The Draught of Living Death Chapter 14: Back to Basic, a harry potter fanfic

The Draught of Living Death

Chapter Fourteen: Back to Basic

"Auror's," Harry heard Madame Hooch's voice ringing out, "Are not only expected to be the smartest, brightest students that Hogwarts produces, they are also expected to be, the fastest, the strongest and the most cunning. If you believe that being an auror is about casting charms, perhaps when you finish this program, you can have a desk job, as for the serious ones, today, we will start refining your flying skills."

"Potter," Madame Hooch called.

"Yes, Ma'am," Harry replied, trying not to be embarrassed.

"Show the class how to perform a left feint, without using a quaffle."

Harry turned and stared at the other students. All five of the kids in this class were training to be Aurors. Aurors in Training, AITs, were the only ones allowed to take the defensive flying course.

Harry flew forward and quickly executed a perfect left feint, he then turned about and landed in front of the other four students. He eyes them carefully as he soared down. One Ravenclaw, two Hufflepuffs, and Ron. He should have already known that no Slytherins would have been approved to be Aurors.

"All right," Madame Hooch blew her whistle. "I want you to spend the rest of this lesson practicing flight with one hand. Go!"

~ * ~

"This isn't fair," Ron muttered as he stretched some of the soreness out of his left hand.

"What? That your right handed on wand and are killing your left arm?"

"No, that we get to start out the day with something as cool as flying, take magical creatures in mid-day and then have to hit double potions and transfiguration too."

"Are you telling me you'd rather have all your bad classes in one day?"

"No," Ron responded, "I'm telling you that I'd like to have a couple good ones. Hagrid's actually assigning homework this term, Madame Hooch wants us to start lifting weight, Snape will probably assign us three parchment rolls of essays, and if we're lucky, we won't kill ourselves in self-transfiguration."

"It's okay," Harry smirked, "According to Ginny we're to going to have a lot of fun in Physics of Magic, Theory of Spellcrafting and History of Magical War tomorrow."

"What does she know about those classes?"

"Bill took Theory of Spellcrafting, Charlie took history of magical war, and Percy took Physics of Magic."

"And we get stuck with all three?"

"Wait 'til next year, I've heard it gets worse."

~ * ~

Ron and Harry had a quick hour of lunch before they had to rush to double potions. To their surprise, they were pulled aside by six seventh year students as soon as they entered the Great Hall.

"I'm Robert," the one who had pulled them aside told them easily. "I'm in Gryffindor." He gestured to the other five in the group. "That's Chris, he's Gryffindor also. Rachel, Serena and Michael are Ravenclaw. There are not any Hufflepuff's in seventh year's group. Adam is in Slytherin. He is the first Slytherin in ten years to train as an Auror."

Harry nodded, now recognizing Robert's voice as Scottish. "What group?" he finally asked, since none of the other four AITs seemed to have the courage to ask.

"We're in second year AIT. You'll find that you will group together as a team, regardless of house. Who are you guys?"

"I'm Harry," Harry started. "This is Ron, we're in Gryffindor." He pointed to the small boy with the dirty blond hair, "That's Thomas, he's Ravenclaw." He then gestured to the boy with black hair, and the girl with red hair. "That's Aiven and Michelle, they're in Hufflepuff."

"You're the leader?" Robert asked Harry.

The five of them looked at each other in question. The two Hufflepuff's nodded, then Thomas followed as well. Finally, Ron shrugged.

"I guess so," Harry said. "What's this about?"

"Every year," Serena began to explain, "The AITs come together as part of the security team for Hogwarts. We help keep night watches, tell the teachers if we hear something they should be concerned about, and make sure students are aware of the dangers around the school. We also look out for the first years."

"Isn't that the prefects' job," Ron asked in confusion.

"On a lower scale, yes," Michael responded.

'The problem with prefects," Adam started, "Is that they have a tendency to only be truly faithful to their own house, so many times they have a tendency to ignore things they shouldn't, it's our job to pick up that slack."

"I am a prefect though," Harry told them. "Isn't that some kind of conflict of interest?"

"Not really," Michael continued, "that actually makes it easier for you to enforce the rules. The biggest part of this," he went on, "is that they actually expect us to form an AIT council. If we didn't we'd probably fail the program."

"So, aside from seven classes, four of which no one else has to take," Aiven interrupted, "We also have to do an AIT council?"

"If you're not up to it," Rachel spoke for the first time, "it's better to pull back now while you're not involved."

Aiven looked at her, slightly worried by the resigned look in her eye. He nodded to Robert, "So we're a council, what do we need to do?"

"Meet in the Room of Requirement, tonight at 9 P.M.," Robert said, "and we'll discuss it. You know where that is, right Harry?"

Harry nodded, slightly uncomfortably.

Robert reached in his pocket and pulled out five brass pins that had the letters AIT molded together. He gave one to each of the five trainees. "Just be there, you'll have a chance to make your decision then."

As they walked away, Michelle visible shuddered. "It's kind of like the fraternity my brother was in," she breathed softly.

"What happened?" Harry asked her, suddenly interested.

"They had to meet secretly, in places no one else had access to, and then they had to perform certain tasks to prove their commitment to the fraternity, even though most of them didn't want to be part of it."

Harry nodded. "We'll just have to remember to keep our heads on straight. However, we now only have fifteen minutes to eat, so we better hurry if we don't want to be late for potions."

All five scattered to their various tables, none of them aware they had already broken the first rule.