10. One Last Time
The DA members filed out of the room of requirement. Harry noticed that Neville was staying behind and prompted Ron and Hermione to go ahead, he would follow later. When everyone save Neville and Harry had left the room he asked: "You wanted to talk to me?"
"Yes – but Ron and Hermione could have stayed. It's nothing secret, really. I just don't want it to become common knowledge. But McGonagall already knows."
"What are you talking about?"
"You know that until this term I didn't have my proper wand, I used my father's." Harry nodded. "And, well, you know that a Wizard always gets the best results with his proper wand – and that was part of the reason I wasn't very good at magic. – Not that I want to say I would have been good with a proper wand," he added hastily. Harry snorted. Neville might not want to boast about it but since he had got his new wand his results in doing magic had increased drastically. He was now one of the best in Charms classes and in the DA he outdid everybody but Harry.
"In our second year I noticed that my wand was nearly useless so I tried to do magic without it. Of course, it didn't work at first but I kept training in secret and by the end of the year I could do wandless magic as well as with a wand. In fact, all the time I haven't been really using my wand at all, I just pretended to use it." This revelation startled Harry and he looked impressed. Wandless magic was supposed to be extremely difficult and was controlled a good deal by concentration. Most adults could perform minor spells such as an Accio without a wand but had to concentrate quite hard even to levitate small objects.
"So this year I finally got a wand and well, useless to say my results are better with it. But I didn't want to give up on wandless magic and McGonagall gave me private lessons." He paused for a second.
"The problem is that McGonagall isn't that good at wandless magic herself – I mean she never had to use a wand that wasn't really her own – so I tried a few things on my own. And I discovered something … something that professor McGonagall didn't know about! She seemed jolly impressed when she saw it," he paused. When Harry looked at him expectantly, he contiuned:
"I can add the power of several wandless spells together. Make them much, much stronger."
"What?" exclaimed Harry.
"I'll try to explain … when I do wandless magic I always do some gestures with my hands. They're not exactly necessary but they help me to keep focused on the object of my spell. Now, for example, when I do a spell by pushing my hands away like this," and he interlocked then fingers of his hands, turned the palms out and pushed away from his body, "and then a second spell where I extend the movement by pushing my hands a little farther," he did it, pushed his hands towards Harry, "then the second spell gets an extra burst of power." He looked into Harry's face, reading disbelief. So he said, "Let me show you," and stepped back a little.
He faced Harry, held his left arm out and opened his hand so his palm faced upwards. Then he solemnly chanted "Lumos" and raised his hand. A flame appeared around it. Now he quickly pointed his right arm at Harry, pushed his left hand further up in a quick movement and cried "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Harry shot up into the air. Luckily the ceiling of the room was very high so Harry didn't crash into it. But he screamed surprised. Neville lowered his hand and levitated Harry back to the floor lightly.
Harry was breathing heavily. He noticed that Neville was, too, but that he also held himself upright and that he seemed fully capable of repeating what he just had done. Harry knew that it should be impossible. Sure, lifting heavy objects up into the air was possible but it was also an immense strain on the body. At the international Quidditch championship, it had taken the whole crowd of death eaters to suspend three Muggles in the air without them falling down.
"Wow," Harry uttered as soon as he had enough breath, "how on earth did you do that?"
Neville blushed and said: "Actually, that wasn't very difficult. Okay, you have to concentrate but the co-ordinated movement of the hands helps very much. As for the power boost, I have no idea where it comes from. When I showed it to professor McGonagall she told me that she would make a few investigations. So far she hasn't been able to find anything. We guess that somehow you are able to concentrate much better on the second spell because it's really just a continuation of the first. And somehow this concentration lets you put more power into your spell.
Harry's head was swirling. This was magical theory, a matter usually not taught at Hogwarts (although professor McGonagall included the basics in her seventh years classes). Hermione would be delighted, he was certain. But something else was occupying his mind.
"So this means you can do magic just as well without a wand, mate?" Neville nodded awkwardly. Harry was glowing with excitement.
"Brilliant! Remember when I told you about the prophecy?" Of course. How could Neville have forgotten. Him, nearly in Harry's place. "Well, I've thought a lot about this," Harry continued, "since we both could have been the target of the prophecy we must have a lot in common. Would you mind if I tried your wand?"
Now Neville was grinning. "I've had the same idea, that's why I told you about it in the first place. Perhaps you could use my wand against Voldemort, since yours obviously can't be used against him. Try it. I'm sure it fits you." He handed Harry his wand. And yes, there was it: as soon as Harry's hand touched the wand it began to respond, just as Harry's own wand did. It wasn't so much a physical response, more like an electric charge, but after all, best described by a very slight, very low vibration which caused Harry's mind to stir and pulsate in unison with some other, more universal movement.
He waved the wand. "Avis!" A swarm of miniature pigeons erupted from the wand. "Elapsus!" the birds vanished. He closed his eyes, "Expecto Patronum!" and there it appeared, the magnificent silvery stag.
He opened his eyes and looked at Neville, uncertain. "You mean we should swap wands?"
"I think we should," said Neville. "But you have to decide. You have lived with your wand much longer than I have. You have grown attached to it, haven't you? Can you give your wand up to someone else?" Harry grinned, "I am about to do so." And with that he threw his own wand towards Neville who caught it deftly in mid-air.
