Last updated on February 14, 2003
Except for Mariannah who is obviously my own creation, all the other characters here belong to J.K. Rowling.
This chapter was revised! :-) Please check out the news on "Author's Notes & News updated every now and then" (which is usually the last chapter of this story).
I'd like to thank the Harry Potter Lexicon () for all the invaluable resource, which helped me make this fan-fic. I'd also like to thank John Williams for creating such an excellent score for the Harry Potter movies. They were fuel for my imagination as well. Finally, thanks to all the other song artists and fan-fic authors. Without them, this story wouldn't materialize at all.
The Lesson
"Good evening, my dear!" greeted Professor Dumbledore.
"Good evening, sir," replied Mariannah. "I hope I'm not late." It was Mariannah's first night of training. She had been looking forward to it for the whole week. Though she already knew how to defend herself, based upon the various experiences of the six Guardians, she still went to the library to read up on books related to the defense against the dark arts. She even had special permission from the headmaster to roam the Restricted Section of the library and continue her studies.
"No, you're just on time." The headmaster smiled at the girl. "I notice you are not wearing your robes, Mariannah."
Mariannah smiled. Instead of robes, she had decided to wear a pair of pants, a shirt and a sweater. "I didn't feel comfortable wearing robes while training for a fight, sir. I'm afraid I might trip over them." Professor Dumbledore nodded. "Very well then. Shall we begin?"
Professor Dumbledore took out his wand. "Let's start with something simple. See that pumpkin over there?" Mariannah looked over to where Professor Dumbledore had pointed. Twenty feet away was a rather large pumpkin. "Now, we're just going to practice your aim. Just do a severing charm. Like so." Professor Dumbledore said an incantation and promptly cut the pumpkin in half. "Now," said Professor Dumbledore. "You try it." Professor Dumbledore levitated another pumpkin from the nearby patch and replaced the first one.
Mariannah took out her wand and chanted the severing charm. She successfully cut the pumpkin in half... as well as several trees behind it. "Oh dear," exclaimed Mariannah. Even Professor Dumbledore was surprised. "Hm," said Professor Dumbledore. "A bit too much I'm afraid." Professor Dumbledore looked at the girl. "Maybe we should start with something less destructive. Can you summon another pumpkin from the patch, my dear?" Mariannah nodded and chanted "Accio pumpkin!"
Immediately, all the pumpkins from the patch started flying towards the shocked couple. Professor Dumbledore then said something that caused all the pumpkins to stop and drop to the ground. Professor Dumbledore looked at Mariannah again, then at her wand. "Let's try this now. Try to summon a pumpkin without using your wand." Mariannah nodded again and put away her wand. She hesitated before summoning for a pumpkin making a motion as if her own hand was a wand. Thankfully, one pumpkin smoothly flew up and landed in front of her.
"I see," said Professor Dumbledore as he nodded. "It seems that you are powerful enough to do magic at... shall we say... normal levels if you don't use a wand. Otherwise, using your wand greatly increases the concentration of your magic."
"So for most of your training, I will not allow you to use a wand at all," continued Professor Dumbledore. "I would like to continue training you without having to destroy half of the Hogwarts grounds you see." The old headmaster said this with a smile. "But that doesn't mean you don't need the wand." Professor Dumbledore voice took on a rather grave tone now. "Use your wand with care my dear. Remember, such power may help save lives, but it can also utterly destroy them. It can even destroy yourself."
It was Mariannah's second meeting with the fifth year Gryffindors and Slytherins. She swiftly walked across the field to the waiting students, her now familiar Slytherin cloak billowing as she walked. "Welcome, students," she greeted. "Ready for some fun?" She smiled wickedly at her class. All her students nodded. Mariannah could feel the tension in the air. She smiled a bit more. "Good," Mariannah answered. "Let us begin." With that she removed her cloak with a flourish, revealing the professor's secret attire. Instead of the usual robes, Mariannah was wearing a scarlet body suit. The emblem of the Gryffindor house could clearly be seen on the right shoulder sleeve while that of the Slytherin house was on the left. Her wand hung on her left hip.
