Ch. 4: Wandless magic
After the exchange students left the Gryffindor common room Hermione wasted no time to tell Harry and Ron all about her findings in the library, which was not much, surprisingly enough.
The Four Great Dukedoms was a sort of country within country, encompassing the magical community living on Hebrides. They ceased all contact with the wizarding community shortly after some obscure tragedy that occurred in the capital of their land. Soon after, the Ministry of Magic declared their use of magic dark arts and thus reinforced the self-imposed isolation. The situation remained unchanged for a hundred years and there were no indications in the library as to why it should have changed now. According to all Hermione could find both the Ministry of Magic and the Dukedoms were happy with having absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with each other.
Ron immediately assumed that the exchange students from the Great Dukedoms had evil intentions, if their magic was dark. It took Hermione reminding him about the Ministry's position towards Harry to relent and say that maybe the Ministry propaganda was not always true. Harry, for one, couldn't quite imagine Oz being evil or wishing to hurt anybody and Ron's idea that he came to Hogwarts to join Voldemort seemed ludicrous. The other three, now that was a different question, but maybe they were just shy and dealt with their shyness by trying to appear aloof. Besides, just because somebody wasn't immediately friendly to him didn't mean that the person was bad, right?
According to Hermione's meagre library findings, he four exchange students, now attending Hogwarts, were descendants and heirs of the four families that ruled the Four Great Dukedoms: Barma, Nightray, Rainsworth and Vessalius. The politics were as vague as they seemed complicated, with the Duke families forming some sort of organisation whose aim was not entirely clear from the records Hermione could find. She hasn't been able to find much about the four families themselves either. The most recent mention, of any of the four, in the Pure Blood Peerage was that the last descendant of the Phantomhive family married into the Nightrays just a month before her father died in unexplained circumstances and less than half a year before the mysterious tragedy and the rupture of contacts. The young bride and her mother left London for Hebrides, shortly after Earl Phantomhive's passing, and were never heard of again.
All this mystery around the students tickled Harry's curiosity. Exchanging wild theories with Ron, he could almost forget that Voldemort was out there, gathering his strength and searching for allies. That is, he could forget about it until Ron suggested yet again that maybe the Duke families wanted to join the nemesis of the wizarding community. Harry wasn't sure if sending children into potential danger was really the way to go about it. He and Hermione wondered why the Dukes even risked sending their children to boarding school in such dangerous times. He thought that maybe they hoped their children to be safe until Oz dispelled those thoughts, shocking Harry, Ron and Hermione.
'Ah, see, we didn't know anything about this He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named,' Oz said simply when Harry finally gave in and asked about the security issues on the seventh evening that the exchange students spent with him and his friends.
'Voldemort,' he corrected automatically, even as the information sank in.
'Even now we are not exactly sure what to think about this situation, because the Daily Prophet claims firmly that this Voldemort guy is dead,' Oz added, repeating the name without the slightest hesitation. After five years of people flinching every time he said it, Harry found it somewhat refreshing.
'So are you at war?' Elliot asked coldly. As time went, the other three exchange students started to talk with the Gryffindors. Harry learnt that both Elliot and Alice were rather straightforward, although each in their own way, while Leo preferred to avoid direct confrontation.
'I suppose you could say that,' Hermione replied carefully and Harry was not surprised when Alice pointed out that it wasn't very smart to not know whether or not they were at war.
'Voldemort is alive,' Harry said firmly. 'I saw him rise again and I fought with him on that night,' he added, perhaps more harsh than the situation called for. 'The Ministry doesn't believe me though and they prefer to find weak excuses when the Deatheaters murder yet another person.'
'Deatheaters are the followers of Voldemort, right?' Leo asked, looking up at Harry. He seemed satisfied with Harry's nod and went back to scribbling something in his notebook. 'Aren't they getting more violent?' he asked almost as an afterthought. Harry fought to keep the reports of the gruesome murders, which he had overheard from the members of the Order patrolling the corridors at night, out of his head.
