Chapter 24: Wandless Magic

Credence and the Percy

Mrs. Boyd made Credence think of how Professor Ro might be if she were a nice person; (he didn't dare share this with Percy). The head-of-household liked her home neat and orderly. This was probably a lot easier when it was just her and her daughter. Since graduating, Petra had taken on some small parts of the family business and was always somewhere around the family mansion.

Percy moved through the home like a miniature tornado, sometimes messing things up just for the fun of it. "It's the only way to keep stuff entertainin' 'round here when you got them for relatives." He said.

Credence didn't know what he would do here without Percy. The women in the family were nothing like the lurking presence of Sam, but there was always a veil between him and them. In the past year, Credence had gotten used to adults stiffening up around him. He always had to remember that he was still a monster, no matter how little the Obscurus wreaked havoc anymore. There was still a scar on Percy's stomach that it had given him. Still, the Boyds were trying, and that was more than he could have asked for.

Percy wasn't ready yet to settle for 'civil' or even 'nice' in the relationships between his family and Credence. He took it on himself to show off his friend's positive traits whenever he could wedge them into a conversation.

Petra was making omelets for the family on Credence's second morning in New York. The ingredients chopped themselves and combined in midair at the command of her wand while Percy chatted away at the table.

"I wish they'd let us keep our wands so we could practice dueling here," he said. "Credence is really good. He was top of our class last year. He's beat Finn hundreds of times and Finn's only beaten him a couple."

"More than a couple," Credence murmured, but no one heard him.

"In fact," Percy said, confidently swirling his milk, "I betcha you could do wandless magic if you tried. No problem."

Sam, sitting on a fluffy chair and pretending to read New Theory of Numerology, snorted so loud it practically echoed, "You don't know what you're talkin' 'bout, Perce."

"Sure I do. C'mon, I know it's hard," Percy responded, then, at Credence's look of alarm, he leaned in and whispered, "I mean, technically you got a lot of practice with wandless magic; you know, with the you-know-what?"

"That's different!" the Obscurial whispered back.

Sam shut his book with an over-exaggerated thump to remind everyone of how thick it was, and plunked another crystalline glass in front of his brother. "If you know so much about it, I'd like to see you try. Levitate this."

"Oh, ha ha, real sideslapper." Percy took another swig of milk. He put the glass down to see three pairs of eyes still staring at him. "You're serious? Fine, but I can't work on an empty stomach."

Petra slapped an omelet down onto his plate, "I'd like to see it too."

One very long and drawn out breakfast later, Petra and Sam weren't about to let Percy off the hook. Credence noticed them eying him as they egged on their brother, and he steeled himself. His turn was coming.

"Can you just admit that you can't do it already?" Sam whined after five minutes of Percy staring intently at the glass, hardly even blinking. "I want to see your prodigy friend have a whirl."

"I don't think I can," Credence finally spoke up while Percy rubbed his temples.

"Of course you can't. I don't think I could, and I've graduated," Petra said.

Credence caught the entreating look that Percy was giving him. He was a guest; and if this was the sort of things that the Boyds did, well…

He breathed, tuning in to the feeling of magic coursing through his veins; the feeling he remembered from years before he had ever touched a real wand.

"Merlin's beard!" Sam said, for which he received a flick from his sister. Credence's hand had been pointed in the direction of the glass the same way you point a wand at a target. The cup had moved. It had shaken on the table. Deep in his memory, a spoon flew across a room with wooden walls; the windows in the kitchen of his old home shattered. A tremor shook through the Obscurial, and he quickly pulled his hand away.

"Wow. Impressive," Petra marveled.

Percy opened his mouth to exclaim with the others, then fell still.

Sam's mouth was still hanging open. "Can you do it again?"

A blossom of pride awoke Credence out of his malaise. He smiled, actually smiled.

So, this was what wizard families were like.

A/N: I know I say this every couple of scenes, but this was actually, for real one of the first scenes I came up with for this book. In fact, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it was the first scene that I came up with for this book; waaaaay back when this story was still just an assortment of one-off scenes in my head. It is my understanding that wandless magic is something (like a graduate degree) that wizards can learn how to do after normal schooling if they want to. But, as we all know, Credence is special. Sam gets flicked for saying 'Merlin's beard' because I believe that is supposed to be cussing in the wizarding world and leads to the more common saying of 'Merlin's pants'. The sentence that begins "Deep in his memory…" describes several different flashback sequences that were from past books. These incidences took place at the NSPS, but they were from so long ago in the story that they are easy to forget. Please review!