Retirement Plan.

Part 14.

Hogwarts College of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Wizarding World.

As I'd hoped it would the Room of Requirement had provided us with a training area much like the space that had been used by Dumbledore's Army in the Order of the Phoenix movie/book.

There was a moving dummy here, a piece of crude magical machinery designed to help a professor to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts.

It had a likeness of a follower of the Dark Lord Voldemort and it was bewitched to roll around on its own accord, as such it was an excellent target for those who sought to improve their basic combat spellcasting, and discovering that room could provide them for my training had been a pleasant surprise.

Judging by the information that was painted on the back of the dummy this device had been produced for Hogwarts by some company that I had never heard of back in the 1970s. Which was when Tom Riddle had been at the height of his power.

As such it made sense that the students would have trained to protect themselves against Death Eaters using these dummies at that time, and judging by the state of the dummies they'd seen some action.

I wondered how many students had batted this training device around while it was used in many Defence Against The Dark Arts class. Had many of them gone on to be Aurors and others who fought the evil mages?

It seemed likely that sometime after the dark lord's downfall, the dummies had been put into storage. The duelling club had been closed until this year for reasons unknown to me.

While I was only making use of one of them for now I wondered if they would all see any use in the future should Voldemort return to power and once again plague this country. Only time would tell.

Mostly, I'd been practising the stunning spell, also known as the Stupefying Charm, or simply as a Stunner for short, it was a charm that stunned the target, rendering them unconscious as the name suggested.

This charm was exceptionally useful in duelling, as it could quickly end a duel without causing lasting damage hence it was favoured by Aurors and other members of the DMLE who wished to make arrests rather than create corpses. It was also used by members of the Order of Phoenix.

The counter-charm to the Stunning Spell was known as the Reviving Spell something Raven and I would need to learn once we started casting the stunning spell at each other during practice sessions.

You could recover from the spell naturally, but that could take a while, hence why I'd used it on Frank Bryce back when we'd gone to swap the bones in Tom Riddle's Senior's grave.

An important thing to remember about this spell was that the use of multiple Stunning Spells cast simultaneously will amplify the effect. This was particularly useful towards creatures with Spell resistance, such as dragons, trolls, giants and half-giants, but might result in injury for ordinary individuals.

Aside from that, it was rather easy to reverse the effects of the spell so I would need something more dangerous when it came to proper fights and I might end up facing more than one foe in a battle. At my current level of education, it made sense to master this spell as I was unlikely to need to kill anyone.

Another spell I was intent on learning was the Disarming Charm (Expelliarmus) this was a charm that forced whatever an opponent was holding to fly out of their hand. It was common to see this spell used in duels to make an opponent lose their wand.

Since most wizards and witches couldn't do much in the way of wandless magic, assuming they could do anything at all, disarming them meant they were next to helpless and from there it was pretty easy to finish them off with something more lethal, fire off a stunner, or confine them in some way.

Those weren't the only spells I was focusing on. I also wanted to master the Shield Charm (Protego) this was a charm that protected the caster with an invisible shield that reflected spells and blocked physical attacks as well.

A decent defence however, this shield isn't completely impenetrable, as it cannot block the Unforgivable Curses and my dragonhide jacket wouldn't help against them either. But for a first student, it was a hard spell to learn.

"James, we need to talk about our plans," Raven said.

Since I only knew a few spells I didn't have much to throw at the dummy, as such I gave my lover my full attention when she spoke.

"Yes, we do" I agreed.

I began to spread some maps out on a table provided by the room. One was a map of London and I'd highlighted Grimmauld Place, which was a street in the London Borough of Islington mostly inhabited by Muggles.

The Black family residence was located at number twelve and in the books/movies it served as the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. Within number 13 was one of the Horcruxes that we needed to get our hands on.

"Are you still thinking over our plans to destroy Malfoy Manor?" Raven asked.

Indeed I had been giving this matter some thought. We needed to destroy the diary Horcrux as couldn't depend on Lucius Malfoy smuggling into the school next year given how much had changed.

Raven could simply steal that diary, or rather she could, but Lucius Malfoy would notice it was gone and that could cause unexpected problems as Malfoy was a powerful wizard with great wealth as well important connections.

I'd considered using my Greater Dragon form to destroy the manor to cover up the theft and to strike a blow against the Death Eaters as destroying the manor would deny the Death Eaters a base to operate out of if nothing else.

No one would think a wizard was behind the attacks as while dragons could be contained they could not be controlled. Aside from Merlin, there is no record of any witch or wizard taking the form of a dragon.

That made me wonder if the person from another world that the Sorting Hat had mentioned was Merlin. It would explain how he had powers beyond those of other wizards and he had been a student here according to the history books.

"I'm not bothered if I orphan Draco Malfoy in the attack, but I'd rather not kill their house elves or his mother if I can help it since I don't think she was ever loyal to Voldemort," I told Rachel.

My concern was mostly for Dobby and any other elves stuck there. Dobby deserved better than to be burned by a dragon's fire. Some might think that Draco's mother had switched sides when she lied to Voldemort about Harry being dead, but she was only concerned for her own son's wellbeing.

"We can wait until the house is empty" said Raven "If we capture Dobby and learn the names of the other elves we can call for them, and contain them for a short time. I even have a way to deal with Lucius Malfoy if you don't mind waiting for a couple of weeks and increasing my allowance".

