Disclaimer: never did and never will own it. J.K. Rowling does.
Spoilers: Goblet of Fire


~ A Taste Of Silence - Wandless Magic ~


Thank you to all my reviewers!

And for Bugeater93: I rewrote the Prologue and the first chapter after the review of Mistress Arion, so it should normally take care of the problem (I hope!). As for wandless magic, I agree with you (as you will see in this chapter), but I thought at first of the counter-curse as a display of wandless magic (and I know others do also, since I talked about it not long ago). Anyway, I changed the last lines of the first chapter to make it more evident that this is a manipulation from Albus.


Severus found Hermione sitting in an empty classroom, her fingers curled around her wand, her face blank.

"What did you think you were doing, setting fire to my robes?" he said with a growl.

She turned her wand to him and her lips murmured some words – but no sound came from her throat, not even a meaningless noise. Severus frowned. He knew her vocal cords were in perfect working order, he knew that, if needed, she could attract attention with at least a croak. He eyed her as her head hang in despair, her fingers letting her wand fall on the floor. He picked it up carefully and looked at her. He stepped back, shaking the head, when seeing the gleam in her eyes.

"No, Miss Granger, you will not break your wand here and now. In fact, I think I'll keep it with me as long as you're not reasonable."

She returned his gaze, stood up and walked purposefully to the desk. She picked up parchment, quill and ink and wrote some words she showed him.

"You are safe. Leave me be."

"Safe from what? Or who, Miss Granger? Safe from you? Safe thanks to you?"

Her next words didn't answer his question.

"Let me die."

He couldn't hide his surprise.

"Die? Certainly not. Stop being selfish and think of your friends! Don't you think Potter and Weasley will be devastated to hear from your death? And your friend Black? I've already heard rumours like what he will hand himself to be brought back to Azkaban for the wrong he did to you. Do you wish to deny Lupin his last friend?"

"You wanted to die too."

He took a sharp intake of breath.

"You don't know that. You do not know that."

But he could read the answer in her eyes and she didn't even bother to write it down. She knew. He bent toward her and said softly:

"You will stay with me at every waking moment, except when you are in class with another professor – provided that it is not Black. And you will stop asking stupid questions."

Her glare definitely told him she couldn't ask questions, stupid or not.

"I think now is a good time for beginning your lessons in wandless magic."

If eyes could have killed, he would have been dead.

~*~

True to his words, Severus indeed kept Hermione by his side during all her free time. She had moved to the Head Table for the meals, having her seat by his, and if he didn't eat in the Great Hall, she was required to go in the dungeons with him. He didn't hand her any dish, she had to levitate them to her. Sometimes, carefully so she didn't see it, he blocked them to make her use more of her power.

Everybody seemed surprised that the mean Potions Master seemed so intent in keeping Gryffindor little know-it-all with him all the time. In truth, as she was silent, she didn't bother him much. He could feel her presence around him, but he discovered with quite a surprise that it was actually nice not to be alone. When she wasn't working with him on wandless magic, she was studying for her classes. She had been very reluctant to let go of Charms and Transfigurations and he could still find her studying a book about it sometimes.

Having a mute Hermione in class didn't make it easier for him. Though she never waved her hand anymore, he still knew she had the answer. Neville continued to melt his cauldrons at a higher rate, now that Hermione couldn't whisper instructions to him. She didn't even intervene anymore, even when he was about to drop ingredients that would render his potion explosive. Severus once saw her looking calmly at Neville while his cauldron was boiling dangerously.

She hardly stayed in Gryffindor common room. She went to the library only to check out books she would bring back to the dungeons, where she would study until Severus escorted her back to her room. She had lost her Head Girl position and had not seemed really disappointed when Minerva had told her.

All in all, she didn't react to anything, not even to Severus's fits of anger.

~*~

She was making great progress in wandless magic. She had no problem in levitating things, no matter how heavy; the summoning spell was equally easy for her, easy to the point she would summon things without even moving the hand. She could shrink her books and enlarge them to their original size, though it was a little bit more troublesome for her – or so it seemed.

She didn't seem to think of dying anymore. Severus was watching her closely – as did Albus, since Severus had shown him the parchment on which she had written the words – and she was going on about her life as usual, except that she never uttered a single sound. If her friends asked her a question, she would write her answer down – or stare at them if she wasn't in the mood of answering. One of the questions she wouldn't answer was why she had preferred to maim herself rather than tell Sirius what she thought of Severus.

"It was the first time you didn't answer a question in class," said Ron, trying to tease her out of her dark mood.

He only received Hermione's famous glare for answer. He smiled apologetically and reported his attention to the chessboard. She blinked at it and the pawns began moving by themselves, hitting each other out of the board. Harry and Ron looked at it in stupor; Hermione waved her hand and the pieces came at rest. Harry's queen and rook had Ron's king in checkmate. She stood up and left the common room. Incredulous gazes followed her to the door, slightly scared.

The following day, Ron, Harry and Draco came face to face for a class of Care for Magical Creatures. Before instants, the insults were flying and the three young men had their wands in hand. Hermione turned the head to look at them, glanced at Blaise Zabini, who had been made Head Girl in her place, saw that she wasn't about to intervene and simply extended her hand. The three wands flew in her palm.

Draco headed for her, threatening. Harry and Ron, now busy dealing with Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, didn't notice it immediately. They heard a small cry and turned around to see Draco stunned. Hermione appraised the result and calmly handed the three wands in her possession to Blaise.

"I… uh, I suggest we get Draco to Mrs. Pomfrey," she said, staring oddly at Hermione who was watching the jarveys' cage with a rapt intensity.

