Chapter 7
Sorry for the long time in between posts. My muse had fled, but it seems she is back again, at least for a short time.
This takes place in the Order of the Phoenix, but as the students have already had their first trip to Hogsmeade, the DA meeting will take place somewhere on school grounds. Remember, I'm not a slave to the canon, mostly b/c I like the convenience of not being so. I admire those who can manage it!
Disclaimer: JK Rowling is pretty awesome at some stuff (writing), and I can be pretty awesome at some stuff (remembering to brush my teeth 2x a day), but there the comparison ends.
Hermione woke the next morning utterly bone tired, and it took a moment for her to remember why. After pulling up the memories of hours spent on the aguamenti spell with Miss Black, her next thought was to wonder just how exhausted this whole project of hers was going to make her. It seemed like there were very few things that she got involved in that allowed her to have the recommended 8 hours of sleep.
Rubbing her face, Hermione sat up and swung out of bed. She winced at her sore muscles, then squared her shoulders and got ready for her day. She was able to focus on the tasks at hand until she was sitting in Prof. Umbridge's class, staring at a textbook in front of her and bored out of her mind.
Ugh. Delores Umbridge, Hag In Residence. She is pathetic and useless and a total, total pain. This is such a waste of time!
Hermione glanced discreetly around the room, saw Harry trying to nudge Ron awake, noticed that other students had likewise succumbed to the lure of a mid-day nap, and realized that the power of suggestion was strong. She began to drift off, lulled by the exhaustion of her body and the idiocy of her teacher. Images of her night's lesson began to float around her mind, interspersed with the sentence she kept having to re-read in her textbook. I wonder what Bellatrix would be teaching us if she were teaching this class? Not this drivel. She'd be teaching us REAL ways to defend ourselves against the Dark Arts. Or the Dark Arts themselves…
It took Hermione's rational brain a moment to catch up with her musings, but she suddenly snapped awake. Just what ARE those slimy gits learning from Jugson? And we are learning NOTHING. Nothing we know could defend against even that ferrumenti spell from last night, at least not for long!
She looked around the room more and more frantically, as she was beginning to realize that Umbridge was slowly turning them into barely awake zombies, unable to do any sort of defensive magic.
And Voldemort is real, and he is coming, and we are turning into useless morons! Just like her!
Hermione was starting to panic now, remembering some of the more frightening things that Harry had told her of his time in the maze, thinking back on her knowledge of the First Wizarding War. She had so many book smarts, but there was no way she'd be prepared to defend herself against anything that they might encounter.
Her eyes darted around the room, searching for anything that might be more useful than what she already had. Nothing! Nothing! Finally her eyes landed on Harry, who was giving her a strange look. She forced herself to look calm, to send him an "it's ok!" smile, but in the process she realized that she really WAS calming down. Harry… He had faced things and come out alive… It would be ok. If he could do it, so could she.
Except that she couldn't even create a workable patronus charm that lasted more than a few seconds! She was book-smart, not street-smart! Not fight-to-the-death-against-evil-dark-wizards smart! She'd have to learn more. Bellatrix's tutelage was a start, but she couldn't very well ask the world's darkest witch to teach her how to DEFEND against dark magic, could she?
Hermione's thoughts raced up and down the corridors of her mind. By the time they stopped, panting from exhaustion and leaning up against the front of her skull, she had come to a few useful conclusions. Plan A: She would ask Bellatrix to teach her the defensive spells to counter the spells she was teaching Hermione. That ought not to raise suspicion – it was much like Snape teaching them the antidote potions whenever he taught about something poisonous. Plan B: She would ask Harry to be her tutor in the Defense against the Dark Arts: the hands-on version.
By the time Hermione got through cajoling Harry to teach her defensive spells, Ron was on board and so was half of Gryffindor and some of the other houses as well. Apparently, they had started some sort of club, and Hermione was quite pleased with herself. She figured that the more students who were involved, the more practice she would get, and the more serious Harry would take the whole thing. Having Cho Chang in the group helped too, as Harry desperately wanted to impress her. Hermione, she pondered, how very Slytherin of you. This year might provide a useful education after all.
The next few weeks did not offer Hermione any opportunities for meeting with Bellatrix, but the DA (Dumbledore's Army, they were calling themselves) had been practicing in the Room of Requirement. Hermione briefly thought that the room might be a good learning space for her and Bellatrix as well, before coming to her senses that inviting the woman into the actual school might not be such a great idea.
