Once again, I don't own anything except the plot and new characters.
Thanks for the reviews. I realize that my updates are farther in between than I had originally hoped, but in order for everything to feel right to me that is the way it has to be. On the review note, Damayanti, Dragonstorm316, harryp123, HermioneGreen, and Wytil; thank you once again for your kind words.
Silver Warrior; Thank you, I really enjoyed coming up with Prof. Smith as well. My wife tells me she reminds her of Neo from the Matrix. Not what I intended but now that I look at it that way I kind of have to agree.
Mwinnike; Thank you; I really felt that Harry was going to need to feel the need to be more inclusive and less judgmental. That, in my opinion, is what has lead to a lot of his problems in the wizarding world. That along with accepting that he could have easily ended up in Slytherin.
Lawrence; Thank you for the very kind words you sent me. On the Ginny/Harry relationship, my thought process is that Ginny really has gotten over her crush on Harry and is content to just be his friend leaving it up to Harry to move it forward. Harry realizes that he feels something extra for her but is still unwilling to act on it. That will eventually change. He may be acting a bit more mature in this story, but in my opinion he is still unsure of himself where relationships with girls are concerned. Also, she is somewhat more removed from the group since returning to school because she is still a year behind the group and in her OWL year. They have different classes and she has quite a bit of homework to do. There will start being more opportunities to have interactions with her starting in the following chapters. I promise. In regards to sharing his wealth with the Weasleys, I do have a pretty good idea of how I'm going to have that play out and can't wait to clear Sirius' name so as to release the funds for Harry's use.
Chapter 16 – Meeting and LearningMonday morning was another early one for Harry. Professor Smith's week long moratorium on Harry's personal training was now over and since they were at school, the real work was about to begin. Harry was to start meeting his trainer in the Room of Requirements at 5 am every weekday. The plan was to continue working on Harry's physical fitness and endurance with intense workouts first thing in the morning.
The door to the room had already appeared when Harry got there, indicating that his trainer had already gotten the room set up. He entered to find the room looking much like a muggle gym. The floor was covered with a thin padded material and the walls were covered with mirrors. Along one wall was a small rack of hand weights that got increasingly heavier as you moved down the line. There were also a couple of different types of padded benches and chairs around the room.
Harry was studying the furniture so closely that he almost didn't notice his trainer in the middle of the open area on the other side of the room. Professor Smith was going through a series of slow and deliberate movements, almost like a dance in slow motion. It seemed to be a much more structured version of the Krav Maga that he and his friends had been learning all summer. The more Harry watched, the more beautiful he thought it became.
"It's called T'ai Chi," said the professor. "It is a moving meditation which I find to be much more invigorating than the sitting form of meditation. It strengthens balance, concentration, and body control. If we'd had more time this summer I would have taught you this as well. But, since our time was limited, I decided against it."
"I gather it must take some time to learn?"
"Yes," the professor chuckled, "You could say that. You can learn the basic movements quickly, but to really get the most effect out of it takes years of constant practice. Most of the muggle martial arts are like that. The Krav Maga I've been teaching you and your friends is really the only martial art that has been developed to be taught quickly. All of the others have a very strict series of levels that you have to work through in order to become proficient. Each level has a specific series of movements called cadas or forms that you have to learn to do before you can move on to the next level along with time frames of how long you have to spend at each level before you can move on. They are very old styles of fighting that were created with discipline and patience in mind. If I had had the time I would have taught you one of those instead because the discipline would have helped you immensely in the rest of your life."
"How many different styles of fighting do you know?"
"I have studied, and mastered, many of them."
"How could you? I mean, if they take years of practice and work, how could you learn so many?"
The professor smiled, "Remember, Harry, I am much older than I look. I need something to do in my spare time between teaching students. Why not learn something new?"
Harry nodded in acceptance, wondering once again just how old the man in front of him really was. This man was really a mystery to Harry. Physically he looked quite young, but once you began to talk to him you sensed a wisdom that would be expected from someone much older, like Professor Dumbledore.
