mudblood_andproud | Books, Broomsticks and Butterbeer Oh My! ((Jim))

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Books, Broomsticks and Butterbeer Oh My! ((Jim))

Hermione was excited for the day ahead of her. It was finally time that she could bring Jim to Diagon Alley with her, so he could see a part of the Wizarding world. It had taken some time, since she had needed to talk to Minerva McGonagall and Arthur Weasley, and sign off a few scrolls to bring a Muggle to Diagon Alley. But Hermione had followed the letter of the Wizarding laws in these regards, so there was no worries on her end.

She had decided to open the PINpoint portal in her own home, a small cottage located in Wiltshire. After all, it was best that a portal wasn't open in Diagon Alley, where any wizard or witch could discover it, and try to gain access to the Nexus themselves.

Hermione send out a quick message to Jim, hoping that he was available.

Good morning! Feel up to exploring some of the magical world with me? Hermione

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"With small flicks of your wand. You have to be careful not to exaggerate your wand movements too much. And once the object is levitated, you don't have to keep on forming the rune with the wand to keep it floating."

"Okay, I see how to nudge it sideways or vertically, but what about distance from you?" He feels like he's asking an awful lot of questions now, but Hermione has been very patient with him so far, and he can see why the school wanted her. She's definitely got the attitude and the patience for it.

"It will continue to levitate... up and away from you... until you use your wand to almost drag it back to you." Hermione explains.

"All right..." Time to give it a shot. Jim says the incantation slightly wrong once, twice, until the third time he gets it right, aimed towards one of the stuffed animals she set out.

Hermione has to resist the temptation to correct his pronunciation. And nods with a smile when the stuffed animal in question floats up into the air.

"Good. Now can you make it float over to us?"

It's not at all intuitive, and the plushie bobs unsteadily from an unpracticed hand. But bit by wobbly bit, Jim succeeds at bringing it over towards them, and uses his free hand to take it out of the air. "That is really weird." But despite that, and despite the difficulties, he's oddly pleased with himself for being able to do it.

"Practice makes perfect. And even though this is just a training wand, and you might not have your own magical abilities, the charms will become stronger the more you use them."

"The last charm that is in the wand is a shielding spell, Protego."

"You have already seen me use it once." Hermione stands by him again, and casts the spell. "pro-TAY-goh!" And makes a straight line, horizontally, with her wand.

This one is the easiest of the three, both in wand movement and in pronunciation. "Protego," Jim says clearly, the shielding bubble springing into existence around him. But as easy as it is to cast, it's still not fast enough for Jim's liking. "What're the shield's limits?"

"The main you have to consider with the spell, is that Protego deflects physical entities and spells. Which means, that the physical attack or spell may sometimes rebound directly off the shield or may ricochet off in other directions."

"What about nonmagical energy? Like my phaser." He's not sure if she'll have the answer to that, since it's unlikely anyone has ever fired one at her.

"Not sure..."

For Hermione, there is only one way to test it. She walks across the field, until she is standing by where the stool was left.

"Try it. Aim for the stool."

Jim tucks the wand into his waistband and draws his phaser, making sure it's set to stun before aiming it at the specified target. This is a weapon that's comfortable in his hand, well practiced, and he zeroes in on the stool, squeezing off a shot. A bolt of blue light shoots out from the end of the silvery weapon, heading for the stool in the blink of an eye.

With a flick of her wrist, and not even saying the word this time, Hermione quickly erects the shield spell. The blue light of the phaser brightens the shield as it hits it, but the shot does not get past.

Hermione tilts her head, watching the shield from the other side.

"Was that the strongest setting?"

Jim shakes his head. "Nah, that was the weakest. Stun shot. The strongest setting can kill instantly, or cause severe burns. Figured it'd be a bad idea to fire one of those your way until we got some idea of how the shield would react."

Hermione raises her hands slightly, concentrating on maintaining the shield spell. There were many times while they had to live in the woods that the shield spell was very useful in protecting her friends.

"Try a stronger setting. I want to find out here and now, just in case I ever have to be in your world, and know what will protect me."

He can't fault her reasoning. It's dangerous, but he has very good aim. "Don't move," he tells her, taking aim at a part of the bubble that's off to the side. If it goes through, it shouldn't hit her, so long as she doesn't flinch. If it ricochets, it should go off to the side instead of rebounding straight at the captain.

Jim presses the setting on the side of the phaser to change the setting, and the end of the gun flips around, the blue glow of the stun setting replaced with the red glow of the kill setting. He carefully double checks his aim, steadying his hands, and squeezes off one single shot.

Hermione finds herself having to brace her stance, as the red glow of the phaser hits the shield spell, and the glow surrounds her. And it feels the same as protecting against several dark jinxes cast at the same time.

But the shot does not get through the shield.

And when it is safe, Hermione drops her shield. She drops slightly, sitting on the stool to gather her strength.

"A weaker wizard would not be able to stop that shot."

"In fact, there are many wizards who are unable to cast a proper Protego in the first place. That is why the Weasley brothers ensured that their training wands would help younger wizards learn such an important spell"

Jim switches the phaser back to stun mode and holsters it again, and walks over to check on her and make sure she's all right. "Because of the war?" he guesses.

"The Weasleys lost a son. A brother. A twin." Hermione glances down at the ground. "He was killed in an explosion, during the Battle at Hogwarts."

"Sorry to hear that." He really does mean it. He's had too much experience with loss not to.

Hermione takes a moment to collect herself. And nods her head in appreciation to his support. "In any case, the shielding charm in your wand will be able to protect you from minor and semi-major attacks. But nothing that would normally kill you, like a killing jinx, or a phaser shot on full blast. Unfortunately."

"I doubt it'd be fast enough in an emergency anyway. Better to go with the 'don't get hit' strategy."

"Articles of clothing can be woven with the shielding charm in them, if you have any interest in something like that." Hermione offers.

Jim considers it, but shakes his head. "I don't think that'd work. I go through a lot of uniforms. Thanks though."

"Anything else you want to see at Hogsmeade? Or would you like to head back to London and go into Diagon Alley."

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