Harry Potter

Losing control of his broom was a rather troublesome situation for Harry. The way it bucked and bounced under him, attempting to knock him off while Harry slowly went higher and higher into the air until Tanya pulled him off and brought him safely down to the ground before taking to skies again as the seeker. After the match, he had retrieved his broom from where it had landed just outside the stadium. He could not see anything wrong with it, the condition of the broom was exactly the same visually as before the match when it was working fine.

As he was looking his broom over, Tanya joined him with her own broom. They quietly looked the two brooms over before Tanya shook her head.

"They look the same," she said, standing up. "We should go ask Professor McGonagall to send these back to the manufacturer. Something is wrong with your broom and mine is likely from the same batch."

Harry did not want to hear that and groaned his disappointment loudly.

"I'm not happy about it either, but some silly game is not worth you getting seriously injured."

"I know," Harry grumbled as he grabbed his broom and stood to join her in looking for their Head of House.

As they wandered the halls looking for the Professor, Malfoy happened upon them.

"Being escorted by your girlfriend, Potter?"

"Are you finally giving up on me?" Tanya asked in a far too innocent voice for Harry's liking.

"I was never interested in you."

Tanya placed a hand over her heart and staggered. "You wound me."

"What are you doing?" Malfoy asked with a roll of his eyes.

Tanya stood upright again and returned to her neutral expression. "Acting. You know, the thing we are learning to do in theater?"

"Whatever. Where are you going with those brooms?"

"Taking then to McGonagall. There is something wrong with Harry's and mine is likely to have the same defect if it is a manufacturing issue."

"You don't know how to check yourselves?"

Harry shook his head. "Everything looks the same as when I got it."

"Then it is probably the rider," Malfoy suggested with a smirk.

"At least I am good enough on the broom that I didn't need correction about my hand position by Madam Hooch."

"At least my parents are around to have taught me to fly a broom-" Harry felt the hairs on his body raise and his pupils dilate.

"Malfoy," Tanya's tone was ice cold and sent a shiver down Harry's spine. "You do know that both of us are orphans, correct?"

Harry could see a hint of fear appear on Malfoy's face. Harry could not see Tanya's face and was not confident he wanted to turn to look.

"Y-yeah. What about it?" Malfoy tried to hide his nerves with bravado, but Harry could see the cracks.

"Then you are aware that you are close to speaking ill of the dead, correct? I would advise you choose your next words very carefully."

Harry saw Malfoy struggle to gather his confidence until Crabbe and Goyle stepped out of the bathroom and took up their positions on either side of him.

"Whatever," Malfoy scoffed and turned to walk away. "If your parents weren't good enough to live, then good riddance."

"Your father will hear of this."

Harry could practically see the hallway frosting over with Tanya's declaration. Malfoy's confused expression might have given Harry some joy if not for Tanya's reaction to Malfoy's words.

Following closely behind Tanya, Harry did his best to not let the panic scratching at the back of his mind take over. His friend might be scary at times, but she was still his friend. He thought he knew her well enough to know that she would not do anything overly reckless. Though what constituted as reckless to Tanya was a question Harry could not answer, but he was sure she would be fine.

It took them a while longer to find McGonagall. She was talking with the Weasley Twins and looking annoyed about something while the twins were grinning.

"Hey Troll Crusher," one of the twins called out.

"We will continue this later," McGonagall said before turning to Harry and Tanya. "Anything I can help you with?"

"Yes," Tanya said, offering her broom to the Professor. "The malfunction of Harry's broom during the recent match is rather concerning. We cannot find any issues with the broom that would explain it."

"So you are both giving up your brooms?" a twin asked.

"No. We just need to have them looked over by a professional," Tanya answered before turning to the Professor. "Would you please send these back to be checked for defects?"

"Of course. I'll get that taken care of right away."

"Well, good thing we don't have another game until after the holidays," one of the twins said.

"Though it would be nice to play a pickup during the hols," the other twin said.

"I would much rather not fly in the cold," Tanya said, waving off suggestion. "Keeping up a climate control formulae suite in flight for the purpose of a game does not appeal to me and I would rather not play in the snow without such."

