Sorry this one took so long.
Chapter 5 – Far From Normal
Harry woke up with a start. The clock on the wall was chiming for the twelfth, final time. Harry's stomach growled from lack of food, he never actually got a chance to eat breakfast. The owl with the letter to go to the headmaster's office came just as he woke up.
Harry reluctantly got out of the nice warm bed and put on his shoes. They were old and scuffed. They vaguely reminded him of another pair of shoes that he had seen, though he could not place where he had seen them.
He went into the bathroom to go run a brush through his hair. The minute he walked in, he saw that Malfoy had obviously unpacked. There was all sorts of bathroom stuff scattered about. Amazingly enough, a bag full of makeup was lying on the counter. Harry gave a snort of laughter. Malfoy really does put on makeup. He washed his hands and attempted to straighten his robes. They were wrinkled from having been slept in.
Harry made his way down to the Great Hall. It was a longer walk from the north tower, which was situated on the sixth floor, so it took a whole fifteen minutes to get here. He was surprised to see that the four house tables have been replaced with one smaller table, around which sat the teachers who stayed at the castle during their break.
Harry took a seat next to Professor Dumbledore, who was talking about current test results with Professor McGonagall. Dumbledore smiled brightly when Harry sat down and passed him a bowl of soup. Harry devoured the soup with a flourish and asked for seconds. Dumbledore just laughed as the bowl magically refilled itself.
Draco came in the entrance hall talking to none other than Professor Reign. He was asking what she would teach them before the test. Obviously the blonde had already chosen to go, Harry thought miserably. He didn't want to be stuck with his rival of five years for a whole entire school year. But he also didn't want to endanger his friends.
"Professor, I've made my decision, I'm going to go to Montague's." Harry said to Dumbledore.
"That's excellent!" Dumbledore replied enthusiastically. "You're training commences tomorrow morning at eight o'clock sharp. There is a room on the sixth floor, right beside your bedroom, where you will practice."
"OK." Harry said. "Is there anything I can do until tomorrow? I can help clean out the classes, if you'd like. I have nothing else to do today." McGonagall smiled at Harry.
"If you want you can help me with my marking." She said.
Harry quickly finished his soup and went to the Transfiguration room, where Professor McGonagall was waiting for him with a stack of paper and a long quill.
"These are some of the assignments I have yet to put in my mark book. All you have to do is write down the mark they got on this chart." She explained.
Harry spent the next few hours doing this. He came across most of his friends' assignments, even read a few of the funny essays. He was beginning the Ravenclaw pile and the first paper was done by Cho Chang. Harry stared at the paper. Cho was the girl he had had a crush on for the past two years. Every time he looked at her he felt light-headed. But now these feelings were gone, he felt nothing when he thought of her. Probably because I liked her boyfriend better than I liked her, Harry thought. He knew that his feelings for Cedric were more than just friendly, but he refused to think that he was gay.
I'm just a teenager with heightened hormones, Harry thought. I mean, I never fantasized about him or anything. His death probably just got me really stressed out. But why do I react so violently when Dudley makes fun of my dreams? Why does it bother me when he insults my sexual orientation? These questions have been plaguing Harry for the whole summer.
But then again so what if I was gay. Hermione said so herself, there's nothing wrong with liking someone of your own sex, at least I have her support. Ron never really talked about it, but Hermione must have realized that Harry never had crushes on girls. At first he thought that there was something wrong with him but Hermione assured him that it would either pass or if it didn't she would always support his choice of partners in life.
Harry decided to leave the subject alone, he had scrutinized it enough as it is. He quickly finished putting the marks in the book and went to go find something else to do. It was already dark outside, but the dark was Harry's favorite time to be outside, nobody could see his scar and judge him in the dark.
He was joined on the front steps by his future Headmistress. Professor Reign had put a light jacket over her tank top to keep warm.
"Hello," she said quietly, "I saw you through my window and thought that since we'll be training together for the next few days I should get to know you a bit better."
