Chapter 245: The Mystery of the Patronus

Allen speculated that Mr. Weasley must have been drunk at the time, extracted many memories, and then let the Patronus learn from them, but how to make the Patronus learn, Allen was still a bit unsure.

However, Allen still decided to extract some memories to try first; he estimated that after trying a few more times, he would know how to do it.

He placed the tip of his wand on his temple, then searched through his memories; finally, he decided to just pick a random memory. A wisp of silver-white smoke soon appeared at the tip of his wand.

It was only then that Allen realized the appearance and composition of the extracted memory looked so much like the silver-white smoke that formed the Patronus!

Summoning a Patronus requires recalling happy, joyful memories and fully mobilizing one's emotions; could there be some connection here?

However, he could not ponder the connection in detail right now; he still needed to find a way to make the Patronus learn this wisp of memory.

Allen held this wisp of memory with his wand, feeling at a loss; he did not know what to do next, and this form of memory could not be maintained for long; this wisp of memory would soon dissipate.

At this moment, the jellyfish Patronus seemed attracted to this wisp of memory; it approached Allen, and a tentacle gently brushed across the wand, causing that wisp of memory to vanish without a trace.

Allen stared dumbfounded at this scene; he had not expected the method to be so simple and crude.

The Patronus, having devoured that wisp of memory, seemed somewhat unsatisfied; that sliver of memory had apparently been delicious to it.

The jellyfish Patronus looked straight at Allen, and Allen understood its meaning.

So Allen began extracting his memories again; this time, he specifically extracted some happy memories. After the jellyfish Patronus devoured these memories, its body became even more solid.

Its interaction with Allen also became more spiritual; it could understand Allen's words more quickly, and the information it conveyed to Allen became increasingly accurate.

Allen became even more delighted; although the sensation of extracting memories was unpleasant, he was still eager to continue.

However, he soon realized a serious problem: for instance, when Allen cast Qing Quan Zhou to summon spring water, the spring water he summoned each time was actually different; although it tasted the same, Allen knew that each time he summoned a different pool of spring water.

And since the Patronus was composed of silver-white smoke, he could not guarantee that the Patronus he summoned next time would be consistent inside, apart from its appearance.

Allen was worried that the Patronus he had painstakingly cultivated would disappear along with the dissolution of the spell; the next time he summoned it, it would still be that same Patronus with only faint intelligence. In that case, he would still have to research how to prevent the summoned Patronus from dissipating.

However, Allen suddenly thought of the ancient runic parameter "Number" in the Patronus Charm. At the time, he had wondered why such an ancient runic parameter existed, and every time he cast the Patronus Charm, the value corresponding to this parameter remained unchanged.

Combining today's events, he suddenly had an epiphany; he stopped extracting memories and then let the jellyfish Patronus dissipate into the air.

Then, after some preparation, he cast the Patronus Charm again; the silver-white smoke quickly formed a solid jellyfish Patronus.

Allen examined this jellyfish Patronus closely; its form looked very solid. Then, it happily circled around Allen. Allen tried to interact with it, and it did not seem to have only faint intelligence; it did not look like it had only faint intelligence at all.

Allen understood that the Patronuses he had summoned multiple times were actually the same one, and the strengthening effect he had achieved by feeding the jellyfish Patronus had been retained.

This result led him to make some conjectures: the Patronus is likely a life form of a peculiar shape, living in an unknown dimensional space. Wizards sign a contract with one of these Patronuses through the Patronus Charm, and then they can always summon that same Patronus through the Patronus Charm.

The fixed, unchanging value corresponding to the "Number" is the Patronus's "ID number," which is the key to summoning the same Patronus.

However, a Patronus of this form is not very meaningful to Allen. He can make a Patronus have relatively high intelligence, but having only one such Patronus is meaningless to him, because he seeks magical intelligence to control shapeshifters. Having just one more relatively intelligent shapeshifter is not very meaningful to him; in that case, it would be better to research how to separate more split consciousnesses from Yoderdo.

Immediately after, Allen realized there was a huge bug in this conjecture.

Mr. Weasley's magical car gained intelligence because it was a Patronus. Allen speculated that Mr. Weasley's Patronus, strengthened by memory magic, had merged with that magical car, and that magical car had been wandering in the Forbidden Forest for nearly two years.

If the Patronus summoned by a wizard is always the same one, then as soon as Mr. Weasley cast the Patronus Charm, wouldn't he have directly summoned the Patronus on the magical car back, causing the magical car to instantly lose its intelligence?

Even if Mr. Weasley's Patronus, because it had merged with that magical car, could resist the summoning of Mr. Weasley's Patronus Charm, then Mr. Weasley would lose the ability to summon a Patronus through the Patronus Charm.

Yet when visiting the Burrow, Allen had clearly seen Mr. Weasley send messages back through his Patronus several times, which showed that Mr. Weasley could still summon a Patronus normally.

This made Allen fall into deep thought once again; could one summon multiple different Patronuses?

However, it seemed one really could. Allen quickly recalled the records about the Patronus Charm in the books he had read.

Some wizards, after encountering major upheavals, would find that the form summoned by the Patronus Charm changed, or even that they lost the ability to summon a complete Patronus.

These examples were quite common in magical history; Allen had read many such records.

If that were the case, then Mr. Weasley's situation would be easy to explain.

On the night the magical car gained intelligence, Mr. Weasley was in a state of drunkenness from drinking brandy. Under those circumstances, Mr. Weasley likely summoned a brand new Patronus. After the brand new Patronus merged with a large amount of Mr. Weasley's memories, it became increasingly intelligent. The brand new Patronus merged with the magical car in an unknown form.

After Mr. Weasley sobered up, he forgot how to summon that brand new Patronus, but he could still summon his original Patronus.