Disclaimer: Any characters you recognize from the first 6 books in the Harry Potter series by J K Rowling belong to the aforementioned J K Rowling. I am simply playing with them for my amusement, and to see what kind of reaction I can get.
(26) Neville's Feather
"Alright guys, make those feathers twitch and dance." Said Harry to the others.
"Keep your eyes open and concentrate really hard, build up your magical energy and make those feathers soar." Prompted Hermione.
After a few minutes Luna's feather moved ever so slightly, it took another few minutes for it to twitch again. Neville was getting mad and frustrated, finally his feather erupted in a ball of flame leaving scorch marks on the table.
"That's the idea Neville, except make it float instead of burning it up." Said Harry exuberantly. They all looked at Harry like he was crazy, so he continued,
"Well he did something with his feather. I saw yours move Luna."
"It did?" asked Luna.
"Keep your eyes open, watch your feather, make it move, you can do more with your eyes and mind than you can with the finger your pointing at it, concentrate." Said Harry as he conjured another feather for Neville. "I seem to remember you needed two feathers in first year too Neville … you needed a wand to burn up the first one … now you can burn it up without a wand."
Neville grinned and tried again with more concentration, to levitate the feather.
"Concentrate on your feather, only the feather, block out everything else, ignore everything else," said Harry in a soft, slow monotone, "That feather is the only thing in the universe and all you have to do is lift it one inch … one miserable, scrawny inch …"
Ron's feather jumped up and he yelled, "I did it, I did it." Breaking everyone's concentration, while the feather gently floated down to the table again.
"Good work Ron," said Harry, "I'll take Ron away so you can all concentrate … we'll be across the room." Ron and Harry walked away leaving the feather behind.
While the three were back to concentrating on their feathers, Harry had conjured another table, several feathers and two chairs, well away from everyone else. Remus quietly approached the feather that Ron had left behind, then picked it up and examined it. While returning the feather to the table he pulled out his wand and levitated the feather, then returned the feather to the table top. Remus put away his wand and started concentrating on the feather just as the others were doing.
Harry tried to get Ron to levitate a feather again and keep it in the air, they had been trying for a while and Ron couldn't seem to repeat what he had done before. In the meantime they had heard a few noises from the other table that seemed to indicate some level of success.
Harry coaxed Ron some more, Ron was getting frustrated and mad. Harry tried a different analogy than creating a reserve of magical energy, he suggested that pooling the magical energy was more like filling a sink or tub with water, then send the energy towards the feather while concentrating on lifting the feather.
Ron closed his eyes and concentrated on him in a bath tub and the bathtub filling with magical energy. Ron concentrated and waited for the tub to fill.
Harry began to feel the magical energy radiating from Ron then jumped and rolled backwards before creating a heavy stone wall between him and Ron.
A moment later, with a loud report, the feather blasted off from the table and was embedded in the ceiling of the Room of Requirement. When Harry removed the stone wall, Ron was sitting in his chair, a dazed look on his soot covered face, the table and Harry's chair were splintered. There was ash all over the floor and Ron's hair was sticking straight out from his head.
- - - - - - - -
Meanwhile
They had been at it a while, Luna and Neville had both managed to float their feathers for a short time, Ginny's had twitched and moved, but none of them were having consistent results.
All of a sudden a thick stone wall appeared on the other side of the room and Harry could be seen rolling on the floor away from the wall. Hermione opened her mouth to say something when a loud BANG was heard and echoed around the room, a bright flash could be seen over the wall and something hit the ceiling showering down dust and rock chips.
- - - - - - - -
Hermione ran to Harry while Remus, Luna and the others ran around the wall to find Ron. Harry was up on his feet and banishing the wall by the time Hermione got to him. She checked Harry over and hugged him while the wall slowly disappeared. As the wall vanished they could see Remus checking Ron over while Luna started cleaning him up. Hermione could see a lot of little cuts and slivers on exposed skin of Ron's face and hands so she changed into her white Phoenix and flashed to the Hospital Wing to fetch Madam Pomfrey.
Harry got Remus' and Luna's attention and told then that Madam Pomfrey was on her way. Having already looked into Ron's eyes and determined from his mind that there wasn't anything serious wrong with him, Harry proceeded to clean up the mess. Ron was still dazed and confused when Madam Pomfrey arrived a minute later in a bright white flash that startled several others. Other than Harry the teens and Remus weren't used to Hermione flashing in and out as a white Phoenix.
Luna and Remus began summoning and banishing the slivers of wood embedded in Ron's clothing while Poppy closed his cuts and started to remove the slivers from his exposed skin.
