Ascension: The Promise of Prometheus

by Define Anachronistic

(AU) Harry and his closest friends have resolved to enlist in the Auror Corps to gain the necessary authority to combat their enemies head-on. However, brutal training, a harsh Squad Captain and a plot that could destabilise the Muggle and the Wizarding Worlds need to be dealt with first. But where there is adversity there is also opportunity and that's where Harry thrives.

6. One Hundred Days of Hell

CHAPTER THREE

One Hundred Days of Hell

Harry trudged alone across the icy plateau. His world was only spared from darkness by the emerald glow that came from above.

Despite the mythic beauty of the Aurora Australis, he kept his head bowed, hood low and goggles strapped securely around his head. He had enchanted every piece of clothing he wore to keep him warm when he first crafted them- from the poncho and bracers to his balaclava and boots- and he'd completed the entire process by himself. This included capturing, killing and skinning the Puffskeins for their fur, transfiguring the raw materials into clothes and then inscribing them with a variety of repeated Runic Complexes to keep them forever toasty.

Or it was supposed to anyway.

The Antarctic winter was enough to overwhelm even his well-made Artifice. The biting wind worked its way into the minute gaps in his clothing, and every howling gust felt like cold pinpricks against his skin. Still, with temperatures that were well below negative thirty degrees Celsius, Harry knew that he would have dropped dead miles ago without the magically enhanced clothes.

Knowing now that losing morale only made things worse in the long run, Harry stopped walking and tried the Tracking Charm again, hoping his quarry had finally returned to its den. Appare Vestigium!

Ignoring how the strong winds made his eyes water, Harry lifted his goggles in time to see a swirl of golden powder fall gently onto the snow around him. He was relieved when it revealed the nearly invisible tracks of his prey. They were headed toward the protruding glacier on the western horizon.

Harry snapped his goggles back into place and continued his trek, pointing his wand at the ground as he went. Steret! Without moving his lips, his footsteps vanished from the snow behind him.

Even though the Southern Lights washed the lands beneath it in an eerie emerald glow, Harry was forced to rely on his Supersensory Goggles to safely cross the frozen terrain. He refrained from conjuring a brighter light source for himself as it might attract the attention of a Dark Beast that he wasn't hunting. For that same reason, he'd also obscured himself with the Disillusionment Charm.

He didn't dare use his Invisibility Cloak. Captain Solace might be watching him even now.

Finally, after what felt like hours, Harry arrived within throwing distance of the glacier and collapsed onto the snow. He knew it was a bad idea to take a break without protection from both the elements and predators, but it had been an especially long day, even by recent standards.

After a few minutes, when the bite of the freezing wind became more painful than the burning in his muscles, Harry climbed back onto his feet and approached an opening in the glacier with an appropriate level of wariness. He repeated the Tracking Charm once more, as he didn't want to enter the frozen cave unless he absolutely had to and was almost disappointed by the positive result.

Gathering his nerve, Harry trained his wand in front of him and entered the cave after the Yeti.

It was hard to tell with the goggles on, but Harry got the sense that the cave was pitch black, and the only movement he could sense within was the minuscule trickling of running water. The glacier's innards were melting despite the freezing temperatures outside.

Another sign that this was the Yeti's den. It only thrived in the cold due to the massive body heat it generated.

Harry carefully watched his step as he descended into the cave. A single mistake could have him go from predator to prey. However, the last thing he expected was for the Yeti to be aware of his pursuit.

As he turned the next corner, the wall to his left seemed to come alive and he realised much too slowly that it wasn't a wall at all.

The Yeti took a swipe at him, but Harry instinctually turned on the spot and disapparated.

A moment later, Harry reappeared back around the corner he'd just come from and reevaluated the situation. His immediate guess that the Yeti was able to sense his presence through his body heat (as he had already obscured himself from sight, hearing, and smell) was immediately proven right when a fifteen-foot-tall, two-tonne ape came tearing around the corner towards him.

More than that though, the fact that he'd missed it with his Supersensory Goggles meant that the Yeti could control its temperature. It was intelligent enough to lure Harry into its den before lowering its body heat to the point where it was invisible to him against the icy walls.

Harry gritted his teeth. Not because the Yeti had just pounced at him, but because he was now going to have to ask Captain Solace how to hide his body temperature. That was a far worse outcome.

Before the Beast could touch him, he disapparated once more. He appeared directly behind it this time and directed his wand at the ice beneath his feet. Aeris!

The Yeti tried to catch him with a backhand of its enormous fist, but Harry was no longer there. The compressed bullet of air had launched him up twenty feet and- in a move that he'd been ordered to drill a thousand times- he twisted his body in mid-air so that he was upside down by the time he hit the cave's ceiling in a crouch.

He cast Epoximise! before gravity could do its work and his boots were immediately fused with the glacier's ice.

The Beast let out an enormous roar as its eyes tracked its prey to the ceiling above its head. Before the Yeti could realise it could simply reach up and grab him, Harry calmly trained his wand at its undefended eyes. Confundo!

The Yeti froze and shuddered like all confounded victims but, much to Harry's surprise, it fought viscously against his control. He had to bring all his focus and desire down onto the Beast's will, like a hammer on a nut, smashing it into pieces before he was done. It was only when the Yeti was as docile as could be, did he follow up with the finisher.

Perfuro!

His Piercing Curse was pinpoint accurate. It hit the Yeti between the eyes, burrowing a hole the size of a bronze Knut into its head until it was expelled from the back of its skull, taking a hefty chunk of grey matter and bone along with it.

The Yeti dropped to the ground in a slump, but Harry remained fused to the ceiling. He'd been tricked once today, and he had no desire to repeat the experience. Lumos Duo! Aura Incantatem! Harry lifted his goggles to examine his now-illuminated surroundings.

The floating balls of light reflected off the ice walls which magnified the area it illuminated. It was more than enough for Harry to see that no other Yetis were lying in wait, but he only relaxed when the white sparks from his second spell only lingered on himself and the carcass of the Yeti he had just killed. There was no other source of magic in the area.

The presence of a second Yeti would have been a bit of a curveball. Yetis were notorious for how territorial they were and would have never shared the glacier with another of its kind. But Harry wasn't about to take the chance after he'd been caught off guard once. Besides, Antarctica was crawling with them, as the first wizard settlers on the continent had brought them here from Tibet and they had bred like rabbits.

Harry removed the Fusion Spell from his boots and fell from the ceiling. As he flipped the right way up, he cast a Softening Charm on the ice beneath him and bounced only once before landing in a crouch. Straightening, he made his way over to his kill, removing a miniaturised box from his belt as he did so. Engorgio. Mobilicorpus. Reduico.

When the Yeti was put in the again-miniaturised box and safely secured in his utility belt, Harry disapparated from the glacier.

Their base was an igloo that he and his squadmates had built only hours earlier. They had used magic to collect and compress the snow into tightly packed bricks and Harry- the only one who had an eye for architecture apparently- had managed the others while they put the bricks in place. While they transfigured snow into furniture and erected protections around their igloo, Harry went off alone to fetch dinner.

The archway entrance was so small that he was forced to crawl through it and he had to use his wand to push aside the heavy block of snow that worked as the door. Climbing to his feet, he vaguely admired how the inside of the igloo had been lit a pretty shade of cobalt by the floating orbs of bluebell flames. Harry tossed the box onto the table before collapsing into one of the armchairs. "Bon Appétit."

Anthony, who was doing his homework at the table, asked, "What's that?" He poked the box with his wand.

"Morgan le Fay's lost grimoire," Harry said dryly, eyes closed. "What do you think I meant when I said I was getting dinner?"

"All right, calm down," Anthony said defensively. "Engorgio! There's no need to be so- What the Bedlam is that?!" He yelped, backing away from the now-open crate.

Harry lifted his head to see if he'd accidentally brought something else back to base, before dropping it back down when he only saw the Yeti's white fur. "Dinner."

"I'm not eating that!" Anthony said resolutely.

"You can and you will." Harry snapped back. He couldn't believe Anthony was still a picky eater after all this time. Just as he was about to get to his feet, Terry spoke up from his armchair.

"It's a delicacy in some places." Both Harry and Anthony fell silent, as Terry rarely spoke unless he had to these days. "I'll get to work on cooking it, alright?"

"If you're sure," Anthony said uncertainly. When Terry took the Yeti from him and began fashioning a cooking fire, he gave Harry a concerned look but all he got in return was a helpless shrug.

Michael spoke then from his bed, where he was hidden beneath a pile of blankets that he'd transfigured for himself. "I don't care what it is as long as I can have lots of it." He groaned, rolling over so his face was visible through a tiny gap in his covers. "We'll need our strength for tomorrow."

Harry nodded. "Which reminds me, make sure you save the Yeti's fur and skin, Number One. It might come in handy." Terry nodded but didn't deign to reply. Anthony returned to his homework and Michael to his pre-dinner nap.

Deciding to not remind them of the night watch schedule until their bellies were full of Yeti meat (as it would be just like Captain Solace to try and ambush them in their sleep), Harry curled up in his chair and drew one orb of fire closer to him.

Life had been like this for almost five weeks now, starting from the day they had first met Captain Solace.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

On that first day, they had followed Captain Solace to the Citadel gates and once they were off the protected grounds, she presented them with her Auror badge. The boys had hesitated, glancing uncertainly at each other before she gave her badge an annoyed shake, silently urging them to hurry up.

