It was a little strange for Hermione to be back in Hogwarts. The food was better than ever although Hermione couldn’t stop thinking about the House elves below preparing it. As much as Hermione wanted to find a way down there and free them all, she knew it was pointless. Just saving Dobby had cost thirty five percent of her magic, and freeing the elves and not binding them to her would be killing them indirectly. It was a hard problem.
To no one's surprise, Ginny was sorted into Gryffindor like all of the other Weasleys. It seems that the girl had made some friends on the train, which was good. Hermione had picked up from their conversations that Ginny had been a little lonely over the last year at home with just her and her mother all the time as her brothers were at school.
The Headmaster made his announcements for the start of the year, nothing too interesting. Hermione thought he glanced at her at one point and she straightened in her seat. She still hadn’t tested it, but she was feeling confident about infusing her spells with her joy. She couldn’t wait to continue their lessons. Dumbledore had sent Hermione a note saying that he had been busy for a bit, but that their next lesson would be in two weeks on Friday after classes and that she should practice in the meantime on the spell.
— — —
Hermione smiled as the class with Lockhart began. He had saved her! Wow. The first test was about all of his exploits. A little unfair to people who weren’t his fans, but Hermione was sure Lockhart wouldn’t grade this first test very harshly.
After they handed in their papers, Lockhart began telling them about all the adventures he had gone on, all the creatures he had defeated with his wit and clever spells. Hermione was on the edge of her seat. This was nothing like her other classes, he was telling them stuff that had actually happened and how he had done things in real life! Hermione took notes furiously despite noticing Neville and Ron appearing unimpressed with Lockhart's reenactments of various maneuvers he had done to defeat a dark wizard terrorizing a small village in Asia.
After class Hermione started speaking to Ron and Neville as they went to their next class. “Wasn’t that class amazing, guys! He was actually showing us how he did everything, I learned so much!”
Ron rolled his eyes, “C’mon, Hermione. I’ll eat my socks if even half of those actually work. How does spinning in a full circle before attacking help anything?”
“I’m sure he’ll explain it later on, Ron. It’s too advanced to show to second years, I’m sure,” Hermione huffed, “You said he took out Lucius Malfoy in like three spells, you should know how amazing he is.”
Ron raised his hands defensively, “Hey, I said only half the things he said were useless. The other half is plenty good. I’d be fine with it if the guy could talk about anything but himself for more than a few seconds. Like that test, how crazy was that? It was all questions about him and his books.”
Hermione sniffed, “Duh, Ron. He told us all the answers in the lecture afterward during his stories. I bet he’s going to give the same test tomorrow and use that score for the real grade.”
Ron and Neville stiffened and shared a panicked glance. “What?” Neville said, “No- No way. Really, I didn’t take notes nearly good enough to answer all those things!”
Ron looked at Hermione frantically. “Please Hermione, can we look at your notes? Yours are always so good…”
‘The second you’re not useful to them, they’ll throw you away,’ Pansy’s words at last year’s final exams slithered through Hermione’s mind for a second before she shook the thought away.
“Sure, fine. Take them,” Hermione said before handing them over to the boys as they sat down for their next class.
“Thanks, Hermione!” Ron said.
“Yeah, thanks. This will help a ton,” Neville said a few seconds later.
Hermione what they would do if her grades ever were lower than theirs…
Hopefully she would never get to find out.
— — —
Classes over the next few days weren’t overly difficult for Hermione. She had read ahead and transfiguration was ridiculously easy for her now. Hermione wondered if that was because of her new magic. By the end of classes, Hermione was slightly sweating after casting all her spells. That must be her missing magic, she was getting exhausted easier. Hopefully it would get better as Hermione grew.
She had heard that constantly using your magic made your magic grow faster. So hopefully she would improve fast enough to be back to a more normal amount of magic after growing a bit more. But it would be so exhausting in the meantime.
