A/N: Thank you to everyone who has been so patient in waiting for new chapters. After that flurry of fifteen or so chapters I posted at the beginning of this, you probably expected a chapter a day from then on. Things have been a little crazy this past week, but It should calm down a titch.
Muggle-lover Disclaimer: The 'internal' that I can get on this contraption called a 'come-puter' is such an interesting thing. Those muggles are genius!. I can put stories and things up here too, although using these keysrather than a proper quill is a bit odd. I wonder how they sign their name here? I guess they don't really bother, since they're not supposed to take any credit. Strange, that...
Chapter Twenty-Eight-
A Week of Defence
The first week back at Hogwarts after Christmas was strangely quiet.
Although people were pleased to see that Luna had returned, and felt it inevitable that Snape would have too, most people were still grieving the loss oftheir Hogsmeade weekends, not to mention the loss of the town itselfandthe six people who had died there. The students were still quite shaken at the thought that the coming war might actually affect people close to them, and Hogsmeade was far too close to them for comfort.
To get people's minds off the destruction of the only completely wizarding town in Britain, Harry planned a DA meeting for the first night back before classes started up again.
"Do you think they'll rebuild?!" Hannah Abbott yelled to Harry as the group practiced loudly in the room of requirement. It was before the meeting had officially started, and Harry now had them reviewing older things until the whole group had arrived.
"I'm not sure." Harry answered. "I would assume that if the proprietors have some sort of insurance or something, then they might."
"Don't be silly, Harry." Hermione interrupted. "Wizards don't have insurance."
"Well you'd know better than I"
Hannah giggled. "It's amazing, you know. If I were listening to this conversation, and I didn't know you two, I would say that you were Mugglborn, and Hermione was pureblood."
Harry chuckled. "That's why we need you Hufflepuffs around. To show us that no matter what anyone says, we're all bloody backwards."
"Anyway, back to the topic of Hogsmeade." Hermione reminded them. "The people who were earning more money for the town will be given commissions from the ministry so they can rebuild. The people who weren't, will have to find some other way of running their business."
"That's a real shame." Hannah said sadly. "I happen to remember meeting the witch who runs one of the smaller apothecaries. She said her business really had never done all that well by ministry standards, but said it was a very fulfilling job. The shop has been there for millenia, and it had all sorts of interesting and rare potions ingredients. I'd hate to see people like her kicked out of the town because they're not making enough money."
"Yeah." Harry agreed. "It sounds like they want to make the town into a Wizarding mecca or something. Only good stores can stay and all that. The rest of you poor lot, get out."
"I was impressed with what I heard about you fighting the Death-Eaters in the Three Broomsticks." Hannah said, making Harry blush with some embarrassment, but also with anger.
"Ginny was there too, and they didn't bother to even mention her in the Prophet."
"Really?" Hannah asked, surprised. "You would want them to bring attention to her?"
"Well...Good point." Harry had never thought about it that way. By letting the Prophet focus on him, it was also keeping his friends mostly out of the line of fire. Now he was feeling mixed up about the issue. He didn't want anyone in Voldemort's circle to focus on his friends, but he knew that some people, like Ron for instance, might want to see a little bit of the limelight they deserved every once in awhile.
"I really have to accept the fact that they knew what they were doing when they confronted the Death-Eaters along with me. People deserve credit where credit is due." He told Hannah. "I hate seeing my name in the paper all the time, it makes me feel as if people are always looking over my shoulder, watching for the moment when I screw up. Mind you, after last year, it's not like my pride has anything to do with it."
They stood there thoughtfully for a moment, before Harry realized that he had forgotten that they were in the middle of a DA meeting. He noticed thatthe rest of the grouphad arrived.
"Everyone, hold off on the practice for a minute, and come here. I have a new project for us to start." He called out.
Slowly, people began to gather themselves on cushions in a circle around Harry again. Once everyone had been seated, Harry began.
"Every battle in which I've partaken has given me a certain amount of experience to draw on. In the battle just before Christmas break, I noticed something about the way I fought that I didn't like."
Everyone looked slightly alarmed. "What was it?" Mark asked, as though he were horrified that Harry could possibly do anything incorrectly.
"I've always found it necessary to take cover behind something." He said. "Don't get me wrong, It isn't a bad thing to put something between you and your attackers. It can certainly save your life sometimes,but it also leaves you very vulnerable."
