A/N: Wow this one was really easy to write but it's about as short as the last one. Expect this to be the new average word length but I'm going to try to update weekly every Friday from now on. That may be way too ambitious for me so it might get pushed back to every other week or once a month but for now it's every Friday. I'll be able to do this as I will write chapters in the three thousand word range so their much shorter and I will put aside my other fics, that haven't been posted yet but I got a lot in the making, and focus on this story.
Also Gramps is not about to do a 180 in his personality. He is still going to be very hard in his training and will want Jake's teachers to push him hard as well, harder then most of them are comfortable with. The difference is, for Jake's sake, he is willing to listen to the teachers' opinions because they know more about spell casting then he does. He's kind of subdued for the moment because of what happened with Jake but that won't last long after Jake forgives him.
Chapter Nine
Once all the younger children were in bed and the older ones were goofing off Snape left to inform the Dragon of what was going to happen. Just because the Dragon scared him doesn't mean he was willing to let the creature know it.
He made his way quickly to the room and knocked on the door. The Dragon's dog familiar opened it.
"You sure you should be walking around?" The dog asked with concern.
"I'm fine" Snape dismissed handing the familiar a piece of parchment "This is the schedule for The 'Dragon Training' so it doesn't interfere with the boy's school work"
Fu frowned studying it "The old man's not going to like not working with the kid every day"
"Explain that it is better for his magical development if he doesn't rigorously strain it to much, it is the same reason we don't do Magical Stamina building daily. His magical core is very delicate at this age. In fifth year you can start working with him daily but ONLY a couple hours a day so he can recuperate and still fully devout himself to his studies"
The familiar nodded "I'll talk to the Old Man but you might want to add a space on these Sunday sessions for another person. Lao is calling the magical branch of the FBI to send a Battle Mage up here to help train the kid"
"Battle Mage?"
"That style of magic is already heavily focused on combining physical attacks with magical ones and would be a good compromise so the kid can do what he wants to do and still be prepared for his duties as the American Dragon"
"What brought this on?"
"Just some things the kid said before you got here, that and the kid running off with you well completely ignoring his grandfather shocked the old man into rethinking his strategy"
Snape nodded then strolled right past it, the situation seem to have resolved itself so no sense throwing a wrench into it. Still "Normally most Battle Mages aren't taught how to incorporate physical blows with magic until after they are a fully trained wizard"
"Normally yes but that's only cause most wizards look down on punching people. It simply isn't accepted enough to offer in schools beyond a club. It's actually better to learn together at a young age and Jake's already been studying both martial arts and magic. All we need to do is polish his skills well teaching him how to combine them... maybe teach him to use a weapon and since he's taking summoning he won't have to worry about losing it during his Dragon transformation. Their a possibility that whatever he's holding or wearing will be temporarily absorbed into him well in that form. If he concentrates enough it won't be or if he does an incomplete transformation but to consciously do it would require a level of concentration the kid's just not ready for"
Snape nodded, must be the reason the old dragon was so adamant against the boy using a wand. He didn't really seem to care about it being better for the child's magical education to stick with only one style of magic "Just put the Battle Mage at the end of the day as I imagine that will be the most straining work magically and physically... you will also need to inform Master Shi that all training for this week has been cancelled. It is important to the boy's mental health that he familiarize himself with the school before jumping into training"
"The old man really isn't going to like that" Fu sighed "I'll talk with him"
"Good, have a pleasant evening" Snape swiped his robes and walked down the corridor.
###
Jake stretched out his muscles before dispelling the little sound proof bubble he placed on himself last night. Instead of using the charm against the cousins again, as he didn't want to make them think he was declaring a pranking war, he put the silencing charm on his curtains instead so he couldn't hear what was going on outside of them. He really should have thought of that earlier then everyone he went through yesterday would have been avoided.
Draco was yawning nearby getting out of bed with only a single hair out of place, which he quickly fixed.
"Did you manage to catch up?" Draco ask grabbing his stuff for the showers.
