Chapter Five: Training
Hermione told Ron about Harry being innocent the next day. He took it calmly, and Hermione couldn't quite read his expression. Inside Ron however, was chaos of confused feelings; he couldn't even understand them himself. Sometimes he wished that Harry was innocent (now he knew he was), and that everything was like before, but other times hatred and envy would come over him, and he would wish Harry dead and what was worse. He'd always known he'd been cynical, though no one else knew that, but now he could do something for one of his classmates and not want anything in return, something that was very unlike him. It was like one part of him wished to get rid of this cynicism, but another part grabbed it desperately. It was Harry's fault, that was for sure. Harry had changed him a lot in the few years they'd known each other, and he'd gone from being extremely cynical to be almost… normal at times. And now Ron didn't know if he should be grateful for it, or hate him for it. Life was so complicated at times!
~*~
Hermione hurried down the corridor. It was Saturday and she was two minutes late to her first training session. She struggled with the large book, and shifted it from one hand to another. Finally she stood outside the Defence against the Dark Arts classroom, took a deep breath, and lifted her hand to knock, but…
"Come in."
Her eyes widened. Professor Atos seemed to have the same ability to see through doors and walls as Professor Dumbledore. She went in and greeted the three Professors.
Professor Atos beamed at her. "I see you have the book. I hope it wasn't difficult to find, I've seen the library here."
Hermione smiled. "I had it in my dorm, Professor."
He raised an eyebrow. "Oh? A bit of 'light' reading, I suppose?" Hermione blushed; she'd often been teased for her love of books. Professor Atos chuckled. "I used to do that too, at Beauxbatons. It made my friends look at me as a bit weird, but…" he trailed of. Neither Hermione nor Christian noticed that McGonagall and Dumbledore traded looks when they saw how easy the two were with each other.
The chairs and desks were lined up along the wall, so they had a nice training area in the middle of the classroom, but it didn't seem like they were going to start with the concrete training today. Professor Atos told Hermione to ask questions, and he'd try to answer the best he could.
"Miss Granger," he said, "I guess you have a few questions, and I'll try to answer them, but be aware that much of my knowledge is based on what is known about Citatios. I don't believe the difference between them is big, but it is a difference. The biggest one is that while Citatios discover their abilities at a young age, and are able to train themselves in every thinkable and unthinkable art without any tutoring, the Pectal's power rarely is discovered before she is twenty years old, and she has to be trained by a Citatio. And don't ask me why that is, 'cause I don't know, it's just the way it is."
Hermione nodded. "Oh, I see. But I'm not twenty yet."
"No, you aren't, and it can mean two things: One, you're very powerful and the effects of this is starting to show now. I mean that the power tries to force its way out of you. Or two; you are weaker than the other Pectals the history has told about, and that you didn't need twenty years to grow into a body and mind able to control your power." Christian paused. "I believe in the last explanation." He flashed her a bright smile.
"However, what you have to learn is to use your power and abilities. Now you can only absorb the spells, though you must remember there are some spells you cannot absorb, like the killing curse. It would kill you if you tried. You have to learn to use your inner energy, so that you don't have to absorb the spells before you can use them. And then there are the aforementioned special abilities"
"Oh." Why did she use 'oh' so often when he was around? "Okay. But what kind of 'abilities' do I have?"
"We have yet to find out. I guess you can have the same abilities as a Citatio, like Mind-reading, Empathy, Telekinesis, Beast-speaking, Languages, Soul-searching, Shapeshifting, Element-Manipulation, Persuading, Voice, Healing and Telepathy."
Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Yes, and I knew what all of that meant." She said sarcastically. He laughed.
"Don't worry, I'll explain as we learn what kind of abilities you have. It's a lot of information, so we better not take everything at once." he said.
"Okay, Professor. I have a question for you: What are Pectal powers really? What can I do?"
He took a deep breath. "The Power allows the Pectal to do things a normal witch can't do. You can use normal wand magic, but it will always be stronger than any others'. That is because a wand strengthens the magic in a normal witch, but it controls and lessens the magic in a Pectal. And since a Pectal is much, much stronger than an average witch, your lessened power is still stronger than the normal strengthened power of another magician."
Hermione raised an eyebrow. "So I have never used the full extent of my power, just a bit of it? That's why I never have any problems with spells?"
"Most likely," he answered. "so you will be able to use your wand, though then you have to say the words. If you use your Power it will be much stronger and you don't have to say anything, just think it instead. And you can shoot it through your palm, but you will get a better aim if you use, for example, a stick or a knife or even a sword."
Hermione thought of that for a second. "So I kind of have two different 'powers', one as a Pectal and one as a witch?"
Professor Atos nodded. "You can say that, but I'd say you have three. One as Pectal, one as witch, and one as a Multiple Talent."
Hermione looked at him questioningly. "What? Multiple Talent?"
