Harry Potter and the Guild of the Night

Chapter 13

"Again," Master Nhean ordered.

Harry wiped the sweat out of his eyes and began the sequence of movements again. He had started his physical training yesterday. Master Nhean had said at the time that in light of the revelation that Voldemort had plans to start something in two and a half months, it might be best if he had some knowledge under his belt. So they had started what Harry had quickly come to call his 'torture sessions'. Master Nhean had not wanted him to do any muggle-type training; he wanted to train Harry's muscles to what they needed to do, to establish what he had called 'muscle memory'. Thus the practice routines; a set sequence of movements that Master Nhean said came from the ideas behind Tai Chi. Slow precise movements that required a great deal of control to accomplish.

The hours of learning some of the routines yesterday had been compounded by having to do those same routines today with Oversight active. He had been warned that tomorrow he had better have his wand with him as he would be required to run the routines, have Oversight active and cast a few spells. He had been given a reprieve from wandless magic for the moment. Master Nhean felt combining the three forms of torture would be sufficient for now; any further wandless magic could wait.

His head was pounding as he moved through the final sequence of the current routine and Harry wished he could just drop to the ground. However, having done that once yesterday, he was not keen to get a repeat of the lecture and extra hour of training he had gotten as punishment. He came to a halt and held the final position as he saw the energy shape that was his Master circle around him.

"Well done," Master Nhean said, well pleased by Harry's discipline. "Sit down and have a rest. Don't drop your Oversight!"

Harry dropped cross-legged to the mats on the floor and groaned. "But Master, my head..."

Master Nhean smiled kindly. "I know, Harry, but think of your Oversight as kind of like a muscle. When you start exercising a muscle, it gets very sore very quickly but if you keep doing the exercise the muscle stops getting sore and becomes stronger. Understand?"

Harry sighed and nodded and flexed his wrists and elbows. Master Nhean walked over to the sole remaining table in the room and poured a glass of water. He brought it over to Harry, who drank it down gladly. Nhean took the glass back to the table.

"Now, my boy, up you get," he ordered and Harry hauled himself up with a groan. "I have a new routine for you to learn."

Master Nhean walked over and stood in front of Harry and began to demonstrate the sequence of movements. Harry tried to concentrate past his headache and began to mimic his Master's actions. It took four run-throughs for him to feel that he had the sequence right and then Master Nhean stepped back to watch him run it through on his own.

"Good work," Master Nhean said as Harry successfully completed the sequence.

"It's an extension of the others, isn't it?" Harry said, breathing heavily.

"Correct. Each sequence of movements, or kata as they are known, builds on the former," Nhean said approvingly. "There are 21 katas in all. They have been taken from the many types of martial arts that exist. Sato wished to take the best of what was available for his Warriors and subsequent generations of Guild members have done the same. Most of the katas can be used for both unarmed and armed combat."

Harry listened with interest. "Will you be teaching the same things to my friends?"

"Yes. In fact, tell them that if they wish to begin their training, they might want to turn up here at the same time as you do tomorrow."

Harry grinned. Two days advantage wasn't much but he was pretty sure it was going to make some kind of difference.

Master Nhean chuckled at the expression on Harry's face. "I rather thought that's how you would feel," he said blandly. "Now run through the first kata for me and then you may go."

Harry took a deep breath and nodded. He started the sequence of movements and moved smoothly through them, only pausing once when he forgot the next move. He finished smoothly though and Master Nhean dismissed him with a compliment. He wandered over to the table and picked up his cane. As he made his way out of the room he dropped his Oversight with a sigh of relief. He turned towards the suite for a shower but after a quick thought, changed his mind and headed down to the dungeons.

Harry walked down into the cool depths of the dungeons and knocked on the door to the Potions classroom. He heard Professor Snape's voice telling him to enter and opened the door.

"Professor Snape? I'm sorry to disturb you but I was wondering of you had a headache potion I could use?" Harry said politely. Politeness had become something of a standard with them these days. While they still snarled at each other on occasion, the rest of the time they were civil. It was a welcome change, though Harry knew it would not last past the start of school. With the return of the Slytherin students, they would have to go back to the sniping and unpleasantness unless they were sure that they could not be overheard. Harry found that he wasn't really looking forward to this. While he and Snape had not worked through all the bad blood between them by any means, he had found that it was much easier learning things from Snape when they were both being polite.

