Alarums and Excursions

I hereby DISCLAIM that I do not own the Potterverse!

Author's Note: Edited on 7/30/2015.

Chapter 12

They spent the rest of that day relaxing but the next day Harry said, "I don't think we should vegetate the whole two weeks. I am sure we'll ace our N.E.W.T.S. but there are a few other things both of you should learn if you're going to insist on being by my side for the rest of the war." He stood up from the blanket they were sharing and summoned his wand from the jumble of clothes off to the side.

"Then count me in Harry," Ginny said. "Because I refuse to leave you to face the Dark Tosser alone."

"Count me in too," Susan said. "In fact we should include the other four as well."

"If I can teach you I'll try with Luna and Neville," Harry said. "I showed this to Hermione and Ron already. Then again that was two years ago so maybe they can manage it now."

"What is it Harry?" Ginny asked.

"Creating a Patronus," Harry said. "The Dark Wanker will probably be using Dementors again this time so I want you both to know the spell that drives them away."

"I'd love to learn it Harry," Sue said. "I just hope you don't expect to deal with a hundred at a time like you do."

Harry snorted then teased, "There are only a hundred and fifty altogether Sue. That's fifty each at most. You can handle a measly fifty I hope?"

She rolled her eyes, "Maybe I'll let you deal with the Dementors while Ginny and distract the Death eaters by belly dancing. It certainly seemed to distract you."

The other two laughed at that. Once they all had their wands Harry continued, "The wand gesture is a simple pointing motion and the incantation is 'Expecto Patronum' but the most important part is the emotion. Find your happiest memories and keep them firmly in mind as you cast. Try to push the emotion out through your wand. Don't be worried if nothing happens at first or you get only a formless mist. Just keep trying and keep using your happiest memory."

The girls tried it and after a a few tries they both got the white mist pouring from their wands. "That's enough to shield you from one of them," Harry said. "So we can stop here for now. The animal shape is only needed if there is more than one or you want to chase them back , from you or another person. They'll run from the animal, or float, or whatever it is they do." He shrugged then brightened, "Oh and keep in mind that chocolate helps."

Ginny giggled, "Chocolate always helps."

Harry smiled, "In this case it helps even more than normal. Hermione has a theory about something called flavonoids but I can't quite follow it. It does help though, I know that from experience."

Ginny nodded, "I remember the one on the train. The chocolate did help." Then she shuddered and both Harry and Susan hugged her. They went for a swim after and switched the topics to lighter subjects but after lunch Harry asked them to try again and they readily agreed. After dinner he mentioned it to Neville.

Neville said, "I'd love to join you Harry, but Luna and I are working on creating staffs."

Luna smiled and nodded, "Not all of us are Harry Potter so we wanted something sure to wow the examiners and building a personally attuned staff required runes, charms, and arithmancy in their creation. Building the core might be considered potions as well I suppose but we are not sitting that exam."

"That's a great idea Neville!" Harry said. "How about this then, if we both finish before the two weeks are up we'll each teach the other how we did it and then we'll all knock the examiners socks off?"

Neville smiled, "Sure, let's involve Hermione and Ron. I'm sure they must be doing something special too."

After they found them Hermione admitted she and Ron were working on something but refused to share what it was until she was certain it would work. She did agree to share if it did though. Hermione said "I'm glad to hear you three are actually working in your little hideaway. There will be ample time for pleasure after the war has been won. These two weeks are too precious to spend them just enjoying ourselves."

Ginny smiled, "That was almost exactly what Harry said. You must have rubbed off on him."

Harry grinned, "I have learned better study habits from her I admit but Ron is the one she's been rubbing off not me."

Hermione rolled her eyes and swatted at Harry as the others giggled.

After he stopped laughing Harry turned to Neville, "Hey Neville?"

"Yeah Harry?" Neville replied.

"Why does almost everyone use wands if staffs work too?" Harry asked.

