Lessons
Harry awoke from his nightmare feeling exhausted.
Harry took out his wand and with a quick swish; neon blue numbers appeared showing him the time.
"It's only five in the morning." Harry grumbled to himself.
Harry quietly got out of bed and made his way into the Hub. Walking quietly past Nehebkau, the snake was sleeping curled up on Harry's favorite chair, and into the Hubs kitchen, Harry made himself a cup of hot chocolate. He berated himself, as he sat in the Hub's kitchen, for not using the Hub while at the Dursleys home. If he had just ignored his unusual urge to annoy his relatives, his mother's protection would have been extended for another year.
Harry sat there and pondered his recent dreams, the dreams were disquieting and Harry wondered if he should maybe speak to Sirius about them. Harry quickly discounted that option, he was already imposing on his godfather as it was, it would not do to add more trouble, especially since there was no way for him to return to the Dursleys.
Feeling a bit more awake but still rather tired, Harry made his way to his potions lab and brewed himself a batch of pepper up potion. He knew that Remus would insist on some cleaning during the day and, as it was, Harry did not feel up to the challenge of cleaning, potentially dangerous rooms.
"Did I miss anything?" Harry asked Silias, only to realize that the amulet was no longer around his neck.
Harry retraced his steps in the Hub and found nothing. He then made his way out of the Hub and found Silias safely stored away on his bedside table. Harry didn't remember taking the amulet off but he had been very tired when he had gone to bed.
'Ah! There you are, I was wondering when you would retrieve me.' Silias said, the moment Harry placed him over his head.
'Sorry, I guess I took you off before I went to bed.' Harry explained.
With Silias's help, Harry brewed a large batch of potent pepper up before Sirius and Remus awoke. Having taken a dose, Harry felt much more alert and so made his way to the Grimmauld Place kitchen and began breakfast.
It didn't take long for the first occupant of Grimmauld Place to arrive, drawn by the smell of toast and bacon, surprisingly enough, it was Tonks.
"Morning Tonks, I didn't know you were staying here." Harry said as he pulled out another plate for the Metamorph.
Tonks grumbled something incoherent and sat down at the table, her eyes still half closed.
If her rumpled clothes were any indication, Harry could swear she had fallen asleep fully dressed.
Harry served her a cup of coffee and this seemed to wake her up a bit.
"That feels better. I crash here sometimes. The boys and I polished off a bottle of firewhisky last night after you went to bed and well, I was in no shape to apparate home."
"What time do you have to be at the Ministry?" Harry asked as he served her a plate of scrambled eggs.
"Seven AM." Tonks replied and then suddenly stopped chewing. She quickly whipped out her wand and cast the same spell Harry had … approximately two hours prior.
"CRUD, I'll be late!' she cried out as the spell displayed six-fifty am.
Tonks quickly swallowed the rest of her eggs and downed her cup of coffee. Sirius and Remus blearily walked into the kitchen, their wands drawn.
"What's all the yelling about?" asked Remus.
"Scourgify me please, I'm gonna be late for work!" Tonks cut in as she finished the last of her coffee.
Remus cast the spell on her. Tonks squirmed and gave Remus a strange look and the moment the spell was done she popped away.
"I don't know how she can stand having scourgify cast on herself like that." Remus said with a shiver as he sat down at the table.
"Why?" Harry asked, he'd never had the spell cast on him before but had used it on items to clean them.
"The spells a bit too thorough. It's a little invasive really." Sirius explained with a pointed look.
'It cleans … well … everywhere.' Silias clarified.
"Alright, I think I get it now." Harry replied seeing how Sirius was about to add more information.
Once breakfast was consumed each member of the household was appointed a room to clean. Harry had begun helping with cleaning and, after Remus and Sirius had checked it out for some of the nastier magical pests, he had been assigned the Library.
The Black Ancestral Library was large, nothing compared to Hogwarts but large for a privately held collection. Unlike the Library at Hogwarts, the Black Library did not have a restricted section … the whole Black Library resembled the Restricted Section. The shelves held various tomes, some more ominous than other; The Cage of Bones and Everto Porta were a few titles Harry glimpsed as he made his way about the library.
"I wouldn't touch any of the books just yet. I'll let Remus sift through them to see what we can keep out in the open and what we need to store in a vault." Sirius said from behind Harry as he dropped a pail of soapy water and some rags on the floor.
"Wouldn't you destroy this stuff instead? I mean a book called the 'Demon Gate' isn't something I see us needing to read."
'DESTROY A BOOK!?' cried out Silias from Harry's mind. 'Are you daft? What if we had to counter a curse found in one of those books? Destroying that book will not destroy every copy of it in the world or wipe it's contents from everyones minds.'
"I said the same thing but Remus gave me that look that means I said something stupid so I guess we'll just lock up anything he thinks is too dangerous."
'I'm glad to see someone else in this house has some common sense. No knowledge is evil, knowledge is simply a tool. It is our use of knowledge that is either good or evil.'
"I guess that makes sense." Harry replied to both Sirius and Silias.