Harry looked at his friend and saw the light smile playing on her lips. He wondered if the jarveys – who looked like huge talking ferrets – reminded her of the incident between Draco and Mad-Eye Moody in their fourth year.

~*~

Needless to say, Severus was not happy to hear that little defenceless Gryffindor Hermione had stunned one of his students. Minerva was positively beaming at dinner that day, looking with pride at Hermione who was frowning at her food. Without waiting for Severus, she left the table, her plate still full. His fork clanged in his plate as soon as she passed the doors and he rose from the table.

She was not in the dungeons. He had changed the wards so they would let her in, even without password, but she wasn't here. He frowned and went to the Gryffindor common room, using the teachers' password. She wasn't here either, nor in her room. Though the incident with Draco had proven that she was not as helpless as one could think, Severus felt ill at ease. He didn't like to know she was out there, alone.

"Professor Snape," said the voice of Argus Filch behind him. "If you're looking for that annoying Gryffindor girl, you will find her in the Astronomy Tower."

"The Tower?"

"Yes, Professor. Mrs. Norris says your girl is there often at night, until curfew. Sometimes after too, but I never caught her," he added sadly.

"Thank you, Filch," said Severus curtly, heading toward the Astronomy Tower.

Why the Astronomy Tower? He couldn't forget that she had wanted to die and he hoped she wasn't about to do something foolish.

She wasn't. She was simply sitting on the floor, looking like a little girl, playing with a wand. A wand. He cursed silently. Her wand was supposedly locked in his office. It seemed she had picked up more wrong habits from Harry and Ron than he thought. He watched her, wondering what she was doing. A timid light appeared at the tip of her wand, then disappeared. She flicked her wand at a pebble and it levitated in the air. She tried some other spells, then put her wand away and started again from the beginning, this time with wandless magic.

He frowned and felt proud of her at the same time. She probably thought he didn't enjoy teaching her wandless magic – after all, he was the only one in Hogwarts to use it, better at it than Albus, and he didn't like that much to give up his advantage – and she was practicing hard on her own so he could go faster with the lessons. But what with the wand…? How could she enounce the spells? Wandless magic was based on the strength of the mind; strong thoughts were enough to cast the spell, on the condition that the thoughts were organised and focused. Wand magic required the enunciation of the spell and, sometimes, the strength of the voice could affect the spell itself – and its side effects.

She was trying to transfigure a quill into something, but he didn't know what. He could see an open book by her side – a Transfiguration book? – with a faint light cast over it. He should have known she wouldn't accept so easily to forget everything about Transfiguration and Charms. Knowing her, she was more than probably at the same level as her fellow Gryffindors, except maybe on the practice point of view.

"Miss Granger, may I know what you are doing here?"

~*~

There was a certainty in Hogwarts: if someone was up to mischief, then Severus Snape would be standing in the way, no matter the mischief, no matter the hour, no matter the place. In fact, even if one wasn't up to mischief but was breaking school rules, Severus would be in the way. His uncanny ability to sense mischief had made him the bane of students such as Georges and Fred Weasley, or Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Hermione swallowed her sigh and turned warily her head to look at him, intimidating black silhouette in the shadows. She picked up her wand and pointed it in front of him. He made a move as if to stop her; she glared at him and shrugged with something like her usual bossiness. He hid his smile.

Carefully she moved her wand in the air and letters of fire appeared out of nowhere.

"I… was… practicing… wand… magic."

"And why didn't you tell me of your intentions?"

He only had to take a look at her to know the answer. She couldn't bear to feel diminished in front of him. She had tried to impress him with her knowledge and grasp on Potions since the beginning and she was humiliated to be worse than a beginner in Charms and Transfiguration – and to have to admit it to him!

"Shouldn't your wand be in my office?"

"I…"

Scowling with impatience, she slipped her wand in her sleeve and moved her hands in front of her.

"I needed it."

The letters of fire had appeared in a blink, the whole sentence suddenly being here, unlike when she was using her wand and the words were appearing so slowly the one after the other.

"Care to tell me how you managed this feat?"

"Thinking hard on the spell. The wand feels the spell. Very tiring."

He didn't think there was anyone who could mentally send spells with a wand but then, he was careful not to tell her.

"Easier with wandless magic, huh?" he said with a smirk. "There are reasons why I do not bother with foolish wand-waving, Miss Granger. One of them is that wandless magic is faster and generally, more efficient for basic spells. The power comes straight from the source instead of being channelled – sometimes with a cost – in a wand. The power of the wand is best used for bigger spells."

She nodded and he noticed her eagerness in her listening to him. Good thing she hadn't lost her thirst for knowledge.

"Now, I have been informed you stay here after curfew sometimes, Miss Granger. If I catch you, it will be detention immediately. One doesn't need to speak to scrub cauldrons or polish trophies. How do you enter in your dormitory, since you cannot say the password? Are Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley waiting for you each night?"

She shook her head.

"I will show you," said the letters of fire.

"Please show me now, Miss Granger. It is time for you to go to sleep. Tomorrow our lessons change."

They stopped in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady, who eyed Severus warily. He didn't prompt the password. Hermione opened her mouth to the Fat Lady and, after a grim nod, the portrait pivoted.

"I see. Miss Granger, do not use this spell too often, you will discover it is rather draining. Good night, Miss Granger."

She mouthed 'Good night' as the portrait closed on her. Severus smirked at the Fat Lady, who obviously wanted to tell him something, but didn't dare, and he regained his own quarters.