The Long Road

Before you start this next installment, here is a second little Author's Notes segment.

1) after this chapter I'm going to stop referring to their ability as a 'power'. it is the Force, and that is what I shall call it from now on. 'Power' seems to lessen the mystique of it somewhat in my opinion. I'd change it now, but I've already written the chapter before the AN, so next time.

2)In Star Wars, there are three basic parts of the Force around which powers are based. One is Alter, basically the changing of the distribution and nature of the Force. Someone with Alter powers can move things with his mind, help others control their own Force, as well as change the Force in his own body. It also can be used to influence the minds of others.

Control is the second. Someone with Control based powers can master his own body and gain harmony with the Force.

Sense is the third part. Someone with Sense based powers can feel the Force in all things and feel how they are interrelated.

Most of the skills are combination of two or sometimes three of the base parts. Don't worry, I won't go into all that, I just wanted to give a little background on it. Most of what I see the Force as comes from the extremely awesome West End Games version of the SW roleplaying game. I could honestly never have seen the new version and been just fine. Wizards of the Coast made the new version and as far as I'm concerned they watered down the Force way too much. Correct me if I'm wrong, but a good deal of the uniqueness of SW is the Force, right? Well, they made the Jedi nearly worthless. I'll stop preaching the horrors of the new game now.... I'll just say that if you are into roleplaying SW, the second (West End) edition is the way to go. I refuse to play the new one....

"I'm sorry, Hermione, but this is a science that you can't learn from a page," the Professor told her and Hermione faked a bit of drama and set all her other items on the floor beside her desk and gave her attention to the Professor. She set her quill in front of her and gave her attention to the Professor.

"Now, everyone put your quills in front of you and, now I know this will sound very odd, but try to 'feel' the quill, not with your hands but with your mind. Turn it over in your mind. Feel the small imperfections in the wood, the grain, the softness of the tip, feel it." Messina looked over the class, seeing many of them eyeing her with a bit of hesitation "Go on, just try it." The students turned their attention to their quills and began staring intently at them.

Messina hopped off the desk and started walking between the tables, nodding at the feelings she was getting, or in a few cases, not getting. "Do you feel it?" she asked and received a few mumbled 'uh-huhs' in response. She continued pacing around the room, reaching out to the students individually. "Now, lift it with your will, not your hands." Messina got quite a few glances of disbelief and she simply nodded at them. "Go on, try." Heads refocused on the quills again. "Lift it in your mind, visualize it happening."

Surprising everyone, especially himself, Neville's quill twitched and then slowly rose into the air above his desk. "Ahhhh!" Neville cried out in surprise and the quill fell back down.

"Very good, Mr. Longbottom, very good." everyone's attention shifted to Neville and he started to blush. "So Mr. Longbottom, can you tell us how you did it?"

"Um, well, I really can't explain it. I felt it in my mind like you said, and then I 'really' felt it and I could move it around." He looked at Messina and she nodded reassuring at him and motioned for him to continue. "I raised it in my head and then it started to jerk around and then levitated. That's about all I can really say about it."

"Students, Neville has explained his way of doing it, but don't worry in the least if you don't do it like that. Everyone draws it a little differently." Messina strolled back up to the front of the room and sat back on the front of the desk again. "Now, everyone try again."

For the next thirty minutes or so the class continued to attempt what many of them considered the impossible. During that time, Neville raised his quill a few more times and a few others did as well.

"Now class," Messina said as she again got off the table and stood before them, "how do you feel, especially those of you who succeeded?"

"I feel tired, my mind is tired, I guess," Harry said. He had scooted his quill across the table a few inches but never got it off the surface.

"Yeah, it's like I stayed up all night, like I'm exhausted," Seamus said, another of the small club that moved their quills.

"Exactly as I expected. You are drawing upon previously untapped reserves and the beginning is never easy. I assure you that over the next few days it will become easier. You might not believe me at first, but it will."

"Why is it tiring like that?" Hermione asked, even though her quill had remained firmly rooted on the table.

