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Chapter 9- Mia's Training
"What are you talking about?" Mia asked, after Harry explained the whole story to her and Anna.
"Don't make me say it again," Harry begged. It had been hard enough to tell the two the first time, but saying it again, after they already knew where he was going with it that would just be impossible.
"Kira and Becca?" Mia confirmed. "They're alive?"
"They are," Harry told her. "But, they aren't doing well. Mia, you heard what my mom said about their conditions."
"When were you going to tell us about them?" Mia asked, Harry could tell she was slightly pissed at not being told right away.
"I was sworn to silence. I would have loved to come running up here the moment we got back, but Mia I couldn't. What if they were beyond saving? You would have run straight to the hospital wing, Anna at your heels. I had to wait for the go-ahead from my parents," Harry tried to explain to them. He knew they were going to be mad. But, at least he was able to tell them that same night.
"That's why you paused," Anna said, this was the first time she spoke since she was told.
"What?" Harry was confused.
"You paused. When Katy asked if you knew them. You paused, and you looked at Mia and me. You knew who they were."
"Yes," Harry said.
"You were beating yourself up as you said it. I noticed," Anna told him. She was a lot more observant than anyone gave her credit for.
The portrait opened, and James walked in. He looked to his son, who gave a small nod, to let him know he had already relayed the news. "They are in the hospital wing, if you want to go see them," he told the girls.
"It's after curfew," Mia replied.
Harry laughed. Mia was the only person he knew that if given a chance to break the rules, she wouldn't. "That's fine, Ms. Granger, I'll escort you two down," James replied, laughing slightly with his son.
Anna and Mia got up from their spots on the couch, and went over to James. "Harry, aren't you coming?" Mia asked.
"No, you need time with them alone," Harry said, and watched his girlfriend and her little sister walk out the door, to go see two little girls, who probably wouldn't recognize them.
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Harry barely slept that night. He had waited up for Mia and Anna to come back. After two hours, he thought that they wouldn't, but another 15 minutes, and the two girls came walking through the portrait. Mia ran right up to him, and collapsed in his arms. Anna went right up to her room.
Harry held Mia there, until she spoke. "They don't look anything like what they used to. They're so skinny, and Kira had no clue who I was." Harry had no idea of what to say. If by some mysterious reason Sophia had come back to him, starved, beaten, and had no memory, he too would feel as lost as she did.
"It's okay, Madame Pomfrey will help them. And they have my parents, uncles, and the rest of the teachers. They'll get better." Mia only nodded, her head still buried in his chest.
He had no clue how long they had sat there, but once Mia calmed down, Harry watched her walk up the stairs, and then headed to his own room. He felt as if he only had 20 minutes of sleep all night.
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"Now, try to contain your fire," Lily told her class of 6th years, "the last thing is need is McGonagall coming down here to yell at me for burning down my classroom." She was attempting to teach them the flame freezing charm, however, only Harry and Mia had gotten it so far, and Mia hadn't gotten it again since. The Hufflepuffs in the room were almost hopeless.
"Mum, don't you think this is a little rough?" Harry asked. Lily gave him a warning look. "Sorry, Professor Potter."
"The Death Eaters used this against you enough last time, and McGonagall thinks that 5th years and above should be trained enough to help out. Therefore, they need to know this," she told him, then ran off to put out the fire on the back desk.
"The professors are crazy," Tara said. Harry tuned around, to look at her and Katy. "Do they really think that we can do all this advanced magic? Plus, if they want us to use it in battle, we're going to be dealing with a lot more than a small flame."
"Just keep trying. It's better to know it, and attempt it, than to not know it at all," Harry told them, just as Seamus's flame froze for more than ten seconds. "See, and you guys can do it."
"How'd you do that?" Hermione asked, mad that she couldn't get it again. Harry laughed at her, and slowly showed Tara and Katy the movement again.
By the end of the class, only about a quarter of the class had gotten their flame to freeze for over 30 seconds. Lily had assigned the other three-quarters a paper, telling her why they couldn't freeze it, and why it was important that they should know.
