Chapter 7

Harry and Ron were panting as they entered the common room at around 7:30 AM only to see Susan and Hannah sitting at one of the larger tables on the left side of the common room. Around them were multiple textbooks and a few pages of parchment. Also sitting at the table was Megan Jones.

"Well, look at what the cat dragged in," said Susan, looking at the sweat drenched bodies of Harry and Ron. Both Harry and Ron were dressed in yellow long

"Says the girl who is being taught by both of us," countered Ron. Susan shrugged as Harry pulled up a chair to look at what Susan and Hannah were working on.

"Are you just working on what we were doing last night?" asked Harry.

"Yeah. We've basically got the theory and the practicality of how to do it. We just need to be more consistent. And also, we still can't get the staffs to be as long as yours unless we sacrifice how the match looks after the transformation."

"Well, it's better practicing it on shorter staffs until you can do it consistently. Then try for the longer version of the staff. I should have started you guys on that last night, but I completely forgot about it."

"It's fine. It's not like you've actually taught anyone. Say, for Lumos, could you theoretically make it come from somewhere else, like a ball of light?" asked Hannah.

"Um…no? That would be an entirely different spell. Lumos is to create a light from the tip of the wand only. Same with nox, only it is in regards to extinguishing the light. I am almost positive that if you wanted to create a ball of light and/or extinguish a ball of light, those would be two entirely different spells."

"Hmm, okay."

"Wait, hold on a second, what are you guys talking about?" asked Megan, as the [red-headed girl] stared at Susan, Hannah, and Harry. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry noticed Ron leaving Harry to answer the questions while he went up to go shower. Ron noticed Harry's eyes on him and gave him a thumbs up before heading up the stairs. Harry rolled his eyes as he turned back to the conversation where Susan was explaining that they had started their own study group since Harry knows a lot of the spells from the first-year curriculum.

"Really?" asked Megan, turning to look at Harry who was explaining some of the ways to be more consistent on the transfiguration spell to Hannah.

"Yep," replied Susan as she watched Hannah perfectly perform the transfiguration spell to change the match into a staff, this time though, it was a bit longer that it had been the night before. Harry grinned.

"That's how you do it, Hannah," said Harry as he got up. "I'll be back down after I shower and we can head down to breakfast. Or I'll meet you at the Great Hall with Ron."

"No, we'll wait," said Susan. Harry nodded and went up the stairs, passing some of his roommates, Wayne and Zacharias, on the way up. Harry entered the dorm room and immediately began stripping, throwing his clothes into the hamper and grabbing his towel. Harry walked out and over to the showers. After turning on the water, Harry brushed his teeth as he waited for the water to warm up.

After the water had warmed to a temperature that was adequate, Harry stepped under the water, sighing in content as the warm water hit his back. The water soothed and relaxed his leg muscles from all the running that he and Ron had done that morning. Harry slowly washed his body as his slowly developing muscles ached in pain. After thoroughly washing himself, Harry stepped out of the shower, grabbed his towel, dried himself before walking back to his room to change into his school uniform. Harry grabbed his bag that had an extension charm on it so he could put as many books as he wanted into the bag.

When Harry got back to the common room, Ron, Ernie, and Justin had all joined Susan, Hannah, and Megan. Ron noticed Harry walking down the stairs and motioned for him to come join them at the table.

"Harry! Are you ready to go eat?"

"Yep." The group of Hufflepuffs exited the common room and began their trek to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"Harry why do you and Ron go running in the morning?" asked Susan.

"Well, the reasons are two-fold. One, it's so that when I go home to my relatives, I will be able to outlast him and his friends. in their game of…tag." If Susan could hear Harry's hesitance of naming the game his cousin played, which was really 'Harry Hunting', she didn't mention it, for which he was grateful.

"Uh huh. And the other?"

"To get into shape for Quidditch. Charlie, Ron's brother, said that it would help us a lot for when we try out for the Quidditch team, even though I'm planning on trying out this year. And being in shape could probably help me in duels when I'm older."

"First, how are you going to try out for Quidditch when you don't even have a broom and have never played the game in your life? Second, how it could be helpful in duels later on?" asked Susan, more curious about the second question as she had been raised in an environment where her aunt regularly dueled with her co-workers.