"It is like that because you are drawing on your own abilities and not the wand's. As I said, over time it will grow simpler and this little exercise will seem trivial." Messina regarded Hermione and saw that she still had something else on her mind. "Is there something else, Hermione?"

Hermione hesitated for a moment. "Well, yes. Earlier you said that we were drawing on a power that was in our blood, and my parents are both Muggles. So I guess what I'm asking is do I have this ability?"

"Everyone has the ability Hermione. Some people just never develop the skill necessary to draw it out. And while I'm on the subject I'll say a bit more. Some of you might much more and much sooner than others. This is nothing to be concerned about." Messina looked out and saw a few reassured faces and a few questioning looks.

"Think of your innate power as a body of water," she said as she motioned her hands out in an expansive gesture. "Right now, your body of water is completely uncharted. It's depth, width, everything about it is an unknown. Some of you may have a rather small reservoir right now, maybe no bigger than a swimming pool. Others may be as large as the lake outside the window. Then again, some of you might have an ocean of power laying inside you." Messina knew Hermione's next question before she even voiced it and never gave her the chance.

"Over time and with training and practice, you each can increase the size of your 'reservoir', possibly immeasurably. So, before you leave, take this small piece of advice with you. Don't become disheartened if in a month you can still not move the quill more than an inch. It took me nearly as long when I first began my training to get it off the desk."

A quick silence fell over the class as her words soaked in. Ron broke it in typical Ron fashion. "So, Professor Jade, what exactly can you do?" Hermione looked at him as if she couldn't believe he'd have the audacity to ask her like that. Messina just smiled at him for a moment.

Instead of answering him directly, she simply stared off into the air for a half second then all of the quills on the desks launched themselves into the air, quick as lightning. They seemed to be dancing to some odd rhythm, bouncing and swaying to the left and right. They finished their little polka number and set themselves gently back on the desks.

"Have a great afternoon and I'll see you tomorrow." Messina smiled at them all and made her way out of the room, leaving an utter silence in her wake. It was at least thirty seconds before anyone so much as moved, much less spoke. Finally, it was again Ron that broke the silence.

"Wicked," was all he said and that more than spoke for the entire class. Heads nodded in agreement and the students slowly got their belongings and filed out, completely amazed.

"I saw it with my own eyes, and I still don't believe it," Harry said as they made their way back to the Gryffindor tower to drop off their books before heading outside for a bit of relaxation before homework.

"Tell me about it Harry, it was awesome, wasn't it?" Seamus piped in as they were heading up one of many flights of steps.

"It sure was impressive," Hermione said with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked her in concern.

"I don't know, Harry. All the time we were in there I didn't feel a single thing. It's like I'm back in Divinations again. I never got the faintest tingle in there and I kind of wonder if it will be the same in here."

"You were probably not trying hard enough," Ron interjected.

After another Hermione look of death, she told him "Yes, Ron, I was trying. I tried everything I could possibly do. I tried to feel it, I tried to imagine it moving in my mind, everything. This is probably going to be Divinations all over again." Hermione hung her head just a little and continued walking.

"Nonsense, Hermione. If Neville here can do it, you surely can," Dean told her as he put an arm around Neville, getting a cry of indignation in the process.

"Hey, it's about time I'm able to do something," he said and puffed his chest out as far as he could.

"I didn't mean it as an insult, Neville. I'm just saying that since you've had almost no luck with quite a few things here in the last four years, anything is possible." Neville looked partially appeased at that and let it drop.

"I hope you're right, Dean, although I wouldn't count on it. Me doing things like she did are about as likely as Snape washing his hair." This brought a round of chuckles that carried them up the last few flights of steps and to their common room door. Neville spoke the password and they went inside.

Once inside they all went to their respective dorm rooms and set their belongings in their proper place, which of course for Ron was on the floor. Harry pulled a Frisbee from his trunk and showed it to his roommates and they nodded. It was almost a laughable thought that a game of quiddich or anything else strenuous was right out after the last class. Frisbee was simple and didn't require all that much movement so it was perfect. The five of them, Harry, Ron, Seamus, Neville, and Dean made their way back down and waited for Hermione to make her appearance.

