Only Ron wore a regretful expression as he muttered,
"You all remember yours. I think I had several dreams last night, but I couldn't remember any of them when I woke up."
Harry asked, "Was that mist some kind of magic? Or maybe another special resident of Hogwarts Castle?"
Although he had been living as a wizard for nearly two years, Harry had to admit that he still knew very little about magic and often encountered strange and wonderful things in this ancient castle.
He had seen ghosts, moving suits of armour, the Basilisk, house-elves, and all sorts of other creatures.
At this point, Harry felt that even if some magical creature made entirely of mist lived inside Hogwarts, it wouldn't be particularly surprising.
Ron shook his head.
"Dunno. Bill and Charlie never mentioned anything like that in the castle. I could ask Fred and George. If there was something that fun around, there's no way they'd have missed it..."
Listening to Harry and the others, Lucien felt increasingly embarrassed.
This really had been a major blunder.
His spell practice had actually spread far enough to affect so many people throughout the castle.
He could only be grateful that it hadn't been a dangerous spell.
If the same thing had happened with some unstable offensive magic, the consequences would have been far less pleasant.
But why had the Patronus Charm he cast caused people to recall happy memories and have pleasant dreams?
That part still made no sense.
Lucien took another bite of his breakfast, though his attention was clearly elsewhere.
Well, in the future, whenever he experimented with similar new magic, including refining the simplified Philosopher's Stone, he should probably teleport to some remote mountain, desert, or isolated island first.
Even if he caused a commotion, at least he wouldn't affect innocent bystanders.
Lucien suddenly wondered whether this was one of the reasons some wizards liked to retreat deep into mountains and forests.
Perhaps it wasn't always because they wanted peace and solitude.
Maybe some of them simply knew that whatever they were researching had a habit of exploding.
Just as he was thinking about this, a small silvery-white phoenix suddenly flew into the Great Hall.
It wasn't very large, and its entire body emitted a soft silver glow.
Its translucent form glided lightly through the air, leaving behind a faint trail of light.
Several students nearby immediately looked up.
The phoenix circled once above the Great Hall before landing directly in front of Lucien.
Lucien blinked as he stared at the semi-transparent bird.
This looked like...
Dumbledore's Patronus?
The next second, Dumbledore's gentle voice came from within the silver phoenix.
"Come to the Headmaster's Office when you don't have class."
As his words faded, the phoenix gently flapped its wings.
Its body dissolved into countless tiny specks of silvery-white mist, which slowly dispersed into the air.
"..."
Lucien stared at the fading light for a moment.
Well...
After receiving Dumbledore's message, Lucien hurriedly said goodbye to Harry and the others and left the Great Hall.
Since he had no classes that morning, it was the perfect time to head straight to the Headmaster's Office.
Ron watched Lucien disappear through the doorway before his gaze fell on the basket of small buns Lucien hadn't finished.
Following the principle of not wasting food, he reached out and pulled the basket toward himself, intending to finish them off.
"Hey, Hermione," Ron asked, stuffing a bun into his mouth, his voice muffled, "what exactly did you say that mist looked like last night? Silvery-white and giving off a faint glow?"
Hermione was just about to answer when Ron continued,
"Was it like that little silver bird just now that spoke in Headmaster Dumbledore's voice..."
Before he could finish, Ron's face suddenly turned bright red.
His eyes widened, and he stopped talking entirely.
He pounded desperately on his chest.
Seeing this, Harry and Hermione both shook their heads.
Harry pushed his glass of milk over to Ron with such practised ease that it was obvious this wasn't the first time something like this had happened.
Ron grabbed the glass and gulped down several mouthfuls, finally managing to swallow the food lodged in his throat.
He took a deep breath.
Then, pretending nothing had happened, he cleared his throat.
"Ahem. I saw the mist that little bird turned into when it disappeared. It was silvery-white too, and it glowed. Doesn't that look a lot like the mist from last night?"
Hermione froze.
Now that Ron had put it that way so casually, it actually did seem...
Quite similar.
Harry also glanced toward the doorway Lucien had just left through.
For a moment, none of them spoke.
...
Headmaster's Office.
The moment Lucien entered, he noticed Fawkes lying listlessly in its nest, curled up into a ball as though it hadn't rested well the previous night either.
Hmm.
Did phoenixes stay up late too?
No wonder Dumbledore hadn't used Fawkes to deliver the message earlier and had instead sent his own Patronus.
Come to think of it, this was the first time Lucien had seen the form of Dumbledore's Patronus with his own eyes.
A phoenix.
A Patronus taking the form of a magical creature like a phoenix certainly suited Dumbledore very well.
Most ordinary wizards summoned Patronuses in the forms of common animals.
Only a small number had Patronuses shaped like magical creatures such as dragons or Thestrals.
The greatest wizard of the century naturally belonged to that exceptional minority.
Besides, Dumbledore already had a phoenix of his own.
The resemblance almost felt inevitable.
By the time Lucien sat down at the desk, a steaming cup of black tea had already appeared in front of him.
The tea was amber-coloured, wisps of white steam rising from the surface.
A small piece of honey candy rested on the rim of the cup.
Dumbledore sat opposite him, his blue eyes studying Lucien from behind his half-moon spectacles.
Seeing the young man's slightly pale complexion, he asked, though his tone made it clear he already knew the answer,
"Have you overused your magic?"
Lucien wasn't surprised that Dumbledore had immediately identified the problem.
After all, with the keen eye of a wizard more than a century old, there was no hiding such a minor condition.
"When I was practising last night..." Lucien picked up the teacup, carefully choosing his words. "I didn't control it very well."
That was putting it mildly.
Dumbledore nodded and didn't press him for details.
Instead, he warned him earnestly,
"You still need to take care of your health. You're young, so you mustn't squander your stamina simply because you have more than most."
Lucien listened quietly.
"Magic takes time to recover," Dumbledore continued, "and repeatedly overexerting yourself can affect your future growth. In the long run, it isn't worth it."
Lucien nodded repeatedly in agreement.
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