Disclaimer: If your recognize it from any of the Harry Potter books it belongs to JKR and her publishers, not me.

Chapter 3: Training Days

"Faster Potter! If you stop moving you die!"

Harry danced around to the encouraging words of Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody. Ron, Ginny and Kingsley all stood in front of Harry in a line; all three holding out their wands and shooting spells at him like a firing squad. It was his job to dodge as many of them as he could. Moody had called this 'footwork drills'. He had said that since the three teenagers were young and most of their opponents would be older men they should work on their speed and agility so that they could use it to there advantage. Harry had thought it was a good idea at first, the footwork drills seemed like they could be kind of fun.

That was before they had been forced to do them for the last thirty minutes.

Their training had started off with a quick bit of stretching and a small amount of physical exercise. After that they had done some practice dueling. Ron had done a good job defeating Ginny in his duel with her, although she did get him with a strong tickling charm that had nearly cost him the match. Harry had then gone and beat Ron in a duel, it was a close one but Harry managed to get Ron with a stunner square in the chest. Then, to be fair to Ron who had had to duel twice, Harry and Ginny had dueled; Ginny was fast and small which made her hard to hit but Harry had still won in the end.

When their duels had been over Moody had decided to tell them what he had thought. It hadn't been pretty. He had yelled and spat at them for a good five minutes telling them how bad they were, he even said that their poor duels had been enough reason for him to just give up and leave. Kingsley had been a bit nicer about things, but only a bit. He had told them that they lacked creativity, they lacked a good knowledge of spells, they were to slow on their spell casting, and he was surprised they had even managed to survive the Department of Mysteries incident.

It was then, after a couple more minutes of lecturing, that Moody brought up the idea of footwork drills. He had said that they would need to learn to move around more while dueling and that they should use the energy of youth to their advantage. To quote him 'In a duel, if you stop moving you die'. And so, Harry and the others had been forced to do footwork drills for the last thirty minutes. So far, Ginny had had the best time with one minute and six seconds. Harry came in second and Ron was last. Harry had lost count of how many times he had gone.

He continued to dodge and dance around the harmless spells that the others sent at him as Moody continued to bark encouragement at him. He threw himself on the ground and rolled to his left before shooting back up and ducking one of the spells heading for his head. Unfortunately he didn't see the second spell which hit him in the head, splattering his face with paint.

"Got him!" Ron called out triumphantly. Harry fell to the ground and began to catch his breath.

"Fifty seconds," Moody called out, "good Potter, at least you managed to beat your old record by a few seconds."

"I think that's enough footwork drills for now," Kingsley Shacklebolt said. All three teenagers looked at the tall man with hope in their eyes, none of them had the energy for any more drills.

"Aye," Moody agreed, surprising everyone, "it looks like your our champion for today Weasley," he added, indicating Ginny. At the bit of praise she puffed up with a little pride.

"Of course she did the best," Ron said, "she's so small and fast"

"You're just jealous," Ginny said in a childish tone, sticking her tongue out at her older brother.

"Am not,"

"Are too,"

"Am not,"

"C'mon Ron," Harry said, taking the towel Kingsley provided and wiping his face of the paint Ron's spell had left there. "Just cause you got last doesn't mean you have to be jealous," he joked.

"Look at the two of you," Ron said, indicating his sister and his best friend, "how was I supposed to compete with you two fairies?" Harry just shook his head and chuckled.

"I think you three misunderstood me," Moody began, interrupting the joking banter, "the drills are over but you've still got half an hour of training left before break, you don't have time to start relaxing." All three teenagers stopped their smiling and joking and looked at Moody. "We're going to teach you a spell today, a spell that might come in handy when dueling." Moody nodded to Kingsley and he took over. Moody walked to the other end of the backyard.

"We are going to teach you the repello charm." he paused and waited for any form of recognition from the teenagers. When he got none he continued. "As the name suggest the charm is used to help repel other spells. To cast it you hold your wand out in front of you and say the incantation repello-" as he said the incantation his wand lit up with a faint blue glow, "-then you can send back most spells your opponent sends at you." Kingsley nodded to Moody who had now made it to the other side of the backyard. Moody raised his wand and sent an unknown spell hurtling towards Kingsley. The tall auror pulled his still glowing wand back and swung it like a beaters bat, sending it right back to Moody. The retired auror sidestepped the spell and it flew past him and impacted a nearby tree, blasting a hole in it.

