Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot.
The Second Darkness
Training to Kill
Harry woke up the next morning feeling sick, the previous nights events flooding back to him the moment he woke. His words to Dean came back to him,
'Preparing to die or preparing to murder.'
It took a conscious effort to get out of bed; he got dressed slowly and made his way down to the Great Hall without waiting for Ron or Hermione. He ate his breakfast slowly; as it was Saturday there were no lessons.
'Preparing to die or preparing to murder.'
Die or become a murderer, neither appealed to him. Harry knew he had no choice, death was no longer an option, he would have to become a murderer for, if he didn't, Good would be lost and the wizarding world would live in terror,
Until the next hero came along. What if there was no other? What if Harry was their last hope? Harry smiled, it was funny, one person can change the world.
If they are a hero.
******
Hermione waited impatiently for Harry and Ron to come down into the common room. Just as she was about to go up to the boy's dormitory she heard footsteps on the stairs, Ron's dishevelled figure came into view a second later,
"Morning Hermione."
"Morning Ron, where's Harry?"
"He's not in bed, he must have gone down to breakfast without us." Hermione nodded. She followed Ron out of the common room; they walked down to the Great Hall in friendly silence, they spotted Harry sitting alone at the Gryffindor table. They hurried over to him and sat down opposite him,
"You okay, mate?" asked Ron casually, reaching for the bacon. Harry shrugged his shoulders,
"Not bad considering I'm training to be a murderer." He said sarcastically, Ron and Hermione exchanged worried glances,
"Please don't worry about it too much, you don't have to do all of it alone, Ron and I will always be there for you." Ron nodded seriously,
"We'll help you as much as we can." Harry looked up at them,
"Do you have any idea how much danger you are putting yourselves in?"
"Do you honestly think we care?" asked Hermione. Harry grinned at them,
"Thanks." Hermione smiled, she leaned over the table and hugged him tight, Harry looked over her left shoulder at Ron as he hugged her back. Ron was looking at him jealously; Harry smirked at him and decided that it was time for a bit of teasing,
"Jealous, Weasley?" he said smirking broadly,
"No, why would I be?" he said, his face innocent as Hermione turned round to look at him, as soon as she looked away Ron glared at Harry,
"You are so dead." He mouthed at him, Harry's smirk broadened,
"Just playing Cupid." He mouthed back. Ron shook his head and looked down at his breakfast. By now the Great hall was full and Harry continued to laugh and joke with Hermione and Ron for another five minutes before the double doors of the Great Hall opened, presuming it to be another group of students Harry thought nothing of it but as the conversations of the other pupils died down Harry looked up, he swore under his breath, standing there were professor Dumbledore, professor McGonagall, Moody, Tonks and Lupin. Dumbledore looked straight at him,
"It's time." Despair and terror filled Harry and he stood up shakily, he walked towards the adults receiving many whispers of 'good luck' from DA members, and curious looks from everyone else on the way,
"Impeccable timing," he snarled at the adults as he approached, "Pick the time when the Great Hall is fullest. Very wise." Dumbledore looked apologetic,
"I'm sorry Harry, now, if you would accompany us up to my office, I would be grateful." Harry shrugged and followed the adults up to Dumbledore's office, once they were in there Dumbledore began to speak.
"I will waste no time in giving unnecessary preparation speeches, you will began the day with swords training with Remus, then healing with Tonks and finally duelling techniques with Moody. Any questions?" Harry shook his head dumbly.
"Kindly follow Remus, he will take you to where you will begin your training." Remus smiled at Harry and led him out of Dumbledore's office,
"I thought we would train outside as it is nice day." Said Remus as he led Harry down into the Entrance Hall. Remus picked up a box that was beside the doors leading out to the grounds and carried it outside. They stopped just beside the lake and Lupin opened the box, out of it he took two swords and two sets of scaly material.
"I ordered you your own set of Dragonskin armour, I decided to get you the hide of the Scottish Red-Eye. It's light but not quite as strong as some of the others, however the increased mobility makes up for the lack of toughness. He picked up one of the bundles and unfolded it, it was black with a blue tinge to it and was a full length haubergeon, (A/N think of the armour the Riders of Rohan wear in Lord of the Rings.)