"Now then," Harry was shaken out of his musings as the professor's voice boomed throughout the room, "Let's get to work!"
Harry spent the next two hours learning about his latest form of personal torture. Professor Smith explained the purpose for all of the different benches and chairs and how to use them properly. It seemed that each chair or bench required the use of a different set of muscles used in different ways; when they were combined, one got a very thorough workout. Professor Smith talked about the two basic differing theories of working out. Straight weight training was for building up muscle mass. For this one used heavy weights and lower repetitions. What he intended for Harry to focus on was endurance and cardiovascular fitness, which involved the use of lower weights and more repetitions. The goal was for Harry to become stronger without getting really bulky and losing flexibility or agility.
Harry was more than ready for a break when Professor Smith said, "That is enough for today, Harry. You have done well, and I look forward to the results we can expect from you over time."
"Thank you, sir. I have no doubt that I will make great gains doing this every day."
Professor Smith let out an amused chuckle, "What makes you think this will be an every day activity?" He watched Harry's confusion in amusement before continuing, "This is only your Monday, Wednesday, and Friday activity. Your Tuesday and Thursday activities will involve much more movement on your part."
Harry groaned, "I can't wait, sir." With that, Harry took his leave and went back to Gryffindor tower to clean up and start his school day.
The day passed much like the Monday before, and soon evening fell and Harry found himself standing in front of the first, second, and third year members of his defense club. The young students were somewhat leery of the students from the other houses, even though they had shown their loyalty by signing the parchment. The Slytherins were the most isolated of the group. Harry knew that if his hope for inter-house unity was to have any lasting effect after he left the school that this group of students was the one he had to concentrate on the most.
Harry glanced at Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville, and Luna, who were all there to help him teach the students, and gave them all a wary smile before beginning. "Hello, everyone. Since I'm pretty sure you all know who I am, I would like to introduce you to the other people up here with me. These are my closest friends," he motioned to each one with his hand as he mentioned them, "Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom all Gryffindors from my year. Then we have Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood, both fifth years from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw respectively. They will be helping me to teach all of you how to protect yourselves in a fight."
"Notice that I said protect yourself and not defend yourself. I am quite sure that before long you will all be able to duel against each other and do well, but in this time in our world if you found yourselves or your family under attack it most likely would not be from someone your own age. I know for a fact that most, if not all, of you are not going to be anywhere near powerful enough to take on adults for a several years. What we will be teaching you is how to use the various spells you are going to be taught in your classes to help you escape and evade an attack."
Harry watched the puzzled looks on his students' faces in amusement for a moment before continuing. "You see, your professors will teach you how to do spells that have a variety of uses. We will then help you to think of ways to use those same spells to protect yourself. Let's take a simple levitation charm from first year for an example. Now, who can tell me of a way to use being able to levitate something to defend yourself?"
Harry waited expectantly and soon enough one of the second year Slytherins had a hand in the air. "Yes, Mr…?"
"Sylvester Kenway," the young man spoke. Harry nodded for him to continue, "I suppose you could use it to levitate something to block a spell or something like that."
"Yes, very good Mr. Kenway. You are exactly right. As your abilities advance, you will learn to cast shield spells that can help you to block spells and moving objects, but until then you have to use what you know to fill that space. Now, levitating something into the path of a spell is quite difficult to do and would classify more as defending instead of escaping and evading. That spell can also be used to cause a distraction so you can escape. You could levitate a stack of parchments, and then drop them, causing them to flutter all about the room. You could also pick piles or groups of heavier things to drop on top of your attackers to cause confusion. The most important thing to keep in mind is to know your surroundings well enough to use them to your advantage."
"Ok, now we are going to break into different groups. The third years are going to work with Ron and Hermione, the second years with Luna and Neville, and the first years with me and Ginny. What I want each group to do is to work together to figure out ways of using what you already know to help you protect yourselves."
