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Serpentine Series	By : HarmonyB Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Hermione/Voldemort Views: 12060 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING IN REGARDS TO THE HARRY POTTER FANDOM NOR DO I MAKE MONEY OFF OF THIS STORY.

Chapter List
- 25
- 26
- 27
Harmony and Voldemort stood in the middle of the lesson hall facing each other. Their bodies were about ten centimeters apart, and Harmony could barely contain her fiery nerves at both his nearness and the spell she was about to learn. Her body quivered as she stood. For the life of her, she couldn't be still.
Master must've sensed her fear, for he said, "There's only one thing that can keep you from learning this spell, and that is yourself. Your fear of what you can or cannot do will keep you from becoming greater and more powerful than you already are."
"Aren't you ever afraid of what you're capable of?" she asked him on impulse, and then shut her mouth tight. She wasn't quite sure what she'd meant when she asked it; she'd always been certain her Master wasn't afraid of anything. But somehow it seemed logical that if he was capable of striking so much fear in others, it might follow that he may also frighten himself.
Voldemort gaped at her a moment, then shut his mouth and bit his lip in contemplative agitation. He took a few steps away from her as though she was a ticking bomb and he wanted to be a safe distance away. His lack of an answer set off alarms in her mind, and she wondered at how close to the truth she actually was.
"The Cascadia, or in this case, the Cascadia Maxima, requires every particle of want in your body," he told her. "It will produce directly from your core, and emit in sudden bursts of light."
"What does it look like, exactly?" she asked.
"I conjured one just this last week," he said. "Remember? When we were retrieving the Vanishing cabinet? When the Aurors came, I conjured a Cascadia."
"You mean the spell that you intended to shield me as well?" she asked.
"Precisely."
Harmony remembered the look on his face when he had failed to protect her back at Knockturn Alley. She hated bringing disappointment onto herself, but mostly she hated that weakness she felt where he was concerned. It brought this little nagging feeling at the back of her mind, and it told her the full honest truth that she was too afraid—too cowardly to admit: what she really hated was to disappoint him.
"But that was only a Cascadia," he explained. "A Cascadia Maxima is powerful enough to awaken and expand the magic inside your blood."
"If you're able to survive it," Harmony added.
Voldemort nodded grimly, and said, "Yes, if you survive. Let us begin."
Master ran Harmony through several exercises designed to calm and focus her mind, bringing her into a sort of hypnotic state. Harmony stood before him feeling as though she were floating; her eyes were closed and she sensed nothing but the sound of his voice. It felt heavy like velvet as it flowed through her mind, loud and precise as he spoke.
"I want you to imagine," he said as he stepped up behind her, "that hundreds of Aurors are running towards you, wands raised. You can't fight all of them off one at a time—so get rid of them all at once."
"How?" she asked feebly. She was consciously aware that his chest was pressing into her back.
"Sense your whole body swelling as if it is being filled with electrical energy, right here," he said as his hands reached around on each side to touch her belly. "Fill yourself up until you can feel the energy snapping and crackling inside you irrepressibly."
"I can see them coming," Harmony whispered. "They're surrounding me, but I don't—I can't stop them!"
"Yes you can," Master's voice said right into her ear; his breath tickled her skin. "Force your power to surge through your core. You can feel it right here, just use it." His hand pushed her abdomen again, a little more forcefully this time.
Harmony felt a surging heat in the pit of her stomach where he touched her. She tried to stay calm and concentrate on his voice.
"Put your hands there, Harmony, right on your core." He took both her hands and placed them where his where. "Hold them there like you're holding a ball of energy, just like I showed you before." His hands covered hers, firmly holding them where he wanted. "Now fill that ball up with all of your power. Feel it grow warm with the electricity."
In utter amazement, she really did begin to feel warmer. She broke free of her hypnotic state to look down at her hands and see if there was any light in them from her power.
However, the warmth wasn't coming from her own hands, but from Voldemort's, as though he had encased them to help support the power she was attempting to emit. She was looking at their joined hands when one of his thumbs ran over her knuckle. She paused this moment and realized that to an onlooker it would appear as though he were hugging her from behind.
Harmony sucked in a breath. She felt him tilt his head over her shoulder and press his lips to her ear.
"Focus," he hissed, making strands of her hair quiver. "You need to visualize. This spell is difficult to learn without provoking a few emotions."
"I can't," she said, swallowing hard. Her breath came in short gasps.
"You will," he told her assertively as he squeezed her against him tighter.
Harmony slipped her hands away from his and closed her eyes. She breathed deeply until she was centered, and this time he did not speak until she was ready.
"Do you have the visual?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Now, these Aurors would love nothing more than to kill you, to destroy you with every curse they possess…You don't want them to kill you, do you?"
"Of course not."
"Then stop them. Force them away from you."
Harmony searched within herself, seeking the well of magic she knew she possessed. Instinctively, she realized that she would have to destroy whatever it was that kept this well of magic trapped. She must break the barriers and let every part of her flow free through the broken dam. In her mind she saw the unused magic, powerful and bright, waiting there. She just needed to let it go.
"I see the energy," she whispered in total concentration.
"Release it, then," Master's voice echoed in her mind. "Let it boil over and force it away from you."
Harmony flexed every one of her core muscles and tried to break through. It's too strong, she thought in exasperation. It seemed hopeless, like beating her fists on a concrete wall. But the more she forced herself onto the mental barrier, the more it seemed to chip away. Rays of light tried to force their way out. The more Harmony managed to destroy of the concrete, the more light broke through.
Then something inside her snapped. Like a huge ball of fire, a stream of light shot through her magical barrier. Starting where she held up her hands, the light expanded to encompass her whole body.
