My life - An adventure

Disclaimer: All Harry Potter works belong to J.K. Rowling.

AN: This story is an idea I got from "Harry Potter and the Memories of Old" by Snowy123. Some of spells are from the story "Harry Potter and the Unlocked Knowledge" by kmfrank.

Chapter 11

That night Dumbledore joined Sirius, Remus and I for dinner after which, we settled down in the library.

Albus starts of the meeting. "I put in much thought on what you told us yesterday, Harry. It seems that we were luckier than we initially thought that Voldemort got banished when he did. If what you say is true, if he had unleashed demons on this plane, both our world and the muggle world would have been devastated. When I was young and enamored with the flighty temptress that is adventure, I came across a demon, which I destroyed and barely escaped with my life."

He looks lost in thought. "Not many of that time are alive today. Magic is not as effect these creatures. You have to destroy them using force or fire. There are not many wizards or witches capable of defeating a demon."

He glances at all of us in turn. "He must be destroyed."

"I don't think any of us are going to argue about that, Professor. But the question we need to ask ourselves is how. There are at least 2 Horcruxes out there we can't get to."

"My dear boy. There is always a way. But first how about we take care of the one we can?"

"Now in the dark?"

"Better now than latter and the darkness will provide us the cover we need."

I nod and we head out of the library. On the way, I pick up a hat. "Portus."

I notice Dumbledore stare at the hat and nod in acceptance. Then, he turns around and gives a slip of parchment he conjured to Remus.

"This should take us a safe distance away from the house. Glamours?"

They all agree and we cast them upon ourselves. All 3 of us look like ordinary middle-aged muggles. Sirius and Albus step up and touch the hat, while Remus doesn't.

"You aren't coming Remus?"

Sirius answers the question. "We always leave one behind in case he needs to call for help, Harry."

I accept the philosophy and activate the portkey. "Gaunt House."

We land in a dark narrow lane. "It's about 100 yards in that direction." I point to my right and we head in that direction.

Albus glances at me. "What ways do you know that can destroy a Horcrux, Harry?"

"Through Voldemort's memories, I know the killing curse will work. And from my own, I know Basilisk venom will destroy it as well."

"I gathered the same. I also found that Fiendfyre would destroy it just the same."

I nod. Makes sense. "So we are going to take it from here and destroy it back home?"

"Yes."

As we close in on the shack, I raise my hand. "Hold on, guys."

I activate my glasses and look for the traps I know exist. "There's perimeter identifier, muggle repelling and misdirection wards. I am going to temporarily bring down the identifier and misdirection wards."

I don't wait for their response and go ahead and temporarily disable the wards through some intricate wand work. Overpowering wards is brute work. But bringing them down without the owner knowing about it is far more delicate.

I nod and proceed into the overrun yard. As we reach the door, I stop them again. The snake, which is nailed to the door, comes alive.

"Who dare passes?"

"It is I, Lord Voldemort, Son of Merope Gaunt and the last heir of Salazar Slytherin."

It bows and the door opens.

I turn to face my two companions. "Password protected. Easy to just say the password rather than dispel the ward."

They nod and I address Sirius. "Stay here, Sirius. We should be back in 10 minutes max."

He nods and Albus and I walk into the depleted shack. It's exactly as I remember from my memory. I step toward a corner and raise my wand.

I pause to address the headmaster. "Be careful Headmaster. There's a compulsion hex here."

I tighten my Occlumency shields and levitate a wooden panel out of the ground. There, lying innocently on the ground is the ring. Albus kneels down to look more closely. As he gazes at the ring, he pales and he starts to shake.

And before I can make a move he starts to reach for the ring. A inch from the ring, I come back to my senses and unleash a gust of wind, which blows him back several feet.

"Professor, what's wrong?"

He gets to his feet still shaking. "The ring, Harry? Don't you recognize it? It's the resurrection stone. I must have it."

I scowl at him. "What are you babbling about, sir?"

He raises his wand at him. "Step aside, Harry. I waited for this moment for well past a century."

"Professor, Headmaster… Snap out of it. Fight the compulsion."

He closes his eyes and his brow knits as he concentrates on breaking the compulsion. "The ring… The ring."

"Fight it professor. Remember, you are Albus Dumbledore."

After a few minutes, in which Sirius stepped inside, he opens his eyes looking relieved. "Thank you, Harry. The shock of seeing that stone, has made me susceptible to the compulsion."

"That's alright, Professor. Why don't you step outside?"

He nods and walks out. I stare at his back and shake my head as I realize how close he came to dieing. I stare at the stone in the ring in wonder. What could make a man like Albus Dumbledore loose his composure? I see a symbol on top of it. It is vaguely familiar.