Harry gaped at the hole the spell had made in the tree. "You blocked that with just your wand?"

Kingsley nodded, "The repello charm can block most curses, hexes, jinxes, and charms. It of course can't block the unforgivables and other strong curses, but it still should be useful to you."

Moody walked back over to where the others were standing, "Now," he began, "Potter you pair up with Ginny, and Ron you and Kingsley will be partners," With that everyone went off with their partners. Harry and Ginny paired off and fired harmless spells at each other and tried to reflect them back. Kingsley had made it look easier than it really was but eventually they got the hang of it. Practicing the spell was even a little fun; it became a kind of game to see who would get hit first. But it wasn't long before even that got hard. They had to swing their wand back and forth and it began to take its toll on their already tired bodies. Moody was walking in between the two sets of partners and any time one of the teenagers began to 'slack off' he would begin to bark at them, threatening them with even more practice if he thought they weren't giving 110.

Soon, although not soon enough to Harry, Moody called for them to stop. Harry allowed the spell Ginny and just knocked toward him to shoot past him and fly off into the distance. The three teenagers headed for the backdoor where Moody had been watching them.

When they got there it was Kinsley who spoke first. "You three did good today," he congratulated while Moody snorted, "but, you've still got a long way to go before you should even think of crossing paths with another death eater. Now, go grab yourself some lunch, clean up and meet us in the library at one o clock." With that he and Moody headed inside and the three weary teenagers followed. All three of them were drenched in sweat and their hair was disheveled and stuck out in odd places. They did not look good. Harry and Ron began to make their way to the dining room while Ginny headed for the stairs.

"Where you goin' Gin?" Ron asked his retreating sister.

"I can't stand being all sweaty," she said looking down at herself in distaste, "I'm going to freshen up before lunch." The boys both nodded and she continued up the stairs.

"It's better she go now anyways," Ron said as they made it to the dining room, "there are only two bathrooms so one of us would have been left waiting." They found the dining room empty except for Mrs. Weasley. "Everyone left all ready?" She just nodded.

"Where is Ginny?"

"She went to go clean up,"

"Well sit down, I've made some sandwiches for lunch."

Harry sat down and thankfully took the meal Mrs. Weasley offered him. As he ate he distinctly heard Ron mutter something about corn beef but it was mostly a quiet meal. Once the boys finished they headed up stairs and found that Ginny was done with her shower and heading down stairs to eat. Harry entered the room he had slept in and got some clothes out of his trunk. As he was fishing through his clothes he noticed the snake curled up on his bed. Apparently Moody had declared the snake safe. He knew he needed to talk to the snake and find out just what it wanted, but at the moment he also need to do other things like get into the shower.

He picked out his newest set of hand me downs from his whale of a cousin Dudley and made his way to the door. He and Ron met in the hallway and Ron offered to take the downstairs bathroom leaving Harry to the upstairs one Ginny had just used. He entered the bathroom and stripped down before turning on the water and stepping into the shower. As soon as he was in he let out a sigh as the warm water ran over his skin. The water was great on his tired muscles and he just stood there for a while to allow his muscles to relax.

He took about twenty minutes in the shower before turning it off and drying himself. He got dressed again and headed towards his room. When he got to his room he saw Ron standing there waiting for him.

"Bout time you got out," Ron said with a grin.

"Couldn't help it," Harry replied, "That water felt great."

"Yeah," Ron agreed.

"How much time until we have to be down in the library?"

"We've still got about ten minutes, but we should probably just go there now." Harry agreed and followed Ron out of his room and down to the library. As they traveled through the house they contemplated on what they were going to be doing for their second half of training.

"Since were going to the library it shouldn't be too hard," Harry reasoned.

"Yeah but I wouldn't put it past Mad-Eye to make us do more drills in the library." As they both entered the library they saw Ginny sitting down at a table. The room was nothing special, it wasn't very large but it had bookcases lined up on every wall. In the middle of the room there was a square table with books piled on it that looked like it was able to seat four or five comfortably. Even though it was nothing special, especially compared to the other library's he had seen, it was still quite large for a 'retirement home'. As Harry and Ron entered the library and sat down at the table no one said anything.

