By the time December rolled around, with just two weeks left before the holidays, the sky finally cleared, turning into a dazzling, bright, egg-white color.
This was probably the calmest time at Hogwarts—no sightings of Sirius Black, and Dementors were almost nowhere to be seen on campus... Dumbledore's fury had driven them even further away from the school gates.
It had been about a week since the last Quidditch match ended, and during this period, Kael suddenly discovered something rather interesting.
He'd been running into Harry far more often than before lately.
Which was a little odd.
Although they were good friends, their daily routines were pretty far apart.
Other than attending classes and meals, Kael spent most of his free time in the library or in the Room of Requirement.
But Harry was different—he preferred to visit Hagrid or play Wizard Chess with Ron in the cozy common room, and only showed up in the library on rare occasions when he was rushing homework.
So normally, the only time they'd see each other was during meals in the Auditorium…
But in the past few days, they seemed to be running into each other everywhere.
Just like now—Kael had barely walked out of the Charm Class classroom when he saw Harry dashing toward him from the other end of the corridor.
"What a coincidence, Kael! You're going to class too?" Harry greeted him in his usual way.
Kael opened his mouth, momentarily unsure of how to respond.
What was he supposed to do if not go to class—drop by Professor Flitwick's office for tea and a chat? Not that he didn't want to, he just doubted Professor Flitwick would agree.
"Yeah, here for class." Kael thought for a moment, then asked, "Uh... what are you doing here?"
"I just finished my class too, just happened to be passing by." As Harry spoke, his eyes kept darting behind Kael toward the crowd, trying to appear casual as he asked:
"Which house were you paired with for this lesson?"
"Slytherin," Kael replied.
At that, Harry's gaze snapped back and he nonchalantly walked past them as if nothing was up.
"I need to find Ron, see you next time, Kael."
"Bye."
Watching Harry disappear around the corner, Conna asked suspiciously, "Where's he off to this time...?
And isn't Charm Class the only class on this floor today? How did he just happen to be passing by?"
"Probably wandered by on purpose," Kael said with a laugh.
He'd been curious about it himself before, but after running into Harry so often, Kael was starting to figure out Harry's intentions.
Yesterday, when they had class with Ravenclaw, they ran into Harry too.
Back then, he'd followed them all the way to the Auditorium, babbling about random things the entire time—didn't seem like he was thinking of finding Ron, either.
Today it was Slytherin and suddenly he remembered he had a friend to find?
What's Harry after? At this point, it was basically written all over his face... There was really no one else but Cho.
"Well, this is getting interesting." With Conna shooting him a confused glance, Kael chuckled and headed downstairs.
"You know something I don't?" she chased after him and asked.
"Wanna know...?"
"Yeah, yeah," Conna nodded vigorously.
"Ha! Not telling you."
"..."
Conna chased Kael all the way to the Entrance Hall.
There was a crowd gathered in front of the notice board beside the Auditorium.
Cedric and Cho were there too, and as Kael walked over, they had just squeezed out of the crowd.
When Kael saw them, he couldn't help but chuckle again.
"What's so funny?" Cedric frowned. "You look way too happy—did you drink the wrong Magic Potion or something?"
"Nothing, just remembered something funny." Kael decided to change the subject, "What's posted up there?"
"Oh, it's Professor Lupin's Patronus Charm Club."
Cedric, true to form, didn't dwell on the topic, but smiled, "The Headmaster already gave his approval. It's scheduled for the first evening of term at six o'clock."
"That's a whole month away! Isn't that a bit too early?" Conna sounded a little disappointed. "I thought we'd start next week."
Last year, Lockhart's Dueling Club sign-up went up right here, and it started just a few days later...
She thought it would be the same this time, but now it just felt like wishful thinking.
"I think it's because of that assignment Professor Lupin gave us."
Cho came over and said, "The announcement says that everyone who wants to join the club needs to think of something that makes them especially happy during this month.
Professor Lupin didn't specify the reason—he just said the more happy memories you have, the easier it'll be to learn the Patronus Charm.
This month is for us to get ready."
"Happy things..." Conna murmured.
At that moment, Ron and Hermione squeezed out from the crowd at the notice board too.
"Why do we need to think about happy things..." Ron asked in confusion. "What does that have to do with learning charms?"
"It has everything to do with it, at least when it comes to the Patronus Charm—that's actually the most important part," Hermione explained. "According to the books, the Patronus Charm is about transforming your happiest memories and making them real."
"Ugh, sounds like a pain..." Ron frowned, already thinking about giving up.
Truth is, he hadn't seen any Dementors around school for ages now, so whether or not he learned the Patronus Charm didn't seem all that urgent.
Hermione was still lecturing about how hard the charm was and what to watch out for...
Ron pursed his lips and didn't say a word, clearly not wanting to get into a debate with Hermione about it. He glanced around and quickly spotted Kael and the others.
"Hey, Kael, have you seen Harry?" Ron called over.
"He's upstairs looking for someone." Kael had to fight the urge to burst out laughing, keeping a straight face as he said, "Weren't you in class together?"
"Yeah, but he bolted as soon as class was over and didn't tell me where he was going." Ron muttered, "I feel like he's been acting really weird lately..."
The group made their way to the Auditorium.
All the way there, Conna was still deep in thought about Professor Lupin's instructions.
She thought about a lot of things, but wasn't sure which memory counted. Finally, over lunch, she suddenly looked up and asked, "Kael, when you were learning the Patronus Charm, what did you think about?"
The others looked over as well, clearly just as curious.
"When I got my Hogwarts acceptance letter," Kael said with a smile, popping a roast potato into his mouth.
Cedric nodded in agreement beside him. Watching the owl deliver your acceptance letter to Hogwarts was definitely the kind of thing to put you in high spirits.
He'd used that memory to practice the Patronus Charm himself, but maybe his feelings hadn't been strong enough, because his results weren't all that impressive.
"Any others?" he asked.
"Sure."
Kael nodded. "Also the first time Fred and George got beaten up."
"They got into really deep trouble and Mr. Weasley hung them from a tree and gave them the beating of their lives. You could hear them screaming all the way across Ottery St Catchpole.
"It's been nearly ten years, but I still crack up every time I think about it... Too bad we didn't have a camera back then. If I could've taken a picture, that would've been perfect."
"Uh..." Cedric could only chuckle awkwardly.
Maybe it was because his house was far from the Shabby Residence, or maybe he was just too little back then, but he really couldn't remember that happening.
Cedric glanced over at the Gryffindor table.
He was a little curious if Fred and George knew Kael used their pain as his Patronus Charm study material...
But chances were, they had no clue—otherwise, they'd already be out for Kael's blood.
…