Transfiguration!

Later that night,

Malfoy Manor

"Now with me," Lucius said, sitting opposite Darcie in the Great Hall. "Lumos!"

Darcie held the Holly wand with her mother eying her standing on her left. Draco was leaning on the gallery's railing on the first floor, watching them from above.

Darice didn't speak like her father. Nor did she follow the wand movement as shown by him.

Like before, as she had done in the afternoon, Darcie focused her mind on the three words, letting her magic channel through her, into the wand, and the outcome presented itself.

Lucius' spell was gentle, controlled, and as much as one needed to make the darkness disappear. Darcie's was like an afternoon sun, making all squint their eyes. Not only that, but it pulsated.

Both father and daughter flicked their wands, canceling the spell.

It seemed to Darcie she wasn't the only one who could do magic non-verbally.

Lucius then pointed his wand at the large pot resting on the table over its three hook-like legs. He muttered the incantation, and one of the three legs softened, wobbling like a worm.

Darcie didn't even point her wand at it. Once again, she focused, looking at one metallic leg, and let the wand carry her magic.

Suddenly, the pot's leg, which Darcie had cast her spell on, became as soft as rubber. It almost looked like water.

Lucius shook his head.

He looked at his wife. "You were right, Narcissa," he told her, putting his wand back into the cane. "Her magic is overpowering her intentions."

"Then surely…"

Lucius lifted his hand. "No, I agree with Darcie on this," he said, smiling as he looked at his daughter. "What she needs is more practice, not time away from magic. Narcissa, we both know what her doing non-verbal magic at this age signifies. Imagine the look on the fools' faces when they get to learn how powerful she is; how pure our blood is. Heh!"

"You aren't suggesting what I think you are, Lucius!" Narcissa said brusquely, nearing Darcie with a concerned step. "I will let no one make my daughter a symbol of power and blood purity. Not even you."

Lucius' lips pressed into a thin line. "How foolish do you think I am?" he asked, not unkindly. "You aren't the only one who loves our daughter. But to snatch this chance away from her is absurd. You know it, Narcissa. No, hear me for one second.

"Why not let her practice with a wand so that she can familiarize herself with it, and keep the matter of her non-verbal magic in the family? After a few years, when the time comes to put our cards on the table, we can reveal it whenever we like."

Darcie looked over her shoulder. There was a glint in her mother's blue eyes.

Surely, there was something between her mother and father regarding the future that the children weren't told. And given the seriousness of the situation, it was something serious and big.

Narcissa nodded, her neck stiff, almost as if she didn't like this one bit, but had no choice.

"Draco!" Lucius barked icily, looking up. "You heard us, right? Not a single word. And Dobby, I know you are listening. Come here!"

Dobby came running from the kitchen on his thin legs, his head down.

Lucius shot a disgusted look at him, gritting his teeth. "For your sake," he said, word by word, "I hope you will keep your mouth shut."

"Do… Dobby won't, Master Lucius," the house-elf squeaked. "Not one word."

"Mother, father," Darcie said calmly, "I don't understand."

Narcissa put a hand over her head and stroked gently. "It's nothing, love," she said. "We will tell you once you've grown up a bit more. As much as I don't like it, you can have the wand to yourself from now on. But only when I am around to look after you."

"And Darcie, don't forget," her father added proudly. "Non-verbal magic is nothing if you can't imitate the effects of verbal magic, or can't do verbal magic at all. Narcissa, keep Draco around you in these sessions. Maybe he will learn a few things from Darcie as well."

Darcie saw her father leave, a hidden sneer planted on his face, thinking about some unknown future scenario.

She and Daphne had planned this moment. Once Darcie revealed she could do non-verbal magic, her parents won't make her do odd jobs like attending to too many guests and would let her spend more time in the library.

Or so they had thought, children as they were.

Now Darcie was just glad that she didn't show them she could do Wandless magic as well. Even if she had little Control without a wand, the results were better than the ones she had gotten doing magic non-verbally using one.

Though, why it was so, she had yet to find out.

One thing she couldn't deny was that things were finally getting interesting and in her favor. Perhaps she won't have to hold herself back anymore now.

She looked up, and her eyes matched her brother's. Other than the extremely bored look on his face, she couldn't see anything.

"Darcie! Draco!" her mother's shout reached their ears. "Bedtime. Now!"

*

*

Sunday, 22 June 1986

06:45 pm

Because of the meeting with the minister of magic, Darcie had been allowed to spend her entire afternoon in her library.

One afternoon was more than enough for her to memorize the entire contents of the book, A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration, twice.

She was getting better at it, Darcie thought. With every next day, she found she could recall everything that she had learned with more accuracy and precision than ever before.

An effect of her sudden magic development, she reasoned. What else could it be?

From the book, Darcie could tell that Transfiguration was quite harder to master than charms and required precise wand movements and incantations.

Yet, it was also the field of magic she had found easiest to learn.

All the mentioned formulas, the chapters on structure, and the theories felt natural to her as if they were the simplest thing.

Darcie looked at the ladder leading up to the trapdoor, or suitcase's lid, outside, and nodded to herself. She took out a match from the matchbox and put it on the table in front of her.

Then she looked at it, her gaze darkening, focusing on the tiny thing.

Specific…

Belief…

Intention...

The match wobbled, squirmed, and turned into a needle.

Darcie's focus had yet to dwindle. With no thought, she poured all the matches onto the table.

One by one, all the matches turned into needles, the silver metal shining gold under the light of the hearth's fire.

Things didn't end here.

Now Darcie was being more specific than she had ever been in her life. Her belief was at its prime, and her intention was nothing but pure. As pure as her blood.

All needles shook, squirmed, and became tiny white worms.

Upon a closer inspection, they didn't look like worms at all, but white serpents, slithering, flicking out their tongues.

A tiny hissing noise reverberated around her, fire crackling on her left, and silence on her right.

Darcie almost smiled.

The trapdoor was thrown open with a bang.

All the white snakes almost instantly returned to being matches once her focus broke. She looked up towards the door and saw Draco's head.

"Mother's calling you!" he shouted. "Look at your hair. Haha! You are in trouble now."

Once her brother's laugh receded as he ran back, Darcie felt her hair.

From that height, Draco must have mistaken her white-gold hair, standing on their ends and lying here and there, as nothing but disheveled hair.

But Darcie looked at them as what they were.

Somehow, she had transfigured a few stranded hairs into tiny white serpents as well.

Sigh! Darcie let out a breath, pinching a snake back to its original state. I shouldn't be overconfident. It's magic, not cupcakes.

The thought of cupcakes made her recall how hungry she was. And an important guest would join them for dinner today.

A great witch, Darcie told herself, pinching the last serpent out of existence. She looked into the hearth, the wooden logs crackling, bursting, hissing under the fire.

Her dark, green eyes seemed to burn hazel along with them.

***************

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