Author's Note:
Hello again. So I lied. There are now 5 chapters left for year three because I just couldn't help myself and this is a small bonus gift for the holidays from me to you. Hope you all enjoy no matter how you celebrated (or didn't).
Thanks for reading and enjoy!
Here is my disclaimer that says I do not own anything Harry Potter related. Everything belongs to JK Rowling, except in universe 47837. Probably.
"Line up," Harry's voice echoed off the walls.
Harry and his followers were all in their secret training place, far away from any of the numerous and would-be prying eyes that were present in the castle.
Not that it mattered, of course. Not when Harry had such a powerful magical object that showed him the true and exact location of everyone inside of Hogwarts. Nothing that Harry could think of had managed to fool the map when he had tested its limits with his followers during the first few weeks of his third year.
No amount or strength of magic – even when he had willed his own considerable power to hide himself – seemed to matter to the map; for Cedric still had been able to follow Harry's every movements.
Harry's name and footsteps had appeared just like everyone else's did.
In the end, this Marauder's Map was something that Harry knew he could use to ensure their privacy in this part of the castle.
From now until graduation they would be able to expand their training options with the sweet knowledge that no one had the ability to sneak up on them.
Which was why Harry had planned this particular exercise for the group. It was one thing to learn from books and practice the requisite spells and charms in the controlled environment that was a classroom.
It was a different thing altogether to be tested with what you knew and were capable of in the real world. Or as realistic as a setting that Harry could provide since he had no intention of actually letting harm touch those who had pledged their life and magic to him.
"I've arranged for a little scrimmage of sorts for our training this evening. Every room and interconnecting hallway from this room to the end of the hall is in play. You will be free to use any and all capabilities that you possess with the exception of the Killing Curse or anything else that could kill immediately."
Harry's eyes briefly scanned each of their faces. No one had flinched with the mention of that particular Unforgivable, even thought it was left unsaid that the other two curses were fair game. Harry also knew that no matter what they were about to face they would never betray another that followed him by using any Unforgivable or spell that would cause any lasting damage; and yet he didn't want to limit their creativity by formally placing a limit on what was available to them. Those restrictions would come in subsequent trainings depending on their progress and what he needed them to learn.
"The goal is simple," Harry instructed in his purposeful and measured voice, "be the last one among you left standing. I am giving you these badges to wear on your chest and on your back," he then explained while handing two badges to each of his followers.
"Each pair of them has been charmed to receive ten blasts. Once the tenth one registers – counting both front and back hits – you will be rendered incapacitated"
Harry's followers fingered their small metallic objects, examining them in detail as if to say, 'don't worry: I won't let a combined ten blasts hit either one of you.'
"Of course," he clarified, "I will be watching, unseen, to see how each of you perform."
A similar feeling of dread and panic soon rippled over each of their faces, though to their credit they did their best to hide their abject fear from him. In fact he was quite impressed when he saw each of them gather themselves to stand at their full height and swallow whatever terror had risen from within their chests at the thought of performing in front of him.
Harry knew that their greatest fear was to fail him; he didn't need a Boggart or to see into their minds to know that.
But he didn't want them to have any doubt whatsoever that they would fail him. That would have compromised their magic and abilities, and he most certainly didn't want that.
"I want to see how much you have learned," Harry continued in a softer voice.
It was a voice that he used exclusively with them.
"But more than that, I want you to see all that you have learned. Each of you has already shown me great potential and I only want to develop that into the greatest version of yourselves."
With every word that Harry spoke their fear lessoned and was replaced with their usual feeling of desiring nothing more than to make their Harry proud. One by one each of their nerves settled and each then ran his or her wand between their fingers as they did their best to focus and prepare for what was to come.
"I know that each of you will make me proud," Harry finished.
They were now ready; it was time.
"You have thirty seconds to get yourself into position and then we stop when we have a winner."
The room was silent as they looked upon him.
But just for a moment because in the next instant Harry set them loose.
"Go."
They dispersed rapidly, each going a separate way to find a place to hide and gather their footing.
Needing to be entirely invisible to them Harry flicked the wrist that held his wand as all sounds coming from him became muffled and then silent. Next he donned his invisibility cloak and moved out into the hallway to see how the action would unfold.
When he had first thought of putting together this little exercise for them he wondered if Cedric would have been too heavily favored given his age, his experience with Quidditch, and the simple fact that he knew more magic.
But the more he thought about it the less sure he became that Cedric had an advantage at all. Each of his disciples had their strengths and weakness and he honestly had no idea who would triumph.
So as the thirty seconds ended his eyes and ears swept the hall so as not to miss any of the action. Of course, he also had the Marauder's Map open and in his hand to both know where all of them were and to keep an eye on any outsiders that might disturb them.
