Title: Retrograde
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific, general for first few books.
Rating: M
Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: Harry's trial before fifth year goes differently because someone knows more than they should about Harry. Time Travel Fic.
A/N: The Teaching line-up for Sixth Year will change slightly. Without Harry's presence for Fifth Year and 'William Tenor' taking DADA, Snape is staying as Potions Professor rather than Slughorn, who could not be enticed back due to the lack of Harry Potter to 'Collect'.
Harry walked through the halls of Hogwarts Castle, revelling in the familiarity even though the halls were empty. It was a week before the students arrived for the start of the School Year and Harry, or rather William Tenor, was going to his first staff meeting.
Walking in he felt a sense of nostalgia as these were all the teachers from his early years at school. Dumbledore, McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick, Snape, Trelawney, Vector, Babbling, even Hagrid were all there.
"Everyone." Dumbledore began. "I would like to introduce you to our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Professor William Tenor."
Both Babbling and Sprout looked over at Harry when they hear his pseudonym.
"Pleasure to be here." Harry said. "And yes, Professor Spout and Professor Babbling, I am the William Tenor you keep telling Susan Bones about."
Both the female Professors winced slightly at that comment.
"For those of you who are not aware, I was trained in my DADA Mastery by Professor Terrance Miller. Professor Hunter considered myself and Amelia Bones to be his best students and I hold the record of the only student ever to get an O in Ancient Runes OWLS after transferring to the subject in Fifth Year." Harry introduced himself.
"Aren't you a bit young to have been taught by Professor Hunter?" McGonagall asked.
"I was exposed to some unknown Temporal Magic that affected my aging process." Harry explained. "All the Temporal effect have stabilised and the DMLE is aware of my… dislocation."
"I am sure they are." Sprout said with a chuckle. "How did Amelia take it when you… returned? Did she slap you?"
"Yes." Harry replied with a slight grin. "But seeing as Lia agreed to marry me, I guess she forgave me."
All of the female staff looked excited but both Babbling and Sprout squealed in excitement. Snape rolled his eyes and sneered at Harry. Hagrid looked mildly pleased while the other male professors gave polite congratulations and let the excitement calm down.
"I take it that means you won't be a residing Professor?" McGonagall asked, getting a head shake from Harry.
For Professors, apart from the Heads of House, residing at the Castle was optional. The Heads has to reside as they needed to be on call at all hours in case their House needed them. Apart from Dumbledore and the four Heads, the only staff who permanently resided at Hogwarts were Trelawney, Hagrid and the Caretaker Filch.
Harry and Amelia were both breathing hard and sweating. A cool breeze kissed their exposed skin and the wooden floor was smooth under their bear feet. Their comfortable but slightly loose exercise pants rustled softly as they engaged in another flurry of traded blows before backing off slightly.
Apart from the black exercise pants that extended down to their ankles, where they were secured with drawstrings, Amelia wore only a black sports-bra while Harry was bare-chested. That made things a bit fair as they both were slightly distracted by the eye candy the other showed. Both had a number of red areas on their arms and exposed torsos where a blow had landed. Harry wiped his mouth with the back of his left fore-arm, careful to keep the knife in his hand pointed away from him, even though it was a dull wooden blade. His fore-arm came away with a small streak of blood. Amelia smirked at him.
While holding his wand in place with the thumb of his right hand, Harry gave Amelia a 'come get some' gesture. The next exchange was a brutal as the previous ones had been. Short sweeping strikes with the knives. Fast and accurate casting of piercing and blasting hexes that only required short, sharp movements of the wand, the spells cast silently, and quick flicks that deflected spells away with an almost casual efficiency. Explosively fast and powerful strikes with elbows and knees aiming for weak points like the solar plexus, throat and groin. It was in close, hard and brutal fighting, not the usual stand off casting that most Magicals engaged in.
It was a style they had developed together, initially as a way to channel Amelia's rage around her parents' murder and later refined, with the knife play added thanks to Harry's training with Professor Miller. It was the style that had made Amelia one of the most feared Aurors during the War with Voldemort. Sure, Amelia could still do the more common stand off casting fight, and dominate the fight against all but Voldemort himself and Bellatrix Le Strange. Even against those two she could hold her own, and they knew enough not to let her get close. More than a few Death Eaters had fallen quickly once she had closed in, sometimes fighting several Death Eaters at once and still handily winning.
The big grandfather clock in the corner chimed the hour, indicating it was time to finish their training. In the past, and most likely again in the future, they had practiced this fighting style in a variety of outfits. Every-day robes. Formal tuxedo and ball gown. Night clothes. Even naked. The idea was not to just train in the most ideal clothes, but to train in whatever they might, or might not, be wearing when an attack happened. This practice had saved Amelia's life during the War as there had been an attack at a formal function she had been attending. By the end of the night thee ball gown she had been wearing was ruined but she had killed four Death Eaters and disabled another three enough for them to be arrested, alongside the one other dead and six arrested Death Eaters subdued by the other guests, mostly the fifteen Aurors who had been attending. Unfortunately, five of the guests, including two Aurors, were also dead by the time the Death Eaters broke contact that night.
With the signal that their training time was over, the pair sunk to the ground and lay spread eagle on the floor, letting the felling of the feel of the wooden floor, even the slightly rough lines where two of the sections of the wood joined; the chill of air passing over their bare skin, evaporating the accumulated sweat; and the warmth of their legs from the exertion but without the cooling on their torsos flush across their consciousness.
"I missed this." Amelia said. "I mean I missed a lot of things while you were… gone, but I really missed these training sessions and the easy laziness afterwards. The burn of the exercise without the adrenaline overload of combat."
"An easy silence." Harry mused.
"Exactly." Amelia confirmed. "And it is one of the few times I don't feel like an old woman."
"You certainly don't hit like an old woman, Lia." Harry chuckled. "I think you cracked one of my ribs."
"Well, I owed you for that kidney strike." Amelia shot back with a grin.
They lay there for another ten minutes as their bodies recovered from the exertion. They both stood up and made their way out of the training room and into the rest of Bones Manor, headed for the kitchen.
Susan was sitting at the bench in the kitchen having a drink when they half shuffled their way in, occasionally groaning when a bruise, cracked rib or slightly torn muscle pulled in the wrong way.
"You two are crazy, you do know that right?" Susan said as Harry and Amelia sat on the stools at the bench and sighed in relief.
"Crazy is a matter of perspective." Harry replied.
In the middle of the bench there was a rack with a series of healing potions that they had placed there before they had started their training session. Both Harry and Amelia reached for the relevant potions to treat the injuries they had sustained and downed them with a grimace that was partly from pain and partly from the taste.
"One day you may find something that you are so dedicated to that you will willingly suffer to pursue it. Maybe even willingly give your own life." Amelia added. "Finding Justice for those who can't speak for themselves is mine. Ending that bastard for good is Harry's."
"Crazy." Susan reiterated before turning her attention back to her drink.
TBC….