As promised, here is Chapter 10.

DISCLAIMER: Still do not own Harry Potter

Beta: Salunatic

Chapter 10

"OWWWW!" Harry screeched as he was jolted awake by a sharp sting on his right big toe. Unfortunately for him, he was lying close to the edge of his bed and the jolt sent him sprawling to the ground.

"What the hell was that?" He grumbled to the air around him. It wasn't loud enough to wake everyone, but it wasn't really a whisper either.

~You have been sssleeping for too long. If we do not start begin training anytime ssoon, we might as well just give it all up.~ Harry looked up from his spot on the floor when he heard the now familiar hiss belonging to Crossius.

The emerald coloured snake slithered out of the bed and glared at him with a set of red and black eyes. Noting that he was almost 8 foot long, he knew that Crossius only choose to take such a large form when he… well…meant business.

~And thisss training can only be done ssso early in the morning? Really Crosssius? Can't I just sssleep for a little longer?~ Harry whined childishly, knowing full well that Crossius would never relent.

~Pick up your sssword and wear sssomthing fitting. Don't bother taking with the shower, you'll probably sssweat a lot anyway.~ Harry wasn't surprised with the way that Crossius brushed off his attempt. He knew it would happen anyway. For now, at least there were no insults...yet.

~Fine..~ Harry sighed as got up and immediately walked towards his old trunk, pulling out a baggy white t-shirt and a pair of baggy blue jeans.

He heard Crossius make a hissing snort as he pulled Aurora out of the new trunk and strapped it around his waist. Crossius didn't approve of strapping such a prestigious blade around his 'filthy muggle clothes'.

~Well, let's go then.~ With this, Harry took his wand and followed Crossius out of the dormitory. As soon as they reached the last few steps leading to common room, Crossius disappeared.

~Sso, how should we ssstart today?~ Harry and Crossius now stood almost 20 feet away from the lake next to a large tree Harry had discovered the year before while wondering around the school grounds.

They had taken a secret passageway from the second floor that leads straight to the east side of the school, where Harry's new spot was.

~Firssst I think you ssshould practise your sssword movement. With the state of your body now, I won't be sssurprised if you ended up slicing your own neck in a fight.~

Crossius had came up with a routine where every morning when Harry woke up, he has to do some focused training (like practicing his swordplay or some muscle training) and attempt to master a couple of new spells from his recently purchased books. He will then round up his morning session by running at least three laps around the quidditch pitch before finally making his way back to his dorm for a shower and to prepare for the day.

*Ready Aurora* Harry was finally getting the hang of communicating with his weapon-familiar using telepathically. It actually wasn't that hard.

*I was made to be ready Wielder Harron.* Came the soft yet powerful reply. Apparently there was once a powerful swordsman back in the days who defeated a Potter using nothing but a dagger against Aurora. Aurora didn't mentioned if the dagger was able to block her, just that Harronemel Al'Thor was an extremely powerful and dangerous man, just like every other Al'Thor.

As always, Crossius used his mouth to shoot out stinger spells. Harry had to block every shot that came at him, and when he missed, well, let's just say that he sometimes preferred the bites to the stingers.

To say that Harry was in pain would be an understatement. Aurora might have been aiding him, instructing him on where to move and how to move his body, but it almost made no difference seeing as his body wasn't even close to being able to keep up.

Crossius was firing like he actually wanted to kill Harry with those stingers, something which didn't bode well with him.

~WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM CROSSSIUSSS? I FEEL LIKE YOU'RE TRYING TO TEAR MY SSSKIN OFF!~

Harry ignored Aurora's advice to concentrate on his task at hand as he was only training after all. You don't shove someone who can't swim into a pool of sharks while trying to teach him how to escape piranhas.

Thankfully for Harry, the attacks stopped, allowing him some time to breathe. He bent over, panting like he had just ran a marathon, thankful that the pain from the stingers were fading.

~What isss the point of teaching sssomeone how to catch doves when they are sssupposed to be catching eaglesss? What isss the point of fighting the garden sssnake when your goal isss to kill a basssilisssk?~ Crossius shot him angrily in a tone Harry had never heard before, forcing him to take a step back in caution. Crossius' sudden change of colour to dark red and black spots wasn't helping either.

~Those who cannot handle toughnesss should jussst give up and allow those who can to do all the work, if you don't push yourssself then how do you expect to ever become ssstronger?~

Okay, Harry now knew that Crossius wasn't even referring to him. He knew that his snake had a personal history that he didn't like or want to share. From the time they had spent together so far, he knew that Crossius' past was a sensitive topic for him. This must have hit a nerve, resulting in such a harsh rebuke from the serpent.

~I'm sssory Crossiusss, it'sss jussst that I didn't expect to be pushed so hard so soon. I always thought that I would have learnt the bassics first before taking on the advanced ssstuff.~ Of course, Harry wasn't really apologizing for himself. He just didn't like seeing his friend (yes he considered the snake a friend now) upset and was becoming increasingly uneasy being in such close quarters with the snake in its current volatile mood.

