Title: Certain Magic
Author: Watoshimi Kairou
Fandom: Harry Potter, Labyrinth
Characters: Jareth / Sarah Williams, Severus Snape, Hermione Granger, Toby Williams
Rating: Mature
Status: Complete
Summary: Toby Williams is attending Hogwarts and he's about to bring with him fairy tales even the Wizarding World didn't think existed.
Certain Powers
[7] Fields of Gold
Hoggle was seriously considering throwing himself into the bog just to put himself out of misery. Jareth—King Jareth, he reminded himself—was throwing yet another temper tantrum. He remembered a time when he used to be afraid of Jareth. He remembered a time when the mere mention of the Goblin King struck fear into his very heart. He remembered the shuddering, the cold sweats, the nightmares.
When did that all change?
What the hell happened?
Sarah, he thought. Sarah happened.
"It's been months since she had been reintroduced to magic," Jareth ranted, kicking another goblin. Hoggle watched with half-lidded eyes as the little twits giggled and lined up, waiting for their own turn to be kicked. He wondered if he should remind the angry king that magic had never actually left Sarah in the first place. After all, besides the numerous goblins following her around, she made sure to contact her other friends of the Labyrinth at least once a week. "And her magic has been getting stronger and stronger!" Jareth continued. "I can feel it! Why hasn't she said my name?" He spun around, "Hippins!"
Hoggle looked up, "Yes?" he asked, trying to keep the boredom out of his voice. Just because Jareth no longer scared him, didn't mean he wanted to be named Prince of the Bog of Eternal Stench or anything like that. All he wanted to do was go out and spray some faeries.
"When was the last time you talked to her?"
Hoggle felt himself pale. "Er..." he mumbled something.
Mismatch eyes narrowed dangerously. "What was that?"
"'tis morning..." Hoggle admitted.
"Exactly!" the Goblin King cried out. "And you slipped my name into the conversation, yes?"
This time, unable to help himself, Hoggle rolled his eyes. "'course I did." It wasn't like he could forget; Jareth had taken it upon himself to remind Hoggle his every waking moment. If he had to listen to the Goblin King say, "Remember to slip my name in there!" one more time, he really was going to throw himself into the bog and name himself Prince of the Bog of Eternal Stench.
Jareth growled, the sound vibrating throughout the throne room, his powers amplifying its effects and making the very earth tremble with it. Hoggle had been very impressed and terrified the first time Jareth did it. And the second. And even the fifth, actually. But it got kind of boring after number seven. "Then. Why. Hasn't. She. Called. My. Name?" Jareth ranted, emphasizing each word with a kick, sending goblins sailing out the window, one right after the other.
Hoggle sighed.
Suddenly, as if someone had flipped a switch, all the anger and frustration left Jareth's body, leaving him looking depressed instead. He threw himself onto his throne and sighed. "Even Little Jareth is kinder to me," he grumbled, summoning his favorite riding crop into his hand with a half-hearted flick.
"Little Jareth?" Hoggle repeated, confused. Then: "At least call him by his actual name!"
"Even if he does only try and feed me toast," Jareth continued, sniffing at the reminder. He was easily ignoring Hoggle as he does with all his goblins most of the time. "How undignifying. I bet he gets that cruelness from his sister." He sighed again, gazing sadly out his window, barely noticing a small goblin trying to climb back through it.
It was Hoggle's turn to sigh but he managed to swallow it back. Here we go again, he thought. After the tantrum usually came the pout.
Jareth opened his free hand, summoning his crystals and absentmindedly twirling them around skilled fingers. In the distance, he could see the beginnings of greenery where there had been the dead Faeries' Rainbow Forest before. Like the touch of spring after a long winter, he thought, thin lips twitching upwards. Summer is coming back for the faeries. Maybe now, they would leave the edge of his Labyrinth alone and Hoggle would be around more often to listen to him talk. He perked up at the idea.
