Beta's: 5/8/2015

Solo

Chapter 12, Wyarding

"Excuse me?"

Roland absentmindedly repeated his statement. "That was Wyarding Hermione. Do you see any others out there Ben?"

His brother shook his head. Benjamin gestured with a negligible flick of his fingers toward the corpse. "There were two others but they bolted when you ass raped Mr. Crispy over there. Good shot by the way."

Roland spat to the side as if to clear a foul taste out of his mouth. "I hate Wargs. Fucking scavengers are good for nothing except for destroying things. I'd have though the centaurs would have killed or driven them from the woods by now. It's not like they don't know the bastards routinely migrate through here."

Ben rose to his full height still looking around while dusting off his pant legs. "I've told you before; the only thing they care about is their little piece of the woods. They couldn't give a crap about anyone else. Especially humans. I have no idea why you try so hard to make nice with the nags."

Roland grunted not denying his brothers statement and not replying to his taunt. He was still trying to look around through the darkness that stood as if a great wall at the edges of the campfire light. "I suppose we should be thankful it was one of the smaller ones. The Goblins could have culled stronger from this year's stock."

Harry looked at the smoking carcass of what they had called a Warg. The name didn't mean anything to him. The smoking corpse had to be at least eight feet long. Had it been standing instead of lying on the forest floor slightly twitching it would have stood four foot high. To him it looked like the Hagrid version of a wolf. Other than the size of the thing and its general shape it was hard to figure what it looked like when it was alive. That thing has to weigh at least three hundred kilos. They call that small?

"The joys of living so close to Kriegiver. You know, we might be able to get Darius to help with them. The centaurs are useless for anything that does not concern them but Darius's people have helped us in the past. I haven't seen him in a while but I saw one of his pack mates at Doc's Pub in Springfield a couple of days ago. They don't like the Goblins any more than we do and Darius would love to get one up on the Centaurs. You know his pack hunts the woods a lot closer to the herds than we do."

"Don't know how long I'll be around but I won't deny it would be nice to have the Lycan's looking into it. I've never seen Wargs come so close to the property before. Their either desperate or they have gotten use to me not being around."

"Yeah well, you have been gone awhile bro. They've been getting worse for some time now. I ran into Xavier a week ago. I guess he'd been looking into it for his own reasons. Not surprising really, he does business with some of their craftsmen. Xavier said something about the 'Political Climate in the Underground had reached a slight impasse' or some such garbage. You know how he is."

Roland smiled behind a snort at Ben comment. " 'Slight Impasse.' Xavier always loved the sound of his own voice. I suppose it adds to that high proud mystical image he's been trying so hard to make for himself. Sounds like a blood feud between the Orcs and Goblins or something. Might be just an internal matter within the Goblin nation too. Hell, to be honest it could be a lot of things. It was only a matter of time before one of the clans broke the peace. We're too far away from any sizable populations to expect any help form the government. Unless it affects Branson, we're on our own."

Ben shrugged one shoulder. "Nothing new there Ro. I'll see if I can find Darius or one of his people tomorrow. They might have an idea of what's going on or what we can do about it. At the least they might know what Xavier meant about the impasse."

"Hey, remember when we got Xavier smashed on that bayou swamp whiskey I brought up from New Orleans last year? He wasn't so High and Proud prancing around singing 'I'm a Little Teapot'…"

"Excuse me!" Hermione practically shouted cutting off Roland's comment.

Harry turned to look at Hermione after her outburst. Afterward Harry wondered what took her so long to speak up. Hermione's face was a road map of conflicting emotions. He knew her so well she might as well have been screaming them. Her left eye was twitching along with her lips. Most likely due to her inner frustration. There was a slight blush blooming across her cheekbones from her unconstrained interruption to the bothers conversation. The rest of her body was stiff as a board. Probably to avoid sending energy anywhere but to her brain, which he guessed, was in overdrive. If this was a cartoon he would imagine smoke would have been wafting out of her ears from how hard her brain was working. If she had been anyone else or if he didn't know her so well he would have thought she was having some kind of fit or something.

"Can one of you please tell me what Wyarding is?" She demanded.

Hermione sent him a murderous look when he started laughing. Half of Hogwarts's library was most likely memorized within her mind. She must have spent the last few minutes going through everything she had ever read looking for some kind of reference to it only to come up with nothing. What had Harry laughing uncontrollably despite his girlfriend's warning look of impending doom was how typically Hermione this was.

