Hermione hadn't known where the hedgewitches had done their ritual for the autumn equinox – Blaise had taken her as a surprise. To find out, she'd had to owl Derek, then owl Clover, who was one of the only hedgewitches who had a Floo in her house that Hermione could use. Clover had looked unamused as Hermione came spilling out, but she took her out to the nearby field anyway, where three others were waiting.
The field was covered in snow. Reaching out with her magic, Hermione was able to find one of the ley lines that crossed at the nexus, humming beneath the earth. Reassured she was in the right place, she set about clearing a small area for them all to sit down.
"You could have brought a shovel," Clover remarked, raising an eyebrow.
"I could have," Hermione admitted. "But I didn't think of that."
Several fire charms and warming charms later, Hermione had cleared an area for them all to sit down, which she invited them to do.
"It will be easier to teach you this magic if we're sitting," she explained. "Sit down in a circle, please."
"Why're we doin' this now?" Derek protested. "Yule isn't 'til tomorrow."
"I can't be here for your ritual tomorrow," Hermione repeated again patiently. "So I need to teach you now."
"Makes sense – she was the Earth at the autumn ritual," Clover pointed out. "She can't exactly be back early, can she?"
Derek looked put out by this, though Worm and Jerran were nodding.
"So how will this work?" Worm asked. "You're going to help our magic?"
"Kind of," Hermione said, and Jerran frowned.
"We don't have much magic, realize," Jerran reminded her. "If you're planning on giving us wands, we won't be able to use none of them."
"Wands are a ways off still," Hermione said with a strained smile. "Let's just try this for now, okay? Please?"
At her guidance, she finally got the four hedgewitches to sit in a circle on the ground with her. The ground was cold, but it was at least dry thanks to her drying charms, and the hedgewitches seemed unexpectedly pleased by this. Hermione wondered if they would have let her make them sit down on snowy ground and just get their clothes damp and cold.
"We're going to start with a breathing exercise," she told them. "Close your eyes, focus on your breath, and take long, slow breaths in and out."
"I don't see the point of this," Clover said flatly. "If we don't—"
"She's New Blood," Derek snapped at Clover. "She's got a direct line to Magic. It won't hurt none to listen, will it?"
Clover grumbled but fell silent.
Once Hermione finally got them all settled into themselves, breathing deeply and quietly, she wondered at her next step. They weren't used to casting magic, so she couldn't really ask them to reach into themselves by following the path their magic took through their hand. She bit her lip, considering, before having an idea.
"I'm going to cast a spell on each of you," she told them. "It is a visualization spell. It won't hurt."
Carefully, Hermione cast the spell Snape had cast on her once a long time, allowing her to see a visualization of each of their magic pools.
The first thing she noticed was that though their magical 'containers' were of a standard size, their cores were barely spinning or producing magic. They looked slow, sluggish, and each of them had barely a sixth of their magical container filled. Were their magical cores just never pulled on, so they didn't know how to make magic? Hermione wondered – if they started practicing magic now, would their cores learn to catch up and help fill up their magical pools like they were supposed to?
She pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind.
"I'm going to help each of you reach out into the magic of the earth," she told them. "Once you feel yourself connected, take deep breaths and try to stay centered. It can be kind of overwhelming."
Clover muttered something unflattering, but Worm elbowed her sharply, and she fell silent.
Hermione went with Derek first, who was sitting to her left. She took his hand, quietly syncing her breathing with his own, before reaching out with her magic to touch his. It was a startlingly intimate thing, one that Hermione would never have proposed to a 'regular' wizard, but Derek's magic was so paltry he barely flinched, and Hermione wasn't sure he had felt anything at all.
That was kind of tragic to consider, really.
Determined, Hermione pushed on.
Carefully focusing, her own magic went through Derek's, dragging some of his with her own, down into the ground into the ley line. The ley line perked up almost, being noticed, and when Hermione made a connection with it to Derek, the line obligingly began to flow into and through Derek as well, making him gasp.
"Circe," he whispered, reverent. "That's… Hermione, this is…"
"Just breathe and let it flow through you," Hermione urged him. "I need to get everyone, okay?"
Derek fell silent, nodding, and Hermione took Clover's hand next.
The process was the same – helping Clover's magic link up with the ley line and letting the earth's magic flow through her directly. Clover also gasped once she felt the magic flowing through her, and her eyes flew open.
"What is this?" she demanded, almost frightened. "This is too much – we can't—"
"It's part of the ambient magic of the world," Hermione soothed her. "It's okay. It's your birthright. If you weren't supposed to be able to use it, you wouldn't be able to. It's alright."
Clover slowly fell silent, still looking suspicious, but she focused on her breathing again as Hermione continued, linking Jerran and Worm up to the ley line as well.
When all four of them were connected to the line, looks of wonder and astonishment on their faces, Hermione had them open their eyes.
"You're connected to what's known as a ley line," Hermione said. "It's one of the veins of magic that runs through the earth, what creates and gives magic to the world."