Thankfully, his apology worked as Crossius suddenly looked lost, then shocked. Almost immediately, both emotions were then replaced with his usual...snake like look.

~You are right, but it isss time to practise your ssspellsss now anyway.~ Harry barely managed to suppress a sigh of relief. Thinking back to past achievements however, he did allow a smile to adorn his face. He and Crossius had already mastered a spell that allowed him to create a bubble of silence around himself. The bubble prevented any sound from escaping, making him literally undetectable should he don his invisibility cloak with the bubble on.

~Okay, ssso what'ss the firssst sspell?~ Harry asked as he sheathed Aurora, noting that it was strangely much quieter than usual.

~There won't be a firssst ssspell. ,You will be practising only one ssspell for as long as it takess for you to massster it. Take out your bats, they will be your targetsss.~ Harry could tell that the serpent was still caught up in his memories, seeing that he lacked his usual sarcasm and that he still hadn't return his scales to his usual colour.

Harry still hadn't had the chance to use the mobile bats with Hedwig. Instead, Crossius had him using them as targets while they fly around. He opened the cage and ducked, the five bats barely hitting his face as they raced out and began buzzing around in circles around him.

~Remember what you read about the Torpeo Corpusss ssspell. I want you to take out the batsss with it.~ The spell was rather simple in theory. The wand shoots a white light when cast, and when the target is hit, that part of them becomes paralyzed.

Harry looked at the bats and pictured the white light in his mind, imagining it flying from his wand and hitting one of the bats on their spine, effectively immobilizing their wings and legs.

Then he shouted:
"Torpeo Corpus!". Pointing his wand at the nearest bat, he saw a small white light leaving his wand towards the bat, but nothing happened as the bat dodged it like it was nothing. Annoyed, Harry decided that this bat was too good and pointed his wand at another. He was once again rewarded with the sight of the bat gracefully avoiding the white light, this time by more than 10 inches. Harry would never admit it, but he was almost sure that the bat snickered at his attempt while dodging the light.

~The problem liess not with the batsss, but with you masster. Ssstop thinking about hitting them, but rather, think about your ssspell moving ass fassst as lightning ass it sshoots towards the target. Remember, thiss ssspell is not your usual Leviossa. You have to open up your core, allowing your magic to flow and fuel your sspell, making bigger, fasster, and far more powerful. ~ Crossius commented from the bottom of the large tree where he was currently watching.

Harry took what he said in mind and envisioned his spell moving like lightning, then imagined it being bigger and once again, shouted:
"Torpeo Corpus!" He was almost amazed when a light, still small but a little bigger than before, shot out from his wand in a fast speed and hit one of the bats on it's ear, which immediately went slack. The bat didn't even had the time to dodge, which was an improvement, but his spell was still too small and weak.

~I've already told you how to open your core you idiot, mussst I teach you the sssame thing everyday?~ Harry looked over at Crossius and just smiled. The usual look of annoyance was back on the snake, and he couldn't be happier for him.

Harry closed his eyes and did as Crossius had taught him three days ago. He imagined himself falling into a long dark and gloomy tunnel that didn't seem to end. He then envisioned a light that would shine on him and bring forth warmth. After a while, the light solidified and the next thing he knew, he landed on the light, causing the scene around him to change. He looked around and noticed that the light he was standing on turned into a road surrounded by rows of houses. Looking closer, he recognized the landmarks and knew that he was on Privet Drive, the road where the Dursley's home was at. Following his instinct, he allowed his legs to lead him towards number 4, straight towards his 'home'.

Sometimes, your core hides in the one place your mind will never think of looking. Some people take years to find it. Once Crossius had told him this though, Harry immediately knew where that one place was for him.

Sure enough, Harry saw a white ball of light shining brightly right where number 4 was supposed to be. The light was warm and incredibly inviting, but Harry knew that he couldn't take all of it though. He walked towards it, and once again beaming in pride at the sight from up close. It was the size of his whole body, or slightly larger, which meant that it was large for a normal wizard.

Harry reached into it and immediately felt power surge into him knowing that he had successfully opened his core once more. With his eyes still closed, he allowed the tide of power to surge into him, faintly hearing Crossius shouting something at him, but ignoring it, he raised his wand and bellowed:

"TORPEO CORPUS!"

He felt like the warmth was being sucked from his body and actually felt vibrations in the air around him. Opening his eyes, he had to shield his eyes from the brightness of the illumination around him. Harry was shocked to see that his wand was pointing directly at a tree, but before he could stop it, a large ball of white light, many times bigger than his body, escaped his wand and headed straight towards the tree.

The light hit the base of the tree and he saw it being absorbed by the tree. Once all traces of the light was gone, the tree started vibrating and suddenly, it's colour changed.

The tree started turning into an ash white colour form the point where the light struck, but gradually spread to the entire tree. The colour change then settled into the ash white leaves and a light brown hue for its trunk and branches.

As his magic left him and his core closed, Harry looked in amazement at the sight before him. The bats were lying still right next to the tree, obviously where they had been hiding when he struck it while Crossius stood a few feet away from it.