"Yes, I do," Snape said, breaking into his train of thought, "though you could have got one from Madam Pomfrey just as easily."

Harry shivered. "I know, sir, but I think I've just about had enough of the hospital wing, thank you very much."

Much to Harry's surprise, Snape chuckled. "I suspect you have," he said in a dry voice and Harry heard him opening his office door. "Here you are, Mr Potter, drink that."

Snape handed him a small potion bottle and Harry quickly uncorked it and drank it down. He waited a few seconds and sighed with relief as it started to take effect. He handed the bottle back to the Potions Master.

"Thank you, sir," he said with relief as the pounding in his head began to fade.

"You are welcome," Snape said and they both turned back to their original plans. Harry paused at the door as a thought occurred to him.

"Sir?" he asked hesitantly. "If you don't mind telling me, what is the other potion that you have to brew for Vol...er, the Dark Lord? The one that's going to take so long."

There was a long silence in the room before Snape answered. "And why would you want to know that, Mr Potter?" he said carefully.

Harry paused and decided that an honest answer would probably be the best. "I suppose its just mostly plain curiosity, sir," he said with a sigh. "I don't really know what I'd do with the answer. I guess if I had to give you a good reason, I'd say that it's because I want to be prepared in case it's me he wants to give the potion to."

Snape raised an eyebrow. "I will have to think about that, Mr Potter."

Harry shrugged. "That's okay, sir. I suppose I don't really need to know unless it becomes necessary. I'd just like to be forewarned even if there is nothing that I can do about it."

"That is not the reason I hesitated, Mr Potter," Snape said with a certain amount of discomfort. "Should I decide to tell you, I will also inform you of the reasons for my hesitation."

Harry nodded thoughtfully and continued out the door. He planned on having a shower and informing his friends of the end of their days of rest and relaxation.

***************************

The next day saw all eight teens waiting in the Guild classroom. Harry had told them the night before that Master Nhean was expecting to see them the next day and they had been so excited that they had been waiting outside the classroom for Harry when he had arrived from his Occlumency lessons. He'd shaken his head with amusement and let them in. They'd been surprised when they saw the classroom. All the furniture but for one table had been removed and soft mats covered the floor. Harry had immediately gone to lean his cane against the table and triggered his Oversight. He moved back into the classroom and began the warm-up exercises that he been shown.

"Er, Harry? Should we be doing that too?" Ron asked a little nervously.

"Well, I suppose you don't have to," answered Harry with a grin, "but you might find things go a little easier today if you do."

The others looked at each other with dawning misapprehensions and immediately began mimicking Harry's moves. Harry had just finished when Master Nhean walked in. He shrugged out of his outer robe and placed it on the table.

"Ah, excellent!" he said with a smile. "It's wonderful to see you all here. Have you all warmed up?"

Harry and the others nodded.

"Good," Master Nhean said. "Now, Harry, begin by running through the katas you learnt in the last two days. I assume you have your Oversight active." Harry nodded and Master Nhean turned to face the others. "Now I want you others to watch me carefully and mimic my movements. I am going to teach you the basics of the martial arts of the Guild. You will begin by learning the katas. These are a series of movements designed to train and strengthen the muscles of your body. There is no advantage in being male or female in doing these katas. It relies only on the strength of your mind and your muscles. There is to be no competition in this classroom. Each of you will progress at your own pace, for each of you is different and will master things at different paces. Now, we will begin."

Slowly the teens began to try and mimic the Night Master's moves. They were all rather awkward at first, particularly when they saw Harry performing the same moves. While Harry wasn't moving a flawlessly as Master Nhean, he was clearly fairly comfortable with what he was doing. The three girls picked things up the quickest, gradually gaining confidence in their movements. Ron had the most difficulty; he struggled with even the simplest move and even nearly fell a few times. After the last near fall, he growled in frustration and sighed gustily, trying to concentrate on what Master Nhean was doing. He looked up to find the diminutive Master smiling at him sympathetically.

"Do not fret, Ron," Nhean said soothingly. "You have recently gone through a growth spurt, have you not?" Ron nodded. "And now you feel clumsy, like you don't know what your hands and feet are going to do next?"

Ron nodded glumly. "I keep falling over my own feet and knocking things over if I'm not concentrating."

