Author's Note: Thank you, livvylane, for remaining faithful to my story and reviewing. Welcome, dear readers, to Chapter 9! There are around 18-20 Chapters planned, so we are slowly approaching halftime. Please review!
Albus enjoyed being back at Hogwarts. At last doing magic again was a very satisfying feeling, so Albus even took a lot of delight in playing Professor Smethwyck's puck-pushing game at the first lesson of the day. His "duel" with Rose were very exhausting, though; both concentrated deeply to push the puck towards the opponent, but neither of them succeeded in moving it significantly. In the end, they agreed to a draw.
The only other student who was actually a challenge to Albus was Leon Strelka. Minutes passed, but no one managed to push the puck towards the other. Albus' head was starting to pound, but submitting or offering a draw wasn't an alternative here. Albus screwed up his eyes in pain, but put even more effort into the task. Strelka was looking similarly strained. Everyone was watching their "duel" now. Next to Albus, Scorpius whispered something. Suddenly, the puck raised in the air, moved towards Strelka and sharply hit his nose.
"MALFOY!" shouted Professor Smethwyck. "Detention, Malfoy. Today in the evening, my office. How dare you interrupt such an instructive duel in such a rude way? Twenty points from Ravenclaw."
"But, Sir," protested Scorpius. "They were going to pass out, something had to be done!"
"That's actually the idea of this duelling training, Malfoy, to push the envelope! You are lazy and sinister, Malfoy, just like your whole family. Ill weeds grow apace, don't they! Thankfully, you will become a really poor duellist," spat Smethwyck.
Scorpius looked taken aback by this and remained silent.
"Homework," said Smethwyck in a bored voice, "read the next three chapters of your book and write a summary, three feet until next week. Class dismissed."
"You really shouldn't have done that," said Albus to Scorpius, when they were walking to the muggle studies classroom. "You know that Smethwyck hates it when you interrupt his stupid game."
"But Albus, you were really looking as if you passed out any moment," said Scorpius. "You could have hurt yourself. Besides, I didn't think that anyone would notice. I only whispered the incantation."
"Smethwyck was really unfair, though," said Quentin. "In fact, he insulted your family! You should tell Professor Flitwick about it, or Professor Arrington."
"Yeah, you're right," agreed Albus. "We have Transfiguration later, then we can tell Professor Arrington."
Scorpius looked somewhat reluctant, but didn't argue.
Muggle studies was interesting as usual. "Muggles have invented many extremely useful technologies, really extremely useful. In some ways they are ahead of us wizards and witches. Take, for example, planes. I'm sure, all of you have seen some flying high over you heads at the sky. They can stay in the air without magic! And, mind you, they are much faster, bigger and more comfortable than brooms. Muggles can travel long distances in a relatively short time. There are lots of other examples of great muggle technologies, some of which we'll discuss in this class," said Professor Botwright.
Albus listened, fascinated. One thing he didn't understand, though, so he raised his hand.
"Yes, Albus, my dear?"
"Why don't wizards use more of the muggles' inventions, or extend them magically?"
Professor Botwright smiled at him. "Well, some of them we do use sometimes, for example cars. Some of them are just unnecessary, because we can do their purpose magically. But you're right, of course, we could achieve many great things if we copied some muggle ideas. Unfortunately, our magical world is somewhat unprogressive and traditional. Muggle inventions are often laughed at. And the overwhelming majority of wizards and witches completely lacks the muggles' spirit of research. Just look at the internet. At least the muggle-borns among you will know what I mean. It's a digital network, which contains almost all of the muggles' knowledge. They don't have to look anything up at books anymore, they just ask the network. Just imagine, how useful such a network would be for your homework!"
Professor Botwright's words surely didn't fail to have the desired effect. When the lesson was over, the whole class was chatting about the internet and how useful a magical version could be for their schoolwork. The discussion was still well underway, when they reached the Transfiguration classroom.
Professor Arrington seemed a bit surprised about their animation. "Usually you aren't that excited, when you enter my classroom," he said, smirking. "Though I have a feeling that it might have another reason than my fascinating lesson."
Some students laughed.
"Anyway, experience has shown that two weeks of Christmas break are long enough for First-years to forget half of the things they have learned so far. Thus, we'll cover nothing new today. In front of you are some objects you have already transformed before Christmas; please try to remember and transform them for me."
