"So let me get this straight...this Draal is mad that you inherited the amulet because his father had it last, and it didn't chose him instead?" said Iris flatly.

"He's challenged me to a death match. It's in a week," said Jim.

"That is utterly ridiculous, why is he pushing his daddy issues onto you?" she said exasperated.

"Blinky has been training me, but I don't think it's going to be enough," said Jim miserably. "On top of that, we've been trying to deal with my new duties as Trollhunter."

Iris snorted at that.

"Fortunately for you, your dear sister not only knows how to fight, but got an Outstanding in their OWL's. I can get you up to speed if you're willing to learn," said Iris.

Toby looked completely lost, but Jim only looked relieved. He had barely scraped an Acceptable in his OWL's when he took them last week. Then again he was juggling twice the homework and didn't really have time to devote to his magical studies, particularly when he only had a lackluster teacher.

"Wait...I thought you said she was your cousin," said Toby.

"I said it was complicated. Long story short, mom had a one-night stand before she came home to America and married my dad. He only found out later," said Jim tersely.

Toby wisely did not ask.

"So this is Trollmarket. It's definitely more lively than Diagon ever was. And so much cleaner!" said Iris happily.

"You're taking this pretty well," said Toby.

"Unless a magical creature is trying to eat, maim or otherwise kill me, I tend to take a live and let live policy," shrugged Iris. "Though I honestly had no idea Trolls had their own underground society like this."

"Another human?" said Blinky.

"Are you the one responsible for Jim's training?" asked Iris.

"I am," said Blinky.

"Then there's only one thing I need to say," said Iris. She drew herself up to her full height and gave Blinky a proper curtsy. "Thank you for keeping my half-brother alive until now."

"Half brother?" said Blinky. He looked between Jim and Iris. "Master Jim, is this young woman your sibling?"

"I only found out recently," said Jim. "It's not like I was hiding her."

Iris was about to say something, when she saw a familiar setting.

"Hold up...is that a Gringotts branch?" she said in surprise.

"Indeed it is, though it's more for the odd witch or wizard who comes down here for supplies."

"What's Gringotts?" asked Toby.

"Wizard bank," rumbled AAARRGGHH.

"Indeed. During the last goblin rebellion, the wizards entered into an ironclad geas with the more civilized goblins that resulted in them becoming bankers," said Blinky.

"Ugh...please do not remind me of goblin rebellions. I heard enough about them from Binns," said Iris rolling her eyes. "You would think learning about them would actually be interesting, but when you have a ghost that drones on and on in a tone that puts everyone to sleep..."

"Hold up, ghosts?" said Toby.

"In any case, when is this rematch you have with Draal?" asked Iris.

"Less than a week."

"Then we had better get started. I hope your ready, little brother," said Iris.

"Why don't we use the Trollhunter's training arena?" suggested Blinky.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

"Because you have survival instincts," deadpanned Iris. "Now come on, I want to see how much work we have to do."

It wasn't as bad as Iris had thought. It was worse.

"Oh dear Merlin... it seems we're going to have a lot of ground to cover and not a lot of time to do it," she said, covering her eyes in disbelief.

"Hey, I'm not that bad," said Jim.

"Answer me this then...where is your wand and why haven't you been using it?" asked Iris pointedly.

Jim looked a bit sheepish.

"It's in my dresser. I normally don't bother to bring it out unless I'm about to head to summer school."

Iris sighed.

"And therein lies the problem... you're fighting like a muggle and not like a wizard. While I could excuse your swordplay due to the fact you've never had one before, the fact you never once tried to use your magic is ridiculous."

"Are you telling me Master Jim knows how to use magic?" said Blinky in surprise.

"I'm a No Maj born. I was given a choice between formal schooling or summer school," shrugged Jim. "I can't really use it outside school anyway, so normally I don't bother with it."

"You're not a muggleborn," said Iris. "You're a half-blood like me. And starting tomorrow we are going to be working on your casting ability, come hell or high water."

Jim winced.

"In the meantime I'm going to work on your combat awareness," said Iris.

She pulled out her wand. The look in her eyes was not comforting at all, in his opinion.

"I have a bad feeling about this."

"All you have to do is dodge my stunners. Sound simple enough?" said Iris cheerfully.

Jim lifted his sword. He still didn't get why he had such a bad feeling about this.

What happened could only be described as hell for Jim. Iris went easy on him, at first...then she became terrifying. He was just glad she stuck to stunners, rather than anything too mortifying.

Even with the armor on, he still felt like one giant bruise.

"You're seriously good at that!" said Toby.

Iris twirled her wand expertly in her hand.

"Don't mess with a witch who's used to life and death situations. In any case, if you're this out of shape when it comes to dodging spells, I'm openly dreading how much work we'll have to do with casting them," said Iris. Jim winced at that.

While the potions were disgusting, he could admit to their effectiveness. It was better than any care he had gotten during summer school at any rate.

The next night...

Jim held his wand gingerly. He really wasn't looking forward to this...mostly because he forgot half the things he had learned. He wasn't planning to stay in the magical world to begin with.

Fortunately for him, Iris had a pretty simple way to determine his skill level when it came to spells.

She plopped down a notebook and handed him a pen.

"I want you to fill out this little test I drew up within the next half an hour. We'll work from there," said Iris bluntly.

"No insane spell casting test?" he asked.

