Chapter Number: 08
Chapter Name: Exploding Books
After they settled into their room, Harry opened up his trunk and took out all his books. It took him two trips to take all the books to Hermione's room - where he dumped them. He started to skim read the pages of the first volume of his charms book, while Hermione did the other. It took them a little time, but they found it. Hermione of course found it. She was the one reading that book. It happened to be the very last charm on the page.
" I found it..." she said happily, but then she said something else that made Harry's heart stop, " Ah oh!"
" What? What do you mean - Ah Oh!"
" Well... its kind of advanced" replied Hermione.
" How advanced?" asked Harry sounding still hopeful.
" Pretty advanced since a fifth of the OWL exam asks us to answer detailed questions about one of the last five charms."
" Can't you at least try..." asked Harry knowing his best friend could do a lot of things that were well beyond her years.
" Yes. I could." Harry could see Hermione biting her lips - she wasn't that sure. " I'll. Give me the potions book."
" Here." said Harry, hurriedly giving Hermione the book.
" ...please let it work. Ok.. Here goes nothing."
Hermione squinted at the page a few times, before she did as per instruction. She tapped her wand on book three times and shouted "rotoo volumnus Aki". If the spell had worked, there should have been a small golden drop of metal that should have had formed at the end of the wand. Putting the golden drop on the book creates the charm.
" It didn't work" said Hermione a little disappointed.
" Well that's ok. I'll get Professor Dumboledore to do it once I get to Hogwarts. I'm sure he'll be happy to help" said Harry, to comfort her.
" Why don't you try it?" Hermione said it like it was just as good a reason as any.
" Me?" asked Harry incredulously.
" Well, why not? You stopped the dark lord three times. This should be easy." Harry didn't know now if Hermione was teasing him or just challenging him. Or just plain curious.
" You know, I'm no good in charms-"
" Harry Potter, you do as I say right now, or there'll be trouble." With a voice that carried more seriousness in it then she intended to.
" OK. OK. Sheesh." Harry said, picking up the book.
" I only asked you to try" Hermione looked really upset that Harry would decide so quickly not listen to her.
" Well OK. But you can't laugh at me"
" When have I ever done that? Well... except the time you -" Hermione paused to grin at him remembering what happened in the library last year-
(A/N: This is a fictional event in which a charm terribly backfires. You'll learn more a lot later.)
-but she didn't think it would help to rehash to topic so ".. Okay. Point taken. I won't laugh if you try to do it and fail."
" Here goes nothing."
Harry read the instructions carefully several times, from the book before putting it down on the bed next to him. He placed the potions book in front of him. Harry tapped the book twice and closed his eyes. He tapped the book one more time and the book started to levitate very high.
The whispered the words, but they were slightly different, "Roto-volumnus Aki"
Hermione was surprised to see that book started to levitate. It was not supposed to levitate that high, but she said nothing, as disturbing him can lead to a very big accident - for the books. Harry opened his eyes to see that the book was in the air and there was a gleam of gold on the end of the wand.
As soon as the book touched the golden drop at the end of the wand, it started to expand on the book. Slowly covering the whole book with a golden haze, which grew slightly brighter and then dimmed. This fluctuation went on for a few seconds, with increasing frequency. Then suddenly the book exploded.
Harry thought he had done the spell wrong, but Hermione knew he hadn't. The bits of paper all around them started to float around Harry and after a while seem be picked up by an invisible hand be dropped into a sphere with a hole in it. Inside that invisible sphere the bits of paper still floated around. Each seemingly in front of him. In less than ten seconds the book was back, but one corner of the front of the book now had a golden edge protector.
Happy that he had done a very advanced charm right, he looked up to Hermione to get some praise. He was shocked to see that she was crying silently. He slowly moved next to her and asked, " Why are you crying?"
Hermione stopped long enough to say, " You did it... andd... I... I couldn't..." before she started to cry again, though this time she was not crying silently.
