A/N: So I've had like, the most ridiculous writer's block and lack of time writing. This chapter...I'm not even sure if I like it or not. If you can leave a review and tell me if you have issues with it, I would greatly appreciate it.
In any case, after a LONG sabbatical - I'm going to try to take you back into the Proper Use of Muggle Artifacts - and hopefully take you to the end before long.
Thank you for reading. -PP
EDIT: Apparently the formatting has been wrong forever. I think I fixed it all.
Two weeks after the battle at Godric's Hollow, Harry led a bundled up group of students from the warmth of the Great Hall down to a clearing near Hagrid's hut. The November chill was enough to cut through even the heavy robes the students wore so Hermione started a chain of heating charms throughout the crowd. As they approached two aurors raised their hands in greeting, causing Harry to jog ahead of the crowd to greet them. "Kingsley, Tonks glad you could join us. Tonks did you give Kingsley a run down of what we're doing today?" The tall auror nodded and gestured to the crate sitting in the middle of the clearing,
"Yes, your friend Coggy dropped that off a little while ago and then said something about meeting a guy about a horse and left. You have strange friends Harry." Harry grinned and flipped open the lid of the crate, examining the contents, most of which cost him a lot of gold and favors, before closing the lid and turning to face his special guests.
"Yeah, but I like 'em. Thanks for joining me for this, after Remus and I had that run in it became obvious that my escalation in Hogsmeade forced them to adapt to the new rules of engagement. Tonks, do you have the omnioculars? I promised Madam Bones you guys would record the session for training purposes." Tonks pulled out the omnioculars and waved them at him before conjuring a tripod and aiming them at him like a video camera. Harry waved to them before turning to the members of the DA. "In my last encounter with the Death Eaters, they employed some modified muggle weaponry and because of this I've decided that it is important for you all to be familiar with the kinds of things that muggles have at their disposal. If you know what you're encountering then you'll be able to react appropriately."
"Just like we have many different hexes and curses that we use to duel one another, Muggles have invented various types of weapons to incapacitate, maim, and kill one another. While you might not think that they are as elegant as the magic we cast from our wands the engineering and innovation that went into creating these weapons is astounding. Some of them can enable a man to kill hundreds if not thousands of people from miles away with the push of a button. Today, however, we will be covering the weapons you'd find in the employ of the army infantry, the types of weapons that I'm concerned Voldemort may instruct his followers to use."
Turning to Kingsley he asked him for assistance before pointing at another crate on the edge of the clearing. Kingsley pulled a tarp from the crate to reveal a collection of watermelons. Harry turned back to the group and drew his sidearm, "This is a Walther PPK/S, it has an eight bullet magazine and an additional round in the chamber. It will put all nine shots down range as fast as I can pull the trigger." Again Harry motioned to Kingsley and the Auror flicked his wand, sending the watermelons careening into the air. With the deadly agility he had demonstrated in Hogsmeade and Godric's Hollow, he put a shot into each of the nine watermelons, sending their ripe flesh in every direction and causing a murder of crows to vacate the nearby trees. Then he held up the weapon with the slide locked into the open position. "This is a small personal weapon, in the Colonies every police officer is equipped with one type of these or another." Murmuring rumbled through the crowd and he moved over to the crate.
From the crate he withdrew a shotgun and held it up to the crowd, "This is a common hunting weapon, many muggle farmers have them to deal with wolves and other predators that might be harassing them so far from the city," he loaded the shells and instructed Kingsley again, who arranged a set of watermelons in a pyramid formation, "This is the type of damage this 'farmer's weapon' can do." He turned and aimed, firing both barrels at the same time and soaking the ground with watermelon juice and pulp. The students all shifted from one foot to the other and Kingsley murmured to Tonks before calling out to Harry.
