Moments in Love

Milestones and Crossroads

"Oh... well done Daphne!" said Hermione as she rubbed the other girl's back. "Don't feel bad - I threw up too."

"Right... well that's splendid," Dora beamed as she pointed her wand and vanished the pile of vomit. "Now that most o' you can do it solo, we'll just practice it for a bit, and then we'll practice a bit more tomorrow mornin'... I'm sure you'll get it then Neville.

"Nobody splinched themselves, so that's a jolly good sign. Once you know 'ow to do it properly, it's like riding a bicycle - you don't really forget..."

As Hermione followed the others out of the Room of Requirement, Harry briefly took Dora aside and conferred in whispers with her while he had the opportunity.

After lunch, training their friends how to fight with spells and hand to hand combat techniques continued apace. Hermione noted with a bit of surprise that Harry had been absolutely correct regarding how rapidly the Twins picked things up. According to Ginny, the Twins didn't perform nearly as well in school as their parents would have liked. But it was clear to Hermione that if they applied themselves, Fred and George could easily be at the top of their classes.

Harry and Dora tried to pack as much into the lesson as possible. And Harry was less reticent than ever to have everyone practicing some of the more dangerous spells.

"Right, you have to be jolly careful when using this one," Harry warned everyone authoritatively. "This curse is a bit dark - so it's one you want to keep in reserve as a last resort and use only if you're facing a particularly evil enemy who wouldn't hesitate to cause great harm or even kill you.

"It's a cutting spell like Diffindo, but it's better for use in a fight. It's great for when you want to stop an enemy from retaliating without necessarily killing them, and it works against some creatures which otherwise have strong magical protections. I had to use it loads in the Third Task.

"But still... Sectumsempra can be very dangerous, and it is potentially lethal, so you have to be really careful not to use it on a person unless you're absolutely sure that they're going to hurt you or someone else..."

Neville swallowed uncomfortably and looked the other way, not quite sure if he should mention that he'd overheard Harry discussing it with Hermione during the summer and then used it on Bellatrix Lestrange.

It was getting late when everyone decided that they'd had enough for the day and that it was time to clean up and get ready for dinner. Harry was knackered and quite happy to just relax after dinner, but Hermione seemed intent to continue working, reading from the advanced Charms book. Harry sat up against his pillow and leaned over to have a look at whatever Hermione was working on.

Hermione beamed at him, pleased to see his interest. "I'm just going over the Undetectable Extension Charm again, Harry. It's quite complicated... perhaps even more complex than the Pictura Portus spell!"

"And illegal for private use too apparently," muttered Harry as he peered at the page. "I wonder why though? It doesn't look like a bad thing. It just makes loads more space on the inside of things than there is on the outside - like Sirius's tent."

"It's not so much the spell itself Harry," Hermione responded, "It's using the spell on muggle objects which might fall into their hands and possibly create a breach of the Statute of Secrecy which is illegal - so the Ministry has restricted the spell's use to the Ministry itself, or licensed manufacturers of certain wizarding products like the tents many people had at the World Cup, and the trunks we bring to school..."

"That seems bloody ridiculous to me," Harry snorted, rolling his eyes. "What a load of hypocritical rubbish. I mean, it's an undetectable charm for one thing... and tents and trunks are used by muggles too!