Chapter 4 Drill Instructors
Harry dreamed that a dragon was chasing Ron. He swooped down to rescue him but Ron couldn't fit on his Firebolt because Hermione was taking up too much space. Then Harry fell off and the dragon came after him. The dragon changed into Dolores Umbridge and Harry couldn't run away. He struggled to move his legs.
He woke up. He was in Hermione's bed. Crookshanks was sleeping on his legs.
Harry vowed to write Ron a letter later in the day. He decided he wouldn't mention the part about sleeping in Hermione's bed. Maybe he wouldn't mention the beach trip at all.
He looked around Hermione's bedroom. He hadn't really gotten a good look at things last night. Prominent among the stuffed animals were two dogs, one yellow and the other green. There were awards from the school she had attended before Hogwarts. There was an old picture of a couple with two boys. One boy was about Harry's age and looked like Hermione's dad. The other boy looked to be about five. That would be Jason he thought. There was a picture of a very young Hermione cuddling a purple poodle. It looked like a real dog, except for being purple. There was a picture of Hermione's family at what appeared to be a birthday party in the garden, during summer. Her dad held skis and goggles and poles that looked very out of place in the summer scene. Hermione looked to be about three or four. Next to that one was another picture of the three year old Hermione. This one was a close up. She was wearing the same summer dress. Her face was beaming and there was snow in her hair.
"Good Morning," said Jack Granger coming into the room. "Diane has fixed breakfast. Come down as soon as you are ready. We'll be taking you home by a round about way. We'll change cars midway. You should hide under that nifty cloak of yours."
Before Mr. Granger could leave the room, Harry stopped him with a question. "Why is this dog purple?" he asked indicating the picture of Hermione with the poodle.
Mr. Granger laughed. "His name was Fritz. Nasty yapping little mutt, but Diane and Hermione doted on him. They spoiled him completely, he was their dog." Then he pointed to the yellow and green stuffed dogs. "Those were the precious puppies, cartoon characters, way too sweet. There were three of them. Hermione got the yellow one and the green one for her fourth birthday. We promised her that she would get the purple one for Christmas, but three months is a long time for a little girl to wait. I came home from class one day in early October and she told me that I could buy her a different present for Christmas. Fritz had turned into the purple precious puppy. That started the pastel animal phase. You never knew when you might see a lavender sparrow or a pink rabbit or a pale blue squirrel somewhere around the neighborhood."
It was almost mid-morning when Harry returned to 4 Privet Drive. He walked the last two blocks under the cover of his invisibility cloak and went around the house to enter through the back door. Aunt Petunia had a list of chores for him to do but after lunch he was free to go over to Mrs. Figg's house. Mrs. Figg had told his aunt that she needed Harry's help moving furniture.
"Good news, Harry," said a smiling Mrs. Figg, when Harry arrived in her living room. "I received permission from the Ministry of Magic for you to use you wand in my house. Now you won't have to break your back to move my furniture."
She showed Harry the letter from the Ministry. It said that he had permission to use specific charms and spells in Mrs. Figg's house, provided there were no Muggles present. It went on to list the spells that he could use: levitation, summoning, repulsion, packing, breaking, repairing and cleaning.
"Thank you, Mrs. Figg," said Harry. "It'll be good to have some practice with these spells. What pieces of furniture do want moved?"
"Oh I don't want you to move any of my furniture, everything is exactly where I want it," she said mischievously. “Dumbledore suggested that you needed some practice using objects to block spells. You need some self defense exercise."
Harry couldn't help but smile at Mrs. Figg's enthusiasm but he didn't see how he could learn much about casting defensive spells from a squibb.
"Are you going to teach me some defensive spells?" Harry asked playfully.
"Oh goodness no," said Mrs. Figg. "You know the spells for moving objects around. We're just going to practice what you learned at school. You can try to manipulate several objects at the same time. You can work on precision of movement and speed."
She pulled out a black object that looked a bit like a flashlight or a marker pen.