" I think I know what mistake you made. It's a small one. You weren't reading the spell properly. Here...look at me" said Harry as he paused and used his hand to lift up her chin to force her to look at him. "...Now. Listen. One mistake isn't the end of the world."
Hermione looked at his eyes, and saw how much compassion they held. He handed her his herbology book, and said in a whisper, " Do as I tell you. First tap the book two times and then close your eyes." Hermione followed, " Now imagine the book in front of you, and slowly tap it the final time...Good".
" Now say, 'roto-volumnus Aki', but make sure you say 'roto-volumnus' as one word and then accentuate the 'A' in 'Aki'...ok do it...Good".
The same thing happened with this book like the one Harry had done the spell on. The book exploded a few seconds later and the whole room covered in small pieces of pink paper. It took a little longer this time to form, but it did. Though her success seemed to make Hermione feel a lot worse than before.
" Why are you still crying?" said Harry, feeling a bit exasperated.
" ...I..I g-got the spell right..." she snorted and started to cry again.
Her reasoning made no sense to Harry, and he fought valiantly to stop himself from laughing at the nonsensical statement Hermione had made. It took him a while but he did manage to turn that into a boyish grin. He knew teasing her would be the easiest way for him to stop her from crying.
" I promise next time I have to do an advanced charm I'll fail...OK." asked Harry.
" Not ok." Replied Hermione. " You worked hard over the summer and I got all those letters from Victor..." she paused to think about Victor before continuing, "... I haven't been studying enough", suddenly very resolute, "That's it. I'll just study more and that'll fix the problem."
" I think you your problem might be easier to fix then you realize." Grinning broadly he opened the book and pointed at the page... "Look at the book... I bet you can't see a thing."
Hermione squinted at the pages for a few seconds, before giving up.
" Am I right?"
" Yes! But how did you know I've been having trouble reading all summer. I didn't even tell my parents..."
At that point Mrs. Pasha entered the room. She was waiting outside the room to talk to Harry, and had inadvertently heard the conversation regarding Hermione's need for corrective lenses. " Sorry...I couldn't help over hearing you. Did I just hear you say that, someone needed glasses? Because I can help" she said, sitting down next to Hermione on the bed.
" Oh...yeah it's me. I've been having problems focusing. I was gonna tell mom and dad, but with all the homework I forgot." Hermione blushed a little in embarrassment. She knew the real reason and so did Harry. She had forgotten because she daydreamed about Victor.
" Don't worry... We have optometrists here too you know. We can get one of those new contacts for you and-" she looked at Harry, sizing him up. "-don't you need some new ones too?" said Mrs. Pasha pointing at his glasses that were being held together by scotch tape.
She didn't exactly wait for his answer, but more for a puzzled look to pass over his face. " I have a cousin here who runs an optometrist shop very close to where Ali's taking you tomorrow, if you want I'll tell Ali to take a side trip there."
" Oh thanks. Mrs. Pasha" said Hermione, very pleased.
" Not to worry...err...Harry can I talk to you outside. Alone."
She didn't wait for an answer, as from her tone it was clear that it really wasn't a request, but more like an order. Harry didn't mind complying with her, since not only was she polite in asking, but he was also a guest there.
Harry shrugged his shoulder to Hermione, and followed Mrs. Pasha out. He closed the door behind him, as he left. Just after he left, he heard a small-scale explosion.
* Hermione's doing them without me! *
Harry desperately wanted to go back to the room and continue with the magic, but he forced himself to stay. Harry didn't have to wait long to find out why he was taken out side.
" Harry, I don't think you should go into her room, at night time. I know I'm old fashioned and such, but I don't think boyfriends and girlfriends should do that at such an ea-" she stopped talking when she saw, that Harry had just snorted out of laughter.
" I'm not her boyfriend. She has a boyfriend in Bulgaria, and I'm just a friend. Nothing more."
" Oh-" realizing that she had assumed their behavior towards each other for more than it was. "Still, I don't think her parents would like it if you two are in the same room at night, alone and the door is closed. In any case leave the door open, that way they won't get agitated. Ok"
" Yeah. Is that it?" he asked, desperately wanting to get back to the room, when he heard another small explosion followed by Hermione's giggle. (* She does that more often these days...*)
"I really want to get back in there. I haven't done magic for almost two months now. I can't stand it."
