Dumbledore apparated right in front of the Gringotts gate. He frowned as the Goblins didn't give him the 'respect' he deserved. Unlike every other place, the wards of Gringotts didn't allow him to apparated inside the bank walls. Didn't those foolish goblins knew he was their hero?

Not paying attention to the guards at the gates, Dumbledore walked inside the bank with his demeanour. He was in his finest attire, an attempt that was going to be in vain. As soon as he was inside the atrium, his eyes searched desperately for Griphook. Not finding his goblin made him a bit nervous before his eyes caught the two Goblins coming right at him. And from their expressions, Dumbledore knew they weren't in the happy mood. Well, which silly goblin ever was in a happy mood?

"Albus Dumbledore, Sire Ragnok wishes for your presence in his office," said one of the goblins in his rough voice.

Dumbledore seethed in anger at the disrespectful manner with which the goblin had addressed him but he knew Ragnok quite well. With that goblin being the next Goblin ruler adding the fact that his father was close to his life's end, the old wizard knew the Goblins would listen to their next ruler. And not obeying the call would only see Dumbledore out of Gringotts' walls and he wasn't ready for that. Nodding, Dumbledore accompanied the two goblins through the twists and turns of Gringotts to finally stand in front of Ragnok's office. He noticed it was already opened and before he could ask something to the goblins who had escorted him here, the door had swung open and Dumbledore saw a menacingly smiling Ragnok looking back at him with his fingers tapping each other. And from the looks of it, Dumbledore, for the first time, was worried like hell.

"Greetings, Dumbledore," Ragnok said, his smile getting wider. "I was looking forward to meet you."

Dumbledore gulped as he saw three tough and war veteran goblins also present inside the office, their weapons ready to attack if they found out that their next ruler was being attacked by anyone and in this case, it was Dumbledore and the said wizard knew he'd have to play it all cool if he was not to be severed to his death. The magical world needed him for the greater good after all.

And so with a sigh, Dumbledore walked inside the office, his senses heightened enough to hear the door close behind him with an unbreakable lock. Why did Goblins have better security measures than wizards were what Dumbledore thought before he took a seat facing Ragnok.

00000

Dan looked at the muscular boy looking back at him with the kind of concentration and boldness he had never thought he'd ever witness.

"And why do you think that's necessary?" Dan asked.

"I think Hermione would be a better choice to answer the question since she was the one who asked me to do this," Gohan said.

"Train her? in what?" Dan asked.

"In basic moves of martial arts," Gohan said. "I am teaching Harry the same thing and it has improved not only his moves to defend himself, he's also improved his wizard duelling techniques, which, if you don't know, is quite common in the magical world."

"How common?" Dan asked.

"Like you can decide to end a quarrel with an honour duel between you and your opponent. That common," Gohan said. Whenever it was a alk about martial arts, the boy had the seriousness of his father.

"You mean like the cowboys?" Dan asked, raising an eyebrow. Gohan didn't move or flinch. Since the moment the subject of Gohan training Hermione had come up, Dan had seen a tremendous boost in the boy's confidence. Even with the look that made every other boys and men shiver, Dan could see it wasn't affecting Gohan at all. Then a plan came in his mind. If his 'look' won't flinch the boy, maybe he should test the boy. A smile came upon Dan's face which raised a string of doubt in Gohan's mind. He didn't want to be rude reading Dan's mind so he didn't know what Dan was thinking at. "If you defeat me in a sparring match, you have my permission to train Hermione," Dan said.

At first, Gohan was shocked but then nodded with a smile. He knew from Hermione how her dad was a former SAS and was a specialist in hand-to-hand combat along with firing several kinds of weapons. And he was particularly good with knives which were his specialty.

"I will let you choose the rules," Gohan said.

'He's confidant,' Dan thought before he smiled as well. "Alright. The first to be thrown out of the ring will lose. No serious attacks. No attacks resulting in an injury. This is just a test spar." Gohan nodded in understanding but he was curious about the 'ring' part that Dan had just said. "Alright, follow me."

Hermione, for all this time, stood in a corner with her mother, seeing and hearing the two men talk. But unlike her mother, she knew her dad was in for a treat. She felt bad as she didn't want to watch her dad lose to a twelve year old but then she also needed the training if she wanted to protect the secrets she'd learnt. With just one month remaining until Hogwarts' new term to start, she wanted to learn as much as she could handle at a time. And seeing how tiring occlumency was, she had agreed to learn telepathy from Gohan.

