By Lord Wrackspurt

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This Chapter is a continuation of a novel length fan-fiction story which replaces the final book in the Harry Potter series. This story is a work of fan-fiction based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling and her publishers. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

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Chapter 7: Dark Arts 101

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Harry awoke a little before noon in his bed by himself. Harry reflected that this idea of having regular sex, and sleeping until noon could easily become habit forming. Harry would probably have gone back to sleep, but his bladder wouldn’t let him. As he took a very enjoyable piss in the master bathroom, Harry was wondering if there were any spells that allowed you to empty your bladder while staying in bed. It would definitely be a handy charm to know.

Harry stepped into the shower and noticed that his face felt a bit odd, he had whiskers growing on his chin. He needed a shave! Apparently getting some really did make whiskers grow! With a little effort, Harry was able to transfigure the scrub brush into a safety razor and scrape the few chin whiskers away. After drying off, he slipped on a clean pair of boxers and went to see what was available to eat. As Harry entered the kitchen, he was surprised to find Professor McGonagall there instead of Tonks.

“Going native are we, Mr. Potter?” she asked.

“I wasn’t expecting company to show up, Professor.”

“I see,” she replied. “Well I am here with Alastor Moody; Miss. Tonks has gone shopping and will be out for a while. If you are hungry I suggest you get more appropriately attired and sit to the table, I’ll have breakfast ready directly.”

When Harry returned after dressing, he found Professor Moody already eating a large plate of sausages and eggs. “Dig in, Potter,” he said with a grin. “Are you ready to start training?”

“I think so, Sir,” replied Harry. “I just hope I’m able to learn quickly.”

“You’ll do fine. I’ve set up a training area in the basement. I’ve set up special shielding charms there because we will be doing magic that is officially forbidden to even practice. It should keep the Inquisition from noticing anything. However, any forbidden curses are to be performed strictly in the basement and nowhere else, understood?

“Yes, Sir,” Harry replied. “Professor, what is the Ministry doing to stop Voldemort? They have to be doing something.”

“Oh a lot has happened, Potter,” said Moody. “The Wizengamot passed the Patriotic Wizards Act after 7-11. The act gives the Aurors and the Inquisition greatly expanded powers to search, seize, detain, question, and punish suspected Death Eaters. Azkaban is to be rebuilt when the old rubble is cleared away, till then all suspects are being held in the lower most depths of the Ministry building where they can undergo the ‘special interrogation’ that the Inquisition knows how to do so well.”

“That’s where the Inquisitors do their thing?”

“Um hum,” said Moody absent-mindedly while swallowing a bit of sausage. “Once they have completely broken your will to resist, they ‘skull fuck’ your mind. All your thoughts are open to them and captured in a Pensieve. The Wizengamot can now meet in closed session to have your trial. Then they issue your verdict. Some are sent to cells beneath the Ministry, others are to be sent to the ‘Black Room,’ as they have taken to calling it. It takes a special warrant to be issued for a prisoner to be sent there, the door to the room is enchanted, the warrant has to be read to it or it won’t open. Some of the Dementors stayed loyal to the Ministry, they are now located there and give the Dementors kiss to the offenders, leaving them a soulless shell.”

Moody saw Harry blanche at the idea; he knew that Harry’s greatest fear was Dementors. The creatures fed on unhappy thoughts and despair, so Harry was a banquet to them.

“Anyway, you finish eating and get your wand. Meet me in the basement and we’ll start.”

As Harry entered the basement room, he saw that it resembled the DADA classroom at Hogwarts, except there were no windows. Alastor Moody sat on a stool in the center of the room. There was a chair for Harry, blackboards, and other equipment on nearby tables.

“Shut the door, Harry, that will seal the shield charms I’ve placed on the basement,” Moody said. “Have a seat. We are going to start getting you trained.”

“Yes, Sir,” said Harry. “You said I’d be doing forbidden magic earlier, am I going to start learning the dark arts.”

“Oh, you’re going to learn more than that, Harry. You are starting Auror training today, and some things besides that which aren’t taught in Auror training by the Ministry.”

Harry came to his seat and sat down, he focused intently on Moody. “Sir, I thought I couldn’t begin Auror training until I had graduated and been selected.”

“If you want to work for the Ministry then that is the proper procedure. It takes 6 months probationary work to be selected to complete training, and 30 months after that to complete field training. Ninety percent of your time is spent learning Ministry law codes by heart, and the rules and regulations you have to follow when administering the law in the field, as well as the proper way to fill out endless legal forms, and how to testify in court. Less than ten percent of the training is of any value to surviving in the field, and much of that is watered down. There are Aurors out there that can’t cast a corporeal Patronus. After all that, you are required to pass a battery of written exams and you get a Ministry badge. We’re going to cut out all the bullshit and just leave in the good parts, and condense them down to just the important stuff.