The white leaves were drooping slightly, but the branches and the base of the tree looked stronger and were as straight as a muggle light post. The large tree was definitely taller and its beauty was mesmerizing. The green grass beneath the tree had a healthy tinge to it while the light brown tree with white leaves looked like something that would only appear on an artistically drawn portrait.

Harry looked over at Crossius and suddenly felt every ounce of energy in him leave. He staggered forward as his world started to spin. Reaching towards the tree, he tripped on his own feet, fell forward and hit his head on against the tree truck, effectively knocking him out.

Fleur smiled sadly as she thought of the painful goodbye with her family. Every holiday was always spent with them, with them visiting her at Première Ville on her weekend breaks. It was these times that helped her tide through the agonizing loneliness. Looking around her room, she realized that this year was going to be a long one.

The carriage that she and the other students had boarded had amazed her. After all, it's not everyday that you board a house sized carriage pulled by giant Pegasus that flies. It helps that the interior is as spacious as a mansion.

Each person was assigned their own rooms which were modeled after the moderate sized common room at the entrance door of the carriage. Fleur's room was at the far end of the long corridor which had 10 doors on each side.

She had redecorated the room, changing the inside of the door to her favourite forest green. The bathroom door was discretely hidden at the far right corner of the room. Completing the furnishing in the semi large bedroom was a queen sized double bed, a small wardrobe and a plush royal blue rug. The bed was wrapped in a double sided duvet cover that was blue on one side and adorned with green flowers while it was green on the other side with various sea animals sewn in ocean blue thread. Her pillows were of similar colour scheme and a small light stand next to her bed completed the decoration.

To say that she was satisfied with the room would be an understatement. She had the privacy and space needed to continue her private training. Finding the books of various subjects in her nightstand drawer, she was thankful that Madam Maxime had the foresight to put them there, knowing that she would choose the room at the far end to maintain her peace and privacy.

Fleur walked over to the window in her room and looked out at the clear blue sky, it's beauty bringing forth a smile on her face. For as long as she remembered, she has always loved the clear sky. Looking at it has always help her see the silver lining while pushing the most depressing of thoughts away. In this case, the positive thought was of someone she was yearning to see, someone who had kept her company at the Quidditch World Cup, someone who was unaffected by both her and her mother's allure, and most importantly, someone who had saved her from a harrowing fate from the Death Eaters.

This someone was Harrold Parker, a person she knew very little about, yet felt so familiar with. She just wished that her hopes of having a friend would be met with him.

"We are about to land, so if you're done ogling at yourself in the window, You should assemble with the rest. Madame Maxime is calling everyone to the front and for some reason that I don't know, that includes you." Fleur almost shrieked at the sound of the voice behind her. She didn't even have to turn to know who that was. The piercing hate in the soft, calm and very much intriguing voice belonged only to one girl.

Fleur turned around and regarded Cecile Le Blanc coldly.

The girl had an unnerving knack for Rune Magic and Ancient Runes was the only subject that Fleur wasn't the best at. Le Blanc could always beat her at it for some reason. Heck, the girl was so good that Fleur hadn't even detected it when she had broken the runes Fleur had placed on her door to keep people out.

"Well I don't have to wonder why she would want to see me. I know more than a hundred reasons why. What I can't figure out is why she would want you though. To think about it, I don't even know why anyone would want you. Have you looked into the mirror lately? Perhaps the window would do you some good." Fleur stated haughtily, pointing at the window behind her without breaking eye contact.

"Whatever you say." Came the reply. Fleur watched in shock and confusion as the girl turned and disappeared as silently as she had when she entered the room. She had expected a snide come back from the blond but was shocked to be brushed off like nothing.

She didn't like insulting people, but she couldn't allow herself to look weak in front of her 'enemy'. Furthermore, this insult was a lie. Le Blanc was a brilliant and exceptionally beautiful student, so much so that Fleur knew that if it wasn't for her veela aura, Le Blanc would be the one getting ogled at all the time.

Cecile Le Blanc had long blond hair that was tied into a curly pony tail that reached down just above her pert butt. She had her family's trademark sparkling light purple eyes, a slightly angular face and delicate pink lips that would melt a guy's with a smile. Her pale creamy smooth complexion was often the subject of conversation among the envious female population in school. Her figure however, was undoubtedly better than Fleur's. Her hour glass figure seemed visible despite wearing the unflattering school uniform while her slender long legs clad in black stockings gained pretty much the majority of the male population's attention whenever she walked pass. All in all, Le Blanc was an epitome of female beauty.

Fleur suddenly felt the carriage rock slightly and heard a crashing sound. Not knowing what had happened, she grabbed her powder blue coat and raced out of her room towards the front door.

When she got there, she saw that she was probably the last person to get there judging from the number that was present. Madame Maxime towered over her students and observed everyone with her warm but strict eyes.

"Everyone line up in two lines, girls on my right, boys on my left. Make yourselves look as grand as possible. We have arrived… at Hogwarts."

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