"You coddle the boy. Care to go another round?"
I hadn't even known Severus was watching the dueling lesson with Neville from the balcony. I finally got Neville a wand of his own after finding out his Grandmother gave him his mother's wand to replace his fathers. With each spell he cast successfully, his confidence grew. We were doing a full review of everything he's learned at school as well as from Harry in the D.A. He was taking my critiques well and he was finally up to mastering all his 5th year spells, we're hoping to move on to 6th year spells next week.
I motioned for Severus to join me on the floor. Grabbing a quick drink from the water tap in the arena, I splashed some water on my face and the back of my neck to cool down a bit.
"Tournament rules or circle duel?" I asked facing the stairs from the balcony.
"Circle is fine." The acoustics of the room were such that his answer sounded right next to me.
The dueling practice room was once a large tool shed attached to the main barn. I moved all the tools to a new shed and turned this room into a dueling practice area. I paneled and charmed all the wood to absorb wayward spells so it was the safest place to practice. The balcony was a catwalk with roof access that I left in place and added skylights to allow natural light into the room. There was an upper balcony near the skylights the previous owner used as a place to watch the stars on cold nights.
A circle duel differs from a regular duel in that the opponents move around a lot more while dueling. Snape was still in his working robes which wouldn't hinder his movements much.
We saluted, bowed, and moved into ready position.
"You were saying, Severus?"
"You're coddling him. He needs to learn faster."
"He needs to learn and he needs to feel safe here. Not be intimidated right now." He challenged, so I cast first. I sent a weak ball of light as a feint, and a stunning blast at ½ strength. Both he deflected easily. The duel had begun.
"The dark servants will intimidate him." I absorbed his next spell, a feint.
"Will do their best to scare him to inaction." I deflected a blast of energy.
"Just before they kill him." I had to roll out of the way of the last blast, I was back on my feet and in dueling position in two breaths.
"How do you propose to train the reflexes into him, into any of them?" Sent a crossfire volley of flamelitts at him. Which he countered without almost thinking about it.
"I've said it before- you are dropping him into a deep lake to see if he can learn to swim." I sent a wall of air to buffet him and to create static for the next spell.
"Sometimes you have to teach them to swim first, so they don't become so afraid of the water they drown." The lightning I called sparked at him, singing his robes.
"He fears me because I'm a former death-eater!" He took advantage of the remaining static and cast lightning back at me, which I grounded just in time to deflect the water coming at me.
"He should be afraid of me, of them!"
"Potter fears fear. Neville fears failure." My words stunned him a split second before my spell did knocking him back a few paces.
"As you said with Lockhart the night of the dueling club, 'Maybe you should teach them to BLOCK unfriendly spells first.'" I sent a wall of force that carried him into the wall. "Have you ever bothered to show either of them how to block before attacking and hoping they'll figure it out on their own?" My next spell he dodged out of the way.
"Leave Potter out of this." He snarled as a highly focused spell beam hit my arm. I looked where the spell impacted; I was bleeding. First blood has been drawn. I raised an eyebrow and moved back into ready position.
"What does your boggart look like, Severus?" My spell threw him back into the wall. I already knew the answer to that. It looked like the faces of all the unprepared children that ever faced him as a death eater. Looking at him in fear. As much as Neville feared Snape- Severus feared Neville.
His next spell threw me to the floor. I fast-cast disarming and leg-locker at him to buy time to get to my feet as he un-hexed himself.
"So you're teaching him to play nice with the death eaters?" He sent a curse at me, which I countered.
"I'm teaching him the spells he needs to know in such a way that he'll actually be able to perform them at need." I sent a volley of blue steel-light lances at him.
"With trained reflexes," The second volley he blocked too easily.
"The way WE learned." I sent a blinding flash of light to enable me to get around to his unguarded left side and cast a partial-paralysis curse. He cast the counter hex on himself.
"This is the way I learned." Knife spell – I countered.
"The way my family taught me." A force hit me to the ground. "The way the dark servants taught me." The words caught me off guard. Another knife spell made a shallow cut. The interesting things about the knife spells Severus was showing off his control of them by only making shallow wounds in non-vital areas.
"Neville has to learn to face what fears him. Potter has to learn to face death. If I am worse then anyone they have to face then they will be ready." I countered the spell coming at me, and reflected the next back to him while rolling back to my feet.
"Severus, you're not worse, you just can't leave your personal issues at the door." My knife spell connected with him that time.
"Because they fear me anyway!" A blast of energy missed me. "We've both seen too many of our own killed in all this. Do you want to add two more children to the toll? They have to be ready and no nanny-pandering is going to do it!" I again reflected his force back to him setting him off guard.
"I am not coddling" My next spell flew him through the air.
"Cosseting" He was caught in the air by my full force levitation. "Or even cajoling Neville. I would never put him at the disadvantage you gave the Slytheryn students." I conjured a net to fall and entangle him bringing him to the ground. He recovered his composure quickly after destroying the net.
"The end justifies the means." He successfully disarmed me. I summoned my wand back to my hand with my wyrd before it hit the ground and disarmed him. He rolled after the wand and came back to position.
"I concede the floor. The duel is yours. I keep forgetting your inborn talent to move things." He caught his breath. "Yes, I agree, Neville is improving. So if you think you can do any better with Potter, you're welcome to try."
I salute and bow to acknowledge the victory of the duel and the argument.
We both limp our way to the benches.
I lean back stretching glancing up at the skylights and catwalk and saw them. And by the stunned looks on their faces, Neville, Harry, and Lupin looked like they had seen and heard the whole thing.
Severus heard my sharp intake of breath and looked to see what I was looking at and gave me a 'now-what' kind of look.
It was Lupin who broke the awkward silence.
"Is this how you two always work out your differences- or do you just like trying to nearly kill each other?"