This week has been an exciting one for Harry Potter fans as J.K. Rowling has finally given us the tools (or rather, the quiz) to figure out what our patronuses are. Finally, after over a decade of waiting, Potterheads are finally able to know what they would see if they were to raise their wands and shout, "Expecto Patronum" to banish dementors. The fandom seems to be at odds, however, when it comes to the overall acceptance of their patronus forms. A good half of the fandom is pleased, in some cases over the moon, with their results. Meanwhile, the other half feels disappointed or even cheated by theirs. After all, who really wants to see a silvery field mouse or a silky salmon show up to chase off the soul sucking dementors. What type of power does a duck or a rat have over such horrible creatures?

In all honesty, who cares! It's not the shape of the patronus that gives it it's power. The strength of the patronus lies with the witch or wizard who conjured it. Its strength lies in the happiness and the memories make up the patronus. The animal it resembles makes it look cool but it also reflects the conjurer. That's not to say that if Pottermore says your patronus is a duck that you automatically resemble a duck in some way, shape, or form. It's the power behind the patronus that matters, not whatever form it takes.

The main purpose of a patronus is the drive away dementors. Perhaps the most poignant example of this is the scene from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban where Harry and Sirius are at the edge of the forest near the black lake and are surrounded by dementors. It is the strength of Harry's patronus that saves them, not the fact that his patronus takes the form of a stag. The strength of Harry's patronus drove off the dementors, a strength that stemmed from Harry's personal happiness.

J.K. Rowling has said upon many occasion that the dementors are an analogy for depression. If you take that statement and couple it with the fact that a patronus is formed from happy memories and joy, what you end up with is happiness overcoming depression. That is 100% not to say that to cure or overcome depression all you have to do is be happy. It's nowhere near that simple. For example, look at Harry's first attempts to conjure a patronus. Even though Harry was recalling happy memories and feelings of joy, his patronus was not strong enough to banish the dementor/bogart. Some memories just aren't strong enough on their own to beat out depression.

You also can't ignore the fact that in the scene with the dementors by the lake, Harry and Sirius were near the dark forest and the black lake. The dark forest and the black lake. Depression is often described as a dark or black cloud hovering around or over an individual. Harry's patronus illuminated their surroundings and drove out the dementors. The light banished the dark and the light was formed from happy memories, joy and courage. It took an immense amount of courage for (future) Harry to walk out onto the black lake, to walk into the midst of depression, and to summon a shred of happiness and joy in hopes of chasing away the darkness.

Here's the thing though; everyone has their own dark forest or black lake. Everyone has their own areas where depression dwells. For me, mine are the days surrounding my mom's birthday and the days surrounding the day she died. The days leading up to September 24 and those leading up to November 28 might as well be holidays for dementors. No matter how hard I try, I can never fully escape the darkness of those days. I can never find a powerful enough memory to banish the looming fog that surrounds me. On those days, I wouldn't be able to conjure a patronus because in all honesty, even the happiest of memories hurt instead of help during those days. I'm sitting here like I have been for the past five years, bracing myself to face Mom's birthday without her. No memory in the world could change that.

But even on those days, when everything is against me, I stay close to my dark forest, close to my black lake, because running from them does not change the fact that they're there. Everyone has their own dark forest and everyone has their own patronus. The key is to never wander into the forest without the light the patronus can bring. Don't wander into the darkness and forget about the happiness, the hope, the light, that is at your fingertips. After all, "happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."