Chapter 18

Moony's Method

"Are you sure you can't stay any longer?" Harry asked as he led his best friends towards the Floo, "It's my birthday, your mum would understand, wouldn't she?"

The red-head shook his head sadly, "Sorry mate, mum was pretty clear. If I'm not home by eight o'clock sharp, I can kiss the rest of my summer hols goodbye." He glanced towards the clock, noting the time, "I'm already grounded for the next two weeks, I'd rather not lose the last two as well."

Harry sighed in resignation, "It's alright, I'd rather be able to hang out for a couple weeks rather than just one night."

Ron turned to him as they reached the fireplace, "Well, I guess I'll see you later. Happy Birthday mate," he said, drawing Harry into a one armed hug and slapping him on the back.

"Thanks mate, I'll see you in a couple weeks," Harry replied as they released each other. Ron however made no move to the fireplace, instead he stared at his own feet, occasionally darting nervous glances towards Hermione. Confused by his friends behavior, he looked towards his other friend, who was doing much the same. He gazed at each of them, puzzled by their odd behavior until it hit him, "Oh, err... I suppose you two want to say goodbye privately?" he asked, causing both of them to blush.

"Er, yeah mate, if you wouldn't mind," Ron said, while Hermione stood quietly on his other side, blushing brightly as she studied the ground at her feet.

"Of course, I'll just be in the other room when you're done," he said to Hermione, noting the relieved grins on each of their faces before he turned and headed towards the door. Unable to resist, he turned back as he reached the door, "Oh, there's a broom cupboard just down the hall. In case you guys want to get comfortable in them before we get back to school," he said, ducking out of the room before his friends could retaliate.

OoOoO

Harry watched his best friend carefully as they slowly circled each other, each waiting for the other to make a move, "You're going pay for your little joke Potter," she growled in an attempt to intimidate him.

It might have worked if he hadn't noticed her eyes shining in anticipation. Despite her general rule-abiding, bookworm persona, Hermione had a thrill seeking side that she had found during their DA meetings. Harry adopted an air of indignation in an attempt to rile her up, "Joke? Me? I would never," he protested, suppressing a grin as she narrowed her eyes at him, "I was just offering up some advice to my two closest friends."

"Oh, and what would you know about getting comfortable in a broom closet?" she asked, throwing him off guard and giving her a chance to throw a pair of stunners at him, followed by a blue hex that he didn't recognize.

He sidestepped the stunners before calling out a quick, "Protego," to block the unknown hex. Harry shook his head disapprovingly at his friend, "I never thought I'd see the day where Hermione Granger would try to use a distraction to win a duel."

"As if I need a distraction to beat you," she replied confidently.

Harry responded with spells, "Stupefy, Incarcerous, Confundus," he said, in quick succession, starting the duel for real. They started slowly, testing each other with quick precise attacks, but before long they were trading spells back and forth as fast as they could shout, Harry relying on his speed and power, while Hermione used her almost encyclopedic knowledge of spells to try to catch him off guard. Still, the last few weeks of practice began to show quickly as Hermione's stamina started to lag. Seeing his chance Harry fired a Silencio, deliberately missing and hitting the couch behind her. Hermione ignored his missed spell and pressed her attack, throwing everything she had into it in a last ditch effort to overwhelm him. Rolling calmly to the side, he snapped off a pair of silent stunners, catching her off guard. Barely getting her shield up in time, she never noticed his extra wand motion, summoning the couch behind her before snapping off disarming and incarcerous charms. She never had a chance as the sofa knocked her legs out from under her, while his other spells disarmed and trapped her.

OoooO

Hermione watched as Harry slowly made his way towards her, twirling her wand through his fingers victoriously, before vanishing the ropes that bound her to the couch. "You cheated," she said grumpily, as she stood and snatched her wand from his hand.

"Cheat? Me? I would never," Harry replied, his feigned outrage ruined by the smile playing at the ends of his lips.

Hermione crossed her arms and arched an eyebrow at him as she debated hexing the smirk of his face, "Of course not. It just never occurred to you to tell me you knew how to do non-verbal magic," she said sarcastically, "I mean it's not like it's a big deal or anything."

"Doesn't make it cheating," he said with a grin, no longer even attempting to hide his smile, " You need to be prepared for the unexpected. Constant Vigilance!" he said, shouting Moody's motto.

