Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I do not own the places. I don't own anything J.K Rowling thought up, all I own is the plot.
Chapter two: Sealing Charms
"Oh man…I'm tired…" Ron yawned. "That barmy owl kept me up all night."
"Wasn't Pig in the Owlry?" Ginny asked.
"No. The stupid git decided he wanted to kip on my bedpost. But then he couldn't sleep."
Harry looked sleepy as well. "Next time, bring that thing back to the Owlry, okay Ron?"
Hermione giggled. "Well, no rest for the wicked. Here come our timetables."
She took the sheets McGonagall handed her and passed them round the table. A groan went through all of the sixth years.
"Not again…" Neville shuddered.
"I guess we've got double potions again then." Hermione concluded.
"Yeah, and with our favourite group of people too."
She looked up at the Slytherin table and saw Malfoy look at their table with disgust.
'Same here buddy…same here.' She thought.
She grabbed her book bag and swung it over her shoulder. "Come on, let's go. I don't want to be late for Charms. I know we're going to do Sealing charms."
"Sealing charms?" Harry asked curiously.
Neville nodded. "It's a way of sealing certain spells. To make them irreversible."
Ron stared at him.
Hermione smiled broadly. "Neville! That's wonderful! I bet you're going to be great this year!"
Neville went red. "...I...I read about it. That's all."
He hastily grabbed his book bag and left the table. Harry stared at him.
"Is he embarrassed?"
"But why! He knew it, he knew the answer."
"I'll never understand that boy." Ron muttered. "Well, come on. Flitwick already left the Head table."
-
"Good morning class. Today our subject will be Sealing charms. Does anyone know what they are?"
The tiny professor looked over the top of his desk. "Anyone at all?"
Hermione turned around and looked at Neville. He had his face hidden behind his book.
"Neville." She whispered.
But he didn't respond. She turned around and raised her hand.
"Ah, miss Granger."
She answered the question, but kept wanting to glance back at Neville. Why didn't he want to answer the question?
'Maybe he's shy...' she thought.
Harry took her hand under the table and smiled at her.
"Nice one." He whispered.
She smiled and listened to professor Flitwick again.
"...Indeed the Sealing charms are used to make spells irreversible. But we don't use them idly. It might seem fun to give someone a permanent different skin colour, but I can assure you that actions like that will be reprimanded. These Sealing charms are only used to seal complex spells and they take up a lot of energy and strength."
"Sir?" Parvati asked, raising her hand. "Professor, are these sealed spells really irreversible?"
"Not entirely, miss Patil. Although the name does imply it, they do not completely lock the spell. There are several ways to unlock a sealed spell. But that does not fit within my subject. It will probably be covered in your Defence Against the Dark Arts class. Now, please take your wands out and make this sign."
He tapped the chalkboard behind him and a difficult circular sign appeared on it.
"Circle, circle, up and jab." He said.
The class followed the movements of his wand and a soft green sparkle emitted from the tips of their wands. Professor Flitwick applauded.
"Well done! Well done everyone. Now repeat after me. Incantatem Eternus."
"Incantatem Eternus." The class chimed.
"Wonderful." Piped the little professor. "Now remember to put the emphasis right. You all remember what happened last time."
He eyed Neville involuntarily. Neville put his book down and took his wand with a determined look on his face.
Hermione felt sure he'd finally show them what he could do. But instead of a green sparkle, red flames peeked out the tip of his wand and singed the end of Lavender's ponytail. Hermione sighed and quickly stopped the fire with a little water she conjured up.
"Better luck next time, Neville." She said, trying to comfort him.
Obviously her words didn't do what she had hoped, because Neville dropped his wand and hid behind his book again.
"Little accidents?" Harry whispered.
She sighed and looked at him. "...Please don't, Harry. He tries so hard."
"Maybe that's the problem." Ron said. "Maybe he tries too hard."
"Mister Weasley, are you paying attention?"
Ron snapped up. "Yes professor."
"Then show me your try."
Ron took up his wand. Circle, circle, up and jab.
"Incantatem Eternus."
Hermione and Harry smiled as a green sparkle emitted from his wand. Ron turned around and bowed as the class applauded.
-
Ron slumped over his table.
"I'm beat." He groaned. "How can teachers be so cruel...an essay on the first day!"
Hermione looked up from her conversation with Harry. "You shouldn't have taken a bow in front of the entire class. Professor Flitwick would've overlooked the fact that you didn't pay attention, but taking that bow..."
"Yeah Ron. Don't get carried away just because you know one spell." Harry said, but Hermione could see that he was grinning.
"Hermione?" Ron suddenly asked sweetly. "Will you help me with my essay?"
"No." She answered curtly.
"What? Why not!"
"Because it's your essay. And because I don't have time tonight."
Ron looked at her. "Don't have time? But...but?"
Harry stood up and so did Hermione.
"Sorry mate, Hermione is busy tonight." He winked at Ron as he entwined his hand with hers. "I'm taking her on a little night time stroll."
He grinned and Hermione giggled.
"Sorry, Ron."
Ron watched them leave the common room, hand in hand. Before the portrait hole closed behind them, Hermione shouted something.
"Try and find Neville. He needs to do the essay as well!"
Ron grumbled and bent over his parchment again. He sighed. Suddenly the portrait hole opened again. For a minute, Ron thought that Hermione and Harry had returned.
But it was Neville. A smile washed over his face. "Neville! Just who I was looking for."
Neville looked unsure. "M-Me?"
"Sure! You have the same Charms essay, right?"
"Y-Yeah, because of Lavender's hair. Why?"
"You can help me then!"
