Harry sidestepped a yellow cutting curse, shielded from a bone-breaker before returning fire with a piercing curse, a bludgeoner, and a stunner, non-verbally. He was currently fighting with two auror level training dummies. While not as good as dueling a real auror, it was sufficient for practice as he used two dummies currently.
Harry's past month was spent in classes and training with the two founders. He could now shoot 10 stunners in 2.57 seconds. That was really good progress. The ritual he had done on the day of the equinox was really beneficial. He could now dodge spells at the rate of 4 spells a second at the maximum of four minutes. The Auror dummies he now dueled with, could fire various spells, bone breakers being the worse of them. It was useful to practice dueling. It also defended itself with shields and moving. So a proper dueling session could be held with them. That dummy only fired 3 spells a second, so he was faster than the dummy now, leading him to use two dummies at a time instead of a single one. Two dummies instead of one-hit wizard level-dummy was a tougher challenge, but it was also better in another way as the Hit-wizard dummy fired much more dangerous spells at the rate of 9 spells in two seconds. It was dangerous to use them.
He finished the session as he hit the head of a dummy with a Lacero, an advanced cutter exclusively used in dueling, and pierced the chest of the other dummy with a flaming arrow. "Excellent, you defeated them both, even though you sustained injuries. Take the healing potions then we will talk about how you can improve." Salazar said. This was the common practice between them. Harry would duel the dummies, heal himself and then get tips from the two Founders about where he could improve.
Since he had joined them more than five months ago, his prowess in magic had grown by leaps and bounds. Sometimes he even surprised Helga and Salazar by mastering spells faster than they expected. The Patronus charm was the biggest surprise to date for them or so they told him. "We had expected you to do the spell successfully by December, not in our wildest dreams we had guessed that you would get it on your third try itself, that too a fully corporeal one. It is one of the toughest spells in the world, many Aurors can not do it. In fact, one of the requirements, if you want to get the job of a hit-wizard, is producing a corporeal Patronus." Helga had told him. He was proud of his achievements. He was being lauded for something he had actually done and not for something that had happened when he was a year old.
His other studies were going well except for the mage sight. He was still not able to see magic. The founders had said that it took time but, Harry had not expected it to take this much time! His mind place was being created. The base structure of the castle was ready. He had ended up with a five-floor castle and two-level dungeon along with his version of the chamber of secrets which was accessible by what would be the third-floor bathroom in his mind place. Here were his actual memories. The other floors and rooms would be decoys for a Legilimens. He was currently in the process of creating these rooms. A mind battle, the scenario in which a Legilimens fights an Occlumens for accessing the memories could take anywhere between minutes to hours in the mind, but would merely be seconds outside, could be prolonged enough by these decoys to break the eye contact and thus protecting the Occlumens secrets.
On another note, he had also started the practice of Legilimency. He could only read the emotions of a person as he had tried it out on a few people. Salazar had also started teaching him parselmagic. It couldn't be cast silently. Parselmagic, was a branch of magic that dealt mostly in the fields of healing and wards. There were curses and combat spells but they were a few compared to the numerous wards and healing spells. Parselmagic made the best, the strongest, and the most effective wards and healing spells. This was the reason that there the Staff of Aesculapius had snakes and was the symbol of healers.
Harry put the dummies aside and called for Dobby to bring him some fruits to eat. He sat down for a lecture on wards that would be given by Helga. He had read about a lot of wards from the Potter Family Grimoire. Also, his ancestors had invented a plethora of useful spells ranging from normal household charms to curses and Battle magic. Most interesting was the information about his own invisibility cloak.
The invisibility cloak was a priceless heirloom of his family. The book spoke about it being the same cloak that Ignotus Peverell, the youngest brother in the story of the Deathly Hallows and their ancestor, had received from death. The cloak was by no means an ordinary one. It was completely spell resistant and hid the wearer completely. No detection charms, wards, magical artifacts or spells would detect a blood-bound wearer when under it. He could walk into any wards, even the best ones, undetected. He had immediately blood bound it by the method mentioned in the grimoire. The cloak had glowed and accepted his magic. He could now use the cloak to its full potential.
After the lecture, he used the time-turner to go back in time and restart his day.
Today was Halloween. This day sucked for Harry. This was the Death Anniversary of his parents. This was the day he had faced the troll in his first year. Last year, the first attack by Tom Riddle had taken place. He hoped that this year, nothing unfortunate would happen. On a positive note, today was the first Hogsmeade weekend. After breakfast they had formed a queue in the antechamber next to the Great Hall. Harry was dressed in a Black full-sleeve shirt, whose sleeves he had folded at the elbow and light blue jeans. He was spending the day with Ron and Hermione.
