Disclaimer: The characters that look familiar to you belong to J. K. Rowling. The ones you cannot find in any of her books are mine. I don't intend to make any money out of this. I'm just having some fun.

Summer Courses

The first days after the attacks went by in a flash. Most of the members of the Order went back to their usual jobs, and only Mrs. Weasley, Sirius and Lupin stayed at Grimmauld Place. Of course, the Grangers and the Dursleys were still there, but they stayed mostly in their rooms, the Dursleys out of fear, the Grangers, because they didn't want to be cumbersome.

While Harry went on planning with Lupin the defence classes -which had been postponed until Dumbledore decided if and where to they were going to move headquarters-, Ron and Hermione helped Sirius to clean the house. The twins, against their parents' wishes, went back to Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes, because they didn't want their blooming business to fall into nothingness. And Ginny mostly followed her mother around and helped her in the kitchen or in the house.

To everybody's surprise, in the evening Arthur and Molly Weasley received the following letter from Sabella Santos, the Head at St. Mungo's:

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley,

I'm writing to you, in the first place, to thank you for the help your family offered us in dealing with the aftermath of the Death Eaters' attacks that devastated the wizarding community yesterday. George, Ron and Ginny worked all very hard and professionally, and you have all the reason in the world to feel proud of them all.

As you may suppose, I'm sending similar letters to the parents of all the volunteers, but in your case, I have a special request to make which, let me make it very explicit, you are in no way obliged to comply with.

Once the worst was over and St. Mungo's staff was able to cope with the remaining injured people, other healers and myself took the time to check the healing charms cast by the volunteers, because we are very much aware that most of them are still underage and we thought some of their spells might not be completely right. I must say that we were astounded to find that most of the spells were not only correctly cast, but also very well chosen. I was personally impressed by your daughter's work. She seems to have a special intuition to know which healing charm is best for every injury, and when we talked to the patients she had been treating, they had only good words for her. It seems Ginny not only knows how to heal, but she also knows how to address the injured while she works. Let me tell you that putting an injured person's mind at rest is as important as healing the wound itself in most cases.

You must be wondering why am I telling you all this, so I'll go straight to the point. Although St. Mungo's staff is able to cope with the work we have at present, we are afraid that yesterday's attacks will repeat themselves soon enough. In preparation for that possible scenario -which we heartily hope will never be real-, we have decided to train some of the volunteers who worked for us yesterday, so that they can be even more helpful in the future. Ginny, of course, was immediately top in our list of possible trainees.

As we know this young people would probably rather enjoy their holidays with their families, we have thought we should offer them something more than the simply possibility of learning, so we finally came up with the idea that they could work for us eight hours a day, and we'd pay them accordingly.

If Ginny should be interested in joining us during the summer and you don't oppose her decision, please, tell her to be here tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. I'll meet with all the future trainees in my office and we will talk then about the conditions of the training. She should bring this letter and show it to the welcomewitch, who will tell her which plant she has to go to.

Hoping you approve my proposal and we see Ginny tomorrow, I thank you once more and wish you a healthy and safe summer.

Yours sincerely,

Sabella Santos,

Head of St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Member of the International Confederation of Wizards.

Arthur and Molly had obviously been glad that Ginny would have the chance to train herself as a healer. Mrs. Weasley had some misgivings because she was worried that St. Mungo's could be attacked too, but Ginny managed to convince her. She always did in the end. It was one of the advantages of being the youngest child of seven, and also the only girl.

The young witch was very happy herself, not only because she had always wanted to become a healer and this summer she would have an excellent opportunity to really try it and see if that's what she wanted to be for life, but also because it meant she would earn some money, and thus could buy herself some nice clothes and things her parents couldn't very well afford.

When her mother gave her Mrs. Santos' letter so that she could read it, Ginny was so happy that she run upstairs to tell Ron, Hermione and Harry, who were currently chatting over their OWLs in the boys' room. She regretted it immediately, though, because only Harry seemed to be genuinely happy for her. The boy looked a little bit taken aback too when Ron and Hermione didn't jump from the bed to congratulate Ginny, and only smiled at her half-heartedly. The girl left the room, a little bit disheartened, and went to the Blacks' library in search of some books on healing charms. She wanted to borrow them from Sirius and take them to St. Mungo's. Her idea was that, if Mrs. Santos approved of the books, she would study them in the evenings to reinforce what she learned during the day.