Ginny furrowed her brow in confusion. "How so?" She asked. "I thought we had a pretty good vantage point."
Others in the group gasped at Ginny's comment. They stared at her looking blatantly curious.
"Only because there was a door behind us." Harry pointed out. "Tell me though, what would we have done if that door wasn't there?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, well I guess we probably would have been stuck there until someone came to help us."
"Right." Said Harry. "We didn't have the dexterity necessary to dodge spells. This is something that we need to remedy. Objects like tables and chairs and bar counters won't always be available to protect us when we need them. Even after learning every shield spell knownto wizardkind,we would still be much safer ifwe were nowhere near the shot to begin with. Wehave to physically move away sometimes in order to escape the more dangerous spells. For instance, the Death curse has been sent at me more times than I have fingers, and the only time I didn't find some way to hide from it was when I got this." He said, pointing to his scar. "That curse can't be blocked magically. The only option you have is to put something in your way, or dodge it."
Most of the people in the room of requirement stared at Harry in shock.
"Now there are a few simple maneuvers that I've found useful when I fight, and even though they have nothing to do with magic, they're sometimes the best defense I've got."
A few people nodded.
"But, I won't be showing you those just yet. I want to do some more research before we start that particular study, since even I don't really know how to describe a lot of these things.I'll get to it, but I have something else in mind first. Something a lot more fun." Harry grinned, and the rest of the DA eyed him warily.
"A type of offense that I haven't taken advantage of in any fight thus far, that I want to begin practicing immediately, " Harry added, suddenly conjuring a ball of blue flames in his right hand wandlesslyand soundlessly. "Is my ability to catch and throw." He said, tossing the ball from one hand to the other. "This bluebell flame, taught to me by one of our own, - thank you Hermione – is completely safe when the fire is held directly on your skin, or levitated by magic."
He turned around, thought hard about what he needed, and watched as the room extended itself into what looked a bit like a miniaturized archery range. Four small circular targets stood on a tall reinforced wall board about twenty feet away.
Harry pitched the ball of flame at the closest target.
BOOM!
The room of requirement rocked, and the DA members let out yelps of fear and alarm, some of them scattering, and heading for the door. Harry almost snickered at the sight.
His aim was marked by a large black crater in the reinforced board, about a foot and a half away from the centre of the target. Over Christmas, he and Remus had been practicing throwing bean bags at the back of the door. Since this was the first time he'd bothered to actually aim the bluebell flame, his aimwas a bit off.
"As soon as the bluebell flame hits something that is not your skin, it explodes. In order to do this, I must have the ability to aim simple objects the muggle way. So without further adieu..." He waved his hand at the shelves to his right, where a large pile of square beanbags suddenly sat waiting.
They pitched the beanbags at the four targets for half an hour, many of them feeling that anything that didn't involve magic was in no way going to help them. They all trusted Harry's experience though, and if he said they were going to need it, they probably would.
Harry showed them the proper way to sight along your non-dominant arm and use the direction of your toes as a lead, then how to draw back and release. He talked about the different sorts of grips, and how they affected the bean bag's direction, speed and arc.
It was all just basic physics according to Hermione, even though she had never really pondered the idea of chasers or baseball pitchers being knowledgeable about physics before. It was something of a revelation when she realized that Ron and Ginny had already known all of these things, and hadn't told her.
A fewother members, including Mark, who had played baseball all of his life, or Katie, and Ben, who had been practicing with a quaffle for quite some time, were more than comfortable with their aim. They were able to repeatedly hit the targets time and time again, so Harry started them on the next phase; juggling.
This one was nearly new for Harry too, since he'd had less than a week to work on it with Remus at the end of the Christmas break. He dropped the bean bags almost as much if not more often thanany of the others. He had a blast though, practicing his throws and catches, and watching as the others did the same. He couldn't deny that it did seem to help with hand-eye coordination, and anticipating the direction of a throw or spell.
He was surprised to see that the Creevey brothers had quite a bit of experience when it came to juggling, and they were making passes, juggling with one hand, switching bean bags, and doing other tricks that Harry thought lookedquite advanced. Apparently their parentshad both been part of a juggling act in a muggle circus when they were younger. They ended up doing most of the teaching in this subject, and Harry was quite happy to hand over the reins. He and Hermione also went around to those who were already comfortable with their aim, and taught them the bluebell flame charm.
