Chapter 12
Harry rose early the next day. He hurried slightly to pull an older sweater from Mrs. Weasley on top of a casual shirt to ward off the chill of the highlands. Once it was in place, his shoulders fell a bit. He rested a hand over his chest briefly, taking strength from the familiar wool. He then rummaged around for a pair of pants that Hermione had used as a project on undetectable expansion charms. He found one of his clean pairs, running a finger over the rune sequence to check the magic. Once he felt the familiar charges from his best friends still entwinned, he put them on. He then placed his most valuable possessions in the pockets. He finished by putting on his wand holder. After running through a mental checklist, he pushed aside his curtains to make his way downstairs.
"Morning" Parvati murmured as he came to sit next to her. Very few people were up, and she was taking advantage of it, scratching out an essay.
"Morning. Anything interesting happen after I went to sleep?" He asked as he adjusted to curl his legs up on the seat.
"Mostly just Lav and I helping calm Lily down some more. The detention really shook her, not that I blame her for it. It was bad enough to see you go through it, and that was just secondhand" She gave a soft sigh, rubbing one thigh aggressively to calm down. Her other hand finishing the sentence she was on. Harry reached over to give her upper arm a brief squeeze in support.
"I'm okay Parvati. I'm watching out for her, and keeping out of trouble" He whispered.
"Doesn't mean I like it, Har! We can barely do magic anywhere outside of class with her prowling around, and I know your magic has to be buzzing for release" She half-snarled, "Because mine certainly is. And I have my family gift taking some of the edge off!"
"Parvati, look at me" He ordered. She turned her emotion-filled gaze to meet his steadier one. "We have survived worse. Even with useless Lockhart, we got through the basilisk attacks. Everyone but me was unscathed in first year, with Voldemort in the school. We can figure this out. We'll find an empty classroom later and I can go at it with whoever wants to face me".
"So just Hermione and Ron" She joked half-heartedly. He snickered at that, nodding all the same.
"I heard my name?" said girl appeared from the staircase.
"Just going over a plan for the day. I'll probably see if anyone wants to go at it with me, which is likely you" Harry shrugged as Parvati returned to her essay. Hermione hummed softly, coming to perch on the chair arm next to the small boy after receiving a nod of permission.
"I want to speak to Luna, but I can always go find her in the afternoon. Your magic has been nippy lately, and it'd be good to practice" she offered.
"Excuse you, my magic doesn't get nippy. It's more like sparks!" Harry playfully scoffed.
"For anyone else, it would be sparks. But your magic recognizes that you trust us" Hermione ruffled his wild hair. Harry grumbled wordlessly before leaning to rest his head against her leg. His best friend's steady presence grounded him to the moment. For several peaceful minutes they sat like that, Harry lifted his head when a soft greeting came from behind him.
"Hello Leo, James, Remus, Peter" Hermione murmured calmly.
"Mm" Remus grunted, immediately claiming a chair to curl up into a ball in. Sirius sat in front of it, eyes glinting dangerously. None of the younger group commented on it. James glanced worriedly at the girl's staircase but took a seat on the floor next to Sirius. Peter glanced nervously at his friends but took the seat on the other side of the werewolf.
"Evans not up yet?" James finally asked.
"No. But she was up for a while trying to recover from detention. Mione will care for her hand when she does come down" Parvati reassured the worried boy.
"Do you have plans for the day?" Harry asked as a distraction.
"Probably will follow you around again" Sirius shrugged.
"So definitely one of the tucked away classrooms. Maybe the one in Slytherin territory, past their common room and Snape's quarters?" Harry mused out loud.
"Hmm, she does seem to favor them so we should have a bit of protection by being down there. It does present the problem of no windows in case we get a little overzealous though" Hermione pointed out.
"True, but the only other potential option is only a floor and a half above her office, and she'll likely be prowling around to catch anyone practicing" Harry rebuked.
"You're not wrong. We can have someone watch the Map and put up some muffling spells to watch our back, and we'll have to be careful with our spells" Hermione sighed in acceptance.
"Can you please give us some context to what you mean?" Peter asked when it was clear they had stopped.
"They're discussing doing some duels, since we need to let off some steam" Parvati didn't glance up from the book she was trying to paraphrase.
"Oh, that'll be fun" Ron softly spoke from behind his two best friends, coming to stand close to the chair. Both the shorter teens leaned against his torso once he stopped moving. Neville came around to sit next to Parvati, pulling out his non-class potions book to annotate.