"Put it on." Instructed Lupin, Harry slipped it over his head, Lupin was right, it was light and it clung to his chest so it wouldn't be cumbersome by being too loose, it hung to his ankles and was looser around the legs to allow Harry to run. What surprised Harry most was that it was comfortable. Lupin put his own armour on; it was the same as Harry's except it was forest green with a hint of yellow.
Lupin bent down and took out two swords, both in scabbards. He handed one to Harry, the scabbard was black, with a gold lightning bolt running from the top about ten centimetres downward on one side. Slowly he reached up to the hilt, it was brown leather with gold spirals woven into it and the pommel was a silver ball about the size of a ping-pong ball. The crosspiece was flat, not angled upwards and was gold, with small, about half the size of a ping-pong ball, silver balls at either end of it. As Harry grasped the hilt he felt a rush of power and, in one fluid motion, he swept the sword from its scabbard, the blade was double edged and, when Harry looked closer at the spine, he could see the words Harry Potter etched into the spine running downwards. The sword was about eighty centimetres long, extremely light and perfectly balanced; it felt comfortable, familiar in his grip.
"We had better get started," said Lupin, Harry snapped back to reality, to his horror he saw that about thirty people had gathered to watch, "Just ignore them." Harry nodded slightly.
"Right, put your left foot in front of your right and hold your sword in your right hand, pointing slightly forwards, at waist height. Good. Now take one step forwards and swing your sword as if you intend to chop of my left arm." Harry did so and Lupin effortlessly parried it.
"First I will teach you how to block swings at your arms and then I will teach you how to parry the most common opening move in a swordfight, a direct lunge for the heart." Harry found it extremely easy to parry a swing to his arms. Lupin was silently impressed; beginners didn't usually pick this up as quickly as Harry was.
"Now I will teach you how to parry a lunge for the heart. Imagine your sword is pointing to twelve o'clock when it is pointing upwards; when I lunge move your sword down to pointing at five o'clock going anti- clockwise. That will knock my sword sideways, then move your sword back up to twelve, going clockwise, and then, to hammer my sword downwards, move your sword round to four o'clock, still going clockwise, without stopping at twelve." Lupin lunged at Harry's heart; slower then normal and again Harry blocked it without effort.
Originally Lupin was not going to teach Harry counter attacks until the next lesson but he decided to try Harry on a few this lesson. To his immense surprise Harry picked them up without trouble.
"Harry," He said faintly, "You are a natural, we are going to have an actual fight now as I need to see what you can do." Harry nodded and got himself into the starting position, a large amount of the pupils and some of the teachers were watching by now.
Lupin immediately lunged for Harry's heart but instead of parrying the attack Harry stepped to the side and swung his sword round, stopping it just before it hit Lupin on the back. Lupin turned round surprised.
"Harry, who taught you that?"
"No one, it just seemed obvious." Lupin shook his head in amazement. They got into the starting position again, Lupin lunged at Harry but slightly wide of him, as Harry went to block what he thought was a lunge, Lupin turned it into a swing. It hit Harry's armour and, instead of slicing through the armour, the force of it knocked Harry off of his feet.
"I thought you said this armour wasn't tough." He said as he picked himself off of the floor. Lupin smiled,
"It will usually block swords, but it won't block some of the more powerful Dark spells."
"I'm not going to hold out on you anymore." Said Harry.
"You weren't holding out on me in the first place."
"Sod off, Lupin." Lupin laughed loudly.
"You sound just like Sirius and James." They got into the starting position again. This time Harry lunged, he aimed low but at the last second swung his sword upwards in a stroke that would have sliced someone open from groin to neck. Lupin jumped backwards but lost his footing and slipped over.
"Told you I wasn't going to hold back." Said Harry grinning as he offered his hand to Lupin.