"Kingy!" a goblin called, bouncing into the throne room. "King-King Pointy Ears is here!"
Jareth waved a distracted hand, the small speck of greenery still holding most of his attention. "Bog him," he dismissed.
"What's a Mudblood?"
If there was a word Severus could live without ever hearing again, that would be the one.
Even before the incident, he had never been fond of the word. He had seen what it did to Muggleborns; seeing their expression, watching the hurt dull their eyes, practically feeling their trembles, Severus had always found that he could somewhat relate even though the word doesn't apply to him.
Severus sighed and squeezed his eyes shut, feeling the beginnings of a migraine. He had always know Harry Potter's arrival to Hogwarts would bring unwanted chaos into his otherwise scheduled lifestyle. He just didn't think it was going to get worse and worse with each passing year. Considering how bad Potter's fifth year already was despite the fact that it just began, Severus couldn't imagine what his sixth and seventh year would bring. But to be fair, he admitted that Potter himself wasn't quite the headache Umbridge was—even if her presence in Hogwarts was mostly Potter's fault.
With another sigh, he pulled himself out of his thoughts and left the safety of his chambers before making his way towards the Great Hall for breakfast. His heavy black cloak billowed faithfully behind him with his every step, and the few early-rising students parted for him. Inwardly smirking at the sight, Severus relished in his reputation. For as long as he could remember, he had always been the feared and hated professor at Hogwarts—it had been necessary when he first started out; Severus had been only a couple years older than his oldest students, after all. His reputation had made his students fear him—made them hate him—but at a distance.
Ah, he thought. How he wished Potter would share that same ideal.
With an annoyed grunt now that his thoughts were dominated by Potter again, Severus strolled into the Great Hall and made his way to his usual seat. He caught sight of familiar twinkling blue eyes and wondered where Flitwick was; he needed someone to sit between him and Albus. Severus wasn't sure he had the patience to deal with Albus so early in the morning. Especially not with Williams' question still echoing in his mind.
"What's a Mudblood?"
He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to will the image of large green eyes and flaming red hair away but it was no use. He relived the incident every night and remembered it like it was yesterday; he could still feel her shock, her hurt, her hate. Like all other Muggleborns, Lily never liked that word, he knew. But Lily was different, Lily was special.
But not.
Not as different—not as special—as Tobias Williams, apparently.
His eyes opened in a slow, almost lazy manner and he scanned the Hufflepuff table, somehow not surprised to see Williams already up despite the early hour. The First Year was currently fighting over a piece of bacon with an angry-looking barn owl. "Stop it!" the First Year was saying, judging by the shapes his mouth was forming. "That's too greasy for you! You're going to get an upset stomach!"
"What's a Mudblood?" Severus remembered.
But also:
"Oh, it's fine. I didn't grow up here so the word doesn't really mean anything to me."
Tobias Williams was an enigma. Before yesterday, Severus never really noticed Williams. Besides the obnoxiously large and rather rude she-owl he often hears Draco complain about, there wasn't anything particularly interesting about the young First Year. Quiet and polite, the boy did his homework, his readings, and was quick to follow instructions so he had never incurred Severus' wrath—and therefore, his attention.
To Severus' knowledge, Hogwarts and the Wizarding World tend to be the first place Muggleborns would finally feel like they belonged to. After years of unexplained bursts of magic and the feeling of "not fitting in," the knowledge of magic and wizards and Hogwarts was almost like coming home. Then, for them to suddenly find out that "home" was full of prejudice ideals and derogatory words like Mudblood, it was like waking up from a blissful dream.
He remembered Lily.
"Oh, it's fine," Williams' young voice continuing to echo in his mind. "I didn't grow up here so the word doesn't really mean anything to me."
