A month of school had passed, and Elijah was calmly waiting at the gates of Hogwarts, where he'd been for about an hour. Dumbledore, Minerva, and Lily went to go check on him. "Mr. Crowe," said Dumbledore. "I think you should come inside. It's going to rain soon."
"I need to wait. Can't let her run around looking for me. Won't end well."
"Who are you waiting for?" asked Minerva. Elijah opened his mouth to speak when he heard something above him. He took a step to the right, avoiding a crate as it fell where he was standing.
"And she's here." He looked up again, expecting something else to drop, and not expecting the crate to open. Elijah found himself on the ground, wind knocked from his lungs, and a familiar weight on top of him. He groaned as he rubbed the back of his head. "Hello, Isabel."
"ELI! It's been so long!" Lily looked at the young woman who was clinging to the Soul Mage. She appeared to be in her mid-20's, was wearing a white muggle lab coat, had thin rimmed glasses covering scarlet eyes, and hair like Elijah's, and seemed to weigh about 90 pounds and stood at 5'2, to Elijah's 6' even. What came next was a jumble of words spoken so quickly it was almost like she was saying them all at once.
"Isabel, Isabel… ISABEL!"
"Yes?"
"Get. Off."
"OK!" Elijah groaned as the 5'2" ball of joy jumped to her feet.
"Thank you. Everyone, I would like you to meet Isabel Daniels, my oldest friend since my days at Ilvermorny." Lily did a double take and circled Isabel, who had an oblivious smile on her face.
"That's got to be shite," she said, glaring at him. "She looks younger than me, she can't be as old as you."
"We're the same age, Lily," said Elijah, annoyed. "We're both f…"
"I'm what, Eli?" asked Isabel with a dangerous smile. Elijah started sweating slightly before saying a forced, and obviously rehearsed line.
"Isabel Daniels is 22 years old and will remain 22 years old for the rest of time."
"Good boy," she said with a smile. Elijah muttered angrily under his breath as Lily looked between them and silently huffed.
"To clarify, Isabel is a dhampir. A half vampire. She will be in the prime of her life forever and doesn't have to drink a drop of blood, though she could," his voice dropped in volume again and this time, Lily strained to hear it. "I know from experience." She watched the two of them and finally noticed Isabel keeping by his side no matter what.
"Is there a reason that Ms. Daniels is here," asked Dumbledore, breaking Lily from her straying thoughts.
"Hmm? Oh yeah! Eli asked me to bring over a few things! Be right back!" She placed her backpack in the ground and half her body disappeared into it as she searched for something Elijah ducked twice as something she threw over her shoulder almost hit his head.
"Would you watch where you're …?!" a third object managed to hit him in the head right before she came back out, carrying a sack that was half her size.
"Found it!" She suddenly sniffed the air, smelling blood. Harry and the others came over to see what was going on and paused as they saw a short white haired red eyed woman licking blood off of their Professor's face, a look of elation on her own. Harry glanced at his mother and saw she was slightly annoyed and a little angry. 'Oh, is Mum jealous?'
"Let go of me, Izzy!"
"DON'T CALL ME 'IZZY'!" Shouted the woman.
"Don't drink my blood like it's Kool-Aid!" The kids watched as the two old friends bickered with each other, showing a closeness they're not used to seeing from him with anyone. Elijah took the sack off the ground and tossed it to Harry.
"What's in here?" Harry asked as he opened it. He reached in and pulled out a brand new broomstick, that wasn't from any known manufacturers. "Brooms?"
"Not just any brooms!" said Isabel with pride. "They're Daniels originals!" That's when she noticed Harry, or more specifically his hair and eyes. "W-w-what?! Eli! You had a kid?!"
"No! Harry's my apprentice! He just copied my look!"
"I didn't copy anything, old man!"
"He acts like your son."
"He's my son," said Lily. Isabel turned to look at her and saw her hair and eyes. She growled and turned on Elijah.
"HEY!"
"What?!"
"You taught her?! Why didn't you teach me?! I've known you longer than this hussy probably has!"
"Hussy?!" Harry paled as he recognized Lily's tone of voice and saw her eyes glow.
"Shite. We should go."
"Mr. Potter, watch your language."
"We have other things to worry about than Harry's language," said Hermione as she noticed Lily as well. Elijah looked at Lily and felt Isabel clinging to his arm.
