Disclaimer: JKR owns Harry Potter and George Lucas owns Star Wars. I'm am neither JKR or George Lucas.

Author's Note: I am so sorry for the long wait. They made me wait too. Neville, Ron and Hermione refused to do anything interesting, but Harry and Anakin had some fun…Enough fun to make for the longest chapter yet!

Chapter 10: Either You Got it, Or You Don't

"This is a lightsaber."

So saying, Anakin ignited the brilliant blue blade in his right hand.

They were in the Jedi-training room. Sirius and Obi-wan were stationed in the stall across from them. Harry glanced back at them occasionally They were meditating, or rather Obi-wan was meditating,. Sirius was sitting cross-legged beside the Jedi Master, making faces at him. On one such occasion, Harry saw Obi-wan mouth something out of the corner of his mouth. Sirius' eyes widened, then closed.

Harry resisted the urge to smile or laugh out loud. Obi-wan so reminded him of Remus. Oops. He'd touched on a forbidden subject. He'd found that if he didn't think about anything relating to the magic world and pretended the whole experience behind the veil was just a particularly vivid dream, he could function with some semblance of normality. If he thought about his old life, his old friends, he'd wonder, and he couldn't let himself do that.

"What does it do?" Harry asked. He was trying to mask his fierce curiosity and eagerness with aloof interest. Truth be told, just looking at the 'saber was making him jumpy. He felt like he needed to be holding it, using it. Though he managed to make his voice sound merely curious, his eyes glinted with interest and excitement as they took in every detail from the brightness of the blade to the deft grace with which Anakin held his 'saber.

Anakin noticed all this of course, but he also sensed it in a way that was a little disturbing. Most of him was Anakin, picking up Harry's child-like excitemen through the Force and with his skill at reading emotions, but a small part of him was Harry too. He could feel what Harry was feeling. Only a small part of him, enough to tug at the corners of his lips, but still definitely there. He'd only ever felt something remotely similar with Obi-wan. He'd have to talk to him about it later…

Obi-wan. 'Saber training. Right. Anakin fell back into his mask of detachment, cooly saying "Things will go more smoothly if I and you listen, P-Potter." He'd almost said 'Padawan'. Perhaps he was channeling Obi-wan a bit too much.

Harry raised his eyebrows.



'Sorry," Anakin found himself saying, "Didn't mean to go all 'Jedi Master' on you. He offered a tentative smile and Harry smiled back, making a vague gesture with his hand. Don't worry about it, it said.

Loosening up a little, Anakin continued, "Before you can slice and dice galactic scum, you have to learn the rules."

"You're kidding me," Harry said. "There are rules for slicing and dicing galactic scum?"

"'Fraid so, "Anakin replied. Then he laughed. "We-ell, they're not so much rules as they are guidelines."

What started as a discussion about the rules of engagement led into a list of prime targets for disabling an opponent (arms, legs, heart, etc.) which, in turn became a question and answer session about alien anatomy, which led to something else entirely.

Anakin was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to talk to Harry. Only when he heard the distinctive sound of a light saber igniting and Sirius swearing did he realize that their first training session was already half-over and Harry had yet to touch a light saber.

Anakin jumped to his feet with enough speed to cause Harry to jump. Anakin noticed this with perhaps more satisfaction than was necessary. But his Jedi-speed was something he definitely something he still had over Harry, you know, for now. Anakin shook the twinge of bitterness he felt when he thought of how the Council was pushing Harry and Sirius' training.

"Whoa! Where's the fire?"

"It's time to start the practical element of your training." Anakin said. "And to do that, you need a lightsaber." Harry quickly got to his feet and followed Anakin down the aisle of stalls. On the wall, there was a keypad on which Anakin typed a quick code. A section of the wall shot open with a whoosh revealing a ceiling-to-floor shelf filled with lightsabers. They varied greatly in sizes, the smallest of which were nearer the floor and the largest closer to the ceiling.

Harry went up on tip-toe, trying to grab the longest saber he could reach, but Anakin pulled him back down, offering him a toy of a lightsaber from the very bottom shelf. Harry arched an eyebrow looking from the saber to Anakin and back again. Anakin sighed, replaced the saber and offered Harry a slightly longer one. Harry took it, noting that it was still a great deal shorter than Anakin's.

They walked back to their stall, passing Sirius and Obi-wan on the way. Sirius had an unassembled light saber in front of him. It appeared that Obi-wan was trying to get him to put it back together.



Once in their stall, Anakin pointed out the button on the saber that would ignite the blade. "Don't expect too much, though. It's just a training saber. Not well balanced or anything."

