It had been a few weeks since Sean had taught Harry the lethal maneuvers…and Harry had been practicing them devotedly. Harry could now hold his own against Sean in armed and unarmed combat but could never beat him, and their sparring sessions would attract an audience.
They would move fast and strong, their fighting was something that the other Knights had never seen before. Sean's fighting style was a combination of Japanese and Chinese martial arts, Muay Thai, and some brawling he had been taught in Ireland…and he had taught that to Harry.
There was no memorized form to how they fought, Sean was very adamant in teaching Harry to empty his mind and fight with a fluid and adaptable manner that no enemy would be able to define and overcome. When they would spar, those watching were treated to a show of power, precision, and speed like nothing that had been seen in their monastery…or maybe even the world. Harry would strike unthinkingly, but no longer blindly, and he had realized that he didn't have to even say his magic incantations but only empty his mind, think them, and let the magic flow thorough and out of him.
As he tried to incorporate magic into his armed and unarmed combat, he found that he did not have to think before he did any spells. A little after that, he discovered he didn't even have to say them…they just flowed out of him. He and Sean would now do full contact sparring and with unsheathed swords. Fully armed sparing, with Sean using his crossbow and Harry using magic, would have to be taken to outside the monastery and often resulted in Harry using mendo charms on himself and Sean…but only after the spar was finished.
It went on like this, then one day Sean and Harry were in the outdoor area facing a dummy that Sean had set up for Harry to practice the lethal maneuvers on. Sean would say one of the maneuvers, and Harry would do it to the dummy with a sword or knife. Sean put a wand-like twig on the arm for the wand slit, and other times would have a sword there.
"Wand slit," Sean said, and Harry executed the move perfectly without hesitation. Harry did the same thing for the bite of death, slit thrust, and the unstoppable.
"Perfect!" Sean said to Harry without disguising his satisfaction, "You've become everything we hoped you would and then some…we will leave tomorrow."
Harry was confused at this and asked Sean "Where?"
"To the enchanted woods of course" Sean answered, "and we still have a couple of weeks before the battle."
Harry realized that this was the culmination of his training, and that after it he and Sean would most likely leave the monastery…and then he didn't know what after that. Harry and Sean went to sleep that night knowing that tomorrow would change everything.
They both woke up at first light, "wear only your black clothes," Sean said to Harry as he started to dress.
"You won't need anything else, other than this."
Sean gave Harry a very simple knife. Harry guessed it would only be good enough to get the plant from the woods. Harry and Sean left the monastery and repelled from the sidewall down to the coastline where a rowboat waited. Sean took the oars, explaining to Harry that he would need his strength, and began to row toward the cliff with the enchanted woods on top.
When they came beside the cliff they found the rope. Sean took the end of the rope and tied it to the holder for one of the oars.
"This is as far as I go," Sean said to Harry, "I will be waiting here for you when you get back; start whenever you want to."
Harry looked up to see that the climb had to be about fifty feet straight up. He took a breath, then jumped off the boat, grabbed the rope, and began to climb.
He let his legs dangle down and focused on bringing one hand over the other. His toned and strong arms would pull and tense with each movement, he would only look straight ahead and would will himself to go just one pull higher. Sean watched him from the boat and had nothing but confidence that he would make it. Harry willed himself up higher and higher on the rope, fighting the urge to let his legs take over and lessen the strain. He was so consumed with this that he almost fell of the rope when his hand gripped the top of the cliff, finding the rope tied around the thickest tree he had ever seen.
Sweat was dripping down his face as he took a few deep and hard breaths. He brought his other hand up to the cliff, and then pulled himself with a loud grunt to the top, never using his legs until he stood up. Sean had told Harry that he was allowed to take a moment to catch his breath. As he did so, Harry looked around for the trail Sean said led to the center, after a minute he found it. Harry took a few breaths, did a few stretches, and then took off running through the woods.
Sean had lost sight of Harry after he had pulled himself onto the top of the cliff. He silently hoped that Harry would not have the ordeal he had, but he knew that it would be just as bad in not worse. The whole point of this was to have the warrior push themselves to their limits and then past them. He returned to the book he had brought with him, fully confident that Harry would come through well.
Harry ran with all he had, the terrain was constantly changing, the incline would change and it would slope up and down. There were logs, roots, rocks, and branches around the trail, Harry would duck, jump, and otherwise elude them. Occasionally, it would be uphill, or he would need to leap around a few rocks or logs and then do a flip over another obstacle. His heart was pounding inside his chest harder than ever, except for the night in front of the Burrow fireplace with Hermione.
Harry struggled for breath as he moved forward eluding debris and not slowing his pace. Then he reached a point where there was no debris and the terrain smoothed out. Harry remembered Sean telling him that he would know when he could stop running and expect the next part of the trial. Harry stopped running and began to walk off the burn that was in his legs; he was looking around the deep dark wood. Then he realized that the wood had not been dark before, the area around him was changing, and when he saw gravestones appearing around him he knew what was about to happen.
He stopped in his tracks, remembering that Sean told him he had to stand and relive the experience without fear. He was suddenly thrown to the ground, and he found that he couldn't move or speak on his own. He could not do anything to alter what he was seeing and experiencing, he had no choice but to relive it. He found that although he could not act or speak on his own, what he was thinking and feeling was entirely under his control.
The events of that night unfolded before him, and his senses experienced them as though he were back in the graveyard. He saw Cedric Diggery appear next to him and then it all started over again, right in front of him.
