DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter and crew. Tristan and Cassie are mine!
JAPANESE KEY: Yet again I need this. For those who don't know, ja ne means like good-bye, see you later, VERY casually in Japan. It appears much later in the chapter, just thought I'd let you know.
THANK YOU: Moonlight, I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope you enjoy Ron's reaction to this. This is my favorite chapter, besides Muggle Ways, so I hope you enjoy as much as I do.
Chapter 13
Wandless?
"HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN AND NOT TOLD ME?" Ron blew up at Harry.
"I've known since around my birthday. Don't get mad, please, understand. You guys can't tell a soul. About five people know, now make that seven. Can you imagine what people would say if they knew that my half-brother was teaching me? Malfoy especially would try to annoy me."
"What about the other professors? Do they know?" Hermione asked.
"Only Dumbledore and Snape know for sure. I don't know about the others," Tristan added.
"I see. Can we get back to playing videogames?" Ron asked, "I really liked Spyro, but could we try something else?"
"I have the perfect idea! Hey Tristan, where's my CD and the laptop?" Harry grinned and Tristan grinned as well, they both knew what was coming next. A lecture from Hermione.
"Oh no you don't! I don't want to hear some punk bands from the US!" Hermione shouted as Ron yelled, " A CD? And a what-top? I'm confused!"
"Yeah, Ron, you remind me of when we explained it to Snape, he was just as confused. No Hermione, no punk, maybe something else, but no punk," Harry said, laughing his head off at the thought of Hermione listening to grudge. Harry hoped that Ron would not have caught the fact that Harry had already explained it to Snape, meaning he was on friendlier terms with Snape.
"Harry, PUH-LEASE! Do not compare me to Snape! That slimy git," Tristan knew exactly what he was referring to, and could only laugh, "has nothing going for him! He loves to take points off us, and you know it!"
"Well, Ron, you could always just do better at Potions and he would have no reason to take points off. I never got points deducted because, and I quote, 'the best damn Gryffindor at Potions,' is what he called me."
"I don't like the sound of this music. Want to rephrase that?" Hermione asked.
"It's simple. You know the band Good Charlotte?" Harry said.
"Not really, but go on."
"We shall listen to their 'WaldorfWorldWide.' That's the best example of my favorite music I have right now," Tristan said, after finishing his argument with Ron.
"I love this one! After this can we please listen to some other songs by bands like The All-American Rejects, Green Day, 3 Doors Down, and Sum 41. What did you do with my CD?" Harry said, as he tossed things around the room.
"I didn't touch your CD. You took it with you and put it in your trunk, remember?" Tristan said.
"Oh yeah, stupid me," Harry said while Ron asked, "Who are those bands? I don't think I've heard of them."
"I don't remember them either. Care to explain?" Hermione added.
"I'll explain," Harry said as he popped his head out the bedroom, "Tristan, I moved it to my desk. Here's my CD. I say we listen to some songs you just downloaded. What did you pick this time?"
"Since Harry here forgot to explain, those are just some of the bands I'm fond of. He's been listening to music all summer. This room is hooked up to the Internet and I've been downloading music all summer. I just got some more. Harry hasn't listened to them yet."
"What artist?" Harry asked.
"Not artist, but more like genre," Tristan said with a smirk, while Harry groaned, "I don't like the sound of that."
"It's DDR, nothing to fear, right? Want me to explain that to you as well?" Tristan commented.
"Nope! Cassie explained it to us this morning at breakfast!" Ron said proudly.
"Good. Maybe you guys will like these songs. We have a lot of different mixes. I'm not very good at the game. Darryl's the one who's excellent at it. Jake and I just make fun of him. Darryl and Jake are my best friends from NYU. Wow, will you look at the time? It's almost midnight! I'll have to walk you three back to your dormitories so you don't get in trouble with Filch. Maybe we can do this again some time?" Tristan asked in a hopeful tone.
"Of course! Muggle bands sound so cool! I can't wait to hear some of them. Harry will have to let me borrow his CD," Ron added, not knowing that you needed a CD player to make a CD work.
"My CD can't leave this room anyway. Let's go Tristan, or Prof. Hollen, before it gets really late."
Tristan escorted them back to the Gryffindor dormitories. He said good-bye to them and walked back to his room where he slept peacefully. Hermione, Ron, and Harry went straight to bed, for they were very exhausted.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Cassie woke up bright and early the next morning, as she always had. Placing a book on the table, she decided to practice some of her wandless magic techniques. In order to this, usually she recited some of her favorite songs in her head. At the moment it was "Motivation" by Sum 41, which reminded her of her relationship with her father. This year seemed to start out really bad, leaving Japan and moving to London. Thinking the same words over and over again helped her to concentrate on a simple spell, Wingardium Leviosa. Slowly, the book began to rise. Just then, Hermione came down and broke Cassie's concentration, but not before Hermione could see what Cassie was doing.