Harry could guess that Tanya was talking about some sort of heating charm. Hermione had learned to create a blue flame that was able to keep them warm, but what Tanya was describing sounded better.

"Anyways, I have a letter to write," Tanya said before giving a small bow to the Twins and McGonagall. "Speaking of, would you mind if I borrowed your owl to deliver it?"

"Not at all," Harry said with a grin. "I'm sure Hedwig would love the chance to stretch her wings."

"Thank you," Tanya said as they headed back to the Gryffindor Common Room.

—-

Letter

Dear Mr. Malfoy,

While I regret that my initial contact with your person must be on such unpleasant business, I am afraid that it falls upon myself to inform you of news that your son, Draco Malfoy, has been acting in such a manner as to bring upon himself and your house a most ill reputation through his discourteous actions and words. It would be a disservice to your family if you were left unaware of the events in question to correct these grievances and guide your child properly into a productive member of society.

While his early discourtesy, mostly taking the form of repeated attempts to engage his Gryffindor classmates in a childish fracas, was the sort of minor boyhood nonsense which might be expected from a young man of high standing, whenever these attempts were rebuffed through gentle teasing, Young Malfoy has attempted to call upon your specter as protection, rather than stand upon his own merits in the face of a conflict he himself began. Indeed, his cries of "When my father hears of this" have become a rather predictable rejoinder that leaves Young Draco seemingly having few convictions and limited abilities of his own and a desire to ride the coattails of those who came before him.

It is however his most recent insult given to a pair of orphaned individuals within his year that moves my hand. His precise wording was, "If your parents weren't good enough to live, then good riddance."

I believe that explaining precisely how such words would, in a more barbaric time, have resulted in an honor duel that would see your offspring left bereft of his life is unnecessary. This insult is made all the worse for the parents of one of the orphaned individuals died an honorable, soldier's death protecting their child and taking their murderer with them into death's embrace. To disrespect the dead shows contempt for the dead. To show disrespect to those who died fighting is to show contempt for every service person who puts their life on the line every day to keep society going and civilians safe.

I choose not to believe that this behavior is the result of your parental guidance as it is clear that Young Malfoy respects you as his father greatly. Instead it is likely that his first time out from under your guidance has left the child adrift in an unfamiliar location and his actions are the results of an uncertain boy exploring a new situation and erring.

I am not one to offer advice on how one should rear their child and will instead leave you with the hope that such behaviors can be corrected for and that Young Draco Malfoy may yet grow to be a responsible member of society.

Sincerely,
Tanya Degurechaff

—-

Hermione Granger

Hermione watched as Harry and Tanya looked over their brooms before deciding to take them to Professor McGonagall. A small smile crossed Hermione's lips as they made that responsible decision. Hermione suspected that some form of foul play was at foot with Harry losing control of his broom. After Hagrid pointed out Harry's erratic movement, Hermione had attempted to borrow his binoculars and scan the crowd, but, by the time she had found Snape, Tanya had begun helping Harry to the ground. The smile Snape had concerned Hermione, but she had no evidence that he had done anything wrong.

Having some free time to herself, Hermione decided to go to the library. Tanya seemed to have an advanced understanding of magical theory that allowed her to pull off feats that they should not be able to accomplish as first years. One of the books in the library must have the information that Tanya is using, but nothing Hermione had read have been useful for understanding what Tanya meant when she described the spells she used that were not a part of the curriculum.

After another fruitless research binge, Hermione returned to the Common Room with a rough plan of curling up in a warm corner with 'Hogwarts: A History' for some light reading when she saw Tanya writing something down while Harry Harry gave his beautiful snowy owl some attention. Going over to the two, Hermione sat down and gave Hedwig some scratches under the neck. Hedwig leaned into the attention and gave a soft whistle while closing her eyes.

"What are you working on?" Hermione asked Tanya.

"A letter," Tanya answered before scribbling her signature at the bottom of the page and folding in a rather intricate manner into being its own letter. "Do I need to put an address or anything on this?" Tanya asked Hedwig.

Hedwig gave a huff and turned her head as if insulted that such a thing was necessary for her.

"I am sorry. I did not mean to insult your capabilities. This is just the first time I have sent a letter by owl and I do not know the correct norms I need to follow."