"Yes, that is your special abilities." He said, "Those I talked about. You will not have every one of them, but you will certainly have more than one. Also a normal witch or wizard can have one of those abilities, and those who have are called a Talent. You will be a Multiple Talent because you're a Pectal."
The rest of the lesson was spent asking and answering questions, and making arrangements for future lessons. It was decided that Professor Atos should be her main tutor, as he knew the most about Pectals, but Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall would also help. Hermione was ordered to not tell anyone, as that could be dangerous. As she was about to leave, Hermione asked the question that had bugged her.
"Professor, you said that when a Citatio is born, there is always a Pectal born within his lifetime, or the other way around. You also said that the Citatio was supposed to be the Pectal's trainer. Where is my trainer? And is there something more than training between the Pectal and the Citatio? I mean, as they are always born at the same time?"
"I don't know, Miss Granger. Your trainer is probably looking for you, and if these hadn't been such dark times we'd have published the news about a Pectal at Hogwarts, so he could find you. But that would be too dangerous for you." He looked at her. "As for your second questions… Maybe. Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw married, and you cannot marry a normal wizard. You have to marry the Citatio, or not marry at all." He chuckled. "Shortens the list quite a bit, doesn't it?" He saw Hermione shift uncomfortably. "Don't worry Miss Granger. When we find the Citatio I think you'll know if he's the one or not."
Hermione hesitated a bit. Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore had left already. "Professor?"
He looked up from the papers he was reading. Probably preparing for the next lessons. "Yes?" he answered.
"If- If he's the one, what would it be like? I mean, would it be like I fell in love with him, or would I just know that 'it's him'?"
He looked genuinely surprised. Then he sighed. "I don't know. There is so much I don't know. But I know one thing. You will not be able to fall in love with anyone else." He studied her with his blue eyes. She nodded and hurriedly left. She'd said too much anyway.
~*~
Harry couldn't sleep that night. He thought about Hermione. She'd grown a lot the last two years, and not only in height. She was a beautiful girl. Her hair had lost most of it's fluffiness, and had a brown colour with a goldish tinge. Now it hung in gentle waves down her back. A wonder she has no boyfriend yet, he thought, she certainly is very beautiful. I wish… he broke of. Hey Harry boy. She believed you were a murderer. You shall help her as well as you can, and the two of you shall save the world. Hopefully. But you shall not trust her or fall for her. Understood? Fine. Go to sleep.
~*~
Hermione struggled with her own feelings. He said I cannot fall in love with anyone but the Citatio. If I even can fall in love. But I am in love. I love Harry. But he's gone. The more she thought about it, the more sure she became. She had feelings for Harry. Which meant he had to be the Citatio. Her real tutor. Maybe even her life mate. He had to be the Citatio. She'd suspected it when she read about Citatios, but now she was sure. But whom could she tell? 'Hey, Professor, I know who the Citatio is. His name is Harry Potter. How do I know? Oh, you see, I'm in love with him. But he doesn't know, and he probably hates me because I believed he was a murderer.' She couldn't say that.
~*~
It was November. The lessons were going on as usual, and Hermione was on top of her class, as usual. No one found it weird that she disappeared every Saturday afternoon, as she'd told them she had 'extra lessons' in Healing, as she wanted to be a nurse after school. It was kind of true, as Professor Atos had figured she had a special Talent for Healing. Her powers developed, and so far she'd learned that she was a Healer and an Empath, which meant she could read peoples feelings. When she'd first discovered that, she'd almost gone mad before she learned how to 'shut' off. She'd read every little feeling everyone had for two whole days. However, she had no Mind-reading abilities whatsoever. She also had a very small amount of Talent in Voice. This had been easy to learn, as Professor Atos had this Talent too. If you had Voice as a Talent, you could silence a crowd in a second and turn everyone's attention towards yourself. You could also turn the attention away from yourself. Hermione had seen him use it in the Great Hall when she'd painted Lavender blue. Lavender still didn't know this, and it annoyed her to no end, as people now had started to call her 'Blue'.
Professor Atos was currently trying to find out if she was able to Manipulate an Element. When he'd mentioned this she'd been shocked, cause she thought that was impossible.
~~~~~~Flashback~~~~~~
"Element-Manipulation is often called Element-Mani. You will maybe be able to control one or two elements."
Hermione's eyes had gone wide. In every generation there were born four Elemental Guardians, one for Fire, one for Earth, one for Water and one for Air. None others could have an Elemental Talent.
"What?" Hermione said, shocked. "But I thought only Elements could-"
He interrupted her. "Wrong, Miss Granger," he said, "True, only Elements can Talk to their Element, Travel with it or Ask it about a favour or something, but I was talking about Element Manipulation. Elements rely on the good will of their Element. Of course, an Element has never refused its guardian anything yet, but they cannot control it. You can. That is, if you have an element."