Poppy wished that Ron was on one of her hospital beds, he would be at a better height and angle to work on. The room immediately, though slowly, morphed the chair he was still sitting in into a replica of a Hospital Wing bed while keeping Ron on it, surprising Poppy until she realized what room they must be in. She had kept Ron unconscious while working on him so he wouldn't feel the slivers being pulled out and the cuts healing. Poppy silently thanked the founders, for, when the room was created it was enchanted with many safety charms to absorb most or all of a dangerous or too powerful spell.
Remus and Luna finished de-slivering and repairing Ron's clothing about the same time Poppy declared she was done with the rest of him. Poppy flicked her wand again while saying, "Rennervate" and Ron started to awaken. As Ron's eyes opened and began focusing his vision was obscured by a blond haired Ravenclaw girl that had climbed partway up onto the bed and was looking straight down into his face.
"Ronald Weasley, "Luna shouted, reminding Ginny of her mother's shout, "What did you thing you were doing?"
Ron had managed a wider range of focus by now and spotted his feather embedded in the ceiling. Replying to Luna's question he raised his arm to point at the feather, a grimace of pain faded from his face as he said, "I got my feather to stay up!" Everyone except Luna looked up to see the mangled feather that was embedded in the ceiling
Poppy shoved a cup of potion between the two faces and said, "drink this and the pain will go away, stay in bed for an hour, after that you can get up."
Luna lifted Ron's head with one hand and took the cup from Madam Pomfrey, saying, "I'll make sure he stays here for an hour." Luna slowly poured the potion into his mouth and when Ron had finished swallowing all of it, she climbed into the bed beside him.
Poppy raised an eyebrow at the scene before her and said, "He should sleep for most of that hour, I don't want you keeping him awake Miss Lovegood."
"Yes Ma'am." Responded Luna, then looking at Ron she said, "You heard … now go to sleep."
"Yes dear." Ron replied dutifully. Luna kissed him when he closed his eyes, then Ron drifted off to sleep. Everyone moved away and Harry willed the room to put up a soundproof curtain around the bed. The teens were silently amused at Ron's last statement as they made their way back to the first table of feathers.
The six had gathered, surrounding the table of feathers, when Remus asked what happened to Ron. Harry held out his arm, pointing a finger at several spots around the table as one after the other, six Chintz Arm Chairs appeared, similar to the ones Albus used to conjure.
"Have a seat," Harry said, "I suggested to Ron that pooling his magical energy was more like filling a tub with water … he must have taken the idea to the extreme … the next thing I knew I could feel magic radiating off him. I panicked a bit and jumped away, creating a wall to shield everyone else. I hoped Ron's magic wouldn't hurt him … I guess I was wrong."
"You were right and wrong" said Madam Pomfrey, "This room will absorb most dangerous magic. You shouldn't be able to kill anyone in here unless you do it deliberately a little bit at a time. Ron's injuries were caused by the wood and rock splinters and the concussion from the explosive release of his magic. Had you been in any other room, he could have been seriously hurt or killed. Remus, I'm surprised at you, for teaching this in such an uncontrolled manner."
"I was only observing Poppy," said Remus, "Harry and Hermione are teaching, I can't even do wandless magic yet."
"Wandless magic! Remus, what do you mean wandless magic … these kids are too young to do wandless magic … you need a lot of power and training for that!" shrieked Madam Pomfrey.
Neville stared at a feather, concentrated so much he twisted his face, reached out with his arm, and, as he raised his hand, the feather rose up from the table. Poppy looked back and forth between Neville and the feather in shocked disbelief. Remus nodded his head and Harry said, "Very good Neville!"
They talked and demonstrated some more wandless magic for a while that must have lasted an hour because Ron and Luna finally came out from behind the curtain and joined the group. Harry and Hermione offered their chairs to Ron and Luna as they stood up. "Dear…" Harry said, "While Madam Pomfrey is still here let's demonstrate wandless duelling."
"Wandless Duelling?" questioned Poppy and Remus together. "You can actually duel without wands?"
"Wands actually slow us down," said Hermione. "First, this is strictly between those present in this room now and Professor McGonagall. We don't want this to become common knowledge. We'll start at it slowly and then speed up the exchange of spells. When we get up to speed, we'll hold it for a while, then slow down and stop." The pair placed their wands on the table, walked away and separated to about ten meters. They positioned themselves in a side on duelling stance to limit the size of their profile, then looked at each other for a moment before starting the exchange of spells. They each cast spells and shields alternately for a few seconds then changed their stance to face each other while starting to speed up. They both now had an arm straight out towards the other, fingers twitching and flicking as if spells were coming out of one finger after the other on each hand. The pair reached a speed where the light show was a spectacular assortment of reds, gold, blues and yellows in a constantly changing mix of colours and tints. When Harry slowed Hermione paced him spell for spell. Once they reached their starting speed, Harry held up his arms maintaining only a shield charm and then Hermione stopped as well.
