Note: Here is a short scene from the sequel as a little holiday treat for everyone. I am still plugging away on the next chapter and hope to be able to post it by New Year!
1 July 1999 - The Auror Academy
Litha Term, Year One
"Listen up, you lot!" called out one of their academy instructors. The din of the crowd fell silent as every trainee focused on Hearst Montague, a third year cadet and their dueling master's primary assistant. Suddenly, a tall man with dark brown hair stepped forward from behind the cadet.
Casting a sonorous on himself, said dueling master, Senior Auror Glenn Korval, addressed the group. "The rules of engagement are simple. The trainee pair with the lowest number of accumulated points for this module goes through the course first; the pair with the most points begins last. Attackers disabled during the exercise will remain out of play. Some of the traps will not reset once they have been tripped or disengaged." He surveyed the assembled cadets before giving them all a feral grin. "Use every advantage you have available to you, because I assure you, you are all massively outclassed. Your opponents have superior numbers, experience, and knowledge of the terrain."
Bringing the presentation to a close, the Commandant of the Academy, Master Senior Auror Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody clomped noisily to the front of the make-shift stage. "May Morgana have mercy on you, because I won't," he growled at them.
Montague stepped forward once more to call the first team, "Whitmore and Shallcross, you're up. Go!"
While many of their instructors treated the partners they had been assigned halfway through Mabon term as sacrosanct, Glenn Korval favored flexibility. He routinely forced them to work with various cadets in and even outside their respective squads. Sometimes he would only pair people for a single class or assignment, but other times, he kept them in his appointed teams for weeks. In contrast to their two previous terms, however, the dueling master had assigned them a different partner for the duration of each of the three month-long training modules into which he had divided Litha. Before being paired with Harry for this last module, Dean had teamed up with Gemma Boyd and Terry Boot. And, though he definitely preferred working with Harry over the other two, he hadn't felt that any of his pairings had been a disaster. Not all of his year mates had proven to be as compatible with one another, however, and some teams had been just plain disastrous. As reflected in their starting position, Whitmore and Shallcross had arguably been the least successful pairing of the entire term. Daphne was positive that neither of them would be joining them for second year, and Dean couldn't fault her reasoning.
Every few minutes another pair entered the course. Finally, ten agonizing minutes later, the first "attacker," a senior cadet known to be exceptional at stealth and tracking exercises, was ejected from the course. He leaned heavily against the front of the stage and was bleeding from a cut above his left brow. A medic came over to check on him, applying some salve to an unseen injury on his arm and healing his head wound with a flick of her wand. Obviously, some cadets were playing for keeps. Harry and Dean made eye contact, and Dean couldn't keep the smirk off his face. Bentley was a real arse, so the dubious honor of being the first opponent to be overtaken by the first year cadets couldn't have been bestowed on a more fitting candidate...well, maybe a few, but still...#Freshman Squad Goals.
As Harry and Dean would be the final trainee pair to enter the course, they were both going through their normal preparation routines, trying to stay relaxed but engaged during their wait. Dean resumed his visualization exercises. His brother was really big on that type of concentration technique, so Dean had been practicing it for several months now at his recommendation. It certainly hadn't hurt his academy performance so far. Breaking the comfortable silence, Dean quietly spoke to Harry, who was re-lacing his trainers. "How do you want to play this?"
Tilting his head, Harry responded equally softly after a few seconds of consideration, "Plan A."
Damn, Dean had been visualizing "Plan B" - 'take out everything in sight, with prejudice.' It was much more satisfying than the stealth-based plan they had been using to exceptional effect for the last month. "Okay," Dean agreed readily, although he must not have been able to keep all the disappointment out of his voice.
"Unless..." Harry continued, obvious amusement in his tone, "you want to go with 'Plan B' instead?"
Sheepish, but eager, Dean responded, "Um...you don't mind?"
Laughing, Harry reassured his partner, "Not at all."
"Yes! Oh...yeah..." Dean shouted, pumping his fist and performing a celebratory dance that would not have been out of place in the end zone of an American football field. Several cadets turned to stare before the dark-skinned wizard regained his composure, while Harry just smiled and shook his head at his squad-mate's theatrics. Dean had been wanting to implement 'Plan B' for some time now, but as variations on 'Plan A' had been so successful for the entire squad, none of them had needed to utilize an alternative approach as yet. But, this wasn't about need. This was about total domination, or at least it would be if Dean had anything to say about it.
More time ticked away, and a few teams had even been eliminated from the exercise or made it through by that point. Bruce Jansen, one of the most egotistical members of their platoon, had apparently sacrificed his teammate to finish the course. Harry wasn't sure if that was grounds for disqualification, but it certainly wasn't going to win him any points in the peer review or instructor critique sections; plus, he would probably need to watch his back pretty carefully in the dorms. His partner, Selena, had never struck Harry as the forgiving type.
Eventually, Montague called for the final pair to enter the obstacle course, "Potter and Thomas- it's your turn!" Looking to each other one last time before entering the maze, Dean took the lead, wand out, and Harry followed.