~~~~~~End Flashback~~~~~~
And now he was trying to find if she had any Talent with Fire. She'd tried to light the candle for an hour now, and was very bored. They had been training for two hours, and she was tired. In the end she'd had enough.
"That's enough, I obviously have no Talent for Fire Manipulation." She said firmly. Professor Atos refused to take the hint, and gave her a small twig from a young birch and told her to try to get it to grow leaves. She sent him an I'm-tired-and-I-want-to-end-the-training-session-right-now, look. He ignored it. She sighed and went to work. After a few minutes with no luck, she gave up. She was tired and irritated, and any reasonable young man would know better than to cross her path. Obviously, Professor Atos didn't know that. He saw that Hermione had stopped to even try to Manipulate the twig.
"Miss Granger, didn't I tell you to try to Manipulate the Element of Earth?" he asked softly.
"You did, but I didn't manage it," she said shortly.
He smiled slightly at her. "You must remember to trust your instincts, Miss Gran-" Hermione exploded.
"REMEMBER TO TRUST MY INSTINCTS! THAT'S EVERYTHING YOU SAY! YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW DIFFICULT IT IS? TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS, TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS! CAN'T YOU COME UP WITH ANYTHING BETTER? IT'S NOT EASY!"
Every other man would have tried to run and hide when Hermione lost her temper that way. And any Professor would certainly have taken a lot of points. Professor Atos however, did neither. He smiled and looked at the twig she held in her hand.
"Very well, Miss Granger. It seems like you have a Talent with Earth," he said. Hermione looked at the twig. And true, two small, green leaves had suddenly decided to pop out.
"Oh." Hermione said, sheepishly, remembering it wasn't that smart to yell at a professor. He grinned, as she turned red in embarrassment.
"I think it's time to end this lesson. You're tired, so I suggest you get some sleep. Next week well test your abilities with Water and Air," Professor Atos said, smiling. Hermione muttered a 'goodnight' and quietly slipped out of the door.
~*~
Ron had done a lot of thinking the last few months, but he couldn't decide what to do. One thing he knew was that he didn't have any future here in England, with Harry always looming over him as the 'Perfect Boy-Who-Lived'. If he wanted to get what he wanted, he had to be cynical, and that was something he was good at. He wouldn't see his seven year old plans being ruined. He'd always been a good actor, and now he had to play better than ever. Parvati Patil's father was an Auror, and using Parvati he could get a good job after graduating. Then he could make his way easily from there. Before long everyone should know his name. The Famous Ron Weasly. Sounded good. Making a career of capturing Death Eaters. Not bad. With his little contact in the Death Eater ranks it shouldn't be that difficult. But Ron had started to look at 'Bad or Good', not only 'Successful or Unsuccessful'. And he knew that was bad.
~*~
Harry sat grading the fourth year's last test after Hermione left. It had been a difficult few months, as he had to appear as the Golden Mask at times, and still be at Hogwarts as Christian. More than once he'd had to use an advanced version of his Azkaban illusion. This one couldn't walk through objects, and could appear as a real human if you touched it, but it wasn't so good at behaving like a human. It was also exhausting to keep it going, as using pure Pectal or Citatio powers drained you. You had to train yourself over the years, so that after a few years you could keep it going for a while. Therefore he used much wand-magic when he fought as the Golden Mask, as it didn't drain any of his energy. Only problem was that it was less effective.
Another problem was what to teach Hermione. She'd progressed far beyond his expectations, but she wasn't Hogwarts top student for nothing, and he'd used his Telepathic Talent to plant ideas and information in her head, without her noticing of course. But this meant that he couldn't teach her Telepathy, because then she would guess it at once. Voice he could teach her because she believed he was one of the magicians who had one of the Talents. If she'd known he was her real tutor, he could tell her much more than he'd done. For example he already knew that she was a Beast-speaker, but he couldn't really say it to her. 'Hey, Hermione, you're a Beast-speaker. Oh, I know because I'm the Citatio, and I have the ability to see some of your Talents'. That just wouldn't work, especially because Hermione knew that Harry Potter was the Citatio. He'd read her mind to find out what she knew, and if she suspected something. She didn't suspect Christian, but he'd found out she knew that Harry was the Citatio. And he'd only tried to read once. No more. Honestly, he had ethics! But he thanked his lucky stars that she wasn't a Mind-reader, he'd problems enough with keeping his shields against her Empathy, and it would be even more difficult when she found out that she was a Soul-Searcher, which meant that she could read memories. And he had to let something slip through, cause if she found out that he could shield his feelings and memories from her she would guess it. Curse it! Why couldn't the Pectal be someone less intelligent and more ignorant than Hermione?