I'd ended up giving Dawn and Raven an allowance since I felt they were entitled to share of my fortune. If they wanted to save some of their money in a Gringotts vault that was their business.

"What is your plan?" I asked.

Raven took a book out of the storage space, one that she'd been writing in.

"You remember when I told you about that dragon," she asked.

She was referring to Malchior.

"Your ex who tricked you into freeing him from a magical book," I said.

If Raven still found that painful she hid it well.

"My ex, as you put it, was bound by the wizard Rorek who used his spellbook as a prison" Raven told me "One of my plans for Trigon was to trap him in my spellbook, but I abandoned that plan because he's just too powerful".

While I would beg to differ as I knew she could beat her father that was a debate for another time.

"But I can trap Death Eaters in a book" she was now saying "I'll need a separate spell book for each of the dark mages, and that's not going to be cheap because it needs to be a blank magical book mass-produced stuff just won't work. I'll need to enchant each one, but I think this is the best way to deal with the Death Eaters, short of killing them and handing them over to the Ministry is pointless since they won't even bother to lock them up".

I liked this plan and the expense was no concern.

"You want to test this on Lucius Malfoy" I stated.

Raven nodded.

"I'll need to perform the spell, but it won't take long" she assured me "I'll trap the mages in a story world, time won't pass for them like it does for us and they will be safe, just not able to hurt anyone. The curse can be broken by someone strong enough, but if we store the books in the storage space no one other than us can get to them".

This solution sounded even better.

"Whatever you need," I said.

Raven began to write out what I assumed to be a shopping list as I opened up the other map she'd wanted to look at.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," I said.

At once, thin ink lines began to spread like a spider's web from the point that my wand had touched. They joined each other, they crisscrossed, they fanned into every corner of the parchment; then words began to blossom across the top, great, curly, green words, that proclaimed:

Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
are proud to present
The Marauder's Map.

"Since we can't get into Grimmauld Place any time soon I think we should focus on important events that will happen soon and our plans to change things" Raven was now saying as she looked at the special map "I'm worried about the Quidditch Match and the Troll incident at Halloween".

To my complete lack of surprise, she already had ideas on how to handle both. In case Potter fell off his broom we both needed to learn the Slowing Charm (Arresto Momentum) which was a charm that could be used to slow the velocity of an object.

Raven had looked it up and found that it was taught in second-year Charms class, but it wasn't complex so we should learn to cast it now, and given my fear of falling to my death it would be good to learn before our first flying lesson.

"As for the Troll," she said next "That will be tricky".

A Troll was a magical beast of prodigious strength and rather infamous stupidity. They are so synonymous with stupidity, that they actually have a wizarding exam failing grade named after them.

Add to that they are dangerously violent and incredibly aggressive, and they engage in unpredictable behaviour, as such, they are often compared to the savage giants.

They were intelligent when compared to other creatures as they have clubs and wear animal hide. This indicates that trolls are equal to Stone Age humans even if my ancestors at that point probably had more in the way of language skills.

"We need to make sure that Hermione Granger doesn't die on that night" Raven insisted "Or rather you do".

I wasn't concerned.

"The Hermione Granger of this world isn't going to be crying in the toilets," I pointed out "She's a grown woman, not a little girl".

"You don't know much about women" she stated, "Is the Ron Weasley of this world any less of a little twerp than in the books?".

Given that I'd paid the ginger prat no attention at all I couldn't say that I knew anything about him. So I'd just have to assume that he was capable of making even older girls go off and cry.

This version of Granger was rather emo so perhaps she would be reduced to tears if Weasley's insults got to her when she was already falling down due to other things.

"Certain moments in history can be a part of fate's plan that would explain why I had a vision of her death" Raven went on to say "She might come late to the Halloween Feast because she was studying in the library or working on a costume. Which are not mandatory so I will not be wearing one, the point is I have seen her dying".

Studying late in the library so that she missed the feast did sound like something Hermione Granger would do, and I also had no intention of dressing up even if that was a school tradition in this universe.

Halloween was a much more serious holiday in the magical world than in its muggle counterpart, at least here in Great Britain.

"You have visions of the future?" I asked.

I had not known about this.

"They are rare, but I've gotten them before," she told me "I've seen Hermione Granger getting killed by a troll".

Why do people never have visions of nice things?

"This is your chance to get in good with her" Raven suggested "With the Marauders Map, you can track the Troll and get to her first".

Once I'd saved her life I could easily see us becoming close. Once we'd gotten close I could tell her the truth and hopefully get her to sign a contract. If she proves super annoying I might find out what happens if a contract is terminated.

"The only problem with this idea is that trolls are hard to harm with magic" I mused.

Given that adult wizards can have trouble dealing with trolls there was no way someone with mere weeks of magical education would be able to defeat one.

"If I remember correctly trolls are particularly attracted to unpleasant smells, such as Dungbombs" I mentioned, "Perhaps I can lure it away from Granger if she gets into trouble".

Should nothing else come out of this saving the young witch would earn me some renown and that was something else I needed to keep what I'd spent with my points when setting all of this up.

"You need to duel Ron Weasley," said Dawn when she entered the room.

Had someone stuck two pages together in a book as this seemed very sudden?

"Why?" was my understandable reply.

