"Avifors!"

Harry ducked away from the spell as he cast his own spell. "Locomotor Wibbly!"

"Petrificus Totalus!" Sirius returned, as he brought up his sword to block Harry's spell.

"Stupefy!" Harry returned, stepping to the side of Sirius' spell.

"Come on, Harry!" Sirius reproved. "Use your sword. Locomotor Mortis!"

Harry clumsily brought his sword up to block the spell. Despite having practised his fencing drills with his left hand for weeks, it was still much less graceful than his right hand.

"Calvario!" Sirius cast.

Harry blocked that curse with his sword as well, but he had no chance to return fire before Sirius cast yet another spell.

"Mimble Wimble!"

"Expulso!" Harry returned, before trying to bring his sword up in time to block Sirius' curse. He was too late and the blue spell it him in the right shoulder.

Harry grimaced, damn, now he would have reply on his wordless spells (and he had only mastered two). He brought up his wand again and, as Sirius dodged out of the way of the Expulso charm, followed it up with another stunning charm.

Sirius' eyes widened in surprise as the red spell flew towards him, but he brought his sword up to block it. "Gelata Digitorum!"

Harry stepped aside, as he wordlessly sent the leg-locking curse at Sirius.

"Sword, Harry!" Sirius reminded him as he blocked the spell. "Nare Capillos Accrescens! Petrificus Totalus!"

Harry barely managed to block the first spell with sword, when Sirius' second spell hit him. Seconds later, Harry was lying on the floor completely frozen.

"You're getting better." Sirius praised, as he made his way across the classroom and cast the counter curses.

"I don't feel as though I am." Harry sighed despondently. "My left hand is useless."

"It's no worse than your right hand was when you first started." Sirius pointed out. "And that was just over a year ago. Give it time, you'll get there. Bravo, by the way, I didn't know you knew any wordless magic."

"Only those two spells." Harry admitted, he tended to focus more on wandless magic. "I haven't put much effort into learning them, but I thought it would probably be good to have a few up my sleeve just in case."

"Good plan." Sirius grinned, offering him a hand. "Are you up for another duel?"

"Can we leave the swords out of it this time?" Harry asked hopefully. He asked at the end of every session, but Sirius' answer was always no.

Sirius nodded slowly. "Alright, what the hell."

"Thank you!" Harry sighed with relief. "I actually feel successful when I duel normally."

"Remus says a lot of good things about your duelling." Sirius commented. "At this point, I'm pretty sure he thinks you could beat Dumbledore."

"Well, I've never seen him duel, but I really doubt it." Harry shook his head. "I'm not that good."

"Well, he's caught my interest." Sirius grinned, striding to the other end of the classroom. "Try to live up to the legend."

"Usual rules?" Harry asked.

Sirius smirked. "How about we change it up a bit. Anything is permissible, so long as it isn't lethal and doesn't completely destroy Remus' classroom."

Harry's eyes lit up in anticipation. "Brilliant!"

"Ready?" Sirius asked.

Harry bowed. "Three."

"Two." Sirius bowed in return.

"One!" They exclaimed together, before simultaneously casting spells.

"Stupefy!"

"Expulso!"

Harry dodged away from Sirius' spelling spell, while casting again. "Incendium!"

Sirius, who had blocked Harry's first spell with a magical shield, dodged his second spell. "Stultiloquium!"

"Protego!" Harry blocked the spell. "Densaugeo!"

"Cornu Lingua."

"Engorgio Skullus!"

Sirius' eyes widened as he dodged out of the way. "Bloody hell, Harry. Genu transuerso!"

"Ictus!" Harry returned. "Densaugeo!"

"Pollicem Clavum Crescit!"

The duel continued for almost half an hour and, by the time that Harry finally managed to pin Sirius down with a spell to stick his feet to floor before following it up with a stunning spell, neither of them were in great condition. Sirius' left shoulder was dislocated and there was gash on his right thigh that had been bleeding sluggishly for over ten minutes. Harry, was a little better off, with only a broken arm and a bruised hip. Both of them had cast spells during the duel to mask their pain enough to continue duelling. Harry really didn't look forward the spell coming off.

Harry limped over to where Sirius was lying unconscious, before sitting on the floor beside him. "Rennervate!"

Sirius groaned as he opened his eyes. "Bloody hell." He wheezed. "I guess I should be glad that you took pity on me and it me with a stunning and not one of your bloody skull expanding spells."

"They're much harder to undo." Harry explained. "We're going to need Remus' help to fix your shoulder anyway. I didn't want to have to admit to him that I'd enlarged your skull."

"Didn't stop you from casting it at me multiple times." Sirius accused as he pushed himself upright with his right arm, his chest still heaving from the exertion.

"It freaked you out." Harry pointed out. "Besides which, the protego doesn't work against it."

