Chapter 8
Preparations
Harry and Hermione went up to the library to find Madam Pince, the librarian, to see if they could get into the restricted section. When they entered the library, they both approached Madam Pince and Harry gave Hermione a nudge.
Hermione scowled at Harry then spoke, "Erm, excuse me Madam Pince, we were wondering if we could do some research in the restricted section for our advanced defence class?"
"Have you got a signed note from a professor?" Madam Pince spat.
This time it was Hermione who nudged Harry, "erm, I am a professor," Harry said.
"Ha, a likely story!" she replied and walked off.
"Let's go and see Dumbledore," Hermione suggested.
They both headed off to the second floor, to the gargoyle, entrance to Dumbledore's office. When they got there, Hermione said the password, "Ton Tongue Toffees", and the gargoyle moved aside.
"Ton Tongue Toffees?" Harry asked.
"I think Dumbledore admires Fred and George. He's started using their so called 'sweets' for his passwords," Hermione replied.
They knocked on the door; "Enter", came Dumbledore's voice.
"Ah, Harry, Hermione, what brings you here?" he asked pleasantly.
"I was wondering if you could give us permission to go into the restricted section whenever we want to research advance darks arts material for our class?" Hermione asked.
"Of course," he replied and wrote a quick note to take back up to Madam Pince.
"Thank you sir," said Harry and off they went to the library again.
"She better accept us now," spat Hermione on their way back up the stairs.
"She will. She can't refuse Dumbledore's orders," said Harry.
"I wouldn't put it past her!" replied Hermione.
They got back up to the library and approached Madam Pince again. Hermione handed her the note from Dumbledore, she examined it thoroughly and begrudgingly let them into the restricted section of the library.
"About time!" Hermione spat as Madam Pince walked out of earshot.
"She has to make sure we've got permission Hermione. She can't just let anyone roam around the restricted section," Harry replied as he moved from shelf to shelf to find any books that might be of use for the advanced defence class.
Harry was looking at the shelves but letting Hermione do all the work although one book caught his eye. He picked the book off the shelf; it was Magical Animagus by Bertie Remel. The book wasn't a particularly big book but Harry surmised that there haven't been many magical Animagi.
Harry sat down and started reading the book on magical Animagi. He found it incredibly easy to read and extremely enthralling ; he couldn't put the book down. Finally, after a couple of hours, Hermione came up to him beaming.
Harry looked at the big pile of books in Hermione's arms, "Got enough?" he asked.
"For the time being!" she replied smugly.
"Well, you could have just memorised the names of the books and asked the room of requirements for them," Harry replied calmly.
Hermione put the books down on a table and slapped Harry hard on the back of his head.
"Ouch! What was that for?"
"You could have told me!" exclaimed Hermione.
"I did, at the beginning of the week!" replied Harry, rubbing his head.
Hermione stormed off in a huff and Harry made a note of the titles of the books. When he'd finished noting down the title of the books, he made sure no one could see him, then apparated to the room of requirements. He walked up to a bookshelf and thought about the books he'd noted down in the library; in an instant those books were now displayed on the shelf. Just then, the door burst open and in stomped Hermione. Harry moved to the side and held his arm out to show Hermione the bookcase ; she picked one of the books off the shelf and sat down to read it, Harry sat down on the settee opposite and continued to read the magical Animagi book.
Ron and Ginny came into the room of requirement's and Harry and Hermione were still reading. Harry looked up, "Oh, has classes finished now?"
"Yep," said Ron happily, "now we can rest for a couple of days."
"Oh no you can't," replied Hermione, "you can do some transfiguration training now!"
Harry chuckled and put his book back on the shelf. "Come on Gin, we'll go for a walk and leave these two to their training."
Ron looked at Harry pleadingly, "Sorry mate, you do need the training," said Harry as he left the room.
Harry and Ginny walked around the grounds, hand in hand talking about their first week back. It appeared to Harry that Ginny was even more like Hermione than he first suspected. She was actually looking forward to her O.W.Ls!
They carried on walking around the grounds and came up to Hagrid's hut ; they decided to pay him a visit.
"Ah, Harry, Ginny, good to see ya. Just brewed some tea, want some?" asked Hagrid.
