Harry Potter and the Mind Mage

By James Milamber

A/N: Sorry for the slightly longer wait for this one, but I've been busy working on the last few chapters. I have the rest of the story more or less planned out, and there should be about another 30 chapters or so. I think. Bloody hell, 80 chapters? Good grief...

Monday came, and with it Defense Against the Dark Arts straight after breakfast. Harry had been looking forward to this lesson for months – James had promised to teach them advanced dueling techniques, and it was definitely going to come in handy in the near future.

He, Ron and Hermione took their usual seats at the front of the classroom, after Hermione narrowly avoided a Jelly-Legs Jinx from James, who had been hiding behind the door. That had been happening all year, as the professor had promised – at random times he would crop up and try to curse a student, usually with rather humorous results (like the time he had hit Malfoy with a well placed Leg-Locker just as he had been about to sit down in the Great Hall, resulting in him landing face first in a large bowl of mashed potatoes), and then whole weeks would go by with nothing. Then, out of the blue, he would start up again. Every student attending Hogwarts had learned the hard way to be alert and ready before entering his classroom, and first and second years tended to bolt whenever they saw him coming.

'Right, gather round, you lot,' James commanded. When the class had moved to the front of the room he Banished the desks with a wave of his hand. 'Now, today we're going to be doing advanced Dueling techniques. Does anyone besides Hermione know what that entails?'

There was some good-natured laughter from the Gryffindors at James' gentle teasing, and Hermione turned a rather fetching shade of pink. The Slytherins stayed silent, many eyeing James with open loathing.

'I'll take that as a "no", then,' James said calmly when the room remained silent. 'Pity, I thought you of all people would know these, Draco. Your father was most skilled when I last dueled him. Incidentally, next time you talk to him, ask him how his leg healed up. I noticed last time I saw him he walks with a cane now.'

Malfoy's face turned white with suppressed anger, but he wisely held his tongue. Several Gryffindors sniggered. DADA lessons had been turning out more and more like this – despite James' earlier assertion that all houses should be equal, he showed an even clearer favourism for the Gryffindors than Snape showed for the Slytherins, more likely than not as a method of irritating said professor.

'Now, I don't actually expect any of you to be able to pull these moves off,' James continued. 'Many of them use raw magic in ways that you've probably never experienced before, but if you can master them, they can come in extremely useful, especially if you're looking to join the Aurors or Ministry Security. Even if you're not, in times like these, your knowledge of such things may make all the difference between your life and your death, so all of you pay attention.'

James walked over to one of the bare classroom walls, and the students followed, automatically keeping some distance between the Gryffindors and the Slytherins.

'Observe,' James instructed, then took a step backwards. He leapt at the wall, his feet making firm contact, and began to run along sideways as if the wall were in fact the floor. Where his boots touched the wall sparks of pure magic could be seen, leaving small scorch marks. He ran along for several metres before leaping off the wall, flipping over to land neatly on his feet. The class stared at him in awe.

'Regardless of what you may think, I did not use any more power to do that than any of you here possess,' he said calmly, as if his feet had never left the ground. 'Every single person in this room is capable of such a feat, if you can focus enough to make it happen. As I said, that trick uses raw magic, so you don't need your wand – once you're on the wall, your wand will be free to cast. And, of course, it's a very handy way to dodge a spell you can't block any other way.'

'Right, everyone line up, you're all going to have a try at this. All it takes is enough will to make it happen, and it will. Remember that.'

'Not you,' James thrust out his arm to stop Harry as he went to join the line. 'This will be a little different for you. Just watch.'

Harry, a little put out at his exclusion, watched with some trepidation as Seamus, the first in the queue, attempted to duplicate James' earlier feat. When he leapt at the wall, however, instead of running up it, he smacked headfirst into it.

'Not quite, Finnegan,' James chuckled as the Irish boy moved out of the way, rubbing his nose where the Cushioning Charm hadn't quite stopped all the impact. 'Next!'

Dean was next to try, and he fared no better than Seamus. Lavender managed to take about three steps along the wall before she fell to the floor with a squeal.

'Better,' James said approvingly, helping her up. 'Much better. You see what I mean? It's all in the will power.'

'Yeah,' Lavender said a little breathlessly. 'I could feel something!'

