A Knut to Start the Revolution
Chapter 15

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

Harry barely bothered with the Daily Prophet after the Wizengamot meeting on his birthday, as he was busy getting ready for his training. On the magic side of things, he cancelled the expansion charm on his bedroom, and grimaced at how cramped the room appeared, then he cancelled the Muggle-Repelling Charm on his doorway.

Otherwise it was just a matter of packing his trunk and wondering what his training would be like, since he and Tonks could only do so much within the confines of his room. He reached out and fiddled with his mobile phone, and remembered the rather bizarre sequence of events that had happened the day before.

oOo

After Dumbledore and Hermione had left his room, Harry had gone downstairs to fix himself a snack, and to his surprise, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were standing in the kitchen, holding a brief conversation. Harry eyed the pair of them warily as his beefy uncle turned towards him.

In an attempt at civility, Uncle Vernon said, "As it's your birthday, and the contract went through with a bonus for me, I shall purchase you a present. Nothing outlandish and you certainly can't get a computer like Dudley's got."

Harry thought briefly, and said, "Er, a mobile telephone? It doesn't have to be fancy or anything."

A slight grimace crossed Aunt Petunia's face, then she said grudgingly, "Well, there are those Pay As You Go phones. Vernon, there's one of those telephone shops nearby which sell older mobiles. Get him one and give him a ten-pound card."

She turned to look up the address, while her husband added, "Now, listen – you'll be responsible for that phone and after the ten pounds' time is up there's no more, so you'd better earn the money yourself. Got it?"

Harry forced himself to nod politely.

Vernon brusquely said, "Fine. Come with me. Petunia, do you have the address?"

She handed him a slip of paper, and Harry quietly followed him to the car; surprisingly, the two didn't get into an argument at all during the trip. At the store, Harry checked to make sure the mobile worked before Uncle Vernon laid out the twenty-five pounds plus ten more for the Pay As You Go card.

Supper was a quiet affair that night, as Harry decided, in the interest of keeping universal stress levels down, to offer to cook instead of waiting to be ordered to the kitchen.

It had also let him give himself the birthday present of equal portions of food with the rest of his relatives.

oOo

Harry finished dialling the number that Hermione had given him, and waited for her to answer. After their initial greetings, he said, "Hi, Hermione. Look, I'm sorry about being a bit quiet after I got back from Gringotts. It was just that I saw all the stuff my family had, that nobody ever told me about before."

"I can't say I understand how that feels but I want you to know I sympathise with you."

He smiled to himself and said, "Thanks, Hermione. Anyway, listen – I'm due to start training today or tomorrow, and I wanted to ask you to chase up a few things for me before I go practically incommunicado, since I've no idea who's going to be there with me or where I'm going."

"Okay, Harry – let me just get a biro and paper here – all right, I'm ready."

Harry thought for a moment and then mentally ticked off his list as he spoke. "Right. Well, first off, ask Professor Dumbledore if you, me and Ron can get our own messenger parchments. I feel bad for not writing to Ron more often and I don't want him to feel left out. Second, I was wondering if you could find a charm that works like the Fidelius, but for thoughts instead, so, um, say I tell you something and I want to keep it absolutely secret, kind of like how a Secret Keeper for a Fidelius is the only person who can tell anyone else where something is located?"

"Hmm. All right; I think I have a few ideas, but it'll have to wait until the next time I talk to you. Do you have any idea if you'll be allowed to make contact with Ron or me?"

"No. Sorry, Hermione; I'm due to see Tonks and Dumbledore today and maybe they'll tell me more. Meantime, good luck out there, and… er, well, I should have realised appointing you as proxy would make you visible to everybody, so please be safe, Hermione?"

"Of course, Harry. Headmaster Dumbledore said he would personally ward our residence and do everything short of a Fidelius Charm. My parents are thinking of taking a long trip well outside of Britain when I start school, so we should be all right."

He breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good to hear. Anyway, I've got to ring off now; Uncle Vernon got me my own mobile for my birthday, can you believe that?"

Hermione laughed and replied, "Well, thank goodness for small favours. Is it one of those Pay As You Go mobiles?"

"Yeah, actually."

"Good. At least that way you can pay for your own minutes and such, and not be stuck worrying if he'll try playing power games with you by cancelling it at the wrong time."

"Good point. Anyway, goodbye, all right?"

"I'll see you in three weeks, unless you let me know otherwise."

They rang off, and Harry turned the mobile off. A few minutes later, a ping from the messenger parchment alerted him to the Headmaster's impending arrival, and he quickly replied that it was fine. Shortly after, two small cracks sounded through his room, and he smiled at seeing Nymphadora Tonks and Albus Dumbledore.