"What?" Harry asked Ron and Hermione when Ginny left the room. "Aren't you happy for Ginny?" The boy was really surprised and couldn't understand their friends' reaction.

"Of course we are, Harry!" Hermione assured him, but Harry knew her too well and could see that something was bothering her.

"Sure I'm happy!" Ron said.

"So..." Harry wasn't going to let the subject drop so easily.

"Well..." Ron turned a little bit red, "it's just that I'm the only one who still doesn't bring money home. I don't know, I guess I'm just being silly, but I find it strange that Ginny should have a job and earn her own money before I do. I mean, I'm a year older, aren't I? Fred and George are making lots of money too, and Bill, Percy and Charlie all have their jobs. Now I feel like the little kid at home, still needing to ask my parents for money to buy every single thing. I don't know, it feels weird."

Harry sighed. He thought Ron was being a little bit selfish, but he hadn't siblings, so he didn't know how it felt and couldn't criticise his friend's attitude. He still thought that Ron had been wrong in not feeling happy for her sister. It was obvious this training thing meant a lot to Ginny. Harry then turned to Hermione: "What about you? You didn't look very happy either."

"Oh, I am, Harry," Hermione insisted. "I guess I was just surprised, you know. I mean, Ginny is so young, she hasn't even passed her OWLs yet... but I know she is very good, best of her year in fact, so I guess it's all right..." She then turned her attention back to the parchment she had been perusing when Ginny had interrupted them.

Harry didn't press the matter further. Hermione hadn't said it, but Harry had understood it very clearly: Hermione was jealous of Ginny. She had been at St. Mungo's too, and being a year older, she probably thought Mrs. Santos should have asked her too to join the training sessions at St. Mungo's. Being at headquarters was fine, but cleaning the house was really boring, and they had done it the previous summer, so it wasn't so exciting any more. Still, Harry thought it was just fair that Ginny should have her chance to be 'above' them for once. To say the truth, they had always treated her like their inferior. Being younger, she was never informed of the things they knew and they had often left her out of important things, for instance, when they had found out that Sirius was innocent of the crimes he was accused of. He'd have to remember to ask Ginny about her training the very next day, because he was sure Ron and Hermione would probably ignore her.

So the next day, Mr. Weasley dropped Ginny at St. Mungo's on his way to the Ministry. She didn't need to ask where to go, though, because she immediately saw some familiar faces waiting in the reception area. She approached them.

"Hi!" She said cheerfully.

Two people stopped talking and turned to look at her.

"Oh, hi!" Cho looked almost ecstatic to see Ginny there.

"Ginny, hi!" Neville looked very happy too.

"You are here for the training I guess?" The redhead asked. Both of them nodded. "I was so excited when my mum gave me the letter!" She shrieked, happy to share her news with somebody who looked really happy for her.

"Me too!" Neville exclaimed. "To be honest, I've always wanted to be a healer, you know, because of my parents..." His voice trembled a little, but he still looked cheerful. "I want to be close to them as much as I can, and maybe in the future someone will find a cure, you know."

Cho and Ginny smiled at him reassuringly.

"Of course they will," Cho said, "with Voldemort back, I'm sure the Ministry will foster once more the research of the Unforgivables. They are bound to find something sooner or later."

Neville looked hopeful, and then laughed a bit. "You know, I was really surprised when my grandma told me she had received Mrs. Santos' letter. I mean, I'm not really good at magic, I'm almost a squib. My grandma thought there had been a mistake and came with me this morning to clarify things, but the welcomewitch told her I was on the list, so she went back home."

Ginny turned very serious at this. "Neville, I think we have talked this over before, you just need someone to trust in you, that's all. When Professor Lupin was at Hogwarts, your marks went up in every subject, not just his, because you felt you could do things and someone believed in you, and that's all you really need. You are a great wizard, Neville. Look at what you did when we went to the Ministry!"

