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Harry Potter and the Black Unicorn (part 5)- Learning Defence
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Harry returned to the Gryffindor tower at 12.15pm and was mildly surprised but relieved to find no one up. Or so he thought. He'd only got to the bottom of the stairs leading to the boys dormitories when he realised this wasn't the case.
"Harry, where have you been?" Hermione's voice cut into the silence. Harry turned to find Hermione and Ron standing by the fire, they must have been sitting in the armchairs facing away from him when he came in.
"For a walk" he replied curtly.
"That we already know" replied Ron, giving Harry a slight smile, "you've been ages"
Harry nodded, "needed to clear my head."
This seemed to be all the reply they needed as they both nodded.
"What's that Harry?" asked Hermione, looking at the bottle in his hands.
"Butterbeer" replied Harry; it was half empty now, as he'd been drinking it on the way back to the tower.
"Cool" said Ron "where did you get it?"
"That's my secret" Harry said, giving them a smile. He doubted they'd like hearing that Snape gave it to him. Actually, he doubted they'd like the idea of Harry going to talk to him, that's why he'd not told them.
"Well, night" he said, breaking the silence before he carried on up the stairs and went to bed. It was several minutes until he heard Ron come into the room and get into bed.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The next morning on the way down to breakfast Harry told Ron and Hermione about his meeting with Malfoy in the corridor the night before. He stopped the story before the part where Hidellbank said about hoping Malfoy would come good though, and certainly didn't tell them about Snape. He needed to process these things in his own mind before telling his friends.
Breakfast was a fairly quite affair and Harry could see what Snape meant about everyone looking stressed and worried. The atmosphere was almost tense in the great hall. Ginny managed to keep conversation alive on the Gryffindor table by talking about Hogsmede. She'd never been before but she could now she was a third year and there was a trip planned for Saturday. However, Harry was unsure whether Dumbledore would let him go or not.
Fred and George Weasley told he about the joke shop there, but even they were fairly quite. Ron didn't say a word until after they had finished eating.
"We've got defence against the dark arts today, after lunch. I reckon she looks like she'll be a good teacher"
"I think so" said Harry, nodding as he said it, "Sn...Everyone thinks highly of her"
Harry was relieved he'd stopped himself saying that Snape thought highly of her because they'd ask questions. Hermione smiled, Harry didn't know whether that was relief that Ron had spoke or the fact she was looking forward to lessons. Knowing her it was probably a mix of both. To be honest, he was looking forward to it. He wanted to get going with these lessons although the idea of having Slytherin there was not fun.
"Malfoy'll probably try hex us," Hermione muttered. Harry grinned; it was like she had read his mind.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The morning had passed fairly quickly. Hermione had been in the library for most of it whilst Ron and Harry had played chess. Then all three of them had gone to see Dobby the House Elf in the kitchens. He seemed very happy to see them and had given Harry socks he had made him. They were ghastly odd socks, one yellow, one orange, but Harry said thank you anyway.
Lunch had gone similarly fast although the conversation had got a bit silly after Ron had reminded them of Malfoy the ferret. In fourth year, the impostor of mad-eye Moody had turned Malfoy into a ferret and bounced him of the walls. It was a great memory and one that made it a lot easier to deal with Malfoy by just reminding him of it.
So the trio found themselves walking to the Defence against the dark arts classroom albeit 5 minutes before the start of the lesson. They were surprised to find Professor Hidellbank already there.
The classroom was very different from the year before. All the desks had been pushed to the side against the walls and there was a large mat covering the floor.
"I take it this is a practical?" said Hermione, glancing round the room.
"Hidellbank nodded, "tried to get Snape down here to practice hexes on but he wouldn't have any of it. Got us a horrible goblin instead."
All three of them raised their eyes at that comment and she smiled at them.
"Where not doing them today actually, its some basic stuff like blocking spells and spells that push people away. All very useful." she continued "you can put your bags down on the desks on the left"
It didn't take long for everyone to arrive and Harry was impressed to see that the Professor had separated the two houses bags onto different sides of the room. Very sensible of her he thought to himself, very sensible of Malfoy to as he was keeping well away from himself and the Professor.
