An American at Hogwarts

Training

People were... avoiding Harry. Avoiding was putting it kindly. They were scared of him, certain that he was the Heir of Slytherin. It made no sense to me, honestly. Him? Really? The guy who's friend group contained Hermione, a muggleborn, and me, who was rather disliked among pureblood supremacists on account of my mother "ending" her long line of so called pure ancestry by marrying a muggle? I mean, him speaking parseltongue was a bit shocking, sure, but in the larger context it was sort of meaningless. I defended him as much as I could, but all that really accomplished was getting suspicion put on me for "protecting a dark wizard". Regardless, we pushed forward, both in general and with our plan to "test" Malfoy. The brewing was going well, it looked and smelled as it should, which is to say totally disgusting, and Snape had seemingly not even noticed the missing ingredients. He wasn't huffing and puffing everywhere he went, at least, which is what I assumed he would do if he had noticed. In the last week of November, as the first snows began to fall on the grounds, Dumbledore called me into his office for a meeting early one morning, sending me a message to meet with him after breakfast.

"What's this even about?" Asked Harry, following me up. Dumbledore had wanted him to come as well, but I seemed, well, the main target of the meeting, so to say.

I shrugged. "No clue. He just said he wanted me and you to see him. It's not anything bad, at least I don't think. If he found out about the polyjuice I imagine he'd ask for all five of us, so it's not that. And I haven't done anything else wrong, at least I don't think. You've not been sneaking around behind my back doing stuff, have you?"

"No! Not at all!"

"Then, I don't think we have anything to worry about."

We finally made our way through the long halls and to the gargoyle, and spoke the password (licorice, this time). We headed up and through Dumbledore's door, where he was waiting, fiddling through a book absentmindedly.

"Ah! Y/N! Harry! Have a seat!"

Harry slowly sat down. "If I may ask, what is this all about? It's just rather odd, is all. You calling us in like this."

Dumbledore smiled softly. "Yes, yes it is. People do often tell me that I am rather odd, though, so perhaps it is quite the opposite for me? How have you two been recently? I've taken notice of the, erm, distance, shall we say, that some students have put between themselves and you."

I sighed. "Yeah. People are spreading some nonsense story about Harry being the Heir of Slytherin. I've been trying to defend him and, well, now I've been written into the story somehow. Lockhart's been defending us as well, and, while I appreciate it, I honestly think it has just made things worse with how people feel about him."

Dumbledore sighed. "I take it you are not a fan of his works?"

I smirked a bit. "You could say that. Why did you even hire him? He's... well he isn't exactly the most competent wizard I've seen."

"There are many reasons for that, Y/N. Most of which I cannot reveal. But I must say, we... have had trouble finding people willing to take the job. With all the turnover some have gotten it into their heads that it is cursed. I have a better option for next year, much better, but... it will take some time to work out, shall we say. Now. Harry. Y/N. Onto the main reason I called you here. I have heard that Y/N is quite the gifted duelist. Is that true?"

I blushed deeply. "I wouldn't necessarily put it that way. I'm good at it, I suppose, but I've still got a lot to learn."

Dumbledore smiled reassuringly. "Severus has told me you defeated Lockhart a couple weeks ago in dueling club. Regardless of what you may think of him, a second year defeating a full grown wizard is remarkable, you must admit. Regardless, I have something I would ask of you. You need not accept if you believe you are not fit for it, but I must at least ask you to consider. With everything going on, I believe it would be helpful for Harry here to practice dueling more. I will be asking Professor Flitwick to give him some specialized instruction, but I thought I might ask of you to spend some time practicing with him from time to time."

"Like, just a training duel or two every few days or something?"

Dumbledore nodded. "If both of you are alright with that, at least. I do not intend to force or pressure you into a decision, I simply thought it prudent to suggest as a possibility."

I glanced over at Harry, who shrugged and nodded. "I would be glad to, sir! I think we have some free time between now and our next class, actually, and I'm quite in the mood for a duel. Do you mind if we rush off now to start?"

Dumbledore smiled and nodded. "Go right ahead! I shall inform the staff so they do not question you about the duels. But please do try to do them outside, if possible? Filch would be rather cross with me if he had to clean anything more up. Peeves has been bad enough this year."

I nodded and stood, Harry quickly following me as I rushed out the door and down the stairs. We made our way out towards the lake. There was only a light dusting of snow that day, so thankfully we didn't have to trudge through it. That would have made the duel itself a bit more complicated, for one. We set up, and I decided to give Harry a bit of advice before we started.

"Alright, so don't expect to get it on the first try. The shield charm is super finicky and you'll need a few attempts to really get a feel for it, so don't feel like a failure if I break it easily or whatever. You ready?"

He nodded, and I raised my wand.

"Just try and defend however you can. Today I just want to see what you're capable of right now, we can do more structured stuff another day. Just remember, a real duel is going to be intense, and above all else, desperate. You need to do whatever it takes to win, planning ahead is great, but most of the time something will happen that you didn't plan for and you'll just have to react. Lets go!"

With that, I sent my first spell his way, a simple stunner. He quickly dove out of the way, and I readjusted my aim as he sent a disarming charm my way, which I deflected off towards the water. I sent another stunner his way, which he tried to shield away this time. It didn't work all too well. The bolt of light smashed through his shield, hitting him square in the chest and sending him flying a few feet back, dazed on the ground. I smirked a bit and approached.

Rennervate.

Harry slowly got to his feet, groaning slightly.

"You did pretty well. You've got to put more emotion into your spells, though. You were too calm. It's fine to be relaxed and collected, but you need to be intent about what you're doing. If you don't want the spell to hit me that hard, it's not going to. Trust me, I can take it."

We went on like that for an hour or so. He improved a bit, but his form was still very flawed. Still, for his first practice duel, he was quite solid. Perhaps Dumbledore was more worried than he ought to have been.