Thank you all for your loyal support, I am so grateful you're all still here.

I am in the middle of my teacher training, hence the long delay in updating but I'll try to be as good as I can.

Please read and review though, and tell me what you think

Chapter 17: Training Time!

After a few hours of extensive questioning, threats and comments that had Harry and the entourage from the Ministry face-to-face, wand-to-wand and some not-so-nice language passed between them too many times for Hermione to keep track of, the Minister and her Auror squad left the castle with nothing more than what they started with.

"How dare they just barge in here and demand answers Albus?" McGonagall asked, also peeved off and in a slight bad mood at the audacity of the Ministry.

"I don't care if they come after me, but when they start attacking my family and friends Headmaster, that's where Azkaban doesn't stand between me and blowing up that jerk of a Minister," Harry said angrily, seething from where he sat and clutching Hermione's hand so hard that she had to keep from wincing.

"I apologise Harry, but I never thought that the Minister would barge in and demand answers. Bagnold is usually a calm and cooperative person, so something smells fishy," Albus said, concerned and rubbing his temples to send the stress away.

"Well there's no reason to keep the children here," Filius said, motioning to Harry and Hermione, "I think you two can take the rest of the morning off."

"I think that's a marvellous idea Filius," McGonagall agreed and shooed the two to the door, "cool down and get your things ready for the afternoon lesson."

And with that, Harry and Hermione were shoved none-too-gently out of the office and down the stairs to face the gargoyle locking them out of the tower.

"Um, Harry," a voice said behind them as they reached the bottom of the stairs, and both students turned around to see that Charlus was walking towards them, a nervous smile on his face, his wand tucked away on the holster on his belt.

"Mr Potter," Harry said curtly, nodding his head in politeness.

"None of the formalities needed with family, grandson," he winked and Harry smiled tentatively. Charlus strode forward and enveloped Harry into a hug, which Harry reciprocated after a moment.

"I have many questions, son, but right now is not the time to do so. Even the walls have ears," he said conspirationally and Harry smirked in agreement at the many times he walked past the portraits to hear them whispering.

"Of course, Sir," Harry agreed.

"I'll owl you later on, but you are both invited to spend the upcoming Christmas holidays with me and Dorea at Potter Mansion," Charlus said, bowing slightly to Hermione who smiled and nodded excitedly.

"Of course, thank you very much for the offer, Sir" Hermione thanked and Charlus laughed.

"None of this Sir nonsense, Miss Granger, we are all family here, from what I've heard from James in his letters home as well as from Albus," he said cheerfully, before giving both students and hug and hurrying off.

"I'll owl you later children," he called over his shoulder before dashing around the corner, out of sight.

"Let's go and take a dip in the lake whilst we wait for lunch," Hermione said, ushering her boyfriend out and hoping that a swim in the lake would do them much good after their meeting, however it seemed that the talk with Charlus had done Harry some good as he seemed less tense.

"But it'll be freezing… it is only October," Harry complained, before Hermione turned around and gave him a glare as if to ask if he was stupid.

"You're a wizard and you've never thought of using a warming charm?" she asked.

"Excuse me but I faintly remember a certain someone who forgot she could defeat Devil's Snare with her wand and was calling for matches to light a fire?" Harry shot back defensively and Hermione blushed in embarrassment.

"I was only 11 at the time," Hermione muttered but Harry heard and slung his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

"Alright, let's go and put some warming charms on us and swim in the big freezing lake. But if I have to chop a limb off because it froze up and never defrosted, I will be stealing one of your limbs," Harry sighed dramatically, and Hermione poked her tongue out at him.

"Big baby," she teased.

"But I'm your big baby," he teased back, poking his tongue out, and Hermione nodded.

"That you are Potter."

The rest of the day passed in a blur as Harry and Hermione eagerly awaited their first training session with Salazar that night. From the stories and myths that they had managed to read about after Hermione's research in the library, which were next to none, they were anticipating a lot of parsel-magic which made Hermione nervous as she could not speak the language.

"It'll be fine, he's already taken with you, brightest witch of your age," Harry reassured his pacing and agitated girlfriend from where he was lounging on the sofa. He knew before the whole Ron debacle that failure had been her worst fear.

"But I have no idea how to speak parseltongue. I haven't even been given anything to read ahead so how can I make a good impression on him?"

Hermione shook her head as she imagined Sal casting her out of the training sessions and closed her eyes briefly in despair as she flung herself on the sofa in front of the fire in the Room of Requirement. Harry wrapped his arms around her and gently rocked her to calm her down.

