Year Three at Hogwarts
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Chapter 12: Getting Ready
After the seekers spent that Halloween day at Hogsmeade, it became time for the thing that they've been putting off ever since the first two days of school, their training. Reggie and Brad had already long started but Tyler and Jacke had not. They figured that they all should set a time for when they would go to the forest and seek the Potion of Fecundity before starting. They were on the grounds, near the groundskeeper's hut, about two weeks after, discussing the time that they should go for the potion.
"How about we go for it this coming Saturday?" offered Brad.
"I'm thinking maybe after the next quidditch game of Ravenclaw vs. Hufflepuff might be the best time. Everyone would be so excited that they won't notice if we're missing," Reggie offered.
"The next Hogsmeade weekend," Jacke said with a little regret at having to sacrifice one of those for this escapade.
"Definitely not," Reggie said with a surprising voice. "Er...oh forget it, might as well tell you this, I have a date on that time. I'm taking Claudia Ments to Hogsmeade. Anyway," he said before anyone could talk on that. "I still think that after the match would be best anyway."
"No," Tyler said making them all stare at him. "I don't think that those plans would work. To get this potion, it could take us more than a few hours; it could take more than a day. I read the journal that my ancestor left back in the chamber. I read the passage before the last one and he said it took the four founders about a whole day to get the potion. I think that you've all forgotten that now that we all have new friends in our houses, that they'll be looking for us if we're gone for too long."
The other three slowly nodded in agreement. Tyler was right. These plans were made on the assumption that they wouldn't be missed but that wasn't the case as of late.
"What we need...is a time where we are sure that we won't be missed," Reggie said.
"A time that could definitely give us a good cover story no matter what," added Brad.
"Where we're sure that no one would think anything were wrong no matter how long we were out of sight," Jacke said scratching his hair.
"Yeah, but where are we going to get a time to take advantage of?" Tyler finished.
Then, with the speed of the fastest lightning, the four of them thought of a time coming up that would be perfect.
"Christmas break," they all chorused.
"Great minds do think alike," Brad said.
"It's perfect. We could all sign up on the list of people staying over for the holidays and use that time for hunting down the potion. The number of people who stay are always low," Tyler stated.
"Makes sense to me," Brad said. "Though, it's going to be a bit rough for my folks since I had always come home when I could. I guess I'll try and make a good excuse."
"I see no problem with this plan. I'm for it and I'm sure that I won't have any trouble about convincing my parents nothing is unusual," Reggie said.
"Honestly, I think that waiting for that long is going to be a down right pain but I still like it," Jacke finished. "As for leaving for home, I should be good."
"Good then, it's settled. My family shouldn't mind me being here for Christmas. Though, I think I agree that waiting for Christmas might just be a little long," he said looking at Jacke as he said this.
"No, it won't be too long. It might actually be too soon."
"What do you mean by that Reggie?" Tyler asked.
"The two of you hadn't really trained well for this. Remember, there's a good chance that getting the potion is going to be very difficult. Unless, you found something about it in your ancestor's journal."
He shook his head. "I've glanced at the end part of the book, around the whole potion thing, and I found nothing about obstacles, just the mention of finding the portal and then it jumps to using it to shape the land to how it was wanted."
"Well then, we'll just have to work at what we do best. Just train in the best way we think is right and we should be fine," Reggie nodded off.
Then a deep, rough voice came in "You boys all righ' there?"
The four of them turned from where they were sitting on the ground to find Hagrid the Groundskeeper. He was carrying a crate with a few tiny holes plucked in there the size of wand tips.
"Oh, we're okay Mr. Hagrid," Reggie said.
"No mister. Just Hagrid there lads. I see that you're all doing good."
They nodded at him with faint smiles as a confirmation of his words.
"Need help there Hagrid?" Jacke offered.
"Oh no, I got it. I just saw you four sittin' here and decided to say hello. It's nice seeing you young ones hanging around together."
