Chapter 15: The First Gym Battle

As the winter break drew near, Dumbledore's Army continued to train, so did my class. The students continued to train their Pokémon and work toward their individual goals. Each student was exceling in their chosen field. The Coordinators were creating and improving routines for the up-and-coming Contests. Trainers continued to prepare for Gym Battles with the various Leaders that we had established at the school. Researchers and Breeders continued with their research and the Rangers made sure that the trainers and their Pokémon were safe from Umbridge and her goons. Occasionally, Calem and I would invite guests from our world to give the students lectures on various topics, much to Dumbledore's pleasure and Umbridge's dismay. I was surprised to find that the ragtag group of students that had signed up for this class at the beginning of the year was working so diligently.

Calem or I would occasionally drop it to see what the DA was up to. The members of Dumbledore's Army were just as diligent as my students were…not surprising since most of the members of the DA were my students.

Umbridge has done nothing by try to stare me down since our last confrontation, which never seemed to work much to her disappointment. In addition to her increasingly irritating visits to my class, she was now subjecting students to questioning, which usually meant that my students were the first ones on the list. None of them had joined Umbridge's little gang, which ended up shocking a lot of people. Despite what many students believed, the Slytherin students that I taught were not as bad as everyone makes them out to be.

The Lake Trio seemed to be growing stronger and more independent every day, which also meant that I would have to search the entire castle to find them. On some occasions, the Trio ended up finding some of my students to hang out with. This delighted the students, particularly the Researchers since this gave them an opportunity to conduct behavioral research on the legendary Lake Trio.

I had been working in my office the day I found out that one of my students was going to challenge one of our Gym Leaders. Calem had run into the office, a wide grin on his face.

"The first gym battle's going to start."

Grabbing my coat, I raced after Calem and the Lake Trio toward the Quidditch Pitch to find Madame Hooch on one end of the field and Seamus Finnigan on the other. His Vulpix stood beside his trainer, while Madame Hooch's Taillow perched on her shoulder. I grinned and made my way to Madame Hooch.

"Do you have a ref for the battle?"

Hooch shook her head, "though I'm sure you would be more than qualified to determine the winner."

Nodding, I walked to the edge of the quidditch field with Calem standing on the side opposite me.

"Alright," I yelled, "the battle will end when one person's Pokémon are unable to battle. There will be no time limit."

I looked between Madame Hooch and Seamus, "ready?"

They simply nodded in response, Seamus's Vulpix moving out onto the field. "Then begin!"

"Taillow, use peck!"

Before Seamus could respond, the Taillow descended on his Vulpix and pecked the fox three times before retreating to Hooch's side of the field.

"Use ember Vulpix," Seamus called.

The two continued to whittle the opponent's health points down and, just as Seamus seemed to be losing, he finally defeated Madame Hooch's Taillow. However, she then sent out her Pidgeotto.

Seamus used a potion to partially heal his Vulpix. I smiled, glad that some of the students were learning to use items during their battles. Just as before, Seamus used the few moves that he had in order to successfully take down Hooch's Pidgeotto. Seamus's Vulpix, however, did not leave the battle unscathed.

"The winner is Seamus Finnigan!"

The students all cheered for their classmate as Hooch called back her Pidgeotto and made her way over to Seamus. Pushing her left hand into her pocket, she pulled out a small metal object. Opening her palm toward him, a pair of white wings glistened in the light.

"Congratulations Mr. Finnigan."

Seamus quickly took the badge, afraid that the wings may come to life and fly away. Calem placed a hand on Seamus's shoulder, "only seven more to go know."

As the students descended from the stands and make their way back to the castle, I looked toward the two trainers. "Make sure that you both bring your Pokémon by our office so that we can heal them alright?"

They both nodded, promising to stop by after dinner before following the other students. Calem and I smiled to each other and made our way back to the castle, the ever present Lake Trio racing in front of us toward the warmth of the castle.

Oh my god, I am so sorry for not uploading sooner! Things have been crazy IRL and I finally managed to set some time aside to finish this chapter. I know it isn't the greatest chapter after having to wait so long. Thank you to all the people who have Favorited, Followed, and Commented on this story and please continue to do so! And keep sending me any Pokémon ideas that you have for the characters : )