Sorry for the silence, I went back into the hospital but am out again. I haven't had the energy to write, or do much else and still have only a vague idea where I want to go with this story. If you have any ideas for it, let me know. Feedback is appreciated.
The girls thought about skipping Percy's office call so they could hang out and play, but when Piper and Lacy left to both go to Piper's and to get Lacy settled into the apartment, and Annabeth announced she would help Percy as they both figured his office call to be quite popular given the confusion of his homework, the kids decided that working on defense spells and katas was a good way to spend the afternoon too.
The room was crowded as students from every year and every house were there for guidance. Percy's lessons were so vastly different from what had been taught before the student body was both excited and mildly terrified of it. Annabeth being there to help was a real blessing once they got to individual training.
"Okay. So its good to see so many interested in Defense class. I will be going over this again in your first class next week, but let me get something out of the way as it has been asked to me several times."
"'Why? Why are you teaching us basic martial arts?' Well that's a fair enough question. The answer isn't really simple, but I'm going to try to make it that way. Combat, whether magical or not, has a certain rhythm to it. It is different for every situation, but certain rules apply. You can learn most of those from your Sun Tzu text. Will you ever use the physical martial skills you will learn this year in a fight? Perhaps, if you find yourself without a wand or if the situation calls for it, but I hope not. You won't get enough knowledge and skill in a school year to do much more than get your butt kicked. So far you have been assigned one muggle martial kata, you will go through a couple dozen before the year ends. Bear with me though; you will really learn more than twice that. Katas have the same general components; punches, kicks, blocks, falls and grapple moves. What if you learn a Kata though, then replace those components with curses, jinxes, protection charms, counter charms, and other movements or distractions, as well as binding charms? Well, then you would have a magical kata, and that is what we learned in our ICW training. Next week, once everyone has the first assignment down, we will begin building that first magical Kata, and the reasons will make sense. The more times you practice it, the more a muggle kata becomes etched into your muscle memory, and you can do it without thinking about it. If someone tries to punch you, you will block the punch and counter strike without hesitation. It becomes part of your autonomic response system and so will a magical one; that is to say, you will get to where you can do it without thinking about it. For now, let us demonstrate, Professor Chase, would you assist me?"
"Certainly."
"Okay, so everyone come over here where you can see the sparring gym but stay in the classroom. In a moment we will cast a protection spell so that you won't get hit by any stray sparks or shield charms, Professor Chase and I are going to spar each other using the Kata you are learning, only we will be using sparks and protection charms instead of punches, kicks and blocks. Make sense?"
The students nodded for the most part and Percy figured they at least had the basic idea.
"One quick question, those of you that know the Kata now, how long does it take you to do it?" Annabeth asked.
There were murmured answers ranging from three to five minutes, to which Annabeth and Percy nodded.
"'K, as you practice more, you will get faster, but it is important now to focus on getting the form right first, so three to five minutes or so is quite respectable. Shall we dance Professor?" Annabeth asked as she pulled forth her wand and dropped into a ready stance.
"Just a sec," Percy replied as he drew his wand, shot a patronus to Frank, and sealed the gym from the classroom with a protection spell.
Then with a spark from Chase they began. It was blocked by Jackson's shield charm and flew off into the rafters harmlessly. Another spark followed from Chase, met with one from Percy, who also quickly blocked her with a second shield.
Then it was on.
Both moved with speed and power behind their spells and only Estelle and Marium saw that each spell corresponded to a move from the muggle martial kata. The rest of the students were just awed by the speed with which the combatants worked their magic.
A scant 45 seconds or so after they began, each stopped, ceremonially bowed to each other, and then turned to face the students. Neither had landed a spark on each other and all of their shield charms had held.
"Very good Headmistress, you haven't lost your touch." Percy said.
"You too Professor, perhaps soon we can take the training wheels off," Annabeth grinned.
"Sure, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. So, students, were any of you able to follow along, in your mind substituting sparks for kicks and punches and protection charms for blocks?" Percy asked.
Marium and Estelle raised their hands while a few of the older students mumbled "I think so."
"Great, okay so I've worked with Marium and Estelle a lot on this and know they have the basic Kata down now. Come on up ladies and demonstrate it for us. Anyone want to join them? There may be house points involved."
With that several students volunteered, including all of the Gryffindor first year girls, just as Frank entered the room.
"Did someone say house points?" He asked.
