HP - Power of Belief
1-1

Sitting in the Gryffindor common room, Harry's mind was running in circles.

He had followed Hagrid, at the giant man's request, when he had taken the equally huge Madam Maxime to see the creatures brought in for the triwizard tournament.

Dragons.

Hagrid probably thought it was romantic watching by the torchlight as the four massive creatures were restrained by a small army of wizards.

Dragons.

All Harry saw, were armor plated, and magically resistant death. With bonus teeth and claws. From what he'd overheard, he had to get past one.

Dragons!

He was so focused on the dragons, he barely noticed when hermione sat down next to him

"Harry? are you ok?" She asked quietly. She had been trying to his attention since he came back into the common room. Putting a hand on his shoulder finally drew him from his thoughts. There was a worrying twitching under the skin by his left eye.

"Harry what happ-" she squeaked in surprise when harry turned fully towards her and wrapped his arms around her tightly.

Confused by his behaviour, but in no hurry to get free hermione lightly patted him on the back while she considered what to do. She wasn't sure what she would do if he'd finally gone round the bend. They might be able to get hims disqualified from the tournament on medical grounds if nothing else.

##

"Dragons?" she repeated for the third time, her tone still just as disbelieving as the first.

It had taken almost half an hour for Harry to calm down and release Hermione, much to her disappointment. After that, came the explanations, she'd had taken it better than he did.

"Think, blast furnace with wings," Harry supplied helpfully. A slightly manic look in his eyes. He was trying to be rational about it, but all he could see was the gout of flame as one of the dragons tried to incinerate it's handlers.

"Yes, thank you Harry. I know what they are… I need to check on something, meet me in the abandoned transfiguration room tomorrow."

Before Harry could say anything, she ran off.

##

Sneaking into the disused classroom the next day, Harry wasn't surprised to see Hermione sitting at a desk with a book in her hands. What was a surprise, was the mess of arcane formulas and runes scrawled across the blackboard.

The odd stickman doodle of himself with a large S on chest was a little weird. He could tell it was him, it had messy hair and glasses. Plus Hermione had helpfully written his name next to it.

"So, what's all this?"

Not hearing him come in, Hermione jumped in her seat and glared at him, "Harry! don't do that!"

"Sorry," he said with a grin.

Hermione huffed, but carried on regardless. "This, Harry, is the formula for a very old ritual. Apparently, it was used to turn people into avatars of a chosen god or warrior."

Not understanding, Harry gave her a blank look.

"Oh honestly, it's simple. Belief has power yes? Well this spell uses that belief to give people extra power." standing up, she moved to the diagram on the board.

There were two circles of different size with an arrow pointing from the smaller to the larger one.

"In the past, they would use a great hero or warrior. He'd stand in the smaller circle and someone else would stand in the other one. Then, that person would be granted the power and abilities of the hero."

"Okay… So, what's this got to do with me? I get what you're talking about, but who would we even get to play the part of the 'hero'?" It wasn't like they could just go grab an Aurora or hit wizard off the streets.

"Well… From what I've read… the hero doesn't have to exist… Apparently, it could be used with dead people. Because it's all a matter of belief, all the spell needs is a token, a focal point for all that belief."

"So…" Harry grasped for any 'legendary heros' he knew about, "if we had Robin Hoods bow or Arthur's sword, we could give me their abilities?"

Smiling broadly, Hermione was almost bouncing with excitement now. "Exactly. Even better, it doesn't have to be the exact object. A replica will work just as well."

"Hermione, you're brilliant! Do you know any legends about dragon slayers?" relief flooded his body. Maybe he had a chance after all?

"Saint George?... But Harry, what about the other tasks? You can only use this spell once, knowing how to kill a dragon wont help with whatever else the judges have come up with…" Biting her lip, Hermione looked around nervously.

"Harry… Do you trust me?"

"Of course I do… " he said, a little worried by her sudden shift.

"Good, okay…" She took a deep breath, "I think I have a solution but we'll need time and somewhere to set up the spell."

There was nothing Harry could do about the time, but he had an idea for a location. "Leave that to me, I'll ask the elves in the kitchen. They have to know the castle better than anybody."

##

Two days later, Harry found himself pacing up and down a corridor on the seventh floor. Hermione was standing nearby, holding a bag with everything they would need for the ritual.

The elves in the kitchen had been incredibly helpful. When he'd asked about a hidden room with lots of space, one of them had told him about the 'come and go room'. Apparently, the room only appeared when people needed it and always had what they needed.

The trick was to walk past the a painting on the seventh floor, three times.

Hermione hadn't quite believed him when he'd told her about it. But as he past the painting for a third time, she let out a gasp as it was replaced by a door.

Before he could say anything, she pushed past him and through the door. Inside, the room was large and well lit. The floor was clean and smooth with a supply of chalk already waiting on a pedestal.

"This… Harry, this is incredible! There's nothing about a room like this in Hogwarts a History..."

"Maybe you should write to the author and complain?" He joked.

"Maybe I will," Hermione said, shooting him a glare but there wasn't any heat to it.

"so, will this work?"

"Of course, we just need to write out the runes on the floor," she said, putting her bag down and pulling some papers out.