"Erm, no thanks Hagrid. We just thought we'd visit. We haven't had much time to chat, with school and everything," said Harry, "is everything okay?"
"Fine 'arry, jus' fine," replied Hagrid, not looking sincere.
"Are you sure? What's bothering you?" asked Harry again.
"Well, it's jus' tha' Dumbledore wants me to show the fifth years a griffin but they're really hard to find," replied Hagrid.
"Would a golden griffin do?" asked Harry.
"A golden griffin, they're even rarer than the regular griffins 'arry, you'll never be able to get one of those!" replied Hagrid.
"Don't worry about it and leave it to me. When's the fifth year class next week?"
"It's second period on Tuesday," replied Ginny.
"Fine," said Harry standing up with a smile on his face.
"Are ya sure ya can get a golden griffin, in only four days?" asked Hagrid astonished.
"Positive," Harry said, leaving Hagrid's hut.
"That'll make his day Harry, you're so sweet," Ginny said hugging his arm as they walked back to the castle.
They were all sitting down in the great hall for dinner and Professor McGonagall walked past, "Oh," Harry said standing up suddenly. He caught up to McGonagall, "Excuse me Professor, I was wondering if I could skip class on Tuesday to help Hagrid?" he asked.
"Whatever for Mr Potter?"
"Well, he's been trying to get hold of a griffin but he's been having trouble finding one."
"Ah, I see. In that case I see no problem, you may help Hagrid," McGonagall replied.
"Thank you Professor. Oh and can you not mention to him about this please? I want it to be a surprise. He, err, doesn't know about me yet."
"Okay Mr Potter, I won't tell him."
"Thank you Professor." Harry returned to his seat next to Ginny.
"What was that all about?" asked Ron.
"Oh, nothing. Just some class stuff," he said smiling at Ginny.
After dinner, Harry told Hermione, Ron and Ginny to go up to the common room and he went over to speak to Neville.
"Hi Nev," he said.
"Oh, hi Harry," he replied.
Harry leaned in to Neville and spoke quietly, "Luna's looking over at you..." Harry was cut off.
"Oh, stop it Harry. I didn't think you'd tease me about it!" exclaimed Neville.
"I'm not teasing you Neville, why don't you go up to her and take her for a stroll outside while it's nice?"
"Harry, I can't!" Neville exclaimed.
"Nonsense! Do I have to put you under the Imperius curse?" Harry joked.
"Err, no," Neville said worryingly.
Harry got Luna's attention and beckoned her over to Neville and himself. When she came over, Harry nudged Neville with his elbow and smiled at Luna.
"Erm," Neville said. Harry looked at him, then cocked his head and nodded towards Luna. "Erm, Luna… would you, erm… like to go for a wa..."
Luna cut Neville off, "Of course I would Neville. Thank you Harry," she said in her sing song voice.
Harry smiled and went back up to the Gryffindor common room.
"What you smiling about?" asked Ginny.
"Nothing dear," replied Harry, kissing the top of Ginny's head, "just helping Neville out with something."
Harry and Ginny then joined Ron and Hermione in front of the fire. "How did the training go Ron?" Harry asked.
"Not too bad. I know all the stuff, I just can't seem to do it very well," Ron said down heartedly.
Harry chuckled, "Do you remember our second year when you broke your wand?" Hermione chuckled then.
"Yeah, I do. I can still taste those slugs!" Everyone laughed at them, even Ron started smiling at the funny side.
When the laughing died down, Ron asked "What's the plan for this weekend?"
"DA training," Harry said simply.
"Don't you mean AD training Harry?" asked Ginny.
"No Gin, this'll be stuff the AD class won't be learning," Harry replied.
The four of them talked into the night and eventually went back up to their dorms. Harry noticed that Neville wasn't back yet but didn't say anything to Ron. He just got dressed for bed, bid Ron goodnight and closed his curtains.
As Harry had quite an eventful first week back at school, he hadn't meditated as much as he'd have liked. He closed his eyes and cleared his mind. He searched for Neville and found him sat on the stairs talking to Luna. Harry smiled to himself and settled down for bed.
The next morning Harry woke to find Ron still fast asleep. He knew Ron would be having a lay in so Harry quickly got changed, took Ron's wand and apparated to Ollivander's in Diagon Alley.
