Picked up another follower so thank you and welcome to that person!
CHAPTER ELEVEN: In Training
Harry and Hermione were standing opposite each other in a large open space, in one of the house's empty rooms, wands drawn. "I didn't remember a thing,"Hermione sighed, still depressed from the lack of connection she'd felt in her old home.
In truth, Harry hadn't really expected her to. But he had held onto a slight hope that the visit might make a difference. A hope that he knew deep down had never really been there. "This isn't like normal memory loss,"he explained. "Like you've had a bump on the head or a trauma or something. Your memory was erased by magic. Only magic can bring it back."
"So what can we do?"Hermione asked.
"Well, we have to find a way to restore it magically. Or else we just teach you everything again. Which is why we're here."
Hermione sighed. She'd been trying to avoid that. "Are you sure about this?"
"Basic defensive spell. We learnt it in duelling club in second year." He could see Hermione still wasn't sure. "Look, you've already mastered some simple spells. So you know you can do magic. It's just a question of learning the spells."
"I don't want to hurt you."
"You won't. Unless you do it wrong."
Hermione winced. "That's what I'm afraid of." Harry gave her an encouraging look and she took a deep breath and waved her wand. "Expelliarmus!"
A bolt of magical energy shot out of her wand but went nowhere near Harry, passing to the side and above his head.
"Good start,"Harry told her encouragingly. "Now try and aim it."
Hermione aimed the wand more carefully at Harry. "Expelliarmus!"she repeated. This time the spell struck Harry in the chest, knocking him off his feet. Hermione rushed towards him worriedly. "Oh, Harry, I'm sorry! Are you all right?"
Harry sat up. "Petrificus totalus." He froze Hermione in place for a moment then lifted the spell. "Good but I still had my wand. You need to really disarm someone to stop them fighting you. Try again."
Somewhat chastened, Hermione resumed her place as Harry got to his feet. "Expelliarmus!" This time the spell struck home, knocking Harry's wand out of his hand. "Accio wand!"Hermione added for effect, causing it to fly into his hand.
Harry smiled at the improvisation. He took the wand from her and gave her a brief hug which wasn't entirely needed. "Okay, let's try that again."
Albus was on his way out to the Quidditch pitch when he passed Hugo going the other way. "Hey, where are you going? Damon wants us all on the pitch for trials in ten minutes. He's not gonna consider you if you're late."
"I'm not going,"Hugo said unhappily.
Albus went over to his cousin-turned-stepbrother. "What do you mean? I thought you always wanted to be on the Quidditch team."
Hugo nodded. "I want to play keeper, like Dad did. But that's Damon's position, he's not going to give it to me."
"Well…no, but Damon's leaving next year. If you're reserve this year, you stand a better chance of taking over then. And you never know, you might get lucky and Damon will fall off his broom so you have to take over."
Hugo looked at him in slight confusion. "Next year?" He sounded as though the concept of such a thing was alien to him.
Albus sighed. "Look, I know it's hard with everything that's going on with your mum but we need to look to the future. She's not going to want you to stop doing something you enjoy, is she?"
Hugo shrugged but managed a ghost of a smile. "S'pose not."
Albus put his arm round the boy and led him back in the direction of the pitch. "Come on."
