Chapter 3 – Dueling with Junior
The morning after the shopping trip came slow. All the occupants of The Burrow slept well, until a certain Auror arrived, tripped over some pairs of shoes at the back door, and hit her head on the kitchen table.
Harry and Mr. Weasley both heard the crash around 6am and went downstairs, dressed in extremely manoeuvrable dressing gowns with wands at the ready.
The site to greet them was comical at best. A bubble gum pink haired woman, in full Auror combat gear, lay sprawled across the kitchen floor, with numerous pieces of cutlery and crockery darted around her. Harry and Mr. Weasley shared a look, both tried not to laugh at the woman, until a groan escaped her lips, and both men went to her side to see if she was alright.
"Death Eaters should be scared, Tonks, you can manage that much destruction without any help." Harry joked with her when the rest of the Weasley occupants were awake and eating breakfast. "Why are you here anyway? The last of my trips was yesterday."
"Ha ha, we have a comedian, it's a shame he isn't very good." Tonks mumbled. "I'm here as Arthur's official escort to the ministry ceremony today actually, not your babysitter for once." She replied.
"I don't ask for them you know. Anyway, what's going on at the ministry for Mr. Weasley to require an escort?" Harry asked, Mr. Weasley always went to work alone.
"The new minister is having a re-shuffle of department heads. Every high placed ministry official, including the minister himself might I add, is being placed under veritaserum and asked questions about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, they are all being escorted to the Ministry his morning by Aurors and Hit-Wizards. Some of the lower staff are even being escorted by DMLE staff to ensure no-one tries to run. Brilliant idea I think, get any supporters out, before he gives the big positions away. Of course everyone knows who's getting the important spots." Tonks told Harry. Harry was mildly impressed; it was at least a start in the right direction. All the Aurors, Hit-Wizards and DMLE staff that were under the departments control were already randomly subjected to questioning in a directive by Amelia Bones. Several staff members were arrested from involvement with Voldemort. One of the holding cell staff was even fired because he was found to be purposely forgetting to come to work, and claimed it was a forgetting potion his wife fed him.
"If Madam Bones' doesn't get Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement then I shall eat my hat. I've always liked that woman, and she is perfect for the job." Arthur told the table at large, while reading his Daily Prophet.
"I agree Arthur, did you hear about the attack on her manor in July though? She fought You-Know-Who with the help of three of her Aurors. Two of them died, the other lost a hand before more Aurors, and even Dumbledore came to fight him off. Apparently she lasted at least two minutes on her own against him. Bloody powerful witch she is, glad she's on our side." Tonks said which impressed Harry no end. Anyone with the guts to go up against Voldemort was worthy of his respect.
"Yes I heard about it, I even talked to her about it. Apparently, the Auror who lost his hand is still in St. Mungos. They can't stop it bleeding, can't heal it in anyway, they have no idea what kind of curse was used. Terrible shame really, I've worked with Magnus a few times, good man he is." Mr. Weasley told them.
"Enough of the war talks at the breakfast table." Mrs. Weasley told the table, receiving a non-committal grunt in reply.
"Harry, Remus is coming over today to help you with your problem. I have absolutely no idea what problem you have, but he is, was told to tell you, and to make sure you had started your book, understand?" Tonks told Harry. Of course Harry had read the book on his Magical Sight; he'd even tried it a few times now. Not only did he not understand what each of the colours meant, after about a minute of watching the colours a splitting headache would always form. Apparently this was normal, but it still wasn't any less annoying. Harry gave Tonks a nod, and watched her and Mr. Weasley walk into the living room ready to Floo to the Ministry.
After breakfast, Harry grabbed the Magical Sight book, and went outside under the familiar tree and was soon accompanied by Ginny who was reading a muggle fiction book.
For a beginner, it is important to understand what each of the colours and shades of colours mean. They simply show what kind of magic is being seen. Jinxes are coloured one colour, curses another, hexes another, wards, magical objects and wizarding humans all have different colours.
To achieve the next level of using magical sight is much more difficult though. Not only do you have to distinguish between the colours to find what kind of magic it is, but you also have to study the depth of the colour, if it has any shades, any alterations such as flecks of colour. Each and every difference all means that the spell or piece of magic is different to another. For example, if there was a Light Blue spell flying through the air. The Spell would be identified as a charm. If you also saw the depth of the colour, the slight orange flicks on the top of the charm, with the right side of the charm in shade, you would know what this was a 'Stupefy' charm, and act accordingly. This is just intermediate Magical Sight though, even identifying the magic is considered to be an insignificant thing.
