An American At Hogwarts: Book Three

Chapter Thirty-Five

"Dude, I can't feel my arms," I whined, whispering as Kenneth and I stood together against Angelina and Jake, the other Gryffindor seventh year guy. We were practicing offensive and defensive magic in our latest DA meeting, but my spellwork had gotten considerably worse in the past week because after all our Beating practice I could hardly lift my arm.

"I know!" Kenneth hissed, also keeping his voice down as we complained. "In Charms today I almost cursed Flitwick because my arm just gave out partway through casting a spell."

"Ugh, I almost did the same to McGonagall! I-" I stopped short as soon as I noticed the twins approaching out of the corner of my eye. The last thing I wanted to do was let either of them know how badly Beating was kicking my ass. And Kenneth seemed to be on the same page. I raised my voice as both boys came a little closer. "Yeah, I think it's going great too! We're going to destroy the other Beaters in our next match, no question."

"Agreed!" said Kenneth, also raising his voice and putting on a fake grin. "I really just can't believe how easy Beating turned out to be."

"I know, right?" I agreed. Right on cue, the twins appeared behind me, one of them leaning over each shoulder.

"So, you two are finding Beating easy, are you?" asked Fred, his voice unnervingly friendly.

"Yup!" I said, deciding to stay committed to my lie. Kenneth smiled and nodded along with me.

"Not too hard on you, either of you?" asked George, his voice also dripping with fake pleasantry as the two of them walked around to stand between me and Kenneth.

"Nope, we're doing great," lied Kenneth. The twins both nodded, then grinned at us.

"Well, we're glad to hear it. Aren't we Freddie?"

"So glad."

"Here, a celebratory high-five for each of you!" George continued, his grin growing even wider. Fred and George held their hands up high in unison. They were both tall with long arms, and I couldn't hold back a little grimace at the idea of raising my arms enough to high-five them when it hurt to move them at all.

Clearly, that was their goal. The satisfied smirks on their faces were enough to energize me, and I raised my arm and gave both boys hard high fives, keeping a straight face the entire time (no matter how much it burned my arms to do it). Kenneth didn't manage to keep it together quite as well as me, but we still managed to keep either of the Weasleys from too much satisfaction.

"Alright, everyone gather round!" called Harry, giving Kenneth and I the perfect escape from our conversation with the twins. We both took it immediately, and I could feel Fred and George smirking as we crossed the room to Harry, trying to subtly shake out our aching arms. "That was looking really good. Now, there's just a few adjustments I think might help, and then we can try again..."

In the time since we'd started the DA, Harry had become an outstanding teacher. He walked us through a few general pointers, then had us break back into pairs to keep practicing while he came around the room giving more specific advice and help.

I was so proud of that kid. Every time I saw him stepping up and leading the room, I just wanted to give him a big hug and tell him what a good job he was doing. The only thing stopping me was my own experience with Thor and other overbearing family members.

A little over halfway through the meeting, Harry turned it over to me to continue my basic training in self-defense. Although it was slower going, since almost nobody here had any foundation in physical training like they did in magic, people were still making good progress. After everything that had happened in the past few days with Umbridge, Quidditch, and another stupid educational decree, being able to actually be here doing something about it felt amazing, even if we weren't out in the corridors yelling our protests.