After about a month of this, Emma decides to leave the lawn early- she's finished her letter to her parents, and wants to drop it at the Owlery- so Jenny is left to her own devices. Bored, she examines the forest. It's only supposed to be unsafe at night, right? It won't hurt to go wander around a little in search of unicorns. She won't go very far.
And if she's lucky- unicorns.
Half an hour later, Jenny is deeply regretting her idea. She is completely lost, and the forest has gotten much darker and gloomier. She would go back, if she had any idea where to go. She's taken to making little piles of rocks, to attempt to mark her way; unfortunately, so far all this has told her is that she is definitely going in a circle.
The next time she re-encounters a pile, she branches out to the left instead. She's pretty sure she came from that direction, so maybe-
Cold.
Jenny is friends with Miranda. Miranda has been compulsively researching Dementors all year; she knows what it means, this cold, the screaming terror. But it's so much worse than anything ever, ever said it would be. She's frozen to the spot, unable to move, brain screaming in terror.
And then the Dementor appears. Slowly but visibly, it approaches her. Is it bigger than the books said they should be? She thinks it is. It's already looming and it's not even close.
Frantically, crazy with fear, Jenny does the only thing she can think of- she shifts away her mouth.
The Dementor stops, seeming to hover in place. Jenny stays frozen in place. The Dementor doesn't seem to be planning to Kiss her... but it's not moving, either, and she's still stuck.
Oh, God. Now what?
When it's approaching curfew and Jenny is still nowhere to be found, she starts to panic. It's been a long time since they were writing on the grass, and no one's seen Jenny since. She asked.
She's Jenny's friend, she doesn't want to get her in trouble, but this is Hogwarts. Jenny is Muggleborn; she doesn't always know the dangers. And she is missing, from right next to the Forest.
Emma is getting a teacher right now.
Karen has dragged Miranda away from "definitely being on to something" about Dementors to come with her and talk to the transfiguration professor about - Karen can't remember what her excuse was. American curricula? Switching Spells? Animagi? Something like that. Something other than Dementors. At any rate, they are currently talking about why it's easier to turn a hedgehog into a cactus than it is to turn one into a bowling ball, because that was the riddle they got when Miranda tried to go back for her notebook. The answer was "because they both have spines" but neither Ravenclaw is sure why spines are more important than the hedgehog's ability to roll into a ball.
At this point she runs out of breath, but she thinks he got the point.
"See? There she is," Scott says in relief. He jogs over to where she's waiting-
-and sees her frantic eyes and eerie, mouthless face too late. He's wrapped in a shroud of cold, cold, cold, and he doubles over, gasping, before slumping forward unconscious.
In the woods behind him, something very, very large stirs.
They're not supposed to be that big.
But Miranda knows what it is, and when she looks at it - numb in the face, like it sprayed her with ice or anaesthetic or like she isn't there at all - when she looks at it the thing she was almost onto, rereading that one chapter for the tenth time to understand, clicks.
There are numerous hypotheses about the metaphysical implications of the Dementor. Many suppose it to be, simply, a monster, with no greater symbolism; others have likened it to the torporous sadness that befalls susceptible minds; it has been likened to everything from inevitability - for they cannot be destroyed, only diverted - to darkness - for obvious reasons. A poet, looking after his exposed son, compared the Dementor to death itself -
But Death is not inevitable. The Philosopher's Stone existed once, it could be made again. There is surely more magic waiting to be discovered.
She doesn't know how to make the Philosopher's Stone on the spot. Let alone how to spontaneously invent a new Dementor-killing spell. The cold is trying to make her give in to this discouraging fact.
But she has a very, very enthusiastic wand.
She brings her shaking hand to her hair, and pulls the chimaera-hair wand out, and she's read the chapter ten times, she knows the motion and the words -
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
It's not an animal, even a chimaera. It looks like - a person. A genderless, giant, graceful person of silver light, pouring forward from her wandtip towards the unreasonably large dementor. They're of a size.
And when the glowing person wraps its arms around the monster, they are no longer of a size.
The dementor shrinks, and screams, and shrinks, and Miranda holds her wand up, trembling.