'They are getting worse and worse,' he whispered. He couldn't sleep this year and more often than not, he would go out under his Invisibility Cloak, walking the corridors until he was so tired he could fall asleep easily. 'Lupin was talking with McGonagall last night about an attack on a Muggle-born couple. They have just finished school last year and were going to get married,' he muttered.
'Were going to?' Oz repeated cautiously.
'They were found in their flat, decapitated, two nights ago,' Harry replied, not missing how Elliot paled at his statement. This was definitely something to investigate, he thought.
'Isn't it weird that the Deatheaters are using Muggle ways suddenly?' Ron asked, making Harry nod. 'Dad said that if it wasn't for the Dark Mark, they wouldn't even think it was them.'
'So, those Deatheaters,' Oz started slowly. 'How would they kill their victims otherwise?' he asked. Harry blinked and asked if they really have never heard of the killing curse before.
'Killing curse?' Leo repeated in a weird tone. If Harry didn't know better, he would have said that it was almost mocking. 'We don't have such a thing as the killing curse, or at least it is not taught to the children of our age,' he added. Remembering who it was, that had taught them about the curse, Harry wondered if maybe it wasn't supposed to be taught to them either.
He ended up describing what Deatheaters used to do until sometime in the middle of July and how they suddenly started killing people by piercing their bodies with sharp objects or shattering their skulls against the walls. Ron and Hermione, who have already heard those stories before, looked uncomfortable. The other four shared so many worried looks that Harry lost count.
'And you say this is happening all over Britain?' Elliot asked after a moment of silence.
'Yeah,' Harry replied with a nod. He saw the exchange students share another worried glance and wondered if they were going to go back to their place now. He knew, of course, that Hogwarts was perfectly safe as long as Dumbledore was there, but how could they know?
'By the way, that Lupin person is not a teacher in the school, is he?' Oz asked in a casual kind of tone. 'I don't think I remember his name and we already met all the teachers I think,' he added. Hermione glared at Harry and he knew he shouldn't have let it slip that there has been a stranger in the castle.
'I thought that nobody is allowed into the castle,' Alice exclaimed, sounding alarmed. Before he realised what he was doing, Harry explained all he knew about the Order of the Phoenix and the role they had played in the previous wizarding war. Only when Hermione kicked him under the table, did he shut up but thankfully the only reaction that his words got from the exchange students was a relieved "so you are fighting that guy".
'All my family is,' Ron interjected proudly, basking in Oz's bright smile and reassurance that it was a sign of a brave and noble family. 'Once I'm done with school I'll join them as well and so will Harry and Hermione,' Ron added.
'Won't the war be over by then?' Elliot asked doubtfully. 'Are they planning to be at war for two more years?'
'It's hardly planning with You-Know-Who,' Ron replied heatedly, angry as though Elliot insulted his family. 'For all we know it could only be Harry who can-'
'Ron,' Hermione stopped him. 'I think I'm going to practice the spells for Charms now,' she added. 'We've talked about those sad things long enough. If we continue they will think it's really horrible here.'
'What did you learn?' Oz asked immediately, either genuinely happy to change the topic or really enthusiastic about Charms. 'Can you show us? We only learned little and it's very hard to do it without wands, but I'm sure Leo will manage.'
'Oz,' Leo called the name out wearily.
'Without wands?' Hermione repeated, being the first one to realise what Oz has said. 'Why would you do it without wands?' Oz looked sheepish, while Elliot and Leo glared at him. Alice looked bored. She seemed to be unperturbed by most of the things that happened, Harry realised.
'Ah, wands and we don't mix well apparently,' Oz explained slowly. 'Nobody uses wands back at home so we only found out about them when we arrived here and then we thought that we should get some.'
