Weasley Swamp
 

for Chellie
 

<33
 

Weasley Swamp was an... interesting selection of where to meet, but at this stage Evan was used to Margaret's eclectic study settings. What he was not used to? Being wholly unprepared for the subject in which they would be practicing.

Evan knew probably about as much as he could from reading about the Patronus charm, people's first hand accounts of what it felt like to cast the charm for the first time and how they felt seeing the form it took. He also probably could have recited a full list of patronuses from the greats of History, from Harry Potter, to the Marauders, to even some of the old Headmasters and Headmistresses. But what he couldn't do? Cast one. That required a powerful memory, and... he had yet to find one strong enough. He was hoping he could coach Margaret through hers based on the recounts he'd read, but he was equally hoping she wouldn't want to see him try. Not unless he established something that could work as a memory.

Making his way down the corridor, hands shoved in the pockets of his dark blue jeans and his converse making a soft thud in the otherwise silent hall, he made his way to the meeting spot, spotting Margaret sitting and waiting for him. He moved his hands, giving a small wave as he approached, his baggy red flannel sleeve falling backwards on his arm and revealing some of the tattoo options he'd been practicing on himself. "Hey." He greeted, finally within range. "How's it going?"

Margaret stopped twirling her wand when she heard footsteps. A quick glance told her it was just Evan, but you could never be certain and she didn't want to chance being startled and her wand landing in the swamp.

And now that thought had occurred to her, she was wondering if this was actually a terrible place to practice.

"Hi," she replied, ungracefully getting to her feet. "Good? I guess? Everything's better this term, without O.W.L.s looming," she said, leaving out the part where everything was simultaneously worse because Blake wasn't here. She smiled, pushing that thought away and focusing on the fact that Evan was here. She vaguely noticed the doodles on his arm. "What's that?" she asked, gesturing.

Evan was terrible at keeping in contact with people, but he certainly missed Blake and their soccer playing out on the pitch. He was also back to having to watch his sister's solely on his own, and the idea that someone else had also been keeping an eye out to play big brother had also been nice. With his missing him though, he couldn't even imagine how Margaret and Ash must have felt.

"Is it weird I kind of miss OWLs looming?" Yes. But he somehow figured Margaret might not have been surprised by the admission either. Hearing the question, he pushed up his sleeve a little further and held out his arm for her to see. "My 17th is just around the corner and I want to get a tattoo. I was just using the tattoo charm to try out some placements and designs. They're all terrible, aren't they?" He wasn't overly fond of any of them. But his also artistic ability was no where near 'permanently on skin' level. "Have you been thinking on what to use for your memory?"

"Yes," Margaret said bluntly. "That's very weird." Not surprising, but definitely not normal, in her opinion. He was welcome to ask someone else for their opinion, though.

She leaned in to get a better look at the tattoo sketches. Given her own lack of artistic ability, she was inclined to be less judgmental about this than about the missing OWLs. "I like that one," she said, tapping it briefly. "You should ask Ashley for ideas though-- she's good at that stuff." As well as plenty of other stuff, like books and flying and honesty.

She fidgeted with her wand a bit, looking down at their feet. "Um, yeah, I have some ideas. They're...well, some of them are good enough for like, the little foggy bits of a patronus," she said, shrugging. The memories she used most frequently were all family related, usually from before her parents' divorce. "I think it needs to be something different, though, right? Like, find a really good one and that'll always work?" She frowned. "If a memory isn't enough the first time I try it, does that mean it'll never be good enough?" she asked Evan, figuring he would know these things.

He definitely didn't feel the need to ask anyone else's opinion, he felt quite certain their response would have mimicked that of Mamie's. He gave a small chuckle and a shrug of his shoulders. "I guess we'll see how I eat those words next year." Although... with no real direction of where he wanted to take his life, he wasn't feeling as stressed about those. That could present a problem later.

He looked at the one she indicated, tilting his arm to see it at a different angle, before nodding. "It's not bad. It would look much better from an actual artist. I will ask Ash though." Because yes. she definitely would have far better artistic suggestions. He couldn't think of anyone else better equipped to offer advice in that area.

Wisps were a good start. "So you can already do a non-corpreal patronus? That's good." And having a start on the memories was good. Margaret's question though... Evan blinked at her for a moment, trying to not look as unsure as he currently felt. That was... a really good question, and he was browsing through everything he'd ever read in his mind trying to determine an answer. "I'm not 100%, but I think you could use the same memory if your attachment to it were to change." What was it Remus Lupin was quoted to having said about the memories? "I think the important thing was you were supposed to be able to put everything into your memory for the form of your patronus that is things a dementor would lack. Warmth, hope, joy, love. Those types of things."

"Yes? I have before, I can't...always do it," Margaret admitted, shrugging. It had been very exciting, that first time she'd conjured the wispy light. But, it was really not useful. Wisps weren't very good company, and couldn't carry a message, and probably would last 0.5 seconds in the presence of a real, actual, scary dementor, so...she wanted the real thing. The full patronus. A shiny, glowy animal to protect her.

She tilted her head as she waited for his answer...then tried to comprehend it. "That's a lot of things to have in one memory," she said, not really thinking about how potentially sad that sounded. She had plenty of memories with one or two of those things, warmth and love, hope and joy, hope and warmth, etc., but all the good feelings, together? She scrunched her nose, trying to think of a good memory. Of her best memory.

"I think...camping," she finally said. Yes. Camping, last summer. That was her best memory. "Do you think that'll work?" she asked, oblivious to the fact that she'd given Evan zero context, absolutely no description of what the memory actually was, just the one word she associated with it. She'd been on plenty of camping trips, but this latest one...definitely the best. Definitely the first one that would come to mind in a word association.