Lillian Evans: Harry Potter's Sister(Sort Of)

The Patronus

The first class back after the break was Care of Magical Creatures and it was still freezing out. I was wearing my mum's jumper and the jacket that I had found in Sev's living quarters. Hagrid had provided a bonfire full of salamanders for our enjoyment, and we spent an unusually good lesson collecting dry wood and leaves to keep the fire blazing, while the flame-loving salamanders scampered up and down the crumbling white-hot logs. I was overjoyed as I had planned this lesson at the beginning of the year for Hagrid and he finally seemed to want to do something other than Flobberworms.

Defence Against the Dark Arts was interesting as always and I accidentally overheard Harry talk to Remus about getting Patronus Charm lessons, although Harry seemed to be thinking about calling them Anti-Dementor lessons.
My Dad was back from the hospital and he kept looking like he wanted to tell me something so I decided to go visit him in his office.
I knocked on the door.
"Come in," he said.
"Hey Dad," I said once I had shut the door.
He looked different; his hair was wavier and his eyes looked a little bit less black, as though there was a hint of grey in them.
"Lilly," he said. "It is nice to see you. I am sorry for ruining your Christmas, I heard that you found me. I apologize for you having to see me like that."
"It's okay Dad. You didn't ruin Christmas, it was just different," I assured him. "Do you want to open gifts this weekend?"
"Of course Lilly. Do you want me to invite Draco as well?" he said, teasing me.
"Dad," I said, my hair turning blush pink yet again. "No thank you."
"Fine," he said.
We sat down and ate supper, Fawkes still not leaving me alone.
"How long has he been doing that?" Dad asked me after we finished eating.
"Since Boxing Day," I replied. "I should go get some sleep."
He showed me out and I ended up sleeping in the Ravenclaw Common Room.
The next day, after a terrible sleep, I got a letter from Remus asking for me to go to the History of Magic classroom at eight o'clock on Thursday to help teach Harry the Patronus Charm. Thursday rolled around and I showed up early and helped Harry light all the lamps. Remus showed up five minutes later, carrying a large, packing case, which he heaved onto Professor Binn's desk.
"What's that?" said Harry.
"Another Boggart," said Remus, stripping off his cloak. "I've been combing the castle ever since Tuesday, and luckily, I found this one lurking inside Mr. Filch's filing cabinet. It's the nearest we'll get to a real Dementor. The Boggart will turn into a Dementor when he sees you, so we'll be able to practise on him. I can store him in my office when we're not using him; there's a cupboard under my desk he'll like."
"Okay," said Harry.
"So..." Remus had taken out his wand as well and indicated that Harry should do the same. "The spell I am going to try and teach you is highly advanced magic, Harry- well beyond Ordinary Wizarding Level. It is called the Patronus Charm."
"How does it work?" Harry asked nervously.
"Well, when it works correctly, it conjures up a Patronus," said Remus, "which is a kind of Anti-Dementor- a guardian which acts as a shield between you and the Dementor. The Patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the Dementor feeds upon- hope, happiness, the desire to survive- but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the Dementors can't hurt it. But I must warn you, Harry, that the Charm might be too advanced for you. Many qualified wizards have difficulty with it."
"What does a Patronus look like?" Harry said curiously.
"Each one is unique to the wizard, or witch, who conjures it," Remus informed him.
"And how do you conjure it?" Harry asked.
"With an incantation, which will work only if you are concentrating, with all your might, on a single, very happy memory," Remus told him.
"Right," Harry said after a minute.
"The incantation is this-" Remus cleared his throat, "expecto patronum."
"Expecto patronum," Harry repeated under his breath, "expecto patronum."
"Concentrating hard on your happy memory?" Remus asked him.
"Oh yeah-" said Harry. "Expecto patrono- no, patronum- sorry- expecto patronum, expecto patronum-"
Something whooshed suddenly out of the end of his wand; it looked like a wisp of silvery gas.
"Did you see that?" said Harry excitedly. "Something happened!"
"Very good," said Remus smiling. "Right then- ready to try it in a Dementor?"
"Yes," Harry said, moving into the middle of the deserted classroom.
"Where do you want me, Professor?" I asked.
"Could you stand behind Harry, please Lilly. Try to keep him from hitting the floor if you can," Moony told me.
I moved behind Harry. Remus grasped the lid of the packing case and pulled. A Dementor rose slowly from the box, its hooded face turned towards Harry, one glistening, scabbed hand gripping its cloak. The lamps around the classroom flickered and went out. The Dementor glided out of the box and started to sweep silently towards Harry, drawing a deep, rattling breath. A wave of piercing cold filled the room.
"Expecto patronum!" Harry yelled. "Expecto patronum! Expecto-"
Harry collapsed and I caught him just before he hit the ground. The Dementor started towards me and I set Harry down on the ground.
"Expecto patronum," I said calmly, thinking about Draco and I walking through Hogwarts. The Dementor retreated into the case as a Phoenix flew at it. I stared at my Patronus in awe. Remus shut the case as my legs threatened to give out. He then moved over to me and put his hand on my back to steady me. Moony conjured a chair and guided me into it.
"Harry," Remus said, shaking him lightly.