"Harry, from what I can tell these projectiles move entirely too quickly for us to be able to get a shield up to prevent injury, am I correct in thinking that?" Harry nodded and then replied, "While that is true for the most part these weapons are very loud, as you've just experienced, so if you hear gunfire and you can at least determine the direction a moderately powerful Protego should be able to protect you from the subsequent shots. Also, just like with a wand, the disarming charm would relieve your enemy of their weapon, but be careful because jostling the weapon with the spell could cause it to go off again, so don't let down your guard until you're certain the weapon has been secured." Kingsley thanked him and Harry proceeded to demonstrate the various weapons, showing them the assault rifle and grenades and explaining how lucky he was to be able to save Remus from being perforated.
Finally, he conjured a wooden pole and speared his final watermelon on top, about even with his own height. "The final weapon that I want to show you is a long range weapon, with a skilled shooter you could easily make a shot from up to a kilometer away." He raised his hand and then dropped it, as he did so the watermelon exploded, then a crack of thunder reached their ears from the direction of the castle. A few of the more instinctive members of the DA snapped shields into place in an overlapping formation over the rest of the students. Harry smiled proudly at their reaction after only being told once about what to do when they heard gunfire. "Good reaction time, but you can put those down, that's just Simon up on the Astronomy Tower, good shot, isn't he?" The students took the praise as it was meant and stowed their wants as they returned their attention to Harry and the Aurors.
"Does anyone have any questions about what we've gone over today?" Harry asked, hands clasped behind him as he stood before the assembled group. Daphne stepped forward, "What exactly are we supposed to be taking from this lesson? I doubt you intend to show us how to use these things."
Harry looked at the mess that his demonstration had left, a soaked, slightly pink lawn, and any adjacent sections of the Forbidden Forest abandoned of non-sentient wildlife. "I wanted you to know," He began, "I needed you to know that not only will Voldemort's cronies be upping the ante, but how big the gap between the muggles you think you know and the muggles that are out there. The muggleborns among us, of course, know what is out there, but when we come here, when we're on these grounds, we leave all of that behind. We joke about Muggle Studies and the students who take it, the muggleborns because the class is dated, the wizard born because who needs to know about muggles?" Everyone nodded, most of them didn't realize it was for entirely different reasons.
"The point I'm trying to make is that you shouldn't underestimate the muggles, or anyone else. Everyone can be formidable given the right circumstances, including each and every one of you. I believe in all of you to be strong and to do the right thing when the time comes." His eyes swept across the DA, his friends and comrades and their respect, in varied amounts of course, flowed back at him. "Dismissed."
At once they dispersed, subconsciously falling into groups by house and year, though many of those groups did intermingle as they made their way back to the castle. Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Luna, and Neville all hung back and kept a polite distance as Kingsley strode over from where he had been reviewing the footage with Tonks. "A bit more shock and awe than our normal lessons at the Auror Academy but a thorough demonstration nonetheless. I think our current training material is from 1919 and focuses a lot on rifles and gas attacks. This will definitely help our new recruits, hell it would help some of our veterans as well if they took the time to take it seriously." Tonks was animatedly bobbing her head along with Kingsley.
"Any way you could come in to train some of our people on how these work? If we're going to be taking them off of the Deaters we don't want anyone blowing their limbs off." The young wizard shook his head, "I have too many responsibilities here at the castle and I'm barely keeping my head above water with the DA and keeping my classes on track. I'm sure if you reached out to Coggy or Simon they'd be happy to come in and give a training seminar. The problem there is that they're technically muggles, so you'd probably want to clear that with Madame Bones first."
As they began their walk towards the castle Kingsley spoke quietly to him, "So I was catching up with Filius at the last Order meeting and he told me that Luna was attacked on Halloween as well? How's she holding up?" The aurors watched as Harry's face darkened momentarily before he was able to regain control of his emotions. Tonks could have sworn the ground was shaking but she had seen Hagrid emerge from his hut before they came around the bend and blamed the half-giant for the disturbance.
"She's doing fine, thank you for asking Shack. We've been doing some one-on-one training," he paused here to let Tonks giggle and snort so that it was out of her system, "so despite the ambush she was able to defend herself. I've dulled my passive legillimency down to scanning for directed emotion, I've shown Luna how to attune herself to the world around her in a similar fashion, which helps her avoid hallway collisions and apparently ambushes." He ignored Tonk's continued jokes until Luna quietly came up next to him and slid her small hand into his. Tonks was about to say something else when Harry's attention moved past her and he gave a wave.