"It'll be okay, you'll see. He never would have chosen you as one of the apprentices if he did not believe in you." Harry comforted.

They closed their eyes to enjoy each other's presence before they heard the clock chime to signal 9pm.

"Let's do it," Hermione said, eyes fixed determinedly at her locket as she placed one finger on it and held Harry with the other hand.

"Parsel," they both said in unison and with a jerk to their navel, they were whisked off to the unknown destination.

Salazar smirked as he felt the portkey charm being used and got into position.

"This is going to be fun," he softly chuckled as he waved his wand and the room transformed into an assault course, which would be used to test his apprentices' knowledge and show him what he was working with.

He was expecting high levels of skill and knowledge… his apprentices' reputations preceded them: one was the smartest witch of her age from a Muggleborn background, and the other the saviour of the Wizarding World (here he scoffed to himself)… but above all they were a loving couple who have the motivation to survive for their love.

And he would be damned if he would fail them.

To honour his beloved, he would help them survive this war.

"Oh Rowena, you would have loved them," he sighed, gazing down at a picture of his beloved which was on the inside of his pocket watch.

He blew a kiss to the witch he had loved since his teens, reliving the sadness and devastation as he watched her suffer the most horrible fate as she protected him to complete their mission, and wiping a tear away, he stuffed it into his pocket as he heard a scuffle and nodded to himself.

"Sonorous," he muttered, pointing his wand to his throat.

Harry and Hermione braced themselves as the portkey dropped them off to their destination, and he wobbled a little, holding onto Hermione and successfully avoided falling in a heap onto the floor.

"Getting better there, honey," Hermione praised and Harry nodded, pleased with himself.

"What the…" Harry questioned as they took in their surroundings.

"Greetings young warlocks," a voice boomed which was familiar to them and they grinned in anticipation.

"Your job tonight… defeat my assault course and show me your skills as a team as well as individually. The catch… you have 10 minutes before the course self-destructs. On your marks, get set and go!"

Harry and Hermione nodded to themselves and then launched into action as they sprinted forward and came across their first obstacle… a tunnel of Cornish pixies.

"Only one way to go," Harry grimaced as the memories of Lockhart resurfaced back to them and Hermione winced but had her wand ready.

"Immobulus," they both yelled as they thrust themselves into the tunnel and before the pixies could attack them. A flash and bang later and they were walking through a bizarre tunnel that reminded Harry of an asteroid field in space, but instead was of frozen pixies.

"Let's get going," Hermione shivered as she eyes the pixies with distrust and they exited the tunnel to come across three doors in a row.

"Look there is a riddle," Harry pointed out and Hermione walked over and read it out.

Behind these doors three,

Lies the path that takes you to me,

However, young warlock, choose wisely,

One wrong step and you will fail me.

The path you seek is hidden deep,

Behind the door that we can Speak,

However, this door bears the crest of he,

Who soars above yet lives deep beneath

Harry and Hermione read over the riddle a few times before Harry went over to the doors to examine them.

"Look, there's three different inscriptions on them," Harry called to Hermione, who walked over to take a closer look.

"A snake, a raven and a dragon?" Hermione said confused but Harry grinned as it clicked.

"It has got to be the snake," Harry said as he pointed at the line, 'Behind the door that we can Speak'.

"I can speak to snakes," Harry said and reached to open the second door with the snake on it.

"No, stop," Hermione said, yanking his hand back and scanning the passage again before she paused to think, and then smiled and walked to stand in front of the door that had the dragon on it.

"I can't speak to dragons Hermione, c'mon," Harry said exasperatedly, and Hermione nodded her head.

"True, however the dragon is known to be a distant relative of the snake species, they make the same sort of hissing noise and both are scaly and cold-blooded. But the real clincher is the last line, 'who soars above yet lives deep beneath,' which fits as the dragon…"

"… flies with its wings but lives in caves deep underground," Harry finished and beamed at his girlfriend, pecking her on the cheek before stepping back and letting her have the honours to open the door.

"Yay," she squealed happily and they took off to face their next obstacle.

"Five minutes remaining young warlocks," Salazar's voice boomed and the two students sped up to the next obstacle which was…

"Are we still inside?" Harry asked in wonder as he and Hermione gazed at the White Cliffs of Dover which were overlooking the sea.

"I think so, but this is an amazing transfiguration piece of magic," Hermione said, running her hands on the ground and feeling the stones, rocks and dirt.

"What do we need to do?" Harry pondered but he got his answer when he spied a rope bridge a way down and he motioned to Hermione and they trundled over.