"It will pass," Nhean said kindly. "I know you feel awkward now but think of it as your body preparing itself for the man you will be. Give yourself time to adjust to your new height and don't be ashamed of it. Stand up to your inches, Ron. And persevere with the katas, they will help you establish your balance within your growing body."

Ron gave a wry half-grin and set himself to try the kata again, relieved that his brothers were far more interested in what they were doing than tormenting him over his clumsiness.

When Master Nhean was sure that the teens were comfortable with what they were doing, he issued instructions for them to repeat the first kata until they could run it through flawlessly and turned back to Harry. He was just finishing the last of the katas he had learnt when Nhean walked over to him.

"Good, Harry," Nhean said. "Now I trust you brought your wand with you today."

There were a few startled glances from the others in the room as Harry pulled his wand out of his back pocket.

"Good, now when I tell you I want you to cast the Lumos spell," Nhean ordered and Harry nodded. "Now run through the first kata."

Harry began the same sequence that the others were doing. Master Nhean allowed him to settle into s groove and then he said, "Now."

Harry blinked. "Lumos," he said and promptly fell over, completely distracted from the kata by the appearance of spell in Oversight.

Nhean chuckled as he walked over and pulled Harry to his feet. "Rather spectacular in Oversight, hmmm? Just as well I started you off on something as simple as Lumos."

Harry nodded and then laughed. "Now I know what you meant when you said each spell looks and feels different. Are they all going to be as spectacular as that?"

"What did you see?" Hermione said with intense interest. "Oh, I'm sorry, Master Nhean. I didn't mean to interrupt."

"That's quite alright, my dear," Nhean said with amusement.

Harry grinned; he'd had a lot of experience with Hermione's drive for knowledge. "It was all rainbow colours," he said with delight. "A huge spray of rainbow coloured energy."

"Oh, well, I suppose that makes sense," Hermione said in a very academic tone. "After all white light, which is what you get when you cast the Lumos spell, is made up of all the colours of light."

"Uh, okay, Hermione," Harry said slowly. "I'll take your word for it."

Hermione scowled at him and threw her arms up in the air with a frustrated exclamation when she realised he couldn't see her expression.

Harry chuckled; he had a fairly good idea of how Hermione had reacted to his comment and what he had heard seemed to confirm that reaction. "Don't worry, Hermione," he said with a laugh. "That's just about how Professor Snape reacts when he realises that scowling at me is useless now." He gave her a very cheeky grin.

Hermione started to scowl again but changed her mind and laughed along with everyone else. "Well then," she said with an impish grin. "I'll have to start doing this then." With that comment she walked over to Harry and whacked him fairly firmly on the arm.

"Ow!" Harry yelped and rubbed his arm. "Come on, Ginny, are you going to let her beat up your boyfriend?" he said with amused indignation.

Ginny pretended to consider the matter. "Hmmm, let me see. Yes, I think I will," she said with a grin.

"Typical," Harry said with a grumpy expression but suppressing his laughter. "Women always stick together don't they?"

Everyone finally gave into their laughter until Master Nhean clapped his hands. "Alright everybody," he said with amusement. "Now that we've established the true order of things, let's get back to work."

The teens got themselves back under control and, with a few sporadic splutters of laughter, went back to what they were doing. Nhean got Harry to start from the beginning again and established the timing of the casting of the Lumos spell.

"Now, did you get the timing of the spell casting," Nhean asked.

Harry nodded. "Every fourth change of movement."

"Good, now try the same thing with the other katas you have learnt," Nhean said and then moved back to the others. He watched them for a few minutes. They all seemed to have mastered the first kata and were performing it with a reasonable amount of fluidity. Hermione and Ginny were doing the best along with a very determined and dogged Neville. Luna was doing reasonably well, though she seemed to be continually distracted by watching the others. The twins were doing well but were spending too much time trying to match their movements to each other than trying to establish their own rhythm. Ron was the most awkward of them all but even he was able to perform credibly, particularly when he chose to concentrate only on what he was doing and ignored the others.

