Hufflepuff boy - Cedric Diggory x male oc x Viktor Krum

18

"Why do you want to learn the spell, Cayden?" Severus asked, looking at Cayden who is sitting on a chair in the Potions classroom, helping him place ingredients into a jar.

"To add it to my list of spells I've learned." Cayden answered, carefully placing the ingredients into the jar. "Also because I wanted to see what my Patronus is." He said, closing the jar and sliding the jar at the end of the table for Severus to take.

"Both of those reasons are believable." Severus said, taking the jar and placing it on the shelf.

"I've already seen yours when you use it to look for me at the age of six." Cayden said, smiling softly at the memory, moving to the next ingredients that needed to be placed into a jar.

"I did." Severus said, smiling as well.

"Well, will you teach me?" Cayden asked after thirty minutes had passed in a comfortable silence, finally finished with placing the ingredients inside the jar.

"Let's go to a bigger and safer room." Severus said, watching Cayden stand up from the chair and start making their way towards a different bigger room.

"A Patronus is a kind of positive force." Severus said, turning to look at Cayden. "For the wizard who can conjure one, the Patronus works something like a shield. The Dementor feeds on it instead of him." He said. "But in order for it to work, you must think of a memory. And not just any. This memory needs to be a very happy one. And powerful."

Cayden pauses for a few, thinking about what memory he should think about, but then he gets it. He nodded to Severus, who was looking at him.

"Got something? Good." Severus said. "Let it fill you up. Lose yourself in it. Then speak the incantation: Expecto Patronum. Without your wand..."

"Expecto Patronum..." Cayden repeats.

"Right then. Shall we?" Severus asked, watching Cayden take out his wand as well.

Cayden nods, raising his wand, closing his eyes.

Six year old Cayden was in Severus' home, walking around the house. He is lost.

Soon after a blue light appears at the end of the hall, then a blue doe appears. Looking at him with those innocent eyes.

Cayden stops, looking at the doe with confusion. And one second later the doe disappeared, replacing the doe with his Godfather. He smiles at the sight of him, feeling the happiness inside him swirl around his body until it fills his small body and couldn't anymore.

"Expecto Patronum!" Cayden said. And a white light burst from the end of his wand. One second later, the Patronus slowly takes its form into a big blue dragon.

Severus stepped back from the dragon, looking at the form with amazement. He turns his head to look at his Godson, smiling genuinely at the happy expression on Cayden's face.

"I did it." Cayden breathed out, looking up at the dragon who was looking down at him.

"Yes, you did." Severus said, looking up at the dragon once again.

≪ °❈° ≫

Cayden, Harry, Ron and Hermione makes their way down the slope.

"I find it astonishing that someone who prides themselves on being so logical can be in such denial." Ron said, looking at the Potter's twins who are walking side by side.

"Harry. Will you explain to your friend Ronald that he has absolutely no proof whatsoever that my sweet, unassuming cat ate his shabby, decidedly decrepit rat." Hermione said, rolling her eyes.

"Harry was there! He'll tell you how it was. Go on, Harry, tell them." Ron said.

"No, I won't. Know why? Because I don't care about your stupid rat! I don't care about your stupid cat! I've got a few other things on my mind right now!" Harry exclaimed, huffing a breath.

"Really? Wasn't you had to roll under the bed last night to avoid getting cut to ribbons! A person could die being your friend, Harry!" Ron stops himself, and wishes he could take it back.

Cayden shakes his head and walks ahead of them, Harry joining him soon after, not wanting to hear Ron and Hermione bickering.

≪ °❈° ≫

Hagrid, wearing a gigantic, hairy brown suit and a yellow and orange tie, stands knee-deep in the shallows of the Black Lake, skimming rocks as big as flagstones across the water's shiny gloss. As he turns, the four catches a brief sight of his eyes, red with tears, then he looks away.

"How'd it go, Hagrid?" Hermione asked.

"Buckbeak liked London." Hagrid said.

"I meant the hearing." Hermione said.

"Oh. That. Well, I got up an' said my bit -- You know, how Buckbeak was a good Hippogriff an' as long as yeh treated 'im with respect, he'd treat you the same. Then Lucie's Malfoy got up an' said his bit -- you know, how Buckbeak was a deadly dangerous beast that no teacher in their righ' mind would expose their students to..." Hagrid said.

"And...?" Cayden said, looking out into the Black Lake. Draco wasn't even the one that got hurt...

Hagrid slings another rock into the water.

"You must'n blame yourself, Hagrid." Hermione said.

"Draco. It's him the Committee should punish. It's him they should send off to the forest, not Buckbeak." Ron said.

"Buckbeak's not going back to the forest..." Hagrid said.

"Where's he going, Hagrid?" Hermione said.

"He asked fer the worse, yeh see, Lucius Malfoy did. An' the Committee granted it. Buckbeak's bin sentenced ter death." Hagrid said, watching Cayden face paled from beside him.

≪ °❈° ≫

Harry, leading Cayden, Ron, and Hermione towards Hagrid's hut.

"I can't believe they're going to kill Buckbeak! It's too horrible." Hermione said, shaking her head.

"It just got worse." Harry said.

Cayden, Ron, and Hermione follow his gaze and see Draco, along with Crabbe and Goyle, lurking within a grouping of monolithic menhirs, binoculars in hand, spying on Hagrid, who stands in the pumpkin patch, tossing dead ferrets to Buckbeak.

Hagrid wipes his eyes, lopes into the hut.

"Did you see the big, fat blubbering oaf?! Oh, this is going to be rich. Did I tell you, Father said I can keep the head--" Malfoy looks up, smiling. "Ah. Come to see the show."

"You... foul... loathsome... evil... little cockroach..." Cayden said, as Draco stumbles back against a tree, cross-eyed with fear as Cayden jabs the tip of his wand under his nose.

"Cayden! no!" Ron exclaimed, and Cayden turns to look at him. "He's not worth it."

Cayden nods, then quick as lightning, lands a punch right to Draco's jaw, putting him flat on his back.

Stunned, Draco leaps to his feet and runs, Crabbe and Goyle huffing and puffing behind.

"Someone needed to do that." Cayden said, rubbing his hand, looking at Harry raised eyebrows.