"Oh, you'll have to give me the details of that," Cho said. "I still want to know what happened exactly."

"Maybe during meals..." Neville said, but he looked as if his mind was elsewhere. "Still..." he said, going back to the old subject, "I wonder why Mrs. Santos would choose me. I mean, I only took the patients from one place to another. In your case, I can understand it, because you were both actually healing people, but I didn't really have the chance to show if I could do it or not."

Ginny and Cho were thinking Neville had a point in that when a voice took them all out of their musings. "That would be, Mr. Longbottom, because a good healer doesn't only need to be a good wizard and know his charms. Charms can be learned, but the charisma to make people trust in you, relax or even stop complaining for a while... well, that's something you have or you haven't, and it can't be learned. You obviously have something people like. You look kind and reliable, and that's exactly what injured and ill people need: someone they can trust in. When I visited the patients who had been treated by the volunteers, I found out that many mentioned you as well. They said you had made them feel a little bit less nervous while they waited to be healed, and they remembered you afterwards. That's why I wanted you to come today, Mr. Longbottom." Sabella Santos gave them all a moment to reflect on her words, and then turned to more immediate matters: "And now that Miss Bones here has joined us, maybe our little meeting can begin. Please, follow me."

Ginny, Cho and Neville smiled at Susan Bones, who had come with Mrs. Santos, and then they all went to the woman's office in the last floor of the building. Three of the office walls were covered with different kind of posters and pictures depicting lists of healing herbs, recipes of potions and some schemes of the magical energy centres in the human body, but the fourth wall was really amazing. It was made of crystal, it was divided in different sections, and reflected on each of them you could see what was going on in each and every floor of the hospital.

"I like to keep an eye on everything," Mrs. Santos said with a wink. "Please, take a sit."

The woman proceeded then to hand a parchment to each of them. "I've taken the liberty to ask my assistant to write down the training contract. I'll give you time to read it carefully, and you can take it home and show it to your parents before signing it, of course, but first I'll summarise for you the main points." They all nodded, so she went on. "The staff here at St. Mungo's, myself included, were very happy with your work a couple of days ago, for different reasons. As you all seem to have different ages and thus, a different knowledge of magic, I've decided you will be trained by a healer each instead of being all together all of the time. In this way, the healer you are assigned to will be able to insist in the points you have more difficulty with and won't need to repeat other things you might already know. For instance, Miss Weasley and Miss Chang here showed a vast knowledge of healing charms, while Miss Bones and Mr. Longbottom were both a great help in reassuring people. Both skills are needed in our profession, and we'll try to further your knowledge and practice of both of them. Now..." She paused for a moment while searching for a parchment on her table, which she then kept on her hands while she went on talking. "As you'll be trained by a healer each, we thought it would be better if you just adjusted yourselves to the working times of the healer you'll be with. That means sometimes you'll work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but sometimes you'll have to work from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. and other days you'll have to be here from 1 a.m. to 9 a.m. You'll have two free days a week, but it doesn't mean it will be on a weekend, it might be during the week too. And you'll have to be available in case of emergency. Understood so far?"

They all nodded once more, so Mrs. Santos went on with her explanation: "Ok, point two then. You'll be with the healer you are assigned to all of the time. This means, of course, that you'll probably have to witness very unpleasant things, see the effect of many courses, probably see some blood, and maybe even see someone die." She looked intently at them all. It was obvious they looked a little bit paler, but otherwise they looked still determined to take this chance. "Point three... You'll eat here the meals due during the working hours you are at the hospital. If you work overnight, you'll have a break too and you are obliged to eat something, because it will help you stand on your feet. It might feel a little bit strange at the beginning to have a steak at 3 a.m., but you cannot work 8 hours without eating something solid in between. Your stomach will get used to it, so don't worry much about that. And fourth... As you're gonna obviously benefit from the training, you won't be paid a whole salary, but still will get some money at the end of every month, since you'll be working for us too. If you look at the contract now, you'll see the amount printed under number 7. As you see, it's only one hundred galleons, which is exactly half of what a healer without much experience usually earns. Of course, wages increase proportionally to the experience and skill of the healer".