"Almost" Jake groaned grabbing his own stuff "I still have the last bit of my paper on Animagus and I need to start the essay for the house rules but other then that I just got my lines and punishment essay"
"Well it's only the first week back so not too much homework" Draco nodded walking to the door at the end of the room with Jake following. They stripped off their clothes and got into the shower. It was nice having a bathroom connected to the dorm but then that might be so no one had an excuse to leave the dorms at night. Still it be nice if they had some kind of wall separating the showers. As it was it was much like the showers in a gym with everyone being able to see everything. Magic schools in America didn't have PE as casting spells put a lot of strain on the body and eat up a lot of calories. Practicing Magic kept the body fit and healthy so with that no PE was needed so no gyms were at the school. Jake's school had a few sport teams like baseball and that weird game with the exploding ball lots of American magicals liked but kids usually just spelled themselves clean after those and took a proper shower at home. They didn't even have communal showers in his old school. Needless to say this was all kinds of embarrassing. Still Draco didn't seem to be looking which was strange given Jake just learned that all British wizards were bisexual.
The others came in and washed their hair paying no really attention to each other. Still Jake hurried and left, his face flushed even though he's done this a few times now. He dried off and got on his uniform and the others did the same before heading down stairs to get in line for breakfast.
###
Learning Ancient runes was boring but it was one of the few magics Gramps approved of, Transfiguration was better as they went over how to change a teapot to a tortoise and back again, Potions was fun as always, and Defense was pretty much the same thing (the teacher pretty much calling them evil but in the nicest possible way).
"What is wrong with that man!?" Jake demanded taking his seat at the lunch table with all the other third year Slytherins "Next to Care of magical creatures Defense is the most important thing I need to learn and he's washing my time! Maybe I should just drop the class and go with something else"
"Can't drop it, its a mandatory course" Teddy informed
"Maybe I can get Dumbles to let me substitute it with a training session with Gramps. We have Saturday to learn Defense with Snape after all"
The others shrugged, if Dumbledore was really trying to get something out of Jake then he would let the boy do just that giving further evidence against himself. Snape didn't seem too worried when the hurd of third year Slytherins warned him yesterday. Snape just said he was already aware of the situation. They could turst Snape to protect them all from the headmaster, Jake was no different, but then Jake had vital connections so it might be hard for Snape to act without a pile of evidence. The young Slytherins really needed to start collecting it.
"Go for it" Greg encouraged "But be careful how much trust you put in the headmaster. He doesn't like Slytherins much"
Jake, unfortunately, looked skeptical. He ran right past that accusation and continued complaining about there professor "You'd think a werewolf would be more accepting but he's got no problem branding all Slytherins as evil"
"Werewolf? Dumbledore?" Pansy blinked
"No Lupin" Jake corrected
All the Slytherins stopped and screamed "Lupin is a werewolf!?"
"How could you possibly know that!?" Pansy demanded
"Well his eyes have a yellowish twang his nails are a little dark and a bit sharp like his teeth. It isn't really all that noticeable so he must be young by werewolf standards but it's all classic werewolf features, plus the way he smells. You know like a dog right out of a bath, clean but still has that wet dog smell"
"No bloody way" Draco growled "A werewolf living at Hogwarts. When my father hears about this he'll be thrown out on his arse"
"Why?" Jake blinked
"It's dangerous to have that thing here!"
"Only around the full moon and I'm sure he hangs out in the forest around that time. I know werewolves aren't allowed to control their curse here but he probably takes lots of other precautions otherwise they wouldn't let him near children" Jake explained
"I thought you just said you hate him" Draco glared
"I do but it's wrong to keep someone out because of their race"
"Well he is a right rotten teacher and this could be our only way to get rid of him"
"I don't care, that's a horrible reason to fire someone and in fact it's illegal in America"
Draco sighed. He needed to call father again and see if he thinks exposing children to a werewolf was worth the connections of the American Dragon. It sounded like Jake wouldn't forgive them if they got rid of the beast.
