The beginning of…
Disclaimer: As opposed to some people's beliefs, miracles don't happen. I still don't have the HP copyrights. Or maybe they just don't happen to me?
A/N: OK, I thought I'd get more done by today, but hadn't lot of time. So this chapter isn't as long as planned. At least now my 2-week long vacation has started and I'll have all the time I need. I really need to get those plot bunnies out of my head - they just keep thumping around in there and drive me mad. Anyone know of a way to get rid of them that doesn't involve writing or lethal measures? I thought not… After this chapter I see the story going much darker for a while…until Hermione's birthday! Oh I wish I just could instantly transfer my ideas to docs, typing takes so bloody long!
Hermione had just left the room when the doorbell rang. Harry heard her call "S' OK, Mum, Dad! I'll get it!" After a few moments Hermione opened the door and came back in, followed by Tonks of all people.
"Tonks! What're you doing here?" Harry asked the young Auror.
"Was sent here to fetch you two miscreants!" Tonks chuckled with an amused grin on her face.
"What? Why? What did we do now? Is this about the letter to the Ministry?" Harry asked in a worried tone. He wouldn't forgive himself if Hermione got into trouble with the Ministry because of him.
"No, this is not about the letter, though I must admit, it did cause quite a bit of excitement in the office! Never seen Ol' Ruffy so put out before - congratulations to both of you!" Tonks was smiling at the youngsters.
"So why are you here? What else has happened?" Harry was still puzzled.
"Ah, so it must have been your doing then, Hermione? Nice work!" Tonks stepped forward to shake Hermione's hand.
"What are you talking about, Tonks?" Hermione seemed as clueless as Harry, but suddenly understanding blossomed on her face and her eyes went wide. "Oh no! I really shouldn't have done that!" She pulled her dress up from her left side and pulled her wand out from where it was strapped to her body by the elastic band of her underwear - her wand was pulsing with a blue color, acting as some kind of alarm, Harry assumed. Harry felt his other cheek go up in flames, too. 'Wow, you just keep learning interesting things about her today, don't you?"
Tonks started to laugh out loud at that. "Girl, you have no idea! Now lets get back fast, or you might miss the sight! Nice idea, by the way, with the wand. Mind if I use it on Remus sometimes?" She grabbed both of their hands. "Ready?" she asked, and when she received the affirmative nods, apparated them away.
They reappeared in the No.4 Privet Drive, downstairs. Harry suddenly found himself surrounded by almost all the Order members and who he was sure - quite a few Aurors. He got worried for a moment again for Hermione, but then noticed that everyone was either grinning widely or outright laughing.
"Come on, now!" Tonks started to drag them upstairs, all the people letting them pass and then suddenly started to applaud to them. Harry had no idea what was going on until he got to the upper floor and found a truly remarkable sight waiting for him.
First, Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody was hanging upside down like from an invisible rope before the door to his room, surrounded by people while Kingsley Shacklebolt and Remus Lupin were pushing him forward and back, making him swing between the two accompanied by the chant of "Constant vigilance, Mad-Eye! Constant vigilance!" Moody himself was purple in face - from anger, embarrassment or just from hanging upside down for a while, Harry didn't know.
"How about reversing your spell, Granger?" Moody growled when he noticed them. Harry could hear Hermione swallowing hard and then performing a really complex figure with her wand. Moody was slowly turned around and lowered to the ground. Accompanied by loud groans of disappointment the crowd started to thin. The disapparation cracks sounded like someone had let one of Weasley Wizarding Wheezes fireworks loose in the house until it was just Harry, Hermione and Moody left in the house. Last one to go was Lupin who told them that now that he had seen Moody paid back for all his "Constant Vigilance" lessons, he could die a happy man.
"I'm sorry, Professor. I thought I'd get one of the Dursleys in this after what they did to Harry." Hermione apologized. Moody's normal eye shifted to the bruise on Harry's neck for a moment.
"Nothing wrong with that idea, Granger. But next time you might want to make the trigger to the spell a bit more specific. I don't feel like forgetting the same thing twice," Mad-Eye said. "That's why I'm here actually - thought the bastards needed a bit of a reminder why its bad business to ignore a wizards warning. You got the house all to yourself until your birthday, Potter. Just don't forget to feed the mice."
"The…what?" Harry was dumbfounded. Then Moody pointed to a small glass box in which 2 rather fat and one skinny rat were huddled together in one corner. "You mean…Are these…Dursleys?" he stuttered.