'Long story short, it's easier to do wandless magic than try and find a wand that will fit,' Elliot helped his fellow student out. It seemed to be a touchy subject, so Harry hoped that Hermione would drop it. He already wondered if there was a way to spy a bit on the exchange students and find out what it was that they weren't saying.
'Right,' Hermione muttered, sounding unconvinced. 'We were doing animation charms since the beginning of this year,' she said and explained how it should be possible to move an object just by thinking about motion. She presented the easiest spell on a small piece of rope that she had apparently found somewhere to practice on.
'This is amazing,' Alice exclaimed when the rope twisted into a spiral and then twirled around. Hermione grinned and the rope tied itself into a bow and landed in front of Alice, who took it and shook it, as if to make it move again.
'There are more complicated ones that I could try to show you if Harry still has his dragon figurine,' Hermione pointed out, so Harry accioed the dragon from the dormitory, producing gasps from the four exchange students.
'I want to learn that spell,' Oz exclaimed. 'Like that I never have to worry about snatching cookies from Hatter,' he added, stumbling a bit over the name. Harry remembered that Hatter was the bodyguard and wondered how cookies fit into the picture. He hasn't yet seen the two bodyguards, but he imagined them to look a bit like Mad Eyed Moody.
They spent the next half an hour teaching Accio to the other four, by which time Leo managed it without the slightest problem, Elliot and Oz somewhat managed and Alice only once succeeded in pulling the rope towards her.
'This is unfair,' she pouted. 'Why can you guys all do that and I can't? Even Elliot can and he is-'
'Better at focusing on one thing,' Leo interjected smoothly. Harry wondered what it was that Alice was going to say. He didn't miss the somewhat panicked looks of the three boys before Leo stopped Alice. 'It's not our fault that you have the attention span of a fruit fly,' Leo added mockingly, earning a punch from the girl.
'I'm sure you'll learn,' Hermione spoke before anybody could. 'Ron also took ages to master just about any spell and look, he's quite alright with them now,' she added, ignoring Ron's outraged expression. To cheer Alice up, she muttered a spell and pointed her wand at the previously forgotten figurine of Hungarian Horntail. Instantly, the dragon flapped its wings and roared, much to Alice's delight.
'Besides, everybody's good in their own thing,' Harry amended when the dragon took flight from the table. He wasn't sure if any of the exchange students heard him, because they all looked at the figurine, mesmerised.
'You're such a show-off, Hermione,' Ron commented with a sour expression, when the dragon landed. Leo asked Hermione for the spell and moments later the dragon flew onto his outstretched hand. Alice, obviously forgetting her irritation, petted the figurine with one finger.
'That is extremely impressive,' Hermione said, looking at Leo with wide eyes. The dark-haired boy smiled slightly and admitted that it was horribly exhausting and he could probably use loads of practice to channel the magic properly.
'Still,' Harry muttered, watching the dragon hop onto Alice's hand. Oz petted the figurine and said something that Harry couldn't hear. It occurred to him that maybe they have forgotten they have an audience, because suddenly they were really behaving like children, squealing when the dragon roared.
'You should teach Raven to do that and we'll never have to be bothered by those two again,' Elliot commented dryly, earning a punch from Alice and a laugh from Oz. Leo replied in a hushed tone, making all three snicker in a somewhat evil way. Harry was reminded of the Weasley twins.
'Aren't you afraid of your curfew today, by the way?' Ron asked, probably having heard the comment about Raven. Harry realised that it was indeed much later than they usually parted. Like a burst soap bubble, the careless mood was gone and Oz returned to his polite but somewhat guarded persona. Alice straightened and Leo sent the dragon back to the table, looking ready to fall over from fatigue.
'Afraid is the wrong word, red-head,' Elliot replied with some hostility, reverting to his persona from their first meeting, as he often did when he talked with Ron. It was obvious that those two would never become best friends.
'But we should be going,' Leo pointed out calmingly. He usually did that when Elliot seemed to be close to starting an argument and Harry wondered if he should be doing the same for Ron sometimes.