"Where's it come from?" Jerran asked. "Where's it go?"
Hermione bit her lip.
"They just go around the earth, really, like your own circulatory system," she said, "but I think they come from the Fae realms."
Worm's eyebrows rose very high.
"That's a real thing?" he wanted to know. "Not just a story?"
"Magic has to come from somewhere," Hermione deflected. "It's just a theory."
She had them each focus on their core, on how they were tapped into to the earth and its magic.
"Can you feel how you're connected?" she asked. "This is the connection I need you to learn how to make on your own. Though your own magic may be weak, if you can learn to fill yourself with the magic from a ley line, you can carry that around as use it as your own."
"It's a lot," Derek said, his voice tight, his smile strained. "I—what would I even use all this for—"
"There may come a time when you need to use a lot of magic," Hermione said. "It's better you learn how in advance, just in case."
"It feels better if you go with it," Clover told him, eyes glittering. "Like… stop fighting it, if that makes sense."
Derek paused before closing his eyes again, taking deep breaths. Puzzled, Hermione recast the visualization charm, startled by what she saw.
Magical cores spun clockwise, generally – or at least, Hermione's and Snape's did, as had the hedgewitches' before they started. Clover's core, now, though – it had started to spin counter-clockwise instead, moving with the very magic of the ley line she had pulled.
Hermione flicked her wand at the others, eyes wide, and watched. Jerran seemed to have made his core spin the opposite way as well, and as she watched, Derek's own core slowly stopped moving, before starting to rotate the other way, gradually picking up speed as it spun widdershins on its axis. Hermione stared, eyes wide. She'd never heard of someone's core changing direction. Never.
What did that mean?
Hermione wondered if it meant they would have an easier time casting spells with ley line magic. If they had no natural magic to hold mentally separate from the ley line magic, in theory, they would have a much easier time than she'd had – casting basic charms with Fleur from ley line energy had given her a massive headache. But if there was no conflict…
It also meant, though, that they were effectively surrendering their natural magic to the magic of the earth. If they were matching their cores to the earth, matching their own magical resonance to that of the ley line… while it would give them immense control over ley line magic, she didn't think they'd be able to produce their own magic anymore.
She wondered if she had accidentally made everyone's cores spin backwards during the autumn equinox ritual. She didn't think so – the blood offering and her acting as conduit would have helped filter the direction from the magic, she hoped – but it felt uneasily like a distinct possibility.
"Good," she told them all instead, watching. "Remember how this harmony feels with the line…"
Hermione had them carefully disconnect from the ley line and thank the earth as they did. She explained that on festival days when they made offerings to the earth, the magic response would be even stronger, but that they should have access to this magic at any time when they were around a ley line. She suspected many old hedgewitch villages had been built along them, she told them, so hopefully they wouldn't need to travel far.
Worm had brought his mother's wand, and as an experiment, Hermione guided him through the Levitation Charm on a nearby pebble.
"More delicate with your swish and flick. And watch your vowels," she advised him. "It's LeviOsa, not levioSA."
Worm nodded, waving the wand again. "Wingardium Leviosa."
The small pebble rose into the air, and in his surprise, Worm shouted and dropped the wand, the pebble falling to the ground again. Hermione couldn't help but laugh at his shock.
"I told you what it would do," she teased, eyes sparkling. "Why were you surprised when it worked?"
"I—I never really thought I would do it," Worm said, staring at the small rock with wide eyes. "But that—I—I used magic. With a wand."
"Give the wand here," Clover said, direct. Her eyes glittered. "I want to try next."
Clover, for all her initial resistance, had clearly been paying attention. Her swish and flick was perfect on the first try, as was her pronunciation.
"Wingardium Leviosa."
The pebble again rose into the air, obediently, and the others oohed over her success. Her eyes gleamed with triumph.
"How long does this last?" Clover asked Hermione, her eyes darting over to her.
"Until you end the spell, really," Hermione said, shrugging.
"No. How much magic does it use?" Clover wanted to know. "If I keep doing this, how long until the magic runs out."
"Oh." Hermione blinked. "Actually, let me see…"
She waved her own wand, the hedgewitches' magical visualizations coming back up. Clover's container was slowly draining with the levitation, and Hermione watched it for a while, coming up with a rate over time.
"If you keep doing that, you'll run out of magic in maybe ten minutes," she admitted. She made a face. "That will probably get better with practice, though."
"Wicked."
Clover let the rock drop, passing the wand to Derek, who took it eagerly.
"How do I do this?" he asked, jabbing at the rock. "What do I say?"
Derek and Jerran were harder to control and get to levitate the rock, but once they got it, they were both ecstatic.
"This is proper magic, this is," Jerran declared. "Usin' a wand an' everything!"
"Feels sorta like cheatin'," Worm admitted, "usin' the earth's magic like that, an' not our own."