With a smile on his face at Harry's laughter and most likely guessing it's cause he replied. "Alright."

Roland moved from where he was standing to his place by the fire taking a seat. Ben moved over to the cook grill to finish cooking their dinner but he kept his eyes and ears mostly looking out into the dark woodlands around them. Taking their cue's from the brothers Hermione and Harry also retook their seats by the fire. Hermione sat at the very edge of the old log they used as their chair with her full attention riveted on Roland. For his part Roland pulled a cigarette from the pocket of his t-shirt lighting one end before he started.

To Harry he looked a bit tired. While his brother continued to observe the area around them Roland closed his eyes savoring the first drag. The only nervousness or anxiety from their ordeal he showed when he started talking was the occasional side glance at his brother. Otherwise he seemed perfectly relaxed if a bit drawn.

"There's a bit of background to go over first. You see, Wyarding is something I came across when I wore a younger man's clothes. We're M.U.T.E's…"

Hermione interrupted, "Pardon? What do you mean your mutes? Both of you seem to be able to speak clearly."

Roland chuckled. "Not mutes, M.U.T.E.'s. Magically Unable To Execute. Both my brother and I have a very small amount of magic. Nowhere near enough to use a wand but we're not exactly Mundane's." At Hermione's puzzled look Roland clarified. "M.U.T.E.s and Mundane's are local classifications for these things. What do you call people who can't use wands or don't have any magic?"

It was Harry who spoke first. "Squibs and Muggles."

"Weird." Ben stated while shaking his head. He started throwing the finished steaks onto plates along with a couple of foil wrapped potatoes before passing around the plates to everyone. The air was still very thick with the smell of burnt Warg putting all of them off their desire for food. Ignoring his plate the same as everyone else Roland picked up where he left off.

"Anyways, like I was saying, we don't have enough magic in us to be able to use wands but when I was younger I thought there might be a way I could get stronger so I could. I spent quite a bit of my youth trying to figure out how. Both of us have had bouts of accidental magic. Nothing major mind you but little things. At first I was trying to find an explanation for what it all meant. I mean, seriously, I wasn't normal. It was thanks to a full-fledged Wizard I happen to meet when I was sixteen that I knew to call it magic. Once I figured out I had a bit of magic in me I became obsessed with trying to make myself stronger believing one day I would be able to use a wand.

"This wasn't long after Melissa and I had ran away from home. Her parents wanted to move to Georgia and we lived in California at the time. Her Dad had the wanderlust to be moving on but we didn't want to live without each other so we took off. Everything you see around you here belonged to my Grandparents back then and this is where we ended up. I started working with my Grandpa cutting wood to pay bills while Melissa started farming herbs and such. We did pretty well. It was a lot of hard work but well worth our freedom to be together. After a couple of years not long after my both my grandparents died I started doing what I do now. Buying and selling things. Didn't matter what so long as it made a profit. I think I was about twenty when I stumbled across old Raze. He's the one who created Wyarding as far as I know."

"I liked him. He's freaking nuts but I liked him." Ben stated. Roland smiled with a far off look in his eyes.

"No doubt about that Brother. He was visiting Branson doing the tourist thing when we met. I didn't even know he was a Wizard until he got drunk and mentioned it. Raze is pretty weird but one thing I've learned is that Branson gets all kinds. At the time I met him he was traveling the world doing research on the nature of magic. A kind of pet project of his own. I don't understand a lot of his theories but Wyarding is the root of it all.

"At the time we first met he was looking for a couple of M.U.T.E.s that met his requirements. I fit into this category. Ben was too young at the time but he found a couple of others later. From what I do know Raze was trying to develop an entire new school of magic, something he simply called Wild Magic. I don't know how advanced you are in your studies but Raze talked a lot about how older Witches and Wizards eventually learned to cast silently and even without the usual spell formed wand waving. He said it had something to do with the knowledge of the spell being so ingrained in them they just didn't need to do it anymore. Raze is a more fast and loose spellcaster. He wanted to create a way of doing it without having to spend years mastering every spell he wanted to use.

"Raze wanted to use M.U.T.E.s as a sort of Control group to see if his methods would work. As you have seen, we learned how to do a few things."

