"No, that"s not right," Vincent stopped punching and kicking. "Roden in his werewolf form could have grabbed me there and broke my leg."Those actions were repeated time and time again, with Vincent redoing the same strike at some imaginary opponent. Arnya kept writing on a parchment while looking up every so often nearby under a tree.
It"s been a little over a month or so, and the ice pillar still stood tall. The teachers did everything they could, but it was extremely hard for them to completely move something that big, not to mention the terrifying cold it emitted, making it hard for anyone to get close without freezing. A poor student that got curious nearly had his arm fall off due to frostbite. It had gotten smaller, it looked it"ll take another month or two before it disappears completely.
Bait that wasn"t the worse of it for Vincent, during the months potions lessons, Vincent was literally sitting in the corner twiddling his thumbs as he stared longingly at the cauldron. Snape did not allow him to as so much touch one and gave him the evil eye every so often.
During his strikes, Vincent recalled a similar scene in his youth, one of him and a blond haired teen instructing him.
...
"Again."
....
Vincent punched forward while blocking an imaginary attack.
...
"Know the motions, learn to do every move at will, as easily as you walk."
...
He then brought his elbow to where the attacker"s stomach was in his mind.
...
"Learn to instantly recognise what the best solution is, whether it"s best to kick the opponent, or straight up punch them. Should you block the attack, or dodge it. But to do that, you must have the capacity to utilise those moves."
...
Vincent practiced kicking for a bit, trying to get his form right, before stopping. He let out a long breath and looked towards the ice pillar.
"Soon, I can start making potions again, yay!" he sighed while Arnya gave him a raised eyebrow. "What? All these ideas keep coming to me, I want to try them all out."
"And that," Hermione walked up to them with Neville following, "is the problem."
Vincent groaned while Arnya waved. He turned around and went back to practicing as Hermione took a seat next to Arnya, pulling out her textbooks.
"So is that a martial art or something?" Hermione asked looking at Vincent.
"It"s just a whole bunch of basic moves," Vincent replied stopping to wipe his sweat. "A proper punch, a proper kick, palm strike, elbow strike, all of what I"m doing is to just get familiar with the motions. Something I practiced a lot when I was little, but as I was too small, it it wasn"t effective against big people. So I resorted to sneak attacks and such to take down the bigger guys."
"And now that you"re bigger..."
Vincent nodded. "I can actually start using those moves properly. Still not as good as him." He said that last part to himself.
"?" Hermione gave him a questioning look.
"Forget it," said Vincent as he moved to sit down. He too a drink before pulling out his homework. "So Neville, what do you need help on?"
"Well, it about the shrinking potion that was mentioned..."
As Vincent helped Neville with his homework, Arnya and Hermione were also doing theirs.
"You sleeping well?" Arnya asked Hermione who nodded, the bags under her eyes gone.
"The potions really doing it"s work," Hermione said as she jotted down some notes on her parchment before switching to another.
"But your still, using it right?" Hermione paused, knowing Arnya was referring to the time-turner before nodding. "It"s bad for your health."
"I have to use it to make it to attend all my cla.s.ses," Hermione argued.
"Drop a few of them," Arnya suggested while Hermione shook her head.
"I"ve already come so far, I don"t want to give up now. Well, except for that divination cla.s.s," Hermione muttered. "I"m really thinking about quitting it."
"If you say so," Arnya said.
"Is Divination really that bad a cla.s.s?" Vincent asked Nevelle, overhearing a bit of the conversation.
Neville shrugged. "To be completely honest, it makes no sense for me. I keep seeing frogs in my teacup."
"Probably talking about Trevor then."
Harry and Ron walked by. Ron and her locked eyes before turning away from each other, refusing to acknowledge either of their existences.
"You guys really need to reconcile," Vincent muttered. "It"s a bit ridiculous."
Hermione ignored him.
Vincent didn"t press on, taking a glance at the green band around her wrist. "How"s it feel?"
