"We need more protection," Blaise argued. "Come on, this sort of thing is common in organizations like ours."
"This sort of oath is common in the mafia," Hermione shot back, her voice sharp. "Forgive me if I'm not exactly enthusiastic about including it."
"Then we'll tone down the language," Blaise coaxed. "Hermione, I know you trust people, but omertà is a big deal. We need people to realize that being a shadow will encompass their life, not just their extracurricular activities."
Hermione groaned in frustration, tugging her hair.
"Fine," she snapped. "Take out the bit about being deaf and blind, and put something in about what they should do instead of go to the Ministry – about bringing issues up to the group or me or handling it themselves. Though I still don't know why the Ministry can't continue to handle legal issues."
"If a shadow robs another shadow, he has betrayed a comrade," Blaise said seriously. "It is an internal issue to sort out. And more than that, we must prepare for the worst – if there is no more Ministry, we need a system in place for people to turn to."
Hermione groaned. "This had better not turn into a Solomon cutting babies in half-type deal."
"Gnomon, Hermione," Blaise reminded her, eyes sparkling. "Gnomon, not Solomon."
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Am I interrupting something?"
Hermione glanced behind her to see Draco cautiously emerging into the tree house. He looked tentative and vaguely confused.
"No," Hermione said, just as Blaise said "Yes." Hermione shot Blaise a look, who grinned, before turning back to Draco.
"You're right on time," Hermione assured Draco, standing up and brushing out her robes. "Blaise was helping me revise the draft of the Shadow Oath."
"Again?" Draco's lip curled. "It feels like we've gone over that thing forever."
"I wanted to add more direct repercussions for betrayal," Blaise said, giving Draco an injured look. "We're not playing around with tangled tongues or broken fingers here; we need to make sure people understand that if they break their word to the Shadows, they die."
Draco paled, and Hermione scoffed.
"Don't be so over dramatic," she told Blaise, bapping him on the head. "Draco, we can talk upstairs, while Blaise finishes revising his silly omertà part of the oath."
Draco followed her up to the room with the hammocks, leaving Blaise's laughter behind them.
"What's omertà?" he asked. "I've never heard of that before."
"Honestly, I wouldn't have either if I hadn't seen The Godfather," Hermione said, huffing. "It's a muggle movie – one of my dad's favorites. Anyway, it's a code of not going to the authorities or betraying each other. Like for anything – everything should be handled in-house."
"I'm definitely in favor of people not involving the Ministry," Draco offered. "The less attention from that quarter, the better."
They both settled onto hammocks, swinging slightly as they regarded each other. Hermione waited patiently; Draco had been the one who wanted to talk.
"My mother is excited you're coming to the World Cup with us," Draco blurted finally, flushing slightly. "She's—she's very encouraging. And she's pleased you agreed to come."
"The pleasure is all mine," Hermione said reflexively. "It was very generous of you to invite me. Thank you." She paused. "How does your father feel about all this?"
"My father…" Draco trailed off, looking uncomfortable. Finally, he glanced up at her, his eyes open, honest. "I don't know what my father wants."
"But you think he wants something?" Hermione was suspicious.
"Yes," Draco said immediately. "He's—he's not like my mother. My mother just wants me to be happy, and if you coming along makes me happy, then she's happy to invite you along. But my father—he doesn't trust you, Hermione. I don't think he likes you very much either."
"And yet, he agreed," Hermione said, tapping her fingers on the hammock's rope. She tilted her head. "You don't know why?"
"I think it's some sort of test," Draco said, shrugging helplessly. "Of what, I don't know. Maybe he's just going to interrogate you the entire time. But… he didn't agree to bringing you along out of the goodness of his heart."
"I am unsurprised," Hermione said dryly. "I would never presume for Lucius Malfoy to have goodness in his heart."
Draco winced.
"Yeah, well," he said helplessly. He sighed, drooping back into the hammock. "I wanted to at least warn you. You know, so you could be on your guard."
"Do you have reason to think I need to be on my guard?" Hermione asked, curious.
Draco made a face.
"I don't know," he said. "But… my father's been having a lot of friends over for whiskey lately. They meet in his office in the evenings – the door's spelled to not let sound go through. So…"
"What kind of friends?" Hermione asked, a slow suspicion building in her mind.
