"So, the de-aging is working on them?" Peggy asked. "They'll recover?"
"I believe so." Andi smiled at Neville. "They remember Neville, I can see the progression of time as Neville aged, in their memories. I'm trying to use that as a gauge for progression. But I'm taking it slowly. I want them fully recovered, or as fully as we're going to get them, and rushing is not going help. I'd much rather take a month or two and have them fully recovered than take a week and have them remain semi-invalids."
"Yes, please." Neville had tears running down his cheeks, but his smile was bright and cheery.
"Yes, Harry." Andi nodded, studying the eager teen's latest scan. "You're fine to go. Bill stated that with the horcrux removed, you may find that your current wand no longer matches your core. Something to do with the connection you had with Riddle during your formative years, not being there anymore. Especially, as we were forced to de-aged you to repair the damage to your body. I had expected that I would have be able to repair it without resorting to such drastic measures. Unfortunately that wasn't the case." Andi spoke with the same elegant formality that had been ingrained into both her and Sirius, as children of House Black.
"It's fine Andi." Harry assured the healer. "This works better, as far as I'm concerned. I'm taller. My scars are gone, including this one." He rubbed a finger over an unmarked forehead. "All the damage done by the Dursleys is gone. I'm more than fine with that."
"Of course, you are." Andi shook her head. "Go on, get out of here. Tonks and Sirius are waiting to take you to Dublin."
Harry gave her a bright smile and darted from the room.
Tonks and Sirius apparated to Dublin with the four teens, who were wearing subtle glamours. Harry had lighter hair and eyes, Hermione's hair was straightened and darker, Luna's hair was shortened and Neville's went to a dirty blonde.
The old wandier took no notice of their appearances and after casting a charm on them and telling them to cast a lumos before the charm expired, told them that only Luna and Hermione's wands were strong matches. Luna's matched her core well, a compatibility of 91%, with Hermione's a few point higher at 94%. But that Neville and Harry's wands were barely registering on the charm and Sirius' wasn't much better.
He looked over at Tonks. "Not you. You already have three excellent matches."
"I do." Tonks said. "All of them 98% or above."
"Good. Stay out of the way." The wandier grunted as he heaved a box onto the counter. "You first." He pointed at Neville. "Hand over the box and pulse your magic into the box." Neville did as he was directed and three pieces of wood began to glow.
"Right, here's how it's going to work." The wandier said ten minutes later. "The two lasses only need two wands apiece but you gentlemen will be getting three each. I can bond them to you, once complete, but it involves giving the wand your blood." All five nodded. "Excellent. Now the question is… Do you want all your wands to be identical or do you prefer some individuality?"
"Um…" Sirius looked to Tonks.
"For the girls, I'd say go identical." Tonks answered. "They already have a well-matched standalone wand."
"Right." The wandier made notes.
"For the men, can you do one standalone and the other pair identical?"
"Of course."
"Do that, then."
"Just remember these wands are going to be far more receptive than what you're currently using." The wandier cautioned. "They're all going to have to get used to the change in their core-access levels."
"We know." Tonks laughed. "We've got them slated for some rigorous training, this summer."
"Good, they're going to need it." He laid the trays on a rolling table. "Come back in a couple of hours and I should have these ready to go."
Later that evening, Sirius activated the time dilation crystals and the group watched as birds flying over went from darting across the sky to a slow crawl.
"That is wicked." Neville exclaimed.
"Isn't it?" Sirius barked a laugh.
"Alright. Inside." Falsworth ordered. "Time to set up a training schedule."
"Dumbledore should be along before seven." Moody said, pointing to the grandfather clock at the base of the stairs to the house's second floor. "One side-effect of time dilation is that all timepieces remain on the external time." The clock read twenty-five past six.
"So, all our watches are running on outside time?" Hermione asked.
"They are." Moody agreed, as the group entered the ballroom. "Take yer seats. Falsworth? All yours."
"Thanks, Moody." Falsworth gave the old Auror a nod. "It's time to start your testing. We need to know what each of you can do as far as magic is concerned. Then we also need to take into consideration your physical condition and what type of hand-to-hand we're going to teach you and who will teach whom." He spread out a large sheet of paper on the table in front of him. "Now, Minerva, Remus, Moody and Kingsley have been most helpful as far as putting together a list of spells. First through third year, we're only going to ask, if you can do the spell. Fourth and above, we'll have you cast them. Although, I understand that there are a few spells that some are arguing over it being unfair to expect you to be able to cast, while others say you can cast them."