Pomfrey immediately sets to obtaining chocolate. She returns with a large pile of chocolate bars; Chocolate Frogs must be too high of a escape risk. "Here," she says, handing each of the functional girls a large bar of their own and sorting the remainder out into piles next to the two cots. "What happened? Was it a Dementor?" She feels Jenny's hand. "She's clammy, poor dear, it certainly seems like a Dementor... and that Patronus... but wherever did you find one?"
"J-Jenny got lost in the woods and got stuck there with a Dementor and she morphed her mouth away so it couldn't kiss her and Emma got worried and found Professor Fisher and we were with him and came along and when we found her the Dementor was GIANT it has to have been three stories tall and Professor Fisher fell unconscious and then MIRANDA KILLED THE DEMENTOR!" exclaims Karen. "It's gone! It shriveled up!"
Madam Pomfrey just- blinks at her a few times. Then she says slowly, "Why don't I just fetch the Headmistress, then?" She summons a house elf to find McGonagall, and then returns to fussing over Professor Fisher. She occasionally fusses over Jenny as well, but Jenny continues to be half-draped over Emma and she doesn't seem inclined to reshuffle them just yet; not as long as Jenny is eating her chocolate, anyway.
McGonagall arrives shortly thereafter. "Miss Swan, I hear you have a story to tell," she says dryly. "A summary, if you please?" She eyes Professor Fisher, who has managed to stop swearing but is still quite pale and shaky. "Professor Fisher, I will be wanting your report as well- once Poppy is done with you."
"Yes Professor," says Miranda, closing her notebook. "Jenny went missing and Emma found Professor Fisher while me and Karen were talking to him. And we all went looking for her in the forest and she'd been cornered by this dementor at least three times as big as they're supposed to be and she'd shifted her mouth away so it wouldn't kiss her. And Professor Fisher collapsed, I don't think he was expecting a Dementor. And I knew the incantation for a Patronus, so I made one, and it was a very big Patronus and it killed the dementor and picked up Professor Fisher for me and we all came back to the castle and went straight here."
McGonagall sighs. "We do not need another media circus around this school," she says, mostly to herself. "I must go; we shall need to investigate the Dementor's presence. They were supposed to all have left, after the Battle." She looks at them over her glasses. "Are you all willing to keep this quiet until I have determined what, precisely, happened? I should like to have some answers before the public speculation begins."
"Telling others? Preferably, not until we can figure out where the Dementor came from, and why you say it was so large. I would add 'until we know what you did to it,' but honestly, Miss Swan, I expect that to take quite a while." She sighs. "As for killing the rest of them- do please recall, Miss Swan, that you are eleven. And under my supervision. While I fully support any endeavor to rid the world of Dementors, if you wish to participate you will need to wait until graduation."
"Miss Swan, whether or not you did cast a Patronus is irrelevant. You are a child, and you are in school. Wizards have coexisted with Dementors for centuries; they can continue to do so until you are an adult. You are a Hogwarts student, not an Auror, and your Patronus will keep until you finish your studies."
Flushing, McGonagall collects herself and straightens. "Enough. Back to your Houses, all of you; it's well past time. You can visit your friend tomorrow."
"I cast a Patronus, just like in the book. Expecto patronum and thinking of something happy and -" She demonstrates the wand motion, still holding her second, overpowered, supposedly chimaera-hair wand. "And then it worked like that and I'm not totally sure why, but I bet I could do it again."
"I... think I'd let someone else try the wand. I'll let Karen try it when we're up in our room," decides Miranda. "I might let somebody borrow it, if they could make the special Patronus with it and they were going to kill Dementors and then they'd give it back when they were done."
Like, for example, the Dementor is not actually dead. And is now mad at them. There is a thought that should go away immediately or it will turn into some spectacular nightmares.
Emma checks the time quickly. Definitely past time to be back in Hufflepuff. "I should go back," she says uneasily. She doesn't like being late for curfew. She doesn't like breaking rules at all. "I can try tomorrow if you want more testers, and watch you guys again if you want to wait that long- or want to do it again- but for now, um. Bed. Definitely bed. Sorry?"
