Disclaimer: We all know how these work, I acknowledge that J.K. Rowlings, Warner Bros. and Scholastic own Harry Potter and all other characters and settings from cannon, and I get to write whatever I please and even add in characters of my own as long as I don't get any money. The no money sucks but there you go, at least I don't get lawyers knocking on my door. Addendum: If you recognize a name of a character from elsewhere it isn't mine.

a/n: Lots of cussing in this chapter. Hope you enjoy!

Sirius' Savior

Chapter 55 Battle Training

The final trimester of Harry's sixth grade year at Stuart-Cavanaugh was interesting and busy as always. He took all his normal courses and took gymnastics a second time much to Michael's amusement. Michael teased it was just to spite him for what he'd said. Harry stayed busy with all the clubs and non-school activities as well. Nothing terribly exciting happened with either his regular studies , with his life or with his magic studies.

The second week of the trimester Harry found a different way to think about the memories. It was like flicking a switch in his head. Harry gradually found himself better able to cope with the mental strain brought on by working the memories in the dark tower. It helped that he wasn't processing them every weekend. His friends enjoyed coming to the house and being away from school once a month. Beth found that she was impatient for Lila and Elizabeth to grow up as she had so much fun mothering Cassidy. Beth and Sirius were relieved that Harry was coping better with the memories.

Processing the memories, Harry had gotten to the point that he could absorb the knowledge but ceased constantly reacting to the evil in them. He decided he would never ever use even a borderline dark spell, because such spells were the start of a slippery slope. One he never wanted to go down. Harry found details about how Moldy had used a basilisk from Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets to kill a muggleborn girl named Myrtle in his sixth year at Hogwarts and framed a third year half breed boy named Hagrid for it. Upon hearing of the basilisk, Sirius was very excited. He and Harry had been looking for a source of basilisk venom for years but had been unable to find one. This meant when Harry went to Hogwarts they would be able to destroy the horcruxes. One thing Harry found curious. Moldy never searched beyond the main chamber and the basilisk. Why call it a chamber of secrets if two secrets were all that was there?

As the end of the trimester approached decisions were made where Harry's next training jumps would be. Harry suggested that a trip to Montana to visit the Reynolds' Reserve for the family would be fun, after the school trip to China. For his jump destinations he would be in Chicago again He was really looking forward to this jump in Chicago because Sirius had come up with some exercises for the trainees that Harry would get to participate in. But before Chicago it had been decided that Harry would do a extended memories focus trip to Yellowstone.

At Yellowstone he broke up the memory work with hikes, rock climbing, and photography. He had sent off to Yiska to get the climbing spell so he never worried about falling. Two months later Harry had processed the rest of Moldy's memories, including the making of more horcruxes and more curses and counter curses than he had ever wanted to know.. Harry had found out about a mysterious room at Hogwarts that could become what ever sort of space you needed. And that Moldy had ties to a woods in Albania.

They packed up to head to Chicago. Their arrival at the house in Napierville, the settling in to their usual rooms that was followed by Sirius bringing Harry his usual potion was typical.

"Here you go kiddo."

Harry made a face but obediently took the vial. "So are you going to join me in this or are you still hoping to catch up with Beth?"

"Funny smart aleck."

"Well I figure with this jump you're half way there."

"I hadn't thought about it but you're right."

"So what is the focus for this segment what new and wonderful bit of magic do I get to learn this time? Animagus transformation?"

"No you still don't know enough transfiguration. I was thinking apparition it would be unexpected in someone your age, but your core is strong and stable enough to do it."

"Not to mention I have done it before."

"Not to mention. So here's a book on it. You've got until Monday to read it."

"Great work, work, work, that's all I ever seem to do..."

"I got tickets to a quiditch game Sunday."

"Cool who's playing?" Harry voice vibrated with excitement.

"Toronto Tornados vs. Chicago Chimaeras"

"Got anything else planned for this time?"

