Chapter 14: Moody's Return
July 7 - 8:04am - Grimmauld Place
"Good morning, Harry," Ginny said from her seat at the table as Harry entered the kitchen.
"Morning, Ginny, Gretchen," Harry replied pouring himself a glass of pumpkin juice and taking a seat at the table. Maybe he'd been too hard on Ron. After all he didn't know how much time Luna had spent helping Madam Pomfrey and sitting by his bed watching over him. Luna often acted a bit strange, but she had helped him on several occasions. Combined with her help at the Department of Mysteries, her devotion to Ron, and her obvious kindness to the other girls, Harry admired Luna.
"Has Ron woken up yet?" Ginny questioned interrupting Harry's thoughts. He looked up as if surprised to see there were others in the room.
"Yes, a little while ago. He and Hermione were talking when I left for breakfast," Harry explained as he grabbed a piece of toast and a couple of pieces of bacon. He really wasn't that hungry, but he knew that he should eat something. Although Mrs. Weasley had been so wrapped up in Ron being injured that she hadn't commented on how thin he had gotten in the last few weeks, he knew that Hermione and probably Remus would confront him if he didn't eat.
"Luna isn't with him?" Ginny stated hope rising in her chest.
"She was there when he woke up, but she left with Fred and George to help them with one of their inventions," Harry said before taking a bite of his freshly buttered toast.
"Morning everyone," Neville called from the doorway as he entered the room his hair still damp from a shower.
"Good morning," Gretchen and the others called as he sat down across next to Harry and looked at the food before him.
"Who cooked?" Neville questioned surprised to find so much selection. It reminded him of Hogwarts.
"Dobby," Gretchen answered as she finished her own breakfast.
"He's going to be cooking and taking care of things around here for now along with Winky," Harry added after finishing his piece of toast.
"Morning," Hermione said quietly as she too entered the kitchen at Grimmauld. She took her seat on the other side of Harry before pouring herself some pumpkin juice.
"Ron's asleep again," she announced before taking a sip of her juice. She caught Harry's stare as she continued to drink her juice without filling her plate. She gave in with a sigh and grabbed a piece of toast and some strawberry jam.
"Wotcher," called Tonks as she entered the kitchen. "Hermione, Harry, Neville, you're to go down the stairs to the right of the kitchen door immediately after breakfast."
The trio nodded quietly. Tonks had convinced Charlie to help them out this morning. It hadn't been that difficult really.
Remus had expressed some concern at the idea of how Moody wanted to test the three's ability, but Tonks had reassured him that they did not intend to hurt them but to see how well they responded under attack. It would allow Moody the opportunity to observe how well each reacted individually and as a team. Tonks recalled having this same technique used against her at auror academy. She didn't envy the trio as they were several years younger than she had been at the academy, but she also knew that death eaters attacked to kill. If this would help keep them all alive then she was all for it.
She snatched a piece of bacon from the platter on the table and snagged a butter beer from the ice box. Sitting down next to Neville, she looked around the table at the assembled teenagers. Harry, Hermione, and Neville almost looked as if they were having a contest to see who could eat the least. Gretchen had risen and placed her empty plate in the sink before returning to her seat beside Ginny and across from Neville. Ginny's plate was nearly empty. Tonks made a mental note to keep an eye on the three older students as they would obviously need to eat better.
"Where's Luna, still with Ron?" Tonks questioned curious as to the other girl's absence.
"She went with Fred and George to their shop," Harry said finishing his last piece of toast and standing to take his empty plate to the sink. Neville ate a last piece of bacon and Hermione hurriedly finished her toast as well. The two followed Harry to the sink.
"Are you sure?" Tonks was now concerned.
"They asked her to help them with an experiment and she agreed," Hermione explained turning back towards the table.
"I'll check with Jeremiah to see if she told him," Tonks mumbled rising from the table. She hurried out of the room. The others just looked at each other for a moment.
"I'm sure she told someone," Harry finally said before squaring his shoulders and drawing his wand from his back pocket. Hermione and Neville followed suit and Neville waved to Gretchen and Ginny before the three left to follow Tonk's earlier directions.
Harry opened the door slowly and the three made their way carefully down the narrow stone stairs thankful for the lit torches that illuminated the way. At the bottom of the stairs a large room lay open before them. Boxes and other oddities were scattered throughout the room making it seem like a sort of storage room. Torches were scattered throughout the large stone room as well but seemed to cast more shadows than anything else. They moved as one away from the stairs alert to any sound or movement.
Harry sensed rather than saw something just off to the right. He shot a stunning spell in that direction and crouched with Hermione and Neville following. A satisfying thump sounded as something fell over onto the stone floor.
