Harry, Blaise and Susan woke up with a start the next morning. The 3 children looked in the hallway from their room (2 rooms had been added magically to the small apartment) and they saw Genesis holding 2 metal pots and smashing them together repeatedly right in front of their door.
- Good you are up. You guys have 30 minutes to get dressed, eat and get to the dojo in training gears.
The 3 kids groaned when they saw it was barely 5:30 in the morning. 30 minutes later the 3 children joined Cho who was already at the dojo when they arrived.
- Xao won't be soft with us either guys. He must have ranted for over 1hr yesterday when I got home.
Xao and Genesis arrived in front of the 4 children each having a stern look on their face.
- All right now that we are all there we will be able to explain how this summer will go. First thing in the morning we will take a 30 min run to warm up. After that for 2 hours we will spar either with weapons or without. 2 of you will be with each one of us the other two will spar together. We will make rotation. After that for two hours you will do some endurance training on your own while we teach and we better not see you guys slack or there will be hell to pay understood?
- Yes sir!
- Excellent. After that it will be time for the class you will be joining with children your age which last 2 hours also. You will then have 1hr free to eat lunch. After lunch you will have 4 hours break that you will spend in the office reading school and other theory books we will assign 1 combat or tactical theory book per week and Rosa want a 10 pages' report on each book at the end of each week. After that it will be dinner time then you will have 1 hour free to shower and do whatever you want to do then it will be light out. Questions?
- But it's summer!
- Oh really dear? Xao did you realize it was summer when we decided on assigning this?
Asked Genesis with a fake shocked expression while his hand was on his heart.
- Summer? Now that you say it… maybe we should have added 2 more hours of training in the evening? It is true that the sun is up much later during the summer…
- Indeed Xao. Maybe you are right. What do you think children?
Genesis had a soft arrogant smile as he was looking at the 4 panicking kids.
- You know that's not what we meant father!
Genesis snorted at the insulted tone of voice his son had.
- Is that so? Then you meant that because it is summer we should let you roam free and give you all the benefits that summer vacation entail when none of you did what you had to do to deserve such a privilege? Do you know children that benefits comes at a price? You have to win such frivolities as freedom and fun summer so I hope that you will think twice next year of what kind of summer you want whenever a dangerous situation will appear before you and each time you will feel like lying is a good idea. And that goes for the 4 of you.
- Enough talk let's run.
Exclaimed Xao once his friend was done with the explanations. The pace the two men called was not too fast but it was far from slow. The kids were not looking forward to the sparing. Usually they loved it but they were sure this time would be nasty and they were right. The two men were forcing them to stay on the defensive with their quick strikes. The children would be sore for sure later.
- You trained well this year children. There's a lot of improvement since last summer. You have 30 minutes to cool down, drink, have a snack and then you will do the training track for 2 hours with a 15 minutes break in the middle.
The training track was actually an obstacle course that was outside surrounding the dojo building. There were stairs, ropes, tunnels, marked places where they had to practice various types of falls and so on…
By the time the 2 hours were up the kids were actually looking forward to have to do book work. They were dead on their feet but they still had to do their official martial art class. Genesis and Xao had taken turns to check on the 4 of them regularly and to bring them water to make sure they were not having any problems from the heavy exercises.
Their class was with Sensei Yao. The old man smiled warmly at the class then instructed them on a new kata and they spent most of the two hours practicing the new technique between each other while the old man was helping them fix their mistakes. After lunch they took out their school books and homework and started working on that.
- Do you think it will be that bad every day or they just wanted to be evil for the first day?
- I reckon that it will only get better in a few weeks. Not because they will lay off but because we will be used to it I'd say.
Answered Blaise thoughtfully with a grimace.
- Yea probably…
- I heard from father that we will have a visitor Friday. The four of us are here, Cho family is all there so wonder who that could be?
- Maybe they invited Dumbledore for tea.
Said Susan with an amused grin.
- Oh or Firenze for spear training!
- hmm why not Filtch to get punishment torture new ideas?
- Oh and miss Noris could make sure we don't have any rats in the dojo!
- Theres no rats in the dojo idiot…
- Oh maybe it's one of the ghosts!
- Or Quirrell!
- Or maybe you children should put your noses in your books and get some work done
Said Genesis coldly from the doorway.
- Yick... Yes sir!
By dinner time the children were so tired they almost fell asleep in their plate so it was not too hard that night to send them to bed as they had all gone before their bed time. The week passed quickly. The children were so busy that they did not see the time pass. Friday evening came by and everyone was invited to Sensei Yao place for dinner. The old man house was huge. The kitchen table could easily accommodate 12 persons. Rosa, Xao, Genesis, Sensei and the 4 children were talking animatedly at the table when their last guest arrived.
The person was wearing comfortable looking black slacks and a dark blue silky button down shirt with a black blazer on top. The four children had their jaw on the floor. The man looked healthy, his hairs were bright and looked soft. His skin looked healthy as well. But those eyes, that voice, it clearly was their potion professor but since when did Snape wear anything else then black?
- Severus! So glad you could make it do join us at the table.
Said Genesis cheerfully. The potion master graciously took a seat and smirked amused at the children reaction.
- It was you!
Accused Harry suddenly
- Why yes Mr. Potter or should I say Mr. Rhapsodos? It was me who wrote to your father this year.
- But how… We never have seen you here before.
- The 4 of you have been careless fools. Taking the glamour off while you were in the castle was a stupid thing to do. Anyone could have walked on you in that training room. I'm just glad that you had the glamour on when the dark lord found you. Him knowing this would have been catastrophic. I have seen you dunderheads during one of your training session. I saw you take the glamour off under Mr. Zabini request. Someday I swear that your Griffindorish stupidity is contagious… Later that week I took one of your hairs and used a paternity potion to make your family tree. From there I got in contact with your father who was more than happy to get the uncensored version of your gryffindorish adventures.
Said Snape in his usual snide sarcastic drawl.
- Let's hope this will give you a lesson to never take the glamour off while at school son?
- Yes father
- Excellent let's eat.
- During dinner the talks were light and enjoyable. Snape during his youth had learned martial arts from a local dojo near where he lived. His father seeing get home from Hogwart with a broken nose and bruised eye for the 2nd year in a row had decided his son needed to learn to defend himself. Snape had got in a fight as usual on the train with Potter and Black one was holding him while the other was beating him up. Since then he had kept training daily in a secret room. None of his masters knew about his capacity to fight otherwise then with magic it was something he kept hidden for emergencies and he totally understood the need to have more than one way to fight opponents.
It was then decided that the professor would join them in their daily training that summer to teach them his techniques and help them practice. He was also going to teach them to protect their mind so that their secrets stayed safe from Dumbledore and Voldemort.
Once the meal was done, the adults sent the children to get ready for bed since their bedtime for the summer was already passed. From that moment, the summer "vacation" was truly started.
Well that's the end for now. Hope you liked it. Will continue toward year 2 In the next story which I should start writing in the following days. Thanks for reading!