"Movies, Chicago Symphony, Cubs game, Great America."

"Awesome!"

"Sleep tight kiddo."

"Night Sirius."

As he left the room Sirius reflected on what he hoped Harry's return to Maryland would bring. Sirius had asked Beth for a huge party to celebrate Harry's belated 10th birthday for on their return. It was going to be divided the first part would include all of the people they knew that were magical Harry would be surprised because Sirius had got him a broom and season tickets to the quiditch games for the Baltimore Opaleyes. Beth's presents would be presented in the second half of the party with their mundane friends. Harry didn't know it, but he was getting a new cello since he'd pretty much outgrown his old one and a new guitar for the same reason. Sirius sighed it wasn't much longer until Harry would be off to Hogwarts. Just one more year, he sighed again. Sirius was amazed at how mature Harry was getting. But he supposed it wasn't that surprising with the time jumps Harry was closer to twelve than ten. Plus the fact Harry was more like Lily inside than James although on the outside Harry was definitely James son.

After a relaxing weekend Sirius, Harry and the rest of the team portkeyed to the WIS facility. They arrived early enough for Harry to join Dani Reese in a morning physical training workout with the newest group of recruits. Recruits that started off with taunts of "Is it bring your kids to work day?" but ended with groans, lying on mats looking up at the ceiling while Dani high fived Harry.

Dani turned to the recruits. "This is Harry. He and his guardian come here for a couple reasons. His guardian comes in and teaches classes from time to time. Harry comes to get kick ass training. How's he doing on that?" Only to be answered by groans. "Harry's young and only knows a few spells but he's been taught defense by one of the best I've seen since he was three. He's also a VIP whom WIS is currently responsible for protecting as is his guardian. They don't need much but even they don't have eyes in the back of their heads. While they are here I suggest that you keep your eyes open, because trouble can happen and while you keep your eyes open maybe you can learn a few things. So did anyone learn anything this morning?"

"Never underestimate your opponent." one recruit offered.

"Good. Anyone else?"

"I gotta get in better physical shape."

"Lesson learned then."

Charlie tested Harry's knowledge of spell identification and was exceptionally pleased. When he wasn't teaching recruits he spent time with Harry on dodging drills, first aid, and apparition. Their friendship struck most everyone at the training facility as odd. Mostly because Charlie was such a curmudgeon. Harry didn't care; the crusty trainer was a warrior and was teaching him to be one too. Sirius and Harry's other teachers were always mindful he was a child and balanced their desire for his performance level to rise against his feelings. Charlie just expected him to do better no excuses, no whining, suck it up and improve or else. Harry thrived on it.

The third week of their jaunt to Chicago, Sirius was running a training exercise for a mixed group of advanced trainees and updating aurors. Harry was ecstatic because Winry and Radar were two of the updating aurors and he got to participate. They would run the exercise three times so each group got the chance to act in each role: observer, aggressor, defender. They had aurors surrounding the site whose job was to prevent security breeches by muggles or anyone else. They were in one of the forest preserves near the O'Hare airport and the scenario was that Harry was a principle to be defended, which meant he wasn't allowed to do much. That was okay, if a little boring because it was learning in a live situation with real aurors. Harry was young enough to appreciate it.

Moody was puzzled by everything he'd observed the last four hours. He'd hired twelve locals to help and scouted this location throughly before coming up with a plan. The plan was simple they would slip through the security net early then observe until Moody gave the signal. Chambers had sent a notice that the exercise would be run three times. Moody had warned his team that they may have a long wait because he wanted to know the flow of the exercise before attempting to snag Harry. He hadn't really expected to see such a happy young boy who seemed ready to react. Moody had maneuvered so he'd be in perfect position to dart the five people protecting Harry and snag him. His team would have the job of knocking out the remainder of the people here for the exercise. Moody had stressed again and again until they got there that these were law enforcement aurors but that they didn't want war with wizards in the US. Orders were knock the aurors out and snag Harry, and if possible snag Black if not take Black out. He heard Sirius' sonorus and signaled his team to be ready to go.

