Dad started the children's defense lessons the next day. The first thing he did was cast a nonverbal spell that would prevent the ministry from catching the Potter children doing magic at home and urge them to keep this secret.
The first part of the lesson, Dad tested the children's defenses. He threw mild hexes at them and they tried to defend themselves. James did best. He was in fourth year and knew quite a few defensive spells already. Al got hit by a tarantallegra spell and hadn't Dad lifted the spell, Al would have tapdanced for the rest of the holidays. Lily did quite good for a first year.
"Al taught you a lot, I see," praised Dad. "Well done, Al, and well done, Lily! All three of you could improve your performance without learning any magic by moving better. The simplest form of defense is, after all, flight. Sometimes it is enough to take one step to the side to avoid a spell. I'll show you how. I want you to hex me and I will try to defend myself using as little magic as possible."
"Says the man who doesn't need a wand," muttered James.
Dad grinned. "It's not my fault that I'm powerful. But if I say I won't use it, I won't use it. There's not much sense in showing you techniques you are too young to copy, is there?"
"Do you think we can learn wandless magic when we are older?" James asked eagerly. Al was all ears, too.
Dad shrugged. "Nobody can tell. Only the most powerful can do it and there are far more spells I need my wand for than not; but since I am quite powerful and so is your mother, there's no reason to think that you won't be able to do one or the other spell without a wand. Now, let's start. Hex me!"
The children did their best. Dad avoided most spells by hopping to and fro and only when Al and James started to work together had he to use more complicated maneuvres to stay safe. It took them several minutes to force the head auror to use a spell in his defence.
Suddenly Dad howled with pain. The children lowered their wands and rushed to see what had happened. Dad's robes had been cut open over his stomach and a nasty cut crossed the exposed skin.
"Run, Lily! Get Mum!" cried James. He started to chant a spell, moving his wand in circles over Dad's wound.
"Since when do you know medical magic?" asked Al. He knelt beside Dad and held his hand.
"I can't heal him!" cried James. "We only learned how to slow bleeding yet!" He continued his chant and really, the blood left the wound slower.
"Harry!" Mum stormed into the room with Lily in tow. "What have you done now!" She knelt in the spot Al had hurriedly vacated for her. "Well done, James. You can stop now, I take over." She started her own chant as soon as James had stopped his. Mum's spell was more urgent, the words were more complicated and the wand movement was more refined than James's. Al watched the wound close little by little in fascination. He had to learn how to do that!
A quarter hour later, Dad was as good as new. Mum watched him repair his robes with a spell, tapping her foot impatiently. "Well," she snapped, angry now that there was no more reason to worry, "what have you done? How did you manage to lie bleeding when you were supposed to show the children a shield spell?"
"I asked them to attack me," muttered Dad guiltily.
"And Al was stupid enough to use a cutting hex on Dad!" cried James.
"I did not!" protested Al. "We were supposed to use minor hexes! I only used a hair growing jinx and jelly legs!"
"Are you meaning to tell me that Lily cast that cutting hex?" raged James. "Because I know for sure I didn't!"
"I'm a first year!" cried Lily.
"But one of us must have used it, obviously," said James.
"Leave it," sighed Dad. "I'm famished. Let's see what Kreacher made for lunch." He led the way out of the room. When he reached the door, he cancelled the trace shield with a casual wave of his hand.
The children and Mum followed Dad and all the way to the dining room, the Potter brothers eyed each other suspiciously from under their lashes.
Mum and Dad tried to find out who had used the cutting spell on Dad for the rest of the holidays, but to no success. Since they were not ready to use legilimency on their children the culprit's identity remained a secret.
Of course Al knew it had been James. Lily didn't know any spells of that nature yet and Al knew for sure that he had not done it. This left James. Of course Al told Mum and Dad whenever they interrogated him – for the first time Al realised that Dad could be scarier than Mum if he chose to – but, of course, James told them the same about Al.
There was no dessert between the incident and the children's return to school.
