I do not own Harry Potter, that particular honor belongs to one J.K. Rowling.
Special thanks to Masa for his assistance with the textbook section of this chapter.
Chapter 20: Dodging
Harry was really pleased with Neville's performance. His new wand seemed to be giving him the accuracy and power in casting that he had been lacking the year before.
When, obviously hearing about the Patronuses from Remus, the professor asked him to try for one, he managed a large, hound shaped one. It was a bit gray and indistinct, but still better than he had managed in last year's DA.
Harry slapped him on the back in congratulations when Neville, red-faced and a bit out of breath with the effort, rejoined the group in front of the professor's desk. There was a Slytherin that Harry didn't recognize before Padma took her turn, then Parvati. Both performed well according to Professor Lanya. Finally it was his turn.
"Harry Potter." Her voice called, uninflected so as Harry could not tell how she felt about sparring against the 'famous mister Potter.' He got the feeling she didn't care much about it one way or the other.
He stepped out of line and strode to the left side of the cleared area. She stood across from him, her wand held loosely in her left hand. Her right hand was gloved, he noticed, in an indigo blue that matched her simply designed robes and hat. Unlike Neville, and most of the others, even after all her testing of the students she didn't look a bit tired, though a few more curls had straggled down from beneath her cap and the hem of her gown was a bit singed from a few of the spells that got rather close. There was a smudge of soot across her left cheek, but her eyes were bright and intense.
She had seemed pleased with the students who had given her those close calls, and Harry gathered that she wanted them to not hold back. Very well, he would oblige, though he knew, just from watching the others, that he came nowhere near to matching her skill.
They saluted each other in the dueling style. And Harry waited until her nod. She tilted her head, smiling.
"Expelliarmus." He called.
"Mesura Protego." She replied, smiling slightly as the shield changed color to indicate how much force the attack had contained. It turned red, showing a rather superior level. Hermione had attained the same, while most of the others got yellow or orange. Neville's, somewhat surprisingly, had turned a dark scarlet, which, she had informed them, was one of the highest colors one could attain.
"Terantellegra!" And so the process repeated itself.
"Rictusempra!"
"Stupefy!"
"Hitulsify." Something he had picked up from the actor magicians. And so on and on it went, even as sweat began to trickle down his face and into his eyes, he went through his entire litany, some he had taught the others, some he was planning to teach.
"Carnecetella!" He cried, then finally after he felt he could go on no longer, and with the spell, "Esternomis!" which shattered the shield and left the professor gasping but grinning like a madwoman, he had reached the end of his spell knowledge.
"Very good," She gasped, lowering her wand to her side and straightening. "You all are doing quite well."
She turned to Harry, "Now, if you are up to it, if you would be giving us one demonstration of your corporeal Patronus?"
Harry swept his sleeve across his forehead to rid himself of the beads of perspiration and nodded, "Expecto Patronum." He cried, thinking of his dream when his father and stepfather had both been beside him. His Patronus burst out of the end of his wand in a flash of silver, but before it went two steps it flickered and dissipated.
Harry was conscious on a prickling sensation behind his eyelids. It was so hard to hold onto a happy memory lately.
"Thank you, Harry," His professor was saying, and he nodded again before going to rejoin the group. He relaxed when he retook his place between Ron and Hermione, watching distractedly as the remainder of the class took their turns. He noticed that Hermione squeezed Ron's hand briefly before he went to take his turn.
When they had at last been measured she addressed them all. "Now that I know your skill levels, I can more accurately plan my lessons. You all did quite well."
There were smiles and murmurs in the group as the students clustered around with questions on their lips, most of them concerning learning more combat spells, including a few that Harry and the Slytherin, she had called him Gradly Mason, had used that were unfamiliar to the others. Harry eyed Mason with some respect, tempered with the fact that the young man was a Slytherin.
She raised a hand to forestall them, laughing softly. They fell silent as she waited, refusing to speak until the last voice had stilled. She put her hand down and rested it against her hip, tapping her wand against her robe-clad leg.