Everyone stood and applauded the performance, while Ron walked towards them, meeting them about halfway back. The trio stopped for a moment for a group hug and a question then returned to the others. Many questions were asked and Hermione explained that they hadn't tried any spells more dangerous than stunners and this was only the second time they had tried wandless duelling so they had no idea what was possible with practice.
Harry suggested that they try levitating their feathers again for a while and then go to check out Rowena's library for more information. By the end of an hour Ron, Neville and Luna were able to levitate their feathers, they found it took a lot of concentration. Ginny's feather was twitching and levitating, though inconsistently, so it was just a matter of a little more practice for her. Remus feather still hadn't wiggled perceptibly at all.
They were all strained from the concentration, but the six teens and Remus headed for the Library to see, and in Remus case meet, Rowena Ravenclaw.
Once in the Library, they asked and Madam Pince opened the Restricted Section for them. Luna was in the lead and activated the portrait, a few seconds later Rowena appeared to step out of the portrait as before, surprising Remus who wasn't sure what to expect.
Professor, you'll need to hold my hand to get through." Harry said offering Remus his hand. Harry went through next to last, holding onto Remus who followed. Once they were all in Harry introduced Remus to Rowena while the others started looking through Rowena's collection of ancient tomes for anything related to horcruxes.
Rowena excused herself from Remus and Harry then made her way over to the others. "Are you looking for something specific?" She asked the group.
Ron replied, "We need to know how to find and destroy some horcruxes." Rowena's image appeared to be in shock at the revelation. Harry and Remus had followed her over and overheard Ron's reply. Remus looked at Harry curiously indicating that he didn't know what a horcrux was.
"That scheming Slytherin Devil!" exclaimed Rowena. "That kind of magic should have been lost long ago!" Rowena made her way to the far end of the book shelves and reached into an apparently empty shelf bringing forth an ancient hand written text. The book fell open in her hands and she read in silence as all of them watched her. After a few minutes and several turned pages she said. "Harry, bring Godric's sword and scabbard here … quickly now." She then made her way to the round table that now had eight chairs around it.
Harry left Remus behind and exited through the portrait at a run. He went through the Restricted Section and Library at top speed, down several corridors and staircases until he was at the gargoyles that guarded the Headmistresses office. It took him a minute to get enough wind to say the complete password and gain access to Minerva's office.
`
- - - - - - - -
Once Rowena and most of the others had congregated at the round table, the Tea Service Trolley appeared and made it's way to the table. Rowena took a chair as did the teens. Remus moved around behind Rowena and read over her shoulder. With his wolfish eyesight he didn't have to be as close to the book to read it properly. The cream and sugar was first to walk off the trolley onto the table followed by the tea cups on saucers as they were filled. While they were making their way to each person Rowena looked up and over her shoulder at Remus with a curious look in her eyes. "Werewolf? … You're a werewolf." She said, "Do these children have no fear of you?" The last two cups of tea finally made their way to the empty seats that were waiting for Remus and Harry.
"Why should they?" Remus responded, "I've been their teacher before and I will be their teacher again."
"I never thought I'd see the day … then again, I didn't … considering that I'm actually quite dead." Rowena said as she shook her head from side to side and grinned, then turned back to her book.
Remus made his way over to Hermione and whispered, "I've heard the term horcrux before, though I'm not clear what exactly it is." Hermione motioned him to the other side of the room and picking up her tea, followed him. Ron followed them both with Luna watching him from her seat at the table.
"Ron!" admonished Hermione, her voice slightly above a whisper, "You've got to be careful who's around and what you say!"
"But … but, Harry brought him here." Replied Ron.
"I take it I'm not supposed to know what this is all about?" questioned Remus.
"We never discussed letting you in on the secret, although I'm sure Harry won't object. He's traipsing through my mind right now trying to find out why I'm so concerned."
"He's what!" exclaimed Remus.
"Harry gets a little overprotective from time to time." Hermione answered as Rowena disappeared from the table and moments later re-entered through the portrait with Harry. Harry quickly put the sword and scabbard down on the table and joined Hermione, Ron and Remus.
