Harry Potter: Westeros’s Plant Life
0218 The Patronus Charm

After what felt like an eternity of tense silence, the Azkaban guard finally found his voice. His Adam's apple worked frantically as he swallowed hard. Beads of sweat had formed on his temple despite the supernatural cold that still lingered in the air, and his hands trembled slightly as he struggled to maintain his composure.

The man knew he was trapped between two terrible forces—the terrifying professor who could manhandle Dementors like wayward children, and the Ministry officials who had given him his orders.

"I'm... I'm just following orders," He managed to scrape out, his voice sounding soft and rough with fear. The words came out in a rush, as if he was afraid that hesitation would rob him of his courage. "Every corner must be carefully searched. The criminal could be hiding anywhere—"

Adrian's expression didn't change, but something in his gray eyes seemed to sharpen.

"Did Minister Fudge specifically instruct you to do this?"

The guard's mouth opened and closed several times, but no sound came. His face had gone pale, and his eyes darted nervously between Adrian's face and the Dementor still dangling from his grasp.

"I'll take your silence as confirmation," Adrian said with a smile that held no warmth whatsoever. His tone shifted, becoming more serious, more authoritative. "But what I need to make absolutely clear is this: Dementors cannot and will not approach any students on this train. This is Albus Dumbledore's direct order. If even one student collapses from Dementor exposure, I will hold you personally responsible."

Adrian spoke somewhat sternly, but the guard, perhaps encouraged by desperation or simply too frightened to think clearly was more stubborn than Adrian had anticipated.

He shook his head with jerky, nervous movements. "There's no helping it, Professor Westeros,"

He said, his voice gaining strength as he spoke. "Sirius Black might very well be hiding in one of these compartments. Everything we're doing is for the students' safety—surely you can understand that."

Adrian's smile widened.

"You don't need to worry about Black; I can guarantee that he is not on this train. And furthermore..." He paused, observing the guard's face with a half-smile. "I want to emphasize once more: control your Dementors. This is not a discussion or a negotiation—it's a notification."

Without another word, Adrian opened his fingers and let the Dementor casually drop to the floor like a discarded piece of waste and turned back and strode away down the corridor.

There was no point in continuing the conversation. He had given them fair warning, clear instructions, and reasonable explanations. If they chose to ignore his words, well... Adrian had never been one to shy away from more forceful methods when the situation called for it.

Behind him, the Dementor remained lying on the floor, not daring to move. Only after Adrian's footsteps had faded completely into the distance did it begin to stir, floating upward with the hesitant movements of a beaten animal.

The guard looked at this ridiculous scene, and his face immediately turned ugly. This was the most disgraceful Dementor he had ever seen.

At this time, another guard hurried over from the distance. Obviously, he had also heard what Adrian had said.

"What should we do?" He asked uneasily. "Should we continue searching the compartments?"

The first guard's face toughened with stubborn resolve.

"Continue," He said coldly. "He's just a professor. We don't need to listen to him."

Adrian hadn't gone far when he saw those two guards starting to interfere with the compartments again.

This was exactly the kind of willful stupidity that made his blood boil.

"Really," he murmured to himself. "Some people simply refuse to take the easy path."

His fingers moved to caress the wood of his wand. It looked like he would have to resort to more direct methods of persuasion.

He turned around and walked back, his dark green robes curling in the corridor.

The two guards were in the process of roughly jerking open another compartment door. Inside, a group of first-year students were pressed against the far wall of their compartment, their faces white with terror as they stared at the approaching Dementors.

"Final warning."

Adrian's voice came through the chaos.

Adrian's voice suddenly rang out behind the guards, startling them into turning around abruptly.

However, the lead guard still only said. "We're just performing our duties..."

"No," Adrian interrupted, his voice still perfectly calm. "You're terrorizing children."

The guards instinctively stepped back, and one of them had already placed his hand on his own wand.

"Oh, don't be nervous," Adrian said with a smile that was all teeth and no warmth. "This isn't aimed at you. Not directly, anyway."

And then, Adrian raised his wand high above his head.

"Expecto Patronum!"

In an instant, a dazzling silver light burst forth from the tip of Adrian's wand. It was not in the common animal form, but as an overwhelming silver mist. The silver mist surged through the corridor.

Within seconds, the silvery-white fog had filled the entire length of the train car.

The Dementors in the corridor let out piercing shrieks, fleeing in panic like scalded by boiling water. Their rotting cloaks emitted wisps of black smoke in the silver mist as they scrambled to squeeze out through the nearest window cracks.

Within moments, every single Dementor had vanished from the train, leaving behind only the lingering scent of burnt tar and the memory of their terrified screams.

The entire scene lasted perhaps thirty seconds. When the silver mist finally began to dissipate, the guards were staring at Adrian with expressions of absolute bewilderment and terror.

"What did you do?" one of the guards asked, his voice hoarse with shock. His face had gone pale, and his hands were shaking so badly he could barely hold his wand steady.

This was obviously not a proper Patronus Charm—at least, not like any they had ever seen or heard described. A normal Patronus was supposed to drive away Dementors, not cause them visible pain and distress. But the spell Adrian had just cast seemed to have actually harmed the creatures, possibly even considerably damaged them.