She opened her mouth to argue, but decided to close it without making a sound, unable to find a fault in his logic. "When did you even learn to cast silently?" she asked instead, her anger quickly fading to be replaced with curiosity.

Harry summoned a book from where it had been lying near the wall, "Moony started teaching me a couple weeks ago," he said before banishing it just as quickly with a wave of his wand.

Hermione felt her eyes widen in shock, "A couple weeks?" she asked, the astonishment clear in her voice.

"Give or take a couple days yeah, why?"

Hermione was almost floored by his nonchalant admission. "Harry, do you have any idea how incredible that is? With only two weeks of practice you cast those stunners almost on top of each other. Most adults can't even cast that quickly," she said causing Harry's eyes to widen in surprise. 'Of course he doesn't know,' she thought to herself in exasperation, 'leave it to Harry to remain completely oblivious while he accomplishes something that shouldn't be possible.'

"I didn't know," he said with a shrug as if it wasn't a big deal, "I guess Moony's new teaching method must actually work."

Hermione perked up immediately, 'Maybe it wasn't just Harry,' she thought to herself, 'Maybe Remus came up with some revolutionary teaching method. He was a brilliant teacher after all.' "Can you teach me?" she asked immediately, her voice quivering in excitement at the prospect of learning something new. She knew they would be starting non-verbal spells at the beginning of the year, but the chance to get a head start was too good to pass up.

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea," Harry said with a wince, "Moony's method was pretty... intense."

She bit her lip as she considered his warning. Harry wasn't much of one for exaggerating, but she was never one to back down from a challenge. "Please Harry," she begged, "you could save me weeks of practice." She watched him as he considered whether or not to teach her. She sighed internally, sometimes Harry really could be overprotective. "Oh come on, I'm sure it wasn't that bad," she snapped as he began to shake his head, "you made it out alive."

"Fine," he said, sighing dramatically, before assuming the tone he had used while teaching the DA. "First, I want you to cast a 'Protego' while concentrating on the feel of your magic as it snaps into place." Hermione felt her face break into a wide grin, as she gave him a quick hug before jumping to follow his instructions. She cast her shield four times before she had memorized the feel of her magic rushing through her. "Go stand over there," Harry said, pointing to a spot on the other side of the room.

Hermione hurried to the spot he had pointed to, before turning to face him, "Now what?" she asked. Or at least she tried to. She was so surprised by her lack of voice that she didn't even move as a jet of light hit her feet. She tried to move, but found that her feet were stuck to the floor. "Harry?" she tried to ask, her voice still missing.

She looked at her best friend, "I guess I should have warned you," he said, grinning mischievously at her as she eyed him warily, "Moonys' method is to shoot stinging hexes at you until you can cast a shield." Hermione eyes widened as she saw him cast his first spell at her. Unable to move her feet she ducked, almost losing her balance but managing to avoid the spell. "Hermione, the point of this isn't to dodge," he said, casting another hex at her, forcing her to lean to avoid it and fall backwards onto her arse, her feet still stuck to the floor.

"Come on Hermione, this was your idea," Harry said laughing loudly as she glared at him, "Alright, alright. As entertaining as this is, I suppose it isn't fair to force to go through what I did."

Hermione sighed in relief as he hit her with a, 'Finite,' before the last part of his sentence registered with her, "Wait, you were being serious? You learned to cast silently like that?" she asked as she scrambled to her feet.

"Well I've definitely never been Sirius," he replied, causing her to groan at his stupid joke, "but yeah, that's how I learned so quick. Moony says I learn better under pressure."

Hermione watched as Harry began cleaning up, repairing all the furniture that had been broken during their fight and returning it to its original position, all without saying a word. She couldn't help but be amazed by how easy he made it seem, his wand hardly pausing between one action and the next. And after only two weeks of practice. She was watching him so intently, that she didn't notice when the last piece of furniture, the couch that he had used to knock her off her feet, returned to its place against the wall. "You ready to go?" he asked, leading the way towards the door, stopping after a few steps when he realized she wasn't following. "Hermione?"

"No," she pointed her wand at her feet, muttering a quick spell to stick her feet to the floor, "If it will help me learn quicker I want to learn the way you did," she said, before pointing her wand at herself and muttering a silencing charm. She could only hope that she wasn't making a huge mistake.

OoOoO

"Ow! Is that really necessary?" Harry demanded, rubbing his shoulder.