"Alright everyone. Here we are, trainees it's your turn. You got to watch how it is done by the pro's." Sirius grinned at Winry and Radar on the far side of the field. He didn't know the other experienced aurors but he was pleased by the bar they had set for the exercise. They had been the defenders the first time through then the attackers in the second round. First and second rounds they had won. "Team 2 your the attackers this go round. Team 3 you're defenders. Go!"

Sirius and his guards and the observing aurors were shocked when on the word go. Everyone came under sudden spell fire not just team 3. Sirius, Dani, Charlie, Winry and Radar were among the first to respond unfortunately they were on different sides of the exercise grounds and Harry was equally far from both of them. Sirius' attention immediately snapped to Harry. He spotted the blur of a disillusion spell. But before he could fire off a stupefy he got hit with a bludgeoning curse not straight on but enough to hurt. He would have to hope all the training he had given Harry was enough and turned his attention to his immediate problem of several attackers with no compunctions of doing nasty spells on him.

Harry was shocked and instinctively dodged the stunning spells fired in his direction after his guards dropped from darts. What the hell was happening? He started to move for Sirius when he felt himself grasped from behind by someone he couldn't see. Damn it! He brought his elbow back as hard as he could into what he hoped was his attackers solar plexus. Then deliberately dropped his weight to the ground hitting hands down and one foot under him. Taking his free leg he did a sweep intending to knock his attacker on his ass. He was surprised that one of the legs behind him felt like wood. Since he was practically in a sprinters crouch and his attacker had released him he bolted towards Sirius sending up an accidental if instinctive shield.

Moody couldn't believe what had just happened a kid had knocked him on his ass. Sitting up quickly he fired three stunners at the sprinting figure. The first hit a shield the second would have hit him in the shoulder but the boy somersaulted and the next two went over him. Taking careful aim Moody fired a fourth and a fifth knowing there was no way for the boy to avoid them. The fourth hit and collapsed the feeble shield. But just when he thought the fifth would connect he heard the distinctive crack of apparition.

Back at the WIS facility, alarms were going off. Trainers scrambled the most advanced trainees that weren't at the exercise , grabbing vests and first aid kits and apparated to the exercise site.

Sirius wanted to chew out the people that were supposed to be his guards unfortunately he couldn't because they were down. He swore, "I knew I should've grabbed my vest this morning, But no trust your team I said." He fired a blasting hex in the direction of one of his attackers. "I forgot the bloody cardinal rule." He fired another curse in the direction he thought was another attacker. "There's never enough security and there's no such thing as paranoia!" Sirius was crouching but still had at least three attackers still firing at him. When he heard the crack of apparition from the direction Harry had been in. He half turned to look only to have another crack happen in front of him. He took two steps towards Harry when he noticed that two of his three attackers stepped forward and fired simultaneous sectumsempra curses. Harry was in the line of fire. Sirius dived forward without thinking and protected Harry's body with his own.

A/N: I thought about leaving it there but I promised a long chapter. Also credit for the cardinal rule goes to noylj, Thanks

Winry, Dani, and Walter had finally fought clear of their attackers as they heard the crack of Harry's apparition. Charlie just apparated so he was behind the third of Sirius' remaining attackers and stunned him.

"Sirius!" Harry's panicked cry echoed through the grove. His Godfather was on top of him unconscious and bleeding. Harry's eyes went electric blue as a sudden wind came whipping through the grove.

Winry fired stunners at the two remaining aggressors, but they dodged. Suddenly the air was split by a deafening crack of lightning and where the two attackers had been there was now only smoldering heaps that had once been bodies. Winry ignored the smell of ozone and burnt flesh and once she could see past the after image of the lightning she apparated to Sirius and Harry.