I wanted to go to the library and find out if trolls had any weaknesses like allergies or if they were scared of more manageable magical creatures.

"He came onto me when I was in the library" Dawn answered "He told me I should 'get with a real wizard' and then grabbed my arm. I told him I have a boyfriend, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. I got kicked out of the library for defending myself".

Knowing Dawn as I did her defence would have likely put the ginger tosser in the hospital wing or at least in extreme pain.

"If you dealt with him yourself then why do I need to duel him?" I inquired.
"This sounds more like something we should take to a teacher".

Raven made a laugh that sounded like a bark, something that her pet kneazle, whom she'd called Garfield, didn't like hearing.

"Dumbledore won't do anything because the Weasley family are his biggest supporters" stated Dawn "Anyway, he's a pureblood and I'm a muggleborn, it's not the Ministry who would side with me. They are all bigots".

Okay she had a point there, and I had wondered if the Normalcy Perk would prevent stuff like this from happening, turns out it doesn't stop jealous pricks from making fools of themselves.

"And he's not going to back off just because told him to get lost," Dawn was now saying "He'll try again, I know his type, they have them at every school".

I could see Ron not maturing if he'd been at home until he was seventeen. He'd still be selfish and unwilling to see others as people with their own feelings.

"You need to defend my honour" insisted Dawn.

That seemed archaic to me.

"I'm not a knight and this isn't the 12th century" I pointed out "You're a modern woman, you can defend your own honour".

Dawn gave me an annoyed look, but it was Raven who spoke.

"Normally, I would approve of you seeing Dawn as a grown woman who doesn't need to be rescued by some white knight" said the former Teen Titan "But this is 1997 and we're in the Wizarding World so yes she does need to be rescued, at least socially. If you don't stand up for your woman you won't be seen as a man and Weasley will bad mouth Dawn all over the school".

She had good points there. It wasn't as if I needed to worry about hordes of SJWs bitching at me about being a sexist.

"I don't want to be called a slag, whatever that means," complained the Key in the human form "Get out there and defend your woman. Call him out!".

That could be done during this evening's duelling lesson.

"I know like three duelling spells" I pointed out.

Remus Lupin had taught me some basics even before we'd come to Hogwarts, but as he'd pointed out his expertise was dealing with dark creatures. Thinking about it I should ask him to cover trolls in our next lesson and just mention I'd heard there were some in the woods near the school.

"I doubt he knows any" stated Raven "He's only slightly ahead of Crabbe and Goyle, and neither of them seems to know how to read. Oh and he's using an old wand he's not suited for, so he's more likely to knock himself out then you".

Dawn gave me her best seductive look.

"If you win I'll give you something special" she offered "Something I know you want really badly".

Okay now I was interested, and I could use the practice. Besides this clearly mattered to her.

"Fine" I said, giving in as I often did with Dawn "I'll defend your honour at the duelling club tonight, my lady".

There was no way that the redhead would refuse if I challenged him in front of his housemates and our instructor would allow it.

"I'm going to practice the shield charm some more," I then said.

Weasley might not be very talented at any other than chess and Quidditch, but he had grown up in the wizarding world, so he might know some prank spells at least.

"What were you doing in the library?" asked Raven.

I'd thought she'd been off socialising.

"Harry Potter is looking for some people to study with" the former Sunnydale residence answered "He's not that good at magic. He's not got much confidence the poor kid".

That measured up with what I'd seen. The Dursleys must have crushed his spirit. I hoped that Sirius Black was undoing some of the damage.

"I'll duel with you" decided Dawn "I can't have you embarrassing me in public".

Duelling against a real person would be more productive I decided.

Retirement Plan.

Part 15.

Hogwarts College of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Wizarding World.

I was about to head down for this evening's duelling class when Raven entered my room without bothering to knock or to make any sort of greeting.

"You need to learn to read the fine print," she stated.

That was not what I'd been expecting her to say.

"What?" I asked.

She showed me a scroll.

"I found my binding contract in the storage space," she told me.

That was something I knew about. The extra-dimensional storage space was something you could physically enter if you wished to, but since the space organised everything for you and you could just summon its contents to you there was no need to.

"The contract fully explains all the perks" Raven was now saying "And let's just say that we didn't need the stone. At least not to extend our lives".

She highlighted the part I needed to look at.

"Oh so we get a lot more than a century of life together," I said, "That's nice".

I hadn't gotten to read the fine print due to having a massive flaming eye screaming at me about naked people doing some stabbing. Now that I had the time to take it all in I saw what had gotten Raven's attention.

"A bit more than that" she remarked "We companions get our life spans expanded to match yours and you added two thousand years to yours when you chose the Greater Dragon perk".

I'd just wanted something that would prevent me from feeling inadequate when compared to my companions.

"Your dragon perk extends your lifespan and ours as well" explained Raven "Because you get the lifespan of a greater dragon".

This was good news, wasn't it?

"You're welcome," I said.

Raven seemed concerned about something.

"You were just a regular guy before right?" she questioned "Because you're starting to seem more dragonish".

I got the sense that there was more to my dragon form than I'd thought.

"Well I do feel the desire to amass lots of treasure despite already being wealthy," I said "I wonder if I'm dragonish in other ways".

The former Teen Titan gave me a worried look.

"Any desire to eat virgins?" she asked.

I considered her question

"Well I do like the idea of deflowering a woman to be more appealing" I admitted.