Tyler couldn't help but mentally smirking at that. 'Not everyone feels that way, some feel the downright opposite' he thought as his mind wandered to his housemates and to his friends' that thought they were untrustworthy because they were his friends.
"What's in there Hagrid?" Tyler asked.
"Oh, just somethin' for you third years. Professor Kettleburn's next lesson but don't go asking me about it because you won't get nuttin out of me," he said after giving one last smile and going off.
As Hagrid went off, the seekers started to get to work as they had less than two months to get ready for their plan to get the Potion of Fecundity.
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The seekers had to focus on training and they had to do it carefully from prying eyes. They went and sneaked off the grounds to go to the rock formation where the cave they trained before used to be. They did it at the cover of the dark night or at the misty air of the early morning. To be sure that they wouldn't be seen, they used their animagus forms to get out of the castle. To be even more careful, Tyler told them all about the tunnels that Chaos has been using ever since their first year. Jacke didn't think it would work for him as the tunnels space was three feet all around in size and since his animagus form was the biggest while the others were smaller animals. It was until Brad reminded him that thanks to the Elemental potion's effects to their bodies, he could change the size of his form making small enough to fit comfortably. They would have Chaos lead the way to holes leading out of the castle that they used to cross in complete secrecy. After about a week of sneaking off together, the four of them started spreading themselves around after familiarizing the ways through the tunnels, out of the castle.
As he said, Reggie focused on getting his element to be manifested much faster. He timed how long it took for him to conjure a visible force of wind to use as a forceful weapon. So far, his fastest time to getting his element out was a solid 42 seconds. He wanted it out much faster than that. He knew that should the need arise; his elemental power shouldn't take a second to spare in manifesting. He could manipulate faster though. It took him around 10 seconds to get the wind around him to do what he wanted. He also practiced a few good spells he picked up and was perfecting the stunning spell and shield charm that Tyler had started to show them last term. To better prepare for the day when they go to get the potion.
Brad was taking a leaf out of Reggie's book and focusing on his elemental powers as well. Brad was doing much better in that than Reggie. He could create a ball of water in his hand in less than 10 seconds and could manipulate water faster. He had practiced every moment that he could on perfecting this power for the past two summers and in his spare time if he had any back at the muggle world. He wasn't too surprised that he was this far ahead. He had really improved thanks to practicing for his parents. Luckily for Brad, his parents were muggles so they couldn't know that the wizarding world thought of his power as a very dark art, they believed it to be one of the most wonderful things that Brad could do. Brad also trained himself by paying more attention in Transfiguration and in the subject textbook for transfiguration spells that might come in handy.
"Hey Reggie," Brad said when they were leaving their latest defense class after Professor Squall taught them about werewolves. "We've been studying and training executing our spells but maybe we should act a little like Tyler and Jacke and battle each other."
"Each other? We do do that."
"No, I mean the way that they do it. Those two always use every trick and talent that they have against each other like their animal and element powers along with spells. You and I usually focus on those one at a time but maybe we should learn to act more on our toes."
"Well...I admit that the two of us could do better in fighting that way. We have to consider everything that is guarding the potion and it could make us have to battle like that. Maybe Tyler and Jacke have the right ideas...when it comes to stuff like this only of course," he said smiling a little and causing Brad to chuckle under his breath.
"How about we battle each other away from Tyler and Jacke. Just the two of us where we could have full concentration. If we bring them then they might cause us to lose concentration thanks to their cheers and bets that they might make."
"Definitely, those two love competing against one another," Reggie agreed.
It seemed that doing this without Tyler and Jacke not knowing would be a synch. Reggie and Brad planned to battle on Friday night and Tyler and Jacke told them that they were going to turn in early. When they asked the two of them why, they said that they wanted to do their own kind of training at the early morning then late at night.
"This is perfect. We could train this way without those two interfering. I know that they wouldn't like us doing the same thing if they were going to fight like this," Reggie said relieved at the break.
