Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
More Important Than Any Broomstick - Chapter 18 - A New Ally
As the next few days passed, Harry and Hermione improved greatly. It took them a few days after the party to start
winning wandlessly against Sirius and Remus. After they'd been beaten three days in a row, Sirius said, "I
think we need to make it tougher on you. We'll have to change things. I don't think you need us to watch you do
your morning exercises anymore, so starting tomorrow morning, while one of you is exercising alone in another room, the
other one will be facing the two of us alone. Then you'll switch. I've also asked my cousin, Tonks, for help.
She just finished training as an Auror last week."
Harry smiled brightly, "An auror!?"
"Yes," said Sirius, returning Harry's smile, "She's agreed to come here on weekends to help with your training. That reminds me, you'll have to tell Julius to let her in."
"Ok," said Harry, "Er, I think I'll need more than just the name 'Tonks' to tell Julius."
Sirius started to chuckle for a reason Harry couldn't fathom. "Tonks is her last name. That's what she likes to be called. She's a bit sensitive about her first name, and hexes anyone who uses it."
Harry and Hermione both were slightly amused at this concept. "Ok, we won't address her by her first name, but Harry needs the information to allow her entrance," said Hermione.
"It's Nymphadora," said Lupin, "But you didn't hear that from us."
"Nymphadora?" said Harry, now chuckling.
"You shouldn't make fun of people's names, Harry," said Hermione sternly, although Harry could tell she was barely containing her own laughter.
"Ok," said Harry. "Nymphadora Tonks. I'll take care of that right away. How will she be arriving?"
"By floo the first time, and after that she'll be apparating."
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A few days later, Harry and Hermione found themselves being introduced to the young Auror. She had bright green hair, which surprised both teens.
"Wotcher. I see you're looking at my hair," said Tonks. "Maybe you'd like it better maroon. She closed her eyes and concentrated, and her hair changed colors.
Harry said, "How did you..." but was interrupted by an astonished Hermione.
The brunette exclaimed, "You're a metamorphmagus! I read about them. They're very rare!"
"Sirius told me you were bright, Hermione."
Hermione blushed. "I just enjoy reading is all..."
"Whatever Hermione," said Harry. "You're the brightest witch of your age and you know it." Hermione's face reddened even more. "Since I'm not as bright as Hermione I have to ask, what's a metamorphmagus?"
After Tonks had explained her abilities, she began to talk about her plans for their training. "Sirius and Remus said that they think you're in good enough shape to start learning the muggle fighting techniques, martial arts, they taught me in my training. They also said you're pretty good at dueling, and wanted to see if I could help you improve in that area as well. Let's start with that. I'll duel you both individually to assess your skills. Harry, you go first."
When Harry stood in front of the young Auror, she asked, "Where's your wand?"
"Oh, er, don't tell anybody, but we don't duel with wands," said a nervous sounding Harry.
"Wandless magic," said a shocked Tonks. "Both of you?"
"They were destroying us in duels with their wands, so we got them to stop using them. It took them over a week before they started destroying us again," said Sirius. "But what a wonderful week. Now Remus and I can't beat them, even when it's two on one."
"So you called me here to fight some kids you can't beat together?" said Tonks sarcastically, "Thanks a lot." She then winked at Harry to show she wasn't mad. "Remus, would you start the match?"
Within seconds Harry found himself moving as fast as he could as the auror kept firing shot after shot at him. He had tried to move away from each blast, but knew that some had only been stopped by his shield. He knew he'd have to stay on the defensive against this opponent, and simply look for openings when he had the chance. After several minutes, both of them were sweating profusely. Harry had managed to get a few shots at the auror, but she'd dodged them all. Harry tried to come up with a strategy. Her shield was probably too strong to penetrate even if he could get a shot in, but what about the floor. He pointed his hand toward her, and she instinctively moved out of the way, onto a piece of floor that broke loose, causing her to trip and fall. He saw her grip on her wand falter for a second. That was all it took for the wand to fly into Harry's hand. He pointed it at his opponent, but she raised her hands and said while panting, "I give. You don't have to stupify me." Harry, while panting himself, walked up to her and helped her up. He then looked at the floor, which instantly repaired itself. "You didn't point your hand at the floor to make it fix itself, and a minute ago, you were pointing your hand at me but the floor a few feet away from me broke. How did you do that?"
Harry and Hermione both smiled. She said, "Wandless magic has nothing to do with where our hands are pointing. We only move our hands out of habit."
"Well then," said the obviously impressed auror, "You should stop using your hands at all. The only reason I lasted as long as I did was because Harry was moving his hands, indicating his intention. If you don't move your hands at all, no one will know what you're doing. They won't even know it was you that did it! They'll be looking around for whoever cast the spell. I think the best use of our dueling time will be breaking you of that habit. Give me a few minutes to catch my breath Hermione, and I'll duel you next."
They spent the next hour or so taking turns dueling Tonks, who was always able to hold her own until they stopped pointed their hands where they were aiming. After they took a break for the lunch Dobby prepared, Tonks said, "Now we're going to start with the physical combat training, although I'd be surprised if anyone ever gets close enough to you two for you to use it."
"Nymphadora," said Lupin, earning a glare from the young auror, "you know that Death Eaters don't fight fair. Harry and Hermione may find themselves greatly outnumbered, and be forced to use this training. That's one of the reasons their training has to be secret, so that anyone who wants to attack them will underestimate them."
"Alright, alright. At least this is something I should be able to beat you two at, at least for now. By the way, Lupin, if you ever call me that again, I'll use you as a shield against these two."
After spending time showing them basic fighting moves, she had them practice first on the air, and then on each other. At first, Harry objected to fighting his girlfriend, but Hermione firmly stated, "I need this training! If you don't try to attack me, I won't be prepared to fight someone who's really trying to hurt me!" Tonks gave them specific things to practice during the week and, to Hermione's delight, a book on martial arts.
-
A few days later, Harry was outside sitting near the pool while Hermione was swimming. He was playing on his Gameboy Advance, when an old owl Harry recognized as Errol, the Weasley's owl, flew into his hand, causing the small game system to fly out of his hand and into the pool."
"You stupid owl! Hermione, you want some roast owl for dinner tonight?"
"No," said a smirking Hermione. "I'll get your toy."
"Won't it be ruined?" asked a concerned Harry.
"It would be if I hadn't thought to make the system and the games impervious before I gave them to you."
"The same thing you did to my glasses at that match where I fell?"
"Yes. Your broom was destroyed, your body was hurt, but your glasses were perfectly in tact. I did the same thing to my laptop."
"Could you do that to mine?"
She sighed, "I suppose so, but I should make you do it yourself."
"Ok, we can summon it and you can show me how after I read the letter this bloody bird brought me."
Hermione got out of the water and wandlessly summoned Harry's Gameboy out of the water, and then his laptop out of the house while Harry read the note. Harry had a big smile on his face when he got through. "The note's from Ginny. Mr. Weasley got the tickets! We're going to the Quidditch World Cup!"
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