Hermione tried practicing a few more of the spells she had read about over the summer, and maybe overdid her practice a bit. Neville and Ron found her splayed out over the great lawn, panting heavily.
They rushed up and peered down at her, “You alright, Hermione?” Neville asked in concern.
“Yeah, I’m…” Hermione pushed herself up to a sitting position with a groan, “...I’m fine, guys. I just cast too many spells in a row. Exhausted my magic all the way.”
Ron raised his eyebrow, “How long were you practicing out here? You couldn’t have been gone for longer than an hour! It takes way longer than that to get that exhausted unless you were shooting big bursts of flame or something.”
Hermione made her way to her feet, “Sorry, it’s…”
She stared at them. Why was she lying to them again? She realized that she should just ask Dobby if it was okay to tell them about the whole thing. She was overcomplicating things for no reason.
“...I was just already tired, I guess,” Hermione finished lamely as she made her way to her feet.
The boys eyed her for a moment suspiciously. “Well,” Ron said, “Neville and I were wondering if you could help us learn silently casting spells if you’re not too worn out?”
Hermione looked at them, the two seemed eager. She remembered her promise to help them learn when they came back to school. That felt like forever ago.
“Okay,” she said, “So Harry and I tried a bunch of different ways, but I finally learned it by slowly chopping off little parts of the incantation. So for Incendio, just say Incen— and then think of the —dio silently. If you do it right then you’ll still create the flames. Eventually you do different parts of it until you can do the whole thing silently.”
Ron and Neville stared at her in confusion, “Huh?” Ron said, “That’s it? That sounds easy!”
Hermione shrugged, “It’s really weird. It’s like some mindset thing. It helps if you really pretend that you moved your lips to form the words when you think of the silent part. Making the whole thing silent is the hardest part because you have to make sure you think of the word and make the wand movements at the exact right times for it to work. Even a little difference throws everything off and makes the spell fail. The first time is super super hard to do, but it gets easier each time you do it and you get a feel for it. Since I’ve been doing it so much, learning things silently only takes me a little longer than doing it out loud for the easier spells at least.”
Hermione walked over to a tree and sat down and watched the boys practicing and she occasionally gave them some advice and some other ways Harry had tried to explain it to her. But it really was mostly practice, and neither of them got it in the time they were there.
The three of them returned to the common room and Ron suddenly groaned. “Oh no! I forgot to do my potion’s essay for tomorrow. It’s going to be so bad.”
Neville jolted and started looking nervous. “I forgot that too. How many inches of parchment did we have to write again?”
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
“Good night guys,” Hermione said as she walked to the stairs like a zombie.
“But Hermione, its only six o’clock! Surely you’re not going to bed already?” Ron said with some desperation.
“Do your own homework, Ron,” Hermione mumbled through a fog, “I’m going to sleep.”
She went to her bed and barely was able to change into her bed clothes before collapsing into bed and falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
— — —
It was Saturday and Hermione was only just recovering from straining herself a few days ago. She drooped after casting all her spells after classes and generally felt more tired than normal for that whole time. She had to be careful now about how many spells she cast so she wouldn’t overdo it in the future.
She had called Dobby in one of the abandoned classrooms and after a short discussion he had given her permission to tell her friends about him as long as he was there too to explain it himself in person. Hermione was glad he was standing up for himself a little more, he had looked extremely nervous when he added that condition to it. Dobby had scheduled it so she would tell Ron and Neville all about it tonight after dinner and Dobby could come too.
— — —
“So, did you guys know that, um,” Hermione said at Dinner, “This food is cooked by house elves?”
Ron paused with a turkey leg half way to his lips. He looked down and took in the long table filled with food. “What? No way, they make all of this? I thought they just used magic to make it…”
Hermione opened her mouth to scold him, but Neville beat her to it.
“Remember two days ago in transfiguration, Ron?” Neville said, “Food’s one of the things that you can’t make with magic. We could eat it, but it wouldn’t stop us from being hungry at all.”