"Damn it all," her muttered. The two women started yelling at each other with Elijah in the middle. Harry covered his ears, as did McGonagall as they yelled. Elijah was in clear agony and groaned. "QUIET!" shouted Elijah. He pulled his arm from Isabel's grip and popped his ears. "Isabel, can I talk to you?" He gripped the crook of her arm and dragged her away. She glanced back at Lily with a smug look and stuck her tongue out.
"Childish little bitch," said Lily. "Who the hell does she think she is?"
"Mum," said Harry. "Calm down. She just thinks you're taking Elijah from her, for some reason." He could feel the girls behind him roll their eyes as he played dumb. "Why do you care what she acts like or what she calls you?"
"I don't," said Lily, slightly flustered. "She's just really annoying." She started walking away.
"Need a drink, Mum?!"
"Shut it, Son!" Minerva looked at her before turning to Harry and the girls as Dumbledore looked perplexed.
"How long has…"
"Few years," said Harry. "They've been beating around the bush. I think it's because of Dad that they haven't done anything."
"And what have you done about it?"
"I haven't done anything," he said. He pointed his thumbs at the girls. "They've been trying everything in their power to push them together, even though I've said not to do anything."
"Harry," said Daphne. "You of all people know Aunt Lily deserves happiness."
"Of course I know that. But I'm not about to interfere. If something is going to happen, we should let it happen naturally."
"You mean let Fate take the wheel," said Hermione.
"Like how Elijah always does things," said Susan.
"We're not Elijah, Harry," said Tracey.
"Mr. Potter," said Dumbledore. Harry turned to him with a bored expression. "I agree with you, let things happen naturally. But even Fate can give them every opportunity under the Sun and they still might not take it. I suggest, you give it a year or two more. And if things do not seem like they're progressing, then work to get them together. An excellent compromise, don't you think?"
"I'll take those words under consideration, Professor Dumbledore," said Harry. He and the girls walked away as Minerva turned to the aged headmaster.
"It's not like you to take an interest in other's love lives, Albus."
"True, but after everything she went through 10 years ago, I feel that dear Lily needs someone to hold her heart before it grows cold."
"Albus, Lily is one of the kindest women we know."
"And yet, even kind souls can turn bitter and cold with time after a broken heart. And Lily's heart has been broken for 10 years. I believe Mr. Crowe can help put the pieces back together, not enough to replace James, no. But enough that she can properly move on."
"I hope you're right, Albus. With what we almost did to Harry, it's a wonder she even trusts us."
"I know Minerva." 'Perhaps if I can help mend Lily's heart, I can teach Harry true selflessness before Voldemort returns. Otherwise, I fear the prophecy works more in Tom's favor than Harry's.'
Elijah pulled Isabel towards the lake and tossed her in.
"Ahh!" she screamed before splashing in. "What the hell?!"
"That was so you could cool off!" He conjured a stool and sat down as she pulled herself from the water.
"Asshole," she muttered as she cast a drying charm on herself.
"Don't act surprised, you've known that for years."
"Still think you should be nicer to me."
"This is me being nice."
"You weren't always like this."
"Have been since joining the military."
"…I forgot about that…"
"I know you don't like bringing that up, mainly because of how my family acted afterwards."
"You were from a family of pacifists and you joined the Marines, of course they treated you differently."
"I just walked the path Fate set me on, like they always told me to."
"And it set you on a different path than they thought, I know." She conjured a stool next to his and sat down. They watched the waves ripple on the lake in silence for a few minutes before Isabel noticed the Anima Mea cabin. "What's that?"
"What?" He looked to where she nodded and saw the cabin. "Oh. That's my House's dormitory. House Anima Mea."
"Latin for 'soul', huh?" She leaned in close as Elijah instantly felt annoyed. "Must be 'destined by Fate' huh?"
"Shut up!"
"What?! You know you're always going on about Fate!"
"Doesn't mean you can mock me for it!" She just laughed, prompting him to laugh a moment later. "Go ahead and check out the cabin, you'll be impressed."
"It takes a lot to impress me, Eli. Then again, not much impresses me since that night after graduation." She grinned at him as he rolled his eyes.
"Just go. And stop bringing up the past." She giggled and walked over to the cabin. She examined the rune scheme excitedly as she climbed all over the building.