"Sorry," Harry muttered, as he woke up and I lit the candles with a wave of my hand.
I waved my Patronus over to me and Fawkes let out a trill at the sight of it.
"Are you alright?" Remus asked.
"Yes..." Harry said, pulling himself up on one of the desks and leaning against it.
"Here-" Remus handed Harry a Chocolate Frog. "Eat this before we try again. I didn't expect you to do it the first time. In fact, I would have been astounded if you had."
I looked down, not sure if Remus thought that I had cast the spell before or not.
"It's getting worse," Harry muttered, biting the Frog's head off. "I could hear her louder that time- and him- Voldemort-"
Remus paled. "Harry, if you don't want to continue, I will more than understand-"
"I do!" said Harry fiercely, stuffing the rest of the Chocolate Frog into his mouth. "I've got to! What if the Dementors turn up at our match against Ravenclaw? I can't afford to fall off again. If we lose this game, we've lost the Quidditch cup!"
"All right then," Remus said. "You might want to select another memory, a happy memory, I mean, to concentrate on... that one doesn't seem strong enough..."
My Patronus flickered out of existence just as Harry finished his Chocolate Frog."Ready?" Remus asked, gripping the lid of the case.
"Ready," Harry said.
"Go," Remus said, pulling off the lid.
The room went icily cold and dark once more. The Dementor glided forwards, drawing its rattly breath; one rotting hand was extending towards Harry- "Expecto patronum!" Harry yelled. "Expecto patronum! Expecto-"
Harry collapsed once again, Remus catching him as he fell. I did not want to see a Boggart Dementor give the Dementor's Kiss to either of them, so I racked my brain for a happy memory. I remembered the feeling that I had when my Dad fretted over me when I had hypothermia. The feeling of being loved. I focused on that.
"Expecto patronum," I said in an extremely calm voice.
Again, a Phoenix flew out of my outstretched hand towards the Dementor and forced it back into the box. This time, even though I was sitting down, I passed out.
When I came to, Remus was tapping Harry on the face.
"Harry! Harry... wake up..." Remus said.
"I heard my dad," Harry mumbled after a minute. "That's the first time I've ever heard him- he tried to take on Voldemort himself, to give my mum time to run for it..."
"You heard James?" Remus said, in a strange voice.
"Yeah," Harry said. "Why- you didn't know my dad did you?"
"I-I did, as a matter of fact," Remus said, "We were friends at Hogwarts. Listen Harry- perhaps we should leave it here for tonight. This charm is ridiculously advanced... I shouldn't have suggested putting you through this..."
"No!" Harry said. He got up again. "I'll have one more go! I'm not thinking of happy enough things, that's what it is... hang on."
"Ready?" Remus said softly, after a few minutes. He looked as though he was doing this against his better judgement. "Concentrating hard? Alright-go!"
He pulled the lid off the case for the third (and hopefully final time tonight, I really hate Dementors), and the Dementor Boggart rose out of it; the room fell cold and dark-
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Harry bellowed. "EXPECTO PATRONUM! EXPECTO PATRONUM!" A large silver shadow came bursting out of the end of Harry's wand, to hover between Harry and the Dementor. Harry was still on his feet.
"Riddikulus!" Remus roared, springing forwards. The Patronus vanished along with the Dementor. I quickly conjured a chair for Harry to sink into. I watched as Remus forced the Boggart back into the packing case; it turned into the moon right before it went back into the case.
"Excellent!" Remus said, striding over to where Harry was sitting. "Excellent Harry! That was definitely a start!"
"Can we have another go? Just one more go?" Harry asked.
"Not now," Remus said firmly. "You've had enough for one night. Here."
He handed Harry a large bar of Honeydukes' best milk chocolate.
"Eat the lot, or Madam Pomfrey will be after my blood. Same time next week?" Remus told him.
"OK," said Harry. "Professor Lupin? If you knew my dad, you must've known Sirius Black as well."Remus turned sharply.
"What gives you that idea?" he said sharply.
"Nothing- I mean, I just knew they were friends at Hogwarts, too..." Harry said.
Remus relaxed.
"Yes, I knew him," he said shortly, "Or I thought I did. You'd better get off, Harry, it's getting late."
Harry nodded and left the classroom.
Moony turned to me.
"Let's go back to my quarters Lilly," Remus said gently. "Can you walk?"
I stood up, but my legs gave out the second I put my full weight on them. Remus caught me as I fell and picked me up.
"I should have brought you chocolate as well, I am sorry Lilly," Remus told me.
"It is okay Remus," I responded.
Remus started towards his living quarters. Fawkes picked up the packing case and followed us out into the hallway.
Once we reached it, I opened the door with a wave of my hand and Remus set me down on his couch. He then went into his kitchen and took something out of one of the cupboards. Moony came over and handed me a chocolate bar.
"I didn't know you could cast a Patronus," Remus said, after a few minutes.
"Neither did I," I admitted.
"You managed to cast a corporeal Patronus on your first try?" he asked me, sounding surprised.
I nodded.
"I don't think you need to attend the lessons anymore," Remus told me. "But I will tell you this, there is only one known person with a Patronus that is a Phoenix, and that is Albus Dumbledore. Although your Phoenix looks a lot different than his. His looks like Fawkes."
I nodded again and realized that I was shaking. Remus pulled me into a hug and held me as I fell asleep.

