Chapter Eighteen: The Fantasy
December 10th
5:22pm
Hogwarts, Scotland
Hermione
An unidentified spell whizzed past her head, the energy of the magic making the left side of her hair stand up. She peeked her head around the corner quickly but saw no sign of her attacker. She looked down at her leg and checked the injury she had received earlier, courtesy of a cutting curse Neville. 'If my partner hadn't left me then I might be able to stop and heal this,' she thought irritatedly.
Harry had morphed the room into some kind of maze and let both teams loose at either end and told them to 'adapt to your environment.' At some point it had become clear that they were lost and before they could recover their bearings, Neville and Luna surprise attacked them and forced them to split up.
"What the–!" a male voice cried out before there was silence in the maze once more.
The exclamation brought Hermione back to the present and she tilted her head to listen for anything else. The roaring sound of an inferno was heard to her left which had her darting down corridors trying to find the source of the commotion.
She rounded a corner and quickly computed the situation before her. In the middle of a four way intersection was a large plume of smoke obstructing her view of the other side. What she could see, however, was her teammate, stunned and laid out in the middle of a circle of ashes.
'They should still be nearby,' she deduced quickly. Hermione crouch walked slowly towards Blaise, she kept her eyes up and scanned for any sign of Neville and Luna. Blaise was not easily caught off guard so whatever piece of magic the pair used was undoubtedly a good enough surprise. She reached her downed teammate and cast "enervate." The magic had no effect on Blaise and Hermione began to worry. She attempted the spell twice more before deciding it was a lost cause.
"Oh hi Hermione," a uniquely identifiable voice said in surprise behind her. Hermione whipped around and cast a banisher immediately which sent Luna ten metres back and down the corridor Hermione had come from. Remembering what Harry said about making sure downed opponents are actually out, Hermione paced towards Luna who was struggling to get up. When she was a metre away from her she raised her wand to stun and bind the girl but before she could Neville stepped out from around the corner and cast a spell at her.
Hermione didn't have time to counter the spell and nor would she know how to. Neville's spell had conjured a swarm of bees around her, effectively trapping and blinding her for a moment. The last thought she had before her world went black was the confused 'bees?'
December 10th
5:34pm
Hogwarts, Scotland
Harry
"Well, for your first go, that wasn't terrible," Harry complimented. The four participants of his simulation were in various states of injury and frustration. Blaise, having had his ego wounded by Neville and Luna, was the most disgruntled as evident by the small frown he wore on his face. Hermione was silently blaming Blaise for their defeat and Neville was barely believing that he wasn't dreaming. Luna was, it seemed, only slightly perturbed by being flung through the air as she rubbed her back but still maintained her awkward smile that was so frequently present.
"Thanks Harry," Hermione muttered, not one to be rude.
Harry smiled at her and continued, "but three of you would be dead." That got the group's attention immediately which he hoped it would. "Blaise, when you and Hermione were separated, you made no attempt to regroup which ended up being your undoing. Instead of Luna placing a hallucinogenic spell on your stunned person, she could have killed you as a death eater would have."
The Slytherin boy nodded his head thoughtfully, he hadn't liked that he was so vulnerable in the hands of the less than put together Ravenclaw. 'He understands this world more than the others, the ugly parts at least. Makes it easier to appeal to him here which is nice,' Harry thought.
"Then you Luna. If Hermione had decided to cast a more deadly spell when you exposed yourself then you would have died," Luna nodded and frowned which Harry hoped meant she understood the words that came out of his mouth. "If you have the element of surprise, seize the opportunity to attack," he continued addressing the rest of the room. It was a fairly simple notion but he found it best to reiterate it just in case.
"And Hermione," he said, turning his attention to his long time friend, "you froze." Hermione's frustration turned into disappointment for herself and she hung her head. "It happens, it's better that it's happening here rather than a real attack because that means we can work on it. Would you like to go through what you were thinking when the bee trap was cast?"
Hermione raised her eyes and looked around, a sign to Harry that she felt self conscious sharing. "I didn't know how to counter it," she replied, despite her discomfort. "I heard Blaise try fire and that clearly didn't work well and before I could think of another solution Neville had stunned me."
"I thought as much," Harry admitted before he gave her an appreciative nod. He knew that saying she was capable of being wrong wasn't easy so he was proud of her for doing so in front of everyone. "Unfortunately, out there in the real world, not knowing what to do and freezing isn't an option. Your reactions need to be instinctual, faster than you can think and certainly faster than your opponent."