Neville shuffled his feet. "I…I haven't done it yet. I'm going up to the dormitory."
Ron dropped back into his chair. "Alright…so you can't help me then?"
"Ron, I singed Lavender's hair. I can't even do the spell and you expect me to do well on the theory behind it?"
Neville ran up the stairs and slammed the door shut behind him. Something slipped from his pocket and fell on the bottom step.
Ron bent down and picked it up. A rather pretty, black-haired witch in a purple dress was depicted on the card. He read the back.
"Queen Mab?" he wondered.
He stuffed it in his pocket and returned to his parchment. Next to the couch he noticed Hermione's book bag. He looked at the portrait hole for a second and dove towards the bag.
"…Herbology, no…Transfiguration, no…ah, Charms." Triumphantly he pulled out the Charms textbook.
He flicked through it and sighed contently as he reached the chapter on Sealing charms. If Neville and Hermione wouldn't help him, then this book certainly would.
He scribbled away, now and then checking the book for information. He didn't know how long he had been working, but when he was finally done, it had gone dark outside.
Harry and Hermione came back in, looking a bit flushed. Hermione was even a bit giggly.
"What happened to you two?" Ron asked with a raised eyebrow, not sure he really wanted to know.
"Filch nearly caught us. But we dodged him."
"Yeah, we hid behind that statue of Mungo the Mad on the third floor." Harry added with a grin.
Hermione sank onto the couch and sighed contently. "But it was worth it. Never knew the lake was this beautiful."
"But not as beautiful as you." Harry added with a cheeky grin.
"Oh stop it you twat." She retorted giggly. "You are so corny."
"And you love it."
They laughed.
Harry looked at the clock above the fireplace. "Well, I'm going to bed. Goodnight."
He kissed Hermione and waved to Ron.
"I'll be up in minute." Ron said to him.
Hermione looked over Ron's shoulder at his parchment. "How's your essay coming along?" she asked. "Did you manage alright?"
"Yup. I borrowed your Charms textbook."
"Oh….that's alright. But didn't you ask Neville? I thought he would be able to tell you all you needed to know. I saw him working on it in the library during lunch."
Ron raised an eyebrow. "Library? He said he hadn't done it yet. Maybe he wasn't done yet…"
"Neville does come across a bit embarrassed about knowing stuff about Charms." She said thoughtfully. "I guess he just isn't used to it."
"Yeah." Ron said. "The only times he knew anything during class was in Herbology and Defence Against the Dark Arts in our fourth year."
"I hope he managed with his essay…" Hermione said worriedly. "I'll talk to him tomorrow, see if he'll let me read it and see if I can help him with it."
Ron looked at her with mock-indignation. "What? You'll help Neville but not me, your best friend? I'm hurt."
"Oh Ron, stop it. You can do it yourself. I want Neville to do better than he's used to. I know he can do it. You can do it yourself. I want to help Neville, because he can do so much better if he puts his mind to it."
Ron yawned. "Hermione, I know you love these late night talks about school and stuff. But can we please postpone it till tomorrow? I'm really tired and I just wrote a two scroll long essay."
"Oh. Yes, sorry."
Ron smiled.
"Goodnight Hermione."
"You too, Ron. See you tomorrow."
The clock struck eleven as the doors of the two dormitories closed.
-
"Good morning Neville." Hermione said with a smile.
"Oh, morning, Hermione." He answered back cheerfully.
"Did you get on with the essay? Ron said that you had some problems with it." She said as she took the seat next to him.
He shrugged. "I finished it last night. It wasn't that difficult. But I'm not really that good at Charms. Not really that good at anything."
"Neville, you know that's not true. Just look at everything you achieved at our DA meetings. You learned that all by yourself. You were really good, you know." She said encouragingly.
"But you and Harry helped me with that. I couldn't have done that on my own. You two are really good teachers."
He looked at his plate and began to pile some more scrambled egg onto it. Hermione buttered some toast for herself.
"You know Neville, I'd like to help you with your essay. If you want me to, that is. Can I…read it?"
He looked relieved. "You'd do that? That's great Hermione!"
She smiled. "I'll check them out during lunch."
She bit the corner off her toast when she jumped up.
"Hi Harry! Hi Dean."
Both boys greeted her merrily.
"Where's Ron?"
But before someone could answer, she saw him enter the Hall. His eyes were very sleepy. It was a surprise that he could walk in this state of half-sleep. Ron sat down next to Dean and Harry and grabbed a bowl of porridge.
"Hey Ron, look at this." Harry showed him a handful of Chocolate Frog Cards. "Remember that substitute beater we had last year? He stopped collecting and gave them all to me."
Ron looked at them. There were three cards. Hasse, a soothsayer from the seventeenth century, an ancient Chinese herbologist and sorcerer and a card of Morgana.
"He said those two were really rare. I already have Morgana, but I can use her to trade." Harry was very excited.
Ron looked at the cards again. Suddenly he remembered something.
"Hey Neville…that card of Queen Mab…did you give it to Seamus already?"
"I…err, yes. On the train. That's what I went out of the compartment for. Why?"
Ron let his hand slide into his pocket. "Oh…no reason."
He felt something flat and oblong. He clenched his hand around it. A card.
An: So… that was my second chapter. I would like to thank Dark Angel's Blue Fire for the first review I received for this story and I hope you'll keep reading. I've got a lot of things planned for it, so be prepared for some shocking revelations in the future :)
I hope there are more people out there who are reading this and if there are, then please don't hesitate to review. Good or bad, I'd like to know your opinion, even flames. But only flame me if you're going to explain what it is you don't like, because an ungrounded flame is useless. Anyway, please review and I'll update soon!