It sounded almost like words from a wise man; a good ideal to live by; but Severus knew how unrealistic it was to say something and then to actually mean it. It was easy to say you didn't care but it was harder to really not let the word affect you. He had personally witnessed what the word Mudblood could do to even the more powerful, independent wizards and witches, Lily only being one of them. But Williams—
Tobias Williams—
"I didn't grow up here so the word doesn't really mean anything to me."
It would if you cared, Severus thought, still staring at the first year. He had a feeling that Williams' indifference to the word has less to do with him growing up in the Muggle world and more to do with the fact that the Wizarding World was not the First Year's home. Which was rather strange because people tend to find feelings of home in familiarity, or the feeling of finally fitting in somewhere.
"Severus!" Albus suddenly greeted, his voice bright and cheerful, pulling him from his thoughts. Severus watched from the corner of his eyes as the Headmaster slipped into Flitwick's usual seat and surpassed a wince. "How does it go with Miss Granger?" Albus asked in a hushed voice.
Severus frowned at him, still slightly distracted by thoughts of Tobias Williams. Miss Granger wasn't exactly a name he wanted to hear first thing in the morning. Like Mister Weasley, it was usually associated with Mister Potter and that was definitely a name he would rather not hear. At all. It was bad enough the wretched boy had already occupied his thoughts earlier. "Perfectly fine, as well as you know," he answered instead, filling his mug with strong black coffee. "I instructed her about the Wolfsbane yesterday."
Albus nodded. "Good, good." He leaned in and voice dropping even lower, asked, "And do you believe she will be able to brew it alone if you are ever... indisposed?"
Considering that Miss Granger was known as the brightest witch her age since her first year, Severus thought the question was rather pointless. He answered anyway, if only to get Albus off his back. "I will test her next month," he said, scowling. The evening "advanced tutoring" sessions were seriously taking a toll on his mental health. As if seeing her three times a week for class wasn't enough, Severus now found himself having to put up with even more questions during their evening sessions.
"I do not doubt her capabilities," he said, nodding again. "She is, after all, quite bright."
"Indeed," Severus drawled.
He looked up from his breakfast then and immediately notice Potter and Granger walking into the Great Hall together, their heads ducked down towards one another, whispering. No doubt they were conspiring again, he thought and wondered where the third member of their trio was. His eyes narrowed when they both looked up, Granger's lips moving rapidly as she said something to Potter. Despite all his skills, Severus found that he still couldn't read Granger's lips; she spoke too fast for him, apparently.
Following their gaze, he was only slightly surprised when he saw that they were not conspiring like he had first thought. Instead, their attention was completely captured by the young First Year he had been thinking of only moments before. Tobias Williams.
"What's a Mudblood?"
Severus breathed out slowly through his nose, willing his stomach to stop heaving at the mere remembrance of the word. No doubt Granger wanted to confront the First Year about yesterday. Williams had lied to protect the identity of his verbal attacker for reasons Severus did not understand, but Granger was no fool. He turned his gaze and watched as Williams attempted to feed the barn owl bits of his toast.
"I should warn you, Headmaster," Severus said slowly, eyes never leaving the blond boy, "that Mister Williams visited Miss Granger in my classroom last night." He kept his voice low, not wanting to catch someone else's attention. "He brought up a... startling question."
Albus startled, jerking so suddenly in his seat that Severus tore his gaze away from Williams and towards the aged Headmaster instead. "Mister Williams?" Albus repeated. "Tobias Williams? Visited Miss Granger? Why?"
Severus gave him an odd look and Albus knew why. It was no secret between the two of them that Albus didn't usually concern himself with other students. Not like this, anyway. And certainly not with anyone other than Harry Potter. But instead on commenting on Albus' reaction, Severus nodded towards the Gryffindor duo. "Like Mister Williams, Miss Granger is a Muggleborn. He came to question her about a..." He trailed off and swallowed hard, remembering bright green eyes. "...particular word." Usually Severus wouldn't bring up such an incident to the Headmaster but with Voldemort's return and Umbridge's increasing power, it seemed like the right thing to do.
