Chapter 7 The choices we make and are made for us p.2

[rewop777]

They stepped through and onto the weird world where the relentless training was in full effect. The crowd saw them but the magic Bludgers kept them going up the hill and dodging.

“Hum, going easy on them are you?” Harry asked.

“Unfortunately” he groaned. “Hey you lot shoot you’re blasting charms” he ordered loudly.

They immediately all stopped as the Bludgers came and they blasted them out of the air, and then shot their spells at the water. A small wave hit the shore. A fourth of them missed, so a quarter of the Bludgers incapacitated their targets, and only half of them shot in synch with the rest of them.

“Yep, this is going to be a nightmare” Harry said patting Axel in the back.

Axel growled, “You fucking imbeciles get your asses down here, I am beginning to regret naming most of you maggots, you wouldn’t even make half decent bacteria. This is my apprentice, Mr. Potter, you are not good enough to speak to him, in fact you are to feel honored that he is deeming to look at your pitiful performance, and profoundly blessed that he will show you how to do it properly. Harry if you would” he said angrily.

Harry laughed as ten times the Bludgers appeared in the sky. In a flash Harry was at the bottom of the hill.

“Do it slow enough for them to get an idea” Axel yelled.

Harry gave him a thumbs up.

The lot of Aurors looked dubiously at the one.

“He might be a hero, that is insane” said one.

“I think that whole story is an exaggeration the Brits made up to make him look better” said another.

“I know what you mean. How the hell could one teenager take out a supremely dark wizard and his army of wizards and dark creatures?” another agreed.

“I wonder if Voldemort was even that powerful” commented another.

“Shut the fuck up you imbeciles and pay attention” Axel shouted and there was silence and trembling fear.

Axel sounded his whistle and the Bludgers shot at an insane speed at Harry. They all watched in horror at the speed that was much faster than they had had. Suddenly the first hit, and Harry was spinning in the air above it, kicking four away as if they were simple footballs, only they were blasted like cannon balls into the ground and water. Then he began to rush up the hill, vanishing from view in moments, appearing to float in the air in others, just when a Bludger was to hit, it was if it passed through a mirage, an afterimage, like a ghost. He danced in the air, it was art, a deadly art, and like that he reached the top in record time, not even in a sweat. They all saw this in perplexed awe. Then Harry, without any wands blasted the sky clean of Bludgers in a flurry of spells that flew from his naked hands, and of bare knuckle punches that pulverized on contact. Then he blasted the ocean with one hand and a giant wave headed towards him. He vanished and appeared at the bottom of the hill. He slammed his feet into the ground and the water rushed over him. There were three blasts and the water exploded into the sky and then rained down on them. Harry blasted the ocean again and an even bigger waver rushed towards them. Harry slammed his foot down and a giant wall appeared from where he stood out to sea splitting the wave in half. Then a wave of both hands and a giant wall of stone rushed up and blocked the rest of it. Then another wave and the walls were gone. Harry vanished and appeared next to Axel totally dry.

“Show off” Axel said wryly.

Everyone else was staring gobsmaked.

“I take everything I said back” one of them said.

“Shall we?” Axel invited.

“Let’s” Harry countered.

Both vanished and the next thing they heard and saw where the two clashing their arms in mid air. The shockwave blew them all back, except Ximena who was stuck to the ground and had cast a muffling charm on herself. She transfigured a stone behind her into a boulder and braced her back against it, even so she felt herself pushed back a bit.

Like a thunderstorm they clashed in the air, appearing and vanishing, sending shockwave after shockwave. Finally spires and spears of stone appeared from the ground and began to clash and the two floated in the air and sent Earth spell after Earth spell. Ximena cast a shield. The rest were impaled by splinters that flew about wildly. Some were smart enough to cast shields that failed, others hid as best they could from the debris. Finally there was a blast and Harry flew like a bullet into the water.

In a flash both appeared unscathed in front of them patting each other on the back.

“Good show Snuffles, you are getting much better at that” Axel congratulated him.

“Thank you, thank you, I do try” he chuckled in return.

“Well let’s see how they fared” Axel said as they turned to see the lot.

Axel groaned.

“Looks like shit. Is that the one I am training with?” Harry asked.

“Ximena Sabina, as of this moment she has been promoted to grunt and is under your supervision” Axel replied.

