Lucky

New Recruits

         Morgana woke Emma up early the next morning. "Ugh - Morgana, buzz off, would you?" Her best friend groaned. "Em, we need to have a meeting tonight. A DA meeting." Emma sighed. "No," she said sleepily. Morgana smirked. "I know how to get extra credit in the OWLs..."

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            "John Fortis, get up, make sure everyone knows there's a meeting tonight, it's for extra credit in the exams," Emma shouted at her brother. Morgana grinned. Any promise of extra credit and both Fortis twins were on the job.

          The DA met in the room of requirement that night, many complaining about being pulled away from revision. Morgana looked around at them all and called them to order. "Ok, so I wanted to try something. Has anyone heard of a patronus charm?" She addressed the room. A few hands raised slowly, while murmurs circulated around, everyone scrutinising her, and questioning her sanity.

Teddy raised his hand gingerly. "Morgana - that's a very advanced piece of magic. I'm not sure we could do it." Several people muttered their agreement, and Morgana tried to quickly gain their attention. "I've figured it out, I know how to do it," she told them. "And fifth years can get extra credit for their OWLs by performing it in the exam," Emma added. Suddenly people were a lot more interested.

           Morgana grinned as the army positioned themselves around the room and drew their wands. "Alright, you need a powerful memory - happy, strong, anything at all as long as there's passion and power. And the incantation is Expecto Patronum. Then, concentrate really hard on the memory, not what's happening, just the memory."

           A few people managed to cast shield forms, and Morgana felt ecstatic, but people were starting to give up too quickly. "This is really big stuff, everyone, you're doing really really well. It's going to take perseverance and patience."

            Suddenly a silvery wolf burst from the tip of Teddy Lupin's wand and padded around him, majestic and proud. Teddy stared at it in wonder, tears forming in his green eyes. Morgana found herself tearing up as well. She had an indescribable feeling of pride and love and satisfaction building up inside as she gazed across the room at Teddy. Suddenly she ran at him and threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. Teddy hugged her back as the students around them whistled and cheered.

          Teddy blushed, his hair turning purple as usual. Morgana looked up into his eyes, now sapphire blue, and whispered, "You're amazing, you know that?" Teddy smiled and kissed her forehead. They were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat rather loudly. Morgana turned around and looked at Emma, who was now coughing noisily into her hand. "Can we maybe save this lovely display of affection til after the meeting?" Morgana nodded, slightly embarrassed. "Sure. Get on with it, then."

          Emma was next to succeed. The mist which came from her wand formed a horse, a tall, proud mare which cantered around the room and disappeared. Morgana threw her arms
around her best friend, who looked too shocked for words. Johnny conjured a dolphin which swam around in the air while they all laughed, and a bird soon soared from the end of Scarlett's wand. Emma gasped. "That's a Phoenix! That's - like - the rarest patronus ever!" Scarlett beamed. "I hear that was Dumbledore's patronus," Johnny added, throwing an arm around his girlfriend proudly.

Samara Beech gasped in delight at the energetic rabbit bouncing around her, while Alice smiled at the horse now galloping around the room. Georgia had managed to produce a cat, while Timothy Bridges had an impressive eagle and Simon Patterson had a hedgehog. "Aww, it's so cute!" Harriet Broom exclaimed, as Simon flushed red, not seeming too chuffed about having a "cute" patronus.