CHAPTER EIGHT: As You Do
The next weeks at Hogwarts started with letters from the family.
Their Mom being supportive and informing the twins about Grace's capture on the Hogwarts express and Forrest returning of candy and a wand.
According to their mom, it was like searching a maze for a mouse. Grace had sprinted up and down the train to get away and whenever she passed mom, she hid in a compartment, usually jumping on top of the luggage rack and hiding behind a trunk.
She was eventually caught when their mom asked the girls in a compartment if they had seen a girl that was very short for her age. Grace loudly denied being short and bam, she was caught.
The twins shuddered at the deviousness of it all.
Their Dad exchanged notes and advice along with his support and the rest of their family were soaking up every bit of information the twins could give.
At first, he had considered letting Forrest keep the wand he took but, in the end, he knew it was wrong to steal, and he had to set an example for his kids. But oh, did he consider it.
The month was spent with intense learning. Most of the teachers were delighted at the Twin's newfound enthusiasm for each class of magic, not that it helped their awful grades, but it did inspire the teachers to give them a chance.
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Severus Snape was more frustrated then delighted. Now in addition to the twins destroying his classroom, they talked and asked questions almost nonstop. At this point, he had an actual reason to find a way to stop their blasted tics. Some Calming Draught worked wonders for Michael, but did little more than slightly alleviate the tics. But effort was being put in. And its effects on Nathaniel were negligible if not making it worse.
During one such class, where the students were learning how to brew Wiggenweld potion, Severus Snape was astonished at how effortlessly Nathaniel answered the questions and at how effortlessly he turned the potion's effects from healing to chaos.
He wasn't sure how, but at one point, during the boy's tic attack, he had changed the brewing process and brewed a potion that, instead of healing and revitalizing, caused one's arms, and only the arms, to shrink to less than one tenth of their regular size.
It took the potions master a week to brew a counter to it.
Michael was better but he was still barely average.
Oh, but that was nothing compared to what he heard happened in other classes.
According to Minerva, at least once every class Michael would stab another student with a needle. This was including the fact that they hadn't worked with needles since the first two lessons. She had no idea where they were coming from and had no idea how to prevent it from happening.
Flitwick regularly dealt with miscast spells and the Henderson boys were no exception. Thanks to Nathaniel, a Wingardium Leviosa launched a table into the far wall, sending himself, who had tried to grab the table, and at least one Ravenclaw to the Hospital Wing. Michael was fine, but he did horrendous on the written portion of each class, his handwriting was barely legible on a good day.
Pomona took this opportunity to brag about how useful Nathaniel was at aggressively tearing plants by the roots when he needed to, and how Michael answered in excruciating detail about edible plants and wasn't afraid to taste test them.
Oh, the twins certainly livened Hogwarts up. Almost as much as the Weasley twins.
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In the Hogwarts Staffroom, on one of the rare occasions where every teacher had an hour off to relax and speak with their colleagues, Dumbledore decided to bring up an important topic that had been bothering a few professors for the past week or so.
"I trust you have all heard about the surprising rumors surrounding our new pair of twin students?" He asked his teachers.
Uncomfortable silence filled the room as the nicer teachers didn't want to speak ill of someone who wasn't there, and Snape hated breaking awkward silence.
Eventually, Dumbledore turned to him, and he spoke.
"Yes, everybody has heard of The Dark Hufflepuff." Severus sighed.
"And the Dragon lord." Minerva added.
"Not to mention, he-who-does-not-fear-he-who-must-not-be-named." Filius said.
"While it is true that Nathaniel Henderson spoke you-know-who's name, according to Cedric Diggory," Pomona told the group, "It was only the one time and he yelled it out upon waking from what I assume was a nightmare. His dorm mates have been very forthcoming with information. As well as a request to change dorm rooms."
"Do any of you find any truth in these rumors?" Dumbledore asked the group.
Madam Hooch lifted an eyebrow and spoke up, "Hardly! Other than the fact that he sends the same Ravenclaw to the Hospital Wing at least once a class, I find him to be nothing but an exceptionally talented flier. Why, he was able to summon his broom to his hand without so much as an up!"
"Oh, the fates are very uncertain about this one." Trelawney said shakily.