The four of them each had expressions of understanding, gone were there disappointed or disgruntled faces. That was the part that Harry admired most about them, the willingness to improve when called to. It was a part of himself that he was proud of so to see it in his friends was a great feeling.
"I want to congratulate Neville and Luna for a creatively fought victory, I think you'll find your unorthodox methods of combat to be your strongest weapon together. Hermione and Blaise, you're going to have to work on your teamwork for next fortnight. I know the pair of you to be very intelligent people which could be devastatingly useful in these sessions."
Harry had finished his monologue when he saw the doors open to reveal Daphne. Only Blaise knew the reason she hadn't been a part of the exercise but her late entry didn't rouse any suspicion with the others.
"Evening," she greeted as she found a place to put her robes. A chorus of hello's followed as they stood and prepared themselves for the next match.
Harry clapped his hands to gain their attention and spoke, "alright, you all know what's next. Remember to cooperate with each other and be vigilant. We're not going to throw anything lethal, well not often at least, but still be ready."
Harry watched them huddle together as he left to speak to Daphne, likely strategising for their bout with himself and Daphne.
"How'd they go?" he heard behind him. He turned and saw Daphne in her black casual clothes she normally wore for sparring. "Granger didn't look too happy, don't tell me Lovegood and Longbottom beat them." Harry smiled briefly knowing full well she'd catch it. She raised an eyebrow as if to ask 'are you serious?' and when he didn't say anything she quietly snorted at the upset.
"They're getting there," he said, answering her question as he removed his own school jacket, instantly feeling the cold atmosphere of the castle more keenly. "Hermione is going to be looking to prove herself, same with Blaise but less so."
"So… take them out first?" Daphne coyly suggested. The repetitive ice queen comments from Blaise at the forefront of her mind.
Harry pondered the notion, 'if we go all out we'd kill them with generally non-lethal spells but how much can we hold back without removing the realism?' Harry looked over at their four comrades who seemed to be ready to begin and made up his mind. "Remember the session on the morning of Sirius' exoneration?" she nodded, understanding the plan and by the small upturn of her lips, looking forward to it.
December 10th
6:12pm
Hogwarts, Scotland
Daphne
To say that she had gotten her arse handed to her on the second of October would be an understatement. Harry had morphed the room into a forest and had forced the fight to be in between trees and fog which obviously gave him an advantage because of his parsel-eyes. Not only that, but she had been quite literally hunted in the mist to the point where she had just started burning trees down, fire being a counter to his magic and if she wasn't allowed to see, no one was.
She ended up being the victim of a reanimated root tripping her up and Harry incapacitating her from a tree. That day was the first time in a while that she had been so outmatched, providing a good reminder that there is always room to improve.
"All set?" Harry asked from his perch next to her. He had them both in the trees and generating fog to completely confuse their opponents.
'It is nice to be on the winning side for once,' she thought appreciatively. "All set," she confirmed, going on to whip her wand in several directions to get a final bit of mist to cover their tree. "Draco is annoyed at you by the way." She didn't need to look at him to visualise the alarmed expression that would have sprung up on his face.
"Why?" he asked with a forced casual tone.
"He tried to get into the room tonight," she revealed, "not to confront or spy on us though, he didn't seem to know we were in there because he was surprised to be refused entry."
She heard him sigh in relief and run a hand through his hair, something she had come to know the sound of well enough. "It's still not good that he knows about the room, he could be using it to contact death eaters or even to let them into the castle."
She frowned and her eyebrows furrowed, "can the room even do that?"
"I don't know," he admitted, "the room's full capabilities have yet to be discovered. If he could bring them in through the room though, we'd have no way of knowing when they had infiltrated the castle."
"Then we tail him more thoroughly, follow him in if we have to," Daphne put forward. 'I'll be damned if Draco Malfoy is the lynchpin in this conflict.'
"Mhmm."
'Gods not this brooding garbage again.' Daphne cast a homenum revelio in her immediate area which confirmed the quartet weren't nearby before speaking again. "How do we approach Slughorn's Christmas Party?"
"You're asking me? You're the one doing such a good job buttering him up," he complimented, confused at the reason for her question.
"I want to see how much you've retained from what I've been teaching you," she said, 'and keep you out of your funk because you're much more effective when you're focused.'
"Well," he started, pondering what to say, "I suppose we'll have to match again, something fancier than before?"
"No need for the tone of distress and, yes, that's right," she humorously confirmed. The importance of presentation having been drilled into her since birth, she knew that such an occasion would warrant suitably classy fashion.
