𝕬 𝕷𝖎𝖙𝖙𝖑𝖊 𝕳𝖊𝖎𝖗 𝕽𝖎𝖘𝖊𝖘 | 𝑇𝑜𝑚 𝑅𝑖𝑑𝑑𝑙𝑒 |

Chapter 2- She is Powerless

"What're you even saying?" Tom questioned Frankie at once, to suppress a small chuckle. He didn't dare to think she was serious. Surely, she was playing a joke on him. At any moment, Frankie would yell "gotcha!", or "idiot!", and make the rather simple transfiguration with flawless perfection. However, she didn't dare to laugh and crack a small smile at this statement.

"I mean—it's gone ..." Frankie repeated . She wasn't being overdramatic about nothing happening to the matchstick and the possibility of being a little rusty after a few months of disuse. Her magic wasn't there anymore. They'd learned last year that even when a spell fails, a witch or wizard can usually still feel the flow of their magic, trying at least to do what was expected. However, Frankie knew that feeling and this time, it wasn't the same. Something was wrong. "Tom...I need help..."

Dumbledore had already been hovering suspiciously nearby to their desk and quickly noticed that Tom and Frankie had both stopped working.

"Is everything alright over here?" he asked, trying too hard to sound like he hadn't casually been watching them out of the corner of his eye for the past ten minutes.

"I think she needs to go to the hospital wing. She's feeling unwell." Tom replied, still sounding a little hesitant about it.

"Tom, if you would please escort her there for me. I'll be over shortly."

While the class whispered about this shocking new development, Tom and Frankie rushed to the hospital wing. After explaining the situation to the best of their abilities, Nurse Glinda started the proper testing. Strangely, this was not the first incident of a wizard or witch suddenly losing their magic.

After going through the various procedures and wand prodding, Frankie waited on a bed in the wing with Tom.

"Are you certain about this?" Tom asked. She had to have been mistaken. Magic couldn't just disappear all of a sudden. Certainly not magic like hers. When they were younger, Frankie didn't have the same control over her magic as he did, but Tom had always found her powers to be superior to him. Unlike him, the only time she had ever used her powers to physically hurt someone else was when she used them to save him from Billy Stubb. She didn't use them like he did and that's what made them so much more. Her power is what made him start believing that his powers weren't some evil curse to add on to his already miserable and tragic life. They were magic.

"Very." Frankie replied, solemnly. She looked at him with desperation and guilt, like this catastrophe was burdening him and she was already sorry for what could possibly be nothing, "I just got back, Tom. I don't want to have to leave again."

"You won't have to..."

Nurse Glinda glided back over to the bed and they both rose in mental preparation for the results. Frankie clutched Tom's hand, scared of what the diagnostics might be. In her mind, she already knew her magic was gone. She had come to terms with that aspect. Her only real worry was about the permanency of her diagnosis.

"It's the strangest thing," Nurse Glinda stated, already indicating that the results were not very optimistic. "I've tried every magic tester I could think of and none of them were able to detect her powers. There's no trace of Miss Dickson ever having magic whatsoever—"

"That's impossible!" Tom shouted in outrage, clearly not as prepared mentally as Frankie was for the news. The stupid nurse must have messed up the results. Frankie's magic couldn't actually be gone. There was no way she was a muggle, or a squib, after being away from school for only two months, "There's got to be some logical explanation to all this."

"I believe I might have the answers you are looking for, Tom..."

It was Dumbledore. He had arrived right on schedule, like he always did, and like usual Tom was not pleased to see him. He knew that when Dumbledore said he had answers that he no doubt did indeed have them, he just wasn't about to share any of them fully. He was just going to give them little pieces and watched as they either sank or swam in the current situation.