Chapter 42

After an hour or two of holding hands, Allen was reaching his limit, the pain which gradually increased now stabbed him all around his body. He was actually shaking and Helena felt it.

"What's wrong?" She looked at him with puppy eyes.

"Ah, it's just…" He didn't want to say it in fear of robbing Helena of this moment, but the pain was no longer bearable. "To be honest, whenever I use magic that its too difficult for me, my body starts to hurt gradually, the pain starts slow, until it builds up all the way to unbearable, and right now its like that so sorry." When he finished talking he deactivated his magic and Helena's hands fell through his.

Allen fell down the floor. His body aching all over, he tried to relax his non-existent magic muscles to no avail.

Helena did a small motion of opening and closing her hands, then looked towards Allen with a melancholic look. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I let you have your moment, since I know how difficult it is for a ghost to spend so much time without feeling anything. That's why they go so far as to 'eat' rotten food. I wanted to let you feel the touch of someone but I didn't expect it to go for so long." Allen expressed in a defeated tone.

"Hmm, I see. And does this happen often?" Helena asked, intrigued by the situation, putting the warm sensation she felt on the back of her mind.

"No, not that much nowadays, but it used to happen often when I was around five.

But if I continue to practice the same spell then it doesn't happen anymore. That's what I've been doing to lessen the effects."

Helena smiled mischievously then turned around to look at Allen. "Does that mean we need to keep holding hands so you get used to the spell?"

"Well, yes, and the more I get used to a spell the better I can control it."

Helena stayed quiet for a moment before speaking. "I'll meet you here at the same time, every day. We'll continue to practice until you can keep the spell for a full day."

And without waiting for him, she disappeared through the room's wall.

Allen stayed in the room, perplexed by what just happened, his body still hurting a bit, so he waited until it didn't hurt as much and left the room as well, not before giving it the usual Wand Raising Charm to it. It's not a Wand Raising Charm anymore though, might need to think of a new name, and a name for my eyes as well. Magic eyes? No, too common… Might need to think it over for a while.

He walked back to the dungeons, thinking about what would be a good name.

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Allen spent the next couple of days being quite literally, hunted by a ghost, Helena would appear close to the Slytherin table but far enough that it wouldn't arouse suspicion. It surprised him greatly, specially considering her story with the Bloody Baron.

Then she would cross the hallways he and his friends would take to go and from to another class, as if saying to not forget their appointment.

And when classes were over, she would haunt him again, just by looking and not saying anything, waiting for him to go to the Room of Requirements.

Helena requested of him to spend at least two hours practicing the spell, after a while he got used to it, and even though it did cause him a bit of pain, it wasn't as painful as before. From there he would practice his Occlumency, the second shield to be more precise, building it up and crashing it down back again.

Since he did both of those at the same time, his dantians would be constantly active, moving magic around to and from each other. Allen felt it became a bit easier utilizing the Mind, Energy and Body to not only in Occlumency, but also in the spell to touch ghosts.

After a few days of practice, and Sir Nicholas' death day approaching, a sudden question popped in Allen's mind, wondering why it took him so long to think about it. What if I use the Wand Raising Charm on a ghost?

This question wandered in his mind, unable to concentrate any further, Allen simply focused on the Touching-Ghost spell. I might need to name this as well, but since I don't use an incantation, naming it its almost useless.

Except when referring to it I suppose.

"Helena." Allen looked up at her with a serious look on his face.

She answered in kind. "Yes? What is it?"

"Have you thought a name for the spell? Or how to refer to it?" He asked.

Helena turned her head to the side, wondering why he was asking her about it. "But you are the one who created it. Why would I name it? And besides, you don't need an incantation for it, so that makes it even less necessary, doesn't it?"

"I guess so, but in the future I will do more spells, and if I need to refer to them while talking with someone, well, it doesn't hurt to start early, right?"

She stayed silent for a moment, closing her eyes. "Yes, it does make sense if you think about it that way.

Have you thought about a name for it?"

Allen nodded his head. "Touching-Ghost spell."

The moment he finished talking, Helena gripped his hands with a strength he wasn't sure it could belong to a ghost.

"I- I'm sorry Helena! I didn't mean for it to sound like that!" He asked for forgiveness as soon as he felt her grip tighten his hand.

She looked at him suspiciously before letting go her grip, but still holding his hand. "What did you mean, then?"

"Well, that was the first name that came to mind, since its self explanatory!"

Helena let out a breath. "Alright, yeah, it makes sense."