"Thanks for coming on short notice Professor Zhang, I'm glad you're here. We are going have this group go through the basic Kata number one, and since Estelle and Marium are in the group, I would prefer it if you would score and critique if you don't mind."
"No problem, hey, you heard any more good rumors lately?" Frank asked with a wicked grin, making Estelle turn pale.
"Frank! No!" Annabeth smiled.
Percy laughed, told Estelle to ignore him, and then counted the group off to start. All did pretty well, only missing a couple of components, which caused them to stop, re-do the punch, block or kick, and then continue. Marium and Estelle made no mistakes, did the base components nearly perfectly, and finished in a couple of minutes, well before the rest of the group. Even Frank was impressed.
Percy knew his sisters had it down better than anyone else and had asked Frank to come by so as to make up the points Estelle had been upset about, although in order to be completely fair he didn't tell Frank that. While the rest of the group was finishing up, Zhang approached the two girls. Holding his palm out in front of Squirt, and then Baby Shark, he asked them to punch it using the form they had just demonstrated, then to do a right side and left side block as he aimed a punch towards them at slow speed. Finally, he had them use a knee kick and forward kick, again against his palm. Their form was, while not perfect, far beyond what he had expected.
"Take five points for each maneuver; you did well," he softly said to the girls, and then looked around, as everyone else was finishing up.
"Pretty good guys, what do you think Professor Zhang?" Annabeth asked.
"Not bad for a first try, I have to say, I'm impressed. I can see all you guys have put a bit of work into it, but you have a ways to go. So far only these two" he said referring to Percy's sisters, "and Miss Granger are throwing solid punches though. You have to hit hard in practice so you hit hard in real life. Maybe we should focus a bit on basic Kihon before moving on to Kata II. That's how to throw a punch, kick and effective blocking, that sort of individual skill. It would serve you well to know it."
"Granger has more practice than most" Draco laughed.
"What do you mean Mr. Malfoy?" Annabeth asked as many in the room snickered.
Now Hermione laughed, "Third year I punched Draco in the face."
"Oh? Did he deserve it?" Percy asked.
Before Hermione could answer, Draco did for her with a smile; "Yes, I very much did. And let me tell you, get Hermione mad and she hits hard."
"I'm glad there are no hard feelings," Hermione smiled.
"None, just please don't hit me again!"
"No promises," Hermione grinned.
For the next half hour, Frank, Percy, and Annabeth helped each student with individual skills, and then in mass walked everyone through the kata again. This time everyone got five points from Frank whether they did it correctly or not, as they had shown significant improvement. The most of the rest of the office call was spent practicing shield and protection charms. Hermione, Luna, Draco, Ron and Harry all knew the twelve basic ones but were really only proficient in casting a few of them.
"Okay folks, lets wrap up office call, we have about an hour before the evening meal and you might want to freshen up a bit, but before you go let's thank Professor Chase and Professor Zhang for helping out," Percy said as he led the students in a round of applause for his fellow instructors.
After everyone else left, Marium and Estelle approached Percy to tell him they thought they would hang out in Gryffindor Tower with their friends, if that wouldn't upset Percy too much. They had been at the castle two nights and each morning they were hearing how much fun had occurred in the common room and their house quarters.
"Sure, you probably should, it will help you to get to know your friends better," Percy smiled; thinking he and Annabeth would have an evening alone.
"Just remember, after breakfast tomorrow, we are all going to London, my Magic Daughter and I need to do her school shopping, and" Annabeth said, before Percy interrupted.
"And we need to pop down to meet Baby Shark's father before the picnic," Percy said.
"Am I going too?" Estelle asked.
"Of course! We can't go without our sister looking out for us," Percy smiled.
"And it's a beach, so you and I can find something to do while they talk if it seems they want some privacy," Annabeth grinned.
"I wish you were my mommy too!" Estelle exclaimed.
"And have a little brother for you?" Percy smirked.
"Sister!"
Dinner was uneventful. All houses had risen in house points, yet Gryffindor, thanks to Frank's scoring of Marium and Estelle, had still managed to creep about 50 points further ahead. Since that was less than the House of Godric Gryffindor had risen by the last two nights, the other heads of house felt that the tutoring plans, still in their infancy, would turn the corner and level out the race. That was of course provided that Estelle didn't take off again once the classes left behind the things she was taught prior to school starting.
Which both Squirt and Baby Shark would do, but that would not be known for several days as the instructors continued to plow through material they had taught Estelle before school began. Marium began to clean up in house points until that material was over. Thanks to the spells Squirt cast, and her own reading and review of the texts, plus her discussions with Percy, Hermione, and her Magic Mommy, she now knew the entry level material as well as Squirt did.
