Chapter 321: Harry Wants to Learn the Patronus Charm (Edited)

"Stop studying, take a break, go play something..." Tom sat on the library chair, with dazed eyes.

Since returning from Siberia, Hermione was full of energy and had a great enthusiasm for studying, while Tom felt exhausted. He hadn't slept well on the train nights, the corridor was too narrow, and his sense of smell had become too sharp...

When he returned, it was hard for him to get back to studying. It was like playing a game for three hours and then writing a 4,000-word essay.

"It's okay, it's okay," Hermione agreed, but her eyes never left the book in her hands. The Ravenclaw Diadem accelerated her thinking speed and gave her a sharper mind. This feeling made her unable to stop. At that moment, she didn't want to rest, she just wanted to keep reading a little longer.

Tom couldn't take it anymore, so he closed his notebook and stored it along with the remains of Riddle's diary, which also served as a draft. But he didn't sit idly, instead, he took out a piece of parchment and stared at it.

The parchment, which Tom and Hermione had exchanged Guild points for, had a small special feature: if you dripped someone's blood on it, the paper would "mark" it forever. Wherever the person went, the paper would find the marked person.

That was the prize Tom had in mind before leaving, and it was intended for Peter Pettigrew, the Rat Animagus. Tom knew that the rat's nose was so sharp that it could surely find Voldemort. And since he would spend a lot of time with Voldemort, having Peter's location meant having Voldemort's location. There was a lot of room for maneuver in that.

Tom stored the palm-sized parchment. Then he turned and looked at the blue sky outside. The outside world was "fresh and clear" to describe it. Thinking about this, Tom felt a little tired. He was about to rest on the chair when someone approached his table.

"Excuse me, Yodel, Granger." The person who arrived was Harry, and his expression seemed uneasy, as if he was struggling with something inside.

Finally, he pursed his lips as if he had made up his mind and looked at Hermione. "Hermione, have I heard correctly that you successfully conjured a three-headed dog Patronus in Hogsmeade Village?"

Hermione's feat in Hogsmeade had already spread throughout Hogwarts. However, many people didn't believe it; after all, it was too astonishing for a third-year student to conjure a corporeal magical creature like a guardian. Besides, who was Hermione Granger? Only those who had heard of her knew she was a book-loving scholar, and the rest hadn't even heard of her. She wasn't from a pure-blood family or a famous savior, so did it make sense for her to be able to do something like that? Furthermore, there was no solid evidence, so many people thought it was a rumor or that they had confused the name.

Harry, however, believed it. His experience on the Hogwarts Express told him that there was a high probability that Hermione had truly summoned the three-headed dog Patronus.

After receiving confirmation, Harry felt encouraged.

"So, can you teach me how to cast the Patronus charm?" Harry asked eagerly. Since he passed out on the train, Dementors had become a constant concern for him. He always thought that fainting from the fright of the Dementors on the train proved that he was a coward, but Yodel also fainted, could it be for the same reason? Maybe it was due to lack of air.

The main reason he came to seek help from Hermione was Professor Lupin's Defense Against the Dark Arts class. The professor had brought a Boggart and asked the students to face it one by one, but Harry was the only one left out. From Harry's perspective, Professor Lupin did this because he thought Harry didn't have the ability to face the Boggart. This was truly frustrating.

At that moment, he heard about Hermione's achievements. At first, he didn't really understand what the value of it was, he just thought it was another regular operation by know-it-all Granger. But after Percy's explanation, he realized that Hermione was using powerful magic that could repel Dementors.

"I'm sure there has been a mistake," Percy said with conviction. "I admit that Hermione Granger is good, but she's not up to conjuring a solid Patronus, let alone a three-headed dog Patronus. This is too incredible. I'm more inclined to believe that it was the work of a powerful and experienced wizard, someone who doesn't care for public recognition..."

Although Percy's explanation seemed the most logical, Harry didn't think so. He came with a ray of hope. He hoped that Hermione could teach him the spell to confront Dementors. In his opinion, the chances of success were high since Hermione had always been a kind girl willing to help. If he asked for her help, she wouldn't just sit idly by.

"Uh, me?" Hermione was taken aback by Harry's request. She hadn't expected anyone to come to her to learn the Patronus Charm.

Hermione was about to say something, but she swallowed her words, and after a moment of serious consideration, she gave her response, "I don't think I can help you... Of course, I'd love to share the spell with you, but the Patronus Charm cannot be cast just by knowing the spell and the gestures. It requires happy and joyful memories as a foundation."

Hermione carefully gave Harry some pointers on the Patronus Charm but ended with a sigh, "That's how it works, it's not too difficult, but putting it into practice is another story..."

Harry listened intently to Hermione's lecture, fearing to miss a word, and when he heard "happy memories," his heart skipped a beat. Where could he find happy memories?

There was no need to talk about his childhood with the Dursleys, only negative emotions came to mind. But what about his life at Hogwarts?

It was a good life, but suddenly he couldn't pinpoint a happy point. Everything here was happy, but it didn't seem representative.

Was it the first time he slept in a bed in the dormitory? Or the first time he attended a feast? Or maybe... the first time he flew in the sky?

"That idea seems good," as his memories shifted to the first time he rode a broomstick, Harry felt like he could consider it as a happy moment.