"Of course it bloody freaked me out." Sirius exclaimed, raising his right hand to wipe the sweat off his brow. "It would have enlarged my skull."

"It's not lethal though." Harry reminded him. "It was within the rules."

Sirius grimaced at him, before looking around the room. "We should probably clean this up a bit before Remus gets back. He'll be pissed if he sees it like this."

"You're not wrong." Remus' voice sounded from the doorway to his office. "What in Merlin's name did you two do?"

"We duelled." Harry admitted.

Remus didn't look impressed. "And what are you doing on the floor?"

"He stunned me." Sirius admitted, still slightly wheezy. "And he dislocated my shoulder."

Harry's stomach squirmed guiltily. "There's a cut on his leg too."

Sirius must have heard something in his tone, because he switched his attention to Harry. "Don't feel bad, pup. I'm the one who broke your arm and slammed you up against the wall."

"You broke his arm?" Remus exclaimed loudly.

"He dislocated my shoulder first." Sirius defended.

Remus looked exasperated, as he made his way over. "And I suppose you want my help with healing spells."

"Yes, please." Harry answered meekly. "I don't know many yet."

Remus crouched down beside them. "Have you ever fixed a dislocated arm before?"

"No." Harry shook his head.

"The incantation is sanare extorqueo." Remus told him. "And the wand movement is like this."

Harry watched carefully as Remus demonstrated it a few times.

"Wait a minute." Sirius protested. "Is this really the right time for Harry to learn this?"

"I think this is exactly the time." Remus returned evenly. "Give it a go, Harry."

It took Harry a few tries, but eventually the purple spell left his wand and sunk into Sirius' shoulder resulting in a quiet popping sound and a pain-filled groan from Sirius.

"Good job." Remus told him. "Now, that cut doesn't look too deep so you can probably just use episkey."

"Episkey!" Harry intoned, watching with satisfaction as the gash on Sirius' leg closed up.

"Now your arm." Remus said. "Broken bones are harder to fix than dislocations and cuts. Something that Sirius knows full well."

Harry swallowed down his amused grin as Remus shot Sirius a dirty look. "That's alright."

"I can splint it," Remus continued. "But you'll have to go see Madame Pomfrey to get it healed."

"What would I tell her?" Harry asked. "Maybe I should just let it heal naturally."

"You tell her that you fell off your broom or something." Remus told him. "Ferula!"

Harry watched in amazement, and no little pain, as bandages that hadn't been there before spun around his arm. "That's brilliant."

"Now," Remus looked around his classroom. "I expect the two of you to remove all the scorch marks and fix all the broken furniture."

Harry winced. "What's the spell?"

"The basic mending charm ought to do for the furniture." Sirius decided. "In fact, you could probably just try and put as much magic into the spell as possible and it might fix the entire room."

Harry stood up, wincing inwardly as the bruise on his hip smarted, and held up in wand. "Reparo!"

The effect was instantaneously – all the furniture in the room righted itself and any pieces that had broken off reattached themselves. But the spell didn't stop there. The scorch marks disappeared, as did any scratches on the desks, and the tear in Sirius' robes mended as well.

"Bloody hell." Sirius exclaimed as they watched the room right itself. "I wasn't expecting that."

Remus was looking around in amazement. "The classroom looks brand new."

Harry winced. "You said to put as much magic into the spell as possible."

"Yeah," Sirius was still looking around in the room in astonishment. "I just didn't realise you had quite that much magic at your disposal."

"Thank you, Harry." Remus smiled at him. "I don't think my classroom has ever looked this good. Now, we should probably get you to Madame Pomfrey. Dinner will be ready soon and you shouldn't go with a splint on your arm."

"Actually," Harry said nervously. "There's something I need to talk to you both about."

"That sounds ominous." Sirius commented, before reaching up an arm. "Help me up, Moony."

Remus sighed long-sufferingly, but pulled Sirius to his feet. "Shall we discuss this in my office?"

"Alright." Harry nodded, at least there were comfortable armchairs there.

Once they were seated, Sirius and Remus both turned their attention to Harry who swallowed nervously.

"Well," Harry started. "It's about Daphne."

Sirius wiggled his eyebrows. "Ah, trouble with the ladies. Well, you've come to the right place!"

Harry ignored him. "She's been acting weird ever since you and Lord Greengrass signed the papers. Well, actually she was a bit weird while we talked beforehand too."

Sirius and Remus both looked concerned. "Weird how?"

"Quiet." Harry explained. "She doesn't talk much, and when she does talks it's perfectly polite."

"She might just be trying to figure out how to deal with the betrothal." Remus suggested.

"Yes, that's sort of what I thought at first." Harry agreed. "Except then I took her to Hogsmeade on Saturday and she told me that she's scared of displeasing me."

"Displeasing you?" Sirius repeated, his forehead furrowed in concern.

