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 5 : The Unknown

"So," he continued, "can anyone think of a spell that it may not be possible to say other words for?" He looked around the classroom.

Things had been progressing just fine over the last two weeks. Almost everyone was able to perform the simple spells using different words, and the professor was preparing the class to move onto the next topic. After a while Neville timidly raised his hand.

"How about item specific spells Sir? Like accio?"

"And why would that be Longbottom?" the professor countered.

"Well err, how would magic know which object to summon?"

"A good idea I suppose, but no," the professor explained, "You see, it doesn't matter what you say, it's what you have in your mind that counts. Watch." The professor pointed his wand towards Neville's desk. "Accio book!"

Neville's quill quickly shot out of his hand and landed neatly in the professor's. He handed him it back.

"It doesn't look like anyone has any other ideas, so I will give you an example. The Killing Curse is one. Obviously we can't test that out, or people would be trying to put me in Azkaban," only Hermione seemed to notice the word 'try', "but I can at least explain why."

Everyone's gaze was fixed firmly towards the front of the class. There was no whispering or messing around. Everyone wanted to hear what the professor had to say.

"Part of what makes that curse so effective is fear. People all over the wizarding world live in fear of those two terrible words. It wouldn't be anywhere near as effective if people had never heard of it, in fact it might not work at all. I think that if someone was to truly, without any shadow of a doubt, believe that they wouldn't die, then they would be fine. The curse doesn't actually harm you in any physical way; it rips out your soul."

"But Sir," Dean had raised his hand and had started speaking, "my Great Aunt Doris was killed by Death-Eaters in the first war. She was a muggle, and she certainly wouldn't have known that the killing curse would kill her…"

"Good thinking there, but this leads back to something I have already explained. Magic itself can remember. Many, many people have died from the Killing Curse over time, and so simply not knowing what will happen is not good enough. You would need to actively believe that it wouldn't harm you. Most people wouldn't have that sort of focus; even the slightest doubt in the back of your mind and you'd be dead. Your experiences tell you it will kill you, so believing otherwise is next to impossible. Of course this is purely theoretical, and not something that anyone would ever test out."

There were a few nervous chuckles from around the class, but the professor carried on.

"And now, I would like to announce a small competition we will be having soon. It will give you a chance to show off some of your skills you have learnt in this lesson and in some others. We will be having a duelling contest."

At this there was a lot of murmuring about the class. Some of the Hufflepuffs began to look very pale, and Malfoy was looking menacingly at some of the Gryfindors.

"Everyone's name will be entered, however if you really don't wish to take part then you can simply forfeit and your opponent will go though to the next round. All the contests will take place in your lessons here until we reach the quarterfinals. Those and upwards will take place in the Great Hall. We wouldn't want the rest of the school to miss out on all the fun would we?" he winked at the class and then carried on, "I will keep all the different year groups separate to start with. And after we have a winner for each year, they will also go against each other until we have a school champion. Who knows, the winner may get to have a shot at beating me!"

From the looks on everyone's faces, they certainly didn't look like they fancied their chances. The small amount of magic they had seen their professor do had been unlike anything they had seen before.

"Anyway, enough about that. You will find out about the first round before the end of the week. Today, as promised, we are going to be working on something very different, and we won't be needing our wands."

He slipped his wand up his sleeve. "Wandless magic can be difficult at the best of times. To get it to work properly you either need a lot of focus, or a lot of emotion. I'm sure you can all think of examples where you were afraid or angry and you caused something to happen without knowing how. With strong emotion your body expels magic, and that's what I want you to be able to do when you focus. Perhaps a small demonstration…"

He raised both of his arms up into the air and very briefly closed his eyes, seemingly concentrating on something, and then said in a loud and clear voice that almost echoed around the room. "Up."

All at once, every chair that someone was sitting on, along with their desk, went floating a few feet off the ground as if suspended from the ceiling with strings. Everyone clutched onto the seat of their chair and held on tightly, for they were swaying to and fro. After a few seconds the professor lowered his arms slowly until they were by his sides, and everything settled back on the floor.

"As you can see it is definitely possible," he said, grinning very slightly at them, "I have some feathers up here and I want you to practise with them until you can get them floating around without using your wands. You really do have to focus on what you want to happen, and try to feel the magic flowing through you. It is all around us, you just have to learn how to use it."

With that he walked over to his desk and took a big swig from his flask, while everyone just stared at him, not realising that they had just been told to start. After a while, led by Malfoy's confident swagger, they went up to the front and fetched a feather.

Down in the dungeons, Snape was focusing intently on an identical feather. He had a few hours free before lunch today, and was determined not to be one of the few teachers who couldn't keep up with the learning. He continued to stare, willing it to rise upwards with every ounce of strength he could muster, but it didn't move at all.

"Up. Up. Up!" He said, his voice getting louder and louder each time. "Up. Up! Up! UP!"

Unable to take any more he made to slump back down on his chair. Little did he realise that while he was focusing, his chair had slid away from him a few feet, and he landed heavily on the floor. It was a good job he wasn't a student, for he would have had to take quite a lot of house points from Slytherin for some of the language he used.

Back in the charms classroom, the people there were having similar luck, despite the help the professor was trying to give them. Ron was adamant that his feather twitched, but was unable to do so again when anyone was watching. Hermione however, was nervous.

Ever since the incident in the Room of Requirement she had been advised by the professor to be careful for a while when performing magic, as it could be a little unpredictable now she had removed her block. In charms she had banished the whole classroom full of pillows at once, along with a few chairs, Neville's toad, and a rather confused Professor Flitwick. After that she had been making sure that she put as little effort into her spells as possible, and had managed to get by quite well. She looked down at her feather and very quietly whispered, "Up."

Nothing happened.

It was probably the first time in her life she had ever failed to perform a spell and was actually pleased about it. She didn't really feel like standing out any more at the moment, and was more than a little annoyed to look up and see the professor standing there looking at her.

"Come on Hermione, let's see a proper try this time."

She looked down at her feather. Oh well, she thought, what's the worse that could happen? She took a deep breath, tried to focus for a moment, and commanded, "Up!"

There was a brief moment where she thought that nothing had happened, and was about to smile when the feather rose up quickly towards her hand. By itself this would not have been a problem. The trouble was is that her desk followed shortly behind it, and after knocking her arm out of the way, slammed itself against the ceiling, and stuck there. Hermione looked horrified, but the professor couldn't have been happier.

"Fantastic! Fantastic! You need a little more focus I think, but you should be able to master this in no time at all." He then made actions as if pulling on an invisible rope in the air, and the desk came back down to the floor.

When the table had settled Hermione looked up at him and gasped at what she saw. It wasn't the usual calm face of the professor looking back at her, but instead his eyes were wide in and his hands were visibly shaking. He collapsed heavily down to his knees, still shaking and whispered to Hermione in a croaky voice that spoke only of fear, "Find Dumbledore. He's coming..."

A/N : Would you class this a cliff hanger? Maybe…