Volume 3: A Tombstone Stained with Sin and Blood Chapter 153 What is this?
Lily Potter had always been a rather special professor on the carriage .
She was not like professors like McGufflev and Lupin, who expressed their kindness to students without reservation.
Whether in the usual classes or when meeting students privately on the carriage, she had a cold face in most cases and looked indifferent no matter who she looked at.
However, after spending time with her, many students will find that Professor Porter is not as unkind as she appears to be. Instead, she is as gentle and patient with students as other professors.
It's just that her emotion was suppressed by another special emotion.
The other professors never told the students about Lily's past. Even though Neville and Ron, who were Lily's family acquaintances, knew some secrets, they never really talked to Jon and the others about Lily's "family".
After getting advice from Lupin, Jon knocked on Lily's office door that weekend.
The Potions professor was brewing a potion in his office.
After Slughorn left the carriage, she was usually the busiest person in the entire school.
There was no school doctor on the carriage, and as the Potions professor, Lily was the doctor for all the students in the school.
Normally, she would stock up on some potions for treating common diseases, and some of the magical plants specially cultivated in the greenhouse also needed special potions to be nurtured and irrigated. In addition, since Lupin came to the carriage this semester, the job of brewing wolfsbane potion for him naturally fell on Lily.
So, no matter what time or who comes to Lily's office, they will see a crucible in the middle of her office with steam constantly emitting.
"Good morning, Professor Potter." After entering the door, Jon greeted the witch sitting in front of the cauldron.
After he walked into the office, a chair automatically slid behind him. Lily didn't look at him, but was concentrating on dropping two drops of green liquid into the boiling crucible. The next second, the boiling water instantly calmed down, and the color of the water turned into indigo.
Lily replaced the lid on the cauldron before looking up at Jon.
"Something?"
She didn't call Jon's last name or first name, but her flat voice didn't sound distant.
John didn't ask for advice on the Patronus Charm right away. He first expressed his gratitude to Lily respectfully.
"I haven't thanked you enough for lending me the invisibility cloak since I came back last time."
"It's not just to help you." Lily sat down on the chair in front of the desk. She seemed to be in the mood to chat with Jon for a while. "You can do the things Dumbledore asked you to do well, which will be beneficial to the whole school. Besides, since you dared to take such a risk to sneak into the castle, I am definitely not so selfish as to be reluctant to take out an invisibility cloak."
If you only listen to what she said, most people would subconsciously think that the invisibility cloak that Lily lent to John was just an ordinary item in the wizarding world that could be bought with a little brainpower. But John knew better than anyone what this invisibility cloak inherited from the Potter family meant.
"Besides, I didn't intend to give you the invisibility cloak. It just sits in a box with me and wastes its usefulness. Although I'm lending it to you, I hope you can use it in a way that truly reflects its value, rather than for some petty theft that violates school rules."
She looked at Jon, her tone didn't change, but Jon heard a lot more seriousness in it.
"If I catch you doing something like this, I'll take back your invisibility cloak and punish you more severely than Filch ever did."
Even if Lily didn't say it, Jon would never use the invisibility cloak to do such a thing. He was not a real teenager of thirteen or fourteen, and he was not so bored as to travel in a carriage at night wearing an invisibility cloak and break into rooms he shouldn't break into.
"I can promise that I will not go astray with that cloak, Professor."
On the desk, a teapot flew up by itself and poured a cup of tea into the cup that had slid in front of Jon. At this time, Jon finally stated the main reason why he came here.
"I'm currently learning the Patronus Charm from Professor Lupin." He looked at Lily, not realizing from her expression how surprised she was by the news. "Professor Lupin told me that you are very good at this spell, and he said that I could come to you for advice."
Lily picked up the teacup in front of her and took a sip of the black tea.
"Remus told me about this a few days ago. He said that you have made rapid progress in learning the Patronus Charm. In less than half a year, except for the fact that you still cannot summon a true Patronus, you have already reached a level where this spell can be effective."
"But there are some things he doesn't know. If it were before, I could indeed teach you something, but now, I can hardly use the Patronus Charm myself, let alone teach you."
She didn't look like she was making excuses, and when Jon thought about it, he could understand that it was very likely that Lily's understanding and mastery of the Patronus Charm had indeed changed based on her experiences.
This kind of spell is originally a spell that is closely related to the emotions and mentality of the caster. Each wizard's patronus is not fixed after it is summoned. It will change with the change of the caster's mentality.
For example, in the original book, Tonks's patronus was a rabbit at first, but after she fell in love with Lupin, the rabbit turned into a wolf.
The patronus is not a specific creature; it is more like a reflection of the wizard's own inner self, a powerful emotional force materialized by magic.
Lily's patronus in the original book should be a doe, while her husband James Potter and son Harry Potter's patronus are both stags, and Snape's patronus is exactly the same as hers, also a doe.
It is precisely because the Patronus Charm reflects the inner heart of a wizard that Snape's Patronus is exactly the same as Lily's, which makes people feel at ease for him to be a double agent. As long as he still loves Lily, he will never hurt Harry Potter, which is naturally contrary to Voldemort's position.
But now there has obviously been a huge change.
