Raised with Magic

Chapter Eleven: Barrier

"Alright, Hermione, when it comes to your wandless magic your going to be more efficient in defensive magic. This is because this is the way your powers were awakened. In this sense we're lucky because I'm also a defensive magic type, which will make teaching you a more compatible task."

"Mum?" I asked softly, she took a breath.

"What sweetie?" Mum asked sitting down. Before she had been pacing. In my limited experience the alteration being pacing and sitting was generally an acceptance of a person asking a personal question. I still felt awkward.

I asked anyway, "What awoke your powers?" She smiled, remembering the memory before pulling me onto her lap. Some people may think it is childish, but I like snuggling, it makes me feel safe and I am okay with associating being safe with being wrapped in Mum's arms.

Mum started to tell the story and her voice alone was much lower and mystical then it had been before, "it happened two summers after I graduated. I went on a expedition in Madagascar to study the magical properties of the native plants. It's where I met your Dad. Xeno was searching for one of his creatures and had gone on the expedition knowing our hikes brought us through the ruins. He thought he would find what ever it was he was looking for there. Our group had set up for camp one of the nights when it happened. Now what you have to realize is that the times then were darker-"

"Voldemort." I mentioned. I really didn't want a sugar coated story. Besides, I wanted to get used to the idea of using his name before people managed to instill the idea of complete fear into me.

"How in the world?"

"I asked Headmaster Dumbledore about all of the secrecy around my powers. He was evasive and sugar coated his reply so I did some digging." Dad is good at his research, even if his subjects aren't to fact oriented, I used everything I know about his process to do my research and to be honest I think the effort brought me closer to Dad.

"I see. Well, when I'm proud that you took the initiative, understand I have to tell you very few people speak his name." I was glad that she wasn't mad at me, but I didn't understand the fear, the same fear I didn't want people to force on me. The things Voldemort did and stood for we're horrible but fear of a name only increases the fear of the thing itself. Either way, I didn't press the issue. I wanted to hear the rest of her story.

"Well, that night at camp, Death Eaters showed up. One of the men who came of the group with us had apparently ran after he had been 'recruited' into their ranks. The Death Eaters had been sent after him. They didn't spare the camp or the people there. Xeno and I were luckily on the outskirts of the encampments. We retreated into a cave in the surrounding area. Fire had consumed the camp and we both knew we would suffocate when the smoke over took the cave. I remember thinking that the wonderfully odd man next to me did not deserve to die that night. He was too naive and unique. The whole night we waited for our deaths but they never came. At some point we had fallen asleep and when we awoke people were there putting out the fire. Albus contacted me in the following week and explained that I had put a barrier around the cave. He set me up with a good friend of his and I learned to use my gifts."

She let us sit in silence for a while as I processed and she remembered. When she was done it was time for us to move on because my training is important. I may want to be normal, really badly, but if I am going to be different then I am going to be able to protect those I care for. Like Mum had with Dad all those years ago. That moment, her magic, had brought her family together, just like my magic brought me to them. "We're going to make a game out of your training." She told me as she led the way outside. "I'm going to be throwing tennis balls at you and you're going to create a barrier so that they wont hit you."

I spotted Leo who was a ways away from us, but he was watching. "How do I make a barrier?" I asked seriously. I don't like failing. Sometimes, I think the idea alone is enough to make me ill. Once, I had thought that I feared failing more then anything else. Daddy and Mother being gone has taught me differently.

"Close your eyes." I did as she instructed. I trust her, more than anyone else I know, which might mean that she may not be the best person throwing things at me if I need a defensive result. Oh well, nothing we can do about that now. Mum continued talking, "Concentrate on what you should feel as essentially the core of your magic." I felt for it and it took a few minutes to realize that my magical 'core' was what I had always considered my instincts. When I was little, alright, younger, I used to pretend I was a cat like Leo. Leo knows things that I can't understand and he reacts of his instincts or the sixth sense idea that Jared explained to me. I used to try and get similar results as I tried to be a cat too.