"Oh my! Cassie, were you just doing…magic…without a wand?" Hermione stuttered, she could not believe what her eyes had just seen.
"Yeah, why? Don't tell me you've never done it before!"
"Not really," Hermione said as quietly as she could, she didn't like to be showed up.
"Yes you have. Anyone in Hogwarts has. It's part of the ways they see if you have magical abilities. When you're upset, angry, or afraid, you can use your magic, especially as a child. That's uncontrollable though. Following me so far?"
"Yeah, I remember this now. Go on, go on."
"I just control it a little easier. I think of something that makes me upset, angry, or afraid and concentrate on something simple, like Wingardium Leviosa. It just takes practice, that's all."
"Did you discover this on your own?" Hermione asked, still in disbelief.
"Yeah. I've been practicing since first year. Want me to test what can happen when you access stronger wandless magic?"
"Why not?" Hermione said, just as Cassie closed her eyes. The next thing she knew, she was floating 4 feet off the ground. That was when Ron and Harry decided to come down.
"I'm telling you Ron, Prof. Hollen WILL NOT go easy on me."
"I still say…WHAT THE HELL?" Ron shouted.
"Ron, what are you-OH MY GOD! HERMIONE! HOW DID YOU DO THAT? I see no wands, what happened?" Harry shouted back. Ron and Harry's shouting broke Cassie's concentration and Hermione went crashing to the floor.
"Did you guys have to shout?" Hermione asked, as she rubbed her back.
"You guys broke my concentration! Thanks a lot!" Cassie shouted, as she collapsed into a couch.
"Hermione, you mean, it was, Cassie, did…that?" Ron questioned, dumbfounded.
"Yes. She was showing me how to do wandless magic. Impressive, eh?"
"Wandless magic? I didn't think it was possible," Harry added, confused.
"Apparently, it is. Amazing, huh?"
"Yes, yes. I'm getting hungry. I think we should go to the kitchens now anyway."
"If you say so."
"Why would we go to the kitchens? Wouldn't we eat in the Great Hall? It would be best. This way we won't get questioned as to why we didn't show up for breakfast. Maybe I could even teach you little bits of wandless magic," Cassie asked, getting a little sidetracked at the same time.
"You mean, you can…teach us?!" Ron shouted in disbelief.
"Well, I can teach you how I do it. You have to learn your own style. Keep it down. We don't want anyone else to wake up, now do we?" Cassie said.
"What's the first step in learning wandless magic?" Hermione asked inquisitively. She couldn't wait to learn new techniques.
"First, think of something that REALLY annoys you. It gets to every emotion inside of you. Concentrate on that for about one minute. Close your eyes and think of the spell, while holding out your wand hand. Keep concentrating on the spell and the annoyance. That's all their really is to it. I think," Cassie added as an afterthought.
"Want to show us what you do?" Harry asked, he had only seen a brief glimpse of what Cassie was doing before.
Cassie did her little levitating trick with the book and stopped. She warned Harry, Ron, and Hermione, "Be careful. This is really draining the first few attempts. It's taken me years to perfect just the Levitating Charm. If you pick it up within a few minutes, consider yourself lucky. You'll be dead tired after trying it though."
Ginny, Maple, Melissa, and Alison came down their staircase and the four of them stopped practicing. Hermione whispered to them, "We can always try later. Not in front of anyone but Cassie of course."
"Morning Cassie!" Maple cheered as she sat down next to her on the couch.
"You're an early-bird, unlike some people here," Ginny added, pointing to Melissa and Alison.
"I need my beauty sleep!" Alison whined.
"She really does need it," Cassie muttered under her breath. A bit louder, she added, "I think we should eat. I'm famished. To the Great Hall!" Cassie marched off, dragging Ginny and Maple behind her.
"She's making friends quickly. I'm happy for her. I sense something wrong in her aura though," Harry said.
"What do you mean? Sense?" Hermione questioned, not believing in Divination.
"Something is troubling her. I think it has something to do with the letter her mom sent her yesterday, remember? I bet the only thing on her mind is her father. It must kill her. Knowing that her father is alive, yet not being able to see him. I sense her aura slowly dying. I think she's locking herself up from others, despite her outward appearances. How else would she be able to make you levitate?" Harry pointed out as they walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast.
"I don't know. Look, schedules! Joy, Double Potions first thing in the morning with Slytherins, should I be surprised?" Hermione said.