The next level is being able to manipulate, change and even remove the visible parts of Spells. This is extremely difficult, takes vast amounts of magical power and concentration to a point were it simply cannot be used in combat. But, using a stunner, which has a clear light path, clearly has an advantage in starting a fight, or using it against single targets. Other helpful applications include Invisible Wards, which regular curse breakers cannot detect, and simply skip over. This makes removing the wards ten times more difficult, and the majority of curse breakers will not even be able to detect and identify the wards, never mind remove them. Another noted application was the 'cloaking' of spells. Doing things such as casting a tickling charm, but making it a green worthy of the killing curse is going to give the caster a tactical advantage. The main advantage is of course, but the most difficult, is altering spells which have already been cast. Having the ability to turn a leg breaker curse, into a leg locker curse is invaluable. The thing to remember in this section is that the smaller the change of the effect of the curse, the easier it is to do. Turning a tickling charm, into a poking charm for instance, the change of the desired effect is minimal, so it is easier to accomplish. But changing a tickling charm into a knee reversing hex for instance, is very close to impossible. Not only is it not in the same group (from charms to hexes) it accomplishes a completely different goal.
Being able to achieve these results are extremely difficult, mainly because they can not be done with a wand. People who are particularly gifted in wandless magic may be able to do more than people who are not.
The first chapter was simple enough for Harry. A quick explanation of what Magical Sight was a brief introduction of how to use it, and some practical applications of it.
The rest of the book delved into concepts Harry wasn't sure about though. Being able to identify a spell which could travel one hundred metres in a matter of seconds was difficult, but when that spell was flying at you, it becomes much more worrying.
An exchange of Hellos was what took Harry out of his thoughts and with a quick glance towards the door, he saw Remus walking over to them.
"Do you mind if we stay out here Gin?" Harry asked and receiving a smile and a nod.
Harry got up and greeted Remus, and went straight on to the subject of this Magical Sight.
"So its all about identifying spells and pieces of magic? Well what use is that really? You can see most spells anyway." Harry said immediately to Remus.
"Ok, let me give you an example. Say I animated that…" Remus said, looking around for an example. "That bush there. What if I animated it to jump on any passing animals? Ok and you knew there was something attacking animals." Harry cut him off now.
"I understand that part Remus, but that could be done by simply watching the garden." Harry said. Remus shook his head.
"Let me finish Harry, what if you had never seen the spell before, never heard the incantation, and never seen the result before and was asked to remove the spell. What would you do if you didn't have Magical Sight to identify the spell?" Remus asked.
"Ok, I understand that now, it's useful for removing charms and enchantments. But my dad said specifically 'I'm an awesome dueller because of it', how did it help? The only thing I can see is identifying spells, which anyone can do looking at the colour of the spell." Harry asked, still confused about how it could help in that respect.
"You don't study Arithmancy do you Harry? It's a shame really. Go back to your book and read the third paragraph of the introduction chapter. What if someone sent a bone breaker curse at you, and you could change that curse into even a bone fracturing curse, you have a huge advantage." Remus told Harry. Remus thought Harry really should do a quick run through of basic Arithmancy, he would understand the differences between different spells and curses better if he did.
"But Remus, it says that that is extremely difficult. Where do I start? In reality, it's going to take me a long time to get used to seeing the differences between curses, hexes, charms and so on." Harry said, feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information, and the possibilities of the Magical Gift he possessed.
"Lets do some simply tests then, I'll either fire a hex or a jinx in the direction of the pond. You have to identify which one it is, simple enough yea?" Remus knew this was harder than it sounded. The colours would be fast blurs in the air, getting the basics will take a while, but getting the details of each curse, and recognising it, thinking about whether it is best to shield, dodge or let it hit and still have time to act on the spell within as little as a second was a big feat.
Harry and Remus experimented around for a while, and soon added curses into the equation. After two or three minutes every time though, Harry had to stop, put his glasses back on, and take a rest to let his headache settle down. Remus offered Harry for some simple pain reliever, but got told that the book said this was normal, and the more the person is exposed to the sight, the longer they can cope with the strain on their eyes.
After around three hours, and fifteen exercises later, the pair went inside for a rest. Harry carried on experimenting for the rest of the day, but soon found that his head was pounding from an almighty headache, and he simply could not continue any longer.
