Hello all, I am planning to have this be a short story, just a few chapters. It was partly inspired by Stephen kings 'Misery'... Except I don't really like Stephen King's books, so it will be nothing like Misery.

(I really don't do dark and depressing).

So why am I even writing this? I don't know, but the idea keeps bugging me. I will try to keep to HP canon except where the characters actions cause deviations, or if I just forget (it's been a while since I read the books)

November 1995

"They're watching you again. Those two are really creeping me out," Ron whispered.

Harry turned casually to survey the DA as they were practicing their spells in the Room of Requirements. He had spent the first half hour teaching and now the students had split off to practice casting in pairs. The older students were working on Incarcerous, while the younger ones were practicing Protego. The whole group appeared to be enjoying themselves – everybody was casting exuberantly.

Off to one side, away from the others, were the two Carrow sister – the only Slytherin members.

"They're practicing like everybody else, Ron."

"No. They're faking: they're actually spying on you."

"Fine, I'll go over there and check." Harry had to admit that having Slytherins in the DA made him a little nervous, but Hermione was in Advanced Runes with the Carrow twins, and she had vouched for them. And Harry believed that everybody should know how to defend themselves. This wasn't just a class, after all – it was about life and death. He walked over and observed them with a critical eye as they cast a couple of times.

"How are you two doing?" He finally asked, doing his best to sound cheerful and confident (he was the instructor, even if he still didn't feel like one).

"We're fine," the two girls answered in unison, their faces expressionless as they turned to watch Harry with a fixed stare. Harry had to admit that it was a trifle creepy, but by force of will he kept the smile on his face and nodded to the closest one (Hestia? Flora?). He had no idea how to tell them apart – they looked identical and they were dressed in identical jumpers under their robes. The only difference was one had a hair clip holding her bangs off to the right, and the other had one pinning them to the left.

"Ok, let me see your Incarcerous"

The first girl (Harry decided he would think of her as Hestia) nodded, casting 'Incarcerous' tonelessly. Thin ropes flew out, wrapping around her sister.

"That's not bad. You have good fundamentals, but you're not putting enough intent into it. Which is why your ropes are a little thin." Harry dispelled the twine-like rope. "Here, try it like this." He pulled his wand and glared at Flora before jabbing his wand and snarling, "Incarcerous!" A shiver ran through Flora at the intensity of the look a moment before the ropes encircled her her, pulling tight.

A quiet 'eep' escaped her as she almost toppled.

"Oh, sorry, sorry!" Harry dispelled the binding, "But you see the difference?

Both girls nodded, again expressionless.

'Well, they seem to be taking it seriously.' Harry went back to circulating around the room, correcting students.

/\/\MLC/\/\

"I want to go to the top of the astronomy tour and scream," Hermione announced as they walked out of another completely useless Defense Against the Dark Arts. "Umbridge… ugh!"

Harry nodded, "Instead of listening to her prattle, I spend most of class trying to cast a silent, wandless spell."

"Oy, has that worked?" Ron was curious.

"You'll know when it does – they're all Reductor curses aimed at the pink toad." Harry scowled. It was still early fall, so maybe he would get it to work before the school year was over.

Ron snickered.

"Harry!" Hermione automatically replied before smirking as well.

The other students swept passed the trio as they dawdled down the corridor – classes were done for the day, and dinner wouldn't start for another hour.

"I'll meet up with you guys for dinner – I need to work on a lesson plan for the next DA."

"You know, all that hard work will make you hair gray." Ron quipped.

"Come on, Ronald. You could stand to learn from Harry's example," Hermione took Ron's elbow and steered him for the stairs towards the Gryffindor dorms as she cast an approving nod at Harry.

Harry was half way to the Room of Requirements when he hear somebody behind him. He whirled, wand drawn, to find the Carrow sisters approaching him, side by side.

"Potter, may we have a word?"

They spoke in unison, unperturbed by having a wand pointed at them. If Harry hadn't spent time around the Weasley twins, he would have found this extremely disturbing. As it was, he found their dead expressions unnerving.

"Go ahead." Harry put his wand away and relaxed.

"We do not feel that it is fair that you spend so much time teaching us defense." Began one, when the other interrupted "We do appreciate your help. Without it we would have no hope of passing our OWLs"

The first nodded before continuing, "therefore we would like to return the favor. We will teach you potions."

"Your potion are abysmal!" The second interjected.