Raven took out her wand, lit the end of it and poked my arm.

"What do you feel?" she asked.

Next to nothing.

"It tingles a bit" I answered.

Raven frowned upon hearing that.

"That should have burned you" she said "It was a spell for light candles".

I didn't mind her testing such a spell on me since I could heal such injuries with ease.

"So I'm a Targaryen" I reasoned "I can live with that as long as I don't have to have sex with my sister".

Raven looked at me with surprise.

"You're a Martin fan?" she asked.

Indeed I was.

"Yeah, I read some of his short stories," I told, "And some of his Game of Thrones books too. My favourite is the Dunc and Eggs series".

Raven stopped the conversation for a moment and then got back on track.

"I'm not sure if you are a dragon pretending to be a man or the other way around" she said "So I'm going to keep an eye on you".

She wasn't in a good mood this evening.

"Let me know if you feel any desire to burn a city," she said.

Was that something I should be expecting to feel?

"Don't worry I won't burn Laketown without running it by you first" I promised.

She understood that reference right away and it amused her if only a little.

"I'm still the same person as I was yesterday" I pointed out.

She considered that.

"You are a bit of a lousy dragon" she stated "You didn't even want to duel Harry Potter's sidekick".

Well, I didn't want Dumbledore's attention. But perhaps I was being somewhat overly cautious.

"You know that you bring this all up I wonder if I'll still be scared of heights when we start our flying lessons or if I'll be really good in the air" I wondered.

I couldn't wait to find out.

"How can you not know if you are scared of heights anymore?" asked Raven.

By now we were heading out of my room and down the room where the duelling class would take place so we had to be careful about what words we used.

"Because I've been avoiding heights" I replied "But given how much has changed I might be a good flyer".

That was something to discover later for now I had a duel to win and an annoying character to put in his place. As soon as we got to the duelling club I decided to get on with things.

My timing was good as Sirius Black, the duelling instructor, who I felt sure that take the job so he keep an eye on his godson, was up on stage asking if anyone wanted to demonstrate their skills. He'd done this before to get an idea of our levels of skills.

"I challenge Ron Weasley to a Wizard's Duel!" I called out.

In wizarding culture proper duelling when was two wand waves engaged in combat under the condition that only magical means could be used. No weapons other than wands were allowed.

The combatants faced each other and bowed, as a sign of respect, before they placed themselves in an accepted combative position and, at the count of three, attempted to disarm, stun, injure, defeat, or even kill each other to win.

Unlike a proper fight, these duels were always one on one and were also as much about showing off your magical skills as they were about winning. Duelling was treated more as a sport than a fight.

"I accept!" yelled the hot-headed student.

There had been no chance of him refusing. Not in front of his classmates.

"Go kick his ass" encouraged Dawn.

Now that I was doing this, it felt right despite my knowing that Dawn was more than capable of defending herself. She had actual combat experience, she'd fought vampires and demons, helping to defeat the army of the First Evil and save her world. If anything she should be protecting me.

"What are your terms?" asked Sirius Black.

He looked younger than he did in the movies. Azkaban must not have aged him as much in this timeline.

"If I win Ron Weasley has to publicly apologise to Dawn Summers for daring to lay his hands on her" I answered, "And disrespecting her".

That got a lot of people whispering.

"If I win she has to go to Hogsmeade with me" stated the ginger part.

Perhaps he really did find her attractive. Too bad for him that Dawn had better taste in men than Hermione Granger or Lavender Brown.

"I can't agree to those terms" I stated.

"Because you're a coward," said Weasley.

If I were scared I wouldn't have called him out in the first place. His harming me hadn't been a concern.

"Dawn is not an object I can lend out," I said "If that's how you view women, no wonder you have to force yourself on them".

That made the young wizard turn ever redder and without turning my head I could tell that my words had gotten a reaction out of the female parts of the audience. I didn't think that Ron would be getting a date any time soon.

"No one gets away with talking to me like that" the Weasley boy declared "I'll show you what a real wizard looks like".

His attitude didn't surprise me I could remember the first time I'd been this age and how many guys I'd known who acted as if they were the centre of the universe.

"Take your positions" ordered Instructor Black.

Another teacher might have stopped this duel since it clearly wasn't going to just be a demonstration of our duelling skills, but the ex-convict seemed amused by all of this.

"Spells only" stated the Animagus "No physical contact and don't use any spells meant to do permeant harm".

There was a standard rule in duels that only magical means could be used to fight an opponent, and that there was to be no physical contact (which wizardkind refers to as Muggle duelling) between the duellists. I thought that wizard duelling, at least when performed as a sport, was more like fencing than regular fighting as people rarely care about rules when hitting each other.

Nor was acceptable to use dark magic in a duel such as this? Magical humans in this world were more durable than muggles and the school's nurse could fix a lot of injuries that muggle healers would struggle to mend. The wand wavers were primitive in many ways, but their medicine was very impressive.

As such it was doubtful that either of us could do any lasting harm to each other only using the spells we'd learned so far.

Black provided a count down and Weasley fired off first, had I the time to speak further I could have made some sort of joke about him going off prematurely.

"Rictusempra!"

The tickling charm, while considered to be a childish spell is not terrible to use in a duel because it is very distracting and can embarrass the person you are going up against, but his magic was so weak that I could have protected myself with the aid of dragonhide jacket which was somewhat resistant to magic and my own strength of will. Despite this I still shielded myself.