At around eight pm, Remus came out of the fire place holding several books for Harry. They were mainly on basic Arithmancy, but would help Harry being able to distinguish between spells easier. Remus told Harry to read them as it would help him.
Harry spent the rest of the night playing chess with Ginny and her parents.
After another night without Ginny, Harry woke early, had gone for his jog, done his exercises (although was missing Dudley's weights) and had showered before anyone else seemed to have got up. When he was coming out of the bathroom, he did not see the youngest Weasley in front of him, and walked right into her.
After a series of apologies by both of then, two extremely red faces, and a re-fastened towel, they both went on with their respective tasks.
At breakfast, the two youngsters seemed to have both decided to forget that the accident that morning never happened though, and were both back to their usual selves.
After lunch, Mrs. Weasley asked Ginny to go into the local town of Ottery St. Catchpole to pick up some groceries and some food for the chickens. Harry also volunteered to go with her, and they were soon off walking down the lane towards the main street into the town.
At first, they were both silent, but after a few minutes walking, the tension seemed too much.
"We should talk about us." Stated Harry simply, breaking the silence.
"What about us? We get along well, and then we have an accident and seemingly fall apart. Wait, we don't fall apart, we weren't together." Ginny said, talking and correcting herself without being told she was wrong.
"We could remedy that you know." Harry said, becoming hopeful. He still didn't know where the sudden confidence around Ginny was coming from, when he was around Tonks and any other woman while he was shopping, he was still typical Harry.
Ginny stopped, grabbed Harry's hand, and tugged him to a stand still as well.
"Not yet Harry, ok?" Ginny said firmly. She didn't understand herself why she wouldn't allow herself to do this, she thought it was to ensure that he knew what he was doing, but that shouldn't have stopped her, having Harry is what she had always wanted.
"No problem Gin, I'm sorry if I keep bringing it up, ok? I just want a chance; I know we'd have fun together." Harry said, smiling and holding her hand in both of his.
"I know Harry; just give me a few more days ok." She said, still holding his hand and carrying on walking again.
Harry and Ginny picked up the groceries and made their way back to The Burrow. They spent the rest of the day reading and studying for the up coming school year.
Later on that evening, Kingsley came out of the fire, and asked for Harry, who was in his room with Ginny brewing a potion with her for Snape's homework.
Harry came down the stairs, and saw Kingsley there, and began wondering why he was there, maybe he was to be questioned from the attack at Godrics Hollow?
"Don't worry Harry; I just wanted to ask if you wanted to come by the Auror HQ tomorrow. See what it's like, I can take you in the duelling chamber; let you duel some of the Aurors. They may even give you a few tips." He said
"That sounds great! I'd love too!" Harry said excitedly. He really did want to visit. Not only were his duelling skills in need of improving from the coming war, but he really did want a few more days out until he had to go back to school. "I may have a problem though, my magical power has increased, and I don't really know how to control it yet. The few spells I fired at Godric's hollow both missed people, they made craters in the ground where they hit." Harry explained.
"We'll see if one of the instructors can help you Harry, don't worry. You may even recognise some of the instructors actually; some of the Hogwarts staff helps out at the training centre in the summer, and some Easters, Christmases and weekends too." Kingsley said. He had heard from Remus about the increased power of Harry's magical ability, but it would seem he would be getting a first hand show of it tomorrow.
Kingsley bid farewell, and made his way home, telling Harry he would be here around 9am to pick him up when he goes into work.
Harry then darted backup to tell Ginny what he was doing. Harry did notice the sour look on her face when he told her.
"I'm sorry Gin; this is something I have to do. I promise I'll be home as soon as I can to keep you company, ok? I can't have my favourite red head being bored now can I?" Harry said, trying to help.
"Don't worry Harry, I understand, its just it'll be back to on my own like it was before you came. I'm really enjoying hanging around with you." Ginny told him, worried that he would now be out constantly, leaving her to amuse herself. She had the need to just latch on to him and not let go.
"I promise you can have every moment I'm back at the burrow. Honest." Harry told her, meaning it one hundred percent. Ginny nodded at him, but was still looking down, so Harry simply grabbed her into a hug and spun her around a bit.
