AN: So…. I am making no more promises as to when next updates will be, since obviously I suck at that. I just finished my first semester of college, and was unprepared for how little time I would have to write. Because of that, and because I want to actually begin legitimate work on things that I hope to publish, I am going to try to finish this up fairly quickly. But that's not a promise as to how quickly updates will come. The one promise that I will make to you is that this WILL be finished. No matter how long I go without updating, it will not be abandoned. SO on that note, here's chapter 14. As always, read, review, and enjoy!
After more than a week spent meticulously planning his teaching series on duels, Harry was finally ready to begin.
By the time he had reached his classroom, the students had already assembled inside. Harry threw open the door and quickly walked in, his black Auror robes billowing behind him. He forcibly reminded himself of Snape's common entrance to his Potions classes and bit back a smile to keep up the serious mood.
"All right. We're finally going to start a series of classes focused on dueling. To start, I want to hear what you know about duels. If you've got something, just shout it out," Harry said, from the front of the room.
When nobody answered, Ginny called, "Oka, we know you know at least some things about duels. James? Sirius?"
James looked up in surprise and answered, "Er, you bow at the beginning, I suppose."
"And you bring along a second, in case anything happens to you," Sirius added in.
Harry sighed. "Like I suspected, your preconceptions of duels are mainly based on traditional, tournament style duels. In all the duels I've been in, I think I've only bowed twice. Once was in a dueling club, and once I was forced to under the Imperius. Do you really think that in a fight to the death, opponents politely bow before they battle? Do you think that Dumbledore stopped to bow to Grindelwald, or that in the middle of a war, you and your opponent call a halt to the fighting, just so you can exchange pleasantries? Of course not! That's stupid! Lesson number one, unless you're positive it's a controlled, tournament-like duel, never open yourself up to the danger that can hit while you take the time to bow.
"As far as seconds go, again, that's generally associated with a traditional, challenged duel. That's not to say that learning to duel with a partner there is a bad thing, of course. If you've got someone standing off to the side watching you fight when they could also be fighting, that's a waste of a person. It's also admitting to your opponent that you're unsure of your ability to beat them. Understand?
"Now, I'd like to duel against one of you, to see how you'd actually fare in a battle-like situation. We'd be playing disarm only, and will be surrounded by a dome-like ward that will protect your classmates. Volunteers?"
Harry grinned when after a few seconds, Sirius raised his hand. "Alright, Mr. Black! Come on down! You're the next contestant on 'Fight Your Professors!'"
Sirius, along with the rest of the class, look at Harry blankly. Then, Sirius said, "I wasn't volunteering myself to get destroyed by you. I just wanted to say that you had asked way back at the start of term for us to remind you to duel Snape."
Ginny and Harry both snorted a bit, although Harry disguised his much better than Ginny. That was so typical of Sirius that they couldn't help but laugh.
Harry shook his head. "This is true. Mr. Snape, then, if you would?"
With a scowl aimed at Sirius, Snape sulked to the front of the room and stood across from Harry.
"Alright," said Harry cheerfully. "Rules are pretty simple. No Unforgivables or Dark spells. Ginny? Give us a count down?"
She started counting down from five, and when she hit two, both Harry and Snape threw out mild curses. Harry danced with ease out of the way of Snape's Freezing Hex, and Snape very narrowly ducked Harry's jinx.
Immediately after avoiding the curse directed at him, Harry sent two Stunners back at Snape in rapid succession.
Snape managed to avoid both Stunners, and steeled himself to take the Stinging Hex that was Harry's next attack. He tried to use the extra time he got from not dodging to his advantage, but it did no good.
On the other side of the duel, Harry was having fun. He knew right from the start that Snape was a fairly decent dueler, but also that he was no whre close to a match for him. Thinking back to the boy Snape's doubts about his proficiency and the adult Snapes' extended mockery of him, Harry couldn't help but use the situation to his advantage.
After quite a few minutes of forcing Snape to hastily dodge all over the room, Harry smirked. He sent two quick Stunners, distracting Snape by forcing him to dodge once again, and then he sent a Freezing Hex at his feet.
Snape's feet turned to ice, and off-balanced, he toppled to the ground, panting.
Harry said, "Expelliarmus," and casually held out his hand to catch the wand that flew to him. He unfroze Snape's feet and tossed back his wand, before sending him back to his seat and turning to face the class, only to receive a round of applause.
He conjured up a pitcher of water and two mugs, offering one to Snape and taking one for himself.
"Good," Harry said. "Very nice job, Mr. Snape. Take 15 points for Slytherin."
Sirius interrupted at that point. "Why give him points? He lost. You're still rewarding him?"
"Mr. Snape is a very commendable dueler, Mr. Black. Yes, he lost, but let me remind you that he is a student and I am a trained Auror. If I hear anything else similar to Mr. Black's comment, I'll take points and give you the opportunity to more than likely be beaten by Snape in a duel in front of the class. Now, we're going to analyze the duel for a bit. What was the first thing you noticed?"
