Author's Note to Isy Okolo on Apparition Licensing: My idea of Apparition is like driving in the US. A few months before you turn the legal age to do it, you are allowed a learner's permit that allows you to train and to do the thing with adequate supervision. Hermione, in my universe, will be 17 this September and so is two months away from being of age. In this universe, two months is the time granted prior to turning of age when one can apply for a learner's permit. Dumbledore, acting on Harry's behalf, has thrown around his own weight and Harry's to get special permission, seeing as how Harry has had to come face to face with Lord Thingy twice since his rebirth, for Harry to be able to learn Apparition now. What better way to escape capture, than to just disappear?
Also, FF.net is having issues with getting italics to show up in this chapter. Please bear with me.
Chapter 9. We'll Make a Man out of You, Yet
Over the next few days Harry was floored as he received more than a half-dozen never-before-seen owls. They arrived flying into his room, in through the kitchen, out in the backyard, out on the sidewalk as he walked on his way to Mrs. Figg's house--all delivering him letters from different schoolmates telling Harry how wonderful they did on their recent Defense Against the Dark Arts exams. Angelina, Alicia and Katie, each wrote to say that they had aced their Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests in Defense and that they owed it all to Harry. Neville Longbottom was one of the first to write and thanked Harry for helping him master more spells that he had in five years. He also wrote that his Gran was very proud of his involvement in the fight that resulted in the capture of the Lestrange brothers: two of the ones responsible for incapacitating Neville's parents. Neville also wrote that Ginny had explained in the hospital wing later back at Hogwarts that Sirius Black was innocent and that he had been Harry's Godfather. Neville apologized for Harry's loss and told Harry, quite formally, that he would be honored to attend a Life Celebration for Sirius whenever it was to be held. Harry was amazed that Neville would trust his and Ginny's story of Sirius' innocence so completely without question. The most shocking thing Neville had written was to say that his marks had shown an "O" in Potions. He said he had written the Examination Authority to make sure it was not a mistake but that if it were true, then he would qualify to take the NEWT Preparatory Potions course. Neville said he would not want to take it if there were no other Gryffindors in it; he had asked if Hermione had signed up for it.
Dean had written to say that he had done well in most of his classes and that his only "O" had been in DADA are thanked Harry. Seamus wrote to say that after he had received an "O" in DADA and told his mum it was because of Harry's help, she had sobbed and told him to write and apologize to Harry for ever doubting him. Ernie Macmillan had written to list each and every score he had received and to tell Harry that he had also earned an "O" in DADA. Ernie also said he had written Hogwarts to lodge a complaint against Draco Malfoy for attempting to attack Harry on the train ride home. He said he had written Hannah Abbot and Susan Bones urging them to lodge a complaint as well. Harry thought, that with the letter Hermione had already written, that Malfoy might be handing in his Prefect Badge before next term.
On Friday, Harry had awoke early and went over to Mrs. Figg's to ask if he could use the shed to practice some before he had to work with the Auror, Kingsley Shacklebolt. Harry had found the potting shed was indeed, approximately ten times larger on the inside than what it appeared and that the walls felt slightly cushy if you pushed against them and the dirt floor felt springy if you jumped up and down. There were some garden chairs, old pots, rakes, shovels and other miscellaneous items normally found in a potting shed stuffed in the corner of the now spacious room.
Harry dragged out one of the rather worn looking chairs and set it in the middle of the room as he began to try out some of the new spells he had recently found and read about. He began with a spell he had discovered that just might have been what his father had used on Snape in the scene in the penseive: the Pick-Pocket Jinx. He had found it in the Dark Arts Primer as a spell used to hang people upside down too empty out their pockets of Galleons.
"Flippenspendus!" It took several tries before he was successfully able to make the chair hover upside down in mid air.
