Darius stood at the centre of the stage and glanced around at the crowd of students milling about. It was testament to how horrifying the dementors were that nearly half the student population turned up on a weekend, just to learn how to fight them off. Let's just hope that as many as possible had the necessary skill level to learn the spell.

Darius decided to teach them in the same manner he taught his group of DA members. There were already four in his group with corporeal Patronuses and a few more with the non-corporeal one.

“The Patronus is a kind of Anti-Dementor – a guardian which acts as a shield between you and the Dementor. It’s also a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the Dementor feeds upon – hope, happiness, the desire to survive – but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the Dementors can’t hurt it.

There are two types of Patronuses; corporeal, which means a Patronus with a particular shape and form and non-corporeal Patronus. Non-corporeal Patronuses have no particular shape and do not actively protect against dementors the way corporeal Patronuses do.

The ability to cast a corporeal or non-corporeal Patronus is down to the skill of the witch or wizard. Each Patronus is unique to the witch or wizard who conjures it, and it’s possible, in some cases, for a Patronus to change.

To successfully cast the spell, one begins by mustering the happiest memory they can think of; the happier the memory, the better the charm will work. Alternatively, one could imagine a scenario that would make for a very happy memory. The next step is to begin drawing circles with their wand so as to increase the power of their spell. They must then say the incantation, Expecto Patronum; the Patronus will come from the tip of the wand and can be directed towards a target by pointing one's wand at said target.”

So far, what I’ve said is the basic gist of what the spell is all about, at least according to the books. But I’ve a few observations of my own that I’d like to share.

The Patronus charm is a light magic, no doubt about that. But what makes it so? It’s not the fact that is like silver light of course, but the fact that it is powered by positive emotions. Most magic is neutral in nature. It is when strong emotions or mental strength come into play that you have light and dark magic. Dark magic, the Avada Kedavra for instance requires one to really kill the opponent. To wish their death with no mercy and it is these feelings that allow one to cast it. The Patronus on the other hand is fed with positive emotions and memories. According to many, including me, love is the strongest emotion of all. So, if the memory you use contains love, it is much more likely to be successful and stronger than other Patronuses.

What I’m trying to say is, instead of using memories like winning the Quidditch cup or something else inane like that, use happy and loved memories of your family, imagine marrying the girl/boy you marry, the love you have for you siblings and then power the spell with it. I guarantee it will give much better results than any other regular memory.

Now BEGIN!”

With that, the students reacted and started taking up positions. Half the students were to go to one side of the hall and wait for their turn while the others formed up in lines with ample space between them, kind of like in the apparition exams, and begin trying the spell. They would practice for a while and then switch with the waiting students. The Patronus was a tiring charm and they wouldn’t be able to practice for long anyway.

The DA members who could cast corporeal Patronuses, Neville with a lion, Harry with stag, Hermione with otter and Luna with her hare, moved with the teachers among the rest of the students to help them along. But the rest of the DA members had to circle up around the duelling stand and continue to practice their Patronus. After all, if the rest of the schools is getting taught the spell and it wouldn’t do to let them fall behind now, would it?

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Students in the hall had started practising the spell and Darius just hoped that as many people as possible learnt it. He himself found dementors extremely distasteful. Every extra person on their side that could cast the Patronus was another person who could hold them off. Even a non-corporeal Patronus was better than nothing. At least it would hold off the dementor until more help arrived.

The professors moved swiftly from student to student, offering them advice, correcting their wand movement and so on and so forth. The DA members followed their cue and got to work immediately. They also began relaying their own experiences of learning the spell to make it easier for them. That sped up the process by a lot. It was always simpler to learn from peers than any other way.

Here and there, a few silver wisps were visible as people started to get the hang of it. It was heartening to see so many people working at it but Darius was still worried, it was a lot different when you are trying to cast the spell when faced by an actual dementor. Even he had had a bit of a problem when he first faced the dementor on the train. Maybe it would be a good idea to practice a bit with dementor simulacrums in the RoR. There he could face the actual debilitating presence of the dementors without any true risk. He would also be equipped to handle whatever memories came his way to torment him if he did so beforehand.

An hour was up and about a quarter of the students were at least able to cast the silvery vapour form of the Patronus. Wouldn’t charge at the dementors but enough to buy someone time for reinforcements. And a quarter of the students was an impressive number. Guess, the desire to avoid any of the dementors effects were a good driving force.

The next batch switched in and started the same pattern of training as the previous. The Patronus was not a weak spell by any menas and took a lot out of someone. It was necessary to rest for a bit after casting it for close to an hour. Thank god they weren’t training with an actual dementor or a boggart-turned-dementor or they would have to give out chocolate by the pounds.

The second group performed similarly. The DA group could all do the Patronus shield but Daphne managed a corporeal for the first time. Her Patronus was in the form of a graceful swan and nearly all the students in the hall turned to look at the graceful creature fly around her vicinity before disappearing silently. Daphne was overjoyed and she did it two more times just to prove it to herself. She was sent on helping detail after that and she joined up with Harry, Hermione, Luna and Neville in trying to help the other students with their Patronus.

Professor McGonagall helped Ginny to produce her Patronus which turned out to be a horse. Lupin helped Seamus to send out his fox and Ernie MacMillan managed his boar on his own. It was impressive display all around from the junior students but one of the drawbacks was that none of them could keep it up for more than a couple of minutes before they drained their magical cores. But impressive nonetheless. The older students, especially those sixth and seventh years had it much easier. Their magical powers were much higher, allowing them to practice for longer periods and cast the spell more easily. Quite a few, maybe about half, got the non-corporeal Patronus within the first day with about half a dozen getting the corporeal one.

All in all, it was a huge success. We had prepared a good number of students for dementors and if a few of them got together, Darius was sure they could send the dementors fleeing easily. The professors were pleased as punch as well. They had always been against dementors in such close quarters to children and seeing the children learning to defend themselves would at least alleviate some of the worry.

In fact, according to Professor McGonagall, Darius’ teaching methods were praiseworthy and could be considered as teaching material, especially the last part about how emotions played a role in the magic. Even several Aurors on active duty have trouble with this spell and the Professor talked about seeing if she couldn’t have a memory of the class sent over to the Aurors as reference material.

Darius was all for it. Nothing could be better than using the knowledge to enable more people to fight off those soul-sucking creeps. He gave McGonagall full permission to send it ahead to the Ministry’s Auror department.

The open lesson finally finished just before lunch and the tired students trooped out to their dorms to freshen up. The Patronus was not an easy charm and the students had been undergoing the gruelling practice for hours now. The elves popped up and put the Great Hall back to rights, just before it was lunch time.

The professors were happy with the results but it wasn’t enough. Darius talked it over with them and another DA lesson was scheduled for the following weekend. It would be the same as today and everybody hoped even more people would be able to learn the Patronus.