She stayed silent for a while, thinking of what name would it fit. After a while, no idea came to her mind. "No, sorry, can't think of anything other than 'Contact-Ghost' but it doesn't hold the same meaning."

"Right, so, Touching-Ghost, we agree?" Asked Allen.

"Yes, for now."

This time, Allen let out a relieved breath after Helena accepted the name of the spell. He didn't need to name anything before when he was five years old, mostly because he didn't need to tell it to anyone, so as long as he knew what he wanted to do, it didn't need a name.

They stayed in complete silence after that, but Allen's mind still wandered back to the Wand Raising charm, more so now that he could concentrate in Helena's hands.

He wanted to know what would happen, he already saw the effects on humans. He gains favorability with them, which scared him a bit if the person used to be an antagonist towards him, but this would surely work towards other people without the need to scare them using his eyes.

"Helena, can I try another spell?" Allen asked her after thinking hard about it, first things first would be to ask for her consent, just like with the Ghost-Touching spell.

She looked at him skeptical. "But aren't you already using one? How can you do more than one spell at the same time?"

"Oh, well, the more time you spent training something, the better you get at it and the less you need to concentrate, right?" Helena nodded her head along in confirmation.

"Then, you can do two things at the same time, or even three if the task is not that difficult anymore, though you might be slower if you do two things at the same time, since your brain can't concentrate as much…" Before realizing it, he started rambling about the pros and cons of multitasking.

Helena interrupted him before he continued. "So you mean that you can cast two spells at the same time if you know them well, albeit slower than if you were to cast them separately?"

"Yeah! That's right!"

"Can I know the name of spell before you do anything?" After a few days of spending time together she got used to Allen's behavior but that didn't mean she would let anything pass before fully knowing what they were talking about.

He answered a bit nervous, hoping that he doesn't get his fingers crushed again by her spectral hand. "Right, of course. Umm… Have you seen how I sometimes use magic with my wand, but it doesn't really do anything?"

Helena nodded without saying anything, indicating him to continue.

"And how about when I touch the Room of Requirements before leaving? Surely you must've felt a bit of vibration- sorry, I meant saw a vibration after I touch it with my hand."

"Yeah, I've seen those. What about it?"

"Well, I use a charm that is supposed to raise an affinity between a wizard and their wand, but since I can use wandless magic, let's call it that for now. I wondered if I could cast it on something besides my wand, and I did.

I tried it on some second years who were up to no good, and since the charm is not really harmful in nature, I wanted to see what it would do."

A small frown started to form on Helena's face as well as her grip tightened slowly.

Panicked, he tried to finish the tale as fast as he could. "S- So, The only thing that happened is that they became friendly towards me, but since I didn't want to continue testing it in fear of something happening, I decided to stop it.

B- But when it comes to my wand or the Room of Requirements they seemed to have gained some kind of consciousness, how else would I be able to communicate with a room and a wand?

Besides, while I could felt my wand choosing me, it was just that! After a couple of days using the charm she became more expressive, and now she can can send me shock waves if I do magic without her!

In the case of the Room of Requirements, I somehow I'm able to understand what it says with the magic it posses."

"So, what are you hoping to accomplish by using this spell on me?"

That left Allen quiet for a while, what indeed, was he hoping to do by using the Wand Raising Charm on her. Did he want to raise favourability with her? No, That wasn't it. The only thing in his mind was curiosity, he was curious as to what would happen if he used the spell on a ghost. He wanted to see if it would be any different from using it on a person or a wand.

Realizing that the reason was a childish one, he retracted himself, ashamed for thinking about experimenting on a friend. He even went to the second years who bothered him since he didn't want to do that exact thing.

"I…" He doubted for a moment before speaking. "I'm sorry Helena."

She raised an eyebrow, wondering what he meant.

"The reason as to why I wanted to try it is because I was just curious what would happen. I don't know what came over me."

Helena took in a big breath and let it go. "I understand the curiosity of finding out about magic and what it can do. I also appreciate your sincerity. What I don't appreciate is that you tried to use a spell on me that you don't know how it will react, just because you were curious.

It is a good thing you realized your mistake." She caressed Allen's hand as she spoke.

"So I'll do you a favour, and act like this conversation never happened. I can do at least that much for my benefactor who let me experience human touch again and my partner for tomorrow." Helena gave him a small smile then floated towards the walls, disappearing.

"I'll see you in the dungeons at eight o'clock, don't be late."