"This is my magic wand," she said gleefully. "It's a laser pointer that I bought at an office supply store. I'll say some incantation and point it at you, like this. And if you have a red spot on you, you're dead!"
There was an intense red light shining from Mrs. Figg's pointer. Harry looked at his chest and saw a red dot of light near his heart.
"Now dear, just levitate that hassock straight up about three or four feet so it blocks the laser beam," she ordered.
Harry levitated the hassock until the red spot on his chest disappeared.
"That's the way dear!" she exclaimed. "Now we'll play hide and seek laser tag. I'll count to ten while you go into the parlor. When I'm done counting, I'll come into the parlor and blast you with a killing spell from my laser pointer magic wand. You have to put some object between you and me that blocks the little red spot."
Mrs. Figg started counting to ten. Harry was a bit taken back. He had rarely played hide and seek with Dudley for fun. He had mostly hidden from Dudley to avoid getting beat up.
"I'm up to 5, Harry dear, you had better run," teased Mrs. Figg
.
Harry dashed into the parlor and started to look for some object he could levitate. That table lamp, it had a fat round base.
"10," said Mrs. Figg loudly. "Ready or not here I come!"
"I'm Mr. Rookwood, and I'm going to blast you good," she said happily.
Harry levitated the lamp and moved it towards the middle of the room to block Mrs. Figg's line of fire.
She raised the laser pointer and said "owhoopeedoo iseeyou".
Harry tried to make a quick move with the fat lamp as she was saying her goofy incantation. He almost got the lamp into position when the lamp's electric cord knocked a cat picture off an end table. The picture frame shattered when it hit the floor. The lamp came to a sudden stop a foot short of where Harry wanted it to be. There was a red dot on his belly.
"Oh no!" cried out Mrs. Figg, "The bad guys got Harry!"
"Electric cords…" said Harry, "there are a lot of things around here that are not as mobile as they look."
Harry repaired the picture frame and glass and put the lamp back on the end table.
"Let's try that again Harry dear," said Mrs. Figg sweetly as she returned to the kitchen.
"Since you're already in the parlor, I'll just count to five. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5!" She counted so fast Harry didn't have time to think at all. "Here comes Mr. McNair to suck out your air."
She suddenly appeared in the door with her laser pointer aimed right at him.
"Vacuumous yourlungsout," she shouted playfully.
Harry dove behind her tattered old recliner chair knocking over a floor lamp and breaking the globe.
"Oh I missed," she exclaimed. "Harry you're not supposed to dive behind things, this is levitation practice."
"It worked didn't it," he said defensively.
"I suppose it did," she admitted, "but my spell hit the chair. It would be gone now. Harry, would you please hit that beat up old chair with a reducto curse."
He cast the spell on the chair and it crumbled to dust. He was down on his knees with a batty old woman aiming a laser pointer right at him.
"Thank you dear, now I have a clear shot," she said triumphantly
.
"Wingardium leviosa," yelled Harry.
"Vacuumous yourlungsout," yelled Mrs. Figg.
The picture frame that Harry had just repaired flew through the air and partially blocked the red laser dot that briefly appeared on his chest.
"That's better!" said Mrs. Figg. "I probably just winded you with that attack. But maybe you should use a bigger object for your shield next time."
Harry repaired the lamp he had knocked over and then he repaired the picture frame again. There was nothing to be done with the dust of Mrs. Figg's old chair but to sweep it up and chuck it into the bin. Mrs. Figg was happy because she wanted to buy a new chair anyway. Harry took advantage of the break to study the room. He picked out several objects that he could use for shields like a footstool and a sofa cushion.
Mrs. Figg played laser tag with Harry for over an hour. It was great fun. It was abundantly clear that Mrs. Figg knew nothing about offensive magical spells or incantations, but she knew the names of a lot of Death Eaters and she was very creative at inventing silly spell names and incantations.
"I'm Mr. Nott, I'll make you rot - Festerous fungusmold".
"I'm Mrs. Lestrange, I'll give you some pains – Wagoney Ofagony".
"I'm Mr. Malfoy, I'm going to kill you boy - Homocido Manio".