The Portkey only activated once all five had at least a finger on the badge, and they were pulled into the newly created space that the Artifice tore open. They landed somewhere that was far cooler than the warm humidity of a London summer. Looking around, Harry could see that they were in a mountainous valley with rocky terrain. The grass beneath his feet felt spongy and the trees were dripping with moisture, both of which indicated recent rain.

Harry wished he had decided to wear something more substantial than a t-shirt and a pair of shorts.

There were only two buildings in the valley and both were simple identical huts. Solace ordered them inside the one that was directly in front of them, and the interior was just as miserable as its exterior. They stepped into a large room with four cots, each with a rigid pillow, thin blanket and a number engraved on the wall above the non-existent headrest.

"Stand to attention at the end of the bunk with your number on it." Solace ordered.

Again, the boys hesitated. Harry tentatively asked, "What number?"

Solace zeroed in on him. "Are you blind?" She barked, poking his chest. "Your number." Harry glanced down to see that the number four had somehow been stitched onto his t-shirt just without his knowing. Glancing at his friends, he saw that Terry had been given number one, Michael number two, and Anthony number three.

Intimidated, the boys hurried to their designated bunks. Once they were all standing at attention, Captain Solace approached Harry's cot and got uncomfortably close to his face. "When you speak to me, it will not be out of turn, and you will address me by my rank. Is that clear, Number Four?" Harry didn't like a single word in that sentence, but he knew better than to kick up a fuss on his first day.

"Yes, Captain."

Solace twirled her wand and four copies of The Auror's Enchiridion appeared right in front of him. Harry's arms shot out and caught the stack before it could land on his foot. "Hold that with both arms fully extended until I tell you to stop." Harry gave no response. Solace gave a satisfied little nod, walked to the door and addressed the group as a whole.

"Welcome to Basic Training. The numbers you wear are your rankings, designated by me on how likely you are to pass." Harry gave no outward reaction, but his heart dropped right into his stomach when he heard that. "It goes without saying that Number One is the best and Four is the worst." He kept his eyes straight ahead, focusing on the stack of books that already had his arms burning from the strain of carrying them, so he might have imagined the cold look Solace shot him when she said that. "I will refer to each of you by your numbers. You will refer to each other by your numbers. You will even refer to yourselves by your numbers." She looked at them each in turn as she said this. "You have no identity here outside of what I deign to give you. Is that clear?"

The boys spoke then, in various levels of muted shock and outrage, but they still responded promptly and as one. "Yes, Captain."

She barrelled on, completely unconcerned with the effect her words were having on them. "Every day you will be awoken at 06:00 to prepare breakfast for yourselves. Physical training will begin at 06:30 which will be followed by lessons at 08:00 until 16:30 with a thirty-minute break at 12:00 for you to prepare lunch if I am feeling generous." Harry could see Terry's nerves growing with every word that came out of her mouth, and it only grew worse with what followed. "This will be followed by Personal Training until 20:30 when you will return here for dinner, homework at 21:00 and lights out at 22:00."

She paused, as though expecting one of them to voice a protest, but when none came, she continued. "This will be your lives for the next one hundred days. There are no weekends, no breaks, no holidays. This is not mandatory, so if at any point you feel as though you can't take it, you can simply leave." While the meaning of the words was generous, the way she phrased it left it clear that she would deem them weaklings if they gave up midway. "However, you should know that you would then be unable to enlist again until you are of age and have secured at least five Outstanding NEWTs."

"Any questions?" Solace asked lightly, seemingly cheered by their visible distress. "No? Good, then we can begin with our first day." She flicked her wand and three of the books Harry was carrying floated over to the others while the fourth remained with him. "These will be your guides for as long as you are Aurors. Memorise them." She instructed. "I am not joking. I will be quizzing you at random times throughout your training and you will be punished if you cannot answer correctly."

"Now then," she waved her wand once more and a small pile of dark exercise gear appeared at the foot of each cot, identical to the clothes Nicolas had provided him with. "You have one minute to put these on and meet me outside. We're a little behind schedule, so we'll be skipping breakfast today." With that, she turned on her heel and left the hut.

"I'm not the only one who thinks she's nuts, right?" Terry asked, his voice muffled as he struggled to fit his head in the stretchy t-shirt's opening. When no one responded, he asked, "Anthony? A little help?" Anthony sighed and went over to help his brother.

Harry didn't think much of it at the time, as he'd been busy flicking through his new copy of The Auror's Enchiridion (he wanted to know if there were differences between it and the older edition he already owned), but he would regret it. Captain Solace had been serious when she ordered them to only refer to one another by their designated numbers. She woke them up the next day by blasting them out of their cots with a stream of cold water from her wand that had more pressure than a fire hose.

But he didn't know that then, so he simply tucked his new book underneath his pillow and hurried out of the hut at Michael's urging.

Physical training was extremely similar to what Nicolas already had Harry doing every day for over a year now: exercises that focused on increasing dexterity, flexibility, speed and reflexes. However, instead of building a playground like his master had, Solace had placed the training equipment in a specific order but a hundred meters apart from each other.

It was only when she commented on timing them during their warmup stretches, did he realise it was an obstacle course.

They were all meant to run it at the same time. Harry believed this was meant to be demoralising, as even though it wasn't explicitly stated, it did put them in direct competition with one another.

"When you reach the end, run around the course and get back here as quickly as you can. Oh, and no magic allowed." Solace added, before yelling, "START!"

Harry pulled away from the others in the first sprint to the river and dived into the freezing rapids without hesitation. Going with the current, he swam the width to the other bank and climbed out before Michael could even reach the halfway point. He gritted his teeth as he ran across the open ground toward the next obstacle; his waterlogged clothes weren't just weighing him down but chilled him to the bone in the brisk morning air. Hoping to warm himself up, he increased his pace to a dead sprint towards the second obstacle at the tree line.

Next was a series of metal bars that floated in mid-air, forming a rope-free ladder that led high into the trees and out of sight. Harry didn't even pause. He immediately scrambled up the ladder and forced his way through the leaves and branches- ignoring the little nicks and scratches they left on his arms and legs- before reaching the first of a network of balancing beams that worked their way right through the trees up ahead.

Already knowing what to expect from Nicolas' homemade gym (although the great height threw him for a loop), Harry stepped out onto the beam, treating it like a thin bridge that just so happened to lack any barriers on either side. When the hidden Automatons began firing balls of paint at him from their toy wands, he began to turn, duck and contort his body into strange positions to avoid getting hit.

Managing to make it through all five beams without getting hit even once, Harry climbed down the ladder at the end and began running for the next obstacle.

The rock wall was over a hundred feet high, just like the one at Brightstone House. But unlike the Bowtruckles that lurked within, ready to nibble at his fingers at any opportunity, this wall housed Fire-Dwelling Salamanders within its crevices. Harry spotted them as he was running up the incline, as their fiery orange bodies glowed in the foggy gloom.

He didn't let that stop him though. He began climbing the rock face the moment he reached it, not even pausing to catch his breath. At the moment, he told himself he was trying so hard because he wanted to get something out of his training. In reality, it was due to the insult of being designated number four. It had even been stitched onto his training gear. Harry loved his friends, but he knew his chances of becoming an Auror were greater than theirs.

He climbed the rock wall as rapidly as he could, drawing his hands and feet away before the Salamanders could even think to take a bite out of him. He knew that a bite from their sharp, scorching little teeth would hurt a lot more than a toothless gnaw from the Bowtruckles back home.

Once he reached the top, Harry began to carefully work his way down the other side. Back home he would have carelessly dropped a hundred feet to the ground, trusting the permanently softened ground to break his fall, but he had no similar trust in Solace. Even though it would take a bite out of his overall time, he did the sensible thing and climbed down the proper way.

Harry ran back to the starting position the moment he had both feet on the ground, going around the trees as he did so and using a felled tree and a series of protruding, but very slippery, rocks to cross the river. As such, he didn't have any idea where the others were by the time he made it back. "Fifteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds." Captain Solace informed him as he doubled over to catch his breath. Her cool tone didn't give away whether she thought this was a good time or not. "Run it again."

Harry's head snapped up to look at her, wanting to ask if she was joking, but her face was deadly serious. Swallowing the urge to curse at her, he turned and began to run the course a second time.

His second attempt wasn't nearly as good as the first. It wasn't just because of how tired he was from the first go around, but at how indignant he was at having to run it twice at all. While he didn't see Anthony and Michael, he did end up lapping Terry when they were both on the rock wall. He wasn't surprised by this, as Anthony had been dedicating himself to training since the Azkaban breakout and Michael had always been naturally athletic. However, even with a month and a half of training under his belt (courtesy of his mother), Terry struggled to keep up. Not only had he always been on the scrawnier side, but his fear of heights would've only made this obstacle course harder for him.

Judging by the splattered paint, grass stains and dirt on his clothes, he had fallen off the balancing beams more than once. That could not have been fun for him.

Harry considered helping him after he was bitten for the third time, but he just knew that Solace would use it as an excuse to punish them both.

Anthony and Michael were already there when he returned to the starting position, and had enough time to catch their breath. They looked at him oddly as he doubled over next to them, no doubt wondering how he finished after them. "Twenty-four minutes, fifty-five seconds." He hated how pleased Solace sounded with this time, but he refrained from voicing his displeasure out loud, not wanting to run the course a third time.