Harry sighed and put the quill down. He could sense another incoming attack, at a small town in North-East Wales. He'd put down small 'keyholes', as he called them, all over England, and these allowed him to know where and when they attacked. There had only been a few attacks this autumn, Voldemort was obviously planning something, and when they attacked, they usually did it at night. That was fortunate, because it would be difficult if they attacked in full daylight; He couldn't just disappear in the middle of the day, 'cause everyone would notice.
He quickly conjured up his Christian clone, and apparated. Next thing, he stood under the eaves of a forest, clad in scarlet robes with a golden mask covering his face.
~*~
Harry silently cursed his own thoughtlessness in several different languages. The attack had been an ambush to get him, and why he hadn't thought of that possibility was one of the unsolved mysteries on earth. If it had done any good, he would have started banging his head against the wall. But that would just give him an awful headache. It had been dark when he'd arrived, and the Death Eaters were, as usual, hunting and torturing people. They had started to portkey unconscious prisoners away to God-knows-where. He'd done his best to wipe them out, and used his Air Element to control the weather and call lightning from the sky as he'd done before. It was more difficult now, cause he didn't have the advantage of surprise as he'd had the first few times. The last few times they expected him to be there, something which caused trouble for him. He usually left as soon as the Aurors started to apparate in and got thing under control.
But just as the Aurors started to show up, more Death Eaters came. They'd just waited for him to grow tired with taking out the first ones. They'd come up behind him and he'd got a Cruciatus in the back, and a cutting curse had cut a large gash in his side. Eventually he'd got rid of enough of them, so it was safe to leave them to the Aurors, but he'd been utterly drained, and couldn't apparate past the Hogwarts wards. He'd had to apparate as close up to them as possible, and from there it was a ten-minute ride on a broomstick. With the after-effects of a Cruciatus and a bleeding cut, that was pure torture. He didn't even have the energy to make an invisibility charm, so he had to pray that no one saw him enter. How he wished he had his father's invisibility cloak. But that had been taken from him before he was sent to Azkaban, together with his other belongings.
Silent as a shadow, or at least as silent as a bleeding shadow, he sneaked up to his rooms. Suddenly he felt a presence in his mind, and froze. Someone was nearby. He reached out and tried to read the person's mind, to find out who it was, but he or she was too far away. But the person had seen him, and when he stopped and tensed he or she obviously thought he'd heard him or her, because he heard someone walk quickly in the opposite direction, against the Slytherin dungeons. Damn! But he probably wasn't recognised, it was too dark, and he'd been careful to disguise himself, or at least he'd tried to. In his state he couldn't know if it worked or not. He couldn't investigate either; the blood-stopping spell on his wound was wearing off. Thank God next day was Sunday, so he had a day to heal and recover.
Still cursing himself he started to treat his wound. He had been blind, deaf and half unconscious not to foresee such a thing. He could use his Seer ability as an excuse; he'd relied on it too much and believed it would warn him, but he knew it was wrong, as it rarely told him anything useful. He knew all too well that he couldn't trust it to warn him every time he was in trouble. He had just been extremely stupid and thickheaded. Illegally stupid and thickheaded.
~*~
A week before the Christmas break Professor Atos held Hermione back after the lesson.
"Miss Granger, are you going to stay for the holidays?" he asked.
"Yes, why?" she replied. He scratched his head and Hermione found herself studying his face. She found him very attractive, and she liked his easygoing personality. However, she didn't consider the possibility of liking him 'that' way, as she had those feelings for Harry only, and she knew she couldn't fall for anyone but him, as he was the Citatio. Or, she thought she couldn't. McGonagall kept reporting 'nothing new' all the time. Hermione still knew nothing about the prophecy or Dumbledore believing that Harry was the Golden Mask. Hermione didn't read the Daily Prophet any longer, cause the only decent writer the Daily Prophet had ever had was Marice Newman, and she had fled to Asia a month ago, so now Rita Skeeter wrote most of it, and everything was rubbish. A few months in a bottle hadn't helped, it seemed. If she'd read it she'd probably have connected Harry and the Golden Mask immediately.
Hermione snapped out of her thoughts at her professor's voice. "So we can use the holidays to train. You don't have any problems with your cover story, do you?"
"No, everyone believes it. No one suspects anything either," she answered.
"Good, and let it stay that way. No one must know that you are a Pectal." He sighed. "That was all. Dismissed." Hermione looked wonderingly at him. The last few weeks he'd seemed tired and worn out, and not his cheery and friendly self. Probably stress. I bet he's looking forward to the holidays too. Hermione left the classroom and headed for her next lesson. Neither the Professor nor Hermione noticed a certain blond-haired Slytherin in the shadows.
====================
Disclaimer: Duh…
Ha! The plot thickens! *Rachel is sooo proud of herself*
Thanks to everyone who reviewed, go you. Thanks to the-dreamer, my beta, and thanks to myself for coming up with this absolutely brilliant plot-line… haha.
Just kidding.
Review!