At nearly eleven o'clock, Harry quietly crept down the stairs to the Slytherin common room. After dinner, he and Daphne had decided it was as good a night as any to explore the castle. Blaise had bowed out, saying he hadn't slept well the previous night. Daphne said she would invite Tracey, but apparently she valued her sleep above most things.
Seeing a figure seated in one of the chairs in front of the smoldering fire, Harry decided to try something new. The sound of footsteps on cobblestone were hard to mask, but if he could avoid stepping on the stones entirely, he could eliminate it. As he stepped off the staircase, he projected his magic through the sole of his foot and gathered a large amount of air underneath it. When his foot came down, it stopped several millimeters above the floor in complete silence. Harry wobbled for a moment, as the gathered air was much less stable than an actual floor.
Grinning in success, he repeated the magic with his other foot, and slowly made his way towards the center of the common room. After a quick glance to make sure it was indeed Daphne, he leaned down next to her ear and whispered, "Boo."
A shriek leapt from Daphne's lips as she jumped out of the armchair, one hand flying to her mouth and the other fumbling with her wand. Shock quickly morphed into anger, and she gave a swift punch to Harry's shoulder as he quietly laughed at her reaction. Still hovering slightly over the ground, he lost his balance and tumbled backward onto the floor.
"You complete prat!" Daphne half-whispered, half-shouted. "That was so mean! I nearly passed out!" She took several deep breaths to calm herself as Harry picked himself up off the floor, a grin still plastered over his face. "How did you manage to sneak up on me, anyways? I didn't hear a single thing."
"I just went really slowly," Harry responded, deciding to continue hiding his unique abilities. "Anyways, you ready to head out?"
The two first-years slowly made their way through the dungeons towards the entrance hall. They had explored many of the staircases and hallways that branched from the main corridor, and ended up even more confused than before. The corridors contained mostly empty classrooms, but one corridor emerged on the opposite side of the one they had started in, despite having taken no turns. The staircases were also mostly normal, though one upwards staircase had somehow brought them down a floor, and another ended at a window overlooking the main courtyard.
They finally arrived at the main floor, and immediately had to duck behind a nearby suit of armor as Filch the caretaker came shuffling from the Entrance Hall. He muttered to himself (or maybe to Mrs. Norris), and eventually disappeared towards the Grand Staircase. Harry and Daphne, instead of following, went to one of the lesser used staircases in order to remain unseen. They emerged in an unused portion of the second floor that followed the southern wall of the castle. The pair slowed down, looking over the grounds.
"You know, we should probably explore the grounds, too. Hogwarts owns the entire forest, not to mention the whole lake and the surrounding land," Daphne explained.
"Well, we've got all weekend to do that," Harry replied. "Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves."
Daphne smiled and continued walking, though her expression soon turned contemplative. "Harry, I've got a question about Charms."
Harry glanced over, slightly nervous. "Am I really the right person to ask? I mean you probably know a lot more about them than I do."
"That's not what I mean," Daphne shook her head. "You cast the spell almost right away, but you never even tried it again. Every other person who got it just kept casting it the entire class, but you just watched and helped us. And even the one time you did cast it, it just sort of… petered out. I just didn't want to ask about it in front of everyone in case it was an issue of power. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's just—"
"Daphne," Harry interrupted, "it's not that. I just… my magic works a little different than most people's. Think we could just leave it at that for now?"
Daphne looked ashamed. "Yeah, of course. Sorry for prying, Harry."
"It's alright, you didn't know. I'm just still figuring it all out, it's kinda new to me too," Harry assured her. Daphne opened her mouth to reply, but her mouth snapped shut at the sound of a new voice.
"Who's there, my sweet? Maybe first years, out for a midnight stroll? Maybe those damn twins, planning some new horror to inflict on us? Come, Mrs. Norris, let's find out."
Daphne's eyes were wide with panic, and she looked around quickly for a way out, but all the classroom doors were in the hallway Filch was approaching in. There was a staircase at either end of the corridor, but they were almost halfway between, and Filch would certainly round the corner before they reached them.
Harry's mind was racing. He knew he could move fast enough to escape Filch's sight, but Daphne wouldn't be able to keep up, and he wasn't willing to leave her in detention by herself. The only potential hiding spot he could see were the shallow alcoves behind the suits of armor scattered throughout the corridor, but there was definitely not enough room for either of them to hide, even separately.
