TORMENT (Harry Potter Sequel)

Chapter Twenty Four

Tom sat upright on his bed. His body was slightly hunched over and in his hands lay the wand that the Headmaster had given him. It felt so light between his fingers but also... unnatural. His last wand felt unnatural as well but not to this degree. It was like the wand itself was calling out. Calling out for something... or someone. Tom had no idea what it was. He fiddled around with it, inspecting its intricacies and seeing the parts which Professor Potter had mended. While Tom's last wand had been straightforward and unimpressive, this was anything but. It had patterns all over it and felt ancient and rich. As Tom felt the wand in his hand, his mind wandered elsewhere- to what had happened last night. Being attacked by those Gryffindors. Being thrown into the bottom of the lake. Being saved.

Wait.

Tom's mind just felt like it exploded. All of a sudden, he had a huge epiphany. He stood up suddenly. He was glad his dorm was empty because otherwise everyone would've looked at him strangely.

As Tom recollected the events of yesterday and came to a shocking conclusion.

"I... can stop magic," he couldn't help but say it out loud. He'd guessed- maybe hoped- that it would be true but now that he said it... now he felt GUARANTEED it was true. It just all made sense.

'This year... last year... the year before that... it HAS to be!'

Tom held the wand that he had been given, up in front of him. He didn't know it worked. He didn't know how he did it. But he did do it. He must do. Tom gripped the wand in his hand and shut his eyes. He breathed in calmly and then breathed out calmly. He focused his brow. And listened.

The wand still called out. He could hear its whispers. Tom frowned and opened his eyes. He collected himself again and then... breathed in calmly and out calmly. He once again shut his eyes. And listened.

It stopped. Tom's eyes shot open. The wand stopped. There were no more whisperings. Tom was sure of it. He swished the wand and tried to perform a spell. Nothing happened. Tom, mystified, looked down at the wand. For a full five minutes he kept trying and failing to perform any magic. For that five minutes, the world around him also seemed to drain of all energy. The usual lively lights of the dorm room. grew dimmer and greyer like a filter had been put over everything.

And then they came back. The whispering of the wand. Tom's ability to use the wand and the liveliness of the world around him- all returned. For exactly five minutes though, Tom had stopped it. And he knew he had. He didn't know how this ability of his worked but he now knew it was an ability. And an ability... that he could use.

"Did you hear about the thing?"

It had been a month since Tom had discovered his special ability. He still hadn't told anyone about it and he didn't plan to. He'd found out that his ability seemed to have a cooldown of around a day and after using the ability it would need to 'recharge'. 5 minutes was the maximum time he could use the ability for before magic returned to normal around him. He'd been sneakily using it occasionally around the grounds and had found it worked on everyone- aside from ghosts and other such. He pretty much had full control over the ability now and could use it at will- not that he really had much use for it.

Tom who was currently eating a sausage, looking up at Alannah, "Huh?" he murmured in response to her question. Alannah groaned.

"Did you hear about the thing?" she repeated.

Tom shook his head, "What thing?"

"The thing! Jeez you haven't been listening in classes at all!"