Chapter 6
Harry, Ron and I told each other and Blaise everything the hat said to us and all of us were mad and agreed to keep an eye on Neville, Hannah and Susan. We got ready and then left for breakfast. "You know, my Brothers told me that a History of Magic is taught by a ghost called Binns," Ron spoke. It must have taken years of practice for him to be able to speak clearly with his mouth bursting with food.
"Don't speak with your mouth full, Ron. You are a Slytherin, act like it. Don't behave like a sloppy, brash Gryffindor," Blaise snapped, disapprovingly.
Swallowing the last remnants of food, Ron retorted, "Hey! Some of those brash Gryffindors are my Brothers, no, my entire family."
"Didn't the hat say that Percy, Fred and George all shouldn't've been Gryffindors?" I snarked.
"Yes but they still are Gryffindors," he snapped. I pointed my wand at him.
"If you ever speak to me in that tone again, Ronald Weasley, you will regret it. Do you understand?" I asked as I felt my hair and eyes change colour. Ron paled and rapidly nodded. My hair and eyes turned back to their black and green respectively and I smiled before turning back to my food. "Good."
"I, er, have an idea for our codenames," Harry said and Blaise's eyes glinted.
"Codenames? Cool," he said.
"I was thinking we got with animal ones. The Hogwarts House animals. Hermione, you'd be Snakelet as you're the Heir of Slytherin." I smirked at Harry. "Since you said it's rumoured that the Potters are descended from Gryffindor, I'll be Gryffin. That just leaves Blaise as Fledgeling and Ron as Kit because Blaise likes learning more than Ron does and Ron's very loyal and protective like badgers are." Ron and Blaise nodded and I high-fived Harry to Ron and Blaise's confusion. We laughed and explained to them what a high-five was.
"Sounds good to me," Ron shrugged.
"Rather fitting," Blaise agreed.
"Well, at least that is settled. Snaklet, Gryffin, Fledgling and Kit," Harry said.
"Someday, everyone will know these names," I declared. "Children will grow up hearing about us. We'll be legends."
...
"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY, HOW DARE YOU! NO ONE IN OUR FAMILY HAS EVER BEEN SORTED IN SLYTHERIN. DON'T YOU REALISE? YOU'RE IN THE SAME HOUSE AS THE PEOPLE WHO KILLED YOUR UNCLES GIDEON AND FABIAN! HOW YOU'RE SCORNING THEIR MEMORY! IT WASN'T BAD ENOUGH THAT YOU YOURSELF DID IT BUT YOU ALSO DRAGGED POOR HARRY INTO IT. I'VE NEVER BEEN MORE ASHAMED OF ONE OF MY CHILDREN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. I WISH YOU HADN'T BEEN MY SON!" The Howler was reduced to ashes and Ron's face was pale. The rest of the Slytherins, who had been taking care to sit far away from us, were shooting him either indifferent or pitying looks, some suppressing laughter or smirking. I saw the sad look on Ron's face and felt a sudden surge of hatred for the bitch who dared hurt Ron's feelings. What kind of a person was she? She could be kind to a complete stranger, who had also been sorted in Slytherin, but couldn't give the same courtesy to her own Son? To insinuate that Ron's the reason Harry's a Slytherin...
"Ron I--" The redhead cut Harry off.
"No, no, it's alright. I had been expecting this."
"But still, she shouldn't have done this. No Mother should," I angrily said as I shook my head. Harry slumped in his chair sadly. Blaise gave Ron a look as if he couldn't believe someone had said that about their own child. The Howler had truly ruined the excited mood from yesterday and this morning. Just as we were about to get up, another owl fluttered down with another letter for Ron, thankfully not another Howler. It was from his Father, Arthur Weasley.
"'Dear Ron,'" Ron read aloud. "'How are you? How have you been finding Hogwarts so far? I've got many fond memories of this place and I hope you do too. As for the Howler, don't take your Mother's words seriously. She was just upset today for some reason and lashed out at you. I'm sure she'll come around and apologize as soon as her temper has worn down. I heard you've befriended a Muggleborn and Harry Potter. You should bring them around during the Christmas Holidays. I've got so many questions to ask about the Muggle World. Is it true that they can talk to each other like we do with floo powder, using videia calling? Love, your Dad'." It seemed to lift Ron's spirits, only a little but still.
"He seems to be a pleasant man," Blaise said, looking at the letter over Ron's shoulder,
"Do tell Mr. Weasley that it's video, not videia but he is essentially right."
...
"Professor Binns is officially the most boring teacher in the world," Blaise whined. "The four of us ran out of the classroom as soon as the bell rang and I'm pretty sure the only reason everyone else didn't was because they were sleeping."
"Yeah, I almost fell asleep a few times myself," Ron said.
"Me too," Harry said.
"I noticed," I said with a smirk. "Why do you think I kept hitting you every time you yawned?"
"Hermione!" Harry and Ron complained as Blaise and I laughed.
"At least Charms is better," Blaise said. "I hate that it'll be theory for a while but it's still better than HoM."
"A lot more interesting, at least," Ron said. "And it's kind of funny to see him standing on all those books 'cause he's so short. The guy's got to be part Goblin."