"You didn't start at the count," Lily answered. "That's not terribly fair, is it?"
"You don't get it!" Harry said, exasperatedly running his hand through his long blonde hair. "Nothing can ever be expected in a real duel situation! If you're dueling with a Dark wizard, do you think he's going to say 'Okay? Go!' No! Because that's stupid! You'll note that Mr. Snape also started early, which is something that I wasn't expecting."
Ginny put a calming hand on Harry and pushed him to the desk, before she picked up the lecture.
"What's important to realize is that dueling is much more than spellwork alone. Yes, that's obviously key, but people often underestimate the physical and mental aspects of it, along with the element of surprise. If you can do something to catch your opponent off guard, or something that will give you an advantage, even a temporary one, do it.
"It doesn't need to be 'clean' per say either, if it give you a leg up. If Harry here were dueling in the middle of a rainstorm, he could cast Impervius on his glasses so he could see, and could also cast Obscuro at his opponent to blindfold him. You could randomly cast some sort of explosion charm at the ground at the feet of your opponent. Are you all beginning to see what we're saying?"
Harry then stood up and dismissed class, promising them an interesting lesson during their double the next week.
When the N.E.W.T. students got to the class the next week, they found the room transformed. It had been magically enlarged, and the desks had been pushed against the back wall. At the other end of the room was a set of bleachers and a large clock. There were two large circles drawn on the ground in the middle of the room, and the entire arrangement left the class sitting on the bleachers, confused.
They all jumped when the door was thrown open and Harry and Ginny entered carrying two large easels, which they sat next to the circles. The young professors walked to stand in front of their waiting students and grinned at them.
After several seconds of watching them squirm, Harry began to give instructions. "All right! To continue our series on dueling, we're going to have a couple of contests. The first will be a physical dodging contest, and the second a shielding contest."
"Right," Ginny said. "Two of you will be on the floor at a time, one doing each contest. You will be timed to see how long you can keep up the dodging or hold your shield up. The point of this is to drill into your heads how important these skills are. You'll all give your try and your time will be recorded, then at the end of each round, the lower half will be knocked out of the contest. Because of the importance of this lesson, the contests will go on for the next week or so. You'll each do both contests, but you'll never have to do more than one of them per class period. Questions?"
Lily raised her hand. "What about the people who aren't currently participating? Will we be safe?"
"Yeah!" Sirius agreed. "And who will be fighting us?"
Harry laughed. "You see the circles? Once the contests start, wards will rise, which will prevent spells from escaping and hitting you. And, Sirius, Ginny will be casting the spells for the shield contest, and I will be in the dodging one. Excited? We'll start out at a moderate pace, and the speed will increase after every minute. The next two class periods will be to get to the top six in both tests. The next class will weed it down to the top three in both, and then points will be given. So, let's start. Ms. Winters, if you'll start with me, and Mr. Hall, with Ginny please."
The students stepped uncomfortably into the circles, followed by their professors. As soon as Harry and Ginny entered the circles, the line along the floor glowed gold, and rose to form a dome high above their heads. It flashed gold and then vanished, leaving the occupants of the circles in full view of the rest of the class.
Lily, who had been chosen as a sort of referee, called out, "Shield up! On your marks, get set, go!"
Immediately after she said go, she started the clocks and Harry and Ginny leapt into action.
Ginny was casting disarming spells one after the other at the Ravenclaw in front of her, and Harry was forcing the terrified Hufflepuff girl in the ring with him to slip and run all over the circle, frantically trying to avoid being hit.
She hardly lasted a minute before she fell victim to a Stunner, and the ward shone gold again. The time was instantly recorded on one of the easels. Not too long after, one of Ginny's disarmers broke through the shield of her opponent, and his time was recorded as well.
It came as no surprise to either Harry or Ginny that by the time the contests had narrowed it down to the three best students, that James and Sirius had both earned themselves house points for being two of the best dodgers. It was a surprise that quiet, awkward, gangly Frank Longbottom also ended up in the top three, but then Harry and Ginny remembered that the boy ended up an Auror, and would have had to have been good at dodging.
In the shield strength challenged, James found himself in the top once again, this time, however, flanked by Lily and Snape.
The challenges were the last segment of Harry's dueling series, and by the end of them, he was incredibly pleased with how much his students had learned.
There were some things taught in school, a lot of things actually, he though, that were completely useless. The dueling lessons were priceless for the students he had just taught.
True, as he looked around the room, he saw the faces of people, who, like his parents, would not make it through the war, but he hoped that they made it a lot farther than they would have without his teaching. But he also saw the faces of Frank Longbottom, who would end up a respected Auror, and of Severus Snape, who, despite everything else, ended up a very accomplished dueler.
Harry knew he had made a difference, and it was a great feeling for him to ease into the Christmas season with.