A/N: Wow, it has been a long time since Mr. Darcy and I have written anything. You have our thanks for your understanding and patience… we were getting married. :) I was utterly surprised by how many details there were to arrange, but thankfully that is over and done with, and we have returned to having free time again. And with free time comes storywriting again. :)
I hope you enjoy it!
Lady Beatrice
~~~~~~~~~~ Y ~~~~~~~~~~
It was so empty here, just a midnight blue space to languidly float in which muted everything around her. At first, it had frozen her to the core, but that had passed. Or maybe she had become numb to the cold in the same way that she had become detached from the multitude of voices that swirled just beyond the vast desolate space she drifted in. Way back behind her, or maybe maybe way far ahead, she knew there was something beyond the velvety darkness. But not yet. She was too tired. She could rest for a while longer.
~~~~~~~~~~ Y ~~~~~~~~~~
Mia slowly woke up feeling a terrible chill. As awareness of her surroundings continued to creep in, Mia realized she was all curled up in a ball and that the air around her was making strange, yet oddly familiar crackling noises. The next thing she noticed was how very bright the light beyond her eyelids was. She slowly opened her eyes, and as they adjusted from the darkness to the light, she started violently, sitting up and scattering the wooden logs beneath her. Fully awake, she hurriedly looked around and quickly decided she had been sleeping in the middle of a gigantic fireplace at the center of what she supposed was a room. She tried to look through the flickering light of fire into the room beyond, but being inside the flames made it impossible to make much out beyond the vague shapes of a few chairs. Then she looked down at herself, wondering why she was not in pain. To her further surprise, she discovered she was wearing something that looked like it had been carved from a shell, and every now and again, there was a jewel embedded in it that looked gorgeous in the light of the fire. Once Mia tore herself away from the puzzle of her peculiar, yet beautiful, outfit, she sat and thought for a minute. She was very cold sitting in a fire but not burning up while wearing the oddest nightgown she had ever seen in her life. Either something very strange and magical was going on, or she was dreaming. More information was needed, so Mia stood and walked to the edge of the roaring fireplace, and then gently stepped out. Cold blistered her from all directions.
"Hermione Jane Granger! Get backing in the fireplace right now, young lady!" Mia whipped her head towards the door and saw an irate Mrs. Wilkins rushing towards her. Years of being in Mrs. Wilkins' care had her hopping right back into the warm embrace of the flames, in spite of her screaming self-preservation instincts. If Mrs. Wilkins thought it was a good idea, then it probably was. She was going to be her magical tutor someday, so she must be smart.
As the calming warmth of the fireplace settled over Mia and drove away some of the bone-deep chill from outside the flames, Mrs. Wilkins sat down in one of the cushioned chairs around the fireplace and looked sternly at the child in the flames. "How are you feeling, dear?"
"I feel okay, Mrs. Wilkins. Just really cold." Mia said, with a shaking voice. "But...can you tell me why I'm sitting IN A FIRE?" Finally losing her composure, Mia covered her face with her hands and started crying, but her tears never fell; they quickly evaporated from the heat of the flames.
After a few moments, Mia felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking over, she saw a gloved hand, which her analytic mind classified as probably dragon-hide, on her shoulder. "It's alright, Mia, you foolish girl. You be going to be fine." Hearing Mrs. Wilkins' calm voice, Mia was able to settle down and get her tears under control.
As she shifted to a more comfortable position on a nice, warm log, she saw the door crack open, and Mr. Vassili entered, bringing Jamie with him. "Mia!" Jamie ran forward towards his sister, arms open for a big hug until Mrs. Wilkins grabbed his shoulder.
"That will be hot, dear. You can giving your sister a hug later when she's feel a bit warmer." After a smile and a wave at both Mrs. Wilkins and the children, turned and exited the room, leaving the three alone. "Sitting down, Jamie. We three needed to having a long talk about what you did earlier, and how foolish it is."
"But we saved those domovoi!" Mia retorted. "You can't tell me that was wrong!"
"No, my dear. I'm quite prouded of you both, for save those nice boys. That be very brave of you, if rather reckless. But that was not what we needing to talk about." Mrs. Wilkins picked up her wand. Both children leaned forward, sensing that Bathilda was gearing up for a lecture.
"This, as you know, is a wand. Wizards and witches use it, along with certain movements and words we call incantations, to cast magic spells. You both know this, right?" Mia nodded, shaking loose some soot from her hair and causing her to sneeze. She saw Jamie snickering as she wiped her nose and made a note to get back at him at the next available opportunity.
"Now, as you both also seem to have discovering, none of these things is strictly necessary to use magic. Hermione, with no wand, no incantation, no special movements, and nothing but sheer willpower and focus, bending raw magic to her will, cooled the flames surrounding the domovoi so they could escaped."
Mia broke in with a question that had been burning in her mind since she had first read about wandless magic, "But then why does everyone use a wand?"