Harry watched as the various groups were formed and noticed that the Slytherins still seemed to feel left out while some of the other students were still not showing signs of trusting them. He sighed and decided to nip this in the bud right now.
"Is there any particular reason that the Slytherins seem to be being left out as a group?" Harry gave everyone a stern look that would have made McGonagall proud. "They have just as much right to be here as everyone else and should be treated well since it's much more dangerous for them to be here. They are all showing a lot of courage by just being willing to be here. If their housemates were to ever find out the cruelty they would have to endure would be terrible."
A third year Gryffindor spoke up, "They're Slytherins. I don't know about everyone else, but all my life I've been told how evil they are. You can't expect someone to just change their beliefs because they signed a parchment."
Harry sent the young man a glare that sent a shiver down the spine of everyone who saw it, "So, just because of the house they were sorted into they must be evil? Has anyone ever actually listened to what the sorting hat says the various founders looked for in their students? Gryffindor looked for bravery and chivalrous behavior. Ravenclaw looked for wits and intelligence. Hufflepuff looked for people who were just and loyal. Slytherin didn't look for people who were evil or wanted to be dark. He wanted students who were cunning and had a nice thirst to prove themselves, at least that's what the hat told me when it was sorting me."
The last comment caused everyone in the room to stare at Harry in wonder. Before anyone could comment Harry asked, "Do any of you consider me to be evil or dark?" There was some quiet muttering along with a lot of heads shaking "NO." "Judging by the shocked looks on all of your faces, I'd guess that it would surprise you to find out that the hat actually wanted to place me in Slytherin to begin with. It didn't because I had been told, like many of you," he looked at Ron, "there wasn't a witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin." He turned back to the rest of the group, "Add to that a less than positive meeting with a very stuck up Draco Malfoy and it's no wonder I chose to make the hat choose somewhere else. For a long time, I felt the same way most of you feel about Slytherins, but now I know better. Just because someone is in Slytherin, doesn't mean they will end up being evil, and just because someone is not in Slytherin doesn't mean they will end up being good. In fact, the person who is responsible for sending Voldemort to kill my parents wasn't even in Slytherin. He was a Gryffindor, who also happened to be one of my father's best friends, named Peter Pettigrew."
By the end of Harry's speech, everyone in the room was wearing a look of consideration. Harry had just given them all a lot to think about. "I'm not asking you to be best friends or anything. I simply want everyone in this room to be accepting of each other and their desire to learn to protect themselves and the people they care about. Can we agree on that?"
After waiting for a few moments, the entire group was nodding in acceptance of Harry's request. At least it was a step in the right direction. It was a baby step, but at least it was moving forward. Harry knew he would have to work really hard to keep it going, especially once he started working with the older students. He knew that was going to be much more difficult. But that was something he would have to worry about later, because right at this moment, he had some first years to help.
It took some prodding on Harry's part, but after about fifteen minutes ideas could be heard being discussed from everyone in each group. The students might not like each other but at least they were willing to put aside those differences in order to learn a thing or two. In Harry's group, he made sure to tell the story about him, Ron, and Hermione fighting with the troll in his first year as an example of how a levitation charm can be helpful in a confrontation. Since his group, as first years, hadn't really learned that much yet in the way of spells, they concentrated more on being observant of their surroundings. Harry wanted them to be able to notice when something seemed different to them, because if you could spot danger before it happened you were more likely to keep safe.
Once Harry called an end to the night, he had to be really careful about letting the students head back to their common rooms. He didn't want it to be too obvious, so he had to send them all out in small groups. Harry had just shut the door behind the last of the young students, when the smile faded from his face. He was not looking forward to the conversation that he knew he was about to have.
"So," Ron started, "When exactly were you planning on telling us that you almost ended up in Slytherin?"
Harry turned around to see four of his five friends each standing with similar hurt expressions on their faces. Luna was the only one who didn't look hurt; she simply maintained her usually airy look. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys before. To be honest, it's something that I don't even think about that much. The only reason I brought it up tonight was to get everyone to be willing to work together. I needed to make people start to look past what house someone is in and see the person for themselves. That was the only way I could think of to get everyone to open their eyes."