After the dramatic changes in her family, no one except Lily herself could imagine what kind of changes had taken place . As she herself said, it was a stretch to be able to use it.
Jon could understand this, but he was still a little disappointed. He always felt that he was missing something in using the Patronus Charm, but he could never figure out what it was that was missing. He had no way of summoning up positive emotions, which ultimately led to his inability to summon his own Patronus.
However, although Lily could not teach him anything that would give him enough improvement as he wished, she did give him some advice on learning the Patronus Charm.
"Don't just think that the emotions that make up the Patronus Charm are simply positive emotions. Humans are complex creatures, and emotions are the key to this complexity. So-called positive emotions are also relative. When you recall some things, you will always feel sad, but in certain different situations, it may give you greater hope."
Jon didn't stay at Lily's desk for too long. After drinking the tea in the cup, he said goodbye and left.
Instead of going back to the dormitory immediately, he went straight to an empty classroom usually used for Charms classes. When he pushed the door and walked in, Hermione was practicing her cane-wielding skills inside.
After leaning against the door and staring at Hermione for a while, Jon gave his suggestion.
"I suggest that you don't add any obvious personal habitual movements when you finish swinging your staff. Try to correct it. This will be of great help to you in learning more advanced spells in the future."
Any classroom on the carriage, except for the astronomy classroom and the greenhouse, is allowed to be used privately by students when there are no students in class. The common room is where students usually use it to rest and relax, so in most cases, students who want to practice casting spells will choose an empty classroom.
Especially in the Charms classroom, the walls were protected by spells, which could protect the inside of the carriage from spells. If it was in the corridor, there would be no such protection, and any spell could leave a hole in the floor. Casting spells in the corridor was also prohibited by school rules, which made Filch angry the most.
Hermione turned her gaze to Jon. She seldom went to the common room after school. Even among the students who were rescued from the castle and put back into the carriage, she was the most hardworking one.
During this period, Jon did not hide the fact that he was practicing the Patronus Charm from others, and the two would often meet in this spells classroom.
"What's wrong with asking Professor Potter for advice on the Patronus Charm?" Hermione asked. She obviously knew what Jon had just done.
Jon thought about it and raised the wand in his hand. He waved it gently and chanted the spell as before.
"Expecto Patronus."
Silver light bloomed like a flower at the tip of his staff, but the scattered light floated around him without any sign of condensing into a solid entity.
Looking at the effect of the spell on the tip of the wand, Jon shook his head.
"No matter how clearly the professors explain this spell, it still depends on whether I have figured it out myself."
Hermione looked at the silver light on the tip of his wand with an indescribable complexity in her eyes.
To be honest, Jon's current worries are a bit Versailles. They are all in the same grade, and although Hermione just came to the carriage this year and started learning wand casting, she is also very clear that Jon's learning of magic has actually surpassed his peers.
This was after he had wasted most of the school year trying to save them at Hogwarts Castle.
Sometimes it's really hard to explain talent, and Hermione thought she was a diligent student. But compared to Jon, she felt ashamed of herself for having such a mentality.
In fact, this is also because she does not understand Jon's psychology.
Because he knows what the world is supposed to be like, Jon feels more urgent about the current situation. After all, the Voldemort seen in the book only exists in the book, not to mention that the dark devil in the story has long become an unreasonable madman.
A madman is scary, but the harm he can cause is limited. However, if this madman becomes much more rational in this world, that would be truly terrifying.
Especially for some unknown reason, Dumbledore, who should have been stronger than Voldemort, was defeated by him, which made John feel a suffocating oppression.
He was eager to improve his strength. Whether it was to protect other people in the carriage or to protect himself, he needed sufficient strength to lay the foundation.
The ring he got from Slughorn gave him a direction to become stronger, but at the same time, he could not rely entirely on the ring.
Even Voldemort knew that a wizard's power should be based on himself. John also knew that he should not demand something too much. This was why he was so serious and diligent in learning ordinary spells even when he was not studying the magic on the ring.
It was Jon's performance that gave Hermione great encouragement.
Whenever she felt that she might have worked hard enough, she would think of the boy who rescued her from that "prison" and continue to work hard.
The same goes for the other people who spend the most time with Jon.
For example, when Ron first entered school, he was a little lazy. He didn't even want to do his homework himself, and he just "borrowed" from Jon or Neville.
But after the second year, he never asked to borrow anyone's homework, and he didn't waste time playing wizard chess in the common room, but went to the library with Justin and Lavender.
In the Charms classroom, Jon thought about his emotions and thoughts on the Patronus Charm for a while, and then began to repeatedly practice several spells and Transfiguration that he had already mastered.
Talent allows him to learn magic faster, but if he wants to use it without thinking in actual combat, he needs to practice day and night and eventually form muscle memory.
While he was chatting with Hermione and practicing spells, Jon waved his hand at the table, chairs and benches in front of him and cast a levitation spell. A target that was not supposed to be the target of his spell attracted his attention.
He did not look at the tables, chairs and benches that were floating in front of him, but stretched out his hand and carefully pinched a handful of hair from among the floating objects.
This tuft of hair was very special. It didn't look like anyone's hair. The overall color was dark gray, and each strand was very short and thin.
"What's this?"
