Chapter 13.1- Doom Days

When I asked Flitwick for lessons, this is not what I’d expected at all. “You use your body to avoid attacks so that means you need to ensure your boy is capable of moving quickly enough and for long enough periods. You can not rely on your magic as a sole crutch in these matters. If you want to win the U17s this year, you will be going against wizards just shy of their magical maturity. You might be more powerful than anyone your age, but against those outliers, you won’t have a drop of magic to waste” The Half Goblin said from his position on my back. I had not expected the Charms Master to be such a trainer but the man had given me his word to train me and it seemed that meant something to him. He was nothing like the species he inherited his height from, it seemed.

“Faster, Potter. The sun is about to rise” He said and I sighed before picking up the pace of my run along the Great Lake. Physical training was grueling enough, but his requirement that all training take place and conclude itself before sunrise to prevent us from being observed was proving to be quite problematic. Sure, he was allowed to train me as long as he was not training me for any specific tournament events, of which we had yet to be briefed, but the fact that he was training me at all was information that was valuable to the both of us for different reasons.

He didn’t want to be inundated with endless requests for training, or worse be considered partial by his own students for choosing to train me but not them. For my end, if people didn’t know I was training with Flitwick then they wouldn’t expect me to use the duelling style for which he had become famous.

“Yes, Professor. And about my request?” I asked, raising the matter we’d discussed after the previous day’s session.

“While I still find myself unsure of where you have found a pensieve of all things, I do agree with you that it will be one way to accelerate your training. I will give you memories. But to make sure you use them wisely, I will only give you one memory at a time. You will watch the duels and during our morning runs, you will discus the duels and the takeaways you have gotten from them” He said, and I smiled and acquiesced. His demands were reasonable, and the important bit was that he’d said yes to giving me access to his memories. Flitwick had competed on the international stage, so that meant that he had gotten to watch some of the most dangerous and skilled wizards and witches in the world ply their craft. I finished my last lap around the lake, and wasted no time in taking us back to the castle. The walk up to the Sixth floor had killed my legs for the first few days, and right now I was not in the mood for that.

“We have passed the stairs, Mr. Potter” The half-goblin said but didn’t seem to mind.

“Just taking a shortcut, Professor” I said before we appeared at a painting of a woman with long gown. Kathryn the Modest, the painting’s inscription marked her as. I made a motion like I was attempting to look under her skirt and the woman with the long face harrumphed and turned around to leave the painting with a huff. As she did so, the painting swung open to show a secret passage. This was one Riddle had never found, but the Marauders had. I wondered how they would have compared when it came to knowledge of the castle’s secrets.

“How fascinating” The Charms Master said, waving his wand around like he was trying to detect something.

“After you then, Mr. Potter” He said.