Chapter 6

Apparation

Training progressed, getting harder and harder. Now Harry fought multiple opponents. He was unrivalled when it came to one on one. Be it with a sword, hand to hand combat or even a magical duel he now surpassed most of the Brotherhood. The thing that astonished everyone was that Harry had still not tapped into his "gift". always on the brink of engaging his true power, yet something always kept it at bay.

A subconscious barrier that his mind had erected to protect the ones around him from himself. He knew subconsciously that these men he fought were not his enemy, and were not a threat to himself or the ones he loved. they only wished to train. So with his self inflicted block on his higher powers he continued his training.

"Today you will learn the importance of being able to apperate while in the heat of battle. Appearing in front, behind or out of an enemy's reach is a vast and very important skill to learn in combat. It is unprecedented as one of the key elements in multiple opponent combat." Arthurius began in his "teaching persona" as Harry had begun to refer to it as.

Arthurius turned to regard Harry, then with a wink he was gone. Not a noise created, just one moment he was there than nothing. Harry spun around to find Arthurius leaning against a tree twenty feet away. Just watching him.

"See Harry, the apparent advantages to apparating….." he disappeared again to turn up a foot behind Harry. "without making a sound?" he finished.

"it's similar to the way they teach you to apparate at Hogwarts, yet this is a more advanced technique called tactical apparation."

All Harry could think of, was how many times in his past that this skilled could of helped. Glancing up at his mentor he waited patiently for counsel on how to achieve the skill aforementioned.

"Now, as I mentioned earlier it is quite similar to normal apparation. Now instead of just apparating yourself, you must also apparate the sound around you. It sounds easy, but the trick is you don't want the sound to travel with you. It would be pointless to apparate without a sound only to appear with a loud bang." Arthurius stopped, started pacing and scratching his chin.

"Now this is kind of hard to explain, you must do a double apparation. You must apparate yourself to one location and your "noise" for the lack of a better word, to a completely different location."

"We here at the Brotherhood have what is dubbed a "sound room". All of the brotherhood use this room to transport their apparation sounds into. This way we are always quiet."

"That room on the other hand, is very loud indeed." Chuckling softly Arthurius added.

"I think I see what you mean." Harry said as he stood from the bench he'd been sitting at. Walking out into the middle of the clearing where the training was being held he turned and stood in front of Arthurius.

"Now plug your ears." Arthurius said as he reached out and lightly touched him on the arm, apparating Harry and himself into the Brotherhood's sound room.

The noise was almost deafening, as hundreds of soft "pops" were going off all around the room. Quickly Harry looked around the room, then turned and shook his head at Arthurius, his fingers plugging his ears the whole time. With a nod from Arthurius they both apparated back to Arthurius' forest room. Harry appearing with a soft "pop" beside a completely quiet Arthurius.

"Now, concentrate on the sound around you. Now, apparate across the room, while trying to apparate the sound to the sound room." Harry nodded his head in acknowledgement, then turned and apparated across the room, only a whisper of a pop followed.

"Good, good. Now concentrate harder, clear all thoughts from your mind, and focus on apparating the sound you make to the sound room."

Without a sound Harry appeared beside Arthurius, turning with a huge smile plastered across his face.

"I did it" He exclaimed.

"Yes Harry, well done. Most take a dozen tries before they master that. Now lets go start some more obstacle course training." And with that the two proceeded out from the forest domain towards the courtyard.

Harry began his training with one thought in his mind, he was so glad he would be able to talk to Hermione tonight. After their "accidental conversation", Harry had been contacting her every night after training. Secretly the two had been having lengthy conversations about his training. He had even been teaching her a few things. Now she could start the silent conversation with him. She could initiate the legimanthopy without any help. He couldn't wait to tell her about the silent apparation.

This new found predicament the two found themselves in, had greatly increased Harry's mood. He couldn't wait until the day was over to talk to her, to hear her voice, to feel her very thoughts and emotions that were broadcasted through their link.

He started to feel this type of anticipation to hearing her voice. It scared him a little for he had never felt this way before. The feelings were so strong he didn't know what to do, the most confusing part was they seemed to be towards Hermione his best friend. But that made no sense, he had known her since he was eleven, why was he feeling this way about her. He had never felt this way about anyone, not Cho, not even Ginny last year. To top it off what about Ron? Even though she said that she didn't see him other than a brother, didn't mean that Ron saw it that way.

His thoughts were very confusing, yet each night he spent longer and longer talking to her through the link. They talked for hours about everything and nothing just wanting to hear each others voices. With this time he shared with her he felt complete. Her voice combined with his new competence in training, he felt he could do anything. Tom be damned, he was going to win this war, not for himself, not for the wizarding and muggle worlds but for her.