"Expecto Patronum," Harry repeated the spell silently in his mind, while he struggled to focus on that happy memory.

He tried it in a whisper, murmuring the incantation over and over again. Suddenly, a silvery white gas emerged from the tip of his wand.

"Look!" he exclaimed. "Do you see? It's working!" But instead of applause, his spell attracted the librarian, Mrs. Pince.

"This is a library! Silence!" She hurriedly scolded, wielding a chicken feather duster. "And besides, do you want to experiment magic here? Do you want to blow everything up?"

The feather duster hit the table with such force that Tom's glass of water jumped.

Mrs. Pince wasn't simply causing trouble. In the school library of magic, practicing spells was prohibited, it sounded as absurd as not allowing people on beds, things on tables, or trash in bins. But upon careful thought, it had some logic: young wizards often struggled to control their spells and unintentionally caused major destruction. Like a Gryffindor student who always made regular spells have explosive effects. A student like that, practicing spells in a library full of books, would be a disaster.

Harry, who broke two rules at once, was expelled from the library by Mrs. Pince with the feather duster in her hand. Tom signaled to Hermione, and both silently left as Mrs. Pince chased after Harry.

The common room or an empty classroom would have been more suitable places to study.

They found a small random classroom and entered. The classroom wasn't very big, only fitting about ten people. But despite its size, it had everything they needed, like a fireplace.

Hermione took out her wand and pointed it at the fireplace. A pleasant flame emerged from it.

"So, have you learned it?" The two put their bags on the table, and before Tom could even sit on the stool, Hermione began to interrogate him.

Tom: ...

"You have to learn it!" Hermione gave him a disgusted look. "I can't be the one solving all the Dementor problems, can I?"

"I can become a Dementor and mediate with them." Tom claimed that he really knew how to speak the language of the Dementors and could communicate with them.

This angered Hermione, who took a quill from her case and hit him on the head with it.

"Expecto Patronum!" Tom couldn't resist Hermione's insistence and cast the Patronus Charm. He tried to remember the happiest and most joyful moments of his life, and suddenly a dense silver glow burst from the tip of his wand.

"That's a good start," Hermione said, giving him an encouraging look. But what followed wasn't as smooth, no matter how hard Tom tried, what he conjured was always a silver mist, only thicker and more abundant than before.

With each attempt, time passed, and Tom still didn't have a corporeal Patronus.

Hermione realized that simply pressuring him wasn't working, so she decided to give Tom a little incentive, like a carrot in front of a donkey. She changed her seat to sit next to Tom instead of across from him and whispered in a very low voice into his ear, "If you ever manage to summon a corporeal Patronus, I can fulfill a small wish of yours, like wearing whatever clothes you desire..."

Tom: !!!

Tom became more enthusiastic and looked at Hermione. "Really? Really anything—" Before he could finish the sentence, his lips were silenced by a cold finger.

Hermione wagged her index finger and winked at him. "Remember, it has to be a very defined corporeal Patronus."

Hermione withdrew her finger and moved away from Tom a little. However, her scent and the temperature of her finger still lingered in Tom's mind. Hermione was like a bullet piercing through Tom's brain, persisting in his mind, making his heart skip a beat and his breath grow heavier.

Seeing Tom's expression, Hermione was also quite satisfied. This is how lovers are supposed to be! If you don't keep your boyfriend tightly bound, what if someone takes him away? After spending so much time together, she was getting to know Tom's preferences, so she felt more comfortable...

"Well, it's time for dinner," Hermione said as she glanced at the wall clock, deciding to finish their study for the day and take Tom to the Great Hall.

During dinner, something came to Tom's mind, and he asked Hermione next to him, "Hermione, do you know anything about prisons? I mean, Muggle prisons."

Hermione put her spoon back into her soup plate and tilted her head, thinking for a moment. "Honestly, I haven't been keeping up with the news; the people in prison are bad people who deserve it, and I'm not very interested in them, so I don't know anything about them."

Tom saw that Hermione didn't know anything about British prisons either and knew he would have to find information on his own. Tom wanted to know about prisons, not because he had nothing better to do, but because he had a very audacious and rebellious idea: he wanted to build his own prison! A new-era Azkaban!

And the unique situation in Britain gave him the opportunity to do so.

"A prison?" Just at that moment, Justin Finch-Fletchley, sitting nearby, overheard Tom and Hermione's conversation and instinctively responded. Realizing that both were looking at him, he realized his indiscretion and quickly apologized to Tom and Hermione.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop on your conversation, but I know something about prisons. If you want to hear, I can tell you," Justin Finch-Fletchley said with a confident smile. He was sure that no one in Hogwarts knew more about Muggle prisons than he did.

Because his family ran a prison.

It sounds very strange, but Britain has a country where prisons can be privately owned! And it's not just Britain; many European and American countries have private prisons.

It's not just Britain; it's a large part of Europe and America. If subcontracting a prison isn't profitable, then no one will do it. But the private prisons in Britain and the United States prove that money can be made in this business.

Yes, in the United Kingdom and the United States, contracting private prisons is as lucrative as managing a casino. In 2011, the sector generated over $5 billion in revenue in the United States.

So the first question Tom had to ask himself was how to enter and join the party.