the one | h. potter

8. get to know you

"So you're friends with Andromeda?" I ask.

"Well yeah, I guess. I'm Teddy's godfather."

I nod. We walk over to the kitchen and Harry pours me the cup of tea he offered earlier. Now alone with just Harry, my leg starts to burn, but I ignore it.

"You make tea the muggle way," I notice.

Harry shrugs. "Just used to it, I guess." He pauses, looking a bit tense. "Did you know Tonks and Lupin well?"

I nod hesitantly. "Yeah, I did."

"Strange. I never saw you at any Order meetings."

I think through my next words carefully. "I saved their lives a couple of times, during the war," I tell him. "That isn't common knowledge, and I'd prefer if you kept it that way." He nods slowly, absorbing the information.

"That's very brave of you," he says.

I laugh. "That's very high praise, especially from you." 

"What can I say? I am the epitome of a Gryffindor." He smiles a soft, goofy smile.

"You might be, but I'm a Ravenclaw and here to tutor you in spells," I remind him. Harry seems to have forgotten the main purpose of my visit, and his face is overcome by surprise. 

"Right! Yes, yes I totally forgot. I haven't been having trouble with any of the new spells we learned verbally, I just wanna try converting to non-verbal before one of the instructors gives us a quiz. I'm typically better at wandless spells than wordless spells, and I've had trouble with non-verbals in the past. It's just getting much harder with all these advanced spells."

"That's quite unusual, actually. Most people are better at wordless spells, but you're also more powerful than most people... Can I see your stance?"

"Uh- my what?"

"Stance. Just stand there and point your wand at" I pause and summon a pillow, placing it on a chair. "This pillow."

Harry points his wand at the pillow, and I immediately see it; his stance is off.

"Yup. It's your stance. Your shoulders aren't straight, your feet are too far apart, your knees aren't bent. And you're planting your whole foot on the ground, which won't work. You want to always move on the balls of your feet."

Harry adjusts to a new position. "Like this?"

I nod. "That's better. Now, try blowing up that pillow with the raznetti spell."

Harry concentrates hard and a bright blue light shoots out of his wand and blows the pillow up. He looks shocked. "I've never been able to do non-verbals on the first try!" he exclaims. "How'd you know that my stance was off?"

"No offense, but your posture isn't that amazing. Slumping your shoulders misaligns your back, and by contrast, your magical core."

"That's an interesting way to think about it."

"Yeah. You wanna try a couple more?"

"Sure, yeah!" he says. I flick my wrist and the pillow repairs itself and sets itself back on the chair.

Harry's successful until I have him try to cast an Acid Hex. Even with the words, his wand isn't producing anything but some bright white smoke. I frown and check his posture again.

"Your stance is still good, so it's not that. Your pronunciation is spot on... Let's see those hand movements."

Harry performs the complicated hand gesture and I laugh. "That's the wrong one."