"As I said, you did quite well, but you can do better." Some few faces fell. "But before we address the issues of spell casting, we will deal with combat training, beginning with the most useful move of all, one that could save your life in a combat situation."
Harry found the silence profound, as everyone seemed to hold their breaths to hear this most useful move.
"Which is, of course, the dodge." She said seriously.
Harry closed his eyes and shook his head as several of his classmates groaned, but not, he noticed, Neville, Ron, and Hermione. He knew why. They, as far as he knew, were the only ones besides he, and most likely, the professor, that had actually been in a true combat situation, unprepared as they were.
"Now," Professor Lanya told them, "do not underestimate this move merely because you find it simple. It is essential that, even as and after you throw yourself out of the way, you do not leave yourself vulnerable. Combining the dodge with other moves can mean the difference between victory and defeat."
She stepped back out of the students surrounding her, regarded them for a moment with calculation, then directed Ron out of the group. He stepped out, his eyes wide and nervous.
"Ron, hit me with Expelliarmus."
Harry saw Hermione covering her mouth with one hand, and he knew what she was thinking about. Their third year in the shrieking shack, and Snape knocked against the wall by the three of them hitting him with that spell at the same time. To protect Sirius and Remus. He blinked rapidly, then forced himself to watch Ron and Professor Lanya closely.
"Um," He gulped, "Okay Professor." He assumed dueling stance, but the professor, facing him, stood relaxed, her feet shoulder width apart, her arms relaxed and hanging at her sides. Ron gulped again, rumpling his hair with his free hand as he set his shoulders.
"Expelliarmus!" He cried, his hand steady as he directed his spell at the professor, who was no longer there. His spell hit the wall with a shower of sparks.
In a move that was almost too quick to follow, she had dropped to one knee, launched herself forward, rolled, came back up to her feet with her nose only a foot from Ron's and her wand at his throat.
Ron's eyes bulged. This had all taken place almost before the last syllable had left his tongue.
The professor stepped back, her wand falling back to her side as she nodded her head formally at her opponent. "A simple forward dodge, lunge, and roll. Try to always keep your wand trained on your opponent. It is sometimes best to get yourself close in so your opponent cannot bring their wand into play."
Ron stepped back into the group, his hand at his neck as though expecting to not find it whole.
"If I had desired it, I could have fired one spell off on the forward lunge, one at the top of the roll, and one when my wand was being at his neck."
Ron paled even more.
"But this takes discipline, concentration and skill." She looked at them all significantly, "Three things which you will gain by the end of this year." The manner in which she said it implied that if they didn't, it was no fault of hers.
"And that should be the end of the lesson for today." She finished. "For your homework I would like you to read the chapter in 'Magical Combat' by Crash N. Spinnet on evasive maneuvers, and choose one duel in the text, 'Famous and Infamous Duels in the Last Five Centuries,' by Walkerton Paces and give me twelve to twenty inches of parchment on how dodging was used in said duel and the effectiveness of the maneuvers."
She again waved her wands at the desks clustered at the back of the room and they flew forward to once again form orderly rows. Harry hurriedly snagged his homework planner out of his bag, glad he had put a silencing charm on it, and scribbled the assignment on one of the pages. Ron was doing the same beside him, but he had not put on a silencing charm.
"Do it today and it'll all be okay." His planner screeched shrilly, occasioning laughter from his classmates.
Ron turned beet red and slammed the book shut before cramming it back into his bag. He slung it over his shoulder and joined Hermione, Ron and Neville where they waited near the door.
"So, what did you think?" Hermione asked them as the started off towards the Great Hall for lunch, as NEWT level DADA took the entirety of the morning. Harry was just about to answer when he heard his name. He turned and saw Professor Lanya standing outside her door and beckoning to him.
He turned back to his friends, "I'll catch up to you."
"Sure, Harry." Neville answered, and they continued on their way, discussing the class they had just left. Harry heard Hermione compliment Neville on his Expelliarmus and he swore he could almost FEEL the young man blush at her praise.
He was smiling when he rejoined the professor and she led him into her office.