Ginny almost fainted. One hundred galleons? As far as she knew that was almost as much as his father earned, and he was Head of Department! She looked at her companions for a moment, to see how they took this incredible news. Susan Bones and Neville didn't even blink twice, it was obvious money was not an item at their homes. Cho looked quite astonished for a moment, but then turned her attention back to Mrs. Santos' words.

"Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to make you some questions, and please, I would like a sincere answer, ok?" She didn't wait for their reply, but started straight away:

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen," Susan replied.

"Fourteen," Ginny said.

"Sixteen," Cho answered.

"Fifteen," Neville said.

"Ok." Mrs. Santos was writing down everything they said. "Hogwarts' house and year?"

"Hufflepuff, I'm gonna start my sixth year," Susan said.

"Gryffindor, I'm gonna start my fifth year," Ginny told her.

"Ravenclaw, I'm gonna start my seventh year," Cho said.

"Gryffindor, I'm gonna start my sixth year," Neville replied.

"Best and worst subject at school?"

"My best subject is Herbology and my worst one is Astronomy," Susan said.

"My best is Charms and my worst is History of Magic," Ginny said.

"My best is Transfiguration and my worst is Muggle Studies," Cho said.

"My best is Herbology and my worst is Potions," Neville said with a grimace.

"Potions?" Mrs. Santos asked. Neville nodded. "You'll need to work a lot on that subject then, dear, because potions are very important in our profession." Mrs. Santos said, and wrote something more next to Neville's name. The boy swallowed, a little bit worried at this.

"Finally, what would you like to be when you finish school?"

"A journalist," Susan Bones said.

"A healer," Ginny said without hesitation.

Cho answered next: "Well, I'd like to play Quidditch professionally, but I'm aware I could only be that while I'm young, so I had thought of becoming a healer afterwards, or maybe a teacher."

"Do you know that professional Quidditch teams have their own healers, Miss Chang?" Mrs. Santos asked her.

"Well, yeah, I've heard of them, but I guess they travel a lot around, and I'm not sure if I want to be so close to a Quidditch pitch if I'm not playing myself..." Cho confessed.

Mrs. Santos laughed. "Very well, I understand your point of view. What about you, Mr. Longbottom?"

"I had always wanted to become a healer, Madam, but I'm not sure I got the needed marks in my OWLs," Neville answered with a sad smile.

"I see..." Mrs. Santos said thoughtfully while chewing her quill. "Well, you never know with the OWLs, sometimes you get better marks than you expected." She said. "Now my dears, are you still interested in taking part of this training during the summer? Take into account that you won't have holidays before school starts again." Four heads nodded firmly, and Mrs. Santos smiled happily. "Very well, then," she said, and then turned to her right and sounded a small bell 4 times. Susan, Ginny, Cho and Neville looked at each other, wondering what was Mrs. Santos doing. They didn't have time to ask though, because after a moment the door to her office opened and four people entered the room.

"Thanks for coming," Mrs. Santos said. "I've had a most delightful conversation with our new trainees and I wanted to introduce you to them now. If you'd please come over here..."

The four people walked over to her and stood behind her chair.

"I'm sure you had the chance to meet some of my colleagues the other day, but just in case, let me introduce them to you. They are gonna take care of your training." Susan, Ginny, Cho and Neville moved a little bit nervously in their seats.

"First of all, we have Madam Pomfrey, whom I'm sure you all know." Hogwarts' matron smiled cheerfully at them all and they smiled back while nodding. "Madam Pomfrey will be in charge of Miss Bones, because she was very good with the kids, and Madam Pomfrey has a lot of experience in that area too, so I thought you could work very well together." Susan smiled heartily at Madam Pomfrey, she had always liked the woman.

"Then we have Ms. Guillaume, Head of the Magical Bugs Floor." The tall black woman who had attended Bill in St. Mungo's bowed at them. "Miss Weasley, you'll be working with her." Ginny was beyond herself with joy. She was going to work alongside the woman who had given Bill a chance to live, and ashanrii, nonetheless! Ms. Guillaume looked a little bit surprised herself though, but she didn't complain.