"Hestia, that was uncalled for!" The first Carrow scolded her sister, going so far as to wag her finger. That was the first time Harry had ever seen the two girls not be in complete agreement, and the unexpectedness of it brought a small smile to his face.

"Yeah, I know I stink. But there's not much I can do – Snape hates me."

"Professor Snape does not hate you," corrected the twin who must be Flora, "He is just a perfectionist when it comes to his art, and he can not hide his disappointment when his students fail to measure up to his expectations."

"And you are especially bad," Hestia added. Harry could have sworn that the corners of her mouth quirked up in a slight smile, earning her a glare from her sister. Hestia rolled her eyes.

"That is why we are volunteering to help you learn the basic skills of the subtle art of potions making." Flora sounded remarkably Snape-like as she made her pronouncement.

"Oo-kay." Harry considered. He really didn't want to spend more time on schoolwork, especially potions. He glanced over at the two girls waiting patiently for his answer. And if he as going to be tutored by a girl, he'd rather she be a looker like Cho Chang. The best thing that could be said for the Carrow sisters was that they were plain. Except for their creepy twin-speak, they faded into the background so much that he hadn't even known their names until they joined the DA, despite them being in his year.

But... "Okay, but we keep the meeting a secret." On the other hand, it would be worth it if he could stop Snape singling him out for humiliation. Every. Single. Class.

The two girls nodded expressionlessly. "We can meet in the Room of Requirement after dinner tonight. Hestia and I will take turns tutoring you once a week."

"How about now? I already told my friends that I was going to go work on my own, so I have an hour free."

The two Carrows exchanged looks before nodding in unison. Flora (her hair was pinned to the left) turned wordlessly to follow Harry to the Room of Requirements as her sister headed back down towards the Slytherin dorms.

/\/\MLC/\/\

The Room did a yeoman job of providing them with a potions lab, even stocking most of the common ingredients.

"So, what potion should we make?"

"Let us begin with a calming drought," Flora selected a third year potion. It was pretty easy to brew, and it would let her observe Harry Potter. His brewing skill, that is.

As Harry cut up an ingredient, Flora commented, "That is chopped. The instructions call for diced Florian root."

"What's the difference?" Harry had always assumed that those were just two words for the same action.

"This is chopped," Flora pointed to the the results of Harry's work, "This is diced." With quick motions, she cut the chopped pieces again, cupping her hand over the knife as it worked to keep the pieces grouped together. The result was that the slivers were diced into fine shreds, with an almost pureed consistency. "With harder ingredients, you also need to take care that they do not shoot off of your cutting board. I spell the edges of mine to prevent ingredients from falling off," she commented as she demonstrated.

Harry nodded. No wonder his potions were so bad - potion making was incredibly tedious! But by the end of the hour long session with Flora (and it had been a stressful hour – she never spoke except to voice corrections), he at least now understood what the instructions in the text book meant, and how to follow them.

He still wasn't certain that it was worth the effort.

/\/\MLC/\/\

It was a couple of weeks later that the results of Harry's hard work paid off. It happened in the Wednesday Potions class.

As Snape picked up his potion for evaluation, his sneer faltered.

"Potter, this potions is..." He squinted at it, trying to find fault before turning back to glare at the student who dared confound his expectation, "This potion is significantly improved from you usual sludge. I will expect to see you performing at this level in the future. No more slacking off!" Snape stormed off to collect a sample from other students' cauldrons.

"Cor, Harry, did Snape just give you a compliment?" Ron whispered as soon as Snape was out of earshot.

Harry just smirked, "I explain later." It felt good. After the horrible week that he had been having, with the Toad banning him from Quidditch, and the horrid dreams, it was nice to have something go his way. Harry cast a quick glance to the back corner of the room, where the two Carrow girls were cleaning up their work area. They were keeping to their end of the bargain, never acknowledging him in any way outside of the tutoring sessions.

"What's to explain?" Ron interrogated him as soon as they were both out in the hallway.

Hermione had been just about to rush off to her Runes class when she paused. "Is this about the potion you just turned in?"

"Yeah, sort of."

"I hope you didn't do anything inappropriate," Hermione lived in dread of cheating. She knew Harry was a (mostly) honest guy, but his skirting the rules always roiled her stomach.

"No. Even you can't find fault with this one, 'Mione." He explained his arrangement with the Carrow sisters. Now that he had definitively demonstrated that it was for purely academic purposes, he was willing to admit that he was spending time with the Carrow girls.

