The Little Lightning Girl

24- James Potter Proves He Has a Brain

A few weeks later I was sparring with a dummy in the Room of Requirement when James Potter walked in. I didn't notice him at first, which was surprising because he wasn't a small person, his footsteps should have been louder. But if I had to guess I'd say that all his training in the past months had included stealth.

I turned around to greet him and sheathed my swords at my hip, "Hi, James."

He walked up to me and shook his jacket from his body, throwing it on the couch. I grinned at him and shrugged my shoulders like a boxer.

"You wouldn't happen to want to train with a real, live person, would you?" James asked sarcastically, getting in a fighting stance, his hands fisted in front of his face.

I took two steps forward and got in my own stance, "The dummy is better looking than you, but I guess I could train with you, just as a friendly favor."

So we began. I was surprised at the progress James had made in just a few months. He didn't have the demigod ADHD or hyperawareness, but it didn't make much of a difference. He was faster than I'd expected, and stronger. He got in a few hits before I stopped taking it easy on him and picked up my game. I could tell he realized it the moment I stopped going easy on him. His eyes narrowed and his hands rose higher to protect his face. He threw a punch at my left shoulder and I seized the opportunity. Using a complex maneuver of twisting and ducking, I managed to get on his other side. In less than fifteen seconds, I had him pinned on the ground, my knee on his throat but not applying pressure.

His eyes were wide as he stared at me from below, "What was that last move? Adrian never taught me that!"

I removed my knee and offered him a hand to help him up, "He doesn't know that move. I made it up."

James looked taken aback, "You made that up?"

"I'm a girl, James."

His eyebrows furrowed, "So?"

"So, as strong as I am compared to most teenaged girls, I will never be able to beat a fully grown man using muscle alone. There will always be someone stronger than me. So I have to fight dirty. I have to use tactics that no one expects and I try not to use the same thing twice in one fight. There will always be someone stronger than me, but I can be smarter."

He shook his head, "That is smart. Will you teach me?"

I shrugged, "You're not a girl, but sure. As long as you don't teach anyone untrustworthy, I can't have enemies knowing my secret moves."

He laughed, "Of course."

I took a drink of water before returning to my stance, "You can really only use this move if your opponent comes at a specific angle towards your left side..."

I walked him through the maneuver step by step and answered his questions when he asked, which he didn't do often. James Potter was different than he had been last school year, and so was I. Since getting back to school, I'd noticed some changes in him. The fluidity he moved with was from training, but that calm, lethal stillness... that was from hours chained to a wall. And despite my demigod genetics, it was a trait that I too, possessed. That stillness was from the threat that if we moved, we'd be whipped. The worst part was still the cruciatus curse, and it left no marks no matter how many times it was used.

Yes, we had come out of those cells different than we went in, but we were stronger. James learned the complex move in less than half an hour, and afterwards we continued sparring, neither of us taking it easy on the other. Because I'd been doing it longer, I had a leg up on him, but I was also a little out of practice. We fought for another hour but at the end of the hour, instead of parting ways, we sat together on the old red couch. Both out of breath, we gulped down water and waited to get air back into our lungs.