Silver King

23

Harry's eyes slowly opened, it took him a few minutes but he was eventually able to get up into a sitting position despite the protests or his body which insisted that he stay lying down in the nice and comfortably warm bed. Harry looked around and found that he was sitting in his new room in the Tonks family household, it was a fairly simple room. It had a bed, window, a desk, a cupboard for his clothes, some shelves for books or whatever else he wanted to put on and a muggle lightbulb hanging from the ceiling.

It looked fairly simple but Andromeda had told him that they could decorate it if he wanted. Yesterday had been a rather interesting day for Harry, not only had he left school after finishing his first year, but he had also had a rather long train journey before getting here. It was then that he met Arcturus Black, the man had been silent for a long time and when he eventually spoke it was to insult Harry and threaten Jet. Harry's response was probably not the best he could have come up with but Arcturus apparently liked it.

The man had informed Harry and the others that he had filled out the necessary forms that allowed Harry to perform magic at home, Harry didn't know why but he certainly wasn't going to complain about being allowed to use magic at home. Harry knew that the old man clearly wanted or expected something from Harry, but for now it wasn't a problem so he wasn't going to worry about it.

"You've woken up earlier than usual." Jet hissed as he climbed up Harry's shoulders.

"I think it's because we're somewhere new, I'm not used to sleeping here." Harry guessed before he got up, he yawned and stretched his arms before he walked out of his room and to the bathroom. A few minute later he left the bathroom and walked downstairs, he was about to head into the kitchen when he heard a noise coming from down the hall. Harry frowned and walked in the direction of the noise, it was coming from a door that lead to the basement.

Harry pulled his wand out and began cautiously walking down, when he got there he found out that the basement had been converted into a gym. The basement had a treadmill, a rack full of dumbbells, a gym bench with a barbell, several other gym equipment and a punching bag which Ted was currently punching. Ted was wearing white trainers, blue tracksuit bottoms and a blue tank top.

"Oh, Harry." Ted said when he noticed Harry, he stopped punching and wiped a bit of sweat off his head. "I didn't wake you or anything, did I?" He asked.

"No," Harry shook his head. "I just woke up and was going to go to the kitchen when I heard a noise, just came down to see what it was."

"I can see that, do us a favour and don't blast us." Ted said as he gestured to Harry's wand before he picked up a towel and began wiping sweat off of his face.

"You like exercising?" Harry asked as he put his wand away.

"Yeah, I'm used to it, if I don't exercise for a long time then my body just feels weird." Ted shrugged. "My dad used to be a karate instructor, trained me a little bit in it."

"Most wizards don't care for martial arts." Harry pointed out.

"Most wizards are useless in close quarter combat." Ted replied. "Besides, I think if you want to get stronger in magic then you should keep your body nice and strong and fit."

"Really?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, better body equals better stamina and power. It's true, many studies before have confirmed it."

"Then why don't more wizards and witches exercise?" Harry frowned.

"Why would they?" Ted snorted. "They think that because they have magic that they are invincible and 'don't need to exercise like muggles'. As for me, I prefer to gain every advantage I can."