"Ron! Shh! You know how prejudiced people can be!" Harry hissed. "Besides, I liked seeing him make that rat fly around."
"I think the best part of the lesson was seeing him freak out over your name, Harry," I said with a smirk and Blaise and Ron laughed.
"Oh, fuck off, Hermione," Harry said with a grin. "I thought Herbology with Professor Sprout was interesting. Imagine how many different deadly Magical plants we could learn about."
"I thought your favourite would've been Potions, given it's the only one we did practical work in and because of the cheeky remarks you snuck in."
"It's not my fault the guy seems to hate me for some reason," Harry said.
"Yeah, it's weird," Ron said. "So, what now, Hermione?"
"You know, how about we try that levitation spell that Professor Flitwick was talking about. With wands," I enthusiastically suggested.
"Sure! I haven't done anything with my wand," Harry eagerly agreed, with Ron and Blaise nodding along, though much more subdued. It wasn't really as exciting to them as it was to me and Harry, since they'd both grown up in Wizarding households.
"I'll try it first," I said. I flicked through the pages of 'the Standard Book of Spells' by 'Miranda Goshawk' till I found the one on levitation charms. "Ah hah!" I took out my wand and cleared my throat. Carefully doing a swish and a flick, I pointed at the quill on the floor. "Wingardium Leviosa." To my disappointment, though, the quill slowly lifted about an inch or so before plummeting back to the ground. "What?"
"Hold on there! Snakelet, could you try that again, but without the wand? Do the wand movements with your fingers instead," Harry said, his eyes gleaming.
"Er, sure. It couldn't hurt to try," I said with a shrug. I swished and flicked my index finger once again and enunciated my words again and, to my surprise, the quill easily rose in the air. "What?" I asked, having not expected it to work. Given the blank faces on Ron and Blaise, neither had they. Though, Harry probably had, given the glint in his eyes and the tilt of his lips. Not to mention, it was his idea in the first place.
"We're going to be looking into that late in the night, aren't we?" Ron sighed, exasperated. I smirked back at my male counterparts.
...
"I finally figured it out!" I joyfully cried out, slumping on my bed, smiling tiredly.
"Figured what out?" Ron questioned, his attention not diverted from the game of Wizard's Chess he and Blaise were playing. Harry looked over from where he was watching the game.
"Pay attention, both of you! I just figured out why we could easily do Wandless Magic but were struggling with anything that required a wand." That caught their attention. "There is a difference in the way we channel our Magic in Wandless and Wanded Magic. Wanded Magic is a way for Wizards to channel their Magic in a controlled, precise way. Yes, we use our own Magic but we also use the Magic in the wands themselves to help. Wandless Magic, however, is drawn completely from the reserves of our body. It's uncontrolled, like a forest fire, but also quite tiring. The basic spells are simple enough but using even slightly more complex ones would result in exhaustion at first. However, after a while, our body will adapt and it will become natural, kind of like exercising... But it could take months or even years before our bodies get used to it, while using wands, on the other hand, are much less of a, strain, you could say. Therefore, most Wixen use them."
"That doesn't explain why we were having trouble using a wand, Snakelet," Blaise said.
"I'm getting to that, Kit. Now remember, what I'll be saying next are just the theories and conclusions I drew from observation and experimentation. Our Magical Cores, having gotten used to using their own Magic to power our spells, our trying to expel the foreign presence, that is the Magic from our wands, that is tainting them."
"What's a Magical Core?" Harry asked, tilting his head in confusion.
"A Magical Core, to keep it brief and simple, is what assesses how much Magic a Wixen needs to perform spells and how much to protect and heal their body. The strength of the core differs in different Magical Creatures," I explained.
"So, the three of us have got different power levels," Ron mused.
"No, pay more attention. I said it differs in different Magical Creatures. The same types of Creatures are equally powerful, though their Cores are unique with their own special touch that are normally too subtle to be identified in Spells, but really powerful, or the more accurate term would be, learned and experienced Wixen, you know like Professor Dumbledore, would be able to see the difference," I explained.
"So, how do we do both Wandless and Wanded Magic?" Harry asked.
"It's simple. We just practice and get used to both," I said with a smile at the groans from the three boys.
...
"We should talk to Susan, Hannah and Neville soon," Blaise said. "I mean, you said Dumbledore forced them and Neville's Mom and Susan's Aunt to be forced into the wrong Houses. Plus, Neville should know the truth about his Parents."
"Yeah," Ron said. "Besides, didn't you say you wanted to start recruiting more, Hermione?"
"Yeah, but is the Niece of Amelia Bones and her best friend people we should risk telling?" I asked.
"Who's Amelia Bones?" Harry asked.
"She's the Head of the DMLE. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement," Ron explained. "She has a Seat on the Wizengamot as a Department Head. The other departments are: The Department of Mysteries (DoM), the Department of International Magical Cooperation (DIMC), the Deparment for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures (DRCMC), the Department of Magical Games and Sports (DoMGaS), the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes (DMAC) and the Department of Magical Transportation (DMT). The Minister of Magic, the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, the Chief Warlock, the Heads of the Sacred 28 and the Heads of the Most Noble, Most Ancient and Most Reverent Houses of Peverell, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Slytherin each have a Seat. As for the last seven Seats..."