The Shield Charm is one of the most basic duelling spells even if it is rather advanced for a first year and I did it none verbally. I had more than enough power and focus for such a feat, and it was impressive. I could tell by the murmurings of the audience.

"Is the best you can do?" I asked.

"Shut up, swot!" shouted the Gryffindor student.

I had to smile.

"Wow, what an insult," I said sardonically.

"Tarantallegra!"

I easily blocked the next spell, a charm used to force another person's legs to begin dancing uncontrollably. I had some skill at shield charms because Dawn had made sure I did. We'd practised that spell until I got it right.

Given how easy I'd found it to learn that spell I wondered if Raven was right about me being a dragon in the form of a man because I was only supposed to have above-average talent in this sort of magic according to the perk I'd purchased. Something to look more into later.

"If I wanted to insult you I'd have so much to choose from" I was now saying "You have no table manners, you're rude, you smell bad...".

He didn't give me the chance to finish.

"Expelliarmus!"

The Harry Potter special hit my shield and still managed to knock my wand out of hand. Lucky for me I'd figured that this would happen and I wrapped the handle of my wand in the Band of Sindri.

The strip of leather could fit the handle of any weapon, which a wand counted as, and let you bring it back to your hand like Mjolnir.

Since only myself and my companions knew about the band it looked to everyone else that I'd performed the summoning charm non-verbally without a wand. Something that got me a little awe from the audience.

I knew that I would treasure the expression on Ron Weasley's face for a long time to come. A shame I had to act before the shock wore off.

"Stupefy"

The redhead collapsed and people broke out into applause.

"Twycross is the winner" stated Sirius Black "And I think that demonstration is enough for today".

Slowly people began to leave the room.

"Sir what do we do with Weasley," asked another member of that boy's house.

Black waved the concern away.

"Just leave him where he is, he's only stunned," said the instructor.

I shouldn't have been amused by that, yet I was, as was Dawn judging by the smile on her face. Rachel also seemed to be pleased.

"Twycross, come with me to Professor Flitwick's office" ordered Black.

Damn it, had he realised that I'd sort of cheated? Use of the band hadn't been against the terms of our duel, but he might not see it that way.

"I am in some sort of trouble?" I asked as I followed the instructor.

Black smiled at me.

"Quite the opposite," he assured me.

It wasn't until we got to Flitwick's office that I discovered what Black meant.

"Mr Black, Mr Twycross," said my Head of House "What can I do for you".

Flitwick had office hours when students were free to come to speak with him about their Charms work or if they were in Ravenclaw and had an issue he could help with, so he was able to meet with us.

Whatever paperwork he'd been doing wouldn't be more important than helping one of his students.

"I've just watched Twycross demolish another first-year wizard in a duel using the shield charm, non-verbal spells and a wandless summoning charm" reported the duelling instructor.

At this rate, I was going to have to learn how to summon things to me without my wand because sooner or later someone would figure out that the leather strap wrapped around the handle of my wand was the secret behind the trick.

"Oh good, I knew had more talent than your classmates" said Flitwick.

In any other school, I'd be in trouble for knocking out a student. Here you get praised for it. Not that I was going to complain as I'd likely have been suspended from another college if not outright expelled.

"Since you sit with Miss Roth and Miss Summers during your classes it might not have been noticed by some of the staff, but I just knew that you had great potential" Flitwick added.

Further proof that I might be more powerful than I'd thought. To be fair it hadn't been possible for me to get a good measure of my magical skills with Raven and Dawn around, Raven was in a league of her own and Dawn could one day be on that level if she learned how to tap into her powers as the key.

"Professor I was thinking about offering Twycross some extra lessons to prepare him for the duelling circuits," said Black.

That did surprise me as it did my head of house.

"He's that good?" questioned Flitwick before he turned to face me "No offence meant Mr Twycross, even the junior duelling leagues can be dangerous. First years with a muggle upbringing just don't normally have the experience or skill".

I didn't offence since it sounded as if was a concern for my safety.

"None of the duelling contests in this country start until the summer" stated Black "If we can work around Twycross's timetable I think he can be ready by then".

I had considered becoming a duellist for the renown, I just hadn't thought I'd have to start preparing this soon.

"He does have a more flexible timetable than most since he makes use of tutors" said Flitwick "If his tutors can be convinced to rearrange their schedules then you can make room for duelling practice".

Black waved away that concern as he had down with Weasley being left alone in the duelling room.

"Remus will come to the school if I ask him" stated the duelling instructor.

The contract Lupin had signed wouldn't have prevented him from mentioning who he was tutoring and the subjects involved, or even our progress, it would only prevent him from sharing personal information such as our address or what he saw when inside the house.

"Do you want to become a duellist?" Flitwick questioned, "It's not an easy thing to become, but there are benefits such as trophies, prize money, and fame".

I did want those things. The money shouldn't matter. I had plenty of it, yet I wanted more of it and trophies too. Fame only mattered as I needed renown as it was one of my challenges.

"You've got the power and reflexes, and the girls love a duellist," Black told me.

I wondered if that last part was true. I should ask my ladies.

"You got Ron Weasley so riled up that he couldn't think straight. That's very important when it comes to duelling" Black told me "Know your enemy, as the muggles say".