"First question is easy. I understand how the game is played and I would be trying out for the one position that doesn't require a lot of teamwork: the seeker. As for the broom, I'd use one of the school brooms, or I'll ask one of the older students if I can borrow their broom. It doesn't say that I can't try out for Quidditch, just that I can't own a broom."

"And why do you want to try out for Quidditch?" asked Hannah, joining the conversation.

"…cause it would be fun and I've never played organized sports before?" responded Harry, though he sounded unsure of the answer.

"Enough about Quidditch," interrupted Susan. "What's this about dueling?"

"Well," said Harry, "I figure that being able to run a lot means that I won't get tired and by not getting tired, I could dodge spells instead of focusing on blocking incoming spells. I don't know much about dueling yet, but I'm pretty sure that being able to dodge and fire off a counter immediately is better than blocking and giving the opponent time to fire another spell."

"Wait," said Ron, "Are you saying that if you can fire off spell at the same time at dodging the incoming spell, you would have a better chance of landing a solid hit on your opponent in a duel?" Harry shrugged.

"Again, I don't know. I've never dueled, but that is just my assumptions, and my ideas." Meanwhile, all of Harry's friends were staring at the 11-year-old. "What?"

"Are you sure you're eleven?" asked Ernie. "Why are you even thinking about dueling at eleven?"

"…Cause I love learning about magic?" asked Harry, suddenly realizing that maybe it weird that he was already thinking about dueling despite it being years away. Everyone except Megan rolled their eyes at Harry as they entered the Great Hall.

"No, Harry," said Justin, "It's cause you are weird. If you love learning about magic, you do what you did over the summer and learn an insurmountable number of spells. Being obsessed with everything that is magic is learning about dueling before you even have a repertoire of spells that would make learning about dueling useful."

"…so, I'm obsessed with magic?" asked Harry as he sat down on the bench of the Hufflepuff table on the side closer to where the teacher sat.

"Yes!" Harry recoiled at the resounding answer he got from his friends.

"Whatever. If you want to be that way…" said Harry as he spooned some eggs onto his plate. But before he could begin eating, Daphne came over to talk to Harry.

"Harry, here's the plan that I came up with." Before Harry could even respond, Daphne left the parchment on the table before spinning around and heading back to the Slytherin table to sit next to Tracey Davis. Harry picked up the parchment that she had left and began reading.

"Wow."

"What did she write?" asked Ernie.

"She wrote out what she wanted me to cover for the rest of the semester. Tomorrow, she wants us to cover…tripping jinx and the fire-making spell. Oh boy, that's going to be a great lesson."

"We can't do that in the library, Harry!"

"I know Susan. Which is why we won't be in the library tomorrow. Did you honestly think I would keep us in that study room when it's clear that this study group is growing and won't be able to stay in the library for much longer?"

"Well," said Ernie as Megan watched from side as the conversation went back and forth while she calmly ate her eggs, "where are we going to practice?"

"Well," said Harry, grinning, "A little birdie told me of an unused part of Hogwarts that we could use."

"Birdie?" asked Justin.

"Okay. It was a house-elf. But the point is that I found a place that we can meet. And the best part is that there is an entrance to it that is near each common room. You merely need to know where it is. There is no password as only students of that respective house can go through those passages."

"Okay, but unless we know where the entrance in our common room is, we won't be able to find it."

"Yes, that is true. Which is why when we enter the first time, it'll be through the main entrance."

"Which is where?" asked Megan, finally joining in on the conversation."

"The only entrance that the elves could tell us about is on the third floor behind the painting of a knight, a white horse, and midnight-colored owl."

"So, we're going to the area that is off limits?" asked Hannah.

"Yep," said Harry as he finished off his meal. "But after that, we won't have to go there again. We can just go there via the entrance near our common room."

"Alright. Let's go there this afternoon after classes," said Ron as he finished off some bacon and eggs.

"Agreed," said Susan. "But first, I think we need to head to DADA." Harry nodded and folded up the piece of parchment Daphne had given him and placed it in his bag. However before any of them could get up, owls descended into the great hall and started dropping off letters. In the group, only Susan received a letter.

"Is Aunty Amelia wishing you congratulations on getting into Hufflepuff?" asked Hannah, pouring herself some more pumpkin juice.

