CHAPTER 9
A/N: I had a little fun here writing in one of my characters from my Oliver Wood fic as the auror leading the physical combat training session for Diana and Harry.
"Try it one more time," Diana coached, as Harry worked through the headlock drill that they were learning. "Good. Yes. And, yep, you've got it." She tapped him lightly on the arm and he released her.
"Thanks, Tsai," Harry said, a little embarrassed.
"'Course. I've got a little bit of a background in this sort of thing, so the martial arts drills come pretty easy to me is all," Diana answered humbly. They continued to work through the drill till Harry got more and more comfortable with it.
"The key here is to commit this to your muscle memory. That way, when you're in a high pressure situation, it comes out naturally!" Thomas Zhao, the special ops auror called out, bringing the practice to an end. "We're going to begin a few light sparring rounds. You'll change partners every two minutes! It is important that you know how to defend yourself, with magic AND hand to hand combat!"
"You ready?" Harry asked, mischievously.
"If you're ready to get your arse kicked by a girl," Diana smirked.
The bell went off and the room of aurors, spending their Saturday in physical training this weekend, began to work.
Thomas Zhao watched as the aurors began to spar. The ministry had begun to implement physical training, especially as they had gone in search of the last remaining Death Eaters. It was crucial that the aurors could protect themselves unarmed. The Wizarding World, let alone the ministry, couldn't spare anymore magical blood. The head auror had been put in charge of the physical training portion, when he wasn't on missions.
"Good morning, Zhao," he heard a voice say, causing the man to turn. There he was, the Minister of Magic, in full dress robes. His deep booming voice was soft as he intended to observe for a bit as undetected as possible.
"Sir," Zhao nodded, bowing his head momentarily, out of respect. "Good morning."
"Just wanted to come check in on our new, little project here," Minister Shacklebolt said, taking a look around the room filled with aurors, hard at work.
The two men stood side by side, watching the sparring rounds. Every two minutes, a loud, piercing bell rang to signal the trainees to switch partners. Zhao knew he only had a few hours to work with them before he left the country on another mission, and wanted to give the aurors the opportunity to get as much supervised practice in as possible.
"Of course, sir. They've been hard at work all morning," Zhao informed.
Kingsley nodded, surveying the room, "Any standouts?"
Zhao nodded, "It's quite clear that some of them have done some hand to hand combat training before. There's McQuigg, who will be a huge asset in the field. I know he's been on our short list for special ops. I've been keeping an eye out Barnes and think she's ready to see more rigorous training. Then there's Tsai. She's one to watch…."
"Potter's partner? How so?" Shacklebolt asked, following Zhao's gaze to the girl who was now paired with a man much larger than her. He watched closely as she dodged his punches, using her small frame to weave in and out of his throws, throwing him off balance.
"She's good - really good. She's quick on her feet and has excelled at the physical combat portions. I thinks he's got a bit of a martial arts background. Tsai is still very green and I don't think she's quite ready… but give her a few years and she could be quite the candidate," Zhao explained.
"I see," Shacklebolt nodded, directing his attention to the girl.
"She's got great potential once she has a few more years of ministry work under her belt. Besides, she keeps Potter on his toes. I've watched him work harder since the two became partners," Zhao added, surveying the rest of the room.
"Great. Put her on the short list and we'll watch her over the next few years," Shacklebolt directed.
"Yes, sir," Zhao nodded. He turned to the Minister, but by the time he had, the man was gone.
"Alright, aurors!" Zhao called, his authoritative voice sharp and to the point. The aurors stopped, grateful for the break, as they were breathless and had been going non stop for 10 or so rounds.
"Good work today," Zhao began. "We shall reconvene every first Saturday of the month for sparring rounds, and training will continue every single Wednesday afternoon unless you are on a mission. Thank you so much for your time today. I'll see you all next week."
"Merlin," Harry mouthed to Diana, who was halfway across the room by then. He shot her an exasperated look.
Diana rolled her eyes playfully, pushing a few messy hairs out of her sweaty face. She walked over to meet her partner, and to catch her breath.
"Think he could've worked us any harder?" Harry asked, sarcastically.
"I know!" Diana groaned, as the two walked to where they had put their things to the outer perimeter of the room. "I'm gonna be sore for days after that one."