"Ah… right," Harry agreed reluctantly. She knew that dressing nicely or even neatly was something he wasn't used to but that didn't mean it always had to be like that. "Horace said he'd be inviting several alumni of the Slug Club as well so we'll likely have to be seen mingling."
"Precisely, if he sees you taking up an opportunity he's going to respect you much more, it's the Slytherin in him."
She heard him laugh behind her, a quiet one that indicated a sense of approval. "You're doing well, what else?"
"The same as usual? Talk about my mother, any aspirations I might have and generally flatter him?" he worded it as a question but they both knew it was obvious that he'd be doing that.
She cast another homenum revelio and chastised his lack of effort, "you already knew that, those things are an underlying requirement whenever we interact with him, come on what more must we do for that day in particular…"
"A present!" he whisper-shouted, satisfaction rolled off him in waves.
"Not entirely but you're half right at least," she replied and ended his victorious feeling. "Slughorn mentioned my father in one of the first meetings, remember? I asked him about our Professor and he said that Slughorn is a staunch traditionalist."
"Right then, what present are you thinking?"
"Oh I've already got it, but you're giving it to him," she said to his surprise. "It'll help you gain favour, trust me."
"I do," he replied sincerely.
"Good."
Their conversation didn't have time to naturally pick up again as the sound of hurried whispers in the air travelled to their location. Harry didn't say a word, he simply hissed which clued her in to what he was doing. She turned around and her partner was scanning the area around them. A hand gesture towards her left and four fingers up indicated that the lot of them were together. Daphne circled her finger in front of her and Harry nodded his head but didn't move until Daphne cocked her head to the side to indicate his role in her plan. Normally she wouldn't be in charge of these situations but he was likely letting her learn in this exercise too, she figured, as he descended the tree they were on.
The four of their opponents moved into the clearing before her and she appreciatively admired her work. The mist in the clearing was much thicker than that around it. She didn't see him move to the opposite side of the group and thanks to her work they wouldn't be able to see the footprints he was leaving in the fake foliage. She could see Hermione furiously trying to eject the fog from their vicinity as the other three formed a circle around her, protecting her from all sides.
The clearing was quiet, only the muttering of Hermione chanting and casting could be heard besides the odd shuffle or cough. That is, until Blaise grew tired of Hermione's failure to clear the air.
"Evanesco, Granger, it's not hard," he spoke quietly but the agitated tone was ever present.
"You know what Blaise why don't you—"
Hermione's scathing reply was lost to the sound of spellfire splashing on Neville's shield from behind them. Harry had taken the initiative and begun casting spells from inside the fog making return fire very difficult. To their credit, Hermione took charge of the situation quickly and had ordered Neville and Luna to cast shields on their back so that she and Blaise could watch for the second person.
'She probably guessed that I was the distraction and figured she and Blaise would have a better chance of defeating Harry than the other two. Poor Granger, you have no idea how much we outclass you.'
Daphne lowered into a crouch on her perch and cast a spell given to her by Harry. "Proiectura," she whispered and an illusion of herself appeared adjacent to Blaise's position. She wasn't adept enough at the spell to cast a moving image or emulate magic but that wasn't necessary for her deception.
Having cast it on Blaise's side, she knew the boy would be the first to see her sticking out from behind a tree. Harry's prediction of wanting to prove himself helped seal the deal as he would see her alone and with her back turned.
'An easy target for a fool.'
Without a word, Blaise broke off from their formation and began to take aim at her projection. Simultaneously, Daphne had taken aim from her spot in the trees and a stunner flew through the leaves and most to strike Blaise in the side. As she descended the tree she watched Hermione tell the two shielding her to move towards Blaise so she could revive their stunned ally.
A smart tactic, in theory. Unfortunately to move would mean to drop the shield so when Neville did as he was told a banisher connected with his abdomen immediately which sent him flying across the clearing and landing in a pile of leaves designed by the room to be cushioning. Neville began to stand slowly but any dreams of returning to the fight were shattered pretty quickly. A flash of red from right behind him rendered him unconscious as Daphne emerged from the tree line with her wand slightly raised.
"Maybe next time," she said nonchalantly. She summoned his wand and pocketed for safekeeping until the fight was over. Daphne walked further into the clearing and found that despite Neville's incapacitation, Hermione's plan to revive Blaise worked and now the three of them were erecting physical defences against Harry's bombardment. Luna noticed her first as she had turned around to see where Neville had landed.