"I think so too. Hey Reggie, how about we go over to the old rock valley at around a quarter to 1 o'clock? That should be more than enough time to make sure that Hawkster and your new friend Laura leave us in the common room while they go to bed."
"Fine with me. We'll use the Chaos' tunnels that Tyler showed us."
Then Reggie and Brad wound up at their next class of Potions with Professor Reckler.
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Reggie and Brad were at the rock valley at 1 o'clock the following night. They made sure that there would be no one around to hear the spells or noise. Reggie searched overhead and saw no one who could be close enough. Hagrid was the closest and he was at his hut on the opposite side of the lake, close to an edge of the Forbidden Forest. Back at the valley, Reggie and Brad bowed to each other, walked back a number of paces and began their duel.
Reggie and Brad started by shouting stunning spells. They collided with each other and fizzled out. Brad shouted a flipper hex, which Reggie easily deflected with a shield charm. While Brad was dodging his returned spell, Reggie pulled back his hand to conjure a ball of suppressed, intense wind. Reggie was surprised that it appeared in his hand in hardly a second when it never was that fast before. He launched it at Brad and connected with his chest launching him back four feet from where he stood. Dust came up and blinded Brad's figure.
'I guess the adrenaline of this fight got me to bring my power out faster.' Reggie thought.
The dust wasn't disappearing so Reggie concentrated and had the wind blow hard to remove the dust. When it passed, Brad was nowhere. Where was Brad? Reggie went over to that spot with his wand pointed out and saw that there was a hole dug there. Reggie then felt a force hit him in the back, which made him fly off his feet. Brad released a ball of water energy at his friend and then shouted "Giaranshi!" The spell hit Reggie's front while on the ground and the front side of his robes on his upper body section turned to stone pinning him down. Brad started moving toward him and Reggie concentrated and turned into his eagle form canceling out the Stone Spell. He flew up and avoided the stunning spells that Brad started throwing into the air after him. He flapped hard to avoid them but Brad was starting to become too accurate for comfort.
Brad tried as hard as he could to stun Reggie but he was too small to get a direct hit. He was also very fast in the air but Brad wasn't backing down. He extended his left hand out. He started launching water jets from them while he shouted stunning spells with the wand in his right hand. It was obvious that Reggie wouldn't be able to keep out of dodging every attack forever. Reggie dipped himself down and dived at Brad. Brad wasn't shaken. He kept up his attacks on his bird friend. Reggie then morphed back into himself at mid-air and shouted "Petrificus Totalis!" The spell came hurling at Brad and he was hit. However, as the spell hit him, a last jet of water was launched and hit Reggie right up and his feet causing him to spin in the air. Brad fell with his back to the ground while Reggie came hurling to the ground. He couldn't cushion his fall and ended up hitting it chest first. Luckily, he wasn't too far up or it could have broken something, Reggie just had a good deal of pain. He lifted his wand and pointed it at Brad's form and weakly muttered the counter spell releasing Brad. Brad ran to his friend, lifted him up and moved his arm over his neck and helped him back to a part of the outer castle walls that had a small hidden passage that led to the tunnels.
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Tyler and Jacke were taking more...bigger approaches. They both decided that they should train together every training second. Reggie and Brad did train together too but they did it every once in a while. Tyler and Jacke started to duel each other and practice targeting with their spells. They counted these practice sessions to their competitive streaks so that they would be better motivated to improve. So far, Jacke was coming behind with 33 while Tyler had passed him with 37 wins. However, when it came to shooting elements and targets they set up for them to practice, Jacke was in his prime. His fireballs and streaks where faster and more accurate plus destructive then Tyler's lightning bolts and orbs but he wasn't far behind. Tyler even came up with a crazy method of training for the both of them.
"We're going to what?" Jacke said as they were walking down from their Arithmancy class one Thursday and were heading for Care of Magical Creatures.
"We're going to try practice dueling with Basil."
"Basil? Tyler, in case you haven't noticed, I don't speak your language so how could I possibly duel the way you do with your spiny friends," he said in code so that they won't have trouble hearing each other in whisper.
