Chapter 18: Fifth Year: Stunning

Merlin flopped onto his bed and stared at the ceiling for a full minute, letting the peace and quiet seep through his skull. To say that Hagrid's first assessed lesson had been an unmitigated disaster would be a kindness. The lesson itself had been quite good, Hagrid obviously knew about magical creatures and he had a passion for the bizarre and dangerous, but Umbridge had been out in full horrific force.

Groaning and rolling over onto his stomach Merlin marvelled that he had resisted turning her into something small and disgusting. Unfortunately he was here to keep an eye on Harry, not everyone in the school who was being targeted by Umbridge. He just had to hope that Dumbledore had some plan for dealing with the woman.

Rubbing his hands over his face Merlin glanced over at the table in the corner of his room at his latest bit of handiwork. When he had asked Harry two days ago what they would be practicing at the next DA meeting the teenager had excitedly declared that he was going to start them on stunning. To a wizard stunning was a slightly more advanced spell than it was for sorcerers.

Merlin rolled off his bed and, tossing his scarf aside, looked down at the table top. He was good at stunning, not in the modern sense of the word, but the spells were actually quite similar. He was actually looking forward to being able to participate in this lesson more than he had in the previous ones. Mostly during the DA meetings he just wandered around and gave what he hoped were helpful pointers.

Tonight he was going to be more helpful. He hoped.

Merlin picked up the wand he had spent the last few nights carving. It was as close to a real bit of wand craft as he could get without spending money on a real wand.

He had whittled it carefully out of a piece of elder tree he had found in the forest. He knew that wands weren't generally made of the wood, but he had liked the feel of it.

The wand was his third attempt. The first he had made too thin and it had snapped, while the second had shattered the instant any magic went through it. Merlin rolled the slender piece of wood through his fingers.

The problem was that there wasn't actually a magical core to the wood. It was essentially a prop. He didn't need and couldn't use a wand, but if he wanted to use magic in front of wizards and witches he needed something to disguise what he did. The fact that a great many of-age wizards used unspoken spells helped.

Merlin turned and looked around the room, wand still in his fingers. His eyes settled on his boots, which still lay tossed aside near the door. He raised his new wand and pointed it at the boots. It was a simple spell he wanted and it didn't require anything more than a thought to do, but Merlin let it all come out slowly. He wanted the magic to go around the wand and not through it.

With more focus than Merlin had put into his magic in years his boots tiptoed over to him and lined themselves up next to his feet.

Merlin grinned and bent to stuff his feet inside his boots. He stuck his wand down his right boot and grabbed his scarf and coat. He had a meeting to get to.

By the time Merlin arrived in the festively decorated Room everyone was already pairing up. Several of the DA veterans greeted him with a warm smile or a wave, while many of the newcomers gave him wary or confused looks.

"Emrys, you made it." Harry called, waving from the back of the room where he was talking to the twins.

"Sorry I'm late Harry, Hagrid's got me running everywhere with Christmas coming up." Merlin explained, turning his gaze out over the mass of students. When everyone had a partner the sea of faces turned to look at the little group out the front.

Harry cleared his throat to draw everyone's attention. "Right, so today we're going to practice stunning. It's probably the most useful spell in your arsenal during a duel. The spell is Stupefy and the wand movement is this." Harry demonstrated whipping his wand forward and pointing it towards his eager audience. "So I suppose a demonstration is a good idea, this spell can sometimes be a little tricky. Any volunteers?" Harry looked about.

Usually almost everyone was eager to volunteer for demonstrations. Not tonight apparently, everyone knew stunning could be a bit hard on the system.

"I'm game." Merlin said brightly. Everyone turned to look at him. Not once in any of their meetings had Merlin ever done magic. He was sure some of them were convinced he was like Hagrid and wasn't actually allowed to do magic.

"Err...are you sure?" Harry asked looking him up and down nervously.

"If I didn't know better Harry I would have thought you were nervous. You've fought Voldemort and come out victorious; surely you can't be worried about fighting little old me." Merlin sent Harry his wickedest grin. The teenager swallowed and drew his wand out of his robe then turned and walked back towards the wall.

The students parted for him and then gathered around, forming the boundary of their duelling arena. Merlin bent and pulled his wand out of his boot still wishing he could have his staff instead.

Merlin strolled a few more steps away from Harry and levelled his new wand at his friend. Harry appeared to have largely mastered his concern and had his own wand at the ready. The teenager's eyes narrowed slightly at the sight of the flimsy bit of wood in Merlin's curled fingers, but he didn't let that slow him down.

Harry moved, but Merlin fought with knights and he was quick on his feet. Before the spell had even formed on Harry's tongue Merlin had twisted his wand in a fair imitation of Harry's demonstration and sent his stunning spell out towards Harry. The spell hit him with only half force, after all Merlin didn't want him down and out for hours. None the less Harry spiralled several feet backwards and slumped down unconscious on the cushions behind him.

"Harry!" Hermione cried and hurried over, drawing her wand. Merlin folded his arms and waited with the others. Moments later Hermione rose and helped a slightly punch-drunk Harry to his feet as well.

"Alright everyone, you've seen how it's done. Time for everyone to give it a go." Harry said with surprising clarity given he'd been hit with a spell that could floor even the most powerful sorcerers.

