Chapter Sixteen

Sunday found all seven friends sitting in a remote corner of the Hogwarts library, stacks of books on all sides. Ron, Hermione and Harry were all reading their copies of `Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them', whereas the others, having non-magical forms, were looking through some of the library books. Gallatea couldn't help looking over at Harry's book every now and again, staring in wonder at the English words written on the page.

“ Yes it is, it's called English. From what I remember from primary school, English is based on Anglo-Saxon, so you'd probably recognise some of the words. There are a lot of Latin and Greek words in it too, so I don't thing it would be too hard for you to learn. Why would you want to, though? No one else will speak modern English for about 800 years!”

“ It would be interesting. I could write a book after you have left. A chronicle of your year here from my perspective. Ginny's book will tell it from your viewpoint, so I think it would be good to have mine as well. I could write it in English, and then people would be able to read it in your time. It would also be fun to have people trying to work out what it said for the next few hundred years!”

Harry couldn't help but laugh. She did have a point. Ginny's book would only give them the whole situation from their point of view. It would be interesting to see an Anglo-Saxon person's take on the whole thing. Harry went back to looking through his book, as he thought of the best time to teach Gallatea what she wanted to know. After a while he came to a decision.

“ How does this sound? On Sundays we spend the mornings in the Gryffindor room, and I'll teach you English. In the afternoons we can practice our transformations and do more research.”

Harry took one more look at his book before surmising that his animagus form was unique. He couldn't find any information on it at all. The closest he could find was a golden gryphon. Unlike the common gryphon, which had the head, forelegs and wings of a bird and the hind legs and tail of a lion, the golden gryphon was a whole lion, with wings on its back. This was the real symbol of Gryffindor House, as he had discovered from the founder himself. Harry's form was similar to the golden gryphon, in as much as it was a winged `big' cat, only it was a snow leopard rather than a lion. Very curious. Putting his book aside, Harry pulled out the animagus book Sirius had given him for his birthday and sat down to read through it.

Later that day found Harry making his way to the hospital wing. He'd grown bored with his book after a couple of hours, and the others were all still researching their animals, so he decided to go and visit the elf healer. She had intrigued him when he had seen her the other day, and he thought he might be able to learn something useful from her. After all, as Ron had said, elves were never seen in his time. It was too good an opportunity to miss.

Pushing open the heavy door, Harry scanned the room for any sign of the tall woman. The only inhabitant he could see was a sleeping Horatio. He considered playing a prank on the other boy, but decided against it. After all, the healer probably wouldn't be too impressed with him if he attacked one of her patents. Moving over to the small office at the far end of the hospital wing, Harry knocked on the door and hoped the elf was in. After a moment the door was pulled open and the elven woman poked her head around the door.

She eyed him for a few minutes before pulling the door open wider and gesturing to a seat. Once the Boy-Who-Lived was seated, she opened the conversation.

“ Right, that helps…where I come from, all of the elves hide from the humans. My kind, from what I can gather, hasn't seen any elves for about 600 years…”

“ Very well then, I see it could be very useful to the humans of your time if you knew more about me. I will make you an offer, but bare in mind, this offer is open only to you. Your friends must not know about this. I sense I can trust you, as I trust the Lady Ravenclaw, to whom I owe a life debt. You must breathe not a word of the time we spend together to anyone. I will teach you things you may find useful in the future, but you must understand that the wisdom of my people is not given lightly. Do you accept my conditions?”

“ That skill should not take long to master, not as long as the other skills you are learning. For you, with the level of power I sense in you, the skill will take but a few weeks to learn, provided you practice as often as you can. I propose, that once you have finished your invisibility lessons, you will spend your evening with me from 6 until 10. I will teach you the customs of my people, our tongue, and our magic. I do this in the hope that once you return to your own time you will seek out the elves and bring peace between our people. Do you agree?”

Harry could do nothing but nod. He couldn't believe he would be learning elven magic. When he decided to come here he had expected to receive little in the way of information, but this was far more than he could have ever hoped for.

It was a rather vacant looking Harry that met the others in the Gryffindor room that evening. Ron and Ginny looked at each other briefly before turning to watch their friend. He looked deep in thought and they were worried it was about something serious. Hermione hadn't even noticed Harry come in. She had borrowed his copy of `Animagi - All You Ever Wanted to Know' and was still reading it now while they waited for the founder to turn up. Right on time the door swung open to reveal the slender figure of Rowena Ravenclaw. She smiled at the group, before waving her hand to summon five comfy armchairs in a circle on the central mat. Taking a seat, she gestured for them to do the same before she started the lesson.

