Chapter 17
Harry, Hermione, and Neville left the great hall and made their way to the dueling room, they separated from the rest of their friends after lunch to attend their dueling lesson. They had arrived and were soon joined by Susan and Hannah then by Daphne and Tracey, the group of friends talked for a minute before they heard the door open and they saw Professor Flitwick walk in. The Professor greeted them "It's a pleasure to see you all again, I hope you all enjoyed your summer and are ready to continue with our training."
The group of students returned the greeting but as they did they had to quickly dodge as Professor Flitwick pulled out his wand and quickly fired multiple stinging hexes. Flitwick smiled seeing none of his spells hit, he spoke "Wonderful, I'm glad to see none of you got lazy over the summer, I expected to hit one of you but I'm glad to see you all dodged my spells, you have no idea how many people I've seen lose the duel or their life because they didn't think to dodge."
The students stood still but paid attention since Flitwick liked to fire spells randomly at them, Flitwick continued "Today we will begin learning another spell often used in dueling, I will be teaching you to cast a shield, protego!"
Flitwick waved his wand and a shield appeared in front of him, Flitwick spoke "We will work on casting a standard shield meant to block incoming spells, I want all of you to cast any spell you can think of at me and see how my shield will hold."
The students listened and fired a combination of hexes and jinxes only to see their spells were stopped, Harry even cast frictionless only to see something impact the shield. Flitwick smiled and stopped them before dropping his shield and continuing to speak "As you all saw, your spells didn't get through and my shield didn't fall, this is because I continued to fuel my shield with my magic, that does however leave me unable to attack so for this lesson we will work on strengthening your shields so that you are able to fight back." Flitwick waved his wand and cast another shield but this time held his arms behind his back and told the students to cast at him until the shield falls.
Once again the students cast several spells and saw them collide with the shield, it wasn't until Hermione cast an overpowered knockback jinx that the shield finally collapsed and Flitwick sidestepped the spell before stopping them. Flitwick nodded and said "Excellent, as you all saw even with all seven of you casting it took some time before you managed to make my shield collapse, had I cast a normal shield then it would have fallen sooner. We will work on strengthening your shields so that it can withstand stronger spells, once you can do that then you won't need to worry about someone stunning or disarming you. For this school year I am setting a goal for all of you to reach, strengthening your shields isn't going to be easy and it will take more magic so I don't expect you to be able to do this right away, I am hoping by Halloween you'll be able to cast a shield that can stop my spell. Once you have learnt to do that then we will work on casting a different shield, a reflecting shield, with that you'll be able to send a spell back at your opponent, I am hoping you'll all be able to cast that one by the end of December. Once you return then we will work on the last step, Mr. Potter I ask that you cast a disarming charm at me."
Harry was surprised by the request but nodded, stepping forward Harry aimed and cast "Expelliarmus!" The red spell shot towards Flitwick but when the spell got close enough the Professor swiped his wand and redirected the spell towards Neville. Neville was caught off guard and disarmed, the students looked surprised by what Flitwick had done.
Flitwick smiled and said "That will be your goal, once you learn to cast a reflecting shield then we will work on focusing that to just your wand so you'll be able to deflect most spells coming towards you and if you are facing multiple people then you can even redirect a spell at someone else. Most people tend to rely on just the shield alone so learning to deflect a spell like that will give you an advantage over your opponent."
Harry and Hermione looked at each other as they both remembered when they faced Quirrell in the forest, no matter what spell Hermione used Quirrell was able to deflect all of them, it was only when Harry launched a physical object at him that they were able to hurt him. They were pulled from their thoughts when they heard Daphne ask "Professor, wouldn't you be putting yourself at greater risk if you try to deflect a spell like that, what if you get the timing wrong?"
Flitwick answered "That is something we will be working on as well Ms. Greengrass, when you learn to deflect a spell like that then we will practice with each other so we can get the timing right, when it comes to dueling you need to be observant of your opponent and your surroundings since you never know where a spell might come from. I think if there's enough time then I might start to teach you something very few people learn to do, for now though we shall continue with the lesson."
