I've finally got the next chapter ready. Real life got in the way of writing. Hopefully, I'll be able to upload the edited chapters soon as well. However, I'm not sure when the next new chapter will be up, as I'm going on holiday soon next Sunday.
Thanks for reviewing, even though I've been quite disappointed that so few of you did.
Chapter 37
It was Sunday morning in the early afternoon. A large group had assembled in the Room of Requirement for Harry's new defence club, which was now organized under the tutoring system. The former DA members were almost all present, except for Cho, Marrietta, Colin and Ron. Daphne, Blaise and Draco had shown up as well and surprisingly almost all first years – even from Slytherin.
"Hi everyone," Harry smiled slightly flustered by the sheer numbers that had shown up, "Quite honestly I didn't expect that many of you to come. Don't get me wrong – I'm glad you came!" he hastily added, "but I think we'll need to organize our study sessions a little differently."
Harry looked around the Room that had taken on the size of the Great Hall.
"I have noticed that a lot of you are first years. Most of you wont have mastered your wand work enough to do any serious duelling. That doesn't mean that you can't train yourselves in defense. It only means you should probably try a different approach."
Harry surveyed Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Daphne and Blaise critically. Hermione had become rather good at dodging, but then she was good at everything she really set her mind on. Ginny was fierce, but not overly impressive. She probably really was more offensive than defensive in nature. Daphne was still very fragile and lacked stamina. Now Neville and Blaise had both improved drastically and the result was impressive. Both of them were Purebloods and while Blaise as a Slytherin represented the more snobbish side of wizarding society, Neville was well known for his clumsiness.
"Neville," Harry said after a moment of thought, "Are you up for a short demonstration?"
"Sure," Neville walked forward and drew his wand.
"Begin," Harry said and Neville silently shot spell after spell in quick succession at Harry, who appeared to be no more than an indistinctive blur of astonishing flexebility. However, Neville was fast as well. His wand seemed to emmit a single beam of differently couloured light, as his spell casting was so fast - only directed by thought - that the human eye could no longer distinguish between spells.
Therefore it took only five minutes until Harry was hit by a powerfull cheering charm.
"Infinite Incantatem," Harry cancelled the cheering charm and without pausing he attacked, "Ridiculous, Expelliarmus, Confundo, Stupefy, Tarantula, Expelliarmus ... " and on and on it went. They where both completely silent, deeply concentrated. Harry's silent casting no longer consisted of thought out pronounciations but rather intentions.
Neville's movements were blurred as well and for Neville's broader form to avoid the barrage of spells was even more impressive than for Harry's wiry frame. Sometimes Neville seemed to float in the air or to even be at more than one place at once.
Finally, Harry hit him with a confundus.
"Well, I think that should be enough for a demonstration." Harry said.
"Dodging is an invalueable skill, which is severely underestimated by most," Harry continued, "Had we been attempting to shield against those spells, it would not leave us any room to counter attack. Also it would quickly tire us magically. Dodging is physically draining but with practise your body will built up stamina."
"That was amazing," Draco came up to him, a gleam in his eyes.
"Thanks," Harry grinned and turned to his audience once more,"We have only started this kind of training a month ago, in earnest," Harry said, "It's hard but definitely worth it. I suggest you try it out now. So get into pairs and take turns to shoot Ridiculous at each other as fast as you can, don't hold anything back. Once you are hit you switch."
"I'll need to take a look around," Harry said and clapped Draco on the shoulder. Draco nodded and turned to search for a duelling partner.
Harry and those who had been training dodging with him, were making their rounds, assisting the duelling pairs.
Harry curiously stopped in front of a cluster of first years.
The tiny Gryffindor muggleborn was evading spells with an amazing speed for a beginner. Obviously, her size was helpful as well, but Harry very strongly felt that she had not yet reached her limit. Her year mate simply could not accelerate her spell casting.
"Very good," Harry clapped, "May I step in?"
"Sure," the other first year stepped out of the circle. Harry noticed that she wore a Slytherin tie. Not long ago it would have appeared unthinkable that a Gryffindor and a Syltherin voluntarily paired up, but that group of first years stood together rather comfortably.
"Would you like to cast first?" Harry asked kindly, "Catch your breath a little?"
"I wouldn't ever catch you," she blushed, "I can't even cast silently."
"Oh of course," Harry slapped his forehead, "Then are you ready?"
The small girl nodded shyly.
And Harry begann casting, not as fast as he could but over the last month his spell casting had become much faster than average. So he was still very much impressed by her skill. It seemed almost as if she had undergone a similar training to them.
"That was very impressive!" Harry said sincerely, "Have you done something like that before?"
"N-noo," the small girl looked at the floor.
"How come you're so good at it?" the Slytherin she had paired up with piped up. Surely, the Slytherins in his year had not been that cute as first years?
"I don't know," she said, her lips tightly pressed together. However, her eyes told something different. Harry's mind almost shied away from the possebility that she had learnt the same way he had, by avoiding punches and kicks, at school or from relatives, but it fit. She was so shy, like a scared little bird. Dodging came naturally to her, instinctively. Harry felt his heart go out to her.
"I think, I've found part of the solution for our large numbers," he said, "What's your name by the way?"
"Sandra Higgings," she said.
"You would do me a huge favour by supervising your fellow first years' dodging excersises from now on."