"Mr Ollivander!" Harry shouted, there was no answer. 'Come on' Harry thought to himself and tried again "Mr Ollivander!"
"Who's here at this time of the morning?" asked Mr Ollivander, "Ah, Mr Potter."
"I'm sorry to bother you at such an early time in the morning, but I was wondering if you could do me a favour."
"What can I help you with Mr Potter?" asked Mr Ollivander.
Harry took out Ron's wand, "A friend of mine has been using this wand for over a year and has never been particularly successful in performing certain charms. Is there any tests you can make on the wand?"
Mr Ollivander took the wand and examined it. He performed various tests, shooting out various coloured sparks. "This wand appears in working order. If memory serves me correctly, this wand belongs to Ronald Weasley. Am I correct?"
"Yes sir," Harry said simply.
"Quite an unfortunate family, the Weasley's. A great family, but unfortunate. Couldn't afford the wand that chose Mr Weasley, such a shame."
"Have you still got that wand?" asked Harry.
"Oh yes," Mr Ollivander replied. He walked over to a shelf and picked out a rectangular box. He opened up the box, took out the wand and handed it to Harry. Harry looked at the wand, then looked at Ron's wand. "They look almost identical!" Harry exclaimed.
"The difference is in the core. Mr Weasley's wand has a unicorn hair for its core whereas the other wand, like yours, has a phoenix feather, this, like yours, is a very special wand," Mr Ollivander replied.
"Right, so how much will it cost to exchange the wands?" asked Harry.
"Taking Mr Weasley's wand in exchange for this wand will cost ten galleons."
"Okay, I'll get the money transferred from my Gringott's account today." Harry exchanged the wands, shook Mr Ollivander's hand and said "One more favour, if anyone ask's..." Harry was cut off.
"Don't worry Mr Potter. Your secret is safe with me."
Harry apparated back to his dorm room, quickly replaced Ron's wand and went down into the common room.
"Ginny, what are you doing up?" Harry asked.
"I was wondering if you wanted to go for a run?"
"Oh, okay," Harry transfigured his clothes and they left the common room.
On the way down to the entrance hall, Harry told Ginny what he'd done that morning. "Oh Harry," she said and hugged him, "you're the kindest person I know. You'd better not tell Ron though, he'll be livid!"
Harry smiled, kissed Ginny on the top of the head and opened the entrance door. The two ran up to the quidditch pitch, round the pitch once and then ran back to castle. As with the last time, Ginny went up to the prefects bathroom and Harry went back up to his dorm.
Harry went into his dorm and Ron was still asleep. "Oi! Come on get up!" He opened up Ron's curtains, shocked with what he found. He looked around the dorm, Seamus, Neville and Dean weren't in there. "Hermione! What are you doing here?" he asked, "You two are both prefects!"
"We weren't up to anything!" exclaimed Hermione, "I'm not like that!"
Harry looked at them and noticed Ron still under the sheets with Hermione on the top. "I'm sorry, I thought… well… I didn't know what I thought," Harry stuttered, "Come on, let's go down to breakfast."
Hermione left the boys dorm and Ron got up. "We were only talking mate," explained Ron.
"I know, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions," replied Harry, "imagine how you'd feel if you caught me and Ginny like that."
"Hermione's not your sister though," replied Ron as the two of them left the dorm.
The three friends and Ginny met up in the common room, Hermione looking rather embarrassed, and they all went down to breakfast where they met up with Neville.
"Harry, are we training today?" asked Neville.
"Yeah," replied Harry, "after breakfast, meet up with Luna and bring her to our common room and we'll all go together."
After breakfast everyone was waiting in the Gryffindor common room for Neville and Luna. They didn't have to wait long. Harry got everyone in a circle, holding hands and apparated everyone to the clearing in the forbidden forest.
Once in the clearing, Harry gave his instructions "Right, Ron, Neville, bring Luna up to speed on apparating and continue practicing yourselves. Ginny, Hermione, target practice." Harry conjured what resembled a large dart board and proceeded to show Hermione and Ginny what he wanted them to do, including the incantation for throwing arrows like the arrows he used back at Grimmauld Place and instructed them to try other spell's, curses and hexes after they've mastered throwing the arrows.
