In Every Darkness
Chapter Thirty Nine: A Dragons Reasoning
10.9.1996
Harry trailed the headmaster through the halls of Hogwarts, heading towards Dumbledore's office. Harry remained quiet through the journey, keeping his head down to try and avoid notice.
He did not quite succeed. "Hey! Potter!" Malfoy's voice rang out down the corridor. Harry turned wearily, not wanting to waste time on his old rival. "You shouldn't be out here! Detention."
"I wouldn't do that," Harry replied.
"Why not? It's not like you can do anything to me," Malfoy returned, voice cool.
"Yes I can. I'm an honorary prefect now, Malfoy. If you try to give me detention, I can ask the Headmaster to suspend your prefect badge for incorrect behaviour towards a fellow prefect," Harry stated, quietly confident.
"Something I would be only too happy to do, if the circumstances were enough to warrant such actions," Dumbledore said, wandering down a hall way to smile at the two students.
Malfoy shot Harry a hate filled glance, then smiled at Dumbledore. "I'm sorry, Professor. I wasn't aware of Potter's new status, otherwise I wouldn't have stopped him," he said, in a voice almost as oily as Peeves was, when the poltergeist was trying to suck up to the headmaster.
"I'm sure, Mr. Malfoy. You have attempted to do your duty to the school, for which I am grateful. Keep up your good work and it will be rewarded," it was impossible to tell what Dumbledore's emotions were as he spoke. "On your way, both of you."
Harry turned away and continued towards Dumbledore's office, and a moment later his invisible headmaster joined him. "Thanks, Professor," Harry murmured.
"You're welcome Harry. Severus assigned the Prefects from his house. I myself would not have chosen Malfoy as one of them. But Severus had his position in Death Eater ranks to consider."
"Oh," Harry said. Dumbledore must have talked McGonagall over about considering Harry as a Prefect, it seemed. But McGonagall looked to Dumbledore for leadership, and she didn't have to keep the Dark Lord happy anyway.
They arrived at Dumbledore's office a few moments later, without anymore conversation. "I will leave you here," Dumbledore stated. "I'll return in an hour to see how you've got on. Sherbet Lemon," he added, to the gargoyle. He'd apparently changed the password back.
Harry walked inside, hearing Dumbledore's bodiless footsteps walk away. Stepping onto the moving staircase, Harry wondered how Tatsu would greet him. Remembering the last time he'd seen his training master and friend, Harry set his body, ready for combat.
Grypis leapt lightly down from Harry's shoulder to pace a few steps behind him, getting out of the way in case Harry to drop quickly. They approached the door to Dumbledore's office.
Harry knocked on the door, then pushed it open, leaping up and backwards. He was glad that he'd chosen these moves, as Tatsu stepped forward with a sweeping kick.
Harry landed, kicking out quickly, dropping to avoid a punch and coming up directly in front of Tatsu, too close to punch or kick easily.
"Well done. You haven't gotten too sloppy then," Tatsu told him, smiling faintly. Harry smiled back, and walked inside the Headmasters office, stroking Fawkes's head in greeting.
"I'm trying not to," Harry replied. "Good to see I've at least partially succeeded."
Tatsu smiled, dropping into Dumbledore's great chair. Harry took a seat in the smaller chair, put there for students. His eyes were drawn to the Sorting Hat, and Godric Gryffindors sword, behind Tatsu on the shelf.
"How have you been keeping? I've heard that you're once again a hero of Hogwarts," Tatsu teased him.
"It was needed," Harry replied, shrugging slightly. "Though I'd rather it hadn't been."
Tatsu smiled. "That's the thing about being a hero," he admitted. "I got it too – I didn't want to be famous or a hero, but protecting my friends made me one. But that wasn't what I came to talk with you about."
Harry sat forward slightly. What did Tatsu want?
"You asked me, once, why it was that I decided I would train you," Tatsu began, and Harry's interest doubled. Was he going to find out now? "I decided to teach you for several reasons. One was that you were famous and clearly hated it – it was thrust upon you, as it was upon me. Another, however, was that you have a very slight ability as a Modifier."
Harry's heart beat raced in excitement. "Does that mean that I can do what you do, stop killing curses and stuff?" Harry asked, eager.
"No. Your talent is enough for that, but perhaps you could modify it enough that it wouldn't harm you greatly. You'll be able to do a bit of work on it, but I don't know how successful you'll be in that field. It's hard to predict."
"Oh," Harry was a little disappointed. It would have been so nice to be able to stop Avada Kedavra, to be able to control a huge, amazing power of some sort …
"But I will teach you to use what ability you have, starting in the Christmas break. For the moment, we have to decide what sort of training schedule we can have for the next little while at least."
"I meet with DA once a week on Friday afternoons," Harry said. "I'm not sure what's happening with Occlumency lessons, or catching up with Ancient Runes, though I did some work on that over the holidays with Hermione's help, and a mutual friend aided a bit as well," he knew that Tatsu would realise that Harry was talking about Sirius.
"Well, when Dumbledore comes back we'll ask him about that," Tatsu decided. "But if it's possible, it would be good if you could get away once a weekend for a full morning of training and if we could meet up at least twice a week at night for a little bit, just to make sure you keep practicing right."
"I think that it'll be alright to do that, though I don't know what days," Harry agreed. "But studies will eventually interfere with the weekend thing, at least for short periods of time."
