A/N: Thanks to all my reviewers! I really, REALLY appreciate the reviews!
Anyway…enjoy!
Thinking
"Speaking"
Chapter 5- Birthdays!
Harry cracked his eyes open a tiny bit and frowned, this bed is extremely uncomfortable…
Harry opened his eyes fully and looked down at the book resting on his chest and his sleeping arrangements.
Well that would explain why my bed is uncomfortable…I was sleeping on the floor.
"Harry?...what are you doing on the floor?" Hermione asked, frowning down at him from her position in the doorway.
"Doesn't anyone know how to knock?" Harry grumbled as he picked himself of the floor, quickly hiding the book from Hermione's roaming eyes.
"You didn't answer my question…what are you doing on the floor?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Must have fell asleep after doing some exercise or something" Harry replied, back facing Hermione, Harry remembered the real reason for him sleeping on the floor.
Magical exhaustion…but let's not tell her that!
Harry thought as he remembered the complicated spells he was practicing last night under the protective charms that were placed over the house.
"And you didn't answer my question, why doesn't any knock anymore?" Harry asked, again changing the subject.
Hermione flushed, "Well, I thought today would be an exception, since you were no where to be found on your big day?"
Harry looked at her with raised eyebrows, "big day?" Harry asked, prompting her an explanation.
"You don't know!" Hermione asked exasperated, and Harry's blank look she continued, "It's your birthday!"
"What?" Harry yelped and ran over to his bathroom.
"Son of a bitch! I always I forget" Harry grumbled from the bathroom.
Hermione giggled, "You always forget your birthdays?".
"Yeah…I think it's some kind of disease…that makes you forget your birthday" Harry replied from the bathroom.
Hermione giggled again, "Well, we're waiting for you downstairs, so hurry up!"
……..
Harry entered the kitchen wearing a simple pair of loose black slacks and a white tank top.
Harry stopped mid-step as he looked around the empty kitchen, hand reaching for wand, he called out. "Ok…you can come out now".
Sullen looking people appeared around him from various notice-me-not charms, invisibility charms and Ron and Hermione came out from under an invisibility cloak…HIS invisibility cloak. He sent a questioning look to Ron and Hermione.
They had the decency to look shame-faced.
"Aw Harry, how'd you know we were there?" Tonks whined walking over to him.
Harry smiled crookedly and shrugged, "instincts I guess…"
"Oh well…let's have some presents!" Tonks exclaimed, with loud agreements from Ron, George and Fred.
Harry approached the laden down table in front of him with a smile at his audience.
Harry reached for the first one and cast a glance at the rest of his presents and one thought came to his head.
All right!
Harry smiled as he unwrapped Fred and George's collection of pranks for him, followed by Ron and Hermione's gift of a silver necklace with a picture of a lion with a lightning bolt in on massive paw as if it was about to throw it.
Harry put it on straight away, thanking Ron and Hermione again and again.
Dumbledore stepped forward, holding out a large present.
Harry unwrapped it slowly, coming across a wand first, it was identical to his.
Harry looked up in confusion, Dumbledore had a smile on his face albeit it was a sad one.
"I thought you needed the wand…because of a certain reaction to another one and because I wouldn't appreciate a pair of socks as much as I would and unfortunately I know you relate to weapons" Dumbledore explained to him, a hint of a twinkle in his eyes.
"And I suggest you tell your friends the reason for the second wand yourself" Dumbledore told him, gesturing to the many confused faces around them.
Harry nodded and turned back to the present he found two silver hand guns.
Harry held on of them up to inspect it, it had Beretta Elite 2 written on the side, Harry turned it around inspecting it from every angle, spotting a small laser light on under it.
"Those are very special…we did great work on them, if I do say so myself" Dumbledore told him.
"Like what?" Harry asked, still inspecting the guns.
"Thought activation...and other nifty spells, for example" Dumbledore told Harry picking up one of the Berettas.
"Will this into your hand" Dumbledore said, still holding the gun.
Harry opened his hand, and willed the silver gun to his hand and to everyone's shock, it flew there, jumping from Dumbledore's hands forcefully.
"Thank-you sooo much Professor" Harry said earnestly.
"Consider it a 'I'm sorry' present" Dumbledore said cryptically to everyone, but Harry understood it perfectly.
"Besides…my office is just getting back into shape, and I want to keep it that way" Dumbledore said cheerfully, Harry blushed and everyone else was once again left in the dark.
