Disclaimer: Harry Potter © JK Rowling. I gain no material profit from writing this fanfiction.
Warning: (Probably) Canon.
Summary: It was just Hermione's sensitivity towards stress on every single spell that she heard.
Expelliarmus by revabhipraya
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"Harry, I forgot to tell you something."
Harry turned his head as he heard Hermione's voice next to him. They were walking back together to Gryffindor Common Room from the Hospital Wing. It was after the Time Turner's incident, and of course, after making sure that Ron was alright with being alone. Besides his injured foot, luckily, the only thing that he still could not accept was the fact that Scabbers was a criminal all along. Hermione, being a rational person as she usually was, told Harry that they would need their rest too, so they decided to go back to their dormitories. However, Harry was still unsure about them leaving Ron alone, so he asked Hermione again.
"Ron would be fine," answered the girl with annoyed face. "Besides, his rambling about his pet being a criminal and his injured foot being amputated shows that he is alright by now."
While trying his best to hold his laughter, Harry nodded his head. Hermione was right though. After saying goodbye to Ron and telling him to rest, both Harry and Hermione left the Hospital Wing. They walked through the dark and quiet corridor of Hogwarts castle.
"What is it?" replied Harry while slowing his walk down. It would be hard to listen to Hermione's words while walking fast.
"About you attacked Professor Snape earlier at the Shrieking Shack," responded Hermione. She speeded up, trying to match her steps with Harry. "The disarming charm you used."
Harry still could not get what Hermione meant. "Go on, I'm listening."
"Didn't you think it's weird?" asked the brunette girl. She moved her hands as she talked. "You casted the spell to disarm Snape's wand, but he got slammed to the wall instead. Have you never thought about it?"
"Well…." No, Harry wanted to say no, but then he was curious. Hermione was right, Expelliarmus should be the incantation of the disarming charm, so it should disarm the target as its name. "I did think about it right after you said that."
"That means no. Fine." Hermione exhaled annoyedly. "Or, this one. Have you never thought why Snape was able to knock Lockhart down in the duel demonstration in our second year? You must remember this one."
Honestly, Harry did remember that event. It was before his duel with Draco, the duel where the whole school found out that he was a Parselmouth. Not that he wanted to hide it—he did not even know that he spoke in different language—it was just uncomfortable to be the blamed one when you could not figure anything at the moment. So, Harry spoke, "Yeah, I remember that one, but never thought about it either."
"Oh! Forget it!" Hermione rolled her eyes. "I'm just going to say this directly. You, you and Snape, said it wrong."
Harry could not hold himself to not scrunching his forehead. "Said what wrong?"
"The incantation, Harry!" Hermione tried her best not to yell at her best friend. Harry started to be sure that he was being annoying, but he would not care. "It's ex-PEL-lee-ar-muss, but you and Snape put the stress on the 'ex' syllable, which of course, is wrong. It's not EX-pelliarmus, it's ex-PEL-liarmus."
"Alright, so I said it wrong." Harry nodded cluelessly. "So?"
"So?" The girl, for the umpteenth time that night probably, scoffed. "So, Harry, the wrong pronunciation of a spell could cause different effect on the target. You spelled the disarming charm incorrectly, so the effect would not be disarming the target. For both times, the effect was knockback on the opponent."
"Hermione, I don't mean to be rude, but Charms lecture is not necessary right now," continued Harry while lifting his hand, signalling Hermione to stop talking nonsense. "Just … just cut to the chase. What's it?"
"You're right." Hermione took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. "My point is, the reason why Lockhart and Snape were able to be thrown off by the disarming charm is because the caster, Snape and you, spelled the incantation incorrectly!"
"I still don't understand, Hermione." Harry scrunched his forehead. "So what if I spelled it wrong? The spell, even though it was wrong, worked well. I was about to silence Snape down, and I did it. Shouldn't I be … you know, proud or something?"
Hermione could not believe what Harry just said. The girl thought that her best friend would at least agree with her judgement and make sure that he would not cast it the wrong way again. Unfortunately, it seemed like Harry felt better using the wrong incantation. Hermione could just hope that someone's eye would not be burned or something due to Harry's wrong pronunciation.
… no, there was no guarantee for it.
The Gryffindor girl sighed. Probably she should talk about that again with Harry in the morning. They were both tired, and that was probably the reason why Harry could not think clearly. It was set: she would try to talk to Harry again first thing in the morning.
However, at breakfast, when Hermione brought the discussion about the disarming charm again, Harry complained. The boy said, "Hermione, as far as I saw, the wrong incantation caused stronger effect on the target. I could knock them down instead of making them lose their wand. Don't you think so too?"
With that being said, Hermione gave up her explanation.
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FIN
A/N.
Hello! XD
Been forever since my last English fan fiction, so I was pretty shocked that I was able to finish this one quite fast XD this was inspired by a friend in a role-playing site. He said that most spell would make a knockback effect if casted improperly, so I think, maybe it applies to Expelliarmus in the second and third movie too! Aaand, TADAAA! This fan fiction is done! XD
While writing this, I imagined Hermione in the "Wingardium Leviosa" and "Fred and George aging potion" scene XD
Anyway, I hope you like this piece! Feel free to comment and leave traces! X)