I shrug and levitate it into a box, I am carrying with me. I close the box and pocket it. I put back the floor board and make sure nothing else is disturbed before I step outside.

I nod to the two men. We quickly walk out of the yard and I dispel my own ward, which is temporarily holding back Voldemort's wards.

"Ready?"

We touch the hat and disappear arriving in the lobby at Grimmauld place. Remus, who's been waiting for us, jumps up. "How did go?"

I nod to him, while Albus just walks on silently to the dining room.

We follow him as he silently sits down at the table and conjures a bottle of mead. He takes a rather large sip of it.

"Why is the stone so important, Professor?"

He smiles at me or I guess more to his old memories. "Ahh… the resurrection stone. It's an old children's story Harry. More like a myth. And like all myths there is some truth to it. I will give you a book tomorrow. I think you will understand that better than hearing from me."

"Alright. But you sure you're okay?"

He smiles. "I am fine my boy. And I must thank you for saving me."

I wave it off. Sirius who is losing his patience jumps in. "Okay, stop talking in Riddles. What happened?"

"I'll tell you later, alright?"

He sulks but doesn't comment.

"Dueling chamber?"

Everyone nods. "You guys head down, I will bring the Basilisk fangs."

I run up to my room and take out the box of fangs from my trunk. I step down to the dueling chamber. I put the box on the floor and levitate the ring out of it.

I let the ring lie on the floor. "Someone hold it steady with the stone facing up."

And Remus does that. I levitate a Basilisk fang and stab it slightly on the stone. A black smoke rises from the stone and screeches in pain. Then it vanishes in a blast of light.

"Keep holding it."

I cut the ring using a conjured white-hot knife and free the stone. I levitate the stone away from the gold holder. "Professor, are you able to conjure Fiendfyre?"

He smiles. "Step away Remus."

Remus follows his instructions and he unleashes a controlled fiendfyre in the form of a phoenix, which devours the ring and the curse of withering with it.

After the gold holder is nothing put a puddle of liquid gold, he stops the curse and fires a cooling charm at the gold, solidifying it. He checks to make sure the curse is no more and then reshapes it in the form of a coin with a phoenix on both sides. He gives it to me.

"My thanks."

I take it with a smile. It's a nice token. I turn toward the stone and cleanse it thoroughly of the Basilisk venom. I examine it carefully before I pass it on to Albus who takes it reverently.

"I have seen that symbol before professor. In the Peverell vault."

Albus looks up stunned at me. "The Peverell Vault, Harry?"

I nod and explain the story behind how I came across the vault. He nods at all the right places. "Can I see the parchment, please?"

I shrug. I go back to my room and bring down Lady Rowena's diadem and the parchment.

I meet Sirius at the landing and we proceed to the sitting room. I give both the articles to Albus.

"Ahh… The fabled Ravenclaw diadem. She will be pleased." I know who he's talking about. But I guess Remus and Sirius are used to Albus talking in riddles, because they don't ask for any clarification.

Albus next examines the parchment. "Hmmm…" He mumbles to himself as he follows the rune. Clearly he saw the lesser runes. "Ahh… Hmm… a connection forged…"

He finally looks up removing his glasses. "Do you mind if I make a copy of this, Harry?"

"Go right ahead."

He does that and we sit in silence.

"So, just two more to go?"

"At least Sirius. After that it's anybodies guess."

"Professor…"

"When we are alone, call me Albus, Harry. I think you earned that right."

I smile at that. "Okay… Albus, I hope you remembered the two things I asked you yesterday?"

He nods. "Go ahead and bring your pensieve."

For the third time that night I went up to my room.

I put my empty pensieve on the desk and Albus withdraws 3 memory strings and dumps in the pensieve. "I will project it."

The first memory shows Albus with Sybil Trelawney in a room. "This happened when I interviewed her for the Divinition post in 1980."

In middle of her rather long-winded speech, Trelawney goes stiff and wide-eyed as she enters a trance. In a harsh voice she says the lines, which sealed my fate.

"The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… And the dark lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have the power the dark lord knows not... And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches."

We sit in silence trying to understand the words.

"What does it mean?" asks Sirius.

Remus answers him. "It means Sirius, that at the end Harry will need to kill Voldemort."

"Or die trying." I add. I guess I have to be the cynical one.

"Bloody hell you will." He looks at me determined. "You, young man, are going to be trained even if it's the last thing I do. You are going to beat him."

I smile to that and smirk at fate. "He did indeed mark me as his equal."

Albus chuckles at that. "That he did." Then, he looks at me closely. "You are taking this rather well, Harry?"

I shrug. "I knew at the end it's going to be either him or me. Even if I don't actively pursue it, Voldemort will. He believes in the prophecy."

