Chapter 269: Chapter 269: Two Ways to Summon a Patronus

Eight o’clock. End of the fourth-floor corridor. The door to the abandoned classroom sat ajar, and Regulus was already inside.

He stood by the window. Nothing but blackness beyond the glass.

A few minutes passed before Lily pushed the door open, bringing a gust of cold air with her.

She wore her Gryffindor robes with a scarf wound in several loops around her neck, her mouth buried in it so only the upper half of her face showed. Her cheeks were flushed from the cold, the tip of her nose pink, but her eyes were bright, her expression alive with excitement. A few strands of hair had come loose and stuck to her forehead. She hadn’t bothered fixing them.

"You’re early." She was already unwinding her scarf as she spoke.

"Just got here." Regulus turned from the window.

Lily pulled the scarf free and glanced up at him. Her gaze landed on the dark grey scarf around his neck and lingered there.

Then she smiled. Didn’t say anything. Just smiled, wide and warm.

Her eyes curved, her mouth lifted, and all at once she went from a girl hunched against the cold to something else entirely.

She’d given him that scarf last Christmas. Dark grey wool, nothing expensive, but tightly knit.

He was wearing it.

"Cold?" Regulus asked.

Lily grinned. "Not bad. The corridor’s draughty, though."

Regulus raised a hand and waved it, casual, unhurried.

A current of warm air rolled outward from his palm, sized just right, wrapping around Lily like a cocoon. The temperature was precise: not scalding, not dry, just clean steady heat.

Lily’s eyes half-closed with pleasure. It felt like someone had built an invisible hearth around her.

Once the warmth had settled in, she pulled the scarf the rest of the way off and looked around the classroom. Her gaze landed on a wrecked desk propped against the far wall. One leg was missing, the surface scarred with scratches and old ink stains, the whole thing listing sideways into the corner.

She drew her wand, tapped the desk, and murmured something.

It began to change. The legs folded upward, the surface flipped and compressed into a smooth flat plane without a single crack. The heap of ruined wood became an upright standing rack, just the right height to reach her chest. Along the top, a row of small copper hooks extended, five of them, evenly spaced.

Lily walked over and draped her scarf on one of the hooks, then turned back to Regulus with a look of quiet satisfaction.

Regulus raised an eyebrow. He walked over and hung his scarf on the hook beside hers.

Lily studied the two scarves hanging side by side, then nodded, pleased.

Regulus glanced at her.

Her smile widened.

The last time he’d taught Lily magical control had been two weeks ago. They hadn’t returned to this classroom since, but they’d run into each other in the Library often enough, and every time, Lily found a way to show off what she’d been practicing.

One afternoon, Regulus had been sitting in his usual spot by the Library window, paging through a book, when Lily came around the shelves and dropped into the seat across from him.

No wand. She pointed a finger.

A sheet of parchment floated out of her bag. A quill and ink bottle hopped out after it. The cap unscrewed itself, the quill dipped in, then drifted up and hovered above the parchment and began to write.

Regulus watched, then offered a compliment. Lily considered herself impressive too.

She’d turned the essay in later. Apparently, Professor Slughorn’s reaction had been spectacular.

"The Patronus Charm," Regulus said, looking down at her, his tone gentle. "You know what it is?"

Lily nodded. Her chin lifted slightly, mouth curving, and without a word she drew her wand from her robe pocket.

She closed her eyes first. Her breathing slowed. The excitement drained from her face, replaced by stillness, then something deeper, like immersion.

Her lashes trembled. Her eyelids pressed tighter. Then they opened.

"Expecto Patronum."

A cluster of light bloomed at the wand’s tip. Silver-white, small, not particularly bright, but it had shape. It had a center.

Roughly as bright as a Lumos turned to the fifth setting. Visible, but nothing more.

Lily stared at the glow, still half-smiling. The light sat in her eyes, two tiny silver points reflected back. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

A few seconds passed before she flicked her wand and let it fade.

She looked up at Regulus, expectant. "Well?"

Regulus didn’t spoil it. "Producing anything at all on your first attempts is rare."

That was the truth. Third-years who could generate even the glow of a Patronus could be counted on one hand across all of Hogwarts.

Lily flushed a little at the praise, the tips of her ears going pink. She offered a modest deflection: "It’s barely a flicker."

She knew Regulus always praised her, as though everything she did was remarkable.

She also knew that producing a faint wisp of silver light wasn’t much to boast about.

Being praised by him, though. That was still nice.

"It really is rare," Regulus said again.

