good I have right now, like my relationship with Luna and Mione, the joy I feel when we're together. It needs to be something big that just picks you up inside.'

It had worked. Rather than sort through her life before now, when her parents and her brother had done their best to turn her into an emotionless golem just like them, she thought of this year. Her parents were too concerned with regaining their fortune to pay attention to her, her friendship with Colin was kind of, maybe looking like it could turn into something more, and for the first time ever, she was surrounded by people who cared about her and kept her from being alone.

Between that joy and her determination to prove to Luna that the blonde's faith in her had not been a mistake, was it any wonder she was about to succeed in this?

The silver vapor stretched and settled onto the ground, forming a vaguely dog- or fox-like shape. Darker grey covered the creature's back, more like smoke than mist, and it bounced around her on stubby legs a few times before settling at her side. "He's beautiful," she muttered, stroking the spirit's ears and barely staving off a giggle when it nuzzled into her palm. "What do you think he is?"

Harry, answering her smile with one of his own, just shook his head. "No clue. Luna!"

"What? Oh, he is gorgeous," the Ravenclaw commented upon catching sight of her Patronus.

"You're the animal expert. Any ideas?"

"A jackal, I think. In folklore, they're said to be extremely cunning and adaptable, much like foxes. Appropriate traits for a Slytherin." The blonde walked closer and muttered so that only Astoria and Harry could hear, "But unlike foxes, they are additionally associated with abandonment and desolation, which, while not as pleasant, also describe you."