"Relax Jacke. I've got it worked out for us. Trust me. You do, don't you?"
"Honestly, shouldn't you know the answer to that now?"
They went off to Care of Magical Creatures and they learned what was in the crate that Hagrid had carried off. He was right; it was their next lesson, Fairies. Small little creatures that looked like miniature women in dresses but had clear wings.
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The following day, Tyler and Jacke both bid their friends and fellow seekers an early goodnight. They planned to go down to the Slytherin Chamber in the early morning instead at the late hours of night so they wanted extra sleep. They both got weird and curious looks from their housemates but they explained to Reggie and Brad that they wanted to train. At around 4 o'clock, both Tyler and Jacke made their way out of their beds and headed for the out of order Girl's Bathroom. They used their animagus forms to sneak into the tunnels leading into the bathroom itself.
By now, all four of the seekers knew their way around since they used that time to navigate through them and train in moving around more in their animal states too.
When both of the two adventurous seekers got to the same bathroom, Tyler went to the sinks and hissed the "Open" command. They slid down the familiar pipe and made their way to the Chamber doors. Once inside, they made their way towards the giant statue of Salazar Slytherin.
"Tyler," Jacke started as they made their way to it. "What exactly did you have in mind when you said about training with Basil anyway?"
"Well, Reggie did say that we had to be best prepared for anything so I thought that fighting against a big creature might be one. You never know what is guarding that potion and if it really is guarding something so powerful then it won't be easy."
"Good point...wait a second, you never answered my question," he said narrowing his eyes at his friend.
Tyler never answered since they luckily got to the foot of the statue and he started the chant to open it up. The long basilisk guardian slithered out of the hole and Jacke closed his eyes immediately.
"Basil," hissed Tyler. "Don't let your power in your eyes hurt my human friend that's beside me," he commanded.
"Yessss massster," Basil replied.
"It's safe to look now," Tyler informed his Gryffindor friend while he went over and stood next to the giant serpent.
"Okay, now what's this training that you had in mind?"
"Simple Jacke." He then turned around and brandished his wand. "You're going to duel against Basil."
"What?!!!" he echoed in the big chamber. "I'm going to fight him!!!! NO WAY!!!!"
"Relax Jacke. I'll tell Basil to not land any killing blows to you. He's bound to serve me to the fullest of my wishes, remember? I'll make sure this stays on the spell level."
Jacke seemed to be weighing his choices. 'Dueling against something as big and strong as Basil alone. Well...it would be a great way to test how much I've come along. I've only really dueled Tyler, Reggie and Brad with these powers. If I fight Basil, then I could see if I'm on the right track.'
"All right, I'll face him," he said after a while.
"Good!" He turned to Basil. "Basil, you're going to face my friend here. I just want you to use physical attacks and be on your spine in dodging his attacks. Under no circumstances are you to perform anything that would seriously hurt or kill him."
"Yes Tyler."
'Good, he remembered.'
Jacke went a few feet back while Basil raised himself tall to face his opponent on his master's signal. Tyler raised his hand and then brought back down in force starting the match.
Jacke launched the stunning spell that Tyler showed him last term and was Tyler was amazed at how he launched it like he's done it for years. Tyler commanded Basil to duck or go down since snakes couldn't do that and charge in closer to the ground. Jacke turned into a lion and ran to his right to avoid Basil's tackle. He then quickly changed back to his human self and launched a Lumos Spell right at the direction of Basil's eyes. Jacke thought he was on the right track until he felt a force hit him at the side and push him back several feet. When he got to his feet, he saw that Tyler had his hand extended and it became obvious that he conjured an orb of thunder that he launched at him.
"What are you doing?"
"Jacke, do you really believe that I would allow you to defeat Basil? He's my fighting partner and we parselmouths protect our partners as they protect us in parselduels. My dad and grandpa taught me that this shows my respect to our natural friends."