A jet of red light shot past Neville's ear barely missing him as he dove to the side at the last minute. Harry rolled the opposite way just before a bolt of purple caused the stone behind where he had been standing to crumble. Hermione fired a stunner in the direction of the purple light before moving forward to duck behind what appeared to be an old crate.
"Locomoter mortis," cried a voice to the left of the students. The yellow bolt of light caught the corner of the crate behind which Hermione had taken cover. Hermione muffled a cry as a piece of the wood cut across her cheek. Harry countered with another stunner, but whoever had fired the curse had already taken cover again.
Emerald eyes met chocolate brown and then deep blue for a moment before he rose to his feet. Two spells sped towards him almost immediately. He raised a shield as Hermione cried "petrificus totalus" and Neville cast his own "stupefy" at the two who had fired on Harry. His shield held much to the surprise of his attackers who both ducked for cover.
Neville fired another stunner as Hermione cried "confundo" then "glacio" a freezing charm which trapped the attacker on the right in a block of ice. Neville's second stunner found its mark just before a bolt of yellow caught him in the side and he fell over his legs stuck together. Harry and Hermione turned and both fired stunners in the direction of the spell before diving to the side.
"Finite incantantum," Harry said quietly waving his wand at Neville's legs and ending the spell. The other boy rolled behind another crate out of the line of fire from his earlier attacker.
A blue light shot towards Hermione again. The crate flew apart and Hermione was flung backwards landing near Neville on her side. She moaned as Neville pulled her behind his crate as Harry covered the movement with a rapid succession of spells.
Rage was building inside Harry. He had expected a fight, but that last spell had been over the line. He could feel a surge of magic inside him feeding on his anger at Hermione's being hurt. He focused on the direction that the last spell had come in and wanting to bring everything to an end he drew upon the power that he could feel burning inside him. He raised his hand and felt a rush of power pour out of him through his hand. Moody fell to the ground. There had been no way to escape the blast and his strongest shield had failed. Harry lowered his hand and turned towards Hermione and Neville.
"How is she?" Neville looked up at his friend. Harry's eyes seemed to glow but that faded before his eyes and he wondered if he had just imagined it. He'd seen the display of power and noted that Harry had not used his wand to direct the spell. In fact, he could still feel the power emanating from him.
"I'm alright," Hermione answered his question sitting up with her back against the stone wall. She raised a hand and pushed some hair back from her face.
Harry nearly winced at the sight of blood on her hand and her face.
"How about you, Neville?"
"I'm fine," he replied. Harry glanced at him then nodded before kneeling in front of Hermione.
"Would you mind waking them while I take Hermione to find Madam Pomfrey," Harry requested helping Hermione to her feet.
"Go ahead," Neville answered getting to his feet as well.
"Thanks," Harry replied pulling Hermione towards the stairs.
Neville looked around the dungeon like room. He walked towards the last attacker that Harry had taken out with his power surge. Mad Eye Moody lay before him out cold.
"Ennervate," called Neville flicking his wand over the ex-auror. The spell had no effect. Worried Neville kneeled before the older man and checked for a pulse. It was there and he was breathing, but whatever Harry had done, Neville's waking spell was not enough to bring him from his sleep. He quickly turned to the other attackers finding Charlie Weasley and Tonks. He countered Hermione's freezing charm which unfroze Charlie and then used his enervate to awaken Tonks.
"Where's Moody?" Charlie questioned after casting a warming spell on himself.
"And Harry and Hermione," Tonks added as she got to her feet.
"I couldn't wake Moody. Harry and Hermione went in search of Madame Pomfrey because Hermione got scratched up when Moody exploded a crate in front of her," Neville explained as the two followed him back to Moody's side.
"Ennervate," Charlie said thinking perhaps that Neville's spell just hadn't been strong enough to counter whatever had knocked out Moody. However, his spell did not work either.
"What happened?" Tonks questioned bending down to check on Moody. "His vital signs are good."
"He blew apart the crate Hermione was behind and sent her flying across the room. Harry then threw some kind of power blast at him and he went down," Neville told them. The two stared at him for a moment.
"You don't know what spell he used?" Neville shook his head.
"He never said anything. He just stared that way for a moment then raised his arm out in front of him and suddenly it was all over and he turned to ask about Hermione."
"Let's try the spell together," Tonks suggested curious about what Harry had done to bring down the wizened ex-auror. Moody was not an easy wizard to take out of a fight, but according to Neville, Harry had taken him out with one spell and a wandless spell at that. "On the count of three, we all perform the enervate spell, one, two, three." Three voices cried "enervate" and Moody's eye opened as the magical one began to spin in its socket.
"Are you alright, Moody?" Charlie asked watching the other wizard closely.
