Mitigate [S. Black]

five | episkey

A grunt escaped Alessia's lips as she dropped her arm in frustration, lowering her wand after yet another attempt at casting the patronus charm. "It's no use," she complained. "I'm rubbish at this—I can't do it."

"You're not using a happy enough memory," James told her as he stood about ten feet away from her.He had been working with her for nearly two hours already, but they hadn't gotten anywhere. Sirius sat on the steps of his back porch,watching as they stood in his backyard. Lily was inside, making something for lunch, and Remus was at home resting since a full moon was coming up.

None of them had seen Peter since before Alessia arrived, and they hadn't heard from him either; but due to their distraction having been placed on the brunette Dumbledore entrusted them with, they hadn't really given it much thought.

"What memory are you using?" James asked curiously.

Alessia's face burned. "Just... Just the day my boss gave me a boxed set of my favorite books," she admitted, embarrassed.

There was a brief pause as James waited, almost expecting her to say she was joking and then admit the real memory to him. After a beat, he realized that wasn't going to happen. A snort escaped his lips as he said, "Well, no wonder why you haven't been able to cast the charm. That's not a strong enough memory, Alessia. It has to be something that's made you happy.Truly happy."

"Well it's all I've got, okay?" She snapped at him defensively. "I haven't exactly had the happiest life."

James stared at her in astonishment at her short outburst. He hadn't meant anything by what he said, of course, and Alessia knew that, but she was just so frustrated—with both the fact that she couldn't cast the patronus charm, and because she didn't have a happier memory than when Nora gave her a couple books.

Sirius cleared his throat from where he'd been sitting on the porch steps and stood up, walking over to stand next to James as he pulled out his wand. "How about we work on something more simple?" He proposed. "We'll return to the patronus charm another time." That specific charm was advanced magic, especially for someone entirely new to practicing magic, but James had wanted to give it a shot since it was one of the best methods of self-defense.

"Alright," James agreed. He patted Sirius on the back. "Maybe try with disarming or something. I'm gonna run inside and see if Lily needs anything."

As James scurried inside the house,the stormy-eyed wizard looked over to see Alessia staring at her feet. "Don't let it beat you up," Sirius told her. "Even some of the most skilled wizards can't produce a patronus."

"I know," she mumbled quietly.

He flashed her a confident-yet-reassuring grin. "Chin up, sweetheart. We've got a war to end."

Alessia cracked a smile, shaking off her frustration as she raised her wand. "Okay. What have you got for me?"

"Think we'll start with a simply shield charm," Sirius informed her. "It's pretty basic, and the wand movement's quite straight-forward. Here." He gestured toward a branch on the ground. "Throw that at me, and I'll demonstrate the charm."

She knew he was talking about the Protego spell, but didn't bother to say so. Of course Alessia knew a lot about the spells due to having read the books, but learning the wand movements and being able to cast the spells was a different thing entirely. She allowed the others to tell her anything they knew about these spells, in hopes that it would help her cast them.

"Okay." Alessia hesitantly picked up the branch. Sirius nodded, signifying that she could through it whenever she saw fit. Deciding then was as good a time as ever, she drew back and flung the stick straight at Sirius's lithe frame.