Merlin ambled over, tucking his wand into his belt. "Sorry Harry, I didn't mean to hit you quite so hard. It can be a little hard to judge how much power to put into a half-assed spell."

His three friends stared at him. "That was half-assed?" Ron gaped.

Harry removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "I'd hate to be on your bad side if you were trying." He muttered. "I'd better wander around a bit." Harry staggered slightly when Hermione let him go, but he straightened and headed almost directly for Cho.

Merlin rolled his eyes and grinned. "Don't worry, the effects will wear off soon." He told his two more worried friends.

Strolling around the room, dodging the occasional misplaced spell, Merlin caught sight of Neville. The shy boy was still having trouble with any of the spells they were practicing. He was slowly getting quicker to master spells, but he had so much trouble with his self confidence that it was slowing him up.

Merlin made his way over and watched. Neville levelled his wand at his partner, a Hufflepuff girl, and took a deep breath. "Stupefy." When nothing happened Neville flushed bright pink and tried again, and again to no avail. Finally his partner sighed and yelled her own spell. Though it was not totally effective the beam of red light sent Neville to his knees

Merlin hurried over and offered Neville a hand up. "You alright?"

"I suck." Neville muttered, twisting his wand violently in his fingers.

"No you don't." Merlin insisted. "You just need to have a little more confidence. You can do this Neville." Merlin stepped back and allowed Neville to try another time. Another time another failure.

Neville looked so desolate Merlin was worried he would throw away his wand. He had to try something. "Alright Neville try this." Merlin turned the younger boy to face him, staring him straight in the eyes. "Close your eyes." Neville's lips twisted in frustration, but he did as he was told.

"Now I want you to think about the spell. Concentrate on it, everything about it. From the incantation, the purpose, even the colour of the spell light. I want you to think so hard that there becomes nothing in this world other than the stunning spell. There is no you, no wand, no Hogwarts not a single thing in the world except the stunning spell and its purpose."

Neville's brow was furrowed in concentration.

Merlin moved around so that he was behind Neville. "Now when you've got that, I want you to cast the spell." Merlin rested his hands on the younger boy's shoulders. If he focused Merlin could feel the slow shift of the magic as it responded to Neville's concentration.

Neville immediately responded. "But I can't..."

Merlin cut him off. "There isn't anything in the world except this spell Neville, there is nothing else you can do except cast this spell. Now open your eyes and stun the first thing you see." As Neville gritted his teeth in concentration and the other students around them watched eagerly, Merlin splayed his fingers. The disarming dummy drifted silently towards them so that it stood directly in front of Neville. When the boy opened his eyes there would be nothing for him to see except the dummy. As Neville focused, Merlin helped him, Neville's attention was drawing his magic into the right shape for the stunning spell, so Merlin just neatened it up a little.

Neville opened his eyes.

The spell hit the dummy so hard that one of its arms broke off. Merlin stepped away from Neville as the others around him surged forwards to cheer the boy on. Neville was staring at the broken dummy in astonishment. "I did it?" He muttered in utter astonishment.

"I thought you said you weren't good at teaching." Hermione asked loftily.

"I'm not, that was just an old trick I used to use when I was in a hurry to learn a new spell." Merlin insisted, he wasn't going to mention the other thing. That would just bring up questions he was not willing to answer.

"Still counts." Hermione said smugly, hurrying over to congratulate Neville before Merlin could argue with her further.

Merlin tried to go back to wandering innocuously around the room, but that turned out to be impossible. With Neville's demonstration of his, admittedly unorthodox, teaching methods everyone seemed to be vying for his attention. Merlin had never been wanted this much by anyone unless it was Arthur with a terrifyingly long list of chores to do.

By the end of the meeting Merlin had talked eight people through the spells they were struggling with. At previous meetings few if any of the students had said goodnight to him, Merlin's ability to blend into the furniture had worked wonders. Tonight, however, Merlin seemed to have elevated himself to rock star level. Most of the students waved goodnight, wishing him a merry Christmas as they called the same to those of other houses whom they were unlikely to meet up with again before the holidays started.

Merlin made his way over to the pin board where Harry had attached the members list and a few newspaper articles about Death Eaters. Hermione and Ron were just finishing up stacking cushions, while Cho and Harry stood a little way aside talking softly.

Neither of the two lovebirds even looked up to notice that the three of them were watching. Merlin looked down at Hermione and grinned. She shook her head, "honestly it's about time, come on Ron."

Ron made a confused and disappointed noise as his friend dragged him out of the room. Merlin laughed quietly as he followed them out.

Merlin turned to close the door to the Room, he was willing to give Harry a little privacy even if Ron wasn't. Glancing back into the room where Harry and Cho had now edged closer together, Merlin glanced up at the ceiling. "Grow and bloom where lovers woo." Merlin whispered, tilting his head to admire his handiwork.

The mistletoe grew downwards.

So short chapter this time, a sort of filler.

I'm only one handed at the moment as I've had to have some surgery on my wrist, so it's slowing up my writing a heap. Unfortunately I'm also now heading into my final ever university subject which concludes with a full five days of written and oral exams on everything we've learnt or could have learnt in the last 6 years. So the next update may be a good couple of weeks that updates will become more regular again.