" Before you go, remember what I said. Open door."
" Ok. Thanks." With that Harry went to the room, only to find that Hermione had done all his books except for the DADA and the transfiguration book. He pointed his wand at her and said, " Don't touch those two. I'm doing those two."
Hermione looked a little disappointed, but she recovered quickly. She wanted see him levitate the book; so far she had only made the book hover a few inches off the ground (that's how much it's supposed to happen, according to the book.) But Harry's had reached to his chest height, and even without looking he did he had tapped the book, in mid air.
" Ok. So... what do you think we're seeing tomorrow?"
" I don't know..." with that he went back to doing more magic, with Hermione watching all the time.
For the next hour, Harry and Hermione played with an eagle-feather quill that they kept on transfiguring into different things, just taking pleasure from simple magic. Needle, miniature pig, cat, dog, snake (Hermione freaked out at that one) and unicorns to name a few things that small eagle-feather had turned into. At the very end of their small game of transfiguring, they managed to turn it into something that looked like a television, but it was actually just a box with glass.
The ever sensible Hermione, realizing their bed time had approached quickly but gently kicked Harry out of the room - by kicking him in his butt when he stood up to leave.
"-aw. That hurt! Did you have to kick me?" said Harry as he massaged his backside.
" Go. I don't think mom will like it much if she sees you here."
" Ok. If I don't wake up tomorrow morning early, just wake me up."
" I will. Just promise me one thing."
" What?" asked Harry
" Don't have a nightmare. I didn't sleep well, on the plane and I need my beauty sleep."
" You look fine to me" as soon as he said that, Harry turned much the same color that Hermione had turned into when she was compared to Lily Evans.
" Why, thank you kind sir." Said Hermione batting her eye lashes and with a fake southern accent. They both burst into laughter, getting unwanted attention from Mr. and Mrs. Granger, who were just finished with the "adult" talk and were now heading for their designated bedroom.
Harry didn't realize it, until he was Astral Projecting that he had left all his books in Hermione's room. Since it would take a long time to get it back and go back to sleep, if she was asleep. He scolded himself for being so stupid, but decided going into Hermione's room was out of the question, because of his promise. He was also very sure that she was fast asleep by then since it took him exceptionally long time that day to get into his Astral form.
So he started to read about Shozar Wars, in his other favorite book that he got from Hermione's personal collection of books. Moroccan magic ministry was very new. Only 13 years!
Before that two rival clans fought for control. Shozar Sebastian a man belonging to neither group fuelled the fire between the two main clans by killing someone from one group then blaming it on the other. Shozar was a death eater ordered by LORD VOLDEMORT to bring about the destruction of the city most populated by Half-Muggle wizards in the world. Morocco.
(A/N: My brother tells me Morocco is a country. Since then I've found out that it is indeed a country. Sorry! Please just think of it as a city.)
The magical community was torn asunder, and it was brother against brother. Then both sides, found out that they had been played and a unique system of deciding between the two clans. Every year, a three-day endurance match is to be held on the 25th of August.
* Hey that's tomorrow... So that's where we're going* thought Harry happily, but his happiness quickly turned into sadness when he read the next paragraph detailing how the voting was carried out.
The people in the audience judged (only eligible voters were allowed in) which clan they wanted to rule the next year. It was called the Septanic games and it decides the fate of a magical community. Only once in its 16 years the loser of the match was the next rule.
It happened when the Shoran's (name of the presiding clan's) youngest fighter was terribly injured by one of the fighters for Tozan (opposition clan at the time) in 1988. The entire Shoran force abandoned their fight to save the life of their comrade. Deaths at the games have been very rare. It only occurs when foolish young men do not get off the field, thinking they are invincible. The voters voted for the losers -" But Harry was interrupted by an astral projecting Ali Pasha.
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