The next morning, Emma arrive in the dining hall somewhat impatient and upset. She tried to stop by the infirmary first thing, but Madam Pomfrey was most insistent that Jenny needed her rest, so, it can wait. She heads for the Ravenclaw table in search of Miranda and Karen instead.
"I had tried it before I saw the Dementor and I didn't get anything. I think it might have been important for me to see it. But I don't think that can be usual because plenty of people learn to cast them without having Dementors around, if you needed Dementors to learn to cast Patronuses it would be less common I think."
"Which by the way I am so extremely very thankful for. Sooo, um. Thanks again. For the life...saving... thing? That." She has yet to come up with an acceptable form of thank you (she would ask her parents for advice, but- she can't tell them, she's not allowed, ugh), but she's working on it. All things considered, she would like it to be rather impressive. Life saved, and all that.
"I'm sure you know why you're here," she tells them. "And- well. We have run every test we could think of, and as far as we can tell... the Dementor is dead." If one looks closely, one might notice a large torn black cloak in the back corner of the office, in fact. "We have, after extensive searching, discovered no others in the area. And while we are admittedly operating rather on guesswork, we also have an idea of what happened to it, to make it so- large."
Her brow furrows. Whatever she's thinking about, she's not pleased.
"The Dementor appears to have obtained a- let us say, a powerful artifact, lost after the Battle. It has now been safely retrieved." Her flat tone discourages questions. "I can guarantee that no others exist. Hopefully, this will reassure you as to your continued safety here."
She clears her throat and continues. "As far as your Patronus, Miss Swan, I admit to being concerned about the reaction of the press. The Prophet has been known to sensationalize stories at the expense of their subjects. I have no intention of granting interviews without certain safeguards in place, but I would appreciate your cooperation." She scowls. "Certain reporters have been known to attempt to- circumvent such restrictions."
McGonagall stares at Miranda over her glasses. "You are in school, Miss Swan," she sighs, "though I suppose I cannot control your holidays. But while you are at Hogwarts, you are expected to attend your classes and complete your work." She taps her wand on the desk in thought. "Please tell a professor if a reporter attempts to contact you. Even if it's just an owl. That goes for all of you," she adds, looking rather sad. "You never know, these days."
McGonagall nods slowly. "We'll have to tell the Ministry, of course," she says, partly to herself. "Others will need to know about this. You do not need to maintain perfect silence, though, again- reporters should be sent to your teachers. Or really, anyone you do not know. But your parents, yes, your parents are fine."
Given permission to tell her parents, there's nothing else Emma feels like asking the Headmistress. Hogwarts seems to have things under control; and anyway, it's not like she has any desire to talk to reporters regardless. She mumbles a thank you to the Headmistress and summarily flees the office. She knows she's not in trouble, per se, but in the office, it still feels like it.
Once Emma and Karen have left, the Headmistress sizes up Miranda. "Miss Swan. I believe a more thorough examination of your Patronus should be left to an expert; the Ministry has promised an experienced Auror 'at their first availability.'" She's a bit skeptical of this, as it happens, but it can wait. If the Ministry drags their heels, she'll worry about it then. "However, there remains the concern of your... less than standard wand. Professor Flitwick tells me you have seen unexpected results with it before?"
"Given recent events, I should like to verify that it is not dangerous," McGonagall says mildly, if sternly. "You have proven yourself capable of feats with that wand that should be well beyond a first year. If the wand is in some way unstable, or powered by Dark Magic... these things are best discovered early." She softens slightly. "If it proves to simply be an unusual wand, that is a very different matter, of course."
"If you are even considering that you might take my wand away I would like my mum to be involved in the conversation." Since listening to Miranda herself is probably out of the question. "Casting a Patronus at all is supposed to be too advanced for a first year and I can do it with my normal wand too, it just gets me a smaller one."
McGonagall adjusts her glasses with a sigh. "If we disagree you are welcome to involve your mother. But as you have said, it's your wand, Miss Swan. You will need to be present and involved at least sometimes. I will not be... be..." she is somewhat at a loss for words here, "absconding with your wand to perform Nameless Tests without your input."