"To my left we have Ms. Zaidre, Head of the Creature-Induced Injuries Floor." A beautiful dark-skinned girl smiled at them. "She'll be in charge of Miss Chang." Cho looked the woman in the eye and smiled again.

"And finally, we have someone you all must probably know by now too, Mr. Ming." Benjamin Ming smiled at them all and said:

"I don't think I met Miss Bones the other day."

"No, I don't think so," Susan confirmed.

"Oh, ok, then, so now you know each other too," Mrs. Santos said pleasantly, and then confirmed everybody's guess: "Mr. Ming will train Mr. Longbottom." Benjamin smiled encouragingly at Neville, although he looked a little bit displeased with something, and he crossed a look with Ms. Guillaume.

Mrs. Santos seemed to notice, because she said: "I had agreed with my colleagues a different assignation before talking to you. Basically, Mr. Ming was supposed to be training Miss Weasley and Ms. Guillaume was supposed to be in charge of Mr. Longbottom, but during our conversation Mr. Longbottom here happened to mention that he has some trouble with potions, and as you are the best at that Benjamin, I changed the assignation without consulting you. I hope you don't mind." She added, looking at Benjamin and Ms. Guillaume. They shook their heads and assured her they would be delighted to train any of the four young people, as they had all done an excellent job a couple of days ago, so the matter was closed. It was definitely so for Ms. Guillaume, but it was obvious Benjamin wasn't very happy with the change, and Neville wondered if he remembered him from his time at Hogwarts. Being a Slytherin, Benjamin was probably familiar with Neville's disastrous work in potions, as it was a subject of frequent jokes between the Slytherins.

"Well, and now the assignation is made and you have your contract, maybe you'd like to have a drink with your respective mentors and talk about timetables, books and any other thing you'd like to discuss. Tomorrow I expect you to bring me the contract signed by yourselves and your parents or guardians, and then you'll start the real training." After those final words, Mrs. Santos stood to shake Susan's, Ginny's, Cho's and Neville's hand in turn. They all thanked her for her interest in them and left the office, followed by the four healers.

Once in the refectory of the hospital, they ordered some drinks and sat in pairs at different tables to discuss the classes. Ms. Guillaume seemed to be very nice, although very strict. She gave Ginny her timetable and a list of books she should read as reference. They talked about them for a while, and then Ginny took off the books she had borrowed from Sirius and asked Ms. Guillaume if they were reliable sources too. The woman leafed through them, but finally said:

"I'm afraid I don't know the authors. I've been working in St. Mungo's for the last twenty years, but I still live in France, where I was born, and I must admit I'm more familiar with the articles and books published in my native country than here. Poppy is too isolated in Hogwarts and Zaira Zaidre is a foreigner too, but Benjamin might know them, you can ask him afterwards." The woman said, and gave the books back to Ginny. "By the way, you don't need to buy the books on my list, you should be able to find them in the hospital's library. You can read them while I work on reports and the like. We won't be working with patients all of the time. You can take them home with you too if you want, of course, but remember you need to rest a bit and enjoy yourself at home too, ok?"

Ginny nodded. "Thanks again, Ms. Guillaume," she said.

"Oh, please, call me Grace, Ms. Guillaume makes me feel old," the woman said, and winked at her before going back to her work.

As Neville seemed to have finished too, Ginny went over and greeted Benjamin once more. "Hi! Thanks again for your help with my brothers the other day," the girl said.

"Any time," Benjamin smiled back. "I hope they are completely recovered by now."

"Oh, yes, they are. They must be back at work right now." Ginny said, and then showed him the books she was carrying. "I wanted to ask you if you happen to know these books. I borrowed them from a friend, but I don't know if the authors are reliable or not."

Benjamin took the books from her and examined them for a while. "These two are ok, but very basic, I'm sure you'd find them boring. This one is absolutely rubbish, you can tell your friend to throw it away. This one is quite interesting, but maybe it would be too difficult for you right now. Wait a couple of weeks, and then you can give it a try. If you have any questions about the book or any other thing, you can ask me anytime, although I'm not your mentor." He said, and Ginny, as Neville, had the feeling that Benjamin wasn't too happy with the change of partners, although she couldn't imagine why.