"And what of his brother?" Dumbledore pushed.
"He is certainly better than his twin at potions." Professor Snape put in, "Nathaniel makes a disaster with every step he takes."
Dumbledore gave his potions master a look.
Neither had managed to successfully cast legillimency on either twin due to their constant eye, head, and body movements. No magic, just unfortunate tics and adhd.
Snape kept his gaze, Dumbledore could push all he wanted, but that was not going to make Severus Snape miraculously create the cure for Tourette's syndrome in one day.
There was one thing he could do in the meantime, however.
"Very well, I shall keep a closer eye on the two and try to keep my ears open to anything suspicious." Professor Snape acquiesced.
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"Spell sixteen done." Michael said proudly, checking off a box on a sheet of paper.
"I'm not sure it really counts," Tessa said, "I can't really control how hard I push with Flipendo."
"Hey," Nathaniel said, "We made the rule, if all four of us can cast a spell, we check it off and move on to the next one, but that doesn't mean we have to do it without stopping. Just ask us to help you learn control of it and we can do that, right guys?"
Alex nodded and Michael gave a somewhat positive shrug.
"Okay, we got the light charm, light counter charm, levitation charm, fire spell, unlocking charm, tickling charm, warming charm, chilling charm, the disarming spell, the spell that creates sparks, matches to needles, the mending spell, the softening spell, the jelly-legs jinx, the leg-locker curse, and finally the knockback jinx!"
"Why didn't you say them by their spell names?" Alex asked him.
Michael gave him an incredulous look, "I don't want to accidentally set off any of these spells, thank you very much."
Nathaniel chuckled.
"Never again."
"You know what this means, right?" Alex said.
"What?" Nathaniel asked.
"When you two," He continued, pointing to Michael then Nathaniel, "Finally cast a switching spell, curse of the bogeys, total body petrification curse, and severing charm, we'll have twenty spells!"
Michael grumbled, "That's not exactly fair." He argued.
"Yeah." Nathaniel agreed, "Switching spells are hard."
Tessa rolled her eyes, for her, casting the spells was easy enough, the real problem was control.
Over time, the group's repertoire of spells grew, with Tessa continuously showing the greater level of power. Not so much in the way of control, unfortunately.
Marcus and his lackeys kept bothering Michael to some extent but after so much disaster so soon in the year, they were hesitant whenever Nathaniel was around.
The rumors surrounding the Hufflepuff were totally absurd, but where there is smoke, there must be fire.
They didn't want to risk that fire too much.
Michael's life in Slytherin was still awful. Nobody liked him, and he was the target of a constant barrage of insults, hexes, and minor physical altercations.
On the plus side, he had gotten much better at dodging.
Another upside was the Henderson Twins' daily meetings where they shared anything they found that fit with their list of powers to obtain.
Alex happened upon one of these meetings, and asked what they were doing.
Michael and Nathaniel stumbled over each other in their excitement to explain their plans.
"We have a list of powers that we've gathered from every story we've read!"
"And we're going to find every version that exists with magic and we're going to learn how to do it!"
"Wanna hear the list?"
Alex immediately regretted his answer.
Taking turns reading from the list, the twins rapidly sounded each power.
"Strength, danger sense, camouflage, flight, invisibility, heightened reflexes, portal." "Invulnerability, destroy, heightened senses, magnetism, breath attack, knowledge, gravity, read minds, sleep, alter time, control minds."
"Paralyze, evolve, lock/unlock, telekinesis, summon, adapt, speed, reincarnate, webbing, teleport, immortality, Immunity, turn to stone, vision abilities, resurrection." "Extract, which means permanently take powers from others or items, duplico, which means to create duplicates of objects." "Dream delve, light, necromancy, no-notice, laser vision, Interna, which means turn yourself into like metal or something, forcefield, resistance, Foretell future." "Externa, which means you turn something from one substance to another, transform, which is like turning into a special hybrid form, phase, weaponize, which lets you create weapons at will, shrink, disintegrate."
"Darkness, grow, body enhancements, shapeshift, harden, explode, control weather, alter self, displace, probe, slow time, tongues, curse, animate/awaken, stop time, sound, density, cancel, fear."
