Dracula found that he had overestimated the magical talents of the young wizards.
Several weeks passed, and no one had learned the Patronus Charm. Most of the better students could only spray out some silver gas with their wands.
Only Cedric and a few outstanding sixth and seventh grade students learned a little bit and were able to summon the silver shadow of their patronus, but it was still impossible to tell what specific animal form their patronus took.
Not only that, most students who are able to cast the patronus silver gas can only do so when their minds are fully focused.
When Dracula ordered the Dementors to slightly loosen their dark and cold aura, it became difficult for the students to concentrate completely and focus on recalling the happy memories of the past. Instead, negative emotions of sadness and sorrow constantly impacted their minds.
Therefore, when really facing Dementors, students who can use the Patronus Charm rudimentarily will have to use at least half of it.
…
"Professor, I would like you to give me some more advice on my Patronus Charm!"
As Halloween approached, Harry seemed dissatisfied with his progress in learning the Patronus Charm and came to Dracula's office alone.
Dracula was shaking the wine glass in his hand, and through the reflection of the bright red wine in the glass, he saw the conflicted and hesitant expression on Harry's face.
"Your learning progress is quite good among third-year students. What else are you not satisfied with?" He asked calmly, taking a sip of red wine.
"I can only use this magic when there is no pressure from the Dementors..." Harry lowered his head in frustration, "Whenever the Dementors release their aura a little, I will immediately become the bottom student in the entire grade."
In fact, Harry was also one of those little wizards who could cast the silver gas of the Patronus Charm.
The magical powers of the third-grade little wizards have not yet fully developed, and many advanced magics are difficult for them to use successfully, so there are very few little wizards in the entire grade who can cast silver gas.
The Patronus Charm that Dracula taught was an early version learned from Andros the Invincible. After Dracula's own improvements, these young wizards in the lower grades had greater possibilities for casting the charm.
Even so, when the Dementors didn't release their breath, Harry's progress was somewhat beyond Dracula's expectations.
However, Harry's use of the Patronus Charm is limited to when he is not under the influence of Dementors.
Whenever the Dementors let go of their breath, Harry would immediately feel faint, and the voice that had appeared many times in his ears would appear in his mind -
Evil laughter, women begging, babies crying... Later, these sounds slowly pieced together into pictures, and he gradually realized that these were all real things that happened when he was a child.
This is what actually happened when Voldemort murdered his family!
"The extent of a person's influence by Dementors is mainly determined by his past memories." Dracula put down his wine glass and looked at Harry. The crisp sound of the wine glass hitting the table interrupted Harry's thoughts.
"Most of your classmates have never experienced the misfortune you have experienced, so they cannot understand your despair when facing the Dementors." Dracula said, "If you want to prove yourself in front of Draco Malfoy because of his ridicule, then I think this is completely unnecessary."
The fact that Harry was frightened by Dementors had always been treated as a joke by his arch-enemy Malfoy and was widely spread in Slytherin House. Everyone knew that this incident made Harry very distressed.
"No, it's not because of this, Professor." Harry shook his head and said, "It's just... after Halloween, the Gryffindor Quidditch team will start the next game. I don't want the team to lose the game because of me again."
"But I heard that your broom was broken." Dracula glanced at him and said casually.
"I can also use a broom from the Crosssweep series. I can definitely beat Malfoy's Nimbus 2001 with my Crosssweep Seven!" Harry said loudly.
"Is it because your opponent is Malfoy?" Dracula chuckled. "If you are worried that the Dementors will come to the Quidditch field again, then you can go back now..."
"Dumbledore has reached an agreement with the Ministry of Magic that Dementors will be kept outside the school from now on. They will no longer enter the Quidditch pitch."
"Is that so..." Harry stared at Dracula blankly with lifeless eyes.
"What's wrong? Shouldn't you be happy to hear the news?" Dracula raised the corner of his mouth and looked with interest at Harry's expression as he tried hard to tilt his mouth upwards but couldn't smile.