Susan, Cho, Ginny and Neville left together and wished good luck to each other before going their separate ways. Susan would start with the evening shift the next day, and Neville had the night shift with Benjamin, but Cho and Ginny would be working both during the day, so they'd probably see each other on the corridors of St. Mungo's.

***

Harry had almost jumped from joy when Remus had told him he wanted to see what he and Sirius could do. They were going to duel with the werewolf.

Now Sirius, Harry and Remus were in the improvised classroom, getting used to walking on the soft floor. Remus moved freely around the room, the wolf in him was helping him keep his balance, but Sirius and Harry had ended up on their knees more times than they cared to count.

"Come on, gentlemen," Remus said amused, "how are you gonna stand my spells if you fall on your own."

"It's a diversionary tactic," Sirius grunted, standing once more.

Lupin waved his wand and stone blocks appeared in front of Harry and Sirius. They looked very solid and reached to Harry's chest. On closer inspection, though, they turned out to be very soft too.

"All right," Remus said, "you can use those to protect yourselves from my attacks."

"What about you?" Sirius inquired.

"I won't use any cover just yet," Remus said.

Harry's eyes rounded with surprise, but Sirius just fell once more to the floor, this time laughing. When he finally managed to control his mirth, he turned to Remus. "A little bit overconfident, aren't we?"

Remus just shrugged. "Well, if you get me, I might change my mind. Let's start, shall we?"

Harry stood behind his 'stone' and readied his wand. "Who begins?" He asked.

"You can both attack me first, then I'll retaliate, ok?" Remus suggested.

Sirius started laughing again. He wiped some tears of laughter from his eyes and then winked at Harry. "Ok, Mister Moony, as you wish, but I'm afraid this class is going to be very short, because the teacher is going to be soon panting on the floor."

"Don't worry about that, Sirius, we have almost two months anyway. And it's Professor Lupin, if you don't mind."

Sirius laughed some more. "Sure, Professor," he said with an exaggerated bow.

Harry couldn't help but have the feeling that the one showing overconfidence was his godfather. He had never seen Professor Lupin boasting of his skills, and he suspected it wouldn't be so easy to hit the werewolf.

"Right, on the count of three," Sirius said. "One... two... THREE!"

Harry threw a Stunning spell at Lupin while Sirius attacked him with a Jelly-Legs spell. Too bad for them, since Lupin deflected their attack with a mirroring spell. Harry dived in time, but Sirius fell to the soft floor with his legs looking like very large and strange slugs.

"Finite Incantatem!" Lupin said. "Very well, Harry, but next time I want you to attack me again immediately, ok? If you just dive and wait, when you try to get out I'll be ready to hit you. Forget we are on the same side for a while, just picture me as a Death Eater trying to kill you and fight as you would in a real situation, ok?" Harry nodded. Lupin turned then to Sirius, who was standing again, looking a little bit disgruntled. "Speculum," he explained, "the mirroring spell. It sends back the curses thrown at you by your enemies. It allows you to deflect up to ten curses at once, varying depending on the magical power of the attackers, and allows you to protect yourself and hit back at the same time. Lily's favourite." Harry swallowed for a moment. Lupin looked back at him. "We are not sure, but we suspect that's the one she used to protect you from Voldemort, it would explain why his curse backfired when he tried to kill you fifteen years ago." Harry nodded and looked at the floor. He would be sure to never forget that spell.

"Ok," Lupin said, "once more."

Sirius started counting again: "One.. two... THREE!"

This time, Harry repeated his Stunning spell but when he dived behind his 'stone' he was already thinking in the next spell. Sirius had changed to a Stunning spell too this time. It would be less disturbing if Remus hit him back again. This time, though, Lupin changed the tactic. He just kneeled very quickly to avoid both spells and then tried to stun Sirius. His friend was on his guard this time, and dived in time. Harry came out of his hiding place to attack Lupin while he was concentrated on Sirius, but the werewolf was faster and jumped aside. Before Harry could hide again, he had been hit. Sirius came out and shouted "Stupefy!" Remus threw himself to the floor and rolled. Sirius tried to get him, but Remus shielded himself from his spells and attacked back. Sirius was able to avoid being hit four or five times more, but finally joined Harry on the floor.