Albus suppressed a groan. This was going to be an extremely boring lesson. Quickly, he transformed his objects and tried to help Scorpius for the rest of the lesson, who was still struggling a bit with Transfiguration.
When it was finally over, Albus, Quentin and Scorpius stayed behind to tell Professor Arrington about the incident in Defence Against the Dark Arts. The Transfiguration Master heard them out, his piercing blue eyes lingering on Scorpius. When they had finished, he sighed.
"You're right, Mr Simiol. It's really unacceptable. I'm sorry, Scorpius, very sorry, but I'm afraid it won't be the last time you will have to face prejudices against you because of your family. Still, it's not fair, and it certainly cannot come from a teacher. That's absolutely not okay. I will speak to Professor Smethwyck; I guarantee you it won't happen again. Of course, I can't do anything against your detention," he added quickly.
Scorpius nodded. "Thank you, Sir," he said.
Professor Arrington nodded. "I'll see you later, Albus," he said. "And Scorpius - I know your father. I got acquainted with him after the war. I know he is a fine person now, regardless of his past. But either way, I'm sure you will build up your own reputation."
O
"They took our bait," said Gorniak. "The memory your wand-carrying friend implanted in Grubok's head must have been really convincing. The Ministry of Magic believes that Francois Simiol is behind the assault. They even sent the Metamorphmagus Teddy Lupin to France, as our spies at the Ministry report."
"Excellent! A war between Britain and France would come very handy. In due course we will give Simiol a hint about Lupin spying on him, so the conflict escalates further," said Ragnuk. "Urguk, what did you tell the press?"
"I repudiated the assault in the strongest terms. According to my statement, Grubok was a radical goblin who wasn't under our control. Besides, I offered the Ministry help and held out the prospect of a cooperation. Nicely vague, though, so they won't actually accept it," said Urguk.
"Very good," said Ragnuk. "My wand-carrying friend and the centaurs are still protecting our agents in the Forbidden Forest from being detected by snooping Aurors. Then we can concentrate on our plan to capture Albus Severus Potter. Soon, it will be done; our wand-carrying ally at Hogwarts already cast a little Imperius Curse, to prepare everything."
O
When Albus approached Professor Arrington's classroom, he heard loud voices from inside.
"… absolutely disgusting!" said Professor Arrington. "The young Mr Malfoy hasn't done anything, how dare you insult him because of his family! We are examples for our students, Tyron, so you should remember to act this way!"
"Enough," growled Smethwyck. "Just shut it, Aaron. I have no time for such childish arguments; I must go to my office now, Malfoy is waiting for his detention."
He turned to leave and saw Albus appearing at the door.
"Potter!" he snarled. "Are you spying on your teachers now? You -"
"Albus has an appointment with me," said Professor Arrington calmly. "You may leave now, Tyron."
Smethwyck snorted and rushed out of the classroom.
"Good evening, Sir," said Albus timidly.
Professor Arrington's face softened. "Good evening, Albus," he said, smiling. "Welcome to your first challenging lesson in Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Please sit down," he added, pointing towards a chair opposite to his own. "Before we start, do you have any questions, anything pressing your mind?"
"Yes," said Albus, taking his seat. "How did you shatter all the windows at the Hogwarts Express?"
"Oh," said Professor Arrington, surprised. "I produced a sound, you know, a very high sound, as I'm sure you heard. That sound had just the right frequency for the windows to get in vibration and finally shatter. I don't know if this solution was especially elegant or so, but in that hurry it was the first idea that came to my mind. Currently, I'm doing some research on the connection of magic and music; that helped me a great deal there."
"Magic and music?" asked Albus disbelievingly. "Are you saying that you can do magic by just doing music?"
"Yes," said Professor Arrington. "There are certainly unmistakeable indications in that direction. I'm not sure, however, to which extent this can be utilized; of course, you wouldn't want just uncontrollable magical outbursts. This is more about Charms, though, so I'll consult Professor Flitwick's opinion about this; I'm not really an expert in this metier."
"What are you going to teach me?" asked Albus eagerly.
"You certainly get straight to the point, don't you?" said Professor Arrington. "Well, first I will teach you the basic concepts of Transfiguration and Duelling. Well, this might be ambiguous, I guess; when I say 'basic concepts', I mean everything until your OWLs in the fifth year."