The students nodded and spent the entire lesson learning to cast the spell and strengthening their shields. Flitwick started casting his spell at their shields and as he expected all of their shields collapsed and they were disarmed, Flitwick made sure to overpower his spell so it would break through their shields easily, by the end of the lesson none of them were able to cast a strong enough shield. The seven students were tired and were trying to catch their breath when Flitwick spoke "That will be enough for today, you've all made some progress and I hope you will spend your extra time in the dueling room practicing. I would like to see all of you cast one more shield before we end the lesson."
All the students cast and Flitwick fired his spells at each of them and to the surprise of the students their shields blocked the spells, Flitwick nodded and explained "That time I used the same amount of magic your fellow students would use, once you learn to strengthen your shield enough then you will be able to block a few of those spells. This will not be easy since you're all still young but I have high hopes for all of you, keep working on improving but also make sure you don't overdo it, I believe you will all reach your first goal by Halloween."
They all faced Flitwick and promised they'd work to improve their shields, Flitwick nodded but said "I want all of you to still remember to focus on dodging even if you cast a shield, a shield isn't going to protect you from everything since there are spells out there that a shield can't stop or if given enough power a spell will shatter your shield. When you are observant of your opponent's movements then you can predict what they will do so you can be prepared, the best way to defend against a spell is to avoid that spell."
The students nodded and soon left to head for dinner, Harry and his friends still felt tired from how much Flitwick was pushing them, when they had told him about the possible danger that might happen at Hogwarts the professor decided to teach them about protecting themselves and they were certain he made his training harder for them. The group of friends separated before arriving at the great hall and joining the rest of their friends, Harry noticed Oliver still looked upset after finding out the Slytherins had new brooms, Oliver was hoping this would be the year Gryffindor would finally win the cup. Harry sat with his friends but started to wonder if there was anything he could do to help his team win the cup, he did think of one idea that might help.
The weekend passed and with the start of Monday Harry and his friends arrived for defense only to learn Lockhart would teach them by reading from his books and calling up students to help him reenact scenes of his books. Harry ended up hating Lockhart even more since he would usually call on him to help him reenact some scenes. When Lockhart called on him a third time Harry finally had enough and from under the table he pointed his hand at Lockhart and cast frictionless, soon the class started laughing when Lockhart slipped and fell, Harry made sure to cancel the spell right after he slipped so no one would know he cast it. Throughout the day Harry kept thinking about quidditch and how the Slytherins now had an unfair advantage, the Slytherins never played fair and used every dirty trick they can think of to win and just barely stay within the rules, now Malfoy got onto the team by having his father bribe them with new brooms.
Harry got an idea and decided to tell Ron about it, the two boys discussed the plan and Ron agreed to it, during dinner the two boys asked Oliver about practice and when the Slytherins had the pitch. That Tuesday after their classes were over Harry and Ron left the common room, Hermione was helping the rest of their Gryffindor friends with homework while Fay was serving her detention with Filch so the two were able to head to the quidditch field. The two boys got close to the field but before they could be seen Harry pulled out his invisibility cloak and covered the two, they sat in the stands and watched the Slytherins practice. Ron decided to focus more on the chasers and keeper since he knew more about quidditch, Harry kept his focus on Malfoy to see what kind of seeker he is.
When practice was over the two boys snuck away before removing the cloak, once they were sure no one was around Harry asked "What did you think of the Slytherins?"
Ron explained "Those brooms are definitely fast but I noticed they were having trouble making sharp turns, they needed to slow down a bit before they could turn. They need to slow down in order to throw the quaffle since they have trouble playing at full speed, also even though Malfoy is their newest member it looked like the rest of the team wasn't able to work together that well so we could use that to our advantage. The beaters are strong so they shouldn't have too much trouble with the bludgers however I noticed their brooms are able to accelerate quickly and because of that they kept overshooting and it made them miss the bludger. Overall, they have speed but they are lacking in teamwork, maneuverability, and control."
Harry smirked at how much Ron learnt from watching one practice, he patted Ron on the shoulder and said "You sounded like a quidditch captain just now, I agree with everything you said and if we use this information then we can beat the Slytherins and finally win the cup."
Ron smiled and agreed with Harry, the two boys left to find Oliver, they made it to the great hall in time for dinner and they noticed how Oliver was sitting with the rest of the quidditch team and he still looked upset. The two were able to have a quick word with the rest of the team and they agreed to talk in the common room after dinner. Harry and Ron sat with the rest of their Gryffindor friends where they heard Fay complaining about Filch making her clean the trophy room although she said it was still worth getting to punch Malfoy. They talked about practicing in the dueling room after dinner, Harry agreed to join but would be a bit late while Ron passed saying he'd need to talk to Oliver. Harry noticed the Slytherin team enter the great hall and from the way they were talking about practice it sounded like they thought they already won every game.