"Should've believed you." said Lupin as he took Harry's hand. Harry pulled him up grinning broadly. After a couple more fights Lupin called a halt
"Now I know what you need to learn I'll start teaching you it."
An hour and a half later Harry was completely exhausted and the sweat was pouring off of him. Lupin had pushed Harry to the limit of his stamina and beyond it. He had made Harry attack, parry, counter attack over and over again till his arms ached, then he had made Harry swing the sword in controlled arcs until his arms felt like fire. Finally he had made Harry parry, thrust, parry swing until Harry couldn't even lift the sword. Literally. When Harry couldn't lift the sword Lupin had, reluctantly, stopped.
"You are going to be receiving a lot of hate mail." Groaned Harry as he massaged his burning arms. Lupin grinned,
"Then at least I will know I've done my job properly."
Harry stood up,
"I'd better get to healing. See you, Moony." He took off his armour and chucked it to Lupin, he began to hand his sword back to Lupin but Lupin pushed it back towards him.
"You have to wear it says Dumbledore, all the time."
"Why?"
"Because the wards are still down and Voldemort has his own assassins and now that he can't take Hogwarts he's going to go for the next best thing, your death. All will be explained in good time. But the main thing is Dumbledore wants you to wear that sword all the time in case Voldemort sends an assassin to kill you." Harry shrugged but he had no option. Lupin handed him a black leather sword belt and Harry attached the sword to it and put the belt on.
Nobody had witnessed this conversation as the crowd had dispersed a long time ago. Harry walked up to the castle slowly not looking forward to the looks of curiosity he would receive.
As he predicted he entered the castle and silence fell then whispers erupted,
"Potters got a sword."
"What's he got a sword for?"
"You should have seen him practise with it, he's really good." Ignoring them he walked up to Dumbledore's office he muttered the password and entered.
"I see you have decided to wear the sword after all."
"Yeah, I hadn't noticed until all those annoying whispers started following me again." Said Harry sarcastically.
"I'm sorry for making you wear it." Said Dumbledore sadly. Harry sighed,
"No, it's all right, sir, I'm just angry because I'm in a lot of pain, Lupin trained me really hard." Dumbledore smiled,
"Then you will be relieved to hear that your next lesson will not be quite so strenuous. Tonks is waiting for you in the charms room." Harry nodded his thanks and hurried to the charms room.
He was just about to turn into the charms corridor when Malfoy and his cronies stepped in front of him. He sighed in annoyance.
"You've got a sword." Said Malfoy sneering, Harry raised an eyebrow,
"Well spotted, very in touch with the obvious aren't you." Malfoy's grey eyes flashed dangerously,
"Watch your mouth Potter."
"Shut up, Malfoy." Malfoy sneered again,
"You might want to do as I say, or your girlfriend might just have a little.accident." It happened in a flash, Harry smashed his fist into Malfoy's face, then he quickly sunk it into Malfoy's stomach. As Crabbe and Goyle advanced Harry jumped back and whipped out his wand,
"If Cho gets hurt then you're going to be strung up." Harry growled at Malfoy.
"Harry." Said a voice warningly, he looked over Crabbe's shoulder to see Tonks standing there. Harry nodded; he followed Tonks into a charms classroom. Today her hair was a long curly blonde colour.
"I'll just pretend I didn't see that." Said Tonks grinning,
"Do what you want but I meant what I said." Said Harry non- commitedly. Tonks sighed,
"Well, we'd best get started. Today I'll just teach you how to heal minor broken bones, you already know how to heal cuts and I'll probably teach you how to heal burns aswell. Tonks conjured a dummy out of thin air. Harry heard a crack come from the dummy's left arm as Tonks muttered another spell.
"Right, the incantation is 'Tatali' heal that dummy's arm." On his second attempt Harry managed to heal the dummy, the arm glowed beige for a minute and then faded.
By the end of the lesson Harry could heal burns and mend minor breaks. He hurried off to lunch in the hope that Ron and Hermione would still there. Ignoring, with difficulty, the glances he was getting from the rest of the Great Hall, he spotted Ron and Hermione at the far end of the Gryffindor table. He reached them and sat down next to Hermione pulling a dish with pork chops on towards. Ron grinned at him,
"Would you prefer it if I just didn't ask?" Harry nodded,
"Yes, a lot."