"How long will that take?" asked Albus, who had already been hoping for a lot more than "basic concepts".
"This mostly depends on you," answered Professor Arrington. "And on how often we are going to meet. Assumed, I teach you two lessons a week, considering your astonishing talent and motivation for these subjects, I would say - not more than two years. But this is only an estimate and could as well be completely wrong. We'll see."
"And then?"
"Then? You are in your first year, and 'everything until OWL-level' isn't satisfying you? Maybe it won't take two years after all… Well, Albus, then pretty much anything is possible. I could help you develop your own duelling style, help you become a master duellist. I could teach you wandless magic. I could show you my research on Transfiguration, for example on the fifth variable in the formula. I could teach you to become an Animagus. We could invent new spells together. Or we could do some original research on the essence of magic. This should be enough for motivation, I hope?"
Albus was enthusiastic. "Yeah, that sounds great!"
"But be warned, I won't go easy on you. These lessons will be challenging, Albus, and they will be hard. You'll see. But enough talking. Let's start. Are you ready?"
"I'm ready," said Albus at once.
"Okay. I want to begin with Transfiguration, later it will become clear, why. Surely, you have recognized that we have used different incantations for every transformation so far. Those incantations are object-specific. For example, if you want to transform something in a needle, the incantation is always 'Acus verto'. Now, there are such incantations for every object you can imagine. Not to mention animals. Can you see the problem?"
"Er… there are so many objects or animals that you can't remember the incantation for each one?" said Albus.
"Exactly! Of course, there are encyclopaedias, so you can look it up. But even I don't know the specific incantation for every single object in the world. The good news is, it isn't necessary at all. There are more general incantations you can use for almost everything. With ordinary objects, this is especially easy: The general incantation for all of them is 'Res verto'."
"Res verto," repeated Albus.
"Yes," confirmed Professor Arrington. "Knowing only this incantation, you can transform practically any object into any object. On the other hand, using 'Res verto' is more difficult than the specific incantations. That's why I didn't mention it in class yet. Can you imagine, which variable in our formula is influenced?"
Albus thought about it. The bodyweight remained constant, that much was for sure. His wand power wouldn't change, either. Concentration was usually independent from the incantation. That left…
"Viciousness," said Albus.
"Correct. Not using the specific incantation increases the viciousness of your Transformation. To reach the same overall power, you have to compensate it somehow."
"With my concentration," said Albus at once.
"Yes. A better concentration can compensate viciousness to a certain degree. In our case, it's certainly manageable, as we aren't using any random incantation, after all, but still one that is excellently suited for transfiguring objects. But some spells that already require a very high amount of concentration can be a real challenge, if you use general incantations. A few of them are even impossible to cast under this circumstance. In such a case, it's still important to know the specific incantation."
Albus nodded. So far, he had understood everything.
"Alright. Now you've got the theory, let's see if you put it into practice," said Professor Arrington. He flicked his wand, and a matchstick appeared on the desk in front of Albus. "Transform it into a needle, using 'Res verto', obviously."
Albus pointed his wand at the matchstick and concentrated. "Res verto!"
The magic flowed out of his wand, and in front of him lay a perfect needle.
"Very good, really. I never had a student before, who managed to use that spell that cleanly at his first try, certainly not a first year. You should practice this alone, with bigger objects. That's also what you'll be doing at class, when the others are using the specific incantation. For now, you have understood the principle. Next lesson we'll try transformations with animals, in case you already want to do some additional reading on that. Today, I would like to start with some duelling instructions, if you're up to it," said Professor Arrington.
"Of course!" said Albus eagerly.
"Very well," said Professor Arrington. "To start off with, duelling is in my view no sport. Not at all. Thus, I won't bother to teach you all this nonsense with bowing, wands at the ready and so on. You duel if there is a fight, not for fun. The whole idea is to incapacitate your opponent, am I understood?"
"Yes, Sir," said Albus quickly.
"If I fired a spell at you, without warning, what would you do?"
"I would cast a Shield Charm, to block it," said Albus.
With lightning speed, Professor Arrington drew his wand and shouted "Impedimenta!"
The spell struck Albus, who hadn't been able to react, at full tilt, so that his was immobilized at once.
"Finite," said Professor Arrington lazily, and Albus could move again. "Then why didn't you actually do it?"