He saw Wormtail kill Cedric, he felt the cords bind him to the gravestone, he felt Wormtail gag him, and he saw the Death Eaters assemble around him. He felt Wormtail's knife cut his arm, and then it all culminated when his worst fear was realized and he saw the renewed form of Lord Voldemort face him. The first time this happened, Harry had been terrified and not known what to do. But this time was different; this time Harry faced Voldemort with a new confidence.
The duel progressed just as it had before, with the beams colliding and the people Voldemort had killed emerging. Harry's mind was his own while he experienced those things. He remembered that he had been very much afraid when he was first in the graveyard, but this time around he was cursing the fact that he couldn't control his actions. If he could have, he would have charged Voldemort and destroyed him with his bare hands. Even when Voldemort gave the chilling threat of wanting to see the light leave Harry's eyes, Harry was not afraid.
The matter of Harry's escape also unfolded, he felt the force of the portkey begin to take him up…and then the memory stopped. Sharp minded young man that he was, Harry figured that he had passed the next part of the challenge. He figured that he had just gone through reliving his most harrowing experience, and now he would soon face his worst fear.
He still had his knife out, looking for the plant with the purple flower that Sean talked about. He had no idea how long it had been since he and Sean had left the monastery, but he didn't care so much about that…he had a task to complete.
He looked around and saw the plant, as he walked toward it the woods started to get dark again. He braced himself for whatever was to come, and then he saw a horrifying vision.
He first saw the Burrow in flames with the Weasleys fleeing from the scene, he saw Hogwarts obliterated to the ground with the bodies of Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Ron and Ginny Weasley, and last of all to his horror Hermione Granger hanging from trees. He saw the markers of his parent's graves desecrated and destroyed, and then he saw the figure of Lord Voldemort seated on a throne with Snape and LeStrange next to him gloating about his success.
Harry stood and watched the whole scene unfold in front of him. Fear never entered him, he merely knew that what was facing him was the price of failure…and failure was what he feared the most. Voldemort obtaining the power he desired and then once again destroying those who opposed him was what Harry feared, and what he knew would happen if he failed. The vision ended, and Harry was not crying or dumbfounded, he merely moved on, passing the final part of the test, and having gained a new resolution to succeed, failure was not an option.
Sean was nearly finished with his book when he looked up to see Harry repelling down the cliff. Sean prepared to receive his young student by pulling the rope to bring the boat as far in shore as possible. Harry let go of the rope about two feet above the boat and dropped in, breathing heavily and with exhaustion evident.
"Here," Sean said handing Harry a canteen, "have some water." Harry placed something in Sean's hand as he took the canteen and took a long refreshing drink.
Sean looked at the object in his hand, the purple flower found in the center of the wood.
"Well done" Sean said with pride and satisfaction in his voice. "Now we will go back to the monastery for the final test."
"There's more?" Harry asked with surprise between hard breaths.
"Aye" Sean replied, "one more test that I can't tell you anything about."
They pulled the boat ashore back at the monastery and Sean called for some ropes from the monastery. He and Harry took a rope each and climbed back up to the monastery. Sean began walking towards the stables and Harry dutifully followed him.
When they got there Sean stopped, "take off your shirt" he said to Harry without changing from his usual monotone. Harry did so and saw Sean pick up a small brand that was the same shape as the crucifix medallion he wore around his neck.
The brand was white hot and Sean pointed it directly at Harry. Harry didn't move, he didn't even budge or tense up, after going through the training and the woods…he no longer feared death or pain.
Sean pressed the brand onto the left side of Harry's chest, and Harry's pectoral instinctively tensed up. The top part of the brand, the part that was blood red on Sean's crucifix and stuck out from the rest of it, actually penetrated into Harry's flesh, but he still didn't budge.
The burning increased as Sean pushed the brand deeper until the frame itself burned the top of Harry's skin, but he held in the scream that would have escaped a normal person. After a few moments, Sean moved his arm back, Harry looked down at the mark that now decorated his left pectoral.
"You passed" Sean said to Harry. "You didn't shy away from pain or the expectation of it, and you endured it incredibly well."
As Sean finished this thought, he brought the left strap of his tank top down and showed Harry the identical brand of his own, "the mark of a true Knight of the Order of St. George. The first part penetrated your flesh, which symbolizes inner commitment to the cause of the Order. And the second part burns the top of your skin, which symbolizes outward commitment. Consider that your dubbing into the Order."
The two of them stared at each other for a moment, both of them contemplating how far they had come.
"We will be leaving the monastery," Sean began to Harry, "at first light tomorrow."
Harry knew that they would be leaving after he had completed his training, but they still had a few days before the battle would commence.
"Why are we leaving so soon?" Harry asked.
"Because Snape and LeStrange are out looking for you." Sean began with a strong tone but reverted back to his usual monotone.
"So what's the plan?" Harry asked.
"You will apparate us back to the Burrow, it is likely they have checked there. From there we will track them down, allow them to capture you, then destroy them and infiltrate the feast. From there we will go to Voldemort and Raiganzi and meet our chosen destinies."
Harry nodded in understanding. The weight of what Sean had said to him was sinking in. Harry realized that he would soon be facing his destiny; he would soon be facing Voldemort again. He was confident that this time would be different; he knew that he would be without any kind of protection, but he wouldn't have it any other way.
Harry and Sean made their way back to the dormitory, after Harry had watered his plant and pruned it a little, and Sean had said good night to Regal, when he was at the monastery he only slept after he had seen Sean, Sean and Harry settled down to sleep. Both of them had a lot on their minds, for the next day would bring them both one step closer to what their entire lives had been bringing them to.