A Brother To Basilisks (a Drarry fanfic)

Chapter 33: Pushing Makes Power

"Not that way." It was all Snape said, but from it, Harry knew the depths of his failure.

Harry raised his head and stared silently at the far wall of the classroom, the one with the glowing green crack. He listened to Dash, who had chased a rat out into the corridor. He counted to ten. Then he finally turned back to Snape and said, "Why? I pushed the chair into the wall. That's what I was trying to do."

Snape shook his head and moved towards him, wand flicking once. The chair slid back to the center of the room. "Didn't you feel how your magic spilled out around the chair, and the others started rattling?"

Harry blinked. "No. I was busy."

"Well, it did." Snape gestured with one hand towards the other chairs he had assembled out of splinters and dust, his intent gaze on Harry. "Wandless magic isn't practiced much because most wizards do receive adequate help from their wands. But there's another reason. When you cast a spell with a wand, it's focused, tight as a knot, except perhaps in the case of first-years."

"Is that why you don't let people use their wands in Potions?" Harry interrupted, because suddenly it made sense to him.

He wondered if he should have done that a second later, but aside from tightening and hunching up like a vulture for a minute, Snape didn't do anything bad. In fact, he nodded and muttered, "One of the reasons. Now.

"Wandless magic is not focused, at least not without practice. It spills and sloshes. It can alert anyone in the immediate area to the presence of a wizard, and does not make a good surprise technique. More, it cannot achieve the precise results of a spell. Try to clean a pot with a spell, and the dirt and grease vanishes. Try to clean it using wandless magic, and the pot might explode." He tilted his head and fixed a glittering eye on Harry. "You understand? That is why I wanted you to practice concentration first."

"But I was doing well on that," Harry complained. "You said I had it down right last time, and since this is the third time I'm here, I could practice the magic."

"You should hold the state of concentration you perfected in your mind at the same time as you are pushing with your magic."

Harry shook his head. "But I can't do both."

"Yes, you can." Snape moved a step away from him and considered him with one finger on his lip, as though Harry had disappointed him in some intangible way. Harry straightened his back and tried not to feel offended. "That is why I taught you the theory of holding yourself back from your emotions first. Summon and control the emotions while you float."

"You said that was emotions, not magic."

"It applies to both."

Harry glared at Snape. It seemed that professors were always telling him things that they should have explained first later, like they were obvious. It wasn't obvious, and they should have been able to tell that.

But he supposed Snape had talked about floating in the midst of his emotions and using the emotions to power his magic. Grumbling, Harry focused on the chair again, and thought about how he wanted it to go away. Then he flung his magic at it again.

This time, while the chair skidded to the side, it didn't fly all the way to the wall, and Snape shook his head. "You're still slopping your power around."

"I know that!" Harry kicked at the floor, and felt Dash pause outside the door. It's okay, you don't need to come in, he told Dash, and focused all his attention on Snape again. "I just don't know how to float in the middle of the emotions and use the power at the same time!"

"The way we discussed the day before yesterday." At least Snape had a calming voice, when he wanted to use it, Harry thought grudgingly. "You focus the emotions the way you did when you used anger to banish Black. Then you concentrate on floating in them. And you push the emotions and the magic in the same direction."