"It"s amazing how it can heal any physical injury," Hermione answered. "But it seems to use the person"s own or surrounding energy to recharge itself."
"That"s what I noticed too," Vincent pulled out a red gem. With just a thought and intent, a small flame danced manifested itself with a brilliant red colour. "That"s why that ice pillar went so high, the gem absorbed the energy of the ingredients to the point where it just blew up."
"With enough energy, these things can be dangerous," Hermione commented, taking the red gem from Vincent. She played with the flame, making it grow and shrink before placing it back. "You haven"t been practicing in the mornings lately, why"s that?"
"I can"t see Dementors, but I can feel them," Vincent responded looking outside. "The cold feeling whenever one gets close is annoying and I"d have to rely on Arnya to tell me when one was coming at me."
"Just annoying?" Hermione asked with some surprise. "Isn"t it scary?"
"Of course it is," Vincent said. "Dealing with some invisible demons trying to suck my soul out isn"t really pleasant. Neville, at this part you have to stir counter-clockwise."
"Oh, thanks," Neville had an enlightened look as he jotted down some notes.
"Harry"s started on manifesting his patronus last I heard," Vincent mentioned. "It"d be nice to be able to do it too. Haaaa, maybe if I"m lucky, I can create some potion to ward them off."
Everyone exchanged glances at each other with the same thought in mind.
"Or you might create something worse."
...
"Can you see him?" Vincent asked Arnya who shook her head. "That"s annoying, he couldn"t have left Hogwarts can he?"
The two of them were over looking the Hogwarts grounds, using Arnya"s vision to spot any sign of Scabbers.
"Where the heck is he?" Vincent thought. He then noticed a large black dog prowling among the trees. It looked at him and made a nodding sort of motion before disappearing back into the bushes.
"Glad Sirius decides to work with us," Vincent muttered under his breath.
It was about a month ago, a week after he had just returned to Hogwarts when Vincent and Sirius met. During a Hogsmeade visit, Vincent wandered around the small village alone.
Hermione didn"t feel like going out due to her mood and Arnya decided to stay with her, leaving Vincent alone.
"Arnya not being with me feels weird," he thought. "It seems that I"ve gotten used to her being there."
Vincent then spotted a dog prowling around Honeydukes and grinned. "Found you."
The dog felt an unsettling presence. Before it could react, it felt the scruff of its neck being grabbed by something and its body being lifted up.
It turned to face Vincent who waved. "Sup."
Recognising the boy holding it, it started struggling and whimpering.
"Why the Sirius look Blacky?" Vincent grinned widely seeing the dog stop struggling and glared at him intently. "Couldn"t resist. Anywhere we can talk in private?"
The dog looked at him with what looked like an annoyed face as Vincent set it down. It padded off to a distance and looked back, seemingly wanting Vincent to follow.
After walking out of the village to a remote cave, Vincent had to say something. "Think this is far enough."
Suddenly a man rushed out at Vincent with what seemed like a knife. Vincent didn"t even seem fazed and simply caught the man"s wrist and disarmed the knife in one swift movement before pushing him back.
"That"s one way to greet someone," Vincent responded throwing the knife to the ground.
"How the h.e.l.l did you know it was me?" Sirius asked, eyes darting about.
"I thought, if Peter could be an animagus, then the chances of you being able to do the same are pretty high," Vincent found a rock to sit on. "Since you got those dungbombs, screw you by the way, you must have a small camp set up around Hogsmeade."
"Wait, you said Peter?" Sirius lost all the composure he had and started shaking. He walked up and grabbed onto Vincent"s cuffs. "Wh-where is he? Tell me, tell me, TELL ME!"
Sirius stopped shaking as Vincent calmly took out a delicious smelling box. "Your agitated, and you probably haven"t had a good meal in ages. Eat, then we"ll talk."
Sirius, with trembling hands, opened it to see it stuffed with chicken, vegetables and other delicacies that blinded him. He gave it a sniff before taking a bite of the chicken. His eyes widened as how crispy it was and the flavour that filled him mouth. Without any manners or any care as to whether it was poise be or not, he started scarfing it down like his life depended on it.