After that he had worked on conjuring magical ropes like he had seen Dumbledore do to the Death Eaters at the Ministry ("Incarcerous!") and had used an empty pot to practice blasting curses repeatedly. Mrs. Figg came out once to suggest Harry put up a silencing charm so no one would wonder what kept breaking. She managed to drag him in for a short lunch, which Harry ate with gusto. Before heading back out, he asked for a candle and went to see if he could master a flame-freezing charm; he had really wanted to try out a flame-throwing curse but thought he ought to make sure he had mastered the freezing charm before he set anything on fire.
When Kingsley arrived, he was very businesslike and suggested they begin with something to gauge at what level Harry was to and then determine what they needed to cover. His only warning was, "Now try and stop me if you can." Before he sent a spell at Harry that was instinctively deflected and then countered with the first thing that came to Harry's mind: a double-vision jinx he had only read about which made Kingsley pause long enough for Harry to quickly shout, "Expelliarmus!"
But before Harry could feel too victorious as he caught the wand, Kingsley was charging at him full speed and Harry could only yell a poorly aimed "Impedimenta!" as he was tackled with Kingsley's wand dropping to the ground. Kingsley lunged away from Harry to retrieve his wand, which Harry managed to banish out of his grasp across the room and then turned and cast the Full Body Bind on Kingsley. He then stood up, panting for breath, wondering if he should unbind him now.
He hadn't yet recovered his breath when he saw Kingsley begin to stir and break the bind as he made to lunge this time at Harry in physical attack. Harry tried out a blinding jinx, "Malvisum!" and quickly followed with "Stupefy!" Then for good measure, Harry conjured the magical ropes he had been practicing earlier. He summoned Kingsley's wand and then waited a few moments then revived the still-bound Kingsley. He had to struggle for a moment before noticing the ropes and then concentrated and broke them.
Harry had his wand raised and was about to curse him again when Kingsley laughed and held up his hands, "Alright, alright, you know a fair amount." Harry breathed out a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding and handed over the wand. "You did not expect me to break out of the Full Body Bind, did you? Did you know it could be fought, same as a stunning spell?" Harry shook his head. He knew a person would come around eventually out the curses but was not aware they could be countered. "It is a matter of preparing your mind for accepting the curses. You shout out your spells and that makes it easy to prepare. Did you know that, with practice, you'd be just as effective if you whispered or muttered your incantations? Even if you can't voice them at all, you can still cast spells." Kingsley was up and dusting himself off now.
"They tend not to teach that at Hogwarts because they want to hear your casting to make sure you're doing it right. That, and it's easiest to learn to focus your magic through voiced incantations.
"The ropes were a nice touch, a little weak-- I would have expected them to be stronger what with the strength you were able to put into your stunning spell."
"I only just tried it for the first time this morning using the chair." Harry gestured at the lonely chair over to the side.
Kingsley looked impressed at this. "Well, then not so bad for the first time on a person. You also did well to try to jinx my sense of sight. It made it difficult to attack with a wand or to form a physical assault all while not knowing what else may be headed towards me. Eyes are a weakness for everyone. Look at old Moody-- he relies on his magical eye all the time, but a well chosen spell would sever him from his most trusted sense and leave him vulnerable-- and even more importantly, feeling vulnerable." Kingsley was walking about the room now, prodding the softened walls and checking out the space.
"That's a very huge advantage to make your opponent feel vulnerable. If they think you already know their weakness, they are more likely to reveal it to you. Now what's your weakness?"
Harry thought for a moment, "Well, I didn't know half the stuff you're saying just now and I was surprised…and acting on impulse more than…say…forming a plan of attack." Harry hadn't chosen to purposefully attack the eyes, it was just the section he had recently read about and was what had come to mind.
"Ah, instinct is both a strength and a weakness. Your instincts are spot on in that you first disarmed me, tried to slow me down when I made a rush, fought to prevent me from regaining my wand and then, finally made to subdue me. That is the correct instinct--to capture. Your instinct, however, should probably be to evade if you are being attacked. But instinct can also be predictable and therefore, exploited. Let's work on how you can overcome subduing and binding spells."
