A/N: You guys are lucky; I'm in a writing frenzy. So yeah here's another chapter. And if you're looking for something fun to do, get some friends together and act out the story. It's really a lot of fun; trust me…and my crazy friends. Righto, read and review! Oh just something cause I'm stalling, I'm listening to the original Broadway recording of The Phantom of the Opera so if anything sounds weird, um blame it on that.
Chapter 26-Like Magic
"Come on." She said stepping into the hallway.
"Where are we going?" He asked, rushing out after her. She turned around, waiting for him to catch up.
"The Room of Requirement."
"The Room of Requirement?" Draco asked. "Why?"
"Because that's where we're going to practice the spell." Hermione replied.
"You mean I don't get any breakfast?" He whined. Hermione raised her eyebrow at him before pulling out her wand and summoning an apple from the kitchens. She tossed it at him, catching him off guard. He fumbled it a bit before finally grasping it and taking a big, loud bite out of it, grinning at Hermione as he munched contentedly.
"Thanks Hermes." He replied. Hermione stopped and rounded on him.
"Dray, I'm serious." She said quietly. "Please don't call me that." She cast her gaze to the ground.
"Hey," he said softly, cupping her cheek in his hand. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize it meant that much to you." She raised her head. Her amber eyes caught his, shining silver with worry. She smiled.
"It's ok." She whispered.
"Ok." He murmured, kissing her forehead. "I'm sorry." He took her hand in his and they continued on towards the Room of Requirement. When they arrived Harry and Ron were already there. Unfortunately Hermione had forgotten to inform Draco that Ron already knew about them. She felt him stiffen beside her.
"Weasley." He said, gruffly. Ron narrowed his eyes.
"Malfoy…"
"What do you think—" Draco started.
"Draco, Ron knows." Hermione cut in.
"He knows?" Draco asked turning towards her. She nodded.
"Yes, he knows and he's all right with it. Right Ron?" She asked turning to Ron, who smiled.
"Right." He replied. She smiled and went to capture him in a hug.
"Thank you." She whispered.
"Your welcome." He whispered back. Hermione heard Draco approach them. She let go of Ron and turned to face Draco. He stood before them shifting uncomfortably on his feet.
"Well um…Weasley…" He started, scratching the back of his head. "I guess I owe you an apology and my gratitude." He extended his hand towards Ron who hesitated but grasped his hand and shook it.
"Not a problem…and I guess you can call me Ron." He said. Draco nodded and turned to Harry and Hermione. "Shall we?" He said gesturing to the door.
"Oh right." Harry started, opening the door. "I already called upon the Room. It should have everything we need." Hermione smiled and followed him through the door. There was a bookcase against one wall, a table and four chairs, very plush carpet and padding on the walls. Draco surveyed the room and leaned into Hermione.
"What do you suppose the padded walls are for?" He murmured into her ear. She caught the trace of concern in his voice.
"Don't worry." She said turning to him. "I'm sure it's just a precaution." Draco nodded, still unconvinced.
"Right." He said, under his breath.
"Well I guess Harry and I should just sit down and enjoy the show." Ron said. As he finished that sentence, two beanbag chairs appeared against one wall. He turned, grinning, to the other three. "Wicked." He walked over and sat unceremoniously on a beanbag; Harry soon followed suit.
"Right so…" Draco started, scratching the back of his head again. Hermione laughed beside him. "What?" He asked, frowning. She grabbed his hand and placed it down at his side.
"You always do that when you're nervous." She said. "You don't have to be nervous." He nodded and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly.
"Ok, how are we supposed to go about this?" He asked her.
"The book said that first we need to be in direct physical contact." She stated, rattling off the exact text of the book. Draco grabbed her hand a little too forcefully. She raised her eyebrow at him before continuing on with the directions from memory. "Then it said that we need to draw from within ourselves however much energy we wish to use."
"Right, that's the part I'm caught on." Draco cut in. His hand fidgeted and Hermione felt him begin to sweat.
"Dray, why are you so nervous?" She asked, concern showing in her eyes.
"I don't know." He replied, glancing around the room. "I just feel like something bad is going to happen." She took her free hand and cupped his cheek, much like he had done to her earlier.
"Hey, it'll be fine. I promise." She murmured. He closed his eyes and nodded. "All right." She said, closing her eyes also. She tried concentrating on her energy and gasped when she focused with her eyes still closed. She could see herself, Draco, Harry and Ron as white light in the rough shape of their bodies. She raised her hand in front of her face and waved it around. The light blurred and then re-concentrated when she stopped moving her hand.
"This is amazing." She gasped opening her eyes just as Draco did also, cursing to himself.
"Bloody hell, this is hopeless." He said angrily. She looked curiously at him.
"You mean you couldn't see them?" She asked.
"See what?" He replied.
"The lights, you, me, Harry, Ron. You couldn't see them?" She asked again.
"Lights? No all I saw was black and the back of my eyelids!" He said, his anger rising.
"Dray, calm down. It's ok." She said. She then spoke loudly to the Room. "I need a book to explain the lights I saw." Suddenly a book flew off a shelf and into her hands. It opened up to a specific page. She scanned it, chewing her bottom lip.
"Extraordinary!" She exclaimed suddenly.
"What?" The boys asked simultaneously.
"It seems that every wizard has an energy field contained within their body. It's basically a meter for their magical energy. This energy can be molded and transferred with various spells and enchantments." She said quickly, looking up to find similar looks of skepticism on each of their faces. "It's true, I saw it for myself. It was amazing. Apparently wearing this jewelry allows us to see everyone's energy field."
