Su Er held the Resurrection Stone, thinking of Ariana. He took a deep breath and gently flicked his wand.
"Expecto Patronum!"
At the same time, Dumbledore drew his wand and recited the incantation for the Patronus Charm.
Unlike the silver threads rippling out of Su Er's wand tip, Dumbledore's Patronus Charm produced a hazy cloud of silver mist. It had no shape, yet it filled the entire room.
If anyone looked toward the Hospital Wing's windows from outside the Castle.
They would see silver light flickering inside the windows.
Snape's expression remained unchanged, but intense anticipation lay hidden in his eyes, while Su Er once again felt what he had felt when he first summoned Ariana into reality.
The silver threads coalesced into a little badger, which leaped nimbly through the mist before swiftly breaking apart. More and more threads appeared, beginning to swirl around Su Er and Dumbledore.
Magic surged down his arm and into his wand. Because it was moving too quickly, Su Er's ruddy face suddenly turned slightly pale.
Just as he felt he could no longer keep going, a large hand gently settled on his shoulder.
Even more powerful magic poured in through his shoulder.
Then flowed out through his wand.
The curtains screening the hospital beds began to ripple.
A mysterious power flowed silently out of the Resurrection Stone, gathering in the middle of the room into the transparent form of a girl wearing robes. But the girl's eyes remained tightly shut.
Neither Dumbledore nor Snape reacted, as though no one besides Su Er could see the fourth person who had silently appeared in the room. No, the fourth ghost?
The girl with her eyes tightly shut was naturally Ariana. The mist and silver threads that had drained most of Su Er's magic and drifted