Chapter Number: 16
Chapter Name: The Nutcracker
Harry grabbed his floating wand and put it in his right pocket. He then turned to Ron and Hermione, who were mildly mortified at what Harry's wand had done. " Wh-What the hell was that?" asked Hermione.
" It's like this..." Harry looked at Hermione in the face and said, " Last year after I came back from the resurrection of Vold... sorry... You-Know-Who, Professor Dumbledore cast a spell on it."
" What spell? I want the name and people who..." asked Hermione before getting interrupted by Harry.
" Calm down, Hermione. I don't know the correct spell but it was ancient magic." This got a gasp from both Ron and Hermione. They didn't think anyone existed who could perform ancient magic. "... Well anyway...The spell now makes the wand try to come to me, wherever it is, if I'm in the same room as it is, but I don't have the wand with me."
Hermione was reassured at those words. For the first time since the small explosion Hermione realized that the whole room was covered in small bit of clothing. Harry saw that she was visibly upset about the condition of the room so he offered to help. " Hermione... Here..." said Harry as he waved his wand and said, " Tidus ap'ris"
All the clothes that were in one piece quickly arranged themselves in a neat pile while the damaged clothes started to gather in one spot near the mangled trunk. " Reparo" this time, a bright white light shot out of the wand and repaired the clothes.
Harry could feel himself losing magical strength as he repaired more and clothes. He knew he was tired from his journey and as such would not be able to fix Hermione's mangled trunk.
" You think you can do it? I'm feeling a bit weak now" asked Harry turning towards Hermione.
" Ok." Hermione pushed up her glasses up her nose bridge, an action that she had picked up by watching Harry do it too many times. The top student at Hogwarts didn't take long to do it at all. When Hermione finished putting away the clothes, Malfoy barged into the room.
' I should have had done the locking charm,' thought Hermione looking at Ron. He looked disappointed that his locking charm hadn't been that good.
" Potter. I see you're still hanging around with Mudbloods and the poverty stricken... Oh I see the Mudblood needs glasses now... First it was the big teeth and now glasses, what's next...adult diapers."
Malfoy and his gang laughed at his joke. Ron was very unhappy, well, that would be an understatement of the same category as calling Voldemort bad. He was about to jump on Malfoy when Harry grabbed his collar and motioned Hermione towards Malfoy. She had an evil smirk on her face and quite unlike herself she started to walk up to Malfoy. Normally should not be like that. But it was almost as if Harry's encouragement had made her like that. Hermione said, " Get out, Malfoy, before you really regret it."
Coolness of her voice surprised Ron. " And what if I don't? Mudblood?" The last part he said like he was spitting out venom.
" That's it." said Ron and attempted to get away from Harry, but he had enough physical strength to restraint Ron. " Simmer down Ron. She's not as defenseless as you think. Just watch." With that he turned back to Hermione, his eyes emanating confidence.
Hermione said " Just this..." before she kicked Malfoy in the groin. Pain unlike any other Malfoy had experienced before went through his body forcing him to double over on to his knees. She followed through by punching his face once and just when he opened his mouth to scream in pain she put her wand tip right inside his mouth.
" I don't know about you Malfoy..." said Hermione with an evil smile, "... but I've always wandered what would happen if I released a jet of hot water inside a person's mouth. If you don't want the find out, I suggest you leave the compartment immediately."
The other four Slytherins were too shocked to do anything. They were afraid that Hermione was going to turn her attention to them soon. When she didn't and walked away with her back fully turned towards them Harry could see their tiny brains thinking if they should attack Hermione from the back. But they forgot all about it when they saw the look on Harry's face. They knew about the incident with the Nundu.
Between the two of them, they had just enough intelligence to know that they should not mess with the friends of a person who had single-handedly took on one of the most ferocious creatures in the magical world and lived to talk about it. Crabbe and Goyle walked up to Draco's body, which was still writhing from the kick in the groins after a full minute and dragged it out of the compartment.
Ron was very surprised at how Hermione handled herself. Harry let go of Ron, who decided he wanted to complement Hermione on her performance. " Wow that was good. I never knew you -" But Ron was cut off by Harry.