"Well it's only for one year anyway until the curse sets in" Teddy reminded
"Err Lycanthropy sets in the very next full moon"
"Not that" Blaise scuffed "The curse on the school. No defense teacher has ever lasted more then a year. The Dark Lord set up that curse himself after he was denied teaching here by Dumbledore. Idiot didn't realize he might of prevented a war if he just gave the psycho a chair at the teachers table. And yes the Dark Lord really is that petty"
"A curse? A real one? Well I'll just tell Gramps and he'll remove it by morning"
The Slytherins scoffed
"He's really good with curses" Jake assured but the Slytherins didn't look convinced. This was a curse set down by the Dark Lord himself after all. Jake looked over at the Teacher's table and saw a subdued Gramps eating soup. Jake hadn't spoken with him since the old dragon attacked Snape. Still this was important.
"I'll be right back" Jake informed his housemates well getting up. He walked up to the teachers table and quickly spat out "I just learned there's a curse on the Defense class"
Gramps blinked, not expecting that to be the first words out of his grandson's mouth. Lao looked at the teacher's for confirmation and their faces revealed they knew this to be true "I'll get started right on it" it must be a powerful curse if the wizards hadn't gotten rid of it already but then Lao had experience in dealing with powerful curses. Jake turned and was about to leave but Gramps got his attention "I have decided that if you are too stubborn to give up this Spell Slinging I will need to modify your training to accommodate it" Jake blinked staring at Gramps "You will need to be trained as a Battle Mage to fully prepare you for your duties"
"Seriously!?" Jake gaped
"I called the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense and they will be sending one of their elite Battle Mages to assist in your training immediately"
Jake ducked under the table and re-emerged in front of Gramps. He quickly wrapped his arms around the old man and started chanting "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you"
Snape scuffed "Honestly Mister Long, show some decorum"
"Sorry Mister, err 'Professor', Snape sir" Jake smiled sheepishly letting go of Gramps and ducking under the table again "Bye Gramps!" Jake cheered running back to his table to tell his friends.
"Only a Gryffindor would get so excited about being trained as a Battle Mage" Blaise scoffed after Jake retook his seat and told them the good news.
"No need to insult him" Teddy rolled his eyes as they all enjoyed their lunch
After lunch they ran down to Hagrid's were a Ophiotaurus was waiting for them today. A half bull half serpent who, if legends right, if you were to kill and burn the entrails you would have the power to kill a god. After they talked about the creature for a while Hagrid gave them homework to do by class next week. Just a short essay on their observations of Hybrid creatures.
Finally school was over.
"Hey Hermione!" Jake called running over to the girl in a sea of Gryffindors, not noticing Draco tried to stop him "Wazzup" Jake smiled at the girl. It was the first time Jake actually got to enjoy his free time so he was spending it in the courtyard around most of the other students.
"What the hell do you want?" A large boy glared
"Errr nothing" Jake shrugged a little taken back by the hostility in boy's voice "Hermione you want to play Dead Rising" talking about a game on his computer but for some reason the girl looked shocked and... disgusted
"Like she wants to help you in your morbid rituals" The boy sneered
"Seamus it's okay" Hermione assured "I guess that answers my question"
Jake blinked looking at all the Gryffindor's faces "What's going on?"
"Good day Jake" Hermione said blankly before leaving.
Jake tried to follow her but the other Gryffindors stopped him. Their hands itching for the wands but the large group of Slytherins making them hesitant.
"You'll stay away from Granger if you know what's good for you" Seamus glared
"What the hell is going on!?" Jake demanded "Hermione!?" he called but she was already back inside the castle.
"We won't let you corrupt her you Corpse Humping Slytherin slim" Seamus glared drawing his wand and instantly all the Slytherins drew their wands causing the other Gryffindors to get theirs.