Harry had to interrupt the silence with a question that had recently popped up on his mind. "You guys, whatever happened to Percy?" he asked, both Weasley children looked up at him, "I mean, is he still supporting the ministry?"

Ron let out a sigh and Ginny remained silent, "He's still being a prat. He apologized to mum and dad, but he still won't admit that the ministry was wrong. He still stands by Fudge and the others and won't join the Order."

"Wow," Harry said in disbelief, "I didn't think anyone could be so thick."

"That's my brother," Ginny said with false pride.

They lapsed into silence once more. As they waited for their mentors to arrive Harry couldn't help but think. Another war was coming and the Ministry had finally recognized that Voldemort was back. Would Fudge stop acting like an idiot and finally take some action. Harry couldn't help but think that he wouldn't.

The door to the library opened and Moody and Kingsley waked in. "Good, you're all here," Kingsley addressed the three teenagers, "for the second half of your training you are going to study," Ron let out a groan but Kingsley continued as if he hadn't heard anything, "Before the end of summer you are going to read all the books in the center of that table. We will do this everyday for two hours after noon, but you are allowed to read on you own time. Any questions?"

"We have to read all the books? Cover to cover?" Ron asked, eyeing some of the thicker books in the stack.

"Yes Weasley," Moody answered gruffly, "it won't hurt you to do a little reading."

"Now I'm sure you three don't need us to monitor your studies," Kingsley continued, "so we'll be going." He and Moody turned and left. The room was quiet for a second before Ron began.

"I would rather go back outside than do this," he grumbled.

"C'mon Ron," Ginny said, picking the first book off the pile, "It's not going to kill you to study." Harry agreed with her and began looking through the books to find one worth reading. Many of the books were made for aurors or instruction manuals on how to duel properly. One book caught his attention though: The Dirtiest of Dark Beast and How to Defeat Them by Daray Thetis. He pulled the book from the stack and looked through it. It looked like it was a few years old but it was still one of the best looking one the pile had to offer. Deciding to read it, Harry looked over to Ron and saw him sitting with his arms crossed.

"You just gonna sit there?" Harry asked.

"I refuse to study anything that's not required by school." He replied resolutely.

"You know Mad-Eye might be watching through the door, right?" Harry said with a smirk, Ron quickly grabbed the nearest book and opened it. Harry noticed that the book was So You Want to Be an Auror? by Brian Jameson. It was also one of the shorter books in the pile.

Not wanting to be caught by Moody's eye anymore than Ron, Harry opened his book and began reading. From what the table of contents told him, the book contained individual chapters on many dark creatures. Harry started the book where most books begin, the first chapter which was about dementors.

The dementor is one of the most well know and feared dark creatures ever known to exist to man. Dementors are foul creatures that are capable of taking one thing from us humans that matters to us the most, our very souls. Anyone in the presence of one of these creatures is nearly incapable of feeling any happiness or hope, but that is only the beginning of their horrible power. If a dementor deems you worthy it will give you the last kiss you will ever receive, a kiss that will take your soul. Studies from the 1700s show that dementors prefer to kiss those with more happiness and love in their soul. The wizards behind this experiment took two muggles, one who was down on his luck and very depressed and the other a man with a happy, loving family. When the dementor was released on these two men it chose the happy man first and then moved on to the depressed man. This sick experiment is one of the only documented reports on a dementor's behavior.

Despite the fact that they are well know not much is truly known about the dementors. The most mysterious thing about the dementor is its origin. No one knows where the dementor came from. Common belief is that dementors have always existed alongside wizards, this is not true. The first sighting was in 1553. One of the most popular stories about the creation of dementors is that they were a failed attempt at bringing a human being to life. According to the story a woman tried to bring back her dead husband who she had loved so much. She spent all her time working on spell theories and experimenting until one day she thought she had it right. She attempted to bring back her husband but what appeared instead was a dark creature that took the shape of a human and had no soul. The woman embraced the creature thinking that even through its hideousness that it was still her husband. The newly formed dementor kissed the woman and took her soul. This story is mainly used as a fairy tale to warn children against trying to bring back dead loved ones, but it may have some historical value. The first sighting of a dementor was in the 1500s, which was when the magical art of alchemy was at the height of its popularity. Besides seeking immortality and transmuting lead into gold one of the things most alchemist tried to do was create an artificial human. It is quite possible that the dementor was a failed attempt at creating a human. Also, the first dementor sighting came a few years after Paracelsus created his first homunculus and many alchemist were trying to do the same.

