Disclaimer : I don't own anything in the world of Harry Potter, that's J.K.Rowling's job. The plot is mine though.

Chapter 4 : Explanations

Hermione woke up later that afternoon lying on a bed in the hospital wing, feeling as good as new, if perhaps a little tired. It hadn't taken long for Madam Pomfrey to put bandages around her burns and stick her into bed with a sleeping potion. Those sort of injuries could be healed fairly quickly, and even the slight scaring there would have gone by the next morning. She slowly sat herself up and looked around, seeing the only other occupant of the room. The professor.

He was lying on top of the quilts of a bed along the other side of the room, still wearing his robes and shoes. He looked exactly as he had done first thing that morning before he had gotten injured, apart from a small cut just above his left eyebrow. As Hermione got out of bed and crossed the room towards him, ignoring the fact that part of the shoulders of her robes were still missing, he opened his eyes.

"Ah Miss Granger, how are you feeling? I must apologise for…"

"But professor are you alright? I thought…" she stammered, not even noticing that she had just interrupted a professor.

"Yes, yes I'm perfectly fine. I knew what I was getting myself in for, you just caught me a little off-guard that's all. Seriously though I am sorry for putting you through all that, I really didn't mean any of the things I said. It was the only way to get you to use enough power to get through your block." The professor glanced down and noticed her robes. Hermione noticed as well and tried to hold the pieces together.

"Fix them," he said.

"But I don't know how! I will have to go off to the library and…"

"Don't worry about that just fix them. Close your eyes and imaging them fixed, or perhaps imagine them being fixed. Try to focus on the same feelings you felt this morning. Not the anger part, just the energy that you had inside you."

Hermione closed her eyes and tried to image the gap in her robes getting smaller and smaller, and as she was doing so, she started to feel that same tingling sensation as she ha before, though only slightly this time. After a while she opened her eyes and looked down. It wasn't fixed completely, but the hole was definitely a lot smaller and less frayed around the edges.

"Not bad, not bad at all for a first try," the professor announced, "here let me."

He waved his arm towards Hermione and her robes quickly fixed themselves up as good as new. He swung his legs out of the bed and made his way over to her, as she was now swaying slightly on the spot, still tired after using so much magic.

As he led her back to her own bed, she asked him, "Professor, who are you? I mean, I've tried looking in Famous Wizards and Witches of the 20th Century, and even in Hogwarts, A History and there was no reference in there to anyone who could perform magic like you can…"

Hermione sat back down in bed, and the professor sat down on a chair next to her and sighed.

"I suppose I do owe you an explanation. I can't tell you everything of course, but I will say what I can. This must remain just between the two of us though, I don't very often tell people about myself, not even to Dumbledore. He suspects things, but I haven't told him."

Hermione nodded eagerly.

"Well, where to begin. What do you think is the difference between a muggle and a wizard?"

"The ability to use magic?" she asked.

"Well yes, but why?" She didn't say anything so he carried on, "You see, everything comes down to what muggles call DNA. There are actually 5 different genes that determine if you are to be a wizard or not. Muggles don't have any of them. A particularly weak wizard will have one, two is about average, three is a strong wizard, and very few people have four. Your headmaster is one of them, and so was Merlin. Have a guess how many I have."

"All five…?" she whispered.

The professor chuckled, "No. There probably hasn't been a wizard who has had all five since well, Zeus probably. He was mightily powerful, if a little big headed. Certainly not evil though thank goodness. That would have been a problem. Anyway, no, I have none."

"None?" she asked, "But then how…?"

"Well you see I wasn't born with none, I had three. I was a slightly strong wizard, but nothing overly special. It was my mentor who changed me. How or why will have to remain a secret for now. Another time I will certainly tell you, and everyone else, but for now it is best kept quiet."

"Professor?" she asked.

"Yes?"

"How many do I have?"

He smiled, "I have no idea. Before you seemed to be using three, which is why you were above average in all your classes, but the block meant you weren't using your full potential."

"So I could have four, like Dumbledore? I…I can't be as powerful as Dumbledore!"

"It's not a question of power, but more the amount of magic you have at your disposal. Flitwick only has two, yet as you know he is an expert in charms and duelling. His power comes from years of experience and practise. Yet if it came down to amount of magic, he wouldn't be able to beat someone such as yourself, or even Mr Malfoy who I think has three."

She looked up at him and for a second saw what he looked like before, just lying there on the floor unmoving. She opened her mouth to speak but he carried on, sensing her next question. "I have remarkable powers of healing. I've left this cut on my face deliberately so as to not arouse too much suspicion. Dumbledore knows I'm quite capable of looking after myself, that's why he brought you here first and then came back looking for me afterwards. It has become quite well known that you were the one who caused that explosion upstairs. It could be felt all the way to the Great Hall. Madam Pomfrey has been shooing people out of here since then."

"All the way to the Great Hall…" she muttered almost to herself. She looked up the professor again, "Professor, who are you?"

He smiled again as he got up to leave, "I've already told you that Hermione. I don't have a name; it comes with the job. You had better get some rest now. I think Madam Pomfrey wants to keep you here until tomorrow morning. I'm sure one of your classmates will bring you a change of clothes."

"Thank you professor," she muttered. But he had already gone.

After classes, Harry and Ron were the first people down to the Hospital Wing to see how she was.

"Blimey Hermione," said Ron, while stuffing his face with a packet of sweets that had been left for her, "everything started shaking. We thought there was an earthquake or something. Even Snape looked concerned. Are you sure you're alright?"

"Don't worry about it Ron I'm perfectly fine. I just have to stay here to rest. It's the professor who I was more concerned about it. He took the full force of it."

"Did he say anything about who he was?" he asked.

Hermione thought for a second about telling them, but she stopped. It really wasn't her secret to tell. She shook her head.

"Well," Ron continued, "it couldn't have been all that bad. I mean, the Room of Requirement looked perfectly fine."

Looked perfectly fine…Hermione thought.

"Anyway, we had better leave you to carry on resting," said Harry. "McGonagall said she would drop by later on and give you a copy of the homework from today, so you needn't worry about that."

They both got up and left, leaving Hermione to the relative silence of the Hospital Wing. It was never completely silent at Hogwarts. There were always the sounds of ghosts moaning and portraits muttering, and occasionally the grinding of one of the moving staircases.

How on earth, She thought to herself before drifting back off to sleep, could someone who shouldn't be able to use magic at all repair a room that was created by the Founders? And how did I repair my robes!