When Terry finally made it back, Solace led them through a series of cooldown exercises before guiding them to the second hut where their lessons would be conducted.

There were eight subjects in total, four taught in one day with two hours per lesson, followed by the other four subjects the next day before the schedule was repeated. These lessons were dense, and their topics were wide-ranging, but it was immediately evident how important it all was for an Auror to know.

Stealth and Tracking was their first class. The stealth portion focused on hiding oneself from view, but Harry had long since mastered most obscuring spells, so he was tasked with mastering various forms of tracking magic, from simple charms to more obscure methods like scrying.

Most classes paired well with the one that followed directly after. For Stealth and Tracking that perfect partner was Concealment and Disguise. They were taught to hide objects, secret messages and even buildings from view. Captain Solace went as far as to teach them the theory of even more powerful concealment spells, such as the Fidelius and the Imperturbable Charms.

The disguise half of the lesson typically focused on Human Transfiguration and the different kinds of potions that could be used to disguise a person's form. Harry and Terry exchanged identical smirks when the Polyjuice Potion was brought up. Solace also taught them signs to look out for when it came to magical disguises, such as clumsiness and strange skin tones, all of which she had used to capture fleeing criminals in the past according to the many anecdotes that she sprinkled into their lessons.

Terry made up for his lacklustre performance in the physical side of their training when it came to Posions and Antidotes. Captain Solace taught them all how to identify and neutralize poisons in this classroom, but they were repeatedly told that the best way to counteract poisons was to keep the most common antidotes on hand in their standard-issued utility belts.

This class was immediately followed by Emergency Healing which Harry had conflicting feelings about. Not because of the subject matter, but because of how it was taught. On the one hand, they were taught how to prevent blood loss and fix ruptured organs in just a matter of weeks. But on the other hand, Solace had deemed the use of animals to be cruel, so she ordered them to heal each other after she was done assaulting them.

The worst part was that she informed them of this only after she had started her attack.

Harry had been thrown to the ground by a Bone-Breaking Curse during their first lesson. Even though there was no visible wound, he could feel a terrible burning sensation within his chest.

He didn't recall crying out, but he must have, as his friends immediately came to his defence. Terry had knelt by his side and tried to identify the cause of his pain, Anthony kept his wand trained on Solace and Michael got right in her face. "What did you do?!"

"I've broken six of his ribs." Solace said matter-of-factly. "To fix this, you must first place him in a body-bind, before casting the Bone-Repairing Charm: Brackium Emendo." Even with her coaching, it took almost the entirety of the two-hour lesson for Terry to get the hang of it. Harry was forced to lie on the cold, muddy ground in silent agony the entire time.

"Good, but your charm was overpowered," Solace said as she checked over Terry's work with a Diagnostic Charm. "You regenerated more bone instead of repairing all of it, leaving splinters here, here and here." She carefully pointed out the glowing images of bone that were hovering within the holographical representation of Harry's torso. "If you leave it there, it'll eventually move towards the nearest organs, the lungs and heart, and pierce them." She paused. "And it'll cause him a great deal of pain even before then," Solace added as though it were of little consequence.

The moment he was able to sit up with a minimal amount of pain shooting through his torso, Harry immediately did so. He cast the charm on himself, healing hairline fractures that Terry missed and vanishing the fragments of bone. "You already know how to cast it?" Solace asked interestedly. She had the same expression when he displayed his knowledge of stealth spells earlier too.

"Yes, Captain." Harry clenched his jaw, hating that he had to be polite to someone that had just attacked him.

This didn't escape her notice. "You're free to leave at any time, Number Four."

Despite all his goals and dreams for the future, Harry seriously considered attacking her. It would be so easy. He doubted he could win, but making her feel some amount of pain would be enough for him. It wasn't even the harshness of the training that was getting to him, but the continued blows to his pride as she kept singling him out and embarrassing him in front of his friends.

But the moment passed, and he fell back in line with the others.

Only much later did he realise that Solace hadn't taken the opportunity to punish his friends for their earlier impertinence when they had come to his defence.

After blasting them out of bed the next morning with freezing water, Solace ordered them to prepare breakfast for themselves. Harry would have been happy to teach his coddled friends how to whip up scrambled eggs or something equally as quick, but they only found more disappointment waiting for them in the pantry: four boxes of plain oatmeal mix. There wasn't even any sugar, honey or fruit to make it palatable. As there was no milk or running water outside of the bathroom, Harry promised to teach the others the Water-Making Spell at their earliest convenience.

They had hoped that yesterday's white rice and unseasoned chicken breast dinner was a fluke, but now those hopes were dashed. They were all brought low by this, but Michael was particularly devastated.

Laws and Conduct was by far the most boring lesson and they had it bright and early on their second morning after Physical Training. The Auror's Enchiridion was their textbook for this class, and they were ordered to know it back to front before Basic Training was over.

The first thing they were taught was where their jurisdiction began and ended. All forms of Dark Magic were under the Aurors' purview, both for the sorcerers who used them illegally and the Artifices that were created by them. It was their duty to protect both worlds from the Dark Beasts that roamed them, as was the enforcement of the Statute of Secrecy against sorcerers who broke it and the Muggles who could see through the Veil.

While Custodians typically dealt with wizard-on-wizard crimes that didn't involve Dark Magic, Beasts or Muggles, Aurors were authorised to step in during live situations where there were no Custodians present. Solace took the time to emphasise this. "Remember, should anything illegal occur before you, it is your duty as an officer of the law to not let it pass."

That made things a little awkward considering half of all Marauder activity was technically illegal. Harry was going to have to talk to some of their older friends about it, as they must have faced the same dilemma.

Laws and Conduct went well with the lesson that followed: Containment and Restraints. Solace showed them Binding Spells that were used on individuals, buildings and even entire areas. She made many callbacks to Laws and Conduct when she was teaching them how to safely restrain a suspect in various situations, emphasising the need to avoid excessive force.

That was interesting, but Harry was more intrigued by the bindings themselves, both elemental and conjurations. He thought it was a fascinating bit of magic and a more elegant way to end a duel.

After lunch on their second day (a single bread roll and a bowl of watery bone broth that was so bland it made Michael sob), Solace put them through their paces with Hand-to-Hand training. "If you ever lose your wand, your first instinct should always be to get it right back." She explained as she paced in front of the four boys lined up before her. "If that is not possible, flee. There's no shame in it. You can't help anyone if you're dead."

She stopped pacing before Harry. He almost rolled his eyes at how predictable she was. The moment she announced what their next lesson was, he knew he was going to be her testing dummy. "However, you might find that you have no choice but to fight. If so, there are some things you can do that might tip the odds in your favour."

She then proceeded to use Harry as an example of how to do joint locks, especially around the wrist that would make an opponent drop their wand. Then she moved on to flips and throws that used an enemy's strength and momentum against them. Worst of all was when she demonstrated blows to soft vulnerable areas that could incapacitate an attacker.

"As you can see, all of this only works if you are in close quarters with your enemy, and that very rarely happens when they could hit you with a spell from thirty feet away." She glanced down at Harry, who was still in the dirt and struggling for air after the chokehold she'd used him to demonstrate. "Line up, Number Four," she snapped.

When he'd finally done so, Solace continued. "All of this is a last resort," she warned. "If you ever lose your wand in a fight, it's more likely you'll immediately die rather than get it back." She paused, letting that sink in. "Which is why I'm going to teach you how to avoid getting into that position in the first place."

The final lesson was Duelling. Solace would take them on either one at a time or in groups depending on her mood. Day by day, the terrain she wanted to fight them on changed from either the forest, the surrounding mountains or just out in the open field. The group duels were the hardest as they had to keep each other into account while she would either flee or attack them head-on.

Either way, she always won.

Rankings shifted around during lessons, but it was normally just Terry and Michael exchanging the top spot, going back and forth a lot. Anthony made it to Number Two a couple of times, but Harry was the only one who remained fixed on the rank he'd first started with, even though he knew that his overall performance was by far the best. He had no idea what Solace's problem with him was, but he was determined to not let it get to him.

After lessons, but before dinner, they had Personal Training scheduled every day. When their last lesson ended, she sent them all to their designated areas in the training grounds. Harry was located in the wide-open space where the edge of the forest met the foot of the westward mountain, and Solace always arrived to deal with him last.

On the first day, she asked to see what he knew. Harry, now knowing not to expect much from her, showed her his entire spell arsenal without much fanfare. She watched him work in silence and only spoke when the water from his Surging Spell crashed down the rocky slope towards the forest. "Apparition and nonverbal spellcasting. You'll master these before the first test." He noticed how she avoided the word "try" or the expression "work on", as though anything other than absolute mastery was unimaginable.

She didn't give him a chance to ask when this test would be, but he thought that might be the point. He would be guaranteed to work to his fullest if the test could come at any time.

"Apparition is all about being aware of multiple things, all at the same time." Her instruction began with startling abruptness. "You must be aware of your own body, the clothes and items you carry with you, as well as your destination, your familiarity with it, and the space you're crossing to get there. Then you simply hold your wand like so and turn-" she spun on the spot and disappeared before reappearing five feet to the left of where she had been standing, "-like so," she finished.

Harry had always been wary of apparating. He liked it even less than Portkeys whenever someone took him along for a ride. He had expected it to be difficult to learn, as he never seemed to click properly with branches of magic that disinterested him, but apparition proved to be different.