"Hey Remus, what are you doing here?" Tonks rolled her eyes at him before shaking her head, "You're not going to change the subject that easily - let's get back to this one on one time with Ms. Lovegood." She was shocked to almost falling however when a voice came from behind her as she walked backwards toward the castle.
"I collected your parent's things from the cottage, I thought I"d drop them off for you and see if you'd be free for dinner." Harry grinned dangerously at the last remaining Maurader in a way that left the man uneasily reminded of James Potter. "I'm terribly busy, you know how it is being a professor and all, but I'm absolutely certain that Auror Tonks needs a bite to eat, she's so light-headed that she's been making inappropriate comments about teenagers." Tonks opened her mouth to retort but ended up letting out a yelp as Remus snuck an arm around her and tugged her against him, his free hand pulling a shrunken trunk from his pocket which he tossed to Harry.
"Well then maybe I'll remove her from the temptation of your company before she gets written up by Kingsley." Tonks struggled playfully against his arm while Harry and Shack laughed at her predicament. "Harry, there is a lot of stuff in there, if you want some help or perspective while going through those just let me know and we can do it together." Harry slid the trunk into his own pocket and then retook Luna's hand, squeezing it gently, "If I do need help, I've got a support system right here, but you're right, I might need your perspective on some of these things." Remus nodded to him solemnly before gently lifting Tonks off of her feet and turning her so that they were facing the path to Hogsmeade.
After they disappeared toward town Kingsley put his hand out to Harry who shook it firmly, "I need to get these Omnioculars back to Madam Bones. I'll see if I can get some waivers written up for Simon and Coggy - we could really use their expertise with the way things seem to be evolving. Let them know that I will be in touch." Harry nodded and his friends waved as Kingsley went the other direction from the front doors, walking quickly due to the cold. Harry and his friends filed into the castle, talking about the weapons and how they should try to train the DA to defend themselves. Hermione and Harry knowing that there were bigger problems than infantry weapons - but they had agreed before the demonstration that the bigger stuff was too much to ask anyone to fight against. Harry made a mental note to research a spell that would detect common explosives by looking for their chemical components - that at the very least would help the Aurors with their security sweeps.
When they finally made it into the Great Hall, the entire room was abuzz with conversation as those that attended the demonstration shared information with those that hadn't. As he sat down to eat his dinner a large hand landed on his shoulder, looking up he budged over so that Simon could take the seat next to him. "Coggy thinks you don't trust him to shoot so close to your head." The large man began, quietly thanking Dobby as a plate appeared in front of him. "He is under the impression you think he'd have shot your head clean off and that is why you didn't ask him to do it." Harry rolled his eyes at this and finished chewing before replying.
"I didn't ask Coggy because he wasn't at the Institute when I stopped by to see if anyone was free. It isn't my fault he was out chasing skirts on a Thursday of all nights." The girls around the table laughed before Harry quietly added, "…and because I don't trust him not to blow my head off from the Astronomy tower." Simon grinned and returned to eating his meal, turning to talk to Parvati as he did so. Simon had become popular with the sixth and seventh year girls, they would wait after the end of the Defense Association tutoring sessions on Saturdays and try to catch him after he gave Neville and Ron their instructions for the week until he would see them again. So far he had been able to be polite to all of them without the fur flying - Harry was actually impressed with the level of finesse the otherwise brawny man was able to employ.
Parvati finished eating and wished them all a good evening, begging off due to a potions essay. "So are you ever going to ask one of them out or are you still convinced you can convince Elizabeth from the tea shop that you're more than just biceps?" Asked Harry, slowly forking a piece of treacle tart into his mouth as he watched the older man work on his own dessert. Simon finished his own piece of tart and turned towards Harry.