"Yep," replied Susan, "But she's also asking about Harry and the profit of his books. She wants to meet with you over the holidays." Harry shrugged.

"Okay. Not like I'll have anything better to do, well, except read more about magic." Hannah reached over and gave Harry a smack in the back of his head.

"Focus on something else, Harry. Otherwise you'll just become a stick in the mud." Harry just rolled his eyes at his friend. "I'm serious. If all you do is read and try to learn new magic, then you won't ever progress in any of your friendships."

"…fine. I'll do other stuff during the holidays. Can I stay at Hogwarts during the holidays?" asked Harry.

"I think so," said Ron. "I know my brothers have done that before. Why?"

"Well, at least here I'd be able to go fly with some of the school broomsticks," replied Harry. Harry noticed everyone in the great hall was starting to gather up their things to head out. "Uh, maybe we should head out." Everyone else agreed and the group of friends headed out of the great hall to get to their first DADA class.

|DADA Classroom|

Harry, Susan, Hannah, Ernie, Justin, and Megan entered the DADA classroom to see that they were not the first ones there, but rather Hermione, Neville, and Ria had already beat them to it. Harry and Ron took a seat at the table next to Hermione and Ria.

"Hello Ria," said Harry as he pulled out his textbook, parchment, and quill and placed them onto his desk.

"Hey Harry. How was your first day?"

"Pretty good actually," said Harry. "Most of the classes were fun. I didn't get the extra homework that comes with not having gotten one of the spells down in class and I finally got to learn how to fly on broomstick, so most of yesterday was great."

"Most?"

"…I hate Herbology," grumbled Harry. Ria chuckled at this.

"You…a Hufflepuff hate the class that your head of house teaches. Oh, that is brilliant!" laughed Ria.

"Shut up," retorted Harry. "How was yours?"

"Well other than Snape being a dick to me in Potions yesterday, everything went well. Well, except flying lessons."

"What? Did you fall off your broom?"

"I didn't. But Neville did. Dropped his remembrall the day he got it. Luckily, Hermione noticed and picked it up to give it back to him."

"Well, that's good at least," said Harry. "Hello Hermione."

"Hello Harry," said Hermione, tartly before returning to reading her textbook.

"What's with her?" asked Harry.

"She had a run-in with Malfoy on the way to breakfast," replied Ria, but not elaborating on what had happened. Harry shrugged. If she didn't want to share, he didn't care. Harry turned in his seat to join in on the conversation going on between his friends, noticing that Megan had chosen to join Neville at his table rather than sit at an unoccupied table.

Ten minutes later, the rest of the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors started to file into the class along with Quirrell from behind.

"Wel-welcome to DA-DADA," said a stuttering Quirrell, causing Ron to roll his eyes at Harry, who nodded. Harry groaned as he listened to Quirrell stumble and stutter his way through roll call. "O-okay. Now that we h-have taken r-roll c-call, l-let's move onto the lesson. E-everyone standup." The entire class stood up and Quirrell tapped the board where instructions appeared on the board for the jelly-leg jinx. "N-now, who c-can tell me the in-incantation for the s-spell?" Hermione immediately raised her hand. Quirrell pointed to the female Gryffindor.

"Locomotor Wibbly."

"G-good. Now, everyone s-say it w-with me. Locomotor Wibbly!" At the end of his sentence, when Quirrell was pronouncing the spell, Harry was surprised at how confident his voice sounded based off of how much he was stuttering. Everyone intoned the spell, pronouncing the spell correctly. "G-good job. N-now, can a-anyone te-tell me what the w-wand mo-movement is?" Again, Hermione raised her hand, but this time Hannah and Justin also raised their hands. "M-ms. Abbot."

"The wand movement is a squiggly movement."

"T-true, but th-that isn't all of it. 5 p-points to Hu-Hufflepuff. Mr. Finnegan, why don't give it a try."

"Well, sir, I think it is a squiggly movement that goes up on the left side before another squiggly movement that goes down on the right side. There should be three 'humps' on each side."