Mariannah was amused at her students' reaction. Most were shocked. Some girls were whispering about where they could get a similar outfit. Mariannah fixed her gaze at Draco. I'd stop that train of thought if I were you, Mr. Malfoy. The young boy's face became even paler than usual. Suddenly, the students were quiet. "I guess I win," said a voice behind Mariannah. The defense teacher raised an eyebrow. "I never agreed to the deal, remember?" she said without turning around to see who it was. "You're late," Mariannah said as Severus took his place by her side. Severus scowled at Mariannah. "If you had told me last night that you needed my help for your class, I would have been here sooner."
"Don't worry, Severus," she said facing the potions master. "You'll only be my guinea pig for today. I won't hurt you... much." Severus raised an eyebrow at Mariannah. "Don't be so cocky now, Mariannah," sneered Severus. Mariannah's smile faded and she bit her lower lip.
"Now then," she said turning to her students. "Professor Snape has been most gracious to help me out in a demonstration of a wizard battle. Wizard battles work like duels without the formalities of such. It may either take place on the ground or in the air or even both."
"Wizard battles," continued Mariannah, "have no rules. But here, I will be stating a couple. There's usually no signal whether one is to start. The end of a battle may either mean retreat or death of one of the parties. You might never know how your opponent fights but its best that you try to find out about their style of attack. They may attack you with your back turned or they may suddenly appear right before you. So, as one of your former... uhm... professors would say, constant vigilance!"
"There are numerous books on wizard battles at the library. I would also like to suggest a particular book written by a muggle named Sun Tzu. It's called 'The Art Of War'. Though it's based on muggle wars and battles, I found this particular literature very enlightening and very much applicable to wizard battles."
Mariannah paused a bit, observing to see if her students understood what she said. She then nodded and continued. "For this demonstration, Professor Snape and myself will be showing you a flying battle. Hence we have brought our respective brooms." Mariannah pointed to her broom lying on the ground a short distance to her right. Harry noticed that the broom looked much like his Firebolt, except that he could discern the word "Lightning" on the handle. Harry also noticed Professor Snape holding a similar broom, except that the word "Thunder" was etched on the handle instead. "Mr. Potter, can you hold this for me please?" Mariannah took out her wand and gave it to Harry. The wand felt heavy in his hand. It was twelve inches and thick. Harry thought that the wand had a feel similar to Hagrid's, oak perhaps. "I don't want to find myself suddenly reaching for it and killing a talented potions professor."
"I wouldn't mind," whispered Ron to Harry, making Harry laugh. "I heard that, Mr. Weasley," growled Severus. "Five points from Gryffindor." Mariannah glared at Severus. "This isn't your class, Severus. If there's anyone who will be taking off points at this time it's going to be me!" Severus glared back at her. The students felt uneasy at seeing their two professors squaring off. "I don't like this," whispered Hermione to her two best friends. "They look like they're ready to kill each other."
The stare off continued for a few moments before Mariannah said anything. "Right then. Shall we begin, Professor?" Severus snapped his head to one side. "Accio Lightning!" Mariannah's broom flew to her outstretched hand. The defense professor was still looking at Severus. "Two rules," said Mariannah. "One. No unforgivables. Two. Battle ends when one hits the ground without a broom." With that, Mariannah jumped on her broom and flew off at an incredible speed. Severus followed. As he got off the ground, Severus took out his wand and chanted "Conglobo flammae!" A fireball shot from his wand towards his opponent. Mariannah smoothly avoided it. "Come on, Severus!" she taunted the potions master. "Is that the best you can do after all these years?" To the surprise of the students, Severus smiled (if you can call it such) and hurtled at great speed towards her.
The battle had begun.
To be continued...
- Conglobo flammae
- roughly translated as "form ball of fire"
Please excuse my Latin. I'm still learning. :-) Do drop me a line if you can come up with a better latin translation of "throw fireball".