A Wizards Misadventures

~~Level Two~~

"You should eat more," I told him. "You're growing and you're going to be working your body a lot more than the norm for those your age. You'll be looking like hell after this. So eat until you can't. If others say you're going to get fat or something equally ridiculous or insulting tell them off and that I told you to. Physiology doesn't work that way anyways. People get fat because of genetics more than effort nowadays, their bodies are more predisposed to making fat than muscle, you see. People like you could eat a whole turkey every day and be fine."

Harry tried to slow down, lagging behind. "Catch up or I'll make some wolves. I was serious about that." He sped up a little bit, catching up. Apparently he believed me.

A little later, after pushing Harry through a workout of about a hundred crunches and forty pushups in sets as well as a little stretching, I gave him a fifteen minute break and a plate of bacon and an egg sandwich the house elves made. It turned out that they could teleport pretty far away from Hogwarts. I didn't know they did groundskeeping, but it made sense.

"So is your house still treating you badly?" I asked him while he ate. He shook his head and swallowed.

"No. Not getting any reward or recognition made them stop treating me badly... where did you hear that they were doing that?"

"Helen," I said.

"Helen?"

"She's the spirit around Hogwarts," I explained. "She moves the passages, aligns the stairs, keeps the magic around working properly, and plenty more. She's supposed to keep the students happy and working but she's been sleeping for a long, long time. She only woke up recently. Last summer, I think. She's been more active since then but she can't really do much." Harry frowned as he chewed some bacon.

"Come to think of it the stairs have been convenient lately, and the house elves have seemed happier. I think some students were talking about it. I just thought we were getting lucky."

"That was probably Helen. She's supposed to make sure you all learn properly. She reminds me of a fussy mother hen." We fell to silence as I looked over the lake. I could faintly hear Harry chewing. Working out gave him a serious appetite apparently.

"What are you going to be teaching me?" he asked after a minute before polishing off his sandwich.

"Nonverbal magic first. It's more flexible than people realize and simple if you have the talent for it, which I think you do. I'd prefer wandless magic but you're on a time limit and I don't think that's something you can really teach, more something you learn for yourself. I can give you the foundation though. I thought about doing elemental magic but I never learned the words for spells like that. I learned nonverbal first."

"What kind of school teaches nonverbal first?" Harry asked, licking his fingers.

"The kind that prepares people for combat," I answered. He looked surprised but then understanding. "Now come on. Wand up. We're starting. What kind of spell do you think is best for combat?"

Harry hesitated for a second. "Stupify if you want to avoid... killing," he answered.

"And if you do?"

"The... the killing curse. Or cutting curse if you..." I shook me head.

"Wrong either way, not that there was a right answer," Harry didn't look very surprised. "Combat is fast and messy. There's a hundred and one ways it could go. That's why there's a hundred and one different spells for it. Sometimes it's best to use the cutting spell, sometimes you need a blasting curse, and sometimes you need to just kill somebody with the killing curse. Not that the killing curse always works. Armor blocks it just fine, you know? Medieval, that is. Thin clothing doesn't block the magic but steel about two or three centimeters thick does. It seems like a lot but with magic such armor can be quite light."