A.N. Sorry for the delay. My old computer died and it took some time to buy a new one and restore everything into working order

Ch14: Training

It was another weekend. Andrew had already healed completely, yet Dianna stayed near him whenever she could. They all sat together at breakfast, as usual: Lillian, Dianna, Andrew and Julius.

"I'd like to train again," said Lilly.

"You know we can't train here. Don't you remember what happened last time?" Dianna reminded her.

"I remember very well, but we don't have to do it here, you know."

"What do you mean?"

"We can apparate to one of the estates, pick a secluded place and train there."

Julius didn't understand. "What are you training for and what happened during training?"

Dianna turned red while Lilly just cast a strong privacy shield around them.

"We are trying to gain better control of our magic – Lilly and I. We are usually overpowering our spells and we need a special damping wand to refrain from blasting everything. Last time we tried, Andrew sneaked on us and I almost killed him. I don't want to ever feel again like I felt then." There were tears in Dianna's eyes.

Julius turned to the boy. "I didn't know. I only thought you didn't feel well for a day. Are you alright, Andrew?"

"I'm fine. It looks like Lilly and Madam Pomfrei did a very good job. I can hardly even see the scars, and they are getting fainter every day."

"What do you mean Lilly? She's not a healer."

"She's just a kid, like me, but she is the one who actually healed me. Madam Pomfrei only gave me some blood replenishing potion and forced me to rest for a day, to make me stronger. It also looks like she made me a stronger wizard as well. I now get much better results during charms, transfiguration and DADA."

Julius turned his gaze towards Lillian. "Did you really do it, Lilly?"

She only shrugged. "I healed him, alright, but I did nothing about his magic. It may either be a side effect, or maybe Dianna did this for him. She stayed at the hospital wing near him until he was released."

Julius thought for a moment. "May I join you when you train? I really want to see what your problem is. Maybe I can even help you then."

"That's alright with me," Lilly said, looking at Dianna, who nodded her approval. "Just wait for us near the transfiguration class in half an hour and make sure nobody looks for you until lunch."

They met again half an hour later. Lillian led the group to a hidden corridor, where they all held hands. A moment later they were all looking at a large house, bordering a medium forest. "We can train on the edge of the forest. Nobody lives in this house and the elves were instructed not to interfere."

Dianna conjured a long wooden bench for the boys while Lilly collected some wood for the practice. She then transfigured one of the largest chunks of wood into a marble pedestal, on which she put some of the wood.

Julius sat agape. "I don't think anybody in my class can do this kind of magic which they are doing just as preparations, not even using wands or spells." He turned to Andrew. "You know you should tell nobody about this."

Andrew was quite offended. "Hey! They are my friends as well. Why should I do anything like that?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. I only want to protect my friends, just like you."

The girls tried first to cast the spells using their damping wands, just to get the "feel" of the spells. The loaves of bread that they conjured were neatly sliced without any damage to the marble pedestal. When trying the same spell on a piece of wood, only shallow scratches appeared.

"You seem to be doing just fine," noted Julius.

"These are damping wands. They dampen the magic, allowing only a small fraction to really be transferred to the spell," Dianna explained.

"May I try?" Julius asked.

"Sure!"

Julius stood in front of the pedestal while Lilly conjured another loaf of bread. Julius tried the spell with the damping wand – he could hardly scratch the crumb with it. He then tried it again with his own wand, slicing the bread neatly, but only partially – the slices stayed connected in the farther quarter of their length. Julius said nothing.

"My I try as well?" Andrew asked.

Dianna gave him the wand. He managed to scratch the crumb a bit deeper, yet when using his own wand he sliced the bread fully.

"I'm not sure I could do this a few weeks ago," he noted.

The girls then replaced the wands and tried again. At first, every piece of wood was blasted so powerfully that the boys needed to move their bench farther. After exercising for about an hour, Lillian managed to only slice the wood without blasting it apart, but only once.

After two more hours, both girls managed to only slice pieces of wood, yet their spells were still too powerful for the bread.