"Yes, Professor?" He asked when she bade him to be seated and took her own seat behind her desk.
He took a moment to look around the office, noting the welcome absence of the horrid kitten plates. The chairs had been replaced with two plush armchairs upholstered in burgundy velvet. There was an oil lamp with a green shade to give light sitting on her desk. There was very little decoration on the walls but for a piece of painted glass behind her desk, depicting a tall and slender tree with lilies growing around the base, silhouetted by the rising sun. And although Harry was certain that there was no window on that wall, it seemed like there was sunlight coming through, setting it aglow.
"It's by Miksa Roth," She provided with a glance over her shoulder. "One of my Aunt's favorite pieces." She smiled.
"I am needing to talk to you about this Defense Association." She said cheerfully, pulling a piece of parchment to her from a pile on her desk and dipping a quill, which looked like it came from a turkey, into her inkpot. "How was it organized last year?"
"Well," Harry felt oddly reluctant now that the time came, to discuss the inner workings of what he thought of as his club. "When we discovered we weren't going to learn anything useful in Professor Umbridge's class," She nodded, "We decided to get some people together and learn on our own."
"All in secrecy." She provided.
"Yes." Harry agreed. "We had to."
She didn't speak, just regarded him searchingly for a long moment. He wondered what she was thinking, her eyes as unfathomable as Snape's could be. Finally she spoke.
"You seem to have a talent for teaching. Did you never consider becoming a professor yourself?" She asked curiously.
"I..." He broke off. "Once or twice." He admitted. "But I would also like to be an Auror."
"The two do not preclude each other." She told him. "I was an Auror for many years in my home country before I came here to teach."
"You were an Auror?" He asked, wide-eyed.
"I was." She said shortly. "But I decided a change in careers was a good idea. In any case, it is often the former Aurors who become the best Defense professors. It is because of the life experience, you see." She leaned forward in her chair, propping her elbows in her desk, waving her quill in a careless hand as she spoke. "But I do not wish to occupy you your entire lunch hour." She noted.
"I still have plenty of time." He told her.
"In any case." She said with a nod. "Do you have a room? Perhaps the one you used last year would suffice, otherwise I could procure you one."
Harry hedged, reluctant to talk about the Room of Requirement. He could not think of any room that would suit their needs just as well, even the Defense class room. He pictured the banks of books on the walls, the dark detectors, the thick cushions that were perfect for falling upon. The memories.
"Did Professor Dumbledore tell you about the room we used last year?" He asked her hesitantly.
"Something about chamber pots. I did not understand so well." She replied.
Well, if Dumbledore had told her about it he supposed it was no longer exactly a secret. But he wondered if they would continue letting him use such a magical room for such as a private club for the students.
"But perhaps you could show it to me sometime this week, and I will be able to decide whether or not to use it." She continued.
"I think that would be good, Professor." Harry agreed.
"One more thing," she said. "It's about times. What schedule did you use? It seemed to work well enough."
Again, Harry hesitated, then pulled the fake galleon from his pocket and handed it to her.
"Trying to bribe me, Harry?" She joked as she examined it with a raised eyebrow. "But this is not real."
"No, it isn't." He said, "One of our smartest members used a Proteus charm on it. This is the master copy. See the numbers along the edge? When I was going to call a meeting I would change them and the other member's would change as well."
She nodded, eyeing the galleon with renewed interest. "Most clever. I do hope this brilliant member is in one of my NEWT classes." She handed the galleon back to him with reluctance. "Stealth is an aspect of Auror testing, and I would say your members have a head start on it. Very well. The meetings will begin next week, perhaps the week after. I believe I will draw up the fliers myself." She hesitated, thinking. "I will have to limit it in some way so as not to be swamped with new members..." She muttered to herself, beginning to scribble on the parchment, dipping her quill occasionally.
Harry waited. About a minute later she looked up with a start. "Oh, I do apologize. You may go." Then she returned to scribbling as he let himself out the door, noting that he only had twenty minutes of his lunch hour remaining, and then, Care of Magical Creatures.
