Dueling class
Lily spent Saturday with her classmates, walking and studying at times in the Gryffindor Common Room to, as much as possible, hide her absence on Sunday. She could not get out of her head what had happened the day before. Sev had worked so hard to get a safe place, and had shared it with her…
Soon it occurred to her how to contribute, if only in a small detail, and that night she waited for everyone to go to bed and enchanted two cushions from the couches to shrink them, and also a blanket from the common trunk in her bedroom, where they were kept in case some girl needed them. The elves would replace the stolen items overnight or the next day. She put everything in her backpack, along with the fifth year DADA book.
After breakfast on Sunday, she waited a while to give Sev time to wait for her before going up to the fifth floor. She found him against the wall of the first windowless corridor, from where she couldn't see him until she reached him.
"How are you, Lily?" he whispered, leaning out in case they were seen.
"Hi, Sev," she clung to the wall next to him.
Without further ado, he began to explain, "Now it's daytime and you can see all the way to the end of the corridor," pointing to the one with armor, transversely. "But not at night, so you're going to close your eyes and I'm going to guide you like the other day. You're going to have to carry the wand on the left."
"Why?"
"Because we are going to walk along the opposite wall until we turn the corner and run into the first armor."
"All right."
They did it. They crossed to the other wall and this time Lily put her left hand on Sev's shoulder to run it with her free right. When they reached the corner they turned, and Lily immediately touched the first armor.
"You have it? Go around it," he told her and Lily did. "And now move sideways without letting go of it, extending your arm, to the center of the corridor."
She obeyed.
"Very good. Hand change."
Lily removed her hand from the armor on her right, passed her wand to it, and placed it on Sev's shoulder.
He was already taking her left with his until she touched the armor on the other side. "And now like the other day, two more armors and we are in the Fidelius. Count the steps. Ready?"
"Yes."
"Let's go."
They walked along the corridor until they reached the Haven door.
"We are already protected," he finally spoke in a normal tone. "But before entering, wait a bit and look with the Lumos in case someone has followed us."
Lily did.
"Good. When you do it a few times you will no longer need the armor to guide you, you will walk at a good pace through the center without deviating," he said as he opened the door for her. "Come in."
Lily marveled again at the sight of the Haven in the morning light. Sunlight streamed in through the leaded windows, casting diamond patterns of shadow and light on the floor.
"What do you think in the daylight?" Sev asked excitedly. "It's perfect for training, although until now I've never been able to do it with someone.
She advanced to the dais, sitting down and taking out the shrinked cushions and blanket and the book she brought from her backpack.
"What's that?" he questioned her.
She didn't answer him, just hexed them back to normal size. "They are for us to be more comfortable."
"Great… How come I hadn't thought of that? The cushions will also serve to avoid hurting us with some spells," he paused, looking around. "And you just gave me an idea to get rid of junk. Come on, help me."
They began to reduce one by one the desks and chairs that, stacked, covered two walls of the classroom, starting each one at one end so as not to disturb each other and levitating them to reposition them against the wall of the door, in front of the windows.
Sev commented, "Until now I used a desk as a target, placing it on the stage so as not to cause too much damage, and then I repaired it. Now, with the bare walls facing each other, we will no longer break anything, the stone is more resistant."
They also reduced the blackboard, pushed it against one end of the wall that was still free, and agreed to leave two chairs and the teacher's desk at its own size on the dais at the end opposite the cupboard, to use if they ever had to study or write.
"It will help us with your Arithmancy doubts," Sev said. "But we'll leave that for when we meet in the afternoon, now we have to take advantage of the light."
Lily suggested removing a couple of torches from the main hallway to put in the classroom as well, but Sev didn't agree. "That would arouse suspicion, and we'd need an air purifying spell, otherwise we'd suffocate with the windows closed. I don't know it, do you?"
"Neither do I."
"We would waste time looking for it. By the way, I'm going to vent."