Solace had left him to it hours ago, telling him to send a distress signal if he splinched himself, (not considering that he might have splinched both his arms off, he realised later). Harry had no luck at first, no matter how many times he sharply turned on the spot and almost fell face-first on the rocky ground.

However, it was the thought about Portkeys that gave him his breakthrough.

Whenever he took a Portkey, it was like the Artifice tore open a path that had never been there to begin with, creating a direct line to whatever the destination was. He guessed that apparition might be the same. Whenever he was Side-Along Apparated, he noticed the same images of light, colour and sound that flashed by whenever he took a Portkey.

Harry kept his gaze fixed on the bottom of the rocky slope, imagining a pathway opening up between his position and his destination. Then he turned on the spot and took a deliberate step back through the pathway he was picturing.

His body was squeezed from all sides as he worked his way through the opening and the air was stolen from his lungs. The world became awash with bright flashing colours and the howling sound of the world being torn apart to make way for him. But only for a moment.

He reappeared, intact, at the bottom of the slope.

After the day he had, Harry had needed a solid win, and he threw his head back a whooped.

Solace was less impressed when he showed her the next day. "Now you have to do it with a destination that's too far away to see." Harry swallowed his groan.

While he had been flying high with his triumph over apparition, his failure with nonverbal spellcasting was there to bring him right back down to Earth. "Nonverbal spellcasting requires a level of concentration and dedication that wouldn't have been asked from you in school just yet." Solace informed him after he'd proven himself "decent" at apparition (her words). "Do you know the components for spellcasting?"

"Emotion, intent, imagination, wand movement, incantation and willpower." Solace raised an eyebrow. "Captain." He added.

She nodded. "And what do you think will happen if you take just one of these away?"

"It makes spellcasting much more difficult, but not impossible, Captain."

"These are all handholds that most sorcerers need to cast even the most basic of spells, but the most learned of our kind can cast powerful spells with just intention and imagination." Harry nodded. He'd seen this for himself. "You will remove the need for wand movement and incantation by increasing the other components before the first test. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Captain." Solace nodded when she heard that before leaving him alone again.

It made sense in theory, but in practice, Harry was unable to cast even a Wand-Lighting Charm without the incantation. It was only after the eighth day- as Solace walked away from him, disappointed- did he remember what Nicolas had been teaching him before Basic Training began.

Harry had spent over a week casting the Wand-Lighting Charm hundreds of times, following the output of Mana from the well he pictured it as, to the arm that was holding his blackthorn wand. It was all just different parts of the same machine, his well of Mana, body, and even his wand were all just gears in the system. They didn't need incantations or wand movements to do what they were built to do.

Harry drew the minimal amount of Mana that was required for this particular spell from his well of power and directed it from his chest, down his arm and into his wand.

Lumos!

The tip of his wand flared to life.

As she reached the bottom of the slope, Captain Solace caught sight of the light from the corner of her eye. It might have been Harry's imagination, but he could have sworn she smiled.

Later, Harry found out his friends were working on raising the number of spells they had in their arsenals. Solace had them each focusing on a different element: fire for Anthony, earth for Michael and air for Terry. But she was primarily concerned with their knowledge of martial magic and shield charms.

"She says that she'll get around to teaching us apparition and nonverbal spellcasting when we master the basics," Michael informed Harry over their dreary dinner of boiled potatoes and asparagus.

Harry knew it might give him indigestion, but he swallowed his food with minimal chewing; it didn't taste as bad that way. "I'll help where I can," he promised when his airway was clear.

"When?" Terry asked sourly. "In the imaginary time that we have to ourselves?" Harry had a feeling that he would have moodily pushed the food around on his plate if he weren't so hungry.

"It's okay. We don't have to learn everything in the hundred days we've got," Anthony said gently. "We can figure it out when we get back to school. We just need to survive this first." Terry sighed and nodded.

Harry couldn't blame him for his attitude towards the whole thing. Even though Solace hadn't singled Terry out, he was finding it difficult to keep up with the physical side of training. Seeing the others do better at it than him must have been disheartening as everything had always come so easily to Terry. Every day Harry waited for him to announce his departure, and every day he felt guilty for ever doubting him when he continued to stick it out with the rest of them.

What they were all learning in Personal Training was paying dividends in their duels against Solace. Together, the boys managed to come up with some off-the-wall ideas. When Solace disapproved, she ordered them to never attempt such a thing again, like when Terry used a Banishing Charm to turn an unsuspecting Michael into a human cannonball, launching him at her at top speed. But when she approved, Solace helped them perfect it, like when she taught Harry how to move his body correctly in mid-air when he launched himself with the Compressed Air Spell but ended up slamming into a tree.

But while they were proud of their improvements, it did little to warm Solace to them.

"This whole thing is crazy." Anthony quietly seethed as they went over their jurisprudence homework, trying to quickly get through it so they could squeeze in showers before lights out. "Most Initiates are coddled by their Captains because the enlisting numbers are so low and the entry requirements are so high." He huffed. "It's like she doesn't even want us to join."

Harry froze over his reading of the legal standing of Squibs. Now there's an idea. For the first time, Solace's attitude began to make sense to him. But even if it were true, he was no longer as angry about it as he had been. It had been over a month since training began but her training methods had already worked wonders for him.

A few days ago, he'd finally managed to get through his entire spell arsenal nonverbally. Even though the mental strain was enough to give him a headache, he didn't care. He'd improved leaps and bounds over the last five weeks and he couldn't wait to go back to school and challenge the higher-ranked Sentinels.

They had grown used to the routine over the last thirty-two days, so of course that was when the first test was sprung on them.

Solace woke them up the next morning with the usual Caterwauling Charm, but what she said next was new. "No obstacle course today. Instead, I've released a hundred Puffskeins in the forest. You had better find them and make some nice warm clothes from their fur, because we're going on a holiday." She left the room with a vicious smile on her face.

The boys scrambled out of bed, changing as quickly as they could before running out the door. They weren't exactly keen on the idea of killing the cute creatures, but they knew better than to underestimate Solace's harsh training. If she said they needed warm clothes, then that meant they would freeze to death without them.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Harry found it difficult to tell the time. Early September would be late summer or the start of autumn in Britain, but it was still winter in the Antarctic circle and the sun only peeked over the horizon for a handful of hours at a time. The Initiates were anxious as they had no idea what Captain Solace had in store for them, but they slept through the long twilight anyway. Whatever happened, they knew they would need their strength.

They rose earlier than was strictly necessary. It was four and a half miles to their destination and- even with the snow- they could walk that in under two hours. But that was only if the ground was flat.

They were right to be cautious. The terrain Solace chose had several inclines and crevices that needed magic to cross. This, coupled with their struggle to avoid sinking in the deep snow (even with their enchanted boots), left a significant strain on their calves and thighs. It might have been easier for Harry to simply Side-Along his friends, but while he didn't mind risking it with the already dead Yeti, he had never tried to do it before with another person. This seemed like a poor environment for a first attempt.

The world outside was much the same as it had been the previous evening when he hunted for their dinner. To him, it had lost much of its lustre, but his friends were overtaken by the beauty of their surroundings. Terry especially kept looking up at the night sky as he walked, captivated by the Aurora Australis and a star-filled sky free of light pollution. This wouldn't be a problem if he just stopped tripping over the deep snow.

Altogether, it took over three hours for them to make the trek.

Finally, Harry spotted Captain Solace in the distance through his Supersensory Goggles and called out to the others. It was obvious that her clothes were professionally enchanted as the air around her was far warmer than what their clothes were capable of generating. She stood close to the shore; the piercing winds and ocean spray didn't seem to bother her at all.

"A Sea Serpent nesting nearby has been terrorising an encampment of Muggle researchers." Solace had to shout to make herself heard over the crashing sea. "They were saved by the Auror Guard of the First Citadel at the Magister's behest, but someone must deal with the Beast. I have volunteered your services." She then turned and walked away.

The four boys watched her go with varying degrees of shock.

"There's so much wrong with what she just said!" Michael yelled. "I don't even know where to begin!"

"I know!" Anthony agreed. "Sea Serpents never bother humans unless their territory has been subjected to overfishing!"

"That's not what I meant!" Harry couldn't hear it, but judging from the way his shoulders moved, Michael sighed.

"Aura Incantatem!" Harry gritted his teeth when he saw the glowing white dust, completely unimpeded by the strong winds, fly over the sea and out of sight. There was something powerful lurking beneath the waters alright. He turned to his friends. "Look, there's no point in all of us going down there!" He shouted. "I'll sail out, swim down and attract its attention. Number One, you'll pull me back with some rope and you two will deal with the Sea Serpent." He was the strongest swimmer in the group, and the best at martial magic, so it was the only idea that made sense to him. Annoyingly, Solace knew this too, which meant she had planned for him to go down there.

Into the dark, freezing open water. Harry repressed a shudder. Anything could be waiting for me down there.

Michael shook his head. "Deal with it? I don't know if we can manage that."

"It'll be easy," Harry assured. "Their skin isn't even all that resistant against powerful spells. But if you have any trouble, just aim for its eyes or mouth. As soon as I'm recovered from the water, I'll confound it."

Michael still appeared unconvinced but didn't protest when Anthony put a firm hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, we've got this," he assured Harry.

