Chapter 63, everybody! Last update of the year! *bricked*

Yes freedom of the press is important, as censorship has a history of preceding some of the worst factions gaining power. Moving on…yeah aim is important unless you're working with something on the scale of the atomic bomb if you don't aim the other guy ain't dead. Also, movie night! Which required a bit of fudging and banking on theaters showing blockbusters that are a couple years old (for them, since Harry's fifth year was in '95)—just really wanted to introduce the kids to dinosaurs. The one the boys are puzzling over is Therizinosaurus, by the way—remember the book that introduced me to them describing it as the Edward Scissorhands dinosaur. X'D

Slytherinsal, thanks for the review! Yeah I was just a tad baffled when I saw how closely everyone was related, including Lupin being related to everyone else.

Missy96, thanks for the review! Me too! And thanks! :D

Juxshoa, thanks for the review! Yes, for now…I'm going to say we're going to have to return the shipping oops. XD

Harry Potter © 1997 J.K. Rowling

Mr. Lovegood seemed to go straight past there's an evil wizard so we're doing defense training to my daughter gets to hang out with her friends, was more than happy to send her down to the Black house.

"I'll keep the printer going while you're gone," he assured Luna. "Remember kids, freedom of the press is one of the most important weapons against evil!"

"I get the feeling Mr. Lovegood approved of the American Revolution and their Constitution," Harry said as they walked off.

"Oh we did a whole issue on it," Luna agreed. "I'll have to sort through the backlogs and show you—that was back when we had a lot of extra copies, so it'd be easy to spare one or two for you."

"I wouldn't mind that."

They reached the yard, bowed to Buckbeak before continuing on to the treeline, where Remus, Sirius (still a dog), Draco, and several Weasleys were gathered.

"Ah, Ms. Lovegood, glad you could join us," Remus said brightly. "Okay, so the first lesson we're covering is actually aim," he said, indicating over his shoulder where several moving targets were darting in and out of the trees. "Knowing the most powerful spells in the world isn't going to help you if you can't hit the target, so for now we'll be focusing on getting your targeting precise, and then move up to getting it precise quickly. Someone else isn't going to let you line everything up nice and tidy don't you know."

Sirius shook himself, turned back into a person. "Also we'll be keeping track of who hits what, high score gets…I don't know we'll think of something."

"Use sparks, we're going to also fold in nonverbal casting," Remus said.

"Mostly because he didn't want to hear a bunch of yelling."

"Neither did he. Pick a color, let's see…we can't have two reds, one of you change it. Also Fred, George, no swapping colors in the middle."

"He knows us too well, Georgie," Fred said to George in an aside.

"I do. Spread out some, thank you, and…okay go."

It became very clear, very quickly that Remus was right to focus on aim first—most of the spells missed and maybe three targets were hit in the first five minutes.

"Don't swing your arm around like that," Remus advised as he paced behind them, checking their technique. "That'll end up with your spell going wide. Too much flourish, someone can get in under you—you want tight, controlled, and snappy."

After about thirty minutes the targets started getting hit more often than not—Remus flicked his wand to change the pattern to something more erratic, which left them focusing a bit more intently and reacting quicker (and accidentally hitting a squirrel one memorable time because they cast at movement). Remus called an end to it after an hour, which Harry for one was grateful for—his casting arm had started getting sore about fifteen minutes prior and now was radiating a solid ache through his shoulder.

"We're going to have to cover exercises to do so that's less of a problem," Remus said, taking note of several of them massaging their arms. "Sirius, who won?"

"Ginny by a very wide margin," Sirius said. "I am both very impressed and wildly concerned."

"I have a list," Ginny told him, blowing on the tip of her wand.

"A very healthy thing for a young girl to have," George said.

"We're so proud, Gin," Fred agreed.

"So long as we're not on it," Ron said.

"No promises," she said.


They practiced with aim a few more days, spent several more days on dodging and using the environment to their advantage. Afternoons and evenings were spent on homework, and when that was finished Sirius and Remus took the kids to Diagon Alley "to cash in on their wins," Sirius said. Ginny, who had several tallied up, cashed all hers in on a puffskein.

"Good," Ron said, looking the duo over. "Now give it a weird name like you did Pig."

"I was thinking Arnold," Ginny said, hugging it close.

"That isn't a weird name."

"It could be."

They were once again in the disguise caps (Fred and George were workshopping calling them Chroma Caps) and thus not easily recognizable, which probably saved them a lot of grief—Harry kept hearing snippets from conversations as they passed by, and most of them had the effect of totally incensing him. It took a lot to keep his tongue in his head.