"Are we ready?" he asked.

Dumbledore regarded Harry for another moment, and then began speaking. "Harry, I see that you have already prepared for the voyage to where we will be training you. I am happy that you are showing foresight and attention to detail. This will come in handy as you begin the transition from being merely a student at Hogwarts to a full-fledged citizen of our community.

"Now, Ted Tonks, and Auror Tonks here, as well as Alastor Moody, have scouted out several areas in which to train you, and although I find their choice of location odd, nonetheless it is, in their opinion, a very sound place. So, if you would outline the journey, Nym… Tonks?"

His smile at her glare when he had begun speaking her first name was infectious and even Tonks had to grin along with Harry; truthfully, at the will reading, she'd been amused more than anything else at Sirius being cheeky as usual.

The bubblegum-pink haired witch began by saying, "All right, Harry – some pointers. First of all, we'll travel the Muggle way. It's less conspicuous and we have less of a chance of being caught by the Ministry or Death Eaters. Headmaster Dumbledore will join us later on. We have got the place secured against detection of the use of magic. It helps that Madam Bones was having Aurors and Hit Wizards do all sorts of other things while the warding and such were done.

"Anyway, we're taking the trains from here to a place called Romford. Nasty place, that. You'll see what I mean when we get there. Now, shrink your trunk and your books – and make sure you've got absolutely everything you need into that trunk for the next three weeks. You can't Apparate and I don't want to risk too many Apparitions to and from this room during your training. Okay?"

Nodding, he said, "Right, Tonks. Let me see here – clothes, mobile phone, Defence books, Occlumency books, wand, messenger parchment… oh. Er, Headmaster, do you want this back now or shall I take it with me?"

"Keep it for now, my boy. We may need to communicate while you are training."

"Just a second, I need something to read on the trains if we get bored."

Harry rushed into Dudley's bedroom and grabbed two books, one of them titled Call of the Wild and the other, The Power of One. The back of the second one mentioned something about boxing, which was apparently why the Dursleys had gotten it for Dudley – not that he appeared to have ever taken a crack at the book.

Harry finished by saying, "Okay. I think I've got everything." He paused. "What about Hedwig?"

The headmaster looked rather regretful as he said, "I am sorry, Harry. She will have to go to the Weasleys for the duration."

Harry understood the need to keep owls to a minimum in what sounded like a very Muggle area. He went over to the snowy bird and stroked her feathers gently as he told her, "Hey, girl. Look, I'm going to be away for three weeks. You go to the Burrow for now, okay?"

She hooted in acknowledgement and gently nipped his finger, then flew out the window as soon as he opened it. Dumbledore then shrank her cage and placed it carefully in his pocket. "I shall ensure this goes to the Burrow, Harry. Now, I think it would be wise for you to embark on your journey."

Tonks waved her wand over Harry, and she incanted a spell he failed to quite catch, but there was no missing the result when she conjured a mirror for him to look at; startled, he patted his hair, which was now a rather light brown, while his skin was tanned and made him look as though he had arrived from some tropical resort. At first glance, nobody would expect him to be Harry Potter as his glasses had also changed, outwardly, to appear more like McGonagall's – thin and rectangular instead of large and round.

He was impressed at the rather sophisticated glamour charm used on him, and asked, "How long does this last?"

The witch replied, "It just needs to last a few hours; permanent glamour charms can be pretty hard to do, but a quick temporary one can fool a dark wizard if you're trying to follow one to see what he's up to."

He nodded, and picked up the shrunken books and trunk, then placed them in the pocket of his trousers. He had a few pounds on him, but he doubted that it would be enough for a train ticket.

He was embarrassed when he had to say, "Tonks…I can't pay for a train ticket, I don't think. I'm really sorry; I should have gotten some money exchanged at Gringotts—"

Tonks grinned and replied, "Relax, Harry, relax! I got fixed up for Muggle currency before we came – it's an Order mission, so the Order will pay for it. See?"

She waved a set of ten-pound notes, and then stuffed them back in her pocket; with a quick change of hair from unique pink to dull brown, she said, "All right, we're off then. Wotcher, Headmaster."

Harry smiled briefly and said, "Thanks for all your help so far, professor. I'll try to make you proud."

The old man waved his hand and said, "Goodbye, and I shall see you two within the next day or so."

"'Kay, Harry, that's our cue. Hoppit!"

The pair laughed and exited his room; they left through the front door without a word to the Dursleys; Uncle Vernon decided that they had best take that trip to Majorca after all. There wouldn't be any weird freaky people there, anyway.