Albus nods. "Prophecies are not set in stone… But those that hear them tend to inadvertently allow them to happen. Even I, with my vast experience can be blamed of that."

"But what is this power the dark lord knows not? To my knowledge he is vastly more powerful than me."

"That he is. But you do indeed have the power he knows not. It's your power to love, Harry. Many might think me senile when I say love is a power… but it is the most powerful form of magic. It's the same power, which made a mother sacrifice herself for a son. It's the power which banished one of the most powerful wizards of the age. There is a room in the Department of Mysteries, where this wonderful power is studied. Not many can open that door."

Silence reigns once again. "My patronus… When I first tried it, I couldn't get more than a mist even after using every available happy memory I have. But then, I thought of how much my parents loved me and how much I love them… Expecto Patronum."

The dragon emerges from the wand and sails across the room before it settle down in front of me. It lowers its nose to my eye level and I rub its nose.

The three adults smiles at the display and Albus summarizes their feelings. "Wonderful. Simply wonderful."

I release the patronus and it vanishes. I laugh remembering the prophecy. "You know, I never thought that our Divinition professor was anything but a fraud."

"Sybil has a tendency of wildly exaggerating the circumstances. But this is not the only real prophecy she gave… there is one other."

He twirls the memories in the pensieve and another rises into the air. Here she is in the Headmaster's office. She goes into a similar trance.

"The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these thirteen years. Tonight, before midnight ... the Servant will break free and set out to rejoin his Master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever he was. He will tear the boundaries between the worlds. Beings of bone and fire shall once again walk the earth. The world forgotten will be remembered. From the mists of fate, there will emerge a victor who will forever change the world for good or bad."

"She happened to relay this prophecy on the same night, Barty Crouch went missing and his mansion burned down."

Silence. Then -

"Crap." Sirius summarizes in a very succinct manner.

I meet Albus' eyes. "It is happening, professor… What I said yesterday."

"I summarized as much. What will happen will happen. All we can do is prepare the best we can and fight when we have to."

I give him a grim smile. "I don't think there are more than a handful of people who are capable of fighting a demon professor."

"Then we train. We do everything we can… Magic has a way of helping when we least expect it."

"On the topic of training, I talked to the Weasley children and Hermione about getting training this summer. They all agreed and I was thinking that Alastor, Sirius and Remus could help us get to speed with dueling and casting in general. Neville and Luna as well…"

"That can be arranged. And it's time we call on some old friends. You know of the order, Harry?"

I answer hesitantly. "I do…"

"Yet you hesitate?"

"It's just that I know from Voldemort's memories how ineffective it was. I am not keen on joining such an effort professor."

He strokes his beard as he looks at his hands. "I can understand your feelings. The order was never meant to be a fighting force. We were forced to adapt ourselves into that. But it seems the future will require a more forceful approach."

"And I don't want anyone other than us four to know about the memories."

He nods. "It's for the best."

I smirk at him. "Then, Sirius you better talk to Mrs. Weasley about letting them stay with us."

Sirius looks bewildered for a moment. "I am doing no such thing. That woman can be quite a handful."

"This is your house, is it not?"

"Yeah… so?"

"So, it's a your responsibility to ask her."

"What? Remus, help me here…"

Remus smiles enjoying the show. "I agree with Harry, Sirius. You should ask Molly."

Sirius scowls and slumps down in the couch.

Albus gets up readying to leave. "Harry, might I have a word?"

I nod and follow him out of the room. "I know you asked me the reason I trust Severus. But I regret to say I cannot give you what you seek."

He raises his hand stopping me as I open my mouth to argue. "It's not because I won't, but because I can't. I made an oath to Severus that it shall remain his secret. But I will tell you right now that I trust him with my life. You will meet him in a week's time for the potion you requested, am I correct?"

I nod yes.

He continues. "My suggestion Harry is this. Ask him."

I scowl at him. "Don't worry I will."

He signs. "He is not an evil man. If you can believe that… it's a good place to start."

With that he departs.

The next day Alastor walked in to the dueling room promptly at 9 in the morning. I finished my morning run and just had time to squeeze in an hour of spell chaining.

As the door opened and he came thumping in. "Alright Potter. Show me what offensive spells you know."

I started off casting the simple curses like the stunner, the disarmer, the fire spell, the full body bind, the cutting curse, the impediment jinx, the flinging hex, banisher, confundus charm and finally a powerful reductor curse. Seeing his scowl I smirk at him and take it up a notch.

The blasting curse: "Confrigo."

The bludgeoning hex: "Everbero."

Bolt thrower: "Telum Concio."

Fire Whip: "Flagro Flagello."

Water torrent Conjuration: "Aqua Eructo."