'One should hope so,' James chuckled, ushering her out of the way. 'I do know what I'm talking about, you know. Well, most of the time. Next!'

Parvati only managed to smack her head when her turn came. Malfoy was next, arrogantly running at the wall and receiving only a nasty bump on the head for his efforts when the Cushioning Charm seemed to weaken for a fraction of a second.

'Oops,' James said calmly. 'Sorry Malfoy, my fault. Next!'

Scowling darkly at the professor, Malfoy stalked across the room to sulk as Crabbe and Goyle both tried and failed miserably to run along the wall. Pansy Parkinson didn't even make it to the wall – she slipped over her own robes as she approached.

'I think you'd best sit this one out, Parkinson,' James said mildly as the Slytherin girl glared at the wall, as if it had somehow offended her. With a 'humph!' she flounced off to join Malfoy.

Millicent Bullstrode was also an abject failure. Blaise Zabini managed get in a few steps before he too dropped to the floor, but he was smirking triumphantly as he stood, ignoring James' helping hand.

'Nicely done,' James granted. 'Next!'

Next in line was Hermione, who stood staring at the wall for a long moment as if, for once in her life, she didn't comprehend what she had to do. Ron poked her lightly in the back, and she hesitantly began to run. She jumped at the wall, but bounced off and dropped back to the floor with a squeal.

'Probably doesn't matter much,' James said dismissively. 'Don't worry Hermione, I've seen your Shield Charm. If there's anyone in the school that can break through it, they deserve to.'

Hermione turned pink again at the compliment, and Ron flashed James a discrete thumbs up. The last thing any of them needed was Hermione sulking because she'd found something books couldn't help her with.

'Ron?' James gestured at the wall. Ron nodded eagerly, sprinting at the wall. He got up sideways and managed a few steps before he too fell to the floor.

'Excellent,' James smiled. 'Knew you had it in you. Next!'

The only person left was Neville, who was eyeing the wall with trepidation.

'Come on Neville, you can do it,' Harry said encouragingly. The round-faced boy smiled hesitantly back, then with a deep breath turned and ran for the wall.

'Typical Longbottom,' Malfoy drawled as Neville bounced off the wall and landed on the floor with a loud thump. 'Too clumsy to even manage –'

'Ten points from Slytherin,' James interrupted harshly. 'You didn't manage it either, Malfoy, so shut your hole before I shut it for you.'

Malfoy's mouth snapped shut, and the look he directed at the DADA professor was filled with loathing.

'I hate you too,' James said without batting an eyelash, and turned back to Neville, who was staring at the ground in shame. 'Would you like another shot, Neville?'

'I'll just stuff it up again,' he said miserably.

'Neville,' Harry said firmly, putting his arm around the other boy's shoulders and speaking in a low voice. 'Remember what I said, about you guarding my back? Come on, I know you can do this!'

Neville sniffed, then looked up and met Harry's gaze; he was a little surprised to see the look of fierce determination in his expression. Neville's blue eyes seemed to spark as he took another deep breath and said, 'Okay.'

Wordlessly, Harry stepped back. Neville stared at the wall for a long moment and then seemed to brace himself. Without warning he started running, gaining momentum before he hit the wall. His feet lifted off the ground, firmly landing on the stones of the wall, and he kept running, much as James had done. Unlike James, however, Neville kept going – and ran smack into the wall at right angles to the one he was running along. He dropped to the floor with a startled yelp, landing hard on his rear.

There was stunned silence for a long time in the classroom. It was James who finally broke into applause, followed by the rest of the Gryffindors.

'Absolutely brilliant!' James crowed, hauling a red faced Neville to his feet. 'Well done, Neville, really well done. Only next time, you might want to keep your eyes open.'

Neville let out a nervous laugh, trying without much success to stifle his grin.

The bell that signaled the end of the lesson rang then. The Slytherins surged for the door, but the Gryffindors stayed a while to congratulate Neville.

'Knew you had it in you,' Dean punched the other boy playfully on the shoulder.

'Showed up Malfoy, right enough,' Seamus chuckled. 'Little git, did you see his expression? He looked absolutely livid. You'd best watch your back, Neville.'

Neville let out a terrified squeak, and almost automatically his eyes sought out Harry, who smiled slightly.