"That be the crux of the issue, child. You seem to thinking that magic is something that we control; something are at the beck and calling of every witch and wizard, much like a well-trained puppy. I couldn't expect you to thought otherwise, given that you only see fully-trained adults cast magic with ease, but the truth be different. Magic are a force of nature with its own implacable eddies and flows, and no witch or wizard, no matter how powerful, skilled, or wise, could work against those currents and emerge unscathing.
"You, Hermione, warping these natural flows to cooling the fire, and as a price, you too be cooled by the magic you were manipulate. If we hadn't gotten you into a fire to keeping your temperature up, you could have die. You is a smart girl; I'm sure you realizing that since you are not burned up in such violent flames, the cost you're paying are quite severe."
Jamie's face had gotten progressively whiter as Mrs. Wilkins continued. "I'm so sorry, Mia! I didn't know it would hurt you so badly, or I never would have asked you to do it."
Mia sighed at her brother's concern. "Don't worry, Jamie. You just wanted to save the domovoi, and so did I. Honestly, I didn't know this would happen either. The book I was reading seems to have left a few things out." Mia growled out the last section, thinking about the horrible things she would do to the author if she ever got him alone in a dark alley.
"Indeed, it did. There be not many people outside of spell crafters who really understanding magical theory at that level, and it seems the author of your book were not one of them."
Sensing from the way she was talking that Mrs. Wilkins was one of those who might know what she was talking about, Mia couldn't resist asking more questions.
"If magic is so dangerous, then why does everyone use it so casually? You cast spells all the time, and you don't have to spend an afternoon sitting in a fire to recover."
"That, Hermione, are where wands and spells come in. In the early days of magic, wizards and witches had to be very careful about what magic they cast, because of the consequences they would suffer if they abused their ability; but one day, someone developed the first wand and found that by using it, they were able to diminish the negative effects. The reasons why are rather complicated, so I suggest asking your Arithmancy tutor in a few years if you wanting more details.
"After wands became ubiquitous, and the wizards and witches became more in touch with the eddies of magic, they started to develop what we now call spells. A spell is really just a way of exploiting the natural currents of magic, so you'll be working with it, instead of against it. So, when you see me or another witch casting a spell like Incendio, the effect it has on the caster is really quite small. With a wand and a proper spell, only truly powerful magic can cause a dangerous backlash."
Mia thought about Mrs. Wilkins' explanation and found that it explained a lot of the things that she had struggled with after reading the accidental magic book. She had wondered why people learned spells and used wands when you could do magic without either of them, but this made a lot more sense to her. As she pondered the revelation, Jamie broke in and asked a question of his own, "So wands and spells protect us from the raw magic of spells, but you said they might not protect us completely from powerful spells?"
"Indeed. Let me tell you another story..." Mrs. Wilkins paused and closed her eyes, as though composing herself before a difficult remembrance. "When I was younger, I was an up-and-coming historian, bright-eyed and idealistic. I dreamed of uncovering all of the mysteries of the past and dispelling all the false histories that had been printed and disseminated across the magical world. To that end, I spent years studying obscure, powerful magic. In time, I developed a spell that would allow me to see events that had transpired at a location, even if there was no one alive who knew what had happened. In my zeal, I travelled to… a famous school in my home country. One with a long, storied history and very few records. I spoke with the headmaster and received permission to perform the spell.
"After a few preparations, I was ready. I cast the spell and was treated to visions beyond all my imaginings. I saw the school's entire history from its founding to the present. It was breathtaking. As soon as the spell's effects had run their course, I immediately sequestered myself away and began writing it all down while it was still fresh. A thousand years of history was swimming through my mind, and I revelled in writing it all down into my first book. Once I had completed my work there, I moved on to the much grander work of attempting to catalogue the entire magical history of my homeland from Merlin to the present day. I went to hundreds of magically significant locations, casting that same spell again and again, going farther and farther back into history.
"The next fifty years of my life were spent gathering and collating that information into my masterwork, but casting the spell so many times had consequences that I hadn't foreseen. Slowly but surely, I became more and more incoherent when I talked about events that weren't in the distant past. I didn't notice until a friend pointed it out to me, but even then, I was so driven to solve the mysteries of the past that I didn't care. I continued on and finished what I started, and it has left my speech as you know it; I am unable to string together a sensible sentence unless I'm telling a story about days long gone by. I don't be regret what I did, but I want you two to understanding that magic are dangerous. It can done amazing things for us, even beyond our wildest dreams, but the price it exacted from the unprepared can be heavy indeed." At this, Mrs. Wilkins fell silent, letting Mia and her brother soak in the information.
Mia and Jamie had been rapt with attention. They had always wondered but never dared ask why Mrs. Wilkins always spoke so strangely, and now they knew. Mia felt like a curtain had been pulled aside, and the dangers of a world she had always thought of as perfect and wonderful were brought into sharp and sudden focus. Here she was, after a single foolish action, recovering from a dangerous encounter with magic she didn't understand while sitting in a burning fireplace. She would have to figure out more about magic so she would never be caught off guard again. Looking at her brother, she saw him looking back at her, and they nodded at one another, exchanging a silent agreement to talk later to process this new information together.