I gave the idea a little thought. Becoming a duellist would help to develop my skills, and gain me some renown, and if I took on this challenge it could help in the future should I have to take on other magic users.

"While I can't commit to any regular lessons because of my commitments, I will take some time to measure your skills" promised Flitwick.

If it was too much work I could always quit.

"I'd like to learn more about duelling," I said.

Black seemed very pleased.

"I'll talk to Remus about tutoring you and your friends here at the school if we need to work around our timetables," said the former convict "That way if you need to skip any classes he can make sure you won't fall behind, but I don't think that I'll be a problem this year since I'm only planning to have you placed in the junior leagues here in Britain, and they take place in the summer".

That wasn't all he had to say.

"Maybe Headmaster Dumbledore will approve my idea for an internal contest" Black mused "He's not been eager about it, but if some students show promise in duelling and want to compete he might allow it".

Flitwick seemed to like the idea.

"I wouldn't mind an internal duelling contest," he said "They wouldn't be that much work to set up, it's just that until now we haven't had a member of staff who can devote their time to it. We have Madam Hooch to take care of the Quidditch issues that pop up".

Since it sounded as if these two wanted to discuss the possibility of a duelling contest within the school, so I decided to excuse myself. I headed to my room, intending to lie down and do some reading, only to find Dawn waiting on my bed.

"I promised a reward for defending my honour," she reminded me.

As it turned out it wasn't anything sexual. Instead, Dawn pulled a book out of the extra-dimensional storage space we shared.

"This is the half-blood prince book," she told me "I borrowed the cloak and snuck into the potion's lab to get it for you. I think Snape must have wanted someone to find it because it was sitting in a pile of old potions textbooks".

She was right I did desire that book.

"You don't want it for yourself?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"I'm not that into potions," she told me "And I wanted to get you something cool since Raven does so much for you. I don't like feeling that I'm not contributing. I was going to trade you something for it, but it makes a good reward for you crushing that berk, if that word means what I think it means".

And here I'd been thinking she'd do something kinky for me.

"I told Rachel that I'm sleeping with you tonight and you looked hot when you were duelling so I'm going to ride you tonight," she promised.

Sounded like fun to me.

"I thought this might end up with you rewarding me with sex," I remarked.

Dawn sat back down on the bed.

"I'm not rewarding you" she insisted "That was what the book is for. I'm going to have sex with you because you got me horny when you were duelling. Besides, someone needed to teach that prat a lesson".

I began to undress as Dawn asked what our instructor had wanted with me.

"Black took me to Flitwick's office because he wants me to take part in some duelling contests and train me for them," I mentioned.

Dawn's eyes lit up as she got up and began to undress me because I must not be going fast enough

"Oh, you are so going to win" she insisted.

She didn't say anything else for a while as before long she was on her knees and her mouth was busy. She sure did act as if she liked giving blowjobs. Maybe Black was on to something about this duelling stuff.

Retirement Plan

Part 16

Hogwarts College of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Wizarding World.

I'd not forgotten about the flying lessons, even if I hadn't thought about them much, at least not until a notice went up in the common room of Ravenclaw tower letting us first years know that our flying lessons would soon start.

Rumour had it that the reason for this delay was that during Gryffindor and Slytherin flying classes that were taught at the very start of the year, someone had damaged the brooms, and only now had they gotten repaired enough for us to use.

The poor quality of the brooms in that class was also mentioned by older students, but I wanted to see them for myself before passing judgement. That did sound like a fanon thing, although given what happened to Neville Longbottom it wouldn't be shocking if true.

When we got down to the field and got a chance to inspect the broom, I was unimpressed, to say the least. The wood was chipped, there were too few bristles, and they just looked worn down.

"They can't really expect us to fly on these things," I said to myself.

Someone was going to end up in the infirmary before long.

"I know what you mean," said Terry Boot one of the other male students in both my year and house, "What are they spending our tuition money on?".

In this universe, you do pay to go to Hogwarts, but it doesn't cost much as the Ministry supplies most of the budget for the college despite it not being a state school like those I attended in my last life.

This explains not only how the Weasleys can afford to send all of their children here, it also made more sense that Fudge could interfere so much with the school. At the very least he could harm the school's budget by diverting funds elsewhere.

What little I would have paid to attend for my first year got covered by the scholarship fund for orphans, a fund that had been around for a good long while as that was also how Tom Riddle was able to afford to come to this school.

Thinking about it, perhaps I should talk to the Deputy Headmistress about paying my way. I would be paying next year and I should cover the costs for my companions as well. It wasn't far for us to divert funds from a charity when we could afford to pay our way.

"I bet the Ministry slashed the budget for flying lessons," said Anthony Goldstein, another Ravenclaw "My Mum complains about them doing stuff like that all the time".

Goldstein had a Jewish father and a mother who was a witch. I couldn't help thinking that his childhood much have been very interesting.

The poor state of the brooms might even be a way of holding Muggleborn students back since those raised in the Wizarding World would already have experience with brooms so the Muggleborn would be more affected by the lack of good brooms during these lessons.

Then again it might just be the Ministry and school governors being stupid rather than it being something done out of malice, or more likely someone was embezzling part of the school's budget.

"Cleansweeps are solid brooms, but these ones just aren't any good" one of the Hufflepuff boys in my year mentioned "I don't know what Professor Dumbledore is thinking letting us use them".