"Compression charms, expansion charms, biometric spells, temperature regulation spells, water filtering and circulation spells. This is impressive! Did you come up with this?"
"No, Lily did on her trip to Japan. She's the woman you were shouting at earlier."
"Oh," she said, annoyed. "Her." She climbed down and looked at her best friend. "What's so special about her? Why teach her and not me?"
"Lily and her son Harry are the last of one of the Nine." She turned on him so quickly, if she weren't dhampir, he could've sworn she'd get whiplash.
"The Nine? As in the Nine Soul Families?"
"Yes. My uncle died 10 years ago during the war. One of his last instructions was to find a Seer. I did, and they sent me to Godric's Hollow. That's where I met Lily, her husband, James, and their son, Harry. I could feel the familiarity father always said I would feel if I met one of the Nine families. The lingering power of their unawakened souls. I knew Fate had led me to them. I've been teaching Lily since, and I've been teaching Harry, and his Soul Bond mates, since they were old enough to retain the knowledge."
"And why did you never teach me?"
"Because you were dhampir. There has never been a recorded successful Awakening for a dhampir, and I wasn't going to risk something bad happen to you if I tried Awakening your soul. I care about you too much." He mumbled the last part, hoping she wouldn't hear it, forgetting her stronger than normal hearing because of her heritage. She smiled, slightly tearing up, and hugged him.
Feeling uncomfortable, Elijah shrugged her off. "Knock it off. You know I don't do hugs."
"I know. Doesn't mean I can't give you one when you deserve it." She looked at the cabin and huffed. "I take it, by showing me this you expect me to get along with her."
"If only to spare my sanity, yes. You're both brilliant inventors. Hell, she even acknowledges it, she has several of your appliances in the cabin."
"She does?!"
"Yes. So can you please get along?"
She sighed before smiling. "Fine, but you have to give me something first."
"What is it?"
"Turn around."
"Why do I…"
"Just do it."
"Fine." He turned around, crossing his arms. "And you better not…" he stopped as she bit into his neck. "Ow!" He felt her drink a small amount of his blood and turned around when she removed herself. "…drink my blood." He glared at her.
"Too slow." She giggled as she wiped blood from her lips seductively.
"I should never have given you permanent consent on that."
"But you did. So suck it."
"I should be telling you that." She smacked his head, glaring at him, as he chuckled.
"You're an ass, you know that."
"You're just now figuring that out?"
"No, just stating the obvious."
"When do you have to leave?"
"Oh no, you're not getting rid of me that easily."
"Don't you have to get back to Ilvermorny?"
"I'm using my vacation days."
"And how many do you have?"
"A few months."
"Dammit. I'm stuck with you aren't I?"
"Yep!"
"Can't you stay somewhere that's not, I don't know, anywhere near me?!"
"Where would be the fun in that?!"
"I knew I should've just told you to mail the brooms."
"But then you'd miss your favorite dhampir!"
"You're the only dhampir I know."
"And thus, your favorite!"
"You know I need to clear it with Dumbledore on you staying, right?"
"Don't care!" Elijah sighed as she clung to his arm.
When the others found out that Isabel would be visiting Hogwarts for longer than a day, Lily was only slightly annoyed and the students, for some reason, feared for their lives. Needless to say, their instincts were right. Isabel had an ulterior motive for staying at Hogwarts, other than being near Elijah. She wanted test subjects for her new inventions, and Ilvermorny students weren't willing to test them anymore. Daphne, Tracey, and Susan all opted out while Harry, Hermione, Blaise, and Padma decided to try out her inventions, and soon regretted it. Most of her inventions shorted out before even being used, some blew up, with one sending Harry to the infirmary for the remainder of the month. Everyone was currently sitting in the Great Hall for the Halloween feast, Isabel having to sit at a child-sized table for what happened to Harry.
"THIS IS NOT FUNNY!"
"It's not supposed to be," said Elijah as he calmly ate and graded his most recent assignments from the theory portion of his class.
"I find it hilarious," said Lily with a smirk.
"You're just feeling vindictive because Harry ended up in the infirmary," said Elijah.
"I TOLD YOU IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!"
"And I told you not to let Harry test your experiments. Because of them he got hurt."
"I told him not to overdo the hover shoes."