Ximena unspelled herself, “Did you say something sir?” she said standing at attention.

“I said congratufuckinglations Ms. Sabina you have been promoted from retarded primate, through primate, Cro-Magnon, Muggle special person, Squib, into the title of Grunt. And you have the honor, or horror of being assigned to train with Mr. Potter” Axel said seriously.

“Sir, yes sir!” she shouted as she stood firmer and had a slight smile escaping her lips.

“The rest of you, pick yourselves up, attempt to stop bleeding all over my nice dirt, and get your fucking retarded asses up that hill before I demote you again!” he commanded as they all ran or crawled towards the hill. Axel walked towards Ximena and Harry and in a flash they were standing on a different landscape.

“I could have done that myself” Harry informed him.

“Yea but it’s much more fun if I do it” Axel countered.

Ximena steadied herself and stood silent, she knew better now than to interrupt Axel, or speak without being spoken to.

“Ximena, you can stop with all the saluting and standing at attention. As of this moment your instructions will come from Harry…and Harry’s will come from you” Axel said calmly with a warm smile.

“What!?!?!?” Harry and Ximena said shocked.

“She is training me?” Harry said.

“He is training me?” She said at the same time for a different reason.

“I am training him?” she added shocked.

“Yes, from Harry you will learn what you need to learn to complete the program. He knows the magic you’re trying to harness, he can make it so that you learn it completely and that way, when we leave you can train the rest of this lot” Axel explained.

“Harry basically we are covering what you learned in class for DADA. Just review her and teach her as you would a member of the DA” Axel added.

Harry understood what he was saying, “You can’t teach her elemental magic, but you can get her through the basics of it as well as train her in the general stuff she might be missing”. He could do that easily; he had even covered and exceeded every Auror spell in the book he had gotten from Axel.

“Now Ximena” Axel began as he smiled at her still shocked look and open mouth. He moved his hand up and closed it for her. “Flies will get in” he chuckled.

Ximena shook it off and tried to gain some composure, though she was still lost.

Axel laughed, “I acted the way I did because you guys displayed some severe lack of discipline, and El General would skin me alive if I didn’t get even with you for embarrassing not only her but every office in America. Also this training is not easy, so you’re complete and unquestioning obedience was necessary. Now that you are here, I can drop the act. Harry here has a lot of power, that has you rattled, but the specific skills I need from your to teach him are the American Regional Magical Standards, which are the combined laws, regulations, and tactics that are yearly discussed and practiced at the American Auror Association Annual Cooperative High Operations Oversight, which is a convention of all the Aurors where they discuss and share improvements and new regulations to apply to Aurors throughout the continent” he explained mostly to Harry who didn’t know anything about it.

“ARMS and AAACHOO?” Harry sent psychically.

“Hey I didn’t name ‘em” Axel replied.

Harry suppressed a chuckle.

Ximena had gotten it together and was now evaluating what was asked of her. The task that before sounded insane now made a lot more sense, it was what she had to do with all the recruits that she was assigned to. “I see, I can understand that sir. The task won’t be difficult from what I have seen; mostly it will just be studying. I will need some books” she began.

Axel dropped a bag of em from out of nowhere. “And please call me Axel, sir makes me feel old” he chuckled.

Harry gave him a look.

“Older” he corrected and made a face at Harry.

Ximena just nodded and laughed, “Ok sir…, I mean Axel” she replied.

“There is one other thing, beyond what I have mentioned, I want Harry to master the skill of rapid fire spelling” Axel explained.

Ximena turned somber, “I see, that training is kept for only the top Aurors, it requires much discipline, skill, and responsibility” she replied seriously.

“He trained with me” Axel replied simply. Then added, “And as you can see survived and bloomed”

She smirked, “Good point”

“What are you talking about? I can spell incredibly fast” Harry defended.

“But you could be insanely faster” Axel countered. “Ximena, if you would”

Ximena smirked and then pulled out a second wand. In a flash she was flying through the air and casting near simultaneous spells from both wands and an insane rate. Most of the spells were done wordlessly and others were done with incredibly fast mumbles that could not be understood.

Harry smirked, he had to admit, she was fast, not as fast as him, but he got an idea.

“Ok now my turn” Axel said as he raised both his hands. Then he vanished, only Harry could see him move and hear his mumbles, the rate he was going was insane, even by Harry’s standards of Elemental magic, he immediately understood why he was to learn this. He would need it to fight Grindenwald and his Generals.

