Disclaimer: No, I don't own Harry Potter so stop bothering me about it.

A/N: I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I was ISD (In School Detention) all day and had nothing to do after writing my sentences so started on this. Look for little hidden sentences on things to come, I'm sure I at least put a couple hints in here. I have part of the next chapter done so it should be up either tomorrow or the next day, depending on length. Remember to Read and Review. Without further delay, the next chapter . . .

THE EXHAUSTION OF TRAINING

BY: CHICANOSURFER01

"...FIRE, WATER, WIND, EARTH . . . A TEST . . . THE POWER YOU KNOW NOT WILL COME TO YOU . . . FIRST YOU MUST PROVE YOUR WORTHINESS . . . YOU MUST FACE YOUR DESTINY . . . "

Harry Potter sat straight up for the second time in so many nights.

'That's the second time I have this dream. This can't be normal.' Getting up, harry put on his tracksuit, as today was his first day of full training.

He crept quietly out of his room and out the front door. He ran to the park and, like last time, started his stretches on the hill. He had decided last night to push himself to the limit. He knew that the only way to improve himself as much as he wanted to, was by stretching his physical and magical boundaries. This was exactly what he planned to do today. He ran around the park four times, (about four and a half miles) until he almost collapsed from his burning legs.

"I have to push myself. I have to be ready." With a renewed determination, Harry got up from his quick rest and did a full-on sprint back to Number four where he proceeded to do his sit-ups, push-ups, and his other cool down exercises.

Going inside for a quick shower Harry could already feel the ring refilling him with energy.

He ate a quick breakfast and decided to get on with his DADA study. He read the books he had bought in Diagon Alley for an hour, before he finally decided to try out his new staff.

'I really hope this can't be detected by the ministry. I want to go back to Hogwarts.' Harry thought, looking down at the staff in the duffel bag.

Almost immediately after picking up the staff, Harry felt a weird sensation go up his arm. 'It feels like being reunited with an old friend.' thought Harry.

Standing up with the staff at an angle, Harry noticed it felt unusually light to his touch. 'I wonder if it'll work for me as well as my wand does. Well... only one way to find out.'

He pointed the beautiful staff at his bed, deciding to use Wingardium Leviosa on it, to see how well the staff worked.

The only thing was that, before he got the chance to say the incantation, the staff's black jewel slightly lit and the bed was hovering about a foot off the ground.

"I didn't even say the incantation! Why did it work? ....maybe... " Getting an idea, Harry thought of wanting the bed to go back to the ground and, as before, the jewel lit up while the bed complied.

Barely holding in his excitement, Harry picked up the household charms book and looked up some charms to make his room a better training area. After placing various charms, including enlargement and silencing charms, around his room he decided to get to work.

He found that he did have to say the incantation with more advanced spells, but he wasn't worried about it. Creating a training dummy with a spell he found in the DADA book (Dumius Transio), he started flinging curse after curse at it. Supposedly the dummy would light up either green, yellow or red when you hit it with a spell. If you did the incantation right, the dummy would light up green; wrong, and it would light up red; yellow if you did it partially right. Harry slowly progressed on getting the spells right, but was thankful that the ring was keeping him from magical exhaustion.

He went from DADA to Transfiguration where he used the same technique of reading for an hour and practicing for an hour. He had already learned the basics of animating and was currently trying to conjure up a new bed for himself so that he could sleep comfortably. He still had to concentrate very hard and it took him a whole five minutes of determined concentration to create the bed. The book said that it would get easier with practice, and soon, he would be only have to think of an item while saying the incantation.

After getting rid of his old bed, Harry placed the bed he had conjured, (a four-poster almost identical to the one he had in Gryffindor Tower) in it's place.

Satisfied with his transfiguration practice for the day, Harry decided to go downstairs for lunch.

"Training this much sure makes you hungry. I feel like I could eat a whole hippogriff right now." Harry said to himself while pulling out three helpings of food out of the refrigerator.

Sitting down with a plate of shepherds' pie, meatloaf, and grilled chicken each, Harry started to wonder where the Dursleys were, as he hadn't seen them all day.

Stepping into the living room to look around a bit, having finished his huge lunch, he noticed a short note on the coffee table.

'Left for vacation to Jamaica, Won't be back until August 27. DON'T MESS UP THE HOUSE and NO FREAKS! V. Dursley.'

"Sounds just like him. Has the guts to call us freaks but only in a note, the Sodding Git."

Deciding to use his time wisely, Harry went into the garage to start his weight training early. 'Dudley's not here so I can use his weights without worrying I'll getting caught.' He wasn't worried about getting big, just stronger; but working out was the only way to improve his muscle strength.