"And you didn't ask me to tutor you?" Hermione asked plaintively.

"I.." Harry thought quickly. He had been certain that Hermione would approve of him doing extra studying! How did he get into trouble THIS time?! "I thought you wouldn't have time - you're taking a much heavier course load than I am, and with you being so worried about the OWLs, I didn't want to bother you."

"Oh. Ok." Hermione paused, before adding, "That was considerate of you, but next time, ask me. I like helping you." She glanced at her watch, "But I got to run - I'll see you for lunch!" She waved as she power walked towards the staircase.

"And it's a good thing she likes helping." Ron knew he was lucky to have a friend like Hermione. Without her, there was no way that he would be doing well enough. 'Well enough' being defined as his mum not yelling at him over his grades. "I still don't trust them, though," Ron returned to the previous topic, "What reason would they have to help out like that? They're Slytherins. They take what they can get, and don't feel any obligation to pay for it."

"Not all Slytherins. are like that. A lot of students have traits associated with other houses - look at Hermione - she's Ravenclaw material, but she's with us in Gryffindor."

"I know," Ron continued, ignoring the interruption ,"I know! I bet one of them has the hots for you!" Ron jabbed a finger at Harry.

"Eww, no! And anyways, it's not one of them - they are both taking turns tutoring me. "

"How do you know? Nobody can tell them apart. Not even Hermione." Ron countered.

"I can tell," Harry replied in his worldly-wise voice.

"Huh. Well maybe they both have a thing to for you." Ron almost missed the his step on the stairs as he had a momentary fantasy of dating twins. Though not THOSE twins, obviously. In his imagination they both looked a lot more like Lavender.

"Yeah, right," Harry rolled his eyes, "They just believe in paying their debts." His gaze involuntarily swung left as they passed the corridor to the Ravenclaw dorms. But the paradigm of beauty, Cho Chang, was nowhere to be seen. Maybe next time.

/\/\MLC/\/\

That evening, after the DA filed out, Harry stayed behind in the Room of Requirement as had become his custom. A moment later, he was joined one of the Carrow sisters - Hestia this time, based on the hair barrettes. (Despite what he had claimed to Ron, he was a little embarrassed to admit that even after several of these one-on-one tutoring sessions with each sister, he still couldn't tell the two of them apart except for the hair clips). For instance, today both girls were wearing a dull green jumper over a gray-green blouse that almost matched the walls in the dungeon.

"Do you always wear green?"

Hestia just gave him a puzzled look.

"Never mind! I'm just in a good mood - thanks to your (and your sister's) tutoring, I finally befuddled Snape! Did you see his expression?" Harry crowed.

Hestia nodded , "If my.. if our tutoring has been that helpful, it is only fair that you balance the accounts." She paused and wet her lips nervously before adding, "I'd like to go over some more Defense."

Harry nodded. Ron was wrong. Clearly, the Carrows just wanted to learn, and they were scared that he would kick them out of the DADA for being Slytherins if they didn't repay him somehow. Which was not an unreasonable worry, given the way Ron was still (very publicly) grumbling about them being included.

"Sure, lets continue working on the Impediment Jinx." As Hestia took up a casting stance, her elbow was too far out to the side. Harry reached over and gently adjusted her arm. Hestia stiffened with a sudden inhalation. "Sorry, next time I'll give you warning before I grab you like that." Harry took a step back. He sometimes forgot to give people their space when teaching.

"It's ok." Hestia muttered. Harry glanced at her face, but it was impassive as always.

Hestia cast. As usual, the spell motions were correct, but her focus was weak, resulting in a dim spell that just splashed over the target dummy.

"Here, like this." Harry demonstrated.

"Can you cast it on me? So I can see what it feels like to get hit with one?"

Harry nodded. That was actually a good idea - he should include that in the curriculum. It was important to now what a spell felt like, so that if you got hit by one in a real situation, you wouldn't panic.

"Impedimenta!" An orange flash of light flew out and struck Hestia pushing her back a couple of steps

"Again!" She asked.

The second spell pushed her up against the wall with a solid thump.

"Again!" Hestia gasped.

"Um, how about we practice blocking the spell as well?" Harry replied, looking away from Hestia. He felt inexplicable awkward.

"Oh-okay" Gasped Hestia. She was slightly flushed. So instead they spent the next half hour casting Impedimenta and other spells at each other while the other blocked them with a Protego.

