Chapter 37
Harry, Hermione, and Luna for the next two weeks continued with their training over the next two weeks with no noticeable success. Their wands would stay in the same location no matter where they or their wands were. Hermione beyond annoyed by this point, while Luna was not quite her normal happy self, but unlike Hermione, she was not too bugged by it yet. Harry on the other hand, to everyone's surprise, was still not annoyed at all by their lack of success.
Veronica, by the end of the second week decided it was time for a change of pace. She had been working with Harry and the others getting them into better shape. This was not done by a bunch of hard work outs, but rather long bike rides, and runs around the nearby area. Her aim was to make them fast and agile not strong and slow after all. As such she decided to see just how good they were at dodging spells in battle.
This was done in a simple way with a game of dodge ball. With the only rule begin that had to use their own magic to throw the balls, and they could not hold the balls directly, unless they were picking them off the ground. This let them replicate a magical fight to some degree without the need for wands. The only problem was not of them could use wandless magic, and the twins who where their opponents were not about to pull any punches in these matches.
The first game between Harry, Hermione, Luna, and the twins was not very surprising to say the least, but did offer some good insight into the group as a whole. The objective was simple land as many hits on the other team as possible.
Harry to no one surprise lasted the longest, using his skills as a Quidditch player and rather sharp eyes to dodge the incoming balls. One thing he did not tell them to after that match though that he was also using his ability to shift his shape to lighten himself so he could make bigger and faster jumps, or increased his weight to slow him down. It surprised Veronica that it had worked so well, without affecting him negatively.
Luna on the other hand did not last too long. While she could track and follow the incoming balls, with ease, her reflects were not good enough to let her dodge more than one or two before she would get catch my them. Veronica would work with her on this best she could, as Luna had shown the best flexibility of the group so far; though Veronica was sure Harry and Hermione could easily match her given time. What would give her an edge over her friends though, was she dodged in ways not predicted normally.
Hermione had the hardest time staying in any round for more than a few seconds. As her cats instinct told her to jump and grab the flying balls. She fought this hard, and ended up standing still, getting her hit twice before she could react, and most time she would throw herself off balance leading to even more hits. But she did show some solid promise when she did something unexpected and grabbed three of the balls on the ground and threw them hard at the incoming balls knocking them off course.
By the end of the third game Veronica had seen all she needed to too help them in combat. Harry was more than ready for combat, against other wizards, all he lacked currently was refinement, and experience, that was something they could work on easily. Luna and Hermione were both lacking in the stamina, but both showed promise when it came to using unusually tricks in combat.
While Harry looked like he was some sort of parkour expert. Luna looked to be using a style similar to the drunken fist style, but applied to magical combat. This would be hard for Veronica to help her master and use, as Veronica's on magical combat style was similar to Harry's own. But that did not mean she could not help at least in helping Luna figure out how to use it better.
Hermione offered the hardest challenge of the entire group. Her one cat instincts yelled at her to grab the objects heading towards her, and if this started applying to spells Hermione would be in for a world of hurt. But Then Hermione hard turned that about, and used it to make her own attack countering the attack in mid-air. It was truly special skill and seemed to be the only way Hermione could fight back.
Hermione personally said she used her cat's instinct which could easily track and predict where an object was going to end up to make her counter attack. But such a precision counter would be hard with spells, and the spells could bounce at even weirder angles when they impacted. Or worse have extra ordinary magical effects from the impact. Still though, Veronica for now was willing to let Hermione work on this skill to see just how it might work. After all they never knew how well it would truly work till they tried.
By the end of the day all five the teens were worn out, and ready for dinner and then a good night's rest. The twins had beat the others down in match after match, with only a few hits on them. That is not to say Hermione, Harry, and Luna were not good, just the twins were a lot better.
The next morning they decided to get their things for Hogwarts from Diagon Alley. The list was simple and straight forward this time, nothing really new outside a few spell books. Harry and Hermione stocked up on ink and quills, though Harry wanted to just switch over to pens and pencils for his homework. Hermione finally gave in after Veronica pointed out that there was nothing wrong with using pens at Hogwarts, other than the looks they would get.
At lunch time they stopped at the local ice-cream shop, and got some lunch as well as ice-cream. Hermione then noticed a familiar set of red heads headed towards them. It seemed the Weasleys were out doing their own shopping for Hogwarts as well. They soon were close enough to the group that Ginny was able to spot Harry and Luna without a problem and gave a shooting hello. Veronica chuckled as she and the twins watch the group come over and say hello to Harry's own group.
"So how you doing Harry," Ron asked, after everyone had said their hello's and decided to sit down a little bit, having been around getting their own supplies for school.