Ginny looked up at him into his eyes, and saw adoration in them. She looked towards his lips, and saw him quickly run his tongue over them. She noticed how dry hers were, and instinctively did the same. Feeling Harry lean in slightly, she started to do the same, but was cut off from a "GINNY" being shouted up the stairs.
Harry was first to react, he quickly released Ginny, and turned half away from her and looked away while chewing on his bottom lip. Ginny simply sighed, walked over to him, hugged him around the side and whispered into to his ear.
"We'll continue this conversation later."
Thinking about it, there was no conversation, but Harry knew immediately what she meant.
Ginny walked over to the door, looked at Harry again, sighed and went downstairs to see what her mother wanted.
She was back up within fifteen minutes with a pile of clean clothes of Harry's. They finished the potion to a good standard, although they both agreed Snape would determine that it was completely wrong and would more than likely bring the death of anyone.
When they were both lying in bed later that night, they were both thinking the same thing. I should wait for him/her to try again. It's not my place, if he/she wants to kiss me, he'll/she'll try. I've been too pushy anyway. Harry thought. If he definitely wants this, he'll try again. Ginny thought. Soon after they were both asleep, dreaming of each other.
The next morning, Harry only did a light workout, not knowing if he was going to be doing much physical activity, and not wanting to wear him out before even going there.
He dressed in some of his closer fitting jeans, and a well fit polo shirt to ensure he could more freely, and pulled on one of his simple grey robes.
Soon enough, Kingsley was coming through the fireplace to collect Harry and take him to the ministry.
Harry quickly stood, and followed the Senior Auror through the fire place clearly stating 'Ministry of Magic, Atrium!'
He was caught by the Auror when he stumbled out of the fireplace, and quickly mumbled a thank you and looked down, with his robe hood covering his face to avoid being spotted in the Atrium.
He gave a quick glance at the fountain of magical Brethren that had been repaired from the fight between Dumbledore and Voldemort.
While mindlessly following Kingsley to the queue to the security desks, Harry was thinking of the Headmaster. He had not even heard from him since he gave a floo call to him to explain the fight at Godric's Hollow. He wondered if he was ignoring him again, trying to not let have Voldemort access to Dumbledore. He told himself to floo the Headmaster when he got back to the burrow, to see if it was due to this reason, and come up with an excuse for the floo call. Maybe ask for someone from the order for some tutoring over the holidays for himself and Ginny.
Shaking his head out of his thoughts, and handed his wand over to the security officer sat at his desk. Without looking up, he read off his chart, 'Holly with phoenix core, in use for almost five years, yes?' Harry gave him a quick and quiet yes.
"Reason for visit?" The guard asked in his mono tone voice, quill at the ready.
"Visiting the Aurors." Harry stated simply.
"Fine, fine." The guard said again, giving Harry back his wand, and a badge that said. 'Visitor. Level Two Only.'
Harry grabbed the badge, pinned it on his robes, and was soon whisked off with Kingsley through the golden gates and into a waiting elevator.
"Ah, Kingsley, there are a couple of people waiting for you in your office my good man, something about wanting to help practice or something." An elderly gentleman with pristine golden robes told the Auror.
"Yes, thank you John. Is Director Bones in yet? I have some things that need to be discussed with her until we get a new Master Auror to take over." Kingsley asked. The Master Auror was normally the Auror with the most experience, and the best abilities that headed up the Auror department. He then had numerous Senior Aurors which headed up squads of Aurors. Most of the Senior Aurors had two or three junior Aurors assigned to them as well, they weren't officially in the squad, but normally went along for experience. The junior Aurors all had a small vertical stripe running down the sleeve of their grey battle robes, where the senior aurors have a band running around them. The average Auror doesn't have anything on their typical battle robes.
'Level Two, Department of Magical Law Enforcement including the Auror office, Hit-Wizard office, Head of the DMLE's office and the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office.' The mono tone female voice of the elevator stated. Kingsley and Harry pushed through a few people in front of them and out of the elevator, into a corridor with windows running along the left, and doors with golden names on them on the right.
"Portals." Kingsley said simply. "They take DMLE staff to popular targets. There's the door for the Ministers floor, St. Mungos, one for outside Gringotts, one in Hogsmede. Pretty simple really, get used a lot these days as well as you can imagine."
Kingsley lead Harry right down to the end of the corridor and through a pair of double doors on his left, with a large golden writing on them 'Auror Headquarters'. There were a number of desks placed together in the middle of the large room, on the walls in front of him, and the wall in which he came through were windows currently showing images of the atrium and smaller windows showing each of the elevators. It reminded Harry of muggle CCTV cameras.