"I think it might just be you Hermione, because I didn't see anything." Draco interjected.
"No I'm positive it's this. You're just not concentrating hard enough." She said determined. "Come on, let's have another go." She offered him her hand. He clenched his teeth and glared moodily around the room.
"Fine." He said finally, he grabbed hold of her hand roughly. She let out a yelp of pain. He loosened his grip and turned to her. "Sorry." He murmured.
"It's all right. Come on I know we can do this." She replied. He nodded and they both closed their eyes. Hermione instantly saw everyone's energy field. She noticed Draco's was more of an orange instead of white.
"Can you see them Draco?" She asked.
"No, I can't see anything." He replied.
"Try concentrating on yourself, on your inner energy." She persisted.
"I'm trying Hermione!" He said angrily.
"Well try harder. I'm sure it's right there in front of you!" She said, becoming slightly agitated as well. She noticed her energy shift to orange much like Draco's.
"I can't do it!" He yelled suddenly. As he did a bright burst of red light flooded Hermione's vision. She cowered back and it soon faded back to white. She realized it had been Draco's energy. She felt him shudder.
"Mione," he said softly. "I saw that and…I can see you…and me! I can see them!" He exclaimed suddenly. They both opened their eyes and turned to each other. Hermione squealed with joy and wrapped her arms around his neck hugging him.
"I knew we could do it!" She said. He laughed and set her down, for in his excitement he had picked her right up off the floor. They turned to find Harry and Ron giving them awkward looks.
"You sure do talk to yourself a fair amount Malfoy." Harry said smirking. Ron nodded his head in agreement. Draco furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
"What do you mean? I was talking to Hermione." He replied. Harry and Ron looked at each other and looked back at him.
"Nope," Ron said. "You were just talking out of nowhere. Hermione didn't say anything except for, 'I knew we could do it!'" He finished in a girly squeal. Hermione growled at him and conjured a pillow, which she flung at his face. He caught it laughing. "Well it's true." He said. She turned towards Draco.
"What does this mean?" She asked. Draco looked just as lost as she did.
"I don't know. Perhaps it's the jewelry." He said. Realization slowly dawned on Hermione's face.
"Of course. Remember, one of the books said that thoughts can be transmitted also. So without knowing it I talked to you through the ring." She said excitedly. Draco nodded as he took in what she was saying.
"Huh." He said, clucking his tongue against his teeth. "Well let me have a go at it."
"All right." Hermione agreed.
"Do you suppose we have to be touching and have our eyes closed just to communicate?" He asked.
"I don't think so." She replied. He nodded again before taking a deep breath and looking her in the eye. There was silence for a few minutes. Draco furrowed his eyebrows and Hermione nibbled her bottom lip.
"Hermione? Can you here me?"
She smiled brightly.
"Yes, Draco I can! This is so exciting! Can you believe it?"
"No, not really."
"Um…is it working?" Harry asked tentatively. Hermione and Draco turned to look at him, both grinning broadly.
"Yes. It's working perfectly." Hermione said, happily.
"Like magic." Draco added. They all laughed knowingly.
"All right. Now let's try summoning our energy again." Hermione said turning back to Draco.
"You mean that's not what I did last time?" Draco asked, distraught. Hermione furrowed her eyebrows in thought.
"No, I think that was just us acknowledging the energy that was present and available for us to use. We weren't actually calling upon it." She said slowly.
"Right." Draco said in understanding. "Let's do this." He took her hand gently and they closed their eyes once again. Both seeing the energy fields right away.
Hermione thought to herself, 'All right I just want to use a little bit of energy.' She saw her energy field grow slightly dimmer as a small sphere of light detached itself from her. It hovered before her. She moved it touch it. It was malleable to her touch. She molded it with her hands, the bigger she made it the dimmer her own energy field became. She compressed it to the size of a baseball and turned to see that Draco had also accomplished calling forth his energy. He had taken it a step further and was molding it into certain shapes. She giggled as he made it into a snake and then crushed it in his hands again. He turned hearing her giggle.
"Well let's combine them shall we?" She said, holding out her sphere of light towards him. He made his the same size as hers.
"We shall." He said, extending his towards her. As soon as the spheres touched they morphed together into one bright sphere of light. "Right, now what spell should we try?" He asked, becoming excited.
"How about…an Expelliarmus on Harry?" She suggested mischievously.
"Excellent." He agreed. They turned towards Harry and extended their hands and the sphere of light towards him.
"Expelliarmus!" They chorused, opening their eyes in time to see Harry take the full blast of the spell. It connected with him and threw him with full force against the wall. He hit it with a dull thud and fell to the floor unconscious, despite the padding. Hermione gasped and ran over to him.
"Oh Merlin. It was too powerful." She said, cradling his head in her lap. Draco stood dumbfounded for a second but soon followed Hermione over to Harry. Ron joined them, looking distraught.
"But we only used a small amount of energy." Draco said, disbelievingly.
"I know. That's what scares me." Hermione replied. She took out her wand and waved it over Harry.
"Enervate." She murmured. Harry gasped loudly, taking in large gulps of air.
"What in the bloody hell was that?" He cursed.
"It was bloody scary is what it was." Ron interjected, shaking slightly.
"An Expelliarmus cast with our combined energy." Hermione said sullenly.
"Oh, so I'm taking that it worked?" Harry asked. They nodded. Draco spoke gravely.
"Like magic."
A/N: Wow, that was intense. I hope you guys liked it, I think I actually did. Usually I don't like my chapters but this one seems to be satisfactory. Sorry I'm rambling. Well review and tell me what you think!