Neville thought about it and finally said "I guess it's for three reasons. One you can't make a staff for someone else. The person using has to be the person who made it. It's possible to create a staff for more than one user but all have to be involved in the creation and the materials would have to be a compromise between all the people involved. If Luna and I wanted to use each other's staff then among other things we'd have to do quite a bit more work and the resulting staff would probably not work nearly as well for either of us as two staffs made just for us."

He grinned, "Sorry if I'm giving too much backstory but I would have loved to have made one with her so I researched that part heavily. To answer your question, eleven year olds would still need to buy wands because even if they learned some things early they haven't learned enough yet to make a staff. Also staffs are a bit too large and unwieldy for kids. You get a bit more power with a staff but precision is harder. It's also more physically taxing to do the movements with a five or six foot piece of wood than an eight to twelve inch piece. Imagine a room full of eleven year old all swinging their staffs around while they try to get a spell right." He saw Harry wince and grinned, "Exactly. And since we grow up using wands few people bother to learn how to make a staff or switch even if they learn. A wand is what they are used to by then so they stick with it."

Harry nods, "Thanks Neville. That makes a lot of sense."

After a week of coaching on their favorite beach both girls could produce a clear and distinct patronus. Ginny's was a leopard and Susan's was an eagle. "That's great girls!" Harry said and hugged them both.

"I hope Neville had as much success with his staff making," Ginny said. "I'm hoping we can make one of those too. Can you imagine the examiner's faces if we cast a Patronus through a staff?"

"I hope we can find enough materials to make three," Harry said. "If it's the same wood as your staff then that might be a problem." The girls watched appreciatively as he got dressed. Not being as fair skinned as the redheads Harry had tanned to a warm toast color all over and had filled out well from all the good food and exercise. Once dressed he noticed the other had been watching not dressing and smirked, "Oi, you've seen it all before and it's not changed any so why the looks?"

Both girls giggled and Sue said, "So says the boy who tripped over his own feet and fell flat watching us belly dance."

"We look because you're a hunk Harry," Ginny said. "Prime grade A beef."

The girls then got dressed while Harry blushed and then they went walking up to the house looking for Neville and Luna. "I hope we don't interrupt anything personal," Susan said. "I've been warped enough for one lifetime."

"Who knows?" Harry said. "They might invite you to join in."

Ginny chuckled, "If anyone here would it's Luna."

"She might invite Harry instead," Susan replied. "Especially if she'd seen what we just saw."

Harry snorted, "No she wouldn't, because she knows I wouldn't take her up on it. " He kisses Ginny and adds, "My affection is reserved for my special redheads."

Ginny smiled at him but made sure to fall a few steps back and gesture to Susan. Susan looked guilty and nodded. Whispering to her friend she said, "Yeah, I heard it too. He used the plural. Maybe it was just a slip though or he's teasing us and waiting to see if we rise to the bait?"

"Maybe," Ginny whispered back.

Fortunately for everyone's peace of mind they found the two working on their staffs. "Hey Nev!" Harry called. "Feel up to sharing today?"

Susan blushed and seeing that both Ginny and Luna giggled. Neville grinned at Harry, "Well that all depends Harry. What were you planning on us sharing?"

Harry shook his head, "I mean knowledge Neville and shame on you if you thought anything different."

Neville grinned wider, "Oh, of course not, Harry." He picked up a handwritten and hand bound manuscript, "This is the book we used to start our staffs and we can continue without it now so I'll be happy to loan it to you but we still have to a ways to go before we can demonstrate them the way we'd like to so I'll pass on Patronus coaching until after the exams. I hope it wasn't a one time offer?"

Harry smiled and took the manuscript, "Of course not mate! Any time either of you want to learn just ask and thanks a lot for this book. If we can manage it in time we'll really wow the Defense examiner as well as the Runes and Arithmancy testers."

"I'm pretty sure you'd wow them regardless Harry," Neville said.

