Chapter 19:

Harry then called out to Darrel, "Let's switch, and see if either of us missed anything."

Darrel nodded, clearly hoping to try something different soon, which Harry understood and was willing to oblige. Hannah was now in front of him as he asked her to trade spells with him for a moment.

Her shield was a little weaker than Susan's, but like her magical aura, it was more consistent, which made the accuracy a little better with each charm and hex they traded. After her shield collapsed Harry called time, and told the girls to trade spells, while Darrel and he did a drill, "Now I switch it up every practice, since the girls did shields we will too. Next time we can teach each other spells and practice real dueling."

"But right now I just want you to throw up your best shields and hold me off for as long as possible. Professor Dumbledore taught me that the best way to strengthen your shield is a lot like strengthening your muscles, just keep casting and keep casting, and keep stretching it a bit further, and eventually, it will be a little easier...I will attack first."

Darrel nodded taking his place across from him. Harry then started spitting stunners, and blasters at the boy at rapid speeds. Lucky for Darrel he had already placed the shield up, and when Harry called out to change shields after thirty seconds to a more solid object, the boy barely had time to do so as now clumps of sand and rock were ricocheting off the young man's shield.

After another solid thirty seconds, Darrel was weakening and Harry called to switch back to the regular protego charm and they finished at about 1:15 seconds.

Harry was pretty impressed but was also unable to compare the fifth year's strengths and weaknesses as he had never worked with someone only a little older than himself. Harry then took his turn, and Darrel began smashing his shields with blasters, and such.

They switched shields every thirty seconds, but after nearly two and a half minutes Darrel realized he may never have beaten Harry in that duel the other day had he not thrown that shield breaker. And since that would kind of defeat the purpose of this exercise he was nearly unable to break the shield. At three minutes Harry called time.

He was clearly tired, but was also clearly ready to take more, "This is the goal. We make it to three minutes...both of us. Then from there at two minutes we add a second caster, and at four minutes all three people will be casting at the shielder. Dumbledore said the true goal is to last five minutes. At that point, you change it up until you basically have all three casting at you for five minutes. Even in Dumbledore's prime, he said he could only do that for a few years, but that is our goal."

Darrel nodded patting Harry on the back, "This is a good workout. By the end of the year, I think I may be able to beat Tonks if we keep going like this all the time. She is thinking about being an auror. Maybe after a few months, we should invite her out here. Tell her we are just training our dueling prospects, and stuff."

Harry, thinking that was a pretty good idea, agreed and wrapped up the work, "That is all we're going to do for today. I say if you guys are up to it meet back out here Tuesday, if not then Wednesday. We will definitely take off Friday and Saturday for the dueling tournament, but other than that we can resume a pretty normal schedule after this week. I am sure Neville will be glad to have someone like Darrel to match up against, and someone like Hannah and Susan to give him a chance at winning."

This gave the group some laughter as they all trudged back towards the castle. The girls were sweating but were casting freshening up charms, while the boys were simply drenched and happy about it.

Being a Sunday morning the castle was still mostly asleep at 8:00 AM. So the group went to shower and agreed they would eat breakfast in the Great Hall together.

It took only about thirty minutes for Harry to be waiting down in the common room with Darrel Abbot, while the girls were still getting ready the two talked, "I really admire what your trying to do Harry. In your shoes, I am not sure I could do the same."

Before Harry commented back he flicked his wand outwards shooting a spell softly around them telling Darrel, "It's a privacy ward. This just leaves us free to talk."

Darrel nodded while adding, "See it's stuff like that. It's cool that you can do such advanced magic at your age, but I can't even imagine how much work it took to accomplish such magic with an underdeveloped core. I learned wards when I was in my fourth year at home. I know they teach wards in Hogwarts if you take Runes, but I was considered accomplished as a fourth year to do it because they don't teach it until the sixth year."

Harry sighed. He knew telling his friend and student mentor the truth would probably be a lot easier than the lies he usually told everyone else, "Can I be truthful with you Darrel? Meaning, can I trust that you won't say anything to anyone else about what I say?"

Darrel grinned, "I promise anything you tell me behind a privacy ward I won't tell anyone else. Is this another state secret?"

Harry chuckled, but even Darrel could tell it was forced, "No. It's more of a personal secret. I'll start by asking is there anything you wouldn't do for your sister?"

Recognizing the severity of the question Darrel straightened up, "I would die for my sister. Unquestionably."

Harry smiled lightly, "A true Hufflepuff's conviction. Standing in my shoes I think you would do the same thing then. Now imagine this. You know you're going to die for your sister, but you have years before it's going to happen. Now if you are lucky you'll save her life, and maybe even the rest of your family too."

"If you have a miracle and maybe the God that my mother grew up worshiping is real, then maybe you might survive too. If you are unlucky though, you're going to die...no matter what. If you are really unlucky you'll die, and so will everyone you love. But now you have a golden opportunity, a sort of time machine to go back and fix it all. To train and strive to change the course of history. No matter what it took, would you take it?"

Darrel's heart sunk listening to the young man. He recognized what Harry was saying. If he was lucky maybe the Dark Lord would rise in twenty years from now, and he would be in his prime and be ready to tackle the monster with everything he had. Even then it would take some luck to walk out alive, and even more so to see his whole family walk away.

