The Unexpected

Falmouth

A/N: Another chapter!

Big thanks to shinykamon for being the beta of this chapter and the others before. Your awesome!

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Daphne sat on a wooden stool Granger had transfigured. She had not thought of her inability to do magic before she came to the defense groups meeting. By now the rumor mill had made the rounds about her pregnancy because of the mistake she made of not wearing her Slytherin V-neck jumper, which hid her small stomach on the train before the term began. In her defense she was a bit angry at Tracey and Blaise for not letting her know about it. She was yet to be asked about it by even Draco, something she thanked Merlin for.

Classes were also somewhat of a problem, charms more specifically, she would underpower or overpower spells. One class they had of the term, they had been practicing silencing charms on the person next to them and when she managed to put a silencing spell on Pansy that was strong enough for Flitwick to have to undo it because her attempts and those nearby had failed too, and he too deemed it unnecessarily overpowered.

Daphne watched everyone practice the disarming spell, it surprised her that only Hermione could do it correctly, but she was meant to teach them, so it only made sense. The wands of the others who tried would either fall directly down or not travel towards the disarmer, it made her question if she was able to do the spell to begin with, but she was confident in her skills. she honestly couldn't see anyone more fit to teach them but Hermione.

Hermione seemed to know what she was doing, she would help the others down to the smallest detail and made it easier for them to cast the spell. They looked far from casting it decently, but the improvements were becoming visible. Something worried her though, there was a member of the club who looked to be having no progress whatsoever even though it seemed he was doing the incantation and the wand movements correctly.

"Are you doing okay Neville?" Hermione looked at him expectantly, hoping he would be honest if there was a problem.

"Yeah, I'm fine," He said, much to Hermione's disappointment, he gave her a smile, but it didn't reach his ears.

"Are you sure?" She tried again.

"I'm sure. What makes you think something is wrong?"

"You're doing everything right, but the spell isn't working for you," Hermione responded, looking at him with confusion.

"It's his wand," Ron, who was Neville's partner, answered, walking up to them.

"Ron don't start with that again," Neville narrowed his eyes at him.

"Come on Nev, we both know it. I know it has value to you, but you have to-"

"Shut up!" Neville yelled, earning the attention of the rest of the defense group, "You expect me to let go of the only thing that can remind of what my parents were, you don't understand what it's like so don't even suggest it!" The room was filled with a grim atmosphere at the mention of his parents, everyone knew of the fate they suffered. Neville himself would have rather have them dead than to be treated like a stranger by his own parents again.

"Calm down Neville, I think Ron was just trying to help," Hermione whispered to him, understanding what was wrong, his father's wand had not choosen him.

"Just understand, I'm not saying let go of it. If we were to get attacked now, how are you going to defend yourself when you can't cast a simple disarming spell? You need to get a wand that works for you, that's the only way you're going to get through everything that's coming," Ron took a breath, "You said it yourself, he's back. You need to be prepared."