Harry held the lightsaber carefully in both hands and pressed the button. A bright green blade sprang into life. Harry felt the thrumming power of the saber from his hand to his heart. The only feeling he could compare it to was holding a wand. But not his wand. More like holding Ron's. It still felt good. Natural. Right.

"I'm going to assume you have some idea of how this works?" Anakin asked.

"Sure, "Harry said, with a confidence he didn't truly feel. "I try to hit you without getting hit."

"Exactly."

Anakin assumed his attack stance, and Harry fell into what he assumed was the defensive. He placed his right foot behind him to balance out Anakin's extended left and held his lightsaber angled across his body. Harry didn't know it, but Anakin was surprised at how close Harry'd come to proper form on his first attempt. Anakin had to look hard to find something to correct, but he did.

"Hold your lightsaber higher. Turn your defense into an offense. And move your foot up, distribute your weight evenly."

Harry made the adjustments, and Anakin was again surprised by how little instruction he seemed to need. Driven, as most human males are, by a need to be better than his peers, he tested Harry, lunging out with his saber. In one motion, he unclipped and ignited and stabbed forward. Fairly slowly by Jedi standards, but fast enough that Harry had to rely on pure reflex.

He deflected the blow. It was hard to say who was more surprised. Harry heard the sound of the lightsabers connection and felt the repercussions all the way up both arms.

Anakin, of course, wasn't going to actually hit Harry, he planned on letting the blade hover a few millimeters away from Harry's neck before withdrawing, but all the same, he was annoyed that Harry had managed to deflect him.

"That was…" Okay. Passable. Beginners' luck. "actually very good."

Harry grinned. "Thanks."

"Let's see you do it again." Anakin assumed his stance. Harry assumed his. The battle began.

Anakin attacked, still relatively slowly. First high, then low. To the right. To the left. Harry blocked him every time. His style was atrocious, but he got the job done.



Anakin picked up speed. Stabbing, feinting and slashing. Harry stayed right with him. He was breaking a sweat, and he had given up ground, but he wasn't losing control as Anakin expected. On Anakin's next jab, Harry parried and returned. At that point, Anakin decided things had gone on far too long. A small group of younglings had gathered to watch, their Masters looking on bemusedly.

As Anakin went faster, testing Harry's speed, he noticed the blocks were getting slower, sloppier. "Don't think. Feel. Use the Force!" Anakin yelled.

Harry tried to do what Anakin said. He actually felt something. Not a physical thing he could put a name to, but a nudge to turn his saber at a different angle or to swing right even though Anakin appeared to be attacking left. Before Harry could do more than test the waters, the fight ended. Or rather, Anakin ended it.

Finally, Anakin used the Force and pulled Harry's lightsaber to his left hand, deactivating it in midair. He savored the surprise on Harry's face. Then, more to give the onlookers a show than anything else, he lifted both lightsabers in the air slowly, menacingly.

As Anakin's lightsabers made its up-swing for the "death blow", Harry found himself thinking desperately, "Expelliarmus!"

At the last second, both lightsabers flew into Harry's hands.

Harry had shut his eyes and flung his arms up across his face in what would have been a futile attempt to protect himself. It took him a few seconds to realize, that not only had he not been sliced into three pieces, he was holding both lightsabers. Slowly, he opened his eyes.

Anakin, Obi-wan, Sirius and a handful of padawan-master teams were staring at him. A few younglings broke into awed applause. If they were looking for an explanation, they weren't going to get one from him. He was probably just as confused as they were.

What could have happened? The last thing he remembered before the lightsabers were inexplicably in his hands was thinking 'Expelliarmus', but that couldn't have done anything. Not only did he not say it aloud, his wand was stories above him, lying on a table.

Team by team, their audience disappeared. Anakin was sure the strangers' success would be all over the temple by nightfall. He clenched his teeth at the thought.

"How'd you do that?" Anakin asked, furious, but curious despite himself.

Although Harry himself didn't quite know the logistics, he replied, "Magic. I'm a wizard. Remember?"

It almost caused Anakin physical pain to ask, as self-reliant as he'd always tried to be, but he had to know. "Can you teach me?"



"Well, it's not really something you can teach. With magic, you either have it or you don't."

"How do you know if you 'have it'?"

'Harry was about to say, "You don't" when he remembered his wand sitting on his bedside table on an upperlevel. "Well, there's one way to find out."

Author's Note: I'm so sorry, it's been entirely too long. Review anyway? Please?

La Nanita