Friendless » Fred Weasley

clii. patronuses

The very next DA they had finally started work on Patronuses, which everybody had been very keen to practice, though, as Harry kept reminding them, producing a Patronus in the middle of a brightly lit classroom when they were not under threat was very different from producing it when confronted by something like a Dementor.

''Oh, don't be such a killjoy," said Cho brightly, watching her silvery swan-shaped Patronus soar around the Room of Requirement during their last lesson before Easter. "They're so pretty!"

"They're not supposed to be pretty, they're supposed to protect you," said Harry patiently. "What we really need is a Boggart or something; that's how I learned, I had to conjure a Patronus while the Boggart was pretending to be a Dementor—"

''But that would be really scary!" said Lavender, who was shooting puffs of silver vapor out of the end of her wand. "And I still— can't- do it!" She added angrily.

Tori was having trouble, too. Her face was screwed up in concentration, but only feeble wisps of silver smoke issued from his wand tip.

"Make it a powerful memory, the happiest you can remember. Allow it to fill you up. Keep trying, Seamus." Harry called, turning towards the twins. "George, your turn now."

"Expecto Patronum." George cast his spell. The silvery tips of his wand turn into magpie with soared into the air. "Nice, Georgie." Fred complimented.

"A full-bodied Patronus is the most difficult to produce... but shield forms can also be equally useful against a variety of opponents. Nice try Tori. Give it another go."

"I've tried almost all of my happy memories." Tori sighed frustrated. "It's not just a happy memory. It's something special. Something that fills you up. Something that changed you."

Tori nodded, closing her eyes once again. She entered her memories like a library, sorting through the long line of them until she came across one. One she hadn't tried yet.

"Hey, mind if I call you Tori? You know Tori, I'm a great friend."

"Excellent work Tori! That's a powerful one!" Harry's voice caused Tori to open her eyes. At the spitting end of her wand erupted a large silvery ball. "Focus on it, Tori!"

Tori closed her eyes, letting the memory play once more before opening her eyes. The silvery ball began to take shape, leaping into the room like it was an ocean, a silvery dolphin appeared.

The dolphin flew higher soaring near other's fellow patronus. It bent under Ginny's horse and caused both the twins's magpies to fly away. Tori let out a laugh as it circled around her and floated off towards Lee's chimpanzee.

"Just remember, your Patronus can only protect you for as long as you stay focused." Harry was shouting. "Think of the happiest thing you can."

"Expecto Patronum!"

The door of the Room of Requirement opened and closed. But Tori was to busy focusing on her patronus. It was a few moments before she realized that the people close to the door had fallen silent.

Next thing she knew, Harry was speaking to a house elf. "Hi, Dobby!" He said. "What are you— What's wrong?"

The elf's eyes were wide with terror and he was shaking. The members of the DA closest to Harry had fallen silent; everybody in the room was watching Dobby. The few Patronuses people had managed to conjure faded away into silver mist, leaving the room looking much darker than before.

''Harry Potter, sir..." squeaked the elf, trembling from head to foot, ''Harry Potter, sir... Dobby has come to warn you... but the house-elves have been warned not to tell..."

He ran head-first at the wall. Hermione and a few of the other girls let out squeaks of fear and sympathy.

''What's happened, Dobby?" Harry asked, grabbing the elf's tiny arm and holding him away from anything with which he might seek to hurt himself.

''Harry Potter... she... she..."

Dobby hit himself hard on the nose with his free fist. Harry seized that, too.

''Who's 'she', Dobby?" The elf looked up at him, slightly cross-eyed, and mouthed wordlessly. Tori glanced around at the twins, who stared ahead at the house-elf.

''Umbridge?" asked Harry, horrified. Dobby nodded, then tried to bang his head on Harry's knees. Harry held him at arm's length.

''What about her? Dobby — she hasn't found out about this — about us — about the DA?"

''Is she coming?" Harry asked quietly. Dobby let out a howl and began beating his bare feet hard on the floor.

''Yes, Harry Potter, yes!"

Harry straightened up and looked around at the motionless, terrified people gazing at the thrashing elf. Tori felt her heart drop.

''WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" Harry bellowed. "RUN!"

They all pelted towards the exit at once, forming a scrum at the door, then people burst through. Tori could hear them sprinting along the corridors and hoped they had time to try and make it all the way to their dormitories.

There was a loud cry of noise as hexes started flying in the air. "Go, go, go, go!" Tori shouted, pushing Colin and Dennis up the stairs. She turned, casting a shielding charm behind them. The Gryffindor crowd raced up the stairs and towards the portrait. The Fat Lady nearly jumped, looking at all their panicked faces.

"Wattlebird!" Fred shouted at her.

The Fat Lady frowned. "Well, what's the rush?" George glanced behind him at the crowd. "Come on, Wattlebird!"

The Fat Lady sighed, dramatically opening the portrait and the kids tumbled inside. "Bed! Now! All of you!" Hermione squeaked. No one dared defy her.

Alicia, Katie, Angelina, and Tori said nothing as they walked up the stairs and into their dorm. No one wanted to know what the following day would bring. Would they all be expelled? But what about N.E.W.T.S? Tori had just been getting good at her curses, and Neville was getting really good a dueling, and Fred and George were finding new invention ideas...

No one would have ever imagined when they woke up, Umbridge was the new headmistress.

man that just sucks