Silent Casting

2nd of September, 1996.

Qozul was happy to fly in the Forbidden Forest again. There was something special about the wild forest that grew along Hogwarts' grounds. Harry was glad to be back again too. They avoided the spider nest to the best of their ability. Harry didn't want to fight spiders that morning. He picked up Hermione and Neville after he had washed up and they headed down to the Great Hall.

Breakfast was a quiet affair. The sixth-year students had to wait for their heads of house to talk to each of them. Harry felt like there had to be a better system for choosing what classes they wanted to continue with.

Professor McGonagall spoke to Neville first. She was quite pleased with his performance and he continued quite a few classes. Many more than he had expected that he would continue to be honest. His grandmother was proud though and that was good.

Hermione signed up for quite a few classes herself but she kept to their plan of self-studying History. Then it was Harry's turn. McGonagall handed him a schedule with his classes on it. "Professor Vector is happy to have you and so is Professor Babbling," she said. "You are clear for everything else that you want to continue. I'm very pleased with your performance the past year and hope that you will keep it up, Mr Potter."

"I will do my best, Professor," Harry said. He accepted his schedule and looked through it.

"Defence with Professor Lupin first," Hermione said.

"Sounds good," Harry said. "Let's mark in History on Tuesday. Second and third period."

Neville nodded as he wrote in History.

"Thursday afternoon I'm going to steal," Harry said.

Hermione marked down those periods with a healing snake. Harry was going to help Alice and Frank then so they would just have to figure something out. That wouldn't be a problem though. At least now she knew about it.

"We should head off," Neville said. "I don't want to be late even if Professor Lupin is kind."

…

Remus looked at his students as they filed in. He had a decent amount of people for this class and all of them had performed quite well from what he remembered. "Welcome to your first N.E. level defence class," he said. "Up until now, we have focused on learning the basics. Now it is time to move forward and one thing you will need to learn is silent casting. Can anyone tell me why being able to cast a spell without speaking is good?"

Several people raised their hands including Hermione, Neville and Harry.

"Mr Longbottom please explain it to the class," Remus said.

"Well, casting silently does give you a bit of an advantage in a duel-type scenario. Instead of loudly announcing what you are going to do they will have to guess based on your wand movement. If you really want to make it difficult you can either try to hide your movement or you can learn to make very small movements," Neville said.

"That is very good, Mr Longbottom," Remus said. "Silent casting is the next step. It is highly impractical to have to speak in order to cast spells in some circumstances no matter what type of magic you are trying to cast. You might have seen your professor or parents cast magic this way."

"We will practice this through shield charms and stunners," Remus said. "If you could please stand."

The students rose and Remus moved the desks and chairs to the side with a silent wave of his wand. Then he brought out large pillows. "We don't want anyone to get hurt so the one shielding will also stand with a pillow behind them." He walked through the classroom. "Does anyone know that they can do this already?" he asked.

Harry raised his hand. Moody had insisted that he learn how to cast silently, and it hadn't been hard to learn. "Mr Potter, very good then I would like for you to keep an eye on one half of the class while we do this so everyone follows the rules," Remus said.

"Will do Professor," Harry said and walked over to the right side of the room. Now those who were alright with him watching over their casting could come to him. Hermione and Neville paired up and Hermione started shielding.

Once everyone had paired up Remus addressed the class again. "To cast silently you need to visualise the spell working and speak the spell within you," he said. "The exact technique that you end up using is individual. I cannot tell you how to do it. I can give you tools, time and space to practice. Therefore we will also be testing your spell knowledge. For today I want you to keep to the previously mentioned spells, but that will change."

Harry weaved through the student pairs as he watched them. Seamus was getting red in the face as he tried to cast a body bind on Dean. Harry reached out and touched his shoulder. "Calm down," he said softly. "You are overthinking it. Take a deep breath. Move your wand." Harry swished his wand. "Do that a few times to get a feel for it," he said. "Then speak the spell in your head."