The rope bridge, however, was disintegrated and handing on by, literally, a thread.

"I suppose we need to get to that side," Hermione pointed and Harry chuckled.

"A bit of transfiguration ought to do it," Harry said and started to transfigure a sturdy bridge.

"This might take a while," he said over his shoulder.

"I don't think we have much time Harry," Hermione said in a slightly panicked tone and Harry stopped what he was doing to turn around and gulp at the pack of growling wolves that were advancing on Hermione and himself.

"Ok, change of plan… you try to keep them at bay and I'll try and come up with an alternative solution," Harry said and Hermione nodded, conjuring a shield charm to protect against them.

Harry scanned the area and was about to raise his wand to create a rope swing when Hermione crashed into him and throwing him to the side… just in time to see a ball of fire shoot at where his head was a few moments ago.

"Fire breathing wolves, that is new," Harry said intrigued and Hermione shook her head.

"Not the time Harry," she said and they both pushed themselves up and turned to face the wolves which were readying another ball of flames to throw at the two students.

"Not this time son," Harry said and muzzled the wolf with a metal chain he conjured and the wolf howled and attempted to take it off.

"No time to anything else Hermione," Harry said as he saw his girlfriend fending off two wolves.

He grabbed her around the waist, sprinted to the edge of the cliff and jumped. He then twisted his wand to create a haphazard rope swing and swung with his strength to the other side of the cliff to end softly on the grassy field, all the while whilst Hermione was screaming in fear.

"See, no harm done… " he trailed off after seeing the look on his girlfriend's face and gulped.

"HARRY JAMES POTTER, DON'T YOU EVER DO ANYTHING LIKE THAT AGAIN! DO YOU KNOW HOW SCARED I WAS – NOT FOR ME BUT FOR THE BOTH OF US… WHAT IF WE HAD NOT LANDED AND YOU COULD NOT HAVE DONE THE ROPE SWING PROPERLY… WE'D BE SPLATS ON THE FLOOR!"

"Sorry," Harry said and Hermione huffed and crossed her arms, still shaky.

Before he could kiss and make up, there was a clapping sound from behind them and they turned to see Salazar walking towards them and smiling in approval.

"Amazing team work, the both of you," he smiled and the two students smiled back modestly.

"Now let's get to work," Salazar said and they both grinned in anticipation.

"What will we be doing first?" Harry asked excited.

"Endurance training," Salazar said and with a big flourish of his wand, he transformed the room they were in again to a running track.

"I want 20 laps," he said and when the two students did not move, he blew a whistle straight in their ears, spurring them on.

"But… but… I thought we were learning advanced magic, based on what we read about you in the Hogwarts Library." Hermione asked puzzled as Harry transfigured their shoes into trainers and nodded in agreement.

"Tell me something Hermione… if you were faced with a werewolf, the best thing would be to run. How would you be able to run for safety if you can't last one minute without pausing to catch breath? So before we start spells and magic, we're taking the muggle route and building up our strength first." Salazar said in perfect sense, then turned to walk away and watch from the bench as the two apprentices started to jog around the track.

The next morning…

Harry and Hermione tried not to show it, but they hobbled to the Great Hall to have their breakfast, wincing in pain as the muscles they never thought they had were aching like hell.

"You two look sore," James commented concerned but Harry ignored him as he gulped a pint of coffee down him, not caring about the temperature.

"We just need some rest," Hermione said wearily, wincing slightly as she reached for the toast plate. Remus, taking pity, pushed it over to her and she smiled gratefully.

"Who put you through the ringer then?" Sirius asked, chuckling at their plight, and Harry glared at him.

"Never you mind, dog-breath," Harry said and Sirius stuck his tongue out.

"Flopsy," James said quietly and a house elf bearing the Potter crest appeared and bowed to James.

"What can Flopsy be doings for youse Master James?"

"I need two pain relievers and 2 pepper-ups please," James asked and Flopsy nodded, clicking her fingers and they popped up in front of the two suffering students.

"Thanks," Harry nodded appreciatively as he and Hermione swigged them down desperately and sank back down in relief as the pain vanished.

"Now, what are people's Christmas plans?" Peter asked and Harry and Hermione smiled in anticipation.

"If it's ok with you Harry, dad has been desperate for you to come over to ours for the holidays," James asked and Harry nodded.

"We'll be there," Harry confirmed and James smiled and left to send an owl to inform his parents.

"Now we can focus on the real stuff… present shopping!" Sirius sang and they nodded.