Of Monsters, Of Men

Chapter 28

Tom walked back to Harry and said, "Now, you can learn how to move. In whichever direction you move, keep your knees bent. Advance with your dominant foot and retreat with your nondominant foot. And keep your arm in the same position."

Harry demonstrated, first advancing, then retreating. Everyone was copying his movements with varying degrees of success. Lawrence and Nina were having the greatest success, while Myrtle and Polly were struggling the most.

Gods, this school really doesn't teach them anything useful. They genuinely have no idea of what good form looks like. This is literally as basic as it gets. Harry resisted the urge to shake his head.

Then, Tom walked over to Polly and individually coached her, all the while Harry maintained his perfect position, his muscles beginning to burn.

Fuck, I forgot how tiring this gets.

Tom continued to go around, giving pointers and the rare compliment. Once Tom had finished correcting his students' positions and footwork, he walked back to Harry.

"Everyone advance to Harry and retreat back."

As everyone followed his instructions, beginning to move forward, Tom explained, "The reason we move in this stance is to prevent our backs from ever turning to the enemy. And you can swivel and accelerate easily with this stance."

The group progressed slowly but surely. At nine-thirty, Tom dismissed the group.

"Don't forget to cast the disillusion charm as you're walking back to your dorms. Come tomorrow at the same time. We'll meet every day because we don't know how quickly the Slytherins will act. Harry and I will communicate with you during our shared frees."

Everyone nodded, casting disillusionment charms before they exited the room. Nina, Polly, and Myrtle left while Lawrence lingered. He turned to look at them, sending them a searching glance.

"You two have been keeping a lot from me, huh?"

You don't even know the half of it.

Harry grimaced. "Unfortunately, yes. I'm really sorry about that. Believe me, I..." The words disappeared from his tongue.

Lawrence gave a half hearted shrug. "I figured. I knew you were keeping things from me, but I never figured it would be this much. But that's life for you, I suppose."

A burning spread through Harry's throat, and he couldn't stop himself from saying, "I didn't want to keep it from you. I had to. I didn't want to cause you harm." He looked away from Lawrence, focusing his gaze on the floor.

I wanted to protect you.

Lawrence gave Harry a tiny smile. "I understand." He turned away and cast a disillusionment charm. Harry could only watch as his form rippled and disappeared through the door. It closed with a soft thud.

Harry shut his eyes as footsteps approached him. Tom's hands settled on his shoulders.

"Are you done now?" came Tom's even voice.

His shoulders sagged. "Yeah," Harry whispered.

They transformed the room back into Avery's guest room. Harry applied the paste Professor Snape gave him to his left hand, rubbing it in with repetitive strokes. His mind wandered to the look Lawrence gave him just before he left.

If only I'd said something else... Maybe it could have been different.

Harry climbed into bed, barely noticing how Tom shifted closer to him.

"Today went reasonably well," Tom began. "However, I hadn't assumed that Nina was so close to Lawrence. And I definitely didn't think Lawrence would associate himself with the likes of Myrtle."