Upstairs, Dan unlocked the door of his special room. He turned towards Gohan with a smile on his face. "Don't faint after what you see in here, Gohan," Dan said before he pushed open the door. He took special pride in showing this room to his visitors. It was the only place after his retirement from the army that made him feel like home.

As the lights were turned on, Gohan saw a twelve by ten room. It was as big as the hall of the Grangers resident downstairs. From the first look of it, Gohan knew Dan was no slacker. He could see the small to big guns plus several other weapons he knew were used in different styles of martial arts taking their place on the eastern wall of the room. The west side of the room had a collection of several knives, almost all of them military grade. Dan was a dangerous man was what Gohan thought. He remembered how Hermione had once told him her father had sent her to the karate school. The fact wasn't that he Dan didn't want to teach his daughter the art of fighting. It was because the man knew his daughter wouldn't be able to handle the strictness Dan followed while sparring. And it was because of that that Dan wanted Gohan not to have a sparring session with him but because of the boy's cockiness, it was too late.

As for Hermione and Emma, they, too, weren't allowed to enter this humble abode of Dan without his permission, which, like all the times, were a no. They knew how much Dan held respect for this room. It was specially built for him.

'But would dad be able to handle his defeat?' Hermione thought. She knew it quite well how serious her dad was regarding these kinds of stuff.

Gohan saw as Dan walked over to a small cupboard, opened it and took out large four by four pieces of thin tiles which the boy knew were used to serve as a temporary fighting ring. He tried to step forward with the intention of helping Dan but the man stopped him.

"Sorry, but no one other than me touches the things in this room," Dan said. Gohan nodded in understanding and stepped back to stand beside Emma and Hermione.

"Please be gentle," Hermione whispered to Gohan, something that wasn't gone unheard by Emma.

"Is he that good?" Emma asked Hermione, looking at Gohan.

"Don't worry. I'll only block him," Gohan assured Hermione. "And you know what, my respect for him has increased tenfold seeing how much respect he gives to his martial arts skills. That is something every martial artist should have."

Twenty minutes later, Dan had the whole room set. He had moved unnecessary things aside to create space for the ring. The room was huge so the ring fit perfectly leaving enough space to let twenty people to stand in and watch. Fortunately, there were only Emma and Hermione to watch.

"Walk in, Gohan," Dan said in a tight voice that clearly resembled his former military life. Gohan nodded, took off his shoes and stepped into the ring. Dan was already there, his feet bare for a better grip on the ring's surface. "Let's go through the rules again," he said. "There will be no serious attacks. No attacks resulting in any serious injuries are allowed. One who accepts defeat or is pushed or thrown out of the ring, will lose. One can use any form of fighting he knows and the use of any sort of weapons is not allowed. Is it all clear?" Gohan nodded. "Good. Let's begin," Dan said before giving his opponent a respectful bow. Gohan did the same. Dan, seeing the boy's bow only knew the boy knew one or two things about martial arts.

Once they ended their bow, they both now looked at each other with a smirk on their faces. Both had the confidence to win but only one was going to be the victor.

"I'll let you start," Gohan said through his smile. Dan's smirk only widened as he gave a small node before sprinting towards Gohan. The boy remained in his place, not moving or flinching at all. Dan's smile only widened as he reached near his opponent, a hook attack ready to take the boy by surprise but as he landed his fist on Gohan, the boy stopped it with his single hand.

While Emma couldn't believe what she saw, Hermione only smiled. Gohan wasn't even warming up. He had once shown her his moves and to be honest, she was impressed by it.

Dan smirked. The boy was no slack. He knew how to stay calm which was the key thing in a fight. Taking quick steps back, Dan got in his fighting stance and so did Gohan. The demi-saiyan didn't want to make Dan feel bad by blocking and his moves without any effort. That would certainly create suspicion.

"Your turn," Dan said. Gohan gave a nod before he ran towards Dan, the former SAS completely ready. As Gohan reached near his opponent, instead of attacking, the boy jumped high up in the air. Unknown to him, Dan expected that from Gohan. Quickly working on his footing, Dan moved aside swiftly, letting Gohan miss his target by mere inches. Dan, for the moment, gasped mentally at the power with which Gohan had planned to punch him.

Gohan landed on the ground, missing his target. Instead of feeling bad about it, his smirk only got bigger. Dan had some moves and this would only make the sparring interesting. Gohan knew he could end it all in just one move but he wanted to enjoy it for the moment. He wanted to see how far Dan could go. The man was certainly very good seeing his age.