"They were unstable in the first place," exclaimed Lily. Elijah sighed and hung his head, feeling very annoyed.
"I hope Harry's ok," said Hermione at the Anima Mea table.
"The blokes fine," said Blaise, reading one of his textbooks. "Me and Padma visited him this afternoon."
"Madam Pomfrey said he'd be well enough to attend the feast," said Padma.
"Then all's good," said Tracey with a smile. "Nothing's going to happen to him from there to here! It's a 5 minute walk at best!" A thud sounded as Daphne slammed her head on the table.
"Ow."
"What was that for, Daph," asked Susan. Daphne's response was muffled by the table and the roar of the crowd. "What?"
"I said: 'Tracey just jinxed it!'. I love you Trace, but you're horrible when it comes to jinxes."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because! They always, and I mean always, end up…" Daphne's words were interrupted by the doors to the Great Hall banging open and Quirrell running in, frightened. "…happening."
"Troll in the dungeon," said Quirrell as he busted in. "TROLL IN THE DUNGEON!" The entire hall was silent as he paused halfway through. "I just thought you'd ought to know." Quirrell soon collapsed, and not long after, the Hall erupted in mayhem as the students panicked, Anima Mea being the exception as they calmly made their way to the Head table.
"Silence!" shouted Dumbledore. "Prefects, gather the students and lead them back to the dormitories!"
"Hold on!" shouted Elijah and Lily.
"Prefects, do not do that," continued Lily. "Everyone needs to stay here! Especially the Hufflepuff and Slytherin, who's dorms are IN THE DUNGEONS!" Dumbledore sweated at his callus mistake. Anima Mea made their way to Lily and she turned to them. "What's wrong?"
"Harry's being released from the infirmary right now," said Hermione.
"He doesn't know about the troll!" shouted Tracey. Elijah paused, hearing that and slowly turned to Lily. The children backed away as her hair started flowing with power, and her eyes glowed brightly as they widened.
"Get down!" shouted Elijah as he brought Minerva, Filius and Isabel to the ground. The children ducked down as a sudden boom filled the hall and a large crater appeared where Lily was once standing. The hall doors, which had closed behind Quirrell, were ripped off their hinges a second later.
"What the hell was that?!" asked Isabel.
"About a year after I met Lily, she took Harry out for a stroll. A Death Eater remnant tracked them down and tried attacking them. One of his cutting curses nicked Harry on the cheek. I showed up a minute later and found the Death Eater beaten to a pulp, a crater around Lily's feet. After losing James, she became protective of Harry when it comes to dangerous foes."
"We've seen it also," said Hermione. "She gets scary when protecting Harry."
"Frankly," said Daphne as she calmly ate the pudding she took from their table. "I feel sorry for the troll. It's about to wish for Hell to come early for it."
Harry had just been released from the infirmary and was making his way to the Great Hall. He had made it to the stairwell when he heard a faint growling coming from the second floor. He glanced up and back to the direction of the Great Hall before deciding to go investigate. He had just walked passed the girls bathroom on the second floor when he heard a snarling coming from behind him. Harry turned slowly and found himself in front of a troll. He looked up at it as it looked down at him.
"Bollocks," said Harry. The troll snarled and swung it's club at the young Soul Mage. Harry dodged away from it and backed away, keeping his eye on the troll. Harry stopped as he felt his back hit something, and a disgusting smell begin to fill his nostrils. He turned around and found another troll, this one with what looked like a stone axe instead of a club like it's companion. "Double bollocks!" Harry channeled magic into his leg and leapt straight up, avoiding a swing of the axe. The troll was fast, however, and snatched Harry from the air.
It roared at him and squeezed his arm. Harry screamed in pain and tried pulling his arm away from it's grip. The troll roared and threw him at a wall. Harry sent a blast of magic into the air and had it condense around him, slowing him down just enough to merely knock the wind from his lungs. As Harry tried to regain his breath, he thought he heard a boom come from the first floor. The first troll tried squashing him with it's club and Harry rolled away, channeling magic into his arm to dull the pain and heal it slightly. He ducked to avoid the stone axe and rolled away as it slashed through the wall behind him.
