Author's Note: Thanks to sbys, Startide Risen, Amerz and Morgan Le Faye for their
comments on Chapter 3 (and special thanks to amb186 for her catch as regards Chapter 2, which has been put to rights).
Are we all ready for a little duelling practice? Then what are we waiting for?
***
"No, no," Hermione said, her lips pursing impatiently. "You have to make a complete circle with your wand! Just saying the incantation isn't enough. If you don't complete the circle, the air won't harden as it should."
Ron was picking himself up off the grass, rubbing his left shoulder where Hermione's stunning spell had grazed it. When the beam of light from her wand had punched through his magical shield, it was only by a desperate dodge that he avoided being struck full in the chest and knocked unconscious.
"Now," Hermione said in her best Professor McGonagall voice, "before we try again, draw a circle in the air with your wand."
"I know how to draw a circle, Hermione," Ron said sulkily as he brushed dirt and leaves from the knees of his robes.
"Knowing how and doing it are worlds apart where you're concerned, Ron," Hermione retorted. "Now, show me."
Sighing defeatedly, Ron raised his wand and drew a circle in front of him roughly a yard across.
"Satisfied?" he huffed.
"Again," Hermione said. "Faster this time."
Knowing he could not win a war of words with Hermione, Ron repeated the action, more quickly this time.
"Good," Hermione nodded curtly. "Faster."
Ron continued to make circles in the air, his speed increasing each time at the behest of Hermione's continuous prompting. Then, without warning, Hermione stabbed her wand at Ron and cried, "Stupefy!"
Acting without thought, Ron whipped his wand around crisply in a perfect circle and shouted, "Deflecto!" A disc of air shimmered before him, exactly matching the circle he had described. The beam from Hermione's wand glanced off the magical shield and shot harmlessly into the air.
"Well done!" Hermione beamed at Ron. "If a Death Eater tries to attack Harry while we're around, he'll have a job getting past you!"
Smiling with gratification, Ron felt his ears burning. Hearing such praise from Hermione made him feel strangely light inside. There was a fluttering in his chest that was at once the most wonderful feeling he had ever experienced, and the most painful.
Suddenly Hermione's laughing eyes sharpened.
"Expelliarmus!"
Ron's wand flew from his hand. Hermione caught it, a superior smile making her face shine like the sun.
"Constant vigilance, Weasley," she said, tossing Ron his wand.
"Yeah, yeah," Ron grumbled, catching his wand and holding it defiantly before him.
Endeavoring to salve Ron's injured pride, Hermione said brightly, "I think we've got the blocking spell down. What say we spice things up with a little one-on-one?"
Ron nearly dropped his wand. It was only through a supreme effort of will that he was able to keep his mouth from falling open like the trapdoor of Professor Trelawney's classroom. "Excuse me?" he said in a squeaky voice which he found even more humiliating than open-mouthed silence would have been.
"An actual duel," Hermione said challengingly. "Have a bash?"
"Oh," Ron said vacantly. "Right. Uh...yeah. Okay."
Ron and Hermione stood back-to-back, paced off ten steps each, and turned to face each other. They saluted with their wands, then thrust out their arms like fencers brandishing rapiers.
"Locomotor Mortis!" Ron cried. Hermione dodged the beam from Ron's wand with a supple twist of her shoulders, her feet moving not a millimeter.
"Rictusempra!" Hermione said sharply. Her beam caught Ron's left side as he dodged awkwardly. He shrieked a brief, mirthless laugh as his ribs twitched to a tickling sensation so acute that it bordered on actual pain.
Ducking as he spun about, Ron drew a gasping breath, pointed his wand and said, "Confundus!"
Hermione dived, just avoiding the beam of purple light that would have sent her thoughts into a jumble of confusion had it struck home. She rose onto one knee, observing that Ron's slight quiver was diminishing as he shook off the glancing effects of the Tickling Charm. Electing to remain kneeling in order to present a lesser target, Hermione placed her left hand on the ground for support and pointed her wand at Ron.
"Tarantallegra!" she shouted.
She had barely got the words out when she heard Ron cry, "Expelliarmus!"
The two beams, loosed at virtually the same moment, met in mid-air. Both Ron and Hermione expected the spells to cancel each other out and expire in a wisp of smoke, or perhaps glance off one another, as had happened last year when Harry and Malfoy had attacked each other in Potions class.
Instead, as both stared in astonishment, the two beams fused into one, humming in a soft, low drone. The point where the beams touched began to glow a brilliant white, and this energy proceeded to move back along the beams in either direction, inching slowly toward Ron's and Hermione's wands.
Ron felt his wand begin to shake in his hand, and a quick glance at Hermione revealed that she was having an increasingly difficult time holding her wand as well. Thinking quickly, Ron shouted, "Nullify! On three! One...two..."
On "three," both Ron and Hermione cried, "Finite Incantatum!" There was a silent burst of light as Ron's and Hermione's wands kicked back, knocking them to the ground as if they had been assaulted by the hind quarters of a centaur.