Colin and Dennis juggled those too, much to the dismay of many of the students nearby. Once they ended up singing the hem of Ginny's robes when they dropped one a little too close to her feet. She spent the rest of the meeting glaring at them from the corner of the room of requirement, absent-mindedly tossing two beanbags back and forth between her hands.
Harry and Ron shared a private look and a little laugh as they scanned the deranged looking group. They were both remembering the little figurine that Ron had given him for Christmas.
"Pretty soon we'll be asking you to open your mouth so we can stick our heads in there eh?" Ron asked him.
"I'd like to see you try it." Harry dared him evilly.
The DA was beginning to look a little like a travelling circus.
0 0 0 0 0
Defense class was a little muddled the next day, and Harry was glad that he had gotten in a proper DA meeting the night before. He was incredibly bored with this material, and spent most of the class doodling on a spare bit of parchment, and pretending to read up on shield charms.
Professor Trelawney spent half the time pacing the classroom while everyone read up on their notes, and the other half she spent telling students what awful fates might befall them if they continued on in their horrifyingly dangerous pursuits.
It was a little too much like a Divination class for Harry's liking.
"I forsee a horriblebattle," She told Harry, holding her hands above his head as if she were absorbing the vibes from his brain, "in which the grim looms overhead, but the outcome is yet unknown. Death lurks in nearly every corner."
Harry nearly rolled his eyes, and Hermione leaned over to him.
"I could have told you that." She whispered, and Ron burst into uncontrollable giggles.
"You hold a long silver sword in your hand." Trelawney muttered, obviously trying to recapture Harry's attention. "And with that tool you will find power. That power will threaten to overtake you, even when you believe yourself to be immune."
Ron now leaned over and whispered in Harry's other ear. "I think that's supposed to be the past. She should get her tenses straight."
Harry grunted, trying his best to refrain from laughing. He was feeling a little sorry for Trelawney, and he hoped that she would begin to see the benefits of real defense soon.
Trelawney gave up with a sigh, and moved on to the next student. Obviously she found it less than productive to tell him off for disrespect anymore. She had likely noticed that it wouldn't make any difference.
She obviously had no qualms about keeping him after class though, and Harry watched wistfully as his friends climbed down the ladder into the hall.
"Mister Potter, I wanted to ask you if you could help me learn to defend myself properly. I've thought about it, and I think I need the practice."
He could have told her that. Why hadn't she mentioned it in class? Why did she have to bother him like that if she knew she was just going to turn around and admit that he was right?
"All right. Would tomorrow night be all right?"
"Fine. Meet me here, tomorrow at eight o'clock."
Harry nodded, and left the classroom with butterflies in his stomach. It couldn't be any harder than teaching the DA could it?
0 0 0 0 0
After the rest of their very long and exhausting Monday classes, Harry, Hermione and Ron ran up the stairs to the Gryffindor dormitory, and retrieved Ravenclaw's book from Harry's trunk. McGonagall had assigned extra work in transfiguration to everyone to make up for lost time before and during the holidays, and Snape –who still looked horribly ill- was in an even worse mood than ever. He had graded the paper Harry had handed in before Christmas at a failing mark, and Harry couldn't really see any reason for it. It was possible that Snape hadn't put in as much time since his return, and was simply taking out all of his annoyances on Harry's paper. It really irked him, but he had said nothing and kept his eyes diligently away from those of the greasy-haired professor.
The three of them quickly pounded down the stairs to the library, and waited at the desk while Madam Pince finished her firecall. She was crouched down with her head in the fire, and they all quickly turned away from her office area, to avoid giggling at her large bum which, sticking up in the air that way, was quite noticeable.
"What can I do to help you three?" She asked politely, as she pulled her head out of the fire, and brushed the soot from her robes, and her face.
Harry, red faced and nervous, placed the book carefully on the counter. "We have something that I think you might be interested in seeing."
"The spine needs to be oiled." Hermione clarified. "We also thought you could help with that."
"Right." Madam Pince reached over, and turned the book to face her.
Her jaw dropped.
She placed the book carefully on her desk, with shaking hands. "Where did you find this? Are you sure this is authentic?" She asked, looking as if she wanted to faint. A pair of half-moon spectacles hung around her neck on a chain, and she whipped them up to rest on her nose.
They passed glances between each other, and she didn't seem to notice when Ron didn't answer her first question. "No... well, we're pretty certain that it is authentic, but maybe you could find out for us?"