"Well I'm not going to take any chances," Harry said.

Luna giggled, "I don't think a week is enough to do three Harry." Her eyes were bright with mischief and secrets. "Maybe you can make one staff for you and let Ginny and Susan polish it for you? Or Ginny can rub it smooth while Susan watches?" She burst into full laughter at the look on their faces. "Or maybe you two should make a nice, thick, knobby, staff for Susan to play with? Keep her mind off other things?"

Harry stuttered a goodbye and left with the manuscript, followed closely by a blushing Ginny and Susan. "I'm going to go read this in the library," Harry said when he'd managed to control his voice. "I'll see you at dinner?"

Ginny nodded, "Yeah I think I'll go shower off the salt water." She gestured to Susan, "Come on roomie, you need a shower too." They walked off.

Harry paid little attention to the book for the first fifteen minutes while he tried to stop imagining them showering together and start reading the procedures for making a staff. This meant he missed a theoretical detail mentioned early on.

Back in their room Susan sighed, "If I were you I'd be slapping me silly by now and I deserve it so I won't even block."

"I'm not going to hit you Sue," Ginny said. "Nothing is certain and well I probably should have seen this coming long ago. Anyway you aren't trying to steal him away just trying to share him." She blushed remembering some of the flirting and innuendo, "Umm, in the interest of being really honest and clear..." she trailed off.

Susan looked up, "Go ahead. If nothing else, we've become good friends so you can say or ask me anything Ginny."

Ginny was blushing as soon as the other redhead said 'if nothing else' but continued, "It, umm, just occurred to me that um you might want Harry to share me as well as wanting me to share Harry." Having got that out she hurried on before Susan could speak, "Not that I'm judging or anything! It's a perfectly normal lifestyle choice and a lot less rare than multiple marriage."

Sue was blushing now too. She had started to reassure Ginny that she was completely straight but then wondered if maybe this was Ginny's way of saying she might want to explore that with her. If that was the price of being with Harry would she agree? Susan was suddenly at a loss of how to answer. She knew of girls experimenting like that in the Hufflepuff dorms. It was easier there than the Gryffindor dorms because Hufflepuff rooms held only two people. So what they did in there was private. She'd joked about it with Hannah a few times but never tried it. She looked at Ginny speculatively, the other girl was certainly lovely. It surely wouldn't be a terrible hardship to at least experiment a little and see if there was anything there. She frowned, of course that assumed she had it right and Ginny wanted that. If she answered positively and was wrong then it would be really awkward, especially at night. Making up her mind she said, "No, I would be fine with only sharing him. I would only," she paused briefly, "go farther if you wanted to. Like you said, there is nothing wrong with it. Some of the girls in our dorm experiment with each other and date boys as well so its no big deal either way for me. Um, I mean I'll leave it up to you. If you let me in then we'll, you know, do it only if you want."

Ginny looked at her blushing and babbling friend, "I'm sorry Sue. I hope that didn't sound like I was trying to talk you into it or anything. I was just trying to be clear about what you were wanting." She grinned, "Nice to know how far you'd go for the chance but I think I can keep my hands off you."

"Let's not tell anyone about this little convo, ok?" Sue said.

Ginny grinned widely, "Sure! Well I might tell Harry if he asks but I doubt he will. Can you imagine the look on his face if I told him we fancied each other and he'd be just watching?"

Susan giggled, "That would be mean, funny as hell but mean."

Ginny giggled, "Yeah, and he'd see through it after a moment. Anyway I promised Harry not to even take anything you say about this seriously until you've been back in the outside world long enough to ease some of your frustration."

"Aw, that was nice of him," Susan said. "He's a very thoughtful boy isn't he?"

"Yes," Ginny said. "I'm going to shower now. If you get any strange urges to join me go talk to Hermione about house elves." Ginny smirked, "Ron swears it's the best mood killer ever invented." With that Ginny tossed her clothes into the hamper and went to shower.