Ximena just stood shocked as she could see nothing but the effect of the spells decimating the landscape at an incredible rate with just simple spells and hexes.

Axel finally reappeared, “So that’s what we are aiming for” he said looking back at a shocked Harry.

“Bloody hell, that was brilliant” Harry said smiling.

“Wow” was all Ximena could provide.

“Well then, see you in eight months” Axel said and then vanished.

“Crap” Ximena blurted.

“I know, he always does that” Harry chuckled. “Ok why don’t we start with all your theoretical stuff and then we can move on to the good stuff” he suggested.

“Sounds like a plan, where are we going to study?” she countered.

“Over there” Harry said pointing to a cave that was a small distance away. When they arrived they found that there was a table, a small library, and one bed, a very small one.

“Eh” she said nervously.

Harry just took it in stride, pulled a quill and parchment and sat at the table. “Let’s get started then” he said nonplussed. Inwardly though he was cursing Axel’s existence.

“Right, you’re right. Well the American standards are…” and with that she launched into a lengthy lecture. Harry quickly jotted down whatever she said and started committing it to memory, stopping her every once in a while to clarify a few points. The sun went down on them and they continued under the light of candles. And continued well into the morning. Ximena had just completed a rather dull explanation of the importance of cauldron standards in shops when she yawned for the 25th time and her head lulled. Harry was fresh as ever, being very used to long days and exhausting lectures and lessons.

“Hey girl just hit the sack, we can continue this tomorrow” Harry said calmly.

She yawned again, “Sounds like a plan, we are mostly done anyways. Either you are very good at learning or you have no clue what I have been going at for hours” she replied and then threw herself on the bed. Harry chuckled and followed.

The night was long, and apparently cold, because when he woke up they were wrapped in each other’s arms.

Harry stared at the Latin girl in his arms. She was very beautiful with dark hair and subtle wild features. Her hair was a mess, but it looked like its natural state was that of being messy, just like his. She whimpered and rocked a bit all of a sudden. She got a very frightened look on her face.

“Hum, I wonder” Harry thought and then entered her mind. There he saw what was running through her mind. A scared little girl surrounded by big men. Not a shred of clothes left on her. She had a brave face one but quickly that face was fading, the closed it. They took hold of her…and hands started to go where they should never go on a child. Rage overtook him, she couldn’t be any older than 6. The scene flashed, she was now older, probably a young teen, the same men, the same scene, only now she had a look of stony determination. She let them do what they wanted, but at the end she bit into one of their necks drawing blood. The scene changed again, they were beating her, mercilessly, again and again and then rapping her again as if taunting her. The scene changed one final time, she was a young woman now, similar to how she looked now, she had a wand aimed at the men, all of them disarmed. She paralyzed them, poured honey on them, and left them all in an open field. “To the beasts with you” she growled and Dissapperated. He then felt her mind stir; he closed his eyes just as she opened hers.

She whispered, “Fuck” then slowly inched away, freeing her arm from under him, and then rolled to the other side of the small bed.

Harry fell back asleep and awoke as the morning did. She was still on her side of the bed but she had inched closer again, her hand on top of his.

He dug through his back and had some provisions before going out and begging his morning practice. He was practicing the forms for his Earth spells so he would have them at top of mind. After that, he stripped naked and went into the water to bathe. No sooner had he done this that Ximena, having woken up exited the cave, looking all disheveled, with food from her pack in her hand eating. “Hey Ha…” she was saying as she ran her hand through her hair, but now stood transfixed. In the glaring sun, Harry stood like an Adonis in the water. His muscles flawless, covered in faded scars, every inch of him was…perfect, no other word came close. That and he was naked. He saw her, smiled, and continued bathing as is nothing was off. “My grandma taking a bath, my parents having wild sex, General Garcia naked, big deadly spiders” she started chanting everything she could think of that was utterly revolting to her, but try as she might, he was hot.

“What are you mumbling about?” Harry said standing right next to her.

She turned and looked, then looked down, then rapidly looked up and was entranced in his green eyes for a bit. Then she turned blushing furiously. “You are naked sorry” she stuttered

Harry chuckled, “Why are you sorry? I am the one who is naked and you had very little to do with it” he replied as he magicked the clothes onto his body.