"It's in excellent condition." She mumbled, looking closely at the condition of the leather. "You're right about the spine. Hold on." She reached below the counter, and pulled out a bottle and a rag. "Magic is good for newer books, but really old ones, you want to do by hand." She explained, opening the lid to the bottle.
She pressed the rag to the rim, turned it upside down, and let a bit of the oil seep into the cloth. Then she picked up the book reverently, and dabbed the oil along the spine. After a few applications, she began to rub lightly in a circular motion.
After less than ten minutes, she had oiled not just the spine, but the whole cover, and it gleamed, making the title stand out clearly. "No good to just do half the job." She explained. "You want this book to be properly taken care of."
Once she had wiped away the excess oil, she capped the bottle, and placed the book reverently on a felt pad she kept stuck to her desk. "Now, let's see what you've brought us then."
"Um... Madam?" Hermione interrupted. Ron elbowed her, to let her know that they wanted to find out if it would open for her without them telling her what to do.
"Hmm?" She asked absently, opening to the title page. She flipped to the next page that said: Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor: The First Seven Years.
All three looked on with smirks, as she tried to turn to the next page, and couldn't.
"What's going on here? Is the ink stuck?" She asked, trying to check the edges, running her hand along the gold.
Nothing happened.
"We've discovered that the pages only turn for certain people." Ron said chuckling.
"It won't work for me either." Said Hermione at the librarian's confused expression.
"It looks almost like it doesn't work for anyone who wants to read it really badly." Harry said laughing.
"This requires more research." Madam Pince said, sighing. "But I doubt that I am the one to provide it, seeing as I can't get in." She closed the book, and handed it back to them. "You take good care of that now," she said in a warning tone. "It's very valuable."
Hermione took the book, and clutched it tightly to her chest. "We promise," she said importantly.
Harry turned back to her when a question occurred to him. "Madam Pince, If you don't mind me asking, what is your heritage? Wizard or Muggle?"
She huffed angrily at the question. "I don't see what that has to do with anything Mister Potter." Obviously the anti-muggleborn sentiment going around between some of the Slytherins had her a little worried.
"Oh, no. It's not like that." Hermione soothed. "We just thought that maybe the book descriminates against Muggle-borns. We're trying to figure it out. I'm muggleborn, so I thought that might be the reason."
"Well I don't know if that's the case." She said, sighing in relief. "Rowena Ravenclaw wasn't really like that. I'm technically half and half, butmy parentswere both magical. Muggleborn mother,pureblood father." She explained.
"Well that doesn't help us at all." Ron rolled his eyes. "That's the same background as Harry, and he can read the book with no problem. This is just getting more and more confusing every time we try and figure it out."
Madam Pince pointed to the book that Hermione held. "You'll most likely find the answers in there." She said clearly. "Let me know when you do."
They nodded, and left the library.
"I'll read as much as I can tonight." Harry promised, holding his hand out to Hermione for the book.
"Can't yet." Ron stopped him. "Quiddich practice is in half an hour. Didn't you see the notice I left on the board? We're going to practice until ten."
Harry growled, remembering the notice from that morning. "What? And leave no time for homework? What kind of barbarian are you?"
Ron laughed. "You can do your homework later in the week. We don't have potions or transfiguration until then. For now, we have to concentrate on that awful Gryffindor-Slytherin game coming up."
Harry groaned now. "When is it?" He asked, sounding very much as though he was asking for the date of his own execution.
"One month from today. We have to get on it, or we'll be slaughtered. The Hufflepuff game was too easy. Slytherins don't play fair like the Hufflepuffs."
"You're telling me."
"Besides," Hermione interjected, "we promised to take the book to Dumbledore once we had it in reading condition. I'll take it to him."
Harry sighed. "Ask him to look for the reasons that some people can read it and some people can't. The fact that we can't figure it out is driving me batty."
"You think you're frustrated?" Hermione huffed. "I can't even open the thing to read it for myself."
0 0 0 0 0
The Gryffindor and Hufflepuff sixth years filed into professor Vector's Philosophy of Magic class on Wednesday morning.
Harry tentatively ducked behind Ron going through the door, hoping she hadn't noticed him arrive.
It was a good try, but it didn't work. "Mister Potter! How good to see you!"
He rolled his eyes, and turned to face the heat.
"I'm so pleased to be able to tell you in person how honoured I was to have been saved by you! It's certainly something to tell the family! My life was SAVED by HARRY POTTER!"