Vincent just sat there watching how messy Sirius was and felt pity for the man. He probably hadn"t even gotten a decent meal in the past decade.
"If we catch Peter, then we can clear his name," Vincent thought, clenching his fists. "And Sister An..."
After a long while, Sirius sat back, patting his stomach. "Haha, you know kid, I"ll forgive you for that lemon prank you pulled."
"Haah? You threw flipping dungbombs at me, that took like a week before the smell washed off," Vincent felt his brow twitch.
"Oh don"t be like that," Sirius waved his arm in dismisal. "If you just let me get away, everything would be fine no?"
All pity was lost for the man as Vincent kept his forced smile. "Seeya, I"m leaving."
"Wait, wait, wait!" Sirius grabbed Vincent"s leg. "I"m sorry!"
Vincent gave a sigh and sat back down. He looked dead in Sirius" eye. "Now, let"s talk."
They talked for a long while, with Vincent explaining what he found out and his relation to Sister An which made Vincent more trustworthy in Sirius"s eyes. Sirius also explained his escape from Azkaban and how he managed to find out about Peter in Hogwarts. He had gotten a newspaper regarding the Weasley"s trip to Egypt had a picture of Scabbers in it. Recognising Peter from the missing finger, he decided to escape. It turns out, that Dementors don"t seem to care about the souls that seen non-human, hence allowing Sirius to slip away as a dog and swim back to mainland. After meeting Sister An and getting a glance at Harry"s situation, he made a trek all the way to Hogwarts.
"PETTIGREW HAS ESCAPED?!" Sirius bellowed as he stood up in rage before being shushed by Vincent.
"Do you want to be caught?" Vincent asked, checking outside. Fortunately, no one seemed to be nearby.
Sirius had a murderous look on his face as he slowly sat back down. "I have not broken out of Azkaban, just to come all this way to hear that, that little worm had run off!"
"He might not have gotten out of Hogwarts yet," Sirius narrowed his eyes as Vincent continued. "It wasn"t long since he went missing, a couple of days or so before I came back."
"But the thing that makes me sure is how he"s acted so far. To me, Peter seems to value his life above anything else, even if he has to live in discomfort. Running away may stop you from killing him, but it would also be an even bigger risk to be out there in the open world, having the chance that some wizard may recognise him and hunt him down along with the ministry. Even if he could live out the rest of his life as a muggle, Peter would be the type of person that must be certain that he wouldn"t be caught. So the only option left in that situation is to find his old master, Voldermort."
"You do realise he could be doing that now—" Vincent held up a hand to stop Sirius"s outrage.
"I"m confident that he wouldn"t do that now," Vincent smiled. "I"m certain that even Peter would only rely on Voldermort to protect him as a last resort, when he"s backed up against a corner. Even some of his old followers have not searched for him, this leads me to believe that while Voldermort was indeed powerful, none of them want him to return, due to the terror and ruin he"d bring to their current lives I suppose. Well, apart from those in Azkaban."
"This kid, even though he never met Peter, Vincent had described Peter"s att.i.tude and personality exactly as it is," Sirius thought looking at Vincent. "He even thought of reasons as to why Peter would or wouldn"t escape. What kind of magic is this?"
"So what Peter would most likely do in this situation, is to wait it out," Vincent concluded. "Escaping means he"d have no choice but to return to Voldermort, or he"d be hunted down. So he would wait to see if the current situation is good or bad for him."
"...so what do you want me to do?" Sirius asked.
"Just patrol the border like you always do," Vincent shrugged as Sirius glared at him. "I"ll keep an eye out for him in the castle, while you make sure he doesn"t escape. It"s not much, but it"s all we got. Once captured, we can hand him over to Dumbledore—?"
A thought came across Vincent"s mind. "Did Dumbledore try to get you out of prison? I"m sure that he should have known that you were innocent."