Hedwig looked at Tanya and gave a nod, appearing to accept the apology before sticking her leg out to allow the letter to be tied on. Once the letter was secured, Hedwig was off in the air, heading towards its destination.

Tanya got up and stretched before heading towards the Common Room entrance.

"Where are you going?" Hermione asked, starting to follow.

"Hm? Oh, it is nearly tea time," Tanya answered. "The headmaster invited me to join him. I don't think he would mind if you were to join as well."

"Are you sure?" Hermione didn't think that sounded right. Dumbledore was a busy man and his time was valuable. It seemed wrong to interrupt it for some tea.

"Yes. I do not think he gets as many student visitors as he would prefer."

Harry began to get up as well. "Hey Ron!" He called out. Ron looked up from the chess set he was sitting at as he played against himself. "Want to join us for some tea?"

Ron gave a shrug and quickly put the pieces away. "Sure."

With the decision made, Ron, Harry, and Hermione followed Tanya till she came to a stop in front of an old gargoyle statue.

"Dumbledore is expecting me for tea," Tanya told the statue. Ron and Harry shared a look as nothing happened for a moment until the gargoyle began moving to reveal a staircase they took up to the headmaster's office where Tanya gave a firm knock.

"Come in," Dumbledore called out. "Oh, you brought your friends as well."

Dumbledore's smile was kind and his eyes were twinkling as he sat at his desk, a beautiful tea set in place with a selection of finger sandwiches to the side.

"Let me conjure up a few extra seats for you." With a swish of his wand several lovely, but mismatched, chairs came into being around the desk. Each had thick cushions and were very comfortable to sit in. "So nice to have some students join me for tea for a change. Don't tell Fawkes, but he can be a rather dull conversationalist at times," Dumbledore leaned in and whispered conspiratorially as he indicated a magnificent red bird behind him.

"Fawkes is a beautiful bird. What kind is he?" Tanya asked, taking her seat as the others followed her lead.

"A phoenix. Rather amazing birds they are. My family has a long history and affinity towards them." Dumbledore seemed to beam with joy as he talked about his bird. "Now, you like your coffee black if I recall correctly."

"Yes sir," Tanya nodded as Dumbledore poured the dark brew into a mug rather than the more dainty tea cups that were set in front of everyone else.

"And how about you? How do you like your tea?" Dumbledore switched to picking up a different pot of the brown and true.

"Milk and sugar, please, sir," Ron answered first, in awe of being served tea by the headmaster.

"Just cream, sir," Hermione answered, trying to take a page out of Tanya's book and treating this more casually than she really felt the situation warranted. They were having tea with Dumbledore, the most powerful and important wizard currently alive.

"Cream and sugar, please," Harry said with a smile as he was served.

After serving the children, Dumbledore added a couple heaping spoonfuls of sugar before twisting some lemon into his own cup. "How is the coffee?"

"It has been getting better. I do like the darker roasts, but it seems to be overly bitter still. I think the temperature of the water might be too high?"

"How so?" Dumbledore asked, picking up a cucumber sandwich and motioning for the children to help themselves.

"Something I sort of remember. I enjoy a good cup of coffee, but I never got into the craft of brewing it myself. I think I remember that for darker roasts a lower temperature is needed to brew out only the good flavors and to avoid too many of the bitter flavors." Tanya took a long sip from her mug. "I am impressed by the speed at which whoever is brewing the coffee has improved though."

"I believe it is Beeny. I'll be sure to pass along your compliment. She will be most pleased with the compliment. And how about you? How are the rest of you settling in to Hogwarts?"

"It's been brilliant, sir," Harry answered with a large honest grin. "I love it here." Dumbledore's smile became soft at that answer and the sparkle in his eyes almost seemed misty.

"Yeah," Ron nodded his head. "The food's great."

Hermione arched an eyebrow in Ron's direction before shaking her head. "I have been doing well, sir," Hermione answered. "The classes are great and I am learning so much."

"That is so good to hear," Dumbledore said. "While I have you here, do any of you have anything you want to ask me?"

Hermione bit her lip before nodding to herself.