Moreover, what he had summoned wasn't even a formed Patronus in the traditional sense. Instead of the silver animal that most skillful wizards managed to produce, he had conjured just a mass of silver mist.

And even more peculiar was that the mist seemed too abundant, it was almost covering the entire train.

"Well," Adrian said with satisfaction, lowering his wand and smoothing out his robes. "Now the matter is resolved. If you have any complaints about my methods, I suggest you take them up with Albus Dumbledore. I've simply done what needed to be done to protect the students under my care."

The two guards looked at each other in stunned silence, neither knowing how to respond to what they had just witnessed.

However, now that all the Dementors had fled, the guards realized they faced a new and potentially more serious problem. They were supposed to return to the Ministry with their creatures intact and accounted for.

"We need to find those Dementors," one of them muttered, his voice heavy with the realization of how much trouble they were likely to be in. "We can't just let them wander around the countryside forever."

But that was a problem for later. Right now, they had to figure out how to explain to their superiors that a single professor had single-handedly neutralized an entire squad of Dementors with what appeared to be an impossibly powerful version of a spell that most wizards couldn't even cast.

After ensuring that the younger students were properly comforted and no longer in distress, Adrian made his way back to the staff compartment with the quiet satisfaction of a job well done.

Remus looked up from his book as Adrian entered, his face showing curiosity about the commotion he had undoubtedly heard.

"Have the Dementors finished their search?"

"Not exactly," Adrian replied with a slight wave of his hand, settling into his seat. "I drove all the Dementors away from the train."

Remus blinked, processing this information. "Oh, well that's probably for the best. The students don't need to be exposed to..." He paused mid-sentence, his expression shifting to one of complete incredulity. "Wait, what do you mean you drove them all away?"

"Literally what I said," Adrian replied with a casual shrug, spreading his hands in a gesture of innocent explanation. "Those creatures entered the student compartments and began affecting my students. I simply couldn't stand by and watch their happiness and hope being drained away by Ministry-sanctioned monsters, so I used the Patronus Charm to send them packing."

"Incredible," Remus breathed, his voice filled with genuine awe. He knew exactly how difficult it was to drive away even a single Dementor. The idea that Adrian had banished an entire squad of them was almost beyond his understanding.

It seemed that Adrian's Patronus Charm was much stronger than he had imagined.

Meanwhile, in the trio's compartment, the aftermath of their terrifying encounter was still being felt. Harry sat slumped in his seat, his face pale and drawn, looking like someone who had just survived a serious illness. In his hands, he clutched a bar of chocolate that he had purchased from the trolley witch earlier in the journey, taking small, careful bites as if each piece required enormous effort to eat.

The chocolate was helping—he could feel some of his strength returning with each bite, and the cold that had settled into his limbs was gradually beginning to withdraw. But the memory of what he had experienced lingered like a poison in his mind.

"I really didn't expect they would actually send Dementors," Hermione said, her voice tight with anger and concern as she watched Harry's slow recovery. Her composure had been badly shaken by the encounter, and her hands were still trembling slightly as she spoke.

"The Ministry of Magic has absolutely overstepped their bounds. Dementors are punishment creatures—they're meant for hardened criminals in maximum security prisons, not for children on a school train. Harry, when we reach Hogwarts, you need to go straight to the hospital wing and let Madam Pomfrey examine you."

Harry managed to show a weak smile. "I'll be fine," he said, his voice still hoarse from the torment. "Just need some time to recover."

But even as he spoke, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with his reaction to the Dementor.

All three of them had been in closeness to the creature, exposed to its presence for the same amount of time. Yet while Ron and Hermione seemed to have recovered relatively quickly, they were pale and shaken, certainly, but basically were unharmed, while Harry felt like he had been put through a medieval torture device.

Oh, and perhaps Scabbers too. Scabbers also seemed greatly affected, spinning in circles on the table while Ron tried to comfort it, but seemingly to little effect.

This made Harry somewhat puzzled.

Do animals also get affected by Dementors?

"Is there any way to defend against Dementors?" Harry asked, turning to Hermione.

Hermione's face brightened slightly at the opportunity to share useful information.

"The Patronus Charm," She said immediately. "When I researched Dementors after hearing about them from Hagrid last year, I discovered that they can be repelled using a properly cast Patronus. The spell creates a guardian of positive energy that Dementors cannot approach."

She paused, her expression growing duller. "However, it's an extremely difficult spell to master. The magical theory behind it is complex, and it requires the caster to focus on their happiest memory while maintaining perfect concentration. I've tried to learn it several times, but I've never managed to produce so much as a wisp of silver mist."

The Patronus Charm, then.

Harry silently memorized the name of this spell.

When he had time, he would definitely learn this spell.

He never wanted to experience that feeling of falling into an ice cave and being swallowed by despair again.

"Oh, Scabbers." Ron said with a mournful face. "Poor Scabbers, when will you return to normal?"

"Here," Harry said, pulling a small vial from his trunk and handing it to Ron. "I have some calming draught left over. I'm not sure if it works on mice, but it's worth trying."

"Something is better than nothing."

Ron took the small bottle and forcefully poured the potion into Scabbers' mouth.

Scabbers' eyes immediately became clear.

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