“ Now, then. Today we will be going over the basics of wandless magic. We will start with simple spells, and work our way up to harder material. As you know, wandless magic is performed by hand gestures rather than wand movements. You also need to mentally focus more, as you have no wand to focus the magic for you. Now, hold out your hands and point your fingers.”

They all followed her instructions, feeling rather stupid sitting with their fingers outstretched. As they did this, Ravenclaw waved her hand and four feathers appeared, one in front of each chair.

“ Once you get more used to wandless magic, you will be able to perform spells without speaking the incantation. You merely have to think the spell and perform the correct hand gestures. I would like you to start by pointing at your feathers and concentrating on focusing your magic. I then want you to try Wingardium Leviosa on the feathers. Don't worry if you have trouble at first. Practice makes perfect, after all.”

Feeling foolish, the four teens concentrated on the feathers in front of them and waved their hands in a `swish and flick' motion while muttering the incantation. Harry's feather floated neatly off the floor, while Hermione and Ginny both managed it on the second try. Much to his annoyance, it took Ron a full five minutes to perform the spell.

“ Well done, all of you. It normally takes the first years a lot longer to master it. Five points to each of you. Now you may have noticed that Harry managed this first. I believe this is because he has performed wandless magic before. The rest of you will soon catch up. Now, try Expelliamus…”