"Okay then," Jacke said raising his wand. "Averte Stature!"
His spell went for Tyler but then a big green figure slithered in and took the front of the attack. Jacke stepped back quickly as Basil regained himself from moving a bit from the spell. Tyler told him to try and head tackle him again and Basil went for him. Jacke had to jump to roll out of the way.
"Bind him!" Tyler commanded.
Basil charged in, taking advantage of Jacke trying to get back on his feet, and surrounded him. Jacke was started to breathe out desperate and worried breaths. Even though he knew that Basil couldn't seriously hurt him against Tyler's wishes, he still looked very terrifying when he was engaged in combat. Basil closed the space and had Jacke tightly wrapped around his waist.
"Jacke, do you give up?!" Tyler yelled. "I can't see how you're going to get yourself out of this one mate."
Jacke didn't answer. He tried to move him arm with his wand still clenched and point it toward Basil's face. He pulled and tugged until he got enough of his arm free to attack. "Lumos!" he yelled and the sudden light caused Basil to react by releasing him and trying to get away from the directed light. Jacke tried not to waste time, he charged at Tyler. Tyler went and used the Silence Charm but Jacke kept dodging them and kept going for Tyler.
'If I get Tyler, then he can't guide Basil in attacking me.'
Jacke focused on his target and let fire form in his hand making Tyler panic. He shouted a spell that he hoped would only knock Jacke out cold. "Inferro Cracke!" The familiar whip of crimson red flame came out of his wand, which he swished at Jacke's direction. Jacke fell to his knees, sliding, to dodge the incoming attack and released the suppressed flame ball that he conjured. It hit Tyler and made him fly back and land in one of the pools of water.
Basil continued his assault and tried to whack Jacke away with his tail. Jacke barely dodged the first wave when Basil sent the tail back in the other direction connecting with Jacke's figure. Jacke landed on the floor clutching his stomach as Basil towered over him. Jacke could see the shadow of Basil's form in front of him. Jacke felt like he didn't have the strength to be able to dodge another physical attack. He instead pointed his wand behind him and yelled "Stupefy!" hoping that it would connect and then braised himself for a counter from Basil. However, the counter never came. The spell hit Basil's head and he stumbled on the ground, completely paralyzed.
Tyler picked himself up from the pool of water that he fell in and looked to see that Jacke had defeated both him and Basil in this fight. Tyler realized that had he been serious from the start, then he might've beaten Jacke. When the battle started, he just foolishly observed it and didn't get involved until Basil was about to lose. He just sat back and let his snake do all the work and he realized that his overconfidence was his downfall. Even though Jacke hadn't battled this way before wasn't an excuse to underestimate his abilities and be overconfident as to not be fully involved or completely on guard.
He released Basil from the Stunning Spell and told him to go back to the statue and rest inside. He then lifted Jacke up and helped him back up the entrance and through the tunnels to the Gryffindor Common Room. They entered through a small hole behind a wooden chair and were the size of kittens. Tyler never saw the Gryffindor Common Room before and thought that it had a nice warm feeling of knighthood. He left Jacke on one of the couches before he transformed again and went back to the Slytherin common room through the tunnels. After he got back in, he went to take a shower and change into new drier clothes right before Matt woke up to begin the day.
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End of Chapter 12Nightlit: Happy to hear from you again. I was afraid you've forgotten my story. I can't wait for the chapter that you said that you're working on.
SwollenFridge: You asked a good bit of questions. I wish I could answer them all but I can't without spoiling everything. I can say that yes, Laura Collins will be a bigger character soon. To give you a little spoil, every new friend that every seeker meets will become bigger soon. How?, you'll have to wait.
Author Notes:
Well, there go the seekers. A nice good bit of hardcore training. I thought that I should show some aspects of the training that they're doing to be ready for seeking the Potion of Fecundity. You might be getting impatient on when they're going to actually start on that but two months will go by fast and I should have them on in about 2 chapters at least so just hold on since we're almost there.
Review!