"Sorry we're late." Albus Dumbledore lead Filius Flitwick into the room. "Filius has given his Oath and I have here a copy of my memory of that." He gently laid a phial on the table.
"Good to have you with us, Professor." Harry bounced out of his seat to shake the part-goblin's hand. "Come and have a seat. Has Professor Dumbledore explained what's happening, to you?"
"Oh, yes." The little duellist chirped brightly. "And I'm delighted to help out."
"Grand." Falsworth said. "We were just about to go through the list of spells that Minerva gave us."
"Perhaps, a quick introduction?" McGonagall suggested and when people nodded, she quickly went around the room naming people and giving a very brief outline of their history and skills.
"Thank you, Minerva." Albus patted McGonagall's hand. "Now, where were we?"
"The list of spells." Falsworth said. "We're just going to ask yes or no to the first to third year spells."
"I really don't see the point..." Flitwick said with a frown. "They're all in fifth year, barring Miss Lovegood. They've all passed the end of year exams for each class, irrespective of OWL results. Albus? I asked you to bring along the students' records. Did you?"
"I did." The Headmaster laid four folders on the table. "I've had a quick peek and yes, all have passed their end of year exams."
"Then we can discard the first through fourth year spells." Flitwick said. "Even taking Madam Umbridge into consideration, all of them have passed fourth year. Mr Longbottom has progressed rapidly this year, going from near-bottom of the class to the upper one-third. And Miss Lovegood is as competent as many who sat OWLs this year."
"In that case we'll get you, Minerva, Albus and Remus to test each of them over the next day or so." Falsworth made a note on a notepad beside him. "In the meantime we need to work out what each student is going to learn. Both magically and from a muggle standpoint."
"I'd like to test each of them to determine if they have the ability to become animagi." McGonagall looked at Sirius. "It might be an idea for you to consider, too."
Sirius grimaced. "Uh…"
"What?" McGonagall asked flatly.
"We… um… we already did..." Sirius muttered, refusing to look the transfiguration Professor in the eye.
"You already did… what, exactly?" McGonagall's voice was blank.
Sirius didn't actually reply, not by speaking, at least. Instead he rose from the table and took two steps back before leaning forward and dropping onto all fours, as Padfoot. One look at McGonagall's face and Padfoot whined and pushed his head into his husband's lap.
"Oh, you…" McGonagall nearly snarled. "Who else?" She looked to Remus for an answer.
"James and Peter." Remus replied quickly.
"And they were what?"
"James was a stag and Peter was a rat."
"Expecto patronum." Harry whispered and Prongs burst from his new wand. "That's dad's animagi form." He said. "And Pettigrew was Scabbers."
"Weasley's rat?" McGonagall blinked.
"Yes…" Harry sighed and nodded.
"You can cast a Patronus?" Moody asked, his brows rising.
"Of course." Harry replied. "We all can. Hermione's is an otter." He paused and nodded to the young witch, who then cast the charm and her otter joined Harry's stag. "Luna's is a Hare." The hare bounded around the stag's legs. "Neville's wasn't corporeal yet, but with a wand that matches him…? Try it, Nev."
They all watched as the young wizard drew in a deep breath and held it before casting the spell.
"Expecto patronum." A massive cloud of mist slowly solidified and formed the shape of a fully grown lion, its shaggy mane ruffling in a non-existent breeze.
"Good one, Neville." Harry cheered.
"Oh, well done." Flitwick clapped his hands. "Well done, indeed."
"How…?" McGonagall gasped.
"Harry taught us." Luna said in her usual breezy voice.
"He did." Neville said.
"He's been our DADA teacher this year." Hermione said. "We weren't going to let Umbitch stop us from passing our OWLs, same with the twins, Lee and the quidditch queens."
"Your… D.A., wasn't it called?" Remus smothered a smile, while ignoring mangling of Umbridge's name.
"Dumbledore's Army, we called ourselves." Harry said, looking proudly between Dumbledore and McGonagall. "Mostly fifth years and mostly Gryffindors but we had a smattering of students from other years and even some from other houses."
"And you taught them all?" McGonagall arched a brow.
"He did." Neville said.
"I started with third year stuff and went up." Harry added. "Dennis Creevey and Natalie MacDonald were the youngest, they're in second year. They struggled for a few weeks but soon caught on. From there we went through the practical stuff, we got enough theory with Umbitch, so I didn't bother with it."
"How far did you go?" Remus' curiosity was clear.