Harry turned his thoughts back to the handguns resting in his hands, Harry held his right hand and arm length and looked down the sights, imagining the laser light turning on…and it did…putting a red dot right over the heart area of one Alastor Moody.
"This one if for the order…Dumbledore did the same thing he did to those cool looking guns on it" Tonks said pushing the wrapped gift towards Harry.
Harry opened the gift revealing a black outfit…complete with material to cover his mouth and the top of his head.
Harry put this part on, striking a pose for everyone, "He looks like a ninja" Hermione said, laughing, and almost all of the pure-blood wizards looked at her in confusion.
"Thank you all very much" Harry said, putting the clothes in a pile next to him.
"Mine's last, it isn't much…but I thought you might like it" Remus said finishing awkwardly.
On top he found a framed picture of his parents, Sirius and Remus all smiling happily up at him from the picture.
Under it he found 2 wand holsters and 2 gun holsters, which are probably enchanted to do something all or other.
"I know it's not much but- "Professor, they are great, thank you, I will cherish the photo as well" Harry said cutting him off.
"Call me Remus or Moony, I'm not your professor anymore" Remus corrected.
Harry smiled at him.
…………
That night found Harry, Ron and Hermione in the basement with their Headmaster, "I decided to give you a little head start on some of the things you are going to be taught at school, non-verbal spells" Dumbledore told them, drawing out his wand.
Hermione was practically bouncing on her seat at the thought of learning something new, Harry cast an amused glance at her and she saw it and blushed.
"The trick is to say in your mind, and picture what should happen had you said it verbally" Dumbledore said, flourishing his wand, conjuring a bag of lemon drops.
"Now, you try" Dumbledore told them, munching on his lemon drops.
Harry tried first with the simple ones, like the levitation charm…and nothing happened, then the jelly legs hex…and nothing happened.
Harry scowled and jerked his wand angrily…causing the part of the wall in front of him explode, leaving a deep hole in the wall.
"Well done Harry! What spell was that?" Dumbledore congratulated him.
Harry blushed, "err…it wasn't a spell…it wasn't working for me so I just jerked my wand…and that happened".
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled, "Well…what may have happened could have been that you had been concentrating so much on getting magic to happen non-verbally that your magic reacted instinctively".
Harry nodded and tried, once again, to non-verbally use spells.
……
After several long minutes of trying but nothing happening, they all turned to Dumbledore, even Hermione, he smiled at them "You are concentrating too much on the words…concentrate on the reactions of the spell and what would happen. That's why you can't learn new spells this way because you would have to have had already learnt to cast them on your own before you could attempt this".
Harry concentrated on what would happen if he said the stunning hex out loud…a beam of red light would shoot out and stun someone.
Harry waved his wand, concentrating on the mental picture, and to his shock, a stunning hex flew out of his wand to hit the recently repaired hole in the wall.
Harry whooped, "I did it!"
"Indeed you did Harry, try doing it faster and stronger" Dumbledore said to him, watching all of them with a sharp eye.
He saw that Harry was able to cast most offensive and some defensive magic non-verbally but struggled with the non-combat related spells, such as transfiguration and charms.
While Hermione excelled at the non-combat related spells such as transfiguration and charms.
Ron, on the other hand, was having trouble with both, but was surprisingly good with the bursts of pure magic that had no spell structure and only destructive power.
Must be his irate emotions Dumbledore thought to himself, Ron was a very hot-headed boy as Harry had once been, but Dumbledore had noticed that Harry was past that stage in his life and now took mostly everything calmly.
Dumbledore rose to his feet, "I must leave you now, feel free to practice more, I shall see you…when I see you" he said, chuckling, as he left the room.
"Bonkers…totally bonkers" Ron muttered just as the old man had left the room.
"Hey Harry, you wanna have a little sparring round?" Ron asked hopefully, Harry nodded and summoned his Katana to him and waving his wand around his body and with a few mutterings, causing to flash red for a second than die away.
Ron did the same, "I warn you though Harry, I've gotten a lot better" Ron said mockingly.
"We'll see" Harry said smiling.
Hermione grabbed her school books and sat down in a corner to watch them.
…...
Ron brought his Claymore into a high position, holding it above his head.
Harry eyed it in confusion for a few seconds before taking a lunge at his unprotected stomach.
Ron brought his sword down hard and quickly onto Harry's back, causing the red light to flash on the area it was hit.
A number one formed above Ron's head.
"This is a Claymore stance I just learnt, I can get a lot of power this way" Ron informed him smirking.