"Pretty good actually," Harry said, "Hermione, Luna, and myself were just resting before we went back home."
"That cools. Though I been wondering, why were you not at the Quidditch World cup," Ron asked.
"Just forgot about it, and then by the time we remembered it was a little too late to get tickets," Hermione said.
"For… forget how can you forget Quidditch Harry. Your one of the best players ever," Ron countered.
"Simple, we kept him distracted," Luna said with a small giggle, earning more than a small glare from Ginny and Mrs. Weasley.
"As long as it was not in the bedroom," Ginny said.
"Bedroom, backyard, and just about anywhere in the house outside the study," Luna said, thinking of the games they had played.
Problem was, what Ginny and Molly were thinking was anything but games. Harry though caught this line quickly enough and moved to defuse the preverbal bomb before it exploded.
"Just games. Hermione and I have been study on and off all summer, or messing around and doing normal kid things. Luna joined us semi recently, before we then left and have been staying at one of Hermione's friends houses practicing new skills for school," Harry said.
"Who," Ron asked, not aware Hermione even had friends outside their small group.
"Those would be us," Aelira said causing Fred and George to jump as they suddenly realize someone was standing only a few inches behind them.
Everyone's heads spun towards where Aelira was standing, grinning like a fool as she soon sat down back at her table. Harry could not help but have a feeling of dread as he realized what Aelira and Aelita, plus Fred and George could do if they got together. Harry then noticed Mrs. Weasley's looking at Veronica closely before her eyes widen with something akin to shock.
"How… how are you here," Molly asked, looking at Veronica.
"Simple I never gave up my studies," Veronica said.
Everyone outside Mr. Weasley looked rather confused. Noticing this confusion Veronica quickly moved to clear it up, "Back when I was younger I was believed to be a squib. Could never hope to use magic or a wand."
"But I have seen you use magic," Harry said.
"Yes you are right about that Harry, I can use magic. You see when I found out I could not use magic, or people thought I could not, I set about to prove them all wrong. It turns out that a squib can use magic, it just takes more time before they can begin casting spells. In short Squibs develop their magical skills later than normal witches or wizards, and are sometimes even more powerful for it. Problem is no one ever thought to keep checking these people once they found they could not use magic by the 'normal' time of use," Veronica said.
"But that is impossible, it has been proven that squibs can never use magic," Ron said.
"By who?" Veronica asked simply.
"Well… it is just common knowledge," Ron tried to counter.
Veronica rolled her eye, she knew it was common knowledge, but like some common knowledge this one was not so true, as such she replied, "It might be, yet not all knowledge is correct."
"Well…" Ron began but was cut off by his dad.
"Drop it son, she is right, not everything we believe to be true is indeed true," Mr. Weasley said.
"So anyway what are you learning," Fred asked.
"Wandless magic," Aelira said with a small smile.
"Wandless magic, but that is impossible," Ron said.
"Ron, I would be best to keep your mouth shut," George said, "you have already been proven wrong once already by this group."
"But it is impossible," Ron said trying to defend himself.
"Son, drop it," Mr. Weasley said again, "If what you say is true, then you have learned the first steps?"
"Well no, we cannot even summon anything to use yet," Harry said looking a little embarrassed.
"But that is not because we have not been trying though, it is just the first step is the hardest," Hermione said.
"In spite of their lack of actually wandless magic, they are making progress," Veronica said with a small smile, "They are now able to focus better on subjects and other things without being distracted for longer periods of time. It will only take them getting in contact with their magic to make the next step forward."
"That is truly interesting," Mr. Weasley said thoughtfully.
"So will you be at Hogwarts then to continue their training," George asked.
"Currently no, the girls don't do go around others. Plus they are not quite as well behaved as they should be," Veronica said, getting a small glare from the Aelita and Aelira.
"You should go," Mrs. Weasley said.
"Why is that," Veronica asked, glancing over at Molly.
"Well to prove many people wrong, that wandless magic is possible and squibs can still use magic but have to start later on. It would be a step in the right direction of bringing this world together," Molly said.
"Or throw the world into more chaos as old kids of the pure blood families find out they are able to do stuff thought impossible," Veronica countered.
"Wait, if what you say is true does that not mean that Muggles, and squibs made from magical sealing can use magic as well," Ron asked.
"Possibly, but not likely; those that lost their magic from sealing, normally cannot gain it back as their cores will not be able to grow anymore. This means they could only use small spells, this is also true about Muggles," Veronica explained.
"Still it would be something to do, unless you are really that busy otherwise," Molly said.
Veronica nodded thinking about this. The only question was did she want to create some lovely chaos in the world.