"You're telling me," Harry replied.
Diana took a seat, quick to open her water bottle. She raised it to her lips, practically, downing the entire contents of the receptacle in one gulp. The two sat there, catching their breaths, joking and laughing as they unwound from the grueling session. They watched as the other aurors slowly began to file out of the Great Hall that had been transformed into a training room.
"You ready to head out?" Harry asked.
"Yeah. I promised I'd meet Hermione. We've got some wedding stuff to go over. You know? Maid of honor duties and what not. 'M gonna head up to her office in a few," Diana replied, collecting herself. She moved to her feet, Harry following.
"I've got to grab something from ours anyways. I'll join you, if you don't mind," Harry offered.
"Sure," Diana nodded. She followed her partner out of the training room as they made their way through a series of stairs that would lead to a few floors up.
"What're you up to for the rest of the day, Tsai?" Harry asked, curiously, a little out of breath as they climbed the stairs together.
He hadn't been able to shake his discomfort about their last conversation. He had promised himself that he wouldn't say anything, but it was beginning to eat away at him. Ginny was on her way home and he felt as if he needed to squash the curiosity before it ate him alive. Ginny would know that something was going on. She always knew when something was going on with him. Harry feared that she'd know that there had been something else as he couldn't shake this feeling.
It surprised him - this feeling. It was less curiosity and more so something else: something darker that occupied his mind when he least expected it, filling his head with images he'd rather not think about. He hadn't expected to feel jealous of the new guy in her life. They had only slept together twice, after all, and both times had been because of heightened circumstances. But there it was: a lump in his throat as he watched her open a letter from him, a clenching of his jaw when he saw her and Hermione giggling about her new boyfriend. He hated the way it made him feel.
"It's highly likely that I'll need to get in the bathtub after today and stay there till I shrivel up into a little prune, never to be seen again," Diana joked, lightheartedly, exhausted from the day.
She looked ahead towards the last flight of stairs, grateful that they could soon rest. It sure as hell was one way to spend a Saturday morning. She couldn't wait to run home and get in the bath - preferably with a certain Malfoy.
"Merlin," She sighed out, rubbing her sore legs as they reached the top of the stairs. Harry laughed, exchanging glances with his friend.
"After you," Harry insisted, holding the door to the stairwell for her.
"Thank you," she murmured, walking through the door, Harry following.
"How ehm, how's Ginny? I heard she was ehm, heading back into town for a bit," Diana asked as they walked together towards Hermione's office.
"She's good. She's, yeah,… she's good. She's home right now… you know… with her mum. But we've seen each other a few times when she's come into the city, you know… to see her brothers or her dad and ehm, well, we're ehm, we're talking… to each other. We're talking about a lot of things… all the time," Harry began to ramble, seemingly overwhelmed.
He continued to stammer on, distracted by his jealousy, and torn between his discomfort and absolute heartbreak of the state of his marriage.
"She's got two or so weeks before she's got to go back to Holyhead before the season ends. They uh, they did quite well at the beginning and so they don't have any more games till the semi-finals… but ehm, well, I think it could work out, you know, between us," Harry continued on, his thoughts out of sorts and disorganized.
"Good. That's good," Diana nodded in agreement.
"How about you?" Harry asked, surprising Diana. She felt as if she had been caught doing something she wasn't supposed to be. "Are you still, ehm, well, you know… with that guy?"
Diana swallowed, uncomfortably. She stopped her pace, turning to her friend. She knew it was now or never - or rather, at Ron and Hermione's wedding where she could only imagine would cause more drama than necessary. And could Harry have made this any easier? Diana took a breath, reminding herself that it had gone so well with Hermione. Not that she expected this conversation to go well with Harry at ALL considering they were rivals for so long but… she was going to have to tell him eventually.
"Yes," Diana answered, nervously. She started to say something else but the discomfort between them was thick.
"Good," Harry said, nodding uncomfortably. Uh oh. There was that feeling again. The jealousy. The uneasy contempt he felt. He didn't want to know more but the need for answers was killing him. He looked to his friend, seeing how uncomfortable and evasive she was. It looked as if she were searching for the right words to say to him.
"Harry, listen-," she started.
"No, it's okay I don't think I want to-," he began.
