Year 2: Show Some Strength

Chapter 14: December 2016

It took some convincing, but eventually Louis came to realize that Justin was right. If they were going to stand any chance of holding their own against the Slytherins, they had to learn some physical defence. As soon as the boys had healed, they went straight to Professor Derlid's classroom to ask for help.

"Physical defence?" Professor Derlid repeated their request. "But I don't usually teach that until third year."

"We know," Justin said. "We just thought we'd get a head start on next year."

"Well, if I'm being perfectly honest boys, you could use some extra work on this year's material before you go starting on next year's. Your body-bind curses, for example, still leave something to be desired," Derlid replied.

Louis allowed himself a moment to be a little offended. He'd thought he'd been doing pretty well with the full body-bind curse. But he shook that from his mind as he had more important things to worry about. "We just feel that learning the physical defence now would help us when we practice duelling in class," Louis claimed. "Make us more well-rounded."

"But we aren't even having full-contact duels yet," Professor Derlid frowned. "Nobody goes anywhere, the combatants stay on opposite sides of the room and shoot spells at each other."

"Please Professor Derlid," Justin pleaded. "This is really important to us."

Their defence professor considered them a moment and then gave in.

"Alright," he agreed. "I still think you should be worrying about other parts of the course, but if you're determined then I won't stand in your way. We'll start on Saturday morning, bright and early. Eat a decent breakfast before you arrive."

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That Saturday, Louis awoke both nervous and excited. He honestly didn't know what to expect from the training, but he knew it was going to be hard – everything they did in defence was hard, and Professor Derlid never went easy on them. That was a good thing though. The Slytherins wouldn't go easy on them, and Louis and Justin needed to be prepared.

At breakfast, Louis forced himself to eat some eggs and sausages, knowing that they would sustain him better than toast and pancakes would. Justin took the opposite approach, piling his plate full of rich French toast and decadent syrup. Louis warned Justin that he was going to throw up if he ate like that, but Justin ignored him.

When they arrived at the defence classroom, it had been completely transformed. The desks and chairs were gone, and in their place were all sorts of equipment, none of which Louis had any idea the purpose of. Professor Derlid met them at the door and motioned that they were to leave the classroom.

"We're not starting in here," he declared. "We start outside."

"But it's freezing!" Justin exclaimed. "We didn't bring our cloaks or our scarves or anything."

In fact, the boys had dressed as light as possible, anticipating that they would be sweating before long.

"You don't need your cloaks," Professor Derlid replied. "You'll warm up quickly enough."

The came to the Entrance Hall and Professor Derlid marched the boys outside to the grounds.

"Alright, I want you boys to run five laps of the school," he declared. "Now remember, this isn't a race. You don't score any better if you finish first, but you score less if you have to stop, so pace yourselves. And… begin."

Without any time to prepare himself, Louis suddenly found his legs pumping forward and his body raced to catch up. Justin wasn't far behind and seemed similarly disoriented. What good was this? Why did they need to practice running? If the Slytherins would leave the option for running away, obviously they would have taken it before now, instead of letting them beat the stuffing out of them. But running was never an option. They always managed to get cornered against a wall somehow.

There was no point arguing with Professor Derlid though. They would have to undergo his full training regimen, unless they wanted to explain the specifics of why they needed to train in the first place. Which would only get the Slytherins in trouble and lead to more pain for Louis and Justin further down the line.

Louis rounded the final corner of the castle and completed his first lap of the school. He was panting pretty hard and his throat was on fire. A nice glass of water wouldn't be completely unwelcome. But Professor Derlid was still standing there by the Entrance Hall doors and Louis knew he couldn't stop.

Somewhere along the line, Justin had fallen behind. Louis could no longer see him when he looked over his shoulder. He only hoped his friend was doing alright.

Louis rounded another corner and passed by the greenhouses. There was a girl inside who he recognized as one of Victoire's roommates, though he couldn't remember the name. She waved merrily at him, but Louis couldn't manage to lift his own arm to wave back. He just pushed forward, rounding the next corner, and wished the castle wasn't so big.