##

Nearly two hours later, Harry walked back into the room. He'd wanted to help but he'd never studied runes and they had to be written correctly in exactly the right place for this spell to work. In the end, he'd alternated between watching and occasionally grabbing things out of Hermiones bag when she asked. He'd wondered how she was able to fit so much in there until he put his hand inside for the first time and his arm had vanished up to the elbow.

Space expansion charms were finicky and difficult to make work most times and here Hermione was, casually using them to turn her school bag into the TARDIS.

After nearly an hour and a half, he'd ducked out of the room to grab some food and drinks. Shutting the door, he coughed to get Hermione's attention and held up the flask of tea and sandwiches the elves had given him.

Giving him a slightly haggard look, she relaxed at the sight of food.

"Thanks Harry, just let me finish this rune."

As she ate, she tried to explain what the runes where and how they would affect him and his magic through morphic resonance but most of it went over his head.

"Don't worry too much about it," she said, rolling her eyes at his slightly glazed look. "All you need to do is strip."

It took a moment for Hermione's brain to realise what she'd just said and both teens went scarlet.

"Your shirt! I mean, you need to take your shirt off so I can write some runes on your body! not that you're not- I mean I dont- Merlin, just kill me now!"

Still blushing, Harry laughed at the rare sight of Hermione putting her foot in it. After a few moments, she laughed along with him.

"Right… Okay," Harry said once they calmed down, "when do you want to do it?"

Hermione quickly downed the last of her tea, "right now would be best. It may take time to get the hang of things, so the sooner we do this the better."

Standing up, she pulled Harry his feet and went to fetch a marker pen while he pulled his robes and shirt off. Standing there in just his trousers, he tried to keep himself from blushing too much.

"Just so you know, this is water soluble. That means it'll wash off in the shower," Hermione explained as she stepped behind him.

Letting her draw across his back was an odd feeling, having Hermione so close he could feel her breath on his skin caused goosebumps to appear but he soon started to relax. At least until she came round to his front.

Placing a hand on his chest to steady him, she carefully continued to write. Not trusting himself, Harry looked up at the ceiling, desperately trying to ignore the warmth where her hand was touching.

The warmth slowly spread downwards and it didn't help she was being so gentle. Every light touch left trails of heat and her hair was in his face, filling his world with the smell of her. He prayed she didn't look down.

"Harry, hold still," she chastised when she hit a particularly ticklish spot. Was it his imagination or did she sound a little breathless?

Looking down, he would forever blame hormones for the words that came out of his mouth "So… when do I get a turn?"

Snapping her head up, she gave him a wide eyed stare, her already faint blush darkening. Before he could apologise, she cut him off.

"Survive the first task and we'll talk about it," she quickly turned away from him to hide her face. "I… We need to finish this." she said eventually, once they'd both calmed down.

Harry nodded and Hermione went back to work but something was different. There was a subtle tension in the air that he didn't know how to deal with. Choosing to ignore it for now, he focused on staying calm.

After another twenty agonising minutes, Hermione was finally finished. The runes she'd written started on the base of his spine before following it up and to his shoulders. From there, they split into two lines that worked there way down his torso. The large S on his chest looked familiar but he put it out of his mind. Another strip of runes adorned both his arms.

If he was honest with himself, Harry thought they would make a very cool looking tattoo. He even chuckled briefly at how the Dursleys would react if he came home like this.

"Okay, Harry you just need to stand in the larger ring. Try not to smudge anything." Hermione directed.

Taking up his position, harry noticed the small ring was still empty.

"What did you find for us to use in the end?" He asked, looking around curiously.

"Well… I wanted to make sure you'd be okay so…" reaching into her bag, she pulled out a thin book. No, Harry realised, a magazine. His glasses needed updating but as she held it up, he noticed the large red and yellow S on the cover.

"You're kidding, Will that even work? where did you even find one of those anyway?" Muggle comics weren't exactly common in Hogwarts. Sure, some kids brought them but they tended to keep them out of sight.

"I… Borrowed it from Colin Creevey," she admitted with a blush. "It should work though. The ritual only requires the source be well known. Even if it's just a story, people still think and feel about them. They believe in the characters, that should be enough."

Shaking his head, Harry just smiled, "half the school thinks I'm supposed to be a hero and your solution is to turn me into one?"

"If it's worth doing? If it doesn't work we can always try again with something else."

Really, what choice did he have? "Alright, go ahead."

Placing the comic in the smaller ring, Hermione took a deep breath and pointed her wand at the runes. Slowly, her magic began to fill the runes. One after another they lit up and the air was heavy with magic.

Soon, the light was almost blinding and Harry had to close his eyes. Magic was beginning to arc from the runes on the floor to the ones on his body and he could his skin starting to itch.

The spell was beyond anything Hermione had ever tried to cast. She felt like she was the eye of a storm, the pinch in an hourglass. Magic pushed against her and one slight misstep would unravel everything. It was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time
Opening her eyes, she gave her magic one final push. The world around her exploded and her vision went white as her core clenched at the release.

Exhausted, she collapsed to the floor.

An: sorry no beta. This I may actually continue but it will only a short fic, 5-6 chapters at most, as the premise wont really work beyond the end of 4th year.