Once dinner was over the Gryffindors returned to the tower, Harry and Ron met up with the rest of the team and Oliver asked "So what did you need to talk about?"
Harry decided to let Ron talk since he explained it better, Harry noticed Oliver's mood seemed to lighten up as Ron explained what they observed during the Slytherin's practice, soon Oliver and Ron were talking about their next practice. Harry got an idea and called out "Oliver." Once Oliver paid attention Harry spoke "I was hoping you could also speak to the captains of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw teams and tell them what we found out about Slytherin."
Oliver was surprised and asked "What do you mean, why should we tell them?"
Harry smirked and said "They should know so that they can plan for their games against Slytherin, I still remember the smug looks Malfoy and Flint had when they showed off their new brooms, they can call it a donation all they want when it's really just a bribe. The Slytherins seem to think that they can win the cup this year simply by throwing money at it, they are walking around acting like they won the cup already, they think because of their new brooms they will win so I want to ruin their plan. With the other houses knowing how to prepare for Slytherin they will be at a huge disadvantage once they play against the other houses, let's have all three houses work together to turn this year into one of Slytherin's worst years in quidditch."
The rest of the team seemed surprised by Harry's idea but soon they thought about it and they started to like it, Fred and George laughed and said it would be one of the best pranks pulled on the Slytherins, the twins congratulated Harry for thinking of it, Oliver chuckled a bit and said "I can see the look on Flint's face when he sees Slytherin lose every game this year, I like your idea Harry. I'll talk to Roger Davis the next chance I get, although the Hufflepuff captain graduated last year so one of their chasers took the role of seeker and captain, I think it's a fourth year named Cedric. I know they're all upset about Slytherin getting new brooms so I'll make sure to pass on the plan to them when I get the chance."
Harry thanked him and left as Oliver and Ron started talking about their next practice, Harry decided to head for the dueling room where he saw the rest of his friends but he also noticed Luna was there with them. When Luna spotted Harry she happily walked over to him and said "Hello Harry, I was hoping I could practice with you again."
Harry agreed and introduced Luna to the rest of his friends, they admitted that Luna was already in the dueling room when they arrived and she mentioned some unusual creature told her to head there. For the next hour Luna joined Harry and his friends in their practice, she was learning to cast spells she wouldn't learn until later in the year, Hermione felt like saying something when Luna brought up one of her creatures but she managed to keep her mouth shut since she didn't want to seem rude to her although she wasn't too happy Harry was focusing more on the little blond. Hermione was caught off guard though when Luna asked her if they could be friends, when Hermione agreed to be her friend Luna's smile seemed to brighten.
When it was almost time for curfew Luna said she had to leave however she asked Harry if he could walk her back to her common room. Harry agreed to go with her, before they left though Luna asked Hermione if she would join them too and so the three students left. The walk there was spent with Luna explaining to Harry and Hermione what blibbering humdingers are and how her and her father were trying to find one. They were also surprised when Luna took hold of both their hands and walked between them, Harry and Hermione glanced at each other but said nothing. They soon arrived at the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room where Luna thanked the two for walking her there, they saw the door open up and standing there was a Ravenclaw prefect, the prefect spoke "Luna, there you are, I was about to go find you."
Luna smiled at her and said "Hello Penelope, I was spending time with my friends."
Penelope spoke "I told you just call me Penny." She turned to Harry and Hermione and said "Thank you for bringing Luna back here, my name is Penelope Clearwater but please call me Penny, it's nice to meet you."
The two introduced themselves and Harry asked Penny if she could look out for Luna, the girl nodded and said "Of course, as the Ravenclaw prefect it's my job to look out for the younger students."
They thanked her and were about to leave but before they could Luna surprised them by pulling them into a hug, Luna said "I had a lot of fun practicing with you today, I hope we can spend more time together again."
Harry and Hermione looked at each other before smiling and agreeing, they said their goodbyes before heading back to their common room. On the way Harry asked Hermione "So what did you think of Luna?"