Hermione was actually beginning to wonder if they would meet again at all, as it had been such a long time (in her mind) since the first lesson in the boathouse. Perhaps Bellatrix had gotten caught up in Voldemort's schemes and didn't have time to play teacher anymore. Hermione was feeling quite dispirited, and though she sought the most rational reasons for her feelings, she knew that even these wouldn't have fooled anyone.
Finally, in early December, Hermione's daily check of her plant book paid off. Ready for your next lesson? Come on Thursday. Have you been practicing?
"Come on Thursday? Where? When? Same time, same place? Or not? Agh!" Hermione muttered in a quiet panic to herself. It HAD to be the same time and place, or else she would have mentioned it, right? Good grief, what if she hadn't been checking every day? She would have missed the message! And practicing? It had been weeks since she tried the aguamenti, after she had given up on receiving another lesson from Bellatrix. As soon as the first spot of free time arrived, Hermione hurried down to the lake to try her hand at it. Thankfully she wasn't that rusty, and was able to remember easily most of what she'd learned.
By Wednesday, Hermione had managed to calm down. By Thursday, she was a wreck again. At 12:30 a.m. she ran a brush through her hair, straightened her robes, donned her most attractive (and warmest! she told herself) outer robes, and grabbed her plant book. Despite not having the invisibility cloak any longer, Hermione met no obstacles on her trip to the boathouse. She sat and shivered for a bit, hoping that this time she would not be getting quite so wet. She finally remembered her studies and cast a heating charm around herself. When she looked up, Bellatrix was standing in front of her with a bemused look on her face.
"Oh! I'm sorry, you startled me!" Hermione was so flustered that she dropped her wand. Bellatrix waited patiently for her to retrieve it and did not speak until Hermione was standing upright again.
"This is something we will have to work on next time. Not only is it quite dangerous that one can sneak up on you so easily, but also that your first response is to lose your wand." Bellatrix was frowning, but Hermione could hear a hint of amusement in her voice.
"Yes ma'am. I mean, Ms. Black."
"Let us begin." Bellatrix ran Hermione through her paces, and Hermione was grateful that she'd been able to practice earlier that week. After 10 minutes of rapid spell casting, Hermione was bent over and panting.
"You only had to use the drying charm twice. That is an improvement." Bellatrix rested her hand on Hermione's back. It was a brief contact, but the tingle it caused in Hermione gave her a surge of energy.
"Ok, what's next?" Hermione straightened up, ready to go again.
Bellatrix smirked and winked at her student, and transfigured two objects from the boathouse into a potted plant and a small mouse. She put both on a makeshift table in the boathouse, charming an invisible cage around the mouse.
"Now, we practice summoning the water from someplace other than that vast lake. Unless you want to carry the lake around in your pocket all the time."
The young witch looked askance at the mouse, but tried to have confidence in her voice when she replied. "O-kaayy. What do I need to do?"
Bellatrix pointed to the plant with her wand. "Take the water from that. Focus on the water coming from inside the plant."
"From its cells, you mean?" At Bellatrix's raised eyebrow, Hermione could have kicked herself for mentioning something out of a muggle science book.
"Cells? Someone has been reading up on the Muggles' science, hasn't she?"
Hermione felt as if she was suddenly dangling off of a very steep cliff, and anything she said might be the wrong step. "Umm… well? I like to read? And…"
"And the muggles have figured out some useful things, haven't they?" Bellatrix nodded at her.
"Yes! And we don't learn any of the sciences in Hogwarts!" Hermione's relief was palpable, though she wasn't sure that she was in the clear yet.
"It's preposterous, I think. I don't typically think that the muggles have anything to offer to the world, but in this case, they might. Most wizards just wave a wand and things happen and they don't know why. Muggles can't do anything at all, so in their ape-like quest to have some control, they've struggled doubly hard to figure out how things work. Not that they can do anything with the knowledge, but it's useful to those of us who can do magic."
Hermione gaped at her in surprise, both at the content of her statement and its length. The dark witch narrowed her eyes at her and continued, "It's one of the reasons why Mudblood wizards are a danger to wizarding society. They have too much access to too much knowledge." Hermione quickly shut her mouth and managed a slight nod.
"But that is a discussion for another time. Suffice it to say, some of us witches are resourceful enough to use information no matter the origin. And yes. Take the water from the cells." Bellatrix was back to being all business. Hermione put the exchange to the back of her mind to examine when she didn't feel her life might be threatened.
Hermione spoke the appropriate spell and did the appropriate hand motions. The water flowed from the tip of her wand, but the plant remained the same. She looked at Bellatrix. "How will I know that I've succeeded?"
Bellatrix immediately repeated the spell in the direction of the plant, and one branch wilted and fell off.