"Okay. Well, what Professor Flitwick saw was a feather going up really fast and sticking into the ceiling when I tried the Levitation Charm on it. When I try other things it does what I'm trying to do, just really - thoroughly. My Patronus in particular is about three times as tall when I cast it with the chimaera wand - the pawnshop person said it had chimaera hair in - than how tall it is when I cast with my other one."
She looks over at Karen, who's waiting with her. "Um. She's not in trouble or anything, right...? Wasn't she behind us?"
Alli is awaiting them at the entrance, not particularly patiently. "What. What. You've all been missing all day, and Jenny's in the infirmary, and I had to be told by an older Slytherin who thought I did it and it's all part of my," air quotes, "'evil plan for hanging out with you guys.' And... and..." she throws her hands in the air in angry exasperation. "What is going onnnnn?"
"Jenny got lost in the forest and cornered by a Dementor, and when Emma found a professor to help look for her me and Karen were with him and we came along, which was good because it was a giant one and he passed out as soon as he saw it and I killed it with a huge Patronus from my chimaera wand," reports Miranda.
Alli raises an eyebrow. "That's an awful lot of insisting from- y'know. You two," she says reluctantly. Neither of them is normally this... fervent, about anything. "If it happened- if- then that is stupidly stupidly cool and Miranda, thank you for saving them." She looks at them suspiciously. "But I might not believe you until I hear it from a teacher," she warns. "I mean... still. Giant Dementors at Hogwarts. And if you are messing with me and Jenny, I dunno, hurt her ankle flying, man are you going to catch it."
Meanwhile, Jenny can be found on a bed in the end of the hall, next to a window with lots of sunlight. She is curled up in her bed nibbling rather despondently on a piece of chocolate, next to a pile of empty chocolate bar wrappers indicating her diet (and primary Madam Pomfrey Approved Activity) since they last saw her.
Hugs are not Alli's thing. She shuffles awkwardly. "Sorry I wasn't here sooner," she mumbles. Believing crazy stories about Dementors at Hogwarts being defeated by a first year becomes much easier when faced with a seriously Dementored friend, and she has no idea what to do. Except chocolate, and that has clearly been handled. "Do you- want another hug...? Or something?"
"It's okay," Jenny tells her. "It- feels long, but it hasn't been, really." The offer of a hug earns Alli a weak smile, at least. "I'm good for now, thanks," she says, managing about half a nod in Emma's direction, except that her head is rather blocked against Emma's shoulder.
Alli waits until Jenny returns to her snuggles and isn't looking at her, and raises her hands up to indicate not on purpose, sorry! to her glaring friend. Then she compromises and sits on a chair next to the bed and attempts to pat Jenny's knee comfortingly. (Mostly she just gets 'awkwardly', but hey, she's trying.)
"I don't- Hmm. Ugh. Words, words are hard. I don't know if I can tell they're mad. Not, I don't know how to tell they're mad. I have never seen an angry rat! I could be able to tell, if I saw one. Or not." She pauses. "I almost want to get one now, to see. Promise you'd tell your owls not to eat it?"
At this point, Madam Pomfrey apparently finishes arguing with Professor Fisher, and- from his continued presence in the infirmary- seems to have won. Free of that particular distraction, she bustles over to Jenny's bed, looking stern. "All right now, children, time to go. You've had plenty of time to chat and Miss O'Meara still needs her rest," she tells them.
"You are welcome to cast almost all of the spells," Professor Reed tells her, "and in fact in most cases that would actually be quite helpful, as I'd like to analyze the wand while you cast. However, I do insist on casting Morsmordre myself."
She cheers back up when faced with the Patronus, though. Patronuses aren't precisely common in America, and she sheepishly admits to taking a couple seconds just to admire the spell before actually analyzing it.
Except for a minor incident with a chair leg, everything else goes seamlessly. She Repairs the chair with her own wand and returns the hazel wand to Miranda. "Well, there you have it, Miss Swan. Not unstable, not Dark. As far as I can tell, it's simply very powerful." She stares at it uneasily. "Would you object to a tutor? I think one-on-one training would be safer for everyone involved."
"We're all very grateful for your quick thinking, of course. Your heroism saved a number of lives. By no means do I intend to rush you; you're doing just fine in your classes as it is. But down the line, whenever you wish to practice with this wand more regularly- consider a tutor my suggestion."