"I - I had no time, I didn't expect it," spluttered Albus.
"That's just like it will be in a real fight. Your opponent won't warn you before he curses you. The most duels are decided that way, Albus. It's not about magical power, regardless of what Smethwyck says, but about speed. Now draw your wand. Let's try again. Expelliarmus," he shouted.
"Protego," ejaculated Albus, and a flickering shield appeared in front of him. Professor Arrington's Disarming Charm crushed right through it, though, and hit Albus at the chest. His wand flew out of his hand and was caught by Professor Arrington.
"That was not bad, but as you see, your shield didn't stop my spell," he said, passing the wand back to Albus, who stared incredulously. He had practiced the Shield Charm for so long, and now Professor Arrington crushed it with a simple "Expelliarmus"?
"Of course we will work on your magical barriers, so your shield will soon be much stronger," Professor Arrington continued. "But a skilled attacker can break through it, at the very least by casting an Unforgivable Curse. 'Protego' is pretty useless then. There are some other magical barriers you could conjure, but all of them can be broken eventually, so you certainly shouldn't rely on it. No, the first instinct you should have when I fire a spell at you, is to get out of the way."
Albus felt somewhat disappointed by this, and Professor Arrington seemed to notice this, as he continued, "look, Albus. In general, there are two choices when an enemy spell is coming towards you: dodge it or defend magically. The more skilled you are, the more often you will try to defend against it, and we'll get to that soon. Sometimes, however, for example if you lost your wand or if there are several spells approaching, you simply need to dodge. Not too long ago, even many Aurors didn't realize that. Sure, some of them, like Professor Smethwyck, were so powerful spellcasters that they usually didn't have to dodge anything. When your father became Head Auror, however, things changed there as well. Agility is a very important factor in modern duelling. At this point of your career, it's certainly a good idea to learn how to avoid being hit by a curse, so we'll focus on that today. I will try to disarm you, and you have to dodge the spell. Expelliarmus!"
Without warning, Professor Arrington fired a spell at him, and Albus leaped out of the way. He landed ruggedly on the floor. When he started to bob up, he was struck by a second spell that disarmed him again.
"Your reactions are not as bad as they could be, but they're still not good enough, I'm afraid," said Professor Arrington drily. "Your mistake is that you only react when you hear me shout the incantation. You have to look at my hand. You know the wand movement for 'Expelliarmus'; use this knowledge to anticipate my spell!"
Again, Professor Arrington moved incredibly quickly and fired a spell at Albus, without saying a word. Albus, who had watched out for wand movements, quickly jumped out of the way and rolled forward to avoid Professor Arrington's second spell. This "dance" continued for a while, until Albus got tired and was eventually hit.
"That was better, much better," said Professor Arrington calmly. "Your reactions were pretty decent. But you aren't agile enough. In a duel, you have to be light on your feet. Anticipate not only my spells, but also plan your own movements to dodge it. Pay attention to your environment, you have to know how you are going to dodge before I finally cast my spell. Control your movements; if your body is quicker than your mind, then you have already lost. Expelliarmus!"
Their training continued another hour, and it was extremely exhausting. Albus' whole body hurt from colliding to the ground. Professor Arrington's attacks wouldn't end; on the contrary, the teacher was trying to trick Albus by changing the direction of his spell at the last second. Albus, on the other hand, tried to keep an eye on Arrington's wand, looking for indication in which direction he had to dive. Sometimes, the spells were aimed at his head, so he had to duck; sometimes at his legs, so Albus had to jump to avoid them. Finally, Professor Arrington lowered his wand.
"Okay. That's enough for today. I promise that our next lessons won't be as exhausting as this one, at least not physically. Today, we have Wednesday; I suggest we meet at Saturday morning, 9 o'clock, and then next Wednesday evening again. Please remember to practice the general transforming spell with heavier objects than a matchstick."
"Yes, Sir," said Albus, whose eagerness had somewhat declined during the lesson. Still, he couldn't wait to learn about more advanced Transfiguration and Duelling. "Good night."
"Good night, Albus. You did well."
When Albus was back at the Ravenclaw Common Room, Quentin and Scorpius were already awaiting him.
"Albus!" said Quentin. "How did it go - what has happened to you?" he added startled, when he noticed Albus battered appearance.
