Chapter 10

Harry spent the rest of the day with Alex, and returned home a little after sundown, where he practiced the four spells the founders had taught him.

The next day, Harry spent at Headquarters, playing chess with Ron, Exploding Snap with Ginny, and trying to get Hermione on a broom with Ron, Neville, and the twins' help. In the end, Harry'd pushed the broom up since Hermione had flat out refused to leave the ground. Ron was riding double with her and laughed while she screeched. Harry somewhat pitied Ron's ears as he laughed too.

In the evening, Harry was slipped a note from Snape. It said : 'second floor, dueling room.' It's pretty convenient, having a dueling room on practically every floor, Harry thought. He waited until Snape left then waited a few minutes more and followed. Hearing voices, and wanting to avoid questions as to why he would willingly be following Snape, Harry transformed into a cobra and coiled up in a shadowy corner. He watched silently as the giant forms of Mr. Weasley, Bill, and Dung walked past, talking about their respective jobs.

Once they turned a corner, Harry slithered through the crack in the doorway which led to the room Snape was waiting in. The potions master had his back to him and didn't noticed a snake becoming Harry.

Harry shut the door and sat down, waiting as he cleared his own mind, and sorted through his newest memories.

"Legilimens." Unwarned, the spell hit Harry full force. Memories rushed past him, but Harry noticed that, thankfully, they were unimportant memories, like what he'd done today. Out, out, out…Harry thought furiously. He pushed towards the sense of Snape in his mind, but Snape dodged him and pushed back. Memories kept coming, but none were horrible. Harry managed to croak, "Stupefy!" while holding his second wand. The spell hit the shield Snape threw in response, and broke it, but didn't stun him. The surprise on Snape's end cut the connection.

Promptly, Snape said, "Legilimens." Now that he was running out of freelance memories, Harry began to relive others. Memories of his finals, elemental lessons, talks with his friends, and his anger at the Dursleys swept by. Harry shoved back, trying to cover as much ground in his mind as possible, in hopes that Snape wouldn't be able to dodge him. It didn't work, and Harry opened his eyes to find himself kneeling on the ground, a headache beginning to form.

"You need to try harder Potter," Snape told him, "OR you won't last one minute against the Dark Lord."

"Yes Sir," Harry said, biting back an angry retort; he was trying hard, but not hard enough apparently.

"Again," Snape said, "Legilimens." Snape drove through the freelance memories, instead, lingering in the outer memories. More vivid details of Harry's life with the Dursleys flashed by, aggravating him further. Using his anger, he shoved the distraction of memories aside, focusing on his right hand, which now held his regular wand. "Stupefy!" he croaked.

Snape jerked out of the way, continuing with the spell.

Harry's head began to hurt more, he began to get annoyed. Not his fault, Harry thought to himself stubbornly. He forced the chain of thoughts to a new direction. He summoned memories of the Quidditch final, of Christmas, of Sirius and Remus, and of some of Godric and Salazar, arguing pointlessly with each other in their portraits. "Expecto Patronum!" he yelled—louder than he'd wanted. The silvery stag charged out of his wand and towards Snape.

It cut the connection as it slashed the air between Harry and Snape with its antlers. Harry opened his eyes, halfway between standing and kneeling, and halted the patronous before it broke something. It came obediently, bowing its head before vanishing. "That will be enough for today," Snape said, putting his wand away, "Clear your mind before you sleep as practice."

"Yes Sir," Harry replied. As the potions master opened the door to leave, Harry added, "Thanks." Harry hid a smile at the shocked look on Snape's face—it wasn't something anyone saw often.

The following day, Harry and his friends had another 'Auror Class,' as Ginny had come to call them since she'd found out what they were doing.

Today they went through the regular drills of rapidly firing stunners, disarming spells, and now shields. A stinging hex hit Harry in the ribs. "You lowered your guard Potter!" Splikvin barked at him.

"I know," he growled under his breath, then blocked the next stinger. Ginny had now taken a part in their training. She would either assist the dummies by throwing hexes at the 'trainees' to her heart's content, or try to distract them, or she would randomly run around the room as an innocent pedestrian—if she was hit, the 'trainees' were barked at and the dummies attacked faster and harder.

She's having the time of her life, thought Harry as he watched Ginny bombard Draco with the bat-bogey hex.

"Halt!" Moody shouted; all spells ceased.

