A/N: Well, another few days, another chapter! What a surprise. Either way, I hope you enjoy it, and yes, that's all I have to say for this note pre-chapter note, so you can get right to it. Oh, and it's been a few days since Malfoy was hung upside-down by Algida. Which he totally deserved.

Chapter Eight

I Never Finish Anyth

"Alright, class," Professor Nozawa began, Algida sitting in on the class again. Malfoy was, thankfully, still silent. "I've taught you how to take care of your Pokémon; I've taught you about battles and contests and everything in between. I'm going to go over a project for the next twenty or so minutes, and please save the questions for later. This project is due next Wednesday. I suggest you take notes."

As promised, it took him only twenty minutes to cover the basics of the project. The class was required to design their own training regime specifically tailored to their Pokémon. It had to be just right for that species, otherwise it wouldn't be accepted by him. They could use any resource they could find to figure it out, including asking their partners questions. Which was highly recommended. The class would be going over several other parts to the regime plans once the papers were graded, but that part was going to be a surprise until the right time. In order for it to be accepted, both the student and their partner had to sign their approval of the training method. Each student was not to ask Aromi any questions as to how to set up their regime; after all, he could only give suggestions. The ones to be affected would be their partners, not him. Therefore, he was going to be little to no help here. After all, he's taught them how to make one; now they just had to do it themselves. The minute he let them get to work, the room began to buzz with chatter.

"So, Riolu... what're you into?" Harry asked, unsure of what to put. Unfortuantely, he was also a bit out of it.

"Rio..." Riolu said, sensing his trainer's anxiety and uncertainty. Despite the fact that his most recent detention from Umbridge had been with Nozawa, which wasn't so bad, Hermione had given him something else that added plenty of pressure: to start teaching DADA the proper way. Without Umbridge learning of it.

"...I forgot that you can sense it," The boy-who-lived said quietly. He kind of just stared at the parchment on the desk in front of him, feeling lost; Riolu, kind soul that he is, gently put a paw on the boy's back. After a moment, the boy gave him a smile. "...Thanks."

After another couple of moments, the two got to work. And Harry was definitely feeling better. As he worked, so did his friends and class mates. Rather predictably, Hermione was conversing well with her Cyndaquil, and making great time; in fact, they were about halfway done. Ron, on the other hand, was making about the same amount of progress as Harry: next to nothing. He and Caterpie just had no idea of what to do right now. Unfortunately for him, the bell rang before he had a chance to even start once they had agreed on an idea. Therefore, he had no choice but to sigh, pack up his stuff, and head to the next class with his friends. One of which was about a sixth of the way done, the other about two-thirds finished. Guess who had which status.

Tell me why you're here

You could walk away right now

"So what do you think the plan is for today?" Ron asked Hermione, after turning in his plan the day before. Which he'd scraped out the night before it was due. Kinda with Caterpie's help.

"I have no clue," Hermione said, only partly listening to him, but she was mostly watching Harry. He seemed kind of... out of it. "Is something wrong, Harry?"

"Huh?" Harry said, looking up, surprised he was talked to out of nowhere like that. "Oh... nothing."

"Rio!" Riolu said sharply, frowning at the boy. "Rio riolu!"

"...You're right," the boy said, giving in. "I'm just sort of... unsure, I guess. Ever since you suggested that I make a DADA class of my own..."

"And you should!" Hermione exclaimed. "You can do it! Everyone agrees that you're the best at that subject!"

"I don't know. I'm not that good."

"Do you want to continue doing nothing but reading about these bloody theories Umbridge is shoving down our throats?"

Harry was silent. He didn't know what to think at the moment; he didn't know if that was what he wanted or not... so he told her to let him think about it some more. The bushy-haired girl sighed and let it go. Once they reached the classroom, however, she frowned, being the first to enter with Cyndaquil at her side.

"What's wrong?" Ron asked, confused. He peeked over her shoulder. "Oh."

"I guess we should hurry," Hermione said.