"Number Four, you make some kind of boat for yourself, and we'll work on making proper insulation for you out of transfigured Yeti skin," Terry said. "If you try to swim down wearing Puffskein fur, the water will work its way into the gaps in your clothing and freeze you in seconds."

Harry nodded. "Good thinking." He turned to go and build some kind of raft for himself out of the only material they had at hand, snow, before pausing. "Oh, and try to avoid the Serpent's spray, alright?"

Michael stiffened. "Spray?"

"It shoots out boiling water like a dragon does fire!" Harry hurried away, allowing Michael's yells of fear and outrage to be carried away by the wind.

It took them about twenty minutes to get ready. Most of that time was spent transfiguring and enchanting a slapped-together wetsuit which Harry had to apparate back to their igloo to change into. He now sat on the only cushioned seat of his boat, wearing the wetsuit underneath his Puffskein furs. The boat was transfigured from snow into ice, and the best he could do for insulation was transfigure a fur lining out of the Yeti's remains to protect his arse from the freezing surface.

Appare Vestigium! The golden swirl of dust had been directing him forward for so long that he could no longer see his friends on the shore. It was only the stretchy length of rope around his waist that kept him from panicking about drowning at sea.

It was probably a good idea to focus on anything but his old childhood fear.

Finally, Harry brought the Locomotion Charm to a stop as the remains of his last Tracking Charm lingered on the water, undisturbed by the crashing waves. That was all he needed to see to know that the Sea Serpent was lurking beneath him.

Harry first cast a Warming Charm over himself, then removed his furs, revealing the wetsuit he was wearing underneath. The charm wouldn't do much to protect him from the cold (he was relying on the enchanted wetsuit for that) but it would stop him from feeling it. When he'd first put the wetsuit on in the igloo, he'd been concerned with how silly it looked as it covered his hands, feet and head, leaving only his eyes and mouth exposed. But now he was just glad that it was tight enough to keep the water out.

Bublet! A bubble of fresh air fixed itself around his nose and mouth, shielding the only exposed part of his body from the elements. Knowing that there was nothing more to do and lingering any longer would only give him more reasons to chicken out, Harry checked the rope one last time before diving into the freezing waters.

His Supersensory Goggles allowed him to see the temperature of the world around him, so Harry knew he only had minutes before the magic on the wetsuit failed him. As he swam deeper, he noted that the underwater world was somehow more barren of life than the inhospitable land he'd just sailed away from, but he had a feeling that was due to his quarry more than anything else.

As his Ouroboros began to buzz, signalling that a minute had passed, Harry pushed himself to swim even deeper. He wished he could use the Ebubilo Jinx- wanting to be safe in his own bubble- but he knew that it could never sink underwater in the first place.

Just as his Ouroboros buzzed a second time and he was about to give up and return to his friends to come up with a new plan, Harry saw the reverberations of movement through his goggles. Swimming ever deeper, he noticed that there was a crevice in the seabed and, as he focused, he could feel the reverberations of a massive creature's slumbering.

Suppressing his good sense in order to do this, Harry pointed his wand upwards and then down. Periculum! Confringo! While the first shot a red firework to the surface as intended, the second let out an enormous torrent of boiling water, directed right for the crevice. He paused for a moment, wondering if he should try something else, but the sudden rumbling from underneath let him know the job was done.

The Sea Serpent began to unfurl itself and- as its enormous head emerged from the crevice- Harry feared his signal had failed him.

He needn't have worried. The rope around his middle suddenly tugged him upwards at such an intense speed that the air was forced out of his lungs. He only remembered flashes of the next minute- exploding from the freezing sea, being flung into the air, flying so high he thought he could touch the green lines that lit up the night sky- but he was unfortunate enough to remember his plummet back to earth in its entirety.

Or more precisely, the icy shore his friends were standing upon.

Harry was jerked awake by the sound of mayhem. Anthony and Michael battled the Sea Serpent on the shore while Terry knelt at his side. "Sorry, I summoned your rope too quickly and you got hurt when you landed but I healed you and you need to help them!" Terry said this all very quickly in a single breath.

Harry was shaking intensely from the cold- the enchantments on his wetsuit had failed- so Terry had to steady his wand arm. Together, they pointed it at the gigantic, boiling water-spewing serpent. "Confundo!" His Occlumency helped him then, as he was able to separate his mind from his body's current dilemma, otherwise, he would have been easily overwhelmed by the Serpent's intense rage.

Harry shouted at it in Parseltongue. "Go find a new home where humans can never bother you!"

Harry's vision began to darken as the Sea Serpent paused before swimming away to find a part of the landmass that was uninhabited by Muggles or wizards. The last thing he saw before he fell unconscious was Michael summoning the boat that had his furs back to shore while Anthony and Terry repeatedly cast Warming Charms on him as they tried to keep him awake.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"The worst part is that I'm the only one here who knows how to cast the Drought Charm." Harry sighed as he rolled over in his cot. "I could have gotten the water off me in a second."

"Yeah, yeah. We're useless." Michael rolled his eyes as he changed for bed.

"If only I knew how to heal a big head." Terry sighed as he pulled his blanket over himself.

"Good night," Anthony said firmly, wanting to end the discussion there before it cost them any more precious sleep.

They were back in Britain now. While his friends had done all they could for him, Captain Solace had been forced to step in and save him after he'd gone into shock. She had him on his feet in a matter of minutes and displayed an ounce of mercy when she declared that they had passed and earned the rest of the day of.

She brought them back to the training grounds, but the boys didn't know what to do with themselves, as they weren't allowed to leave until the hundred days were up. So, they did the rational thing and decided to catch up on their sleep.

Summer had faded and the first signs of autumn had arrived even before their Antarctic endeavour, but it was still bright outside when they went to sleep. They were all looking forward to not being perpetually tired tomorrow morning.

They woke up feeling refreshed and well-rested the next day, but it wasn't a feeling that would last.

"I hope you're all healed up from yesterday, Number Four," Solace told Harry right before a gruelling hand-to-hand session. "Because even if you're not, we'll be diving right in." That was all the warning he got before she threw a fist in his face.

Their final lesson of the day was duelling and Harry was determined to put their Squad Captain on her arse just once. Judging by how hard his squadmates were working, he could tell he wasn't the only one.

"Sectilis Procella!" Terry launched blades of air, visible only through the minute dirt they scattered along the way, right at Solace's face. She didn't even flinch as she conjured an enormous shield emblazoned with the Auror crest and took the blow without moving a single step back.

Both Harry and Anthony attempted to use her brief moment of distraction to their advantage by launching simultaneous Stunning Spells from their positions, but she merely weaved her way around them both before whipping her wand around her head.

A firestorm so hot it burned blue billowed outward in every direction, and they all knew from experience that being hit by it would only bring excruciating agony. Harry turned on the spot, disapparating to Anthony's position on the other side of the field and grabbed his arm before apparating again to Michael's location, where Terry was already taking shelter.

"Pavimovere!" Michael bellowed. A thick wall of earth, ten feet in both length and width, shot out from the ground before them, just in time to prevent the blue firestorm from reaching them. The boys threw themselves behind it to avoid getting scorched by the roaring flames as they were forced around the sides. "Any ideas?" Michael asked loudly.

Harry shook his head. While Solace hadn't given them any chance to plan- claiming that there would be no such luxury in the field as Aurors were more often responding to threats- she could have ended the duel minutes ago if she wanted to. Even now, by not taking advantage of their (frankly pathetic) retreat, she was allowing them to counterattack.

Harry decided to take this offered chance with both hands.

He grabbed Anthony's arm again. "Don't struggle so much this time," he told him, before disapparating him again. In the next ten seconds, he apparated a couple more times to safely bring his friends to the tree line without having to run through the rampaging fire. "You guys need to learn how to apparate for yourselves." Harry panted, trying to get his breath back.

"No, you need to learn how to Side-Along multiple people." Anthony criticised. "That took forever."

Harry narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure I didn't splinch you? Because you seem to be missing your manners." He snapped. "Most people say thank you after getting their butts saved."

"I didn't need you to save-!"

"We seriously don't have time for this," Michael cut in sharply from where he was crouched behind a tree.

Harry sighed. "You're right. We need to pair up. You and Number Three play the distraction while Number One and I attack her from where she can't see us coming."

"We will?" Terry asked, baffled. "How?"

Harry thought back to the fight he had with the Yeti. "I've got a new move I want to try against her."

As though she was somehow listening to their words, Captain Solace chose that moment to drop her Firestorm Curse, exposing her position at the centre of the scorched field. She hadn't moved a single inch since the duel began.

Anthony and Michael made their moves consecutively: the former shot a torrent of flames at her from where he was still hiding behind the tree line and, from the other side of the field, the latter erected another earthen wall directly behind Solace, boxing her in.

She dealt with the attacks rather easily, of course. It turned out that the wall wasn't even necessary as Solace held her ground and shot a bullet of water at the centre of Anthony's orange flames. The field was immediately blanketed by steam. That was when Harry and Terry made their move.

"Depulso!" Terry whispered. Harry, who had fused his boots to a small floating disc made of packed earth, was blasted forward with so much speed that his cheeks rippled and his vision blurred. Solace had vanished the steam just when Harry was close enough to see the expression on her face.

For the first time, they had managed to surprise her.