“Huh,” Ron said, “Thanks, Neville I forgot that.” Ron kept looking at his turkey leg for a long moment before shrugging and taking a big bite. He spoke after a few bites and little bits of food sprayed out of his mouth. Hermione cringed. Ewww, gross.
“Well, the house elves sure make good food,” Ron said, “I wish my family could afford a house elf, I’m sure they’d be bloody useful.”
“Ron! I can’t believe you,” Hermione said, “Isn’t it just horrible that they are slaves down there, how can you say that?”
Ron blinked and swallowed his food, “Slaves? They can’t be slaves. They’re not people, or err. Humans, I mean. They think differently than us, my dad told me all about it when I asked about the thing they accused you of over the summer. My dad wouldn’t be okay with it if it really was that bad.”
“What else would they be?” Hermione said, “They don’t get paid, have to follow their master's orders to the letter, and are born into it. Just because they’re not humans, doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings…”
Hermione stopped as she realized she had started raising her voice and some of the people around her were staring at her and whispering.
“Oh, nevermind,” She said. He would understand when he met Dobby tonight. She had already told them she wanted to do something later, and they had agreed, seeming to understand that it was important to her.
— — —
“Alright, Hermione. We’re here, what’s this big secret you’ve been hinting at all day?” Ron said with mild annoyance. Hermione had been intentionally vague when she was convincing them to do this.
“Ok. Listen guys,” Hermione said, “This is super serious. No one can know about this, not your parents, we can’t even talk about it unless we’re sure no one is listening ok? This could really get someone hurt if the wrong person hears.”
Both boys’ eyes widened at her serious tone, “I pro-promise I won’t tell anyone, Hermione.” Neville said.
“Yeah, me too. Now, C’mon. We’re both dying here, what is this about?” Ron said.
Hermione hesitated for a moment before flicking her hand and shutting and locking the door in one motion. She let out a sigh of relief. It was so relaxing to use her wandless magic to do things. She didn’t want anyone else to know so she had to practice in secret or pretend she was using her wand all the time.
Ron and Neville’s mouths fell open as they stared between her two empty hands and the locked door.
“Her-her-hermione! Wandless magic…” Neville stuttered in shock but she quickly shook her head.
“Wait, that’s not it,” Hermione said before clearing her throat, “Dobby.”
There was a crack of air and suddenly Dobby was standing in the room with them, his large ears now covered in a tannish blonde hair with black hair on the tips.
Ron and Neville fumbled for their wands and shouted in surprise and Dobby looked around in confusion as if to look for the source of their shock, his hands raised at the ready.
Ron finally managed to pull his wands from his robes and pointed it at Dobby.
“Wait, no Ron! He’s a friend! A friend!” Hermione shouted, “I wanted you guys to meet him and explain some things. First off, meet Dobby here.”
Ron lowered his wand. “How’d he get in here? What’s up with his ears? Was he there invisible the whole time?” He demanded roughly.
Dobby cocked his head in confusion and turned to Hermione a questioning look in his eyes.
Hermione ignored Ron for a second and turned to him, “Uhm, sorry about that Dobby. I didn’t want to explain anything until you were here. They were just surprised, they didn't mean anything by it.”
Dobby nodded, “Dobby understands, Ms. Granger. Dob- I will let you explain first.”
Dobby turned to Ron and Neville, “Hello friends of Hermione Granger. It is nice to finally meet you.”
“Ni- Nice to meet you too, Dobby,” Neville said politely
“Hello,” Ron said, still keeping a grip on his wand even if it was lowered at the moment.
Hermione used her wandless magic to pick up a few chairs from the corner, clean them of dust and set them in a rough circle for them to all sit. When she turned back around, Neville and Ron were gaping at her again.