"Got that installed when one of your professors offered. Christmas last year, took him three days to complete it. It makes the atrium a lot more secure, but we can still stay up here for paperwork and training." Kingsley told him, Harry immediately tried to work out who had done the excellent work. Dumbledore probably was Harry's main line of thought.
On the wall to his right was a large map with small red and blue flags over it. There were also a large number of silver and a smaller number of gold pins around.
A quick explanation from Kingsley was that the red flags were known Death Eater sightings; the blue ones were suspected sightings but not confirmed. The silver ones were Aurors out in the field, and the gold ones were Hit-Wizard in the field.
Kingsley then pointed to the door to Harry's left. Showing him that was the Hit-Wizard office, Harry had a quick look in and saw around ten desks littered around the room. Carrying on down the wall, there was another door, with the word 'Training Room' on it. Kingsley pushed it open and motioned for Harry to come inside.
In the room were a number of benches with men and woman wearing simple muggle sports clothing while drinking from bottles and talking with each other. There was an arch straight ahead of him and an arch over to his left. Looking into the arch with his left, it was full of muggle exercise machines and weights. There were numerous wizards and witches on some of the machines. Back through the other archway, Kingsley instructed Harry to be ready to shield himself at all times. He walked through the archway first, and walked straight into some kind of glass he didn't noticed.
Kingsley laughed, and said everyone falls for it first time. Inside the large room were four chambers all surrounded by glass walls. Kingsley told him it was actually unbreakable glass, and that you could remove it and put it back with a flick of your wand. But once you were inside, no one outside could remove it, only the person inside.
Harry saw two witches duelling in the back left chamber, it seemed like they had conjured up a street like arena. This was quickly waved away by Kingsley, stating that you could think of the sort of arena you wanted, and it would simply give you it. You could also think of a random arena, and it would give you something you haven't used before, or haven't used in a long time.
"Kingsley my good man! Here to try and beat me again!" shouted a particularly squeaky voice Harry recognised and turned around to see his charms professor walking towards them. "Harry! What a surprise to see you here. Only a matter of time before you become on Auror I suppose. Here for some practice are we?" asked the excitable charms master.
"Just looking around, unless Kingsley wants to wipe the floor with me." Harry joked. Kingsley gave a grave expression, pushed passed Harry and Flitwick, back to the entrance way were a number of wizards and witches were dressing back in their combat robes.
"People!" Kingsley shouted to them. "Hello Dawlish didn't see you there. Give me a minute please. People, I need someone to duel a new recruit we have, see what he's up too." Kingsley told the group of people. A short stocky man stepped forward, and so did Dawlish, but he went straight to Kingsley to ask who it was.
"Its Potter, going to see what he's made of." Kingsley whispered back. Dawlish gave a grin back and followed Kingsley into the Dueling chambers.
While Kingsley was looking for a volunteer, Flitwick was talking to Harry about his power.
"For now Harry, just whisper your spells, it will remove some of the force from them. You can lessen the power other ways, but that will take time." The tiny man said. Harry gave him a nod, and looked to the group of three Aurors coming towards him.
The glass vanished from one of the chambers, and a simple circle appeared around the edge. Harry was told you are not allowed to cross the circle unless you forfeit. You are not to purposely force your opponent over it either. Disarm or render your opponent un-conscious. Harry was worried when no limit to the spells were given, but shrugged off his robe, and entered the chamber.
The Auror he was facing was shocked when he realised who it was. But none the less entered the chamber, and took up a defensive position. He then shouted 'READY', and the glass around him appeared back in place. Harry took this as an instruction, and also shouted 'READY', and his first training session with an Auror commenced.
As soon as the glass closed itself, Harry's vision blanked out. He panicked; he didn't know this was going to happen.
"Its ok Harry, its so its on an even footing, the arena will change, you will get your sight back, and then five seconds after that, the body bind will remove itself from you, then the duel starts." Kingsley instructed from outside of the glass. He, Flitwick and Dawlish were all watching closely to Harry's technique, none of them watching the Auror he was facing.
As soon as Harry's vision came back, he glanced around and noticed not much had changed; he was simple in a grassy field, with small mounds. He could still see the Auror a short distance away from him. He heard five beeps announcing the count down of the duel, and it started.
