"They're having you sit in too, huh?"

            Hermione looked up from her book. Grey had fallen into step with her on the way out of Potions.

            "Yes, they are. How did you know?"

            He pointed at the book with a smile. The words Magical Symbiosis: A Study in Parallel had been engraved in gilt lettering on the spine.

            "Oh, yes, well, I've been reading up on this for some time. Professor Giles even owled me books over the summer."

            "And the verdict?"

            "I don't know." The dilemma obviously bothered her. He wanted to laugh at her furrowed brow; she seemed so serious for someone so young. "I understand about Willow and Tara, with the Hellmouth and all, but there's no logical reason why Tara and Jess should have symbiotic magic. They come from wildly disparate backgrounds, their training was completely different, and their specialties are nothing alike."

            Grey stopped dead in his tracks. Hermione kept walking for several steps before she noticed, and then she stopped as well.

            "What is it?"

            "Hermione, think about what you just said. They're nothing alike."

            "I know, that's the problem. Everything about them is so different…" Her eyes widened as her voice trailed off. She suddenly saw where his mind had gone.

            "What if I told you that the first time we saw their magic together, Jess's eyes went all black and Tara's went all white?"

            "Tara specializes in healing and defense. Light magic."

            "Jess specializes in combat and illusion. Dark magic."

            "Tara trained to keep people from harm."

            "Jess trained to harm their attackers."

            "Tara is mostly timid, but she can be forceful if she needs to be."

            "Jess is very outgoing, but there are times when she hides completely."

            "Tara has blonde hair and pale skin."

            "Jess has dark hair and darker skin."

            "Oh my god," they said in unison.

            "You don't think … could they be?" Hermione asked in a hushed tone.

            "Maybe." Grey bit his lip. "Hermione, don't say anything to them just now."

            "Why not? I would think…"

            "We can test it without them knowing. If they really are, it could complicate things."

            "Isn't this a great thing? It's very rare."

            Grey glanced around; they were alone in the hallway. "If I tell you some things, and you can't say a word about them to anyone, will you keep them secret? This is very important to me. Normally, I wouldn't say anything because it involves the private lives of the faculty, but I trust you. Will you keep it to yourself?" Hermione nodded. "Tara … she's interested in Jess."

            "Well, of course she … oh." Her mouth dropped open. "She fancies her, you mean."

            "Yes."

            "Except you dated Jess. Doesn't that mean … doesn't she like boys?"

            Grey smiled. He could see her making the effort to process all of this. "She does, but she and Willow had a conversation the other night. We think she might be wavering towards liking both. More specifically, towards liking Tara."

            He paused, and Hermione saw a faraway look in his eyes that she interpreted as guilt.

            "I very much want Jess to be happy, Hermione, and she isn't. I think Tara would make her happy, and so does Willow. We can't force it, though, or she'll run on us." Seeing the look on her face, he added, "Emotionally, not physically. I would never try and push her into something she didn't want. She needs time before she's ready to date anyone again, let alone Tara."

            "So you think if we tell her that she and Tara are soul mates, she'll perhaps not accept it favorably in her personal life. That makes sense," she said, her expression pensive. "I assume you'll try and find a way to speed things along? That is, after all, something you and Willow excel at," she added, thinking of Ron.

            "Did anyone ever tell you that you're a very clever witch, Hermione?"

            She blushed. "Maybe once or twice."   

            "This isn't enough on it's own to prove it. Could just be a large coincidence."

            "Then how d'you explain the magic?"

            Grey frowned. "I can't. We need some sort of …"

            "Conclusive test?" He nodded. "I'll look for one in the library, and also for what this might mean. It's possible there are other ramifications, if it's true."

            "You have time to do all that?"

            "I'll make time. It is potentially quite important, isn't it? More than silly charms or potion recipes, at any rate."

            "Now there's something I never thought I'd hear you say," he said with a grin. The grin turned into a chuckle, and then the chuckle became a laugh as Hermione stood there scowling at him.

            Grey and Hermione arrived at Professor McGonagall's office ten minutes later. Giles, Jess, and Tara had already arrived.

            "About time," Giles said. "I thought the two of you would never arrive."

            "Sorry," Grey replied with a grin. "It's Hermione. She's sooo slow."

            "Grey!" Hermione hissed. He had said that to two professors. "That's not true!"

            The others laughed, even McGonagall. The professors were finally getting used to Grey's new playful nature, and they privately agreed it was a significant improvement.