"Thought I'll give you your birthday present early, Potter. Don't forget to keep an eye on them - the charm lasts until midnight of your birthday. I'm sure you can take it from there!" Moody cackled his mad laughter and started thumping down the stairs. "One more thing before I leave you, Potter. I'm taking it you're about to go after a lot of dark wizards soon." That was said as a statement. "There's one thing I have to remind you - if you ever use an Unforgivable curse, I'll come after you and lock you up in Azkaban myself." Harry had the feeling that Moody's magical eye was looking at him through his skull. "I've gone against many a dark wizard without ever resorting to them and I sure as hell hope the boy Dumbledore had such high regard for will be able to, too." After a short pause to let his words sink in, Moody told: "Might make an exception for Voldemort, though. That dark bastard really irks me." And with a thunderous crack Mad-Eye Moody disappeared.
"Wow," Harry said after a while. "Mad-Eye sure takes his grand exits seriously." He looked around to see what Hermione was up to and found her crouched next to the box, gazing at it with a thoughtful expression.
"What're you thinking?" He asked her.
"About using Serpensortia…" Hermione mumbled, gaze fixed on the rats who seemed rather terrorized.
"What? What's gone into you, girl?" Harry asked and pulled her up to face him. "Your mean streak is really showing itself today."
"Oh, Harry," she sighed. "I think all the anger at them for doing all those horrible things to you over the years is finally starting to boil over. I don't know how you manage it to live with them every summer."
"One day at a time, Hermione," Harry whispered to her while pulling her into another hug. "One day at a time. Hey! At least now I don't have to worry about being killed in my sleep!"
"Not funny, Harry!" was accompanied by a punch to his shoulder that made it go totally numb.
"Oww!" Harry rubbed the shoulder. "Do they give special lessons to girls in school on how to hurt boys or what?"
"Yes, and I was the best in the class as usual," Hermione teased him. "Now would the new Lord of the house offer me some lunch?"
"Sure! Let's go downstairs and see what I can put together. I wish Hedwig was still here so we could send word to your parents…" Harry started, but stopped when Hermione gave him an incredulous look.
"Harry, really, sometimes I get the impression your mind is working backwards!" Hermione told in exasperated tone and pointed towards the telephone. "Do you have anything against me giving them a call?"
"Oh! Er, go ahead, I'll…er, go to the kitchen." Harry really felt dumb as a doorknob at that moment. 'How the hell do I come up with such blunders?" he wondered.
After the lunch they made general plans for the rest of the month, deciding that Hermione was going to do some serious spell studying during the day and do research on Horcruxes and their possible locations while Harry would concentrate on his training with Bruce every day and then take lessons from Hermione. Harry realized that he was going to have a tough month ahead of him with both the physical challenges posed by whatever Bruce was going to put him through and then having to learn new spells with Hermione, but he decided he needed to do this if he was going to have a snowballs chance in Hell of defeating Voldemort. When they returned to Harry's room they saw Hedwig perched atop her cage. Harry immediately sent her to Gringotts with a letter clearing Hermione for any transactions she might need money for. When she started arguing against giving her full access to his inheritance he pointed out that she knew much more about books than he ever would and those books will be used to in a way save his life anyway - that seemed to shut her up and accept it.
The day finally came to an end and Harry prepared to go to sleep early because of his first lesson tomorrow. She started to say goodbye to Hermione, but she insisted that she'd stay at least until he fell asleep. Harry wondered briefly if she had somehow realized that he had a nightmare the previous night, but couldn't think of anything that would have let her on to it. So he just asked her. Hermione told him that after so many years she had guessed by the shadows under his eyes and the weary look on his face when he thought she wasn't looking. Harry got out of his clothes and climbed into his bed while Hermione sat on his desk to watch over him until he fell asleep.
'Like having my own guardian-angel,' Harry thought before the dreams claimed him.
The next morning Harry woke up to find his face full of bushy brown hair. He enjoyed the feel of the silky strands on his face for a moment before considering what exactly it meant. His eyes shot open to find Hermione snuggled up against him and his arms around her. 'Going home after I fell asleep, huh? You really cant trust women!' Yet there was an entirely new feeling in his chest now - like someone had lit a candle in a cold and dark room and it was pushing the darkness away.
"Ron would say that you're mental if he ever found out what you did tonight, girl," Harry whispered to himself. "But I think your mind is a beautiful puzzle waiting to be unlocked." He didn't notice the smile spreading across her face as he quietly slipped out of the bed, gently pulled the thin blanket over her, grabbed his clothes and sneaked out of the room for a quick breakfast before his first training. He felt rested and ready to learn whatever Bruce could teach him. He quickly started to think on what he would need to learn as Bruce had reminded him that one month was quite a short time and there was no way to teach him everything. In the previous day the excitement and Hermione's companionship had made him forget it but now he was considering his choices carefully. He needed something he could use in the middle of spellcasting, to give him an edge over ordinary wizards. He doubted many wizards knew just how deadly a trained "muggle dueling" expert could be. He grinned at the name Professor McGonagall had used.