Albus turned and watched with rising horror as Harry and Hermione began making their way towards Toby. The young First Year's eyes darted around, looking strangely guilty before nodding and getting up from his seat to follow them out the Great Hall.
"As long as he remains within the walls of Hogwarts, his life will be in no danger," he had told young Miss Williams. But that would only be the case if he was not acquainted with Harry. And here Albus had thought he wouldn't need to worry about Toby ever interacting with Harry.
Oh dear, Albus thought. Miss Williams will not be happy.
Hermione rubbed the lingering traces of sleep from her eyes as she made her way down to the Common Room. Shoving a mass lock of fuzzy hair away from her face, she suddenly noticed for the first time that Harry was sitting in one of the couches, running nimble fingers over his knuckles. "Harry?"
He looked up at the sound of her voice. "Oh, morning, Hermione! Ready to go to breakfast?"
She looked around the Common Room but spotted no telltale red hair. "Where's Ron?" she asked.
"Still sleeping."
Hermione nodded slowly before she remembered. Snapping her head down to look at Harry's hand, she hissed, "Harry! Did you have detention with Professor Umbridge again? Let me see it!"
"I'm fine," he said, but showed her his hand anyway as they both made their way out into the halls.
Looking at her friends pale knuckles, Hermione was happy to see that the only marks on them were old, extremely faded scars from previous detentions. She sighed with relief and reached into her robes to pull out a container of salve. "Here, I created this," she told him, pressing it into his hand. "It counteracts the Blood Quill's anti-healing charms." She sighed again, this time, unhappily. "Unfortunately, it's not perfected yet. It can't heal completely but I'll consult Professor Snape on that."
Harry nodded, lips quirking upwards into a smile as he stuffed the container into the pockets of his robes. "Thanks," he murmured.
Hermione frowned, noticing his distraction. "Harry, what's wrong?"
His smile widened at her question, feeling the familiar feeling of giddiness at Hermione's obvious worry for him. Being physically almost a year older than him, Hermione had always been the older sibling figure Harry never had. And since she was obviously years ahead of him in mental maturity, she was almost also like a parent figure. It felt nice to be worried over for once. Giving himself a mental shake, he brought his thoughts back to Hermione's question. "You know the kid we met in the train?" he asked her. "Toby Williams?"
Hermione blinked slowly. "What about him?"
"I bumped into him last night after my detention with Umbridge."
Hermione frowned again. "What did she make you do?" she asked.
"Write lines like usual," Harry confessed in a low whisper.
Hermione blinked rapidly as she glanced down at his hand, confused.
"Is it possible to heal someone wandlessly," Harry asked. Then, remembering Toby's confused and innocent expression, he tried again, "Or to heal someone without meaning to?" He thought back to his own experience with unintentional magic. Even before he found out he was a wizard, things didn't happen for no reason. Every magical burst from him was because he wanted it; he wanted his hair to grow back, he wanted to escape his old bullies, and while Harry didn't think Toby wished him harm or anything, he doubted the younger boy thought about healing him.
Quickly realizing that Toby's meeting with Harry last night had to do with his lack of wounds from Umbridge's Blood Quills, Hermione said, "Tell me what happened."
So Harry told her everything because if anyone could make sense of what happened yesterday, it was Hermione. He told her how they had bumped into each other, about Toby;s horrified expression when he first noticed the wounds Harry had initially tried hiding from him. He told her how Toby's touch had sent unfamiliar tingles throughout his hand and before he knew it, the words he had etched into his own skin had healed right before his eyes even as Toby reached for Hermione's healing salve. And then, in a much quiet voice, Harry told her about Malfoy's appearance.
Hermione pursed her lips. "Did he call Toby a..."