"G-good job, Mr. Finnegan. 20 points to Gr-gryffindor. N-now, everyone pl-please copy my movement." Harry and the rest of the class drew took out their wands and started practicing the wand movement. Having done the wand movement many times over the summer, Harry and Ron had perfect wand movements on their first try. Quirrell watched the class critically, pointing out mistakes and inconsistencies with each student's wand movement. "G-good job everyone. Now, be-before we do any p-practical work, l-let's go over what the sp-spell can be used for. Who wi-will start?"

"Professor," said Ron, raising his hand, "This spell could be very useful for pranks. My brothers would use this on my when I was younger so that I couldn't avoid their other prank spells."

"Wh-while cruel, true. Anyone else?"

"A distraction while dueling?" asked Seamus.

"Po-possibly. If the duelist is in-inexperienced, then yes."

"Using it to slow down someone when you are chasing them or running away from someone?" suggested Wayne.

"V-very good. Now, everyone, step into the middle aisle." As soon as everyone had done so, Quirrell waved his wands and the desks flew to the sides of the room. "I-it's time for some pr-practical work. Granger, Potter, t-to the front pl-please." Hermione and Harry both walked to the front, their wands drawn. "N-now, you will both try to cast the spell. I-if your opponent can walk with ease, t-they get 10 points. I-if not, you get 10 points. Understand?"

"Yes professor," said Harry and Hermione together. They both backed away to give each other space to cast the spell.

"You want to go first?" asked Harry, as he was confident in his ability to use this particular spell.

"Thank you," said Hermione graciously as she started the wand movement. "Locomotor Wibbly!" An orange light hit Harry, and he could feel his legs begin to feel weird, but not enough to take away the functionality of his legs. Harry took a big step to the side, backwards, and then diagonally to end up in his original spot.

"Close," said Harry. "I can still use my legs." Hermione frowned as she tried to think of where she went wrong. "My turn. Locomotor Wibbly!" Harry furrowed his eyebrows in concentration as he waved his wand in the correct sequence, sending a bright orange light at Hermione's legs, who immediately collapsed, with her legs not being able to support herself.

"Wh-what? I thought the spell only makes your legs feel weak, not take away my ability to hold myself up altogether!"

"I-fi it is po-powerful enough, the jelly-legs j-jinx can take away all leg mo-movement," corrected Quirrell. "N-now that we have seen wh-what it should lo-look like. Everyone p-pair up. Oh, and 20 points to Hufflepuff." Harry walked back to where his friends were.

"Megan, do you want to pair up?" asked Harry, trying to include the newest member of their group of friends.

"Sure."

"Harry!" Harry turned to look at Susan, who was pairing off with Wayne. "What's your advice before we begin?" Harry rolled his eyes.

"It's the same as with every spell. Intent and control. Picture what you want the spell to do in your mind." Susan nodded and walked over to Wayne to begin practicing. Harry turned his attention back to Megan. "Alright, give me your best shot!" Megan nodded, her burgundy hair bobbing slightly. She aimed her wand right at Harry, who was standing in a stance not too different from southpaw boxer, with the only difference being that he had no fists up, but rather his wand was pointing at Megan.

"Locomotor Wibbly!" Megan fired off a dull orange spell at Harry, hitting him cleanly in the leg. Harry shrugged and took a step to the side to indicate that it didn't affect him.

"Try again, but like I told Susan, imagine what you want my legs to feel. Don't just think not being able to stand. What I should be feeling?" said Harry, trying to give out some pointers on the spell to his fellow classmate. Megan nodded as she pointed her wand at Harry's legs and repeated the incantation along with the wand movement. This time, instead of a dull orange beam of light, a bright orange light flew from Megan's wands and hit Harry in the legs. Harry stumbled and couldn't even bring himself to take a single step forward.

"How was that?" asked Megan. Harry gave her a thumbs up and a smile.

"Great job!" said Harry as he waved his wand at his legs and muttered, "Finite." The numbness and uselessness Harry had been feeling in his legs disappeared and Harry shook out his leg. "Want to try again?" Megan nodded and cast the spell with the same level of success. At the front of the room.

Quirrell gazed around, looking at the different students casting the spell with varying levels of success. So far, seven of the Hufflepuffs had been able to successfully cast the jelly-legs jinx a couple of times whereas only three of the Gryffindors had moderate success. Quirrell raised his wand and made a bell sound, causing every student to look at the front.

