{Hogwarts Express}
{29th June 1991}
{Hermione's POV}
"Well, that's quite interesting; how many times have you practiced the spell, Ron?" Rigel asked. Hermione noticed that there was a look of interest in his eyes for the first time, especially when it came to Ron. She wasn't blind to the underlying hostility between the boys, but it was interesting to see how Rigel could push past his own preconceived bias toward Ron for their sake.
"I don't know; I practiced it every day before going to sleep for a month." Ron replied with gritted teeth, shattering her conception of what she knew about him, "I'm not as good as them, so I have to work extra hard to be passable." His inferiority shone through his words, and she looked at him with concern. However, she and Ron didn't get along as well as she and Harry, which wasn't the crux of the issue: Ron's refusal to partake in doing work and always wanting to play or spend time lazing around. She didn't know he was struggling to keep up with classes, so he didn't like engaging with her when she talked about their studies and homework.
"Hmm, not quite..." Rigel hummed as he looked at Ron, her redheaded friend, glaring at him at the blatant refusal when he was being truthful for once. Still, before she could step in to defuse the situation, Rigel continued, "...From where I can see, you are the most advanced when it comes to the application of the charm among the three of you."
His words caused Hermione to turn towards him once again. There was confidence in his voice and actions, which made her want to believe his words, even though they were quite contradictory.
"Piss off," Ron snarled, "Anyone can see I'm struggling to hold the book. It takes all my focus to keep it floating, while Harry and Hermione could do it while doing something else."
"True," Rigel acknowledged, which gave way to many questions that she wanted to ask, but he flicked his wrist and pointed his wand toward the book. All her questions bled dry when the book on her lap started floating softly.
'What? He did not say the incantation, nor did he perform any wand movements,' she thought, her eyes stuck to the floating book in front of them. A moment later, it started sailing along the compartment, following the hidden trajectory that Rigel was commanding while looking into her eyes. They shone with quiet confidence as he smiled slightly, likely at the look of astonishment plastered across their faces.
"H-how?" She stammered for a moment before regaining her wits, "You didn't say the spell incantation, nor did you perform the wand movements; how can you cast the spell without those?" The act in itself was breaking all the rules of magic that she had learned throughout the year. The fact that you needed proper incantation, wand movements, and will to perform a spell was literally outlined on the first page of their spell book, The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1), by Miranda Goshawk. It was the gospel that had allowed her to learn everything so quickly, yet here he was, breaking those foundation rules as if they meant nothing.
"...Because those rules are meant to teach magic, not perform it," Rigel replied. He looked away from her toward Harry and flicked his wand. The book floated in front of the scarred boy as he explained, "Magic is like a muscle. The more you use it, the more comfortable you will become. Each spell is like that as well; when you use a spell multiple times, your mana will learn how to shape the mana to perform that spell through the use of incantation and wand movements. As you grow familiar with the spell, the need to use the incantation and wand movements vanish, and you can learn to command or guide your own mana to shape the spell, even add slight modifications to its use, though not too much."
The book started twirling around on its own axis, a movement that should not be possible while using the levitation charm. Through all of its uses, she had only seen the spell lift something straight in the air, and even if you do get to move it around, the orientation of the object never changes. Until now.
"See, when Harry cast the spell, he used less mana than Hermione to achieve the same effect. If Ron had a wand matched with him, I could sense he would use even less mana than Harry. That's why I said that he's the most proficient out of all of you when it came to casting the levitation charm." Rigel finished his explanation as the book stopped spinning and floated back to Hermione's lap.
She continued looking at him for more explanation, but he didn't continue, so she leaned back and tried to dissect his explanations of magic.
'According to Rigel, the wand movements and incantations are just crutches that we use to learn a spell. Once we know how to perform a spell, we can slowly get familiar with those differentiating elements and slowly learn to perform the spell without them. He mentioned shaping as well, and maybe it is his outlook on performing a spell, like drawing out a painting or performing a physical action. Like muscle memory, reducing the need for footballers to focus on the movements of their own body as their body knows where the football is at all times, and they can focus on looking around for a pass instead of focusing on dribbling.' She thought of the familiar example that her father had once explained to her during one of the games that came to light.
"It's like muscle memory, right? Just like your body becomes familiar with repeated movements, your magic would get accustomed to the same spell, thus making it easier to perform it." She finally spoke, getting a nod from Rigel.
"What did you mean by having a wand that matched me?" Ron asked; the struggle on his face was real, but he was clearly pushing past his embarrassment to ask that question.
"Well, of course, with every spell we cast, it is channeled through a wand. Each wand has a specific resistance that allows it to shape a spell, so if you force a lot of mana into it, anyone can use almost any wand. And everyone has a specific frequency with which their mana resonates. If the wand matches this resonance, like the case with Harry, Hermione, and I, the wand can easily channel the spell. But in your case, you have to overpower the spell as some of your mana is wasted with each cast, making your magic weaker and costing significantly more mana."
"I'll probably change to a wand matched with your core during the holidays. Otherwise, you would slowly be left behind even if you put in twice or thrice everyone else's efforts as the spells become more complicated each year." Rigel advised, getting a grumble from Ron as he moved away from the group, content at looking outside, lost in his thoughts. She shared a look with Harry, understanding passing through them at what had caused Ron's mood to dwindle.
'He knows that his family would never be able to afford a wand for him, with Ginny coming to the school next term as well.'
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