By the end of an hour Harry had improved enough to block some of her shots. He had also gotten a lot of practice repairing broken furniture. Then Mrs. Figg brought out tea and biscuits.
"We'll work on levitating objects to block spells for about an hour a day for the rest of the week," she said cheerfully. "I haven't had so much fun in ages."
"It's difficult to float objects to just exactly the right place at just exactly the right time," observed Harry. "This practice might actually be useful, and it's fun!"
Harry helped himself to another biscuit.
"It's so ironic," said Mrs. Figg. "Here I am helping to train the most powerful young wizard in Britain, and I'm a Squibb! Have you been reading your spells this summer?" she asked.
"In the evenings," answered Harry. "I've been practicing summoning too."
"Is that wise, Harry?" asked Mrs. Figg. "You're still underage."
"I think I can get away with it if I don't do any big spells and especially if I don't use my wand," rationalized Harry. "I think the Ministry of Magic ignores the stuff that happens around kids because they don't use wands."
"Magic without your wand?" said an amazed Mrs. Figg. "Does it work? What are you doing?"
Harry placed his wand on the table and held his hand about a foot away from it.
"Accio," he said.
The wand rolled to his fingertips.
"That could be useful if you can increase your range," observed Mrs. Figg. "You should practice that one here too. You have permission from the Ministry to use summoning charms in my house to help move furniture."
When Harry got back to the Dursleys' house he noticed Uncle Vernon's car was parked out in the driveway. Then to his great surprise he saw that Dudley was working, yes working, in the garage.
"What's up Dudder's?" asked Harry as he entered the garage.
"I don't want to get out of shape this summer," Dudley declared. "I have a boxing title to defend."
He had turned the garage into a gym with weights, punching bags and sparring gear.
"Wonderful," observed Harry grimly.
"You want to learn how to box?" asked Dudley.
"What? So I can be your punching bag? Those days are over Dudley." said Harry bitterly.
"Oh I've got punching bags," Dudley said brightly. "I need a sparring partner."
"I don't think so," said Harry.
"Don't be a chicken," taunted Dudley. "Boxing is a sport. No one ever gets hurt. You wear a sparring helmet and a mouthpiece and of course gloves. And I'd have to teach you some basic moves or you'd be worthless to me as a sparring partner."
"You want to teach me to box?" said Harry incredulously.
"In two or three weeks you'll be up to speed. Then you can spar with me," answered Dudley.
"Alright," said Harry. He thought that working out and learning some boxing moves would be worthwhile. He had no intention of ever really sparring with Dudley Dursley.
Harry's routine for the third week of summer vacation was: chores in the morning, practice levitating objects in the afternoon, lifting weights, and learning to box in the evening. Then he would write a letter and read some spells before bed. There was nothing like keeping busy to take one's mind off of Lord Voldemort. Harry's sleep was untroubled by strange dreams or visions. He didn't think about why that should be so. Occlumency practice was soon forgotten.
The best part of the third week of summer was the mail. On Tuesday, Harry got an owl from Ron that told him about the Dragon census work. He also got a package in the Muggle post. It came from a photography studio in Hastings. His Aunt and Uncle both stared at him suspiciously as he opened the package.
"Who would send you something in the normal mail?" demanded Uncle Vernon. "Are you sure it's safe to open that thing?"
It turned out to be a framed photo of Hermione on the beach.
"Humpf," grunted Uncle Vernon. "Misguided girl. Too skinny too."
Dudley was more favorably impressed. "Cute girlfriend you've got," he said.
"She's a good friend," said Harry, "but she's not my girlfriend."
"Humpf," grunted Dudley, "she sends a bikini picture and she's just a good friend? I've always known you were strange but I never thought you were stupid. If she's not your girlfriend, will you introduce me to her?"
"Oh Dudley," said Harry, "I don't think so. She's a witch. She's talented. She's smart. She studies hard. She's thoughtful and kind. She's brave and loyal. She's attractive. You have absolutely nothing in common with her."
