Wish Upon A Star

Hogwarts Express

The rest of her summer holidays, she spent practising spells, making things float around the house, summoning stuff for the fun of it, transfiguring bottle caps, and batteries into matches and needles. 

She wanted to make the most of this time. She wouldn't be allowed to use magic outside school from next year, as they would give her the letter. The Ministry will be onto her from then on. Right now, it was a sort of lenience, since she was just starting her life in the Wizarding world. 

She also tended to Dawn. She absolutely adored the owl. He was not only her first pet, but was also very comfortable with her. Sometimes, she would just talk to Dawn about random things, whenever she found some interesting fact in one of her books. Dawn would hoot back in acknowledgement. 

One evening, after dinner, a brilliant idea struck her. She had already got around completing her first-year syllabus and a bit more. So it wouldn't hurt to try to do some advanced magic.  

Though she wasn't sure it would work, she had to try.  

She was going to try the Patronus charm. 

It was way advanced though. She had been doing only the basic spells, not something as advanced as the Patronus charm. It takes powerful magic behind a Patronus, especially if it had to be corporeal. 

Well, she had to try. 

She closed eyes, took a deep breath, and thought of her happiest memory. 

Happiest memory, huh?

Quite simple really. She didn't have to look for long.

When she got the letter telling her that she was accepted to Hogwarts. 

She tried to imagine the feeling, how she had felt when she got the letter.

She was holding her Hogwarts Letter. She felt as though she was flying, as though she had gotten everything she could ever wish for. . .Technically, she did.
She recollected how she had felt when she held the thick envelope with the rough, yellowing parchment in her fingers. The scarlet wax seal with the Hogwarts emblem. The way her finger slid under the parchment and pulled it open. The neat scrawl on the parchment. The way how her heart beat in her chest, threatening to burst out, the way her hands had gone ice cold and were trembling ever so slightly...

The euphoric sensation seemed to surge through her veins as her fingertips tingled. Ashlyn felt a smile creep up her face.

"Expecto Patronum," she said, loud and clear. 

Nothing happened. 

She shook her head and tried again.

On her fifth try, she produced a wisp of silver smoke, encouraged she tried countless times, over and over again until, she could produce a silver barrier of sorts. But it was still not enough. It wasn't a corporeal Patronus yet. She had to try harder.

The sun had set, and the darkness was settling in, the street lights were going on. And Ashlyn stood in a dark room, which would occasionally be lit with a bright dazzling silver light as she tried to conjure her Patronus. 

Maybe she needed a happy memory...Did she have one? The happiest was when she got her letter. . .Maybe she should try when she got her wand. . .

"Expecto Patronum!" 

It was the same non-corporeal Patronus, just a bit stronger this time. Not good enough. 

What could be a strong enough memory? Something more powerful than the ones before.