Please, please, please review.
Special thanks to Masa for his assistance with the textbook section of this chapter.
Chapter 20: Dodging
Harry was really pleased with Neville's performance. His new wand seemed to be giving him the accuracy and power in casting that he had been lacking the year before.
When, obviously hearing about the Patronuses from Remus, the professor asked him to try for one, he managed a large, hound shaped one. It was a bit gray and indistinct, but still better than he had managed in last year's DA.
Harry slapped him on the back in congratulations when Neville, red-faced and a bit out of breath with the effort, rejoined the group in front of the professor's desk. There was a Slytherin that Harry didn't recognize before Padma took her turn, then Parvati. Both performed well according to Professor Lanya. Finally it was his turn.
"Harry Potter." Her voice called, uninflected so as Harry could not tell how she felt about sparring against the 'famous mister Potter.' He got the feeling she didn't care much about it one way or the other.
He stepped out of line and strode to the left side of the cleared area. She stood across from him, her wand held loosely in her left hand. Her right hand was gloved, he noticed, in an indigo blue that matched her simply designed robes and hat. Unlike Neville, and most of the others, even after all her testing of the students she didn't look a bit tired, though a few more curls had straggled down from beneath her cap and the hem of her gown was a bit singed from a few of the spells that got rather close. There was a smudge of soot across her left cheek, but her eyes were bright and intense.
She had seemed pleased with the students who had given her those close calls, and Harry gathered that she wanted them to not hold back. Very well, he would oblige, though he knew, just from watching the others, that he came nowhere near to matching her skill.
They saluted each other in the dueling style. And Harry waited until her nod. She tilted her head, smiling.
"Expelliarmus." He called.
"Mesura Protego." She replied, smiling slightly as the shield changed color to indicate how much force the attack had contained. It turned red, showing a rather superior level. Hermione had attained the same, while most of the others got yellow or orange. Neville's, somewhat surprisingly, had turned a dark scarlet, which, she had informed them, was one of the highest colors one could attain.
"Terantellegra!" And so the process repeated itself.
"Rictusempra!"
"Stupefy!"
"Hitulsify." Something he had picked up from the actor magicians. And so on and on it went, even as sweat began to trickle down his face and into his eyes, he went through his entire litany, some he had taught the others, some he was planning to teach.
"Carnecetella!" He cried, then finally after he felt he could go on no longer, and with the spell, "Esternomis!" which shattered the shield and left the professor gasping but grinning like a madwoman, he had reached the end of his spell knowledge.
"Very good," She gasped, lowering her wand to her side and straightening. "You all are doing quite well."
She turned to Harry, "Now, if you are up to it, if you would be giving us one demonstration of your corporeal Patronus?"
Harry swept his sleeve across his forehead to rid himself of the beads of perspiration and nodded, "Expecto Patronum." He cried, thinking of his dream when his father and stepfather had both been beside him. His Patronus burst out of the end of his wand in a flash of silver, but before it went two steps it flickered and dissipated.
Harry was conscious on a prickling sensation behind his eyelids. It was so hard to hold onto a happy memory lately.
"Thank you, Harry," His professor was saying, and he nodded again before going to rejoin the group. He relaxed when he retook his place between Ron and Hermione, watching distractedly as the remainder of the class took their turns. He noticed that Hermione squeezed Ron's hand briefly before he went to take his turn.
When they had at last been measured she addressed them all. "Now that I know your skill levels, I can more accurately plan my lessons. You all did quite well."
There were smiles and murmurs in the group as the students clustered around with questions on their lips, most of them concerning learning more combat spells, including a few that Harry and the Slytherin, she had called him Gradly Mason, had used that were unfamiliar to the others. Harry eyed Mason with some respect, tempered with the fact that the young man was a Slytherin.
She raised a hand to forestall them, laughing softly. They fell silent as she waited, refusing to speak until the last voice had stilled. She put her hand down and rested it against her hip, tapping her wand against her robe-clad leg.