"Hermione it seems to me we're surrounded," Luna warned in her usual tone which unfortunately lacked urgency and was ignored for a moment too long. Hermione had crouched behind the stack of logs she had piled as a defensive structure and turned around to see a spell whizz over her head which connected with something behind her emitting a loud expletive from the victim.
The tide turned for the inexperienced students as Blaise had seen Harry shield Daphne's errant spell and was able to actually send a spell with some degree of accuracy into the fog. An incendio conjured a column of fire towards Harry who had to summon a boulder to block its path. Furthermore, Luna and Hermione were free to assault Daphne with impunity.
"Luna use the bees!" Hermione cried out to her.
Luna cast loudly in response, "apis examen!"
A stream of bees began appearing in front of Luna, all of them heading straight towards Daphne. The target of their attack made no show of concern as she raised her wand and a large torrent of water met the stream of bees just before they reached her. The bees were doused in gallon after gallon of water until the stream broke through the attack and directly impacted Luna who crumbled under the force of the water.
Hermione's surprised face brought a smile to Daphne's own. Daphne felt she had been showing off too much and began taking their fight more seriously, beginning by binding Luna who was starting to get up again. Instead of standing around and posturing, Daphne began hurling curses towards Hermione with intensity. Hermione made the mistake of blocking several spells and took the brunt of the acid curse on her shield. As her shield was torn apart by the sludge sticking to it, Daphne mustered more power than necessary and cast a silent stupefy which managed ro go right down the middle of her shield as its integrity failed.
With Hermione unconscious and her wand also in her possession, Daphne went to assist Harry but found him crouching five paces to her left next to the fallen Blaise, picking up his opponent's wand from the floor. He turned with the same intent as hers but was similarly surprised.
"That was fun," she drawled sarcastically. Harry gave her the side eye and went to first check on Neville who'd been unconscious the longest. "Poor fool took a banisher to the front and a stunner to the back," Daphne explained as he crouched down to check his friend's injuries. The room's forest projection faded away and the familiar stone walls of Hogwarts resurfaced.
"Hermione was right to prioritise getting Blaise back into the fight," Harry said thinking out loud, "Blaise shouldn't have made a move on you without communicating it to the rest of the others. Neville's luck had him as the consequence of Blaise's lack of teamwork."
"Longbottom has bad luck, who'd have guessed?"
Harry shook his head disapprovingly at her commentary as he thought of a pillow materialising under Neville's head for when he decided to wake them up. "The only reason they were able to gain any ground was Hermione's decision to fortify their position and your friendly fire."
She lazily twirled her wand in her hand and shot back, "just keeping you on your toes."
"Mhmm," he hummed noncommittally. He moved to Luna who was still conscious but absolutely drenched and humming to herself in her ropes. Harry cut them and spoke, "well done Luna, are you feeling okay?"
Luna stopped humming and cast a drying charm down her body from head to toe, "oh yes Harry, I always go swimming in the river near my home in my clothes so it's nothing terrible."
Daphne barely contained her desire to roll her eyes as Harry just smiled. "Of course, can you please go revive Neville and head back to the dormitories, you can let him know we will go over today's exercises next week."
As Luna stood, Daphne offered Neville's wand to her. "No hard feelings?" Daphne asked casually. Luna stared at her for a moment, slightly unnerving the expressionless Slytherin before shaking her head silently, accepting the wand and skipping over to Neville.
Daphne watched her for a moment, in a small amount of awe at just how enigmatic the young girl was. When she returned her gaze to Harry he found him smirking at her and this time she did roll her eyes. Harry barked out a laugh and moved on to Hermione.
"The shield smasher chain worked to great effect with this one," Daphne recounted dubiously. She knew the girl's aversion to the dark arts but figured of the many curses she knew, this was one of the more tamer ones to practice against.
"She's not going to be happy with you, pass me the wand," Harry figured as he held his hand out. Daphne pulled the wand out and handed it to Harry. He placed his own wand to the bushy haired girl's head and cast a silent enervate. Hermione bolted upright and nearly head butted Harry who was slightly leaning over her. "Wait, stop, it's alright. You were stunned, the exercise is over."
Harry's words calmed her immensely but only once her wand was in her hand did she fully relax. "My chest hurts something fierce, did you have to put that much power into it?"
Hermione's question, directed at Daphne, was difficult to answer. 'Did I need to? No, but I'm also not here to sugar coat anything,' she answered in her thoughts. "No, I'm sorry, I got a little carried away," was the answer she decided to give the injured girl, fully aware of her own hypocrisy.