"Ms. Granger, stay for a second?" Harry smiled, knowing exactly what his mum was about to tell her. Hermione packed up her books, and walked up to Lily's desk.
"Yes, professor?" she asked.
"Harry came to James and me the other night, requesting us to consider something. Do you know what that is?"
"Yes, I asked him to ask you both if you could train me, as you train him."
"Well, of course, Professors Lupin and Snape were brought into the discussion, considering they help out a lot, as well we spoke to Professor McGonagall about it."
"I figured you would do that," Hermione said, sounding let down. It didn't seem like they would train her.
"Now, you know how dangerous this is, you see Harry going off on raids, and I'm sure he tells you all about them."
"Yes, ma'm."
"It was a difficult decision," Hermione was bracing herself for the bad news, what was she ever thinking? Why would they train her, she was no one special, "But, we'll do it."
Hermione was shocked. "Really? Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to me."
"Come down with Harry tonight. Wear something comfortable. We'll get you battle robes, when you first go out."
"Thank you so much, and relay that to the other professors for me."
"Speak to Professor Snape, he seemed to be the one most for it."
"I will," Hermione said again, not even trying to hide the huge smile on her face.
"Get to class, I don't want you or Harry to be late," she told her, knowing her son was sitting right outside the door.
"Sorry, mum," he yelled, peaking his head in, watching his girlfriend walk towards him, with the biggest smile he's seen on her.
"Harry!" she squeaked, as she ran into his arms, and the started down the corridors to the dungeons, "they're going to train me. I get to train with you."
"I heard. Can you tell me why you want this so badly now?" he asked, hoping that he'll get an answer now that she got what she wanted.
Hermione's smile turned into a frown in less than a second. "I told you, you have your secrets, and I have mine." With that, she sped up, and left Harry to walk to Potions alone.
Harry tried harder than anything to get her to talk to him during the class. It wasn't like he had to pay attention to the lesson anyways. But, when it came to making the potion, she turned to Katy to be her partner. Harry turned to Draco, who gave him a pity smile, but agreed to be his partner.
Of course, the only advice that Draco gave was, "Listen, she'll tell you when she's ready."
"But, if it's hurting her, I need to know now," Harry said, as he slid the chopped up roots into their potion. "You don't think Ron is contacting her?"
"No, he's not even that dumb."
"Maybe it was her aunt, she did get a letter from her the other day."
"Harry, as much as I would love to have this conversation with you, I can't tell you what's wrong. Just be happy that's she's happy. This is the first time in years I've seen a smile on her face everyday. Like I said, she'll tell you when she's ready."
"Alright," Harry groaned, he hated how Draco was always right,
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Harry and Hermione headed down to James's office that night in complete silence.
"Mia, I'm sorry, but if I promise not to bring it up again, will you please stop giving me the silent treatment?" Harry begged, he couldn't stand the silence anymore.
"Never again," she said, not as a question, but a command.
"Of course," Harry said, silently telling himself that he'll get it out of her one day.
Harry knocked on the door to his father's office, and opened it to find, not only his mum and dad, as he expected, but all his uncles as well.
"Harry, you're coming with me tonight, Ms. Granger, you're going to stay here, with everyone else," Severus said, and grabbed Harry by the elbow, literally pulling him out of the office.
"Sev, whoa, chill, what's going on?" Harry asked, as he tried to keep up with him, as he was dragged through the corridors.
"We think we figured out why Ms. Granger wants to be trained," Severus said, and pulled the teenager out the front doors of the castle.
"So, where are we going?" Harry asked.
"To go visit her father," Severus said.
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"Alright, Mia, to start out, we're simply going to test you on how well you can duel. Use any curse, hex, or charm you want to," Lily told her, as James, Remus, and Sirius stepped back.
They had brought Hermione to an empty classroom, and cleared all the furniture, leaving a big spacious room. Hermione took a deep breath, and took out her wand. This had not been what she had expected coming down here tonight. Fighting her professor was just odd.
"I know you probably feel weird attacking me, but just remember, Harry attacks me, too, and he's my son," Lily told her, recognizing the expression on her face. The men in the corner laughed.
"Right," Hermione said, and took stance.