When the time came he stepped outside and found Bruce already waiting for him at the hedge, holding a cup of tea.
"Morning, Harry. You're right on time," Bruce greeted him.
"Morning, Bruce!" Harry grinned in excitement. "So, what are we going to do?"
"OK, first, I want you to…" Bruce crouched behind the hedge for a second and then threw a red brick to Harry in a wide arc for an easy catch. "…smash this brick with your head."
"You WHAT!" Harry asked, his jaw dropping to the ground and eyes going wide in disbelief.
"Hah! Had you there!" Bruce laughed. "Ok, for real, drop the stone and jump over the hedge - we're going to train inside the house. Softer landing in there."
Harry, red in the face for having fallen for the prank, took a running jump over the hedge and followed Bruce to his house. When he stepped inside, his jaw took a dive again. The interior of the house had been changed totally from what Harry presumed it had been to look like a traditional Japanese house complete with sliding doors and paper walls. It felt like a perfect setting for learning martial arts - there was some special kind of spirituality or something that Harry really couldn't identify, but something that in his mind was instantly connected with martial arts.
They entered a large training room with padded floor and several racks of weapons on every wall. Against one wall was what Harry thought to be a small oriental shrine with a small rack for a single weapon - a Japanese sword, katana. The weapon was sheathed in a blue and black scabbard and the same colors were on the hilt. The blade's guard was an artwork in itself, a silvery metal disk with strange engravings.
"Ah, I see you found my most prized treasure!" Bruce's voice suddenly brought Harry back to the here and now. He looked up to see Bruce standing next to him. "According to a legend, this nearly five hundred years old blade belonged to a brave samurai who was sent out to fight some evil in a long-forgotten corner of the land. On his way there he met a woman surrounded by bandits. The samurai, naturally, went to save her and killed all the bandits. The woman thanked her and promised to return the favor. The samurai wanted to object, of course, but the woman suddenly disappeared. So the samurai continued on his way and finally came to the place where according to the local peasants evil spirits came out at night and killed anyone they could, devouring their souls."
Bruce took a break to take a sip from his cup. Harry had to admit that Bruce was a decent storyteller. The current story certainly wasn't boring and somehow Harry felt drawn to it.
"So," Bruce continued, "on his first night there the samurai stood guard over the village, and sure enough, the evil spirits came. Though the samurai was very brave, the sight of the evil spirits seemed to freeze the blood in his veins and sap the strength from his bones. The spirits descended on him and would have devoured his own spirit, but suddenly the woman he had helped on his journey appeared! The woman seemed to give off an aura of incredible power and with only her words drove away the evil spirits. The samurai was awed by her powers and asked who she was. The woman answered that she was a mighty sorceress and that she was called The Eagle. The sorceress then took the samurai's sword and enchanted it so it would protect its wielder from the effects of the evil spirits and engraved symbols of power on the guard. With the enchanted blade the samurai destroyed all the remaining evil spirits and earned the thanks of the local people and the respect of his peers. The sorceress, however, disappeared and was never again seen in those lands."
They stood for a minute marveling at the sword and wondering if the legend held any truth in it. Bruce drained the last of his tea and stepped outside the room to return with a bundle of white clothes that he threw to Harry.
"Ok, Harry, you can put your training clothes on in the next room, lets get started!" After Harry got changed into his new martial arts kimono he went back to the training room and stood face to face with Bruce.
"Have you decided what you would like to learn, then?" Bruce asked him.
"I have," Harry answered immediately. "I'd like to learn how to disarm, hold and throw the opponents - you probably know what I'm talking about - and if we have time, how to fight with a sword."
"Ok, a bit of ju-jitsu and aikido, then," Bruce nodded. "We can do that. Now what kind of sword did you have in mind?"
"Umm…" Harry gazed around the room, looking for something resembling the sword he had managed to pull out of a certain hat in his second year at Hogwarts. He found the matching blade in one of the racks and pointed it out. "Like that one over there - with straight two-sided blade."