Harry stood back on the sidelines and watched everyone training. Hermione and Ginny were shooting arrows at the board and were getting more and more accurate as they were going on. Neville and Ron were teaching Luna how to apparate and noticed she had started getting the hang of it. Harry decided to get Neville and Ron to start their advanced apparition training and sent them off on a few tasks while he took over with Luna's training.
After training for three hours, Hermione and Ginny were now proficient at accurately throwing spells, curses and hexes at the board; Ron and Neville were now able to perform advanced apparition and Luna had just begun her advanced apparition training.
Harry got Neville and Ron to start training with Hermione and Ginny in the target practice and Harry set Luna off on similar tasks to Neville and Ron's apparition tasks.
At lunch, Harry called out for Dobby who promptly appeared in front of him and asked Dobby if he would make up a picnic hamper for six people. Dobby agreed, left and returned a few minutes later complete with picnic hamper and blanket. Harry then asked everyone to take a break from their training and join him for the picnic.
"Harry, this is great!" Ron exclaimed as he started tucking into the food.
"Leave some for everyone else!" Hermione exclaimed jokingly. Everyone laughed.
"You all seem to be getting on okay," Harry said, after everyone had settled down. Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, it's great this training. A lot better than training in school," replied Neville, "it's more enjoyable with just the six of us."
They continued their conversations during their break and then Harry started them off training again. This time Luna joined everyone else in the target practice.
Harry watched everyone in their training again and noticed that Ron had improved significantly since he'd switched his wand. Smiling, Harry decided to meditate. He cleared his mind and began. Another vision of Godric Gryffindor appeared in his mind as he meditated. This time, Godric showed him a vision of duelling. The vision showed Harry the training he needed to use to dodge and block various charms, hexes and jinxes. Harry took note of this so he could start training himself and the other five. After an hour, Harry broke out of the meditative state he was sweating as though he'd done the training himself.
Ginny noticed Harry and ran over to him. "Harry!" she exclaimed, "are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Harry replied, "I just feel like I've been duelling for hours, that's all."
Just then Bane, one of the centaurs from the forbidden forest, appeared in the clearing and walked up to watch the training students shooting arrows at the target. "Impressive," he said and wandered over to Harry.
Harry got up off the floor and stood before Bane. "Are we intruding in your forest Bane?" Harry asked.
"You are," Bane replied, "we have seen in the stars of the great battle to come. A battle that you, Harry Potter, will lead against the dark forces. We will support you in defending the forest when the time comes."
"Thank you Bane," replied Harry, taken back with Bane's support, "Are you granting us permission to train in this clearing?"
"I see no reason not to. You may continue your training Harry Potter." Bane turned around and headed back out of the clearing.
When Bane had gone from sight, Ginny spoke up, "That was strange!"
"Yeah, I think I'd best tell Dumbledore," replied Harry, "Right everyone, apparate back to your dorms, be sure not to apparate in front of anyone. We don't want people knowing we can apparate on the grounds of Hogwarts just yet."
Everyone, except Ginny, nodded and headed back. "Ginny, I'm going straight to Dumbledore, you apparate back to your dorm, I'll see you later."
Ginny reached up on her tiptoes and gave Harry a quick kiss on the lips and apparated away ; Harry apparated just outside the headmaster's office and knocked on the door.
"Come in," Dumbledore said, "ah Harry. What do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"
"Sir, I've just spoken with Bane," replied Harry. He stood watching the reaction of his headmaster's face and continued, "He told me that the centaurs have seen a great battle in the stars and told me I would lead it. That's not the strange thing though, he also told me that the centaurs will support us by defending the forest."
"Harry, has Professor Firenze explained the divination of the centaurs in your class?"
"Yes sir. He covered that last year during Umbridge's reign of terror," Harry replied with a sarcastic twist.
Dumbledore chuckled. "I believe the centaurs will support you in defending the forest only because it is in their best interest to do so. You will need to be careful in dealing with them as they have a tendency to do only what benefits themselves."
"Thank you sir, I will be careful." Harry was about to leave when Dumbledore spoke up again.