They worked on how Harry could prepare his mind to fight will himself out of a Body Bind. This spell only petrified the body and not the mind so he found it a lot like Imperious only instead of being told to move to do something, it was like believing he couldn't move. The same voice in his head quickly helped him to relax under the spell and remember that his body was controlled by his mind and then focused on willing his body to move. Harry had managed to master this rather quickly and then Kingsley explained how, by comparing the willpower needed to overcome the spell, the strength of the person casting it could be gauged.
Overcoming stunning was a little more difficult as it numbed the mind as well as the body. Kingsley explained the key was to prepare your mind to wake up as soon as it was stunned, like you might remind yourself you need to wake up early in the morning before you fall asleep. He claimed, after waking up your mind, it would be easier to regain the use of your body than when fighting the Body Bind. Harry was having trouble getting the hang of this one though and they moved on to explaining how preventing your opponent from hearing the incantations would prevent them from properly blocking, anticipating and countering spells.
Kingsley told Harry to practice over the next week, lowering his incantation tone gradually to progress to only a whisper while still maintaining full power of spellcasting. Harry went home exhausted and hungry and spent most of the night in his room trying to hover his pillow while softly speaking the incantation.
The next morning, Harry had to skip breakfast and rush to make his meeting with Moody. He paused outside the potting shed and bent over to gasp for breath. He pulled his wand out to give a quick once-over and wiped it across his jeans on his thigh before taking a deep breath, straightening up and then opened the door and walked in.
"Petrificus totalus!" Harry felt his body go rigid as he keeled over forward and into the pitch-dark shed. He panicked for a moment before remembering to relax and focus his mind on breaking through the bind.
When he finally broke through, he immediately rolled over to the side to avoid the curse yelled from Moody's voice and Harry recalled what Kingsley had said about making Moody vulnerable if you took away his eye. "Accio eye!" Harry growled as he pointed his wand in the direction of the voice and focused on summoning the magical eye from Moody's socket, wherever he was. His seeker skills enabled him to glimpse the eye as a ray of light from the open doorway hit it moments before Harry reached out to snatch it.
He held the eye barely a second before Harry was disarmed with his wand and the eye flying out of his hands as he sailed backwards into the wall. Harry spent a few dazed moments appreciating that the walls were as cushy as a pillow before Moody filled the shed with light and stalked menacingly towards Harry. "Argh! Got your wand boy, didn't I!" Harry briefly wondered if he was expected to rush at the peg-legged Moody and attack him as Kingsley had done to Harry the day before.
Instead, Moody reached down to offer Harry a hand up and, after giving it a scrutinizing appraisal, handed Harry his wand back.
"But, you did have your wand out and ready when you came in--even it was because you wanted to give it a quick polish." Harry should have known that Moody would have seen him through the shed walls. "And you managed to break free of the Full Body Bind and then go for my eye to even out the odds a bit." Moody, with an empty eye socket, was staring intently at Harry with his one normal eye, just inches away from his face, "We'll make a man out of you, yet, Potter."
Saturday morning progressed slowly as Moody lectured on how to enter rooms to avoid ambush and how to detect suspicious people (Harry thought nearly everyone was suspicious by Moody's standards, though). Moody then proceeded to make Harry allow jinx after jinx be cast at him, as Harry would then have to guess what each jinx was and, if he could, perform a counter-jinx. After two hours of this, Moody called a stop and told Harry that if he got good at countering and recognizing jinxes, then maybe Moody would let him practice casting jinxes. Harry thought it was probably fair payback for summoning Moody's eye out of its socket.
When Harry stumbled into Mrs. Figg's kitchen through the back door, his stomach grumbled so loudly that Mrs. Figg insisted he sit and eat something. As she served him bacon and eggs, she told him that Remus had called on the Floo earlier to say that he and Tonks would be by around noon to see Harry and that Harry could stick around to wait for them and watch the telly in the meantime. Instead, he fell asleep on her couch with three different cats curled up around and on top of him.
Harry woke up to the cheerful sound of Tonks' voice, "Apparently Moody hasn't taught him a Proximity Charm yet."