"Interesting," Bruce mused. "Usually nowadays the popular choice is the katana - few people are interested in learning how to use any other type of swords." He thought a bit and told then, "I'd like to start with two weeks of unarmed combat training, then add the sword to the mix. By that time I believe your reflexes will be sharp enough to avoid any serious damage." He winked at Harry, then walked to the center of the room and motioned for Harry to come stand opposite him. When Harry got there, he bowed to him and Harry mirrored it. "Now I think that for the first lesson I'm going to teach you how to…fall."
"Really?" Harry asked, his eyebrows going up. "You think I need to learn how to do that?"
"Oh, Harry! You'll be amazed at just how many things you'll need to learn about falling!" Bruce answered with a wicked grin.
After an hour and a half Harry was lying face-down on the training rooms padded floor, plastered to it like a wet sock. He had the feeling that someone will have to use an especially potent solution to scrape him off the floor. His body was aching all over and he was covered with sweat from head to toe - even his kimono was soaking wet and clinging to his body. He felt like he'd have to lie there for an hour or two before he would have enough strength to just get up.
"Feeling tired, Harry?"
"Mhmhhh." Affirmative.
"Wan something against it?"
"Mhmhhh." Hopeful.
Suddenly a bucketful of freezing cold water was dumped on him. The next moment Harry was on his feet, shivering from the cold and the shock and adrenaline pumping through his veins.
"What do you know, it worked!" Bruce laughed. "Let's revise the lesson and then we'll call it a day."
The revising involved falling forward, backward, sideways, over obstacles, going into a roll from being thrown and pushed and every other possible way of falling. Bruce had shown him how to fall without sustaining any injuries from all the possible ways, then let Harry attack him any way he liked. After Bruce felt it was time to finish the lesson Harry dragged himself back to No.4 without even daring to think about trying to jump over the hedge. He managed to make it inside and to the shower, line of abandoned clothes marking his trail from the front door. He cleaned himself up and wrapped a towel around his waist and made his way to his room, thinking to take a nap before Hermione's arrival to start teaching him new spells. 'At least I can now outperform Crookshanks when it comes to soft landings,' Harry mused, as he entered the room. And found himself face to face with Hermione.
"Hermione! You're early!" Harry noticed her eyes running up and down over his body. "And could you please stop staring at me? I'm practically butt-naked here!"
"Well, it's not really why I'm staring at you, Harry," she grinned at him. "Just glad I caught you like you are. Perfect. Now come and lie down on the bed on your stomach."
"What?" Harry thought he was missing something important. Hermione took his hand and guided him down on the bed. When Harry was lying on the bed, she took a small bottle from the desk and poured a bit of the liquid in her palm. She then started rubbing it all over his back and shoulders and arms and neck. The exotic smell of the oil hit Harry's nostrils and he immediately felt more relaxed.
"Ahhh…A massage…Good…Mmmmm" Harry moaned. When Hermione had rubbed the oil all over him she suddenly jumped on the bed and stepped on Harry's shoulders, then started shifting her weight from one foot to the other and so on. An incredible feeling of mixed pain and pleasure shot through Harry, making him moan and groan throughout the treatment that made Hermione's body tingle in all the wron places. When she finally stepped off him he felt better and more relaxed than he ever had before. "Where did you learn to do that, 'Mione?" came a dazed voice from the bed. She was sure he hadn't even realized what he had called her.
"Well, my parents might be dentists, but that's not the only thing they know about medicine," she told him.
"Ok, next time you see them, tell them I love you…er, them," told the voice from the bed, and the next moment he was already asleep.
"I will…Don't worry, I will," she whispered to him as she kissed him on the cheek and silently slipped out of the room.
Harry was granted three hours of rest before she woke him and started their study session. With Hermione's presence masking his underage wizardry they could break the Reasonable Restriction That Noone Gave a Damn About with impunity. Hermione had already prepared long lists of spells she thought they needed to learn - one containing various offensive and defensive spells for the battles against the Death Eaters and the other with spells against various creatures and beings Voldemort might employ, like giants. She had even put down a few spells against dragons, but it was very unlikely they would need to use them. Also they were so complex that they would drive any sane person who tried to cast them, well, insane.
When the day ended and Harry had climbed into his bed again, he looked at Hermione who had taken up her post on the desk again.
"You're not going home, are you?" he asked her. She smiled at him and shook her head slightly. He grumbled and threw back the light blanket, indicating to her to climb next to him. She looked at him, surprised for a moment, then kicked off her shoes and pulled her dress over her head. Only wearing her bra and knickers she slipped in next to him and snuggle up close to him. When his arms came around her she gave a content sigh.
"You know, a guy could get used to this," he whispered to her before falling asleep.
"Yeah," she replied. "A girl could, too." She smiled. She had smiled a lot in the last two days, she thought before falling to sleep.