"You know, once you relaxed, your casting got a better. A LOT better!" Harry gasped, as he collapsed into a chair that the room had obligingly provided. They had both been working hard as Hestia had managed to overcome whatever block she previously had.

"I liked that," Hestia volunteered. When Harry glanced up, he saw a small smile quirking up her lips. It was just a fleeting thing, but it had transformed her face into something more human. "Can we train like that more?'

"I'm not certain the other DA members are up for something that intense. Maybe we can have an advanced group meet on the Sundays." With his Quidditch ban, Harry found he had a lot more free time.

"No, I mean just the two of us," Hestia stepped closer so that she was leaning into Harry's personal space.

"Yeah, ok. What about your sister?" Hestia was a little weird, but it felt good to train at 100% intensity.

"I… No. It will just be me. We can do it once every other week, after I tutor you in in potions."

"Aw, your sister won't get jealous?" Harry teased.

Hestia just gave him a flat, emotionless look. The small tidbit of personality that she had shown for the past few minutes retreated back into it's deep shell. But as they walked out of the Room, just before they went their separate ways, she blurted over her shoulder: "We always wear green because it reminds us of growing things. We like plants."

/\/\MLC/\/\

"Harry, we hardly ever see you nowadays." Hermione commented as she slid into the seat opposite him at the dinner table.

Harry shrugged, "I've been busy."

"With what? We see you less than when you were on the Quidditch team," Ron added, "I'm not prying. Just you know, we're worried about you. You've been acting funny, what with those dreams."

"Nightmares. And I can't help it." Harry muttered. He didn't want to talk about it. It was clear that the other two thought he was cracking under the strain. But the dreams were real!

"You should tell Dumbledore." Hermione held up a hand to forestall the inevitable explosion, "Or if you don't want to tell him, tell Sirius."

"I thought you didn't want me writing to him?" Sirius would believe. He wouldn't just tell him to take a calming drought. But Sirius had his own problems.

"I don't: I think the risk of discovery is too high, but I know that you contact him anyways." Ron tried to look innocent as Hermione said that. And failed. Subtlety was not a skill that he had.

"I only did it that one time!" Harry scowled - 'that's the last time I ask Ron to help with something that I want to keep private'. Not because he minded Hermione knowing, but because Ron should have asked first. Harry sighed. But Hermione was right about the risk (as she usually was). That's why he really hadn't written to Sirius, not since that chat over the Gryffindor Floo way back at the beginning of the year.

"I'll figure something out. But I gotta go now – I still need to set up the Room of Requirements for for the DA."

"But its Tuesday! We meet on Wednesdays!" Ron gawped.

"Yeah, but I need to figure out how everybody can practice the spells I'm going to teach without anybody getting in each others way."

Harry waked off. He actually wasn't lying. Since he spent most of the evening after DA (when he claimed he was working on next weeks lesson) either learning potions with one of the Carrow sisters or training with Hestia, he had to do the set up some other time. Fortunately, teaching defense came naturally to him, so it took much less time to come up with a lesson plan than Hermione imagined.

"Oh, hello, Hestia." He stopped, having almost walked into the Carrow girl as she entered the hall. She stumbled back awkwardly. "You need to keep your situational awareness even when you're not sparring." He quipped

"Don't talk to me in public!" She hissed.

Harry started back at the vehemence. 'Oh, right. That was the agreement.' He nodded and walked off, forcing himself not to glance backwards. Or to dwell on it. That had been a strange encounter. He thought that over the past couple of while they had become sort-of friends. They were meeting for several hours a week, most weeks. They didn't really talk much – they just exchanged a few words when they took a breather - but then again he was a guy: he didn't really talk much with his other friends either (that was mostly Hermione's job).

'Oh, well. I guess we're only friends when there's no one around for me to embarrass her in front of.'

Though technically he had been the one to request that they keep their meetings secret. And he still hadn't told the full extent of them to Ron or Hermione.

'Well, we all have our secrets.' He really wasn't certain how Slytherin House worked, or where the Carrows fit into it, but Hestia was probably as embarrassed to have a Gryffindor friend as he was to have a Slytherin one. Or more - girls cared a lot more about gossip than guys did.

/\/\MLC/\/\

Things continued pretty much the same through the rest of the term. It was only when the professors piled on the work right before the holidays that Harry had to scale back the tutoring sessions, dropping the extra DADA practice with Hestia (Because as much as he enjoyed them, he needed to focus on his schoolwork). He did continue with the Potions tutoring, though, as that was making a huge difference – at this rate he would get the O that he needed to continue on to the NEWT level classes. Harry grimaced. Not that he wanted to spend more time with Snape, but the Auror Acadamy required it.