On Wednesday Harry got an owl from Professor McGonagall. He was invited to return to Hogwarts for two and a half weeks to be a student instructor at the YWWMC, Youmg Wizards' and Witches' Magic Camp. It was a program for young kids from wizard families. The children would spend a week at Hogwarts having fun and learning a bit about magic. There were two sessions that lasted one week each. Each year two of the older students from each house were chosen as instructors. The student instructors would get a few days of training before the first batch of kids arrived.
The student instructors also had to form an all-Hogwarts Quidditch team. They had to do this in a week and a half! They would play an exhibition game at the end each week to entertain the kids. Their opponents this year would be the Chudley Cannons and the Tutshill Tornados. Harry thought the Hogwarts team would be smashed by the professionals, even if they had a year to practice. But it would entertain the kids and give the professionals an easy pre-season workout.
Harry was overjoyed! He was going back to Hogwarts in mid-summer.
On Thursday a letter from the Grangers arrived for Harry by Muggle post.
Dearest Harry,
I have permission to exchange letters with my parents once a week. I am secretly slipping this letter for you in with the letter to mom and dad. Address your reply to our house and send it by Muggle post. Mom will forward your letters to me along with theirs.
I am safe here, so you don't have to worry about me. My protectors are absolutely trustworthy. They just don't like me. We don't understand each other. They never talk to me. The first two days have been very hard. The work is exhausting and I'm lonely.
Please write to me. Tell me everything that's going on. I constantly worry about you. If nothing interesting is happening around you, then tell me all of the boring details. Did you get the photo I ordered? Have you heard from Ron or Ginny? Is there any war news in the Daily Prophet? Have you been able to practice magic?
Being cut off like this makes me realize how important friends are. Harry you have such an awful burden to bear. You will need all of the friends you can get. If you offended anybody last semester, student or teacher, you should write to them and try to patch things up.
Dumbledore is the only human who knows where I am and I haven't seen him since Sunday night. You are the only wizard I am in contact with. Please write. I have nothing here to read.
Yours,
Hermione
Harry found the letter from Hermione to be as disturbing as it was reassuring. It was good to hear from her. It was important that she be safe. But it sounded like she was unhappy. Surrounded by non-humans? Where was she? She had to have permission to exchange one letter a week with her parents? Was she in prison? He found himself staring at her photo a lot. He wrote a long letter to her about laser tag, boxing and chores.
Hermione was concerned about him. She said that he needed all of the friends he could get and that he should write apology letters to people he had offended. What did she mean by that? Who had he offended? Snape? Harry did not like the idea of apologizing to him. He would start with someone else. Who else had he offended? Zacharias Smith? That can't be what she was talking about.
Should he apologize to Ron and Ginny and Luna and Neville for almost getting them all killed? They would forgive him, but he should say "I'm sorry, I'll be more careful next time."
Was there anybody else? Cho Chang did some crying last semester. Harry decided to write her first.
Dear Cho,
I'm sorry I was such a jerk last semester. I hurt your feelings and I regret it.
I would like to be your friend.
I know we are attracted to each other, but it is probably best for you if I am not your boyfriend. I could never replace Cedric. His death still haunts me. I share your grief over his loss. I went from being jealous of Cedric, to respecting him, to genuine friendship. We agreed to share the glory of winning the Triwizard Cup. Then we were suddenly in that graveyard and he was the only friend I had. Then he was murdered.
I heard that you were seeing Michael Corner. I think he's OK. You need a guy who was in the DA and who can protect you during this war.
I admire the way you stuck up for Marietta Edgecomb. It shows that you are loyal to your friends. I'm not angry at her anymore. I know how difficult it is to stand up in the face of political pressure. Tell her that if she apologizes to me, I'll forgive her.
Harry
On Wednesday morning of the fourth week of summer, Harry boarded the Knight Bus to travel to Hogwarts. Dedalas Diggle and Elphias Doge, were on the bus when he got on board. He took all of his stuff in his big trunk because he wasn't sure what he would need.