" How come you didn't hurt him worse? I mean you could have had made him pay... with all you know you could have had him on a hospital bed for most of the year" said Harry who was puzzled at the situation.
" If I did that you know they would have had expelled me... hello! So how did you two like my performance?"
Ron answered first, " As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by Harry here..." he pointed at Harry, " ... That was very great. Er... What was all that about you knowing enough to put Malfoy in hospital for rest of the year?"
Harry and Hermione explained that this year in light of the dark lord coming back to power the headmaster had arranged it so that students could learn Septanic Dueling. He told them how they had seen the first day of the games and how they practiced moves at night (missing the part about being in astral projection). Hermione took over the conversation after this part and explained that Harry had a nightmare regarding the beast and how they warned the ministry. Ron asked Harry to take over the story when Hermione continuously referred to You-Know-Who as Voldemort. This was a new horrific development for Hermione. Once they came to the part about the battle Harry stopped talking. Hermione took the hint and asked Harry, " So... You didn't answer my question before."
" Which one?" asked Harry.
" How did you two like my performance?"
" Same as always... bland and dull," said Harry, with a mischievous smile on his face. He was teasing.
Hermione tried to punch him in the stomach in retaliation to his comments but Harry sidestepped her, causing her to miss and hit Ron instead. Ron wasn't expecting anything like that and as such absorbed the full impact of the punch. "OOOF" he cried. Harry on the other hand was expecting this and took counter measures. So when Hermione threw the second punch Harry grabbed her arm and bent it on her back using one hand and trapping her other hand by wrapping his other arm around her arm and waist. " Tsk..tsk." said Harry whispering into her ears. " Hermione you really didn't think I was going to fall for the same trick again. Did you?"
" Hey what are you guys talking about?" asked Ron who was still patting his stomach after the punch. He had heard Harry whisper something but didn't really catch what was said. Harry turned to Ron and replied.
" You see in the Holidays when Mr. Pasha gave us Dueling lessons she'd always hit me when I wasn't on my guard. I think beating up boys has become almost as much fun for her as studying... "
Hermione blushed a little. It was partly true... for some strange reason it was fun for her when she fought boys...well actually beat the living daylights out of them. Hermione did notice that the adrenaline rush when she beat up Malfoy was nowhere as high as she usually felt when she was fighting Harry. Harry's quick recovery power meant that her beatings were actually less effective so she could always fight him without holding anything back, knowing he would take it all in his stride... well take it better than most people. A girl she may be, but a pushover she wasn't.
" Yeah... well if you guys weren't so soft then I wouldn't...." Harry pushed her arm further up making her arm hurt. " aow..aow...". She had to arch her back to lessen the pain from the new position. Harry wanted this banter fight to keep going but he felt himself getting weaker and as such decided that he would pick it up when he was feeling better. " You really shouldn't say things like that, love. I'll let you go, but promise me you'll not hit either one of us again for the trip."
" Ok." Replied Hermione a little too quickly.
Harry should have been more careful when she agreed so quickly... too quickly, but he didn't. She turned around quickly to punch him on his face but Harry moved his head back on reflex and she missed him. Since Hermione hadn't positioned her body properly she lost balance when she missed the punch and Harry had to grab her to save her from hitting the floor. " You OK." Asked Ron as he extricated her from Harry's arms.
Harry had quite enough of the fight and said, " Are you quite done, Hermione?... because I really need to rest after the long trip..." The rest of the comment was mumbled. Though Hermione and Ron managed to pick up that it was something to do with three spells and a carpet not being a carpet. Hermione and Ron dismissed those comments as ramblings of a weakened wizard.
Five minutes later when Harry was asleep on one of the long seats. Hermione sat down next to his head and lifted his neck up to slide her leg underneath his head. Harry's face before this point looked to be restless but once she started to stroke his hair, he seemed to relax. What she was doing was similar to what her mother had done, when Hermione was grieving for her best friend.
Ron saw this, but said nothing to indicate either his jealousy or anger towards Harry for being the center of attention from the girl that he liked. Neither Hermione nor Ron spoke to each other even when they shared sweets. Hermione kept some to give to Harry when he woke up.
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END OF CHAPTER
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