Lily smiled, bright and open, and didn’t bother with modesty a second time.

Regulus asked, "You went to Professor McGonagall?"

Lily nodded and launched in.

"When I went to see her, she was grading essays. I asked how to practice the Patronus Charm, and she just stared at me for ages."

Lily mimicked the expression with startling accuracy: eyebrows slightly raised, lips pressed together, head tilted just a fraction to one side.

"She said it was an extremely advanced spell. Many adult wizards can’t manage it."

Here Lily’s voice took on a note of pride. "So I said, I know, but I still want to try. She looked at me a while longer, then said, all right."

"She told me the Patronus Charm needs a very happy memory. The stronger, the better. Then you speak the incantation and let the memory fill you completely."

"She complimented me, too." Lily’s tone turned light. "She said the fact that I’d come to ask on my own showed initiative, and to keep that attitude."

Regulus listened, nodding at intervals, asking at the right moment, "And then?"

"Then I went back and practiced," Lily said. "Did what the professor told me. Think of the happiest thing, say the incantation."

A note of her own analysis crept in. "I tried a bunch of times. Nothing at first, then I got the light. What you just saw."

She glanced at Regulus.

"I went through different happy memories," she continued. "Getting my acceptance letter. The day I found out I was a witch..."

She glanced at him again, leaning closer, her voice dropping as if sharing a secret.

"You probably don’t know what that feels like. Someone suddenly tells you that you’re not ordinary, that there’s something inside you no one else has, and the whole world gets bigger all at once."

Then she tilted her head, curious but uncertain. "You’re Pure-blood. Did you ever feel something like that?"

Regulus said nothing. He looked at her, gaze warm, and gave a small nod.

He did know that feeling. A person raised in a world governed by material logic, suddenly arriving in a world of magic, and finding out they belonged in it.

The rush went far beyond anything the word "happy" could hold. It was the shock of the entire world shifting from black and white to color.

"Any others?" he asked. "Happy memories."

Lily looked at him again, but only made a short "hmph" and didn’t answer.

Regulus blinked at that, mildly baffled.

He thought it over, couldn’t figure out what he’d said wrong, but her expression didn’t look angry, so he let it go.

Lily carried on, describing how she’d tried over and over, how many attempts, how many failures. One time she’d nearly had it, the light was already forming, but she got excited, the memory slipped sideways, and the glow died.

Regulus listened, nodding now and then, but his mind had drifted elsewhere.

He was thinking about the day he’d summoned his own Patronus.

"...Regulus?"

Lily’s voice pulled him back. She was watching him, brow faintly creased, not sure whether he’d been paying attention.

"Are you listening?"

"I’m listening." He came back to himself, expression unchanged, and nodded.

Lily studied his face for a few seconds, suspicion clear. She didn’t look convinced.

Regulus cleared his throat and met her eyes, his gaze warm and sincere. "Do you know how I summon mine?"

Lily paused, then internally rolled her eyes.

Again.

Regulus drifted off mid-conversation sometimes. Thinking about who knew what. When she caught him, he’d toss out a new topic as a distraction.

Last time it was the same. The time before that, too.

She’d never called him on it.

"Isn’t the Patronus just thinking really hard about a happy memory and saying the incantation?" She went along with it. "Is there another way?"

"What Professor McGonagall told you is correct. In fact, most wizards do it exactly like that," Regulus said. "But that’s not what I do."

Lily’s curiosity sharpened. "So what do you do?"

Regulus didn’t answer right away. He glanced at Lily, then turned his gaze toward the window.

Nothing visible through the glass. Only darkness, and the dim classroom lamp casting the silhouettes of two people against it.

"Most wizards summon their Patronus using memory." His voice carried its usual pace, unhurried. "A happy memory, the stronger the better. Ask any other witch or wizard and they’ll tell you the same thing."

Lily nodded. That matched her own practice, matched what the books said, matched every person she’d ever asked.

Regulus continued. "That path works. The majority of wizards who can produce a Patronus do it that way."

He paused, then turned back to her. "But have you ever asked yourself why it’s memory?"

Lily blinked.

She hadn’t considered that. The professor said to use a happy memory, so she used a happy memory. She’d tested several, picked the most powerful one, and practiced with it.

Regulus watched her. "Because for most people, the strongest emotions only ever happen in the past. They look back. They hold on. They guard what they once had. And then they grow old."

Lily listened. Her brow slowly drew together.

She understood the words, but something in them settled over her, heavy and unnamed.