"But..." Harry hesitated for a moment, then changed his words, "But I still want to learn the Patronus Charm. I don't want to be completely defenseless when facing them."
"This is a gradual process. There's no need to rush." Dracula said, "Just follow the grade's learning progress honestly. With your talent, you should be able to at least be able to use the simplified version of the Patronus Charm proficiently by the end of this school year."
"But we're going to Hogsmeade the day before Halloween, and if we encounter Dementors..."
"I don't think you can go to Hogsmeade." Harry was interrupted by Dracula before he finished speaking, "Professor McGonagall told me that you can't go to Hogsmeade without your parents' signature."
Hogsmeade is the only village in the UK whose entire population is composed of wizards. It is located to the west of Hogwarts Castle. Students in grade three and above can go there to play on weekends, but they must obtain permission from their parents or other guardians.
Harry had little hope of getting Uncle Vernon's signature in the first place, not to mention that he blew his aunt into a balloon during the summer vacation, caused a big conflict with his uncle's family, and finally had to run away from home.
So, he became the only little wizard in the third grade who could not go to Hogsmeade.
At the mention of Hogsmeade, Harry's face immediately turned depressed.
Then, his eyes lit up and he looked up at Dracula.
"Professor, um... I wanted to ask, could you sign my Hogsmeade application for me?" Harry asked.
"I can't sign for you." Dracula refused him without hesitation.
Looking at Harry's suddenly dim eyes, he explained: "Don't you understand, Potter? The reason you can't go to Hogsmeade is not because you didn't sign the document."
"Hogsmeade is an open village after all. Anyone, including various dark wizards, can come and go at will. The Ministry of Magic and the professors are worried that Sirius Black will ambush you there."
Harry's eyes widened after hearing Dracula's explanation.
"Do you understand? If I sign for you, whether it will be useful or not is another matter. I don't know how Professor McGonagall will blame me!" said Dracula.
"So, you don't have to worry about encountering Dementors outside of school. The professors won't let you leave school at all."
…
Harry left the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's office in disappointment.
He didn't know why he wanted to learn the Patronus Charm so much, and even found various excuses to ask Professor Dracula to tutor him privately.
After being rejected by Professor Dracula, Harry even went to find Assistant Professor Riddle, with whom he had a good relationship.
But what Harry didn't expect was that Assistant Instructor Riddle, who was almost omnipotent in all aspects of Defense Against the Dark Arts, actually told him that he didn't know the Patronus Charm!
Several more Defense Against the Dark Arts classes passed, but Harry still made no progress. Every time he felt the negative aura from the Dementors, he would immediately faint, even faster than before.
In the end, Harry himself couldn't tell whether he wanted to learn the Patronus Charm to fight the Dementors, or was addicted to the voice that the Dementors evoked from the depths of his memory.
As horrible as it was to hear his parents' dying voices in his head, it was the only way Harry could hear their voices.
However, if he still has to pay half of his attention to listening to his parents' voices, he will never be able to summon a true Patronus...
"They're dead," he told himself sternly, "They're dead, and listening to their echoes won't bring them back."
But when the next class started, Harry would still subconsciously cater to the dark aura of the Dementors and let himself sink into the vortex of darkness.
…
On the day before Halloween, third-year wizards were allowed to visit Hogsmeade for the first time.
Early in the morning, Harry woke up with everyone else and went downstairs to have breakfast.
He was in a very bad mood, but he tried his best to act normal on the surface.
"We'll bring you lots of sweets from Honeydukes," said Hermione.
She was very sensitive to Harry's sadness and tried her best to comfort him.
"Yeah, I'll bring a lot," Ron also said.
However, the two young wizards who were comforting Harry together did not have any tacit understanding. They were still arguing before breakfast.
Crookshanks, the half-breed cat-nives raised by Hermione, has been keeping a close eye on Ron's pet mouse Scabbers recently. From time to time, he wants to sneak into the Gryffindor boys' dormitory and secretly take Scabbers away from Ron's bed.