"Now remember, you don't have to do all this by hand. Here's a book with some useful cleaning spells and try not to get caught by Remus." Sirius whispered as he leaned in close to Harry, handing him a thin book.
"Now here are your cleaning supplies Harry. We'll leave you to it." he continued in a loud voice and then winked at his godson before rushing out of the room.
Harry smiled at his godfather's antics and quickly leafed through the book. He apparently knew most of the spells already and so set to work on the library. Harry slowly made his way to the back of the Library, using his wand to light the old gas lamps on the peeling walls.
"How can so much dust accumulate over only ten years?" Harry whispered to Silias. "I hope there aren't any Dust Bunnies."
The library was much like the rest of Grimmauld Place, all dark colors and snake motifs.
"Talk about house pride." Harry said as he transfigured a snake ornament into a little book.
'Yes, the décor certainly shows a single mindedness that borders on the obsessive compulsive.'
"I mean, I like Gryffindor well enough but it's not like I'll paint all my walls gold and red." Harry added before aiming at a wall and casting a scourgify.
To Harry's dismay, the spell not only wiped the dirt and grime from the wall but also the peeling paint.
"Crud, didn't know that would happen."
Harry continued cleaning around the bookcases and, about an hour later, was almost finished when Remus Lupin entered the room.
Harry quickly hid his wand, while Remus looked at the state of the room, moved his eyes to the bucket of clean water, looked at the walls and floor again, looked at the bucket one more time before settling his gaze on Harry.
"Lessons will start tomorrow morning, now if you could start on the guest bedrooms I'll start sorting these books." Remus said, as he made his way to one of the bookcases with a large box.
"Uhm … lessons?" Harry asked.
"If you're going to perform magic illegally, might as well do it for a good reason. I looked over the curriculum for DADA of the past couple of years and it hasn't been good at all." Remus explained as he levitated an evil looking book into the box he had carried into the room.
"Uhm … right then." Harry said as he made his way out of the room.
Sirius mock berated his godson for his lack of cunning at supper that evening.
The next morning, Harry woke up and made his way to the kitchen only to find Remus already sitting there, sipping tea while reading a book. On the kitchen table was a pile of paper and a muggle number two pencil.
"Uhm, morning Remus, what's all this then?" Harry said as he pointed at the pile of papers.
"Your pop quiz. Answer it as you eat and then we'll move on to the practical test." Remus explained without looking up from his book.
Harry groaned but did as he was told. Between eating his breakfast and Remus's questions, Harry had difficulty concentrating on his 'test' and before he knew it, he was done. Remus quickly took the test and began rating it.
"If you could get the dishes, I'll be done with this in a few minutes."
Harry began pouring warm water into the sink when Remus interrupted him.
"I know you know you can do magic here, you can just magic the dishes clean you know."
Harry stopped the water, quickly scourgified the plates and silverware and poured himself another glass of juice.
A few minutes later, Remus finished rating Harry's pop quiz and looked up at him with interest.
"Well, your knowledge is good. Let's go wake up Padfoot and test out some of your practical." Remus said as he made his way out of the Kitchen.
Harry quickly gulped back his Juice and followed Remus up the stairs.
Twenty minutes later, a rather disheveled and grumpy Sirius Black sat in a chair, in the Formal Dinning Room, sipping a cup of coffee, trying to get his brain into gear.
While Sirius sat there, Remus and Harry had not been idle. Remus had tasked Harry with clearing out an area in the formal dinning room using only magic. Harry had used mainly shrinking charms and had used a few cleaning spells to clear off dirt and grime.
When this was done, Remus had then tested Harry on the use of other charms and transfiguration spells. He would not ask Harry to perform a specific spell but would give him a task to perform to see how he would complete it.
Silias, as in all classes save Potions, remained silent during this 'Practical Examination'.
Harry performed all the tasks set for him while Remus jotted down a few notes.
"Alright Padfoot, you had enough time. We have a lot to do today." Remus said, vanishing Sirius's cup as the ex-convict was about to take another sip.
"Remus, I'd normally still be in bed." Sirius whinnied.
Remus quickly whipped his wand in Sirius's direction and vanished his chair. Suddenly finding himself without support, Sirius landed roughly on the ground.
"Fine, fine … I'd stay on the ground but you'd be likely to kick me."
"Now that Sirius has finished his morning constitutional we can get started. We don't have any Dark Creatures handy …"
"We could use Kreature." Sirius cut in, in a fake attempt at being helpful.
"… but that may change when we get back to cleaning, so for now we'll just do a bit of dueling; nothing too serious, just to get a feel on your reflexes and so on." Remus explained as he sat himself down, ignoring his friends attempt at humor.
"Did he say they were about to duel in the Formal Dinning Room?" asked one of the normally silent portraits, lining the walls of the room to the portrait to it's right.
"Come on Moony, I know I'm rusty and all but I was an Auror. I don't want to hurt Prongslet here by accident. Wouldn't do to have people think I'm abusing him." Sirius replied with some concern.