"E-everyone, it seems that s-some of you are getting the spell, and some of y-you are h-having trouble. Th-those of you who h-have gotten t-the spell m-may begin reading about the tickling charm. Th-those who h-haven't w-will practice with m-me." Quirrell waved his wand and the desks flew back into places, with only a few staying at the side so as to give the students who hadn't gotten the spell down room to practice with Quirrell.

Harry went back to the seat he had been sitting at and opened up his DADA textbook. But rather than read up on the tickling charm, Harry began to read about the later DADA spells that he had yet to learn. Soon, everyone had gotten the jinx down to a sufficient level that Quirrell was pleased.

"Ve-very good, everyone. I a-am pl-pleased that you were a-able to get the fi-first jinx down easily. No-now for ho-homework, I want you to hand in an e-essay on the di-differences between the three levels of da-dark magic. The in-information can be f-found on p-page 7 in yo-your textbooks." Harry and Ron grinned as they remembered exactly what it was that Quirrell was referring to. "Cl-class dismissed." Harry and his friends left the classroom with the Gryffindors.

"Harry." Harry turned to see Ria, Hermione, and Neville walk up to him.

"Hey. What's up?"

"How did you get that spell down so easily? This was your first time trying it and you used it like you had been doing that particular spell for more than a day. Plus, with the advice that you gave your friends, most of Hufflepuff got the spell down before a single Gryffindor." Harry smiled benignly at the three Gryffindors.

"That's cause it wasn't my first time using that spell. And as for the advice, it comes down to the most fundamental rule of magic: intent. Anyways, I'd love to talk to you about this with you, but we have Transfiguration with McGonagall and I really don't want to be late to her class." Harry sped up to catch up with his classmates, leaving the three Gryffindors in confusion.

|End of the day|

Harry sighed as he dragged himself back into the common room and collapsed in one of the sofas, slamming his head onto the table.

"Ow," groaned Harry, though he did nothing to alleviate the temporary pain.

"You good there?" asked Susan.

"Except for potions and herbology, every class is boring. I know everything already and I can't even goof off or learn something new. It's exhausting being in a class where I don't get to learn anything."

"Well Harry," said Hannah as she sat down in a chair across from Harry, "That's your fault for learning everything you could in one month." Harry looked up to give Hannah the evil eye, but Hannah just gave Harry a wide smile in response. Harry just sighed and put his face back into the table. Ron and Megan walked into the common room to see Harry with his head in the table.

"He still complaining about not being able to learn on his own?" asked Ron. Susan nodded. "Harry, how about we go to the new area that we found to use for our study group?" Harry instantly perked up.

"Now? What about Ernie and Justin"

"Now. We can show them tomorrow. I think they went to go hang out with Zacharias and Wayne. And then we can have a duel, well as much of a duel as we can with our limited arsenal of spells," said Ron. Harry grinned as he raced up to his room, resized his trunk and placed it into his pocket before coming back down with a grin.

"Let's go then." Harry raced out of the common room at a brisk pace, his friends close behind him, as they crawled out of the barrels and up to the third floor. On their way there, they ran into Daphne and Tracey coming back from Transfiguration.

"Where are you guys headed?" asked Daphne.

"Where we're going to be practicing. Come on!" said Harry, grabbing Daphne's hand and dragging her with him as he ran up the stairs. Daphne let out an 'eep' as she got dragged along by the crazy Hufflepuff, with Tracey and the other Hufflepuffs following Harry. Harry ran past the abandoned classroom and stopped at breathtaking picture.

On a canvas outlined by a golden intricate from was the depiction of knight wearing armor reminiscent of knights of yore, seated on a majestic white horse, with a golden mane. Sitting on the arm of the knight was a elegant snow owl with amber eyes. Behind the knight was the background of a rising sun, casting the morning light onto the reflective armor of the knight.

"This…is an impressive painting," said Daphne after catching her breath, "but why did you drag me here?"

"Cause of this. Sir Gregory, patience is the greatest virtue." The knight in the painting nodded his head and the painting swung open to reveal an entrance. Harry stepped forward, entering the space which would become their practice area. Daphne, Tracey, Susan, Hannah, Megan, and Ron entered the room as well and were dumbstruck by what they saw. This was no room. This was reminiscent of a muggle cathedral.