"Plasma bolts, absorb, charm, constructs, power up, telepathy, possession, electricity, mend, time travel, vibration, detect, regenerate, elemental control, spider climb, and clone!"
Once finished they looked to Alex excitedly, awaiting his response.
"I'm pretty sure necromancy is illegal." He managed.
Looking disappointed, Nathaniel turned to Michael, who tsked and crossed it off the list.
Nathaniel spoke up, "I get the feeling that a lot of this is illegal, here, just take it and cross off all the illegal things you can find."
He went to hand Alex the list.
Backing away and holding his hands up in a placating gesture, he replied, "This is my first year too, you know. Give that to an older student who knows what they're doing."
Nodding to each other, the twins continued their meeting, discussing what has been discovered.
"I don't think we should count out flying just yet." Michael said.
"Why not?" Nathaniel asked, "We can ride brooms."
"But I would rather be able to fly without a thin wooden broom keeping me up."
"That's fair."
Michael continued, "There's a flame freezing charm that makes you immune to fire, so we can add that to the immunity list."
Nathaniel interrupted, "Do you know if that has to be placed on the flames or yourself?"
Michael looked down at his reference book.
"Well crap, I have no idea."
"I'm sure Fred and George know."
Fred and George did not know. They did however say they knew someone who could take a look at their list of powers.
The remaining time between September and October was filled with discussions like this, until the twins successfully discovered a way to replicate almost half the list of powers.
Learning how to actually apply the spells was another thing entirely.
This would have to be a plan spanning more than just one year.
October brought chilly winds and falling leaves. The group spent more time outside during this time, Nathaniel and Michael spent nearly all of it climbing trees and throwing things at people from those trees.
Eventually it got so cold that Nathaniel inquired about the opposite of a flame freezing charm, to protect one from cold.
They forgot about warming charms and were happily reminded of them this way.
Subsequently, they remembered the chilling charm.
Being the only first year students to fully master them, the Twin's little group used the two spells relentlessly on their enemies.
Heating up their cold food and cooling down their warm food drove them absolutely crazy. It was hilarious.
Their grades finally began to stabilize in late October, with Michael being the superior potions student between the two Henderson's.
Nathaniel still being the fastest flier in flying class, continued to slam into things, sometimes students. More often than not, students. Usually, Ravenclaw students.
Alex continued being above average in every class to the point that Nathaniel punched him once.
Tessa was growing more and more nervous with every class that she accidentally destroyed with an overpowered spell. Professor McGonagall and Flitwick tried helping Professor Sprout mitigate the Hufflepuff's spellwork with some success.
She did just fine in the written portion of each class though.
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Marcus Flint was having a terrible year. It all started with that stupid, mudblood Slytherin. Annoying, even if he did put the kid in his place, he still bothered the Pureblood.
After that his room going up in flames and buying new stuff only to find that his wand somehow survived the fire leaving him with an extra, useless wand, which went missing due to his carelessness over it. And now his food, which should be absolutely perfect, was always the wrong temperature! Not just slightly cooler or warmer, but either boiling or ice cold.
Ice cream was not supposed to melt in seconds, and soup should not be frozen the minute after it appears in front of him.
He considered it being that Hufflepuff, the one everyone rumored was dark, but after that instance where he was attacked, he wasn't too eager to mess with him.
The student he made listen in heard something about how dragons can take any shape or size and that truly terrified him.
It was worse when he considered that the fire started at his trunk.
He was sure that a small, four-legged creature had run from his room when the fire appeared.
Yes, Marcus Flint was having a terrible year.
Maybe he could take it out on the muggleborn. He deserves it anyways.
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"I think I found something for shapeshift."
Michael looked up from his book, to see Nathaniel extremely close to his face, a manic grin shining brightly.
"You will never scare me that way."
Nathaniel snapped his fingers; he would have to find a better way of getting Michael to flinch.
"So?"
"Oh yeah," Nathaniel said, "I know we already chose animagus but we had no idea what that actually is."
"And?" Michael prodded.
"An animagus is some who can turn into one specific animal that aligns with their innermost self."
"So, you'd be a mole rat then?" Michael asked, scratching his chin.
"Yup, and you'd be a mosquito."
They laughed for a few minutes, and it got to the point that they were hushed aggressively by Madam Pince.