From the sound of it, they had about twenty seconds until Filch rounded the corner, and Harry could only think of one solution. He pulled Daphne over to the nearest suit of armor, then placed both of his hands on the wall behind it. Closing his eyes, he pushed his magic into the wall and began molding it to his will.
He was surprised when he felt a different, foreign magic already permeating the stones. However, once he began to communicate what his intentions were, the magic in the walls began to assist him, deepening the alcove with little effort on Harry's part. Seeing that Daphne was too shocked to move on her own, he dragged her in with him, keeping one hand on the walls. Once they were both fully inside the new space, the opening narrowed until it was barely wide enough to slide through. He looked at Daphne and put a finger to his lips, though it appeared she was too surprised to make any sound.
The shuffling figure of Filch moved around the corner, shadowed by the smaller form of Mrs. Norris. "You heard them too, didn't you, my dear? They couldn't have run, we would have heard… Hm. Keep looking, dear, we'll find them."
Filch and his cat moved down the hallway the way Daphne and Harry had come from, eventually disappearing down the stairs. Pushing a bit of magic back into the wall, the two fugitives were able to step out of the alcove, Daphne watching intently as the stones flowed back to their original configuration.
"Not here," Harry said, seeing Daphne opening her mouth to question him. They quickly walked down the corridor in the opposite direction Filch had gone, going up the staircase and coming out on the third floor. Daphne opened a door, and after seeing the room was abandoned, moved inside. Harry heaved a sigh and followed.
"Spill."
The classroom they were in was mostly filled with old and broken chairs and tables shoved against the wall. The few serviceable pieces were in the center of the room, and now Harry was seated at a narrow desk with Daphne leaning on the other side as if they were in a Muggle interrogation room. Her eyes were locked with his, a slight frown marring her features.
"I'm gonna need a bit more to go off of than that," Harry replied with a slight edge in his tone. "What exactly do you want to know?"
Daphne's expression softened a bit, realizing that this was likely a sensitive topic. "Sorry, it's just… I was starting to think you were weak, magically. And I swear that I wouldn't have judged you for that or anything, but that's kind of what your performance in class looked like. Really good control, but not much power. But what you just did… I can't even begin to understand how you managed that. And without a wand? How is that even possible?"
For several moments, Harry remained silent, trying to decide how much to tell her. He obviously had to tell her at least part of the truth, there was no disguising the magic he had performed to escape Filch.
"Alright. You see…"
Daphne was flabbergasted. According to Harry, he had been able to perform limited wandless magic for years, something that took most adult wizards decades to learn, even for a simple spell like a summoning charm. Her father was only capable of weak summoners and banishers, and he was no slouch. Harry, though, was apparently able to perform magic without making it into a proper spell, like the transfiguration he had performed on the wall of the castle.
"…Daphne?" Harry's voice rang out in the silence.
She shook herself out of her reverie. "Sorry. It's just… a lot to process."
"You're telling me," he replied with a smirk. "Imagine my surprise when I found out."
"So, if what you did in the corridor was spur of the moment, what other stuff can you do?" Daphne inquired.
In response, Harry placed his hand palm up on the desk in front of Daphne. With a moment of concentration, he sparked his magic into a merrily dancing flame that proceeded to jump from finger to finger. Daphne's jaw had dropped again. Deciding to try something new, he stretched the flame out so it was about six inches long, and quite narrow. He then molded it into even more detail, tapering it at one end, and flattening the other. After a few seconds, the flat end opened, revealing tiny orange fangs and a forked tongue. With a quiet hiss, the tiny snake made of fire began coiling around his fingers.
Daphne was far beyond words at this point. Elemental spells beyond the basic Incendio and Aguamenti were incredibly difficult to cast, not to mention exerting fine control over them. The magic Harry was currently performing should have been completely impossible for a first year, and he was doing it casually.
"So what do you think?" Harry asked, grinning at the dumbstruck look on Daphne's face. She looked up at him, eyes widening once more, this time with a measure of fear in them. "What? Do you not like snakes?" At this thought, he immediately dispelled the flames that had continued to dance in his palm.
"Wh-what was that?" Daphne asked, beginning to panic. "Did-did you just—"
"Daphne, what's wrong? What did I do?"
"Harry, you… you were hissing at me."
Author's Note: Thanks for all the new favorites and reviews! With any luck, I'll be able to bust out another chapter before the end of the weekend, but no promises. If you have any questions or comments, please drop a review!