"Right, now i have your undivided attention I want you to sit on the mat and listen" Began Hidellbank. Everyone immediately sat down.
"Excellent, right, as you all know I'm here to teach you how to defend yourself from anything nasty...that is if you wish to" she glared at Malfoy "Today we're starting with a simple blocking spell which will protect you from attackers. Of course, it doesn't work against close up, but it gives you the chance to run whilst being fairly protected or fight back"
She looked round at them all and pointed at Neville.
"Longbottom right?"
He nodded, looking pretty terrified.
"Great, get up here"
He stood up nervously and stood by her.
"Know any hexes?"
"Erm...yeah" he stuttered
"Doesn't mean he can do 'em" muttered Malfoy from the back.
"Maybe you'd like him to demonstrate one on you Mr Malfoy" she said coldly, shutting him up immediately.
"Right Neville, I want you to try and hex me after I've done this spell ok"
He nodded several times and raised his wand, waiting.
"orv shieldus" she said calmly and Neville put the Jelly legs hex on her to no good effect.
She smiled at him and nodded back to his place.
"See?" she said "a useful shield. Now, you can try one by one and I'll hex you and see if it works"
She did exactly that and to Harry's amusement both Crabbe and Goyle failed to produce the shield first time round. For a few seconds Crabbe went purple and Goyle had jelly legs.
Neville's didn't work first time round either but she merely gave him pink hair. Obviously she was trying to be kind to him and give him confidence Harry thought, which was good.
They did a simple block that deflected wizards and witches getting too near for the second half of the lesson. This provided some entertainment as Ron's block was actually very strong and deflected poor Hermione several meters. Although he looked apologetic he was obviously quite proud. Harry had pushed poor Neville back into the wall with his block whereas Harry was moved all of 30 cm by Neville's. Neville seemed too happy with the fact it worked at all however to care about how far he could push him away.
The end of the lesson came and Harry found he didn't want to go which was pretty unusual for him. The trio where the last three in there though as Hermione seemed keen to wait and talk to the new teacher.
"Professor, are we going to do any strong blocks, like the one's around Hogwarts in this lesson?" asked Hermione cautiously.
"No, not in the class lesson. To many....erm dubious people, we'll be doing it in your extra lesson" she replied calmly, "Snape told me your an avid reader and would probably want a book, so I took the liberty of finding you the best one."
Hidellbank opened her desk and passed her a fairly tatty black book.
"Its my copy so don't lose it, but its a good book, its for people going on to study the subject after school, so its very concise and has more than you'd usually learn in."
Hermione looked delighted and thanked the Professor profusely.
"You've got a private lesson tonight at eight Harry if you want one" she said, "Dumbledore said you might like a few, thought you might like to get going pretty quick and all"
"That's fine" said Harry, "I'd like to get some practise in"
"Good lad" the Professor muttered "Now go on, you'll be wanting to get ready for dinner"
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
On the way back to the Gryffindor tower Harry was delighted to see Remus Lupin. He'd only seen Lupin and his uncle, Sirius Black, once, and that was in Dubledore's office.
"How are you doing Harry? Ron Hermione?" he asked, sounding very happy to see them. They all told him they were fine and this seemed to make his already large smile grow.
"Marvellous!" he exclaimed heartily "I'm so glad to see you all, i was hoping i'd run into you. Sirius and I would have come to see you earlier but we've been so busy with everything. We wont be back for a few days now Harry though, we need to go fetch a couple of people still and so on"
Harry nodded, but he was a little disappointed.
"When we come back though, were organising a nice lunch for the five of us, maybe seven is Dumbledore and McGonagall want to join us" Lupin said, looking rather hopeful.
"Sound's great" piped in Ron enthusiastically, which made Lupin laugh.
"Very good" said Lupin happily; "I'll be seeing you all then"
With that he strolled of down the corridor towards Dumbledore's office leaving them to make their way back to the common room and get changed for dinner.
