Gemini Malfoy (a Harry Potter OC)

Legerdemain

The sudden excitement of Dumbledores Army along with the few more hours of sleep I'd been getting had drastically improved my mood.

After classes on a pleasantly snowing Friday I came across Hermione studying intently in the library. "Hi." I say stupidly.

She looks up surprised, having clearly been hyper-focused on her work. "Hello Gem."

"Can I sit with you?" I hadn't expected myself to say it, but there was little risk of being seen together, and the thought of her company intrigued more than I'd care to admit.

"Of course." She hurries to move her books out of the way, accidentally knocking over a bottle of ink. I quickly flick my wand and will the ink back into the bottle. "You can do wordless charms?"

"I may not excel at somehow defensive or offensive magic, but I'm at least gifted in other ways." I take the seat across from her. "Surely you can do a fair share of wordless spells too."

She shrugs. "Not consistent yet."

"Please, you're top of our year in everything, I'd give you a week before you're levitating the womping willow without a word." She blushes and looks down at her open text book, making me feel an unfamiliar giddy feeling.

"What else can you do then?" She asks inquisitively.

"I like chess." I shrug but find myself unable to stop the small grin on my lips. "And I'll have you know I'm a rather gifted occlumens."

"Really?" She leans forward with brilliant curiosity in her eyes. I nod, smiling like an idiot at her interest. "I've always wondered what that was like but we only discuss the theory next year."

"I could teach you." I blurt out before adding. "Only if you'd like to of course."

She looks at me, surprised and then excited. "We have a meeting tonight, wanna go early to practice?"

I nod too eagerly. "See you there." I leave the library in an inexplicably good mood, not caring about the books I went there for and didn't get.

Surprising myself by my nerves, I can't seem to eat a lot at dinner. I hadn't made a new friend in ages—if ever, never mind someone like Hermione.

She's already waiting in room of requirement when I get there. We sit somewhat awkwardly across from each other on the floor in the center of the room.

"Ok I can start." I'd thought it would be simple enough to explain, especially to someone so smart but my head suddenly felt empty sitting so close to her. "Erm... the wand movement's not particularly important, so long as it's pointing at the head. And the spell is legillimens."

"What if I see something you don't want me too?"

"Unless someone's quite skilled you'll see only what I'm thinking." Ignoring my nerves, I take her wrist and place her wand so it's nearly touching my forehead. "Like most magic, time and space matter." Her eyes don't leave mine for a second. "But it's not the physical memory your looking for, it's the emotions that will... lead you there, so to speak. People are the easiest to read when they're sad."

"Brilliant." Tentatively, she clears her throat. "Legillimens."

I close my eyes and try to let her in, picturing my first Dumbledores Army meeting.

Blurry at first, Potter comes into focus next to me and gives me a hand of the ground. "Thanks."

"You're distracted."

Somewhat ironically as he says it her focus wavers and we're back in the Room of Requirement. I try to give her a small encouraging nod, indicating for her to go on.

Her spine straightened and she clears her throat. "Legillimens."

It takes a moment but once again Harry appears in front of me.

"Can you blame me?" My voice sounds like we're under water, but I can feel Hermione in my head, she's watching it unfold with me.

"We put it to a vote to know." He explains. "You'd be surprised how many voted in your favor once Hermione pointed out it was just Draco everyone hates, you've never really done anything to us."

"Thanks." Past Hermione appears across the room dueling Weasley. I let our eyes meet and wait until she's been thrown backwards before clearing my mind— forcing Hermione out.

She gasps. "I did it."

"Of course you did." I state unsurprised. "Now that you know what it feels like, I think occlumency is the more useful one so," I swallow, feeling more nervous than I out to be. "clear your head. Most importantly of emotions. Feel only what you are in this moment, think of what you're feeling presently and don't let yourself leave."

"That's it? There's no spell?"

"Well no, but I can try to look for memories in the great hall, so I don't find anything private. Is that alright?"

Considering this briefly she nods and takes a deep breath in. "Ok, go ahead"

It occurs to me then just how much trust she's putting in me, I quickly suppress the overwhelming thought and take a deep breath. "Legillimens." There's a flash of a warm red common room before I find her in the great hall at dinner this evening. She's sitting across from Potter and Weasley but I can't for the life of me figure out what they're saying. Either she somehow wasn't letting me or, what it felt more like, is that she hadn't been paying attention at the time.

Some time passes like this and by the end of our practice I knew that she usually had potatoes and stew for dinner, and liked ginger biscuits best for dessert, and she knew how to tell someone was in her head, but wasn't close to putting up a wall. Remarkably good for a first time.

"Hermione, Gem." Potter enters awkwardly stuffing his hands in his pockets, his tone surprised. "Erm hi."

"Evening Harry." Hermione stands up abruptly. She opens her mouth to say something else but stops as more people trickle into the room for the meeting.

It's a practice like any other but in exchange for me teaching her, Hermione had asked if I'd like to be her partner; With her kindly stopping to give me tips every now and then it was the best I've ever done in defense against the dark arts; I even managed to disarm her once, though I'm not convinced she didn't let me.

"So that's it for this lesson and we're not gonna be meeting again until after the holidays. So just keep practicing on your own as best you can, and well done everyone. Great— great work."

I catch up to Hermione in the corridor outside. "Hermione." She indicates for Ron to go on without her. "Thank you, for all your help today."

"You too, Gem." She looks over my shoulder where the room of requirement is slowly disappearing back into a wall. "Um.. After the holidays would you wanna continue? With our deal I mean."

"Yeah, that'd be brilliant." I sigh, relieved. She took the words right out of my mouth. "We could meet again before if you'd like. Thursday before the train back?"

"I'd love to." We stand there for a moment, not quite ready to say goodbye. "Happy Christmas Gem." She takes my hand in hers, giving a light squeeze.

"Happy Christmas Hermione." Her hand leaves mine too soon as she makes her way towards her common room.