As soon as he could move, Harry darted to his right, and sent two stunners straight at the Auror. The Auror thought he could wave them away, but they didn't react to his wand. He put up his best shield and the stunners shattered against it. This surprised the Auror to no end, he was an expert at 'waving' away curses with their counter curse. This required the caster to use the same or more amount of power than what was put in the original curse. The Auror then darted backwards, and crouched behind one of the small mounds of grass. He sent a few test curses at Harry, mainly Body binds and Disarming spells to test his defences.
Harry simply dodged the curses that flew at him, and used the mounds of grass near him for cover. He tried once again with a couple of stunners, but they were easily shielded. The Auror then began his attack.
An exploding charm in front of Harry disorientated him, and sent him hurtling backwards. A reducto to the mound that he was using as cover sent the mound into the air also. Four Body binds and stunners then followed the barrage. Harry dodged the first two, and shouted 'PROTEGO' for the others.
Harry then got back to his feet, but realised his leg was in some pain from the fall. He sent a few hap hazard curses through the settling earth in front of him, hoping to buy him some time to form a plan. Seeing the Auror crouched behind a small mound of grass much like he was, his instantly formed plan started.
Using reducto much like the Auror did against him, the mound got blown into the air from the force of the spell, but he didn't stop to aim like the Auror did. He sent 'Stupefy' after 'stupefy' down where the mound used to be, and put all his concentration into sending the curses.
Harry didn't realise that the Auror had rolled away from the mound when he saw the reducto coming at it, and got away in the dust and mud from the destruction it caused.
The Auror crept behind him, a quick 'stupefy' and Harry was down.
The Auror was annoyed it took this long for him to take the boy down. He was also annoyed his preferred defence method seemed not to work against him. He looked towards the small audience they had, got nods from the Senior Aurors, and went over to 'ennervate' Harry.
When Harry's eyes opened he initially felt annoyed he'd been beaten by some typical Auror. He then thought that the Auror had years more experience than he did, so tried not to feel to down hearted about it.
The man helped Harry to his feet, and gave him a smile and a pat on the back, and called 'perfectus' to the glass. Harry did the same, and the glass vanished.
"Well done Harry, there are numerous things which you need to put some work on though." Kingsley told him. "Your aim is good, put you shouldn't fire unless you know where your aiming. I know what you were trying to achieve both times when you sent blind curses, but both times you shouldn't have done what you did. When you fire blind curses, you are giving away your position, on the possibility of a luck shot that probably isn't going to work." Harry gave him a nod, but still felt they were justified. "Don't get me wrong Harry, they were fine tactics, especially the second time, you were just too busy focusing your energy on one point. You have to be able to cover all your surroundings." Harry gave him another nod. Kingsley then turned to the Auror he had fought. "Anything you think could help him?"
"His mobility is good, makes him hard to hit, but he needs to be more confident staying in the path of curses and using shields. I noticed he only used protego, is that all you know?" The Auror asked, getting a nod in return he continued, "You should learn a few silent shields, you can use them effectively while dodging to take care of spray spells. Your dodging is excellent though. One thing that handicapped me, I'm sure the seniors here noticed as well, was that I couldn't counter curse, you put a lot of power into your curses, that's excellent when your fighting one v one, but if you ever go up against large groups, your going to get tired quickly. The first two stunners you sent almost smashed my 'Vox Contego' into pieces and doing that requires an extremely large amount of power. Just be careful ok?" The Auror told him, Harry responded with a nod, appreciating the tips.
"Is 'Vox Contego' a shield?" Harry asked, wondering if it was a powerful shield he used, and getting nods from all the people there. "Can you show me?" Harry asked, wondering if he could do the shield. The Auror and the professor exchanged a look together. Harry took this as a no. "Oh, it's ok if you can't, I don't mind."
"No, Harry my boy; it's simply a very hard shielding charm. Are you going to be coming here to train frequently?" Flitwick asked, half aiming the question at Harry, and half at Kingsley.
"He can come in the three days a week I have my training times if he wants too, nine until one on each of the days." Kingsley told Flitwick. Flitwick often came into teach new spells and techniques to the Aurors and DMLE staff. Flitwick was an extremely accomplished dueller, and could give Kingsley, Dawlish, Harry and the other Auror together a run for their money.