Sparks came out of Seamus' wand. He smiled at Harry. "I almost got it," he said enthusiastically.

"Great, now just keep trying," Harry said. He moved on and checked how Blaise and Theo were doing. He was seeing more Slytherins on his side than he would have expected. Though, they had invited all of them to the party that summer so maybe it made sense. Much like he had done with Seamus earlier, he calmed Theo down a bit so he would be able to focus. He didn't need to give him instructions though. As soon as his calming spell hit Theo sent out a body-bind and Blaise fell down flat on his pillows.

"I can just release him right?" Theo said. "I don't have to do that non-verbally?"

Harry chuckled. "No, you don't," he said. He started moving around again. He looked over at Neville and Hermione and was glad he had sort of started them on non-verbal casting that summer. Hermione looked like she was struggling, but only when she was the one attacking. Neville had already managed both which was good and would keep Malfoy and his goons off him.

Remus called the end of the lesson soon enough and they gathered their book bags up and headed out.

"See you later," Harry and Neville told Hermione as she headed off to Ancient Runes.

Harry and Neville were heading out of the castle to have Care of Magical Creatures. "Do you know anyone else who will take this class?" Harry asked Neville.

"Hannah and Ernie said they would take it when I spoke to them this summer," Neville said.

"Nice that means it won't be just us, but it will be a small class," Harry said.

"It'll make it easier for you to keep us alive, right," Neville said jokingly.

Harry laughed but he couldn't disagree.

"Hey, Neville!"

They turned around and waited for Hannah and Ernie before continuing towards Hagrid's Hut.

"Hey Potter, how are things going," Ernie asked.

"I'm doing good. A bit nervous about whatever insane idea Hagrid might have come up with this time around, but otherwise, I'm fine," Harry said as he shook Ernie's hand. "How about yourself?"

"Oh, you know after the grades arrived I could finally relax this summer. I had never imagined that I would be that tense about it," Ernie said.

"Oh, Helga, it is beautiful!" Hannah exclaimed.

Harry turned around. He smiled. "Hello Fawkes," he said. He walked up to the magnificent phoenix. Fawkes was sitting on a perch outside Hagrid's hut. "Are we studying phoenixes today?" he asked and Fawkes drilled happily. He looked around and spotted Ron heading their way.

"I figure that since I don't need Potions I could focus Care instead. That should be attractive enough right?" Ron told Harry as he reached him.

"Definitely, and we can study together without it being awkward," Harry said. "That is nice."

"Yeah," Ron exclaimed enthusiastically and smiled.

"Good mornin," Hagrid rumbled as he walked out of his hut. "Dumbledore lent him to me. What do ye think?"

"Amazing start Hagrid," Harry said. He lifted Fawkes up and walked over to the others.

"He lets you just touch him like that?" Ernie said.

Harry nodded. "He saved my life in our second year," he said. "I have seen first-hand just what phoenixes can do. I would have died if it wasn't for Fawkes."

"Phoenixes are amazin' creatures,'' Hagrid said. "They can lift many times their own weight and their tears can heal just about anythin'."

Fawkes spread his wings and flapped them slightly before settling back down on Harry's shoulder. He started preening Harry's hair while Hagrid went on to explain about phoenix flint and what that was.

Harry was just glad that Fawkes still seemed to like him. He wondered if the phoenix could tell that he had changed. Then his thoughts turned to the chamber and he turned Hagrid out. He wondered if the Basilisk's corpse was still down there.

He refocused on the lesson and listened as Hagrid told them about phoenixes eventually. He needed to travel down to the chamber.

Fawkes took off towards the Headmaster's office once the lesson ended. Harry smiled over to Hagrid and gave him a thumbs-up. It had been a great lesson. If Hagrid could continue in that vein, he would do great.

Harry walked with the others back up to the castle before splitting off from the group. He was heading for Arithmancy and joined up with Hermione for his first lesson in the subject. He both liked and disliked Arithmancy. If he wasn't magical it would be complete mumbo-jumbo. He could tell the connection though and he certainly understood why Hermione liked it. There were so many rules you had to know and follow.