"Theo's father," Draco said immediately. "Rosier. Mulciber. Goyle. Crabbe. The Broadmoors. A few from the Ministry." Draco hesitated. "They're… not good types."
Hermione could read between the lines. "The Death Eaters who are still loose."
"I can't say that one way or the other," Draco said uneasily. "But… yeah. Probably."
Hermione felt ill. "You think they're planning something?"
"I don't know," Draco admitted, "but I wouldn't put it past them."
Hermione bit her lip. For Draco to admit something against his father like this…
Snape's words of warning from the Gala drifted into her mind. Whispers of the Dark Lord gathering power are nothing to take lightly, he'd said. Be aware that the environment and landscape is changing. It may put you in danger without cause.
Hermione frowned.
"Right," she said decisively. "Thanks, Draco. I'll definitely be watching out for anything amiss, as well as any tests or tricks."
The start of the lesson on ley line creation for the umbra was not off to a good start.
First, Hermione explained that they were going to learn how to create a ley line, which would allow them access to all the ley lines safely.
Pansy interrupted, demanding to know what the hell was a ley line.
Hermione explained that the ley lines were like veins of magic running throughout the earth. The lines ran through this realm and the Fae realm, which was why they weren't commonly used – humans could be kidnapped by the Fae through them. But she had struck a bargain with the Fae, and if they each created their own ley line—
Draco interrupted at this point, inquiring if Hermione was shitting him, and if faeries were actually real.
Hermione assured Draco she was not, in fact, 'shitting him', and began to give a preliminary explanation of the Fae as terrifying beings made primarily of energy and magic with unclear motives.
Pansy cut in halfway through, demanding to know what on earth a House Elf was, then.
Harry assured Pansy that they weren't related at all.
Luna corrected Harry, telling him that they were Fae creatures, actually, just descended from outcast brownies.
Millie perked up at this point, asking if there were brownies, and if there were, if they had chocolate chips in them.
Susan, at this point, had loudly asked if they could please get back on topic, because her aunt was expecting her back in the evening for dinner and she didn't have all day to listen to such stupid questions and arguing.
Eventually, Hermione finally got everyone meditating on their core, trying to change their energy. Meditating and examining their core seemed easier for her coven than the others (probably because of their prior experience with such things), but everyone was struggling with changing their energy.
Hermione was trying to explain how she'd managed it herself when there was an unexpected whoosh at the Floo.
"Hello?" Theo's voice was uncertain. "May I come in?"
"Oh!" Hermione stood up and went to the Floo. "Hi, Theo. Yes, please, come in. How can we help you?"
As Hermione escorted Theo further inside, she could see a few of those who were supposed to be meditating peeking out one eye to see Theo – Harry, Pansy, Blaise. Theo paused, weighing his words.
"Draco mentioned you were meeting today," he said finally. "I thought I should come. If I wanted to join."
Hermione considered for a moment, then nodded. "Okay. Do you want to read over the oath we have first?"
To her immense astonishment, Theo shrugged.
"I'm going to end up swearing some kind of oath to you anyway, one way or another," he said, smirking wryly. "I've accepted that. We can fuss over wording later if you like."
Hermione blinked. "…alright."
She guided him over to the group, where everyone had stopped meditating on their core magic and were openly watching Theo. She rolled her eyes.
"We're working on centering ourselves in our magical core right now," she said. "After that, everyone is trying to change their magical signature."
Theo frowned. "How?"
"I got it to work by spinning my core faster and faster," Hermione said. "But… well. The metaphors I use to think of my magic might not be the ones you all use."
Theo looked at them all curiously.
"How do you think of your magical cores?" he asked the group directly. Most of them, glad for the excuse to stop meditating, opened their eyes and straightened up.
"What do you mean, 'think of my magical core'?" Draco wanted to know. "It's my magical core. What else is it supposed to be?"
"I think of it like a long lightbulb in the center of a mirrored containment unit," Tracey said, ignoring Draco. "Like a 'core', right? And then the light it produces is my magic."
"I dunno," Harry said. "I guess like a seed pit? But one that was planted inside me somewhere that magic grows out of." He made a face. "I'm not the most visual person."
That didn't surprise Hermione; Harry had a sort of innate, kinesthetic understand and feeling of magic. He was best at learning magic that relied on feeling more than anything scientific or precise.
