Exactly!" Sirius cried. "That is what you have to reach in yourselves. You already have the abilities and the instincts. What you have to do is pull them out and utilize them. Your Shards will help you. And so will I."
"No offense meant Sir, but what makes you qualified to train us? I know you're an ally of the Guardians but…" Daniel stopped.
Sirius nodded briefly. "None taken Daniel. You've a right to ask. Mind letting me borrow your knives for a moment?"
Daniel looked at him uncertainly for a moment. "I don't know… I haven't even taken them out of their scabbards yet."
"I'm not going to mess them up, believe me." Sirius said with a smile.
Still reluctant, Daniel took his knives from their place strapped to his back, straps, scabbards and all. He held them out to Sirius, hilt first. Sirius smiled reassuringly at him and gripped a hilt in each hand. With the ease of long practice, he pulled the knives from their sheaths. The sunlight glinted off the blades. "Beautiful." Sirius murmured. He sliced them through the air. There was a faint whistling as he did so. "Any of you know how to transfigure a rock into a fruit?" Everyone had stopped whatever they were doing to watch the display.
"What do you need it for?" Rhia asked.
"You'll see." Sirius said.
Rhia looked at Ana. "Any limestone lying around?" Ana blinked at her for a moment, then smiled and pointed at a chalky stone at the base of the boulder. Rhia smiled back. "That'll do. Toss it here Harry."
Harry was on the other side of the clearing from her, closer to the stone. He scooped it off the ground. When Ana nodded that it was the right one, he lobbed it to Rhia. While it was still in mid air, Rhia pointed her wand at the rock and said, "Limonadia!" Suddenly a vividly green lime was flying towards Rhia. The abrupt change in substance gave the toss more power and speed than Harry meant it to have and it was flying directly for Rhia's face. Before anyone else could move, Sirius flipped through the air and managed to stop it.
He landed a bit heavily on the ground again, just as several voices yelled "IMOBULUS!" When the smoke cleared, a perfectly quartered lime hovered in the air only a foot from Rhia's face. She was fine, though her eyes were a bit wild. Sirius was lying on the ground.
"That was amazing!" Alastar gushed.
"Oh for crying out loud Raine!" Rose exclaimed. "Are you going to say that every time we do anything?" This remark set off a yelling match between the two trainers.
Harry rushed to his godfather's side. "Sirius? Are you all right?"
Sirius groaned. "I must be getting old." He leaned up towards Harry and whispered, "Don't go throwing anything else at your girlfriend alright?" Harry's eyes widened and he hoped to Heaven that no one heard that. Sirius grinned even wider. Harry glanced over at Rhia as Sirius got up from the ground after refusing a hand up. She was smiling at Hermione as the girl was examining the hovering pieces of lime.
"What happened?" Ron asked suddenly. "Where did the smoke come from?"
"My knives." Daniel said, a bit awed.
"What?" Alastar asked, distracted from his ongoing argument with Rose.
"They didn't like me." Sirius said, rubbing his right shoulder. "There's power in them. And more than just their sharpness and balance."
Daniel took the knives back from Sirius, carefully wiping the lime juice from them on his robes. "They're vibrating just a little. It's like an electric hum."
Sirius smiled "Yes," He raised an eyebrow at the blade bearer. "Still question my qualifications?"
Daniel looked over at the still hovering lime quarters. "I'd have to say no. What was that flip thing you did?"
"We'll build up to that. First I want all four of you to put away your weapons. We're not going to use them any more today." Sirius ordered. Harry grinned at the disappointed faces of the Weasley twins, Ron and Daniel. He went across the clearing to where Alastar stood, staring at the hovering lime with Rhia, Hermione, Ana and Neville.
"How did you transfigure it from a distance like that?" Alastar asked.
"How did you know I could find it?" Ana asked at the same time.
"Is it a real lime? Can I have the seeds?" Neville asked.
"How" Hermione started to ask something.
Harry interrupted. "Nice job Rhia. Whose spell missed the lime and hit you?"
Rhia's smile didn't change but her eyes looked very grateful.
Harry smiled and pulled out his wand. "Encantem Finitem." He said with a swish. He then caught Rhia before she collapsed to the ground.
"Thank you," she said with a gasp. "I didn't know I could go so stiff so fast."
"You were immobilized. Not petrified." Harry said, holding her steady in his arms.
"It felt about the same actually," Rhia said. Harry wondered how she would know that as Hermione raised an eyebrow at the fact that he was still supporting the redhead. Alaster was looking at the two of them, wheels visibly turning in his mind. Neville had plucked the lime from the air and was examining the center for seeds.
"All right there Rhia?" Monica called. She'd gone up to Sirius with a small vial and traced a fingertip over his shoulder before pronouncing him fit enough to continue. The Weasley twins found this vastly amusing. Until they saw her give the empty vial back to Draco, who had been the one to give it to her in the first place. He met their gazes head on before tucking the vial into his bag.
