Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
If You Can Help Her – Chapter 45 – Practice, Practice, Practice
'Single quotes' means thoughts while "Double quotes" means spoken dialogue.
-IYCHH-
"One day, I'm gonna kill Shacklebolt," muttered Harry as his wand started beeping at 5:30 a.m. He pulled it out from under his pillow (where he'd started keeping it since the attack in Diagon Alley) and yelled, "Finite!" ending the timer charm he'd set the previous evening. He shook his tired head as he slowly got out of bed to find Ron pulling back his bed curtains.
"I don't know how, but I'm gonna beat Kingsley the next time we box!"
Harry quietly chuckled at his friend. "A Galleon says he'll beat you in one round."
-IYCHH-
After they'd met the equally tired girls downstairs, they made their way to Professor Shacklebolt's new office, where they found him wide awake.
"Good morning, everyone!" he greeted cheerfully. "Follow me to the most awesome room in this whole castle!"
They followed him until he instructed, "Wait here for a minute." Harry thought it was very strange the way the auror paced three times in front of a painting, until he saw a door appear on the opposite wall. He suddenly was wide awake. "Come on in. Welcome to the Room of Requirement!"
Harry stepped into the room and saw a huge gymnasium. "I didn't know Hogwarts had a gym," he commented.
Grinning ear to ear, the African explained, "It didn't until a few seconds ago. This room is whatever you need it to be." He proceeded to explain how the room worked before telling them to start running laps for the next ten minutes. To Harry's surprise, Kingsley joined them. Harry remembered that Shacklebolt had said he wanted to stay in shape.
After the jogging was over, a boxing ring, as well as a place for the girls to practice karate, appeared. Harry and Ron spared a few minutes until Kingsley decided to fight each of them (individually) to evaluate them. True to Harry's prediction, Ron was down before the first round was over, and was thankful he hadn't accepted Harry's bet. Harry didn't fair much better against his trainer.
They did some exercises after that, and then worked on dueling for a while. Finally, Shacklebolt handed them each a switchblade and demonstrated it, making sure they each understood the operation. Each had been charmed to stay sharp, and to never open accidentally. He told the teenagers to keep them always in invisible ankle holsters he gave them, reminding them that Dumbledore had suggested concealed weapons. He informed them that eventually they'd have a few other weapons, but first they needed to learn proper knife fighting, which he'd teach them for the next few weeks.
-IYCHH-
Exhausted and sore, they'd barely sat down to breakfast when a tall, black girl with long, braided hair marched up to Harry, who was sitting next to his girlfriend, holding her hand.
"Hi, Angelina."
"Hi," she returned briskly, "good summer?" And without waiting for an answer, "Listen, I've been made Gryffindor Quidditch Captain."
"Nice one," replied Harry, grinning at her; he thought to Ginny, 'I'll bet her pep talks won't be as long-winded as Oliver's.'
"Congratulations," said Ginny, forcing herself not to smile at Harry's thought, afraid Angelina Johnson would think she was being laughed at.
"Yeah, well, we need a new Keeper and two Beaters. Tryouts are on Friday at five o'clock and I want the whole team there, all right? Then we can see how the new people'll fit in."
"Will I have to try out?"
She grinned. "No, you're on the team. I'm just trying to fill the open positions." She sighed. "I don't know why Fred and George had to drop out the year I'm captain."
"They got their joke shop started. That's what they wanted to do after school, anyway, so why wait when they had a great opportunity?" explained Ginny.
"Whatever. I hope they do well, but how am I gonna find a couple Beaters half as good as them?"
"That is a problem," agreed Ginny.
"Maybe you can be a Beater, Ginny," suggested Harry with a smirk. "You can slap hard enough."
"Do you really want me to get a Beater's bat?" she asked, batting her eyebrows at her boyfriend. He gulped. "No, thanks. I'd try out for Chaser…" then she winked at Harry, "…maybe even Seeker, but not Beater."
