Silent Surprises

Seeker? For breaking the rules? Hermione probably things I’ve gotten expelled or something.

Harry Potter walked down the corridor from Professor McGonagall’s office towards the Great Hall. He was rather confused about what had just happened. After leading him to her office, she had started yelling at him about how he could have gotten himself killed or injured and then suddenly said ‘you flew very well for never being on a broom before. You have talent quite like your father. I believe that we may have a spot for you as seeker for the Gryffindor quidditch team.’ She then left for a while and came back with a fifth year who was the captain of the team who looked like he could start dancing when told that he was the seeker. He then explained the game to Harry, who would have to clarify some things first.

And speaking of Hermione, here she comes now.

Hermione was storming down the hall towards him, with a worried expression on her face.

“What happened? Were you expelled? Detention? What? Malfoy didn’t even get in trouble! Well?” she quickly shot at him.

Harry was surprised she could speak so fast and he could still understand her.

“I’m not in trouble at all,” he said. “In fact, I was made seeker of the Gryffindor quidditch team.”

“WHAT? But first years are not allowed to play. It was in our letters and you don’t even have a broom.”

Harry shrugged. That was true. He didn’t have a broom and hadn’t asked about one.

They entered the Great Hall and headed for their table. As they passed the Slytherin table, someone, Malfoy probably, said something, which he missed. He gave Hermione a questioning look but she just shook her head and sat down. They ate without any conversation and headed back to the common room to work on their homework before it was time to go to Professor Dumbledore’s office. When he opened his bag to get out his books, he found a note from Dumbledore giving the specifics of where to meet. He was to go to his office at eight and make sure to bring his wand and book. The password to get into his office was ‘Bernie Bott’s’ When he looked at Hermione he noticed she had a note too and when she looked at him, nodded.

They started working on their potions essay that was due the next class period. It was about the uses of moonstones in potion making. Harry didn’t know what it’s uses were, so he had to look it up, which took a while. When he finished the essay, he checked his watch and found that it was almost time to go. He put up his things and ran up to his room to get his book and went back down to the common room to get Hermione.

He found her ready to go, waiting by the portrait hole.

“Let’s go,” she said, and they headed out the door. They walked quickly through the halls to Professor Dumbledore’s office. At the statue of the gargoyle, Hermione gave the password and they stepped onto the moving staircase. They knocked at the oak door and Hermione opened it after someone obviously said enter. Inside the office, they found Professor Dumbledore sitting behind his desk, looking at them expectantly. On the desk was a stone basin. It had rather odd makings around the edges and he some weird liquid in it, or so Harry thought.

They sat down in the two chairs indicated.

“Well, I hope you have read from the books I gave you.” Professor Dumbledore said. At their nods, he continued. “So you know the basics about silent, or nonverbal casting. Concentration is key to this mainly when you first begin to learn it. Hermione have you tried it yet?”

“I tried as hard as I could but just couldn’t get it Professor,” she said.

“I thought so. I must tell you, this will not be easy. Many adult witches and wizards cannot do this. However it is essential for Harry. But there is the problem of you not knowing what the incantation is supposed to sound like in the first place.

“Your wand is what makes magic easy to do. It focuses what you have in you and emits the magic. It is not necessary to say the incantation aloud. It is just an easy way to remember what you want to do. To do it nonverbally, you must will that magic to go to your wand and out of it.

“Miss Granger, would you please try to cast ‘wingardium leviosa’ nonverbally. Think about what I just told you.”

Hermione took out her wand and Professor Dumbledore made a feather with his wand. Hermione’s face contorted with the concentration until the feather suddenly lifted off the desk. It fell back down when Hermione yelled out “I did it”. Professor Dumbledore had a smile on his face as Hermione lowered her wand.

“Very good Miss Granger. I knew that would help you with it. Now for Harry. You do not know how to say the incantation. You know how it is spelled, yet phonetics would not help you very much. At best, you could come close on some spells, but not many.

“But there is a loophole to this. You can hear your thoughts. There is a certain field in magic called Occlumency. It, along with Legilimency, deals with thoughts and what Muggles would call ‘mind reading’. We will deal more with them later. But used with this is a special object. This is called a Pensive. It allows you to extract thoughts and view them. Since it is all in your head, you can hear them.

“What I plan to do is acquire two pensives for you and Miss Granger. I will teach Miss Granger how to extract he thoughts about each lesson and she will place them in a Pensive. I guess she will also teach you, but that does not really matter. Right now, I am going to extract my thoughts about how to use windgardium leviosa.”

Professor Dumbledore placed the tip of his wand to his temple and pulled it away. Attached to it was a silvery strand of something. He let it fall into the Pensive and it settled into the liquid inside it and swam around.

“Now, even though you can hear the incantation properly, it does not mean that you will immediately be able to do it. Miss Granger has an advantage over you in that she had practice with the spell beforehand. Do not be surprised if it takes several days to perfect each spell while it may only take Miss Granger one or two.

“Also, the Pensive I will give you is portable, so it can be taken with you to each class and after the beginning of the lesson, Miss Granger can extract the memory for your use. The memory put into the Pensive is only a copy, so she will be able to continue work. It will take a while for you and your classmates to get used to you using the Pensive, as I will show you now.

“A Pensive is simple to use. All you have to do is touch it and you will be transported into the memory. Your real self blanks out while you are viewing the memory, and after it is over, you have to will yourself to come out.

“It is best to put your face into the Pensive. Although it looks like a liquid, you will not drown in it. Harry, if you would.”

He indicated to the Pensive on the desk and he stood up feeling very stupid. Stick your face into it? He leaned over it and saw the swirling bit of silver before he touched it and suddenly he was thrown into a memory.

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Well, you finally find out what Harry would learn. Next chapter will be very short, dealing with the memory and later that night, so don’t get your hopes up for a long one. After that chapter, things will speed up a bit, with larger chunks between major events. A review said that I was following to book almost exactly, which is my plan until sixth year, where I will come up with my own version of how Harry defeats Voldemort. Until then, review please.