After apologizing, Michael asked, "So how do you do it? How do we get this thing started?"
"I…have no idea." Nathaniel said proudly, "None of the books in here tell you how to become one. I'm checking the restricted section tomorrow."
"Why don't we just ask Ms. Pince?" Michael asked.
"Because she doesn't have the authority to let us in, only professors do."
Michael shrugged, he would just ask Professor Snape later, the dour man had after all earned their trust after that staring contest back in King's Cross.
"There you two are!" A sharp voice called out nearby.
Michael jumped in surprise and Nathaniel frowned at him.
"You'll never take me alive!" Nathaniel screamed and ran.
Michael giggled madly and ran after him.
Percy Weasley looked after them exasperated. The twins were not people he had fun chasing down.
He sighed and jogged after them.
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A few hours later, at dinner, Percy grumpily entered the Great Hall, only to find the two people he had been chasing down for the past four hours sitting next to Alex Sykes at Gryffindor table with another first year named Tessa, and his younger brothers.
"I need to speak with the both of you about something Fred and George brought to my attention earlier this month." He said, walking up behind them.
The Henderson twins shared a look before swiveling on their benches to look at the older Weasley boy.
"Yesssss?" They asked in unison.
"Please, come with me, this won't take long." He told them.
The twins shrugged and got up to follow Percy just outside of the Great Hall entrance doors.
"Now, Fred and George told me about a list of abilities you two want to obtain during your learning years at Hogwarts."
"Yup."
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Now they told me that on this list, you had Necromancy?" Percy whispered.
"Yeah."
Percy gave them a frustrated look, "Give me the list, I will have to take a look at it."
Michael and Nathaniel shared another glance.
Sighing, Michael pulled it out of robes, handing it to the older boy.
Percy unrolled the paper, finding it was written with something obviously not a quill, and struggled to read the sloppy handwriting.
"Super strength, danger sense, camouflage, flight," Percy started muttering.
He stopped suddenly as he hit the first odd one in the batch.
"Portals?" He muttered, "We have many ways of traveling, but open, stable portals don't exist."
He continued.
"Invulnerability?" He asked.
"Yeah, that means immunity from harm of all forms." Michael specified.
"I can see why you'd like that, but it doesn't sound like it exists." Percy explained.
Michael frowned and Nathaniel grunted.
The Hufflepuff pulled out a slip of paper and scratched something out.
As he was about to put it up, Michael stopped him.
"I feel like we're going to want to keep that out until Peter's done reading our list."
Nathaniel nodded.
Percy sniffed but continued reading.
"Destroy?" He said taken aback.
"You know," Michael said, "to obliterate something."
"Technically, that's legal, but you can only learn spells that destroy things in your later years here." Percy said.
The twins nodded for him to continue.
"Heightened senses, magnetism, both legal." Percy stopped again, "Breath attack. I don't think that's legal if it even exists."
The twins groaned.
"Knowledge? Just learn." Percy said scrunching his brow, "reading minds? Legillimency is legal, but not for youth like yourself."
"I'll make it legal." Nathaniel whispered just barely too low for Percy to hear.
"Alter time." He gave them a strange look.
They shrugged; it spoke for itself.
"I'm going to go with illegal." He looked back at the list, "Paralyze is just a petrificus spell. Evolve?"
His face made a miraculous transformation from indifferent to utter confusion.
"Lock and unlock are basic spells, so is telekinesis, summoning? I guess Accio would do." Percy said, almost to himself.
"We can summon monsters with Accio?" Nathaniel whispered excitedly to Michael."
"Adapt?" The older boy asked, "What in the world?"
He then raised his head to look at them, "Super speed doesn't exist."
Another scratch off the list.
"Reincarnate- what are you two planning?!" He half shouted.
"It's just a fall back." Michael assured him.
"Wait, how do you know what reincarnation is?" Nathaniel asked, "You aren't muggleborn, Fred and George said so."
"Muggle studies." Percy said.
He looked back to the list, "You can create webs with a spell, and you can learn how to apparate in sixth year." He continued.
"Immortality is dark magic, and-"
All of a sudden, he stopped once more.
After almost a full minute of silence, Percy looked up from the list into the faces of the eleven-year-old twins, horror evident on his face.