As they lined up, Draco shot him a glare and Harry waved back cheekily. The boy had not approached any of his friends after the howler from his father. Apparently he had realized how much damage Harry could do if he wanted. 'Or perhaps his father told him to stay out of my way' Harry thought. He saw Daphne with Tracy Davis and gave her a wink. Daphne rolled her eyes but smiled at him nonetheless. They were soon cleared by McGonagall and they boarded a carriage which would take them to Hogsmeade.
The village was calmer than the hustle and bustle of Diagon Alley. The houses looked nice as if taken straight out of a post-card. Shops were selling various things. There was a apothecary, a couple of clothing stores, a green grocer, Honeydukes sweet shop, Dervish and Banges, the wizarding equipment shop, Zonko's Joke Shop, the Three Broomsticks, an inn, an ice cream shop, a coffee shop, among many others.
Hermione had dragged them to the small bookstore in the village despite Ron's protest. Whilst Hermione browsed through the books, Harry bought a couple of books for Christmas presents. They then proceeded to Honeydukes as per Ron's request to buy sweets. Harry stocked up on his chocolates. He did not try the disgusting sounding ones like blood pops, Maggot squares and cockroach cluster. 'Who would eat cockroach flavored sweets?' Harry thought to himself.
They finally got out of the shop and started exploring the village. Some girls looked at Harry like he was a piece of meat to be devoured. He was a bit uncomfortable by that but was delighted that girls were interested in him. Which thirteen year old wizard won't be happy by the fact that older girls were shooting him appreciative looks?
They went to Three Broomsticks and bought Butterbeer. It contained a little amount of Alcohol. One would need to drink a gallon of it just to get tipsy. The drink was heavenly. It lifted his mood further. Before leaving, he bought half dozen bottles and sent them with Dobby to be kept in the keep-cool box in his trunk. The trio then went to the inn to have lunch before roaming around the village. They saw the post office and the infamous shrieking shack, the most haunted place in Britain. He had to admit, the village had it's own charm.
He even bought a bracelet for Daphne as a Christmas present. He remembered their latest dueling session.
FLASHBACK
Harry was waiting in an abandoned classroom on the third floor. They had chosen this place to practice dueling every Saturday evening. Soon Daphne entered at the designated time.
"Hi! So, what's up?" Daphne asked. "Same old, same old. You know, classes, homework, Quidditch practice. I swear, this year Wood is going to wear us out. We have been practicing four days a week!"
"Oh, poor Harry! So much practice! I feel sooo sorry." Daphne said dramatically. "Yes, yes. Now let us practice." Harry said after he rolled his eyes at the girl's antics. Daphne and he had developed a friendship over the past month. She was fun to be with once you got over the ice-queen persona of hers. Harry enjoyed the couple of hours he spent with her once a week
Daphne took stance for dueling. "Your legs are too wide, it will hamper your balance. No, now they are too narrow." Harry tried correcting her.
"Can you come here and correct it?" Daphne asked in an odd voice. Harry blinked before he shrugged and went behind her. He moved her leg a little to correct the posture. Then moved to her arms. He gently raised her hand a little and then tilted her body so it would expose the least area. "Perfect." Harry said once he finished. Daphne looked oddly pleased with it. He went back to his place and took his stance. "Three... two... one. GO!"
("Expelliarmus") (Daphne)
"Everte statum"
("Hydrus")
Harry and Daphne started dueling. The first two spells were evaded by each of them. Next Daphne shot a glob of water at him. Daphne was a creative duelist. She was a fairly fast shooter, perhaps the fastest in their year if Harry was excluded. Harry could shoot spells silently, but had not revealed this to anyone. He always used verbal, wanded spells in public. Due to this their speed was evenly matched. You couldn't enunciate a spell faster than a possible level, unless you want to mess it up. He knew Daphne would be an excellent duelist when she grew older. She was fast, creative and used variety in her spells. The number of spells she knew was impressive for their age. But Harry was better. It was largely due to his training under the founders. If not for that, Daphne would have been better.
"Globus incendia" Harry returned fire with a fire ball. The two spells clashed and steam was produced.
("Stupefy"). Harry dodged
"Flippendo, Impendimenta"
Daphne avoided the first one but fell into the slowing hex. "Stupefy, Stupefy" Harry ended the duel. Daphne could not dodge as she was under the effects of impendimenta. Harry had won. 19-0 to Harry.