Harry was confused until he saw the board. It said to meet out at the Quidditch field. Once there, they found Professor Nozawa and the rest of the class there. Right as the bell rang through out the castle. The man smiled, Kyashii at his side again.

"Glad everyone could make it!" He exclaimed, smiling, as he grabbed a bunch of papers from the medicine bag hanging at his side. With a wave of his wand, the papers returned to their rightful owners. "I'm glad to say that everyone has made an acceptable training regime. Can anyone guess as to why we're outside?"

Nobody raised a hand. It was obvious as to the reason. The professor let it sink in for a few moments, then waved his wand again. A small canopy appeared nearby, along with a little tarp under it.

"Everyone, I can guarantee that the majority of you will be uncomfortable in those robes," He said, gesturing to the newly-made protected area. "I would suggest that you put them under the cover of this canopy to keep them dry and safe and warm when you get them back."

There was a flurry of movement as the students did as was suggested. October was beginning to reach its middle, so the weather was fairly nice. No rain, no snow, a mild breeze. All in all, it was a nice day. Once everyone had their clothes under the shelter, and back where they'd been before, the man spoke again.

"Everyone please look at the regime you've planned," Nozawa began. "Today, you are going to begin working with it. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with what you have planned. We will begin in a couple of minutes."

Another flurry of movement and the shuffling of paper. While they were busy, the professor shrugged off his bag and his vest, leaving him in nothing but a well-fitting shirt and jeans. He wasn't totally muscular; oh hell no. He was, however, in great shape. Once the students looked up again, several blinked; some remained stoic; a few easy-to-impress girls swooned.

"Alright, everyone," Nozawa said. "I'm going to lead you through a few warm-up stretches. So please stow away the papers and get ready."

A few minutes later, everyone – aside from the physically fit, such as the professor – was sore. Then those dreaded words were spoken:

"Now, then, students," Nozawa began, nodding to Kyashii. "You shall begin your training regimes! You must participate in them with your partners! I will demonstrate. Kyashii and I will begin our training for this afternoon by jogging around the field three times. By the time I finish the first lap, I expect everyone here to have begun with the first step on their plans! You have the rest of the period to train with your partners, so we'll start now."

With that, he turned to the right direction, took a deep breath, and started jogging. Kyashii kept pace easily. Some students began right away; some had to be ordered to do so when the professor came around after the first lap. Either way, not very many of them were terribly excited about what they were being told to do. After about five or ten minutes, some were utterly exhausted, being tortured by the regimes they'd made themselves. Oh, how they wished they'd been nicer! Although they had a partner to suffer through with them. At this point, Harry and Riolu were jogging around the field, like their professor; Hermione and Cyndaquil were stretching again after doing the same; Ron and Caterpie were practicing one of the only attacks the Pokémon knew: Sling Shot. Using a target Nozawa had conjured Building its accuracy and all that. The redhead's brothers were working on their teamwork with their Pokémon and themselves together; it wasn't too difficult so far. Ginny, Neville, and Luna were teaming up to train each other. They had made their work-out schedules coincide in order to get the training done in a more effective manner; and, to their pleasure, it was working quite well! Neville's Ralts and Luna's Drifloon worked with Ginny's Feebas quite well. Despite not covering each other's type weaknesses too well, they were all very well matched. By the end of the period, everyone was exhausted. To the students' chagrin, Professor Nozawa was only mildly winded. He had used one of the wooden stake targets to build he and Kyashii's physical strength, beating it mercilessly most of the time. And he was sweating only a little bit.

No one could stop you.

You're free to choose your own way.

"Ow ow ow..." Harry moaned, with Riolu, exhausted, dragging at his side.

"Bloody hell..." Ron panted, grasping his side. He and Caterpie had finished their session with some gruelling work, and it left them both sore. "Who knew that would be so tough?"

"Well... we asked for it..." Hermione said, stopping to put her hands to her knees and pant.