Finishing up, he headed upstairs for more training. 'I'm already sweaty so I might as well do my sword training now.'

Reading a little more on how to animate his dummy for sword combat, Harry found a little spell that would help him train in levels to learn quickly. Harry decided to start out just higher than beginner level. For some weird reason he felt that he could handle it. Getting out his two swords and conjuring up two swords for his dummy; Harry spoke the activation word.

Almost immediately after the word 'activo' was spoken, the dummy attacked, surprising Harry because of the low setting. Miraculously, Harry managed to block the dummy's attack and come back with his own.

If anyone looked at him, no one would guess this was the first time handling the swords. He did have his flaws but Harry seemed naturally graceful and deadly with both swords. Cling after Cling resounded around the enlarged bedroom as Harry and the dummy parried each others blows. After blocking a hit from both above and below harry did an amazing spin move that made the swords slice through the dummy in two places.

"Game over." Harry said, breathing heavily over the three remaining pieces of the dummy. A 'Reparo' later, the dummy was back to normal and in a deactivated state for later use.

After a quick shower, Harry reentered his room for the Charms section of his training. Again, using an hour for reading the spell book collection, Harry found a lot of spells that looked like they could be extremely useful in a battle or duel. Excited about the prospect of new spells, he started flinging spells at the dummy that varied from body-part detachment curses to strengthening charms.

One hour later, Harry pulled out "Taming the Inner Beast" and, anxious to start his animagus training, Harry started to read:

"Animagi are part of a strange and powerful branch of magic full of endless possibilities. Much the same as people, every animagus is unique to his or her personal traits and amount of power. Very rarely, there are certain witches or wizards that achieve more than one animagus in their lifetime and even fewer have been known to posses the ability to change into a magical creature. In order to find out what your specific animagus is, you must enter yourself into a trance-like-
state through meditation. Clear your mind of all thought and look into your mind to find your inner beast. You might find yourself in a heavy fog but you must not give up the search. Feel your way through the fog and to your animagus form."

Harry stopped here to try the meditation. He made himself comfortable in a cross-legged position on his new bed.

Remembering his Occlumency lessons, Harry started to clear his mind. He closed his eyes and set himself free in his mind; he wasn't really sure how he accomplished this but blamed it on instinct. He found himself in a very dark, almost pitch-black place, when memories from his life started appearing on little television-like screens everywhere. He was about to start watching a few when he remembered what he was trying to do here and got back on track. Not knowing exactly what to do or where to go, he just started walking. Eventually, his memories started to fade away as he (or at least he figured that he did) entered a different section of his mind.

The 'room' started spinning around him, and when the spinning finally stopped, he found himself in a dense fog, just as the book had explained it. Again, not knowing where to go or what to do, Harry just kept walking. He could feel the presence of something, but couldn't pinpoint the exact location with his gut instincts.

'Where in Merlin's name am I supposed to go? How can I find anything at all when it's too foggy to even see what you're goin- . . . ' Harry's train of thought abruptly stopped when he felt something soft brush against his side as it ran by. He could swear he heard the flapping of at least one pair of wings, but wasn't sure. Then he saw it.

An overly large wolf with silver eyes and a pure black coat was looking straight at him. For some weird reason Harry couldn't understand, he wasn't afraid. He started walking toward the wolf but stopped in his tracks when it reversed its colorings to a silverish coat with bottomless black eyes.

'How the hell did it do that? What is this thing?' Thought Harry.

The wolf started walking toward Harry this time. When it was close enough to touch, Harry reached down to pet its head. The only problem was that, when he made contact with the animal, he woke out of his trance in excruciating pain. His bones felt as though they were trying to twist and turn; which they actually were, as they tried to change his features. Finally after about a minute, he totally transformed.

He felt the need to hunt, to be free, all the animal's instincts at once. He almost totally lost himself in the animal but managed to keep his sanity and remember who he was. Due to this, and him not knowing how to keep the form, he started changing back, which of course came with the company of more pain.

Moments later Harry reappeared in a heap on the floor. With more effort then he ever thought he would use doing so, he climbed up onto his new four-poster bed.

'I'm not sure whether to be happy or not about turning so soon. All I know is that it sure hurts like hell.'

What Harry didn't know was that, as much pain and exhaustion he had faced in his waking hours, it was only minimal to what was waiting for him in his sleep.

A/N: I think that might be my first cliffy. Thanks to Lady of the Dragons2, Gohan00, Lady of Masbolle, and Fine(?), for reviewing. I hope this chapter was satisfactory for you and I lived up to your expectations. Keep reviewing. I look forward to reading my reviews.

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