"As I said, you did quite well, but you can do better." Some few faces fell. "But before we address the issues of spell casting, we will deal with combat training, beginning with the most useful move of all, one that could save your life in a combat situation."
Harry found the silence profound, as everyone seemed to hold their breaths to hear this most useful move.
"Which is, of course, the dodge." She said seriously.
Harry closed his eyes and shook his head as several of his classmates groaned, but not, he noticed, Neville, Ron, and Hermione. He knew why. They, as far as he knew, were the only ones besides he, and most likely, the professor, that had actually been in a true combat situation, unprepared as they were.
"Now," Professor Lanya told them, "do not underestimate this move merely because you find it simple. It is essential that, even as and after you throw yourself out of the way, you do not leave yourself vulnerable. Combining the dodge with other moves can mean the difference between victory and defeat."
She stepped back out of the students surrounding her, regarded them for a moment with calculation, then directed Ron out of the group. He stepped out, his eyes wide and nervous.
"Ron, hit me with Expelliarmus."
Harry saw Hermione covering her mouth with one hand, and he knew what she was thinking about. Their third year in the shrieking shack, and Snape knocked against the wall by the three of them hitting him with that spell at the same time. To protect Sirius and Remus. He blinked rapidly, then forced himself to watch Ron and Professor Lanya closely.
"Um," He gulped, "Okay Professor." He assumed dueling stance, but the professor, facing him, stood relaxed, her feet shoulder width apart, her arms relaxed and hanging at her sides. Ron gulped again, rumpling his hair with his free hand as he set his shoulders.
"Expelliarmus!" He cried, his hand steady as he directed his spell at the professor, who was no longer there. His spell hit the wall with a shower of sparks.
In a move that was almost too quick to follow, she had dropped to one knee, launched herself forward, rolled, came back up to her feet with her nose only a foot from Ron's and her wand at his throat.
Ron's eyes bulged. This had all taken place almost before the last syllable had left his tongue.
The professor stepped back, her wand falling back to her side as she nodded her head formally at her opponent. "A simple forward dodge, lunge, and roll. Try to always keep your wand trained on your opponent. It is sometimes best to get yourself close in so your opponent cannot bring their wand into play."
Ron stepped back into the group, his hand at his neck as though expecting to not find it whole.
"If I had desired it, I could have fired one spell off on the forward lunge, one at the top of the roll, and one when my wand was being at his neck."
Ron paled even more.
"But this takes discipline, concentration and skill." She looked at them all significantly, "Three things which you will gain by the end of this year." The manner in which she said it implied that if they didn't, it was no fault of hers.
"And that should be the end of the lesson for today." She finished. "For your homework I would like you to read the chapter in 'Magical Combat' by Crash N. Spinnet on evasive maneuvers, and choose one duel in the text, 'Famous and Infamous Duels in the Last Five Centuries,' by Walkerton Paces and give me twelve to twenty inches of parchment on how dodging was used in said duel and the effectiveness of the maneuvers."
She again waved her wands at the desks clustered at the back of the room and they flew forward to once again form orderly rows. Harry hurriedly snagged his homework planner out of his bag, glad he had put a silencing charm on it, and scribbled the assignment on one of the pages. Ron was doing the same beside him, but he had not put on a silencing charm.
"Do it today and it'll all be okay." His planner screeched shrilly, occasioning laughter from his classmates.
Ron turned beet red and slammed the book shut before cramming it back into his bag. He slung it over his shoulder and joined Hermione, Ron and Neville where they waited near the door.
"So, what did you think?" Hermione asked them as the started off towards the Great Hall for lunch, as NEWT level DADA took the entirety of the morning. Harry was just about to answer when he heard his name. He turned and saw Professor Lanya standing outside her door and beckoning to him.
He turned back to his friends, "I'll catch up to you."
"Sure, Harry." Neville answered, and they continued on their way, discussing the class they had just left. Harry heard Hermione compliment Neville on his Expelliarmus and he swore he could almost FEEL the young man blush at her praise.
He was smiling when he rejoined the professor and she led him into her office.