-x-
"I never took James for a liar," said Scorpius when Al told him what had happened. "A bit of a fool like all Gryffindors, but not a liar. They usually deal with the consequences of their crimes."
"That's what I thought," agreed Al. "Maybe he got scared when he saw Dad bleed and was ashamed about what he had done. I, at least, was terrified. I thought Dad was going to die. We have to look up healing charms." With only his best friend around he could admit just how scared he had been. Al was glad he had waited until they were alone.
Scorpius agreed that knowledge of basic medical magic could come in handy. It was quickly agreed to use one evening a week for research on the topic.
Two weeks later, Al and Scorpius – they had never made Vern and Enrico part of the project since the other boys were busy enough with their regular school work – went up to the hospital wing on Saturday evening.
"What have you done now?" asked Madame Slope when she spotted them. Her stern words were softened by a smile.
"Nothing, Madame," said Scorpius politely. "We were wondering whether we could ask you something."
The nurse ushered the boys to the back of the empty ward and transfigured one of the beds into chairs. "What do you need?" she asked.
"We have been researching healing spells," said Scorpius. "And wanted to know how to practice them. Are we supposed to injure ourselves to get wounds to practice on?"
"Oh no!" cried Madame Slope. "It's true that healer apprentices use the technique to perfect their spell casting, but beginners use a lazarunium."
"A what?" asked Al. He had never heard of an item called a lazarunium.
The nurse smiled. "A lazarunium. They are magical creatures which are always covered in boils and wounds. It's their natural state. You can practice healing spells on them. If the spell doesn't work, it doesn't harm them; and if you manage to close a wound it will reopen some minutes later."
"How can they survive when they are constantly wounded?" asked Al.
"You have to ask Hagrid," advised the witch. "He'll know more about them. If you want one to practice, you can borrow mine."
"You have one?" asked Scorpius. Why would anybody keep a creature like a lazarunium? It sounded disgusting.
"Lazaruniums are pretty rare nowadays," explained Madame Slope. "Muggles tend to bring them to animal shelters when they find them and hardly any survive the muggle veterinarians' treatment. It's costum that, if you use a lazarunium to train, you keep it safe for the rest of its life. They are easy to care for. All they need is a small cage and a little grass now and then. Mine is still in a good condition and you can borrow it if you promise to feed it well."
The boys agreed and the matron went to fetch the creature. The lazarunium looked like a very battered guinea pig. Its fur was covered in blood and Al could only guess its colour. He thought it was brownish, but it could as well be grey or green.
"This is Bella," the nurse introduced the small creature. "Bella, these are Albus and Scorpius. They will work with you for a while."
"What are Bella's magical properties, apart from the wounds?" asked Al.
"I'm glad that you ask," smiled Madame Slope. "Lazaruniums are highly magical. They can vanish things."
"Vanish things?" Scorpius sounded very uncomfortable. "What if Bella vanishes my homework?"
"They only vanish things if they are very unhappy. Feed her a litte grass and perhaps a slice of apple as a treat every day and your homework will be safe," the witch smiled. "You can keep Bella for as long as you need her."
The boys took the lazarunium to their dormitory and Scorpius tried a healing spell first. One of the wounds on the creature's back glowed for a moment, but other than that nothing happened. Al was a bit worried that the spell might hurt Bella – how could anybody name an ugly creature like that "beautiful"? – but the lazarunium continued sniffing the slice of apple Scorpius had put into the cage earlier as if nothing had happened.
"You try it!" ordered Scorpius.
Al obeyed. He looked at the book that lay on his pillow once again before he waved his wand and cast his spell. The wound glowed like it had for Scorpius.
"This is more difficult than I thought," sighed the dark-haired boy. His blond friend agreed.
They spent the rest of the evening practicing, but all they accomplished was that the wounds glowed longer. After two weeks of unsuccessful effort, Scorpius went to Bertram for help. Between their work on healing spells, homework and spending time with Rose and Circe, they had reached the breaking point.