"Harry, wait!" Diana called out. She lowered her voice, finally locking eyes with him. "There's ehm, well, there's kind of something I need to tell you."
"Is everything alright?" Harry asked, concerned.
Diana could feel her heart pounding in her chest. She glanced around the empty hallway and took a deep breath.
"There's something I've got to tell you about him… the guy I've been… seeing, dating… my boyfriend, really. Hermione sort of… already knows," Diana started, hesitantly. "She's known for a few weeks now. She wanted you… really, to hear it from me first, and if she told Ron you'd hear it from him and-."
"Hear what?" Harry asked, anxiously. He couldn't prepare himself for what came out of her mouth next.
"I… please just understand that things are different now and I-…" Diana trailed off, ready to jump off a cliff with the next words. "It's.. I'm… It's Draco. I'm dating Draco." A long silence. "Malfoy."
And then… it was quiet. Diana watched nervously as she watched Harry's face grow darker shades of red.
"You're what?!" Harry exclaimed, furiously.
"Please, Harry, you've got to understand that-," Diana began, hushing him.
"I don't have to understand anything! What do you mean you're dating Malfoy?!" he exclaimed once again.
Diana sighed, lowering her voice in hopes that he would follow her lead, "It's… been going on for quite some time now and I wanted to wait till I knew it was serious to say anything about-."
"No! No, absolutely not. I don't care if he changed allegiance during the war. I don't care if he's not a Death Eater anymore. Are you out of your bloody mind?" Harry fumed, in absolute disbelief.
"It's-, you don't know the half of it, Harry! We were just kids and… it's a lot more complicated than-" Diana hissed, trying to restrain her impulse to yell back.
"It doesn't need to be any more complicated than the fact that HE was a Death Eater. You're an auror! You work for the ministry! We just trained to fight guys like him! He is the enemy!" Harry shouted at her.
"That's not fair and you know it! He is not the enemy and we are not sixteen years old anymore, Harry! And will you please stop yelling?!" Diana exclaimed, unable to calm down. "If you really believe that, then why didn't you just let him die in the Room of Requirements?"
"Certainly not to let him date YOU!" Harry snapped.
Diana shook her head in disbelief, "I can't believe this. You're jealous."
"Am not!"
"You are! I know you can't stand the guy but saying that-, that you would've let him-," Diana snapped, out to prove a point.
"I never said anything. Diana, don't be stupid. You can't- you can't be serious. You can't date him, Diana. I-," Harry growled, angrily.
"I can't, what?! It's not your choice, Harry! It's mine!" Diana exclaimed, sticking up for herself.
Harry gritted his teeth, "Diana-."
"No!" Diana seethed, cutting him off sharply. "I'm not interested in your opinion or your approval, Harry. I'm simply informing you."
"What the hell is going on out here?!" Hermione interjected, the door to her office flying open. "I can hear the both of you screaming out here."
Both Diana and Harry turned their heads towards their friend, shutting the both of them up.
"Sorry," Diana lowered her voice.
Hermione looked from Diana to Harry, and by the looks of it, she knew what they must've been talking about.
"Diana, when you're finished with Harry, will you please come see me? And will you both take it down?" she asked, quietly.
Diana nodded, listening to the door slam shut.
Harry was silent. Diana wasn't sure what to say next so the two of them just stood there, on opposite sides of the hallway, staring at the floor.
"Is he coming to the wedding?" Harry asked, finally breaking the silence.
"Yes," Diana answered, firmly.
She was determined to hold her ground against him. She watched as Harry clenched his jaw, and stormed off to their shared office without another word. She took a deep breath, trying to release some tension from the heated conversation.
"Fuck," she whispered to herself, making her way quickly towards Hermione's office. She didn't want to be out in the hallway when Harry came back. She knocked quietly on the door, surprised when it opened almost immediately.
"Hey," Diana said softly, entering the office and closing the door behind her. She leaned up against the door, resting from the exhausting conversation.
"Hello," Hermione said back. The two heard the slam of a door and an instant clamor of feet stomping down the staircase, knowing that it was Harry. "I-, I'm not sure what you expected."
"Well… pretty much that," Diana sighed out in frustration.
Hermione nodded slowly, "I suppose so…. C'mon. Let's get out of here. He'll come around eventually."