It felt like her skin had caught fire, and from behind her closed eyelids she could see a flash of bright, iridescent blue. It looked almost as if lightning had flashed right beside her, and her eyes shot open in surprise. But the light was gone before she could see it.
Harmony would've thought she had imagined it if it weren't for the startled look on Master's face. Neither one of them moved a muscle.
"Did—did I do it?" she asked hesitantly.
"Not exactly," he answered and Harmony dropped her arms in exasperation. "But it was close, though. You nearly did a Cascadia. It expanded all the way to me. The power nearly tipped me right off my feet." He smiled at her, and it made Harmony's stomach do a little flip. His eyes looked over Harmony's shoulder. "Impressive, was it not, Draco Malfoy?"
She spun around to see that Lucius and his son had opened the door to the lesson hall just in time to see her performance. Lucius was looking at Harmony like a gnat that had flown in but wasn't allowed to be swatted. Draco gazed at her in amazement.
"Harmony, take Draco out into the hall while I speak to his father," Voldemort commanded her.
Harmony had been surprised to see her enemy classmate, and she had to give herself a mental shake. But after the shock came annoyance towards her Master. How could he tell her to leave, just like that? Was she not important enough to be let in on his plans? He could share everything else with her, why not this?
Her eyes flashed as she turned on her heel and huffed past Draco without a word. She stepped into the hallway and heard Draco's steps following behind. He closed the doors, and after a few seconds, he mirrored her very sentiments.
"How can they just throw me out," he said resentfully, "like I don't want to be included in their plans? Ridiculous. It's almost like they're treating us like-"
"—like children," Harmony finished. She remembered to change the tone of her voice, so he wouldn't recognize her.
"Precisely," said Draco as he looked over at her with a snarky—but appreciative—smile.
Harmony blinked. She saw him smile and realized that never, in all the years she'd known him, had he ever directed a smile toward her. She was certain that if he knew who she really was that would not have been the case. It was kind of nice, him not knowing who she was. It gave her a kind of power over him.
Then his smile faded and he asked in a more serious tone, "How did you do that?"
"Do what?" she asked in her deeper voice.
"Don't be stupid. That blue force-field charm."
"The Cascadia?"
"You didn't even use your wand," he pointed out.
"The wand is merely a conduit to concentrate the magic within the wizard," she said, remembering what Voldemort told her. "It doesn't have a thing to do with what a wizard is truly capable of."
"But how could you do it? You can't be that much older than me."
"I don't know," Harmony answered honestly. "I suppose working side-by-side with the Dark Lord must've changed me magically. Since I've known him, I've been capable of so much more."
Draco's eyes darkened as he said in a covetous voice, "I need to learn that spell."
"It's quite difficult," she said. "That wasn't even the complete version of the charm."
"Not even the complete charm," he scoffed, and then added, "and yet somehow you were able to conjure a partial one."
Harmony's face grew hot when she saw his admiring glance. It was the strangest feeling to know that with one flip of her scarf she could change his expression in a heartbeat.
"How does a student—just some kid—learn to wield that kind of power?" he said in wonder. "And I was told you're from Hogwarts. I feel like I should recognize you, but I don't. Why do you wear that stupid thing over your face if people have seen you before? What are you trying to hide?"
He reached out a hand, intent on pulling down the scarf so he could find out who she really was. Harmony jumped away and drew her wand, pointing it right between his eyes. Draco raised the hand defensively as he stared, cross-eyed, at the wand tip.
"I wear it for my own protection," she growled at him. "That is all you need to know."
"I was only being curious," he said in defense. "No need to be so touchy."
Barty Crouch, Jr. noticed the pair of them and sauntered over. Draco looked relieved when Harmony put her wand away as he approached.
"I see Lucius already has his son sucking up to the Dark Lord's favorite," Barty said as he stood next to the young wizard.
Draco took a large, over-exaggerated sniff of air and asked Harmony, "Do you smell rubbish?" Then he cast Barty a hateful glance.
Barty chortled with glee and gave Draco's shoulder such a hard pound that the boy winced. "I can see you two are getting along well, Draco. She mostly ignores me. Always playing hard-to-get. What's your secret, boy?"
"It's 'Malfoy' to you," Draco sneered as he shrugged away Barty's hand and straightened his fine black coat.
He grunted, ignoring Draco's comment. "Yeah, you won't have much luck getting her out of those clothes, either. Not this feisty girl," Barty added as he flipped the bottom of her face scarf playfully. She swatted his hand away. "I've tried it myself, mind—but of course, that doesn't mean I'm done with her yet—"
"Oh, shut it, Barty," said Harmony.
Barty laughed and jabbed Draco in the ribs with an elbow. "See what I mean?"
The doors to the lesson hall opened and the two men walked out. Barty and Draco immediately bowed their heads and said, "My Lord," like a couple of parrots. Harmony didn't think about following their lead until Lucius gazed at her and she felt she had no choice but to incline her head as well.
"Your father tells me you are having difficulty with the task I've given you," Master said, and Draco turned pale.
"I am trying, my Lord," the boy explained. "I know how important to your cause my task is."
"It is extremely important," Master told him as his blue eyes drilled into the young wizard. "And if you fail this task, there will be consequences. You do know what those consequences are. Do you not, young Draco?"
Draco nodded in reply, but to Harmony the response looked more like a twitch of fear. He stared at the silver clasps on the front of Voldemort's robes, unable to look him in the eye. At this display of vulnerability, Harmony felt pity for her former classmate. She was certain this was the only side of their Lord the young wizard would ever see, and was grateful to know how much more to him there really was.
- 25
- 26
- 27
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Serpentine Series