"That's fine," Tatsu assured him. "As long as we can get started on some slightly more advanced training soon – you're going to need it when you fight Death Eaters, I think. I'll use that morning to start teaching you to use your Modifier talent."
Harry nodded, and the pair of them talked of 'innocent' things, like their talks with Sirius, though they never mentioned him directly by name.
All too soon, it seemed, Dumbledore had returned. After talking with the headmaster, it was decided that on Sunday mornings, Wednesday nights and Thursday afternoons, Harry would train with Tatsu. On the other nights, apart from Friday, after dinner Harry would be with Dumbledore, working on Occlumency, or learning the last three years of Ancient Runes, either from Dumbledore or from Professor Vector.
"Well, now that that's organised, you may wish to join your friends in the library once more," Dumbledore said, smiling at Harry.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Tatsu," Harry said. Tomorrow would be a Thursday, and that was when Harry's training would start again.
"That you will. I'll meet you at the Room of Requirement – I would rather that the majority of the students weren't aware that I was in the castle. Only tell those that know me already. I don't want the Dark Lord finding out about this – he knows too much already."
Harry nodded and left, having the feeling that the two adults would talk about him once he was gone, but he was sure that they wouldn't say anything too bad. He knew Tatsu well enough to know that his training master and friend would be able to tell if Harry left or not.
With a sigh, Harry headed downstairs, with Grypis riding on his shoulder once more. "I wish they didn't keep reminding me not to tell people," Harry spoke mentally with his friend. "I'm not stupid."
"They don't think you are, but you are young, not as experienced as they at keeping quiet. They are warning you so that in the future you will remember the lessons you are learning now," Grypis replied.
Harry only shrugged slightly, heading for the Gryffindor common room.
"Where were you?" Hermione was on him the moment Harry slipped through the portrait hole. "Where'd you go? You scared us!" at least she kept her voice down.
"Dumbledore came. The Dragon is at Hogwarts, he wanted to talk," Harry replied, hoping she'd understand.
"Drago- oh! Of course. Sorry Harry, but you scared us, disappearing like that," Hermione said.
Harry smiled slightly. "Next time I'll try and remember to warn you before I go racing off anywhere," he promised. "But I can't say for sure."
"As long as you try. Come on, there's a girl with the first years who is a chess expert. She's giving Ron a run for his money," Hermione said, smiling slightly, her anger forgotten.
"Someone could beat Ron?" Harry demanded. "I'm there!" and he was.
Harry felt like he went through the next day in a dream, as he waited for the day to end so that he could spend time with Tatsu, learning new things. He could hardly wait to learn to use his Modifying ability, though somehow he didn't think that Tatsu would be teaching him that quite yet.
Ancient Runes was the only class that Harry really paid attention too, because he had a lot to learn to catch up with everyone else.
Much to Harry's disgust, Draco Malfoy had chosen the subject also, and seemed intent to taunt Harry about it – only the teacher was always close at hand, warning the Slytherin to watch his mouth.
Finally the day was over, the homework – mainly Ancient Runes – was almost completed, and Harry raced to the Room of Requirement, this time remembering to tell his friends where he was going.
When he entered, it was warily, expecting attack. But none came. Tatsu was seated comfortably before a roaring fire, watching the flames and apparently paying no attention to Harry.
Harry thought for a moment of a seat for himself, and the room immediately obliged him. He did not press Tatsu to speak or act, knowing that his teacher would get to it in his own time.
"The art that I am teaching your is complex, Harry. Most would say that I waste my time with so old a student. I disagree – anyone can learn anything, if their heart is in it. I hope that you will prove me right," Tatsu said eventually.
"If I don't, it won't be through lack of trying," Harry promised.
"Good," Tatsu stood up. "Let's get started then!"
Harry smiled and rose from his chair, which immediately disappeared. The room remoulded itself to leave a circular space free in which Harry and Tatsu could move easily.
"We'll spar first," Tatsu told Harry, leaping forwards even as he finished speaking.
Harry ducked, spiralling sideways and kicked out. His body remembered the pattern of attack, defence and retreat. Slipping into his Centre with hardly a thought, his mind seemed almost numb, as his body responded to Tatsu's moves almost by rote.
Neither spoke for some time, until Tatsu began to score more hits, using moves that Harry hadn't seen before. For the next hour, Harry learned those moves that Tatsu had used against him, and how to defend himself from them.
They finished off with a last sparring match, and by the end of it, Harry wondered that he could even move. Cloaking himself with a chameleon spell, Harry slipped back to Gryffindor tower, after bidding Tatsu good night.
He managed to get through the common room without anyone seeing him, which was all to the good, as he looked something of a mess.
Up in his dormitory, he had a shower to wash off the sweat and flecks of blood, before binding anything that actually bled with invisible bandages, and doing what he could to help with the bruises.
Going downstairs, he joined Ron and Hermione in a table near the corner of the room, just a little way out of the main activity, but not far that they couldn't put a stop to any serious trouble that might occur.
Soon enough, Harry gave way to exhaustion and headed upstairs, one of the first to do so, though his two friends knew this was because he'd had an exhausting afternoon training.
For a time, Harry's deep sleep was dreamless, but it would not remain that way long.
***
There! Next chapter up! A day late again … oh well. I'll give you, my faithful readers, a promise. I WILL update at LEAST three times a week, five if possible!
~WolfMoon~