But by chance maybe he only had a few years, and he was unlucky, everyone he knew would perish. The young man's heart broke at his young friend's situation, "I would do whatever it took. I would sacrifice it all to see my family safe."

Harry nodded, "I would too. If my family would let me, I would. My mum and dad though want me to live a normal life though. So I play quidditch. I duel for a hobby sometimes. I study inventive magic, and wards, for fun. I make friends, I try to live my life as much as I can. But above all else, I train. Because I want Rosalie, Jack, and the Potter family to survive. I want us all to move on, but above all else I want those two to live a happy and long life. That would mean the world to me. And I am willing to give up my own world to see there's be a happier place."

Darrel sighed placing a hand on the young man's shoulder, "No matter what anyone says Harry, you are a Hufflepuff, through and through. More so than anyone else in this house. I've never had such inspiring or such loyal words coming from anyone."

"I will do whatever it may take me to do, to ensure you are able to give that world to your siblings and have that miracle we were just talking about happening. Because then with some luck we will both be alive to see our families grow. That is something worth fighting for Harry. Don't ever lose your conviction, because that's a beautiful ambition. If I hadn't heard you say it, I would've never believed it came out of an eleven-year-old's mouth either."

This made both boys chuckle, while Harry thanked the oldest Abbot scion. Around this time Harry noticed the girls come down the stairs and were clearly ready for breakfast. It was nearly nine AM, and the boys had been talking for nearly a half-hour, and all were clearly hungry as Harry took down the ward and wiped a tear out of his eye. If either girl noticed they didn't say anything.

Breakfast came and went, while Harry even was given a chance to hug his mum, in privacy mind you, and search out his best friend.

It took a little while to find Neville, but when he did, he was a little scared, "Neville, are you alright?"

Neville was staring down the third-floor corridor in confusion and clear fear, "Something isn't right."

Harry stepped beside his friend putting a hand on his shoulder, "What isn't right? Why are you looking down this corridor Neville, did you see something? Quirrel?"

Neville shook his head, "I don't know. I was heading back to Gryffindor tower when I felt this presence. It was so powerful I just stopped and stared. I didn't see or hear anything, I just felt it. Harry something really powerful is lurking around the castle. I can feel it, and I think it's affecting all of us in different ways."

Harry shrugged his shoulders a bit, "I haven't felt anything, but I'll definitely keep my wits up. Maybe I have just been so distracted I've missed it."

Neville merely stared for a moment longer then walked away, "So you've had a busy few days. Are you okay?"

Silently relieved his friend still cared he nodded, "Yeah. I wish we had been fighting together, and playing quidditch together, but other than that, you know I am not too bad."

Neville winced, "I am sorry you had to go through all that. I should've followed after you when you tossed Ron, but I was surprised by your anger I was just shell shocked."

"You didn't miss much. Almost getting killed by three different dark creatures isn't what I would call a fun Thursday night!" Harry joked.

Neville sighed, "But had we faced it together it would've almost been easy. I watched the memory in Dumbledore's office. He told me what happened between the Abbots and Bones, and I think it's brilliant. I even talked to mum about it last night, and she really respects Madame Bones, so I think that was a good move. Dumbledore wasn't sure if we were on speaking terms, but wanted me to know what was going on. I was thankful and didn't complain, but I realized that you could've died and it would've been my and Ron Weasley's arrogance that had gotten you killed."

Harry was slightly shocked and stopped for a moment, "How do you figure that?"

Neville turned to face Harry, but looked around first, then responded, "That troll couldn't have withstood both of our onslaughts. After four spells or just maybe our first two that thing would've gone down. From there the Acromantula wouldn't have stood a chance against five of us. Even if we didn't know the anti-spider charm."

"I still don't know how that monster survived the first strike. Then that Dementor would've easily fallen under our combined patronus. Separate is not that strong, but together we could easily have repelled a single dementor. All three against you though, while you're having to defend the three girls as well, that was too much to ask anyone. You were lucky, and I am really really thankful for it. I don't know if I could've lived with myself."

Harry brought his best friend in a tight hug, "We're brothers Neville. Were going to get mad at each other every once and a while. That's just what family does. Next time will face the danger together, and it won't stand a chance. This was more like a freak accident than anything."

Neville nodded, "Your right. I just wish someone was going to be there to watch your back with some power in Hufflepuff."

Harry seeing the opportunity pounced on it, "Actually Darrel, Susan, and Hannah all wanted to start training with us. I gave them a little pre-run today and think they have some pretty good potential. They are going to start just 2-3 times a week maybe less starting out, but they wanted to get on the train. Are you okay with that?"

Neville shrugged, "Abbot's the dueling captain, he could probably teach us a few things, while we could return the favor. The girls I am not so sure about."

Harry added, "They are going to be with me a lot though, and if you're not around I need someone to watch my back."

Seeing his point Neville nodded, "I think I need to convince one of my housemates to join up sometime soon. I'll need someone to do the same for me eventually."

Willing to compromise Harry encouraged, "Find someone and bring them in. We can do that pretty much whenever, that way badgers won't surround you too!"

Neville smiled and clapped his brother in all but blood on the back, "Sounds good man. I got some studying to do with Katie Bell, so I will catch up with you at dinner alright?"

Harry grinned, glad to be back on his best friend's good side, "Roger that! I'll see you tonight!"