"Tough, 'cos I'm going to ask anyway," Hermione rolled her eyes at this, "What's with the sword?"
"Dumbledore made me wear it."
"Why?" asked Hermione, Harry considered telling them, he decided against it, it would just worry them.
"Don't know, he didn't tell me." He began to eat the pork chop, he hadn't realised how hungry he was. He finished his first helping and was about to start his second when he heard the thud.thud.thud, of someone with a wooden leg approaching. Without turning round Harry sighed and put his knife and fork down slowly,
"Alright, I'm coming." He said exasperated. He stood up irritably and followed Moody out of the Great Hall. Moody led him towards the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. As soon as Harry was in Moody shut the door and locked the door.
"Ok Potter, I'm not going to hide it from you, in this class you are going to be taught all about the Dark spells and I will teach you defensive and offensive spells. Eventually I will teach you the killing curse. The ministry has given permission for you to be taught it. There is on condition, you must not teach any of this to the DA, Dumbledore had to pull a lot of strings to enable you to be taught this, teaching it to the DA is illegal."
"Ok, I won't teach it to the DA."
"Good lad, today I'm going to teach you a basic offensive spell, it is a combination of the banishing spell and slasio. It will force your enemy to fly back about twenty feet but it'll leave a nasty cut. It is an easy spell to learn but it is also a painful one so you won't find it in any textbooks. The incantation is 'banasalay' have a go, knowing your ability with fighting spells you shouldn't have many problems with this one." Harry nodded and took out his wand,
"Banasalay." A red beam of light, darker then the 'stupefy' beam, shot out and hit the opposite wall. Moody nodded,
"That was good. Now I'm going to teach you some of the basics of duelling, first always leave at least fifteen, preferably twenty yards between you and your enemy, this is to give you time to get a shield charm up, some Death Eaters just sprint towards you and try to overwhelm you with spells. Next always stay facing your enemy, never, ever present your back to him. Finally and this is more to do with sword fighting, always mimic your opponents feet movements, Lupin will teach you why." Harry nodded.
"Now, because I disturbed you in the middle of your lunch and because it is your first lesson I will let you off early. Tomorrow I will teach you an advanced defensive spell." Moody unlocked the door and Harry left, he ran up to the Gryffindor common room. Ron and Hermione were sitting at one of the tables doing their homework, they looked up when Harry entered. They ran over to him and pulled him towards a dark corner,
"Have you heard?" asked Hermione urgently.
"Heard what?" he asked curiously, though the note of panic in Hermione's voice unnerved him,
"Madam Pince has finished searching the library for anything that will tell them how to get the wards back up, she can't find anything." Harry swore loudly making several third years look their way.
"Keep your voice down!" implored Ron.
"What are they going to do now?" asked Harry.
"Dumbledore mentioned something about getting the Unspeakables to check the Hogwarts records in the Department of Mysteries for anything." Harry nodded, he turned away, this wasn't good, it increased the amount of time that Voldemort had to send assassins after Harry. The thought filled him with determination, he had to train. He ran down to the lake and drew his sword. He practised all the moves Lupin had taught him until he could do them flawlessly, the sweat was pouring off of him and his arms burned as he practised all the moves he had been taught.
"Do you see this Voldemort? Do you hear my blade? It is singing. Singing your death song."
A/N I know this chapter is short but I have had an extremely busy week, so I have not had a lot of time for writing. I am going away this weekend or I would have written then as well, as it is I have to end it now. I know this chapter has been boring. Next chapter is where the action begins to unfold, this chapter has merely been a taste of what Harry's training will be like. Next chapter will be better I promise!
LogicalRaven - Thanks for your review, I have decided to stop Harry and Ginny's flirting, you're right there is no such thing as harmless flirting, thinking about it, I leant that a long time ago aswell.
Keep reading and reviewing, cos I'll keep writing!