I nodded. Mum took awhile to answer and I wanted to open my eyes, but I kept them closed, afraid I wouldn't find this place again, "Good, now, focus on what that feels like." I knew what it felt like. I was feeling it now but then I realized she wanted something to compare this feeling too. So I thought again, differently about it and when I could be cliché and answer a flowing stream that was wrong. My core is calm and almost cool. I tried to explain to Mum and I could nearly feel her grin. "Magic is fundamentally different for everyone. My own can be compared to colors. Blue is defensive, red is offensive. Green is healing. Your magic should follow the tread where different temperatures help you tap into different areas of magic. However, for the most part it will be instinctual and trial and error."

I though about that for a while and when the ball came towards me I knew to 'cool down' the magic. In a split second I instinctually 'warmed up' and the ball popped like a mini explosion, then fell to the ground. It wasn't until after the ball popped that I realized I had opened my eyes.

"Alright, you are going to want to go in the other direction." I didn't tell her my instincts went against the defensive theory she told me about. I didn't want her to think of me as a bad person and I wanted to be like her and she was a defensive magic type. So instead, I went with what I knew would be defensive and I cooled down the essence of my magic.

The second ball was almost halted by a flicker of a pink barrier before I caught it. "Good, let's try again." She threw another ball which was visibly slowed by the barrier, but I still ended up catching it as it got through. Mum has good aim and a good arm even if she is throwing the balls really lightly. I'm glad she doesn't want to hurt me even if it might theoretically speed up the process.

Eighteen tries later, I counted, I could conger a barrier that was solid enough to stop a tennis ball flying at me at full force. "Very good job, Hermione. Now's the hard part. Making a barrier when you see no threat and also keeping that barrier in place for a good period of time."

We tried this twice and each time it felt like my very presence was being stolen from my body. Mum wouldn't let me try a third time and she sent me off to bed. I didn't change before I collapsed onto my bed. I didn't have the energy to. However, no matter how tired my body was, my mind was still wide awake. It wasn't fair. Then again, very few things are now a days. I think I'm getting old. I've heard people call me an old soul before but I had never felt like it quite like I do at the moment.

I wanted to write to Jared again, but my life was so saturated with magic that my letters were beginning to feel like lies. My thoughts drifted from my family to my lessons to my friends before Leo's rhythmic purring made me succumb to the realm of dreams. I hadn't realized he had followed me upstairs.

"Hermione, Hermione, wake up!" As much as I wished to ignore the voice I found myself automatically grumbling something kind of sounding like, 'what? No. Sleep'. "Four of the Weasleys are downstairs wanting to know if you wanted to go play outside with them."

"Luna?" I muttered into my pillow. Why was I invited and not she? Leaked into my pronunciation of my sister's name.

"Luna went out with your Dad a few hours ago. I didn't want them to wake you quite so early. I'll put together a lunch for you to bring with you for when you get hungry." It wasn't until that comment that I realized how hungry I was.

"Time?" I asked still snuggling with my pillow. I wish I were more polite when my mind was so sleep foggy. Maybe I can remember to say sorry to Mum sometime later for having been rude.

"Nearly noon." Mum answered, I could hear her smiling. I think she remembers when she first started this wandless stuff. That, or she is glad I slept a full night. Although, that option assumed she is aware of my bad sleeping habits. She probably was.

Getting ready didn't take long. All I really had to do is brush my teeth, pull my shoulder length hair into something looking like a pig tails, the low kind or else I looked like I was three heads wide, and throw on my favorite jeans and a red shirt. However, I did take a few minutes to put the small stack of books that had accumulated on my nightstand back in their proper places on the bookshelf mum had brought home for me a while back. On some level I felt a little guilty for making the boys wait an extra while longer just because I had been to tired to put the books away last night, but if I didn't do it now, right after I realized that I had left them there, they would haunt me all day.

The Weasleys who were downstairs waiting turned out to be the twins, Charlie, and Bill. Today was going to be fun. Besides, none of them looked like they felt they had been left waiting too long. Sometimes I feel bad that I feel so lucky.