He was not surprised at all to see where Ginny had positioned herself. Though she might have been the youngest, she had a very good take on what was likely to be the main area that would see the most action. So of course that was where she positioned herself.
Despite each of the five different rooms being connected to one another through a side door to form a circle of sorts at the end of their hallway, Ginny had chosen to take cover underneath the legs of a suit of armor situated in the main hallway that also connected to each of the rooms.
It was the perfect vantage point, something that she no doubt had considerable experience with on account of growing up in a house full of six older brothers.
Harry decided to sit across from her and a few seconds later Ginny had her first victim. Justin had stumbled out of the farthest room and Ginny managed to get two direct hits before Justin had even understood what had happened.
Justin nearly tripped in the hallway as his badge shocked him twice to register that he had eight chances left.
The slipup allowed Ginny to send another burst of magic from her wand to connect with Justin before Cedric emerged from the room that Justin had just come out of.
Of course, Cedric then became Ginny's next target as she directed her wand at Cedric's chest while the fourth year Hufflepuff aimed his wand at Justin. Cedric smirked as his two blasts registered against the badge on Justin's back, but then he nearly dropped his own wand when two shots connected with him and caused his own badge to vibrate.
Cedric looked around the hall for the source of those unknown hits and his brows narrowed as he caught sight of Ginny sending a third and fourth blast his way.
But Cedric was quick to react and swished his own wand through the air to wordlessly call forth the shield from the suit of armor to him.
Ginny's attempts connected harmlessly with the shield and her pupils constricted as she made her counter move.
She furiously flicked her wand from side to side to send two blue streams at ninety-degree angles. Cedric's eyes tried to follow both and he realized too late that he would only be able to prevent one from ricocheting off the mirrors behind him and connecting with his back.
Seeing as how he had suffered three strikes in the span of less than a minute, Cedric decided to regroup and disappeared into the room that Justin had crawled into while Ginny and him had been fighting.
However, Harry knew that Justin was waiting for Cedric right behind the door and only moments after the fourth year Hufflepuff had exited the hallway Harry heard the trap that was sprung.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Justin cried.
A second later Cedric's body thumped down onto the floor.
Five seconds later and Cedric was officially the first one out.
"Argh!" Cedric moaned unhappily as the tenth hit had ended his second and much shorter stint with being petrified.
Ginny, meanwhile, had smartly taken the time to move from her original hiding place to a new one. The only problem with her strategy was that Luna was already perfectly concealed from behind the heavy red curtain and sent off two bursts of pinkish lights in quick succession.
Ginny was furious at not knowing that Luna had been there across from her original spot under the suit of armor all this time.
In fact, the youngest and only female Weasley was momentarily distracted and suffered a further demoralizing strike. This time, however, it came from behind her as Neville decided to make his entrance into the game.
Of course, and somewhat predictably, Justin had a perfect view of both Neville and Ginny from where he stood in the doorway to the room that he had just taken out Cedric in.
Justin managed to hit both of them twice before fading into the darkness of the room to avoid them knowing exactly where he was.
Frustrated that she had only five chances left, Ginny also conceded her standoff with Neville and Luna and disappeared into their main training room before Neville was able to recover from being hit from behind.
As he was the only one visible in the hallway, Neville took an opportunity to even the playing field and severed the thick red drape that Luna was hiding behind.
His wand was ready and he connected twice with Luna's badge before twisting to the side and running down the length of the hallway before he too disappeared into what he hoped was an empty classroom.
Luckily for Neville it was and Luna then also made her way to the far end of the hallway to regroup. Harry next turned his eyes to the map to see that each of the four remaining players were holding still in separate places, no doubt refocusing and getting his or her head back into the game.
For the next ten minutes there was not much action, but then – as if they had all agreed to act at the same time – the four of them were all in the hallway and ready to continue their mock battle.
Justin surprised Harry by being the boldest, and also for grabbing hold of Cedric's shield.
He charged into the hallway and expertly deflected several blasts using the curved and rounded metal. However, Harry noticed that Justin had a plan and in the next moment his wand shot forth a dizzying array of colors in all directions that ended with the creation of a luminous disco ball hanging in the middle of the ceiling. The myriad reflections continuously circling and blinding those in the hallway distracted Ginny, Neville, and Luna long enough for Justin to connect with both Luna and Neville two times.
Ginny, however, had dived onto the floor just in the nick of time and fired several volleys of her own back at Justin.
The look on her face was all business as each of her three swishes landed on Justin's chest.
Knowing that he was down to four, Justin again flicked his wand upwards to try something else.
The disco ball soon changed into a fire sprinkler and began to make it rain quite hard.
Harry had to give Justin props for his creativity but noted that his reaction time needed to be improved upon when Luna, drenched and nearly shivering with water shot forth a rope from her wand and brought Justin to the floor.
"Oh shit!" he sighed as both Neville and Luna took the opportunity to end his chance at winning.