"Harry, you are of course aware of the up and coming duel?" he said more than asked, "You will not be participating in the duel between students…"
Harry cut him off, "but sir…"
Dumbledore raised his hand and Harry stopped and looked at his feet, fidgeting.
"Harry, you will be permitted to duel, but not against the students. You will give a demonstration of duelling after the main competition against Kingsley Shacklebolt, Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin in a three against one duel. I am hoping this will give a demonstration of why I have included you in the Order."
"Er, yes sir."
"Train well Harry," and Dumbledore nodded. Harry nodded back and returned to the Gryffindor common room.
Back in the Gryffindor common room, Harry slumped down in the armchair next to the fireplace and Ginny got up from her armchair and sat on Harry's lap.
"Are you okay Harry?" Ginny asked.
Smiling down at Ginny he replied, "I am now."
"So, what did Professor Dumbledore say?"
"He just told me to be careful with the centaurs," he replied, then after a short pause he added, "and told me that I can't enter the duel."
"He what? Why?" asked Ron who overheard his best friend and sister talking.
"I must be too good," replied Harry smugly.
"What's the catch Harry? I know there's more!" said Hermione.
"I can never fool you can I Hermione?" replied Harry.
"Well!" Hermione said.
Harry sighed, "I've got to duel a few Order members instead."
"A few? Three?" asked Ginny.
"Yes Ginny," replied Harry.
"You're having three duels against Order members?" asked Ron for confirmation.
"Er, no Ron, one duel against all three, at once," Harry confirmed.
"Oh," Ron replied.
"I'm going to make sure we're all prepared for the duelling competition. I'll teach duelling in the AD classes but I'll teach advanced duelling in the new DA classes."
"You're starting up the DA as well as the AD classes?" asked Ron.
"Oh Ron, you can be so thick sometimes," Hermione said, Ginny and Harry chuckled, "It will be like the training we had today, only the six of us."
"Oh," replied Ron, "it's starting to get a little confusing, that's all. DADA, AD and DA lessons!"
The four of them chatted until dinner time and then made their way down to the great hall for dinner. Ron's stomach had started growling rather loudly about an hour before dinner and started complaining when Hermione wouldn't let him go down to the kitchens to eat early.
Entering the hall, Harry noticed both Neville and Luna sitting at the Ravenclaw table talking. Harry approached them, crouched down between them and whispered "Are you two up for some duelling practice tomorrow?" Both of them nodded and Harry told them to apparate to the clearing at 10am. Harry then went back over to the Gryffindor table and sat down next to Ginny.
The evening went along relatively peacefully, with Ron and Hermione only arguing a couple of times, and everyone decided to get an early night, ready for another day of training.
Harry settled himself in his bed and started going through the duelling training in his mind readying it for the next day. It didn't take long before he dropped off into a deep sleep.
The next morning Harry got up early and decided to go for a run before breakfast. He changed into his tracksuit and made his way down to the common room. Ginny was waiting there for him. "Coming for a run Ginny?" asked Harry.
Smiling up at Harry, she silently nodded and followed Harry out of the portrait hole, down the stairs and outside the castle. The training lasted an hour and they both discussed the extra training they were doing now and the up and coming quidditch tryouts this week, which Harry had forgotten about. As usual, after their training, Ginny went up to the prefects bathroom and Harry went straight up to the common room to wait for everyone to get up to go to breakfast.
Hermione came down into the common room first. "Morning Harry," Hermione said as she came over to sit down next to Harry, "I wanted to talk to you before everyone else got up."
"Oh, I'm sorry about yesterday Hermione…" Harry responded.
"Oh, it's okay. That's not the reason I wanted to speak to you," she replied, "have you noticed anything strange with Ron?"
"Hermione, he's your boyfriend not mine," replied Harry.
Hermione playfully slapped Harry's arm, "I mean with his magic! I noticed yesterday it didn't take long for him to catch up with Ginny and I in the target practice. He did a lot better than he normally does."
"You must be a good influence on him," Harry said, matter-of-factly. He didn't want to tell her the real reason for this. He didn't really want to tell Ginny, but he was a rather excited with what he'd just done. He knew if Ron found out about the wand switch, there'd be hell to pay.