"Not yet. I want to see how much you know already and determine whether we need to go back over the basics," said Iris.

Jim spent the next half hour filling out the deceptively hard test Iris had written up. She had spent most of the day on it.

Once he was done, Iris took a red pen and started going over it. The further in she got, the deeper her frown.

"This is ridiculous. I knew your knowledge base was going to be half-hazard considering you openly admitted you only took summer lessons, but I had no idea it was this bad," said Iris. "This is worse than a second-years knowledge base."

"Is that bad?" asked Jim.

"I'd be amazed if you passed your OWL's like this," she deadpanned. "Fortunately for you, I took the liberty of making some inquiries with the local Gringotts branch. There is a clause that allows one to retake their tests, but only once."

Jim balked at that.

"What?! Retake those tests?"

Iris gave him a flat look.

"You inherited an amulet that puts you into a job that is literally life or death. I am not about to lose the only real family I have left just because you want to slack off on your magical studies," she growled.

Jim backed down at that.

"What sort of clause?"

"If there is sufficient evidence that you received a less than acceptable amount of training...then a case can be made to redo the tests after you've had proper instruction."

Jim gave her a look.

"Really?"

"Well, that and I pointed out that as the heir of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter, it was unacceptable that your magical education was so poor that you barely scrapped by on the tests in question. I may have had to toss some gold around and use some unwanted popularity on my end to get them to agree," she admitted.

The second the American Ministry learned exactly who was in their country and more than willing to immigrate to theirs, they about fell over themselves trying to earn her favor.

Allowing her half-brother to retake his OWL's because he barely had any training was a minor thing in the grand scheme of things. Especially since Iris wasn't afraid to grease the wheels with a bit of gold.

Iris gave Jim a serious look.

"We are going to start from the ground up when it comes to your magical education. By the time I'm done with you, these...Gumm-Gumms or whatever they're called won't know what hit them."

Jim gulped at the look on her face.

"Now, let's see how good your casting ability is. Let's start with the most basic of charms and work our way up from there."

Toby's expression seeing Jim using actual magic was rather comical. Mostly because he had no idea his best friend could use magic in the first place. Blinky seemed more relieved than anything, because having magic made it more likely for Jim to survive.

By the end of the night, Jim was exhausted both mentally, physically and magically. His sister was a brutal task master, but even he would admit he was learning more from her than he had in the five years he had taken summer courses.

For the next four days, Iris put Jim through the ringer both with his spellwork, his ability to dodge, and just noticing things in general. His progress improved in leaps and bounds, because Iris made sure to speed things up with potions.

In exchange, Jim helped her with her normal homework as she had been out of touch with the mundane world for the past five years.

All too soon, the day of the duel arrived. Iris made Jim swear he would tell his mother about the Trollhunter business once they were done. She already knew about magic, so learning about this would come as less of a shock.

As predicted, Jim not only won the duel, but he spared Draal's life. Draal was less than pleased with this.

Iris was just glad that Jim finally had someone who could teach him how to use that overgrown butcher knife. Considering she refused to let him deal with this headache alone, she decided to learn how to use a sword herself.

The next afternoon, after the duel...

"You've been doing WHAT?" said Barbara, beyond appalled. While it certainly explained why Jim had broken into the museum, she was beyond angry he had kept this from her.

"From what I understand, this particular artifact didn't give him much of a choice. And I had it looked over by professionals... there is nothing on it that would cause Jim harm. It's just tied to him," said Iris.

Barbara was not happy.

She mentally counted to ten.

"From what I can tell, Jim does have an actual support base. The trolls have been giving him training...it's just that they've never had to deal with a human before," said Iris.

"And what does this mean for Jim?"

"Just means he gets to have a few odd extracurricular jobs during the night time hours," said Iris simply. "Trolls can't stand daylight, so most of their problems will happen long after school hours."

"Is there no way out of this?" asked Barbara.

"It's one of those 'stuck for life' type deals. I intend to make sure that Jim makes it past twenty at the very least," said Iris. "Any method of removing the amulet from him would require him to put in a death state that would fool even a doctor."

Clearly that was not an option.

"Come on Jim...you only have half an hour to go before you're done for the day!" shouted Iris.

Jim was panting, but he could tell he was a lot better at using his magic than before. Iris had tested his brewing skills, and deemed him 'acceptable' enough for her standards, so that was one mercy. Then again, she had to deal with Snape who was even worse than her. So long as the potion looked right and did what it was required to do, Iris would give him a pass on it.

Unlike him, Iris was taking potions normally banned from magical tests so she could pretend she hadn't missed five years of normal subjects. It was allowing her to reach roughly the same level Jim was at in high school without alerting anyone to the fact her education was less than normal.

And then she brought out something that made all the hellish training worth it.

Iris' idea of dodge training involved something that had Toby giddy with excitement. Mostly because it had accidentally revealed he had magic in his blood too.

Toby's magic level was too low for formal schooling, so he had likely been passed over. It meant he couldn't cast spells, but he did have enough magic in him to fly and use magical artifacts.

Jim took a fifteen minute breather...then mounted the broom Iris had bought him. It wasn't as fancy or expensive as her own, but it was better than anything he had ever flown.

And then... Iris released the bludgers. It was all out anarchy from that point, even if it did improve his situational awareness.

Iris found it hilarious she got the trolls hooked on watching a pick-up game of Quidditch.