"That was some spell," Moody growled, "where is Potter?"
"He and Hermione went to find Madam Pomfrey," Neville told him nervously moving away from the older man.
"I don't need her, I'll be fine in a bit," groused Moody rolling to his side and rising slowly to his feet. He kept a firm grip on a nearby crate. It wouldn't do to sway in front of the others otherwise they might insist he see Pomfrey.
"You should let her take a look at you," Tonks insisted. "It took all three of us to wake you up from whatever spell Harry used." Moody just grunted and turned to Neville.
"Go tell Potter and Granger that we'll start working on dueling tomorrow morning 5:00am."
"Yes, sir, professor," Neville replied and hurried away up the stairs. Moody waited till he disappeared then said.
"What do you think?"
"I think I need more practice," Charlie spoke up first.
"Never underestimate your opponent," Moody cautioned. "Don't be fooled by the fact that they're young. Potter's been able to perform a corporeal patronus since he was 13 and has used that patronus to repeal more than a hundred dementors. Albus also informed me that they have three of the highest grades on their defense owls. Apparently, Potter and Granger's D.A. group all received "O's" in their defense OWLS, many showing NEWT level performance of spells including the three we just tested." Tonks and Charlie could only stare.
"You could have warned us," Charlie replied understanding now why the three had been able to take out all three of the adults.
"Now you know. I would never support their joining the Order unless I felt they could handle themselves," Moody stated firmly. "Well?" He added staring at Tonks.
"They worked well together, didn't take a lot of risks, and ultimately met their objective," Tonks stated shrugging her shoulders. "I was impressed and I am definitely curious as to what Harry did that knocked you out like that."
"Let me talk to him about that," Moody countered nodding at her assessment. "Thanks for the help." With that he moved away from the crate and with a crack apparated to the kitchen to floo to Hogwarts.
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July 7 - 10:30am - Hogwarts
"Well, how did it go, Alastor?" Albus Dumbledore asked curiously as he sat down behind his desk in the Headmasters office at Hogwarts and motioned Alastor Moody to take a seat in one of the comfy chairs situated across from him. For once, Moody sank into the proffered seat.
"They did well. They worked as a team this morning. Granger took out Charlie with a freezing charm. Longbottom caught Tonks with a stunner and Harry sent out some kind of blast of energy that took out my best shield and knocked me flat," Moody stated. "I was impressed at their level of skill which is at least NEWT level and perhaps better."
"Interesting, I had hoped that their skills had progressed as much. This is very good news." Moody stared at the older man for a moment debating his next remark. Finally, he asked him the question he'd been meaning to ever since Potter's display in the kitchen at Grimmauld the other night.
"When are you going to talk to Potter about his wandless magic abilities?" Dumbledore extracted a lemon drop from the dish on his desk and opened it slowly.
"Help yourself," he offered before popping the candy into his mouth. He enjoyed the candy for a moment before explaining, "I had guessed that he would develop this ability, but had not seen it manifest itself beyond some uncontrolled outbursts when his emotions were riled. What happened?"
"He used his hand to stop my disarming spell from disarming both Granger and himself the other day when I arrived at Grimmauld, then this morning he sent out a controlled power blast targeted specifically to take me and anyone else standing near me out of the fight. There's no doubt he doesn't need a wand to focus his magic even for powerful spells. "
"Does he realize what he did and the implications?" Albus Dumbledore pressed thinking about those himself. 'Simply amazing,' he thought as he considered how useful this skill would be for Harry in the fight against Voldemort.
"The shield I think was completely subconscious, but it would have had to be powerful because he didn't say anything just raised his hand and neither his nor Granger's wand moved. As for this morning, by the time Tonks and the others revived me both he and Granger had gone in search of Pomfrey." Moody had been excited by the display of wandless magic as not a lot of wizards had the ability to perform it and fewer still were able to perform spells of the strength and complexity of Potter's shield and power blast.
"I'll broach the subject with him when I speak to him about plans for the memorial for those we lost. I also need to give him his letter from Gringotts concerning Sirius's will. Apparently, Sirius insisted that each recipient from his will receive private notification of what they had received. Hogwarts received a tidy sum to use as the headmaster sees fit, and Minerva has informed me that the Gryffindor Quidditch team now has a fund to purchase new uniforms, new brooms, and other equipment."
"Alright," Moody commented rising to his feet. "I'm returning tomorrow morning to begin training them to duel."
"I'll speak with him today," Dumbledore reassured his old friend. Moody disappeared in the flames and the older wizard settled in to write a letter to Harry alerting him that he wished to speak to him this evening. Moments later he handed the letter to his faithful friend Fawkes who disappeared in a flash a single feather drifting to the floor.
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