Harry blushed, notcing the other students in the class beginning to stare. Hannah Abbott smiled at him sympathetically. He didn't know what to say, so he just stood awkwardly and waited out the storm of enthusiasm.
"I'll have you know that not many wizards could have risen to that challenge! You did it so beautifully that I can't help but believe every word of every story you've ever told about your experiences! I was wondering if you might want to share one of them today?!"
OH NO. Thought Harry. How do I get out of this one?
"Er... No thanks." He said, hoping she would just leave him alone for one class.
"That girl who was with you... Ginny Weasley! She figures into one of them doesn't she?!" She prompted hopefully. "Something about a basilisk and a phoenix?"
"That was in the Chamber of Secrets." Harry answered cautiously.
"And something happened to your old Defense teacher that night that made him lose all his memories!" She sounded as if this were a fascinating idea.
Before Harry knew it, he was telling the whole class the story about how he had saved Ginny in her first year from Tom Riddle's diary. He blushed the entire time, knowing he shouldn't give away too much, and knowing that not many people had known that Ginny Weasley had been posessed by Voldemort's diary much of her first year.
He let Ron tell a bit of it, including the fact that Harry hadn't known he was a parselmouth until that year, and had been pretty spooked by the fact that he was hearing the basilisk talking in the walls. Harry knew it sounded better coming from his friend rather than him, and he felt very grateful that Ron was backing him up.
Ron was incredibly honest when he told the part about Professor Lockhart and howthe teacherhad used Ron's broken wand to accidentally erase all of his own memories. Ron had always felt that that part might have beena bithis fault.
Personally, Harry felt grateful that Ron's wand had been broken then, because otherwise Harry would right now be in St. Mungos hospital in Lockhart's place.
"I always wondered what had happened to Professor Lockhart! He seemed like such a pleasant young man!" Professor Vector sounded a little vexed that the Defense teacher she'd known hadn't been the man she'd though he was.
It seemed that the information that circled easily among the students, didn't always travel so quickly among the staff.
He tried to play up the idea thatFawkes had really been the hero, and saved his lifetwice. Once when the phoenix had gouged out the basilisk's eyes, so that Harry could look at it safely, and once when he'd cried his phoenix tears onto Harry's wounded arm. Professor Vector's comments about the story made it sound as if Harry had been returned from the dead, and that he must have had some sort of flash of realization at that moment, where he had understood that it was his destiny to fight for the sake of good the rest of his natural life.
He couldn't very well deny that it was his destiny to fight, but it hadn't exactly happened like that. He let her comments slide, neither confirming, nor denying them.
Harry made it very clear that the story shouldn't travel out of the class, and as many people present were a part of the DA, he knew they would understand. People would probably be giving Ginny a hard time about having opened the chamber of secrets and petrifying all of those people, even if she didn't know what she was doing at the time. He was quite pleased when professor Vector interjected as he voiced his fears for Ginny's safety.
"OH OF COURSE NOT!" She exploded. "Miss Weasley was right by your side helping you when you saved us all in the three broomsticks! No one would ever even consider the thought that she could be a dark wizard in ANY WAY!"
"There goes that 'dark wizard' thing again." Said Hannah. "She's female. Say 'dark witch'. Say it!" She growled.
"Now, Miss Abbott! Mister Potter was telling us an interestingstory! Please do not interrupt!"
Harry smiled sympathetically over at Hannah. "All right. I'm just glad that no one will think that Ginny is a dark 'witch'." He said, and Hannah grinned. "Because she's not. She's actually quite far on the side of good."
"So are you dating her?" Seamus asked bluntly.
Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Ron grin as if he knew some deep dark secret.
Harry thought Professor Vector would berate Seamus for getting off topic, but she smiled, and waited for his answer. It seemed that she was just as interested in his response as Seamus.
"What?" Harry asked, surprised, knowing that he had hesitated a little too long for them to really believe him. "Of course not. She's my friend."
Seamus smirked, the same way Ron had, and the two Gryffindor's shared a look.
Harry winced, but he knew that to deny it any more would be to dig himself deeper into a hole.
0 0 0 0 0
They spent a few hours in Hagrid's class learning about Chimaeras, although Hagrid was very upset that Dumbledore had forbidden him a live specimen. He spent most of the class explaining why Chimaeras were terribly misunderstood beasts, and spent the rest of the class explaining how their claws could rip through steel, or their teeth could break apart diamonds.