“But…ehm…ah” she stuttered.

“Hey, I don’t really care; we are going to be living together for a while. We will be doing very intense drills, sooner or later we will see each other naked” Harry explained.

Ximena rapidly turned, “I would never, men disgust me. I am not one of your harlots Mr. Potter…” she growled.

Harry waved his hand and all words became mute, “Ximena, let me clarify, because you obviously misunderstood. I am not saying that in our hormone induced excitement we will fuck like bunnies. I am saying that in our very intense training, clothes tend to get shredded to bits. Now in actual combat, no one is retarded enough to stop mid fight and magic new clothes onto themselves. Our practices will be similar in that, so we best get used to the idea” he explained and then waved his hand again and she could speak.

Now though she was absolutely red, her thoughts had immediately gone to where the rest of her body was screaming to go, how long had it been? Not since before she… she growled at the thought, embarrassed looked up and smiled nervously. “I am sorry Harry; it is just that…well I am just sorry. You are right, given the training we are to do, it is to be expected that sooner or later we will see each other nude” she replied.

He smiled, patted her shoulder and then went into the cave. “I will give you your privacy today, but be ready for the eventuality” he said and went into the cave. Blushing furiously she bathed and entered the cave refreshed. Harry was already reading through the books and his notes. She sat and began to teach him again. This continued for about a week, after which she was incredibly surprised that Harry had gotten everything right when she tested him.

“Damn Harry, you know this stuff better than I do” she chuckled.

“Yea, don’t remind me” he laughed. “In any case, I believe it is now my turn to teach you some theory. But first I need to get out of this shirt” he said as he took it off, showing his sweaty muscled chest.

She gasped, no matter how many times she had seen him naked, and there had been plenty, Harry had not been shy in the least, nor had she resisted the temptation to look…well gawk at him. She on the other hand had yet to bring herself to strip in front of him. Still there was a longing in her, a longing that crashed into the stone wall she had built around her heart, a wall impenetrable by any man.

Harry smiled inwardly at her reaction. He was in a certain way enjoying this, he had never been a fan of attention but, he loved the attention he got from the ladies. Besides, Ximena stirred something in him, his desire to help her, to heal her, to get past the wall she put up to keep everyone out, especially men. A wall that reminded him so much of someone else’s… He shook his head, if he started thinking about Rose he would crack and that was the last think he needed.

“Well then, the first thing…uhm well the primary…the main…hum let’s just start with some meditation and move up from there” Harry instructed as he sat on the ground, not really having an idea what he was doing.

“OoK” she said doubtfully. “Now what?”she asked.

Harry thought about it. “Close your eyes, focus on the energies around you” he explained.

“Huh?” she replied.

“Hum, right, ok let me show you” he said as he moved behind her in an instant and put his hands gently on her temples. He opened a channel and showed her what she needed to see.

“Wow, this is incredible” she said as she looked around.

“Yea now focus, let the magic travel to your eyes” he instructed.

She did so, not getting any results. “How long is this going to take before it works?” she asked.

Harry grimaced, “A while” he replied.

Sirius was scribbling furiously on a piece of parchment. His secretary walked in and stood in front of his desk. He still hadn’t noticed her. She took the opportunity to admire…well gawk at her boss. He looked very handsome, especially with his brow scrunched up, the stubble on his face, the wildness of his hair. She sighed.

“Why thank you, what can I do for you my lovely lady” Sirius replied out of habit, it was second nature to him to reply like that when a girl sighed in his presence. “Oh, sorry Britney, I didn’t see you standing there. What can I do for you?” he asked giving her a billion galleon smile.

She had to struggle to remain standing and not lose control his voice was so erotic it almost made her… She shook her head and handed him a stack of files. “These are the reports on the gains of the WWW division” she said her voice stuttering.

His steely grey eyes bore into her, she was frozen. “Thanks you” he said winking at her.

She gasped, cleared her throat, fidgeted nervously and then left. Sirius chuckled silently as he saw how she stumbled out. “Still got it” he mumbled to himself and then continued writing, he then proceeded to the next letter and the next. He then handed them all his personal owl and sent him off. “Off with you, they are waiting for those” he said smiling as the bird took off. He sat back down and began to read Witch Weekly. Recently a new section has appeared, and it was causing quite a stir. Sales for the magazine had skyrocketed; it was a good thing Black Marauders had purchased it before it started to turn. The new section was called Dr. Cannis, Master of Love. It was an advice column for men and woman who were having problems of the heart. Sirius smiled as he read it.