"Corpse humping?" Jake blinked, was THAT was this was about? He didn't even know any necromancy! "She's just going to run off and not let me explain myself"
"Of course she is Long" Draco glared at the Gryffindors "Gryffindor brains are too small to give anyone the benefit of the doubt"
Seamus turned his wand at Draco and without warning fired a spell. Jake jumped in front of him and put up a shield well havoc broke loose all around. Slytherins and Gryffindors throwing a million curses through the air.
Jake just tried running around blocking the curses from getting to his friends. He twisted his body using both hands to create shields. Throwing the shield in front of the Slytherins to act as cover for a few seconds. Some of the other Slytherins were doing the same well others focused purely on attack, relying on the others to watch their backs. The Slytherins tried acting like one unit but they were still young and although trained by Snape to fight this way they weren't used to it outside of a classroom setting. Seeing the Slytherins keep to this way Jake stayed in his role as as part of the Defense, his shields were his best spells after all. He wasn't trained to work with these guys specify but his defense teacher in America stessed the point of the defensive role in group fights. Eventually he got the opportunity to begin orbing wands out of the older Gryffindors' hands but didn't bother bring them all the way to him, just letting them get a foot away before letting them go and doing the same to someone else well using his other hand to project shields. Another benefit of wandless spell casting was the ability to use two spells at once.
A loud voice suddenly echoed through the court yard "ENOUGH!" the students stopped to look over at Miss McGonagall "A hundred points from Slytherin and Gryffindor house"
"They Started it!" Jake insisted
"It takes two, or in this case thirty, to fight Mister Long. Everyone report to the hospital wing"
"They were ganging up on me and next thing I know they're throwing spells. The other Slytherins were just trying to protect me"
"Is this true" The Duty Headmistress actually glared at her Gryffindors,
"He's a bloody Corpse humper!" Seamus defended
"I will not have my house acting like a common gang, another fifty points from Gryffindor. At this rate it will be a miracle if we win the house cup. Now get yourselves to the hospital wing"
###
"I told you McGonagall was fair" Teddy barfed up another slug into his bucket.
Most of the Slytherins checked out with nothing wrong thanks to the defence but still a couple kids got hit on the Slytherin side. Nearly all the Gryffindors were bedridden from one hex or another.
Jake sighed, he had burn marks on his hands from all those spells he cast. They weren't bad or anything but the nurse wouldn't let him go. Still that wasn't the most pressing thing on Jake's mind "Why wouldn't she let me explain?" talking about Hermione and Teddy instantly got that.
"She's a Gryffindor, not really their style" Teddy shrugged
"I thought we were really getting along" Jake sighed
"You LIKE her!?"
"Not like that!" Jake blushed "but I thought she was at least willing to be my friend" Jake sighed "I really hate this country"
Teddy smirked
###
"340 points! We've lost 340 points in the first week!" Ron screamed inside the near empty common room "and it's all that stupid lizard's fault!"
"When was the last time the points were in the negative" Harry sighed "Even if we win the Quidditch cup there's no way we can recover from this week"
"At least Slytherin can't win either" Ron nodded "They lost a hundred points today"
"We still lost more" Harry pouted
"Too bad we weren't there" Ron huffed "I would have loved to give those slimy snakes what they deserve"
"The Hufflepuffs are saying we got our arse kicked"
"Only cause they cheated with their dark magic!" Ron assumed
"Looks like the Puffs might win this year, they haven't lost any points yet"
"Yeah but the Ravenclaws earn more points" said Hermione
"When did you get here!?" Ron yelped
"Honestly Ronald you'd think you'd notice one of your best friends sitting beside you" Hermione huffed. In fact she only got there a few seconds ago. She went to bed after talking with Jake and then used the time turner to go back in time to that afternoon. This way she got plenty of sleep and still was able to talk with her friends and help them with their homework. Because of this however there was currently a Hermione sleeping in her dorm, but the curtain was closed so no one knew if they went up there. That Hermione would get out of bed one in the morning which was usually the time Harry and Ron went to bed so she wouldn't be bored well she waited for her bed to become unoccupied again.