"It might not be a bad idea to have a few reserve players," remarked Angelina thoughtfully. "I think I will have tryouts for every position and pick a few extra players in case someone on the team gets sick."
"Or in detention," added Ginny.
-IYCHH-
The week went by quickly, and soon the teenagers started to get a bit used to being up that early. Harry and Ginny fitted the 'broom closet detention' in after lessons on the second day of classes, and they started using the Honeydukes secret passage to work on their dragon form every other day. They didn't know it, but Ron and Hermione were using the same place for their Animagus practice, only on different days and times. Kingsley had warned them that he used the Room of Requirement a lot, so they decided not to risk being caught half-transformed (or snogging for that matter) by their professor and have to answer a lot of uncomfortable questions.
Kingsley's D.A.D.A. classes were really great. He was teaching practical defense, explaining that, "With Voldemort and his Death Eaters out there, this is a lot more important than just your grades." He ended up using Harry, Ron, and Hermione in turn to demonstrate different spells that he knew they'd learned over the summer. Toward the end of the first class, he had Harry and Hermione duel.
They bowed and took a dueling stance, but neither fired a spell for the first ten seconds. Each was waiting for the other. Harry decided to start it, knowing from experience that he'd have to be clever to beat his brilliant friend. Wishing he'd learned silent spellcasting, Harry whispered, "Accio desk," summoning an empty desk that was directly behind Hermione.
Unfortunately for Harry, the bushy-haired girl heard the chair moving behind her and jumped to the left, casting a spell at Harry, who found himself being dragged to her by his right foot. "Finite!" he shouted just before he fell on his backside. He was on the floor, but was no longer being dragged, so he rolled out of the way as a stupefy hex hit the spot he'd been at moments before.
He started rapidly firing hexes at her as he moved around, causing her to stay on the defensive as he tried to work out a plan. Finally something occurred to him that might work.
Aiming his wand elsewhere, he whispered, "Aguamenti,"
Hermione had moved from where she'd been standing without paying attention to her opponent's hex – just knowing to get out of the way – when she heard Ron shout, "Bloody Hell, Harry!"
"What?!" she screamed, distracted for about one second while looking at her boyfriend's drenched hair, which was enough time.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry cast his spell, causing her wand to fly out of her hand into his.
Kingsley announced Potter as the winner. The class laughed and clapped as Harry walked up and handed Hermione her wand. She glared at him for a moment before giving him a small smile. "Good match." The professor had them shake hands before taking their seats.
Kingsley got back up in front of the class. "Does anybody know why I'm not punishing Mr. Potter for casting a spell at Mr. Weasley while he was supposed to be fighting Miss Granger?"
Harry, Hermione, and Ron were the only three who raised their hands.
After a moment, Shacklebolt picked, "Mr. Weasley."
"Because, well, that's one of the things Death Eaters do, er, to distract you. They'll hurt your friends and family to play mind games on you."
"Exactly. Mr. Potter knew that Miss Granger would want to see what he'd done to Mr. Weasley." After hearing the rest of the class' catcalls (while both Ron and Hermione blushed), Kingsley added, "Mr. Potter also had the advantage that Miss Weasley isn't in this class, and therefore was safely away from Miss Granger so she couldn't use the same tactic on him." Now Harry blushed.
Harry thought about when he'd heard Ginny scream as a spell hit her arm, but he forced himself to concentrate, knowing that getting himself hexed wouldn't help her for the last few minutes of class.
-IYCHH-
Friday's Quidditch trials were an unusual occurrence. Harry himself hadn't tried out for the team when he became a member, and as far as he could recall, he'd been the last new player on the team. It was weird to have almost half the team gone.
He watched the different Keepers try out first. If he were honest with himself, Ron's tryout wasn't fabulous. He seemed a bit nervous, and it made him appear clumsy. However, the Firebolt he was on allowed him to move fast enough that he did manage to block the goals most of the time, if not catch the Quaffle. Both Vicky Frobisher and Geoffrey Hooper flew better than Ron had, but neither had a Firebolt – not to mention that Geoffrey was a whiner that nobody would want on their team. Vicky was involved in several clubs, but was asked to be on the reserve team and make whatever practices she could between her other activities, after promising that if she was needed on actual game days, she would play.