"Mhm. Probably will be after breakfast since I want to meet up with Lu sometime today, and I know you're putting off Flitwick's assignment" Hermione added.
"The history of the charm's confusing! And you know Angie's gathering us as often as possible to go over tactics, plus our new classmates took away homework time! Add to that our Prefect duties, and older Pads, it made everything chaotic" Ron whined half-jokingly.
"Then suffer in chaos. It's no worse than Harry going spare first year after the Forest" Hermione deadpanned.
"I wasn't going spare!" Harry protested at the same time that Ron muttered "true".
"You very much were" Parvati added while Neville nodded. "We were considering staging an intervention."
"Maybe you should've. Then again, McGonagall didn't believe us when we were half-begging her to listen so" Harry shrugged.
"Maybe she was seeing me instead of you" James suggested. Harry snorted.
"Considering how she reacted a few weeks before that, she definitely was. Which sucks, but we long since accepted it" The younger Potter gave a sarcastic half-smile. "I'm going to head down to breakfast. Meet you at the classroom?"
"Sounds good Har" Ron tugged a tuft of hair gently. Harry smiled before standing to head down to breakfast, eating quickly before slipping down the dungeon halls. He saw Millicent and Blaise on their way to breakfast and exchanged nods in greeting. After he took a few false turns to ensure any trail lost him, he came to the door he wanted. Pushing it open, he wrinkled his nose at the layer of dust. The elves rarely cleaned the dungeon classrooms to make sure no adverse reactions occurred, so it was on him to clear it away this time. He sent an overpowered cleaning spell across the room, glad as it took some of the edge off of his buzzing magic. After making sure the duels would stir anything up, he found a place to sit and wait.
"Two on one or free for all?" Hermione asked as she finished tying up her hair.
"I say free for all. I think we all need the stress relief of an all-out" Ron looked around with a critical eye.
"Normal spells in a otherwise no holds barred" Harry decided, receiving two nods.
"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO" Neville yelled from the side lines, raising a strong shield in front of the observers. Harry immediately sprang forward, shouting two stunners back to back, twirling to avoid a return stunner. He saw Ron summoning a small flock of birds out of the corner of his eye, and immediately sent an arc of fire into the heart of the group. The remaining constructs fled from the blast and vanished as the redhead stopped feeding their spell, instead turning his magic to spread ice around Hermione's feet. She stopped firing spells rapidly to conjure bluebell flames to keep her footing secure. Harry dropped to the floor, rolling to hit the open spot Ron had left on his hip. The gangly boy dropped from the stunner, Harry flicking his wand to summon a cushion to catch him. He was already moving when Hermione's petrification jinx hit the spot he had come to rest. He wove a spell chain, the jelly legs jinx flowing into the levitation charm, into a petrification, a disarming spell and then a shield. He moved in a half arc as Hermione blocked most of it, dodging the disarming when her hurried shield failed. He scanned her defense with careful eyes, keeping on the move as she sent more spells his way. He jumped over the portion of the floor she attempted to transfigure to trap him. She hesitated too long at the end of a newer charm and he took the opening, getting a disarming spell to hit. Her wand went flying, which he reached up to catch in his opposite hand. He watched her hands as he swapped directions, waiting her out.
"Why isn't he stopping?" Lily's voice broke his focus for a second. He immediately hit the floor and rolled forward to avoid the knife thrown by Hermione.
"Because we aren't done. Never assume an opponent is defenseless without a wand. Most magic-raised are, but they may have second or third wands. And that's only magic-raised, impedimenta!" Harry lectured before breaking off to block another attack. "Yes, thank you Hermione. Anyways, muggle- or mix-raised mages are likely to know how to fight in other ways. As has been demonstrated by- Mione I am talking- this. Hermione may be one of the two people we know who can throw knives, but that doesn't stop others from using them in close combat. You may get punched or even shot by a gun, Hermione Jean Granger I will stun you"
"Do it coward, I know you're holding back to go strategy rather than brute force" She snarked back, wandlessly summoning her wand back from his loose grip. He sighed through his nose. Leaning slightly into the Slytherin magic, he sent out some spell chains in parseltongue. Hermione tried to block some of them while backing up and sidestepping the rest. "Nice, I didn't even hear you speak this time!"
"Got a bit of help from family magic" He called back, judging her stance before shooting several stinging hexes for one knee and the opposite foot. She yelped as most hit, shooting a bandaging spell to his wand hand. He simply twisted his arm away from the path. He sent several bright lights to hover around her head before summoning Prongs and pointing him to gallop at her, a stunning spell right behind the emotional construct. The teenaged girl fell onto a conjured cushion as the spell impacted her leg.
