~~~~~~~~~ April 1993 ~~~~~~~~~~
The two children he was teaching were quite charming, literally. He had gotten some of their backstory from Professor Bagshot, but not knowing the details was okay with him. As a retired auror, he knew a thing or two about keeping secrets and understood that sometimes it was best not to probe any further. Albus had asked him to work in a little combat training along with the charms work, so he knew there was something unusual, but it was just fun to be teaching again, especially when his students were so entertaining.
Bob was currently sitting in a rocking chair on his porch watching his two students have their weekly Saturday morning 'charm-off' as he liked to call them. It was a training method that he had devised for the children, and they took to it like ducks to water. The siblings would duel with each other and try to get the upper hand over their opponent without stunning, disarming, or otherwise incapacitating them. It was their chance to test their charm skills in a highly practical environment where they could exercise their creativity using all the charms they had learned during the week. He always made sure to spend some time on warding as well as the traditional elemental and alteration charms that were covered in most classes, but the practical lessons were always the biggest hit with such highly competitive children.
As Hermione started to get the upper hand with an interesting water charm that Bob was sure he hadn't taught her yet, he figured it was time to step in for the final state. He rose from his chair and roared "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" at his pupils as he flicked his wand and animated Bertram Granger's rather extensive garden gnome collection to assault the children. Once he stepped into the match, all bets were off, and stunning, disarming, and any other method of incapacitating your opponent was fair game.
Turning immediately as though they were expecting his intervention, both children started dispatching his hastily animated gnomes. Hermione shattered the closest gnomes with a few quick blasting curses while Jamie sidestepped his attacker before levitating it and using it to smash several others. Sensing that the gnomes would be a very short-lived distraction, Bob flicked his wand again, and the remaining gnomes all exploded, turning the clear air into a cloudy haze, and Bob started firing stunners into the mist. If the children hadn't thought to shield themselves, this little competition would be over soon.
As he continued castting stunners into the cloud, his old auror reflexes took over, and his mind drifted to his student's performance. Jamie was an odd case; unlike most wizards and witches who discovered an aptitude for at least one branch of charms, Jamie didn't seem to have any particular talents. He was average across the board with the occasional charm he'd really take to, like the disarming charm. He could usually manage other spells with a bit of effort, some tutelage from his sister, and advice from his teacher, but he definitely wasn't a natural charm caster.
Hermione was the complete opposite. She didn't have a preference for any particular type of charm because she excelled at all of them. His shock at discovering that she could perform any charm perfectly after reading about it and practicing for a few minutes had floored him. She would be quite a charmer when she grew up, and he was interested to see what she would do with her amazing talent.
Bob's attention shifted back to the murky garden. Something was wrong. The haze created from the gnomes should have started dissipating by now, but if anything, it was getting thicker. Quietly, he got off the porch and felt a cold shiver run down his spine. Smart. One of the children had cast a cooling spell. While normally reserved for tea that was a tad too hot, in the fall weather of March, it was causing water to lightly condense around the vaporized gnome dust, creating a real fog. A sly grin snuck over his face. Oh yes, it was interesting teaching these children.
With a muttered "Ventus," Bob raised his wand and called forth a strong wind to blow away the cloud. After all, walking into it would almost certainly end badly for him. However, much to his surprise, the cloud did not stir. A counter spell was protecting the cloud. 'Hmmm…. That must be Hermione… How many times do I have to teach that girl that a general countercharm takes more energy than the spell itself? No matter how talented she is, all it takes is a little more power and... ' "VENTUS!" As he moved the wand to renew the spell and shouted the incantation, everything suddenly went black.
When he woke up, it was to the sound of the children cheering as they hugged each other and did a victory dance. Rubbing his head, he sat up and realized what must have happened. While he was focused on powering up his charm to overwhelm Hermione, Jamie must have snuck around behind him and used Bob's louder incantation to cover the sound of a whispered stunning spell. Quite creative, really. It was good to see the children improving.
Standing and walking over to the children, Bob addressed them with a smile. "Good job, you two. I'm very impressed. That puts the score at 28 to 3. You're both improving greatly. Now, in celebration of another victory, why don't you both go and prepare for your afternoon with Mrs. Wilkins." After he had tired the children out in the mornings, Professor Bagshot would bring the children in for 'magical history lessons,' which usually ended up being storytime with tea and biscuits. At least they were learning, though. There was so much magical history, and Professor Bagshot knew it better than anyone.
"Yes, sir, Mr. Ogden," the siblings chorused before turning to run back to their home. Even though Jamie might not have had his sister's talent, he'd be willing to bet anything that today's strategy was his idea. He was very good at thinking outside the box in a way that his sister wasn't suited for. It may not make him an exceptional charms caster, but there was more to a battle than spells.