"I've got some bruise salve in my bag by the door, grab as much as you need and apply it twice a day where possible," Harry said kindly as he helped her stand.
Hermione smiled slightly at the assistance he provided. "Yes Healer Potter, I'll see you at dinner." She walked towards Harry's bag and rummaged for a moment before pulling free a small tub and left the room clutching her chest.
Daphne found Harry's gaze to be pointedly on her. "What?" she asked innocently, "we're here to teach them how to fight death eaters not first years. May I remind you of all the injuries we've given each other?"
Harry's resolve evaporated fairly quickly. "I know," he admitted, "I'm not ever going to be happy about my friends being hurt though, that includes you and our sessions by the way."
"Unless I manage to land a particularly painful hit myself?"
Harry squinted his eyes and retorted, "an exception that proves the rule." Harry moved to the final downed classmate and revived Blaise immediately. He knew the young man hadn't been hit with anything to warrant an injury so he'd just wait and see if Blaise had any problems. "Welcome back."
Blaise groggily opened his eyes which adjusted to the light slowly. "Bloody Merlin, how many times can I get stunned in one day."
"As many as it takes to learn your lesson?" Daphne interjected harshly.
"Screw you Ice Queen."
"You'd like that wouldn't you?"
"Actually I'd be afraid my knob would fall off."
"Not much of a loss then, are you sure you'd even notice?."
"Okay!" Harry cried out, not willing to see how far their degeneracy could go. "That's enough of that. Daphne is right in one regard though, I did say you need to work better with your team and you did the exact opposite of that which got you stunned, again."
Blaise managed to look him in the eye now that he'd gotten used to the light, "that's not untrue, I suppose."
Harry stared at him hard for a moment, "you suppose… right. In the next week I'm going to need you to work on that communication problem between you and your teammates, it could be the difference between life or death."
Blaise looked down and saw that Harry had offered his wand back during his orders. Blaise understood by accepting his wand back he'd be accepting the command and he only hesitated for a moment by flicking his gaze between the wand and Harry's eyes.
'What's your problem Zabini? You've already signed the contract and committed yourself to the cause why hesitate?' Daphne thought.
Blaise met Harry's eyes and swiped his hand across his body to take back his wand. Harry nodded his appreciation and Blaise went to leave. "Wait," Harry called out, "there's more."
"More?" Blaise asked as he turned back around.
"It's Draco," Daphne said as she deduced what Harry was talking about, "things have changed."
"Oh," Blaise muttered. "Am I not to be following him anymore?"
"No," Harry denied, "things have changed and so too must our methods." Harry walked over to the same bag that Hermione had rummaged through and pulled out an old piece of parchment with a fond smile. He walked over and offered it to Blaise and Daphne noticed his jaw clenched as he did so, "it's time we play a little dirty."
A/N: A big one today. Three POV's, two separate fights and 4400 words (avg ~3.2k)
I never planned on doing a Hermione POV in this instalment but it felt more natural to have her be the focal point of the first section of this chapter rather than Harry having spectator mode. Her and Blaise aren't getting along, surprise surprise. A loner Slytherin traditionalist and a proud Gryffindor activist, who'd have guessed that their personalities clash? We'll see where that goes. The bee move was inspired by A Cadmean Victory spell that summoned a wall of butterflies to shield the caster so props to the author.
Harry getting to be a teacher and actually enjoying it isn't something I didn't get to do much of last book because of his own training commitments and my lack of planning so getting to do it here on a smaller scale is quite nice. As much as I love auror!Harry fics I still think Professor Potter was the more natural option for Harry in canon, especially after book five.
Slughorn's party, can you believe I forgot to mention it for like three chapters? You probably can. It's nothing too crazy… well a little bit and I've already given it a lot of thought so the chapter could be out soon. Gotta figure out their fit though.
Look if Harry and Daphne went all out off spells, the fight with the four students would be over in two sentences. That being said, there's a lot more to wizarding combat than knowing good spells whcih I tried to showcase here. Reviving stunned allies, controlling the environment and coordinating offence and defence are just some factors of wizard combat that I plan to explore more.
Draco becomes more of a nuisance than Harry would like, as usual. Trusting Blaise with the map, a big step for the leader of Potter and Greengrass Securities. Speaking of Blaise, what's his deal… do I even know? Maybe, maybe not only time will tell.
Hope y'all enjoyed
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