"Yes but how did you do it? That was a really powerful attack for someone who can use a wand and are educated in its use. From what you are telling us you're not." Hermione said.

Roland nodded to her points. "The base principle of Wyarding basically boils down to a combination of Science and magic. From what little I know or understand most spells are created through the use of complicated spellforms. A Wizard has to know the forms pretty well before they attempt to utilize them through their wands. Done properly after you know the spellform, memorized the wand movements, and correctly state the activation word you can cast the spell. However, it was not always this way. Modern spellcasting has evolved this way from more raw methods. It was these raw methods Raze was trying to get back to.

"Now, Wyarding bypasses all modern principles of magic. Far back in the past Wizards and Witches didn't have wands according to Raze. A long time ago they cast their spells through themselves. Wands were developed to make it easier for people to use their magic. Over time people became dependent on them unable to cast spells wandlessly. Understandable really since all the old spellforms would have been restructured to enhance their spells with these new instruments. Really the first wands could be easily comparable to the first firearms for the Mundanes. They revolutionized your world making it easier for every spellcaster out there to use their magic. It also ruined it. It didn't take long before everyone who could use a wand was out there doing it. They relished the freedom, power and ease of this new method of using magic. Most people forgot how to cast without them or didn't bother further enhancing modern dependence on them."

Roland flicked his burnt out cigarette into the campfire adding a few sticks to keep it fed. Hermione and Harry sat trying to digest the history lesson they were hearing. After lighting another smoke he started talking again. "Raze is a really smart guy. By the time I met him he'd already gotten a few degrees in several different sciences and he's only a few years older than me. He was well connected with many specialists in their own scientific fields. The first thing he did for us when we joined him was tried to teach us to touch our magic. We did this through a series of mental and physical exercises, proper diet, and trying to help us use the little magic we had.

"Raze believed that magic was akin to a muscle within each of us. With proper training a person can sort of bulk up their magic muscle. He wasn't sure it would work but as M.U.T.E.s any increase at all would have been dramatic so he started with us. It took a year but eventually it worked and we started showing increases. He had a lot of kinks to work out as far as training goes. It worked though. However a person can only build up their bodies so much before you sort of top out. The same is true with Magic. All of us eventually maxed out our potential. Raze mentioned that the more starting magic a person has the higher possible peak, a theory that was provided in our class of M.U.T.E.s.

"I was the strongest magically of my fellow classmates at start and finish. The average increase was double but I topped out at three times that. Still, not enough to use a wand but more than enough to continue learning from Raze. Most of my classmates left not long after this part deciding they'd had enough. They were still unable to do anything really meaningful with what they had. Me, I was just getting started. I was still pretty sure I would eventually be able to use a wand if I stuck with it."

Roland leaned toward the fire a bit looking at his brother. "Ben, give me hand would you?"

Ben turned to the fire holding out his hand while twitching his fingers a bit. An intense look was on his face. Both Harry and Hermione watched as the smoke from the campfire began gathering about in front of Roland forming an opaque sheet. After it took shape Roland began tracing his fingers through it. Where his fingers traced the smoke was freed to waif away. After a few moments both of them found themselves staring at a crude spellform. Hermione frowned trying to decipher it but Harry recognized it right away.

"I know this spell; it's mentioned in the Advanced Defense against the Dark Arts books Sirius got for me last Christmas. You're writing the spell for 'Call Lighting'."

Hermione's eyes widened at Harry's revelation. At her look of disbelief Harry shrugged his shoulder with a little smile on his face. "What? It's a Defense subject. I remember it because it's a Dark Art with only a few counters, none of which are any good if you didn't know the spell was coming. It's just shy of an Unforgivable. The only reason it's not is that it has counters to it."

"I was just surprised Harry. Even you have to admit advance studying is not really your forte." Harry nodded not denying it but enjoying the feeling of actually getting one over on her. Hermione turned to look at the spell again. "I've heard of this spell. It was favored by a sect of religious fanatics during the Grindelwald war. They called themselves the 'Wind of Tempest'. If I remember correctly they fought against both sides but were pretty much all killed during that time. It was pretty nasty by the few accounts I've come across."

Roland nodded his head. "Yup, this is one nasty piece of work. However, this is the closest thing I can come up with for a comparative on what I did. Can either of you do this spell?"