Most of the Beaters were idiots who couldn't hit a Bludger to save their lives. One of them hit the Quaffle instead, right into Angelina's stomach. In the end, she picked Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper. Harry knew that neither was brilliant like the Weasley twins, but at least they could tell the Bludgers from the Snitch. The captain reluctantly picked out the least idiotic boy from the other hopefuls to be a reserve player, hoping that he'd improve if he came to enough practices.
Harry couldn't help but smile as he watched Ginny try out and succeed at becoming a reserve Chaser, even managing to get the Quaffle past her brother. She whispered something to Angelina, who announced that Ginny was also trying out for reserve Seeker.
Harry's eyes bulged out as his girlfriend flew over to him. "Surprised?" she asked with a smirk. He didn't have time to respond because at that moment, the Snitch was released.
He immediately went into Seeker mode, flying overhead with his eyes scanning everywhere around the pitch. He was pleased to note that Ginny wasn't stupid enough to follow him around. She'd obviously seen enough games to know that he'd have her doing all kinds of dives just to keep her distracted. After about ten minutes, he saw the Snitch and smiled. He frowned when he noticed that his opponent had seen it too, and was closer. He pushed his Firebolt for all it was worth, and they both arrived at the Snitch at the same moment.
"Together, on three," he suggested as he reached out his hand. "One." She nodded at him, so both their hands went for the golden winged ball. "Two." Harry didn't close his hand around it, planning on them catching it between them when Ginny winked at him and grabbed the Snitch from where it was, touching his palm and sticking her tongue out at him, and flying to the ground without a word.
As Harry heard laughter coming from the others, especially Ron, he called out, "You cheater! You agreed to catch it together! You…"
"Just admit your girlfriend beat you," teased Katie Bell with a smirk.
Andrew Kirke suggested, "Maybe Harry should be our reserve Seeker," which caused her to fly up to him with a red, angry, face.
"He did get to the Snitch before I did and suggested we catch it together. I simply caught it as a joke. I know he's better than me."
Harry flew to the two of them. "I guess I learned my lesson – never trust another Seeker, no matter who it is." He then looked at Ginny. "I need to put you in detention again."
"Yes, Prefect," she agreed submissively, fighting off laughter.
Angelina flew up to them both. "Well, Ginny, you've made the reserve team as both a Chaser and a Seeker. Hopefully, we won't need both at the same time."
-IYCHH-
The rest of the week went by quickly, and they got to spend Sunday training at Grimmauld Place. For Harry, Ron, and Ginny, that meant practicing apparition with Padfoot and Moony. For Hermione (who'd already gotten her license), it meant apparating around the house while carrying animals of different sizes to learn to side-along apparate, a rare but useful version of that method of traveling that required an extra license.
They hadn't originally planned on learning that, but Lupin thought it would be a great skill for them to have, and Albus agreed. Hermione had splinched a gerbil in her first attempt, and it had taken an hour for her to calm down enough to try again. However, the gerbil in question wouldn't stay still in Hermione's hands after it had been put back together, so Remus had to banish that one and conjure another one. Ron commented that it's too bad he didn't still have Scabbers for her to practice with. It would be fun to splinch him and leave him like that.
At the end of that day, Remus decided, "Harry, I think you're ready for the test. I'll try to schedule you some time this week. Professor Dumbledore already told me that he will allow each of you to miss a class for your apparition tests, since they're only given during the same hours that you have classes at Hogwarts."
"That's great, Harry!" exclaimed Ginny happily, giving him a quick kiss.
"Yes, it is," agreed Hermione enthusiastically. "It's too bad I'm only up to apparating small animals, so I can't go with you." She'd managed to succeed with the second gerbil and Lupin thought it was enough for the day.
