Harry Potter And The Unexpected Friend

"Harry, how would you like to try some more conjuration tonight?" she asked. "You did agree to be my assistant after all."

"Sounds fun." Harry answered with a laugh. "What do you want me to do?"

"You're still wearing that belt that Dumbledore gave you, right?" she asked. When Harry nodded in affirmative she smiled and continue. "Excellent! I researched what it was and what it can do and figured out I can use it to determine how much effort it takes for you to cast a spell. With that I can find which things are harder to conjure than others. Are you following me?"

"I guess so." Harry answered uncertainly. He looked towards Daphne for reassurance but she just shrugged indicating she wasn't sure what Hermione wanted the information for either.

"Great." Hermione said. "We'll start with things you are sure to recognize…"

Harry quickly realized that Hermione had come prepared. She started off having him conjure things she knew would be difficult for him such as silver, bronze, and copper. The next few things she suggested were vastly less difficult for him and included a sheet of tin foil, a lump of coal, salt, sand, iron, and steel. After each item had been conjured Hermione would take measurements to determine how much power had been necessary and write the results on a roll of parchment that was growing longer and longer.

"Very interesting." Hermione said as she wrote down another measurement. "How about mercury next? It's that liquid they put in thermometers in case you weren't sure."

"Alright." Harry answered and looked back at the table he had been conjuring things on. A bowl had magically appeared, thanks to the Room of Requirement, and Harry pointed his wand at it while he prepared to cast the spell. When he spoke the incantation he was surprised to find that this conjuration was much more difficult than the others had been, although not as hard as some others such as copper and silver. "Strange. That was pretty hard to do."

"Was it?" Hermione asked excitedly. The thought of learning something new had taken hold of her and refused to let go. For a moment she looked confused at the results, but then an idea seemed to strike her. "Harry, can you try platinum next? If you need an example I am wearing my grandmother's necklace and it has a platinum charm on it." Harry nodded and studied the necklace for a moment before casting the spell again to similar results.

"That was about as hard as the mercury. I wonder why…" Harry said. Hermione meanwhile was practically jumping up and down in excitement as she started pulling books from her bag. Eventually she brought out a muggle textbook titled "Chemistry" and flipped it open to the very back where a large table was found marked 'Periodic Table of the Elements'.

"This is it, Harry! I was right, Chemistry is the key. It always has been." Hermione said.

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked as he looked over to Daphne who looked equally confused. She knew all about magic, but the muggle sciences were a mystery to her.

"Wizards have always known that some things are harder to conjure than others, but they never knew why. Tell me, did you think it was harder to conjure bronze or copper?" Hermione asked.

"It was about the same I guess." Harry answered.

"Exactly! And that's because bronze is mostly made of copper but with some tin added to it, and you had no trouble conjuring tin. Look at the table Harry, all of the materials that are hard for you to conjure have been in this little group right here." she said as she pointed to the table in the back of her book. Harry looked and sure enough copper, silver, and gold were all in the same column. Platinum, gold, and mercury were also in the same row. Still, he didn't understand why Hermione was so excited.

"OK, so what's the big deal?" Harry asked.

"Harry, this is a major breakthrough!" Hermione insisted.

And it was, but her excitement was not just because of that. It was also because, if her suspicions were correct, she had solved a piece of the Riddle of Heron that her book's author never did. The materials needed for the ritual were actually elements and she had already positively identified five out of the nine. If her guess was correct the other four would be the elements on either side of silver and copper on the periodic table, a fact which explained why no wizard had been able to perform the ritual. After all, how many wizards had even heard of cadmium?

Hermione felt the urge to tell Harry why she was excited. To tell him about the book she had found and everything she had been doing. She got as far as opening her mouth to start before she suddenly stopped. She worried that Harry would be disappointed in her, even though she did not think she had done anything wrong. For a moment she said nothing, but eventually decided that she would tell Harry everything. Just not until after she had solved the rest of the riddle. Then she could give him the book and let him decide what he thought of it.

"So are you going to tell me why it is such a major breakthrough?" Harry asked, pulling Hermione out of her thoughts.

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