"Oh, I'm fine now," Rhia called back. She stood up straight and stepped away from Harry. As she straightened her robes a bit, and tucked a curl of red-gold hair behind her left ear, Alaster noticed her bandaged hand for the first time.
"What happened there?" He asked suddenly.
"Oh, it's nothing. Don't worry about it," Rhia said airily.
"Will it interfere in your training?" Alaster asked.
"Hasn't yet." Rhia answered.
"An injured hand has no effect?" Alaster asked.
"I didn't say that," Rhia said. She picked up the box of Phoenix daggers and carefully selected one. Plucking it from the box with her left hand, she smiled at Alaster. She held the little dagger for a moment. Then in a lightning fast movement she got it into her right hand and threw it across the clearing. The dagger skimmed past Rose's ear and struck the tree trunk behind her. "Blessed Hell." Rhia said with a frown.
"That was" Alaster started.
"I wouldn't finish that sentence," Neville murmured as Rose looked up at Rhia.
"Did you get it?" she asked calmly.
"No. I missed. Out of practice." Rhia answered still frowning. Harry was staring at her.
"Well see that you get more practice before you toss one by my head again." Rose said, before turning back to where Reggie was still trying to get the wind to blow out her flames.
"Yeah." Rhia muttered, sending one last frown at the tree.
"What were you trying to hit? Hermione asked.
"Mosquito. Can't stand the things. It moved before the dagger hit." Rhia said. She went to fetch the dagger.
"She just used a Phoenix dagger to try to hit a mosquito.' Alaster said, blinking.
"You said the daggers were for all of us." Harry asked as Rhia returned. She nodded. "Will you be teaching us to do that?"
"Perhaps. I was under the impression that Alaster was to start a dueling club." Rhia hedged.
"We tried that second year. It did not turn out well." Hermione said.
"That was a wizard's dueling club. Daggers wouldn't come into that kind of club. All you need for that is wands." Harry said.
"How far into it did you get?" Rhia asked.
"One lesson." Harry said.
"Just one? No wonder you think that." Alastar said. "Why only one?"
"Draco summoned a snake, I kept it from eating Justin Finch-Fletchly, discovered I was a Parseltongue and everyone thought I was the Heir of Slytherin." Harry said. "To sum it all up, with the Chamber of Secrets being opened, we didn't have a chance for a second meeting."
"So you really are going to start a Dueling club?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, soon. The Headmaster and Professor Jameson think that it would add to my credibility. We can't exactly tell the parents of the other students that I'm here to train a prophesied elite group of students to go against The Serpent." Alaster said.
"Especially since most of them don't even believe he's back," Neville said. He was carefully examining the single seed he'd obtained from the lime.
"How do you know that?" Rhia asked.
"My Gran griped about it all summer after I told her what happened to Harry last year. She stopped getting the Daily Prophet because it didn't have any news about him in it." Neville answered.
"That makes sense," Alaster said. "Of course, they would not have any news of him because he is keeping his movements secret."
"We know what most of them are though, right?" Hermione asked.
"Most of them," Alaster said. "Now Hermione, let's get to work on your Book."
Harry pulled Rhia aside and started to ask her about the daggers. Neville returned to where Ginny and the Dannikits were helping him sort the seeds. Ana was rolling a pair of rocks around. Without touching them. Rose was holding out two hands of flame. Reggie was concentrating on one and Lynne on the other. Just as Lynne got a 'hold' on the water, Reggie called up a huge gust of wind. The wind blew the water in a tremendous wave out of the tank. The wave drenched all four Weapons boys, before somehow returning to the tank. Not only that, but the water level did not seem to have depleted at all.
The clearing came to a standstill. The wave had just missed Sirius. Fred, George, Daniel and Ron all looked over at the twins. Reggie looked at Lynne. "Uh-oh," they said together. There was a giggle from someone. Then a smothered laugh from someone else. All four boys scowled and the laughter stopped for a moment, before Ginny lost it completely. She started rolling around on the grass, laughing hysterically. All twelve dannikits were rolling around with her, whirring their own laughter. This set off everyone else. Even the four drenched boys managed to smile.
"Uh, what are we supposed to do now?" Daniel asked as soon as there was a pause in the laughter. He held up an end of his robes. It was dripping and heavy. He wrung it out in his hands. A stream of water flowed out. This set Ginny off again. She glanced at Erian and laughed so hard she couldn't breathe.
As Ginny gasped for air, Hermione, Ana and Rose headed for the boys. All three were grinning at their sopping wet hair. "You know," Hermione said. "Their hair isn't near as fiery when it's wet." She surveyed Ron, smiling widely.
"Help me?" he asked. He shook his head wildly, flinging water about. It didn't hit the girls. Still smiling, Hermione lifted her wand and said a cleaning spell. Ana was trying to help Daniel squeeze the water out of his robes. She kept breaking into giggles however and wasn't much help.
Rose looked over the Weasley twins. "I think this almost makes up for the chocolate covered strawberry incident." She grinned. "It's about time you guys were as steamed as I was."
"What are you going to do to us?" Fred asked, his own smile faltering.