Yes, terribly misunderstood beasts, thought Harry.
Harry stayed late, right through his study period, and practiced his legilimency on Hagrid. He had been able to get over the idea that he was taking away time out of his friend's life, and focus completely on the things he could now do with the ability. It was very interesting how simple it had become, since he was practicing regularly.
He was finding it quite simple now, to just know when a person fibbed, as long as he was watching their eyes. Harry still couldn't see back into people's histories, and he was getting a little frustrated that it wasn't going the way he'd intended.
After dinner, he made his way up to Trelawney's tower for her first Defense lesson. He was so nervous that he when he knocked on the trapdoor, his knuckles were shaking so that it rattled like a snare drum.
"Come in please." Trelawney's voice floated down to him.
He pushed the door open, and peeked into the classroom. "Er... Professor?"
"Ah, yes. Mister Potter, do come in." He could tell that she was trying to keep her tone light and mystical, but instead she sounded tense.
He climbed through the trapdoor, and set down his bag beside one of the desks. He pulled out his wand, and moved to the centre of the room.
"The headmaster tells me you are quite a proficient teacher." She said, looking as nervous as Harry felt. "I have Seen that I will soon need these skills. The wizarding world is in danger, and many battles are ahead." She hung her head sadly.
"Er, right." Harry said. "Alright, what I thought I'd do is go through the basics. You probably know all of them already, but they could be useful to sort of hone them. So we start with the disarming charm."
Trelawney hugged her wand tightly to her chest. "What? How can I possibly expect to have a fair battle if one of us has lost our wand?"
Harry sighed. "If it were a fair fight, then both combattants would just shake hands and be done with it. This is the nature of battle, professor. One will win, and the other will lose. In a proper tournament duel, it might be considedered bad form to hex a person without a wand, but a Death-Eater won't have those restrictions."
"Okay." Trelawney pinched her lips together in a white line, and got herself into what she obviously thought was a proper dueling stance. She stood with her feet spread, her knees bent, and her arm straight out before her. She didn't seem to have a dominant side or even know what to do with her other hand, so she stuck it up in the air behind her. Her wand was held properly, but that was pretty much the only good thing he could say for her style.
Oh, no. This is going to take some work. Harry decided to humour her, and moved into his favorite position. Elbows bent, body turned to the left slightly, wand hand loose but turned slightly, and left arm down at his side to catch himself in case he needed to hit the floor. "Alright, after three we both cast. One, two, three."
"Expelliarmus."
She didn't even get a chance to fire off a shot. Her wand came sailing into Harry's hand, and immediately he handed it back.
"Three things first." He said. "You put yourself at risk when you stand face on to your attacker. Wider shoulders make more of a target."
"But I have to see them!" she complained. "How am I supposed to duel if I'm not facing them?"
"Can you move your head?"
"Yes, but-"
"Turn your head to the side to face me, and have your body face the wall. Trust me, it's slimming."
She turned with a look of reluctance on her face.
"Er... You're right handed. You'll probably favour the other side." He pointed out.
She turned one hundred and eighty degrees, and Harry nodded. "Next, your wand arm was straight. You'll need to bend the elbow or else you won't be able to get any room to move your wand. You want to be flexible here."
She bent her elbow.
"Third, where am I most likely to aim?"
"Er... My head?" she asked.
Harry nearly rolled his eyes. "Well, since I'm trying to disarm you, I'll probably want to aimin theregion ofyour wand."
"Oh."
"So if that's where I want to hit, you might want to give yourself the ability to move away. It's a pretty central area, so any direction will get you out of the line of fire. Try to make it a habit to move away from a shot, even if you're going to cast a shield. Your left arm will come in handy for balance, and also for catching the floor if you need to duck. It'll be easier to propel yourself back into a standing position if you put it here."
He demonstrated by sending himself into a fast dip, touching the floor with his fingers, and she looked on trying to emulate his actions.
The first time she attempted it, she fell.
After a few minutes, they had the battling posture straightened out, but she looked very awkward. Harry had the feeling that she would much rather be holding a crystal ball than a wand.
"After three. Bend your elbow." He reminded her. "One, two, three. Expelliarmus." Her wand still left her hand, and flew over to Harry's. She hadn't had a chance to say a word. He doubted that she'd remembered that she was supposed to.
"Okay, that was adequate form. Now we work on speed and enunciation."
It was going to be a very long night.
