Chapter 37
I was sitting in a compartment in the Hogwarts express after having regained my memories of my heist, destination, London.
“How are you feeling?” Susan asked warily.
I had only woken up this morning, so this was the first chance my friends had to interrogate me about what had happened.
“I guess I'm just glad it's over.” I said, causing the three students to exchange confused glances.
“Happy that what's over?”
I grinned at them. “The nightmare.”
I put on a serious face and they immediately stopped chattering at me and snapped to attention. I wasn't serious often around them, but when I was I always said something important.
“I won't be in the country during the summer.” I raised my hand to quell their protests.
“I can't talk about what happened.” I gave them my serious, serious look.
“But I want you too prepare for what might just be the second wizarding war” Struck silent by my words they just sat there and stared at me with wide eyes.
Wayne and Hermione hadn't been really affected by the war, but Susan had lost almost her entire family.
She was shaking her head, unable to deal with my revelation. I was more surprised that she wasn’t denying it. Then I remembered that I’d crafted myself into a charismatic if eccentric leader whose predictions always came through and who tried to be as helpful as possible, right.
“Snap out of it!” Startling at my loud voice they turned their attention to me again.
“We have time to prepare and it might not happen, do you know how the trace works?” Susan was the only one who didn't shake her head.
I nodded at her, urging her to explain. Breathing in deeply looking as if she was holding back tears she started talking.
“A wand is enchanted to report any magic cast with it to the ministry if the owner is under 17 years of age and there are no other magicals present in close proximity.” I nodded.
“Yes, purebloods thus usually borrow the wands of their parents if they want to try something out, or they just do it with their own, there being no chance of detection if they’re in the same house as their parents.” My wand of course had no such thing.
As if I would let myself be controlled by the ministry of all things.
The expected outburst from Hermione didn't come, was she less of a social justice warrior due to being in Ravenclaw? I gave her a quizzical look. She just smiled at me in a tired way.
“You have a solution?” She asked.
I pulled out Voldemort's wand, I had painted it a dark brown colour so that nobody would recognize it and handed it to Hermione who took it and stared at it.
“It's quite long.” Wayne apparently couldn't help himself.
“That's what she said.” Replied Hermione.
“I think you’re switching long and short again.” The joke wasn’t as good as it could have been due to Hermione being a girl, but we had more important things to be doing anyway.
I interrupted their exchange before it could continue.
“Try a spell.” I pointed a pebble I had dropped onto the ground
I could see her concentrating and after a few practice wand motions she cast the levitation charm.
“Wingardium Leviosa”
The pebble rolled over. Seeing the disappointed expression on her face I put her at ease.
“It's almost impossible to get a reaction from a wand not suited for you, I'm surprised you even managed something on the first try.”
After a bit of chatting about how Gryffindor had stolen the house cup from us I pulled out three pieces of parchment.
“What are those?” The bushy haired girl finally turned away from her practice and focused on me again, I was impressed that she could make the pebble levitate a few inches of the ground already, even if it fell down almost immediately.
“These are some of the most useful spells I know for fighting, you will be learning all of them.” Wayne was the only one who groaned theatrically, the other two stayed silent. Boys.
“Don't see it as homework, see it as something that might save your life or the life of your family in the future.”
My best male friend nodded.
“You only have five spells to learn. Accio, the summoning charm and it's counterpart Depulso the banishing charm.”
“Why do you think I find these two important?” I asked.
They looked thoughtful, good. Surprisingly it was Wayne that answered.
“Well if there is something behind the enemy you could summon it distracting him.” I nodded. He shrugged.
“And the banishing thing I guess is the same but from the front.”
“Correct, the next spell is Protego the shielding spell.” I said with a scowl.
“Honestly, shielding is one of the stupidest things you can do in a fight since you'll be hard pressed to actually start the offensive again, but, you need it to protect others as well.”
“The last spell is the stunning charm, also known as stunner, incantation Stupefy, counterspell is Rennervate.“ They looked a bit overwhelmed by the torrent of information, so I handed them their parchments and let them soak it in.
-/-
On arrival at King’s cross I said my goodbyes to basically everyone in my house, exited the train and apparated after turning a corner to make sure no one saw me.