Harry met the rest of the YWWMC student instructors at lunch in the Great Hall. Katie Bell was the other student from Gryffindor. The students from Hufflepuff were Ernie MacMillan and Cindy Chambers. From Ravenclaw the instructors were Michael Corner and to Harry's surprise Cho Chang. From Slytherin it was Harry’s nemesis Draco Malfoy and his girlfriend Pansy Parkinson. Working with them was going to be difficult. Pansy wasn't a Quidditch player, because the Slytherin team was all male. But they had seven players without her.
Since there were only eight sixth and seventh year student instructors they ate at the same table along with the Hogwarts teachers that would train them and provide adult leadership. To Harry's great relief Professor Snape was not among them.
Harry wasn't sure what to expect from Cho, they were not on speaking terms when he had last seen her. But Cho gave Harry a smile and pointed him to an empty seat between her and Katie Bell.
"Hi Harry," Cho said with a warm smile. "Your apology is accepted. That was a nice letter you wrote. Friends?"
"Thanks Cho," said Harry said Harry smiling back. "Yes, friends."
"Have you seen the schedule yet?" she asked.
"No, where can I get one?" asked Harry.
"Professor McGonagall has them. We'll be working together for flying classes," Cho informed him enthusiastically. The Magic class this year is called Self Defense, we'll be doing that one together too."
"Self defense?" said Harry incredulously. "I thought these were young children. They won't even have wands."
"We provide them with some cheap bamboo wands that we have to enchant before class. The kids can't really cast spells, but they can set off those that are preloaded into the wands. It makes them think they can do magic," she explained.
"You sound like an expert," said Harry. "Have you done this before?"
"I was an instructor last year," she said. "It's a lot of work so pay close attention during training classes."
The children could get themselves in a lot of trouble and even danger if they ran around Hogwarts unsupervised, so the idea was to keep them busy with activities all day long. There were eight activities for the kids: Flying supervised by Madam Hooch, Magical Creatures supervised by Mrs. Grumbly-Plank, Famous Witches and Wizards supervised by Madam Pince, Sports and Games supervised by Professor McGonagall, Self-Defense supervised by Professor Flintwick, First Aid supervised by Madam Pomfrey, Potions and Cooking supervised by Professor Sprout and Swimming, which was supervised by Professor Vector who normally taught arithmancy
.
Harry was assigned to Sports and Games and First Aid in the mornings and Flying and Self Defense in the afternoons. Professor Vector seemed to be a bit disappointed that Harry would not be working with her. She seemed to believe that he was good at rescuing people from the lake. The student instructors spent the rest of Wednesday and all of Thursday and Friday in training sessions with the course supervisors, and with Quidditch practice.
It was a lot of work, especially preparing for the Magic Class in Self Defense. Like Cho had said, they had a box of cheap bamboo wands with a flobber worm heart for the core. A talented wizard could use one to do simple spells, but they weren’t very good. For the kids to get anything out of them they had to be enchanted with specific spells beforehand. Since a flobber worm heart has six chambers, each wand could store up to six spells. Harry finally learned what magical thing flobber worms do. Their hearts have no muscles, they pump blood magically. The wands were loaded with spells for Levitation, the Imperturbable Charm and a Shield Charm, two shots of each. To preload a single spell into one of the wands required two charms, one to enchant the wand to accept a spell and then the spell itself. Harry and Cho had to cast twelve charms to load each wand, and they had a whole box of bamboo wands to load. He soon understood why Professor Flintwick supervised this class. It was a lot of charms work.
The sports and games class involved a lot of relay races and various ball games, usually involving some sort of enchanted ball or bat or another object. The purpose of this class was to give the kids a good physical workout so they would be easier to manage in the other classes. Professor McGonagall would tell them what to do and blow a whistle. Harry could see that he and his partner, Cindy Chambers would be getting a workout too.
Harry's partner for First Aid class was Pansy Parkinson. Harry was glad he didn't have to work with Draco Malfoy. It was at least possible to work with Pansy.
