Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
More Important Than Any Broomstick - Chapter 16 - Practicing Nonverbal Magic
The next morning, Harry woke up at seven o'clock again, although this time he'd turned off his laptop before he
went to sleep. He showered and went downstairs to find Lupin already sitting at the table. Harry said, "Good
morning, Moony."
"Oh, good morning Harry. I didn't expect you to be up yet."
"I get up at seven every morning now since..."
"Good morning Harry Potter sir! What can Dobby be getting Harry Potter for breakfast?"
After Harry had ordered breakfast and Dobby disappeared, an owl flew in the window carrying the latest Daily Prophet to Remus Lupin. After he'd paid the owl, he unrolled the paper. As he read the front page, it appeared to Harry that Lupin's eyes bulged out and his face gave a half smile. "Well," Lupin said, "I guess we won't have to worry about Wormtail anymore." Lupin then handed the paper to Harry.
Peter Pettigrew Dead!
Peter Pettigrew, the fugitive who had betrayed James and Lily Potter to You-Know-Who thirteen years ago is finally dead. He was caught by Bertha Jorkins of the Department of Games and Sports. "I was on vacation, and in a pub when Pettigrew came up to me to talk. I immediately recognized him from the pictures that the Ministry distributed to all of its personnel when he escaped. I turned my wand on him, and he turned into a rat." Pettigrew tried fleeing the scene when a cat that belonged to the owner caught him and clawed the rat's neck, which caused almost immediate death. As soon as he was dead, the rat reverted to its original form of the traitor, Peter Pettigrew.
The article went on to describe the details of when and where it happened, but the bottom line was that Pettigrew is now history. "Wow," said Harry. I guess we don't have to worry about him helping Voldemort."
"I see you get the paper too," said Sirius as he walked into the dining room. "Can you imagine," he said with a grin, "A Death Eater killed by a cat!"
"That's what Ron thought Crookshanks did," said Harry, chuckling.
"Somehow, it's fitting," said Remus.
"That cat made the world a better place," said Sirius with a smile.
Not long after, Hermione showed up at the house with yet another copy of the prophet. The only comment she had to add was, "Too bad it wasn't Crookshanks. He'll be very disappointed that he's lost his chance." Everyone laughed at that.
After another grueling training session, Harry and Hermione began practicing nonverbal spells. Harry was pointing his wand at a quill concentrating on the words, "Wingardium Leviosa," but all his feather would do is turn around. Hermione's feather, on the other hand, was at least five feet above the desk. "How do you do it?" asked Harry, doing his best not to sound irritated with his girlfriend.
"I know, now you can't stand me," said Hermione with a grin, imitating Ron from their first year when they'd first learned the spell, "I'm a nightmare, honestly."
Harry chuckled. "You are not a nightmare! You're my dream come true."
She blushed a bit. "I think your problem is that you're concentrating on the words instead of intent. Remember that whenever you've used nonverbal magic, you were not thinking of magic words, only what you wanted to happen." She then smirked. "Try it again, Hero. I'll give you one kiss for every foot your feather rises."
Harry put a very serious look on his face as he concentrated on the feather rising from the desk. He also thought the words, but that wasn't his main focus. He smiled as the feather started rising, and concentrated even harder, causing it to rise above her feather. He then got another idea, and concentrated on the feather going out the window where both he and Hermione watched it float into the sky and out of their range of vision. Harry smirked at his girlfriend. "Well, Mine, how many feet would you say the feather floated?"
Her face flushed, but she looked admiringly at Harry. "Dozens," she said as she approached him and started paying her debt.
A few minutes later, Sirius and Lupin walked into the room to find the young couple passionately snogging on a couch. They looked at each other and grinned. Each of them silently conjured a bucket of water, and they snuck to either side of the couch. Sirius used his fingers to show one-two-three-now. The couple broke apart immediately as they found themselves drenched with the two remaining Marauders laughing their heads off.
"Padfoot, Moony, I, I'll get you back..." shouted Harry as he tried to stop himself from laughing with them.
Hermione however, appeared mortified, and hid her red face in her hands as she dripped water all over the floor. As soon as Harry saw that, he put his arms around her waist and said, "They didn't mean any harm, Hermione. It was just a joke."
"They, they must think I'm a, a..."
"No Hermione," said Sirius, "We do not think badly of you! It was just a prank! I actually think you're very good for Harry." Sirius then performed a drying spell on Hermione while Lupin did the same with Harry. Hermione half-smiled and said, "I should probably be headed home.
"Hermione, you do not have to leave," said Harry.
"I, er, it really is about time I was headed home." She then lightly kissed Harry on the cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow morning, Harry."
After she flooed away, Harry glared at the Marauders.
"Honestly Harry, we didn't want her to leave," said Lupin. Harry remained silent.
"We're sorry," said Sirius, "But I do think that this would be a good time to have a talk about girls." Lupin very discreetly left the room while Harry's expression changed from anger to embarrassment.
An hour later, Harry walked up the stairs into his room with his mind spinning, even more embarrassed than before, yet educated by Sirius in ways that the Dursleys never would have educated him.
-
In the meantime, Hermione emerged from the fireplace in her home mortified. Tears had started falling from her eyes. She started making her way toward her bedroom, hoping not to see any of her parents. She walked up the stairs toward her room, but was stopped when she heard her mother call her name. "I'm busy," she called down the stairs as she closed herself in her room. She flopped herself onto her bed in time to hear her mother open her door.
"What's wrong, Hermione?"
"Nothing," she answered.
"Then why are you crying? Did you have a fight with Harry?"
"No, it's just that...Nevermind, it's not important."
"It's apparently important to you, honey."
"It's just that Sirius and Remus caught Harry and I, er, well, snogging, and well, I was embarrassed. I know it's silly, but..."
"You're confused right now, Hermione, and you're feeling things that make you uncomfortable. You care so much for Harry, but you're wondering if you're going too fast or too slow. It terribly mortified you when other people caught you."
"Yes, mum," said Hermione.
Marissa put her hand on her daughter's shoulder. "We've never had that talk, have we?"
-
The next day when Hermione came over for training, she and Harry kept glancing shyly at each other. When training was over, they found themselves alone in the living room.
Harry looked down at the floor. "Er, Hermione, about yesterday..."
"I'm sorry that I left that way," she interrupted. "I wasn't mad at you or even Sirius and Lupin. I was embarrassed at being caught, er..."
"Snogging me senseless?" supplied Harry.
"Er, yes," said Hermione. "When I got home, my mum caught me crying, and when she found out what was bothering me, she, well, talked to me about relationships and all that kind of things."
Harry smiled weakly, "Sirius gave me that talk too, after you left."
"One of the things that my mum suggested was that we set boundaries now, before we go further than we intend."
"Oh, er, boundaries. Like whether you want to snog anymore." Harry took a deep breath. "I don't want to do anything you're uncomfortable with, Hermione. I don't want you to feel pressured by me. If that's how you felt yesterday, I'm very sorry, and I promise it won't happen again if you'll forgive me."
Hermione chuckled slightly. "You weren't pressuring me, Hero. We were both stumbling along. That's the furthest either of us has gone."
Harry smiled shyly. "So, you don't want to go that far anymore Mine."
Hermione's cheeks went a little red. "I, er, didn't say that. Well, as a matter of fact, I would like to continuing snogging like that, but I don't want to go any further than that for a while. That is, if you're comfortable with it."
Harry grinned. "That's fine with me, but first, I think we should practice more nonverbal magic so that I can earn more snogs from you.
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