(A/N): Hey Guys! So, here's the next chapter, hope you enjoy. I still have the flu, and I'm either going to school tomorrow, or going to the doctor. -_-

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise.

Leo

A few weeks later, I was at yet another training session with Greygorry when Elaine, Remus, Sirius, and James turned up out of the blue. I paused, half out of surprise, and Greygorry clocked me hard on the cheek. "Ouch," Sirius said, standing above me, and I shook my head to shake off the impact.

"It's not that bad," I reassured him as I pushed myself off the ground and back onto my feet, and James raised his eyebrows at me.

"You're still getting your butt kicked," He pointed out, and Greygorry eyed him keenly.

He crossed his arms over his chest, which caused me to relax slightly more, considering he would no longer be quite so readily capable of striking out at me. "Leo is making brilliant progress." I blinked in surprise at the praise. "But, as you said, he is still getting his butt kicked." Well, good feeling gone. I rolled my eyes at him, though I kept close tabs to make sure he wouldn't catch me off guard if he took it poorly.

"You're like, three hundred years older than me." Greygorry shrugged.

"Closer to four hundred, actually."

Sirius gaped at him. "You're almost four hundred?!" I rolled my eyes at him, now, instead of Greygorry.

"My dad's over two hundred, it's not that impressive." Even Elaine and Remus seemed surprised by this fact, which I couldn't really blame them for, considering my father wasn't exactly all that open about his age, and I hadn't told them- so how were they to know?

"And vampires get stronger as they age, so on paper, I could take your dad on."

I glared at Greygorry for saying that completely unnecessary antagonistic bullshite. "Let's not forget the fact that I'm thirteen and I can hold my ground against you for a bit, when I'm not distracted." I arched an eyebrow at my friends, and Remus rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Yeah, sorry about that."

Greygorry's brow furrowed, and he eyed them all somewhat suspiciously. "How did you find us anyway?" James rolled his eyes.

"Where else would you be? The Forbidden Forest is pretty much the only place people don't wander freely, but Leo can still get to on days where we're not allowed to go to Hogsmeade." I tilted my head to the side, admiring this logic, before shrugging.

"Astute deduction," Was all Greygorry said.

Then, he abruptly pounced at me, sending me spiraling to crash through a small tree. "Wow, vampire wrestling!" Sirius exclaimed, but I felt Remus and Elaine wince.

"This is what you class as 'training'?" Elaine asked critically, and I did my best to force it from my mind to focus on the way Greygorry darted forward again. He struck out at me with his razor sharp nails, managing to graze me as I dodged out of the way, almost too slow. Instead of fighting back, I launched myself upward into the trees, but he was already waiting for me. I wound my way around the trunk and branches of the tree, always making sure to put part of it between the two of us, even as he broke one after another off.

I took a tiny step forward from my perch on a branch, just enough so that when I fell backward, the back of my knees caught along the branch, which served to help me flip over in the air, letting me grab another branch and vault myself through the trees. I caught glimpses of my friends, attempting to keep a lock on Greygorry through the trees even though I couldn't hear his heartbeat or the blood pumping through his veins, and his movements were whisper quiet.

Patience, I heard my father's voice in my head, and I took a deep breath- letting myself relax a little, waiting for him to come to me. I felt it before I saw it, his fist flying towards my face, and I ducked. Straight down, his forearm whipped through the air above my head and I kicked my leg out and upward, sending him soaring, crashing through a tree. As I landed on my feet on the ground the others were only just now turning towards the sound, and they seemed surprised to see Greygorry crawling out of the debris, rather than me.

"I see you listened to me about patience," He grunted, and I shrugged- best not to tell him it wasn't him I'd been listening to- only to have him pounce on me, pinning me firmly to the ground. I knew struggling was practically futile, I could barely move his hand as they gripped my wrists, but it was a consolation that I was clearly getting stronger- when we'd first started training together, I hadn't even been able to do that.

"On the upside, you kicked him through a tree," Sirius pointed out, and I turned my head to grin at him.

"No, the upside is that I don't have any broken bones yet."

Elaine raised an eyebrow. "'Yet'?" She questioned, a hint of worry in her voice even as she challenged my statement, and I shrugged, smiling weakly.

"Hazard of the job, no biggie."

Greygorry clapped me on the shoulder, ultimately making me wince as he jarred a previous injury, but he half-smiled at me, which was about as good as he got with me, so I basked in it as much as possible. "Go spend time with your friends. If they're willing to drop in on your training, they're obviously going to be persistent." I nodded, moving to join them with the knowledge that Greygorry was already long gone by the time I reached them.

"Where'd he go?"

I shrugged, yet again. Where did Greygorry go, when he wasn't here? I don't know, probably the same place lost socks go. "I'm not entirely sure, but that doesn't matter now. How'd you get away from Lily and Peter?" James grinned at me, a grin I wasn't entirely happy about, nor particularly trusted.

"We gave them the slip."

(A/N): So, what did you think?

Again, a mostly pointless chapter.

Please review and/or check out my other stories!

This chapter has had minor edits made to it on 30/12/22

This chapter has had edits made to it on 25/3/24 - formatting, and reconfiguring sentences so they make more sense. If you're coming back to this much later, of course, now we know that Greygorry and Nicholai do know each other, so that line about Greygorry being able to take Nicholai on 'on paper' is a little more fraught. Technically, nothing he said here implies that he DOESN'T know Nicholai, so... Also, I added Leo hearing Nicholai's voice in his head telling him to be patient, which necessitated the line where he says it's best not to tell Greygorry that he'd been listening to his father rather than Greygorry, when Greygorry praising him for listening to him about patience. Added Elaine being worried about Leo even as she challenges him, which is pretty Elaine to a tee. Added Leo 'basking' in Greygorry (half) smiling at him. Added Leo saying Greygorry probably goes the same places lost socks go, because I thought that was funny, for some reason.