"Oh great. I wonder how we're going to do today." Ron added, with a tone that made it more obvious he didn't want to go to Potions.
"Don't be that way. Both Prof. Hollen and Prof. Snape tutored me over summer holidays. I guess I'll do better at Potions this year. Hopefully, Snape will be easier on all of us. I think Cassie needs him to be nice to her, but I can't see that happening. I sense something between them, maybe not them, but tension between the blood. It's weird. Ever since this summer, I've been able to sense things a lot more. I only saw Prof. Trelawney once all summer. Ron, if you need help in Potions, I'll help you."
"Morning, Mister Potter!" Cassie said as she plopped down next to Harry.
"Why, good morning Miss Kuroino! Pleasure seeing you here!" he said in his mocking tone. Calling each other their formal names had become an inside joke amongst the two of them, and everyone else just looked at them funny.
"How are you?" she asked him, concerned about the progress he was making with wandless magic.
"I'm okay. Hermione is fine; it's as if nothing is different about it. Ron is another story. He's exhausted, just look at him," Harry pointed at Ron who was falling asleep at the table. Hermione noticed this and shook him awake, but he fell back asleep right away.
Cassie burst out laughing. "You guys are great! This is nothing like Majo. Girls were almost all the same-boy-crazy, gossipy type, you know?"
"Yeah I know what you mean. Everyone is different here. You were one of the exceptions, I presume?" Harry answered back.
"Yeah, myself and Hikari. It was funny, Light and Black were best friends. By the way, Hikari means light in Japanese. We were inseparable, until last summer, when I moved here and her parents transferred her to Beauxbatons. They didn't move, just transferred her there. We promised to keep in touch, with her sending the first letter. I bet she's been busy. What's after Potions?"
"Care of Magical Creatures, I think. Wait no, they changed the schedule this year. We have History of Magic afterwards. Basically, that's when we'll take our nap. I'll tell you what the summer essay was," Harry began before she stopped him.
"I did it already, want to see?"
"How could you have done it? You didn't even know what to write! Or how long to make it!" Harry shouted back.
"Simple. Just read my essay."
Harry read the essay alright. It was all 4 feet of "I'm a Muggle who loves to play video games that charge after goblins. Goblin rebellions are based off video games." He stared back at her with disbelief. She answered simply with a, "I've done it before. If Binns notices me, it's not big deal. Honest."
"Are you sure? I don't like the idea of this. I mean it just seems wrong. What about exams?"
"Exams? That's what Hikari does. She sends me her notes, I copy them down and I pass the exam. It's simple really. Hikari and I have perfected EVERYTHING. I used to fail History of Magic and she would fail Transfiguration. We tutored each other and now we're perfect at it. I would fail Defense Against Dark Arts and she would fail Charms. Now we're great at every subject, except Potions, since neither of us was very strong at that subject."
"I see. May I show Hermione and Ron your History of Magic essay?" Harry asked politely.
"Yeah, don't ask next time."
"Hermione look at this. Don't bother waking Ron; let him sleep. He needs to stay awake during Potions."
"Cassie! I can't believe you would do this! It's just wrong! What happens if you get caught?" Hermione asked, not liking for others to get in trouble with such easy assignments.
"I won't get caught. Prof. Binns won't see what I really wrote. I charmed it so that he sees an exact copy of Hikari's essay from last year. We did something similar. Hikari is my best friend. The paper needs to have writing on it though, which makes the charm a tad more difficult."
"Are you intending are doing this all year?" Hermione asked.
"Only in History of Magic. From what I've heard from Harry, it's a dud class in the first place. I figure a little fun with the Levitating Charm couldn't hurt, now can it?" Cassie said with a smirk.
"Cassie! Could you be any more evil?" Harry shouted.
"Just doing it during Potions," Cassie grinned evilly.
"Fine. I dare you to do it during Potions. Make one of the Slytherins' cauldrons fall over, but without losing Gryffindor any House points. If you do it, I'll do your homework for two weeks. If you don't, you have to do my homework for two weeks," Harry said.
"You've got yourself a bet. Now, I think we should get to Potions early so he doesn't get too suspicious," Cassie said, dragging Ron up, and motioning for Hermione and Harry to follow her.
"Where am I?" Ron said groggily.
"We're on our way to Potions. You better wake up before Snape catches us," Hermione explained.
"I'm up, I'm up. Just let me walk by myself."
"Potter, Weasley, Granger, and who might this new addition to the trio be?" Snape sneered.
"Hello, Professor Snape. I am Cassandra Kuroino. It is nice to meet you. I hope you can help me attain a higher Potions skill than the one I already have," Cassie said with a straight face, trying to hold back laughter.