After dinner, Piper and Neville went to the Hufflepuff common room with Nicholas to work with their study group, while Frank and Hazel went to their chambers to likewise study each other. Squirt and Baby Shark went with their friends to Gryffindor tower, and Annabeth went to her chambers to freshen up for date night. This meant a quick shower, date night underwear and comfortable casual clothing, plus retrieving a bottle of single malt.
An hour later Percy and Annabeth were aglow with the bit of scotch they imbibed, snuggling on one of the couches facing the fireplace with a Pegasus snoring in the corner of the room behind them on a giant pillow with a hellhound sprawled in front of them warming herself before the fire like a gigantic, furry, ottoman or couch, when Annabeth thought for a moment she could actually hear Percy's heart beat as they pressed their lips softly together. However it turned out to be the apartment door being gently knocked upon followed by a precious Magic Daughter's voice asking; "Percy, can we come in and study? We brought some friends."
The couple smirked at each other and knew their passion would be put off for something emotionally just as satisfying; sharing family time with the kids and their friends.
"Sure, come on in! We're glad to have ya!" Percy announced back, as the first year Gryffindors, girls and boys, came into the room along with Hermione, Ginny, Ron and Harry. All stood frozen, their mouths open so much it looked like their jaws might hit the floor, except Marium and Estelle who continued in as though nothing out of the ordinary were happening.
"What's wrong?" Squirt asked the group.
Marium followed their eyes and before they could answer said "Oh! This is our puppy, Mrs. O'Leary. She's the best doggie ever!" and went to pet the side of the Hell Hound's face, who groaned her approval.
"Come on! Don't be scared. She likes it when you pet her, and if she knows you're our friends she won't hurt you," Estelle added.
Quickly enough Mrs. O'Leary was lavishing in the affectionate touches of 12 Gryffindor firsties and 1 seventh year and 2 eighth, while Hermione just stood there shocked asking questions about what sort of dog could be bigger than Fang or even Fluffy that she had encountered first year.
"She's a Hell Hound."
"An actual Hell Hound?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, bred to guard the gates of the underworld to prevent bad spirits from leaving," Percy answered.
"Whu… How, uh"
"Long story, so what are we studying tonight?" Percy smiled.
"Oh, well, uh, Estelle, I mean Squirt uh"
"Sweet Pea?"
"Yes Percy?" Estelle answered, looking up from what she considered to be the best puppy ever.
"Hermione was telling us that you had something you all wanted to study," Percy smiled.
"Oh. Uh, well really, well… Hermione thought uh.."
"That hanging out here was more entertaining than hanging out in the Gryffindor common room because your homework is all done and you're pretty ready for Monday's classes and all the plans for tomorrow are set and you all wanted to take a night off?" Annabeth smiled.
"And Baby Shark and me wanted you to meet all the boys in our class too, 'cause you met all the girls last night," Estelle grinned.
"Hmmm, well we were about to watch a documentary about life in an old castle, why don't you and your sister help me get drinks and snacks for everyone while they find seats and get comfortable? Does everyone like popcorn and smores?" Annabeth asked as she rose to go to the kitchen.
"What's a smore?" Ginny asked.
"Oh! We made those in Brownie Guides before I came to Hogwarts! You'll love them, chocolate, marshmallows and Graham crackers... Soooo good!" Hermione exclaimed, "May I help?"
"Of course! Everyone make yourselves comfortable, we'll be right back," Annabeth said as she, Ginny and Hermione went to the kitchen to load up trays with Ever-Fill magical glasses and several large bowls of popcorn, along with the smores ingredients and marshmallow skewers.
Everyone got situated in the living room. Percy, Ron and Harry moved some chairs and love seats around to face the big screen from Caleo Technology while the firsties all found places amongst the furniture and lounging against Mrs. O'Leary. Snacks and drinks were returned and distributed and Hermione took the lead in helping build smores, for which Annabeth accioed a stack of towels to handle the mess.
Estelle and Marium placed themselves between Annabeth and Percy on the couch and once everyone was settled in, the Headmistress used the remote to pull up what she described as a documentary about life in a castle, or what Estelle knew as the live action version of "Beauty and the Beast."
The younger children were quickly enthralled at the story, and the older ones enjoyed it as well. Hermione in particular felt drawn into it, imagining herself as Belle as the story unfolded.