"Turn to stone?" He said shakily.
"Well, yeah." Nathaniel said, confused, "Like Medusa, turning people into stone."
"It's a really cool ability." Michael added, "He has a dragon that can do it, so I want to do it too."
Percy paled drastically and continued the reading of the list.
"Laser vision isn't real, God bless. And resurrection, or to be specific, bringing the dead back to life, is well known to be impossible."
Nathaniel snapped angrily, "I guess I'll just have to find a way not to die." He declared.
Why do they want so many different ways of coming back to life?!
Percy wondered. Then he shook his head, I think I would rather not know the answer to that.
"Extract? What does that mean?"
Michael started cackling as Nathaniel happily explained it.
"Basically, it means stealing someone else's abilities or magic permanently from them and adding it to your own."
Percy started stuttering, his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he fainted dead away.
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Professor Snape was growing more and more frustrated.
The students near the end of the hall were becoming louder in their whispers as the seconds ticked on.
He heard voices right outside the Great Hall but couldn't make out what was being said.
Clearly, the students could.
A sudden bang sounded as the Henderson twins burst through the doors yelling about an unconscious Peter.
Dumbledore managed to catch Snape's eye and he groaned silently as he stood up to see what the matter was.
Because to the knowledge of the Professors, there was no Peter at Hogwarts.
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Tessa poked at her shepherd's pie. It had been ten minutes since Michael and Nathaniel left and felt a pang of disappointment in her chest.
She was scared. Scared of her magic, scared of losing her friends, scared of people being scared of her.
The twins were usually there to distract her from her fears, but their small absence was felt.
She just knew they would abandon her eventually. Like her birth family abandoned her, like her second and third families did.
She was happy to be friends with older students, but they were no substitute for the friends she made on the train.
Suddenly, the doors to the Great Hall flung open, with her friends running in shouting something about Percy, but calling him Peter instead.
She laughed lightly.
Michael and Nathaniel never failed to make her feel better. Usually by amusing her, and not always on purpose.
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Percy woke to the grim face of a heavily scarred man with a a bulbous, fake eye and massive chunks of flesh missing from his face.
Then Percy's vision cleared, and he realized it was actually Madam Pomfrey.
He could hear one of the twins muttering next to him while the other grinned at him from above.
Percy sat up, and the hovering faces retreated to the side.
"Rennervate, gotta figure out how to cast that." Nathaniel muttered.
"Add it to the list," Michael said, "and speaking of the list, mind going over the rest of it for us?"
Percy gave Madam Pomfrey a pleading look.
Madam Pomfrey, looking at the twins and Professor Snape who stood to the side, missed the pitiful gaze of her ward as she spoke to the trio.
"He should be fine, merely a fainting spell, not a literal spell mind you, just…he fainted. I leave it to you to take him back to his house." She said to Professor Snape.
The potions master paused before speaking, "Very well. Mister Weasley, follow me. I shall take the three of you to your houses."
Percy slowly started getting out of the bed.
"Hurry up, Weasley, I will not tolerate you falling behind." He snapped.
Percy rushed himself, falling onto the floor with a heavy whomp, before standing up and brushing himself off.
Professor Snape swept out of the hospital wing, with his cloak billowing behind him, the three students trailing after him.
Michael handed Percy the list again, and he was pleased to note that everything he mentioned was illegal or didn't exist had been crossed off.
"Duplico?" He asked.
"It means to replicate objects." Michael said.
"Ah that's a very difficult spell that was once commonly used as a curse to trap thieves in the dark ages, but fell out of use when people realized it was just as effective against the user of the curse if one forgot to dispel it."
The twins paid close attention, this was a much more interesting history lesson than what the ghost teacher usually taught.
They gave each other a meaningful look, they would have to find a way to get Peter to teach them history.
Nathaniel gestured for Percy to continue.
"Dream delve. Hmmmm." Percy mused, "I am pretty sure it is illegal, however, I'm not certain. It's a very obscure branch of divination magic that nobody really knows how to do anymore."
They gave each other another look. Obscure magic? Definitely something to investigate.
"Light is just Lumos. By no-notice I assume you mean notice me not charms, which are legal but rather difficult for even adults."
