“...I just don’t get why you seem happy about it, Hermione. Those snakes brought it on themselves, why are you getting detention for it?” Ron said.

Hermione waved him off. “It’s fine, Ron, Pansy’s getting punished too. You should have seen Snape’s face, he was pissed that I took out those Slytherins so easily. I’m sure she’s getting worse than I am now.”

Ron snorted. “I can’t believe I missed you taking them out. You think Neville and I should learn silent spellcasting?”

“Ugh, Ron! What have I been saying for weeks? It’s really hard at first but it’s really helpful, they couldn’t even react before I locked them down.”

Ron rubbed the back of his head. “Err, I didn’t realize just how effective it was. Do you think we could learn it before the end of term? We only have two weeks before the upper year’s testing is done and we go home.”

Hermione thought about it.

“Probably not, it took me a while even with Harry’s help. But you could start when we come back. Maybe just practice one spell and really master it so you can focus on the silent part for next year?”

Neville nodded. “Can you teach us that petrifying curse? It looked pretty – pretty useful.”

Hermione agreed, and glanced at the clock on the wall. She had time. And Neville’s stutter had been making a reappearance ever since exams had finished even if Ron and Hermione kept telling him he would do fine.

“Sure, I have about an hour before my detention.” She said, “Now, the wand motion is like this…”

— — —

Hermione waited nervously at the door to the headmaster’s office, the gargoyle already having let her through to wait. After a short while, the doors opened silently. The headmaster’s voice echoed from inside.

“Come in, Ms. Granger.”

She went in and had to suppress a flinch as she saw the headmaster. He had bags under his eyes and it looked like the world was pressing down on him as he sat in his ornate chair. But after a moment he straightened and his piercing gaze turned to her. It was like he was a different man all of a sudden as he pushed back his chair and stood.

“Er, hello Headmaster.”

“Hello, I’m sure you are wondering what I will be teaching you. Would you like to take a guess at what it is we'll be covering?”

“Is it more advanced spells, sir? Something beyond my year?”

The headmaster nodded with a twinkle in his eye.

“Ah, you have already proven yourself capable of that. But you will not find these spells on the curriculum. Most wizards do not see their value. I will teaching you the basics of light magic.”

“Light magic?” Hermione replied in confusion, “Like from the sun or lightbulb?”

The headmaster shook his head. “No, I see the confusion. Although those spells are worth investigation as well. It refers to the emotions that power such spells. I am sure you have heard of Dark magic by this point?”

Hermione nodded. "Yes, Headmaster. Magic fueled by negative emotions like anger or cruelty, they twist the user and make their magic far more powerful than other spells.”

“Good, good. An important distinction that the books do not focus on is that there is nothing inherent to the spells that twist the user. It is only through constant use that they twist people like any other unsavory activity. Imagine the kind of person that forces themselves to be enraged whenever they use magic. Habit becomes the person as the people say.”

Hermione was struck. Really?

“So there’s really no corruptive part to it? All those dark wizards drove themselves to madness? How can that be, there’s so many of them throughout history…”

“Indeed, there are many who can’t resist the power dark magic brings them. It is all too easy to let our power as wizards corrupt… But is our nature as people not the magic itself that does this. An important distinction.”

Dumbledore paused for a moment and his gaze grew distant for a moment before he refocused and continued speaking,

“Light magic stands the opposite of dark magic, drawing on love, joy, and other positive emotions. It is much more difficult than dark magic and only useful in much more specific situations. But in those situations there is no other magic more powerful.”

The headmaster walked around his desk and flicked his wand and suddenly the dummy from yesterday had reappeared in his office. The air rippled around them and something like a large bubble formed around the two of them.

“There, we have our target and I have protected our surroundings. Wouldn’t want to destroy my things now, would we?”

He winked at her but turned his eyes back to the dummy before she could respond.

“Cast any hex you wish at the dummy, Ms. Granger, and I will demonstrate the spell I will be hoping to teach you over the next two weeks.”

Hermione cast her spell after a moment. “Petrificus Totalus!”

The spell sailed through and the dummy locked in place. Dumbledore cleared his throat and Hermione saw him with an awkward expression on his face.

“Ah, you have already seen one of the weaknesses. This spell only works if a spell would work to harm a target. Freezing someone in place is not enough harm to allow this spell to work. Why don’t you cast something a little more malicious? I heard there were several such hexes placed on Ms. Parkinson.”

Hermione blushed. “Er, yes sir.” She pointed her wand again. She cast silently this time, and her spell flew towards the dummy. But a few feet away, the spell disintegrated into nothing. The dummy glowed slightly, but nothing else happened.

“What? Where did it go?” Hermione said as nothing happened after a moment.

The headmaster chuckled. “It was absorbed by my spell. The spell has several restrictions but it is one of the best defensive spells out there when mastered. It destroyed your spell and used its energy to empower the dummy. The user is all but immune to lesser spells and highly resistant to even some higher powered magic.”

“But… but if this exists then why wouldn’t everyone learn it? Isn’t this even better than the normal shield spell because it not only blocks but empowers people?”