Harry turned to her and leaned on the post with his back. "Yeah, I guess you should, although my history is already printed for the world to see." He said bitterly.
"You could take this as a chance to start over." Professor Reign said. "I know that you've been victimized by the press all your life, and your life has been written for the world to see, but at Monty's nobody will know your past. You could even change your name. Nobody will be the wiser."
Harry smiled, maybe she was right. "OK. From now on I am universally known to the public as…" He thought hard, what would be a fitting name for him. "Raven." He had heard the name before, but he couldn't place where.
"Raven." She said. "I like it. It's very fitting." She got up and walked through the enormous mahogany doors. "Don't be late tomorrow."
Harry got up not long after that, he needed his sleep. Something told him that he would require all of his strength tomorrow.
The grandfather clock woke Harry at seven thirty the next morning. He got out if bed and went to the bathroom. Malfoy was still sleeping, so he took a quick shower and went down to breakfast. He buttered himself toast and sipped his pumpkin juice.
Draco came in minutes later. He looked a bit tired but otherwise like his usual self. Harry never really got a proper look at him. He had definitely changed since the first time he had seen him. He no longer looked like an undernourished rat. His facial features had hardened, and the lines of his face had gotten more defined. His hair was the usual insane blonde, but it was cut in an unusual way, the front was chin length but at the back it was shorter. He had grown to be five foot six and he wasn't stopping. Harry was surprised that Draco hadn't made any smart remarks about how he was taller than him.
Professor Reign came in the great hall. She was wearing an all-leather outfit with thigh high boots with bat clips all up the sides. It was five to eight so they weren't late. She walked up to Professor Dumbledore and had a short whispered argument, and after a while he reluctantly nodded, then she left with a curt nod at the two boys.
The two wizards got up and followed her to the training room. The room was spectacular. An enormous obstacle course was set up throughout the whole room. The walls were ceiling to floor mirrors. Half the room was tiled and the other half was padded with cushiony material. Harry's mouth fell open in astonishment. Professor Reign looked at the two boys.
"There is a locker room behind that door." she said pointing to the far side of the room. "Your training clothes are lying on the benches. You will wear your running clothes as you will begin every morning with a four mile run around the lake, followed by hand to hand combat until lunch and the afternoon will be solely for weapons practices. You begin now. Meet me back here after your run."
The two wizards went into the locker room. There were three piles of clothes in plastic bags. They were labeled RUNNING, HAND TO HAND and WEAPONS. Harry opened each bag and put the two extras into one of the lockers on the wall. The weapons uniform was by far the biggest package, it was made of tough leather, no doubt to protect their skin from the weapons they would be using. The running uniform was a pair of sweatpants and a short sleeved shirt. There was a hoodie but Harry decided that today was too hot for that. The uniform was navy colored and had a circle with a dragon inside of it as the Montague's crest. Malfoy would fit right in, Harry thought, smiling.
Draco put on the navy uniform and walked out the door. Seeing Harry half naked would not be good for my self control, he thought. He got out of the castle and began the run around the lake. Once around the lake would probably be two miles so he would have to make it around twice before lunch.
Draco thought that he was in good shape but the run around the lake had proven him wrong. The blazing heat didn't do anything to improve his attitude. Draco heard the footsteps of his running companion behind him, and Harry slowly caught up to him. Soon they were running side by side. After the first time around the lake they took a short rest stop by the water.
"I'm surprised that you haven't insulted me yet, a whole morning and not a single word. What did I do to deserve this peace?" Harry finally asked. Truthfully, Draco's silence had unnerved him a bit. The blonde hardly went a moment without insulting him.
"Guess I got my caffeine today." He said, glaring at the younger boy.
Harry smiled. "Ah, coffee, the nectar of coherent life." Draco gave a snort of laughter and continued running.
"See if you can keep up, Potter." He called after the other boy.
Harry quickly caught up to him and said, "My name is no longer Harry Potter. I've decided to change my name to Raven." He was already slightly out of breath.