"You couldn't have been that angry… were you?" George asked.
Still smiling Rose beckoned Reggie to her. The first year approached warily. Rose whispered in her ear. She smiled, then concentrated. Rose held up a large fireball. Fred and George closed their eyes. The wind Reggie called up whipped through the flames and hot air swept the twins. Their hair was blown straight back and their robes billowed out behind them. Both kept their eyes tightly closed. Slowly the wind died down. All four boys were dry. Hermione's spell had worked and the dirt had pulled the water right out of Daniels robes, though he wasn't quite sure how it happened. The twins though slightly wind-blown, found themselves perfectly dry.
"Don't," Rose said without looking at Alaster. He closed his open mouth as she closed her fist and extinguished the fireball. Reggie stood for a moment with her eyes closed. Slowly, her hands closed as well. "Are you all right Reggie?" Rose asked.
The first year opened her eyes and looked at Rose. "Is it like that every time?" she asked, in an awed voice. The corner of Rose mouth turned up as she nodded. Reggie grinned hugely even as her shoulders slumped with tiredness. Lynne put an arm around her sister.
"That was certainly… interesting." Sirius said with eyebrows raised at Rose.
"We deserved it," Fred said, smoothing a hand over his hair.
"I'm not so sure about that," George said, doing the same thing. His hand had a barely noticeable tremor.
"But you see, I didn't actually [I] do [/I] anything to you. Just made you think I would," Rose said with a grin.
Fred looked down at Solida at his feet. She was sitting there, clearly grinning at him. "Note to self," he told her. " Don't use Rose as a guinea pig again."
"Not that we had planned to of course," George said hastily as Rose's blue eyes went green.
"Of course," she said dangerously.
"Can we get back to work now?" Draco asked. "They got wet, now they're dry. Let's move along."
"There's no need for that Draco," Rhia said, gray eyes cool as they rested on him.
"Well getting knocked unconscious kind of makes you want to find out who did it. Know what I mean?" he asked coldly.
"Yes actually I do. So I suggest you stir your potion before it scalds and becomes useless." Rhia answered just as cold.
"What kind of potion are you making?" Neville asked tentatively.
Draco didn't answer. He was too busy stirring. So Monica answered for him. "It's a memory revitalizer. It should help him remember what happened just before he was knocked out."
"Oh, well then you're going to need fresher mugwort than what you have." Neville said.
"How the hell do you know?" Draco said. The Shards sizzled and everyone glared at him. He shrugged it off and asked, calmer, "How did you know that? I had only just noticed."
Neville swallowed convulsively, but squared his shoulders. "I can smell it. That particular sample has been bottled for a very long time. Mugwort should be as fresh as possible when you use it. Just picked is best."
"And where do you suggest I get some fresh picked mugwort? It only grows in summer," Draco said with only a hint of a sneer.
"I… I can grow some for you now. I think." Neville said softly.
"Well then, let's see it," Draco said. It wasn't said cruelly, but it wasn't kindly either.
Neville, being abruptly put on the spot, swallowed again and started digging in his seed bag. Everyone returned to their tasks, though they all kept an eye on Neville and Draco to see what was going to happen next. Rose asked Ana to demonstrate how she got the ground to pull the water from Daniel's robes. {Neville plucked three seeds from the bag.} Fred asked Sirius about the move he'd been trying before the water incident. {Neville walked to the shady side of the boulder.} Alaster asked Hermione if she'd deciphered anything yet. {Neville dug a small hole using a trowel from his book bag} Rhia asked Ginny why she'd laughed so hard at her brothers. {Neville dropped in the seeds and filled in the hole again.} Monica helped Draco keep the fire under the cauldron hot. {Neville put one hand over the now covered seeds and the other around his Shard.} They all dropped the pretense now and watched him.
Neville had his eyes tightly closed. His fingers trembled on the ground. Andra glided over and put her paw on the back of that hand. The trembling stopped. There was a moment of tense silence, followed by an audible gasp as three green shoots popped through the surface of the ground. They all stared as the shoots grew until they were four inches from the ground. Leaves sprouted from the left side of each. For a moment it looked like a circlet of green around his wrist. A bud formed on the tip of each sprout. They had just started to bloom when Neville opened his eyes. "There. That should do it," he said simply. He let go of his Shard and lifted his hand from the ground. "How much do you need?" he asked Draco.
Draco blinked at him uncomprehending for a moment. "Oh. Six leaves and two blossoms should be enough," he answered.
Neville plucked six of the largest leaves and the two blossoms that were the most open and stood up. "Here," he said as he dropped them into Draco's open hand.
Several emotions swept across his face. Finally, Draco managed to get his features under control again. "Thank you."
Neville smiled. "No problem." Four and a half years of torment fell away and were forgiven in that single moment.
@~~~~A/N ~~~~@ Now I don't' want anyone to think that this means they are friends… I'm not done yet. I hope you all checked back in chapter 7 and chapter 36, because I fixed them I reissued them with their missing sections. So now they make more sense. Please check them out. Thanks for READING AND REVIEWING!