            "So what's it gonna be today?" Jess asked after everyone had settled down. "Elements? Illusions? Charms?"

            "Sorry, Jessica. None of those," McGonagall said. "Today we're going to test something a bit different. I thought we might engage in a bit of a role reversal and see how well you think on your feet."

            "Are y-you sure about that, Professor?" Tara asked.

            "Yes, my dear, I'm quite sure. Don't worry – I'm certain we'll have no problems."

            Hermione leaned over to Grey and whispered, "That will require more power from them both, because they aren't used to it."

He nodded and whispered back, "Better get your wand out, just in case they pull out a little too much." His hand brushed against his lightsaber, making sure his draw was clear. Hermione laid her wand on the table in front of her.

"Now," McGonagall was saying over them, "what we will do is simple." She lifted her wand and dozens of unoccupied desks slid into neat rows along the wall of her classroom. The arrangement left a large open square in the center. "Each of you will stand on one side of this space. Here we have two boxes," two large wooden trunks rose from behind her desk and floated across the room; one landed near Jess and the other near Tara, who had moved to opposite sides of the square, "filled with trinkets. Junk, mostly. Nothing remotely useful."

            "Oh, I understand," Giles muttered. Hermione and Grey both looked at him. "This is called Argero's Task." When neither of them recognized the name, he gestured to the floor. "Just watch."

            "When I say to begin, each of you will select your first item from the trunk. Tara, you will go first. I would like you to transfigure whatever item you remove from the trunk into an offensive weapon. It can be of any sort you wish, but it must be able to attack Jessica on its own." She turned to the other girl. "Jessica, once Tara has finished, you will do the same, but your object must be defensive in nature and able to stop Tara's object. The test ends either when one of Tara's objects gets through, or she runs out of objects."

            "B-b-but if mine gets through, she c-could be hurt. I c-can't…"

            "I'll be fine, Tara," Jess said. "I can defend myself in other ways if I've already lost. Trust me. I was an auror, remember?"

            "Oh, r-right."

            "Yes, and I'll be here to help," McGonagall said. "Don't worry about that. Just focus on the task at hand. You may begin at your leisure, Tara."

She waved her wand again, and the trunks snapped open. Both girls looked inside; the trunks were indeed filled with knickknacks and junk. Tara reached in and pulled out a pawn from a battered set of wizard's chess. Jess picked out a broken comb that was missing half its teeth.

            A crafty smile slid onto Tara's face. She tossed the pawn into the air.

            "Superas ad auras," she said.

            The pawn halted in midair, spinning in a circle as it began to glow. As it turned white, Jess recognized the spell and gripped the comb tightly.

            "Scutum crystalli," she muttered, waving her wand with her other hand.

            The comb in her hand expanded, but before Hermione could get a decent glimpse of what it had become, a bright flash of light made everyone on Tara's side of the room look away. When she cleared the spots from her eyes, Hermione saw Jess across the room smiling.

            "Nice try, hon," she said as she tossed a shield made of crystal to the side and pulled a cracked water goblet from the trunk.

            "I-it was." Tara pulled a frayed ball of yarn from her own box and tossed it on the floor in front of her. "Nice shield."

            "What did Tara do?" Hermione asked.

Giles leaned over. "She turned that pawn into a beam of light. A very clever first move, but Jess's counter was perfect. The crystal refracted the light. If she had not, it would have blinded her and allowed Tara to get in a free second shot. This should be a fascinating contest, if that's the start."

            Hermione looked nervous as Tara raised her wand again. Grey touched her on the shoulder. "Don't worry. They can take care of themselves, and Tara's the one on the offensive. I doubt she'd do anything too vicious."

            "Colossus cataphractae," Tara said. Her wand moved, but nothing happened. "Colossus cataphractae," she repeated. The yarn remained yarn. "Have to try that one later," she mumbled, "Oblimo."

            The room stank of burning sulfur; the yarn dissolved rapidly into a purple puddle. Tara gestured with her wand and it oozed across the floor towards Jess. An irregular black smear trailed along behind it.

            "Yuck," Jess muttered as the pseudopods pulled it across the room. "Excoquo," she said, tossing the goblet into the air. It burst into a pile of white dust that landed on the slime with a loud hissing sound. The purple mass curdled and halted.

            "Baking soda?" Tara asked. Jess just smirked. "Nice."

            "The slime is acidic," Grey said, his wonder plainly evident.

            "Baking soda is a base," Hermione finished. "But they don't have it in the wizarding world, do they? How did she know about it?"

