Malignant ••• George Weasley

Chapter 3 - Training

"What the hell was that for?" Juna complained loudly from the ground where Bane had put her, curtesy of a bewitched soft-fall mat.

"We've gone over this many times, Cove. You must stay alert. Be ready for anything, at any time."
He spoke, coming closer to her.

Scoffing, Juna rose from the ground, rubbing her elbow delicately where she had fallen on it.
That'll be another bruise.

The training room was expansive, the wall opposite the door was completely made up of mirrors, much like a dance studio. The room was filled with human mannequin's for physically beating up and casting spells at, as well as soft mats and other objects - usually thrown at her by Bane, which he expected her to dodge and block at any given time.

"Gloves on." He barked.

Obediently yet reluctantly, Juna donned a pair of boxing gloves. Every training session started with physical work, today it was boxing apparently.
Bane moved around the back of the mannequin and held its torso.
He gave her a nod to tell her to start.
Reeling her arm back, she punched the thing extremely hard.

"Stop."

Juna threw her head back in exasperation.

Bane slapped her on the arm.
"What did you do wrong?"

"I pulled my arm back too far." She droned in response.

She had known the second she landed the punch that he would stop her.

"And why is this bad?" He prompted further.

"Ugh, I know!" Juna was sick of it already.

"Answer please."

"Because, they'll see the hit coming and hit you first." She said flatly.

She knew Bane was right. She had learnt this the hard way at one of her very first raids.
It's not always feasible to use wands and magic, in close quarters a physical fight will happen. And one particular night on a raid to a suspected dark wizards home - it did happen.

Juna had been cornered by a squat little wizard, her wand dropped metres away out of reach. She had made the split second decision to attempt to beat her way out of there. She had pulled her arm back to ensure a hard hit, but the wizard had seen exactly what she planned to do and ended up knocking her out cold with his own, much quicker hit.
Luckily her father had run to her aid before the dark wizard could kill her.

"Again." Bane demanded.

Taking a breath and focusing herself, Juna jabbed the torso of the mannequin quick and hard.
Bane nodded his approval.
She jabbed again. Then again and again.
Her arms were burning and sweat was dripping down her face by the time Bane allowed her to stop.
Juna let out a grunt as her sore muscles relaxed. She tore the gloves off using her teeth and shook her arms out.

She wasn't allowed to rest the before Bane flicked his wand and a large rock came hurtling toward her head. Juna rushed to pull her wand out of the waistband of her leggings.

"Protego!" She bellowed.

Her wand produced a shield just in time, sending the rock ricocheting back toward Bane who managed to set it gently back on the ground.

"That mannequin is a dark wizard who just killed your mother and is now coming for you. What do you do?"

Juna raised an eyebrow.
"Geez, a bit dark there, Bane."

"Hurry up." He rolled his eyes.

"Flipendo." She flicked her wand toward the pretend human as it went careened backwards, smashing into the wall.