Neville ascended the stairs to the roof the next night wondering if Spike would be joining them again. He hoped so. Training with Grey was intense, but without the vampire around it had also been a bit dull – not as dull as working out by himself in Gran's yard, of course, but Spike's constant banter and occasional gruesome anecdote livened things up in a way that Grey just couldn't.
As he came through the roof door into the cooling night, towel in one hand and wand in the other, he was glad to see the familiar orange glow of Spike's cigarette burning in the night sky. He also noticed two other people standing beside Spike and Grey.
"'Ey, Longbottom," Spike said with his usual smirk, "the Jedi tells me your gettin' good."
Neville shrugged. "Better, I guess, yeah. Dunno about good, though."
"The Jedi?" Faith asked.
Grey lifted the lightsaber handle off his hip, earning an 'ooh' from her.
"Does it work?" He drew it; the blade cast a blue glow over the rooftop. "Not bad. The Jedi – I like it."
"I thought aurors didn't carry those anymore," Lupin commented.
"They don't. Fudge banned them. As he's no longer my employer …" He spread his hands in a 'there you go' gesture.
Lupin nodded. "Useful things, I bet."
"Uh huh. This is my second one; the first one saved my life from Voldemort."
Lupin and Neville both shuddered at the name.
"Is that a really long wizard swear or what?" Faith asked, noting their reactions.
"S'a name," Spike told her around his cigarette. "He's the Big Bad in these parts, a right nasty dark wizard. People fear his name around here, so don't use it." She nodded. "What say we dispense with the chit chat and get with the fightin'? I wanna see how the Boy Wonder's been doing."
Neville paled. He had never performed for an audience before. This was something private.
"Don't worry about it, Neville," Lupin said, placing his hand on the boy's shoulder. "We're not here to judge you. I was just curious what they're teaching you." He looked expectantly at Faith.
"Oh, I'm just hanging 'cuz I've got nothing better to do. Don't mind me."
"Relax, Longbottom," Spike said, "if anything, we'll let you spar with Faith, get a feel for a new opponent."
"Is everybody finished discussing how they won't be a part of my lesson?" Grey asked quietly. They nodded. "Good. Neville, ignore them. We're doing something different today, and you need to be focused. Got it?"
Neville gulped and nodded.
"Now," Grey said, reaching into an enormous canvas hold-all laying on the roof, "We've done short swords, daggers, and knives. We've done crossbows. We skipped staves until we can get Giles up here, since I'm useless with those…"
"She didn't bother me with them, either," Faith chipped in.
"… but there is something I want you to learn, and I think you're ready." He withdrew two long swords from the bag; each measured nearly five feet in length. "That's really big swords, in case you hadn't guessed," he added with a grin. He handed one to Neville. "Be careful."
Neville ran his hand over the flat of the wooden blade, grasping it around the metal handle. The hilt was a lot heavier than the blade.
"On most swords the weight is distributed differently, but this is the easiest to learn on. Now, here's what you do …"
As Grey ran through grips and demonstrated basic parries and blocks, Lupin, Spike, and Faith watched with interest.
"He was about as awkward and clumsy as you can imagine when I was here," Lupin said to Spike.
The vampire expelled a cloud of smoke. "He was that when we started too, mate. Got better, learned some balance and whatall. He's not bad for a regular human."
"You trained him?" Faith said skeptically. She had a hard time seeing Spike as a role model for a young wizard.
"I was workin' with Grey, sparring and such. He knew Longbottom's parents back in the day." Spike paused to watch as Neville mimicked Grey's movements, parrying a phantom strike, "I guess they did something for his parents. Don't know the details, but I know they aren't around anymore."
"Those are some weird looking swords."
"Wizards're a bit different than most, as far as weapons go." Spike knew why Grey had started Neville with these particular ones, but he could smell the werewolf on Lupin and wasn't sure how much to trust him.
"So, you think you see?" Grey was asking Neville. The boy nodded, his knuckles white on the practice hilt. "Okay, let's try it, then. Slow motion first. Nothing fancy."
Grey slipped his foot under the hilt of his practice sword and flipped it from the ground to his hand. Neville brought his blade up as well, his face scrunched in concentration.
The wood swung ponderously towards him. Neville deflected it down and to his right. Grey wasted no time, bringing it back on the same arc for a backhanded strike. Neville was prepared for it, though, and he sloughed it off harmlessly the other way.
Pulling back quickly, Grey began a slow circle around him. Short, jabbing strikes interspersed with wild roundhouse blows, all of them arriving from different angles as Grey moved around him faster and faster. Neville, as he had been taught endlessly, kept his feet square and steady, carving out a smaller arc with his own pivots.
"He looks confident in there," Lupin commented.
Spike only grunted, curious to see what would come next. He didn't have to wait long.
With lightning speed, Grey knifed in and shredded Neville's defenses. His practice sword skidded into the darkness. Weaponless at the point of Grey's sword, Neville slowly backed away. The auror advanced mercilessly.
"G-Grey? I-I lost the sword. It's over, yeah?" Neville asked, clearly embarrassed.
"Would it be over in a real fight?" He waved the sword two feet from Neville's chest.