Fireball: "Incendus Ventus."

Gust of wind: "Flaminis."

A self conjured lightning bolt: "Fulminis."

Whirlwind: "Cataegis."

Golem: "Golem Mobilis."

After the final spell I look up at Alastor. He still has a scowl on his face. "Is that it?"

I scowl right back. That's more than he should expect. "Well… there are some real nasty spells I know…"

"Go on… Let's see what your definition of nasty is."

I shrug and turn around to face the other end of the dueling platform.

I start with a bone-breaking curse. "Ossus Fragmen."

Bone-shattering curse: "Ossus Diffringo."

Bone-exploding curse: "Osexscindo."

Compression curse: "Coepio."

Piercing Hex: "Perforo."

Rupturing Curse: "Ramicis."

Melting Curse: "Fervefacio."

Ribbon Severing Charm: "Rumpere Lemniscus."

Entrail-Expelling Curse: "Eviscero."

Mangling Curse: "Lacero."

I finish and look up at Alastor. That's 30 curses I fired of in less than 3 minutes.

He still has his scowl on. I get irritated. "What's your problem, Alastor?"

He cracks a smile at that. "Nothing lad. I wanted to see how far I can push you. And I agree those are some nasty curses you know."

I shrug. "You know these are not true dark art spells. Yeah, they are dangerous and lethal. But not true dark arts."

In fact to tell the truth, there are very few true dark arts spells, which can be used in combat. True dark arts, will not work without the use of soul magic. You don't need to hate someone to pull of any of the spells I did. Only intent matters. That is, I can fire the bone shattering curse or the mangling curse at Alastor or Sirius just as effectively at the death eaters.

"Aye lad. Glad you know the difference. As I see it, you have good defensive and offensive spells. Let's see how good you are at dodging."

And so the next 3 hours I spent dodging curse after curse with a break every 30 minutes. I doubt I could have handled it without my Quidditch training. I was hit a couple of times. Once by a cutter which grazed my leg and another by a stunner, which nailed me.

After that we had a quick lunch, when Sirius gave us the news that Molly accepted after she talked to Dumbledore and the kids will be dropping by tonight. Same with Neville and Luna.

After lunch, I stepped back into the dueling chamber with Alastor.

"Your dodging was half way decent. I am going to acknowledge your Quidditch skills for that. Now let's see how you perform with a moving opponent."

I step into the dodging ring. After 30 minutes, Alastor stops it. "POTTER. You got yourself butchered in there. What was going in your mind when you took 3 killing curses? And what were you aiming at? Because you missed more than you hit."

I sigh slightly depressed. I don't know why I can't seem to get it. Voldemort nailed this in a couple of days. Well not this specifically. He had 5 people shooting crucios at him from different directions. And he was always good at his aiming.

"I can't seem to identify where the target pops up next, Alastor. As unfortunate as it is, I don't have eyes at the back of my head." I add with a little bit of sarcasm.

"Aye lad, you don't. But that's where your magic comes in. Are you using any of your sensing skills?"

Huh! I try to remember anything of that from Voldemort's memories. "Hmmm… No?"

"There's your problem. If you want to last in a battle, this is an absolute must. That day you met Malfoy, you released your magic… I want you to do that until I ask you to stop."

I nod and close my eyes taking a huge breath. I open them and release my magic. I nod to him and he activates the target.

And I immediately sense magic heading towards me. I throw myself to the ground and roll back to my feet and send back a Reductor at the target. But it's already gone and I ready myself for the next batch of spells.

After 2 hours, Alastor calls a stop. I am dead on my feet. My body is aching and raging headache from keeping my magic open for such a long time. But the good news is, I can practically sense every single spells heading toward me. Whether I dodge them in time is a different issue. I am still covered in paint, thought not as much. I am still shit at hitting targets while one the move.

"Get some rest. We will start all over tomorrow."

I nod and start to pull back my magic when I sense a spell heading toward me. I dodge and look up to see Alastor pointing his wand at me. "Did I tell you to pull back your magic? Keep it open. You never know when some coward might curse your back. CONSTANT VIGILLANCE."

With that he hobbles away. I groan and lie back on the floor. I close my eyes to take a moment to relax.

I must have dozed off, because the next thing I know, I wake up in my bed. I glance at my watch to see that it's around 5 in the morning. "Bloody hell. I slept for 11 hours."

I stumble out of my bed groaning. I feel like shit. After a nice bath to wake me up, I walk to the bookshelf to do some reading. I am in no mood or condition to go for a run. On the table I spy a book, written in ruins. There is bookmarker and I open it to that page to see a note in Albus' handwriting.

"Every myth and legend has a base in reality." – Albus.