"Yes," Harry confirmed. "Remember how I told you that she was betrothed to Eugene Odgen? And that Draco said that he was a bully? Well, I think he must have been worse than I imagined. She's terrified of me. What do I do?"

Sirius and Remus both exchanged a look, before Remus spoke. "What did you say?"

"I told her than I liked her the way she is." Harry answered. "And that I would never hurt her, and that I see her as my partner rather than my subordinate. Which helped a little, she's talking sometimes now. But sometimes she'll say something and then give me this look, as though she's scared I'm going to curse her."

"It sounds as though you're doing all you can." Remus told him softly. "Sometimes, when people are expecting something bad to happen, it can take them some time to get used to the idea that they're safe."

"I was like that." Sirius admittedly, leaning forward in his chair. "You know that my parents were pretty horrible, and when I went to live with your father's family I spent months expecting that your grandparents would get sick of me and curse me."

"I did that too." Harry remembered suddenly. "When I came to live with you last year. I knew you weren't going to hurt me, but I was still scared that you might."

"I remember." Sirius nodded sadly. "You wouldn't come within arms' reach of me for a month."

"So I just have to give her time?" Harry asked. "I was hoping that there would be something else that I could do."

"Well, keep courting her." Sirius told him. "And keep reassuring her that you like it when she talks."

Harry sighed, he just wished there was more he could do.

12-12-12

Madame Pomfrey was singularly unimpressed by Harry's admittedly flimsy story about how he had broken his arm but, despite her anger muttering, she had still healed it. Still, her extended interrogation made them both a little late for dinner – something that Harry really hadn't wanted to be.

"Merry meet." Luna greeted, as he slid into the empty seat beside her. "Something odd happened today."

Merry meet." Harry agreed with a smile, Luna's non-sequiturs were always rather amusing. "What happened today?"

"There was a fixing wave on the fourth floor." Luna explained. "Even some people on the third and fifth floors got things fixed."

Harry stared at her. "What?"

"Everything got fixed." Luna explained. "I was on the fourth floor, looking for Blibbering Humdingers, and my bag was suddenly as good as new."

Harry's mouth was suddenly dry. "When…" He cleared his throat. "When did this happen?"

"Oh, about forty minutes ago." Luna answered airily. "Did you have a good lesson?"

Harry stared at Luna, trying to figure out whether or not she knew that he had been the one to cause the so called fixing wave. He gave up after a few seconds, it was Luna – who could really tell what she did or didn't know. Damn Sirius and his stupid advice. He was never putting as much magic as possible into a spell again.

"Oooh!" Luna exclaimed a few minutes later. "Look, Harry. It's about to start."

Harry's stomach clenched in excited anticipation as he turned to where Cho Chang was sitting with Marietta Edgecombe.

Nothing happened at first and, after a while, Harry forced himself to avert his gaze so that he wouldn't look suspicious.

"I beg your pardon?!" Marietta asked, her voice raised in outrage.

Cho's reply was too quiet for Harry to hear, but from the expressions of the students sitting near her it obviously hadn't been very nice.

"You fat cow!" Marietta's expression was twisted in fury. "Don't act as though you're so high and mighty. We both know that you're a gold-digging tramp!"

There was a long silence, as the entire hall fell silent and turned to stare at the two girls, and then a few sniggers were held around the hall.

Cho surged to her feet. "Bitch!"

"Slut!" Marietta all but screamed back.

"Skanky whore!" Cho shrieked.

"Silencio!" Takashi suddenly broke in from his seat down the table, cutting the two girls off.

Not that it did any good, they still continued to silently scream at each other, though at least now the poor first years weren't having their innocent ears traumatised.

There was another long silence which, as it had been before, was broken by sniggers all around the hall.

Harry looked up at the Head Table and had to swallow down a chuckle at the horrified expression on the professors' faces. Professor Flitwick, for his part, had gotten up and was making his way towards the Ravenclaw table.

"Thank you, Mr. Nado." Flitwick squeaked as he passed Takashi, before stopping next to Marietta. "Miss Edgecombe, Miss Chang, if you would come with me please."

Cho and Marietta, who had stopped screaming at each and were now sitting down looking mortified, quickly followed the professor out of the hall.

Harry shared a satisfied smile with Luna, before glancing over to where Cedric Diggory, Cho's boyfriend, was staring after her with an almost revolted expression on his face. The best thing was, that the potion wouldn't wear off for another six hours – Harry could only imagine how much trouble they were going to get themselves into.

Harry turned his attention back to the Ravenclaw table, specifically where Felicity Eastchurch, Latisha Randle, and Kim Sheringham, all of whom Luna had admitted had taken part in the bullying, were sitting together. Harry, Draco, and Luna were planning on dosing them with the potion in a few days. Hopefully they put on just as much of a show at Cho and Marietta had.