"You caused all hell to break loose Hermione" Harry momentarily pretended he hadn't noticed her materialized out of thin air. If she didn't want to tell them what was going on that was her business... but hopefully she'd tell them eventually "After you left the Slytherins and the Gryffindors got in a huge war right in the middle of the court yard. Most of us are in the hospital wing" he looked around the empty common room. It was way too quiet.
Hermione's eyes widened
"Is it true what Seam said?" Ron asked "Did the lizard ask you to practice necromancy with him!?"
Hermione sighed "He actually asked me to 'PLAY dead rising' with him"
"That's sick!" Ron blurted well Harry blinked "He summons people as a game"
"Isn't 'Dead Rising' a videogame?" Harry looked confused
"What?" Hermione blinked "I mean I know it is but... Videogames don't work on-"
"His magical enchanted laptop that 'works anywhere'?" Harry smirked
Hermione blushed "You think he was asking me to play a VIDEOGAME!?"
Harry started laughing well Hermione started on in horror. Jake asking if she wanted to play a game on his laptop made a lot more sense then inviting her to a cemetery to raise the dead. Who would randomly ask that? She just got so caught up in this necromancy rumor that she didn't think.
"You started a war because a boy asked you to play a videogame with him" Harry kept laughing
"Well he's got no business inviting Hermione anywhere!" Ron was adamant "Besides only someone dark would play a game called that, muggle toy or not"
"Where is he now?" Hermione asked Harry
"In the hospital wing" Harry smiled and when Hermione got up the boys followed, Ron complaining all the way.
###
Jake examined his hands as he left the Hospital wing. They were all better now but he really needed to ease up on how much power he put into his spells so he wouldn't hurt himself. He was supposed to be learning that in defense this year but didn't look like that was going to happen.
"Jake!" Jake blinked turning around to see who called him. When he saw who it was he was half tempted to keep walking but then again maybe she came to apologize. She was with Harry and Ron leaving Jake feeling vastly outnumbered "Hi Jack I-I just need to know" Hermione tried "What did you ask me to do this afternoon?"
"Play Dead Rising" Jake blinked, did she think she could just borrow his laptop after dissing him like that?
"Yes but what IS that?" She asked
Jake blinked "A videogame" seeing how relieved her face got it clicked "You thought I was asking you to practice necromancy"
"Jake I'm so sorry I-"
Jake held up his hand "You're not going to like what I'm going to say but please wait until I'm finished to tell me how vile I am" she nodded "I'm not a necromancer, I don't know a single spell of it... but I want to" her face was horrified
"I told you he was nothing but a no good-" Ron started but Hermione commanded him to "Shut up Ronald" she forced a passive look on her face before asking Jake to "Go on"
"In America Necromancy is legal. It's used to help lost spirits rest and to protect people from vengeful undead. Outside of a movie I have never heard of necromancers stealing body parts out of a grave yard and building themselves a slave. Actual Necromancers are far more concerned with HELPING the dead find peace which no one in Britain seems to care about. I want to help those people"
Hermione seemed hesitant "Did you really say summoning a person's soul was no different then anything else?"
"You don't have to be human to be a person" Was Jake's answer
Hermione nodded thinking she understood the comment now "I'm sorry" she finally said "for jumping to conclusions... Do... do you want to play that game now"
"Actually I got to get back to the common room, some other time?" Jake hoped
"Sure"
"Bye Hermione, bye Hermione's friends" Harry smiled at that for some reason as Jake left.
Jake didn't know Harry wasn't used to just being known as 'Hermione's Friend'. Jake didn't know Harry was famous, and Jake didn't care. To Jake Harry was 'Just Harry', what he always wanted to be, but maybe being clumped in as one of Hermione's friends... it be nice if Jake thought of Harry as his own friend and not just Hermione's. Still it was a good feeling being just another kid... Ron didn't seem to agree.
"Who does that Corpse Humper think he is calling us 'Hermione's friends'," Ron growled
"Well are you my friends or aren't you?" Hermione glared
"Yeah but-"
"Then leave it Ronald"