Fireboy
The Second Darkness
Training to Kill
Harry woke up the next morning feeling sick, the previous nights events flooding back to him the moment he woke. His words to Dean came back to him,
'Preparing to die or preparing to murder.'
It took a conscious effort to get out of bed; he got dressed slowly and made his way down to the Great Hall without waiting for Ron or Hermione. He ate his breakfast slowly; as it was Saturday there were no lessons.
'Preparing to die or preparing to murder.'
Die or become a murderer, neither appealed to him. Harry knew he had no choice, death was no longer an option, he would have to become a murderer for, if he didn't, Good would be lost and the wizarding world would live in terror,
Until the next hero came along. What if there was no other? What if Harry was their last hope? Harry smiled, it was funny, one person can change the world.
If they are a hero.
******
Hermione waited impatiently for Harry and Ron to come down into the common room. Just as she was about to go up to the boy's dormitory she heard footsteps on the stairs, Ron's dishevelled figure came into view a second later,
"Morning Hermione."
"Morning Ron, where's Harry?"
"He's not in bed, he must have gone down to breakfast without us." Hermione nodded. She followed Ron out of the common room; they walked down to the Great Hall in friendly silence, they spotted Harry sitting alone at the Gryffindor table. They hurried over to him and sat down opposite him,
"You okay, mate?" asked Ron casually, reaching for the bacon. Harry shrugged his shoulders,
"Not bad considering I'm training to be a murderer." He said sarcastically, Ron and Hermione exchanged worried glances,
"Please don't worry about it too much, you don't have to do all of it alone, Ron and I will always be there for you." Ron nodded seriously,
"We'll help you as much as we can." Harry looked up at them,
"Do you have any idea how much danger you are putting yourselves in?"
"Do you honestly think we care?" asked Hermione. Harry grinned at them,
"Thanks." Hermione smiled, she leaned over the table and hugged him tight, Harry looked over her left shoulder at Ron as he hugged her back. Ron was looking at him jealously; Harry smirked at him and decided that it was time for a bit of teasing,
"Jealous, Weasley?" he said smirking broadly,
"No, why would I be?" he said, his face innocent as Hermione turned round to look at him, as soon as she looked away Ron glared at Harry,
"You are so dead." He mouthed at him, Harry's smirk broadened,
"Just playing Cupid." He mouthed back. Ron shook his head and looked down at his breakfast. By now the Great hall was full and Harry continued to laugh and joke with Hermione and Ron for another five minutes before the double doors of the Great Hall opened, presuming it to be another group of students Harry thought nothing of it but as the conversations of the other pupils died down Harry looked up, he swore under his breath, standing there were professor Dumbledore, professor McGonagall, Moody, Tonks and Lupin. Dumbledore looked straight at him,
"It's time." Despair and terror filled Harry and he stood up shakily, he walked towards the adults receiving many whispers of 'good luck' from DA members, and curious looks from everyone else on the way,
"Impeccable timing," he snarled at the adults as he approached, "Pick the time when the Great Hall is fullest. Very wise." Dumbledore looked apologetic,
"I'm sorry Harry, now, if you would accompany us up to my office, I would be grateful." Harry shrugged and followed the adults up to Dumbledore's office, once they were in there Dumbledore began to speak.
"I will waste no time in giving unnecessary preparation speeches, you will began the day with swords training with Remus, then healing with Tonks and finally duelling techniques with Moody. Any questions?" Harry shook his head dumbly.
"Kindly follow Remus, he will take you to where you will begin your training." Remus smiled at Harry and led him out of Dumbledore's office,
"I thought we would train outside as it is nice day." Said Remus as he led Harry down into the Entrance Hall. Remus picked up a box that was beside the doors leading out to the grounds and carried it outside. They stopped just beside the lake and Lupin opened the box, out of it he took two swords and two sets of scaly material.
"I ordered you your own set of Dragonskin armour, I decided to get you the hide of the Scottish Red-Eye. It's light but not quite as strong as some of the others, however the increased mobility makes up for the lack of toughness. He picked up one of the bundles and unfolded it, it was black with a blue tinge to it and was a full length haubergeon, (A/N think of the armour the Riders of Rohan wear in Lord of the Rings.)