"Peter, you are a fantastic help!" Nathaniel proudly declared.
Professor Snape coughed loudly, causing the children to jump, except Nathaniel who simply nodded in understanding.
"Interna?" Percy asked, sighing at what he assumed was a joke, turning back to the paper.
"Turning one substance into another!" Nathaniel said, "Like water into metal, or paper into diamond!"
Michael nodded.
"Technically that's an aspect that Alchemy can accomplish but it's much more limited than that. Other than that, it does not exist." Percy informed them, "Forcefield? Do you mean a shield? There are a few different spells for shielding, but the least difficult and most common is Protego."
Nathaniel took out a muggle pen and wrote the name of the spell on his arm.
"Resistance and immunity?"
"Resistance or immunity to harm or specific kinds of harm." Michael explained.
Nathaniel nodded.
"Legal." Percy said, "foretelling the future is just divination. Very legal but practically impossible for most everyone."
The twins decided to take that as a challenge.
"Externa?" He asked.
"Turning yourself into other substances except you can move."
Percy nodded, "That does not exist."
Michael frowned.
"Transform. Like a metamorphmagus?" Percy asked.
Michael shook his head, and Nathaniel struggled to explain.
"Metamorphmagus is more for alter self. This is more unique than that, like one transformation into a specific form like a werewolf!"
Percy choked and Severus Snape's eyebrows rose into his hair, but being in front of the students went unnoticed.
"Not that though." Michael assured him, "Just a similar process. And more control."
Percy just nodded, "I will inform you that such is very dark. Most bodily enhancements are dark magic."
"Illegal it is then." Nathaniel said, crossing it off the list in his hand.
"Only kind of," Michael corrected, "So, partially illegal. Make note of that,"
"Phasing, I haven't heard this term before." The Gryffindor boy said.
Michael explained, "Becoming intangible."
"Ah, yes that does not exist." Percy told them.
Nathaniel felt like he was hearing that a bit too much for his liking.
"Weaponize?"
"Summoning weapons out of thin air."
"That's just basic transfiguration."
Professor Snape found the list increasingly interesting.
"Shrinking and growing are both common charms, Engorgio and Reducio." Percy told them.
"Disintegrate?" Percy almost whimpered.
Most interesting indeed, Snape thought.
"Yes." Nathaniel grinned.
Percy didn't like that, "Technically yes, but you won't learn that for years."
"That's what you think." Michael whispered just loud enough for everyone to hear it.
"Darkness." Percy paused, "Illegal."
I don't know they mean by darkness, but I would rather not hear another disturbing answer.
"Weird," Michael said, "That's one of the less dangerous ones."
Nathaniel shrugged, "Wizards think werewolves are menaces even though they're only dangerous once a month. Wizards be crazy."
"Body enhancements- are you kidding me?" Percy said loudly, "I just said they were illegal!"
"Mostly illegal." Nathaniel said shooting a finger gun at him.
Percy sighed, "Shapeshifting. If we do not counting animagus or metamorphmagus, then self-transfiguration would be the only application here."
"Got it." Nathaniel noted.
"No wait!" Percy said, "That's NEWT level spellwork!"
Knowing that a newt was a small amphibian, the twins were not worried.
Looking like he was having an internal battle, Percy eventually continued down the list.
"Harden. That is a spell. Duro hardens something to the toughness of a rock."
Nathaniel wrote that down.
"Explode? Like the explosion spell?" Percy asked.
"No, no." Nathaniel said, "Like making yourself explode."
"Ah," Percy's mouth went dry, "That does not exist."
Michael tsked again.
"Moving on," Percy said, "Control weather. Yes, there is a spell for that too."
Severus Snape was starting to not like where this was going. He would have to get ahold of the list to see what else was on it.
"Alter self, you already told me about that, unfortunately for you, you have to be born a metamorphmagus, you can't learn it."
"WHAT?!" The twins shouted.
After a small bout of cursing, they calmed down and told Percy to keep going.
Nathaniel kicked a suit of armor that swatted him on the head in return.
"Displace, I am not sure what that is."
Michael explained as Nathaniel kept kicking the suit and kept getting swatted for it.
"Where you can remove body parts and reattach them without losing any blood."