“Yes Sirius, I do believe you are a genius, then never saw it coming. And now the magazine is a hit” he growled to himself happily.

Catherine was trying to stay relaxed; her plan was progressing slowly, way too slowly. The construction on her new prank stores was almost done but it was too slow for her. She needed to nip their funding in the butt. She figured WWW was where they were getting their capital, though where WWW got their funding was still a mystery. A mystery she hoped to solve that very day.

“Ms. Doughery a Mr. Lupin to see you” here intercom announced.

“Let him in” she said to the device. Her assistant on the other end came through the door and behind her was the same old raggedy looking man she had seen not too long ago.

“Remus, how good to see you” she said getting up and going over to hug him. Out of all the Marauders, he was the only one she tolerated.

“Hey Cat, it’s good to see you too” he replied as he returned the hug a bit put off by her attitude.

“Come now have a seat, tell me all about the Honeymoon” she said offering him a seat in a small sofa area there was in her office as she took a chair as well. “Would you like some tea?” she asked.

“That would be great, thank you” he replied.

Her assistant went to get it without her having to say a word.

“So now tell me all about it” she said with a big fake grin.

“Well the Black…” he began but she instinctively growled. “Eh…the company paid for us to go to Hawaii. It was a jolly good time; Tonks had a blast, though I fully expected trouble as she kept changing her hair to the oddest colors to match the celebrations. Still we spent a lovely week there” he said smiling honestly at the memories and at the memories he would never repeat aloud.

“Oh that sounds lovely, how nice of the…company to send you there. Business must be going great then” she prompted.

Remus lifted a brow, “Yes, we are doing quite well. Our... leader has made some bold, yet brilliant investments. The Quidditch teams are all slowly showing results, WWW is constantly making profits though there seems to be some trouble in Japan…” he continued but trailed off as he thought he said too much.

She made a mental note to check on Japan, great place to strike.

“The preserve is going swimmingly; we are getting unanimous support from the Ministries around the world. And our PR department is doing a bang up job with it all. We also recently purchased a magazine…” he said and then looked at the table and saw a copy of Witch Weekly it was open to the Dr. Cannis section.

“Yes, I am starting to become an avid reader. It was a great stroke of luck to do so before you started the Dr. Cannis section. He is a very astute man” she prompted. In all honesty she wanted to start her own magazine and buy that man over to hers. He was extremely brilliant and eloquent. Had it not been for her overhearing her assistant talking about it with the other secretaries, she would have never found out. She had demanded to see the magazine and had found the writing wonderfully insightful, though she grimaced when she found out it was a new Black Marauder acquisition.

“Yes, we are lucky. The magazine has been keeping him guarded though, not even we know who he is. Si…I mean the CEO and I wanted to sit down and talk to the man, but the magazine said it was a no go” Remus informed her as she growled again at the near mention of Sirius.

She cursed inwardly, “I guess it is their prerogative to protect their talent. Still I am amazed by how well it is going considering…the CEO” she made a face.

Remus had heard enough, he sighed. “Catherine, drop it, I know what you have been up to, and I know what you are trying to do. Don’t think we don’t get reports from the Finance department about the moves the White group is making. Stop now, or you will regret it, you will really regret it” he said in all seriousness.

“Is that a threat!?!?!” she howled standing up. She dropped all pretenses and stared the werewolf down. “We will beat you down, and I will have him destroyed. Nothing you can do will stop that, not even if you suddenly gave me a nice little visit when the moon is fool” she said dangerously.

And that was it, Remus stood up just as her assistant brought in the tea. “Cat, I am not your enemy, you are your own worst enemy. I feel sorry for the day you find out just how wrong you are for doing what you are doing. I forgive you for what you just said, and for missing my wedding, Merlin knows it is not the first one you missed” he said glaring at her softly.

That knocked her out of her reverie, it was a low blow but she had earned it.

“Lily forgave you for that too, and for not going to Harry’s christening. Someday you will have to face the consequences of all your actions, and that day will come very soon” he said and then turned and left leaving her dazed and puzzled as to what he meant.

“Remus what did you mean by that? What is going to happen?” she said chasing him, but it was too late as he Apparated away.