However, her surprise only lasted for a split second. She immediately trained her wand on the incoming human projectile, but that was exactly what Harry wanted. Throughout his high-speed journey to the centre of the field, he had kept his wand trained at his feet, waiting for this exact moment.

Reverte! Aeris!

The Fusion Spell was undone, freeing him from the grip of the still hurtling earthen disc which carried on without him. His second spell launched a compressed bullet of air at the ground and sent him hurtling upwards, but also still carried forward by the disc's momentum.

All of this resulted in the disc being banished into Solace's midriff while Harry flipped over her head a split second later.

To her credit, she took the blow better than he could have expected, skidding back by a couple of feet but managing to stay upright. But that was only the first of the attacks Harry had planned. As he flipped over her head, he launched two successive Stunning Spells at her from on high, hoping to catch her off guard.

But of course, he didn't.

Captain Solace turned before the spells could reach her and apparated away. Still hurtling upside down through the air, Harry expanded his senses in the way Nicolas had described, clumsily throwing heavy amounts of Mana in every direction, searching for where she would reappear, for just the right spot-

There!

For the first time, Harry's forcibly opened his Mage Sight and saw the world as it truly was. But instead of being distracted by the intricate wonder and mysteries of this new world, his mind was fixated on only one idea:

Victory.

Twisting in mid-air, Harry disapparated from the centre of the field. He reappeared in the same position that Captain Solace had at the edge of the field, only a split second later and still six feet over her head in the same upside-down position. If he could have, he would have smirked.

Got you.

Stupefy! Harry fired the silent Stunning Spell at the crown of her head, not wanting a verbal incantation to ruin his team's final winning stroke. But then, much to his dismay, Solace threw herself to one side in a roll and came up on one knee before firing back with a Stunning Spell of her own.

Protego! Harry, who was already being carried forward by the momentum of the initial Banishing Charm that the mid-air apparition failed to stop, was blasted backwards as his silent Shield Charm was shattered by the Stunning Spell. His shield was strong enough to block the stunning effects of the spell, but not the concussive force.

Spongify! Harry rotated himself ninety degrees and extended his legs as he hurtled towards the now softened tree trunk. He hoped to use it as a springboard and launch himself back into the fray.

But he forgot who taught him that move.

Before his feet could even make contact with the trunk, thick ropes had been fired at his back and carried him forward even faster into the tree. The softened wood absorbed the impact of his momentum, but it still hurt when he slammed face-first into it with enough force to knock himself out.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"Honestly, that wasn't bad, Number Four," Solace told him as they stood on the rocky slope for his Personal Training session. "But just because you know a high-level technique, don't assume your enemy doesn't know it too."

Harry nodded, feeling a little silly now that he had a minute to think about it. Anthony and Terry had only good things to say about Alexandra Solace, and considering most of it came from Commander Boot himself- who wasn't easily impressed- he should've assumed that she was capable of Mage Sight.

Still, even if he got the chance to redo it, he wouldn't. It had been the coolest manoeuvre he had ever pulled off, and his friends had been bouncing up and down when he regained consciousness. Terry in particular had been practically beside himself, he was so excited.

It was nice to have a moment of childish fun like that. They had been few and far between these last couple of months.

Solace continued, jogging Harry from his ruminations. "Originally, I had planned to have you work on mastering all five elements and moving onto more advanced Transfiguration techniques for the second half of training, but I think we can squeeze in one more thing." She walked away from him to the side, not up or down the slope, before turning to face him again. "Fire a spell at me."

By now Harry knew better than to question an order, but he still held back by firing a simple Disarming Charm instead of something more offensive. He was very glad that he did, as Solace caught the spell on the tip of her wand, drew her wrist back and then snapped it back, flinging it right back at him.

Harry was surprised, but not immensely so as he'd seen it done before. He stepped out of the way and brought his wand up just in case this was another lesson about never letting his guard down. It wasn't. Solace slowly lowered her wand, but he could see a flicker of approval cross her face at his guarded reflex.

"What I'm about to teach you is less of a spell and more of a technique. The spell is next to useless by itself." Solace began to instruct. "The incantation is Propulso. You need to be able to sense and identify the incoming spell while also using an equal amount of Mana to catch it and fling it back at the enemy. You can add more power to it, but never less. That will only backfire on you." Harry tried to hide his frown, but she must have seen it anyway. "Any questions, Number Four?"

"Yes, Captain. If I'm going to use the same amount of Mana to catch and send back the spell, why not just cast it myself?"

"You should know by now what even a fraction of a second could mean in a duel. This works well for a quick, unexpected takedown." Solace informed. "However, when facing groups or more powerful opponents, you should always rely on your other defences first."

Harry shifted on his feet, unsure if he wanted to waste limited training hours on such an unreliable technique.

Solace sensed his unhappiness. "I wouldn't have bothered teaching you this if you weren't more advanced than I thought. It's up to you to put it to good use." He blinked. This wasn't the first time she'd given him a backhanded compliment, and he was becoming increasingly unsure if she disliked him or not.

When she permitted him to speak, he asked, "How can I practice this? Automatons can't cast real-" Harry was cut off when she fired a Pus-Filled-Boil Curse right into his face.

Okay, she definitely didn't like him.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The first day back from their Antarctic trial had proven to be a good omen; the earnest mood and camaraderie continued over the following sixty-five days. As morning frost and dense fog became more common on the training grounds- and even their chilly swims did little to ruin their collective attitude- Harry realised that they had become used to this new way of life.

It was just like when he got acclimated to life at Hogwarts. But this time his rational side knew that he shouldn't get used to the bland meals, strain-filled exercises, dense classes and (especially) the pain they were all put through in Emergency Healing. But he did become used to it. They all did. With each passing day, their spirits hardened just a little bit more until they were as durable as a pair of old leather boots.

He was starting to wonder if that was the entire point.

The first duel after their return had inspired the boys. In their eagerness to win against Solace, they took on more work by carving out an hour or two from their allotted Personal Training time to meet and practice together. Harry was more than happy to teach them everything he knew about martial magic and apparition in exchange for aid with fire and earth spells, as the more advanced of them were still giving him trouble.

He was only allowed to practice lightning spells in Solace's presence, because- despite Nicolas' claim that he would struggle most with earth spells- Harry found lightning to be infinitely harder to cast. Solace warned him that it was too dangerous to leave him to practice the element on his own, but she needn't have worried. The only lightning spell he'd managed to cast by the end of their one hundred days was the Taser Charm, and even that was more of a strong static shock.

Only ever summon it if you are certain that you are in complete control over your mind, come to enlightenment or seek absolute destruction. One cannot think about the safety of others when summoning thunder.

Harry recalled Nicolas' words now, as he and his friends finished the last of their assignments in their hut. He wasn't concerned with Solace's safety as he knew she could take care of herself. But while he didn't feel ignorant, he was certain that he hadn't come to any kind of enlightenment.

Harry had experienced several life-changing moments over the last couple of years. He'd become stronger than he ever thought possible, had grown to enjoy combat and mastered his unruly blackthorn wand, opened himself up and accepted friends and family into his world, and came to terms with the key role he played in an innocent man's death. If those paradigm shifts weren't enough...

Had he even changed at all, or was he still the same boy from the cupboard?

Terry's sudden whoop snapped him out of his thoughts. "Only one more day to go!" He cheered as he scratched another mark into the dozens that were already beside his cot. "I can't believe we made it!" Harry smiled at how happy he was. He'd missed having a worry-free Terry around.

"Don't get ahead of yourself." Anthony reminded him. "We might still fail tomorrow."

Terry's shoulders slumped. Michael sighed from behind a tall stack of parchment. Not for the first time, he'd skipped one evening's worth of homework for more sleep and paid for it the following day. "You know how to bring the mood down, Number Three."

Anthony rolled his eyes at them as he placed his final Containment and Restraints essay in the correct folder. "I'm just saying, we all need to be on guard tomorrow. We don't want to fall at the last hurdle, do we?" They all sobered up as they realised how right he was and doubled down on their work so they could get to bed early.

The hut was silent after Solace called for lights out. Well, aside from the scratching of Michael's quill as he worked on his last two essays beneath his blanket. Harry rolled over so he was facing away from his wand light and whispered, "If we stay alert and follow our training, we'll be home this time tomorrow with our very own Auror badges."

"I can't wait to finally wear the full uniform." Anthony sighed.

"I can't wait until I can sleep in my bed." Terry groaned.

Michael audibly licked his lips. "Breakfast. Real breakfast."

This went on for a while until Captain Solace stormed in and ordered them to go to sleep.

"Oh no," Michael whispered when she left. From under his pillow, he pulled out a crumpled page that had scratches all over the words. "I'm going to have to start again!" This set off a round of giggles amongst the others. "Don't laugh! It'll take me all night to do!" That only made them laugh harder, so it was no surprise when Solace immediately barged back into the hut.

"GO TO SLEEP!"

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

It was a shock seeing so many people again.

Captain Solace had Portkeyed them to Trafalgar Square, the heart of London, and the boys were transfixed by the hustle and bustle of the famous intersection. For the last one hundred days, they had been utterly isolated from the rest of the world. Even when they left the training grounds for the Antarctic, Solace had used the access that came with her badge to Portkey them directly to their destination instead of an Auror checkpoint.

They had taken care to mark down the days and note the changing of seasons, but even though they knew it was mid-November, it was still a surprise to see Christmas decorations up on streetlamps and shop windows. The days had seemed to bleed into each other when they were in their training grounds, so early August seemed a lot more recent than it truly was.