/\/\/\

Harry and Tonks walked the mile and a half to the aboveground train from Langley in Southern Buckinghamshire. Tonks paid for the train tickets there, and they got on the 11.45 to the Greenford Underground Station, which took them half an hour.

After that, they took the Tube, losing Tonks another 12 pounds, to Stratford station.

Along the way, some teenagers got on the same train, with shocking pink and green hairstyles. Harry remembered Vernon ranting about "ruddy punk kids sponging off the dole", and realised these must be the kind of people he was talking about. He remembered some Australian slang he'd heard once and thought they couldn't all be dole bludgers.

Tonks was eyeing the teens with mixed envy and amusement, as she no doubt didn't mind standing out. But today, they were blending in, and Harry kept reading The Power of One. Harry found he could relate all too well to the boy, Peekay, who was mistreated and attacked by the Afrikaner boys at the boarding school, and whose mother seemed a bit cracked at times. It reminded him a bit uncomfortably of the way Dudley and his gang would terrorise students at the primary he'd once attended.

By the time they got off at Stratford, Harry had just gotten to the part where Hoppie Groenewald was telling Peekay about boxing. For the first time, Harry could see the attraction in it, but decided this was a reflection of the author's own interest in it.

The train trip to Romford took them another twenty minutes, and finally they were at the train station, opposite which was the other side of the brick base that held up the iron arch across which trains thundered every few minutes. The brick was blackened with a century or so of pollution, and pigeons were nesting on the metal structure it supported; their deposits were splattered in irregular patterns on the pavement beneath their nests.

The suburb itself was noisy, with the roar of passing busses, and smelly from their fumes. The commuters looked surly and downright unfriendly as they streamed in and out of the station via its two doorways.

A squat, dark-painted bar sat to the right of the brick face that was opposite Harry, who surmised that the bar owner was more conscientious about keeping the inside walls clean and brightly painted, than the outside, which, like the arch at the train station, was quite grimy. A steel shutter was squeezed between it and the arch. It was apparently a place where one could get fresh fruit drinks, but there seemed to be limited business right then, for the man at the counter was looking bored.

Harry jumped a little when Tonks nudged him and pointed at their destination just down from the grimy station; his trainer met resistance when he tried to follow the Auror. To his disgust he noticed that some old gum had got stuck to it, and he angrily scuffed his shoe on a relatively clean section of pavement. He managed to get most of the gum off, and trotted after the witch, wary of any recent deposits from either pigeon digestion or human gum-chewing.

The two-floor building that he was led to was separated from the station by a wide and long alley that had a couple of large waste-bins dumped there. The place itself was coated with glazed, pallid yellow tiles; the actual shop part of the building was fronted with glass that needed a good wash. The inside appeared to be littered with old boxes and paper, and a battered "To Let" sign was slumped against the wall of windows.

Tonks took out a key from her pocket and opened the front door of the shop. Harry followed her inside, after which she shut the door and re-locked it.

"Well, this is it. We'll go upstairs, but I want to let you know about a few things here – first of all, you can see the area's not very nice. Don't go outside for any reason, especially not at night. First night we were here a bunch of bar patrons got into a nasty fight and the Muggle bobbies were busy taking them all away. Saw a couple of ambulances, too. Anyway the fact that this place is in such a run-down area that's not very friendly, we hope, will keep the Death Eaters away because they won't think of it.

"Second, we've got charms, wards, the lot except a Fidelius. Dumbledore, along with Flitwick, just set the last ward before I picked you up at your house; it makes the whole building appear like a normal Muggle one; any magic we do inside won't be detected, which was why Bones was keeping the Aurors and Hit Wizards busy with other things for the better part of a day. So we have Muggle-Repelling Charms, Notice-Me-Not Charms, Owl Diversion Wards, specialised Anti-Apparition Wards, a Personalised Portkey Ward – Dumbledore made it so only Portkeys he makes can go in and out; that'll be one way we can enter or leave without attracting suspicion… Merlin, we've probably got a good five or six more just to keep the place locked down.

"Dumbledore takes this, and you, pretty seriously here, you know."

Harry, impressed and a bit abashed at the effort the Order had gone to in making a place considered to be safe enough, just nodded and looked around again.

The Auror grinned and added, "Doesn't look like much down here, right? That's part of it. People see what they expect to see, and anyone looking inside the glass will just see this clapped-out old rubbish and not give it a second thought. Upstairs is where the real action is – Silencing Charms, Imperturbables, everything – we could probably explode a nuclear bomb in there and not have anyone notice."

