The new semester officially began, and the school's teaching schedule returned to normal. The sluggish laziness of the holidays vanished like melting snow.
Still, winter's damp chill stubbornly lingered, dampening everyone's mood in class.
In the Colosseum, during a fifth-year Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson.
"Professor, teach us some magic that'll make people happy!" George shouted, stomping his feet.
Even though Tver had set up a large number of torches around the Colosseum, filling the space with warmth, the Weasley twins insisted on acting as if they were freezing.
Even Davies and Cedric had picked up the habit, putting on gloomy expressions and sighing nonstop.
It looked as though if Tver announced this was a theory class, they would collapse to the ground in despair on the spot.
The other students followed suit, swaying dramatically while secretly watching Tver's reaction.
"Very well. I can teach you a spell that makes people extremely happy."
Tver looked at them with an amused smile.
This lesson had actually been planned already, but the spell was quite difficult and had limited practical use, so it was originally intended for sixth-year classes.
"However, I should warn you first. This spell isn't something you can learn quickly."
"So if you fail to grasp the technique during this lesson, I won't continue teaching it in future classes."
"After all, your focus should be on the O.W.L.s six months from now."
Under the students' watchful eyes, he flicked his wand toward the sky. A silvery-white light shot upward, flying beyond the school grounds.
George watched the silver glow disappear before turning back, curiosity written all over his face.
"So that silver light is what we're learning?"
"More or less."
"That's easy!" Fred said confidently, slapping his thigh.
"Exactly! If we can't even learn something this simple, what's the point of being in school? Might as well go sweep floors with Filch!" George echoed.
Only Davies looked uneasy. He kept staring in the direction the silver light had flown, where a tiny black dot seemed to hover.
The dot was wrapped up by the silver light and instantly twisted in on itself. The distance was too great for him to see what caused the distortion.
Still, based on his understanding of the professor, if Tver said it was difficult, then it definitely wouldn't be an easy spell.
"Guys, I think we should take this seriously," he said.
Cedric nodded in agreement.
"We should wait until we understand this spell before—"
Before he could finish, a sudden gasp rippled through the class.
"A Dementor!"
George and the others immediately looked up.
A Dementor was racing straight toward them!
Aside from what looked like something strapped to its back, it was identical to the one they had seen at the school gates.
In the blink of an eye, the snarling, clawed Dementor reached the airspace above the Colosseum and kept descending.
It was heading straight for them.
The students instantly shoved and scrambled, panicking as they crowded around the professor, as though staying close to him might give them the courage to face a Dementor.
It wasn't that they were cowards. Dementors were simply too terrifying to deal with.
They hurriedly reassured themselves.
Ordinary magic was useless against Dementors. Every dueling technique they had learned was completely ineffective.
If the Dementor really reached them, they would be utterly helpless.
Wait.
In their panic, they suddenly realized the Dementor seemed to be heading toward the professor instead.
They scattered at once, fleeing far away from him. Only one small witch remained behind, trembling where she stood.
It almost moved Tver a little.
"Aren't you scared? The Dementor is coming after me, you know?"
The girl slowly turned her head, her face twisted with misery.
"I… my legs gave out. I can't move anymore. Waaaah…"
"..."
Just as Tver was left speechless, the Dementor finally touched down on the ground, landing right beside the girl.
"Aaah!"
Startled out of her wits, she clapped her hands over her ears and let out a scream loud enough to echo through the entire castle.
"Huh?"
After screaming for a while, she finally realized that the Dementor hadn't attacked her.
No, it had actually been pressed flat against the ground, completely motionless.
And now she could clearly see what was on its back.
A cute silver bear?
Well, it couldn't really be called small. The bear itself was fairly large.
She only thought of it as small because both its body and head were round and pudgy, making it look far more harmless than ferocious.
"Professor, is that your Patronus?"
Only after confirming that the Dementor was firmly pinned down did Cedric cautiously step closer.
"That's right. This is what you'll be learning today, including Dementors and the Patronus Charm."
Before anyone could take a closer look, Tver dispersed his Patronus, turning it into something like silver-white ropes that tightly bound the Dementor.
Then he levitated it upright.
"So Dementors can be hung up like this too!"
Davies rushed over excitedly, as if he'd discovered a whole new world, pointing and gesturing at the Dementor.
If not for the oppressive aura clinging to it, he might have reached out and touched it himself.
"Ordinary magic can't deal with non-beings like Dementors. But when combined with the Patronus Charm, it works. It's their natural counter."
Tver gave them a reminder, just in case they got carried away and tried binding a Dementor on their own.
Seeing how obedient the Dementor had become, the students finally relaxed. They gathered around it excitedly, whispering among themselves as they discussed what they knew about Dementors.
"They say Dementors don't have physical bodies, so how can it be bound?"
"It's probably not binding in the literal sense. More like a restraining effect. By incorporating the Patronus Charm, it creates a form of suppression."
"But that robe looks so real. I wonder if you could touch it?"
"Better not. Even from this far away, I can feel this heavy gloom welling up in my chest."
After all, this was their first time observing a Dementor up close.
Unlike the dull, lifeless descriptions in textbooks, only by truly facing a Dementor could they understand how painful that despair-filled emptiness really was.
The Dementor being stared at, however, was having a far worse time.
The silver glow of the Patronus Charm continued to work on it, bringing a constant, burning agony.
Tver's control was impeccable. He only immobilized it, without actually causing real harm.
Fortunately, Dementors had little in the way of intelligence, driven purely by their instinct to feed, so there was no need to worry that this torment would drive it mad.
Tver nodded in satisfaction.
He liked creatures that were easy to control.
...
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