Even if Dumbledore is not an evil man he does have three full-time jobs and he's a big-picture thinker. If he did care about the students as people then he should he wouldn't have put the Philosopher's Stone in the school to act as bait for Voldemort and to test Harry Potter.

"Good morning class," said Madam Hooch as she strode on the large patch of grass that we were using for this lesson "Well what are you waiting for. Stand by your brooms".

When the time came to command our brooms to raise up into our hands, rather than try to order the broom verbally I just sort of willed it into my hand. Raven had taught me a little about focusing my will on something to make it respond to me.

Few people bothered much with wandless magic as wands were more than a tool to perform magic with they were a symbol of status within the Wizarding World. Something you took out and used to show off your magical abilities with.

If you didn't use your wand when given a chance to demonstrate your talent then you weren't a real witch or wizard. Aside from that wandless magic was much harder to perform and took a lot more skill as well as practice to perfect. Wizards and witches were rather lazy.

In my not-so-humble opinion, wands were a subtle sort of trap. Depending on them it made wizards and witches easier for the government to control since their law enforcement officers simply had to use a successful disarming charm and then whomever they were after was more or less helpless.

I would never let that happen to me. I would learn wandless magic and in desperate times I had other options such as summoning my staff or turning into a massive dragon.

"Now mount your brooms," ordered our teacher.

Flying on a broom like this could not be comfortable even with cushioning charms.

"Wait for it," Raven whispered to me "Get ready to cast Arresto Momentum".

To my complete lack of surprise one of the Hufflepuffs, this one a slightly chubby girl, took off and then lost any control she'd had before she started coming down.

Despite my desire not to depend too much upon my wand, it was a powerful tool and well suited to me, as such I was able to cast a spell to help out the poor Hufflepuff girl avoid disaster.

"Arresto Momentum"

The Slowing Charm was a spell that could be used to slow the velocity of an object. It was taught in second years charms, but I'd practised the Charm because Rachel had advised me to to help Harry Potter should his broom get cursed

Raven must have foreseen this danger, and thanks to her advice I'd prevented a student from being injured. I doubted she would have died from the fall, but it had been a possibility.

"That was some quick thinking, Mr Twycross" said Madam Hooch as she raced over to the thankfully okay Hufflepuff "I'll take her to the infirmary, the rest of you can put the brooms away and then you're dismissed. Flying lessons will have to wait".

This news was not welcomed by the student body even if many of them were distracted by my display of magic. I was surprised that Hooch hadn't performed the spell given that she must have known there was a good chance a student would fall. Was she a Squib or had she not been able to get to her wand in time?

"That was a very advanced spell" commented Lisa Turpin as we Ravenclaws huddled together "Where did you find it?".

I saw no harm in sharing this information.

"The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2" I answered, "We're supposed to learn it next year. I was reading ahead and when I realised that poor girl could fall I just used the spell".

I wondered why Raven hadn't done that herself. Perhaps she was aiding me in my challenge to obtain renown, or she was worried that she was already getting too much attention from the staff.

"We'll never pass flying at this rate" complained Terry Boot.

Something had to be done if only to minimize the risks to myself and my companions. Aside from that, I had to pass my flying class as it was part of the curriculum for our first years.

"Come with me," I said to Dawn and Raven "I have an idea.

Diagon Alley. The Wizarding World.

Since I had the excuse to leave the school for my tutoring sessions I was free to go off to the magical shopping centre with my companions. I'd already decided not to wait for the end of term as this situation with the brooms was simply unacceptable.

Despite it being a Saturday morning the alley was more peaceful than expected. Wizards and witches were a sedate lot so it made sense that shopping would be more of a Saturday afternoon activity.

Even with the alley being more empty of people than expected I got on with my business quickly as I wanted to get back before lunch started as I was planning on visiting Hogsmede this afternoon.

The lack of children around here suited me just fine for another reason, as it meant that the Quidditch supply store was almost free of customers and as such the wizard running the store was able to speak with me without delay.

"What can I do for you, sir?" I was asked.

I'd come here with a very specific need.

"I need twenty reliable brooms that are suitable for novice flyers to use during lessons," I said.

The store owner took a moment to process my words.

"Twenty brooms" he muttered.

I would guess that most of his business involved selling stuff like broom polish, repair kits and so on with only a few new brooms actually being purchased outside of the summer holidays. Professional teams would go to the broom manufacturer directly. I didn't have time for that, or rather I did I just didn't want to wait that long.

"Can you meet my needs?" I asked, "If not can you point me to a supplier who will be able to fill the order?".

Broom manufacturing is a big business here in Britain and not just for domestic sales the brooms are exported as well. That is the real reason why flying carpets were banned some time ago, so as to protect broom sales, or at least that was what I'd heard when the flying lessons were discussed in the common room.

"We can, sir," said the salesman "Please follow me".

Dawn and Rachel were ignored by the clerk, and they didn't bother to follow me as neither had much interest in brooms.

I soon found myself in a vast warehouse, one far too large to fit into the alley, and while that was impressive, I was soon distracted by the presence of so many brooms as I until I'd not really understood just how big this business could be.