Standing back on his feet, the boy and the man looked at each other. Both of them smiling. Not wasting another moment, Dan landed a surprise attack on Gohan. However, the boy was much faster and had already sensed Dan's motion as he efficiently dodged the attack. But the boy didn't stop there, he saw an opening in Dan's and swiftly hit his leg with his own. Dan lost his footing and fell face first on the ground. He was glad his nose wasn't bleeding but it sure hurt a bit. But the former SAS was trained to bear pain.

"Nice," Dan complimented. "Taking advantage of one's openings gives you a chance to prove yourself." Not wasting another second, Dan sprinted at Gohan again but this time the man used a combination of several shaolin moves. With the tiger, mantes and snake along with the drunken move, Dan launched himself at the boy, knowing Gohan wouldn't be able to defend or block himself from all of this moves, all of them of different styles.

Gohan recognised few of the moves. He was aware of the tiger and mantes moves. Those were the moves his father and Piccolo used frequently. The other two moves were also seen by Gohan but he couldn't recognise them. But with the Kami-Sen moves that Piccolo had taught him, he could easily block Dan's moves. The Kami-Sen was used by earth's guardian and after Kami's fusion with Piccolo, the Namek had taught Gohan the skill and it really was paying off. Gohan could tell from his first use that this move was really something.

Dan's surprises knew no bounds as Gohan effortlessly dodged and blocked his every single move. Dan even grimaced a little whenever Gohan's hand would block his fists. It was like hitting a stone wall. The boy was tough.

Gohan knew the fight had went too long and so with a swift duck, dodging Dan's flying kick, Gohan planted a very weak punch in the man's gut, a punch that wasn't weak for Dan at all as he felt air being pushed out of his lungs. Bending down, he clutched his stomach with pain clearly showing in his eyes. Seeing the man in no position to fight any longer, Gohan walked up to Dan, lifted him up and put him outside the ring.

Dan was at the loss of words. Never before had he been lost in a match this bad, far less by a child! He was the champion in his batch. With a military family background, Dan was not new to fighting with martial arts and he had sharpened his fighting skills since a very young age as his parents had made it clear that he had to make it into the army.

Emma was also surprised seeing her husband lose. She knew how much capable her husband was but seeing Gohan and even though not being an expert in martial arts, she could tell Gohan had beaten Dan without an effort. She looked at her daughter who looked back at her with the 'I told you so' look. Emma sighed. She knew how much Dan would later take this to his heart. If there was one thing that could result in Dan being hurt, it was his pride.

Helping Dan up on his feet, Gohan led him to a nearby chair.

"Sorry if I hit you hard," Gohan said, apologising to Dan. Dan raised his hand to stop him from speaking.

"It wasn't your fault," Dan said. "I underestimated you, Gohan. You defeated me fare and square. I know this isn't a good thing to ask, but how did you block my mixed martial arts moves moments ago?"

"I used the Kami-Sen technique," he said. Dan gave him a puzzled look. "It is a very ancient technique that my teacher taught me."

"I see. So that was how you were able to block my moves, right?" Dan asked. Gohan could only nod. What else could he do? Dan then smiled. "I never through to train my daughter because I thought she would never be able to stand up to the standards I wanted from her before I started her training. I guess it's the side effect of being born in a military family. With the way you fought with me, you not only defeated me but you also earned my respect. Please be gentle while training my daughter."

Gohan looked at the face of a smiling Dan. The man gave him a reassuring nod but before Gohan could say something, Dan was tacked with a bear hug from her daughter.

"Thanks, dad!" Hermione said as she crushed her father in her hug.

"It's what's best for you," Dan said. "And also, you wanted to learn it. But you got to promise one thing."

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"That you will show me what you've learnt," Dan said before he turned towards Gohan. "And I know this isn't good, but would it be okay if you teach me as well?"

"There's nothing bad in learning new things, sir," Gohan said with a smile. "I'd only be happy to teach you as well."

00000

A/N: Lame chapter? I know. There will probably be a few more chapters talking about the summer holidays before I move on with the third year.

Also, I got a few PMs regarding the introduction of other Z fighters in the story. Well, to answer that, I am thinking not to introduce them much. Of course, you can look up to see their names being mentioned in the future chapters but I think I will not introduce them in this fic. It is about Gohan and Harry, taking Hermione with them and with Neville as a supporting character. His role wouldn't come to play until he's being told of his heir shi which wouldn't happen until, I guess, the fourth or fifth year.

Well, thanks for reading...