"Put it on." Instructed Lupin, Harry slipped it over his head, Lupin was right, it was light and it clung to his chest so it wouldn't be cumbersome by being too loose, it hung to his ankles and was looser around the legs to allow Harry to run. What surprised Harry most was that it was comfortable. Lupin put his own armour on; it was the same as Harry's except it was forest green with a hint of yellow.
Lupin bent down and took out two swords, both in scabbards. He handed one to Harry, the scabbard was black, with a gold lightning bolt running from the top about ten centimetres downward on one side. Slowly he reached up to the hilt, it was brown leather with gold spirals woven into it and the pommel was a silver ball about the size of a ping-pong ball. The crosspiece was flat, not angled upwards and was gold, with small, about half the size of a ping-pong ball, silver balls at either end of it. As Harry grasped the hilt he felt a rush of power and, in one fluid motion, he swept the sword from its scabbard, the blade was double edged and, when Harry looked closer at the spine, he could see the words Harry Potter etched into the spine running downwards. The sword was about eighty centimetres long, extremely light and perfectly balanced; it felt comfortable, familiar in his grip.
"We had better get started," said Lupin, Harry snapped back to reality, to his horror he saw that about thirty people had gathered to watch, "Just ignore them." Harry nodded slightly.
"Right, put your left foot in front of your right and hold your sword in your right hand, pointing slightly forwards, at waist height. Good. Now take one step forwards and swing your sword as if you intend to chop of my left arm." Harry did so and Lupin effortlessly parried it.
"First I will teach you how to block swings at your arms and then I will teach you how to parry the most common opening move in a swordfight, a direct lunge for the heart." Harry found it extremely easy to parry a swing to his arms. Lupin was silently impressed; beginners didn't usually pick this up as quickly as Harry was.
"Now I will teach you how to parry a lunge for the heart. Imagine your sword is pointing to twelve o'clock when it is pointing upwards; when I lunge move your sword down to pointing at five o'clock going anti- clockwise. That will knock my sword sideways, then move your sword back up to twelve, going clockwise, and then, to hammer my sword downwards, move your sword round to four o'clock, still going clockwise, without stopping at twelve." Lupin lunged at Harry's heart; slower then normal and again Harry blocked it without effort.
Originally Lupin was not going to teach Harry counter attacks until the next lesson but he decided to try Harry on a few this lesson. To his immense surprise Harry picked them up without trouble.
"Harry," He said faintly, "You are a natural, we are going to have an actual fight now as I need to see what you can do." Harry nodded and got himself into the starting position, a large amount of the pupils and some of the teachers were watching by now.
Lupin immediately lunged for Harry's heart but instead of parrying the attack Harry stepped to the side and swung his sword round, stopping it just before it hit Lupin on the back. Lupin turned round surprised.
"Harry, who taught you that?"
"No one, it just seemed obvious." Lupin shook his head in amazement. They got into the starting position again, Lupin lunged at Harry but slightly wide of him, as Harry went to block what he thought was a lunge, Lupin turned it into a swing. It hit Harry's armour and, instead of slicing through the armour, the force of it knocked Harry off of his feet.
"I thought you said this armour wasn't tough." He said as he picked himself off of the floor. Lupin smiled,
"It will usually block swords, but it won't block some of the more powerful Dark spells."
"I'm not going to hold out on you anymore." Said Harry.
"You weren't holding out on me in the first place."
"Sod off, Lupin." Lupin laughed loudly.
"You sound just like Sirius and James." They got into the starting position again. This time Harry lunged, he aimed low but at the last second swung his sword upwards in a stroke that would have sliced someone open from groin to neck. Lupin jumped backwards but lost his footing and slipped over.
"Told you I wasn't going to hold back." Said Harry grinning as he offered his hand to Lupin.