"That sounds like a few cases of splinching," Percy gulped, "But for the most part that has never been possible."
Nathaniel ran up to them as the older Weasley boy came to the next ability, "Probe? I do not like the sound of that."
"It's where you can detect weaknesses in other people." Nathaniel told him.
Percy looked at him, like really looked at him. Did he just not realize how horrifying these abilities were or was he torturing Percy intentionally?
The red haired boy was not sure he liked that line of thought.
And little did he know how similar it was to Snape's.
"That is not something I think exists. Next up is…slow time. I do not think that is real but all magic that pertains to time is illegal outside of the department of mysteries since the ban of 1899."
Nathaniel started writing something down on his list and mumbled aloud, "Figure…out…how…to…bypass…ministry…restrictions."
Percy almost fainted again, these boys were for sure looking for trouble, but he was too far in to stop at this point.
"Tongues, or understanding other languages, does not exist yet, although I am working on it." Percy said excitedly.
"Nice!" Nathaniel said, "Let us know when you get that working."
Percy grinned slightly, then he remembered what he was doing, and his smile fell.
"Curse? Most curses are illegal. Animating is something you will learn in later years and creating sentience is impossible intentionally, although studies have occurred where animated objects or plants have grown some weird animalistic sapience."
"Very interesting." Nathaniel said, speaking with a deep voice.
Percy shivered and moved on, "Stopping time is also constricted by the ministry. All we know for sound control is silencing spells and sonorous. Increasing or decreasing the density of objects is pretty common for us upper years. You might hear us calling it a featherweight charm, but it is the same thing."
Nathaniel wrote that down as well, eager to learn such mysteries of magic.
"Cancel?" Percy chuckled slightly, "What is that supposed to be?"
"To temporarily or permanently prevent someone from using magic of any kind." Michael said, almost robotically like he had memorized it somewhere.
Which he had; the twins wrote a journal full of all the specifics of each ability. It was essential for dungeons and dragons. The smallest detail mattered.
"Fear?!" Percy yelled this time, "Why do you need that?"
"Because it's fun making people afraid." Nathaniel said, referring to some of his favorite dungeons and dragons moments with his brother.
Professor Snape furrowed his eyebrows, he remembered someone who enjoyed spreading fear.
Finally, blessedly in Percy's case, they reached Gryffindor tower and Percy dashed up to where the twins presumed was the secret entrance.
"This way." Professor Snape told the two.
They followed and he made it back to his quarters by the end of the night without much more trouble beyond Nathaniel getting into another fight with a suit of armor.
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The following few days, Percy was even more tight lipped than usual, and his brothers noticed.
"So," Fred said, putting his arm around Michael's shoulder while George did the same on Nathaniel's opposite side, "Do you know why Percy is acting so weird?"
"Whatever do you mean?" Nathaniel said in a pretentious voice.
"Perce is being extra quiet around us when he usually tells us off." Fred told them.
"And while it's a relief to get some space to breathe-" George continued.
"It's starting to get annoying seeing his pale face look at us from across the room. All worried." His twin finished.
The Henderson's nodded.
"I don't know." Nathaniel told him.
"What was on your list?" George pressed.
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Dumbledore looked at Snape from across the table.
He steepled his fingers and leaned forward.
"Care to repeat that for me again?"
"I had them hand me the list to look over before I sent them to their beds, and it was filled with things the Dark Lord only ever dreamed of."
"I see, and what was most worrying to you about this…list?" He asked.
"Not only the horrific atrocities that would be committed by these things, but the flippancy with which they stated these abilities and purpose of each."
Snape looked down for a moment, "The eagerness in their voices was most telling."
Dumbledore sighed, "I hope we can still lead them away from such a path."
Snape looked up sharply and slammed his hands onto the table.
"They desired to STEAL magic from others! They found it amusing to cause fear in others! They found it the highest quality joke to turn people into stone!"
Dumbledore started to speak but Severus Snape interrupted again.
"They had not one, not two, but three ideas of ways to come back to life! Finding that insufficient, they added two more ways of never dying in the first place!"
Raising his hand calmly, Dumbledore silenced his professor and spoke.
"Since when have we judged others for their thoughts alone?"
"If only you had done that for the Dark Lord before he rose to power!" Snape snapped back.
