Chapter 76: Ivan's Patronus

They all felt a shiver run through their bodies, it was as if all the happiness had disappeared.

Harry's face was pale, his body trembled and he looked terrified, as if he had seen something terrible.

Before anyone could react, he fell to the ground with a thud.

Ron rushed to his side to help him, and the others came over.

Malfoy looked terrified, not bothering to laugh at Harry.

"Go away, we don't have what you're looking for here!" said Ivan, trembling.

At his words, the Dementor paused for a moment, the smell of rot wafting from beneath his tattered black cloak, and snorted again, as if he intended to leave.

In the next second, a click filled the compartment, Colin had pulled out his camera and snapped a picture.

The act seemed to infuriate the dementor, who lunged at him.

"Expecto Patronum" Ivan shouted, his wand glowing white, keeping the Dementor at bay.

Although it was the first time he had used it, he had studied the spell during his summer vacation, and Ivan tried to think of the happiest thing he could think of, a thin wisp of silver trailing from his wand and floating like a mist in front of him.

However, his spell soon attracted another dementor, and the temperature seemed to drop even lower, Ivan could feel his spell fading, he couldn't hold on much longer, behind him, there were nine children looked like they were about to faint, these damn dementors must have understood something wrong.

The white mist formed a semicircular barrier and Ivan took half a step back as the circle of light compressed.

He gasped violently and his wand trembled in his hands.

Just then, two more Dementors approached, like tiny black holes, sucking all the light, breath and emotion from their surroundings.

Ivan felt his courage and hope fading as well, leaving only despair.

The white barrier cracked, broke and faded, the light dimmed, and just when he thought it was all over, a small, soft, delicate hand suddenly grabbed him and the wand rose again.

It was Hermione, and her small hand was cool to the touch.

In the darkness, Hermione's soft body stood steadily beside Ivan, hands clasped, holding together the only light in the darkness.

Hermione's small hand was cold to the touch, but it lit a fire inside Ivan, his despair was burned away and turned into courage.

The light from his wand grew stronger and stronger, the shield grew wider. His Patronus was beginning to take shape, the animal looked very familiar, Ivan's eyes widened, "This..."

The next second, he saw a silver wolf fly out of the far end of the wagon, the Dementors were knocked down by it and disappeared without a trace in an instant.

The light came back on in the carriage and a strange middle-aged man entered, wearing a very threadbare male wizard's robe with patches in several places. He looked sickly and tired, with light brown hair streaked with gray.

"It's Professor Lupin, he was sleeping in the compartment we were in," Hermione whispered, "What were those creatures and what was that spell you used? Why did it look like ver.... to me?"

"It was the symbol of your Patronus!"

Before Ivan could answer, he heard Lupin, he pulled a large piece of chocolate from his chest and divided it into small pieces to share.

Ivan ate some and felt a warm sensation in his body. He saw the others struggling to wake Harry, who slowly opened his eyes and looked around in confusion, his forehead covered in cold sweat.

"Harry, are you okay?" asked Ron nervously.

"I'm fine!" Harry looked at the door and, seeing that the Dementors were gone, sighed in relief, "Where did those creatures go? And who was screaming right now?"

"The monsters were chased away by Irving and Professor Lupin, but no one screamed," Ron recounted what had happened after Harry passed out.

"But I heard screams and saw a green light..." said Harry as he shook his head stubbornly.

"Harry, I think you should rest!" Lupin looked worried, he handed a particularly large piece of chocolate to Harry, "Here you go, eat it, it's good for you."

"Professor, what were those things?" Harry didn't eat his chocolate, he just looked at Lupin.

"They're Dementors from Azkaban!", Lupin crumpled up the empty chocolate wrapper and put it in his pocket, "The fact is, this little guy has done an excellent job before I got here. You need to eat the chocolate now, I need to go talk to the driver!"

Ivan watched Lupin leave the compartment and disappear down the corridor.

When he turned his head back, everyone was staring at him, even Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, so he simply said, "Don't look at me like that, Professor Lupin already said they're Dementors, they're Azkaban guards."

"Dementors, Azkaban!" repeated Harry, looking up a little embarrassed, "Have any of you fainted apart from me?"

"No!" Ron looked at Harry anxiously.

Although everyone was scared, no one had fainted, which made Harry's face go even paler, he didn't understand, he had felt weak and shaky, as if he had just recovered from a bad flu, but why didn't the others react like that?

Harry was starting to feel embarrassed, how could he be so scared when everyone else was fine?

"Ivan, what did you do to scare off the Dementors, how come I saw...?" asked Hermione quietly.

"Well, well, the spell I just used was..."

"Wait a minute Ivan!" Ron rushed over and stopped Ivan, he turned his head and looked at Malfoy and the others, "I don't think it's appropriate for Slytherin students to hear such a good spell."

"That's ridiculous, Weasley, do you think I would listen to the nonsense of a dirtyblood?" Malfoy's gaze slowly crossed a few faces before finally falling on Harry, when it did, his eyes glinted mischievously, "Be careful, Potter, and stop acting like a whiny little boy."

"You're no better, don't think I don't know that, you cowered in your chair when those Dementors came in." said Ron between gritted teeth.

"Well at least I didn't pass out, come on!" muttered Malfoy to Goyle and Crabbe behind him as they turned around to leave the carriage with their chocolates.

Ron sensed Ivan, "Well, go ahead, Ivan!"

After Malfoy left, the mood in the carriage lightened noticeably, and everyone seemed to have recovered, except Harry, who still looked terribly pale.

"There's really no reason to keep this spell a secret, I just used the Patronus Charm. It's very unpopular but it's also very advanced magic, it can be used to resist Dementors. This is the first time I use it, so it's not very powerful and I couldn't fully form the guardian. If you want to learn it I can teach it to you, in fact, I'm going to put the instructions on how to use it in the paper so no one will be afraid of Dementors," Ivan had just finished when he suddenly thought of the type of Guardian that was being formed, it looked like....

He shook his head, it must have been an illusion, how could it be something like that?