The rest of the trio said nothing as they forced themselves to move onto their next class. Oh, if only the end of the day would come sooner! Then they'd be able to sleep in their incredibly soft and comfy beds. Unfortunately, every student of Nozawa's knew that today was only the beginning; after all, he'd told them so.

"Well done, everyone!" Nozawa said to his students at the end of the class, wiping his forehead with a towel that sat beside his bag. The dampness from the grass made it feel really nice. "Be sure to meet out here again tomorrow. We will begin with the second-day portion of the regime you have planned for yourselves."

A pause to hear the unanimous groan.

"Those of you who foresaw this possibility and planned appropiately, kudos to you. Other than that, good work for today. You are all dismissed to your next class."

"I can't believe we have to do it tomorrow too..." Ron groaned, still gripping his side. Caterpie was on his shoulder, too exhausted to walk on its short legs.

"It won't be so bad for me and Riolu," Harry said. "We decided to have the second day be mostly meditation; from what Riolu tells me, it's important for him if he wants to keep his aura senses sharp."

"Rio!" Riolu agreed. The amount of energy put into that one word made the Pokémon immediantly follow with a sigh as he put a paw to his side. Man, he was sore!

The rest of the trip to History of Magic was uneventful. Rather predictably, almost the entire class passed out during the boring lectures. Notably, most of them had just come from their session of torture, so it wasn't too surprising. After all the classes and dinner had passed and the students released to their dormitories, every member of Professor Nozawa's class was very quickly asleep. Their training that day had exhausted almost all of them.

Don't be afraid.

All that's all yours could make it alright.

"Professor Nozawa, may I speak with you?" McGonnagal asked her colleague, finding him outside and gazing at the night sky. Espeon was at his side, napping quietly.

"Of course," He said, gesturing to a spot by him on the grass he sat on. "Have a seat."

"It has to do with your classes today," She began, conjuring something to sit on.

"Ah. I'm assuming you were having trouble keeping some of my students awake in your classes?"

"Yes, I was. They said that you put them through some rigorous physical activity."

"Guilty as charged," Aromi chuckled.

"I must ask, why did you force them to do so?"

"All I did was make them do what they planned out for themselves."

"Would be so kind as to explain what you mean?" McGonnagal asked, slightly confused.

"At the start of last week, I began to teach them how to make a training regime. That Friday, I had all of them make one for their partner Pokémon. All I did was make them follow through with it."

"Wouldn't it only have involved the Pokémon, then?"

"Not in this case. One of the requirements for the regime they made was to make it so that it could apply to both Pokémon and trainer."

"So once you approved them, you had them go through with it?"

"Indeed. Some of them, such as Ms. Granger and Mr. Potter, were wise enough to foresee that there was a possibility that I would do such a thing. Their regimes are made to be two days' worth of training."

"Would I be correct in guessing those two made at least one day where they would have fairly simple training?"

"Why yes, you'd be correct. They were also wise enough to know that doing so wouldn't fly with me; so they made the other day rather rigorous. Trust me, professor, the 'torture' they went through today, as I'm sure they called it, was planned by themselves. I did nothing but make them do it."

"I see. How long do you plan on making them do this?"

"I will supervise them until it becomes a habit to them. Unfortunately, I have no other means of predicting when this will finish. Once it does, however, I will be sure to move on to another subject."

"Very well. Thank you for answering my questions."

"You're welcome."

McGonnagal stood, vanished her chair, and walked calmly back into the castle. Nozawa remained outside for a while longer before retiring as well. Espeon followed him, of course. Tomorrow was going to be another day of training, and they all needed their rest. As he lay in his bed, he wondered for a few moments when he'd be able to move on to another subject. By his predictions, probably not until December. After another few moments, he let it go and let sleep take over...

Credits: Song lyrics from "Red vs Blue Ost Version" by Jeff Williams.

A/N: Thank you all for sticking with me for so long! Now, if you'd be so kind as to review, that'd be awesome! I hope you all enjoyed this (short) chapter! =)