Harry chuckled, and followed Tonks up the stairs. At the threshold of the door to the first floor, Tonks flicked her wand at Harry, cancelling the glamour that had been placed on him.

The first floor had only narrow windows set into the walls near the ceiling, which was a good twelve feet above the floor. The wooden planks felt solid under his feet, and the electric lighting seemed to be in good order; as a fail-safe, several small orbs set on tables around the room gave off an even natural light like sunlight. Only a slight haze moving toward him from a far corner of the room alerted him that someone else was already in the room, and even as he whipped his wand out, Mad-Eye Moody was already stumping up to him, reappearing as his Disillusionment Charm faded.

Mad-Eye's gravelly voice had a hint of disapproval in it as he barked, "Well, about time you got here. See those yellow balls? Long-term Lumos Lamps. Seems your friends the Weasley Twins got the idea when your guardian mentioned that we needed light besides just wand light for a room.

"Now, you were distracted by the surroundings, and that's a bad idea. When you're looking at the surroundings you should always exercise CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

The black-haired teen, expecting that phrase at some point, was still startled when the old Auror barked it at him, and resolved to be more aware of what was around him instead of just gawking.

"That's the spirit! I saw the glint in your eye – you're learning quickly. Pay attention to your surroundings and keep them fixed in your mind when you move around. Don't just randomly take in everything and forget to consider something important – like the fact that I happened to be in this room under a Disillusionment Charm. You should've had your wand out the moment you came in, not when I started moving towards you."

Harry nodded, and took a closer look around. The room was currently bare of any furnishings aside from the small tables with the Lumos Lamps, and appeared to be an ample size for duelling. The door that he and Tonks had just entered from extended out from the rear wall a bit, and in doing so, it created two natural nooks at the rear.

Tonks took in his glance, and said, "Harry, put your trunk in one of the nooks and we'll get a bed in here along with some food. You'll stay here twenty-four hours a day until your three weeks is up. Like I said, we can't have you leaving here, but one of us, if not more, will be by every day to train you in something. Now, don't expect to become a duelling master, but you can expect to learn strategies for how to protect yourself to the best of your ability, and learn to assess a situation and respond appropriately. Sometimes the best action is simply to get out and cut your losses. Say you're in a room with five Death Eaters. Unless you have some powerful magic behind you, the numerical disadvantage is just going to be too great, and you should just get out.

"You follow all this, Harry?"

Harry nodded, and nervously said, "Yeah." He licked his lips and continued. "I don't like knowing I've got a big target painted on my back, but I'd rather not be defenceless. I'm ready to learn."

Mad-Eye nodded approvingly, and said, "All right. Get your things laid out in that nook and then come into the centre of the room. We'll begin at that point."

Harry deposited his trunk and books in the right-hand nook of the rear, and un-shrunk everything. He then stepped into the centre as Tonks quietly slipped out to hunt up a bed and other provisions.

Mad-Eye squinted a bit at Harry. "Right. I may not look it now, but in my younger days I was actually fairly spry. Tonks tells me you're exercising some, are you?"

"Yeah. Just push-ups and sit-ups and some running."

"Well, that won't make a muscle-bound specimen of you in just a few weeks, but it'll help condition you a bit. Anyway, I'm going on this little trip down memory lane because one thing I learned that helped me in my career was that the faster I can move, the faster I can dodge, which means the faster I can keep from being in the way of a spell. Dumbledore and McGonagall specialise in transfiguring and animating things to get in the way of spells, so I won't go into that in too much detail. One thing that is dead useful is using the Summoning Charm to pull objects into the path of a spell. And along the way we'll get you proficient in nonverbal casting.

"So for starters, don't bellow your spells. Speak them in a normal voice, even if your heart is racing and the adrenalin's flowing. Got it?"

Harry replied, "Right. No yelling."

"Good. And if you should fail to remember that, you drop and give me ten each time."

Mad-Eye was grinning as Harry, puzzled, replied, "Drop, sir?"

"Do ten push-ups."

The teen nodded, remembering one of the physical education teachers at the primary school doing that to recalcitrant students. Suddenly this training seemed a lot more like work and a lot less like fun, as opposed to when he and Tonks had been honing his reflexes using relatively tame spells.

The grizzled wizard stumped a few feet away, and they began the first of many duels, peppered by many sets of ten push-ups for the boy when he would forget that he was not supposed to yell his spells.

Author Notes: The section of this fic where Harry goes to Romford was originally written with a great deal of help from one of my former betas. I'd like to thank Maddevillechilde again for helping me with that part. The pub mentioned in this chapter is "Trax", and I have no idea if it's still there, but it was back when I first wrote this fic.