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Harry Potter and the Black Unicorn (part 5)- Learning Defence
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Harry returned to the Gryffindor tower at 12.15pm and was mildly surprised but relieved to find no one up. Or so he thought. He'd only got to the bottom of the stairs leading to the boys dormitories when he realised this wasn't the case.
"Harry, where have you been?" Hermione's voice cut into the silence. Harry turned to find Hermione and Ron standing by the fire, they must have been sitting in the armchairs facing away from him when he came in.
"For a walk" he replied curtly.
"That we already know" replied Ron, giving Harry a slight smile, "you've been ages"
Harry nodded, "needed to clear my head."
This seemed to be all the reply they needed as they both nodded.
"What's that Harry?" asked Hermione, looking at the bottle in his hands.
"Butterbeer" replied Harry; it was half empty now, as he'd been drinking it on the way back to the tower.
"Cool" said Ron "where did you get it?"
"That's my secret" Harry said, giving them a smile. He doubted they'd like hearing that Snape gave it to him. Actually, he doubted they'd like the idea of Harry going to talk to him, that's why he'd not told them.
"Well, night" he said, breaking the silence before he carried on up the stairs and went to bed. It was several minutes until he heard Ron come into the room and get into bed.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The next morning on the way down to breakfast Harry told Ron and Hermione about his meeting with Malfoy in the corridor the night before. He stopped the story before the part where Hidellbank said about hoping Malfoy would come good though, and certainly didn't tell them about Snape. He needed to process these things in his own mind before telling his friends.
Breakfast was a fairly quite affair and Harry could see what Snape meant about everyone looking stressed and worried. The atmosphere was almost tense in the great hall. Ginny managed to keep conversation alive on the Gryffindor table by talking about Hogsmede. She'd never been before but she could now she was a third year and there was a trip planned for Saturday. However, Harry was unsure whether Dumbledore would let him go or not.
Fred and George Weasley told he about the joke shop there, but even they were fairly quite. Ron didn't say a word until after they had finished eating.
"We've got defence against the dark arts today, after lunch. I reckon she looks like she'll be a good teacher"
"I think so" said Harry, nodding as he said it, "Sn...Everyone thinks highly of her"
Harry was relieved he'd stopped himself saying that Snape thought highly of her because they'd ask questions. Hermione smiled, Harry didn't know whether that was relief that Ron had spoke or the fact she was looking forward to lessons. Knowing her it was probably a mix of both. To be honest, he was looking forward to it. He wanted to get going with these lessons although the idea of having Slytherin there was not fun.
"Malfoy'll probably try hex us," Hermione muttered. Harry grinned; it was like she had read his mind.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The morning had passed fairly quickly. Hermione had been in the library for most of it whilst Ron and Harry had played chess. Then all three of them had gone to see Dobby the House Elf in the kitchens. He seemed very happy to see them and had given Harry socks he had made him. They were ghastly odd socks, one yellow, one orange, but Harry said thank you anyway.
Lunch had gone similarly fast although the conversation had got a bit silly after Ron had reminded them of Malfoy the ferret. In fourth year, the impostor of mad-eye Moody had turned Malfoy into a ferret and bounced him of the walls. It was a great memory and one that made it a lot easier to deal with Malfoy by just reminding him of it.
So the trio found themselves walking to the Defence against the dark arts classroom albeit 5 minutes before the start of the lesson. They were surprised to find Professor Hidellbank already there.
The classroom was very different from the year before. All the desks had been pushed to the side against the walls and there was a large mat covering the floor.
"I take it this is a practical?" said Hermione, glancing round the room.
"Hidellbank nodded, "tried to get Snape down here to practice hexes on but he wouldn't have any of it. Got us a horrible goblin instead."
All three of them raised their eyes at that comment and she smiled at them.
"Where not doing them today actually, its some basic stuff like blocking spells and spells that push people away. All very useful." she continued "you can put your bags down on the desks on the left"
It didn't take long for everyone to arrive and Harry was impressed to see that the Professor had separated the two houses bags onto different sides of the room. Very sensible of her he thought to himself, very sensible of Malfoy to as he was keeping well away from himself and the Professor.