Harry didn't mind too much and it was a good subject to take if you wanted to become a curse breaker, one of the occupations Harry claimed to want to work with. He probably would do the job of a curse-breaker no matter what his grades turned out to be, but it would look better for everyone if he just took the right classes.

…

Much like Remus had done in his class both Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick started their classes by explaining the importance of non-verbal spells. It seemed as if it was something that all Professors would now push. Harry was just glad he could do it already. Of course, that meant that he either helped the other students or worked on other things that did not quite fit within the curriculum since, especially, Professor McGonagall didn't want him to get ahead of his peers.

3rd of September, 1996.

The following day they had Herbology first thing in the morning. Madam Sprout seemed very happy to have both Harry and Neville back that year. They had a nice go-through of what they would be doing throughout the year so they could prepare themselves. She had given them the full list because she expected them to be fully prepared with notes written before every lesson.

Then they all had a free period. Harry and Neville found Hermione so they could get started on their History self-study session. Harry had talked to Remus about it and Remus had handed him a guideline for them to follow.

5th of September, 1996.

Harry was glad that he had Care and Herbology on Thursdays. They were two classes that didn't usually require a lot of magic work. Which was good when he was planning on dedicating the afternoon to healing Frank and Alice.

…

Alice smiled as Kato walked into the ward. He wasn't alone. With him walked a handsome red-haired man with a tooth dangling from his ear. If she had to guess she would say he was a Weasley, but he was far more attractive than his father. "Hello, Alice how have you been?" Kato asked.

Alice smiled at him. "You have been gone for a while and it is really boring here," she said.

"Let's see what Bill and I can do for Frank then I'll look into when you can leave," Kato said.

Alice sighed and picked up a book. It felt like she had spent forever in the Hospital. There was nothing wrong with her really. She just couldn't remember a few years of her life that was all. Then again she wanted Frank to get better too, and she understood that Kato couldn't be there to help them all the time. He had a life of his own.

"Hello Alice," the redhead said. "I'm Bill."

"Hi Bill," Alice said. "What are you going to help Kato with?" She smiled as he explained that he was there to centre Kato as he went into Frank's mind.

"We have done something similar before," Bill said.

"So I might get my Frank back?" Alice asked.

"That is what we're working on," Bill said. He looked over at Kato who waved him over.

"Grab my shoulders. You won't need your wand. I might need to try this a few times before I don't pull you with me," he said. He took a deep breath, and then he connected to Bill before delving into Frank's mind. He had to do it three more times before Bill just acted as an anchor.

Bill knew that he couldn't move too much. His magic was connected to Harry's magic and he could tell that this was really straining Harry or Kato whatever his name was right now. He felt Kato sag against him as he pulled back out of Frank's mind sometime later. "How do you feel?" Bill asked.

"Exhausted, but I think I found something," Kato said. He closed his eyes. "He is still stuck in what happened. I… I need to restore Alice and bring her with me. Then I'll have to ask Remus if I can borrow Leoline for a bit because he is almost the right age to be Neville back when they were attacked."

"Do you think that is wise?" Bill asked.

"Yes, but maybe Remus should be here so that it becomes more obvious that Leoline isn't Neville and maybe Neville should be here too," Kato said. "I'll have to consider that."

"Will you need my help again?" Bill asked. "I need to let the goblins know in that case."

"We'll book it in," Kato said. "Now I am going to spend some time with the lovely Alice so she doesn't die of boredom."

Bill laughed. "Then I'll be heading out," he said.

"Just let me know if you want a place to stay away from your folks," Kato said. "I've got spare rooms out my ears that no one is using and Winky would love to have someone over."

"I'll consider it," Bill said before saying goodbye and leaving.

Kato sat down with Alice and they spoke for a few hours before Kato headed back to Hogwarts.