'Don't worry, mate,' Ron spoke up. 'If he comes anywhere near you, me and Harry'll hex him into next week.'

'If I were any other Professor I'd take points from you for that, Weasley,' James chuckled. 'Fortunately for you, I happen to feel the same way, so I'll pull Dumbledore's trick and go temporarily deaf.'

The Gryffindors laughed, and began to drift out of the classroom.

'Oh, Harry, Ron, Hermione,' James called after them as they made to leave. They moved out of the way to let Neville and Dean past, then turned to their Professor curiously.

'I've been informed by Mister Filch that you three, along with my vagrant son, Miss Lestrange and Miss Weasley, were involved in the recent prank on the teaching staff. Consequently, I'm giving you all a weeks worth of detentions.' He winked at them as he spoke, indicating the open door with a tilt of his head. His meaning was fairly clear: someone might be listening. 'You are all to be here promptly at seven tonight, and every night this week. Understood?' He smiled faintly.

'Understood,' Harry said, more than a little puzzled by their professor's odd behaviour. James' smile widened as he ushered them out the door.

'So, Potter,' Harry had to fight the urge to smack his head into the wall when he heard Malfoy's drawl, 'got yourself in trouble again, have you? Pity Milton didn't expel you, but I suppose Dumbledore would never allow it. Gryffindor's Golden Boy, he-who-can-do-no-wrong.'

'Sod off, Malfoy,' Ron snarled.

'Very original, Weasel King,' Malfoy sneered. 'So, I suppose there'll be a big party in Gryffindor tower tonight to celebrate the fact that for once Longbottom didn't trip over his own feet.' From their usual positions standing behind Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle snickered.

'No, there won't,' Hermione snapped. 'There will be a party to celebrate the fact that Longbottom beat the Malfoy heir.'

Malfoy's face darkened. 'Have a care, Mudblood,' he said softly, and Harry had to physically restrain Ron from leaping at Malfoy, 'there are changes coming, and if I were you I'd be more careful about which side you choose.' With that said Malfoy spun with a dramatic swirl of his robes and was gone.

'Arrogant...slimy little...bastard!' Ron snarled, looking about ready to murder.

'Come on,' Harry hauled on his arm. 'We need to go tell Ginny, Isabelle and Alex about what Professor Milton said. I have a feeling it's not about Detention.'

'I wonder what he wants, then?' Hermione mused as they made their way to the Great Hall for lunch.

'We'll find out tonight, I suppose,' Harry glanced at the staff table as they entered the Hall, and he could have sworn he saw James wink at him again.

Review Responses:

siriusblack08: Oh Gods, not another Halo 2 addict. That game is starting to PISS ME OFF! Death to X-Box! On that note, can't wait for Goldeneye: Rogue Agent to come out...

pad's gurl584: 'Course you can! I posted a complete list in my Live Journal, to make things a little easier. Address is in my Profile.

PARTXTIMEANGELITA: I actually already have part of the battle sequence at the end of HPMM already written, and according to my Beta it's some of the best stuff I've ever done. I already have the rest of the story planned out, now I just have to actually get around to writing it...

bluemonkeyman: Harry/James? (blanches) Mate, I won't even READ slash, let alone WRITE it. Ugh.

Whispyraven: I really wish you'd stop doing that...you keep giving things away! Bah, never mind. I'll go check out your entry asap.

gpotter: 'Course I've seen Bruce Almighty, it's on my Top Ten list. I'm trying to put in more R/H, because everyone keeps asking for it, but I'm not all that great at it. I'll have to get CQ to help.

Merusa: Groveling accepted! Now honestly, do you really think I'd kill James off? Hmm?

jwhit-moony: Argh, I hate it when people do that...

bogus7: You really think I could forget Cass? Don't worry, there's a good reason I didn't enter her.

Pocky and Pixi Stix: Heh...a lot of my reviewers have been with me for some time, so we have ongoing dialogues happening. Does make these responses a bit confusing at times, though.

Elise: Of course it can't be any other way! H/G rocks...

Marauder4eva: I'm not going to tell you who the dueling master is, so nya. :p

MsMissProngs: Indeed it did, just not the way you were hoping (I went off and wrote chapter 70-something!)

shotgunn: An extremely interesting suggestion...and one that may bear fruit, if things keep going the way they are.