"Er, Albus," said Scorpius. "Are you sure Professor Arrington tutored you? He didn't by chance, I don't know, torture you?"
Albus slumped into an armchair and laughed. "Sort of," he said. "We practiced duelling, and I had to dodge his spells. That was kind of exhausting, you know… I guess I'll go to bed. Wait, Scorpius, how did you escape your detention with Smethwyck so quickly?"
Scorpius shrugged. "He seemed somewhat gruffly," he said brightly. "More than usual, I mean. I only had to write lines. My father gave me a special quill for that case, though, one that speeds things up a bit. So I was done in no time. Smethwyck let me go quite readily; I think he just wanted me out of his office."
O
Harry leaned back in his office chair and allowed himself a butterscotch candy. At last, something had worked without a catastrophe. Teddy had gone to France without being detected; he sent them information on Simiol's activities regularly. Even though he hadn't yet found the reason for the assault on Bill, Harry was quite optimistic about that matter.
The Hogwarts Express had reached the castle without a wall of Fiendfyre getting into the way. The goblins seemed to aim for a compromise with the Ministry; Urguk, the former Head of Gringotts, had praised him publicly and propagated a cooperation.
Of course, not everything was fine. He had been sharply criticised both inside the Ministry and by the press because of his handling of the Simiol issue; it still irritated Harry that the French politician had made them look like fools so easily. Ernie and Hermione were also under fire; still, their great reputation allowed them to simply bounce most of the criticism off, at least in public.
In France, things were different, though. According to Teddy's reports, there were massive hostilities against muggle-borns and the "muggle-friendly" British government. Francois Simiol was riding on a chorus of approval; as an extremely skilful rhetorician, he managed to get huge parts of the magical population on his side. Muggle-borns were only a minority in France; many old, influential pure-blood families were supporting Simiol's radical party, the "Front Magique".
Probably Ron was right, thought Harry, while he was scanning some documents he was supposed to sign. It wasn't their business what happened in France. Unfortunately, most of his his colleagues hat a totally different opinion about that. Hermione wanted to help the muggle-borns in France; Ernie felt offended by Simiol's anti-British propaganda, whereas Percy wanted to revenge his dead wife, Audrey.
Suddenly, the door to his office burst open. Harry jumped to his feet and drew his wand, but in front of him stood Ron.
"Harry," he panted, "they've got Teddy. Jean-Marie Mensong, the French Head Auror and a close confidant of Simiol, has just told the press that he managed to capture a British spy."
O
Albus' body still ached, when he woke up the next morning. He looked around. Quentin, Scorpius, Adnan and Gabriel were already gone; apparently, they had let him sleep and already gone to breakfast. He quickly got dressed and hurried out of the Ravenclaw Common Room. He didn't get very far, though; after a few meters, he faced Molly and Lucy Weasley.
"Ha! Excellent. There he is," cackled Lucy. "Now, Molly, jinx him. Come on, he is a first-year, the perfect object to practice. First disarming, I'd say."
Molly nodded and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" A jet of red light erupted from her wand and Lucy already cheered, but Albus, who was still in the "dodging mode" from yesterday evening, quickly ducked. Molly's spell soared above his head and crushed at the wall behind him. Albus raised his wand and on his part cried "Expelliarmus!"
Molly reacted much too slowly and was hit by his spell. Her wand flew out of her hand and rolled down a staircase next to them. Albus turned towards Lucy, when he suddenly heard Molly sobbing. Turning back towards her, he only saw her storming away, her long hair flying everywhere. Lucy hesitated, then she shrugged and left in the opposite direction. Albus remained on the spot, completely bewildered. It seemed that Lucy had just wanted to teach Molly duelling. For that purpose, she had ambushed him, because he was a helpless first-year? Uncle Percy's daughters were really completely mad. He was glad, though, that dodging Molly's spell had worked out so well. Maybe Professor Arrington's drill had been useful after all.
Albus consulted his watch and realized that Herbology would begin in five minutes. He decided to skip breakfast and hurried outside.
When Albus finally approached the greenhouses, his classmates, who were already there, shrieked and pointed at something above him. He whirled around. Something was falling from the Gryffindor tower. It was the figure of a body. Albus stared in shock. A split second later, the body hit the ground hard. Students were running towards it; the screams were getting louder.
"NO!"
"MOLLY!"