"Cancel all magic! Win goes to Harry with the stunning of Hermione and Ron" Neville announced, lowering his shield as Harry crossed the room to revive his friends.
"Was that the Patronus charm?" Remus asked in surprise as the two newly-revived teens sat up, blinking their eyes rapidly to ward off the effects.
"Hm? Oh, yeah. I've been able to do it since I was 13" Harry shrugged nonchalantly.
"Did...was that James?" Peter asked hesitantly. Harry's shoulders tensed slightly.
"Yeah. That was Dad. When I was learning it at 13, the memory that kept coming back most strongly was the night I lost my parents. It was the first time I could remember their voices, and it was their last moments. Dad's last words were 'Take Harry and run'. Mum's were begging for me to be spared. I don't know why my magic decided on Dad, but my patronus has been his animagus form since the first time I got it solid. It's like I got a piece of him back, prior to you guys coming" Harry leaned slightly against Neville, who had come to comfort him.
"I'm glad that you had that piece of future me" James approached slowly before placing a hand on Harry's shoulder. The younger boy pushed down a mix of complicated feelings to accept the small offered comfort.
"Hello" Luna's breezy voice announced her slip through the wards. Harry shivered at the feeling of the wards adjusting, straightening up.
"Lu.." he sighed in resignation at her innocent expression.
"Hermione and I were going to hang out. She didn't show up" The slightly ethereal girl pouted.
"Sorry Luna. We wanted to work out our magic for a bit" Hermione came to stand next to the other girl. The fourth year hummed before turning to look at Harry where he was tidying the room.
"Harry Potter, fight me" She demanded.
"Alright Luna. Just the two of us?" Harry turned to look at her. She nodded and stepped delicately to the middle of the cleared space. "Normal rules apply. Nev, you planning to duel?"
"I am. If you'll be with Luna, I'll be taking Hermione" Neville turned to the brown haired girl, who nodded in acceptance.
"I'll raise the shields. It'll be good practice for linking" Ron offered. Both pairs gave him a thumbs up before assuming dueling postures. At the signal, Luna sprang forward. Harry immediately sent several stinging jinxes at her as he slid to the side to regain distance. She landed just to spin in place to dodge the spells. Harry wove some nets into the floor as he moved to keep distance. Luna avoided them, throwing a transfiguration of her own at Harry. He ducked, throwing a sticky spell chain, immediately moving to trap her by repeating it at her back. Rather than let either hit, Luna flipped into the air. She transfigured the floor to a trampoline to continue flipping over the older boy. Harry grinned, using the transfiguration to launch some spells after her in an unpredictable array, adding more after a few seconds. Before he could do much more, Luna landed on his shoulder, and the pair went rolling across the floor, ending with Luna on her back with her wand at Harry's neck. He was crouched over her with his own wand aimed between her collarbones.
"Tie?" Harry asked quietly.
"Tie" Luna agreed, panting slightly. Harry stood up before offering a hand to her. She took it and they turned to see four shocked faces (the Marauders) and Hermione waiting for Neville to stir from where he was laying on some cushions.
"You are vicious" Sirius finally declared as Neville climbed to his feet and vanished the cushions as Ron dropped the shields.
"Eh, that's actually one of mine and Luna's tamer fights. And the free for all was more strategy than brute force as Mione pointed out" Harry stated honestly.
"How much magic do you have?!" The dog animagus asked incredulous.
"We've never quantified it. But Harry was brute forcing most of the spells first and second year. And he barely struggled third year with the patronus. Drove off how many Dementors that one time?" Hermione asked, unconcerned.
"100, at least" Ron answered first. "All of the ones present at the school at the time."
"I mean, even after that, I still have a lot of my reserves left. This just helps take some of the edge off" Harry sent a quick cleaning charm over himself before going to dismantle the wards.
"I'll be taking Hermione now" Luna stated, taking one of the other girl's elbows.
"Alright, have fun. Don't set anything on fire where teachers can see, don't wander too far into the forest, and make sure you have solid alibis for any other problems you cause" Harry said absentmindedly.
"And no setting Umbridge or Snape on fire" Ron added.
"No promises" Their best friend breezed out with her companion.
"We best get to the Great Hall, get a lot of eyewitnesses just to be safe" Neville shooed the nearest to the door out, resigned to having to clean up any problems that occurred. Harry and Ron trotted over to walk beside him, striking up a conversation about the use of Devil's Snare in potions.