"At least you've got a license," grumbled Ron miserably. He'd left his eyebrows behind the last time he tried.
-IYCHH-
The next morning, a middle-aged woman with short brown hair wearing light blue robes was introduced by Dumbledore at breakfast. "This is our new Ministry Liaison, Madam Theresa Reece." He then told everyone the location of her office, and explained that she was there to help the students understand what the Ministry was doing, and to address their concerns and questions.
"At least we know she doesn't have the Dark Mark," commented Ron.
-IYCHH-
A few days later, when the Daily Prophet arrived during breakfast, there was an article that said that four Ministry employees had been caught being Death Eaters. It contained no details about how they were apprehended – only that they were marked and would be tried the next week.
Minister Bones had pushed through a law that stated that just having a Dark Mark would earn ten years in Azkaban. The closed trials would be held with veritaserum. Officially, they were to make certain that the mark wasn't forced on them – unofficially it was to see if they could provide names of other Death Eaters and any plans they knew about.
While Harry was reading Neville's copy (he didn't subscribe), Hedwig flew to Harry with a small note. While the snowy owl was eating a piece of Harry's bacon, he and Ginny were reading the note.
Harry,
Mr. Lupin has informed me that you have an appointment tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. to take your apparition test at the Ministry of Magic. You are therefore excused from attending your History of Magic class and will be escorted by Professor Shacklebolt, who doesn't have a lesson at that time. You will both floo directly from my office to the Ministry at approximately 2:00.
I just thought you might find it gratifying to know that the same method used to apprehend Mr. Malfoy and Madam Umbridge was implemented at the Ministry of Magic. It was responsible for yesterday's arrests. Madam Bones sends her thanks for the suggestion.
Headmaster Dumbledore
Ginny turned to her boyfriend. "Why didn't they do that years ago?"
"Do what?" asked Hermione, who was sitting with Ron across from them.
"Here," responded Harry by passing her the note, which she shared with Ron. He turned to his girlfriend and held her hand, thinking, 'Because it's hard to bribe someone if you can't get in the building!'
Ginny burst out laughing for a moment before she stopped herself. People nearby who didn't know about their bond wondered what Harry had done under the table that caused his girlfriend to laugh like that, but didn't comment.
"You get out of Binns' class tomorrow. Lucky you!" commented Ron. "I hope that's what I miss when I take that test."
"Harry was referring to the second paragraph, Ronald. At least the Ministry is doing it now," stated Hermione, knowing that the new ward at the Ministry building shouldn't be common knowledge, so she didn't directly speak of it in a public place like the Great Hall. "Should I banish the note, Harry?"
He nodded. "Might as well."
-IYCHH-
There were no problems with getting to the Ministry for Harry and Kingsley. Harry easily got his apparition license, although he had to show his underage magic license before he could take the test. He managed to convince Shacklebolt to apparate to Hogsmeade with him instead of flooing. From there, they walked up to the castle with no problems.
-IYCHH-
The Sunday after that, Lupin was pleased to announce that both Ron and Ginny were ready for their Apparition tests after a long day of practice. Much to Hermione's consternation, Harry was having no problems at all in Side-Along-ing animals. He started with a gerbil – which he got right on the first try - and then moved on for the entire day with bigger animals while Hermione was barely managing to keep up. As they were leaving, Moony mentioned that next Sunday both of them would try apparating another human.
-IYCHH-
Remus was correct, and the two youngest Weasleys both got their licenses. Ginny did miss one of Binns' lessons for the test, but Ron had to miss D.A.D.A. class for his test. They were escorted by Professor Flitwick. The same day that they got their licenses, Harry talked to both Weasleys in private. "Next week is Hermione's birthday, so I thought we should have a surprise party like last year." He looked at Hermione's boyfriend, who was nodding, although with a small frown on his face. "Although this year, Ron, I'm not gonna help you with her gift."
-IYCHH-
Chapter end