Runes haven't been used in such a way for a very long time. The book must be very old. I take the book down with me to the kitchen. I am famished. As I start the stove, Dobby pops in with Kreacher.

"What is Harry Potter, sir doing?"

"Just making myself breakfast. Don't worry about it."

"Harry Potter sir shouldn't being do that. Dobby will make breakfast for Harry Potter sir."

I give up. "Fine."

I sit at the table and read the book. It's a children's fairly tale called "The Tales of Beedle The Bard."

Albus wants me to read the story called "The Tale of The Three Brothers." I immerse myself in the interesting story with many comments on the side from Albus. It's a story of how death gifted 3 brothers with 3 extraordinary magical objects. A wand greater than any other, a stone that can bring back the dead and finally the invisibility cloak, which can hide anyone from death.

At the end of the story, Albus attached another slip of paper with only one word to it. Peverell.

I stare at the paper, shocked. Can the story be true? Thinking back to Albus' breakdown at the Gaunt's house, it seems so. Then… The cloak I have, which was passed down from my dad, must be the Invisibility cloak. The third brother must be the one I am related to.

I finish my breakfast and walk upstairs to my room. I remove the cloak from my trunk and stare at it in wonder. I search for any signs that might point out to the fact that it was indeed the cloak passed down by the Peverell's from a couple of millennia back.

I see none and I don't want to risk using a scanning ward without knowing how the cloak will react to it. Best ask Albus when I see him next. I wonder if he used that stone…

I put the cloak back inside the trunk. It's still too early for anyone to wake up. I debated about it in my head and decided to absorb a small part of Voldemort's memories. Most to do with his dueling skills. I always kept them separate from my own memories and took the knowledge rather than the experience. I close my eyes as I sort through the memories and pick those of his combat training and his duels. I release them within my own memories.

I wake up about three hours later. A shiver runs through my body. That was a weird experience. It's like you are that person but you are not. I was able to go through some of the initial training he did in the span of time I have. Absorbing them takes considerably more time than just sorting through them.

I step down into the kitchen to see Ginny awake. "Hey Ginny."

She turns around surprised. Seeing me she smiles. "Hey Harry. We came in last night. But Sirius said that you were too tired to wake up."

She smirks. "What, can't take a simple dueling lesson?"

"A simple dueling lesson she says. Wait until Alastor gets hold of you darling."

She blushes. "Ahh… Do I see a blush?"

She scowls at me but goes back to eating her breakfast.

"So, how's your training coming along?"

She shrugs. "Okay I guess. I pretty much covered most of Transfiguration, Charms and DADA till NEWT level."

I nod to her. "Good. Good."

We sit in silence for a while. "Did you tell anyone about the memories?"

I nod. "Sirius, Remus and Dumbledore. It helps. One of the reasons the headmaster agreed to further training all of us is because of the discussion I had with him."

She quirks her eyebrows at that. "Oh! What exactly did you tell him?"

"Oh you know. A little bit of this and a little bit of that."

Seeing her face I laugh. "Sorry… I was quoting the headmaster. As for what we talked… It was mostly on what is to come. You saw the dark mark, Ginny. We are on the verge of another war and this war will involve more than one world…"

Before she can question that statement, Hermione walks in. "Harry! How are you? Sirius said that you were too exhausted to wake up last night."

I roll my eyes. "You guys just wait until Alastor puts the lot of you under the same torture."

"Oh! What was he like? He's a legend in the Auror force. Sirius was telling us about some of his exploits last night."

"I think it will be best if you saw for yourself Hermione. Why don't you have breakfast while I wake up the rest of the house."

"Luna's on the way down."

I meet her on the way. "Hey Rupert."

I laugh. "It's good to see you too, Luna."

Then, she suddenly hugs me. I stand still for a moment surprised and then return the hug. "Thanks for inviting me as well, Harry. It's almost like having friends."

"You are my friend, Luna. You are part of our weird dysfunctional family."

She releases me and smiles. "Thanks, Harry."

She skips down the steps and I shake my head in bemusement, though it does make me feel better. I see that Sirius enlarged a room for the girls. Ron and Neville are bunking in one of the other rooms.

"Ron, Neville. Wake up."

They just bury themselves further into the bed. I swish my wand making the blankets fly of them depositing them on the floor.

"Bloody Hell! What was that for, Harry?"

I roll my eyes. "If you lot were sleeping by the time Alastor gets here, he would fling you of the bed. Now, you better get up if you want to have any breakfast. He will here at 9, which is in 30 minutes."

Ron mumbles, whereas Neville sleepily gathers his clothes and walks to the bathroom.

I walk to the Twins' room. I open the door to see them getting up. "We are up Harrykins. No need for any rude wake up calls."