No matter how they were created, it didn't take long for wizards to realize that the dementor was something to be feared. It was many years before wizards found a way to fight a dementor and thus how to control it. As far as is know, there is no sure way to kill a dementor, only drive them back. The only spell to harm them is the Patronus (see below).

The dementor's native land is Great Britain. There have been dementor sightings in other areas of the world, but these sightings are few in number. All dementors in the UK are under the control of the Ministry of Magic. The ministry usually uses these fowl creatures to guard the prison of Azkaban, one of the most feared locations on earth. Many dementors have been known to side with dark wizards in times of conflict. The dark side can offer them more souls than the light can. One of the worst dementor attacks ever know was headed by a dark lord, he set fifty dementors onto a small muggle village, and everyone was kissed.

Despite the fact that they are very well known, not many people truly know what a dementor looks like. Most people only see dementors when they are under their black cloaks, but not their face or their body. The top half of a dementor is slightly humanoid in shape but the skin has the look of rotting flesh; it peels off in places to reveal twisted black bones. The face is nothing like a normal humans, the dementor has no ears or eyes and for a mouth all it has is a gaping hole with which to suck to souls of its victims. The dementor has no bottom half; it has no feet or legs or anything that it could use to stand up on its own. It just floats.

Now that we are a bit more familiar with dementors its time to talk about how to defeat them. There is no way know to kill a dementor but one can drive it back using the Patronus Charm. . .

Harry stopped reading there and skimmed over the rest of the chapter. The book was very interesting and he had learned some new things about dementors but he already knew how to do the patronus charm and didn't think it was worth it to read through that section of the book in depth. He moved onto the other chapters, which talked about other dark creatures. He read about vampires and werewolves and acromantula (he stopped to show Ron an artist sketch that made him nearly fall out of his seat). The rest of the chapters followed the same format as the first one; first it talked about the origin of the creature and then went into how to defeat it. The book was quite interesting and Harry was glad that he chose it.

He continued to read in silence with his three companions for a while longer before a knock on the door announced the arrival of Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"Times up," he said, poking his baldhead through the door. The teenagers all set their books down as one and got up from the table. They exited the Library and headed for the living room. "We start training the same time tomorrow." Kingsley continued as they walked past him.

"Well, that was boring," Ron said once they had gotten out of earshot of Kingsley.

"It wasn't that bad," Ginny said.

"Yeah," Harry agreed, "the book I was reading was pretty good."

"So, what do you guys want to do now?" Ron asked, "up for another game of chess Harry?"

"No, I think I've been beaten enough for one day,"

"Well then, how about a game of quidditch?"

"There's only three of us Ron how are we going to play quidditch" Ginny answered.

Ron sighed and fell into the nearby chair, "There's not much to do here, is there?"

"Nope," Harry and Ginny answered at the same time, sitting on the couch.

Harry slowly made his way up the stairs alongside Ron and Ginny. Their afternoon had been much like their early morning. They had spent most of their time reading or playing various games. Harry had eventually conceded to Rons demands and got beaten at chess a couple more times.

Dinner had been just as uneventful as the rest of the afternoon had been. It had mainly been a Weasley dinner plus Harry, Kingsley and Moody. The only highlight had been when one of the twins had tried to slip one of their pranks into Moody's glass only to be tricked by the old auror into drinking it himself. George still sported a rainbow afro.

After dinner Harry and the others had all sat down and had some more free time. But this time the three teens decided against sticking around for too long. Their training had left them both mentally and physically tired so they had decided to head up to bed much earlier than usual.

"Night Ron, Ginny," Harry said as he parted way with both his friends.

"Night," they said in reply, heading into their respective rooms. Harry went into his room and immediately began to take off his clothes and change into his pajamas. He began to get into bed when he was interrupted.

"You can't ignore me forever, master," hissed the snake.

"Oh, it's you," Harry said, startled by the snake, "I wasn't avoiding you I was just busy."

"Well we need to talk," the snake said from its position on Harry's pillow.