Harry was both insulted and pleased. On the one hand, his godfather cared for him, on the other his godfather felt he was helpless. Hadn't he destroyed the Dork Lord at the age of one? Hadn't he banished Voldemort's spirit from Quirel? Hadn't he, Hermione and Ron destroyed a Basilisk and the memory of a sixteen year old Voldemort? Hadn't Harry taught the Hub gang Occlumency? Hadn't he, with Hermione's help, taught Ron the fighting skills that had resulted in the capture of Lockhart?
Harry rolled up his sleeves. He was going to show his godfather what he was truly capable of.
"He knows enough to be getting along with Sirius. Just don't start tossing explosive hexes about and we'll be fine."
At the mention of explosion Hexes, the few portraits that had remained on the walls quickly disappeared out of their frames.
Sirius lazily took out his wand and took up a sloppy fighting stance.
"On three. One, two, three!"
Harry quickly fired off a stunner at Sirius who deftly deflected it. Harry then dodged to the side to avoid a tickling charm. Harry then threw off two stunners in quick succession while Sirius simply dodged one and deflected the other. Sirius then threw a color changing hex at Harry. Harry simply allowed the spell to hit him as it would have no real impact on his combat abilities.
"Hah! Got him." Sirius cried out in apparent triumph and began to dance a little victory dance.
Harry took that opportunity to attack Sirius with a body bind that the former Auror was barely able to avoid.
"Oy! No need to be a sore loser." Sirius exclaimed as he rolled away from yet another body bind. "I hit you fair and square."
"I let you hit me with that spell, I recognized it as a hair color changing spell so there was no reason for me to avoid it." Harry explained.
"Oh fine then." Sirius exclaimed and began launching stunners at Harry.
The duel continued on for a few more minutes, becoming more and more intense. Harry could tell that his Godfather was still holding back but not as much as he had initially. Harry began using more powerful and obscure, or at least obscure to a second year student, curses, losing himself in the conflict but no matter what spell Harry used, Sirius apparently knew the counter curse. Harry decided to try confusing his godfather.
"Vis Phasmatis!" a light blue bolt left the tip of Harry's wand and Sirius, apparently not recognizing the spell, scrambled out of the way.
Sirius apparently decided to end the fight then and there and stopped vocalizing his spells and fired them in a rapid stream. Harry managed to dodge or deflect the first three but was hit by the next two.
Harry woke up a moment later with a sore bum, Sirius was looming overhead with a manic grin on his face while, the normally laid back Remus appeared impressed.
"That was bloody well brilliant Prongslet!" Sirius exclaimed pulling Harry to his feet.
"What was so brilliant about it? You were just toying with me." Harry replied sullenly.
"At first I was. Remus showed me the curriculum for DADA for the past two years and I didn't think you'd be able to fight your way out of a wet paper bag, even with the books we sent you I wasn't expecting you to be this good."
"Sirius is right Harry you showed a knowledge equal to that of a fourth or fifth year student or close to that at least." Remus explained in his normal calm voice.
"You also have wicked reflexes but you need to train up a bit, you were starting to tire in the end there and you have to remember; I've finished my Hogwarts education and I was an Auror at one point. You stood up brilliantly for a second year student."
Sirius praise helped lessen the sting of defeat and Harry accepted his Godfather's extended hand.
Harry, at Hedwig's apparent urging, wrote his friends explaining to them how his summer had started out and camouflaged the letter using the charm used on the Maurauders map. This meant that he could not send a letter to Neville but hoped the boy would understand when they met again.
Life at Grimmauld place fell into a pattern after Harry's duel with Sirius. In the morning, they would have breakfast together, followed by a bit of practical Defense then some cleaning. Tonks had not returned to Grimmauld Place yet but Harry was assured that she would pop up at some point during the week.
After only one week of practical defense, Harry had already learned much, proper positioning so as to give you opponent a smaller target, how to stand so as to be able to move quickly out of the way and how to fall without hurting yourself overly much and to offer a quicker way to stand from being knocked prone.
Harry had learned of these tricks and skills but still needed a great deal of practice before being considered proficient in them.
Harry was taught very little in the way of spells since both Sirius and Remus felt Harry was far enough ahead of his year mates but that did not stop Silias from teaching Harry in his special way.
The one area Harry received no tuition in was Potions as both Remus and Sirius were only fair hands at brewing.
"Your mother was fabulous at Potions, on par with Severus." Remus told Harry when he asked about Potions.
"Yeah, it's too bad your dad only got with her partway through our seventh year. Imagine the pranks we could have done if we'd have had her working with us." Sirius replied with a dreamy look in his eyes.
"What else was she good at?" Harry asked, not having heard much about his mother.
"She was just as good at charms as she was at potions. She also had very good grades in Arithmancy and Ancient runes."
"Yeah, Remus here was the only one in those classes with her from our group. For me it was Defense and Transfiguration, your dad was pretty good at Defense but was better at Charms and Transfiguration."
"Well, enough talk about training for today. I declare today the Grimm Auld Place's annual 'no training day'!" Sirius exclaimed, rising to his feet, one arm raised imperiously.
"And what do you plan on doing all day then oh Master of the Grimm Auld Place?" Remus asked.
"Shopping! We're off to Diagon Alley."