Flying class would be the best. Harry could use his Firebolt and he got to work with Cho. They would concentrate on teaching the kids basic maneuvers, landing, flying through hoops and the like. Madam Hooch made Cho and Harry practice the spell for stopping a falling object over and over and over again. She wanted them to be prepared to catch any children that fell off of their brooms.
Madam Hooch also helped the student instructors to organize their Quidditch team.
To choose their team captain, each student wrote the name of his choice for captain on a piece of paper and they tallied up the votes. Harry voted for Katie Bell a Gryffindor chaser. Katie only got one vote. Ernie MacMillan got two votes. That surprised Ernie, because he and Cindy Chambers had conspired to both vote for Harry. Harry got four votes and was declared to be the captain.
They had two players from each house except Slytherin, but the team didn't have a perfect mix of skills. There were two chasers, Katie Bell from Gryffindor and Cindy Chambers from Hufflepuff. They needed to have three chasers. They had two beaters, Michael Corner from Ravenclaw and Ernie MacMillan from Hufflepuff. They didn't have a keeper, but they had three seekers, Harry, Cho and Draco. They only needed one seeker. Harry had to choose one of the seekers to be the keeper and one to be a chaser. Harry selected Malfoy to be the keeper. He thought Cho was a better seeker than Malfoy and Katie and Cindy did not want Malfoy to be a chaser. Harry chose Cho as the seeker and he became the third chaser.
They practiced every day. Harry knew they would be beaten by the professionals, but he didn't want to be humiliated.
Harry decided to use his time in the evenings at Hogwarts to do a bit of research in the library. He had to figure out what sort of power he had that Lord Voldemort knew nothing about. He visited with Madam Pince in the library and checked out a pile of spell books. He planned to study the spell books in his room, which he had all to himself.
On Saturday morning after Quidditch practice, most of the student instructors went into Hogsmead, but Professor McGonagall thought it would be better if Harry stayed in the castle. She had learned of his furniture moving job at Mrs. Figg's and she had a job for him to do. In the east wing of the castle there were two rooms that were used to store enchanted items. To a Muggle these rooms would appear to be full of worthless old junk, but it was magical junk. Harry's job was to put all of the enchanted stuff into one of the rooms so the other room could be cleaned up and used as a classroom for the YWWMC.
He started by rearranging the junk that was in the room he was to pack. His plan was to clear enough space to bring in the junk from the other room that he had to empty. While he was working on this chore, he found an old friend. It was the Mirror of Erised.
Harry had all day Saturday to finish moving the junk from one room to the other. The Mirror of Erised proved to be a powerful temptation. After he had rearranged all of the things in that room so he could bring in the stuff from the other room, he gave in and pulled the sheet off of the enchanted mirror. He knew that the mirror merely showed him his heart's deepest desire, not the truth. There was no reality or predictive value to what he would see. When Harry was eleven, he saw his parents in the mirror. He thought it wouldn't hurt to dream about being with them for a few minutes. But Harry wasn't eleven anymore, what he saw was a surprise.
The Harry in the mirror was grown up. Imagine that, Harry thought, my deepest desire is to live long enough to grow up. There were children. He saw his wife. Why hadn't he seen this coming? His eyes were drawn especially to the boy, his first child, his son. Harry guessed he was about ten. The boy had wild black hair and glasses, like Harry. He smiled and waved at Harry. He had golden brown eyes, Hermione's eyes.
He covered up the mirror and sat down on the floor. He had to think about this.
Could this fantasy possibly come true?
He had to kill Lord Voldemort. How could he do this? He had no clue.
Everyone he had ever been close to had been murdered. Hermione's near death haunted him. He couldn't put her in such danger. If he loved her, he should forget his heart's deepest desire. She would be better off with someone else. Ron cared for her. Ron was from a large family of wizards, he could protect her.
He sat there through lunch. He didn't get up until mid afternoon.
As Harry walked slowly down the darkened corridor he heard a sound coming from a classroom. There was no one else in this part of the castle. But there was a swishing sound. Like a snake crawling across a floor.