"Now if you want a nice dependable broom for the novices you don't want anything like Nimbus range" the salesmen were saying "Sure the Cleansweaps are slower, cheaper and all that, but they aren't the safest when it comes to handling. If you want a solid and reliable broom I suggested you get some from the Oakshaft line".

I was soon told that the Oakshaft line started with witches making brooms in cottages and now they were an international bestseller for those who valued the slow and steady approach to flying.

"They aren't that popular anymore" the salesman was now saying "Everyone wants the latest racing broom, and that's great if your a racer or playing Chaser in a Quidditch match, but I was a Beater and let me tell you being faster isn't always better. You want a broom that will you keep you in your seat, that flies straight and true".

It wasn't hard to see the logic in that. Harry Potter could handle a Nimbus 2000 or a Firebolt because he's a natural flier and a Seeker needs speed.

However, the average witch or wizard just wouldn't be able to handle a racing broom any more than the average muggle driver can handle a Formula 1 racing car.

"Everyone broom has been tested" I was assured "And we don't let any of them out of the warehouse without checking the charms ourselves. All these have been checked by us and have a warranty to back them up".

Yes, these would do nicely. Now all we had to do was agree on a price. Prices could vary a bit. A custom-made broom could cost thousands of galleons.

"What do you need so many brooms for?" I was asked.

There were regulations about using and owning brooms so the clerk did have a right to ask.

"I'm replacing the brooms at Hogwarts" I answered "A student nearly got hurt and I can afford it, so I figured I should donate".

We ended up haggling a bit because there was no discount for buying in bulk. I paid about 300 pounds in regular money for each broom, which was about the cost of a decent mountain bike

"I'll throw some polish and repair kits" promised the wizard.

He must the manager if he could do that or at least more than a mere clerk.

"Box them up for me and I'll fill out a cheque," I said.

A Gringotts Cheque was a document issued by Gringotts Wizarding Bank to allow the transaction of a sum of money from one Gringotts vault to another without the owner of the vault having to go and move his gold himself.

"You want to take them now?" asked the wizard.

I wasn't going to make some poor owls fly them to Scotland when I just carry them myself in some bigger on the inside box.

"Yes", I answered, "They are needed right away".

The wizard seemed taken aback by this as if the idea of someone just taking their merchandise away after paying for it was somehow an alien activity.

Hogwarts College of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Wizarding World.

"Mr Twycross," said a female voice as I stood in front of her at the staff "I hope this is important".

It was lunchtime on Saturday so there weren't that many people around. Most students would have gone down to the village. One of the few members of staff sitting here was Madam Hooch.

"Yes, I need to talk to you about the poor-quality brooms that are used during your flying lessons," I replied.

The instructor did her best to hide her annoyance but figured that I was far from the first student to talk to her about this problem and that she wouldn't be able to do anything about the situation.

"If you want to register a complaint you need to do so with the headmaster or the board of governors" she replied.

I got the sense that doing either of those things would be totally pointless.

Trying to get extra funding out of what I was sure was a group of self-serving purebloods would be like trying to get blood out of a stone. The latter would be easier as there is probably a spell for that.

Come to think about it, Lucius Malfoy is on the board of governors and he'd paid for his son's place on the Slytherin Quidditch team with brooms far more expensive than what I'd gotten.

While I don't know much about that sport I understand that giving beaters and keepers super fast brooms isn't a great idea.

More proof that Draco only joined the team to compete with Harry Potter as a real Quidditch player would purchase different models of brooms for the different players.

The older Malfoy could have easily purchased brooms for the whole school to use during lessons. The fact that he hadn't was evidence that he didn't actually care about Hogwarts, not that any was needed.

"There's no need," I said as I presented her with the box that I'd been carrying "I decided to actually do something about the problem".

I imagined that she would invite me to her office. Rather than do that she bade me follow her so I could put the box down on one of the house tables. This naturally drew the attention of several students who started to pay attention.

"Normally first-year students aren't allowed their own brooms" Hooch insisted when she saw the broom in the box "Perhaps we need to get rid of that rule so students can use there own".

Since she couldn't know how many brooms were in the box, since it only looked big enough to contain one since it was the broom version of a violin case, it was understandable that she assumed that I'd only brought the one.

"They aren't for me, or rather not just for me" I explained out of the box "This is a donation to the school, to be specific your flying class. I don't want to see a student get injured".

I opened up the box and started unpacking the twenty brooms that were somewhat old sure, but new compared the school's brooms. More importantly, they'd never been flown and so weren't worn down.

"My goodness I haven't seen this many Oakshafts since my days on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team," remarked Madame Hooch "These are good, solid brooms, nice handling, just what my flying class needs".

I trusted the opinion of the experts on this matter, and while they might not be Nimbus 2000 or Firebolts that didn't stop quite a few male students, and even a few young ladies, from trying to get a closer look at the brooms.

"Yes I thought they'd met with your approval, and they've been certified as fit for use," I said.

Hooch was very pleased.

"I'm sure the Headmaster will want to thank you personally" mentioned the instructor "I only just finished telling him about you helping out another student".

The last thing I wanted to do was met with Dumbledore. I didn't wish to talk to him at all if it could be arranged. The Headmaster had a way of using people.

"I have other plans for the day" I said "If you'll excuse me I'm supposed to meet my friends in the village".

I'd promised Raven that I would spend time with her, just the two of us, as a date and I'd rather do that and listen to Dumbledore make a speech.