Harry Potter: Dudley From LOTM - 358

Chapter 358: Dudley’s Patronus

After teaching Ginny and the others the pronunciation of the Hermes language and the key points for casting, Dudley sent them off to practise on their own.

"Is it our turn, Baron?" Harry asked with a light laugh.

"Of course," Dudley replied, nodding.

To speed up the digestion of the Corruption Baron’s Beyonder characteristic, there was no helping it. Dudley could only use methods like this to push the process along.

"Today, I’m going to teach you the Patronus Charm," Dudley said. "It’s used against Dementors, but it can’t kill them. It only drives them away."

Harry asked at once, "So there’s no way to kill them directly?"

"Not for now. I’ll research it," Dudley said.

The Dementor he had killed before had been destroyed by the holy light of the Sun Ring. That radiance carried an intense purifying effect, a perfect counter to the undead and corpselike things, which was why it had dealt a fatal blow to a Dementor.

But in the wizarding world, Dementors were almost treated as unkillable. As far as Dudley knew, there really was no spell that could truly kill one.

Fiendfyre might have some effect, but it would probably only injure them rather than wipe them out completely.

"All right," Harry said, disappointed.

"Take it slow. Don’t rush," Dudley told him.

He had already started researching a method to kill Dementors.

It would not be difficult for him, and he had the Sun Ring right there as a Sealed Artifact, able to provide genuine sunlight holy radiance for him to study at any time.

If he could reproduce that sunlight holy radiance with magic, then a true Dementor-killer would be born.

Dudley then began teaching them the details of the Patronus Charm.

"Remember. Recall your happiest memory, and then cast the incantation: Expecto Patronum."

After saying that, Dudley demonstrated.

"Expecto Patronum!"

A low hum filled the air. White light burst from Dudley’s wand, rapidly gathering into a single shape, forming a person.

"Oh! Your Patronus is actually a person?" Hermione said, stunned.

Normally, Patronuses took the form of animals. Hermione had checked that in books.

She had not expected to see something completely different today.

Hearing the commotion, Ginny’s group looked over as well, their attention drawn to the white figure at the tip of Dudley’s wand.

"That is..." Harry stared hard at the pale silhouette.

It was abstract and blurred, but he still felt something familiar in it.

"Dudley!" Harry blurted out before anyone else could react.

That white figure was Dudley himself.

Not the young Dudley of now, but Dudley as an adult.

If you looked closely, you could pick up traces of Dudley in the details, especially in the shape of his face.

The white figure looked tall, and a hard-to-describe authority radiated from him. The clothes were not wizard’s robes, but an ornate, unsettling long coat.

He looked down at them as a king might look down upon his subjects.

Yet if you tried to sense him properly, you would realise he was not standing in a room at all, but beneath an endless starry sky.

His presence stood above all living things.

"What is that even supposed to be? A Patronus that looks like you?" Ron said, dumbfounded.

No one understood what they were seeing.

"My Patronus is me," Dudley said simply.

The first time he had cast the spell and seen that figure, he had been startled too.

It was unexpected, yet also somehow inevitable.

And Dudley’s Patronus differed from other people’s in more ways than one. The figure inherited Dudley’s authority and was more concrete than it had any right to be.

Dudley could even feel a faint pressure from his own Patronus.

The white figure dissolved, and the Patronus Charm ended.

"All right. I’ve shown you. Now you try," Dudley said.

He did not explain his Patronus any further.

Harry, Ron and Hermione did not press either. There were already too many things about Dudley that defied explanation, and a strange Patronus hardly felt worth making a fuss over.

They immediately began attempting the Patronus Charm themselves.

But it was not as simple as they had imagined. There were many key points to get right, and after several tries, none of them succeeded.

After Dudley pointed out a few issues, Hermione was the first to produce a result.

It was incomplete, only a thin, wispy spray of white light at the tip of her wand, not yet a formed Patronus.

"Right now, casting the spell is actually the easy part," Dudley warned. "When you face a real Dementor, the difficulty will rise."

"But don’t worry. Train steadily and you’ll get there."

Harry looked dejected.

He still could not cast the Patronus Charm at all, and Dementors affected him far more than they did others. Even if he managed to cast one now, he might still fail when a real Dementor was in front of him.

Dudley moved back and forth between Harry’s group and Ginny’s group, pointing out flaws in their casting.

Training time passed quickly.

Two hours had gone in a blink. Before ten o’clock, Dudley ended the gathering.

"Next week, same time. We’ll meet again," Dudley said.

"No problem!" Everyone looked excited.

They had learned a great deal tonight.

The parts about wandless, nonverbal spellcasting in particular had overturned their understanding of magic.

The door to the Room of Requirement opened slowly, and everyone filed out together.

But what none of them expected was the figure waiting just outside.

The moment they saw him, everyone’s expressions changed.

Dudley’s gaze sharpened slightly.

"Good evening, Professor Dumbledore," Dudley said, smiling.

"Good evening, Dudley, and all of you," Dumbledore said with a light chuckle. "Hopefully, my appearance hasn’t disrupted you."

"No," Dudley replied, shaking his head.

It would always be hard to hide the Kingdom of Order from Dumbledore, so Dudley had not tried too hard to conceal anything. He simply had not expected Dumbledore to come so quickly.

"Off to bed, all of you. I have a few things to discuss with Dudley," Dumbledore said to the others.

But no one moved. Everyone looked at Dudley instead.

"Go on," Dudley said.

Only then did they leave, reluctant and lingering.

"It seems your words carry more weight than mine," Dumbledore said meaningfully.