“Ah, but there are a few key differences, Ms. Granger. First is the loophole you have already found. It only protects against magic that is meant to explicitly harm, while the shield spell works against almost all spells. Second, it can only be cast on those that a wizard genuinely wants to protect with all their being, so can be as unreliable and complicated as our feelings for that person are. It will utterly fail to protect strangers you do not know.”

The headmaster continued after taking a breath, “That is also ignoring the difficulty in learning the spell. It takes a certain frame of mind that many do not naturally have. But with your ease of learning silent casting, I believe you will do well with that aspect, Ms. Granger.”

“Finally and most importantly… it can not be cast on oneself, only on others. You are channeling your love and desire to protect into this spell into another person. This is the light magic portion of the spell. Talented wizards and witches are a selfish people on a whole and are unused to working in groups. Many of the most powerful look down on this type of magic as a result.”

Hermione absorbed all of that. Even with those restrictions, it still seemed absurdly powerful. Immunity against lesser spells, even getting empowered by them? If she could cast this...

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“Can you use the standard shield spell on top of it? To cover the non-harmful jinxes?”

The headmaster smiled. “Very good! Very good. That is exactly it. The weaknesses can be covered by the standard spells. But the shielding spell is far too advanced for you right now. I have shown you the end state of the spell, but I will be teaching you the easiest variation and giving you homework over the summer so you can go farther.”

“Yes, Headmaster! I’ll try my hardest!” Hermione said, eager to start learning.

“Very well, I can see your eagerness to get started. This spell is Resistencia Arcana. It is what will dissolve the spell structure. It will be very weak without infusing it with your emotions, but we will work on casting it correctly first before moving onwards. Now the wand movement is like this…”

Headmaster Dumbledore was an amazing teacher, and while Hermione struggled to cast the complicated spell, she finally managed to get it once or twice by the end of their session. Or at least that’s what Dumbledore had said, she hadn’t seen a visible change in the jinxes the headmaster had sent at the dummy to test her spell. But he assured her that she had done it.

Dumbledore looked up at the clock after Hermione failed another cast after getting two in the row.

“Ah, we are fifteen minutes over time. It has been a long time since I was able to teach a student one on one like this. Ah, the joy of teaching… But I will let you go for now.”

Hermione wiped some sweat from her forehead, over two hours of constant casting had worn her out.

“Thank you, Headmaster. I have learned so much, I can see how amazing spell this will be once I master it.”

The headmaster chuckled, “Ah, the enthusiasm of youth. Mastery of anything is a long road even for me. But with drive like that, I’m sure you’ll get it in no time!”

Hermione went to leave but paused at the door and turned back around.

“Uhm, Headmaster…”

Dumbledore looked up from where he had been vanishing the dummy they had been using for practice.

“Can I tell my friends about this? I know you said you didn’t want people to be jealous, but I don’t want to lie to them…”

Dumbledore waved dismissively. “Feel free to tell them, but make sure they know not to spread it around. It is best to be able to rely on one’s friends, but everyone makes mistakes. Best to impress on them the seriousness of the request, hmm?”

Hermione shifted, uncomfortable at the headmaster’s suddenly intensified gaze. “Yes… yes, sir. I’ll make sure they understand.”

The subtle tension in the room dissipated and the headmaster smiled. “Good, good. You did well today, Ms. Granger. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.”

“Thank you again, Headmaster.”

Hermione left the office practically skipping, a smile on her face. She couldn’t wait until next time!

— — —

Ron and Neville were amazed whenever Hermione told them about her lessons with Dumbledore over the last week. The two had mostly been relaxing and playing games ever since finals had ended. They did practice their chosen spells a little, but not with nearly the dedication Hermione was showing. She could almost cast the spell reliably by now, after spending a lot of her free time practicing it. She couldn’t see its effects so it wasn’t as useful doing it by herself, but she could feel something inside her tell her something was happening when she cast it right.

Hermione had also received a punishment from McGonagall, but it was delayed to next year due to the short time they had left on campus. Right now, she was practicing the spell on a rock as the boys played catch in front of her in an open field.

“Blimey, Hermione. Do you ever rest with that spell? I swear you must be casting that spell in your sleep by now. You should come play something with us,” Ron said, coming up to her in between games.

“It’s a very hard spell, Ron. And I can’t practice over the summer with the ministry restrictions against using magic outside of Hogwarts by minors. I have to work hard now so I don’t lose my ability to cast the spell when I'm at home.”

Ron put his hands up, “I don’t know, Hermione. I get that, but you literally practiced it while we were walking to the great hall one time. Doesn’t it seem like a bit much?”

“No!” Hermione snapped out, growing annoyed. “No,” she said in a softer tone. “I have to master this spell before Harry wakes up. I can use it to protect him next time something happens.”

“Oh,” Ron stood there for a moment before speaking again, “Uhm, Hermione. You know none of us were there for any of the attacks? They waited until he was alone each time, didn’t just us being around Harry protect him?”