"Mine's a violin," Pansy proclaimed. "At least, sort of. The music I make with it is my magic."
Tracey tilted her head. "What's your stored up music, then? Before you cast?"
Pansy tossed her head. "A lot of notes just echoing harmonically. It's only when I pick a spell that there's a specific note or song."
"I think of a sphere," Blaise volunteered. "One that sits at the bottom of me that spins. It generates magic, which I think of as kind of like a colored potion, filling me up inside."
Hermione looked at Blaise sharply.
"That's almost exactly what I envision," she said. Blaise raised an eyebrow.
"Interesting," he said. "Did Snape show you your magic too?"
Hermione paused. "…he did, actually."
Blaise shrugged. "That's where I got my visualization from, at least. I don't know if it's true, but it works for me. Maybe it's just how Snape visualizes magic."
"A ball?" Susan asked, considering. "And it spins? Like a top?"
"More like a globe, for me," Blaise said. "It's on a steady axis down the middle."
Susan reflected on this for a moment. "…I think I can visualize that myself. Hang on."
She closed her eyes, murmuring to herself, and Hermione looked at the others.
"Can you all try to envision your magical core as a spinning sphere?" she asked them. "Then to change your magic, you just set your core to spinning faster." She paused, looking at Pansy. "You might be able to get away with your image," she said. "Can you magically 'play' higher notes on your core violin?"
Pansy blinked. "I've never tried."
"Well, now's the time," Hermione encouraged. "We all have to be able to match the resonance of the ley lines with our magic before we can make one."
"Can you show us how you do it, Hermione?" Harry asked. "If we all join hands, we should be able to feel you do it."
Hermione sighed. "Fine."
The circle of people shifted to make room for Theo. They all took each other's hands, Blaise holding her hand and Luna's, Luna holding Susan's, Susan's holding Harry's. When Harry turned to take Hermione's hand, though, he found Pansy's hand instead. She sneered up at him.
"What, thought you'd leave us out of this, Potter?" She gave him a look. "We're all learning here."
Harry shot a worried look at Hermione, who understood enough of it.
"If we're all holding hands, we should be able to come to some sort of communal thread of magic, coven bond or no," she said. "It might be a bit harder, but we'll get there."
Everybody meditated, holding hands in a giant circle. Hermione easily sank into her core, immersing herself, and soon she could hear and feel the magic of her coven members as well.
"That reminds me," Hermione said, pausing to pull her left hand out of Draco's. "I need to take this off."
"Your coven ring?" Susan said, astonished. "Off?"
"You'll see why," Hermione said grimly. "Okay, everybody focus again."
It was significantly harder to pick up on her covenmates' magical signatures without her coven ring, but gradually, they came through in a sort of soft, harmonious hum, composed of everyone's magical signatures, including those not in her coven.
"Okay, I think we've got everyone," Hermione said, keeping her eyes closed. "Anyone not feel connected?"
"We have everyone," Pansy said. "I can hear ten notes."
The fact Pansy could pick apart the soft sound Hermione heard was impressive, in her mind.
"Alright," Hermione said. "This one is me." She pulsed her magic brighter for a moment, making it flare for a moment before letting it settle. "Can everyone tell which one is me?"
"Yes," Pansy and Luna said immediately.
"The purple one in the rainbow," Susan said. "The violet one, not the lilac one."
"I think so," Millie said slowly. "Can you do it again?"
Hermione pulsed her magic once more, and everyone agreed they could pick out which one was Hermione's.
"Okay," said Hermione. "Now: I'm going to open my magic more so you can see my core. Don't give me your magic – just kind of extend your magic to the border of mine."
"This makes no sense," Draco muttered darkly.
"Just 'cause it makes no sense to you doesn't mean it makes sense to none of us," Theo snapped. "Keep up."
It was an odd feeling, the sensation of different magic brushing up against hers slightly but not entering. She shivered each time someone else joined the group.
"I think I'm there," Harry said, eyes scrunched shut. "I can kind of see the spinning thing? Or sense it, somehow?"
"Right. Good." Hermione took a deep breath. "This is how I change my resonance."
Remembering how she'd done it in front of the Fae, Hermione pushed her core, setting it spinning faster, and the hum of her magic began to change.
"What the hell?" Draco wanted to know abruptly. "Wait, how are you doing that?"