Sirius gave a hollow laugh. "You know how I was the Secret Keeper to the Potters right? I convinced them to give it to Peter, believing that he was trustworthy, what a fool I was. Sure, Dumbledore visited me, but I couldn"t even look at him. What I did, was the same as killing them with my own hands."
"Guilt, so that"s why, he believed he deserved it," Vincent sat there, knowing the feeling all too well.
"Anyway, how"s Harry doing?" Sirius asked, shuffling.
Slightly taken aback at first, Vincent gave a wry grin. "He"s doing fine. He"s become a splendid seeker on the Quidditch team. And, he"s a good guy. Reckless, but he embodies the very essence of a Gryffindor."
"Haha, just like James!" Sirius laughed. "What else can you tell me?"
Vincent shook his head and stood up. "Let"s catch Peter, then he can tell you himself."
Sirius" annoyed face became pa.s.sive as he watched Vincent walk away. Suddenly, a thought came to mind. "You didn"t use your wand against me that night, why?"
"I haven"t heard of a muggle that used magic before," Vincent called out, not looking behind as he disappeared amongst the trees, leaving Sirius in a stunned state.
...
"*sniff* yeh, I"m coming!"
"Hey Hagrid, just checking to see how your doing," Vincent looked around the hut.
"Oh, yer know," Hagrid sniffed. "My earing" is scheduled in a couple o" months, I"m thankful fur all the elp" you an" Hermione have given me, but, Buckbeak—"
Vincent wanted to console the large man, but even he knew that the the whole thing was probably rigged from the start so he stayed silent.
"Yer honest Vincent," Hagrid grave a sad smile as he sat down, the chair creaking underneath him. "Too honest in fact, but I don" dislike that abou" you."
After some tea and small talk, Vincent got up to leave. "I"m sorry I couldn"t do more for you."
"Don" worry abou" it," Hagrid waved him off. He glanced at Arnya who kept patting Fang the dog. "You too Arnya, thank you for visiting."
Vincent and Arnya parted at the common room after saying goodnight to each other. As Vincent entered the room, he saw a small wisp of silver light.
"Harry?" Vincent asked. "Your not at dinner?"
"Got a Quidditch match tomorrow," Harry muttered, rubbing his eyes. "I"m just practicing the Patronus charm in case of, Dementors. What about you?"
"Visiting Hagrid," Harry"s eyes widened.
"Buckbeak, oh no, how"s Hagrid doing?" Harry asked, with guilt about forgetting.
"He"s holding it together," Vincent answered as he got changed. "After the Quidditch match, you and Ron should pay him a visit."
"Yeah, I will," Harry went back to practicing. "Expecto Patronum."
Vincent watched as a small wisp brightened the room, it spread outwards as if wanting to take form. All of a sudden, it dissipated with Harry breathing heavily from exhaustion.
"Having trouble?"
"Professor Lupin told me that a Patronus is like a guardian filled with the hope and all positive feelings of the user or something," Harry muttered in frustration. "He told me to keep in mind my happiest memory, but no matter what I pick, it doesn"t feel strong enough."
"But it seems your making good progress on it," Vincent said.
"It"s still not good enough, I can"t even last a minute," Harry replied dejectedly.
Sitting on his bed, Vincent was deep in thought. After a bit of thinking did he break the silence. "Does it have to be one memory?"
"Huh?" Harry had a questioning look.
"Your probably thinking it has to be a specific scene right? Like getting your first broom or something," Vincent knew he hit the nail on the head with Harry turning pink. "What if you thought of not one memory that made you happy but one thing that you remember made you happy?"
"Your happy when eating food. Happy when talking to your friends. Happy when riding your broomstick," Vincent looked at Harry who was in thought. "And when we first met, you told me about the day that changed your life. The day that you discovered what you were. Tell me, how happy were you, no, how happy are you as a wizard?"
Harry closed his eyes, deep in thought, contemplating what Vincent told him. Vincent smiled and got into bed. Before closing his eyes, he let out one final question. "Are you happy, as Harry Potter?"