I smile. "Alastor will love you guys."

They pale at that thought. As I leave their room, I see Sirius stepping down. "What's with all the ruckus?"

"Nothing sleepy head. What are we doing today?"

"Once Mad-eye gets here, he will see where the other seven are and make up a schedule for the rest of the holidays."

Makes sense. I see Sirius glance at me as we walk down the stairs. "You were pretty out of it yesterday."

"You have no idea."

"I can feel your magic… You are keeping it up all the time?"

"Yeah… Alastor said that it was important."

He nods. "It is. All Aurors are trained to do that during their three year training period. I thought you already knew about it."

I shake my head. "I think Voldemort always had his up unknowingly."

"I am surprised that you can do it. It's not something that can be easily mastered."

I think about it. "I think Sirius… that it was due to me practicing wandless magic. I have been doing that for more than a year now."

"Wandless, Harry? You never told me that."

I shrug. "It never came up. I can only levitate, summon and banish at this point."

"That's more than most can do."

The rest of them finish their breakfast by the time Alastor comes through. He comes carrying a trunk and everything.

Sirius welcomes him. "Hey Alastor. Glad you took me up on my offer. Let me show you to your room."

I guess he's moving in.

After that we all move into the Dueling chamber and I explain to those who have never seen it how it works.

"This is brilliant, mate." Says Ron.

I spend the next couple of hours in the dodging ring, while Alastor and Sirius test the other kids. I feel that I am already improving. Is it Voldemort's memories or the few hours I spent yesterday? But I still can't get a spell across most of the time. I am too slow.

I think I'll try something new I learned through Voldemort's memories. The next time I sense a curse, I twirl around and bat it right back at the dummy. The ring deactivates at that. Hmmm… Did I do something?

"POTTER! What did you do?" Shouts Alastor.

"I didn't do anything. The ring stopped. I just parried the curse back using the standard shield."

"You parried it back? Show me." He throws a stunner at me and I bat it aside. It goes wide of Alastor. But at least it worked. Parrying needs one to have good control of their magic. You create a shield, but it's not around you, but around the tip of your wand. Technically any shield spell can be used as such. Though the more powerful a shield, the more control one needs to have.

"Where did you learn that lad? Huh! Sirius showed me a memory of Voldemort doing it. I thought I would try it." I glance at Sirius and he gives me a subtle nod.

"Did you now!" If I am honest with myself, he does look impressed.

Hermione interrupts. "this reminds me of Star Wars, where Luke trains with his lightsaber wearing a blindfold."

"I don't know Hermione. I didn't get many chances to see movies at the Dursleys?"

"What are movies?" asks Ron.

"Did you say blindfold, Granger?"

I groan. "You got to be joking!"

Alastor conjured a piece of cloth and gives it to me. "Go on, Potter. Let's see how this works for you."

I scowl at Hermione who looks sheepish and gives me a pleading look. Bloody Hermione. I tie the blindfold across my eyes.

I hear Alastor activate the ring. I ready myself as I sense the first spell heading from my right. I dodge it. The next comes from in front of me and I twirl away from it. The next comes from behind me and I step away from it. I fall into sync when I sense more than one curse heading toward me at the same time from different directions. I dodge one and try to parry the other. I succeed only partially as I feel something wet splat lightly on my shoulder.

I hear Alastor shout. "What are you lot staring at? Get back to work."

I continue with my training. I only have time to dodge and occasionally Parry. I fire a couple of reductors in the fraction of second I have between dodging the spells, but I doubt any connected.

We stop for lunch where Alastor, Sirius and Remus hurdle together in discussion. I eat as much as my stomach can take.

Hermione looks pleadingly at me. "I am sorry, Harry."

I wave it off. "Don't worry about it, Hermione. It was a good exercise."

She smiles at that. "You do have a talent for it, Harry."

Ron mumbles something with his mouth full and Hermione scowls at him.

"How did the rest of you do?"

Before anyone can answer the adults joined us.

"We will concentrate on five things these remaining three weeks. Defense, Offense, Dodging, Speed and you will face one of us in a duel at the end of each day. Here are your schedules."

I take mine and look at it.

9 – 10: Dodging Ring - Dodging with a blindfold

10 – 11: Dodging Ring - Dodging and offense without a blindfold

11 – 12:30: Dueling Platform - Put others through Defense Circuit

12:30 – 2:00: Lunch

2:00 – 4:00: Dueling Platform - Defense Circuit with Moody

4:00 – 5:00: Range – Accuracy, speed and control of power

Between 5:00 – 7:00: Dueling Platform - Duel with Moody/Sirius/Remus

That's over 7 hours of training everyday for 20 days. That should really get us all in the grove. I take a peek at the other's schedule. The Twins, Hermione, Ron, Neville and Luna have the same schedule with interchanging times in batches of three. They are concentrating on mostly improving their shield strength, dodging, and increasing their offensive spell list. Ginny's is slightly different. She doesn't have shield training but has an extra hour of dodging.

