Disclaimer: Same as always

Harry Potter and His Sixth Year

Chapter Ten: Tuesday: Hand-to-Hand Combat

Harry thought that since the day before was easy, that hand-to-hand combat would be easy. Boy was he wrong. Sirius thought that before he taught Harry how to fight that Harry should be in shape. So to start off Sirius had Harry run around the perimeter of the castle, while he [Sirius] would be running with him in his dog form.

Sirius thought that the castle was a lot smaller than what it actually was, and had to have Harry stop because he was exhausted, as a dog, and dogs have more stamina than humans. So the two walked around the remainder of the castle as their "cool down". When they went back into the castle the went into the gym. The gym was set up with all kinds of weights, and gymnastics equipment. Sirius thought that since Harry was tired that Harry should start walking on the balance beam that way he can have better balance.

It took Harry a couple of tries before he could walk on the balance beam perfectly with out any balance problems. So Sirius told him to work on walking backwards on the beam. This took Harry a little while longer because he was not accustomed to walking backwards on a four inch beam. Even though Harry could walk backwards along the beam, he had to look over his shoulder to make sure that his foot would land on the beam. So the next exercise Sirius had him do was to walk on the balance beam backwards using swooping steps so Harry could get a feel of where the beam was. Sirius also requested that Harry should try not to look backwards.

After all the practice on the beam, the two went over to the floor, so Harry could become more flexible. The first test they did to test Harry's flexibility was for Harry to have on hand go behind that shoulder, and have the other hand reach around to touch it. Sirius later told Harry that it was called a shoulder stretch. He had Harry repeat the procedure with the other hand going behind his head. Next Sirius tested Harry's flexibility by having Harry perform the sit-and-reach. After completing both exercises Harry realized that he wasn't very flexible, he relied on his speed and agility when he was dueling.

Sirius taught Harry simple rolls on how to get out of the way. This would help in both hand-to-hand combat and during dueling. Rolling properly was taught so that Harry would not roll wrongly and hurt himself more then necessary.

The two went to lunch after the rolling lesson. Harry's appetite seemed to increase with all the conditioning his body was getting. Lily noticed and said, "Wow! You're eating a lot today."

"Yeah, well Siri is having me work out, and its making me hungry."

"About time your eating, you look like a stick. And maybe with all this working out you'll get some muscles," James said.

"I hope, I'm tired of looking like a stick. And it didn't help any that the Dursley's didn't feed me well."

"Man those Dursley's should be glad that I can't venture into the human world, or they would be so dead. I think we need to tell Granddad about what the Dursley's did to Harry," James said.

"We can't right now though, Dumbledore is probably working on all the security measures to keep Harry safe. How about we write a note for Harry to give to him at school. That way Albus can come whenever he has the time," Lily suggested.

"Brilliant idea, Lily. I know I married you for a reason."

"You better have. But I always thought you married me because you loved me."

"I do, but your brilliance is what made me be attracted to you in the first place."

At the same time...

"Harry, I think we need to bail," Sirius suggested.

"Good idea, do you think they will notice we're gone?"

"Probably not, when they realize we are gone they'll probably go up to your room and see if you are there."

"Okay, we'll just have to go up there, that way they don't worry."

"What, you don't like people worrying about you?"

"No, I never grew up with people worrying about me, so its really weird now that people do. Its like they only worry about me because I'm the boy in the prophecy that has to kill Tom Riddle."

"Harry, if you had not grown up in the Dursley's than you would have been surround by people who love you and worry about you. Now you have to get used to it because its never going to go away."

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A/N: Sorry its kind of short. Oh and I could use all the help I can get about hand-to-hand combat, because I know absolutely zero about it.