"NEWT practicals." Hermione said. "Harry owled Oliver Wood and asked for his seventh-year stuff and a breakdown of what was in his NEWT practical examinations. And the twins brought in the seventh-year books from their brothers' collections."
"You covered from third year to seventh year, in one year?" Even Remus was surprised.
"Oh, no." Hermione objected. "We didn't start the D.A. meetings until after Halloween. It took weeks to convince Harry to teach us. Then we had to find somewhere big enough to fit us all, where Umbitch wouldn't find us."
"Not including holidays, you've had six months doing this?" McGonagall asked. "Correct?"
"About that." Harry nodded.
"And all of you reached the same level?" Flitwick asked.
"Of course, Professor." Harry said. "It did take a little more for Dennis and Natalie to do some of the NEWT level stuff, but other than being a little more tired and hungrier than usual, they were fine. We made sure that they didn't strain their cores." He assured the Professors.
"I see…" McGonagall looked at Harry sternly. "Did you keep notes on what was taught and when?"
"I did." Harry grinned and pulled out a satchel and from that he retrieved a pile of muggle notebooks with subject dividers. "One for me, with an overview of what had been taught and when and ideas for possible suture classes and one for each student, each division is the equivalent of each year's work." He said, spreading them out on the table.
"May I?" McGonagall asked and when Harry nodded, she picked one up at random. "Mr Macmillan?"
"Ernie was okay." Harry said. "Not great but okay. He kept up but didn't put in as much effort as he could have. If I had to grade him, I'd say a low to mid EE."
"He managed a disillusionment charm?" Flitwick asked, trying to look over McGonagall's shoulder, even though he barely came up to said shoulder. "That's the most difficult of the standard charms that I teach at Hogwarts."
"Of course." Harry stated. "We covered everything in Practical Defence Against the Dark Arts, that was issued by Remus for years three to seven."
"And what of other subjects?" McGonagall asked.
"Nope." Harry replied cheerfully. "Didn't need to do anything about them. We had decent teachers for them. Although… I could use some potions catchup, Snape's idea of teaching was to write the recipe on the board and sit down."
"We can look at that for later, Harry." Hermione said. "We have to concentrate on Tom and getting rid of his horcruxes."
"Ah, there I have news." Dumbledore sat forward and slid a small jewellery box onto the table. "I managed to find this. The Peverell Family Ring." Looked at the box and sighed. "However it came at a cost." He held up his hand, it was blackened and looked badly bruised. "I wasn't expecting the compulsion charms to be quite so… insidious. Severus was only able to slow the withering curse, not stop it. At most, he believes I have a year before it reaches my heart."
"Not if I have anything to say about it." Bill Weasley snarled. "You should have come straight to me, Professor. Withering curses are nasty stuff. I can break it but… I may not be able to reverse the damage its already done."
"Anything that you can do will be gratefully accepted, William." Dumbledore gave the Curse-breaker a tired smile.
"Come on, then, no time to waste." Bill stood up. "Andi, you had probably better come, too." He turned back to the table. "We'll be back as soon as we can but it'll take a while. Don't wait on us."
"Alright, back to it." Falsworth said. "Magical levels can best tested later, let's look at muggle stuff." Looked to Flitwick. "You're here to teach sword and knife skills, right?"
"I am." Flitwick nodded.
"Who's interested in that?" Falsworth asked.
Harry looked from Luna, to Hermione and then Neville. "Looks like it's just Neville and I." he said.
"Right." Falsworth made at note on his notepad. "Animagi?"
Another look around from Harry. "All of us."
"Good." Another note was made. "Guns?"
"All of us. But the girls are more interested in the long-range stuff and Neville and I are only looking at pistols as backups."
"Fair enough." Notes were made in two places. "Hand to hand? We have couple of different types. Peggy believes the girls need some gender specific basics regardless of whether they go any further or not. Bucky can teach you street fighting, the no-rules stuff. Morita will teach the more refined martial arts, Dum-dum will teach the more blunt-force stuff, boxing and wrestling sort of thing."
"I suggest that everyone be taught some basics in everything and then we can look at additional training." Peggy said. "The last thing we need is for you to be in a position where you could see to your own defence, if you'd had a little more training."
"She's right and you know it." Sirius pointed to each of the teens.
"In that case let's start with some physical conditioning." Dum-dum said and Morita nodded.
"Once Albus and Bill return, we need to kill whatever this is." Moody grunted pointed at the jewellery box.
"That means a trip to Hogwarts, and the chamber of secrets, for a basilisk fang and if possible, some venom." Remus perked up at the chance to see the fabled chamber.