12-12-12

Cho and Marietta's outbursts were the talk of the school the next day and Harry's only regret was the amount of points that they had lost for Ravenclaw. Somehow, the two girls had managed to lose over a hundred points in one night!

He did feel a bit sorry for Cedric though. If the gossip was to be believed, Cedric and Cho had met up after Cho and Marietta's disciplinary meeting with Flitwick and it hadn't gone well. Harry wasn't sure how accurate the information was, but the consensus seemed to be that Cho had gotten angry and called Cedric a bunch of names before admitting that she was only dating him because of his status.

"This is why people shouldn't date blood traitors!" Draco declared after classes the next day.

Harry looked around the group and wasn't surprised to see Daphne, Blaise and Theo all nodding in agreement. Neville and Luna, who were talking quietly amongst themselves, didn't react at all.

"That doesn't explain Pansy." Harry pointed out. "She's just as much as a gold digger as Chang and she's traditional."

"She wouldn't make such a scene though." Theo defended.

Harry raised an eyebrow sceptically. "Are we talking about the same Pansy? She's always causing scenes."

"Only when you're around." Blaise chuckled. "You seem to bring the worst out in her."

Harry scoffed. "Really? Are you saying she didn't cling desperately to Draco except when I was around? Because that was terribly inappropriate."

"It didn't cause a scene though." Theo pointed out

"Only because Astoria either didn't notice or was too young to care." Harry returned.

"Well, Pansy's the exception." Draco decided decisively. "Not all traditionalists are like her."

"And not all non-traditionalist are like Chang." Harry returned. "The twins aren't too bad, are they?"

"They're Weasleys!"

Harry clenched his jaw. "Are you telling me that, despite having spent hours with them every Sunday for four weeks, you still can't tell the difference between them and Ron?"

Draco shifted uncomfortably. "They don't stare as much as the Weasel does."

Harry pinched his lips together and turned towards the lake. Why couldn't his friends realise that not all non-traditionalists were complete wastes of space?

Blaise cleared his throat. "Uh, I heard them say on Sunday that they've started meditating daily."

"Really?" Theo's voice was pitched higher than usual. "Good on them."

"They're not as bad as I feared they would be." Daphne added after a pause. "They're a strange combination of irreverent and respectful."

There was another long pause, before Draco let out a long, low sigh. "They're definitely better than the Weasel or the Weaselette."

Harry turned back to Draco and inclined his head thankfully. "I am grateful that you have been polite to them."

"They're both intelligent and powerful." Neville commented evenly. "It's a pity that they've grown up in an anti-traditional household."

Draco looked impressed. "We'll make a proper elitist out of you yet, Neville."

"I think that it speaks highly of them that they've turned out the way they have." Harry challenged. "They could have turned out like Ron, but they didn't."

"That's an interesting point." Daphne acknowledged with a small smile in Harry's direction.

"Though that doesn't change the fact that they still are anti-traditionalists." Draco pointed out.

"Non-traditionalists." Harry corrected.

Theo tilted his head to the side. "What's the difference?"

"Anti-traditionalists are opposed to tradition." Harry explained. "If we weren't traditionalists…"

"Perish the thought!" Draco wrinkled his nose.

"…Draco would be the anti-traditionalist." Harry continued. "Because he holds a grudge against anyone who isn't traditional."

"I wouldn't call it a grudge." Draco protested. "More of a…"

"Deep seated hatred?" Theo asked with a smirk.

"Intense loathing?" Neville added.

"Discriminating tendency?" Harry put in.

"…dislike." Draco finished, glaring indignantly at all of them.

"I, however, would be the non-traditionalist." Harry went on. "Because I think that everyone should have the right to choose whether or not they want to be a traditionalist."

"That makes sense." Theo leaned back on his hands. "So the Weasel would be an anti-traditionalist."

"Yes, I think that most of their family is." Harry agreed. "Dumbledore is one too."

"Did you hear that Bill has decided to accept the lordship?" Neville asked. "Ron was ranting about it last night."

Harry's mouth fell open in shock. "Really?"

"Who is Bill?" Theo asked before Harry could say anything else. "And what lordship is he accepting?"

"Bill is the oldest Weasley son." Neville explained. "And he is accepting his place as the Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Prewett."

"I wasn't expecting that." Harry commented. "He seemed really against the idea at the World Cup."

"Will he be traditional?" Daphne asked smoothly.

"I doubt it." Neville answered.

"A non-traditional lord?!" Draco sounded scandalised.

"He seemed more anti-traditional at the World Cup." Neville grimaced.

"Oh, Father is going to love that." Draco's upper lip curled into a sneer.

"I know that he's been talking to Sirius." Harry admitted. "Maybe he'll be able to talk him around. Sirius definitely understands where he's coming from. He was anti-traditional too."

12-12-12