Which, as it turned out, was thanks to the Daily Prophet—Rita Skeeter might have been busted and jailed for her unregistered Animagus antics, but the paper had taken a decided nosedive when Quentin Quillby got axed. Most if not all of it was libel (thank you Blaise Zabini) and what wasn't libel was outright denial.

"Why are you still reading that?" Harry demanded of Remus one morning. "Why don't we just cancel that subscription?"

"It's important to know what people are saying about you so you're not blindsided," Remus said, looking like he was sucking on a lemon while reading. "Saying that, I'm real close." Grimaced again, put the paper down. "Are mail-orders a thing?"

Sirius raised a finger, considered this before pointing. "Yes, I mail-ordered Harry's Firebolt that one year. Why?"

"Might be worth it to avoid causing a scene at Diagon Alley—this is getting ridiculous."

Also on the list of things keeping Harry up nights was a recurring dream about a long hall with a door at the end—he was getting real tired of waking up right before he could open it, and was really wishing his brain would give him something besides a summer rerun.

"Why do I keep having that dream?" he asked Sirius after telling him and Remus about it—Draco was out taking care of Buckbeak and Mrs. Malfoy had departed for parts unknown that morning.

In retrospect, it would have been better if he had asked after coffee—Sirius gave this a long consideration, hand half-raised…finally pointed. "The hall is your teenage years and the door is adulthood, and the reason you can't get to it is because you're not an adult yet. Alternatively, it's test anxiety because of your OWLs coming up."

"Or it's just a regular dream that just decided to be baffling," Remus mused, looking like he was thinking deeply on the subject. "Blue hall and black door, you said?"

"Yeah—why?" Harry asked.

"Not sure—I'd swear I'd seen a hall like that, I'm just not sure where."

"During your teenage years," Sirius said. "You just finally made it through the door."

"And someday you might as well."

"OH!"


Sirius gave Harry the option of overnighting at the Weasleys or staying home and dealing with the Malfoys next full moon—Harry went with the former, although he collected both Draco and Luna when they went down to Ottery St. Catchpole. Harry had made certain to convert some of his galleons to Muggle notes, and he very much intended to make good on his promise to take his friends to a Muggle movie.

"So how does this work?" Ron asked as they looked at the different posters. "Is it like the paintings?"

"Er, no," Harry said, casting about for a better explanation. "It's like…a pensive. You can see it, but it's already happened and the people inside can't see you."

They picked a blockbuster that was reshowing for the summer, collected some popcorn, candies, and sodas, and went inside. Harry, personally, was glad that the theater was mostly empty that day.

Also, Harry reflected, he probably should have picked something calmer for their first movie than Jurassic Park, and made him wonder what wizards thought of dinosaurs.

Fortunately everyone was more than happy to gab about the movie afterwards, asking around for a bookstore before raiding it for dinosaur books and buying several, Luna happily hugging her copy and eagerly discussing how they were going to cover this in The Quibbler.

Ron and Malfoy, meanwhile, had a book open between them and were arguing over it.

"I'm telling you, these are all just—bits and pieces of dragons that Muggles caught sight of!" Ron insisted. "Look at this—spiked tail, Horntail. Ridges, Norwegian Ridgeback. Long neck—well that's most dragons, same with these sharp teeth and claws and the big wings. They just found dragon bones and decided to make something else up instead!"

"We did our job too well, hiding dragons from them," Fred mused.

"How do you explain this weird one then?" Malfoy demanded, pointing at one of the illustrations.

"That's still a dragon," Ron insisted. "And they come up with the weirdest names for them too—how do you even pronounce this?"

"There's a pronunciation guide right there."

"There-and-xeno-saw-us?"

"Ther-ee-zee-no-saw-rus."

"Right. So that one was a close encounter and the biggest thing that stuck out to the Muggle was the claws."

"And we can discuss this over dinner," George said, making the turning to the Burrow with Ginny and Fred. "You guys coming?"

Harry looked at Luna.

"I'd love to, but I really want to tell Dad all this while it's still fresh," Luna said.

"We can walk Luna home and come back," Harry told them.

"You don't have to."

"You probably do," Fred said. "Don't want those raptor-things nabbing you."

"I foresee a bad time for myself in the future," Ron decided as they continued down the road.

Considering they were attacked by Dementors on the way, Ron was right on the money.