In the third week of November Harry had finished all four Test Frames for Hogwarts. He'd even made sure to make the wood surrounding the stone frame match the House colors of whichever House it belonged to. Professor Flitwick had charmed a spot on the wall for the Test Frame to stick on so that nobody tried to take it. Now Harry watched a few of his Housemates check their mana amounts throughout the week. He'd noticed that there was a marked increase in overall mana levels since he'd unveiled the Test Frames. But if a numerical reading helped Witches and Wizards improve themselves then Harry thought he'd done some good.
Currently Harry was practicing his spells in the practice area of his hidden workshop. He was trying to conjure lightning like he did fire and water. He'd found a base spell to get the theory from and was now working on doing it his way and making it wandless. The Thunderbolt Curse or Fulmen Curse was a fairly powerful spell that took a good amount of control to cast so that the user didn't end up harming themselves with it. The theory was there but Harry was having a difficult time finding just the right amount of mana to use. Too little and he either got nothing or only a small spark. Too much and arcs of electricity jumped everywhere. Not to mention it was rather draining on his mana. Casting it with his wand lightened the load but he could still only cast it about six times at most before he just didn't have enough mana left. Casting it wandlessly reduced his casting down to two of the uncontrollable bursts. A knock on the door got his attention and Harry, knowing it could only be Tonks or Penny, went over to open the door.
"Wotcher, Harry!" Tonks grinned as she walked into the room with a smile.
"Afternoon, Harry, I hope we aren't intruding." Penny greeted as Harry shook his head to let her know he didn't mind them being there.
"Smells like it just rained in here, what are practicing now, air freshening charms?" Tonks asked only for Harry to smile deviously.
"Nope." Harry grinned before holding his hand out and facing away from the two girls. Both witches started as an electric buzz was heard and sparks of lightning danced off of Harry's bare palm for a few seconds. Harry turned back to look at his friends only to crack up at the shocked looks on their faces. "That's why it smells like it just rained."
"Harry, you just…you just…" Penny trailed off in shock.
"You just used wandless magic!" Tonks shouted near hysteric as she gazed on her First Year friend as if she'd never seen him before.
"Well yeah, I don't plan to be restricted to a wand to cast spells." Harry stated matter of factly. "It takes a bit of time to get it right but I've managed a few spells so far."
"But…you…I…how?" Penny was still stuck in her shocked state.
"I have more than ten times the mana you had when you showed your mana amount to everyone and I can't use Wandless Magic. So how can you? All the books I've ever read say that only really powerful Witches and Wizards can use Wandless Magic." Tonks laid out her confusion while Penny nodded along.
"Those books are only going off the concept that one needs a focus to perform Magic. I discovered my magic before I'd ever heard of half those theories so I had no preconceived notion that Magic needed a wand. To be honest I'm sure anyone could learn to use Magic without any Magical Focus if they tried. Heck small children do it all the time; they just call it Accidental Magic because it's often unfocused or causes something random to happen." Harry explained the opinion he'd developed and shared with his late mother.
"But if you don't need a wand then why are they so standard?" Penny asked with Tonks nodding along with her this time.
"My best guess? Foci make casting Magic easier, so people started relying on them sometime after the wand was introduced. It is one of the most versatile foci to have ever been developed. Then again some of the books that have been written since then might have changed over the years. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the older books on Magic said something like, 'Magic requires focus.' and that later got rewritten as 'Magic requires a focus.' it seems plausible to me at least." Harry reasoned slowly getting nods of understanding from his two friends.
"Can you teach us how to do that?" Tonks asked eagerly.
"Possibly, but I was planning on keeping the method of discovery a Family Secret, something I could pass on to my children in the future. Then they could pass it on to theirs." Harry explained with a sigh as he pondered on the future he'd like to have.
"That's a reasonable thing to want, Harry. We won't force you to teach us if you don't want to." Penny assured him with a shake of her head.
"Well I have the obvious solution to this dilemma!" Tonks announced with her hands on her hips. Both of the Ravenclaws looked over at their friend in confusion.
"What's that?" Penny asked warily already expecting something outrageous from the Metamorphmagus.
"We both just marry Harry, of course!" Tonks exclaimed with a smile and a nod of her head.
"Tonks!" Harry choked out as he blushed so badly he thought all of the blood in his body might be in his face.
"Oh Merlin…" Penny sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose while letting out a deep sigh.
"What? This solves everything! Harry gets to keep it a Family Secret and we get to learn Wandless Magic, it's a win-win!" Tonks declared with a bright smile.
"Tonks, Harry's eleven; he can't get married for six more years. You are also six years older than him and I'm four years older than him. That's not forgetting that multiple marriages have long since fallen out of common practice. What about all of that?" Penny asked her excitable friend.