Chapter 12: In the Common Room

*****

            The next day dawned bright and sunny.  The Gryffindor common room was deserted except for the lone occupant sitting at a table in a secluded corner surrounded by what looked like picture frames.

            Alinora stretched and turned to glance out a nearby window at the blue, cloud-free sky.  She smiled and turned back to the table.  She'd gotten up early, despite the tiring events of the night before, and had already been down for breakfast and a walk out to the lake.  She'd timed her return to coincide with when a majority of the house would be heading down to eat so she would have some undisturbed working time.

            To help enforce that undisturbed part, she'd put up some very basic 'you don't see me' charms that would deter anyone not specifically looking for her.  She'd heard a number of people coming and going in and out of the room since she'd set up, but no one had noticed her yet.

            She picked up the picture frame she'd been working on.  Unlike most wizarding pictures, the person in this image wasn't moving.  The picture in this one showed Ginny from the night before, giving a salute to the audience at the end of her performance.

            "Play" Alinora said to the frame and grinned happily as the image shifted to replay Ginny's performance.  This was a side project she had been working on over the past month and she was hoping to finish these up and give them out to the various performers this evening.  She was done, finally, with most of the normal ones, but she still had a couple waiting to be finished that she was giving to Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Flitwick that held the entire show.  And there were a couple others for some… special projects that she had planned.  Those would take a little longer to do.

            She was distracted by the door to the common room opening and hearing Ginny call her name.

            "I'm over here." she answered back, replacing the frame on the table.  She looked up to see Ginny and Katie heading towards her.  They looked rather serious as they took seats across from her.  "What's the matter?  You guys look pretty serious- did something happen during breakfast?"

            "No… we've just been talking about last night and something interesting has come to our attention and we wanted to ask you about it."  Ginny was giving her a rather curious look.

            "Sure, what is it?"

            "It just occurred to us that you didn't appear to be using your wand last night, despite all the magic we all know you were doing, and we wondered how that could be the case."

            "Well, that's pretty simple to answer.  You didn't see me using my wand because I generally wasn't, except towards the end when I got a bit tired."

            "But how could you do that?!?  I've never heard that wandless magic was even possible, and the professors have certainly never mentioned it!"  Ginny sounded vaguely offended by this.

            "How I do it is also pretty simple- I never knew that it wasn't possible and have been doing it most of my life.  Baby magic tends to hit early- no one has a wand at that point- but magic worked for me from that point on and I just went from there.  I didn't get my wand until I was probably ten, but it's not like I wasn't doing magic during that period.

            "Wands are mainly used to help a witch or wizard focus their magical ability.  You find one that resonates with you and it makes casting spells easier- which in the beginning can be a very good thing…"

            "But you didn't learn that way?" Katie broke in.

            "No, my father was a bit of a rebel in that manner and encouraged me to not have to depend on a wand.  He said I was stubborn enough to not need anything to help me focus- that by my not being wanded it 'put the rest of the world on a more equal footing'" she laughed softly.  "Besides, I grew up in a Muggle area where it would've looked very odd for me to be carrying a wand around.  Especially since my father didn't want anyone knowing there was a wizarding family in the area, not even the other wizards."  She smiled at them.

            "Can anyone learn to do it?  Learn to do magic without a wand?" asked Ginny curiously.

            "I'm pretty sure some people can" Ali said smiling slightly.  "At this stage an open mind and the belief that it's possible are the most important part.  Why?  Are you two interested in learning?"

            "Yes." they said in unison then looked at each other and grinned.

            Alinora laughed.  "Well, I have no problem working with you on it.  McGonagall has already given me permission to teach anyone who expresses an interest and shows the ability to learn.  I was waiting to see who would notice what was going on and ask about it.  Shall we start this evening?"

            "Sounds good to me."

            "I have no problem with that."

            "Good, we'll do that then.  So, now that we have that out of the way, what're the plans for today?" she asked mischievously.

            "Angelina has reserved the Quidditch pitch for the house so we can have a massive pick-up game.  Wanna come watch?"  Katie grinned wickedly at Alinora, knowing her aversion to spending much time on a broom.

            Ali stuck her tongue out at her and laughed.  "Watch, sure, but not until I finish up with these" she said, waving her hand at the piles in front of her.

            "Hey, is one of these the one that's going to…" Katie broke off, staring at Alinora.

            "Yes." she replied.

            "Yes, you can definitely take your time then and get these done before coming out." Katie said eagerly.  Alinora laughed and Ginny looked confused.

            "Obviously, I have no idea what you two are talking about so I'll just go grab our brooms.  Okay Katie?"  At Katie's nod, Ginny quickly ran up the steps.  She was down almost immediately and the two headed back out of the common room and down toward the Quidditch field.

            "You can stop lurking on the stairs now George.  You're lucky Ginny didn't see you when she went up…" Alinora called out towards the balcony over-look from the boy's stairwell.

            "You knew I was there?" George questioned as he descended the staircase with a couple brooms over his shoulder.

            "Not immediately, but I did hear you eventually.  So, interested in signing up for lessons too?"  She smiled at him.

            "I am curious about it.  Mind taking on another student?"

            "Not at all.  Challenges are good for you.  Besides, if you learn, and Ginny and Katie, then it'll get the rest interested and believing.  I'd like you all to have a basic understanding of how to do it- wizards are way too vulnerable if they're disarmed and with situations being what they are now that's a very dangerous thing."  She gazed off into the distance briefly, a very sad look on her face.  Shaking herself out of it, she looked back at George and smiled.  "Might give you a better chance with all those pranks of yours- I hate feeling like I have too big of an advantage…"  She laughed as he took a mock swipe at her.

            "Fine, I'll take all the help I can get." he grinned, "So I'll see you down at the field a little later?"  At her nod, he smiled again and headed for the door.  "I'll grab one of the school brooms for you since I know how much you'll be wanting to join us once you're done…"

            He laughed and quickly ducked through the door, barely managing to miss getting hit by the balled up parchment she had thrown at him.  As the door swung shut, he could hear her laughing.

            Turning back to the frames, Alinora quickly put together a couple of full length ones.  Then, she made one that focused on all of her performances of the previous evening.  The end of school was coming up soon and she wanted to be prepared.  While the war with Voldemort might mean that she couldn't follow her plans immediately, she refused to give up her dreams of performing completely and it was always good to have examples of your work.

When that one was done, she turned to the final one on her list.  This was another specifically focused one, but on Katie this time.  Earlier in the year, the group of them had decided that this year they would all have their dates of choice for the Yule Ball.  Alinora had finally managed to convince George to ask her before she had given up and asked him herself- she'd already had to turn down five offers from very nice guys who's main problem had been that they were not George Weasley.  The Ginny/Harry issue appeared to be progressing nicely too.  They'd placed bets on how much prodding it would take before Ron got around to asking Hermione, but maybe if Harry asked Ginny it would prompt Ron to get his butt in gear as well.  But Katie's date could pose a bit of a problem, as he was no longer at Hogwarts.  And he had never appeared to notice she was a girl.  Thus, their need for the clips of last night's performance.  They were hoping this would spark his interest enough to make getting him to the ball a bit more possible.

Finally finished with her self-imposed jobs for the day, Alinora gathered up the frames, all carefully labeled, so she could deliver them to the correct person at dinner.  After taking them up to her room, she took the last one with her as she left Gryffindor tower on her way out to the Quidditch field.  She made a quick side trip up to the owlry to send the frame.  That taken care of, she hurried back down the steps while an accommodating Barn Owl flew off to deliver her package to Oliver Wood, Puddlemere United.