"Well, yeah. Wouldn't it?"
"C'mon, Longbottom, what'd I teach ya before?" Spike called from the sidelines.
Grey swung the wooden blade, intent on delivering Neville the lesson with a nasty bruise on his chest.
Except Neville wasn't their when the blade landed.
As the auror began his swing, Neville saw what was happening. He had been through this before – the lesson only ended when he lost. Losing usually meant bruising, or at least some pain. He decided he wasn't giving Grey any free shots today and in the next instant he dropped down to the floor. The practice sword whizzed over his head and Grey actually stumbled forward a step. Fight dirty, Spike always told him; with Grey momentarily out of position, Neville took advantage by kicking him in the groin.
Grey doubled over, the empty pain shooting through his gut and setting his brain on fire. In the background, he heard Spike, Faith, and Lupin laughing. Neville scrambled to his feet and kicked the practice sword away. He stood waiting, one fist extended and the other held loosely at his side, for Grey to recover from the blow.
"No free shots," he repeated, this time out loud, between pants. "Sorry, Grey."
Grey looked up at him and forced a smile.
"No problem, Neville," he wheezed. "Damn, though … did you have to hit me so hard?"
Spike, Faith, and Lupin only laughed harder.
"I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it," Lupin told Grey as the four of them stepped past the portrait of Sir Cadogan. Neville had departed for the Gryffindor common room.
"You knew his parents, right?"
Lupin nodded. "Yeah, but Neville … I mean, the resemblance to his mother is more than looks. They're a great deal alike. I knew he had courage, I just never figured he could master something like the combat skills you've shown him."
"He worked hard," Spike said, flicking his cigarette away into the stone hallway. "All summer, too, it seems. He couldn't've done that this spring."
"Done what?" Willow asked. She occupied a chair in front of Grey's fireplace. Xander was behind her, looking over Grey's toy collection.
"He got the Jedi where it counts," Spike chortled. Grey glared at him.
"What do you … oh," Willow said, glancing at Grey's crotch as she got it. "Right. Where it counts."
Grey crossed the room and kissed her soundly. "Don't worry. I'm sure everything's in working order."
She leaned in and whispered, "Don't you worry. I'll kiss it and make it all better." When she pulled back, she was blushing mightily, but she had a naughty smile on her face.
"Uh oh. Red's getting' horny. Watch out," Faith said, smiling as Willow's blush deepened. The Slayer turned her gaze to the toys on the wall. "So you still have 'em, huh?"
"I do," Grey said proudly. Faith shook her head in amusement.
"These … toys are yours?" Lupin asked.
"Uh huh."
"They're muggle toys, aren't they? They seem somewhat …"
"Still?"
"Indeed."
"Most of them, yeah."
"Interesting." Lupin raised an eyebrow, giving Grey a very canine appraisal. "Unexpected from a guy hired to protect Harry and his friends."
"What can I say?" Grey shrugged. "Will thought it was weird, too. Maybe I should buy some tatami mats and candles, liven the place up a bit."
"Wait a minute," Xander said, "wizard toys move? Like the pictures?"
"Yeah, they do," Grey said. "Here, check these out – they're the only ones I have." He pulled a box off the end table and handed it to Xander. "Dumbledore gave this to me yesterday. He got two sets free and gave me one."
Xander opened the box and found two six-inch figures embedded in gray foam. Each figure was a wizard, complete with cotton robes, hat, wand, and familiar. One of the figures was a miniature Dumbledore, his hair blonde rather than white. A miniature phoenix squawked next to his shoulder.
"That is SO cool! Will, check it out!" Xander took the figures out and set them on the table. Everyone crowded around. The miniature Dumbledore looked up at them with a kindly smile. A replica of Fawkes rested on his shoulder. His counterpart, a weaselly-faced man with dark hair and an ornate black robe patterned with gold, scowled at the people looking down on him. His familiar, a black leopard, crouched at his side. "Who's the ugly guy?"
"Grindelwald," Lupin said. Grey nodded. "Dumbledore defeated him in 1945 – he was a British wizard battling against the Ministry during the Second World War."
"A Nazi?" Willow asked.
"No," Lupin said, his voice changing slightly as his professor side emerged. "The Nazis hated wizards and stamped them out or enslaved them. But with so many Ministry wizards on the front lines – Hitler had no problem using half-breeds and other races as cannon fodder, and Churchill had no problem taking any help that was offered against them – there was a definite lack of defenses surrounding wizard Britain. Grindelwald thought he could use the opening to overthrow the Ministry."
"He was as bad as they come," Grey added. "The first He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, sort of."
"Creepy. Why d'you have these?" Willow asked.
"Big Huge Toys sent two sets to Dumbledore, some sort of 'Great Battles of the Wizarding World' thing they're promoting. They wanted his okay to sell them. He gave me a set since he knew I'd appreciate it. He thought it was pretty neat. His set is propped up in his office, next to his chocolate frog card."
"He's kind of an odd duck, huh?" Faith asked.
"Maybe. Jus' don't be the one tryin' to keep him from the ducklings," Spike replied darkly.