"Yeah, I guess we do," Harry said, although he truly would rather be sleeping than talking to the snake, "why wont you leave me alone?"

"Because you are my master," the snake responded, "have I not told you this before?"

"How can I be your master if I've never owned a snake before?"

"Because you are," the snake replied bluntly.

"That makes since," Harry said sarcastically.

"So you finally see the truth," the snake responded without noticing the sarcasm.

"I was joking," Harry clarified, "I can't be your master just because you say I am."

"But you are my master," the snake said, "can you not feel it?"

"Feel what?" Harry asked confused.

"The bond we share," the snake said, confusing Harry even more, "the bond of master and servant." Harry stared at the snake with an eyebrow arched. Was it possible for snakes to be crazy?

"Look," Harry began, "I have no idea what you are talking about, but if you insist on following me around then you're going to have to stop this master stuff."

"Then what shall I call you, master?"

"My name is Harry,"

"Very well Master Harry," the snake said, causing Harry to cringe. He could tell already that trying to get the snake to just use his name was useless.

"Now I'm tired so lets continue this some other time." Harry said, taking the snake off his bed and putting it on the floor. He laid his head on his pillow and basked in the simple pleasure of a soft bed on his weary muscles before a thought came to mind. "Do you have a name?" he asked, directing his question toward the snake.

"I have never been graced with a human name, Master Harry," the snake replied.

"I guess it's my job to name you then," Harry said, the snake remained silent, "your name will be… Danny," Harry said, saying the first name that had come to his mind.

"Danny, master?" the snake questioned, "are you sure that such a name is befitting of me? Surely you could think of name that is far more-"

"Danny," Harry interrupted.

"Yes, master?" the snake replied.

"Shut up."

The next week passed by for Harry much the same way his first day had. He woke up in the morning and had breakfast with the others, after that he would spend a few hours of free time with Ron and Ginny doing various activities. Then would come the training. The first week of training had been just as hard as the first day. They had continued to do footwork drills, but had also started other things. They had learned a few new spells but most of their time had been spent on technique. They practiced stances and techniques for dueling and always had a practice duel. Although Harry knew they had along way to go before they were complete with their training, he could already spot improvements after just one week. The footwork drills had become much easier than they had been on that first day and the practice duels had become much more competitive. The few spells they had learned in the week had been very practical and useful. The second half of training had also been progressing well, he had finished the book on dark creatures and was now on a book called Dueling Tactics for Those in Peril by John Jackson. It was an interesting book that contained some tactics for when you were being beaten in a duel.

Today, though, Harry was putting all that training out of his mind. Today was his off day. Mrs. Weasley had called all three teenagers down for breakfast at the same time as usual that morning but they had decided that they would sleep in on their first off day. At the moment Harry reclined on his bed with his hands behind his head. There was another reason today was special to him. Today was the day Hermione was coming to HQ.

It had only been two weeks since Harry had seen his bushy haired friend and he was still eager to see her. She had already sent them a few letters, talking about how wonderful her vacation was, and asking them how they were doing. She was in China with her parents and she was apparently "Learning oh so much about the Chinese magical culture."

Deciding he had laid in bed long enough Harry got up. He didn't bother changing out of his pajamas, as he knew that he wouldn't be doing anything important today. He spotted his new 'pet' lying on the floor still asleep. Over the week he had gotten used to the snake constantly following him around and calling him Master. He had even allowed the snake (Danny) to warp around his arm and stay with him during the day. He still didn't know what was wrong with the snake or where it had come from, but he didn't really mind it anymore.

Harry made his way to the door and opened it to see Fred and George just about to enter his room.

"Mornin'," said Fred, who had an F on his leather jacket.

"Sleep well?" asked George. Without waiting for an answer the twins pushed him back into his room and sat him back on his bed.

"As you know Harry," Fred began, "George and I have been rolling in galleons ever since we opened our joke shop."

"And we've been thinking," continued George, "what should we do to thank our primary investor?"

"You guys don't need to do anything," Harry said.

"Harry we're Weasleys," Fred said as if that made sense, "we don't like taking things without giving something in return,"

"Unless its Christmas,"

"Indeed," Fred nodded, "so we've decided to make you partner."