Ron thought that Hermione keeping a cat showed that she didn't care about him, but Hermione thought that keeping a cat was a normal thing and it was cats' nature to eat mice.
Because of this, the two of them would have a big quarrel from time to time.
"Don't worry about me." Sandwiched between the two, Harry said perfunctorily, "See you at the Halloween dinner. I hope you have a good time."
He hoped he was speaking casually, but he really was not good at acting and the sadness on his face was about to overflow.
Harry accompanied his two friends to the castle's antechamber.
Filch, the castle caretaker, stood in front of the gate, holding a long list and checking each student one by one, looking at everyone's face suspiciously, guarding against anyone who shouldn't be there slipping away.
"Stayin', Potter?" Malfoy called out as he, Crabbe and Goyle formed the queue for Hogsmeade.
"I see, you're afraid of encountering Dementors!" He laughed. "It's a pity that I can't see the famous Harry Potter fainting on the ground."
Harry ignored him and walked alone up the marble stairs and through the deserted corridors back to Gryffindor Tower.
"Give me your password, you bastard!" Sir Cadogan shouted, brandishing his knight's sword.
"Chivalry," said Harry listlessly.
"That was yesterday's password." Sir Cadogan pointed his greatsword at Harry in a mean way. "I see, you are a traitor to Gryffindor. Look at the sword, you bastard!"
"Oh, fangs and claws." Harry just remembered that Sir Cadogan was a guard who could change passwords several times a day, and answered impatiently.
"Ah, congratulations on getting the answer right!" Sir Cadogan opened the portrait and made way for the door to the Gryffindor common room. "Would you like to duel with me before you leave?"
"No, thanks," Harry declined, crawling through the hole.
The common room was full of first and second year students, all chatting and laughing. Some of the older students had obviously been to Hogsmeade many times and were no longer new to the place.
"Harry! Harry! Hello, Harry!" Colin Creevey, a second-year student, admired Harry very much. He never missed any chance to talk to Harry. "Didn't you go to Hogsmeade, Harry? Why not? Hey-"
Colin looked around at his classmates anxiously, and finally saw an empty seat, "If you'd like, come sit with us, okay?"
"Oh, no thanks, Colin," said Harry.
He didn't want a lot of people looking at the scar on his forehead.
"Well... I have to go to the library. I have to finish my homework there." He said perfunctorily.
He regretted it right after he said it, because he couldn't lie in front of his junior classmates and he couldn't bear to let Colin know that he was just being perfunctory.
So Harry had no choice but to turn around and squeeze out through the door behind the portrait again.
"Oh, have you changed your mind and want to duel with me again?" Sir Cadogan shouted after him.
Harry ignored him and walked listlessly towards the library, but changed his mind halfway:
On days like this, he didn't want to do any serious work.
Harry turned around and wanted to leave the castle and go to Hagrid's place, but he ran into Filch.
The castle warden had evidently just seen off the last of the party to Hogsmeade.
"What are you doing sneaking around like that?" Filch asked suspiciously.
"Nothing," Harry said truthfully.
"Nothing?" Filch pointed at him, his chin twitching unpleasantly. "You sound like you're doing it! You're sneaking around here by yourself. You must be scouting the terrain!"
"Your nasty friends must be in Hogsmeade right now buying stink bombs and burp powder and buzzers! When they come back with their purchases, you will bring them here to ruin all my hard work..."
Filch became more and more angry as he spoke, and his whole body began to shake along with his chin.
"Well, that's a good idea." Harry shrugged.
"Oh, Merlin's beard, I knew it!" screamed Filch.
Harry ignored him, however, and walked straight out of the castle and towards Hagrid's shack on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
"Hagrid!" Harry knocked hard on the door of the shed. "Hagrid, are you in the house?"
First, heavy footsteps were heard behind the door, and then the door creaked open.
Harry was surprised to see Hagrid standing there, his eyes red and swollen, tears falling on the front of his leather vest.
…
…