"Finite Incantatem!" Lupin said once more, but he sounded a little bit more tired this time. "Better, both of you," he said. "You might want to co-ordinate your attack a bit. You are both fighting against the same enemy. Try to help each other or to take advantage of the other's attack. One more time, come on."

Sirius and Harry stood once more. They looked at each other and then at Lupin. At Sirius' shout of 'three!', Sirius hit Remus with the Desaungeo curse and his teeth started to grow at an alarming rate, but he didn't seem to care and was ready to jump aside and avoid Harry's Stunning spell in time. Before any of them could hit him with a second spell, Remus said "Expelliarmus!" with great difficulty, and his opponents' wands flew to his outstretched hand. He then pointed his own wand at his mouth and said, "Finite Incantatem!" His teeth had already reached his chin by then, and Sirius and Harry couldn't hide a small chuckle, although they had lost once more.

"That I've been hit by a curse doesn't mean I'm gonna surrender, so don't relax," Remus warned them. "You thought you got me, but I was still standing and able to use my wand, although I must admit Sirius' spell broke my concentration for a moment. Also, that I have your wands doesn't mean that you have to give up. Of course it's better if you have your wand, but Muggles don't need one to defend themselves, look at Mr. Dursley or Mrs. Granger, for instance, they used a book and a frying pan, and it worked. Magic is your best weapon, but not the only one. Harry, remember you can always use stones, branches, books... anything you can reach, ok? It won't kill your attacker, but it will probably surprise him and give you some time to hide or escape. Carrying your father's Invisibility Cloak with you at all times wouldn't be a bad idea either. And Sirius, what about Padfoot? You could have attacked me in your dog form and you would have probably won. Remember you have an extra power. Don't think in Padfoot only when you want to have fun, think in him all of the time and try to take advantage of his skills. If you ever loose your wand, run at your attacker or run away from him, whichever you think more wise at the time." Harry and Sirius made a mental note of what Lupin told them.

They went on trying to get him some more times, but without success. By the end of the class, which had lasted only an hour, Harry and Sirius were panting and were both nursing small injuries. Although the floor was soft, they had hit each other's head once when diving to avoid Remus' spells, and Harry's glasses had made a small cut on his left cheek when he fell once face down when Remus' Stunning spell hit him. Lupin looked a little bit tired, but certainly not as much as the other two.

"Not bad," he said, "we'll meet again tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. and then in the evening. We'll go on training two hours a day until we move to another place and Dumbledore's Army can join us."

Sirius and Harry nodded tiredly, but grinned a bit too. Their first training session had been very exciting, and they were looking forward to repeating the experience. Of course, they were hoping too they'd finally defeat Remus.

*****

Thanks for the reviews!

Thanks all for reading and reviewing!

Well, I hope you enjoyed Professor Lupin's class, Harry and Sirius certainly did. ;-) What do you think of Ron and Hermione's reaction to Ginny's good news?

In the following chapter... the fuocciris come to Grimmauld Place.

Kady Rilla Wholi: Hi! I missed your review last chapter, I'm glad you are back! Well, Ginny and Neville are certainly gonna spend some time together while at St. Mungo's, let's see...

hermionegreen: Thank you! Each chapter is more difficult than the last. I find myself wanting to tell things I don't know the words for, and that's a little bit irritating, to say the least, but oh, well, I'm still having fun, and this is certainly helping me practice my English. I don't think Dumbledore will take the risk of letting Vernon Dursley meet the fuocciris... :D

goddesgaia: Thanks! I hope you enjoyed this chapter too.

SiriusBlack44: That, coming from none other than Sirius Black himself, is indeed a high compliment. ;-)

DavidCamp: Thank you! :-)

jtyw: Thanks! Here it is. Next chapter should be up soon too. ;-)