"Raven? Why would the almighty Harry Potter want to change his name?" Draco asked.
"I'm sick and tired of people judging me because I 'defeated the dark lord'. This is my chance to start over. Nobody has to know who I am. To them I'm your average teenager, and that's what I want to be." Harry replied to the blonde. Draco thought about that. Harry Potter doesn't want to be Harry Potter? I had always thought that the boy relished being in the spotlight. I guess I don't know him that well.
The run was finished in silence, as both boys were out of breath for any more conversation.
It took an hour to run the four miles. Professor Reign was not impressed.
"You're going to have to do better than that if you want to pass the exam. We only have three hours to practice hand to hand combat. I will start off with showing you the simple moves that all my students know. These moves must become secondary impulse to you. I want you to practice them every morning and every night before you go to bed. In combat your brain takes time to tell your body what to do. Theses moves you have to learn without the need to think."
She waved her hand and the obstacle course vanished, leaving the floor completely bare, except a post that was in the middle of the room and a fountain that Harry had not seen before because it was obscured by the obstacles.
"Go change into your hand to hand uniforms." She said, "Then get back here, and don't dawdle, you've wasted enough time as it is." Harry and Draco walked quickly to the locker room and got their hand to hand uniform. This one was maroon with the same crest on the skin tight shirt. The pants were, thankfully, not skin tight, but rather loose, to allow movement. The boys changed hurriedly and came back outside.
Professor Reign showed them the first five moves and told them to practice for the next hour. She sat in a chair conjured from thin air. Harry vaguely wondered how she did it without a wand but his thoughts were interrupted by a loud "Come on Raven. Don't just stand there, let's see those moves." Harry was stunned for a minute but started the first move: a forward kick meant to hit someone in the chest.
"Kick a little higher, Draco." Professor Reign yelled. Harry glanced at Draco, who glared at him before Professor Reign yelled at them for not paying attention.
They spent the next hour doing the five moves she showed them. Professor Reign criticized them both when they didn't kick high, or low, enough and when they slacked off.
She then showed them the next five moves and they practiced all ten moves for two hours.
It was finally lunch and the boys were exhausted, Professor Reign's five moves were like Carmen Electra's Striptease exercises. They were sweaty and hungry. Professor Dumbledore laughed while watching the boys attack the food like hungry wolves.
Lunch was too short for Draco. They were back in the studio and already changed into their weapons uniforms. They were tough black leather with a bit of padding on the sides of the leg, arm and chest.
Professor Reign came out of a little room that held the weapons and handed them two padded poles. Draco stared questioningly at the professor.
"They are padded for your protection. I don't think it's safe to give you two anything even remotely sharp right now." She said. She then proceeded to show them how to block attacks.
Everything was done in slow motion, so they could do it properly. Then they sped up, doing the defense movements faster, and faster. They were easy to do but when Professor Reign tested them, all knowledge of defense movements went out the window. So they practiced more. After two grueling hours Professor Reign grudgingly approved, but said they would practice more tomorrow.
Then she showed them simple attack movements. They spent another two hours doing that. By the end the two students were complaining that movements were boring and they wanted to have a fight. Professor Reign permitted a supervised sparring match. After all how much damage could they do with padded sticks?
Harry and Draco stood on different sides of the room. Padded pole in hand they waited for the signal to begin. Professor Reign gave a sharp whistle and the two boys charged at each other.
Draco began the fight with a hit to Harry's neck. Harry easily batted it away and came back at Draco with a hit to the thigh. Draco defended himself easily. They kept on fighting like this for a good ten minutes until Draco hit the raven boy square in the side of the head. Harry fell to the ground with the impact of the hit, the blonde smiled victoriously.
"And again a Malfoy beats the little Raven. Just goes to show that I'm better than you in so many ways." Draco said mockingly.
"Shut up, ferret." Harry spat viciously. Draco froze in his tracks. The incident with Moody was a tender subject with the blonde Slytherin. Most people knew to keep their mouths shut, but Harry obviously did not.