Moody couldn't believe what he'd just witnessed. Black had put himself between the boy and what was one of the deadlier cutting curses. He didn't know what Parkinson and Avery were thinking firing those towards the boy-who-lived, unless they were deatheaters of old seeking revenge. Then two bolts or maybe just one forked bolt of lightning had appeared out of a mostly clear sky to kill Parkinson and Avery. Well shit this had gone to hell in a hand basket he'd better leave before... He heard the distinctive explosive crack of mass apparition. Swearing he apparated out while he still could.

Winry arrived next to Sirius and Harry only to start swearing they both had been hit with an obviously heavy duty cutting curse. Sirius was unconscious. And pinning Harry. Harry was asking for his wand. "Hold on Harry, I need to get the bleeding stopped."

"You can't without the counter curse." Harry murmured.

"What spell was it?"

"Sectumsempra"

"Fuck I don't know that one. I've never even heard of it."

"Get my effing wand I do!"

Dani grabbed Harry's wand from where Sirius' tackle had knocked it and passed it to Harry.

"Pay attention, incidere haud magis resarcio una."

As Harry completed the spell Winry cast a compression bandage spell on Sirius. She flashed a smile of thanks at the medic that placed a first aid kit at her elbow and grabbed a blood replenisher and spelled it directly to Sirius' stomach followed closely by a second. She levitated Sirius' body off Harry. Only to see the slice on Harry that Sirius' weight had been acting as pressure for. "Fucking Hell Portkey to the medical center here now dammit! Harry did the same curse hit you?"

"Ye" Harry's eyes rolled back in his head.

"Shit" Winry tried to remember the spell Harry had said for Sirius but she had been too busy trying to be ready to stop the bleeding.

"Incidere haud magis resarcio una." Dani said fighting back tears because Harry was hurt. The portkey snatched them away to the medical center. Moments later Sirius and Harry were on medical cots. Dani backed out of the healers way, Winry was busy giving them a rundown of what had happened.

Twenty minutes later Winry came out to see Dani sitting with a cup of coffee. Dani waved her wand and a second cup appeared. She looked at Winry with a questioning look.

"It's touch and go. We think we've got them stable but none of us knows much about the spell that hit them. If Harry hadn't known the counter they'd be dead. Sirius because he caught the equivalent of one and a half . Harry because he's a kid. What's worse is for some reason his core's acting funny. From the angles if Sirius had not caught Harry and switched the angle he'd have been hit across the jugular. I want to bring Beth here but because they're looping I can't."

"Looping what do you mean?"

Winry winced and inhaled sharply, "It's classified."

"Oh."

"Good job by the way."

"What do you mean?"

"You remembered the counter and didn't hesitate it might very well have saved his life."

Charlie entered the hall he saw both ladies outside the room. "How are they?"

"It's wait and see."

"Cruz what the fuck happened?" Dani said.

"In general or in specific? A cluster fuck in general. In specific one hell of a security breach. Somewhere someone leaked where Sirius would be on certain dates and the best time to attack was today. Apparently whoever it was leaked it to some Brits who wanted Black and Harry in the worst way. We got two attackers in the morgue, one that is being serumed as we speak. Ten that are local talent and with two more locals and four more Brits that escaped. Security here on this room is jumping up the scale as we speak. The President has been informed but because of stuff beyond my paygrade to know their family isn't being informed. Radar and the investigators are tearing through files and interviews, doing the works to find out who the leak was. You ladies were cleared tentatively since you both feature so prominently in the rescue side of things I just finished my clearance interview so I came here as more get cleared they'll show."

"How many got hurt or killed?" Dani asked.

"That's the funny thing apparently the orders were no permanent damage was to be done."

"So what's with the guys casting..." Winry started.

"Sectumsempra." Dani finished.

"That's a very good question. Anyway most of the damage is minor except for the two private guards with Sirius one took a bludgeoning curse to the temple, he died and the other has a skull fracture and severe concussion."

"So what now?"

"We wait."