He went to the two end windows, opening them. Now the classroom, almost completely clear, with the fresh breeze coming in and the sunlight, looked diaphanous.
Lily had sat on the dais, opening the book she had brought for the first lesson. Sev walked over, looking at the volume. "What have you got there? The fifth grade book? No, no, don't even dream about it, we'll start from the beginning. Don't bring it back for the time being, or any other. You will learn what is really useful by heart, until you are able to execute it automatically, without thinking."
So he wasn't going to stick to the syllabus like he told her in the Forest. He really wanted to teach her how to defend herself.
"Come on, we must take advantage of the time, we have already lost enough."
They each positioned themselves at one end of the room, giving Lily the advantage of being higher up on the dais.
"Reverence," Sev said, bowing with his wand vertical to his face. Lily followed suit.
They started with a simple Expelliarmus. "Disarm me," he ordered.
Lily got it right first time, dropping Sev's wand to the ground, he picked it up.
"Okay, this is what they teach us, but it is of little use if the other can recover it. If instead of just aiming, you make this movement…" he drew a short arc that started pointing at her and with a turn of the wrist he placed the wand vertically, tilted slightly to his left, "...the wand you snatch comes to your hand. Be on your guard and watch. Expelliarmus," while he repeated the movement.
Lily's wand leapt from her hand, making a wide arc across the classroom to Sev's left hand, which he only had to lean down a little to catch it in flight.
"And so, the duel is over without the need to hurt anyone," bending his arms shrugging his shoulders with a wand in each hand. "And besides, not now because this doesn't count…" approaching the stage to give it back to her, "...we're practicing, but in a real confrontation, if you snatch the wand it becomes yours. Take. Did you catch it?" making the pass again as he walked backwards. "Shall I repeat it?"
"Is that so?" she asked imitating the movement.
"Yes, but more abrupt, like a blow on the 'a' of Expelliarmus. Come on, try it."
"Expelliarmus." Lily did, and Sev's wand bumped into the open sash of the window to his left.
"Booah! You almost leave me without a wand!" putting his hands to his head and laughing.
Lily laughed too, Sev bent down to pick it up.
"Well, we better close the windows," he did. "On your left, Lily, I'll get closer," standing in the center of the room. "Come on, do it again."
Lily tried again, and this time the wand fell to Sev's right, halfway between them.
"Better. You lack decision, you want to take it away from me, that's why it hasn't come to you, you have to put your will into defeating me. Again."
She tried a few more times, until she managed on a couple of occasions to have the wand snatched from him fall next to her, although she failed to catch it.
"Well, you got it. You lack the reflexes to catch it, but at least it is already closer to you than to your enemy. That is disarming. We will continue practicing it, let's go to something else, otherwise we will get bored. Now, just disarm me, don't try to catch it, just aim, but I'm going to be on the move. Go ahead."
Lily began to cast the spell over and over again, and Sev dodged it by quickly feinting to the sides, back and forth, and diagonally or simply by arching. She had never seen him in action and she thought he moved like a cat.
"You have to guess where I'm going to move to avoid you and throw it there."
This time it cost her many attempts to achieve it, when she succeeded three more times he told her, "Enough of this, now I will use a Protego. I'll give you some advantage, I won't cast it until you start the move, like I'm not expecting it."
But despite that, he was always faster and her spell collided with Sev's shield five times.
Lily was discouraged. "Sorry, Sev, I'm a mess."
"Come on, don't worry, it's not your fault but the terrible education we've received. Instead of all that nonsense about vampires, grindylows and werewolves…" emphasizing the word, "…they should give us Dueling classes, that's what I would do if I became a teacher. I should have started training you much sooner…" sighing. "Let's change," cheerful. "Now I'll attack you and you'll defend yourself, you can dodge me or use the Protego, whatever you prefer at any time, although you should learn to move, with the shield you can't cast a new spell to attack."
This time she managed on the third try to keep Sev from disarming her.
"Very well! You've done it, let's do it a few more times."