Five minutes passed with no sign of her and Seamus was about to go and fetch her when she came down the steps.

"Aye, it's about time," he called. "I thought you got lost or something."

"Sorry, I got sort of sidetracked," she said and faked a grin.

"Ready to go toss the Frisbee around?" Harry asked her.

"No, actually I think I'll stay in. I feel quite tired, really. You boys go on and have a good time. I'm going to rest up before dinner."

"Sure about that, Hermione?" Harry asked. "This is a good way to relax."

"I know Harry, but you boys ahead. I'll likely take a little nap. Go on." Hermione made shoo-ing gestures and they started all out the door. As it shut behind them she went back up the steps and returned to her room. She found herself alone and instead of napping she took her quill out and set it on the desk and began to try again to make it move, just a bit. A centimetre would be fine. She furrowed her brow and set to work.

Outside the boys were having a fine time. Spaced in a pentagon shape they tossed the tin back and forth.

"So why do you guys think that if this power we all have is so old that no one has ever mentioned it before?" Dean said as he tossed to Neville.

"Maybe because no one has seen fit to teach it in all these years?" Harry guessed.

"Well then, where did Professor Jade learn it from?" Ron asked.

"That is a good question," Seamus said. "Maybe it's only taught to a few people at any time?"

"Maybe you have to show an aptitude for it?" Neville hazarded his own guess.

"Did we show an aptitude for it then? I don't remember taking any test where I had to move a quill with my mind at any recent time," Ron said.

"Perhaps Dumbledore has decided to change the curriculum a little," Harry said and tossed to Ron.

"Maybe it has something to do with You-Know-Who?" Neville squeaked out.

"What do you mean exactly, Neville?" Harry asked, intrigued by the point.

"Well, maybe since You-Know-Who has been gaining support and power in the last few years, he can't be defeated by what we know now, normal magic. Maybe he has the same power.."

"And we will have to fight fire with fire," Seamus finished quickly with a small glitter in his eye.

"I doubt that they are going to toss us into battle anytime soon, Seamus," Harry said. "We still can barely cast decent spells normally, not to mention hardly move a quill on a table."

"I didn't mean now, Harry. Anyway, who knows, except for Dumbledore." Seamus said and they continued tossing the Frisbee to and fro until the sun began to dip near the horizon and they realized it was time for dinner.

While the boys were tossing the Frisbee around, Hermione was in her room doing her absolute best to get the quill to move. She had been at it for nearly an hour with no success.

"Come on, move, won't you?" she pleaded and tried again. She closed her eyes and concentrated. She visualized the quill floating, but to no avail. Frustration was setting in now.

"Why can't I do this?" she asked the room. "What is so wrong with me that I can't even make a quill float? I know all sorts of spells, and Professor Jade said that everyone can do it, so why can't I?" She went and poured herself a glass of water and after downing it quickly tried some more, determined to get it before dinnertime.

"Move, dammit!!" she yelled, finally losing her patience altogether. To her surprise, the quill jumped off the desk and hovered in front of her face. "Ha," she exclaimed and reveled in her new success. As she laughed the quill fell back down, but she was satisfied because it moved at all.

About that time, the others made their way back inside to wash up for dinner. Hermione was just heading down the steps to wait for them, her experiment over, when she saw them step through the door.

"Hey Hermione, we were just going to get you for dinner," Harry said as the door shut behind him.

"Yeah, we're starving," Ron said in typical Ron fashion.

"Do you feel any better? Did you get any rest?" Neville asked. She smiled. You could always count on Neville for concern like that.

Hermione started to lie and say that she felt better, but she really did. She felt refreshed somehow. Maybe it wouldn't tax her as much as some of the others when she used her power. "Yeah, I do feel better, Neville. Thanks. You guys get cleaned up and let's get to the Great Hall."

A round of cleaning up later, the group of them made their way downstairs.

Uh oh, what exactly did Hermione do there??? Doesn't sound too good, eh? Was that the Dark Side? Well, wait and see. Drop me a review if you will. The more reviews I get the more motivated I get to write the next chapter....

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