The room was equal to or slightly bigger than that of the great hall. The ceiling was lit by an artificial sky, a sunny light shining within the room. Arching stone columns reached up to the ceiling and a couple of them supported a small loft area at the top of a set of stone spiral stairs. The opposite side of the room housed a long dueling platform, leaving a large open space under the loft and in the middle of the room.

"Welcome," said Harry, "To our secret meeting area." Harry's friends stared in shock. Ron just smiled, but then he frowned.

"Harry, do you think we could find a way to get some furniture in here so that we can have a place to sit while we learn." Harry looked around, and indeed there was no furniture anywhere in the room.

"Yeah, that might be helpful," agreed Harry. "But how the hell are we going to get that? It's not like I can just say, 'Hogwarts, can I have this cathedral area furnished with furniture along with extras in the back corner in case we need them, thanks', now can I?" asked Harry. Not two seconds passed before that exact thing happened. Suddenly there was a pop and in front of Harry stood an elf.

"Mipsy!" cried Harry, recognizing the elf from the kitchens.

"Mister Potter is not supposed to be asking for elves to help him during the school year. Mipsy made an exception, but not again." Harry nodded, as did everyone else. Tracey stared at the elf before she disappeared. As she disappeared, furniture appeared in the loft, in the middle area, and in the space beneath the loft.

"Um… what was that?" asked Tracey.

"House elf. I'll explain later," said Daphne, while Harry stared at where Mipsy disappeared.

"I did not mean for that to happen," mumbled Harry before shrugging. "Anyways, this is our new practice area and if you will note the four symbols around the room that there are entrances that lead to somewhere near each house's common room. Only students of each house can enter the entrance. So I, a Hufflepuff, cannot enter the Slytherin entrance and vice versa."

"That's good," said Daphne. "We will not be the cause for our house common room entrance being discovered again."

"Indeed," said Harry, a knowing smile on his face. "Now, since we are here, Ron and I are going to try and duel for a bit." Harry and Ron walked onto the dueling platform and stood 20 feet away from each other. Harry fished a sickle out of his pocket and held it up. "When this hits the floor…"

"We begin," finished Ron as he got into his dueling stance. Harry did as well before flicking the coin into the air. Bated breaths could be heard as the girls watched Harry and Ron stare at each other as the coin slowly fell to the ground. A clang signaled the start of the duel.

"Fumos," cried Harry, obscuring the dueling platform before shooting off two stinging hexes and a jelly-legs jinx before the smoke could completely obscure his vision. On the other hand, Ron simply moved and dodged the three spells, before blindly launching a knock back jinx, a stinging hex, and a tickling charm.

Harry dove to the ground, just in time to see three spells whiz over his head. As the smoke started to clear, Harry decided to try an unorthodox method. Aiming his wand at ground beneath Ron's feet, Harry cast the softening spell on the dueling platform.

Ron grimaced as he felt his feet sinking into the ground. Ron quickly jumped back as the smoke dissipated to stop from sinking into the dueling platform, while casting 'finite' on the ground before taking aim at Harry who was getting back into a standing stance.

"Flipendo!" cried Ron, shooting off the knockback jinx, knocking Harry back into the air. As Harry flipped through the air, he shot off a stinging hex at Ron's wand arm, making Ron drop his wand as Harry landed flat on his stomach. As he stood up, Harry whipped off three more spells.

"Lumos!" cried Harry, blinding Ron, before continuing with his spell chain, "Incendio, Diffindo!" Harry threw embers at Ron's feet, forcing him to jump back as he grabbed his wand from the floor before he got cut in the arm. Harry rushed forwards, dodging the stinging hexes and knockback jinxes that Ron was sending at him as he cast his own stinging and cutting hexes.

Ron tried to keep Harry out of range, understanding that Harry wanted to knock him on his back and put him at point-blank wand range in order to end the duel, started using multiple fire spells to try and limit Harry's range of movement to make him an easier target for a knockback jinx. Unfortunately, Harry was moving too quick and dodging each instance of fire that Ron conjured.

It wasn't long before Harry was in Ron's grill, sending Ron flying with a point-blank knockback jinx. As Ron fell back to the floor, Harry was immediately on him, his wand pointed at Ron's neck.