	Luna the Moon Monster's Fanfiction Archive \| home Prologue \| Chapter One \| Chapter Two \| Chapter Three \| Chapter Four \| Chapter Five \| First Interlude \| Chapter Six \| Chapter Seven \| Chapter Eight \| Chapter Nine \| Chapter Ten \| Chapter Eleven \| Chapter Twelve \| Chapter Thirteen \| Chapter Fourteen \| Chapter Fifteen \| Chapter Sixteen \| Chapter Seventeen \| Chapter Eighteen \| Chapter Nineteen \| Chapter Twenty \| Second Interlude \| Chapter Twenty-One \| Chapter Twenty-Two \| Chapter Twenty-Three \| Chapter Twenty-Four \| Chapter Twenty-Five \| Chapter Twenty-Six \| Third Interlude \| Chapter Twenty-Seven \| Chapter Twenty-Eight \| Chapter Twenty-Nine \| Epilogue \| Timeline Chapter Sixteen The Wonders of Wandless Magic Sunday found all seven friends sitting in a remote corner of the Hogwarts library, stacks of books on all sides. Ron, Hermione and Harry were all reading their copies of `Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them', whereas the others, having non-magical forms, were looking through some of the library books. Gallatea couldn't help looking over at Harry's book every now and again, staring in wonder at the English words written on the page. “ Harry?” “ Yes, `Tea.” “ Will you teach me your tongue?” “ Will I teach you what?” “ The language you are reading. Is that what you speak at home?” “ Yes it is, it's called English. From what I remember from primary school, English is based on Anglo-Saxon, so you'd probably recognise some of the words. There are a lot of Latin and Greek words in it too, so I don't thing it would be too hard for you to learn. Why would you want to, though? No one else will speak modern English for about 800 years!” “ It would be interesting. I could write a book after you have left. A chronicle of your year here from my perspective. Ginny's book will tell it from your viewpoint, so I think it would be good to have mine as well. I could write it in English, and then people would be able to read it in your time. It would also be fun to have people trying to work out what it said for the next few hundred years!” Harry couldn't help but laugh. She did have a point. Ginny's book would only give them the whole situation from their point of view. It would be interesting to see an Anglo-Saxon person's take on the whole thing. Harry went back to looking through his book, as he thought of the best time to teach Gallatea what she wanted to know. After a while he came to a decision. “ `Tea?” “ Yes?” “ How does this sound? On Sundays we spend the mornings in the Gryffindor room, and I'll teach you English. In the afternoons we can practice our transformations and do more research.” “ Sounds good,” the girl replied, turning back to her `Encyclopedia of Raptors'. Harry took one more look at his book before surmising that his animagus form was unique. He couldn't find any information on it at all. The closest he could find was a golden gryphon. Unlike the common gryphon, which had the head, forelegs and wings of a bird and the hind legs and tail of a lion, the golden gryphon was a whole lion, with wings on its back. This was the real symbol of Gryffindor House, as he had discovered from the founder himself. Harry's form was similar to the golden gryphon, in as much as it was a winged `big' cat, only it was a snow leopard rather than a lion. Very curious. Putting his book aside, Harry pulled out the animagus book Sirius had given him for his birthday and sat down to read through it. ~~* Later that day found Harry making his way to the hospital wing. He'd grown bored with his book after a couple of hours, and the others were all still researching their animals, so he decided to go and visit the elf healer. She had intrigued him when he had seen her the other day, and he thought he might be able to learn something useful from her. After all, as Ron had said, elves were never seen in his time. It was too good an opportunity to miss. Pushing open the heavy door, Harry scanned the room for any sign of the tall woman. The only inhabitant he could see was a sleeping Horatio. He considered playing a prank on the other boy, but decided against it. After all, the healer probably wouldn't be too impressed with him if he attacked one of her patents. Moving over to the small office at the far end of the hospital wing, Harry knocked on the door and hoped the elf was in. After a moment the door was pulled open and the elven woman poked her head around the door. “ Can I help you, dear?” she asked in a lilting voice. Harry could just stare at her in awe. “ Hello, I'm Harry Potter, I was wondering if I could speak to you.” She eyed him for a few minutes before pulling the door open wider and gesturing to a seat. Once the Boy-Who-Lived was seated, she opened the conversation. “ I was wondering, ma'am…” “ Please, call me Lolide,” she interrupted. “ Lolide…I noticed you were an elf…” “ And still am.” “…and I was just thinking…” “ Yes?” “…would you mind telling me more about your people? I mean, where I come from…you know where I come from?” “ Yes I do.” “ Right, that helps…where I come from, all of the elves hide from the humans. My kind, from what I can gather, hasn't seen any elves for about 600 years…” “ So you thought while you were here you would come and grill me for information?” she asked in amusement. “ Well…um…sort of, yeah…” “ Very well then, I see it could be very useful to the humans of your time if you knew more about me. I will make you an offer, but bare in mind, this offer is open only to you. Your friends must not know about this. I sense I can trust you, as I trust the Lady Ravenclaw, to whom I owe a life debt. You must breathe not a word of the time we spend together to anyone. I will teach you things you may find useful in the future, but you must understand that the wisdom of my people is not given lightly. Do you accept my conditions?” “ Yes,” the boy agreed, surprised by her willingness to teach him. “ Very well. I believe you are being taught invisibility by Lady Ravenclaw.” “ Yes.” “ That skill should not take long to master, not as long as the other skills you are learning. For you, with the level of power I sense in you, the skill will take but a few weeks to learn, provided you practice as often as you can. I propose, that once you have finished your invisibility lessons, you will spend your evening with me from 6 until 10. I will teach you the customs of my people, our tongue, and our magic. I do this in the hope that once you return to your own time you will seek out the elves and bring peace between our people. Do you agree?” Harry could do nothing but nod. He couldn't believe he would be learning elven magic. When he decided to come here he had expected to receive little in the way of information, but this was far more than he could have ever hoped for. ~~* It was a rather vacant looking Harry that met the others in the Gryffindor room that evening. Ron and Ginny looked at each other briefly before turning to watch their friend. He looked deep in thought and they were worried it was about something serious. Hermione hadn't even noticed Harry come in. She had borrowed his copy of `Animagi - All You Ever Wanted to Know' and was still reading it now while they waited for the founder to turn up. Right on time the door swung open to reveal the slender figure of Rowena Ravenclaw. She smiled at the group, before waving her hand to summon five comfy armchairs in a circle on the central mat. Taking a seat, she gestured for them to do the same before she started the lesson. “ Now, then. Today we will be going over the basics of wandless magic. We will start with simple spells, and work our way up to harder material. As you know, wandless magic is performed by hand gestures rather than wand movements. You also need to mentally focus more, as you have no wand to focus the magic for you. Now, hold out your hands and point your fingers.” They all followed her instructions, feeling rather stupid sitting with their fingers outstretched. As they did this, Ravenclaw waved her hand and four feathers appeared, one in front of each chair. “ Once you get more used to wandless magic, you will be able to perform spells without speaking the incantation. You merely have to think the spell and perform the correct hand gestures. I would like you to start by pointing at your feathers and concentrating on focusing your magic. I then want you to try Wingardium Leviosa on the feathers. Don't worry if you have trouble at first. Practice makes perfect, after all.” Feeling foolish, the four teens concentrated on the feathers in front of them and waved their hands in a `swish and flick' motion while muttering the incantation. Harry's feather floated neatly off the floor, while Hermione and Ginny both managed it on the second try. Much to his annoyance, it took Ron a full five minutes to perform the spell. “ Well done, all of you. It normally takes the first years a lot longer to master it. Five points to each of you. Now you may have noticed that Harry managed this first. I believe this is because he has performed wandless magic before. The rest of you will soon catch up. Now, try Expelliamus…” Previous chapter Next chapter