Secrets and the Patronus Charm

"Fred, George?"

Ginny's face filled with panic, and she let out a terrified shriek. But Fred reacted quickly and clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Keep it down, Ginny. Filch's nearby!" George hurriedly said.

"What are you doing here?" Ginny whispered frantically. Her heart was pounding so hard it felt as though it might leap out of her little chest!

When did they appear beside me?

Did they see me talking to the Diary?

Those two questions kept echoing in her mind. Ginny felt like a prisoner dragged onto the executioner's block, waiting for her executioners, George and Fred, to speak and swing their axes, separating her from the Diary!

But neither of them mentioned the Diary.

"Sorry we scared you." Fred slowly let go of her and smiled. "We'll explain later. Come with us, quick!"

Without waiting for an answer, the two of them pulled Ginny out of the Trophy Room and headed off down the corridor. As they walked, Ginny heard a shrill voice drawing closer.

"It's Filch-the caretaker at Hogwarts. He's probably the most annoying person in the whole school," Fred explained quietly in her ear. "Oh, and Snape."

"If he catches us, we're in trouble. Professor McGonagall will dock us points, though honestly, that's no big deal. But detention and writing apologies would be terribly boring," George said. "Luckily, he hasn't caught us once since our first year. Right, Fred?"

"Exactly!" Looking smug, Fred led Ginny to a statue of a witch. By now, she could hear that the caretaker called Filch seemed very close. He might catch them as soon as he rounded the corner!

"Then what do we do?" Ginny was no longer as panicked as before. Fred and George had certainly frightened her, but that was because she had thought they had discovered her conversations with the Diary.

"We have a secret weapon, of course!" Fred proudly drew his wand and tapped the one-eyed witch on the head twice. "Dissendium!"

The next instant, before Ginny's astonished eyes, the statue split down the middle, revealing a pitch-black secret passage.

"Get in, quick!"

The three of them immediately scrambled inside, and the statue slowly closed behind them.

"Lumos!"

"Let's wait here for a bit." Neither Fred nor George suggested going any farther down the passage.

"Where does this passage lead?"

"Nowhere. It's blocked up ahead," Fred lied, trying to sound casual.

Although he was delighted that his sister wasn't as boring as Percy, and was even much better than Ron, telling her about a secret passage out of the school in her first year wasn't a good idea.

Fortunately, Ginny had other things on her mind, so she didn't suspect them at all.

"How did you find me?" At last, she asked the question that concerned her most.

"Honestly, we saw you as soon as you left the tower," George said.

"You were following me the whole time?" Ginny's eyes widened!

If that was true, wouldn't they have noticed her occasionally writing to Mr. Riddle in the Diary?

"Of course not! We're not that bored," Fred immediately denied. "Actually, we were planning to have a look around the Forbidden Forest. But halfway there, we noticed you were about to get caught by Filch, so we came to rescue you. Right, George?"

"Exactly." George smiled and nodded.

"But how did you know Filch and I were here?"

"That's our secret!" Fred and George exchanged a knowing look and laughed together. "For now, we're not planning to share it with anyone.

"Not even you, Ginny." "A secret..." Ginny eyed them searchingly, but neither twin gave in. "Fine. I'm used to it anyway. Besides, who doesn't have secrets?"

As she spoke, she unconsciously hugged the Diary more tightly to her chest.

Fred and George didn't notice her little movement. Instead, they laughed. "Come off it, Ginny. Yours hardly counts as a secret! Practically everyone in the family knows you fancy Harry."

"Except little Ronnie!" George added.

"You're right. Except little Ronnie. He really is a kid who never grows up." Fred shook his head as he laughed.

At that, Ginny's face immediately flushed red.

Surprisingly, though, she wasn't angry. Instead, she felt relieved and rather pleased with herself. You'll probably never know what my real secret is!

A little while later, when Ginny wasn't looking, Fred took out the Marauder's Map, gave it a quick glance, then put it away again.

"All right, let's go. Filch's on the sixth floor now. Peeves is with him, probably causing him trouble," he said gleefully.

"What? But how do you know?"

"We told you, it's a secret. And a secret is something-you can't tell anyone!" George opened the entrance to the passage. Sure enough, there was no one outside. "Oh, and this passage is a secret too. Don't tell anyone about it. I don't want this place turning into the Gryffindor common room."

"You two won't tell me your secrets, but you want me to keep them for you?"

"Don't forget why we're here-to save you. Otherwise, you'd have been done for!"

"You'd definitely have been expelled!"

"Fine. I don't want to be ungrateful," Ginny said helplessly.

Then the three of them returned to the tower together.

The Fat Lady wasn't at all surprised to see them. "Password, children."

"Honeycreeper."

Back in her dormitory, Ginny climbed into bed as quietly as she could, trying not to wake her roommates. She had wanted to talk to Mr. Riddle about the Special Award for Services to the School and everything else that had happened that night, but before she could even pick up her quill, drowsiness washed over her, leaving her head swimming. In the end, she only managed to hastily write, "Good night," before her head dropped onto the pillow and she fell asleep.

"Good night. Sweet dreams, Ginny."

After writing his reply, Cyrus went back to studying spells.

Talented though the young Voldemort had been, his experience and knowledge were still too limited. There were also certain spells he didn't know.

The Patronus Charm.

To cast this spell successfully, the caster had to focus on the happiest memory they could recall. Sadly, Voldemort, who didn't know what love was, naturally couldn't understand happiness either.

Of course, with Voldemort's abilities, knowing this spell or not made no difference.

But Cyrus still hoped to learn it.

The Patronus Charm was very useful for defending against dark magic and resisting dark creatures. Driving away Dementors was only a small part of what it could do.