"I apologize for looking through your mind dear, it was my muck up bringing Remus along with us, it never occurred to me that he wasn't in on it until I heard Ron say 'horcrux' earlier … it triggered in my mind then that he didn't know."
The trio agreed quickly to let Remus in on the secret, not that he couldn't have guessed it by then anyway. Hermione continued the explanation of the horcruxes after Harry was called away by Rowena.
Rowena pushed the book aside when Harry sat beside her and asked, "What do you know of the horcrux that has been made?"
"Seven horcruxes," replied Harry, "well, six plus Voldemort himself."
Rowena shook her head in disgust at the thought of seven horcruxes. Harry then explained that two had been destroyed, Voldemort had used a third one to return and Harry had one in his pocket, which left three to find and four to destroy.
"You have one," gasped Rowena, "In your pocket … now? And you destroyed the first one with a basilisk tooth, you said?"
"Yessss." Harry responded.
"Let me see, I need to examine it," said Rowena.
Harry pulled it out of his pocket and placed it on the table in front of Rowena. She picked it up looking at it carefully, then said, "I recognize this … it's the locket that Salazar gave his wife on their tenth anniversary." Rowena passed her wand hand over it several times causing it to glow in different colours each time. Rowena shook her head in disbelief before explaining to Harry, "The spell used to make this a horcrux was spoken in parseltongue, therefore the spell has to be undone in parseltongue or the locket has to be physically destroyed while killing the soul fragment at the same time." Not realizing that Harry could speak Parseltongue, Rowena passed the book she had been reading to Luna saying, "Read this chapter and apply the protection spell to Godric's sword, it should keep anyone safe while they use the sword to pierce the object containing the horcrux. You can touch Godrics sword, but don't pick it up … you're not a Gryffindor, that sword could hurt you if you pick it up." She then turned to Harry, "You'll need some fast acting snake venom to coat the tip or edge of the sword that cuts the object containing the horcrux. For now, go wake up Salazar's portrait Harry."
"What, you mean like how Hermione woke you up?"
"Yes, the same, do some magic on the portrait." Said Rowena impatiently.
Harry walked over to Slytherin's portrait, Salazar had a staff, like a tall walking stick, that had a snakes head carved in the top with emeralds for it's eyes. He was a tall skinny man with monkey like features and a very snake like face, his appearance made it very easy for Harry to imagine him as a snake, therefore Harry hissed in parseltongue, "Wake up Salazar, Rowena wants to talk to you." Most of the others were watching Harry anyway, but when Rowena heard the hissing sounds she snapped around to look at him. Hermione and Remus also looked up instantly.
Salazar came alive quickly and while stepping out of his portrait hissed back to Harry, "Who are you to speak the language of the serpent?"
Everyone watched intently as Harry and Salazar hissed back and forth to each other until Harry pointed to Rowena. They hissed for a few more seconds and then laughed as Salazar wrapped an arm around Harry and they both walked to where Rowena was sitting.
"Rowena, what's this about Marcy's locket and a horcrux?" asked Salazar in a very merry tone of voice. So far nobody else had moved, they were in a shocked stupor having just witnessed Salazar walk out of his portrait, then speak in parseltongue to Harry.
"One of your git descendants has gone and made up seven horcruxes. You remember that prophesy that Marcy made about a half-blood descendant of yours trying to become immortal and rule the world." Said Rowena.
"Oh yeah … the daft git … wasn't there supposed to be kid and his wife somewhere, to take him out?"
"Talk about a daft git … you were just talking to the kid and he doesn't get married until after."
"Hey, it's been near a thousand years … some of the details get a little fuzzy, besides, I always wanted him to get married first."
"Keep your voice down, his girl is over there talking to a werewolf." Rowena whispered as she looked towards Hermione and Remus. Salazar looked over to where Rowena indicated, he backed up several steps, and shook his head as if to throw off a nest of cobwebs.
Without saying anything Salazar leaned his staff towards Harry and watched him closely before leaning it towards Hermione and watching her for a minute. "Amazing … they're already sharing power and a connection to each other that is well above normal levels … even for wizards like us. Merlin should see this, Godric too." Salazar swung his staff around to point at Godric's portrait. Neither Godric nor Merlin appeared to be in their portraits, however, moments later, a Red and Gold Phoenix appeared in Godric's portrait, and then leaning his staff towards Merlin's portrait a White Phoenix appeared in it. A minute later a few loud squawks could be heard from the large birds in the portraits after which they changed back to their human forms. Godric and Merlin then stepped out of their portraits and Salazar walked over to meet them partway.