"Elizabeth is this close," he held his fingers a hairsbreadth apart, "from agreeing to go to dinner with me. I know she's going to realize what a mistake she's made by turning me down all these months." Simon had a grin on his face and he laughed as he shook his head. "Nah, she agreed to go out with Coggy of all people, that's where he was on Thursday when you stopped by. Before you ask, no, I won't be going after Amanda either - I've sworn off that tea shop all together. Which is a bother because the next closest one is four blocks west." Harry laid his hand on Simon's shoulder in solidarity and then stood. He waved goodbye to those sitting close to him and stepped out of the Great Hall, no destination in mind.
His thoughts drifted towards the shrunken trunk in his pocket. It contained his parents' legacy, their true legacy. Not the Potter Lordship that loomed ahead of Harry when he left Hogwarts, but the academic research and special projects of two prolific minds. He didn't think that he could live up to the abilities of one of them let alone both. What if he found things he wasn't ready to digest mentally? What if in the margins of his mother's notebooks he found his Dad's name surrounded by hearts? What if he found Snape's? Teenagers were fickle - even they could make huge mistakes like thinking Snape was anything other than a big brooding loner. His thoughts shifted to the Potions Professor, surely the man couldn't be holding onto his lost love all this time, that would be extreme if nothing else.
His musings eventually took him to the Astronomy Tower - the brisk winter night causing him to bring his cloak closer around him and called for a quick cast of a warming charm. He wondered if his parents ever came up here to think, either alone or together, watching as the snow fell. From here he could see the glow of Hagrid's hut, smoke rising up from his chimney before floating over the Forbidden Forest. After a few minutes he felt skinny arms slip around his waist, squeezing him slightly as a face rested against his back. "You have to at least open it Harry, see what's inside. Remus will help you, or I will, if you'd like. You don't have to do it alone." Harry smiled at Luna's words, he wasn't alone, not anymore, Sirius might be gone but he did have his friends and Remus, Luna.
"I know, I'll make some time this week to go through everything, I have too much going on right now, teaching classes, taking classes, organizing everyone's training in the DA every week - I don't have the time to get distracted by the past. I was entirely enthralled by the information I learned on Halloween. It both filled the emptiness I've felt my entire life and at the same time made the void bigger, defined the edges, showed me how the missing pieces were shaped. I don't know if going through their things will fill that void or give it more definition, and I'm not sure that now is the best time to find out. But I promise, when I do take that step, I'll make sure I have someone there to keep me oriented on the here and now so that I don't get lost like I almost did in Godric's Hollow." He smiled wanly at Luna before taking her hand, leading the way back down into the castle.
As he felt the apprehension from the pair of prefects they passed in the hallway a thought occurred to him and he squeezed Luna's hand before speaking. "Since we've been back at school, since I was able to help you with your shields…since we got together, have you ever felt any spikes of jealousy aimed towards us? I had one on the train, one on the stairs, and a few times in the Great Hall." He looked at her sidelong, watching her expression as it went from serene to thoughtful before a goofy grin twisted her lips.
"Oh that? It's Daphne Greengrass, she's been crushing on you all year, how have you not picked up on it on your own?" Luna's expression was one of amusement, the fact that another girl, an older girl, had her sights on Harry didn't seem to bother her. Harry thought about it and he had to agree, why would one private crush be a problem for them when he had two dozen girls openly fawning over him every day in the halls and in the classroom. Harry shrugged and explained that he had toned down his passive legillimancy so that he wouldn't invade the privacy of his friends and classmates, it felt rude to him but he obviously had a better control over it than Luna did.
They had reached Ravenclaw tower and Harry gave her a deep kiss goodnight and reiterated his promise to find her if and when he decided to go through the trunk that Remus had brought him. Luna approached the door to the tower, gave her answer to the riddle and pulled the door open before turning back towards him. "She would probably make a fine Lady Black some day Harry, if you were so inclined." Before turning her back on him and letting the door swing closed behind her, leaving Harry staring dumbfounded at the Eagle knocker. "That girl," he began as he slowly turned to make his way back to his own dormitory, "is going to be the death of me."