The Apprentice Piece
by Jardyn39
Part One of "The Apprentice Piece"
Chapter 12: Great Hall Training
Harry pushed open the heavy doors to the Great Hall. It was around nine o'clock in the evening.
The house tables had been stacked to one side and in the middle of the room were five low padded stools surrounded by large plump cushions on mats. The stools had square tops that were about three feet wide. On the top of each stood a small child. Each of the children was laughing and giggling.
"Ah, Harry," said Harbinger as he entered. "I hope this is convenient. I was talking to Professor Dumbledore earlier and he thought you might like to take some additional defence lessons."
"Er," said Harry, "I would."
"Well, as the tent isn't ready yet, I was hoping to give you something to think about before we start properly. Now, I know you are involved with quite a lot of extra curricula activities, so we'll move our time around to suit. Is that okay?"
"Yes, that'd be great."
"Good," said Harbinger clapping his hands and moving between Harry and the children. He turned to face Harry and smiled. "Now Harry, I'd like you to met some friends of mine who have volunteered to help us tonight. Everyone, this is Harry."
"Hi Harry!" cried each of the children. Harry waved and smiled back.
"Now I'd like all of you to just stand quietly on the stools while I tell Harry some things," Harbinger said gently.
As Harbinger turned to face him, Harry was alarmed to see one of the children pushed off her stool by some unseen force. She screamed and landed safely on the cushions to howls of laughter from the others. She immediately scrambled up and climbed back onto the stool.
Harry looked at the other children. Each had mingled expressions of anticipation as they waited for the same thing to happen to them. Suddenly two more children were pushed off their stools.
Harbinger cleared his throat above all the noise and Harry's attention was brought back to him. Harry realised that it was Harbinger that was somehow pushing the children off the stools although he wasn't using his wand, saying any incantation nor waving his arms.
"Sometimes, you want to do magic but don't have a wand. Sometimes, you want to do magic, but can't say the words. Sometimes, you want to do magic, but can't move your limbs," said Harbinger as he glanced back at the children. All of them had clambered back onto the stools.
Four of them were immediately pushed off, leaving the smallest and youngest looking to complain with a "Hey, me too!"
She was immediately lifted into the air, turned in a complicated mid-air loop and then drifted gently down onto the cushions. She screamed with delight.
Harbinger went over to them and said, "Okay, It's getting late."
Harry smiled at their immediate protests, so much like the elf children.
"Okay! Okay, one more go after Harry has a try," Harbinger said raising his hands. Harry immediately felt a push and he landed on the cushions. It was like a momentary warm breeze.
"Alright, which one of you did that? Go and apologise to Harry," he said to the eldest girl, who was looking at Harry sheepishly.
Harry just grinned at her and said, "Show me that again!"
*
Harry carried the chest with the training ball set back to the changing rooms. He was the last to leave the pitch and it was getting dark.
They had just completed their third full training session and Harry was doing some hard thinking. The new Chasers were doing very well. Harry couldn't believe how well Ginny had organised them. She and Denis already had an impressive list of plays.
Both the beaters were improving and gradually learning to follow the plays. This wasn't always easy as Ginny changed between plays so quickly. Colin was making a very good beater and Harry was pleased that he was helping Brian Clay, even though he was only a reserve.
Harry stopped before he entered the changing rooms and dropped the chest. He sat down, deep in thought.
His biggest concern was Ron.
Harry hated to admit it to himself, but Ron was becoming a divisive influence on the team. Harry had hoped he would get over his disappointment. He understood that Ron would need time to sort himself out.
Only this evening, Harry had arrived at the changing rooms only to spend ten minutes stopping an argument. Ginny and Colin had been too angry to tell him what was wrong. Denis eventually managed to tell Harry that the Chasers wanted to practise penalties but Ron had insisted that they do in-play manoeuvres again.
Harry had supported Ron on the basis that as Vice-Captain he was entitled to make decisions in Harry's absence. At the same time he was very angry with Ron for not only creating the argument but also having it in front of the Rebel players Harry had invited.
Harry shook his head and looked up to see Ginny standing a few paces away looking at him.
"I'm sorry, Ginny."
"No, you were right. I shouldn't have argued," she said as she came over. "Budge up," she said sitting next to him on the chest.
They sat for a moment in the quiet.
"I wasn't just annoyed with Ron for changing my plans," she said, "it was like he was going to disagree with whatever I said. He wants to be the play maker, like Wood used to be."
"Wood used to do a lot of planning and shout a lot," said Harry, "but he never really influenced the Chasers in play. You are the play-maker, Ginny, and from now on practices will be based on what you need. Just promise me you will go along with whatever Ron decides until I change it for you."
"Thanks, Harry," she said, "I'll try."
Ginny paused a moment and then said, "Patrick was good again, wasn't he?"
"Yes," said Harry, "of the Rebels he's one of the best. I've been trying to get some goal-keeping coaching for him, but none of the other Houses have much experience this year and Ron's pretty cool to the idea."
"Why?"
"I think he feels threatened, that he might loose his place. I've tried to tell him that's rubbish but it's still that what's affecting his game."
"Selfish prat."
"That's not fair, Ginny."
"No? How come you keep making Denis stand in as seeker?"
"He's good at it and I think he can get better. Actually though, we must try and break his habit of catching the snitch while he's playing chaser," Harry said smiling, "or Madam Hooch might have something to say!" They both laughed remembering Denis' antics.