Both shook their heads. The spell was very chaotic. One mistake and it was entirely possible the caster would completely drain their magic cores into the casting. Granted the spell would be insanely powerful, part of its appeal, but that did little good when the caster ended up unconscious afterward.

Roland waved his hand through the smoke banishing the spellform before them. "Thanks Ben. Do either of you know how lighting is made? Natural lighting?"

Hermione frowned while Harry shook his head. "You need cold air and warm air. When they meet, the warm air goes up. It makes thunderstorm clouds. The cold air has ice crystals. The warm air has water droplets. During the storm, the droplets and crystals bump together and move apart in the air. This rubbing makes static electrical charges in the clouds.

"Just like a battery, these clouds have a 'plus' end and a 'minus' end. The plus, or positive, charges in the cloud are at the top. The minus, or negative, charges are at the bottom. When the charge at the bottom gets strong enough, the cloud lets out energy. The energy goes through the air. It goes to a place that has the opposite charge. Now, obviously I don't have the kind of magical power to create a thunderstorm but this knowledge is the basis for what I can do.

"The simplest way to explain what I did is this. I agitated the molecules in the air. These hyper excited molecules replace the water and ice droplets. The closest area to me was agitated to create a positive charge while I created a negative agitation half way between us and the forest boundary. The molecular agitation created the static electrical charges I needed. When Ben pointed out the location of the Warg I 'pushed' the agitation on the negative side into overdrive while creating a slight distortion at one end to sort of aim the bolt. I never actually thought I would hit the Warg, but I was hoping to come close. It's very hard to aim something like that."

Roland leaned back picking up and then taking a long pull from the beer at his feet. "And that Hermione is what I did and the entire basis for Wyarding. The use of Science to bypass current spellform limitations and manipulation of one's magic core through training, diet, physical and mental fitness. After Raze was done teaching us and Ben got old enough I taught him everything I learned."

Ben added, "All I did with the smoke was create a trap for the smoke by 'encouraging' the smoke that was already there to go where I wanted it to and holding it static by 'encouraging' the molecules around the trap to push in opposite ways to how the air currents were currently going and preventing the smoke from mixing with too much fresh air. It's a lot harder to do if it's close to the fire because of the draw of the fire or if the wind is blowing at all. It only works so well so I had to keep fresh smoke moving in to supplement what was being lost. Ro's a lot more powerful than I am. Normally I just use it to 'encourage' sound to reach my ears or to see better at distance or in the dark. There are a lot of limits to what we can do since we're M.U.T.E.s. It's pretty tiring for us to do these things so we don't unless we have to. If there's a positive side, it takes less time for us to rebuild our cores. Less to build up to and we work ours more."

"That's…brilliant… That is bloody genius that is…" Harry raised an eyebrow at her lack of eloquence and her cursing. Hermione sat slack jawed with glazed eyes clearly lost to her thoughts. She had a look on her face reminiscent of someone who was told water was wet only to discover it actually was. The entire concept was so simple it was almost unbelievable.

Harry turned to Roland inquiring, "What happened to Raze after he figured all this out?"

"He tried to publish it all only to be laughed at by our magical community. Same thing happened everywhere he went. Wyarding requires a lot of effort and dedication. Wands are easier. Eventually he settled down not far from here intending to further push the boundaries of his wild magic. Last time I saw him was a couple of months ago when I delivered some things he ordered. Got himself a nice place and a couple of apprentices now. He mentioned it was easier to train the younger generation than convince everyone else who was too set in their ways. He's been pretty busy with it but I don't know any more. It's all way above what I can do. I've been over a decade trying to get strong enough to use a wand with no success. From what I understand wand use with his theories has taken it all to a completely different level."

Roland looked down at his wrist and the old Timex sitting there checking the time only to find it was two in the morning. "Shit, it's late. You guys can take the bedroom in the house for the night. Ben the spare bedroom is yours and I'll crash on the couch. In the morning you guys can tell us what you're willing to about whatever trouble you're in and we'll see if we can help you out of it. Jim was pretty insistent you guys needed some help but wasn't clear on the details."