"If you need water and can cast the spell with enough strength, you can get water from anywhere. It takes practice, though, to choose your source of water. Try again."
Hermione tried again and again. Finally, Bellatrix sighed and came behind her, draping her arm over her student's as she did during their first lesson and moving her hand for her. Again Hermione forgot to breathe. This time, her teacher noticed.
"Roxanna. It is necessary to breathe when you are doing magic. It increases the chances that you will remain conscious to see the results." She could hear the smirk in the dark witch's voice.
Hermione took a deep breath, steadied her hand, and let Bellatrix guide her through the motions. The plant dropped another branch. Hermione felt her teacher's hand withdraw, but her body stayed closely pressed behind her. Drawing confidence from her nearness, the young witch repeated the spell and saw another branch drop.
"I did it!" Hermione couldn't help but hop a little in her delight, and glancing behind her, she saw a gentle smile on the raven-haired witch's lips.
"Yes, you did." Bellatrix motioned to the mostly dead plant. "It's nearly drained of all its water." She motioned to the mouse. "Now, that."
"What?" Hermione stopped her happy dance.
"Take the water from the mouse. Not the whole mouse, not unless you can't control yourself."
"But, won't it kill the mouse?" The brunette couldn't help the note of concern that crept into her voice.
"Probably." Bellatrix's voice harbored no such note.
Hermione slowly raised her wand, pointed it at the mouse, and then slowly lowered it. "I can't. I don't want to kill it."
Bellatrix scoffed but became silent when she realized Hermione was serious. Her dark gaze bore into her student's gentle brown eyes. "You can. You mean you won't."
Hermione was shaking now. She realized that she had come too far to back down now, but she couldn't. She couldn't go that far. "I'm sorry. I won't."
Bellatrix looked at her incredulously. Suddenly her eyes seemed to clear, and she thrust out her own arm at Hermione. "Here. Take it from me instead, then."
"What? No! I can't!" Hermione recoiled in shock.
The dark witch shook her arm insistently. "You won't kill me. I'm much too large. It won't feel pleasant, but you won't even cause my arm to fall off. I promise."
"Professor Black! I can't do that!"
"Professor?" Bellatrix put her arm down. "Did you just call me 'professor'?"
"I… umm… yes." Hermione looked down sheepishly. Then she looked up with fire in her eyes. "I mean, you are teaching me more than most of the people in there! Especially that stinking Umbridge!" The young witch gestured angrily back towards the castle.
"Professor Black..." The raven-haired woman rolled the words around on her tongue. "I like the sound of it. Certainly better than 'Stinking Black!'" She grinned at Hermione's embarrassment, then thrust her right arm back out again.
"Trust that your teachers know what's best for you. Or rather, that your Professor Black does. Now, drain me. Just a little."
Hermione could see in her eyes that she was serious about Hermione's following her direction. She raised her wand, but she was shaking so much that Bellatrix reached out and grabbed her with her free hand. She placed her right arm in Hermione's left hand, and guided Hermione's wand yet again. Hermione could feel the steady firmness in her grasp, and this gave her confidence. The young witch repeated the spell, aiming this time at human flesh and blood. As a very small amount of water trickled out of the end of her wand, she heard Bellatrix take in a sharp breath.
Hermione dropped the dark witch's arm and clapped her hands over her mouth. "I've hurt you!"
Bellatrix barked out her laughter so hard that she had to take a step back. "Yes, little one. A bit. Nothing I can't handle. You did quite well, actually."
"But, how do I undo it? What's the reverse?" Hermione was trying to calm herself. Though part of her brain was reminding her that she was now following Plan A, another part was telling that part to Shut it! I need to fix this!
"You can't reverse it. Like many things that humans take from nature, only nature can replenish it. Why do you think I am heading out for a drink after this little lesson?" Hermione couldn't help but roll her eyes at her teacher's wink.
"Merlin. After this lesson, I might need a bit of a drink, too." Hermione breathed out a sigh of relief that she hadn't hurt anyone seriously.
The dark witch reached out a hand to her face, resting her palm against her cheek and stroking it lightly with her thumb. Gently she said, "No, dearheart. You keep that innocence a bit longer." She smiled again at Hermione, patted her cheek lightly a few times, and added, "Plus, you have to get your new pet up to the castle and into a warm box." Bellatrix looked meaningfully at the mouse.
"Wha? But… I have a cat!"
'Professor Black' winked at Hermione and smirked, "You'll figure it out."
Hermione had to rush to the table to catch the mouse, which had been suddenly released from its confines. When she looked up, the raven-haired woman was gone.
"Bugger…"