They continued like this, alternating between attack and defense, also with other basic spells already known to Lily, not dangerous. But every time she got some improvement, she was left with the feeling that Sev had let her win so as not to demoralize her.
He was too superior to her. He gave her no respite, and when they had been about an hour and a half, the sun had moved and no longer illuminated the classroom directly, Lily was exhausted. "Can we rest for a while, Sev? I can not go on anymore."
"Okay, you're right, I forget that it's your first class," but he made her the first reproach of the morning. "Although to live in the seventh floor, you're in very poor shape, you must improve it."
Lily had taken a seat on the dais in the hope that Sev would sit next to her as well. But he said, "We will stop for ten minutes but we will not waste time, there is less than an hour left for lunch, and if we both arrive late it would arouse suspicion. While you rest, I will show you the movements in profile, the whole body posture is important, try to memorize them to reproduce them."
Standing a little closer to her, he announced the spell that he was going to perform and then he executed the movement without saying it so as not to make it effective. Then he would turn to the other side so she could get the full view of him.
Lily was so ecstatic admiring him that she didn't pay any attention to what he was explaining to her. "A slight turn of the wand to the right..." "Quick and short straight line up..." "Half circle counterclockwise..." His movements were as precise and graceful as a Muggle fencer's. He didn't look like himself, who usually walked a bit hunched over, she would have spent the whole day looking at him. The ten minutes passed her on a flight.
"There is half an hour left, it is annoying that we are in the shortest days of the year, the afternoons are much longer but without light. I have to think about how to do the thing with the torches. Let's review everything we've done today, now we'll both attack, using Protego whenever we feel like it. In agreement?"
Lily nodded, giving up all hope of a romantic approach this time as well. They did as he said and now she managed to hex him a couple of times and ward off him a few more, and this time she got the impression that she had really done it herself, without him giving her the upper hand, but, who knows? Sev was a master of dissimulation.
When the class was over, he said to her, "Very well Lily, as you have started, you have managed to improve a lot. You are a fantastic student. Pick up and let's go."
Sev had only brought his wand. Lily couldn't bring herself to see him only in class, having appreciated his attitude. They had only touched each other as he led her down the corridor, and she lingered putting her book in her backpack while he waited for her with his arms on his hips, in profile, without looking at her, to give herself time to timidly ask him, "Would you like to meet another day, apart from classes, to go for a walk? Next Saturday there's Hogsmeade outing again."
He did not face her to reply, "Lily, we can't meet every time they're all there and we're not. Didn't your friends ask you what you had done? Because mine did do it to me, and I'm often disappearing. We run enough risk spending the whole morning hidden. I thought that for a change, in case someone has noticed, next Sunday we meet after lunch." He turned his head towards her. "Can you?"
"I guess so."
"I'll try to get the torches, you could take care of looking for the purifying spell. In case we don't get it, prepare some Arithmancy and we'll make the most of the night with that. Here," taking a folded piece of parchment out of his pocket. "It's a list of third-year topics that are useful in Potions. Get the book in the Library and start with the basics, they are in order. And now, come on, we're on very tight time and I still have to help you in the corridor. I'll leave you in the one without doors, you've already seen that you can see perfectly during the day. I will go down the passageway to the second floor and thus arrive before you at the Great Hall."
And he turned to head for the door, Lily following him. Before opening, he told her, "We'll meet next Sunday after lunch where I'm going to leave you today, in case I can't give you any notes in Potions. If you couldn't, make me a sign during lunch." He opened the door. "We do it like Friday, remember?"
"Yes, yes."
They left the Haven and peered out with a Lumos, still protected by the Fidelius, to see if anyone was in sight.
"Nox. Let's go!"
He led her back like before. When they reached the corridor where they were to part, Sev squeezed her left hand with his in farewell, without turning, for barely two seconds, and hurried on, quickly disappearing into the shadows. Lily turned left in turn, retracing the already familiar path.
They both thought at the same moment that they wish to have a Time-Turner so they could meet more and do so many things that they still had pending...