"What in the name of Wendelin the Weird was that?" Ron exclaimed as he sat with his eyes riveted on the end of his wand.
Hermione stared at her own wand, then up at Ron. "I...recognize that effect. You should, too."
Ron lifted his eyebrows in puzzlement.
"Last Summer," Hermione said in a distant voice. "Harry. The duel in Little Hangleton. The duel with..."
Ron felt the skin between his shoulders twitch. "But that would mean..." Ron's voice trailed off as he stared more fixedly at his wand.
"There's only one way to find out," Hermione said.
Ron had no idea what Hermione was talking about. His silent nod was not one of understanding and agreement, but an acknowledgment that he would place his trust in her unquestioningly. She sounded certain -- and the only thing Ron was certain about in this moment was that he was totally clueless.
***
Author's Note: Like Hermione, the shrewd among you will no doubt know what happened between Ron's and Hermione's wands, and why. For those of you who are as clueless as Ron, Chapter 5 will provide the answer.
Now, since this story is my only work-in-progress, hence my only open forum, I address the following remarks to a recent reviewer of some of my earlier works, one galtxtr:
First, thanks for the kind words. To the questions you posed, answers are as follows:
Chapter 5 of Two Hearts seemed abrupt for very good reason -- the end of it was missing! Why it disappeared is anyone's guess, but the missing portion has been restored, and you can now go back and see exactly why Harry "froze."
Why did Harry leave so abruptly? I thought his ruminations as he prepared to fight Voldemort explained his reasons. I try not to get too chatty and to let the characters' thoughts and actions explain their motivations. Was I too subtle? Could be. No one will ever accuse me of being J.K. Rowling, that's for sure.
And Hermione's decision to marry Ron after only one year might seem hasty unless one considers that she was already 90% in love with him to begin with. As my opening comments observed, Hermione always loved both of the men in her life; it was not that she loved Ron LESS so much that she simply loved Harry so much MORE.
And in A Wish Your Heart Makes, Hermione's reasons for renting the broom were made clear by Harry when he said to her, "If I wasn't always going on about broomsticks like a childish prat, you wouldn't have felt the need to learn how to fly just to please ME."
And last, you expressed a desire for longer stories. While short fiction is where my strength lies, I do have a longer work coming up when this story is done. Details will be provided at the end of the last chapter, so stick around for a bit and see if it catches your interest.
And I hope EVERYONE sticks around for two more chapters. Hey, you've hung around THIS long, right? Until next time, thanks for reading.
Are we all ready for a little duelling practice? Then what are we waiting for?
"No, no," Hermione said, her lips pursing impatiently. "You have to make a complete circle with your wand! Just saying the incantation isn't enough. If you don't complete the circle, the air won't harden as it should."
Ron was picking himself up off the grass, rubbing his left shoulder where Hermione's stunning spell had grazed it. When the beam of light from her wand had punched through his magical shield, it was only by a desperate dodge that he avoided being struck full in the chest and knocked unconscious.
"Now," Hermione said in her best Professor McGonagall voice, "before we try again, draw a circle in the air with your wand."
"I know how to draw a circle, Hermione," Ron said sulkily as he brushed dirt and leaves from the knees of his robes.
"Knowing how and doing it are worlds apart where you're concerned, Ron," Hermione retorted. "Now, show me."
Sighing defeatedly, Ron raised his wand and drew a circle in front of him roughly a yard across.
"Satisfied?" he huffed.
"Again," Hermione said. "Faster this time."
Knowing he could not win a war of words with Hermione, Ron repeated the action, more quickly this time.
"Good," Hermione nodded curtly. "Faster."
Ron continued to make circles in the air, his speed increasing each time at the behest of Hermione's continuous prompting. Then, without warning, Hermione stabbed her wand at Ron and cried, "Stupefy!"
Acting without thought, Ron whipped his wand around crisply in a perfect circle and shouted, "Deflecto!" A disc of air shimmered before him, exactly matching the circle he had described. The beam from Hermione's wand glanced off the magical shield and shot harmlessly into the air.
"Well done!" Hermione beamed at Ron. "If a Death Eater tries to attack Harry while we're around, he'll have a job getting past you!"
Smiling with gratification, Ron felt his ears burning. Hearing such praise from Hermione made him feel strangely light inside. There was a fluttering in his chest that was at once the most wonderful feeling he had ever experienced, and the most painful.
Suddenly Hermione's laughing eyes sharpened.
"Expelliarmus!"
Ron's wand flew from his hand. Hermione caught it, a superior smile making her face shine like the sun.
"Constant vigilance, Weasley," she said, tossing Ron his wand.
"Yeah, yeah," Ron grumbled, catching his wand and holding it defiantly before him.
Endeavoring to salve Ron's injured pride, Hermione said brightly, "I think we've got the blocking spell down. What say we spice things up with a little one-on-one?"