"Good, I shall be here then my boy; I shall show you some flaws in your technique. One thing I noticed is a lack of large spell arson. If you want I can show you the shield then, with numerous other ones if you would like. You should vary the spells you send, it makes your opponent more cautious to what he may be hit with. Do you know many other offensive spells, or did you just not use them?" Flitwick asked. Harry gave a shrug of his shoulders, and answered.
"I use mainly things which I a comfortable with, stunners, body binds and the occasional reducto are my usual spells." Harry told the four men.
"You should get out of the habit of using only them. Send more of a variety of curses, it makes your opponent change his defensive strategy, and in turn makes room for more mistakes." Flitwick told him. "Kingsley, why don't you get one of those juniors in here with Harry, gives him another chance." He said, pointed to the two females in the Chamber.
Kingsley walked over to the Chamber; waiting until the spell volley the shorter of the two woman was sending was finished, and knocked on the glass. Both of the Junior Aurors looked towards him, and called 'perfectus'.
"Jones, you duel with Johnson here. Knight, you're with Mr. Potter." He told them, both of the female Aurors went wide eyed, and stared at the young man that was stood with Flitwick and Dawlish.
Harry and Knight entered the chamber, called 'READY' in turn, and they once again lost their vision.
Outside the chamber, Kingsley said to the two watching, "Lets see what he does with this then."
When Harry regained his vision, he saw numerous waist height brick walls, and some shoulder height brick walls. The beeps counted down the seconds and as soon as he was free, he dropped behind the wall, and sent his favoured 'REDUCTO' at the wall infront of where the Knight was. He had totally forgot about what Flitwick told him earlier, and shouted the curse. The power of the curse rocked the whole room, left the wall which it was aimed at obliterated, and most of the walls around it crumbling down. The Auror, shocked at the power display, froze momentarily, before sprinting towards the closest still standin wall.
Harry stared wide eyed at the destruction he'd caused, if the spell hit Knight she would have more than likely suffered greatly from it.
He shook his head from his thoughts, and saw the Auror dart behind a wall to the left. Harry ducked down, and crawled along to his left also, and quickly going around the corner in as much as James Bond impression as he could muster. He walked along, and jumped over the waist height walls. He heard foot steps to his right, so stopped, and quietly crawled right in front of the wall which he heard them. When he got five metres past where he was, he sprung up, flew over the wall, saw the Auror stood at the end, wand pointing straight at him, and shouted 'STUPEFY' then immediately 'PROTEGO'. The 'stupefy' missed its mark by centimetres, but the Aurors spell got rebound off of his shield.
Harry Then dove back over the wall, and watched as the Auror came around the end of it. But Harry had thought about his next plan, he then cast another 'REDUCTO' at the wall to the left of where he thought the Auror would appear and dived back over the wall to the position he first fired the 'Stupefy'. He then watched the robe of the Auror flutter, stop, and then come back from cover from the flying rubble, a quick 'Stupefy' and the Auror slouched against the wall.
Harry stood, turned to see his two man audience smiling at him. He looked over to the right to see Dawlish shouting at the Auror and Junior Auror in the other chamber.
He walked over to the stunned Auror, a quick 'ennervate' and her eye's fluttered open. He offered her his hand, she grabbed it, pulled herself up with his help, and gave him a large smile.
"Perfectus" Harry called, and was quickly joined by the female Junior Auror.
"Good job Harry. Well done Knight, such power from someone so young is daunting, is it not?" Kingsley asked with a smile. The young Auror shook her head.
"That 'reducto' at the beginning scared the hell out of me." She admitted. "I was unsure of what I should do. I ran to take cover and try come up with a plan; I started moving forward, but was obviouslyt oo noisy. He dived over the wall, I thought I was going to get him with the spell, then he dived back; I went over to return more spells, and another reducto hit. I admit I was scared again; the power in those is extremely high. I was disorientated, slouched back into my original position, and got beaten. Well done Harry." She said with a huge smile at him.
Harry gave her a small smile, and a shy thank you back, but then went back to discussing the fight.
"You are still using your small arsenal Harry." Flitwick told him. "If when you initially jumped over the wall to surprise Miss Knight here, you used a simpler spell, an 'expelliarmus' maybe, you would have hit her before she got her spell off."
"She was closer than I thought she was, so I thought I should stun instead of disarm, she may have been able to get to me and physically get her wand back." Harry told the professor.