Hermione thought about it and said "She is a bit odd but she's also sweet and kind, she's also friendly to everyone, she's smart enough to quickly pick up many of the spells we've been practicing and I think she might catch up to us soon if she keeps joining us."
Harry smiled and said "She looked happy when you agreed to be her friend, I remember Ron said she and Ginny stopped being friends so she's happy to have new friends."
When the two returned to the tower Harry and Hermione joined the rest of their year mates however Harry noticed that Ron and Oliver were still talking to each other. When the two spotted Harry they asked him if they could borrow his invisibility cloak the next time the Slytherins practice, Harry did frown a bit that Ron told someone about his cloak since he wanted to keep it secret however he trusted Oliver so he agreed they could use it but they had to return it right after. Harry started to think about the quidditch team before an idea came to his head, looking around he spotted Colin was sitting with Demelza and Ginny, although it looked like Ginny was writing in a diary while the other two were working on their homework. Harry walked over to them and asked Colin "Hey Colin, can I talk to you for a minute?"
The three first years looked at him, Ginny blushed and Demelza simply smiled but Colin smiled brightly and said "Sure Harry!"
Harry could see Colin was still overly excited, the first year got up and followed Harry until they were away from the others, Harry then turned to Colin and asked "Colin, have you developed any of the photos you've taken yet?"
Colin nodded eagerly and said "Yeah, one of the teachers told me how I could develop them into moving photos!"
"Can you show them to me?"
Colin nodded and quickly left to get them, he returned soon with a photo album he handed to Harry. Harry flipped through the pages and saw Colin had taken many photos, some were moving while others were regular muggle photos, Harry had to admit Colin was pretty good with a camera. Harry did spot one photo that looked poorly done, looking closely he noticed it was of Lockhart. Colin noticed Harry was looking at that one and for the first time since they met Harry saw the first year stopped smiling and even looked annoyed and said "I stopped at a window and was about to take a picture of a few owls flying outside but the Professor stepped in front and started to talk about how he was doing me the honor of letting me take his picture for free since normally he'd have to charge anyone taking his picture."
Harry chuckled at seeing even Colin hated the new defense teacher, his opinion of the boy improved after that, Harry finished looking through the photo album and noticed the pictures Colin took that day during practice. Harry asked "Colin, you don't mind if I show someone these photos from practice, do you?"
Colin shook his head and said "I don't mind at all."
Harry pulled the first year over to Oliver where he showed him the photos, Oliver looked closely at them before saying to Colin "These are really good, would you be ok with attending our practices and taking photos?"
Colin looked excited and said "Of course, I'll be ready!"
Oliver smiled and said "Good, we've never taken any photos as a team so maybe we can use your photos to promote the team, maybe I can talk to the captains of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw team and they can get you to take photos of them too, would you be able to do that?"
Just from his smile alone Harry could tell Colin would happily do this, Harry got an idea and went to his dorm to get some galleons out of his trunk before heading back and giving them to Colin, he told the boy to use the money to buy a new camera and anything else he would need. Colin looked excited and agreed however he still asked if Harry could sign a photo for him, thankfully Oliver suggested they take a photo as a team and they could all sign it for the first year, this seemed to be enough for Colin to agree. Colin agreed to talk with Oliver about it later since he did need to work on his homework and from what they saw it looked like Demelza was becoming impatient, Harry decided to help the first years with their homework and when Hermione saw that Harry was helping them she offered to help as well.
Colin and Demelza were grateful for their help, Ginny on the other hand blushed when Harry was close to her and quickly left saying she was busy. Harry and Hermione helped the two first years and pointed out the mistakes they made and offered their own advice, the two first years thanked them and Hermione told them if they ever needed help then they can ask them. They all saw it was late and decided to head to bed, as Harry walked up to his dorm he smiled thinking how their match against Slytherin will go, he thought about the practice he saw and he had managed to spot the snitch a few times before Malfoy did so he felt confident he could catch the snitch before Malfoy could.
Harry entered his dorm and got ready for bed, he heard Ron talking with Dean and Seamus about quidditch and even how he was helping the team. Harry thought about what the Slytherins would think when they see their new brooms actually put them at a disadvantage, he was looking forward to their first game.
Please comment and let me know what you thought of the chapter.
I have decided to take a break from writing, next week there won't be a chapter but I'll be back the week after to continue writing, I will also start uploading chapters on Sunday from now on.
