Cormac awoke with a start.
Sunlight peered through the tree-tops, bathing the forest in soft, green light. He sat up slowly, trying to make sense of his surroundings. His mind was clouded, and he struggled to fully understand what had just happened to him – of how his life had suddenly fallen apart.
His parents were dead. Dead. The word seemed to reverberate in his consciousness, echoing off the trees that threatened to close in on him. Dead. Images flashed before his eyes – his friends, holding drinks and laughing… the house as he approached through the trees… a hand on the door… the cold lifeless bodies of his mother and father… the Death Eater suffocating under his grip… He clamped his hands tightly over his eyes.
He tried to compose himself. What should he do? He couldn't go back, that much was certain. Maybe, if he could contact his uncle… No. They would be looking for him. Tiberius would be their first target – maybe he was already dead.
Hogwarts seemed the natural place to go. He would be safe there, at least. But how would he get there? He was countless miles away from the nearest town, nay, even the nearest human being, magical or not. With a wand, it would be all too easy; he could simply apparate. But he had no wand.
No wand. He was crippled. To a wizard, a wand was everything – it was the very gateway to accessing even the most basic magic. A wand was a wizard's right arm, and without it he was nearly as powerless as a common Muggle.
Cormac felt like the best option would be to simply lay down and die. It would save Voldemort a good bit of trouble. But he didn't. Instead, he got up, stretched his legs, and began gathering dry wood for a fire. Cormac Mclaggen was nothing if not stubborn.
...
"INCENDIO!"
Nothing. Not a single spark. Cormac, pointing his outstretched hands at the bundle of wood and concentrating as hard as he possibly could, repeated the spell, louder this time. Again, nothing. He felt absolutely ridiculous.
For all his cockiness, Cormac had never really considered himself to be an exceptionally talented wizard. His marks in class certainly attested to this. Still, he did have a basic mastery of spells and, wand in hand, he could set a log to fire as well as anyone. But his education at Hogwarts had never covered wandless magic, or, if it had, he hadn't been paying attention.
"LACARNUM INFLAMARAE!"
Clearly, conventional spellwork didn't translate. Wandless magic required wholly different techniques, obviously, but as to what those techniques were, Cormac was clueless. Feeling as stupid and helpless as he had on his first day of class, Cormac tried one last thing, half-heartedly willing himself to believe that it would work; placing his hand over the fire, he simply snapped his fingers.
A few feeble sparks leapt forth, just enough to set the kindling aglow.