Seeing how sorry he looked, Hermione chimed in, "Harry, it's not that we're mad at you or anything. I think I speak for all of us when I say, I just wish you could have told us before this so we wouldn't have looked as surprised as everyone else. I know you weren't planning to say it in the first place, but it would have been nice to be prepared for something like that."
They all nodded in agreement when Ginny added, "That's why you didn't use yourself as an example at the first meeting isn't it?" When she was met with some questioning looks from the rest of the group she explained, "At the first meeting, when you showed how people have characteristics of more than one house, you pointed out all of us but not yourself."
Harry could do nothing more than nod. This isn't the way he had wanted his friends to find out about his secrets. There were a few more moments of silent pondering before Neville added, "It's all right, Harry. I think everyone has things they never really thought about telling each other. Look at me, I never told you guys about my parents. At first, it was because I just didn't want anyone to know. I thought if people knew, then they might feel sorry for me and only be my friends because they pitied me. I didn't want people to like me out of pity; I wanted them to like me because of who I am. When I ran into you guys at St. Mungo's, I was worried that you would start feeling sorry for me and start acting like you liked me out of pity. I'm pretty sure I was wrong about that."
"Neville," Harry replied, "I knew about your parents before we ran into you in St. Mungo's. I saw the trial of the Lestranges and Crouch Jr. in Dumbledore's pensive in fourth year. It wasn't on purpose, mind you, and I never told anyone about it. Dumbledore told me it was your secret to tell. Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I do feel sorry for you. I have never had a chance to know my parents, but I can't imagine how hard it must be for you to be able to see and talk to them and know that they don't really understand who you are." Harry paused and made sure to look Neville right in the eyes before he finished, "I'm not your friend because I feel sorry for you though. I feel sorry for you because you're my friend."
Neville's expression while Harry was talking had changed several times from shocked to upset and finally settled on happy. Before anyone could say anything Harry reached out his hand to shake Neville's and said, "I was wrong about one thing though. Remember back in first year when I said you were worth twelve of Malfoy?" Neville smiled and nodded, "Well, twelve is no where near enough. You're worth a whole lot more. I could never have asked for a better group of friends."
Through the whole conversation, Luna had just stood there silently watching. The look on her face never really changed from one revelation to the next, almost seeming like she knew all of this beforehand. She finally spoke in her airily dreamy voice, "I thought something like that might be the case. Although I thought it might have been that the hat was debating between all of the houses with you." When the whole group looked at her questioningly she continued, "Harry is the only person I've ever met who seems to have the qualities of all four houses. His bravery has never really been in question, and his loyalty to his friends would match any Hufflepuff. Over the last year your thirst for knowledge has really started to grow, although that might have something to do with your destiny. Then lastly, you really are becoming quite cunning and you really do have a desire to prove yourself. So you see, I think you could fit into any of the four houses."
They continued talking for a few minutes more before finally deciding to head back to their dormitories to go to bed. Luna and Ginny left first since it had become obvious to the school that they had become good friends. Since it had become common knowledge that Neville was now a part of their circle of friends, the other four left together in one group knowing that his addition would not seem out of the ordinary.
The rest of the week proceeded as the week previous, with the exception of Potions. Snape it seemed had decided to simply ignore Harry completely. Apparently he didn't take well to being shown up in his own classroom and didn't want to chance it again too soon. Harry and Hermione had come up with a schedule to take turns sneaking up to their secret headquarters to work on the animagus potion for Neville and Luna. They had to time it perfectly so it would be ready by Thursday night.
The Thursday night meeting went quite well. The first thing they did was give Neville and Luna the potion to see what they would be able to become. No one was really surprised by Neville's form of a bulldog, seeing as they are truly loyal and quite loving. Luna was slightly disappointed with her form. She had been hoping to have a form of something you might read about in the Quibbler like a nargle or a crumple-horned snorkack, but instead she had to settle for a barn owl. After they all shared what their respective forms were, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny continued with their study of their own animals while Harry continued to help Neville and Luna learn to meditate and organize their minds.