Nhean clapped his hands together to get their attention. "Good, finish the kata and then take a seat." One by one the teens finished and dropped to the floor with relief. They weren't used to this kind of exercise and found that despite the slow pace, it was extremely strenuous. When the last of them was seated, he stepped between them and Harry to make sure he had their complete attention. "Now Hermione, Ginny, Neville, well done. With continued practice, I expect you will become very proficient in the martial arts. Luna, Fred, George, the three of you did well when you chose to concentrate on what you were doing. Luna, when you are performing a kata your attention must be wholly focused on what you are doing, just as it would have to be in a battle. You need to work on this; you were far too easily distracted by what everyone else was doing. Fred, George, you need to work at your own pace. I know twins often like to do everything the same but you two, like Luna, must focus on what you are doing, not what anyone else is doing. Ron, we've spoken about your temporary awkwardness so I don't need to rehash that. Suffice to say, when you allowed yourself to forget that the others were there and became focused on your routine, you did well. It was only when you allowed your focus to drift that the awkwardness became an issue."

He paused and looked at all of the teens in turn. "Focus! That is what you must learn. It is probably one of the most important assets you can have in a battle. If you are focused then you have the ability to ignore things that can get you and others killed. It allows you to ignore distraction and to concentrate on your objectives. It is not easy to learn, I can assure you, but it is one of the most important lessons I will teach you."

The teens looked at him sombrely as they once again had the seriousness of what they were now involved in brought home to them. Master Nhean did not let them dwell on it though. He clapped his hands again.

"Now, everyone up!" he said. "We will move onto the second kata."

The teens groaned and stood, spreading themselves out and centring their attention on Master Nhean.

Fred turned to his twin. "Tell me again why we volunteered to do this?" George just groaned and waved helplessly at his twin as grins graced the faces of the others.

**************************

Dinner was an unusually quiet affair. Not even Fred and George had the energy to play any jokes, in fact, all of them, including Harry, seemed to find it took everything they had just take their forks from their plates to their mouths. The adults were a bit wary at first and then increasingly confused. They kept glancing at the teens and then at Master Nhean, who seemed to be finding the whole thing terribly amusing. Finally, amusement began to rise amongst the other adults as they came to the realisation that the training was what had so effectively silenced the normally noisy end of the table. When dinner finally came to an end, none of the teens could seem to face the idea of actually getting up and sat slumped, staring at each other with woebegone and exhausted expressions.

Nhean smiled sympathetically at the teens. He had put them through a solid workout today. They were late in starting this kind of training so he knew he would have to be very hard on them at the start to bring them up to an appropriate level as quickly as possible. Harry looked the best of the lot but he'd had a couple of days to get used to the exercise. He was however about to disappoint the young man.

"Harry?" he asked. "Are you finished?"

Harry started in surprise and turned towards his Master. "Er, yes," he blurted. "Er, why?"

"Because you have your first Potions lesson tonight," came the answer

Harry groaned and Ron patted him slowly and sympathetically on the back. "Bad luck, mate," Ron said. "We'll think of you while we're soaking our bones in hot water."

Harry rolled his eyes and elbowed his friend in the ribs. "Thanks," he said dryly.

Snape smirked and rose from the table as did Master Nhean. "Come along, Harry," Nhean said and Harry slowly got to his feet.

The three of them made their way down to the dungeons where Snape led them to a room next to the Potions classroom.

"I have set this room up for you, Nhean," Snape said. "I have ensured that the cupboard is fully stocked and that you have all the equipment you asked for."

"Thank you, Severus," Nhean said. Snape nodded and leaned against a wall.

Harry became a little nervous when he realised that Snape wasn't leaving but had his attention brought back to where it should be when Master Nhean spoke.

"Harry, come and sit down here while I get things ready."

Harry walked over to where his Master was and fumbled his way into a seat in front of a desk. As he ran his hands over the desk, he realised that the room was set up in a similar fashion to the Potions classroom. He heard his Master walk away and open a cupboard.

"Master?" he asked in an attempt to settle himself down. "May I ask you something?"

"Of course," Nhean said as he began to set things up. "What did you want to know?"

"Erm, when am I going to learn what all the energy colours mean? It's just that I saw my friend's energy colours today and I kind of want to know what it all means," he said nervously.

Nhean raised an eyebrow and smiled. He had been wondering when Harry was going to push for that instruction. Guild instructors never initiated those lessons; the Warrior had to ask for them when they were ready to learn. "I suppose we could start tomorrow. It will be a good lesson on how to do something and retain your focus."

Harry grinned wryly. Master Nhean was very good at combining lessons. It occasionally made things challenging but was always interesting. He stopped grinning when his Master stopped puttering around and stood in front of the desk.