            "No," Grey agreed, "but she spent some time with me, remember? I'm more muggle than wizard anyway. She went through a phase where she wanted to know all about muggle household things, for when we moved in together." He gave her a small grin. "So I could help out around the house, you know?"

            Hermione laughed. They turned back to the floor, watching with only an occasional comment as Jess and Tara made their way through the piles of junk. Tara proved to be as clever on the offensive as anyone might have hoped, while Jess appeared equally masterful as the size of Tara's attacks escalated.

            "They're both quite good," Giles remarked to McGonagall as they neared the end of the exercise.

            "Of course they are, Rupert," she said, slightly offended, "I trained them both quite thoroughly this summer, and Jessica a long while before that. Though I must say their improvisation is quite excellent. I would not have thought of turning a tea cozy into a self-binding net," she said, pointing to where Jess had turned an old fork into an evil-looking dagger and was cutting her way out of the net.

            After thirty minutes of moves and countermoves, Tara reached into the box and pulled out the final object: the metal front piece of a massive crossbow.

            She tossed it on the ground in front of her and looked at Jess. The Irish girl was stunned by the evil glint in Tara's clear eyes.

            Tara kneeled down in front of it and focused, feeling around the edges of the wealth of power she stored within her. She closed her eyes and raised her wand, willing the power to flow through her arms and out the tip of the wand. She had never tried this before, pulling on the power she had used in last year's crisis but directing it through the wand.

            That's what this is for, though, she mused, testing my limits. Here goes.

            She opened her eyes; Jess saw immediately that they were milky white. She gripped the broken clock in her hand so hard that the face cut into her skin. What was Tara doing?

            "Colossus cataphractae," she said again, motioning with her wand. A beam of orange light shot from the tip, and the crossbow started to grow and change.

            Hermione gulped audibly as the crossbow took on human form. When the orange glow receded, she saw that the thing was made entirely of metal but as big and powerful as a grown man.

            "Attack," Tara said calmly, pointing at her opponent.

            "A golem! Tara!" Giles cried out. McGonagall pulled her wand as the metal golem advanced on Jess.

            Jess didn't panic. She tossed the clock onto the floor in front of it, reaching down at the same instant to pull some of her own power to the fore. Her eyes turned black, but she didn't notice in the midst of channeling the power into her wand.

            "Invitamentum," she said. A stream of light shot from her wand to the clock and held, connecting the two without changing the clock into anything.

            "Damn," Grey said, coming off the chair and pulling his lightsaber in one smooth motion. Hermione snatched her wand from the desk and cleared her mind.

            The metal golem got as far as the clock. It halted in mid-stride, one gleaming leg sticking awkwardly out in mid-air. Beads of sweat formed on Jess's forehead as she strained to hold it. The golem quivered but remained still for what seemed like hours, though in reality it was about thirty seconds.

            As abruptly as it had frozen, it toppled over and its head broke off on the classroom floor.

            Jess dropped to a knee, her breath coming in heaving gasps. Tara hurried across the room.

            "A-are you okay? I'm really sorry. I wouldn't have let it actually hit you."

            Jess looked up, her eyes still as black as Tara's were white. "No worries, hon. Part o' the game. 'Sides, you didn't think a golem'd beat me, did you?"

            "Not really, n-no," Tara admitted. "I kind of wanted to see if I could do that, though."

            "That could not have been an actual golem, Tara," McGonagall said as the others encircled them. Concerned looks rained down on the two girls. "Those are very complicated pieces of magic."

            "N-no, professor, it wasn't. Just a construct made out of metal."

            "What's the difference?" Grey asked.

            "Golems can take orders and act independently," Hermione informed him. She gave Tara a questioning glance. "How were you controlling it?"

            "W-willpower. Like when I make pencils float."

            "Bloody adept of you, Tara," Giles said. "That was good work. As was your method of stopping it," he added to Jess. "I assume you turned the clock into a magnet."

            "Yep," Jess said. As she smiled, her eyes reverted to green. "Took some extra power, but nothin' I couldn't handle."

            "Same with me," Tara agreed. "Th-though I g-guess I don't usually get out of control. Did my eyes…?"

            "They did," Grey said. "I guess it makes sense that you both went monochrome, since you probably had to use the same amount of power as Tara did, Jess."

            "Yes," Giles agreed, "sort of like a looking glass. One spell a reflection of the other."

            Hermione and Grey traded a look, but neither one said anything.