Bob turned back to the house he was sharing with Bathilda and rubbed the back of his head again. He'd need an ice pack for the bump he got falling down. Maybe he should consider wearing a helmet during practice - those kids would only get more creative. Perhaps it was time to start taking them a bit more seriously. First things first, though… He really needed to repair those garden gnomes before Bertram got back. He might not be welcome in the house anymore if the man saw what had happened to his collection.
~~~~~~~~~ May 1993 ~~~~~~~~~~
"Mum! We're home!" Valeria hugged her children as they returned from their 'camping trip' with their tutor, Mr. Ogden.
"I missed you two so much! Did you have fun with Mr. Ogden?" She held them at arm's length and looked them over. They were both quite tan after spending two weeks wandering the Australian wilderness, though some of their new pigmentation was definitely grime. All in all, they seemed no worse for wear if the giant smiles on their faces were any indication.
"Oh, definitely!" "So much fun!" The two siblings were talking over each other in their excitement.
"The first day was really boring." "Yeah, we just walked around a mountain." "But then, Mr. Ogden started showing us these awesome plants!" "They were so cool! First, we found some waratah, which was pretty boring, but then we used that to find a giant plant!" "Yeah! It almost ate Jamie!" "Did not! I was only petting it!" "Petting it while being held in the air by one leg?" "Well… It requires a special petting technique!'
Feeling the beginnings of a migraine, Valeria interjected, "Alright, children. I'm sure there will be time for stories when your father gets back from the store. I know he's missed you as much as I have. Why don't you go upstairs and get cleaned up? Your father should be back by the time you're done, and then you can tell us all about it." Valeria knew her husband would be more inclined to listen to their children's adventures than she was, and a few minutes back home would likely calm them down a tad.
The children grabbed their bags, which were overflowing with strange things, and dashed off to their rooms. Valeria sighed - they were tracking dirt everywhere in the process.
"Sorry about that, ma'am. They got away from me."
Smiling, she turned to Mr. Ogden, "No… That's okay. Thank you again for taking them out on this trip and keeping them safe. You've been a great tutor for them this year. I expect they'll do well on their ECHIDNAs?"
"Well, if what I've seen from the other children around here is any indication, they'll do just fine. Some of these other kids don't even know which end of a knife to harvest a plant with, yet these two tangled with some of the most dangerous plants in Australia over this past weekend and came out of it with only a few scrapes and bruises." Mr. Ogden laughed a deep, bellowing laugh.
"That's certainly good to hear. Thank you for taking care of them as well. I'm sure we would have had more than just a few scrapes if you weren't keeping a close watch." Mr. Ogden nodded and winked, "Will we see you again on Monday? It's their last week of lessons before their exams, right?"
"Indeed. They sit their charms ECHIDNA next week. Hopefully, all this work will pay off, and they'll knock them out of the park. I'd say Hermione is a shoo-in for a 4, and I'd be very surprised if Harry didn't get at least a 3. Both very respectable scores for their age and also enough to get them a charms license, which is the important part at this stage. After that, it's their herbology ECHIDNA, and I think they should both pass that."
"We're thinking of going on a special trip this June to celebrate their first ECHIDNAs, at least if they do well. I'm thinking Egypt would be a good choice. If I've understood Monica correctly, there is lots of magical history there. I think it would be great to go and see some of the magical sights."
Bob smiled. "I'm sure they'd love a trip to Egypt. I went once myself in my youth before the goblins from Gringotts decided to invest in magical archeology there. It made the El Naddaha upset, so they drowned the first set of curse-breakers who came over, but the goblins eventually worked out a deal…"
Valeria felt her eyes glaze over as the incomprehensible history lesson flowed over her. If they went to Egypt, it would be better to stick with something Bertram and she could also get something out of. Seeing the Great Pyramids, for instance. Yes. That sounded lovely. Jamie and Hermione could use a break from all the magic they'd been living with recently. It could just be a perfectly normal vacation with many hours of sightseeing and no unexpected or dangerous encounters…
~~~~~~~~~ Y ~~~~~~~~~~
Mia was sitting, waiting for the second half of her ECHIDNA to begin. No one had told Mia what ECHIDNA stood for, but being the intrepid knowledge seeker that she was, she'd done her own research at the local magical library and discovered that ECHIDNA stood for Extremely Comprehensive and Harrowing Individual Diagnostic Normalized Assessment. According to her findings, most Australian magical children completely ignored their ECHIDNAs until they neared adulthood. The threat of moving out and needing to do their chores compelled most teens to finally take their ECHIDNAs and become fully licensed wizards and witches. Mia had laughed at that, secretly proud that she and Jaime were ahead of the pack.