"Yes, Professor?" He asked when she bade him to be seated and took her own seat behind her desk.
He took a moment to look around the office, noting the welcome absence of the horrid kitten plates. The chairs had been replaced with two plush armchairs upholstered in burgundy velvet. There was an oil lamp with a green shade to give light sitting on her desk. There was very little decoration on the walls but for a piece of painted glass behind her desk, depicting a tall and slender tree with lilies growing around the base, silhouetted by the rising sun. And although Harry was certain that there was no window on that wall, it seemed like there was sunlight coming through, setting it aglow.
"It's by Miksa Roth," She provided with a glance over her shoulder. "One of my Aunt's favorite pieces." She smiled.
"I am needing to talk to you about this Defense Association." She said cheerfully, pulling a piece of parchment to her from a pile on her desk and dipping a quill, which looked like it came from a turkey, into her inkpot. "How was it organized last year?"
"Well," Harry felt oddly reluctant now that the time came, to discuss the inner workings of what he thought of as his club. "When we discovered we weren't going to learn anything useful in Professor Umbridge's class," She nodded, "We decided to get some people together and learn on our own."
"All in secrecy." She provided.
"Yes." Harry agreed. "We had to."
She didn't speak, just regarded him searchingly for a long moment. He wondered what she was thinking, her eyes as unfathomable as Snape's could be. Finally she spoke.
"You seem to have a talent for teaching. Did you never consider becoming a professor yourself?" She asked curiously.
"I..." He broke off. "Once or twice." He admitted. "But I would also like to be an Auror."
"The two do not preclude each other." She told him. "I was an Auror for many years in my home country before I came here to teach."
"You were an Auror?" He asked, wide-eyed.
"I was." She said shortly. "But I decided a change in careers was a good idea. In any case, it is often the former Aurors who become the best Defense professors. It is because of the life experience, you see." She leaned forward in her chair, propping her elbows in her desk, waving her quill in a careless hand as she spoke. "But I do not wish to occupy you your entire lunch hour." She noted.
"I still have plenty of time." He told her.
"In any case." She said with a nod. "Do you have a room? Perhaps the one you used last year would suffice, otherwise I could procure you one."
Harry hedged, reluctant to talk about the Room of Requirement. He could not think of any room that would suit their needs just as well, even the Defense class room. He pictured the banks of books on the walls, the dark detectors, the thick cushions that were perfect for falling upon. The memories.
"Did Professor Dumbledore tell you about the room we used last year?" He asked her hesitantly.
"Something about chamber pots. I did not understand so well." She replied.
Well, if Dumbledore had told her about it he supposed it was no longer exactly a secret. But he wondered if they would continue letting him use such a magical room for such as a private club for the students.
"But perhaps you could show it to me sometime this week, and I will be able to decide whether or not to use it." She continued.
"I think that would be good, Professor." Harry agreed.
"One more thing," she said. "It's about times. What schedule did you use? It seemed to work well enough."
Again, Harry hesitated, then pulled the fake galleon from his pocket and handed it to her.
"Trying to bribe me, Harry?" She joked as she examined it with a raised eyebrow. "But this is not real."
"No, it isn't." He said, "One of our smartest members used a Proteus charm on it. This is the master copy. See the numbers along the edge? When I was going to call a meeting I would change them and the other member's would change as well."
She nodded, eyeing the galleon with renewed interest. "Most clever. I do hope this brilliant member is in one of my NEWT classes." She handed the galleon back to him with reluctance. "Stealth is an aspect of Auror testing, and I would say your members have a head start on it. Very well. The meetings will begin next week, perhaps the week after. I believe I will draw up the fliers myself." She hesitated, thinking. "I will have to limit it in some way so as not to be swamped with new members..." She muttered to herself, beginning to scribble on the parchment, dipping her quill occasionally.
Harry waited. About a minute later she looked up with a start. "Oh, I do apologize. You may go." Then she returned to scribbling as he let himself out the door, noting that he only had twenty minutes of his lunch hour remaining, and then, Care of Magical Creatures.
Please, please, please review.