I spent that weekend with my Dad. We opened each other's gifts; he got me some more treats for Ella and a notebook. My Dad explained that we could use them to talk back and forth with. I got him a scrapbook. The first few pictures were of us with Mum, then there were a few with just us. There were also several blank pages for whatever he wanted to put in.
School was normal until the Ravenclaw versus Gryffindor Quidditch match. I decided to attend as I promised the twins that I would be at their next match. Some Slytherins (not Draco) decided to make themselves look like Dementors and Harry cast a Patronus at them. It turns out that Harry's Patronus is a stag. Gryffindor closely won the match, so they had a massive party. Fred and George disappeared for a couple of hours and returned with armfuls of Butterbeer, pumpkin pasties and several bags of Honeydukes candy.
I was sitting with Fred until I saw Harry approach Hermione so I decided to go over just in case she needed some moral support. I got there just as Hermione jerked her head towards Ron.
"He doesn't want me to join in," she said.
Just then Ron decided to chime in.
"If Scabbers hadn't just been eaten, he could have had some of these Fudge Flies, he used to really like them," Ron said, loudly.
At this Hermione burst into tears, gathered up all her homework and ran upstairs. I followed her up after grabbing some Butterbeerand peanut-free chocolate.
"Hermione," I said, once I reached her dorm. "Do you want to spend the night with me in my dorm?"
Hermione looked up from her book, with tears in her eyes.
"I grabbed some chocolate and Butterbeer from downstairs. We don't have to talk, we can work on our homework," I said, trying to reassure her that she still had friends that care about her.
She sighed, grabbed her work and a pair of pyjamas. She followed me into my dorm and I made a mental note to prank Ron with the help of either the twins or Draco (who is surprisingly good at pranking for a stuck up pureblood). We spent the rest of the night eating chocolate, doing homework and drinking Butterbeer. After a while, Hermione fell asleep, so I levitated her onto my bed, magically put her pyjamas on her and covered her in my blanket. I continued to do my homework for the rest of the night, as I did not want to risk having a nightmare in front of one of my friends until I could explain it. As the sun was rising, I finished all of my homework.
When Hermione woke up, we went down to the Great Hall for Hermione to get some breakfast. We were surprised to see the Fat Lady instead of Sir Cadigan. There were two trolls standing on either side of her. We were even more surprised to see a crowd of people around Ron. Upon our arrival, Professor McGonagall pulled us to her office.
"Where were the two of you last night?" she asked us sternly.
"Ron made a snarky comment towards Hermione, which made her upset. She went up to her dorm and I followed, asking if she wanted to spend the night in mine instead. We did homework until around midnight and then went to sleep," I explained, very confused.
"Very well," Minnie said. "Just so you know, Sirius Black broke into Gryffindor Tower last night and attacked Ron with a knife."
Hermione and I looked at her in horror.

I started to focus on my revision for my third-year exams during the next Hogsmeade trip. The day was going quite well until I heard that Buckbeak had lost the appeal. I was very angry at Lucious and almost sent him a Howler. I then decided that some things are better said in person, so I decided to leave it for the summer.
The entirety of Gryffindor quickly became obsessed with the coming Quidditch match. Apparently, Gryffindor hasn't won since the "legendary" Charlie Weasley (the one who works with dragons) had been Seeker.
Never, in anyone's memory, had a match approached in such a charged atmosphere. By the time Easter was over, the tension between the two teams and their houses was at its breaking point. A number of small scuffles broke out in the corridors, culminating in a very nasty in which a Gryffindor fourth-year and a Slytherin sixth-year ended up in the hospital wing with leeks sprouting out of their ears.
I was avoiding both houses outside classes; save for Hermione, and spent my time divided between Ravenclaw with Luna and Hufflepuff with Cedric Diggory who turned out to be very nice. Both houses accepted me almost immediately.