Starry skies and Gardenias

Chapter 78

As the crowd trooped into the castle, Isabella slipped off and headed straight to the Room of Requirement. She felt that was the best place to be at the moment. 

She walked thrice across the wall and entered the room, the door vanishing behind her as it shut. 

She was in a small library, with books on one topic, just as she had asked. 

She wanted to read about Patronuses. After knowing that Harry could conjure on in his third year itself, Isabella wanted to give it a try. 

And she found this spell very frustrating. 

There wasn't a single spell Isabella couldn't do. She got almost all of the spells right on her very first try, and on her second or third try, she would be able to do it nonverbally and wandlessly. 

But the Patronus charm, it simply didn't work for her. Not even the non-corporeal charm. 

The only thing she could produce so far was that feeble wisp of silver that vanished in an instant.

Isabella put her broom away on a little table and pulled her wand out. 

She took a deep breath and tried to think of a happy memory. 

When she had won her first-ever Quidditch match. It was an incredible feeling, knowing that the end result of the game depended on her and she could win the game for her team.

Isabella raised her wand, the words on the tip of her tongue, when she thought of something else.

. . .Quidditch was the first-ever thing she had ever lost at.

She shook her head and raised her wand again. She would think about that day, then. She had just won the Quidditch Cup for the third year in the row and it was incredible. . .

"Expecto Patronum," she said clearly, moving her wand. 

The same wisp of silver slid out of her wand and then vanished into the air. 

Isabella huffed in frustration and stuffed the wand into her robes before moving to the bookshelves. She had to find out why she couldn't do it. 

Was it her wand? Ollivander did say that wands made of Elder were a bit tough to use. . .But she had been using it fine for all these years. It worked perfectly for her. It couldn't be her wand.

Was it her memory then? Was it not happy enough?. . .But she didn't have any happier memories. They were all the same. 

What about the time she got her Hogwarts letter?.  . .Well, she wasn't exactly happy, she was trying to remember what she had forgotten. 

Or when she visited Hogwarts for the first time?. . .She was a bit anxious, she could hardly classify that as a happy memory?

What about memories of her family?. . .Well, that was going to be a nice, sweet little reminded that her mother was dead, and her paternal grandparents hate her. . .But she did have nice memories. With her mum and dad, playing in the rain. . .

Isabella sighed. It all led to her thinking about her mum passing away. This wasn't helping.

Maybe the unicorns, then? 

Feeling confident, Isabella stopped in her tracks and pulled her wand out. 

"Expecto Patronum," she said loudly. 

Nothing but that little silver smoke. 

"Expecto Patronum!" she cried. 

It still didn't work. In fact, it seemed to get weaker.