"Mmee?" Sandra looked startled, frightened and also proud. Harry moved his hand to pat her on the shoulder when he saw her twitching and moving out of the way. Harry decided to talk to her alone.
"Could you stay after this lesson, so we can discuss this further?" he asked.
"Sure," Sandra blushed, looking quite like a deer caught in the headlight.
"See you later then," Harry said and moved to the next duelling pair – Ernie McMillan and Susan Bones.
Ernie was as usual very stiff. Surely he could cast his spells faster? He seemed to deliberately pause to let Susan catch her breath. It gave her time to think about her next move.
"Don't hold back," Harry said, "This is about improving reflexes."
"It's just not chivalrous," Ernie said stiffly.
"You're only casting Ridiculous," Harry argued, "Allow me to step in?"
Ernie's mouth was set into a grim line as he changed places with Harry. Ever since Ernie had voiced his interest in dating Harry, after Harry had asked out Draco, things were awkward between them.
"Ready?" Harry looked at Susan who nodded.
Harry slowly accelerated his spell casting to ease her into the right frame of mind. Like most Purebloods Susan clearly was not used to any physical activity. She was panting rather heavily. Also she was of a slightly heavier built with very pronounced femine curves. However, she was slowly adapting and moving faster. She really was no worse than Hermione had been when they had started their training. When he had finally hit her with a curse, Harry stepped out of the circle.
"Your turn," Harry nodded at Ernie.
Susan was red faced and breathless and yet her eyes were sparkling playfully. She began casting spells at Ernie who stiffly and sourly jumped left and right. He was putting too much thought into it, far too concerned about dignity and it was slowing him down.
Harry watched Luna and Dennis Creevey. They were both doing pretty well. Dennis was naturally quirly and also small. Fast movement came naturally to him and as a muggleborn.... While Luna was usually dreamy and not one for hectic movement, she was very accepting of new ideas and Harry new she had been bullied at Hogwarts.
Harry moved on and watched Draco and Terry Boot. Terry was no more fond of physical activity than the average Pureblood it seemed and Draco had quickly gotten the hang of Harry's method of speed casting. Soon Terry was hit and giggling rather uncontrollably. Draco smirked.
Then Terry took his turn at casting. His casting was fast as well, which Harry had expected. He was after all a studious Ravenclaw and had been top of the year after Hermione and Draco.
Harry gaped – Who would have thought Draco, of all people could be so good at this?! Admittedly, he was breathing hard and he certainly was not exactly athletic but he moved swiftly, instinctively and without hesitating. He was fast as well, very fast for his first try. Then he was hit. Harry clapped but then rushed to Draco's side when he saw him staggering.
"What's up? Are you alright?" Harry asked, grapsing his bony shoulders to steady him.
"Just a little dizzy," Draco said weakly.
Harry looked at him. The last months with all that worrying had put a strain on Draco. He was jumpy and jittery and did not eat properly. He would need to talk to Draco. He had to take better care of himself.
"You were very good at that," Harry said.
"Thanks," Draco said stiffly, obviously uncomfortable.
Harry mused that last year Draco proabably would not have been able to dodge so well. Physical training was only one half of what made a skilled dodger, one also needed the right frame of mind. Being jumpy was just that. The natural abiltiy to dodge was truly not something associated with a carefree life.
"Okay, everyone," Harry called, "Now that you're all properly warmed up, we'll move on to spell casting. First years will concentrate on the disarming spell today. Should you feel ready to move one you can also try out the stunning hex. Same goes for second years."
There were disgruntled mumurs from a couple of second years. They did not like being basically put in one group with the first years.
"Last your with Umbridge as your defence teacher, you've never had any practical training in defense. In fact, when we started our defense club last year all of us started with those spells as well. They are very useful spells that should be mastered properly. They could save your lives. You will want to work an your aim as well."
"I would suggest that all of us start up with those spells as well. When we feel sure to have mastered that spell we can move on to other things. In a group as large as this it is more practical to split into smaller groups anyway."
"Good idea," Harry grinned at her, "So let's see what you've got. Get into pairs."
It turned out that their short dodging exercise had already largely improved everyone's aim. Some first and second years were still struggling to get the pronounciation right, which was to be expected.
Everyone else soon moved on to pratice spells they had not properly mastered yet and paired up accordingly.
Two hours later Harry called the lesson to a halt.
"Well, I think that's enough for today. We'll need to freshen up before dinner."
"I'd like to remind you that tomorrow after dinner I'm giving a lesson on healing for anyone who's interested. We'll meet in the new common room after breaktfast," Daphne said.
The students trickled slowly out, chatting excitedly, some of them clapping Harry on the back on their way out.
"So you wanted to talk to me?" Sandra asked.
"Yeah," Harry said, "Your dodging was really admirable."
Sandra smiled uncomfortably.
"You know know, I've learnt out of neccessity - avoiding being hit by my cousin and his goons. I wouldn't have stood a chance fighting even only him."
"Oh," Sandra blinked, "I've been often bullied by class mates at primary school, being so small and – strange."
"Thought so," Harry smiled sadly at her, "You know you can talk to me, if you want to," he offered.
"Thanks," she smiled and skipped out of the room.
"Good lesson," Draco said, waiting at the door, "I've got the password for the prefects bathroom."
"Sounds good," Harry smirked. This whole dating thing definitely had its perks. Between him and Draco nothing had really changed so far, since they had started officially dating. However, they no longer had to dance around incitiating anything intimate.