Harry nodded, watching Hermione's expression carefully. When Hermione had first been called a Mudblood their second year, she had been so heartbroken despite not initially realizing the meaning behind the word. And now, with Umbridge's increasing power in Hogwarts, Purebloods like Malfoy were becoming more and more obvious in their prejudice. Not even three months into the school year and Harry had already heard three hisses of "Mudblood" directed towards his fuzzy-haired friend.
She was silent for a moment, thinking about the young, innocent, homesick First Year and wondered why he was trying to protect someone like Draco Malfoy. "Healing magic is similar to Dark Magic," Hermione said smartly, turning her attention back to the initial question at hand. "You have to mean it. Not to mention, it requires a great deal of magic, concentration, and understanding. I doubt a First Year could do it wandlessly."
Harry's brows furrowed and he opened his mouth to speak but Hermione continued on before he could utter a single word. "But Toby is also a Muggleborn."
"What difference does that make?" Harry asked, still frowning as they rounded a corner into another corridor.
Hermione hummed softly, gathering her thoughts. "Generally," she began slowly, "Muggleborns have a much easier time learning wandless, nonverbal magic. Wizarding children have parents who understand and are able to stop bursts of unintentional magic. But since Muggleborns don't have that, it tends to be easier for us to accomplish wandless, nonverbal magic because we're already so used to it."
Harry nodded, that made a lot of sense.
"So I guess it's entirely possible for Toby to accidentally heal you," Hermione continued but she wasn't unsure. While she knew that statistically, Muggleborns tend to master wandless, nonverbal magic faster and easier, she wasn't sure that was the case with the current situation. Blood Quills were such a big deal because they had anti-healing charms on it. For Toby—a First Year, Muggleborn or not—to bypass that entirely without even realizing it... that was an entirely different situation all together.
She breathed out slowly as they entered the Great Hall, giving herself a mental head shake. "Malfoy didn't do anything else to Toby, did he?" she asked softly, leaning towards Harry. "He did come to see me for another healing salve last night."
Harry shook his head. "No, I think that's just because he broke his original one." He paused, thinking back to the incident last night before snickering. "If anything, I thought he was the one that did something to Malfoy."
"What?" Hermione exclaimed, eyes scanning over the Hufflepuff Table to find Toby attempting to feed an owl a piece of toast.
Harry laughed quietly and followed her gaze. "Malfoy tripped, fell right on his face," he reminded her. "For a second, I really thought Toby was the one who tripped him. Malfoy had just insulted him, after all and he isn't particularly clumsy." He shook his head, still staring at Toby. "But then I saw Toby's expression; the kid was horrified."
They both stared at the blond First Year for a moment. "Do you think we should talk to Toby?" Hermione asked. "Warn him about Malfoy, I mean; he really isn't the kind of person a First Year should make him an enemy out of. I mean, I hear Malfoy already doesn't like Hel."
Harry blinked, "Who?"
"Hel," she repeated. "Helreginn. Toby's owl."
"What?"
Hermione shook her head. "Never mind," she said, reaching down to clasp Harry's hand in her own before pulling him with her towards Toby's direction. "Come on."
They navigated their way through their fellow early morning risers before stopping in front of Toby and a couple of his First Year friends. Harry had to fight to urge to shuffle behind Hermione when he noticed the looks of awe on their faces. It's been a while since someone looked at him like that; after the entire Cedric and "Voldemort is back!" incident, people tend to glare hatefully or look at him with suspicion.
"Hey Toby," Hermione greeted.
Toby's head snapped up, facial muscles twisting in horror as he recognized them. He pulled away from the owl and leaned back into his seat before fully tilting his head up to look at them. "Hello Hermione," he muttered. "Harry." No doubt he realized that Harry must have told Hermione about yesterday's incident, which completely contradicted the story he had told her.
"Do you think we can talk privately for a moment?" Hermione asked lightly.
