"Have either of you practiced this spell by yourselves?" Hermione asked of the two young men once everyone and settled into their spots. Daryn nodded and John shook his head. "Er... okay. How comfortable do you feel with it, Daryn?"
"Well, I've only practiced it on my little sister's familiar but it seemed to work on it."
"On your sister's familiar?" John snorted.
"Oh, I see you've volunteered to be my first human subject?" Daryn countered.
"Ah-hem."
Hermione looked up to see Professor Greythorn with a cage of mice.
"Which group is this?" asked the professor.
"Alpha-Lambda," Hermione answered helpfully.
"I see, here are the mice you will practice on before any spells on human subjects are attempted."
Hermione glanced at Daryn but his face was impassive. The professor opened the cage and distributed a mouse to each of the group members.
"I will demonstrate the spell, and each of you will attempt to copy me." Professor Greythorn pointed her wand at Hermione's mouse and with a quiver and a flick of her wand she pronounced "Sig-noom vee-tal-iss" the s hissing between her teeth. It didn't sound very comforting.
"Well?" Professor Greythorn asked. "Questions?"
"Does the s have to be hard during the pronunciation?" Hermione asked.
The professor looked down at her nose at Hermione and huffed, "Not that I know of. You can use your practice time to discover the answer. Well, go on." The professor gestured to Hermione.
Hermione took that as a cue to practice and so she turned and focused on her mouse. Holding her wand trained on the small target of the mouse's head, she tried to mimic the professor's wand and voice. "Signum vitalis!" She saw a yellow-green glow around the mouse's head which quickly faded.
"I see a green colour but humans should be in the blue toned range. I assume animals have different normal colour ranges than humans," Hermione turned to the professor.
"Correct," the professor promptly turned her eyes on the others. "Go ahead."
Daryn and Malfoy both performed the spell with very little comment from the professor. Shandra forgot the quiver of the wand the first time, but she grasped it on the second try. However, John was still struggling with the pronunciation after a few tries.
"Help him," Professor Greythorn instructed briefly and moved onto the next group.
Hermione turned to John who shrugged with an ingratiating smile.
"You've almost got it right," Hermione encouraged. "You just need to pronounce signum with an -oom instead of an -um."
"Or you could sing it, like this sig-nOM vi-TAL-is." Daryn added, singing the spell in a clear tenor.
"Y-you could," agreed Hermione.
"Using a tune always helps me remember how to the pronounce a spell. It saved my butt in cram school," Daryn explained.
John laughed dryly, "Okay, -om not -um. Sig-nOM vi-TAL-iss." He copied Daryn's tune but his singing was breathy and a tad strained.
Hermione ignored this and smiled encouragingly.
John turned to his desk, but his mouse had disappeared.
"Accio John's mouse." Hermione said and the mouse flew towards her from under one of the desks. Once John's mouse and been returned, he proceeded to practice the spell using the sing-song tone.
YOU ARE READING
Signum Vitalis (a dramione story)
Fanfiction*Completed* Haunted by the war, Hermione attends a Healer school in America to escape it all. Instead, she runs into Draco Malfoy. She is busy battling her ghosts and struggling to gain back a normal life, but he seems to be fighting his own demons...
