The silver mist of light lasted only a short time.
Will could feel his reserves of joy draining rapidly. The pleasure those memories brought was a drop in the ocean when casting on such a vast scale. Soon, the silver gradually faded from the glowing mist, replaced by a deep gray-black.
As time passed, the gray-black mist began to envelop the village, drawing out and extinguishing the joy within it.
By devouring the villagers' joy, the Patronus Charm began to sustain its silver-gray color again. This lasted for quite some time, about an hour.
Will hovered in the air, surveying the situation.
As he passed what looked like the finest house in the village, he saw the man of the house leisurely drinking beer and watching television. Once the black mist spread through the room, however, the man suddenly put down his glass and stared blankly at the fire.
His face showed not just sadness, but a kind of emptiness, the bewilderment of someone whose life had been stripped of all meaning. His eyes were vacant, as though he had lost his soul...
Several other households were in even worse shape.
One family on the edge of the village was gathered around the fireplace, sharing amusing stories from their day. A little boy who looked only a few years old was playing with a wooden toy car by the windowsill.
A slightly older boy and girl were gathered around their father by the fireplace, listening to a story.
"After Cinderella's mother died..."
The room had been warm and cheerful, but the little boy by the windowsill suddenly felt a chill.
The older boy and girl also suddenly began to sob. They could not explain why; they simply felt that "everything was awful."
Their father, who had been smiling just