“You said you wanted to learn it”, Lyra smiled at Viktor as they both lay on the nursery floor, with two enthusiastic toddlers giggling and crawling over them.
“Now?” He removed Lily gently from his head so he could see. “Ouch” James kneed him in the belly as he climbed over to Lyra.
“As good a time as any”, she laughed. “Let’s do something easy, fun and harmless, like Lumos. Take out your wand, and do it verbal first, then wordless, and then as you think it, observe how the words bind the magic, and feel the taste of the magic itself in your mind, OK?”
“I guess”, he struggled to pull out his wand.
“Watch carefully inside your mind as I’m doing it. You’ll feel the echo”. She closed her eyes and pointed at a place in the air, and a glowing ball of white light appeared and remained there, like a Christmas tree decoration.
“OK, I did feel magic vibrating at the location, and I heard Lumos in my mind as it vibrated”, he nodded.
“That was the sympathetic activation of the spell. I didn’t use the words, but since this magic is bound to this verbal spell, as it activates it resonates with things in its closest proximity in your mind, and that’s the spell-word”, she explained. “I will now change its colour, and you tell me what you feel”.
The light turned red, and the children squealed with delight.
“I heard Lumos Rubeus in my mind”, Viktor’s eyes spread wide. “That actually works”.
“Excellent. I will now turn it into some colour there’s no spell for yet. Observe carefully”. They both closed their eyes, as the light turned pale amber.
“Oh, that’s weird. I heard Lumos… and then something garbled, but I felt the colour before I saw it”, he spoke excitedly.
“You’re doing great”, Lyra smiled and nodded encouragingly. “Your turn. Make another light, with a nonverbal spell first”.
He pointed the wand somewhere to the right of the amber light, and another light appeared. James giggled and pointed: “White!”
“Yes, it’s white”, Lyra smiled and ruffled the boy’s hair. “OK, now hold it with your wand and turn its colour into red”.
He obeyed, and the colour shifted.
“You used the Lumos Rubeus words, right?”, she looked at him, and he nodded affirmatively. “OK, now the next part; think Lumos, and then remember that feeling of colour and magic that vibrated in your mind as I made it amber”.
He frowned, but nothing happened. Then he relaxed, remembered the exact feeling of colour and magic, pointed the wand and there were two amber lights in the room. He smiled victoriously, and Lyra gave him five. “Yes!”
“Two!”, Lily squealed, trying to grab the lights above.
“Bravo sweetheart”, Lyra praised the baby girl. “Well done, you said the good number!”
“Let me try something else”, Viktor frowned, pointed the wand at the different spot, and made a green light.
“Oh wow, you got it”, Lyra praised him. “I see you said Lumos… like before, and modified the magic for amber but visualised green”.
“Yup”, he smiled. “Why do I feel like Lily saying the number well for the first time?”
“Baby steps”, Lyra giggled.
“Twee!”, Lily pointed. “Excellent, sweetheart, you got it perfectly”, he praised her.
“Now, put your wand back in your pocket, and take Lily in your arms, so that they are busy”, Lyra instructed, and he obeyed. “Look at some place in the air, and feel it also in your mind. Then repeat that same spell, with the same feeling and magical vibration, only wandless”.
He took the baby girl, closed his eyes, frowned, and nothing happened.
“You didn’t lock the spatial coordinates right”, Lyra observed. “Look at the place with your eyes and try again”.
He did, and this time it worked: a green light appeared, to children’s great delight. “Many!”, James giggled. “Yes, there are many lights. There are four”, she instructed, and gave Viktor five again with a broad smile.
“Woah”, he looked completely amazed. “I’m actually not completely useless at this”.
“You’re doing great”, she encouraged. “Now, try a few more colours”.
…
“Christmas came early”, Harry smiled from the door.
“Someone’s having a party without us”, Hermione laughed. There were hundreds of spheres of light suspended in the air, with all kinds of colours and sizes, and children were squealing with delight trying to reach them, stepping all over Viktor and Lyra who lay on the floor laughing and protesting weakly.
“Look!”, Viktor pointed and lit up a yellow light in front of Hermione, without a wand, wordlessly.
“Woah, you learned it”, Harry was amazed. “Bro, you rule!”, he sat down to fist bump him. “That was amazingly fast”.
“He’s exceptionally talented, but we knew that already”, Lyra praised him. “Also, the kids can count to ten now, and we learned names for the colours”.
Harry and Hermione looked at each other. “Life is passing us by”, she said as they burst into laughter.
“Kreacher”, Lyra voiced. Crack. “Yes, Young Mistress?”
“Could you please bring warm milk and biscuits here? I think the children are hungry”.
The Elf nodded and looked at the lights, and then at Viktor. “Practice?”
“Yes. Lyra is teaching me how to do magic without a wand”, he pointed at the empty space and a new sphere of light appeared, this time changing colours and spinning.
The old Elf smiled, pointed his finger at the sphere, and made it change shape into various animals, as the children squealed and giggled. “With practice, Master get almost as good as Kreacher”, he snickered, and went to get milk and biscuits.
They all looked at each other for a few heartbeats, then broke into laughter.