"Let's try this," said Harry. He tried lifting the club from the first trolls hand but underestimated his strength. The troll felt the club starting to slip from it's grasp and tightened it's grip, splintering the wood slightly. "Need a plan B!" Harry shouted to himself. He was soon backed into a corner and couldn't move away. The first troll swung it's club down at him. Harry felt a gust of wind and saw long red and white hair flowing with power in front of him and a single hand holding the club above them. "Mum?" Lily didn't respond as she held the club effortlessly above her, glaring at the troll.
The troll tried prying it's club from her grasp, struggling as it tripped on it's own feet. "Get the hell away from my son," said Lily, with a dark calmness in her voice. The troll roared and was punched by the angry mother. It lost it's grip on the club and was sent into the opposite wall. The second troll swung it's axe, only for Lily to disappear from it's sight and the club to me slashed in her place. It looked around in confusion before it heard a primal growl above it. It looked up just in time to see Lily's boot impact with its face.
The troll grabbed at its eye as it started spewing out blood. Lily stood in between it and her son and grabbed the dropped axe. With a mighty yell, Lily lifted the axe and swung, decapitating the troll. The first troll groggily stood up and started snarling at her. It charged, fist drawn back as made to squash her using its fists and strength alone. Lily merely glanced at it and threw the axe, splitting its head right down the middle with the axe stuck in place. The troll clumsily stared cross eyed at it as it tried to pull the axe out before collapsing, dead in front of her.
"Shite…" was all Harry could say as he saw his mother utterly destroy the two trolls. Soon Elijah, the other professors, Isabel and Anima Mea came running over and stopped short as they saw Lily's carnage.
"Yeah," said Isabel, slightly impressed and holding her nose at the smell of the trolls and their putrid, in her opinion, blood. "Good call on us hanging back a few seconds, Eli."
"I told you, Lily is majorly protective of her son. It's better to let her do her thing and stay out of the way, than to try and help."
'My word!' Thought Albus, appalled at what Lily has done. 'Lily did this?! Has she started slipping into the Dark? Has James' death done this to her?' He kept a calm, if shocked, expression as he surveyed the damage to the trolls and the hallway. "Lily, was it absolutely necessary to kill them? We could've simply moved them a safe distance away from the school." Lily only responded with a dark look in her eyes, shutting him up, and scaring anyone who hadn't seen her like this before.
"Yes, Albus. It was necessary. These things threatened the children, threatened my son, and almost killed him. Their resistant to magic, immensely strong and hard to miss. It was either wait for everyone to try and find it, letting Harry die in the process, or handle things myself. And as you can see," she gestured to the two corpses. "I handled it. Severus, be a good boy and clean these two up, Elijah, see to my son, I need a bath after this." She walked away, ignoring everyone's looks.
"Eli," said Isabel.
"Yeah," he replied, watching Lily walk around a corner.
"You're drooling."
"Shut up!" She smirked slightly as she noticed him subtly wipe at his mouth just in case.
"Oh no," said Harry. "Keep making eyes at my mum, I'm just sitting here with a slightly crushed arm!"
"I'm coming, I'm coming! Hold your horses!" Elijah examined the arm thoroughly. "Relax, it's just bruised. You don't need to go back to Madam Pomfrey."
"Thank Merlin."
"How long does it take for her to calm down," asked Isabel.
"Depends," said Snape. "Back in school, it took Lily two weeks whenever I saw her this… upset."
"She's mellowed out," said Harry. "Now it takes a week and a half."
"At least there's an improvement."
"Not much of one, though," muttered Hermione.
"Like you're any better," said Daphne. "Anyone messes with you and you go ballistic. And that's just yourself, I pale at the thought of you catching wind of anything happening to any of us."
"Oh, please. You'd handle anything before I even get the chance to."
"True, but still."
"Lily has influenced all of you, hasn't she," asked Minerva. They all nodded, and she sighed with a small smile. "You're all going to be trouble when it comes to the more… privileged students, I can tell. I should've seen it the first week of school." She waved them away. "Off you lot, get back to your dorms. We'll take it from here. And Mr. Potter, despite what Professor Crowe says, I suggest you go seem Madam Pomfrey for at least a calming draught."
"I'm fine, professor. Don't need it. Perfectly calm." Elijah and Blaise smirked, and Blaise flicked his shoulder as Elijah sounded a blast from his wand at the same time. Harry jumped in response, instinctively channeling magic into his legs and jump over them, almost hitting the ceiling. "That's not funny!"
