The Christmas holidays ended fast. And Richard found himself back in Hogwarts.
Things were nice.
Except for one small detail.
"What the hell are you two doing?"
"What?"
Richard rubbed his forehead with exasperation.
"I mean, why are both of you glaring at that poor girl? " both Harry and Ron were doing their best to set their favourite bushy haired friend in fire using nothing but their eyes.
"What did she do? Did she start snogging Goyle or something?"
Pfft!
Chough
Harry chocked on a piece of toast while Ron nearly spat out his drink.
"What in the name of Merlin is wrong with you man!?" Ron groaned as he wiped his face. " Ew! Now I'm never getting that image out of my head. Yuck!"
" Yeah, we were eating here. "
Richard shrugged. "Then what happened? Last time I saw you guys, you were like peas in a pod"
"She betrayed us." Ron replied. "Thats what happened. Harry tell him about the fire bolt."
Fire bolt? A ahh..
Richard remembered reading the books. Just a little.
He waited until Harry told the story, and stood up.
Basically, Hermione just handed over a suspicious gift that arrived for Harry to the professors. And they were pissed off because what got handed over to the professors, was Harry's new fire bolt, sent to him by Black himself.
Basically, they were mad because they were acting like spoiled brats.
"You guys are jerks."
...
Richard spent some time with Luna, and once again left his bishop with her.
She liked it, and Richard wanted to ensure her safety. Yes, he wanted her to his peerage, but! He didn't want to risk her life just to get a chance to plant the piece in her.
The world would definitely try to kill her, like it did with Tonks, and he would feel very, very responsible if she actually ended up dead before he could swoop in the last second with an evil piece.
She deserved better.
Richard ended their talk and walked away still thinking about nargles and wrackspurts.
' maybe they are magical residue from emotions?'
Richard thought.
He placed her into the category of an empath. She was frightfully aware of other's emotions and mental states despite being not so experienced in resolving them.
Still...
If emotion nodes activated magic on its own, it would pose a problem.
'No,' Richard concluded. It wasn't that node activated magic on its own, but rather, the nodes amplified the intent that forms the auxiliary circuit.
But without it being a used up as a spell, he magic should remain for some time inside the wizard, slowly breaking down with time.
Or would it remain like that forever? Or rather, could he keep it there forever?
The only example he could draw was the obscurus. It too was a magical energy aggregate that was formed through intense emotion.
What if he could create one as well? One which could be controlled?
Because , while using magic circuits was powerful, and instant,they drain the mental strength easily.
Auxiliary magic was easier, but it was limited, and needed skill, practice and a wand. The wand less magic of the same level lacked power entirely and lacked versatility making it completely useless.
Besides, its better to have control over all three components. Even more so, to have a tangible storage of magic, instead of just using spells.
A mass of magical energy stored could give way to hundreds of new avenues. Unlike an energy that remains dormant, only to be manifested through spells, having an excess would prove to be useful and versatile.
Mostly because anime moves he wanted to try for so long were based on an internally available energy.
But still.. ..That was for later. All of that was just his speculation. Training with Luna must be done, but that would come after he deals with what's at hand at the moment.
For now, he was going to do something else. He was going to do some relationship building.
And it involved the brown haired girl who liked reading books.
He wasn't too good at dealing with people, but he decided to break a leg.
"Hey, Hermione, want to go out?"
The sound of pages flipping stopped, and sound froze in the library.
Now usually, the library is a quiet place. But the moment Richard said that, for some reason it grew even more. The silence was tangible.
'Thump'
Hermione closed the thick book and looked at him incredulously.
"What?"
It took a second for Richard himself to understand why she was reacting like that.
He would have been flustered, if he wasn't already struggling to maintain the conversation from the beginning. Speaking to people here, showing interest ..those things were a bit weird to him. Buthe had decided to try it, so...
"I meant going outside to practice charms. And by charms, I meant magical ones. Not the dating type... "
Richard tried to explain, going into detail. But for some reason, the more he talked, the more he felt weird.
He sighed in defeat.
'I really should have kept my mouth shut.'
His social skills were really not on par, for him to communicate normally.
"I'm inviting you for a strictly non romantic related academic exchange of magical expertise . would you care to join me?"
Richard still felt the awkward atmosphere. Specially with others in the library glancing at them with obvious interest.
And it seemed like Hermione noticed it as well , because she too seemed uncomfortable.
"Give me a minute."
She agreed and quickly packed her bags before rushing out as if the building was on fire.
For a second, Richard looked around and quickly followed. Its too bad Hogwarts doesn't allow students to cast memory charms on other students. Otherwise he would have definitely obliviated the couple of students who definitely heard his blunder.
....
"Have you seen Crookshanks?"
Richard questioned her as they walked out.
"I've been looking forward to seeing him, but he's never around these days."
That cat was smarter than anyone else. And since he wanted to get his hands on a slippery rat, what was better than a crafty cat?
"He's been awfully cramped in the castle, so he keeps going out ."
She looked a little concerned. "And I don't think Ron's gonna be happy to see it around."
"Because of his rat? I never liked it." Rats are dirty, germ filled scavenger vermins filled with diseses and parasites. That applied to both the animal and the animagus in this context.
They walked out of the class without speaking much.
"What's your level these days?"
Richard asked as he pulled out his wand. They hadn't done this before, so he needed to know her current ability.
Lockhart's trials were disasterous. But because of his performance and the collective insistence of Flitwick and himself, Dumbledor and the school board had reduced the constraints around dueling. So most students had practice. Still, he hadn't faced Hermione till now.
"I don't want to go mop the floor with a newbie."
Hermione smiled a little.
"You are looking at the top scorer of every year Richard. I think I can handle myself pretty well enough."
"Sure sure.." Richard waved off her confident remark while pulling out his wand. They were outside already. "Ten galleons says you can't get a single spell on me."
"Is that a challenge?" She huffed while pulling out her own wand. "I'll have you know that I've read about the most advanced dueling practices and combat spells up to the date. You cannot simply hope to match my expertise."
She was kidding. That much was evident from the smirk on her face.
"Well then, " Richard held his wand at the ready. "I suppose I should prepare myself to wake up in the infirmary?"
."I'll make sure you wake up in St Mungo's if you would prefer otherwise."
Hermione replied with a grin. Because despite all her model act she was still a Griffindor.