Ron nearly dropped his wand. It was only through a supreme effort of will that he was able to keep his mouth from falling open like the trapdoor of Professor Trelawney's classroom. "Excuse me?" he said in a squeaky voice which he found even more humiliating than open-mouthed silence would have been.
"An actual duel," Hermione said challengingly. "Have a bash?"
"Oh," Ron said vacantly. "Right. Uh...yeah. Okay."
Ron and Hermione stood back-to-back, paced off ten steps each, and turned to face each other. They saluted with their wands, then thrust out their arms like fencers brandishing rapiers.
"Locomotor Mortis!" Ron cried. Hermione dodged the beam from Ron's wand with a supple twist of her shoulders, her feet moving not a millimeter.
"Rictusempra!" Hermione said sharply. Her beam caught Ron's left side as he dodged awkwardly. He shrieked a brief, mirthless laugh as his ribs twitched to a tickling sensation so acute that it bordered on actual pain.
Ducking as he spun about, Ron drew a gasping breath, pointed his wand and said, "Confundus!"
Hermione dived, just avoiding the beam of purple light that would have sent her thoughts into a jumble of confusion had it struck home. She rose onto one knee, observing that Ron's slight quiver was diminishing as he shook off the glancing effects of the Tickling Charm. Electing to remain kneeling in order to present a lesser target, Hermione placed her left hand on the ground for support and pointed her wand at Ron.
"Tarantallegra!" she shouted.
She had barely got the words out when she heard Ron cry, "Expelliarmus!"
The two beams, loosed at virtually the same moment, met in mid-air. Both Ron and Hermione expected the spells to cancel each other out and expire in a wisp of smoke, or perhaps glance off one another, as had happened last year when Harry and Malfoy had attacked each other in Potions class.
Instead, as both stared in astonishment, the two beams fused into one, humming in a soft, low drone. The point where the beams touched began to glow a brilliant white, and this energy proceeded to move back along the beams in either direction, inching slowly toward Ron's and Hermione's wands.
Ron felt his wand begin to shake in his hand, and a quick glance at Hermione revealed that she was having an increasingly difficult time holding her wand as well. Thinking quickly, Ron shouted, "Nullify! On three! One...two..."
On "three," both Ron and Hermione cried, "Finite Incantatum!" There was a silent burst of light as Ron's and Hermione's wands kicked back, knocking them to the ground as if they had been assaulted by the hind quarters of a centaur.
"What in the name of Wendelin the Weird was that?" Ron exclaimed as he sat with his eyes riveted on the end of his wand.
Hermione stared at her own wand, then up at Ron. "I...recognize that effect. You should, too."
Ron lifted his eyebrows in puzzlement.
"Last Summer," Hermione said in a distant voice. "Harry. The duel in Little Hangleton. The duel with..."
Ron felt the skin between his shoulders twitch. "But that would mean..." Ron's voice trailed off as he stared more fixedly at his wand.
"There's only one way to find out," Hermione said.
Ron had no idea what Hermione was talking about. His silent nod was not one of understanding and agreement, but an acknowledgment that he would place his trust in her unquestioningly. She sounded certain -- and the only thing Ron was certain about in this moment was that he was totally clueless.
Author's Note: Like Hermione, the shrewd among you will no doubt know what happened between Ron's and Hermione's wands, and why. For those of you who are as clueless as Ron, Chapter 5 will provide the answer.
Now, since this story is my only work-in-progress, hence my only open forum, I address the following remarks to a recent reviewer of some of my earlier works, one galtxtr:
First, thanks for the kind words. To the questions you posed, answers are as follows:
Chapter 5 of Two Hearts seemed abrupt for very good reason -- the end of it was missing! Why it disappeared is anyone's guess, but the missing portion has been restored, and you can now go back and see exactly why Harry "froze."
Why did Harry leave so abruptly? I thought his ruminations as he prepared to fight Voldemort explained his reasons. I try not to get too chatty and to let the characters' thoughts and actions explain their motivations. Was I too subtle? Could be. No one will ever accuse me of being J.K. Rowling, that's for sure.
And Hermione's decision to marry Ron after only one year might seem hasty unless one considers that she was already 90% in love with him to begin with. As my opening comments observed, Hermione always loved both of the men in her life; it was not that she loved Ron LESS so much that she simply loved Harry so much MORE.
And in A Wish Your Heart Makes, Hermione's reasons for renting the broom were made clear by Harry when he said to her, "If I wasn't always going on about broomsticks like a childish prat, you wouldn't have felt the need to learn how to fly just to please ME."
And last, you expressed a desire for longer stories. While short fiction is where my strength lies, I do have a longer work coming up when this story is done. Details will be provided at the end of the last chapter, so stick around for a bit and see if it catches your interest.
And I hope EVERYONE sticks around for two more chapters. Hey, you've hung around THIS long, right? Until next time, thanks for reading.