"Alright, we're trying something new today" Remus announced, "Now that you all have a relatively good ability at speed and accuracy, we're going to duel again. There's five of you and six of us. You'll be facing one of us, while the last one watches. That will be me. Sound alright?" They nodded.

"Good." Sirius said. "Just to give you guys an idea of how it'll go and what you can do, we'll have our two esteemed Slytherin professors do a practice duel."

They chuckled while the two in question rolled their eyes. "There is something seriously wrong with the world when a Gryffindor compliments Slytherins," Splikvin drawled, eyes fixed on the vaulted ceiling with a mock-tired expression.

"That's because Sirius is in it," Tonks replied cheerfully.

Grinning at Padfoot's glare, Splikvin walked onto the platform with Snape on the opposite end. "Any specifics?" she asked; Snape thought about it.

"No Parsloz."

"Then no knives." He nodded grudgingly.

"On the count of three," Remus told them, "One…two…three!"

Both of them fired stunners, causing the two spells to collide in a shower of sparks. They didn't shout the spells, but whispered them, lips barely moving. To Harry, it was like watching a tennis match, with the spells and curses going back and forth, and occasionally a shield being made or the spells colliding. He was beginning to get dizzy from all the different colored hexes; he didn't recognize even half of them and, judging by the looks on their faces, neither did the others, not even Hermione or Remus.

Finally, Splikvin fired a full body bind after narrowly escaping a stunner. She fired off several more, the last one hitting Snape in the ankle. He froze, dropping his wand. "Sel wins!" Sirius announced.

She glared at him before releasing her brother and putting her hands on her knees, taking a breather. "You've gotten better," she told Snape, "nearly got me."

"You were holding back," he retorted.

She grinned, "Maybe yes and maybe no."

"Alright, pair up and let's start!" exclaimed Moony.

Harry found himself facing Sirius and smiled. "Don't get too happy." His godfather warned him with a grin. Harry looked at the other pairs: Draco and Snape, Neville and Moody, Ron and Splikvin, and Hermione and Tonks.

"Why not?" he asked with his own grin. Remus blew the whistle and the duels began, with Harry firing off Parsloz stunners.

Sirius ducked, knowing that his shields probably wouldn't do any good, and fired a full-body bind. Harry responded with a Parsloz shield and more stunners of the same magic type. He dodged a hex and returned with stunners once more, Sirius turned into a dog and lunged. Harry reacted by becoming a panther and jumped over Padfoot.

He eyed Sirius warily, not sure what his godfather had planned, or what he was able to do in his dog form. Padfoot barked in a playful tone, "C'mon Tallon, what're you waiting for?"

Harry bared his teeth in a grin, "For you to make a mistake."

Sirius circled him, "Dream on!" he replied and jumped at Harry.

Harry lunged forward to meet him, and the two entangled in a dog-panther wrestle. It was a flurry of paws, fur, and mock-angry growls. Harry swatted at Padfoot, careful not to extend his claws. Padfoot skipped out of the way and nipped at Harry's tail. Tallon kicked him firmly, but not enough for injury, in the muzzle, sending the dog a few feet back.

"There's your mistake," Harry taunted jokingly and pounced. He quickly turned into a werewolf and effectively pinned his godfather.

"And that's yours," Sirius retorted, then became human. Harry was blown backwards as Sirius shouted, "Expelliarmus!"

Harry dragged his claws across the polished wood until he stopped and swung around to face Sirius once more. Tallon sprung, twisting to avoid a stunner. He knocked Sirius' wand hand with his snout, sending the wand flying. Sirius became Padfoot and ducked under Harry.

Tallon chased him down the platform, and when he was only feet away, he jumped—and pinned Sirius on his stomach.

"Alright, I give," Padfoot's muffled voice growled.

Harry threw back his head and gave a howl that startled the others and made Remus laugh. He then released Sirius and they both took human form.

"Again?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.

Sirius rolled his eyes, "Don't get too cocky." He warned.

Harry grinned, "You told me not to get too happy either." He reminded him. Sirius scowled at him before giving in to the grin he'd tried to hold back and started to laugh.

Harry gave a fake yawn, "C'mon! Padfoot, I haven't got all day to beat you!"

Sirius' laughter died, and he looked at his godson, "You wish." He retorted, "I'll be beating you this time!"

"Yeah, yeah," Harry yawned with grin, the duel began again.

(A/N: My apologies for the shortness and lack of major incident, but I didn't have time to write it with the next chap.)

Coming Up:

Gringotts

Then:

To Test the Cruciatus