The Apprentice Piece
by Jardyn39
Part One of "The Apprentice Piece"
Chapter 18: The Apprentice Piece
Harry entered the lobby of the training tent with a mixture of feelings. He was still smarting from what had happened in the tent on the previous session but at the same time felt guilty for losing his temper with Hermione. He still hadn't apologised, although he knew he ought to.
Harbinger turned as soon as he heard Harry enter.
"Ah, Harry, thanks for coming," he said smiling. "Did you bring your apprentice piece?"
Harry nodded.
"Before we begin, I'd like to apologise again for not warning you that Moody's rules might be changed. Please don't blame Hermione. She didn't even know about them," said Harbinger and he waited for Harry to respond.
Harry nodded again.
"Thank you. You did quite a lot of damage to the tent but we've it patched up. Now I'm not too sure how it will react to that wand," and he picked up two small blue coloured marbles and handed one to Harry. "Put this in your pocket. It should reset the tent for some simple target practice."
Harbinger put his marble into a waistcoat pocket and entered the tent. Harry pocketed his marble and followed.
Before them the tent was completely empty and the light levels were high. At one end a series of targets had been set up.
Harbinger fired a stunning spell at one of the targets which exploded and then reappeared whole again with a small pop. The debris from the original target remained strewn about the floor. He seemed to relax and Harry assumed he was wary of the tent deciding to attack them.
"Now, have you used that wand before, Harry?"
"Just once after our first Defence Against the Darks Arts lesson. I produced some sparks but it hurt my arm. It was like an electric shock."
"Try it again, will you?"
Harry raised his arm and produced a few sparks. It was just as powerful as before but it no longer hurt.
"It didn't hurt this time," said Harry, "is that because of the tent?"
"No, you are just controlling yourself more," said Harbinger. "Go ahead, hit as many targets as you can, including the moving ones. Nothing will shoot back apart from me."
Harry started and used a variety of stunning and reductor spells for a period of around twenty minutes before Harbinger yelled for him to stop.
"That was good. You have good accuracy and you're getting quicker. Now shortly a new form of target will appear. They will move around and at various times will be protected by a shield charm. Expect your spells to be deflected and as I'm putting my wand away now you'll need to protect me too!"
Harry thought Harbinger was quite mad, but took aim and fired.
After another fifteen minutes Harbinger yelled for Harry to stop again. He was beginning to enjoy himself dodging and deflecting his own spells. He even managed to hit a couple of targets with deflected stunners but he had to admit it had been more luck than judgement.
Harbinger had only had to jump out of the way once when Harry's shield hadn't been quite in the right place.
They walked back to the lobby.
"I'll leave you to practice on your own so you can get a feel for your limits without having to worry about protecting me. I just wanted you to know that hurling hexes without any regard for others can lead to problems."
Harry nodded, "Professor, is there a more effective shield I could use? There were a couple of times when I almost missed you."
"Yes but they can be more of a hindrance than help sometimes. The problem is that they often present a barrier that can't be penetrated by spells from either side. I'll show you a couple next time. Well, if you're ready I'm going back up to the control area," said Harbinger. "Oh, and by the way, the targets will start to fire back after a while."
When he left, Harry returned to the tent, thinking about the new wand. He couldn't quite put his finger on it but he thought the spells he was producing were more powerful and quicker. Then it struck him: he wasn't saying the incantations out loud either.
The targets were coming quicker than he could speak and at some point he had just stopped shouting the words.
The other thing was the power of the spells. He was controlling how strong each curse was.
As Harry stood in the tent, pondering these thoughts, a magically magnified voice rang out.
"Harry, is everything alright? What was that Professor?" Hermione started to say. As soon as he heard her voice, Harry realised he was no longer angry with her.
Harry smiled, raised his arm and fired.