"It's a little funny, Harry," said Padma as the girls laughed.
"Et tu, Padma?" She shrugged, smiling, as they walked back to the Anima Mea cabin, Isabel in tow.
"I can't believe Lily could do something like this," said Dumbledore.
"I can," said Filius. "You didn't see what she did to James on a constant basis whenever he did his pranks, this is just a few steps above that."
"You should pay attention to your students more, headmaster." Said Snape. He walked away, cloak billowing behind him.
"I need to ask him how he does that," said Elijah. "It'll add another aspect to my dramatic entrances." Minerva rolled her eyes as Filius chuckled. Dumbledore ignored the Soul Mage as he was lost in his thoughts.
As the students of Anima Mea entered their cabin again, Susan immediately collected her egg and hugged it to her. "Ok, seriously," said Blaise. "What's with that stupid egg? For the last month I've seen you cradle that thing like a mother does a baby."
"I'd like to know too," said Padma, her naturally curious nature overriding sense of curtesy.
"I'm keeping it warm," Susan said, hugging it closer to her.
"Is it even alive?" asked Blaise.
"Yes, I can still hear it singing."
"Singing?"
"It's singing to her soul," said Harry as he flipped through the television after Isabel upgraded it to receive signals internationally. Finding a Japanese channel showing anime, Harry left it there and turned to them.
"It's part of your Soul Magic. Because we have a better connection to magic, and therefore nature as well, our souls bond with an animal familiar better than most. We can also find our Animagus forms, like yours truly."
"Until we see it Harry, we won't believe you," said Tracey as she laid her head in his lap, watching the show that was on. "Why are we watching this?"
"I'm trying to get some downtime before Elijah gives me double time in the morning."
"Gotcha."
"How does she do this," asked Isabel. They turned around and saw her trying to poke Hermione as she was reading a book. Hermione was in autopilot and swatting her hand away.
"We don't know," said Susan. "It's been like this since her Awakening."
"Is it a Soul Ability?"
"No, we checked. Elijah doesn't even know how she's doing this. And Hermione doesn't believe us whenever we tell her she does this."
"Hmm. I'm gonna need to investigate this." She pulled out a taser and Harry snorted.
"I wouldn't if I were you." Isabel ignored him and proceeded try and shock Hermione out of her trance, only for Hermione to take the taser from her with ease and turned it on her. Isabel screamed as the electricity coursed through her and fizzed her hair, making her seem like the mad scientist she was. This was the scene that Lily and Elijah returned to the cabin on. Elijah busted out laughing as Lily merely spelled the book from Hermione's hand, not in the mood.
"Hey! I was… reading… that…" she looked down at the taser in her hand and Isabel twitching on the ground. "I guess I do have an autopilot." The others facepalmed as she set the taser down.
"That's what we've been saying for years, luv," said Harry.
"And this is what it takes to convince you?" asked Daphne.
"We should've gotten Harry to try and tase you last year."
"I'd have declined."
"And we'd have forced you," said Tracey, snaking on treats she bought from Fred and George's smuggling business for second and first years.
"I'd have stopped you," said Elijah. He checked his watch and smiled. "Alright everyone, get to bed. We're finally done with basic exercises for Soul Magic for you four. Now we move on to the fun stuff." Harry and the girls groaned as Cedric looked curious.
"What's the fun stuff?"
"Dodging," said the first years besides Padma and Blaise.
"What?"
"You'll see," said Harry as he went to the boys bedroom. "I'll see you guys in the morning. I've had enough dodging for one week."
"You're not getting out of this, Harry," said Elijah with an evil smile. "I need a demonstration."
"Bollocks."
The next day, Elijah had everyone in Anima Mea forgo the usual jogging session as he had Harry standing nearby. "Alright kids," he said with a sadistic smile. "You've learned how to channel your magic into your body to help with bursts of speed and breathing regulation. Now, I'm going to teach you how to not think about using it. When I'm done, you'll be able to do what Harry and the others can do." With that, Elijah started firing off bolts of magic towards Harry. Harry managed to dodge all that came at him and a few fired by the girls off to the side.