Before Hermione could ask anymore questions, Ron and Neville came down the boy's dorm stairs and joined them and, as if on queue, Ginny walked in through the portrait hole.
"All set then?" Harry asked, getting up off his seat. Everyone nodded in reply and went down for their breakfast.
During breakfast, Ron and Harry discussed the quidditch tryouts which were due to be held on Tuesday after all the classes had finished. They talked about the vacancies on the team and drew up a flier to stick on the notice board in the common room. As soon as breakfast was over, Luna joined them and they all went back up to the Gryffindor common room. Ron pinned the quidditch flier on the notice board and they all went up to the sixth year boys dorm room to apparate to the clearing in the forbidden forest.
As soon as everyone arrived in the forest, Harry got everyone to form a circle around him and explained what he was going to teach them all. They all followed Harry's example of his stretching exercises with only a small amount of fuss from Ron, and Harry instructed them all to duel him, five against one, so he could give a demonstration as to what he wanted to accomplish.
As the first jinx was thrown at Harry, he tumbled over to his right to avoid being hit and threw a leg locker curse at his attacker, Ron, and then the others started firing curses at Harry who kept avoiding them all and countering with various curses. To his surprise, Neville was the last one standing but Harry disarmed him easily. The duel lasted only five minutes.
"Well, I'm sorry to say that that duel was disappointing…"
Ron cut Harry off, "You kept leaping about all over the place, it was hard to aim for you!"
Harry responded, "That's what duels are all about. You have to keep moving to make it harder for your assailant to hit you. If you can't apparate to move out the way, you need to tumble, jump and roll."
Harry waved his hand over towards the tree line, and five targets appeared, all spaced apart. "What I need you all to do is practice firing curses at moving targets. Once you get the hang of that, we'll move onto how you move during a duel and practice tumbling and jumping." Another wave of Harry's hand and the targets started moving from left to right.
"Okay everyone, take you positions in front of one of the targets and start your training."
Ginny came up to Harry and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "You amaze me every day Harry," and she went over to stand in front of one of the targets.
Ron was looking bemused. "Anything the matter Ron?" asked Harry.
"I'm just wondering how you managed to conjure those targets without your wand and then if that wasn't enough you made them move without your wand as well!" exclaimed Ron.
Everyone looked at Harry as though waiting for an answer. Harry sighed and started to explain, "Something Professor Dumbledore explained to me ages ago was that if I put my mind to something, I can accomplish pretty much anything, mainly because I have no preconceptions about magic. I've been practicing meditation and can now focus my mind enough to perform some magic without a wand," Harry emphasised the word some. "We've all got magic inside of us and a wand let's us channel our magic through it without having to concentrate too much. We all know that different types of wands produce different results in each and every witch or wizard, that's why we each have our own wands and stick to using them. Using someone else's wand might not produce as strong a magic, some other wands may increase the strength of the magic but not be as controlled. The magic inside all of us is as different as each wand. Some people, like Professor Dumbledore, are extremely strong and seem to have an abundance of magic, other people aren't so fortunate. The stronger the magic inside you, and the stronger your mind, the more chance you will have in accomplishing wandless magic."
Harry looked around everyone, who seamed to be struck dumb and added, "The mind strengthening exercises we're doing in the AD classes will go a long way to help you but will not give you any guarantee so don't throw your wands out just yet."
"Right, enough of that. Come on then, let's get started. I want everyone to be able to hit the centre of the targets before lunch."
Everyone stared at each other and then started their training, and Harry settled down for some more meditation. During Harry's meditation, he had another visit from Godric Gryffindor. This time however, Godric wasn't showing Harry any training exercises. Harry found himself standing in the Hogwarts grounds with only himself and Godric present. Harry glanced around noticing that Hogwarts looked slightly newer and perhaps a little smaller.
"Hello Harry," said Godric as he approached.
"Er, Hello," Harry replied, stunned at being face to face with his one thousand year old ancestor. In all his previous visions and dreams, Harry was only an observer.
"You have done extremely well with your training Harry. But more training will be required if you are to defeat Salazar Slytherin's heir. I must say, not even Salazar is happy with his heir, but I've yet to convince him to help you."