"No, but I believe you wanted to discuss something with me," Tanya said before Hermione could ask her question.

"Ah yes. You mentioned that you infused yourself with mana during your quidditch match to protect yourself."

"What's mana?" Ron asked, his mouth occupied with a sandwich. Hermione gave Ron a glare while Dumbledore slid a napkin in front of the boy.

"Mana is magical energy. It is what actually produces the magical effects we call spells," Tanya answered in her tutoring voice.

"Isn't it our wands that produce spells?" Ron asked.

"No. The wand is a focus for magic. And we are the source of the magic that comes from the wand," Dumbledore answered.

"If you want to feel your mana, take it your wand and try to produce sparks without an incantation or wand movements," Tanya said as she took her wand out of the holster she kept on her side and demonstrated with a small spray of sparks coming out of the end of her wand. "There should be a clenching feeling. The more you try to force the effect without the aid of incantations or wand movements, the stronger the feeling should be."

Hermione took her wand out and tried to do as instructed along with Harry and Ron. Hermione managed to do as instructed by thinking back to her trip to Olivander's. She felt the clenching feeling. It was very slight and Hermione couldn't describe where it was, but it was there.

"Could you feel it?" Tanya asked. After getting nods all around, Tanya put away her wand. "That is you using your mana. If you focus carefully on that feeling, and have a firm image of what you want to happen…" Tanya trailed off as she held out her hand and a ball of light formed in the palm of her hand. "You can perform magic without a wand."

Dumbledore clapped, a large grin on his face. "Most impressive. You have not only performed wandless magic, but explained how to do it in a manner appropriate for lower year students. Most adults can't perform wandless spells and some of us who can have found the effort of learning not worthwhile."

"Thank you Headmaster." Tanya gave Dumbledore a small smile before turning back to her fellow students, the ball of light dispersing. "The Headmaster's point about the effort potentially not being worth the effort is correct. Particularly for increasingly complex spells. Keeping all the relevant information properly aligned in your head along with directing the mana and keeping an eye on your environment is difficult. Additionally, with the wand, incantation, and wand movements, by taking some of the effort off yourself and putting it into a focus and ritualistic casting you are capable of producing stronger spells than you could without."

"So, wandless casting is impressive, but not always useful?" Harry asked, getting nods from both Tanya and Dumbledore.

"You're bloody brilliant, Tanya," Ron said, looking at her with a grin on his face.

"Thank you."

"Is this related to how you killed the troll?" Hermione asked.

"In a way," Tanya said taking out her wand. "As I mentioned that night, I created a mage blade by emitting mana," Tanya's wand began to glow, "with a waveform of a particular frequency, strength, and shape." The glow began to take on a defined shape similar to a flattened teardrop. "What I described that night would produce this. A good shape for sure, but with practice it is possible to make the blade significantly sharper and more in line with a modern knife design." As she spoke, the magic teardrop morphed into a shape that looked familiar to Hermione. It looked a lot like the knife from the Crocodile Dundee movie Hermione watched with her parents a couple of Christmases ago.

"Interesting." Dumbledore leaned in to look closer at the blade. "Most interesting. I am quite impressed Ms. Degurechaff. Your methods are not the way we teach silent casting or how we would go about teaching wandless casting, but they do appear rather effective."

Dumbledore began stroking his beard. "Most interesting indeed. And you have been helping your fellow students with a study group?"

"Yes sir," Tanya said.

"If you keep up the good work, I hope you will help next year's batch of first years. I believe this school is made all the greater thanks to you."

"Thank you Headmaster."

—-

Albus Dumbledore

'A most interesting young lady indeed,' Dumbledore thought to himself as they finished up their little tea party and he invited the four students to come by any time. The young Tanya Degurechaff was proving to be a most interesting student. A rather concerning development considering certain suspicions Albus had about Tom Riddle's demise. So far though, the young lady seemed to be genuinely a kind, helpful young lady with an incredibly bright mind. A kind, helpful young lady and not in the ways Tom pretended to be helpful when it served his purposes. No, Tanya has gone out of her way to help her fellow Gryffindors in a proactive manner.

There was no time now, but perhaps over the coming winter break he could stop by Tanya's orphanage and ask a few questions.