He swallowed hard, eyes darting from Hermione to Harry and back again. "Sure," he hesitantly answered. As Toby got up from his seat, his eyes darted back to his friends but they only stared up at him in a sort of awe that most definitely wasn't helpful. He gave a mental sigh and followed the two older students out the Great Hall. "I'm not in trouble, am I?" he asked.
Hermione smiled. "No, of course not," she assured him and then glanced at Harry for a quick moment. "But Harry did tell me that you met Malfoy last night. Did you ever meet him before that?"
Toby thought back to the owl incident. "No, not really."
The two Gryffindors exchanged glances. Not only had Hermione heard rumors about Malfoy's hatred for Toby's she-owl but she knew that Toby had lied about the Mudblood incident. She didn't know if Toby was actually trying to protect the Slytherin or if he just didn't want to cause unnecessary drama but she felt the need to warn him anyway. "Toby," she said in a low, serious voice. "I want you to be able to come to me if someone treats you unkindly." She swallowed hard. "And if anyone ever calls you a... Mudblood again, I want you to let me know." Because words don't always stay words, she knew.
"Especially if it's Malfoy," Harry said, nodding in agreement.
Hermione immediately jabbed him in the side with a sharp elbow.
"I'm fine!" Toby blurted. "Honest!" He had, of course, heard rumors about Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy's rivalry and he had even seen hints of it himself just last night. The last thing he wanted to do was to give them another reason to fight. "Is that all?" he asked, obviously uncomfortable with the topic.
"One more thing," Harry said, speaking up again. He cleared his throat when Toby looked up at him, blinking large, innocent eyes. "Before Hogwarts... Before Hogwarts, have you ever had any... unintentional bursts of magic?"
Toby blinked in surprise at the sudden change in topic but relaxed all the same, happy that they were no longer talking about Draco Malfoy and Mudbloods and the lies he had told Hermione. "Not really," he answered. "Not that I can really remember, anyway." He pursed his lips thoughtfully, thinking back. "After Professor Dumbledore explained everything, my parents did say that I used to cause things to shatter or fall when I was a baby. But they thought it was due to earthquakes or something back then." He shrugged. "Sometimes, I'll wake up with chicken feathers all over my room. Does that count?"
Hermione laughed. "What about healing?" she asked instead. "Have you ever gotten hurt and it healed really fast? Or maybe someone else? A parent or a close friend?"
Toby shook his head, wondering where this conversation was going. "Not, not—" He froze suddenly. "Sarah got hurt once."
"Sarah?" Harry asked.
"My sister," he elaborated. "My sister, Sarah."
"What happened?" Hermione asked.
"She got into a bad car accident a couple years ago," Toby answered, shuddering at the memory. "We got a call from the hospital. She lost a lot of blood and even with the transfusion, they weren't sure she was going to make it. But she woke up within a couple days perfectly fine, even the bruises she had had faded."
"Toby..." Hermione breathed, exchanging glances with Harry.
He looked up.
Hermione swallowed. "Um... did you ever think that you were the one that healed her?" she asked. "Even accidentally?"
"No," Toby answered slowly. "Why would I think that?"
"Well, you're a wizard," she explained. "And Muggleborns are known to have a lot of accidental bursts of magic." If Toby had some sort of affinity with healing magic then Hermione could only imagine what he could do when he intentionally heal someone. She had done studies on different types of magic a year ago and healing magic—White magic—is considered one of the hardest types of magic to master. For someone to have an affinity for it...
But Toby frowned.
Because—
Remembering—
"Sarah knows magic."
"It wasn't me," he said, shaking his head, mind continuing to whirl at the implications.
"How can you tell?" Harry asked.
Toby looked up again, his eyes wide. "I wasn't there when it happened." he told them. "We had already moved to London then but Sarah was in America for her book tour. By the time we got the phone call and flew back to America, Sarah was already out of the hospital."
Again, thank you to everyone who reviews this story despite its spontaneous updates; they are what continues to fuel my motivation. The introduction arc is finally almost over, just two more chapters.