Interestingly, Ginny had not participated and instead focused her efforts on disarming Neville.
Harry's smile was very wide indeed to see Ginny's attempt to take Neville out of the competition, knowing that he would have been focused on Justin and left himself undefended.
Harry's smile turned into a full-on Cheshire grin though when he saw Neville react instinctually and call back his wand using a masterful display of wandless magic.
Harry was so proud and it made his magic sing to know that his lessons were causing them to grow in leaps and bounds.
Unfortunately for Neville, Luna had now moved to stand behind the boy and ended his chances at being the last one standing just as Longbottom's fingers closed around his newly recaptured wand.
Now it was down to two and Harry's two girls were quite evenly matched. Luna had only received four hits while Ginny had suffered an additional blow.
Neither of them wanted to be the next to go and each smartly caused a flurry of colors and smoke to emanate from the tips of their wand to buy themselves a few seconds in which they could escape to opposing rooms on opposite sides of the hallway.
Harry's eyes again inched downward to focus on the map, expecting to see that each would do as they did before and take a few moments to recover.
However, much to his surprise and approval Ginny had not taken a moment to stand still but instead had seemingly decided to sprint as fast as she could through the connecting rooms to reach Luna on the other side.
Harry quickly made for the entrance of the room that Luna was in and got there just as Ginny burst through the side door.
Ginny wasted no time in sending volley after volley from her wand, and even though quite a few of her shots had missed on account of not knowing exactly where Luna stood, in the end it didn't matter.
The damage had been done and Luna had received her tenth and final strike. Her badge had glowed briefly before immobilizing her like it had all of the others aside from Ginny.
The victor had sweat on her brow and a look of triumph in her eyes, and Harry would have understood if Ginny had felt the need to more verbally celebrate her victory.
However, there were no whoops or other exclamations that came from the second year Gryffindor. Instead, her first act was to go over to where Luna was lying on the floor and extend her arm to help the other girl to her feet.
"Brilliant job hiding behind that curtain," said Ginny.
"I had no idea that you were there!"
"You were right to be so bold in the end," Luna countered dreamily.
"I thought I had more time to consider my options and call upon the Nargles for aid."
The boys soon joined them, each offering similar words of praise for the actions that had stood out.
"Good idea with that shield, Cedric," Ginny beamed.
"You still got my anyways," he lamented.
"And you certainly got me, Justin. I can't believe I overlooked something as simple as the body-bind curse. Allowed you to finish me off rather quickly didn't I?"
"It didn't do me much good in the end, though. I need to learn to put my plans into action faster," Justin responded.
"Yes, well, whatever that light thing you did on the ceiling followed by that water bit – those were two really great ideas."
Justin nodded his head forward and returned the favor.
"Kudos to you on regaining your wand like that even though there was simply not enough time to recover."
"I need to learn to watch my back more, I guess," he shook his head while wrapping one arm around Luna.
"And I agree with Ginny. This one here has a way of moving without being seen."
Each of the five smiled and nodded at each other and not for the last time Harry was struck with how much of a family they were, and it only emphasized why he had done this in the first place. Because Harry cared for them more than he had ever thought that he would care for someone else, and aside from his desire to achieve the potential that he believed to be inside himself he felt it almost equally important that they achieve the greatness he saw in each of them.
Harry watched approvingly for several more minutes before making his presence known.
"I agree with everything that was said. Each of you displayed your strengths and each of you is now aware of some key areas that you have to work on."
His smile and pride in them was reflected in their eyes and he chose to further reward them with another lick of his magic.
It spread out quickly from his own center and connected with each of his follower's cores, his magic basking in the familiar and unbreakable warmth that linked them until the end of time.
"And congratulations to you, Ginny, on a job well done."
He then sent a separate tendril just at her, to add to the extraordinary feeling that she felt well up inside of her.
"My one critique to you, however, and aside from keeping a sharper watch over your surroundings is to not always be so bold. Your daring certainly worked in this situation but I don't want you, or any of you," he paused to look pointedly at each of them. This was a training session after all.
"I don't want you to think that such rashness is always appropriate. But for now," Harry quickly continued, not wanting to deflate their high coming off this event, "I am most pleased with what I saw and think that the next time will be even more spectacular."
He was further proud of how the others each silently and respectfully nodded to him and to their compatriots, and with the training over with they gathered their things and called it a night.
Just a short thing but felt really into writing this chapter.
Additional notes: I plan on reworking The Chamber's Secret into Hogwarts: A History of Meddling instead of discontinuing the story. I feel it's better to work on something that excites me rather than work on something that I've lost interest in and just put out crap.
Also, started Angel of Death because I was home sick one day with a fever and clearly thought starting something else would be a good idea. At any rate I have made some progress with this fic and even though this update was short you can expect more soon.