Harry opened his mouth to say something and then closed it again. He stared at the smiling twins before finally answering, "You guys don't have to do that. I mean, your mother would be-"

"Don't worry about mum," Fred said.

"Yeah," George continued, "all our business will be under the table." Harry wanted to protest again but he was stopped.

"C'mon Harry," Fred said, getting strangely serious, "if your not going to take this for your self then take it to make us feel better." George nodded with his brother.

Harry sighed. "So your mother won't find out?" the twins shook their heads, "Aright then. How much?"

George beamed at him, "Fifteen percent, no more no less. We'll send it straight to your account."

"Ten Percent," Harry said.

"You drive a hard bargain," Fred said, "but we accept." Harry shook hands with the twins and their deal was done.

"Now lets go get some breakfast," George said. Harry agreed and followed the twins down to the dining room.

"So business is good then?" Harry asked conversationally.

"Yep," Fred answered, "we already put Gambol and Japes out of business."

Harry let out a low whistle. "Already?"

"Yep," George continued, "and we're going to put in a new shop in Hogsmeade, opens on Halloween night."

"You and the others ought to come down there," Fred continued.

"I don't know," Harry said warily, "it might be kind of hard for all of us to get out."

Both twins stopped. "Do my ears deceive me?" George asked in false surprise, "Is Harry Potter afraid to try and get sneak out of school?"

"That can't be!" Fred exclaimed, "The Gryffndor poster boy showing fear?"

"Alright," Harry said, "We'll be there. Although it will probably be hard to convince Hermione to come."

They continued their walk and made it to the dining room. Harry was quite surprised to see it very full. Over the past week it had mainly been Harry and the Weasley children who ate meals but this time many members of the Order were sitting there, some who he hadn't seen before. He made his way to the table and sat down, greeting anyone he recognized.

"Why are there so many people here?" He asked Ron out the corner of his mouth.

"I don't know," the red head mumbled just as quietly, "Fred and George reckon there's going to be a big meeting."

"This'll be the first one won't it?" Harry asked as he began to eat the food Mrs. Weasley had brought him.

"Yeah, this'll be the first one that I know of, but Fred and George think that they've been having meetings in the middle of the night while we sleep." Harry contemplated this news. It seemed like the Order was going to be having their first big meeting. All week he had been eager for information, but no one would give him any.

He checked around to make sure no one was listening. "This could be our chance for some information."

"Yeah."

Fred and George sat down across the table. "Got a plan yet?" Fred asked.

"Plan?" Harry inquired.

"Well we can't just let them have a meeting and leave us out of it can we?" George clarified. Harry just smirked at both of them.

"We shouldn't talk about it here," Harry muttered. The twins and Ron nodded and they all finished their breakfast in silence. When they had all finished they made their way back up to Harry's room, as they passed through the living room two figures appeared with a pop. The three teenage boys stopped their trek to inspect the two females who had just appeared. Harry was instantly able to recognize the bright pink hair of Tonks and the bushy brown hair of his other best friend Hermione Granger. Harry didn't have time to react as Hermione darted toward him and wrapped her arms around him in a tight, friendly hug.

"Er-Hello Hermione," Harry said, returning the hug albeit without as mush enthusiasm.

"Oh Harry, how are you?" she asked loosening the tight hold she had around him, "have you been getting along fine?"

"Yeah I'm fine," he answered.

Ron cleared his throat loudly, "Chopped liver am I?"

"Oh Ron," Hermione said, giving him a less bone crunching hug.

"Wotcher Harry," Tonks said shaking Harry's hand. The odd metamorphmagus had a strange look in her eye as Harry greeted her, but she left before he could even figure out what it was.

"Now that the pleasantries are out of the way how about we discuss those plans of ours." George said. Hermione gave Ron and Harry a questioning look but they just told her to follow them. They made their way up the stairs and George got Ginny from her room. They entered Harry's room and the boys filled in the girls on what they wanted to do.

"So you want to spy on the Order meeting?" Hermione asked.

"Yep," Fred answered, "You aren't going to try and stop us are you?"

"No," she replied with a sigh, "but the only question I have is 'How'?" All the teenagers traded looks. They each had a feeling that spying on the Order of the Phoenix wouldn't be as easy as it used to be.

Theres Chapter 3. Please Read and Review.