The magic flowed through the room. Half the room had at least a protego up. Neville and Ginny chose not to waste their energy on holding up a charm. Instead Ginny had half a dozen skuas flying in front of her and diving in front of red slashes of light that Lavender was sending in her direction. Neville was smiling as his first combat conjuring work. A solid marble wall functioned as a shield. Luna was not casting or creating anything. She just moved as if time had slowed around her as the McCreevy brothers' charms and hexes continually missed her writhing body by mere inches.
Harry was coaching a trio of fourth years. They had walked up to Hermione, while in the library, the week before with a request to join up. The pair of Hufflepuffs and the young Slytherin could barely cast a shield at the start of the class but as the evening had gone on their confidence had increased and now Harry was spending a few minutes on how to adjust the shield so that it was just enough instead of too much or too little. The four of them were laughing as he stepped back a dozen feet and cast in rapid succession a dozen tickling charms. Only one of the students giggled.
Hermione smiled. She had not anticipated how popular these defense lessons would be. She had not anticipated how natural Harry was in teaching the younger years. She had not dreamed how much she enjoyed being able to step back and watch everyone else learn without her telling them exactly what to do. She glanced over; Ron was dueling against a pair of 5th year Ravenclaws and a single seventh year Puff. He had focused on his magic and his school for the first time this year. His practical skills had improved greatly as he sent a pair of stunners and then summoned a dueling dummy to intercept the counter-blow. Theory was and would never be his strong point, but now, his pronunciation was precise and his wand movements had become far more efficient. The wounds of the battle had healed but had not left him.
Someone touched her shoulder. Her wand was out of the arm holster. Her body was falling into a roll. She caught herself before she went to the ground. And then she breathed.
"Hermione, sorry about that, didn't mean to surprise you. I was just wondering if you would like to have a go." Dave Mathison took a fast step back. He smiled. His teeth were clean, and white and straight, obviously he took care of his mouth. The daughter of two dentists caught herself wondering why that was the thing that she had noticed. He had been to several of their sessions and he had a good wand and decent skills with a flair for creative spell casting in the few duels that she had seen him participate in. MOre importantly, he was relaxed and able to listen to instruction.
"Sure, just give me a second to make sure everyone is set."
"I'll be over on the salle… see you in a moment." He smiled even wider and his eyes twinkled as he pulled his wand out of a waist holster and began to stretch his finely defined calves and stretched his arms over his head.
She paused. Everyone was practicing hard. Susan Bones went flying into a padded wall. Her partner giggled as she ran over to help her friend up from the over-powered stunner that had gotten past Susan's shields. Harry had moved on from the fourth years and was now showing a trio of Gryffindor fifth years how to link three spells together with a single continual motion of the wrist. Ginny had her hand on her hips waiting for Colin to begin his turn as the target for her and his brother. The room was loud as spells were shouted, magic defeated and deflected other magic and her classmates were moving fast and breathing heavily.
She walked across the room, lightly fingering her wand, feeling the connection that she had with the vine wood that had called to her six years ago in Diagon Alley. It always felt friendly and anxious to show off the things that they could do together. Yet in the past few months, as she focused more and more on the creativity of her magic in practical applications instead of merely what the books told her was possible, it felt ever closer and more intimate. She pulled her hair back and tied it into a lank pony tail as she stepped onto the three yard wide salle. Her opponent was twenty yards away and ready.
He bowed. She bowed in return. As her head came up, the first surge of magic erupted from her wand. Three fast stunners, on a left diagonal, followed by a pair of cutting curses on a right diagonal erupted before her front toe had tapped the floor twice. She curled her wrist slightly and focused on her new desire; a strong shield eighteen inches wide and six feet tall emerged two feet in front of her. Four flashes of purple light, almost the same shade but slightly less blue as the spell that ripped her open at the Ministry were coming at her. She stepped ever so slightly to the left and turned into the spell fire presenting just her shoulder and thigh. David by now had a shield that deflected three spells that were aimed at him. She conjured a trio of birds and aimed them at his knees while a binding curse and a tongue tying jinx went high for his broad shoulders and nicely shaped neck. Three spells went by her before she could analyze that thought about his neck, and the last spell went slightly high.
He started to move within the confines of the dueling lane. His hips angled to her. He made himself small and stayed in a crouch as he raised a new shield that rang as if Hagrid had hammered the bells of Notre Dame with a mallet when an overpowered stunner slammed into him. She noticed that he was ready for the direct attacks and his magic was strong enough to resist hers. A bead of sweat rolled down her nose as she began to conjure marbles. They flew in a swirl around her head. A few were destroyed intercepting a dozen spells sent her way. Soon there were over a hundred steel balls that would have passed inspection as the filling of a shrapnel shell fired at the Somme partially blocking her view of her opponent. She flicked her wrist forward and sent a steady stream at the speed of a fast bowler. He reacted by throwing up a steel wall and getting low behind the cover he had created.
She smiled a smile that Cruikshanks routinely flashed as he was about to pounce on a mouse scurrying between the water closet and the stairwell in Gryffindor Tower. The steel balls to continue to pelt the stone wall. She muttered a few words and then a bolt of power erupted from her wand. It shot over the wall as a coherent whole before breaking into a thousand fragments of iron filings that would not have been out of place in a child's magnet doodle game. She called out a spell in ancient Achean calling for the power of Zeus which struck each of the metal flakes. A moment later, David's wand was flying over the wall and he was screaming in pain.
"Finite" He stopped screaming. As she walked down the salle, she noticed half of the room had stopped their practice to watch her duel.
"Come on everyone, back to work, it's not like Hermione doesn't cast a new spell in a dead language each week… nothing to see here." Ron yelled. Her face brightened. She walked around the conjured barrier and saw David rubbing his neck. His chest was heaving from exertion and hints of tears filled his eyes, but he smiled as Hermione reached out for him to help pull him up. As his strong hand grasped her forearm, she set herself and pulled even as he rose.
"Sorry about that, I might have gone overboard?"
"Not at all, I should have expected you to do something that I had never seen… just what was it that you did?"
"Well, I saw a lightning curse in a scroll I was reading over the summer and then we saw a movie that had a Taser in it, so I've been trying to create a magical taser and finally I figured it out a few days ago. It's a limited use spell as it needs people to be around a lot of conductive metal and not moving all that much, but I wanted to see if I could get it to work. SO did it work?" Hermione knew that she was rambling as his eyes were quite fascinating as they focused on her mouth as she spoke.
"Yeah, you can say it worked well, you knocked me on my ass hard." He laughed as he was still flicking the metal flakes off of his chest. Hermione stepped a little closer to him as she let go of his arm. Her fingers went to move a few flakes from his body, their arms gently touching each other, sending little sparks that were not magical but of the deepest magic.
"I didn't mean to hurt you… I'm was just curious about the spell and wanted to know if it would work?"
His fingers pressed her finger against his shoulder and he leaned in slightly so that his forehead touched her forehead. He breathed more than spoke"
"I'll answer any question that you have at Hogmeade this Saturday."
She paused as she felt the potential strength in his hands even as he barely applied enough force to keep a piece of parchment on a desk during a brisk spring wind.
"Yes, I have many questions for you at Hogsmeade this Saturday at ten…"