When he had explained his decision to Hestia after their usual Potions session, she just nodded.

"You're not upset? I know you really enjoy these sessions, and I feel bad backing out like this..." Harry asked tentatively as her expression remained blank.

"Your reasoning is valid," Hestia replied as she turned to leave the Room of Requirements before pausing, her hand on the door handle.

Harry stood, waiting behind her. "Is something wrong?"

"No. This is for the best. After all, this is just for our personal enjoyment - Professor Umbridge will not be testing us on anything we practice here."

Harry frowned. There was something off about her tone. "There's nothing wrong with doing stuff for fun."

Hestia turned around quickly, "You enjoy our mock duels as well?" At Harry's nod, she seemed to relax, as tension flowed out of her shoulders. "I am glad."

/\/\MLC/\/\

"NO!" Harry jerked out of bed. The dream had been so real – he had been a snake, trying to bite Mr. Weasley! Harry glanced at his watch – it was almost midnight, after his last midterm. He pulled on his robes and ran down the the stairs into the common room before bursting out into the hall, waking the Fat Lady in the process. He ran towards his Head of House's quarters, ignoring the portrait's imprecations.

"Professor, Professor!" He pounded on McGonagall's door. He had never come to her apartment before, but she did tell them when they had all been first years that they were welcome to come to her at any time if they had a concern. And it was closer than Dumbledore's. Harry still felt a tinge of guilt in the back of his mind for waking her at such a late hour.

"What is it, Mr. Potter?" The door creaked open to revel a groggy but fully dressed and proper Minerva McGonagall.

"I think something happened to Mr. Weasley! I just had a dream of a snake attacking him as he stood guard by a door."

The Scottish professor considered before stepping aside, "Come in, Mr. Potter. I will call on the Headmaster."

/\/\MLC/\/\

The next several hours were so chaotic that Harry had a hard time remembering them the following day. Mr. Weasley HAD been attacked by a giant snake, and Harry's panicked warning had set off a chain of events that ended with the Weasley patriarch at St. Mungo's, fighting for his life.

"Go pack your things, Harry. I will take you to Grimmauld Place a day early." Dumbledore offered. It was the last day before Christmas break. The Weasley children had all already left, floo-ing to St. Mungo's to wait with their mother.

Harry nodded, "I'll be back in an hour." He ran to his dorms. The Fat lady Let him in, expressing her sympathy and wishing Mr. Weasley a quick recovery. The attack wasn't public news as yet, but the portrait's gossip network was second to none.

Harry wasn't really paying attention, though. The Weasleys were like a surrogate family, and he was distraught at what had happened. Mr. Weasley was a little more distant then Molly, but he was kind and friendly and tried to share his (quirky) hobbies with Harry. He was everything that Harry imagined a father should be.

So it was understandable that Harry was a little distracted as he walked back out of the Gryffindor dorms, his trunk floating behind him.

"Potter." A cold voice hissed. He froze, turning to see the Carrow twins standing in the shadow of a cross corridor. Before he could think of something to say, one of them thrust a roll of parchment at him. "Here."

"What's this?"

"Potions homework," Hestia replied.

"For you to do over winter break," Flora added. After a short pause, she continued, "It would be a shame if you forgot everything we taught you over the hols."

"Oh. Thanks, I guess," Harry was at a loss of what to say. He turned to Hestia before shrugging apologetically, "I'm sorry, I didn't think of anything of that sort for Defense."

"Don't concern yourself," Flora replied, "We will resume in the spring." Hestia just frowned. Harry looked a little confused between the two before shrugging again. "Erg, I'll see you," and continued on to the Headmaster's office.

/\/\MLC/\/\

The winter break was surprisingly good, if subdues. The Weasley patriarch made a steady recovery under the care of the healers at St. Mungo's, and Harry was able to spend the entire two weeks with the Weasleys (and away from the Dursleys). Ron and Hermione spent much of the time arguing with each other, but that was fine with him: that meant that they weren't bothering him - he found that he needed a lot of personal space this year. After the Christmas presents (and mandatory Weasley jumpers) were handed out and the Christmas dinner was consumed, Harry found himself up in the room that he was sharing with Ron. Ron was still downstairs trying to explain the Chudley Cannons (Their history, how the players (dis)functioned, and his pathological love of the team) to Hermione. When Harry had gone upstairs, Hermione had appeared slightly wilted and dazed - much the same way Ron did when she explained anything academic to him (Harry had figured that turn about was fair play).