...
"Uhhh, you guys, do you have to sit here?" Vincent asked Hermione and Ron awkwardly sitting on each side.
"No spare seats," Ron said, chomping down on a hotdog.
"I came with Arnya," Hermione was tearing into her burger as Arnya took a drink out of her smoothie at her side.
"...Right," Vincent looked around to see a house elf in a wooly jumper moving about busily. "Hey Dobby, how are you doing over there?"
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"Oh Dobby doing wonderful Sir Wong," Vincent cringed a bit. "Orders a piling up so there"s a lot of work for Dobby to do."
"Five more orders of cheeseburgers and ten for fries," Vincent ordered.
"Yes sir, Dobby is on it!" Dobby dashed around the kitchen, using magic to deal with multiple pans so that he could cook a lot all at once.
"Harry was right," Vincent thought with an amused expression. "Dobby is a strange House Elf."
That morning, Dumbledore came up to him with Dobby. The tiny elf had wanted to meet Vincent for ages after he had been freed by Harry. Something about a smelly sock. Dumbledore decided that Vincent would like some help with his little store and felt that Dobby could be of some help.
As the Gryffindor team came out, Harry looked to the sky nervously before a hand patted his back.
"Loosen up," Wood advised. "You"ll be fine. Look, if I put any pressure on you because it"s my last year, don"t worry about it. Just get out there and do your best."
Harry nodded as they all mounted their brooms and set off.
The match started off with Gryffindor in the lead. What was most noticeable was Harry"s Firebolt that shot across the sky like a red comet. Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw"s Seeker, kept sticking close to Harry, intending to s.n.a.t.c.h the snitch from him. Lee Jorden kept commenting on the Firebolt making Professor McGonagall annoyed.
"Oh what a beauty, see how smooth that flight is—"
"Jorden, focus."
"My bad, oh, Katie Bell has the Quaffle and she makes a shot! She scores! This brings Gryffindor sixty to zero. Meanwhile, Harry"s still searching for that snitch with Cho Chang staying hot on his tail. Her broom, the Comet I might add, is nowhere near as fast. See how well it handles, see how—"
"JORDEN! FOCUS!"
As time went by, Ravenclaw was still behind. Vincent just looked up to watch his friend every so often to see if he was doing well. After a bit, he noticed people muttering and pointing to something on the grounds.
"What is it?" Vincent asked Hermione.
"D–Dementors," she said, pointing to dark hooded people on the field. "Oh no, what would Harry do now?"
"Their, not Dementors," Vincent had a strange look on his face. "I can see them."
"Huh? Then what—"
Suddenly Harry, spotting the snitch went for it, seemingly not noticing the hooded figures down below.
...
"Oh!"
Harry heard Cho gasp as he dove for the snitch and looked down. His heart turned cold as he spotted the Dementors below, staring up at him. As if in slow motion, Harry pulled out his wand and pointed it at them. He didn"t have enough time to think properly. His talk with Vincent and Lupin came to mind.
"The happier the memory, the stronger the Patronum."
"One thing that makes me happy."
"Expecto Patronum!" He bellowed.
Something huge came out of his wand, but he didn"t have enough time to register it as he focused on catching the snitch.
"Just a bit more!" Harry felt something enter his palm and the sound of the whistle in his ear, signalling the end of the match.
...
Vincent winced at as a slight dull pain came from his head. He scratched, feeling nothing there and shrugged. "Must be nothing."
"Sir Wong, Harry Potter has won! What a joyous event indeed!" Dobby cheered along everyone.
"Yeah, it is," Vincent kept thinking to Harry"s Patronus and felt something odd about it.
He looked at the Quidditch ground where Malfoy and his gang were being given an earful due to their attempt at sabotaging Harry by pretending to be Dementors. He noticed how Malfoy and the rest looked like they were hit hard and glanced at the Quidditch field.
"Are Patronu" meant to feel solid?" He muttered and took note of a small dent in the near perfect field.
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