"Give?" asked a slightly panting Harry.

"Give." Harry stepped back and held out his hand, which Ron took. Suddenly, both boys heard the sound of clapping from the girls who were watching on as they had dueled.

"Impressive," remarked Daphne. "There usually isn't that much that can be done with first year spells in a duel, but you managed to have an actual proper duel with only first-year spells." Harry and Ron smiled and fist bumped each other as they got off the stage.

"So?" asked Harry, "what do you think of our new practice area?"

"I think," said Susan, "That this place is amazing. And I can't believe you are the first in a long time to find it. Do we need to password protect it?"

"Well the main entrance is already password protected, and for the house specific entrances, the first person to go through them again after so long of them being inactive gets to set the password. Ron and I already set the Hufflepuff password to 'Loyalty to the Last'. Since you and Tracey will be the first Slytherins, you can set it to whatever password you want. Just tell the painting what you want the password to be."

"Okay. Is there anything else that you've hidden in here?"

"Well, no, not yet, but I'm going to start learning some of my family magic in addition to the Hogwarts' curriculum.

"Family magic? You mean like from your family grimoire?" asked Hannah.

"Family grimoire? What the hell is that?" asked Harry. "No, I'm talking about a book that my ancestors created on dueling and I'm pretty sure it's one of the few copies in existence, if there are any other copies."

"Okay, first, let's see this textbook," said Daphne, bringing order to the chaos of topics that was being discussed. "Then we'll talk about your family grimoire and where to find it since you obviously don't have it." Harry nodded and pulled his trunk out of his pocket and tapped it to resize the trunk. Harry rotated the dial to the library section of the trunk and opened it.

"Dueling and the usage of every spell," said Harry as he put his hand into the trunk. Immediately, the textbook flew into his hand as Harry withdrew from his trunk. Harry placed the textbook on the table so that his friends could take a look at it.

"Your ancestor was Gryffindor?" asked Daphne, staring at Harry in shock.

"Yeah, I mean, I guess. I didn't even know who Gryffindor was until Ron told me about the different houses."

"We have a descendant of Gryffindor in Hufflepuff. What are the chances?" asked Susan, elbowing Hannah with a huge grin.

"Right? You haven't started learning any of those spells?"

"Not yet. I did skim through the book, but a majority of it is still beyond me. I don't have the control over my magic to make most of the spells work. I think I can get stupefy and expelliarmus down though."

"Those are in a dueling book?" asked Ron, knowing what those spells did.

"Not really. They were in the non-lethal section of the book. I don't think my ancestors ever used non-lethal spells at the time that this book was written. Now, let's get back to the family grimoire."

"Right," said Daphne, "A family grimoire is basically an ancient and noble family's personal magic. The spells in this textbook and any other spell can be learned by anyone with enough practice and dedication. The magic that comes from the family grimoire cannot be learned by anyone who isn't a member of the family. The only one who could learn the family magic that isn't blood related to you would be your wife."

"Huh, neat. Where do I find this family grimoire?" asked Harry.

"Normally, it would be in your family vault. I assume that you were only taken to your trust vault when you visited Hogwarts."

"…I have more than one vault?" asked Harry.

"By that response, I know you didn't visit the family vault," said Daphne, pushing some hair out of her eye. "If you want to figure out what is your family magic, you're going to have to visit Gringotts over the holidays."

"Got it," said Harry before whispering, "Tempus." Harry smiled when the figure showed that it was still only 5 PM, still at least an hour before dinner. "So," whispered Harry grinning like a madman, "who wants to practice the stinging hex?" Ron was about to start running when Harry hit him with a tripping jinx, making him fall flat on his face. "What's with that reaction?" asked Harry.

"You're a demon when we do dodging practice! Do you remember why you got so good at the basic healing spell? It's because you were constantly using it on me!" cried Ron as he tried to crawl away from Harry.

"What is he talking about?" asked Daphne, looking at Harry in curiosity. Harry just gave a smile that promised pain.

"You'll just have to find out."

A/N So, not as long as last chapter. I actually ended up rewriting almost the entire thing cause I lost the original version. Anyways, hope you guys liked it. Please read and review.