"Good tactic, but you have to remember that a powerful 'expelliarmus' will send your opponent back a few feet as well. You could have quickly bound her before she got back up again." Harry nodded, and thanked the professor for his advice.
"Want another Mr. Potter?" Came Dawlish's clear voice behind him.
"I'm sorry John, I'm going to have to be going soon, so will Harry here, I don't think we will have time." said Kingsley.
"Ok, no problem King, you got some paper work to do first?" Dawlish asked. Getting a nod in return, "I'll show him a few new spells while you're at it." He said, with a smile at Harry.
"Thank you Mr. Dawlish." Harry returned; glad to be learning a few more spells.
Kingsley nodded, said he would be back in half an hour, and went off to do his paperwork. Dawlish, Harry, Flitwick and the two Junior Aurors went into the largest chamber, which turned into a large room with blue mats covering the floor.
"'Conicio' is a simple curse, but extremely useful in situations like Harry was just in. Close quarter combat can be difficult, due to the time it takes for the spells to each their destinations. This spell will send your opponent flying backwards around eight to ten feet. Harry, stand up, I'll demonstrate on you."
Harry stood up, went to stand where he was shown, and Dawlish whispered 'conicio' at him, he flew back around eight feet onto his back. He could immediately get back up though, which was obviously the down side to the charm.
"As you can see, your opponent can get back up quickly. The best time to use this is when you are being charged at. Send the spell, and then immediately a more powerful but longer spell to cast. Harry you try." He showed Harry the wand movement and got into position.
Harry walked over to where Dawlish was stood and said 'Conicio'. Dawlish was sent flying back ten or so feet, but was back on his feet almost instantaneously and proceeded to pretend to send a spell back.
"As you can see, Harry sent me back around ten feet, and I'm still back up immediately, and ready to cast." Dawlish said Harry gave him a nod, along with the other people in the room. Flitwick just stood there with a smile on his face, like he was extremely pleased to be here.
Kingsley then came back into the room, with a small file in his hand and motioned Harry to come to him.
"Thanks for your help, I appreciate it." Harry told the small group and left the chamber towards the entrance room, while grabbing his robe back off the floor where he'd left it.
"Have fun? What did he show you?" Kingsley asked curiously.
"Conicio." Harry said simply. Which Kingsley nodded at.
"I've have to nip down to the Department of Mysteries with this file, and we'll go ok? You can stay up here for a while if you like. Arthur Weasley is just down that hallway." Kingsley said knowing Harry would not want to go back to that specific department. Harry gave him a nod, and went to the door where he was directed, and down past numerous smaller offices including the department head's office. Harry gave a quick glance inside when he walked passed the small window in the door, but it was empty.
Harry went through the small archway into the small open office full of shelves and desks. Three people, including Mr. Weasley, stood around the largest desk at the back, which he guessed was Mr. Weasleys, on the desk stood a fishing rod.
"Harry my boy! Kingsley said you were here. This is Perkins, this is Robson, gentlemen, this young man is Harry Potter." Arthur said noticing Harry. Surprisingly to Harry, neither of the men even spared a glace at Harry, but continued watching the fishing rod, but giving a quick hello to him over their shoulders.
Then, the fishing rod starting moving slowly, the hook and line moved towards Harry, into his pocket, and proceeded to take Harry's money bag from his pocket.
Harry of course snatched the money bag back, and looked at the assembled men for an explanation.
"Someone has charmed it to steal money bags and wallets. We have no idea what kind of charm is on it. We've been trying to come up with something for a while now, with no luck. I believe its going in the broom closet with the other non-life threatening things which we can't disenchant." Mr. Weasley told him.
Then, Kingsley's head appeared in the small fire next to Mr. Weasley's desk, directing Harry to go back towards the lift.
Harry said his goodbyes, left the office, but couldn't go much further from the small troop of people following Amelia Bones into her office. He let them pass, before he carried on down to Kingsley so he could floo back to The Burrow.
AN: What did you think of my explanation of Magical Sight? And what about the two duels? And his relationship with Ginny?
If you haven't noticed I quite like Dawlish as a character, by Husband says its because of PotterCasts' John Noe, but I just seem to like him also.
Do you like the idea of the windows enchanted into CCTV cameras?
Next chapter should be pretty soon, it's mostly written, it just needs touching up, it may be delayed though, ive managed to break my monitor and am currently using my husbands. Its bigger than the sodding TV though and extremely hard to read properly on. I'll hopefully get it up soon.