"I think you've advanced quite enough for one day," Julius told them. "Let's go back for lunch now."

The girls just held hands, each with one boy and reappeared at the same corridor from which they left.

"I'm glad we didn't harm anybody today," Dianna noted bitterly.

"You did extremely well," Andrew told her. "I can now understand why I was hit so badly, and also how powerful a healer Lilly must be, to heal me so well."

Lilly felt her face redden.

"He is right, Lilly. You are extremely powerful, and you are also a very good friend," Julius told her. This made her face even redder.

By now, both girls went to the weekly meetings with Narcissa as well as the weekend meetings with Minerva. Lilly wanted her "Aunt Minnie" to get to know Dianna as a person and not only as a student. Minerva was impressed not only by her magical powers but even more by the beaming personality of the blonde, so unlike the other Malfoys that she had met. Dianna felt that her mother and her good friend should feel comfortable with each other, especially since they were family now. Both women agreed willingly to meet both girls at once and were very glad to hear of the girls gaining better control of their magic. They also noted the closer relations which started to form with the two boys, but none commented on it.

It was not unusual for Andrew and Lilly to become close friends, being sorted to the same house. It was somewhat unusual for a third year boy – Julius – to get interested in a first year girl, especially one not in his house, yet it was understandable, considering their previous friendship. It was very unusual for a first year boy to show interest in a girl, let alone one in another house, as well as for a first year girl to show interest in a boy her age, not even in her own house. Yet Dianna and Andrew were becoming inseparable during their free time. They could be seen doing homework in the library together, usually with Lilly nearby; they were sitting together at meals and at any lessons they had in common; they were even seen taking a stroll along the lake together, although keeping a slight distance between them.

Lilly came into the common room that morning and noticed a large group of first year students near the billboard, most looking quite bewildered. She approached to find the cause. A large note was posted there:

"All first year girls are requested to attend a special lecture with Madam Pomfrei. The lecture will be held on Thursday at six PM and will last about an hour."

"Why only girls?" one of the girls complained.

A second-year girl passed by and noted: "Don't worry. You wouldn't like boys to hear that…"

This only made the younger girl more anxious.

"This is probably about becoming women," Lilly told her.

"About SEX!" a boy nearby shouted, making several girls change colors.

Dianna grabbed her aside as soon as she arrived to the great hall. "Do you know anything about that lecture?"

"I know nothing, but I assume it is about us becoming women quite soon. Some of the girls are starting to get curves, as I noticed at the showers. One has even got her period already. Luckily she has an older sister, so she was ready."

Dianna reddened considerably. "Are you sure? It would be so embarrassing to speak openly about such intimate things…"

"I don't find it embarrassing, really. We are all going to pass into adulthood and into womanhood sooner or later, and it is basically the same for each and every one of us. Using the common showers you have already heard most of it from older girls and you have surely seen how they change. We've even seen our mothers naked, so…"

"I don't go to the showers when there's somebody else there…" Dianna admitted quietly.

"You don't?" Lillian looked incredulous. "You're missing all the fun! I sometimes stay there behind the curtains to hear the older girls talk about their experiences with boys. Some are really funny!"

Dianna didn't argue, but didn't look convinced either.

Thursday didn't come soon enough, eventually. Some boys kept teasing the girls, especially the ones who seemed more anxious about the lecture. Lillian escaped the teasing, as her indifferent reaction was not what they were looking for. Dianna only escaped while in the company of Lilly or Andrew, as her constant blushing fueled more teasing.

Once they reached the lecture, it turned out to be very informative, teaching the girls all they needed to know about their developing bodies and the hygiene required, as well as magical and mundane ways to help a girl through the difficult days. The healer finished her lecture by teaching the girls some contraceptive spells and giving them each a pamphlet describing those spells and summarizing the other topics as well.

"You can now threaten a boy that you will deprive him of fatherhood," joke Lilly. "You don't have to tell him that the spell only holds for an hour or so."

Dianna didn't answer. She had a kind of dreamy look on her face. "Do you think Andrew will make a good father when we are older?" she asked, not really expecting an answer.

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