"Well, well. A Gryffindor with manners, that doesn't happen very often. Sit down next to Mister Malfoy, but not before placing your wand with the rest of the Gryffindors' in the box up in the front. You too!" he sneered at Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They wondered why Snape was collecting their wands. They thought he had an idea that they were going to pull a prank on him, luckily, they didn't need their wands. Cassie had it all set. She was going to tip over one of the Slytherins' cauldrons. Without her wand, she couldn't be blamed for it. On the door appeared to be partners for potions this year. Cassie looked at the list to see where Ron, Harry, and Hermione had been placed. Harry was with a kid named Vincent Crabbe, Ron was with Gregory Goyle, and Hermione was with Millicent Bulstrode. Cassie was with Draco Malfoy. She already knew that this year was going to be miserable. Draco set up their cauldron and gathered the materials. She knew whose cauldron to tip over. Only one group was two Slytherins and that was the one she was going to tip over. If she tipped anyone else's over, the Gryffindor would have been blamed, and she'd lose the bet. She was not going to lose to Harry, especially since she was getting out of two weeks of homework if she succeeded. Draco decided to start small talk with Cassie, considering they would be permanent partners.
"How's Hogwarts compared to your old school?" he asked, as a polite as he could be.
"Do you know how many times I've had the same bull asked? I'm tired of it! I know what you're like. I met you on the train here and I don't want you picking on my friends while I'm around. Do you want me to make fun of your friends?" Cassie snapped back at him. Draco was speechless. No one had ever talked to him like this. He thought a moment before speaking.
"Alright, I propose a truce. We're stuck with each other for a whole year and we better make the best of it. I won't make fun of your friends and you won't make fun of mine. In turn, I won't give you any bull and you better not give me any bullshit back. Deal?" Draco asked.
"You've got yourself a deal. Where's Prof. Snape?" she asked him.
"He's checking over Potter, why?"
"You'll see." Sure enough, he watched her close her eyes. She concentrated on another song, "Chop Suey" by System of a Down. Slowly, Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini's cauldron began to float up and over the desk until it was floating in midair. Cassie opened her eyes and Draco watched the cauldron splatter to the ground. She put a finger to her mouth and he nodded in understanding. She was happy that he agreed to keep her secret. Prof. Snape told everyone to clean up what they were working on and that they had the rest of the class period free. Cassie rushed to catch up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
"Guess I'm out of homework for two weeks. See you in History class!" Cassie said as she dashed past them. Draco had told her just before to meet her near the Divination tower. She wanted to get to know him as a friend. She didn't like the aura he gave off. He seemed to be going from the Dark Side and back. It couldn't hurt anyone to have friends, now could it?
"What did you want to talk to me about?" Cassie asked, politely.
"You're not like other Gryffindors. What sets you apart from them?"
"Why don't you tell me? I don't see myself any different than any of them."
"I think it's the fact that you agreed to a truce with me. My friends, if they saw me here, would make fun of me. You're a Gryffindor, yet you've got plenty of Slytherin spunk. Betting isn't exactly a Gryffindor trait," he added.
"Yes, but being brave, or taking a dare, is a Gryffindor trait. You figured out Harry's bet with me?"
"Yeah, I just hope Pansy and Blaise are okay," Draco sounded concerned.
"Why? Is Pansy your girlfriend?" she said, teasingly.
"We dated a bit last year and are technically still together. That's what I've come to talk to you about. I don't want to lead you on into thinking that I like you. I want to be friends and nothing more. Agreed?"
"I agree, Mister Malfoy," Cassie said, and began to laugh.
"Why are you laughing, Cassie?"
"It's an inside joke with Harry and I. Don't worry about it."
"You're awfully close with Harry," Draco muttered.
"OoOoO, do I sense jealousy in the little dragon?"
"Is that your nickname for me?"
"Do you mind?" Cassie asked, not wanting to offend her newfound friend.
"Not at all. It's just what my mother called me when I was little."
"Oh, cool. Well, time for History of Magic. I have to go meet up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Want to meet back here at lunch?"
"Sure thing, Skylark," he added teasingly.
"Is Skylark my nickname?"
"Yes, of course! I have this feeling about your name. It'll be our code, Skylark."
"Right, Little Dragon. Well that's how we'll refer to ourselves amongst our friends. This way they'll never figure it out. Ja ne until lunch!" Cassie said as she skipped off towards the History of Magic classroom. Draco stood confused. He didn't know what 'ja ne' meant, but he would figure out. He set off to find Crabbe and Goyle before they ended up doing something dangerous.