Harry's lips quirked,
Idiot
With that Harry jabbed forward with his Katana, and Ron swung down heavily to parry it, Harry moved his lightweight weapon fast and pushed down on the top of Ron's sword making it hit the ground hard.
Then Harry quickly reversed his blade and flicked up across Ron's chest, which in a real fight would have sliced the top half of his body open.
A long red line indicated where Ron was hit and a 1 appeared above Harry's head this time.
Ron cursed and got back into his position away from Harry.
Harry saw Ron whisper something and frowned, what was that?
Harry heaved his Katana up fast, as Ron came charging at him.
Ron swung at him again and again with what Harry recognized as a Claymore technique, like the one Harry had used on him.
Harry's momentary lapse in concentration had left a gap in his defenses, Ron took it.
Swinging at his stomach, Harry sucked in his stomach, sword passing by mere millimeters away from it.
Harry brought his Katana up to cause a break in Ron's Claymore technique but was surprised by a foot that hit him in the back of the knee, making him drop.
Harry instinctively raised his Katana above his head as he fell, blocking a heavy over head swing from Ron.
But now the were caught in a battle of strength and with Harry on the floor with Ron bearing down from above, he knew he couldn't win with strength.
Harry tilted his Katana so his tip was facing the floor, Ron was pushing with all his strength so when the Katana tilted his sword slipped and Harry took this chance to roll away and spring back to his feet…just in time to cop a jab in the sternum.
Harry swore as a number 2 appeared above Ron's head.
Harry pushed his glasses further up his nose.
I don't want to use a Katana technique…I want to win this with reflex and skill alone.
Harry rushed in, slicing and jabbing fast, but Ron kept up with him.
So he has improved
Harry used his body to swing the Katana at Ron's Mid-level.
Ron parried, and Harry used his momentum to keep swinging his body, using Ron's shoulder as an unwilling pivotal point.
Harry quickly flicked his Katana, mid spin, so that it was facing out of the bottom of his hand.
As Harry's spin ended, so did his Katana…right in Ron's back.
A 2 appeared above Harry's head, just as Molly Weasley's voice called them out to dinner.
………..
Harry held out his dual wands in front of him, a look of determination on his face.
"Stupefy!" Harry roared, a blinding red light flashed across the room from his right hand wand but the wand in his left hand only emitted red sparks.
"Son of a bitch! Just work!" Harry yelled.
"That's some mouth you got there Harry" Tonks said smirking at him from the door.
Harry looked up and muttered something under his breath which Tonks thought sounded like, "Damn witches, don't they ever knock".
"You are going to Hogwarts soon" Tonks said quietly as she came to sit on his bed, Harry frowned; he had grown used to Tonk's cheerful presence and would miss it when he got to school.
"Aw, when will I see you then?" Harry asked dejectedly.
"September the 1st" Tonks told him grinning mischievously.
"Wha?" Harry asked confused.
"The Ministry of Magic deems it necessary to place Aurors at Hogwarts for the student's safety"
Harry arched an eyebrow, "the student's safety or mine?" Tonks giggled, "both I'm assuming" she replied.
"So, how's the dual wielding wand work going? Bad, assuming from your cursing" Tonks asked.
"You're right, Dumbledore is going to give me some lessons, but I wanted to try it out for myself before" Harry said, rubbing his temple.
"So what do you have in mind for the last days of the holidays?" Tonks asked, stretching her arms.
"I was thinking of practicing my non-verbal spells and learn some new curses, hexes etc" Harry said flicking through a spell book.
"That's boring" Tonks said, rolling her eyes and taking the book from Harry.
"Oh, and what are you suggesting instead?" Harry asked.
Tonks grinned at him.
A/N: And for all you dirty dirty people at there, they are not going to do what you think they are…
Thanks to:
Angelic Moon: Here you go! Another chapter….now…about those cookies :D
Bandgsecurtiyaw: Thanks
Wytil: Thank you
Goddessa39: Thanks. I'm not sure, that guy was first intended just for that scene, but who knows, he might pop up somewhere in the future :)
Seeker's Lover: Thanks
Me: nice name, heh, thanks
Limeincoconut09: Thanks!
Silverscale: Thank you
Athenakitty: Always full of questions aren't ya heh. Anyway, Hermione doesn't need to lose weight. Yeah, we all hate Mrs. Black…Ron sort of fits the claymore doesn't he?
Anyway, REVIEW and then REVIEW SOME MORE.