The Sixth and Seventh years had spent quite some time working on patronus charms during the past academic year. They were one of the most significant shield charms (of which all seven were studied by the end of the NEWT) and certainly the most famous. However, they were certainly one of the trickiest, as they required that emotional content to the magic, those positive thoughts and memories. In so many ways, not far from how dark magic was too.

The students were naturally preoccupied with trying to achieve a corporeal patronus, and sadly for some, any whiff of one at all evaded them. Despite the Professor's prickly nature, his NEWT students knew that they could call by the classroom on an evening to see if he might offer words of advice or a little time and tuition aside of lessons. With the Spring holiday on its way, and the impending exams beyond, some of those students were finding they didn't have a choice about this extra 'help' of course.

But for this Thursday evening, the Professor was preparing some extra homework and notes for a fifth year student who had missed a few lessons over the week and was cooped up in Tulojow's hut resting from illness. He would expect no lower standard of essay in return than their classmates who had been present, of course.

Seated at his desk at the head of the classroom, he looked up, quill in hand at a noise at the door, spying a figure had arrived.
"Stojanovic." He greeted plainly, no clear indication of whether he was pleased or irritated to see her. "Was I expecting you?" He asked out of courtesy, not recalling that he had called her for detention or anything the like.

"Come in, you're not interrupting much of importance." He beckoned her with the hand with the quill and then dropped it away beside the parchments, giving her his full attention as she entered the classroom proper.

It was just simply one of those days, she supposed. One of those days when nothing went according to plan. From the tea she spilled on her blouse at breakfast to tripping all the way down a rogue staircase before lunch, Mara's nerves were a bit frazzled. Perhaps that was why her performance in today's Defense Against the Dark Arts class had been as abysmal as it was. As was typical of her skill-set, Mara thrived on the theory of spells. She loved knowing how they came to be, who created them, and how they were created. Her only problem, of course, was actually casting them. This was exceptionally true of the Patronus charm, which was completely eluding her. It wasn't that she didn't understand how to cast the spell - that was the easy part. She just couldn't, apparently, find a memory happy enough to produce one (a corporeal Patronus, anyway). Or so she thought. It could be any factors of her own incompetence, really.

During today's lesson she felt that she was regressing instead of improving, which did nothing to improve her mood or her ability to cast the bloody spell. Usually she was close enough to almost see what her Patronus' form would take - she wasn't positive, but she thought it had wings - but today she was only able to conjure up small, pitiful wisps of light. Mara was no stranger to embarrassment (a familiar feeling to the shy), but today she had turned pink and felt tears well up in her eyes as her spell casting became weaker and weaker. She had all but raced out of the room to the girl's bathroom the second class had ended for the day.

After calming herself down and drying her tears, she returned to her room and pulled out various books that so much as mentioned the Patronus charm. She devoured the information, took diligent notes, and skipped dinner to practice in an empty classroom... to no avail.

"This is ridiculous," Mara all but whimpered, slamming her head into her hands. "Just solve the problem, Mara. What are you doing wrong? Figure it out."

About an hour later, her hair considerably more unruly than usual and her robes slightly disheveled, she decided that this was above her. She needed to figure out where exactly she was going wrong so that she could fix it. Swallowing up the fear and anxiety that she associated with asking professor's for help, she straightened her posture and headed to see Professor Storm. She had always been unsure of what to make of the man. Her feelings for him were somewhat neutral- she valued his expertise in his field, and wanted to learn everything he could teach her. Her own personal feelings (he wasn't nice, per say, but he wasn't mean, either) had no baring on his ability to teach, so she tried not to dwell on them. Regardless, she was very nervous approaching him unannounced for extra assistance.

"Stojanovic. Was I expecting you?"

Mara slowly shook her head, eyes cast towards the floor.

"Come in, you're not interrupting much of importance."

Breathing a sigh of relief, she willed herself to enter the office.

"I'm so sorry to bother you, Professor. I just... uhm... you probably noticed that I couldn't... that I can't..." she stammered, hands shaking. Pull yourself together! She willed.

"I was wondering, sir, if it isn't an inconvenience, if you could give me some pointers on casting my Patronus charm?" Mara finally managed, making (shaky) eye contact and attempting a smile. Great job, she thought angrily. Way to instill confidence in him that you're capable of performing this spell. How on Earth do you think you can cast a spell of this nature when you can barely make eye contact?

Stojanovic was suffering from a common complaint - inability to string a sentence together when commanding attention from the Hogwart's Defence Professor. It manifested well in first years, but reoccured quite out of the blue post-OWLs when the pressure of getting things right chased the heels of the students, and he piled on the pressure.

Still, he recognised it took some courage to seek him out on an evening, even if it was knowledge that he would prefer a visit to attend to matters of weakness, before he issued detentions to rectify matters that were being ignored, so he did not let his gaze drop as she stumbled.

"I see." The Professor replied, rather matter-of-factly, and set aside what he had been working on, sitting back in his chair at the classroom desk to consider things.

"You're not alone in knocking on the door and asking." He explained, gesturing to the classroom door behind Mara. "It's a strong preoccupation of your classmates - and of late, some of your professors." His gaze dropped just before he mentioned the Professors. The dementor business that was growing had led to an increase in queries about matters.

The Deputy Headmaster drew back his chair and stood up, straightening his dark academic robes which hung from his shoulders over a white shirt and black waistcoat, and slid his hands into his trouser pockets before taking slow, steady paces round the desk to join her on the classroom floor.

"Refresh my memory, what have you managed to achieve so far with your attempts?" He asked, coming to a stop a few feet from her, the good eight inches he had on her in height not helping to waylay an intimidating presence over the student who had stumbled on her words on the approach.

On listening to her account he nodded and asked the necessary follow-up question.
"And how are you preparing to cast?"



It took some time, and daresay some encouragement, from the Professor, but after a few more attempts and a some suggestions from the Professor, it was clear to see Mara was beginning to make some progress with the charm. It was pleasing to see her glee, though all too easily it could slip back into frustration if not kept in check. Small steps, less pressure, more fun was required, which was a little different to many defensive spells.

Glad of her progress, the Professor wished Stojanovic luck with her practice and suggested she seek him out again if required.

End