Hi everybody! This is my first EVER fic, so please be gentle, and give me lots of nice reviews. Flames are mean, evil and nasty, and will be used to incinerate the head of social development, along with my evil science teacher! I hope you enjoy, and a big thanks to my beta and sister, Aqua Mage. I couldn't have done it without her.
Beta's note: Yes he could, he's brill!
Authors note: Stop it, you're ruining the moment!
ENJOY!
Disclaimer: Anything you recognise is unlikely to be mine, unless I am recovering from amnesia and a gender change. I am not J.K Rowling. Don't sue me!
The cavern was massive.
Huge boulders littered the floor as well as the rows of ledges. Alcoves covered the wall, some protected, some not, and here and there the occasional stairwell.
At a glance you might think it was deserted; if you didn't look carefully you might not see anyone, but if you looked closely you would see a man in a leather coat standing perfectly still, waiting.
It was soon apparent exactly what he was waiting for.
A spell shot out of nowhere. Without opening his eyes the man's hand shot out and seemingly caught the spell before calling out "you'll have to do better than that Harry!" The man hurled the spell in a completely different direction, blowing apart a boulder to reveal Harry Potter being hurled back by the force of the explosion.
Luckily for Harry his reflexes were superb, he had created a shimmering shield the second the spell hit the boulder.
As soon as he touched the ground he hurled himself behind a large cluster of boulders firing off 6 spells before he was hidden from view.
A huge shockwave absorbed the spells and pulverised the cluster of boulders Harry was hiding behind before striking the wall which shuddered under the impact. By the time the dust cleared Harry was gone.
5 more spells shot out of nowhere, all heading directly for the mysterious figure.
Quick as a flash the man had turned round and was holding what looked like a glowing marble in his hand.
The spells impacted an invisible shield, with every hit increasing the size and brightness of the energy marble.
The second all the spells had hit, the man hurled the energy sphere at a point just below the upper ledge, muttering "never have one above the other, it's just asking for trouble."
The spell impacted blowing away the upper ledge and showering the lower ledge with rubble.
A faint "damn," and an "oh dear," could be heard before the lower ledge was completely buried in debris.
A faint muttering could be heard as the man whirled round to see a mystical symbol flying in his direction.
He made a quick hand gesture before the symbol wrapped itself around him. It then compressed into a glowing thread that shot itself at a nearby boulder burrowing right through it and out of sight.
A quick gasp was audible and the man muttered "keep moving, how many times?"
Before he could say anything else two beams of blinding light engulfed him, blasting him into the far wall. It appeared the fight was over.
It wasn't.
Slowly at first the light was being forced back. Incredibly the man was repelling it.
A shock wave flew down the length of the beams, absorbing them into itself and slamming into the two boys that had created them.
"A nice combo, but you should always have a shield up, don't you think Harry?"
With that a ripple emanated from the man like a pebble being dropped into water, but this destroyed everything it touched.
As a boulder blew apart, a very injured and exhausted looking Harry Potter was picked up by the force of the spell and slammed into the wall creating a new alcove and burying Harry in rubble.
"Overall a good performance but there are some distinct areas we can work on. Trailcus termenotous."
With those words the chamber began to disintegrate. When it had completely disappeared, the only things left were six unconscious teenagers and a calm looking man in a silver and black leather coat walking towards Madam Pomfrey. The Hogwarts school nurse, was ,in a somewhat less than discrete manner, muttering something along the lines of "outrageous, totally out of control, they're only teenagers, being battered every day in the name of training, if he-who-must-not-be-named turned up now, Oh there wouldn't even be a fight! If this is defending them I'd hate to see what's attacking them, outrageous, if I had my way I'd put him in a coma, permanently!"
Still muttering, she levitated the unconscious teenagers onto stretchers that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and started walking with them towards the exit.
The second Madam Pomfrey cleared the doorway Remus Lupin ambushed her "what happened, are they going to be alright, who did it I'll kill them!"
"There going to be fine, don't worry,"
Before she could say anything else Arthur Weasley ran up to her and said something similar to what Remus had said just a moment ago. This time she was cut off by Albus Dumbledore saying quite plainly "they will be fine gentlemen, I suggest you allow Madam Pomfrey to attend to her patients - this way you will soon see that they are indeed quite alright. I believe the one responsible for there, ahem, current predicament is Stryker here, but I think that you will also find he is the one responsible for their lasting so long."
At this all heads turned to the mysterious figure walking silently behind them. Both Arthur and Remus opened their mouths to say something like "how dare you harm them" and "if I ever get my hands on you I'll…" but they were both beaten by Mad Eye Moody, who had also joined the ever expanding crowd.
"Best way to learn, they won't make the same mistake next time, is what I always say…"
"…Constant Vigilance" interjected Tonks who had also joined the group.
"Exactly Tonks, glad you're learning, that was the best bit of training I've ever seen, I've got a special group of aurors that I have to train to be able to beat ten of the best death eaters; you should come down sometime give 'em a few lessons in team work, with a wand obviously, to keep it fair you know."
"Constant Vigilance" cut in Kingsley Shacklebolt, who had also joined the group.
"Precisely, so what do you say…hmm…Stryker, isn't it?"
"I'd love to," answered Stryker.
"This doesn't resolve the matter - you still can't go around blasting kids" Arthur brought the group back to the original topic.
"Teenagers" corrected Stryker.
"That's hardly any better; you just can't do it – it's wrong." Complained Arthur.
"Which would you prefer, me prepare them by rigorously testing them in a controlled environment or when they get into trouble again have a death eater kill them?" countered Stryker.
"How can you be sure that they won't go looking for trouble when they think they are prepared?" replied Remus.
"If they did that, Voldemort would be the least of their worries, and anyway Harry knows now what could happen, he won't do something like that again. Trust me!" finished Stryker in a way that left no room for argument.
"Do you think I would look good in a coat like that" enquired Dumbledore looking thoughtfully at Stryker's back.
Hope you enjoyed, next chapter will be up soon, please REVIEW! Another big thanks to my beta!
Authors note: I re uploaded this chapter to include several missed full stops (periods for my US readers).