"What did you just call me?" Draco hissed.
"Ferret." Harry said, drawing out the f.
Draco saw red. He dropped the padded stick and charged at the Griffindor in front of him. He was going to tear him apart with his bare hands. Harry's face was shocked but he used the padded stick to protect himself from the worst of Draco's blows. They fell to the ground in a tangle of arms and legs. Draco still hitting every part of Harry he could reach. The younger boy rolled away from him but Draco pursued him. He picked up his stick along the way, and started bashing Harry with that instead of his fists.
Draco heard the distant yell of Professor Reign, and heard her running to stop the fight. Draco reflexively pointed at her and yelled "Protego!" From the middle of Draco's palm came a small blue bubble, which instantly grew to be an enormous blue shield surrounding the two fighting boys. Professor Reign ran up to the shield and pounded her fists on the blue surface but couldn't get in.
Draco realized he had Harry on the floor beneath him and smiled an evil smile. Harry looked straight into his eyes and with all of his strength pushed his hands into Draco's stomach.
A surge of power ran through his veins as he watched Draco fly through the air and smash into the shield he had moments ago created. Harry felt something sticky on his face and he reached his hand up to touch it. He held his hand up in front of his face and saw blood.
He stood up carefully and walked over to the blonde, who lay crumpled on the floor. Everything was a bit blurry and Harry realized that his glasses must have fallen off. He looked around and saw them lying on the floor where the fight had started. He put them back on his face and observed his next obstacle.
The protego charm was cast to deflect common hexes but it sees like Draco's wandless magic has created a defective carbon copy of the spell, keeping out whole human beings. He looked through the semi-transparent bubble at Professor Reign, who was quickly accompanied by Madam Pomfrey, and Professor Dumbledore. News spread quickly at Hogwarts.
Dumbledore got out his wand and tried a few spells but the bubble stayed fully intact. Harry looked at the blonde accusingly. Stupid Slytherins, he thought angrily, if it wasn't for the boy wonder that had to use wandless magic in an agitated state I wouldn't be here.
Ok, think, Harry thought. What would break the spell? If wandless magic created it maybe wandless magic would destroy it, Harry thought hopefully. But the times Harry had ever done wandless magic was when he was under a lot of stress, and it wasn't intentional.
Harry concentrated hard on the shield, willing it to melt. It didn't work. He closed his eyes and slowly counted to ten. He breathed out and willed, with all his might, for the shield to melt. He imagined it slowly melting, leaving a puddle on the ground. He opened his eyes and was shocked to see it had worked.
The three professors immediately ran to him and after a few seconds Madam Pomfrey went over to Draco. Professor Reign was yelling at him for starting the fight and Professor Dumbledore was simply staring at Harry with a look of surprise on his face.
"How did you take down the shield Harry?" He interrupted Professor Reign's accusatory tirade.
"I just willed it to melt." Harry said. "I didn't think it was going to work but..." He trailed off.
The headmaster mumbled something inaudible and walked over to Draco, who was being patched up by Madam Pomfrey. There were no serious injuries, just a few bruises. Madam Pomfrey lifted up Draco's shirt and saw the two hand prints that were quickly turning blue.
"Wow, Potter, how did you manage to throw him off of you like that? Normal teenagers aren't supposed to be able to do that." said professor Reign, staring at the two bruises.
"Normal teenagers aren't supposed to be able to do wandless magic this advanced." said Dumbledore calmly. "But it seems that theses two gentlemen are anything but normal."
Harry agreed whole-heartedly. He didn't know how he threw Draco off of him, but it was far from normal to be able to make a shield charm powerful enough to block out people. It just made you wonder if Draco Malfoy was as human as he looked.
End Chapter 5
TBC
Teaser: "So I have asked Professor Dumbledore and he said it would be a good idea for the two of you to spend tomorrow, Saturday, at Hogsmeade, sorting out your differences."
An whole day together... I wonder what could happen? This chapter was really long. the nezt is even longer, so i think im just going to split it in half and make a two part... please review!