After lunch Alastor put me through the ring. "Remember Potter. You need to do everything in your power to not get him by a spell. You can dodge, shield, conjure or whatever else you like. Just. Don't. Get. Hit."

I nod and we get going. He starts with a stunner and then progresses to stronger curses. I duck, twirl, step away, fall on my ass, shield, conjure and parry. Alastor is like a non-stop spell throwing machine and his curses are quite powerful. I cast the Imprimis couple of time to get sometime to breathe.

After I am done. I called Dobby to get a butter beer. A refreshing drink later I stand before the range, concentrating on power and accuracy. I get a continuous 8. I put in more juice and get a 9. I am aiming for a 10. The ratings increase exponentially. That is, from 1 to 2, the power has to be two times more. Same as from 2 to 3 and 3 to 4 and so on. I concentrate for a moment and gather all the power I have. "Reducto."

A massive bolt of power rushes through my wand toward the target, leaving me falling on the floor. It hits it with a GONG. I eagerly look up at the meter and am happy to finally see a 10. Nice.

I get back to my feet and take a breather. I continue the training with aiming for a 9 instead of 10. There are only 5 curses I can test on the meter. Steupefy, Reducto, Expelliarmus, Everbero and Confringo. Any other spell and the meter can be destroyed. The rest of the spells can be practiced on the moving targets though and I do that. I spend about 30 minutes on getting my spells up to 9 continuously. I succeed partially. But have ways to go. The next 30 minutes I practice my accuracy and speed on the moving targets. I have no problems hitting them most of the time. I think I need more practice hitting a still or moving target while I am on the move.

After everyone is done with his or her training, we settle down for a duel. I go first against Moody. I last 10 minutes before I lose my balance while dodging and trying to fire a curse and am hit by a bludgeoner, which does a number on my ribs. They are not broken, thank god.

Moody takes on one of the twins and Ginny. While Sirius takes on Hermione, Ron and Luna. Remus takes the remaining to Neville and the other twin. None of the other lasted more than a couple of minutes. They after all don't have the years of experience I gained through Voldemort.

The dinner is a quite affair as everyone is too tired to talk. I lie on my bed and begin the process of absorbing the rest of Voldemort's memories I released into my very own.

It's a slow process, because the absorption has to happen in real-time. That is, if the memory I want to absorb is 1 hour long, it will take me 1 hour to absorb it. Every night before I sleep, I bring the remaining memories to the forefront of consciousness. After a couple of nights I figured I am absorbing about 7 hours of memories every night. I am practically dreaming these memories in which, I am the one who is getting trained and I am the one who's dueling.

At this rate it will take me couple more weeks or 100 or so hours to absorb the important aspects of Voldemort's combat training as well as most of his duels which include a few with Dumbledore and Alastor. Most of his duels are short and fierce. His longest duel is around 30 minutes. He is the epitome of Slytherin. If he feels that the battle is not going his way, he runs. I am absorbing nearly 200 or so of his duels, which amount to around 70 percent of the memories. The rest of them detail the important aspects of the combat training he took under various masters. No need to spend hours absorbing those memories where he gets tortured because he failed or where goes searching for knowledge.

And they helped. I made more progress than humanly possible in the 7 short days since I started absorbing the memories. I started with the training memories and progressed to the duels. And I mixed my own style into it. Take Voldemort's style, add transfiguration, a little of creativity, my Quidditch agility and you will get Harry Potter's dueling style.

I spit the blood entering my mouth through a cut lip as I stare down Alastor. He has a broken nose. He sends a powerful blaster, which I split with a bone breaker, another trick I learned from Voldemort, immediately followed by conjured chains. He parries the bone breaker and dispels the chains and sends his own bone breaker followed by a couple of blasters.

I shield against them using an Absolvo and then dodge the next set of curses. That's the problem with shielding. Once you raise a shield and get on the defensive, it takes effort to get back on the offensive against a good opponent. And Alastor is among the best of opponents, though he clearly slowed down compared to his youth, when he was whole and had the advantage of being young.

I come out of my roll and parry the next curse back at him followed by a reducto, confrigo and serpensotia.

"Bite him."

He ducks under his own curse and swats the confrigo. By that time the snake is already upon him. Just as it raises his head to bite him, he cuts it in half. He ducks my next curse and sends a volley of blasters, reductors and bones breakers. I duck some and parry the others, but am hit by a reductor and loose my balance.