"She's spinning it faster," Blaise said. "She said that."
"What's wrong with your core?" Susan wanted to know.
"Wrong with it?" Tracey echoed.
"It's wobbling," Susan said. "Like a top about to fall, not like a globe at all. Why's it doing that?"
Hermione winced.
"I—err—broke my magic first year," she admitted. "The coven bond stabilizes my core normally. But that also means I can't spin it faster with the ring."
"You broke your magic?" Theo sounded fascinated. "What was that like? Were you a muggle and none of us noticed?"
"Can you shut up and focus?" Blaise said curtly. "We can interrogate Hermione after she does this."
Hermione squeezed Blaise's hand, grateful for the intervention. This was hard enough as it was. She pushed her core further, sending it spinning more and more.
"How is she building that much magic that quickly?" Draco hissed at Theo. "I mean, I know the core produces magic, but like…"
Feeling dizzy and like she was about to be torn apart, Hermione was abruptly, incredibly relieved when she hit the right note, a feeling of the ley line she'd created a short distance from the coven house connecting to her magic with a snapping feeling, like a rubber band.
"Oh," Pansy said. She sounded dazed. "I… wow. Okay…"
"Everyone see?" Hermione got out, breathless. "Awesome. 'Kay. Good…"
She began to slow her core, disconnecting from the ley line. She was left with too much this leftover ley line energy inside of her, though, in addition to her own overload of magic, and she pushed the ley line magic to the others.
"So you can try to match it," she said, struggling to not pass out. "Take it. Please."
The loss of the ley line magic helped somewhat, and her breathing eased as her core slowed down to more its normal state. She slipped her coven ring back on, which stabilized the wobbling, and she sent the extra magic out through her air elemental, creating a cool wind through the trees and the tree house that lasted for a while.
"I can change mine!" Pansy's voice was excited. "Visualizing a different note works – I just have to go higher—"
Hermione opened her eyes tiredly, everyone now once again focused on their own individual magic. She found Theo looking at her curiously.
"What?" she asked, defensive.
"So you can go higher in pitch," Theo said. "Could you not go lower? And that's why you needed my help?"
"I don't know," Hermione admitted. "When I tried to slow my core once, the Fae snapped at me and demanded to know if I was trying to kill my magic. I've seen other people do it, though, so I don't really know what it does."
Theo dwelled on this for a long moment.
"Is this what you meant when you said teach us obscure, forgotten magics?" he asked.
"Sure," Hermione said. "Why not? Let's go with that."
They spent the rest of the afternoon trying to accelerate their cores, and Hermione began to realize that her own core's wobble might have given her an advantage – it was much easier to spin something that wasn't stable to begin with than spheres firmly in a holder and on a set axis. Pansy was having the most success with her violin visualization, but she was having difficulty making the higher strings produce an actual sound instead of an empty squeak.
"We'll go practice tomorrow in an actual ley line," Hermione promised. "If we sit in a large one and immerse ourselves, it might be easier to match."
"What do we do now?" Harry asked. "My magic feels weird. Like it's wearing clothes that are too tight."
"I have the oddest sensation like my magic desperately has to pee," Blaise said. He looked to Hermione. "Can we cast with this magic? Even though it doesn't match our natural core?"
"You can cast with ley line magic, can't you?" Hermione pointed out. "Go for it – see if it helps take the pressure off."
There was a flurry of basic spells as everyone tried to bleed off the strange, foreign magic they'd generated in their attempts. Cleaning charms, dancing lights, flocks of birds, flowers, and sparks lit up the room as everybody cast, the barrage of magic slowing a minute or so later.
"No more urgency," Blaise announced, grinning. "Excellent."
"I feel like I ache," Susan groaned, stretching. "I don't know why, but my muscles seem convinced I did a workout."
Hermione considered explaining her own theory of magical container expansion, but from the exhausted looks on the face of the others, now definitely wasn't the time.
"We'll meet here tomorrow again, at around 11, after I get back from the Wizengamot," Hermione told them all. "We'll all Floo together to a larger ley line location we can all sit in and meditate."
They all got up and began to drift and chat, some of them Flooing home. Hermione followed their lead, wanting to get home for dinner. As she announced, "Hermione's House!", the last thing she heard was Theo's quizzical voice, commenting, "I thought the Wizengamot started at 11am."