"Erm, okay." Harry was still finding it hard to cope with standing in front of his ancient ancestor. Godric, sensing Harry's uneasiness, reassured him, "Harry, you can relax here. You already know how to get in touch with me and I'm here anytime you need to talk. Right now however, I need you to train with the others in your group. You will also need to identify the final six members of your group." Before Harry could respond, Godric put his hand up and continued, "I cannot tell you who the other members of your group are, just know this, you have to unite the houses of Hogwarts for the final battle. Now, please return to your training and remember, you can get in touch with me anytime you want but don't neglect your training."
Harry found himself being brought back to reality and shuck himself. 'What did he mean other six members?' he thought.
Harry got up and watched the progress of his 'students' ; he smiled to himself when he saw how well they were doing. Neville was doing really well but he could see he was getting rather frustrated, so Harry went over to him.
"Hi Neville, are you okay?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, I'm trying my best but I just can't get any more accurate. Ron's doing really well and everyone else…" Neville sounded really upset.
Harry suddenly had a thought, "Erm, Neville, who's wand is that?"
"Well, it belongs to my Mum. I was using my Dad's wand but that broke last term. Why?"
"That's it!" Harry exclaimed, "Neville, come with me and we'll get you a new wand, one of your own." Harry put his hand on Neville's shoulder and apparated to Ollivander's shop. "Mr Ollivander will take care of you Neville, I'll be right back."
Harry ran down the cobbled streets to Gringott's while Neville stayed in the shop to get his new wand. By the time Harry came back with some of his gold from his Gringott's vault, Neville, with the help of Mr Ollivander, had picked out his new wand.
"Ah, Mr Potter. I'll have to start putting you on commission," Mr Ollivander joked.
"We both know the importance of having the right wand sir. I'm just trying to help out my friends," Harry replied, "How much do I owe you?"
"I take it you don't want to part exchange this wand as it belongs to your mother?" Mr Ollivander said rather than asked, "This wand costs eight galleons and four sickles."
Harry counted out the money and handed it over to Neville ; he apparated Neville and himself back to the clearing in the forest.
"Thanks Harry, I'll never be able to thank you enough!" Neville exclaimed, hugging Harry.
"What's going on Harry?" asked Ginny.
"Oh, I just bought Neville a wand, that's all," replied Harry, "Right, come on, lets get back to the training, there's still a few minutes before lunch."
Neville and Ginny returned to their training and Harry conjured a moving target for himself and began training with the others.
Dobby and Winky appeared a few minutes later with another picnic basket and set up an area for the group to have their lunch. Harry announced that it was time for them to take a break and they all settled down to eat.
"Well, I'm happy with all your progress," Harry said, looking around at everyone, Neville was beaming at him, "I'll make it a little more interesting after lunch!"
"What do you mean Harry?" asked Ron, with a mouth full of food. Harry laughed softly. How Ron managed to speak with a mouth full of food was beyond him.
"Let's just say that your 'targets' will become a little less predictable," Harry replied.
As they were enjoying their lunch, an unexpected visitor arrived in the clearing. "Is this a private picnic or can anyone join in?" asked Professor Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling as he spoke.
Everyone gasped and started to panic, not knowing what to do. Harry however was calm, "Please sir, I'd be honoured if you'd join us."
Dumbledore sat down and joined them. Harry told his headmaster of the training they were doing while they finished their lunch. Dumbledore seamed impressed and decided to stay a while to watch Harry's training session.
Harry made the targets move all over, not just left and right like before, but up and down as well with sharp movements.
Everyone quickly got the hang of firing their charms at the targets and Dumbledore approached Harry smiling. "I'm very impressed with what you've done here. I shall look forward to seeing your students in action at the duelling competition." Harry thanked his headmaster and Dumbledore left the clearing to go back up to the castle.
After a few hours of training Harry got everyone to gather around him in a circle again for another duel. This time, all his students managed to hit him virtually every time.
"Excellent!" Harry exclaimed, "You've all done extremely well. It's time for everyone to return to the castle. We'll continue these training sessions every weekend, except for Hogsmeade weekends and quidditch matches, when we can have the weekend off."
Everyone nodded and apparated back to the castle.
Harry's new training regime had begun. He will make sure everyone of his friends will be prepared, not only for the up-and-coming duelling competition, but also for the impending battle.