Lesson One: Friendship
As attempting to explain to her father how exactly she and Caelum had come to form their somewhat unique friendship - or indeed what it was about him that she found so promising - did not seem like the wisest course of action, she'd had to time it so that her parents were out of the house during their impromptu lesson. Off course, as they were out of the house most regular work days the task did not prove very difficult. Next, since Harry did not want to risk any of her extended family stopping by for an unannounced visit as they were sometimes wont to (to keep her from dying of potion fume-induced suffocation, as Sirius so eloquently put it) she'd set out to do some last-minute interference the day before.
It proved almost ridiculously easy. An innocent hint dropped during one of their training sessions the day before regarding a 'very shy friend' that wanted to learn how to brew the weightless drought because 'he was afraid of flying on a broom and thought controlled flying might be less scary' had an obviously amused Remus casually mentioning that he also happened to have plans that day, coincidentally enough. Harry thought it best not to mention that the friend in question had black hair, not brown. Sirius, being busy preparing for Archie's return (the snakes had all turned mysteriously magenta and the roof of number 12 Grimmauld Place had been made out of crackers the last time she saw it), needed no persuading.
So it was that when the day of their meet arrived Harry set the alarm to wake her an hour earlier than usual. The morning was spent refining the exercises that might help someone come into contact with and, she hoped, harness and control their magic wandlessly. This did prove rather difficult, especially since it had not been something she herself had had to learn (wandless and wordless magic came sometimes disturbingly easy to her). The only thing she knew of that might work that didn't take near endless amounts of time and determination to master was expulsion by way of fear - or, more specifically, expulsion by way of scaring the living daylights out of the Lestrange heir in hopes of kick-starting some sort of magical self-defence mechanism. After all, what she was after wasn't that unusual of a response; a cornered wizard might sometimes be able to make things happen without his wand, if the need was great enough. Self-defense usually proved to be a good enough motivator.
Only, most wizards wouldn't be able to produce more than a levitating charm on their own, and she really wasn't sure that it'd be worth alienating Lestrange with such unreliable tactics their first lesson. Maybe later, she mused, once Caelum had grown to appreciate the validity of her teaching methods (and of her as a teacher). The problem, Harry reflected, was that most wizards didn't have stores of magic deep enough to mold into a shape without a wand. She wondered if maybe envisioning some sort of mold while willing something to happen might help, but put the thought aside for another day since the idea required careful preparation and they wouldn't be able to use it that afternoon in any case. They should probably go get his magical strength tested if Lestrange was truly serious about learning wandless magic, but she didn't really want to take him that far into knockturn if she could help it. In the end they would probably have to, but she kind of wanted to put of bringing him that far into the alleys for as long as possible.
Instead she'd opted to prepare some easy exercises to help gauge how well acquainted Lestrange was with some of the more advanced brewing methods, as well as with wandless and wordless magic in general. Once that was done with she'd had just enough time to grab something quick to eat, which she did, before flooing over to the leaky cauldron to await her first ever student. Not that she'd ever get away with calling him that to his face, she thought, darkly amused.
She sat down to wait.
When five minutes had passed and Caelum still hadn't shown up she decided to entertain herself by speaking with Tom the barkeep, who for once wasn't otherwise occupied and seemed more than happy to catch up over a glass of room-temperated milk. She learned that Mrs. Tom was looking into buying a second home in the countryside, and that country 'get aways' were apparently very in amongst the older generation at the moment (though the richer folk mostly opted to buy said home on the continent, France being especially popular). They had just started in on the subject of AIM vs. Hogwarts and the different kinds of schooling that each school offered, perhaps deliberately, when Harry felt the hairs in the back of her neck stand up. Looking around, it didn't take her long to notice the annoyed-looking figure standing in the doorway. She bade Tom a hasty goodbye and made her way over to the skulking youth, lest he try to run away in the time it would take her to finish of her glas.
When she got close he huffed and turned away. She wouldn't let that stop her though.
"Ready to get started?" She asked once she'd come close enough that she wouldn't have to shout. An answering sneer coupled with a withering look was apparently all the response she was going to get, but at least he was looking at her again.
She grinned. "Scared?" She asked, just to try get a rise out of him. She succeeded.
He turned on her with vicious pride, determined on showing her who it was that should be afraid, but the effect was rather ruined by the big grin that she couldn't possibly keep hidden. He still did his best though, she'd give him that.
"- the last time someone dared to call me a -"
"-and she'll torture you to insanity, and will probably paint a picture with your impure, dirty muggle blood that -"
Okay, she decided. That was well enough now.
"Caelum." She interrupted, somewhat forcefully but not unkindly. She gestured to the pair of elderly wizards sitting close enough to have heard what had been said, looking at her companion with disapproving twin frowns. They weren't the only ones.
Shutting up he glared hatefully at her, as if the horrible things he'd been saying had somehow been her fault and turned to walk away, but she grabbed his arm and drew him aside, into a corner between the bar and floo station. There she studied him, his closed-off expression, hot temper that had seemed to flare even hotter and faster than normal but most of all the lost, kicked-puppy expression hiding somewhere beneath all that offended pride. Something had happened, she realised, and what should have been easy banter between them had set Lestrange of. She felt strangely guilty, but told herself that she couldn't have known because well, she couldn't have, could she?
She could feel her expression softening as she studied him while he stood there, fuming and wounded, possibly alone with struggles that she had a feeling were somehow connected to Bellatrix Lestrange and her less than stellar mothering skills. Gently, she touched his shoulder, not sure how much sympathy he would accept. He stiffened but didn't shrug her off, which she counted it as a victory.
"Hey, I didn't mean it ok?" She said, as gently as if she were talking to a wounded animal. He looked at her then and, studying her, his anger seemed to mellow until only a deep, cold uncertainty remained. A moment later it was gone altogether, replaced by his usual haughty expression.
"Well, are we going or what?" He asked.
Deciding to let the matter drop for the time being she simply nodded once, a new kind of determination settling over her. Right, time to get to work. Hopefully they'd both be so exhausted by the end of it that he'd forget whatever it was that had been bothering him - for a while at least.
"Right, follow me."
She walked over to the floo and, having thrown some of the powder from the jar atop the mantle into the flames, called out, "Godrick's Hollow" and...promptly landed on her face.
She wasn't able to see Lestrange follow, sprawled out on the living room carpet as she was, but she heard the swoosh of the flames coming to life behind her. Even from her somewhat unfortunate position, the sound was like sweet nectar to her ears.