"You're hedgewitches," Hermione told them firmly. "You live off the land, you till the soil, and you give offerings several times a year to restore the magic of the earth. The earth is happy to give magic back to you in turn." She looked at him earnestly. "It's only natural that how you cast magic would differ from how the wizards do it, you know?"
Worm's eyes widened, and he nodded slowly.
"That—that makes sense," he said. "An' – I like this. I like this. Though it's just pickin' a pebble up."
"Is there a limit?" Clover asked, her eyes gleaming. "How much magic can we cast in a day?"
"However much you can hold, really," Hermione said, shrugging. "You'd need to find a ley line and fill back up after you run out. Different spells require different levels of power as well. Without practice, you might be able to cast first and second level spells? But anything beyond that, I think you'd struggle with right now."
"You can't keep the wand, Clover," Worm informed her. "It's my mum's. I have to sneak it back into her things."
Clover sniffed. "Is she likely to even realize it's gone?"
"No, but if she does, she'll be right mad—"
"I need you four to practice tapping a ley line and channeling the magic for now," Hermione said. "After you feel comfortable with that, I need you to teach others how to do it too."
"The others?" Derek blinked up at her. "Do you think everyone can do this?"
"Yes," Hermione said. "I'm a New Blood, remember? I've got a direct line to Magic, and Magic dictates that this..." She trailed off, suddenly inspired. She met his eyes firmly, determined, and Derek's widened at her expression. "This is the hedgewitches' birthright," she told him. "Using the magic of the earth like this. You were born for this."
"...Birthright?" Derek said faintly.
"Yes. And I need you to teach all your friends how to reach for the same magic if you can," Hermione reiterated. "I'd love to stay and help- err- help you all reach the magic that is your birthright, but I still have to go to school."
"Ah, right," Derek said, nodding. "That makes sense."
"If everyone gets good at it, we can explore making wands over the summer," she suggested, hesitantly. "Not normal wands – normal wands probably won't work as well for you. But we can go to an old Druid grove and help you each craft your own. Or staffs, possibly."
Worm's eyes lit up. "I want to do that. I want to do that."
"Well, get good then," Hermione said, grinning, and Worm grinned back.
"Is this the magic that we'll feel tomorrow during the winter ritual?" Jerran asked. "Same type of magic?"
"Same type of magic," Hermione assured him. "Just more and more powerful, because it'll be magic given in response to a ritual offering."
"Will we need this soon?" Clover asked. "You said you were teaching us in case we would need it—"
"Kind of," Hermione admitted. "I got the restoration and replacement of silver werewolf wards put into a Wizengamot bill, so sometime over the next year—"
"You what?!"
Suddenly, all four of them were clamoring over her, demanding to know what happened.
"You did what? They agreed?"
"What do you mean, they have to give us silver—?"
"How the hell did you—"
"Listen!" Hermione shouted. She lowered her voice. "Listen. Listen, I'll tell you all, okay?"
She explained how she had manipulated the trading bill in the Wizengamot in order to get the hedgewitches what they wanted. The hedgewitches seemed utterly unconcerned with the goblins, but they paid attention with sharp eyes when she got to the landowners' parts.
"So in order to make more money themselves, they have to give more money to us," Clover said in satisfaction. "Their own greed will motivate them, and we'll get more in the process."
"Exactly." Hermione grinned, and Clover grinned back.
"Pure silver, though…" Derek ran a hand through his hair, eyes wide. "Knowin' the landlords, we'll all be expected to do our own wardin' – they won't be bothered themselves…"
"That's why it's important you teach everyone how to channel magic," Hermione told him. "The more people who offer blood to the warding system, and the more people who channel magic into it to set it up, the more powerful it will be to keep the werewolves out."
"We'll have to get Old Man Hobbs to help figure out runes an' such," Jerran said, grimacing. "I can't read words well enough, let alone them blasted little symbols—"
"I'll help," Clover cut in. Her eyes were bright. "I'm going to get a book of basic spells to practice with, and if I can afford it, I'll get a book on runes, too. We'll need to set up a network of people, to help make sure all the lands are protected by silver once it starts coming in."
"Right." Worm nodded firmly. "Argin will help, over in the Abbotts' area, and Aurican is bound to want to make sure The Yard gets protected too…"
They began discussing people and plans of who to contact and draft into initial teachings of the ley lines, making plans to reach out to their friends at the festivals to happen the next day, on midwinter's night. As the boys planned and plotted, Hermione drifted closer to Clover.
"Going to get a book?" she murmured.
Clover's eyes cut over to her. "I was thinking about it, yeah."
Hermione discreetly passed Clover a handful of gold, keeping her eyes on the boys as she did.
"This should be enough for a few books," she said quietly, "as well as a wand."
Clover's eyes lit up.
"Thank you," she breathed, quickly returning her eyes back to the circle as she stuffed her hand deep inside her kirtle pocket. "Thank you."
"No problem," Hermione said, a small smile touching her lips as the boys began arguing about who was the best positioned to try and convince Old Man Hobbs to let them help with the midwinter ritual so they could feel the ley line again. "Anytime."