"The final test goes against everything you've been working on for the last sixty-five days." Captain Solace said, louder than was strictly necessary to get their attention. "You will each be tasked with separate missions and assessed individually."

Harry's shock was mirrored by his friends who each looked betrayed by this. They had spent the last two months learning to magnify each other's strengths and cover each other's weaknesses, but that turned out to be the problem. "An Auror needs to work within a squad, yes, but there are times when they will be forced to work alone. You should learn that now rather than later."

Solace issued her instructions by order of number rankings, which meant Harry went last. One by one, he watched her draw the others to the other side of the fountain to secretly give out the exam parameters before they apparated away. Finally, she returned from giving Anthony his mission to present Harry with his own.

The Initiates had been presented with full Auror uniforms earlier that morning (except for badges, which would hopefully come later). This included cloaks, stocked utility belts and dragon-hide armour that went over vitals, and all of it had been tailored to fit their exact sizes. Now, Solace reached for Harry's left wrist, tapping her badge (that doubled as a clasp on her cloak) with her wand before bringing it down to tap his Ouroboros.

A holographic map of the city sprang to life from his bronze bracer. As he'd seen her do the same to his friends sans map, he guessed it was for his eyes only. "An Ogre has been targeting children in this part of the city, snatching them away from school trips when they come to visit the art museum." She jerked her head back at the National Gallery. "You need to locate the Beast and execute it. Any questions?"

Harry stared at her. "Captain, shouldn't someone with more experience deal with this?" He couldn't believe that a creature that had killed and eaten more than one child would be left to him as a test instead of being executed immediately.

Solace gave him a bemused look. "We already know where it is, Number Four. We can kill it whenever we like, but I arranged for you to deal with this matter." Harry felt conflicted. Fighting an Ogre seemed right up his alley, but he felt bad that more kids were being put at risk to give him this opportunity. "You have until lights out. Any more questions?" Harry shook his head. "Then move out."

Harry disapparated immediately.

He followed the map to the various locations the children were last seen. The trail had long gone cold by now, and the elements would have contaminated any evidence that did remain, but the Aurors had already collected and catalogued anything relevant to the case for his convenience. Harry found it all through the archives his Ouroboros now had access to. He found the cataloguing system intuitive and easy to use as he moved his wand over the holographic screen to read all the available information about this particular case.

Harry spent a couple of hours poking his nose around the last known locations of the victims. This included arcades and fast-food joints that they had probably used to unwind after a long day of staring at paintings and sculptures, but he didn't find anything that could be of use to him. Shadowy places didn't exist in this part of London. Even with early winter nights, there was still too much foot traffic around for an Ogre to feel comfortable moving in the open.

He decided to take a break and ruminate on what he knew so far. Using an illusion spell he'd learned from Solace, Harry made his uniform appear ordinary so he could buy a burger. As he sat on the edge of the restaurant's roof and went over the evidence, he had to stop himself from moaning out loud as he chowed down on the first tasty thing to hit his tongue in over three months.

There were nine disappearances in total over the last three weeks. Five boys and four girls, all between the ages of eleven and thirteen. The fact that all the victims were so young was another sign that it was an Ogre. Older kids had made visits to the museum in recent weeks, but Ogres preferred their prey young and pre-pubescent as the meat was softer and they put up less of a fight.

But why not go for an even younger prey then? Harry wondered. The answer presented itself almost immediately. Kids as young as seven had been present over the last few weeks on school trips and family visits, yes, but they would never be allowed to wander the city on their own. He remembered his days at St. Greggory's when clingy parents would tag along on school trips to make sure none of the kids had any fun.

However, secondary school was different. It was normal for kids to travel to and from school by themselves and the ones that had their parents drop them off were likely teased for it. Harry quickly went over the victims' profiles, and he found that he was right; all the victims lived within the city. Their parents would've trusted them to get home safely. An Ogre would never step into a busy street, much less board a bus or hail a taxi, which only left one option.

The London Underground.

The closest station was Charing Cross, which made him pause as he climbed back down the stairs. He didn't know London all that well- he'd grown up in Surrey- but he knew how big it was. What were the odds of an Ogre choosing to hunt its prey right beside the British Wizarding Shopping District?

None of this was right. Ogres were crafty creatures who preferred small towns and villages to prey upon- even suburbs if they had no other option- because they weren't the best at camouflaging themselves among humans. If things went wrong for it in a city centre, there was nowhere it wouldn't be found by the Aurors.

Harry kept this in mind as he approached Charing Cross Station on foot. The sky had been dark even when they'd arrived. Captain Solace had kept them for the day's lessons and training, only giving them the five and a half hours they usually spent doing homework, eating dinner or in Personal Training to complete the test. Unfortunately, Harry wasted three of those hours poking around cold crime scenes and eating delicious food on rooftops, so he needed to get a move on.

Despite knowing he was invisible to most Muggles, Harry still lowered the hood of his cloak as he stepped into the station. Only one in a thousand Muggles could see through the Veil, but London was densely populated, and he didn't want to alarm the few people that would be able to see him.

The station was packed with commuters who had probably put in two or three hours of overtime for more money around the holidays, so it was more filled than it should have been at this time in the evening. Deciding to forgo examining the station itself for clues, he instead approached one of the station assistants.

Confundo. Forma Interius. Offero.

The first spell was for the assistant. Harry took note of how deft he had become with the Confundus Charm as the man hardly blinked before falling under his spell. The second was for his clothes. It was an illusion over his Auror gear to make others believe he was wearing the uniform of one of the capital's many comprehensive schools. The third was illegal for civilians. It turned off the obscuring effect of his Ouroboros, and only Aurors were allowed to use it.

As Harry was still an Initiate, he considered this a legal grey area. Or so he would argue if he was ever called out on it.

"Hey, it's been a while," Harry greeted the assistant cheerfully.

The man smiled down at Harry as though he'd known him all his life. Which was true, at least in his mind. After all, he was the son of his two best friends, the ones whose names were conveniently unimportant at the moment. "You're late, you little sod." He jerked his thumb towards his office. "You said you needed help with some homework?" When Harry nodded, he bellowed out across the station. "Steve! Cover for me, yeah?" When Steve shouted back something unintelligible, the assistant led Harry into the office.

"What was it that you needed help with, again?" He asked as they settled into the only two seats available in the tiny room.

"You have access to CCTV throughout the station, don't you? Both inside and outside?" Harry gestured to the tiny little televisions that were piled on top of one another. "I need to see what you've got for these dates and times." He wrote it down on a piece of paper as his Ouroboros was still turned off, and that was if the assistant could even see it.

The man paused when he checked the dates and times and Harry could feel his concern begin to rise. He was still under the Confundus, but he instinctively knew that he shouldn't be showing off something that involved the police. Harry made sure to swiftly squash that concern.

The dates are just a coincidence. Harry forced him to believe. Remember, the police have already been through this and found nothing.

The man relaxed and pulled up the requested dates and times, playing them simultaneously. Harry asked him to speed up the recordings. He didn't have the luxury of combing through hours of footage, but he also didn't want to miss any of the victims if they did show up, so he kept his eyes trained on the little screens.

It was only when he reached the ten-minute mark, and his eyes were beginning to sting, did he ask the assistant to stop the tape. "Do you see that?" He asked, pointing to a small figure on the screen that was standing on the platform.

Brown hair. Four feet ten inches. Eleven years old. Logan Harrison, the most recent missing child.

Harry knew it was wrong to be elated in this situation, but when the assistant gave him a baffled look and shook his head, he had to stop himself from whooping. If a Muggle couldn't see the boy on camera, it meant the Veil was busy messing with his perception, which could only mean one thing:

Something magic-related was about to happen.

As he watched the recording, the smile quickly fell from his face. A pale, six-limbed figure scurried out of the dark tunnel and clambered onto the platform just in time to avoid being run over by a train. As the doors opened and people began moving in and out of the carriages, the figure lifted its head as though sniffing the air and slowly turned to face Logan.

Just as the boy put one foot inside the train, the creature skittered towards him like a giant, hairless spider and snatched him back by his rucksack. Harry could see that Logan was struggling, screaming most likely, but not a single person paused or turned in his direction. The creature didn't even bother keeping one of its hands over the boy's mouth, as it seemed to understand that none of the other Muggles would be able to perceive it.

For the first time, Harry understood just how vulnerable the Veil had left the Muggle world.

The train departed, and the moment the tunnel was clear again, the creature took the still-struggling boy down onto the tracks and disappeared into the dark labyrinth that was the London Underground.

Harry shot to his feet. This recording was from two days ago so it was very unlikely that Logan could still be alive. But Harry was in a position to kill the creature that had eaten him and prevent another child from becoming a victim when it grew hungry once more. It had eaten nine kids over the last three weeks, which meant it was due for another meal either today or tomorrow.

Harry would die before he allowed that parasite a tenth victim.

"Thanks! That's all I needed," Harry told the assistant as he left the office in a rush.

"Tell your parents I said hey!" The man shouted at his back.

Reverte! Harry hurried down the escalators and corridors, weaving his way around commuters, unconcerned if he bumped into anyone as he'd already returned his clothes and Ouroboros to normal. The last thing he needed was for some misguided Muggle to think he was the kid who needed help.