The Friday night meeting of the defense club convened with much the same division as the Monday one. Blaise, Millicent, and Daphne being the only Slytherins present felt very unwelcome by the rest of the group. Harry and company were the only ones trying to make them feel welcome. Harry knew that this group would be a lot harder to make understand his views than the younger students even though he knew that some of the younger students had told the older ones about what Harry had told them on Monday.
Harry took a deep breath and began, "All right, I'm going to tell you guys the same thing I told the younger students. I do not expect you all to become good friends, but I do expect everyone in this room to treat each other with respect. We may not have the same ambitions or goals or even beliefs, but we are all here for the same reason. We want to learn how to better defend ourselves and the people we care about. I know that many of you don't feel comfortable with Blaise, Millicent, and Daphne being here just because they are from Slytherin. I DON'T CARE! They have signed the parchment which tells me they are serious and can be trusted. If any of you have a problem with this, you may feel free to leave. Just remember that you all signed the same parchment. Even if you decide to leave the same rules still apply."
Harry paused to let this thought sink in then continued, "I'm sure many of you have heard by now about my conversation with the sorting hat in my first year. Yes, it is true. The hat did want to put me in Slytherin, because of my desire to prove myself. I asked it not to and thus ended up in Gryffindor. It has been brought to my attention since then, that if I were to be sorted again the hat would have a few more houses to try to place me in since I seem to have some of the traits of each house. I am only trying to ask you all to look past the color of someone's robes and make your judgment about them based on their actions and accomplishments."
As Harry looked around the room he saw many people with reflective looks on their faces while many other were simply looking at the floor feeling properly ashamed of the way they were acting. He didn't allow them to long to feel bad though because he really wanted to get started. "All right!" He shouted to get their attention once more, "The first thing I thought we would do is see where everyone's ability level is. Once we know how advanced you are, we can move forward from there. In order to see this, I'm going to pair you all up in some practice duels. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and Luna are going to help me judge everyone's abilities. Do I have any volunteers to go first?"
Katie Bell immediately stepped forward followed by interestingly enough Cho Chang. They were actually very evenly matched with Katie just managing to disarm Cho after a few minutes. The rest of the group came forward quite eagerly to show their skills in front of the group and ended up having many exciting duels. The only ones that Harry had truly worried about were the ones involving the Slytherins. They weren't happy about not being able to go against each other, because Harry felt he could better judge them if they went against someone they didn't necessarily trust. His worries, it turns out, were unfounded and those particular duels were among the best of the night.
After the last group went, Harry stepped forward to speak some more. "That was excellent! You all did quite well, although there is definitely room for improvement. While there is some good knowledge of spells and how to cast them, your choice of when to use them and the speed in which you cast them needs work."
Harry was interrupted by a snort of displeasure from Michael Corner, "If you're so good, why don't you show us how it's done then? And why didn't everyone have to do this?" He pointed to Harry's friends as he said the last part.
Harry stared at the young Ravenclaw for a moment before replying, "I don't need to see what level they are at because I've seen them in a real fight personally. They were with me at the Ministry last June when we fought alone against twelve Death-Eaters. I already know what they can do." He paused once again to allow this information to sink in, "As for your first question, I would be more than happy to give you all a demonstration of what I'm going to try to teach you. The only thing I ask is that under no circumstances are any of you allowed to talk about my abilities outside of this room." When he got looks of confusion from many present he clarified, "I do not want my abilities to become widely known outside of this room. The less my enemies know, the better chance I have of beating them."
Harry then looked to his friends, "You guys up for a little workout?"
Ron, Hermione, and Ginny smiled and nodded while pulling out their wands and making their way to the other side of the room. Neville and Luna just stood there not sure what to do until Harry spoke again, "You two, too. They want to see what you guys can do as well. Merlin knows those three could use a little more help against me." This comment brought scowls from his friends and wide-eyed looks from the rest of the room when they realized that Harry was planning to take on five people at once.