She sat down and everyone including Dobby followed her lead. Hermione took a deep breath and turned to Ron and Neville. “Ok,” She said, “So it all started over the summer when all of a sudden a house elf apparated into my room. He wanted to warn me about danger at Hogwarts in the next school year…”
Hermione told the boys all the things she had done. Attacking Lucius Malfoy, freeing Dobby, how Dobby would have died without being bound to something else magical, and eventually giving up a portion of her magic in exchange for the change in the properties of her magic. Dobby jumped in occasionally to explain some of the history of house elves or describe some of the horrible things that had happened to him. Ending with a five minute speech on how amazing Hermione was and how he’d do anything to protect her.
Hermione blushed and tried to stop him, but he insisted on finishing the whole thing despite her protests.
Ron and Neville’s faces went through the whole range of emotions, but generally swung from utterly flabbergasted to the face of one undergoing information overload.
“So, yeah,” Hermione finished, “That’s why I can do wandless magic, and why Lucius Malfoy attacked me at Flourish and Blotts.”
Ron was staring at Hermione like he had never seen her before. “What the heck, Hermione?” He said, “That’s so crazy. You did all of that for someone you barely even knew?”
Hermione looked at Dobby before looking back, “I guess I did. I don’t know, I couldn’t just not do anything when Dobby was suffering. I really didn’t think it would spiral into such a big thing, it just turned out that way. Sorry about lying to your dad too, Ron. He seems nice, but I needed a backup so Malfoy didn’t just start cursing me in the street if the plan failed.”
She shrugged and gave him a helpless smile, “Well, I guess he would have done it either way based on what he did in the bookstore. But at least the Aurors might have come in time to stop him for retaliating against me too much.”
Ron shook his head and snorted a laugh. “Sorry? Ha! You know how much my dad hates Lucius Malfoy? They’ve been fighting each other all summer, what you did handed him his biggest win in ages. Even if Malfoy still squirmed out of time in Azkaban, it let Dad pass all sorts of regulations to help protect muggles against dark artifacts as a result. If he knew you were behind it, he’d shake your hand! Right after he finished scolding you for going into danger though…”
“Well, Malfoy’s done for after attacking you anyway,” Neville said, “Politically, I mean. You won’t have to worry about his revenge as much once he's less influential.”
Dobby growled a little and waved his hands. “Dobby won’t let anyone Ms. Granger ever again! He- I failed in my duties! I should have been more ready!”
“I said it was fine, didn’t I?” Hermione said, retreading old ground. They had had this conversation many times, “You couldn’t have known, and I ended up being fine. I doubt something like that will ever happen again.”
“Hmmmmm,” Dobby hummed, not wanting to argue with her but clearly still disagreeing with her.
“Well, that’s pretty much it,” Hermione said, “Do you guys want to ask Dobby anything before he leaves? I’m sure you have your own things to do, Dobby.”
Dobby stood, “Dobby, Grrrr. I will always make time for Ms. Granger!”
Hermione nodded then looked at the two boys who shook their heads to the negative.
“Ok, bye Dobby. See you soon!” She said, waving at Dobby. Dobby waved back and a second later he disappeared in a crack of air.
“Hey Hermione,” Ron said.
“Yes, Ron?” She answered.
“I think you kind of skimmed over the important part in the middle of the rest of that craziness. You cast. Bloody. Wandless magic. Dumbledore can barely even do that!”
Hermione’s eyes lit up, "I know, it feels amazing, way different than using a wand! Here, watch!" Hermione raised her hands and eight of the stacked chairs in the corner floated into the air and began floating around.
Hermione put them in a big ring above them and sent them spinning fast. Hermione felt herself sweating and panting, but she still couldn’t resist the laughter that spilled out of her. It was just like how she always imagined that magic would be when she was younger. After ten long seconds, she set the chairs down again, breathing heavily. She turned to the boys, smiling widely.
“Isn’t it great!” She said.
“Yeah, amazing!” Neville said in wonder.
“Bloody incredible, bloody incredible,” Ron said, similarly amazed.