“But what about next time, Ron? What about next time? We’ll be there, we won’t leave him alone again. We have to be ready. I’ll be ready at least.”

Hermione looked to the floor away from Ron. Ron sat down next to her and took a small colorful box from under his robes after a long moment of silence. He held it out to Hermione. She scrunched her nose in overexaggerated disgust as she saw the brand, grateful for the change in topic.

“Every flavor beans? I got vomit flavored one time you know. I can’t believe they can get away with still selling those.”

Ron snorted. “That’s half the fun. Here, I’ll have the first one show you they're not all bad.”

Ron took one and popped it in his mouth. His cheeks puffed up and his eyes watered, but he still swallowed it before lightly coughing. Hermione looked at him skeptically and hesitated as she realized that she had stopped practicing the spell.

“Alright, that one was pretty bad. But I took all the bad luck, the next one should be good!” Ron said.

He held out another bean to Hermione who took it and looked at it dubiously. But she did feel much better after seeing Ron’s reaction. And he was right that he had already gotten a bad one… After a moment she shrugged and ate it. Some kind of tropical fruit flavor. It was like an orange but had a sourer twinge beneath it. Huh.

After a few moments of chewing on it, she swallowed, “Alright, maybe they’re not all bad. But it only takes one bad one to ruin all of the rest.”

Ron shrugged. “I think its more exciting that way. That’s one for and one against. Let’s go find Neville, he’ll be the tie breaker.”

The two of them stood up and saw Neville playing rugby with some of the other boys across the way. He was pretty clumsy, but was quick on the turns so he was doing decently in the game of rugby that Seamus Finnigan had started to show the wizarding kids to prove that it was better than Quidditch.

The two walked over and watched for a minute before Neville eventually broke off and walked over to the pair. They were still debating which candy was best. Neville was soon drawn into the debate between the pair, looking confused at the rapid shifts in conversation as Ron and Hermione jumped all over the place on the merits of all the different candies they, or more accurately, Ron had tried. Meanwhile Hermione defended the muggle candies, so they were mostly talking past one another. But it still was pretty fun.

For the rest of that day, Hermione just let herself relax and enjoy some time with her friends. She still practiced the spell, but not every waking moment. It was nice to relax a little and just spend some time with them.

— — —

“And that is the end of our sessions, Ms. Granger. I am impressed with your progress, you have the spell down nearly flawlessly. We do not have enough time to go into infusing your emotions into the spell, but I think a short demonstration is in order, something for you to think about over the summer.”

Hermione stood there and nodded.

The headmaster cleared his throat. “Now, do I have your permission to cast a spell on you? It will be a laughing jinx that also makes you feel happy. I want you to cast your spell at the target as normal and we will see the difference in strength.”

Hermione shifted a little but eventually nodded. She trusted the headmaster.

He raised his wand in an exaggerated moment. “Now, here I go. Prepare yourself.”

He flicked his wand and Hermione felt herself suddenly feel bubbly and light. She burst at giggles as she turned to the dummy. Ha, dummy. It was a very stupid target.

“Cast your spell, Ms. Granger. Try to not get distracted.”

She tried to suppress her laughter at the Headmaster’s words, but her giggling still grew louder despite her best efforts. She tried to cast the spell, but it failed. Another three times, failure. But the fifth cast, it clicked and the spell sank in. Hermione stopped holding back and burst into full throated laughter so hard she had to hold her side. The headmaster flicked his wand and suddenly Hermione was back to normal, panting and out of breath.

“Sorry for that, Ms. Granger. Now, would you like to see the difference in strength?”

Hermione took a moment to recover herself, leaning on her knees before she stood up again.

“Yes, *cough* Headmaster.”

Without another word, Dumbledore cast a red jinx at the dummy and it struck head on with seemingly little difference than before. Huh? Was the difference just too small to see?

“You eyes do not deceive you, Ms. Granger. Remember that joy is not happiness. That spell made you feel happy by manipulating your body and brain, but connected to none of your deeper positive emotions in your soul. Joy is something that lasts long beyond the moment in which it is created. It is easy to conflate the two as you begin the infusion process, and this is your homework for the summer. Reflect on this difference and think of moments that bring you joy, not happiness. These are the moments that we will use for infusion when you return next semester.”

“So you will continue teaching me next year, Headmaster? Thank you so much!”

The headmaster chuckled. “Ah yes, I’d say your detention will last for a long time if you keep improving at this rate, Ms. Granger. I say you are destined for great things.”

His eyes unfocused for a moment and he looked almost wistful. “Great… or kind? Perhaps you should not wish to be great…”

“Headmaster?”

Dumbledore startled and seemed to remember she was there again, “Ah, pay no mind to that. Just the ramblings of an old man. Now go and enjoy your summer, I will see you next term.”

After thanking him again, Hermione left. Joy and happiness… this would be a strange summer. She couldn’t wait to tell her parents about all the new spells she had learned. She put her hand in her bag and felt at the journal. She was sure she would be giving it to Harry soon. He only had two days before the term was over, and she was sure that he would wake up before then. Or at least she hoped so, she didn’t want to consider anything else.