As he lay back on his bed, staring up at the slightly cobwebby ceiling, he considered what to do about the Carrows. He had read over the homework (he hadn't actually done any of it, of course - all his potions supplies were back at school), and he appreciated the work that they had put into crafting it. It looked like it was really well thought out. 'I should get them something.'

But what?

The only thing he knew about them was that they liked green, were good at potions and Hestia liked to dual very aggressively. His lips quirked up at that. She really was a good training partner. While her spell casting wasn't on his level, she was enough of a challenge that his own skills improved. And hers had advanced by leaps and bounds - it was a close match between her and Ron as to who was the second best duelist in the DA (Hermione refused to fight dirty, so she was in third place)

He could ask Ron for help, but he would get the wrong idea - he had had to work hard to quash Ron's idea about there being something romantic going on after he had first mentioned the tutoring. He didn't need to do that all over again (Which is why he just let Ron assume that the potions tutoring had just been a couple of sesions).

/\/\MLC/\/\

It was exceptionally cold the first day back at Hogwarts. All the students tried to stay inside the castle as much as possible, even going the long way around to avoid having to struggle with the cold of the courtyard. Which made Harry's first task much easier.

"Hey!" Harry called out as the Carrow sisters walked by. The Marauder map had made finding the twins inside the castle a snap, though apparently even the map couldn't tell them apart - they were simply labeled as 'Carrow'.

The two sisters turned to stare coldly at Harry, "Um, I just wanted to say thank you for all the tutoring. I even did some of your homework." No response. Harry broke out in a cold sweat. "So I got you a 'thank you' present." He handed them each a jade studded bracket. Jade was inexpensive, thankfully. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to afford them. Each was a little different – Flora's was in the shape of a flower, and Hestia's was thicker, with an abstract pattern carved into it.

"And Hestia, your bracelet has a built in shield charm," he added. To his surprise, both girls gave him an angry glare. "I mean, it's ok if you use it during our sparring."

"Thank you," they replied coldly and pivoted in unison, to continue on their way.

Harry sighed. Girls were strange. And he couldn't even ask Ron for advice. Not that Ron was the best expert on matters having to do with the opposite gender, given how disastrous his Yule date last year was (Not that Harry's was any better).

'Maybe I can risk a letter to Sirius...' Harry forced that selfish thought down. He wasn't going to endanger his godfather for something silly like this.

Maybe he could ask Hermione... no. The idea of asking Hermione about girls made him oddly uncomfortable. It was the same sort of uncomfortable that he got when he thought about the discussion last fall about the Carrows tutoring him.

/\/\MLC/\/\

That following Wednesday evening, after the last DA member filed out, Harry stepped out of the Room of Requirements to allow it to switch to a potions lab when Hestia Carrow appeared. Harry stopped. she was skipping. The Carrows did NOT skip.

"Hello, Potter," she smiled.

Harry's hand crept towards his wand. The Carrows did not smile.

"Lets skip potions this week - I really want to test out the bracelet you gave me." She held up her arm, showing that she was wearing his gift.

Harry relaxed, 'ok, it's not somebody else under polyjuice'. He lowered his wand, "Ok,"

They walked back in and took up their dueling stances. Hestia immediately went on the offensive casting with a ferocity that few could match. Gone was her diffident manner of before. She led with a stunner and followed with a Bombarda and the rest of the spells Harry had been teaching her.

Harry was taken aback at the attack, but he managed to duck the first spell and counter the next. After that, he started to push back, managing to get off at least one attack spell for each of Hestia's. Soon Hestia was forced to resort to her shield bracelet to block some the spells, but she still did not give up, giving back (almost) as good as she got.

"You ok?" Harry ask during a pause

"Yes! Harder! Come at me harder" Hestia gasped.

Their dual continued for a half hour until finally an Impedimenta from Harry caught Hestia in the shoulder, slamming her into the wall hard enough to knock the wand from her hand with a cry of pain.

"Hestia, are you ok?" Harry approached.

Hestia looked up at him as she slid to the floor, a strange smile on her face, "That was wonderful".

Harry sat down a little distance away. "I'm glad to see you too." She was a strange girl, but he was beginning to understand her. "So, what do you want to do next?"

"With you? Anything and everything."