"Should've believed you." said Lupin as he took Harry's hand. Harry pulled him up grinning broadly. After a couple more fights Lupin called a halt
"Now I know what you need to learn I'll start teaching you it."
An hour and a half later Harry was completely exhausted and the sweat was pouring off of him. Lupin had pushed Harry to the limit of his stamina and beyond it. He had made Harry attack, parry, counter attack over and over again till his arms ached, then he had made Harry swing the sword in controlled arcs until his arms felt like fire. Finally he had made Harry parry, thrust, parry swing until Harry couldn't even lift the sword. Literally. When Harry couldn't lift the sword Lupin had, reluctantly, stopped.
"You are going to be receiving a lot of hate mail." Groaned Harry as he massaged his burning arms. Lupin grinned,
"Then at least I will know I've done my job properly."
Harry stood up,
"I'd better get to healing. See you, Moony." He took off his armour and chucked it to Lupin, he began to hand his sword back to Lupin but Lupin pushed it back towards him.
"You have to wear it says Dumbledore, all the time."
"Why?"
"Because the wards are still down and Voldemort has his own assassins and now that he can't take Hogwarts he's going to go for the next best thing, your death. All will be explained in good time. But the main thing is Dumbledore wants you to wear that sword all the time in case Voldemort sends an assassin to kill you." Harry shrugged but he had no option. Lupin handed him a black leather sword belt and Harry attached the sword to it and put the belt on.
Nobody had witnessed this conversation as the crowd had dispersed a long time ago. Harry walked up to the castle slowly not looking forward to the looks of curiosity he would receive.
As he predicted he entered the castle and silence fell then whispers erupted,
"Potters got a sword."
"What's he got a sword for?"
"You should have seen him practise with it, he's really good." Ignoring them he walked up to Dumbledore's office he muttered the password and entered.
"I see you have decided to wear the sword after all."
"Yeah, I hadn't noticed until all those annoying whispers started following me again." Said Harry sarcastically.
"I'm sorry for making you wear it." Said Dumbledore sadly. Harry sighed,
"No, it's all right, sir, I'm just angry because I'm in a lot of pain, Lupin trained me really hard." Dumbledore smiled,
"Then you will be relieved to hear that your next lesson will not be quite so strenuous. Tonks is waiting for you in the charms room." Harry nodded his thanks and hurried to the charms room.
He was just about to turn into the charms corridor when Malfoy and his cronies stepped in front of him. He sighed in annoyance.
"You've got a sword." Said Malfoy sneering, Harry raised an eyebrow,
"Well spotted, very in touch with the obvious aren't you." Malfoy's grey eyes flashed dangerously,
"Watch your mouth Potter."
"Shut up, Malfoy." Malfoy sneered again,
"You might want to do as I say, or your girlfriend might just have a little.accident." It happened in a flash, Harry smashed his fist into Malfoy's face, then he quickly sunk it into Malfoy's stomach. As Crabbe and Goyle advanced Harry jumped back and whipped out his wand,
"If Cho gets hurt then you're going to be strung up." Harry growled at Malfoy.
"Harry." Said a voice warningly, he looked over Crabbe's shoulder to see Tonks standing there. Harry nodded; he followed Tonks into a charms classroom. Today her hair was a long curly blonde colour.
"I'll just pretend I didn't see that." Said Tonks grinning,
"Do what you want but I meant what I said." Said Harry non- commitedly. Tonks sighed,
"Well, we'd best get started. Today I'll just teach you how to heal minor broken bones, you already know how to heal cuts and I'll probably teach you how to heal burns aswell. Tonks conjured a dummy out of thin air. Harry heard a crack come from the dummy's left arm as Tonks muttered another spell.
"Right, the incantation is 'Tatali' heal that dummy's arm." On his second attempt Harry managed to heal the dummy, the arm glowed beige for a minute and then faded.
By the end of the lesson Harry could heal burns and mend minor breaks. He hurried off to lunch in the hope that Ron and Hermione would still there. Ignoring, with difficulty, the glances he was getting from the rest of the Great Hall, he spotted Ron and Hermione at the far end of the Gryffindor table. He reached them and sat down next to Hermione pulling a dish with pork chops on towards. Ron grinned at him,
"Would you prefer it if I just didn't ask?" Harry nodded,
"Yes, a lot."