"Okay, Harry, in front of you are a number of potion ingredients. Nothing dangerous to handle, of course. I want you to try and identify each ingredient using touch and smell but no Oversight."

Harry sighed and groped for the first ingredient.

An hour later he was exhausted. This exercise was one of the most difficult he had ever done. Potions wasn't his favourite subject at the best of times. Each time he successfully identified an ingredient, Master Nhean would immediately quiz him on how it could be used. Actually identifying the ingredients wasn't too difficult but he was lucky if he could answer half the questions afterwards. He was just thankful that Snape had decided not to make any comments, though he could feel the sneer from across the room every time he got an answer wrong. Finally Master Nhean called a halt to the lesson.

"Hmm, well that could have been worse, I suppose," he said musingly. "Actually identifying the ingredients didn't give you too many problems but your knowledge of what to do with them is severely lacking. I'd like you to do some reading on the subject, Harry. I'm not expecting you to become an expert but I would like you to have the ability to brew some of the simpler potions."

Harry sighed and nodded. Master Nhean patted him on the shoulder and dismissed him. Harry slowly made his way out of the room and the Night Master began to clean up.

"I see what you mean, Severus," he said as he put things away. "His knowledge is very spotty but there is potential there."

Snape nodded and grimaced. "I confess I am...probably not the best of teachers. I lack the patience to deal with the truly ignorant but Potter frustrates me. He lacks concentration and the ability to apply himself. Prior to his blinding I believed he had the ability to become truly proficient in the art of potion making."

"Well, I suspect that may change," Nhean said calmly. "A great deal of the training I will be doing for both Harry and his friends involves learning how to focus their concentration such that they do not get distracted by the extraneous. I daresay that may improve their class work as well. Hermione, Ginny and Neville are showing signs of being quite proficient."

Snape snorted in disbelief. "In the case of Mr Longbottom I shall believe it when I see it."

Master Nhean smiled and put the last of the ingredients back into the cupboard. "I do believe that Neville will surprise you in the end, Severus. I really do."

******************************

The shaggy-haired man wandered through the grey mist, growling almost continuously in frustration. He had been wandering around this grey, featureless land for who knows how long and he had seen nothing and no one.

"I can't be the only person here," he growled angrily. He stopped and breathed heavily, trying to control his temper. Finally it broke. "WHERE IS EVERYONE?" he bellowed.

The mist swirled around him but no one answered. He slumped down to the ground and scrubbed his face with his hands. Tears welled in his eyes and he slumped backwards until he was lying flat on his back.

"Haven't felt so goddam helpless since that night listening to Harry explain how Voldemort came back," he muttered and then sat bolt upright in shock.

Harry? Who was Harry? As he thought this, one of the faces he could remember floated into his mind. It was the one with intensely green eyes. Is that Harry, he wondered and decided that it must be. Now who is Voldemort? He sat there thinking hard but nothing came back to him other than a sense of anger. Does that mean I'm angry at Voldemort? He shook his head and tried to remember more. Just as he was about to give it up, a word floated to the surface. Sirius. He rolled the word around his mouth and as he did he became convinced that it was his name. My name is Sirius, he thought and was pleased with how right it sounded.

"My name is Sirius," he said with a barking laugh.

"Yes, it is," came the pleased, hissing reply and Sirius jolted to his feet in fright, whirling around trying to find who had spoken.

"Who...who are you?" he stammered.

"A friend."

Sirius rolled his eyes. What a helpful answer. "Well, friend, I don't suppose you know where I am and how I can get out of here?" he asked a touch sarcastically.

The voice hissed laughter. "You are in limbo, Sirius. Neither dead nor alive. But I can change that; I can get you out of there."

"How?" Sirius asked pleadingly. "And when?"

"Patience, Sirius. The solution is not simple but it can be done. It will take some time before I am ready but, I promise you, I will get you out. You have things that need to be done."

"What?" Sirius asked. "Who am I? I...I can't remember anything."

"Do not fret, Sirius," the voice hissed. "You will remember in time and when I have freed you, I will help you remember what is important."

"Okay," Sirius said as he ran a hand through his shaggy hair. "I guess I can wait then."

"Good. Now have patience."

"Hello?" Sirius said but received no reply. He sat back down and wondered whether he had just imagined that conversation. He decided that it was better to assume he hadn't and settled in to wait.