Right at the moment he sends a couple of curses, a bludgeoner, which hits my wand arm breaking it cleanly and a reductor that sends me flying backwards. Through the pain I see Alastor summon my wand, which has fallen from my broken hand. It seems the duel is over. Not yet. As it's flying toward the Ex-Auror, I summon my wand back wandlessly into the left hand and just as I am about to hit the floor I hit it with a wandless banisher using my right, propelling myself backward and away from Alastor's stunner.

As I get to my feat, I conjure a cement wall to take the next few curses, while I apply a numbing charm to my broken arm and apply a cast around it to hold it together. This is something else I learned from his memories. How to handle a wand with both hands, though I am far from perfect. It will take time before I am good enough to use it with the left for anything that needs accuracy.

As my cement wall crumples, I release a volley of bone breakers mixed with a couple of blasters as well as slug belcher, which is a green colored spell similar to the AK. Even though he knows I will not use that curse, sometimes the mind works on experience. And experience says, don't get hit by a green spell. As he defends against them, I vanish the dust from the wall and concentrate on the floor bellow him and swish my wand in a circle, turning it into quick sand. He propels himself away from the quick sand and reverses the transfiguration.

I conjure a volley of birds to take his next curses, while I concentrate on creating a Golem. "Golem Mobilis."

The wooden golem rises from the floor and lumbers toward Alastor who quickly releases a volley of blasters to end it. But it gives me enough time to transfigure the floor to ice. He slips and falls. He quickly conjures a cement wall to take my next volley of curses. Darn it I almost had him. As the wall is reduced to bits, I see him back on his feet and the floor back to normal.

By this time both of us are breathing heavily. I release a volley of deadly bone shattering curses at him. He shields against them and parries the last one back to me. I split it with a lightning bolt, and follow it up with a bludgeoner.

His shield absorbs the lightning and reflects back the bludgeoner at me and he quickly follows them with a half a dozen other curses. I raise an Imprimis to take the curses. I get ready to release the shield and duck, when a gong sounds. That's the end of the duel.

We were dueling for 30 minutes, which we decided would be the limit. I stand their sweating head to toe and covered ins dust and blood. I clean myself and glance at Alastor. He's looking at me in amazement, which turns to cackle of laughter. He nods in my direction and I salute him.

I step down to see my friends staring at me in awe. Both Sirius and Remus look impressed. "What?"

"Mate, you dueled Mad Eye to a draw." Says Ron.

I shrug and smile. I am pretty happy with myself. "Yeah, I did."

Sirius claps me on the back. "Brilliant Harry. Brilliant."

I sit down with Alastor and watch the rest of the duels. My friends are much better than they were. Even with just 7 days of practice there is considerable improvement in all of them. Of course it helps that Fred and George are 16 and the rest had much practice over the last year.

Remus is a fair dueler, but it will never be his strength, like Hermione. Of the lot Ginny is a natural and she gave Remus a fight for his money. I bet she will start winning against him pretty soon. Neville can pack some power in his spells. He is slowly gaining in his confidence. If he continues he will match Remus by the end of this year.

Ron it seems is pretty good with Transfiguration, but was always lazy. He started using a lot of that in his duels. He is getting good at it and is on the same track as Neville. Luna… What can I say about her? She is probably the most naturally gifted dueler I have ever seen. Both Sirius and Alastor agree with me. Unlike us, she uses the most unexpected curses and hexes, which can take one by surprise. Once she gets up on her power and improves the control over her magic, she will be a handful. She already got Remus a couple of times and almost got Sirius.

Hermione, as I said will never be the best duelist. She is and will be one of the best researchers. She is simply one of the smartest persons when it comes to figuring out things. But she needs to work a lot more if she ever plans to be on the battlefront. She is quite powerful and she has probably the best control of magic after Ginny and I. After all control comes from the mind. But what she lacks is spontaneous reactions that are so important in a duel.

The Weasley twins, alone can hold their own against any average death eater. But together will be quite a handful even to an inner circle member. They are a team, and they will work well as a team.

Today is the 17th of August. Tomorrow my friends will be going to the Diagon Alley to get the book supplies, while I meet with Snape to get the eye correction potion. I will be out for most of the day and will stay in the hospital wing as the potion will need about 24 hours to work it's magic. I plan on confronting Snape. If I am to work with him, I need to know why Dumbledore trusts him so much. I haven't met the headmaster since the night we destroyed the Horcrux. I want to ask him about the resurrection stone and my cloak. I don't really care for the wand. My wand is the best and that's all that matters.

I wonder what answers tomorrow will bring. I wonder if I will like them.

AN: And that's the end of chapter 11. Next: Confrontation with Snape and training continues. Our Heroes will head to Hogwarts.