Padma couldn't believe how fast Harry was moving to avoid the magic bolts, she'd never seen something like this before. Blaise watched with fascination and determination, seeing Harry do these things made him decide to one up the boy he sees as a friend and rival. Cedric could see the uses of this for dueling and, potentially, quidditch as well. Penelope watched with half-bored fascination, to her this was a neat trick, but she couldn't see anything practical about this in everyday life. Isabel was watching him and thinking to herself that Harry should be reacting faster, not just moving faster. That's when Hermione's autopilot came to mind.
"Eli, stop." She said. Elijah turned to her, confused.
"What's up?" She walked over to Hermione and pulled a book from her bag.
"Read this, don't stop until I say so." Hermione hesitated but started reading regardless. "Eli, you have Soul Sight, right?"
"You know this already."
"Can it see anything regarding the Soul and Magic, or just when it comes to lies and similar things?"
"Anything, why?"
"Focus on her brain as she's reading. And watch." Elijah and Lily watched Hermione's brain and saw a small flow of magic. It was small enough not to notice unless you were looking for it. "Hermione?"
"Yes?" she asked looking up. Elijah blinked as he saw the flow of magic stop.
"What the…"
"Never mind, forgot what I was going to say. Continue." Hermione shrugged and went back to the book. Elijah and Lily saw the magic continue flowing. Isabel hurled a rock at Hermione. Elijah gasped as he saw the magic spike exponentially as Hermione's magic and brain sparked all at once. It was still just a small stream of magic, but the increase was enough to give Hermione her autopilot ability. "Well?" asked Isabel. "What did you see?"
"She's instinctively channeling magic into her brain. Something I never even considered before. And as an added bonus for never wanting to be interrupted, her instincts have gotten a boost as well."
"Why did her magic act like this?" asked Lily.
"Soul Magic is your soul, body, and mind all working together. Hermione's love of reading, combined with her quest for new knowledge, her magic has given her the perfect skills needed to keep gaining knowledge and not be interrupted."
"All this time," said Isabel. "And you never thought to channel magic into your very brain?"
"I'm a soldier first, and a scholar second. Channeling magic into my muscles to get faster or stronger is a give in, channeling magic to my brain for any of those benefits? Not so much."
"Ok, Hermione, you can stop." Hermione looked up from the book. "I figured out your trick!" Isabel pumped a fist in the air and smiled.
"So, how am I doing it?"
"You're instinctively channeling your Soul Magic into your brain as you read," said Elijah. "That's how you've been activating your autopilot. Your soul reacts to your lust for knowledge and makes sure you gain it without interruption, and that includes heightened awareness and reaction speed. It's actually quite impressive, and something I never considered doing myself."
"So, I've been doing this on instinct?"
"Yep," said Isabel. "Now you just need to figure out how to do it without burying your head in a book."
"Shouldn't be that hard," said Hermione, hopeful. Harry snorted and looked away when she glared at him. "I'd like to see you try it, Harry. I know you can't concentrate to save your life."
"Bet you I can get it faster than you."
"You're on, Potter."
"Might as well extend it to the others as well," said Elijah. "Here's the reward. Whoever can get it before the others, I'll teach how to make magical constructs."
"I'll make some tennis ball shooters to test yourselves."
"Bollocks," said Harry, earning a 'Language' from Hermione and Lily. "Why those machines of all things?"
"It's either those or automated paintball guns."
"Tennis shooters it is," said Harry.
"Actually," said Elijah with a smirk.
"Dammit," muttered Daphne, knowing where this was going.
"Make them paintball guns. Twice the speed, double the punishment if they fail, and more encouragement for them to succeed."
"Can do," said Isabel with a smile and a salute.
"You had to open your big mouth, didn't you, Potter," said Tracey with a glare.
"What's a paintball gun," asked Cedric.
"Pain," replied Hermione, rubbing at memories of large welts on her arms. "Pure pain."
"Want to avoid the pain," asked Elijah. "Then you only need to do one thing."
"What's that?" asked Susan. Daphne and Harry tried covering her mouth before she could say anything but were too slow. Next thing they knew, they were subject to small jolts from an electrical spell.
"DODGE!" shouted Elijah with a mad grin dawning his features. Padma and Penelope both paled as they saw the grin. Cedric chuckled nervously and backed away, while Blaise watched with a calm expression.
'Dammit, Harry.' They all thought to themselves. 'What have you gotten us into?'