When Louis started his third lap, his legs were starting to feel like wobbly noodles. He wasn't sure he was going to make it much further, let alone another three full laps. With Derlid's eyes on him though, he pushed himself until he rounded the next corner and then slowed to a walk as he attempted to regain his breath.

As he rounded yet another familiar corner of the castle, Louis stumbled across a surprising sight. Justin was doubled over on the ground and a pile of vomit lay at his feet.

"Justin, are you alright?" Louis asked, worried.

"Shouldn't have had the French toast for breakfast," Justin replied regretfully. "Just need a minute, I'll be alright."

"We should tell Derlid this is too much," Louis said. "We have to work up to things like this. He can't just throw us in the deep end."

"At least this is good practice for what's waiting for us when we get to third year," Justin pointed out, righting himself and smoothing out his robes. He sidestepped around the vomit, leaving it there since neither boy could yet perform a vanishing spell.

"True," Louis agreed, falling into step next to his friend as they completed what was Louis' third lap and Justin's second. "I still think we should be getting to the more practical stuff. Strength training and the like."

Justin agreed, so when they arrived at the Entrance Hall doors again, they came to a stop in front of their professor.

"You haven't finished your laps yet," he said. "Get back out there."

"We can't," Justin insisted. "It's too much, we don't have the stamina yet."

Professor Derlid considered them for a moment. "You really are a couple of weaklings, aren't you?" he observed.

"Hey – " Louis protested, but Justin hushed him up. Professor Derlid did have a point, after all. That was the whole reason they were here.

"Alright, we'll work up to the five laps," Professor Derlid declared. "Let's head back up to the classroom and try some other stuff."

The walk up to the fifth floor was agony after all the running, but Louis and Justin made it eventually. Professor Derlid offered them some water, and they gulped it down like they were dying in a desert.

After they'd had their drink, Professor Derlid led them through what he called a 'warm-up'. He made them do push-ups, and sit-ups, and jumping jacks, and lunges, and all sorts of other things they'd never done before. It was hard, and they had to stop more than a few times for more water.

Next Professor Derlid introduced them to weight training. "Those spaghetti arms are going to need some major help," he declared, looking judgementally at both Louis' and Justin's skinny arms. "We'll start with the small ones and work our way up."

He handed each a set of weights that weren't particularly heavy. Louis almost insisted that he could lift heavier, but stopped himself. He didn't want to overdo anything, and he had no idea what weight lifting was going to be like.

It was harder than he'd expected. By the end of the set, his arms really did feel like spaghetti and he practically dropped the weights on the floor when he was done.

"Well that does it for today, I think," Professor Derlid declared.

Louis was both relieved and confused.

"What about all the other equipment?" he asked, looking around the room.

"You're not ready for that yet," Professor Derlid replied. "When you can run five laps around the school, maybe I'll consider letting you use it."

Louis nodded. In truth, he was glad the workout was done for the day. He almost felt worse than the day Darian Reed had continually punched him in the stomach. His whole body ached and his muscles were all sore.

"I'll expect you boys both back here tomorrow morning, right after breakfast," Professor Derlid declared. "For our second training session."

"Tomorrow?" Justin cried, overwhelmed. "But we just got finished with today."

"These things have to be an everyday practice, or you'll never get anywhere," Professor Derlid replied. "We'll train again tomorrow, and the next day, and every day until you leave for the Christmas holidays. And when you get back in January, we'll keep on training. This isn't the sort of thing you learn and then ignore. You have to keep it up or you lose it."

Louis groaned. This was turning into a lot more work than he'd bargained for.

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By the time the Christmas holidays rolled around, Louis was feeling a lot better about Professor Derlid's training regimen. The laps were getting easier – he'd made it up to four laps already and was confident he'd be able to do five soon. He gone up a level with his weights, which meant his arms were getting stronger. Professor Derlid had even consented to teaching the boys about a few of the other pieces of equipment around the classroom and got them doing some different exercises.