Dumbledore adopted a stern look and opened his mouth.
————————————————————
Maybe the rumors we spread about these two were not too far from the mark. Fred mused, watching the conversation turn heated.
"Don't ask me why he fainted at extract! We didn't know he had such a terrible constitution!" Michael was saying to some Gryffindor boys who had apparently taken it upon themselves to confront the Henderson twins about Percy's trip to the Hospital wing.
Nathaniel was preparing to leap on one of the boys at the right moment, only held back by the thought that Michael might not be on the same thought process as him.
"What's extract?" One of the boys asked.
Nathaniel opened his mouth to explain it when Percy jumped in.
"It is not important." He said, "Classes are in ten minutes, so eat up and start moving, we do not want to be late, do we?"
Grumbling, the small group of older students dispersed to their seats. Missing classes was punishable by scolding. Percy scolding you was more annoying than washing out cauldrons without magic. More boring too.
There was the point loss too, but that was not nearly as awful.
Several shuddered at the horrific thought of Percy becoming a prefect. Handing that kind of power to someone who would actually use it responsibly was a sobering thought.
Percy was looking forward to it.
Fred and George were looking forward to mocking him for it.
Michael and Nathaniel didn't know what a prefect was.
————————————————————
"I am glad I could convince to see things my way, Severus." Dumbledore said happily.
Professor Snape glowered but knew that he was not going to defeat Dumbledore in any argument, even this one.
"I shall go inform Professor Sprout to watch over her Henderson as I shall mine."
Dumbledore nodded but felt like he was forgetting something. Something important.
————————————————————
"Henderson!" Professor Figglestone shouted, "Stop hitting other people with your weapon!"
"Yes, Professor Figglestone!" Both boys yelled.
She looked taken aback, she only thought one of them had been hitting other students.
Paying more attention, she realized that the ones that Nathaniel was hitting were hiding their reactions for some reason.
Being new to the school she never really joined the teachers in their lounge, and rarely ate with the rest of the students and professors in the Great Hall, and so missed out on all the rumors.
She really didn't like children, but how else was she going to pay for all of her cats?
Professor Figglestone was rudely pulled out of her thoughts as another student yelled in anger over one of the Henderson's hitting them with a sword. Again.
"Stop hitting your fellow students with your weapons." She said gritting her teeth, "The point of this exercise is to practice blocking attacks."
"And he sucks at that!" Michael shouted.
At that moment, Nathaniel raised his massive sword to shoulder height, spun around in a full circle, building up force, and absolutely slammed it in the poor third year Gryffindor's direction.
Screaming in fear, the boy dove to the ground completely abandoning his weapon and leaving a nearby Ravenclaw to try blocking the attack with their pitifully thin rapier.
The tiny wooden blade was not the only thing that broke in the exchange.
Normally, Nathaniel would have been horrified at breaking another person's bone, because that was just awful.
However, since the student immediately fainted from the pain, he never found out exactly how much he had damaged the poor Ravenclaw student.
Professor Figglestone sighed.
"Twenty points from Hufflepuff," She said pinching the bridge of her nose, "Warrington, take Mister McCowley to the Hospital wing to have him looked over. Nathaniel you are excused for the rest of the class unless you can actually obey directions."
Nathaniel cringed, and nodded, apologizing softly before reluctantly switching out his beloved claymore for a basic longsword.
Almost nobody in the room bought the apology, or the sad look on his face.
Professor Figglestone became so fed up with the ensuing whispers that she ended the sword training, telling the students to go to their next classes early.
Michael patted Nathaniel on the back and made a suggestion to distract him from his guilt.
"How about we roll a dice and focus on one ability at a time, with the dice telling us which one to do?"
Nathaniel liked the idea, and immediately pulled out the list and one of his back-up dice.
Rolling the dice, they determined they would see what they could find out about animagus first.
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Authors' note:
Hello Everybodyyyyu, thank you for keeping up with the Hendersons! We got plenty more amusement and drama for you all to enjoy, don't forget to follow the story if you want to stay updated when another chapter comes out.
We will likely be uploading fun one shots and crackfics as well in the near future, so please check that out if you are interested in laughing till you cry!
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Please review and ask any questions you would like!