When he reached the platform, he thanked his good fortune (or the commuters' bad fortune) as the arrival board stated that the next train was due in twelve minutes. "Invium Fulmen!" Harry was careful to say the incantation out loud as he was still working on the mastering Insulation Charm.

He didn't know enough about trains to know which of the tracks were dangerous- or if all of them were- but he would take care to avoid touching anything metal and hope the Insulation Charm took care of the rest.

Jumping off the platform and onto the ground beside the tracks, Harry jogged into the same dark tunnel he saw the Ogre carry Logan into in the recording. Aura Incantatem! The white sparks lit the tunnel around him, but only for a moment as they shot off into the distance, letting him know that there was something magical up ahead.

While that might mean he was on the right track, it could also mean that he was a lot closer to Diagon Alley than he would have thought. Appare Vestigium! The golden cloud of dust fell on the ground and illuminated enormous footsteps that went deep into the tunnel and out of sight.

Hoping that he could locate its den before he was flattened by the next train, Harry snapped his Supersensory Goggles into place and sprinted further into the tunnel.

While he couldn't see the glowing gold of the Tracking Spell through the goggles, he could see the dust itself amongst the gravel and rat droppings, and he followed it long enough for him to get nervous. The tunnel had split into a crossroads a while back so, as far as he was aware, a train could come barrelling out of the darkness from either before him or behind him at any second.

Not nerve-racking at all.

Don't worry, he told himself as he continued his steady pace. Trains are never on time. There'll probably be a delay, and by the time those commuters finally board, I'll have the Ogre dead to-

Harry froze as his goggles picked up on the slightest of tremors in the ground, so soft he couldn't even feel it beneath his feet. Slowly, he turned his head towards the tracks and, yes, they had begun to hum in the way all hollow metal did when it was struck.

Well, it's not like this is anyone's fault but my own, he thought as he started running for his life.

Harry ran as fast as he could for almost half a minute, but of course, the train gained on him like it was nothing. It was close enough now for his goggles to pick up on the breathing and movements of the dozens that were sat within its hold, and the fact that the driver seemed more interested in the magazine on his lap than the inhabited tunnel up ahead.

The air in the subway was being pushed forward and to the side, as his high-powered pursuer hurtled towards him. Because the Supersensory Goggles were perceiving the world for him through every minute detail available to his senses, the whipping air forced Harry to undergo the most bizarre form of vertigo.

Still running faster than he ever had before, Harry lifted his goggles onto his forehead before he toppled sideways onto the tracks that were now crackling with arcs of electricity.

He couldn't believe that after everything he'd learned, everything he'd experienced, battled and conquered, he would still end up chopped to bits beneath the wheels of a boring, mundane train, just as powerless as he'd ever been. Still as helpless as the boy from the cupboard.

His only hope was to find the den before a simple train accomplished what his enemies couldn't, but much to his despair he couldn't see the golden dust up ahead, it had disappeared-

Wait.

Harry glanced down in time to see the last of the Ogre's footsteps turn left and he dived in that direction without even checking to see if there was any space there to jump into. He fell headfirst down a series of short steps and just in the nick of time. The train thundered past where he'd been just a second ago.

He winced as he propped himself up against the wall. While the rest of his body was protected by the enchanted uniform he wore, his head wasn't, and he'd banged it on several of the grimy metal steps on his way down. After allowing himself a minute to enjoy the fact that he was still alive and kicking, Harry climbed back onto his feet and wiped those last desperate thoughts from his mind.

I'm a long way from the cupboard, he reassured himself, and I have a job to do.

Snapping his goggles back into place, Harry saw the footsteps leading to a service door just off the tunnel.

He disillusioned himself instead of summoning his Cloak just in case Solace was keeping him under surveillance. As he approached the door, Harry silently prayed that the noise of the train was enough to mask the sound of him banging down the metal stairs. His goggles couldn't pick up on anything living in the room beyond, but he should be careful anyway.

The Yeti had tricked him. There was no reason the Ogre couldn't do the same.

Harry opened the door and immediately wished that he hadn't. Scattered here and there throughout the long, thin room were the bones of many, many children. He numbly acknowledged that the number of victims made sense, as there was no reason for the Ogre to simply stick to children who were making their way back from school trips. Those were just the victims that made enough of a pattern for the Auror Corps to pick up on from the distant London Citadel.

Mind nearly overwhelmed with disgust at the scent of rotting flesh, Harry worked his way through the room, taking special care to avoid the scattered remains after he slipped on a chunk of body fat. He thought about how horrible it must have been for these children to experience the last moments of their all-too-short lives in this dank little tunnel. They must have been just as bewildered as they were terrified.

He froze when his goggles picked up on movement from the next room. Movement from two figures.

He shot forward. "Arbeto!" The door flew open and the figures within froze. There, in the centre of what had to be its den, crouched on the pile of rags, debris and rubbish that was its nest, was the Ogre.

It was different to what most Muggles would expect. They had mistaken Trolls for Ogres and had never been corrected. In reality, Ogres were identical to the one in front of Harry now: a skinny-limbed, pot-bellied humanoid with four appendages in the usual places but two more sticking out from the sides of its thick neck. As its entire head only had room for its enormous nostrils and cavernous, sharp-toothed mouth, its eyes were on the palms of the hands that sprung from the neck. It was good for peeking around corners or from underneath children's beds.

The Ogre's pale saggy skin was illuminated by the Supersensory Goggles. It snapped its uppermost hands in the direction of the door to see the intruder, but Harry was more concerned with the other figure in the room.

Logan was bleeding heavily and massive chunks of flesh had been messily bitten from his body, but he was alive. Harry was determined to keep him that way.

"Sectumsempra!" Harry sliced his wand like he would a sword. The Ogre had darted for him but screeched and skittered back as its extendable neck limbs were sliced from its body. Blind and injured, it went for the only other exit in the room. Harry was about to block it off but paused when he caught sight of Logan's rapidly dropping body temperature.

He could either try and save the boy or prevent the Ogre from hurting anyone else. It should have been an easy choice. The kid was clearly on the verge of death and Harry's chance to become an Auror went out the door with the Ogre.

He didn't hesitate to move towards Logan.

Offero! Supellex! Having made himself visible to the boy, he dropped to his knees beside him and the newly transfigured cot he was now laying upon. Vides Corpori! "You're going to be fine, Logan. I'm going to fix up and get you back home to your-" Harry stopped talking when the Diagnostic Charm failed to work. "No," he whispered, "no, no, no! Anapneo!" He cast as his shaking fingers pulled a vial of blood-replenishing potion from his belt.

The Diagnostic Charm only failed when the patient was already dead.

The boy's airway was clear, but he didn't even cough. Because he's gone, a dark voice insisted within his mind. Harry knew that but he wasn't ready to accept it. If I had figured it out faster or hadn't stopped to eat, he could've safely reunited with his parents by now.

Reigning in his overwhelming guilt, Harry prepared to try and restart Logan's heart with the Taser Charm. It was crazy, especially as he'd only seen such things on television and the spell's voltage probably wasn't even enough, but it was better than doing nothing-

A hand fell on his shoulder.

Harry threw it off and tried to raise his wand, but the person made him turn around before he could. Captain Solace had arrived, and for the first time since he'd met her, she looked remorseful. "I'm sorry," she was saying, and he got the feeling that she'd been speaking to him for a while now. "I am so sorry. I had to know, but I didn't think you would react so strongly-"

It was only when she said that did he realise the moisture on his face wasn't just sweat from his run through the tunnels.

The guilt he'd carried after killing Quirrell and learning the truth about his parents had never vanished, he'd only learned to live with it, but he hadn't known how close it lingered to the surface. He hadn't known the death of a child he'd never met before could bring it rushing back.

It can when his death is on your head, the voice whispered.

Solace was still talking. "-it was all just a test, you see. This whole thing. Only the Ogre was real-"

"What?" It was the first thing Harry said since Solace touched him.

Solace paused at the sound of his voice and Harry realised he must have sounded even worse to another's ears. "Come here." She ushered him to the door he'd come through and made him look out onto the Ogre's other victims, but they weren't there. The ground was clean of everything but rat droppings.

"What?" Harry gasped. He turned to face Logan's body, just in time to see Solace point her wand at him. Harry's arms shot out and he tried to wrestle her wand away, but she still managed to cast a counter-spell. He stopped struggling when he saw Logan's body shift into a plastic doll. A toy.

"It was just a test," Solace said quietly. "I knew you would find the Ogre and stop it. I've never once doubted your talent or your intelligence, but I needed to know what kind of person you are." Regret was the only expression on her face. "I saw everything you've done in the papers, the Troll, Hag, Basilisk, Dementors, and the Rogues. I thought you were looking for trouble or adventure. When you said you wanted to be Magister, that all you wanted was glory, I thought that was even worse."

She averted her eyes from Harry's accusing stare before continuing. "Everything, me singling you out from the others, giving you your ranking, it was all meant to provoke you. But you stuck with it anyway. This," she gestured around them, "was just the final test. I wanted to see if you would choose to save a life rather than get the glory."

She paused then, as though what she'd said made any sense at all. Harry could only say one thing in response:

"What?"

Author's Notes:

The idea behind one hundred days of basic training came from the book series CHERUB. I thought that book's idea of putting their agents through hell in training so they would go into the field knowing they've been through worse applied really well here.