The following morning Harry awoke to a cold bed. Still groggy from their late night and with his habitual rising so early it took him several long moments before he realized Hermione was not snuggled up next to him. He blurrily looked around fishing for his glasses on the nightstand next to him wondering where she might have gone. Harry had just put his glasses on when he heard the scratch of a quill moving along parchment. After a moment putting his clothes back on he found her sitting in the small kitchen not far down the hall writing a letter. Through the big bay windows he took note of the brothers sitting by the ashes of last night's campfire.

"Morning love. What are you doing up so early?"

"Morning Harry. Roland made coffee." Harry looked to where she pointed with the end of the quill in her hand. "Sweet rolls are by the pot." Hermione said.

Harry nodded fixing himself a cup and refreshing hers. "Thanks Hermione, but why are you up so early? Normally I'm the first to get up in the mornings."

"I couldn't sleep…" Hermione looked up at him. Harry once again felt himself plummet into one of her memories.

Hermione held the phone rigidly before she took a deep breath. "Okay Mum. I'll make you a deal. Answer me one question positively and truthfully, and I won't do this. As soon as Harry can be moved, we'll even come straight home."

Her mother hesitantly answered. "Okay…"

"Say Dad was in the Hospital and needed a blood transfusion. The banks are dry and only you can give him enough to save his life. The problem is that he lost a lot of blood and it would be unsafe for you to give as much as he needs. You have to choose, take a risk or let him die. Someone walks up to you, someone you trust with all your heart and tells you it's not worth it. Let Dad die so you can carry on. My question to you Mum, do you let Dad die?"

Hermione felt tears trek down her face but held a grim look on her face regardless. Several seconds of silence past.

"I didn't think so… I love you; tell Dad I love him too. If things go well I will write you."

Ellen's voice finally came across the phone. She sounded choked with a pleading edge. "Please…come home…"

"…When Harry wakes up…I will talk to him about it. After what happened…I don't know if that is such a good idea. Even if we do decide to come home, knowing Harry it won't be for some time. Goodbye Mum." Hermione barely was able to hang up the Jim's phone before she collapsed to the floor crying uncontrollably.

Harry broke eye contact with her to shake the vision from his head. This sharing memories was just weird but at moments like this it helped him a lot to understand what she was going through. "There hasn't been time to write to them or call yet has there? Is that what you are doing, writing to let them know you're alright? I'm pretty sure they couldn't care one bit about me but they must be frantic wondering if you're okay. Especially after that phone call."

Hermione nodded sliding the letter over to where Harry could read it.

Dear Mum and Dad,

As you can tell from this letter I am okay. We were successful and Harry has been completely healed from his injuries as well as…other complications that arose after the accident.

Hermione had written almost fifteen inches of letter but huge sections were scratched away leaving just those words as legible. Harry sat down across from her at the round glass table. He looked toward her and pushed all of his love and understanding through his eyes when he began speaking. "All you have to do is tell me you want to go back love, and we will. It's as simple as that."

Tears slowly trekked down her face at his words. "I can't do that to you Harry. We both know what will be waiting for us if we go back. Mum and Dad will move us away. Not to mention Dumbledore will just get his hands on you again and no telling what will happen then."

"True, but your happiness means more to me than my freedom…"

Hermione cut him off but spoke softly. "So far the only things we have learned are some potion ideas and maybe this Wyarding. We're no better off against Voldemort's Death Eaters now than before we left. We both said that when we go back it would be after we learned something that would help us in the war, help us to survive it. To go back without that knowledge or skills... It would just mean the last two months meant nothing."

Harry nodded to her points but still ached for her. Harry ached for his parents too but having never known them took the edge off the need. For him it was more wistful. For Hermione it was agony and Harry just wanted to do something to make it better.

"Maybe you should call your parents. I'm pretty sure Roland wouldn't mind. We can easily pay for the call. Maybe it would help to talk to them for a bit."

Hermione nodded at the compromise and after asking Roland's permission dialed her parents' house. The phone rang several times before someone picked it up. She felt like a bundle of nerves waiting for one of her parents to pick up.

"Hello?" came the surly voice of her father. It took her a few tries to talk past the lump in her throat when she heard his voice.

In a small voice she wasn't sure he heard she replied. "Hi Daddy…"

Authors Notes:

Okay, Chapter Twelve revision is done. For those of you interested in the story instead of my drivel, by all means leave a review telling me what you think of this chapter, and then hit that 'Next' button. Enjoy the read. As always thank you to all reviews and readers. You are noticed and appreciated.

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