Bertram asked them to meet him at an empty classroom near the common room. When the boys arrived, the seventh year was already waiting for them. He looked at the cage Scorpius was carrying curiously.
"Wow!" he cried when he saw what was in it. "Where did you get a lazarunium?"
"We asked Madame Slope," Al explained.
"You asked and she gave you her lazarunium? Wow, it must be cool to be the son of the Man Who Killed Him!" Bertram looked at the small magical creature longingly. "I never thought I'd see one before I can start at St. Mungo's."
"Can you show us how to cast a healing spell or not?" Scorpius asked in his no nonsense voice.
"Of course!" cried Bertram. "I wouldn't miss the chance to work with a lazarunium!" He explained the wand movement first and Al could see where they had gone wrong. They had missed the small flick to the left before the counter clockwise circle.
Bertram cast the spell on Bella and watched with satisfaction as the biggest wound on the creature's back closed. Al was the next to cast and this time the wound he had aimed at closed; not as quickly and smoothly as Bertram's but it closed. Scorpius succeeded two minutes later.
The boys continued their practice over the next few weeks before they returned Bella to Madame Slope.
"Show what you learnt!" the nurse ordered when they handed over the small creature.
Al took Bella back and set the her down on a free bed. He concentrated and then healed one of the wounds on the lazarunium's back.
"Well done!" cried Madame Slope. "Five points to Slytherin for successful extracurricular studies! Now you, Mr Malfoy!"
Scorpius earned another five points easily. Proud, he went to find Rose to tell her about it. Al snickered and returned to the dungeons. It was too early to meet Circe.
-x-
Two hours later found Al pacing at the back of the unused classroom near the statue of Hironimus the Hopeless, his and Circe's favourite meeting point.
Circe was late.
Al checked his memory, again, trying to figure out whether he had gotten anything wrong, but no. They had agreed to meet at eight. That way they could both do their homework before they met. Al was caught between worry and anger. It was not like Circe to miss a meeting without at least a message, and how dare she not come! How dare she have something more important to do!
Al was in the middle of an internal rant, when Circe rushed in.
"Here you are!" she panted. Had she run all the way from Gryffindor Tower? "I'm sorry! I was at the hospital wing. I tried to send Scorpius for you, but he wouldn't leave Rose's side."
Rose? "What happened?" Al practically flew to Circe's side and grabbed her hands. It was good to feel she was there and seemingly unhurt.
"Oh, it was dreadful! Scorpius had come to pick her up at the tower and they were going for a walk, when a piece of plaster came down from the ceiling! I ask you! Don't they have spells on that castle? Rose was hit by it and there was so much blood! Madame Slope says Rose was lucky that Scorpius was there and started some basic healing chants at once!"
Al set out for the hospital wing at once, pulling Circe with him. The girl didn't object. Rose was not only Al's cousin, but also Circe's best friend after all.
Rose looked terribly pale and the fact that her head was heavily bandaged strenghtened the impression of sickness. Scorpius sat on the edge of her bed and held her hand. Al was not sure Rose even realised it. By the looks of her, she had been given some sort of calming potion.
James and Lily were standing at the foot end of the bed; both looked very worried.
"Al!" squealed Lily when she spotted her brother. "Oh, Al! It was dreadful! There was so much blood!" Al let go of Circe and wrapped his little sister in a comforting hug.
"Were you there? Were you hurt?" he asked, worried.
"I was just returning to the tower to do my homework," sobbed Lily. "I saw it happen from afar. I thought Rose was dead! Only when Scorpius chanted that spell did I realise that she was still alive!"
Scorpius was nearly as pale as Rose, but he looked also a bit proud. He had kept his nerve when Rose was hurt, and had used what they had learned.
Madame Slope let the children stay for a little while before she sent them off to their houses. Al pecked Circe on the lips when they had to part. Poor Rose! Al felt a bit bad about being glad that it had not been Circe who had been hit.