"Whenever you're ready, then," Lily told her, her wand out and at the ready, as well.
Hermione took another deep breath and shot a hex at her teacher. Lily quickly ducked, while sending out another. Hermione jumped over the stream of light. Apparently the fact that she could dodge spells shocked the men in the corner. Lily however, knew better than to let that affect her, and quickly dove to the ground, as her student sent another hex at her. Lily shot one more hex at her from the ground, then quickly stood up, and shot a disarmer at her, causing Hermione to dodge the first one, stepping right into the second one. Hermione watched as her wand flew across the room, right into her professor's hand.
She let out a disgruntled groan, and stepped forward to take the wand back.
"Not as bad as I thought you would be," Lily told her.
"Really?" Hermione asked.
"Most kids your age won't even dodge the first spell shot at them," Sirius said from the corner. "However, that is the most important thing in battle, knowing how to dodge. Don't get me wrong, shields are helpful too, but how many shields hold up against the Unforgivables?"
"Sirius, honestly," Remus butted in, "don't give her a heart attack."
"It's the truth, she has to know the truth about this stuff now. Harry wasn't sheltered from it in the beginning, and just because she's starting later, doesn't mean we're going to treat her any differently from the others."
"The first thing you told Harry, was not that he would be dodging Unforgivable curses."
"See what I put up with?" Lily told Hermione. The two girls were watching the men fight, about how to train her, both rolling their eyes.
"Moony, Padfoot," James interrupted, "we still have to train her."
The two men looked at James, Lily, and Hermione and apologized.
"Anyways," James said, looking at Hermione now, "Sirius is right, your shields won't protect you against everything. Some actually protect you against very little. Exactly why we keep Harry in top shape. I'm sure you've realized he runs every morning?" Hermione nodded, "good, you'll be joining him starting tomorrow."
"Don't worry, we told him to go easy on you, if he notices that you're having trouble," Lily told her.
"We're going to start out mostly training you physically. You pick up on spells fairly easily, so we won't worry about that right away. So, beginning tomorrow night, you'll be doing conditioning with Sirius, every night," James said. Hermione nodded once again.
"Well, now it's your choice, want to start conditioning now, or tomorrow?" Sirius asked.
"I guess I'll start tonight," she said.
"Good," Sirius said, with a smile on his face, that slightly scared her.
"We'll see you tomorrow in class," the other three said, and left the room.
"How many push-ups can you do?" Sirius asked her.
"Not many," she admitted.
"This is going to be fun for me then."
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Hermione walked into the common room two hours later, feeling as if she might die. Sirius was crazy thinking that would be fun. Hermione knew that she would wake up tomorrow feeling pain in places she didn't know she could even feel pain. And, then she had to go on that run with Harry. Oh, god, what did she get herself into.
"Mia?" Katy's voice came from the couches. Most of Gryffindor house was still awake, and none of them knew why quiet, book smart Granger looked like death. Hermione made her way over to the couches and collapsed. "What did they do to you?"
"Push-ups, sit-ups, running, planks, lunges, stairs, in-outs, and I don't even remember the rest," Hermione said, as she sank farther into the couch.
"You might want to go shower," Tracy said. She had been the lucky one with the extra spot Hermione had taken, and crinkled her nose smelling the sweat.
"When I have the energy," she said. Two seconds after, she stood up, and headed towards the bathroom. But, stopped right before she headed up the stairs, "Is Harry back yet?"
"No, we thought he was with you," Lavender told her.
"Professor Snape literally dragged him out of Professor Potter's office, I figured they were training him alone, but I guess he's not done yet." She turned around again, and headed upstairs.
Hermione walked downstairs about a half-hour later, expecting Harry to be there waiting for her. His sessions never lasted this long. Well, unless Snape was having him help out with Potions again, but the sense of urgency that Snape used while dragging him out, made Hermione believe they were doing more than preparing potions for Madame Pomfrey.
Hermione waited another hour, before heading up to bed, after all, she was running the next morning, and could get details of what happened then.
Harry walked into the common room about fifteen minutes after Hermione left. He was silently thanking god that this was the situation. He didn't know if he could face her, after finding out what he just did.
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