After the tumultuous events of the previous days, Harry and Draco both found the unvarying school routine to be unbelievably dull. Neither one was much in the mood to be playing pranks, and even Quidditch seemed less important in the aftermath of the battle.
The boys focussed their energies on their extracurricular research and training, both with Remus and on their own. Harry spent a great deal of time practising the various new spells he had learnt from Voldemort's memories, as well as demonstrating them for Draco.
'I don't know if I feel comfortable using things you've learnt from Riddle,' Draco said hesitantly a couple of days after they returned.
'These spells aren't even special magic,' Harry pointed out. 'They're just very powerful battle spells. How are we going to defeat Riddle if we don't use every advantage we've got?'
'You have a point there, ' Draco admitted. 'But let's not turn into Dark Lords in the process.'
Harry laughed. 'I don't think you're in any danger of that, Draco.'
'I'm not the one I'm worried about,' his blood brother replied with a frown.
'I'm not going to become like Riddle, Draco,' Harry said coldly. 'I just watched him murder my parents ten times. I'm going to destroy him.'
'And I'll help you,' Draco promised. 'I have my own good reasons for hating Riddle.'
Harry smiled. 'Besides, I can't possibly imagine exchanging my fantastic good looks for red eyes and a snake face.'
Draco rolled his eyes and pulled out his wand. 'All right. Let's get on with business.'
They started with a variation of Fiendfyre Voldemort had invented for use in combat. It was just as deadly, but far easier to manipulate. More importantly, unlike Fiendfyre it had no life of its own, instead depending totally on the ongoing will of the wizard who created it. This made it far less likely that the wizard would lose control of it and end up destroying his own allies.
Harry had no problems conjuring the fire. He remembered how Voldemort had invented it, after all, and when he concentrated on it, there was a part of him that felt almost as if he had done it before. Draco had a rather more difficult time of it, but after a few days he had also managed to produce it. Controlling the flames, however, was another question, and Draco scorched the walls of several abandoned classrooms before he finally mastered the spell.
Remus used his lessons with the boys to teach them basic combat strategies. Harry found these incrediblyuseful, especially since there had been very little in Voldemort's memories that could help with this aspect of duelling. The Dark Lord's strategy tended to rely on his sheer superiority to overwhelm his opponents, and had developed a number of successful escape strategies as backup, which he was very quick to use the moment things started to look bad for him in a duel. He was not at all the type to persevere once the tide had turned.
Remus, however, had a very different philosophy of duelling. It wasn't as flashy as Voldemort's approach – or even Sirius's – but Harry found it to be highly effective. It was understated, and concentrated on using one's opponent's own weaknesses against him.
'Never use a complicated spell when a simple one will do,' Remus explained. 'Think of your "God Save The Queen" prank in the corridor. None of those spells was beyond third-year. It was the way you wove them together that made the prank so resistant to everyone's attempts to Vanish it.'
Draco looked confused. 'Once you figured it out, you were able to undo it in a second.'
'But it took me a good while to learn how it worked,' Remus replied. 'In a duel, your adversary won't have time to sit back and analyse your strategy.'
Draco frowned. He was clearly still sceptical. 'I don't get it,' he said. 'How can any amount of strategy overcome a massively more powerful opponent?'
'How about a demonstration, then?' Remus suggested. 'Aries, you and I will duel. I don't want you to hold back. Use your Parseltongue, unleash the full force of the Dark Lord's awesome power on me.'
Harry looked at the Transfiguration master in shock.
'How did you know about all that?' he asked.
'Padfoot tells me everything,' Remus said dismissively. 'And I've seen what's left of the classrooms after you and Draco have your "training" sessions.'
'Are you sure you want me to do this?' Harry asked. He didn't want to hurt Remus.
'Absolutely,' Remus said. 'Do your worst.'
Harry and Remus bowed to each other, and Harry decided to start off easy. He didn't really believe that the werewolf could withstand a fully-fledged assault.
'Osteolyso,' he muttered, but Remus easily blocked it with a simple Shield Charm.
'Come on, Aries,' he taunted. 'Is that the best the Heir of Slytherin can do?'
Harry narrowed his eyes and fired off a Blasting Curse. Remus dodged it, but Harry followed it up closely with a blast of fire, which managed to singe the edges of his teacher's robes.
'Now it's my turn,' the werewolf said with a glint in his eye. He Transfigured the nearby desks into angry hippogriffs. Harry growled.
'INIMICAPYRO!' he shouted, and bursts of flame shot of his wand and consumed the artificial hippogriffs. He blasted one after another, and then was shocked as his wand flew out of his hand into Remus's. The werewolf changed the remaining hippogriffs back into desks and grinned at Harry.
'Good old Expelliarmus,' he said. 'Caught you completely by surprise.'
Harry grinned back.
'Let's try that again,' he said eagerly.
.....
Want to read ahead by more than 60 chapters?
Then join my patreon now.
Link: p*atreon.com/Nebula_Scribe (Remove the *)
2+ free advanced chapters from each of my books,