"Hello, dears!" Jamie and Hermione turned to the door and saw an older woman about the same age as Mrs. Wilkins entering with a tray of strange instruments and an armful of wood.
"Thank you again for your help, Penny." Mrs. Wilkins rose and helped Penny with the wood.
"Oh, it's no trouble. These two did a good thing for our friends, so helping Mia recover is the least we can do. Nick and I have had plenty of magical accidents of our own, after all." Penny set down her tray and picked up one of her instruments before walking over to Mia. "Mia, could you grab onto the end of this instrument, please? It will tell me how your body temperature is recovering."
Mia grabbed the end of the stick and watched as Penny muttered to herself about the results. "Yes… It seems you're recovering nicely. You should only have another hour or two in the fire before it starts feeling a bit too warm. At that point, we'll put you in some thick, warmed blankets until you're feeling like yourself again." She pulled the magical thermometer back before grabbing another log and the fireplace poker.
"Can you lean to the side for a moment, dear? I need to add a few logs and stoke the fire." Mia leaned to the side, "Thank you, Mia. Now, how is the fire crab chitin fitting? Nick and I had one lying around, and it was the most fire-resistant material we had. Nothing else would have survived the blast furnace you were in earlier."
"I was in a blast furnace!" Mia felt strangely glad that she had been unconscious for that part.
"It was so cool, Mia! At least, once Mrs. Wilkins assured me you wouldn't be instantly charred to ashes." Her brother gave her a mischievous smile, and she glared back at him, making the mistake of sticking out her tongue. She got some soot on her tongue and gagged at the taste.
"Behave, children." Mrs. Wilkins stood up and made her way to the door.
"Yes, Mrs. Wilkins." Mia and her brother automatically replied though Mia knew full well that neither really meant it.
"Alright. Penny and I will be going for a while. Can we be trusting you two to behave?"
"Yes, Mrs. Wilkins."
"Good. We'll be back to check on Mia again in an hour, and then we might be able to go home. If something goes wrong and you need our help, the door is warded. If you opens it, we'll come running."
"Yes, Mrs. Wilkins." Sighing, Mrs. Wilkins headed out the door with Penny, leaving the siblings to their own devices for a bit.
As soon as the door closed, Jamie jumped up and ran as close to the fire as he could get, "Mia, I'm really, really, really, really, sorry that this happened… If I had just been better, you wouldn't be there -"
"Jamie! If it wasn't me, it would have been you. How is that any better?"
"Because -"
"The correct answer, dear brother of mine, is that it's not!"
"But -"
"No buts!" Mia stood up and glared at her brother, hoping the flames surrounding her would make her look more intimidating.
After a few tense moments, Jamie backed down, "Okay, fine… Maybe me being in there wouldn't be any different, but I still feel guilty."
"Oh, don't worry. If you're still feeling guilty when we get home, I have all sorts of suggestions for things you can do to assuage your guilt. My bookshelves need dusting, my books need alphabetizing, you can give me your after-dinner cookie every night… Just let me know when you're not feeling guilty anymore, and I'll stop." Mia smiled evilly, and Jamie gulped.
"Okay… But I just have one more thing to say on the subject…" Jamie paused, leaving Mia curious about what else he might have to say, "You were so cool! You looked so focused, and the fire turned blue, and then the domovoi ran through the fire… It was awesome!" Jamie extended his hand for a high-five.
Mia smiled genuinely. "So good of you to acknowledge that your bookworm of a sister can occasionally be cool." She reached her hand out of the fire for a moment to meet Jamie's before sitting back down.
"Now… Let's discuss what Mrs. Wilkins taught us… We have to figure out some rules for us in our magic studies. First..."
~~~~~~~~~~ Y ~~~~~~~~~~
"You were so cool!"
Bathilda stood out in the hallway, listening to the children with an eavesdropping charm to make sure they would be okay. Smiling at Jamie's exuberance, she dropped the eavesdropping charm as they started discussing their magic studies. They thought they were hiding their activities well, but Bathilda had noticed the occasional flash of color coming from the children's rooms on her way home at night and the occasional charred section of grass in the surrounding areas.
They were too young to legally study magic, but she couldn't stop the two headstrong children, so she tried to make sure that good books were conveniently left around for them to learn from. That pitiful book on accidental magic had slipped through her safety net and caused some harm, but she felt that she'd impressed upon them the dangers, so they would perhaps be a little more cautious with their studies now.
Turning away, she walked to Penny's office, where she would brainstorm the best way to tell the Granger parents what had happened today. They were pretty level-headed, but hearing that your daughter had to spend the afternoon in a fireplace to recover from a magical accident was bound to cause some consternation. Hearing that said daughter had helped save the lives of several others would only be a minor consolation.
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A/N: Neither Mr. Darcy nor I intend to let this story join the massive graveyard of other abandoned stories. However, it hopefully won't be another five months between updates either. :)
Lady Beatrice