"Tough, 'cos I'm going to ask anyway," Hermione rolled her eyes at this, "What's with the sword?"
"Dumbledore made me wear it."
"Why?" asked Hermione, Harry considered telling them, he decided against it, it would just worry them.
"Don't know, he didn't tell me." He began to eat the pork chop, he hadn't realised how hungry he was. He finished his first helping and was about to start his second when he heard the thud.thud.thud, of someone with a wooden leg approaching. Without turning round Harry sighed and put his knife and fork down slowly,
"Alright, I'm coming." He said exasperated. He stood up irritably and followed Moody out of the Great Hall. Moody led him towards the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. As soon as Harry was in Moody shut the door and locked the door.
"Ok Potter, I'm not going to hide it from you, in this class you are going to be taught all about the Dark spells and I will teach you defensive and offensive spells. Eventually I will teach you the killing curse. The ministry has given permission for you to be taught it. There is on condition, you must not teach any of this to the DA, Dumbledore had to pull a lot of strings to enable you to be taught this, teaching it to the DA is illegal."
"Ok, I won't teach it to the DA."
"Good lad, today I'm going to teach you a basic offensive spell, it is a combination of the banishing spell and slasio. It will force your enemy to fly back about twenty feet but it'll leave a nasty cut. It is an easy spell to learn but it is also a painful one so you won't find it in any textbooks. The incantation is 'banasalay' have a go, knowing your ability with fighting spells you shouldn't have many problems with this one." Harry nodded and took out his wand,
"Banasalay." A red beam of light, darker then the 'stupefy' beam, shot out and hit the opposite wall. Moody nodded,
"That was good. Now I'm going to teach you some of the basics of duelling, first always leave at least fifteen, preferably twenty yards between you and your enemy, this is to give you time to get a shield charm up, some Death Eaters just sprint towards you and try to overwhelm you with spells. Next always stay facing your enemy, never, ever present your back to him. Finally and this is more to do with sword fighting, always mimic your opponents feet movements, Lupin will teach you why." Harry nodded.
"Now, because I disturbed you in the middle of your lunch and because it is your first lesson I will let you off early. Tomorrow I will teach you an advanced defensive spell." Moody unlocked the door and Harry left, he ran up to the Gryffindor common room. Ron and Hermione were sitting at one of the tables doing their homework, they looked up when Harry entered. They ran over to him and pulled him towards a dark corner,
"Have you heard?" asked Hermione urgently.
"Heard what?" he asked curiously, though the note of panic in Hermione's voice unnerved him,
"Madam Pince has finished searching the library for anything that will tell them how to get the wards back up, she can't find anything." Harry swore loudly making several third years look their way.
"Keep your voice down!" implored Ron.
"What are they going to do now?" asked Harry.
"Dumbledore mentioned something about getting the Unspeakables to check the Hogwarts records in the Department of Mysteries for anything." Harry nodded, he turned away, this wasn't good, it increased the amount of time that Voldemort had to send assassins after Harry. The thought filled him with determination, he had to train. He ran down to the lake and drew his sword. He practised all the moves Lupin had taught him until he could do them flawlessly, the sweat was pouring off of him and his arms burned as he practised all the moves he had been taught.
"Do you see this Voldemort? Do you hear my blade? It is singing. Singing your death song."
A/N I know this chapter is short but I have had an extremely busy week, so I have not had a lot of time for writing. I am going away this weekend or I would have written then as well, as it is I have to end it now. I know this chapter has been boring. Next chapter is where the action begins to unfold, this chapter has merely been a taste of what Harry's training will be like. Next chapter will be better I promise!
LogicalRaven - Thanks for your review, I have decided to stop Harry and Ginny's flirting, you're right there is no such thing as harmless flirting, thinking about it, I leant that a long time ago aswell.
Keep reading and reviewing, cos I'll keep writing!
Fireboy