"Right, now i have your undivided attention I want you to sit on the mat and listen" Began Hidellbank. Everyone immediately sat down.
"Excellent, right, as you all know I'm here to teach you how to defend yourself from anything nasty...that is if you wish to" she glared at Malfoy "Today we're starting with a simple blocking spell which will protect you from attackers. Of course, it doesn't work against close up, but it gives you the chance to run whilst being fairly protected or fight back"
She looked round at them all and pointed at Neville.
"Longbottom right?"
He nodded, looking pretty terrified.
"Great, get up here"
He stood up nervously and stood by her.
"Know any hexes?"
"Erm...yeah" he stuttered
"Doesn't mean he can do 'em" muttered Malfoy from the back.
"Maybe you'd like him to demonstrate one on you Mr Malfoy" she said coldly, shutting him up immediately.
"Right Neville, I want you to try and hex me after I've done this spell ok"
He nodded several times and raised his wand, waiting.
"orv shieldus" she said calmly and Neville put the Jelly legs hex on her to no good effect.
She smiled at him and nodded back to his place.
"See?" she said "a useful shield. Now, you can try one by one and I'll hex you and see if it works"
She did exactly that and to Harry's amusement both Crabbe and Goyle failed to produce the shield first time round. For a few seconds Crabbe went purple and Goyle had jelly legs.
Neville's didn't work first time round either but she merely gave him pink hair. Obviously she was trying to be kind to him and give him confidence Harry thought, which was good.
They did a simple block that deflected wizards and witches getting too near for the second half of the lesson. This provided some entertainment as Ron's block was actually very strong and deflected poor Hermione several meters. Although he looked apologetic he was obviously quite proud. Harry had pushed poor Neville back into the wall with his block whereas Harry was moved all of 30 cm by Neville's. Neville seemed too happy with the fact it worked at all however to care about how far he could push him away.
The end of the lesson came and Harry found he didn't want to go which was pretty unusual for him. The trio where the last three in there though as Hermione seemed keen to wait and talk to the new teacher.
"Professor, are we going to do any strong blocks, like the one's around Hogwarts in this lesson?" asked Hermione cautiously.
"No, not in the class lesson. To many....erm dubious people, we'll be doing it in your extra lesson" she replied calmly, "Snape told me your an avid reader and would probably want a book, so I took the liberty of finding you the best one."
Hidellbank opened her desk and passed her a fairly tatty black book.
"Its my copy so don't lose it, but its a good book, its for people going on to study the subject after school, so its very concise and has more than you'd usually learn in."
Hermione looked delighted and thanked the Professor profusely.
"You've got a private lesson tonight at eight Harry if you want one" she said, "Dumbledore said you might like a few, thought you might like to get going pretty quick and all"
"That's fine" said Harry, "I'd like to get some practise in"
"Good lad" the Professor muttered "Now go on, you'll be wanting to get ready for dinner"
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
On the way back to the Gryffindor tower Harry was delighted to see Remus Lupin. He'd only seen Lupin and his uncle, Sirius Black, once, and that was in Dubledore's office.
"How are you doing Harry? Ron Hermione?" he asked, sounding very happy to see them. They all told him they were fine and this seemed to make his already large smile grow.
"Marvellous!" he exclaimed heartily "I'm so glad to see you all, i was hoping i'd run into you. Sirius and I would have come to see you earlier but we've been so busy with everything. We wont be back for a few days now Harry though, we need to go fetch a couple of people still and so on"
Harry nodded, but he was a little disappointed.
"When we come back though, were organising a nice lunch for the five of us, maybe seven is Dumbledore and McGonagall want to join us" Lupin said, looking rather hopeful.
"Sound's great" piped in Ron enthusiastically, which made Lupin laugh.
"Very good" said Lupin happily; "I'll be seeing you all then"
With that he strolled of down the corridor towards Dumbledore's office leaving them to make their way back to the common room and get changed for dinner.
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