Ron called out, "Oy, Potter, you're in for it now."
Hermione quickly called over Neville and Luna. The group got together and hurriedly tried to put together a strategy about how to attack Harry. While they were doing that Harry was placing a shield in place to protect the rest of the group from stray spells. The observers were buzzing with excitement because they could sense that this would be good.
Harry finished up the shielding and turned to face his opponents with a laugh, "The more time you guys spend planning will only make me end this quicker."
The last comment caused Neville to pale considerably and Ginny to scowl one more time. They quickly finalized their plan of attack and spread out to divide Harry's attention. The smile and jovial manner that Harry had been wearing was quickly replaced by a look of intense concentration, causing everyone in the room to be still.
For a few moments, no one moved. It was like a scene out of an old American western movie right before a gunfight. The two sides were having a stare down each waiting for the other to make the first move. Harry determined that the others had told Neville and Luna not to move until they did knowing that Harry liked to take out whoever attacked him first. They also knew that Harry preferred reacting to the others rather than attacking first so Harry knew he would have to change his strategy a little.
Harry quickly decided on a surprise attack. Moving almost to fast to be seen, he fired off a spell producing a brilliant flash of light causing everyone to shield their eyes. When the light died down, Harry was nowhere to be seen. The others quickly started scanning the dueling area to assess the situation. Ginny was the first to realize that Harry had disillusioned himself and decided to start firing off stunners as quickly as possible hoping to make him move. She knew that by moving he'd make noise and the distortion of the charm would give away his movement. Luna and Neville quickly joined in and soon multi-colored jets of light were flying all over the room.
Hermione was the first to spot the distortion of Harry's charm. She launched her own stunner at him, causing him to break the charm and fire back. At this point all of the combatants were moving around the area casting spells at one another. Harry was mostly casting shields and conjuring walls and other objects to block the spells. While his attackers were definitely on the offensive, Harry had yet to cast a single offensive spell. What he was doing, though, was causing the others to begin to get frustrated especially when he started conjuring multiple items to hide behind at once. He'd conjure multiple walls and then disillusion himself and move to a different position before reappearing and doing it again. After ten minutes of this, Harry finally went on the offensive and quickly stunned Neville, Luna, and a very surprised Ron. Ron had actually been his first victim, which is why he was surprised.
Realizing that their advantage of numbers was severely reduced, the two remaining witches pressed themselves to their max. Harry was back to defending, but was very calculating about his movement. Soon a smile could be seen crossing Harry's face, causing the two witches to get very uncomfortable. They had both become so intent on trying to subdue Harry that they hadn't realized that they were now almost exactly opposite each other in the room. Before either had a chance to realize it, they both shot a stunner at him which he quickly ducked causing them to pass each other in the air where he had been standing. They quickly moved to keep from being hit by each other's spell, only to run into an expelliarmus from Harry. They both sat on the floor shaking their heads at their friend standing in the middle of the once again bare room holding both of their wands with a huge smile fixed on his face.
Harry tossed them back their wands telling them to go revive the others while Harry turned back to face the spectators. "Does any one have any questions about my ability to protect myself?" He was met with absolute silence and a lot of shaking heads. "I assume that my friends have proved their worth as well?" More silence and nods of agreement. "Good. Now that we are done playing, it's time to get to work."
The rest of the night was spent discussing the spells everyone had been taught and how to use them in a duel. They also learned that they would not only be learning how to fight but how to avoid a fight as well. Harry knew that not everyone would be able to fight like he and his friends so he wanted them to learn how to escape and evade as well. By the end of the night, the inter-house rivalry that had existed at the start had all but disappeared. The non-Slytherins were actually impressed with the knowledge and insight that the Slytherins possessed. Harry could tell that some of the misconceptions between the houses were starting to fall, and that thought made him smile. He thought there just might be hope for the wizarding world after all.