The first part of the charm ECHIDNA was a written exam. Just like the name promised, it had been an extremely comprehensive written exam, and while she had done very well on the beginning of the test, Mia knew she had done poorly on the questions towards the end of the exam. Many of those questions were designed to challenge even a master of the art, and Mia was still only thirteen. Mr. Ogden had told her not to expect a perfect score, but it was hard for her to acknowledge that she didn't know everything yet. Now, it was after lunch, and she was waiting for the start of the "harrowing" part of the exam. Each ECHIDNA had an obstacle course of some description built inside the ministry. Apparently, making it to the end of the course guaranteed a six, and each course changed yearly.
"Hermione Granger!" Mia rose as she mentally prepared herself for the challenges that were sure to be ahead by repeating her favorite charms in her head.
"Good luck, darl, and be careful." Mia nodded to the attendant in silence and entered the course.
Taking deep breaths to keep herself calm, she waited for the starting announcement.
"BEGIN!" Mia immediately shot forward, running as fast as she could, more thankful than ever for all the races she had with her little brother.
Speed was only one component of this course, though, as she was soon reminded. Wooden boards barred her way forward, but without slowing pace, Mia shouted at the boards, "Reducto!" As the boards fractured into small bits, Mia followed with a "Ventus!" to remove all the debris so she could continue.
The next room was raining large stones down from the ceiling, and while Mia thought she might be able to dodge across the room, that wouldn't win her any points with the watching examiners. She had to do this with charms. Deciding to show off while she still could, she darted into the room and used the blasting curse to shoot rocks out of the air one by one. It was very similar to some of the drills Mr. Ogden had practiced with them, so Hermione was well prepared. She vanished away debris that might harm her but let the dust settle on her. It wouldn't do for her to exhaust herself too early.
Reaching the next room, she was greeted by a wall of flames. She smirked to herself remembering her past experiences with Santa's workshop and with a quick use of the flame-freezing charm, she moved past without even slowing down.
In the very next room, Mia finally had to stop for the first time. There was no discernable exit to the room. Taking stock of her surroundings, all she saw was an hourglass in the corner, slowly draining. Having heard of this type of test from her study materials, she started casting detection spells to discern what horrible things would happen to her when the hourglass finally drained. She found a powerful fire spell slowly charging in one corner, a barrage blasting curse in another, and lastly, something she couldn't identify in the center of the floor. Choosing a defensive strategy, she moved into one of the unoccupied corners and started warding.
As Mia finished a ward that would handle the blasting curse, she looked back at the hourglass. "It's already half drained!" she complained quietly to herself. She probably only had time to raise one more solid ward. Since she was fairly confident that she'd be able to handle the fire on her own, she decided to layer a more complex general-purpose ward to handle whatever unpleasantness was sitting in the center of the room.
Furious wand waving, chanting, and about thirty seconds of work resulted in a powerful extra layer of protection. Catching her breath, she looked at the timer just in time to see the last few grains of sand fall through. Before she knew it, blasting curses were continually hitting her wards. Mia stood safely in the center, concentrating deeply and preparing for whatever came next. Sensing the magic, she raised her wand and chanted the most powerful anti-fire charm she knew. The giant jet of flames sputtered out and died long before reaching her, but the source of the charm was still actively shooting flames, so she couldn't let up the charm. Now, she just had to hope that her wards held against whatever was in the center of the room.
When it activated, a powerful bolt of electricity smashed against her wards, and they flickered under the strain but held against the onslaught. "Yes!" Mia said under her breath. Now, she just had to hold out until the spells finished.
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a rock column growing towards her. 'I didn't check the ceiling! How could I be so stupid!?' There was no way her hastily erected wards would hold against so much pressure at once. 'Time to take a chance.' She released her fire-cancelling spell momentarily and attempted something she had been experimenting with for a while. She pointed the wand towards her left hand and shouted, "Inflammare manum!" before thrusting her hand outside the shield and into the path of the oncoming flames. They crashed against her hand but did not burn her. This left her wand hand free to deal with the rapidly approaching threat from above. With a shouted "Arresto momentum!" the ceiling slowly stopped its approach. Shaking under the strain of so many spells, Mia just focused on holding the magic steady. As suddenly as it began, it all stopped, and the exit appeared.
Mia took a few moments to gather her wits and catch her breath before heading to the newly opened exit. As she followed the hallway, expecting to find the next room, she instead found herself at another dead end. Mia started casting revealing spells, expecting to find another door, but her spells turned up nothing. Deciding to turn back and look for something she had missed, she suddenly saw the world turn upside down. Before she could get her bearings, spells shot out of the walls, and everything went black.
~~~~~~~~~ Y ~~~~~~~~~~
A\N: Aaaand…. We're back! Not dead, not AWOL, and not abandoned, even though you haven't seen us for a year. Chapters will hopefully come regularly for a little while, as we've written a few chapters ahead, so prepare for more action with our two favorite magical people. And some other characters, on occasion.
Mr. Darcy