One matter on which Professor Derlid had been very clear – Louis and Justin were under no circumstances to slack on their training while they were home for the holidays. He expected them to run their laps every day, and to do all the exercises they could do without his specialized equipment. Otherwise, they would regress, and they'd have to start from the beginning again. And now that he was making some real progress, Louis didn't want that.

So every morning, Louis would rise well before the rest of his family, put on some good running clothes, and run up and down the beach until he couldn't run anymore. Then he'd go back up to his room to do his push-ups and sit-ups and all the rest, and only after would he head downstairs to join his family for breakfast.

He knew his parents and sisters saw a difference in him – how could they not? They gave him questioning looks whenever they caught him returning from his morning runs and they exchanged looks with each other a lot.

Eventually, one morning, just as Louis was finishing up his exercises, his father came to his bedroom door and knocked softly.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

Louis picked himself up off the floor and took a long drink of water from the glass he kept on his bedside table. "Sure," he agreed, flopping down on his bed.

Bill came in and pulled Louis' desk chair out from the desk and turned it around so that he was facing Louis.

"Son… I don't know how to say this exactly… we're all just a little… confused," Bill said.

"Confused?" Louis frowned. "About what?"

"All this training," Bill said. "What's it for?"

"Defence against the dark arts," Louis replied. "Physical defence training."

Bill looked unconvinced by this. "Isn't that usually a third-year unit?" he asked. "Besides that, Victoire and Dominique never came home acting like you are when they went through it."

"I guess I'm just taking it more seriously than they did," Louis replied.

"And that begs the question… why?" Bill wondered. "And why are you learning it a year early?"

Louis shrugged. "Justin and I asked Professor Derlid to teach us," he said. "We wanted to improve our defence grades and thought this would be a good way to do it."

"It looks to me like this is about more than your defence grades," Bill replied. "I don't even see you get this devoted to something when it's related to astronomy."

"That's because astronomy happens mostly in my room on paper," Louis pointed out. "This is just a lot more obvious, because I'm out there running."

"You don't have to tell me what's going on if you don't want to," Bill declared. "But I wish you would. It's obvious this is more than grades."

Louis shrugged, deciding to act as if he had no idea what his father was talking about. "If that's what you think," he said. "Listen, I'm pretty hungry. Can I go down to breakfast now?"

"Of course," Bill nodded, getting up and following Louis out of the bedroom. "Just… well. Never mind."

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After his conversation with his father, Louis had a lot to think about. Obviously Bill didn't know what was going on with the Slytherins, but he definitely knew something was going on. Louis didn't know how he'd come to that conclusion. All Louis did was run and exercise. It couldn't be that suspicious. But he knew he had to watch himself for the remainder of the holiday.

Christmas Eve came, and everyone headed to the Burrow for their big Weasley Christmas. Louis participated in the annual game of hide-and-go-seek, and then when it was time for the Quidditch game, he immediately opted out. While James and the adults got their teams sorted, Louis decided to run some laps of the big field that surrounded the Burrow.

As he started running, his legs immediately took over and his brain shut off. There was no need to think when he ran, all he needed to do was let his legs carry him. It was a wonderful feeling. Louis was a little surprised when he realized it, but it was true. He was really enjoying running. He got the feeling that if he stopped, like Professor Derlid had warned him not to, he wouldn't feel good about it. He liked running, liked feeling the power and strength in his legs. In fact, he liked all his exercises. He liked feeling strong and able. He'd never liked being weak and limp like a wilted flower.

And now that he was training like he was, he was starting to put on a little bit of weight. Not a crazy amount yet, but enough to make him a bit more substantial. Why was his father so worried about him? Louis was doing great! He was happy and healthy and stronger than ever. As Louis ran back in the direction of the Burrow – the Quidditch game was clearly over and dinner was about to be served – he found himself smiling. When he got back to Hogwarts, those Slytherins wouldn't recognize him.