"Huh?…Wha-?" Harry sat up groggily, displacing a cat that had been dozing on his chest. He straightened his glasses as he looked up to see Tonks watching him with amusement.
Lupin was frowning at Harry, though, "Harry, what were you muttering? Were you dreaming?"
Harry could feel himself pale at the first mention of his dreams since Ron and Hermione had been on him before Sirius had died. Every night and anytime he slept, and even if Harry was just sitting in silence and trying not to think of anything at all, the same thing nagged in his head. Harry could hear what sounded to him, like the voices he had heard from behind the veil that stood in the Department of Mysteries. Harry believed these dreams and voices were as likely to be his own tormenting, guilt-ridden nightmares as they were to be thoughts sent by Voldemort to torment him. He wasn't eager for anyone to know what it was that haunted him every night.
"Harry? Have you had any…dreams lately?" The concern and worry was etched in every line of Lupin's face and even Tonks looked rather disconcerted.
Harry rubbed his temples as he tried to think of a way to avoid the telling them about the voices. "What was I saying?"
Lupin and Tonks exchanged a glance. Tonks must not have heard any muttering for she shrugged her shoulders and Lupin looked back at Harry, "You were muttering, it wasn't clear. Something like 'louder' and 'hear you'. Don't you recall?"
Harry closed his eyes and thought furiously, "Oh, I--I think it was a dream with Ron and Hermione…bickering…and I wanted to tell them that if they got any louder, they whole tower would hear them. Probably a nightmare from all the studying we were forced to do before OWLs."
He saw Lupin give a sigh of relief and Tonks recovered, as she perched on the arm of the sofa and snapped her chewing gum, "So, what did old Mad-Eye teach you? Anything?"
Harry gave them a full account of his training with Moody and of the previous day with Kingsley. Tonks asked if Harry was all jinxed-out or if he wanted to work a bit more. Harry said he would as long as he didn't have to have to be the one getting cursed all the time.
They spent a good part of the afternoon showing each other their favorite hexes, curses, and jinxes. Both Lupin and Tonks helped explain to Harry how you could try to determine what type of spell had been cast upon you and gave him hints on common countering spells that worked on a number of curses, jinxes and hexes. Harry knew they were both impressed when he was able to name off a good number of his own spells that neither had never heard off; he chose not to let Lupin know about the Pocket-Picker jinx he had found, though.
After a few hours, they called it a day and Tonks reminded Harry that he ought to be reading up on Apparition in his book of Standard Spells for 6th Year. "Well, that will be kind of hard, seeing as how I don't have the book."
Lupin looked surprised, "Oh? But Hermione already has hers."
Harry laughed, "Yeah and she has the standard book for seventh year as well. She bought them all last year hoping to prepare for after the OWLs. I don't have any of my stuff for next year and I need a load of new things-" he began ticking them off on his fingers,"-books, robes, quills, parchment, plus whatever else is on the lists for next years' NEWT prep courses. Oh, and I need to go to Gringotts to get money to pay for it all. I haven't been there--or even to Diagon Alley at all--since before third year. Actually, I asked about going when I wrote to Professor Dumbledore but he never let me know." Harry kicked over a clay pot as he figured he would have to just let someone else go for him to get his things like Mrs. Weasley had for the past two years.
"Hmm, well, I have a book on Auror training that discusses Apparition. It's more advanced but I could owl it to you tonight." Tonks offered.
"Is it the Level One book? I already have it--it's one that Dumbledore loaned me. I haven't looked up Apparition in there yet."
Lupin added, "Well, for now, I can make a duplicate of the pages from Hermione's book and bring them Monday. They will only last a day or so--most duplication enchantments won't last on copyrighted material. No! Wait--you see Albus tomorrow, right? We can call him now on the Floo--I knew this would be handy!"
