The Slytherin table was in disarray as the sensational news of the death eater purge appeared on the Prophet's front page and listed the names of those who had fled the country with their vaults emptied and property gone. There were quite a few sitting at breakfast that now didn't have a home to go to or a guardian to look after their welfare. With no head of house and Dumbledore not anywhere to be seen the joke circulating Hogwarts was that Trelawney was now in charge, unfortunately with almost fifteen years experience she actually was the most senior professor after the headmaster.
Draco sat contemplating what was in store for him next; his parents had fled the country while Severus seemed set for joining aunt Bella in Azkaban. With no relations and no gold Draco couldn't see any other alternative to an orphanage, any 'friends' he could have stayed with were all suffering from the same set of circumstances as him.
These bleak thoughts were interrupted by a flock of owls winging their way to every student in the same position, Draco ripped his envelope open and gave a visible sigh of relief. Here was an offer to accommodate him over the summer and continue to fund his education. He had a meeting tomorrow to discuss the details but any option other than an orphanage had to be good news, for the first time that week a slight smile crept onto the Slytherins face as he realised the happy consequences of the purge – he no longer had to marry Pansy!
…..
The group was again on the beach and Harry could see the stiffness start to leave their bodies from yesterdays first session, he intended to push them slightly further this morning before doing something different again. After calling a halt beside the cliff after they had done one more circuit of the beach than yesterday Dobby again appeared with his wonderful energy drink but no gillyweed today. Instead he began conjuring dummies and fixing large sheets of parchment to the cliff face above the dummies heads.
"When we began our training, the room of requirements provided us with everything we needed to learn to fight. The parchment will show animated diagrams of defensive and offensive moves and will design these around your physical ability and personality. Hermione is pure offence, she attacks until her opponents are down while Luna used to dodge everything thrown at her but strike like lightning as soon as an opening presented itself. Neville became the most physically powerful of the group and once ripped a dummy in half because it had managed to land a blow on Luna, yes the dummies can be animated but we're a few weeks away from that I think." Harry knew he had their full attention so decided to give them a little demonstration.
Hermione could tell through their rings what she was expected to do so walked up to Harry and carried out the exact same move she had flattened Sirius with, her betrothed flew through the air but twisted and landed on his feet with his wand pointed right between her eyes.
The wand disappeared before Hermione came over and kissed him, they turned to see the rest of the group looking at them in wonder.
"How the hell did you do that?" Sirius demanded
"Well we just put our lips together and do what comes naturally, I know you've been out of circulation for a while Sirius but I didn't imagine I was going to have to give my godfather the talk!"
Sirius held him with a glare that said he was tired, sore and in no mood for jokes.
"Oh you mean the flip thing, it's called training which is why we're all here. It might just save your life one day and it impresses the hell out of chicks!" Hermione's slap to the back of his head had everyone laughing, she new exactly what he was doing and why, if you had the energy to laugh you could push yourself just a little bit more.
"My beautiful betrothed will now give us a slight demonstration on how to use the dummies."
Hermione turned round and immediately gave a more than passable impression of the cartoon Tasmanian Devil, she reacted so fast that the dummies head was rolling on the sand before most of the group knew she had moved. Harry was beginning to think that transfiguring the dummy to look like Ron and wearing an 'I love Potions' t-shirt was maybe a bit too much, his Hermione had exploded at first sight of the dummy and he was slightly worried that he would be her next victim but dad saved the day.
Dan Granger put his arms around his trembling daughter and kissed the top of her head, "you have no idea how good it feels as a father to know that my daughter can kick the arse of anyone who tries to bother her."
The adrenalin coursing through her blood at the sight of the dummy dissipated as her father's arms held her, she had longed for this experience all the years she was growing up. Her parents were really grasping their second chance with both hands.
She turned and gave her father a hug before kissing his cheek, "thanks dad."
She then turned to her love and held her arms out, he almost apparated into them, "sorry love but that wound is just a bit too raw at the moment, we now know what that bastards interference could have cost us. The Weasleys will really have to stay out of our way for the foreseeable future."
A kiss later and everything was back to normal.
"Now this beautiful lady moved slightly quicker than I had intended but we can ask the parchment to slow the action down, the darker the colour and size of area affected is an indication of how much damage the blows would have done to a normal body."
The groin area became black and spread towards the black area now emanating from its chest. Most had caught Hermione's spin and elbow into its throat that resulted in the head now sitting on the beach.
Harry found himself having to cough a couple of times to get his voice back down to it's normal tone as the black swelling in the groin area seemed to have the same eye watering effect on all the males except Dan, his 'that's my girl' expression was beaming out pride at a wattage to rival any FM radio station.
"We'll teach you how to hit, the dummies will glow indicating where to hit and the parchments tell you the damage your blows would cause." Harry and Hermione then had the group practicing basic moves while Dan took to it like a duck to water, he was throwing combinations by the time they were finished. The dummies and parchments assessed them individually and pushed each member to their limits.
It was a sweating but satisfied group who headed off for showers and breakfast.
Daphne Greengrass was enjoying her day that had started with the dreaded letter from home, delivered via Gringotts, as it would take a couple of days by owl.
....
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