Hermione responded by hitting him once again before leaning back against the armrest of the loveseat, "Well you just spent nearly an hour shooting hexes at me, so yes, I would say it is warranted."

Harry flicked one of the feet resting in his lap as he grumbled under his breath. Maybe he had had a little too much fun with the lesson, but she had asked for it. Literally. He was about to tell her so when he was interrupted by Tonks.

"Harry we'll have to postpone our lesson with Minnie tomorr-," she said, cutting off as she noticed that they weren't alone, "Oh, hi Hermione, I didn't realize you were still here."

"You have summer lessons with Professor McGonagall?" Hermione asked curiously, "You never told me about that."

"We've been working on making the DA a school approved group," Tonks said quickly, trying to cut Hermione off before she could ask too many questions.

Hermione gave him a strange look, "But you told me in your last letter that you were pretty much done with that..." she said before turning to Tonk, "And you just said that it was a lesson." Harry gave Tonks a look asking for help to which she shrugged helplessly. Looking at his bushy haired best friend he could almost see the gears turning in her head as she surveyed them suspiciously. It only took her a moment for everything clicked into place, "You're learning to become an Ani-!" she exclaimed loudly, cutting off as he lunged at her, covering her mouth with his hand.

"Shhh!" he said with a finger to his lips, "Not so loud."

"You decided to become an Animagus without me?" she whispered dejectedly.

Harry winced guiltily. After all the times they had discussed trying the Animagus transformation he should have known that she would be hurt by him doing it without her. "I'm sorry 'Mione," he apologized, "I wasn't thinking. With Padfoot gone, I just wanted to help Moony."

She regarded him for a moment before she replied, "It's alright, I guess," she said with a sigh, "I suppose you had a good reason to do it without me."

"You mean I had a good reason to start without you," he said with a grin, "I'm sure Minnie wouldn't have a problem with an extra student, especially not if it's you."

Hermione smiled at him, "You think so?"

"Of course, you're probably her favorite student. You can come with us tomorrow."

Tonks interrupted before she could respond, "No she can't Harry, not tomorrow at least. That's what I was coming in to tell you, I canceled our lesson with Minnie tomorrow."

"What? How come?" he asked in annoyance. He was just starting to get the hang of it, if anything he wanted more time to practice, not less.

"With Susan gone I have to go back to regular duties on Monday, so Remus and I decided that we would pick up your school supplies tomorrow," she explained. "Would you like to join us Hermione?"

"Sure, that sounds great," she replied excitedly.

"Well, then I'll see you two tomorrow," Tonks said, as she turned to leave the room before stopping at the door, "We have an Order meeting later that night, so we're going to be leaving pretty early. It would probably be easier if you stayed here tonight. Oh and I wouldn't stay up too late Harry, we start training again bright and early."

"Sure thing Tonks. Good night," he said, waving as she left.

"So you're still running, fighting and learning Occlumency every morning?" Hermione asked curiously after the metamorph had left.

"Not every morning," Harry replied, "We alternate running and Occlumency lessons and only do the hand-to-hand stuff once or twice a week. Now that I know the basics and can hold my Occlumency shields while fighting it isn't really worthwhile to spend so much time on it, so we spend most of our time dueling and doing casting speed and accuracy practice."

"Do you think I could join you?" she asked hesitantly.

"You want to run and learn to fight?" he asked, "Why?"

"For the same reasons you do."

"You have an seemingly immortal homicidal maniac trying to kill you too?" he asked jokingly.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "You're so over-dramatic. No, I don't have a homicidal maniac after me specifically, but I doubt his cronies would hesitate if they got the chance. Besides, do you think I'd let you do this on your own?"

Harry sighed to himself. He actually had been hoping that she would choose not to get involved or at least wait until they had graduated. "I guess not. But you'll have to learn to Apparate, I don't fancy knocking on your door every morning to pick you up. Unless you'd rather stay here?"

Hermione's face lit up at the mention of staying at the Den, "I'd love to. If it isn't a problem of course."

"Of course not, with Susan gone you'll even get your room to yourself."

"And you'll still teach me how to Apparate?" she asked enthusiastically.

"I suppose," he said, pretending to act annoyed at his friends predictable response to learning something new.

"Thank you Harry," she said, hugging him tightly and completely ignoring his feigned lack of enthusiasm.

Harry shook his head and laughed lightly, "You're welcome," he said, squeezing her in return, "but we should go to bed. Tonks wasn't kidding when she said early."