Lupin went over to the fireplace with his wand, "Incendio!" and reached into an urn on the mantle and came out with a handful of Floo powder that he tossed into the flames. He then bent down and stuck his head in the green flames and shouted, "Hogwarts Headmaster's Office!" There was a pause and he spoke again. "Hello? Anyone? Albus?" A few more moments passed, "Professor--is anyone there?" He pulled out from the fire and dusted himself off and then looked at Harry, "Well, I'll call him on the Floo from Headquarters later and ask him to bring something from Hogwarts when he comes tomorrow.
"Oh, and Harry I nearly forgot, I found the other two-way mirror that Sirius had. If you want, I can give it to Hermione and you can use it to communicate with each other?"
This caught Harry off guard and he was without an answer as he really wasn't sure he wanted to admit he had broken the last gift Sirius had given him. A week earlier when trying to put his trunk in some order, he had just found all the broken pieces and after staring at them for a while, wrapped them up in an old robe. He shrugged and said, "Won't do any good. I broke it."
Tonks cocked her head to the side, "Aren't you a wizard?"
Harry looked at her like she had neon orange hair (oh wait, she did), "Yes…?"
Lupin said, "Do you still have all the pieces?" Harry nodded. "Didn't 'Reparo' work?"
Harry felt stupid now. "Oh." Lupin and Tonks both laughed at him and then bid him farewell and that they would both see him on Monday afternoon for training. Tonks challenged Harry and Lupin to find three more spells none of the others had heard about for Monday. Harry warned Lupin not to cheat and ask Hermione, as she could probably beat them all.
When Harry arrived home to Number Four, he found Hedwig had returning with a letter from Ron. He tore open the envelope as he wondered how Ron had done on his exams.
Harry,
Congratulations on your OWL scores, mate. We all got Outstanding's on our DADA and CoMC! Have you decided what classes you are taking next year? I think I'll take DADA, Divination (because it's so easy), CoMC, Herbology and History of Magic (because I can always use more sleep). We only need to take five and I don't see any reason to do more. What are you taking?
Life sucks here. Ginny and I are stuck here with Mum and Dad. Bill is supposedly staying here but hardly ever comes home. Ginny is always writing letters and being a prat. She had better not be writing Dean. Didn't Lavender say that Dean was a womanizer or something once? You should write Ginny and tell her you don't think Dean is right for her; she won't listen to me.
I keep asking Mum if you can come over soon but she says Dumbledore won't allow it and then gets all huffy about it. She and Dad have been having a row every other day--probably about Percy. He hasn't apologized about being a git yet. Fred and George said they saw him in Diagon Alley a week ago and Percy ignored them completely. I think I heard Dad say he had been demoted and was now in charge of getting a replacement sculpture for the fountain at the Ministry or something. Dad thinks they should have a muggle in the new sculpture. Go figure.
Write back soon because I'm bored and Ginny isn't even willing to practice Quidditch with me. Write Ginny, too, will you?
Ron
Harry wondered what Ron would say when he found out they would only be in two classes together. He also wondered why Ron didn't list all his scores as he was sure Hermione had done with both hers and Harry's when she wrote to Ron. He figured Ron had not done quite as well as Harry and Hermione and was just embarrassed. He decided he would write back later after his stomach gave a loud growl, reminding him he hadn't eaten since late in the morning and that if he didn't want to be starving for the rest of the night, he ought to head down to dinner now.
Later that night after dinner, Harry pulled out the old robe he had worn his first year and unwrapped it to look at the broken mirror shards. He stared at them and could remember Sirius barking a laugh or telling him how he'd set things straight if Snape were giving Harry any trouble. He even thought he could hear Sirius now, saying not to be sad and not to feel guilty. Harry had his wand ready to repair the glass, but as he thought about it, the shattered pieces of the mirror seemed to reflect the shattered hope that Harry had felt the first time he realized Sirius was never coming back. He wrapped the shards back up and went to sleep to dream of the voices behind the veil.
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A/N: For my own easy access of chapter files from any computer, I've created a new yahoo group at the site posted on my bio page:
I have posted (and will post future) chapter files to be available for download on this site.