The Court of Slytherin

by Aly Black-Starr

Now a Slytherin third year, Hermione's been thrust into the world of society and politics. With Jade having graduated, she's left to deal with it all on her own, including all of the new feelings she's been feeling recently. And with an escaped mass murder searching for the boy she and her family are struggling to protect, Hermione's year is going to be the most stressful one yet.

4. Chapter 4

October 7, 1993

Hermione slammed the book shut, a frustrated look on her face as she glared down at the innocent looking book on the table.

Theo looked at her sympathetically from where he was sitting across from her. "Having trouble?"

"No," Hermione grumbled, crossing her arms. "Okay, yes. I'm taking Arithmancy this year, and Professor Vector was talking about how Arithmancy can be used to create spells, but then she just moved onto another topic!"

Theo laughed. "So you want to know how to make your own spells?"

"Yes," Hermione scowled.

It was Theo's turn to flip his book closed. "You're in luck, Hermione, because the Notts are actually known for their Arithmancy skills. There are two ways to create a spell," he explained, "through numbers and logic, also known as the Arithmancy method, and through intent and power. The Arithmancy method is pretty simple, and it's more used for breaking down and reconstructing spells. You take a spell and run it through a number of calculations, and if the numbers match up, then you know that the spell works."

"But don't you have to create a spell first?" Hermione frowned.

"Kind of," Theo said, his face scrunching up. "The really talented Arithmancers can reverse engineer the process and use the calculations to figure out the best possible spell, but that's a bit beyond my knowledge."

Hermione nodded. "And what about the other method?"

"Intent and power," Theo said, tapping his wand against the desk. "Hermione, when you're casting a spell, what do you need to do in order for it to work?"

"Well there are multiple components," the brunette said slowly. "There's your magical power, you can't cast a spell beyond your power level. There's the incantation and wand movement, but both of those can be disregarded if you want to do the spell wandlessly or wordlessly. Then there's the intent, you have to really want the spell to work."

"Exactly," Theo said. "And you also know that you don't need all of those things to cast a spell, as long as the output is always the same."

"I think so?" Hermione guessed.

Theo sighed. "Think of magic like a cake. There are a lot of different things that go into a cake, but you can vary the ingredients so that each cake isn't exactly the same. And there are a lot of different cake recipes, but they all make the same result - a cake. And in some cases, you can even take away one of the ingredients and replace it with something else."

"Wandless, wordless magic can be done with just your magical power and intent," Hermione realized.

Theo nodded. "Exactly. When you're older, your magical core will settle-"

"Magical core?" Hermione interrupted.

"The place where your magic is inside your body," Theo explained.

"What does it look like?" Hermione asked eagerly. "How do I find it?"

"It looks different for everyone," Theo said with a shrug. "And you can find it using Occlumency. Once you have the basic defenses around your mind, you'll know how to create the path to your core, and then see what it looks like."

Hermione had more questions, but she stayed silent in favor of Theo continuing his talk about spells.

"When creating a spell, you want to start off with the incantation," Theo said seriously. "This will be the guide to tell your magic what you want the spell to do. Once you have that, you want to create the wand movements. Different wand movements will draw the magic from your core in different ways. A jab throws a punch, while a flick is more delicate. The former will make the spell travel faster as well."

"Are all spells like that?" Hermione asked. "Like, could I do Wingardium Leviosa with a swish and jab?"

"Theoretically," Theo shrugged. "You'd just have to compensate for the extra power in the movement. But anyways, once you have the words and movement, you need to make sure that you have the magical power for it. If not, you could expend your core forever. Intent is last, and in some ways it's the easiest. You just have to really want the spell to work and want the right thing to happen."

Hermione nodded at him, an idea forming in her head. "What if I want to combine Transfiguration, say, with Charms? Or different branches of a subject. Can I do that?"

"Theoretically, you can do anything," Theo said.

"Could you transform coal into diamonds?" Hermione asked curiously. "That's a popular theory and experiment in the muggle world."

Theo looked at her skeptically. "Fake diamonds, maybe, but not real diamonds. You can't change something into a diamond."

"Why?"

"You just can't," Theo shook his head. "I think it's one of Gamp's exceptions or something, but the way that certain items are made, you can't Transfigure stuff into them. They're not strong enough to hold."

"What if you only Transformed the object?" Hermione asked.

"Transformation is only switching the physical properties," Theo said. "It might make the object look like a diamond, but it wouldn't pass as a diamond to Gringotts or someone with a proper eye. Also, there's no spell to Transfigure something into a diamond. It's not possible." Theo glanced to the clock. "It's getting late. I'm going to go to sleep. 'Night Hermione."

"Goodnight, thank you," Hermione replied distractedly, her mind running over Theo's words. You couldn't use a Transfiguration to turn something into a diamond, but what if you used other magics? There was a theory that diamonds were created from charcoal, specifically the carbon in them. She wasn't sure whether it was true or not, but it was worth a try. Hermione remembered reading about a charm that would put an object in static over time, but what if she could reverse the charm and keep an object evolving while the world was in static? As to the problem of the diamonds returning to their original properties, she could use runes to maintain the shape and properties. One of Professor Babbling's first lessons had been about making transfigurations permanent, but the theory had been passed over in favor of discussing the runic alphabet.

Hermione glanced at the clock herself, her eyes widened as she took in the time. It really was getting late, and so Hermione hurriedly shoved her books into her bag, deciding to come back to the library tomorrow.