"Enervate" She woke up with a groan and took Harry's offered hand. "You won. Again." Daphne said. Harry smiled. "You are a great duelist, Daphne. There is no denying that. I am just faster at dodging. You should practice it." Daphne nodded. "Then let us do it. You shoot spells, I will dodge." Harry gave a thumbs up and took position. Daphne dodged stinging hexes for next hour. At the end of it she was moaning with pain. Harry had told her to take a break. But the girl was stubborn.
"I told you that we should wrap up dodging for the day, thirty minutes ago. You should have listened." Daphne glared at him. "corpus cura dolore" He said waving his wand in a 8 shape motion. Relief spread through Daphne's body. The places where she was hit no longer pained that badly. "It will heal over the next few minutes. I will look forward to the next Saturday." Harry said.
Daphne nodded before smiling and pecking his cheek. "Thank you Harry. I too look forward to it." She left, leaving a mildly blushing Harry behind
FLASHBACK ENDS
As Harry remembered it, he touched the spot where she had kissed him. He smiled.
Soon the trio returned to school, a couple of hours before the Halloween feast.
After a scrumptious Halloween feast the trio of friends walked towards the Gryffindor tower. *When they reached the corridor that ended with the portrait of the Fat Lady, they found it jammed with students. "Why isn't anyone going in?" said Ron curiously. Harry peered over the heads in front of him. The portrait seemed to be closed.
"Let me through, please," came Percy's voice, and he came bustling importantly through the crowd. "What's the holdup here? You can't all have forgotten the password — excuse me, I'm Head Boy —" And then a silence fell over the crowd, from the front first, so that a chill seemed to spread down the corridor. They heard Percy say, in a suddenly sharp voice, "Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick."
People's heads turned; those at the back were standing on tiptoe. "What's going on?" said Ginny, who had just arrived. A moment later, Professor Dumbledore was there, sweeping toward the portrait; the Gryffindors squeezed together to let him through, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione moved closer to see what the trouble was.
"Oh, my —" Hermione grabbed Harry's arm. The Fat Lady had vanished from her portrait, which had been slashed so viciously that strips of canvas littered the floor; great chunks of it had been torn away completely. Dumbledore took one quick look at the ruined painting and turned, his eyes somber, to see Professors McGonagall, Lupin, and Snape hurrying toward him. "We need to find her," said Dumbledore. "Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr. Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady."
"You'll be lucky!" said a cackling voice. It was Peeves the Poltergeist, bobbing over the crowd and looking delighted, as he always did, at the sight of wreckage or worry.
"What do you mean, Peeves?" said Dumbledore calmly, and Peeves's grin faded a little. He didn't dare taunt Dumbledore. Instead he adopted an oily voice that was no better than his cackle. "Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful," he said happily. "Poor thing." he added unconvincingly.
"Did she say who did it?" said Dumbledore quietly. "Oh yes, Professor-head," said Peeves, with the air of one cradling a large bombshell in his arms. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see." Peeves flipped over and grinned at Dumbledore from between his own legs. "Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black." *
All the Gryffindor students were Quickly ushered back to the Great Hall. Soon, they were joined by the other houses. Word quickly spread that Black had tried to break into the Gryffindor tower.
"Students, I request you all to calm down." Dumbledore's amplified voice spoke above all the whispers and chatters. Everyone paid attention to the Headmaster. "Thank you. As you all undoubtedly know by now that Sirius Black has broken into the castle and due to this we must conduct a search throughout the Castle. For your safety, tonight you will be staying in the Great Hall. Check now, for your friends. If any are missing, tell us now." People looked around but no one raised concern.
Dumbledore nodded. "Very well. Prefects, Head Boy and Head Girl will stand guard over you all and so will Professor Vector and Professor Burbage. Of course you will be needing, this." He waved his wand and the House tables parted. Another wave and Hundreds of sleeping bags appeared for students.
Harry's eyebrows raised at the casual display of powerful magic. Mass conjuring a dozen bags would not be a problem, but more than 500 bags? That, required a massive amount of magic. Dumbledore had shown exactly why he was regarded as the most powerful wizard alive. If someone else had conjured this, they would be on their knees, tired due to the massive usage or outright passed out. Dumbledore was not even sweating, he was just breathing deeper than usual. A titan of magic indeed.
But Harry had a bigger problem. Sirius Black was at Hogwarts and had tried to break into the Gryffindor tower to kill him.