“Now, I heard you tried a Cruciatus curse on Bellatrix and only staggered her, as well as the curse that gashed Malfoy open. I’m going to teach you shortcuts so that when you use those curses next time in the heat of battle they’ll work as they were meant to. You’ll be able to put that bitch down in such pain she’ll beg for death, and instead of just slashing Malfoy, you’ll rip that little cocksucker in half.”

Harry could see that this was going to be the best school lesson he’d ever had. “Can we start right away, Sir,” he asked.

“Oh, yes, Harry,” said Moody coolly. “Dark Arts 101 is now in session and we have no time to waste. I’m going to teach you how to do the principle dark arts curses, as well as lesser known ones. There are curses like the Fiendfyre, which causes your enemy to be incinerated in cursed fire. Nothing will extinguish the flames till the victims are consumed into a pile of ashes. But death is not quick, the flames wrap around your enemy and play with them, burning their flesh, death is horribly painful. The curse is dangerous to use as the wizard casting it must be quite powerful and retain full control of the Fiendfyre, if he can not, then it will destroy indiscriminately, even turning back on the caster. Also, I’ll show you how to mummify him as well using the Petrifius Corpus curse, although you really already know how to do it.”

“Sir, I don’t think I know that particular curse.”

“Oh, really, Harry? Remember what happened to your Professor Quirrell when he touched you? That’s what the mummifying curse does; your opponent crumbles to dust. Somehow, you cast a mummifying curse without any conscious knowledge of it. But I’m going to show you how to cast it with your wand, and not depend upon touch.”

“How could I cast a dark arts curse I didn’t even know about?”

“Well I have my suspicions that I spoke to Dumbledore about. The mummifying curse is a particularly difficult curse to master, but it was a particular favorite of Voldemort. From the description of Quirrell’s death that you gave Dumbledore I would have sworn it was Voldemort who cast the curse. He was quite good at it too, and we are pretty sure that a part of him is with you through that scar. You have a Horcrux inside you that was unintentionally made when he tried to kill you that night. So, oddly enough, it could be that Voldemort’s Horcrux, in an act of self preservation, saved your life from Quirrell that night.”

“One question though, since these curses kill, why are they needed?” asked Harry. “There’s already a standard killing curse.”

“Remember that we are talking the Dark Arts here, Harry. There’s always room for more ways to kill, injure, maim, or just plain hurt your enemy or victim. The mummification and incineration have several advantages over the regular killing curse. As you’ve seen, the killing curse leaves a dead body to clean up. That can cause problems unless you want a body to serve as a warning to others. Also, the killing curse is near instant death, the victim doesn’t suffer much pain or terror. These other two curses are both quite painful to experience. Moreover, the victim has time to know what is happening to them. Dumbledore told me what happened to Quirrell. I bet he squealed like a bitch while his body rotted to dust with his soul still trapped inside it.”

“Something like that,” muttered Harry as he remembered the events from six years earlier. “I wasn’t really watching too much, I kinda passed out.”

“It’s quite terrifying to watch,” replied Moody. “That’s another advantage to these curses. It makes a statement to others; a painful death just like this can be yours too. There is also a final advantage to these curses. Not everything you meet out there is alive, and the killing curse only affects the living. Sometimes the only way to destroy a soul-less creature inhabited or animated by black magic is to completely destroy the corporeal body it is using.”

“You mean like vampires and ghosts?” asked Harry.

“Well, ghosts are spirit creatures; you can drive them off with a Patronus spell. Vampires can effectively be destroyed with these two curses, but an iron stake through the heart, or even a simple Solaris sunshine spell can evaporate them. They generally leave wizards alone.”

“I hope I can learn how to do all of this stuff,” said Harry.

“You can do it, Harry,” continued Moody. “One reason I think you are good in defense against the dark arts is that you had help. That scar from Voldemort gave you more than the ability to speak to snakes. I think you have a natural talent for performing the dark arts as well.”

“I’m a dark wizard?” asked Harry.

“No, Harry. Remember that it’s the choices we make that make us who we are. Dumbledore had great power; he had the ability to perform the dark arts as well as Voldemort. That’s why Voldemort was so frightened of him. Dumbledore chose to use his powers for good, to use his knowledge of the dark arts to fight evil. If I’m right then you’ll have that same choice to make with your life.”

“Sir, I made that choice long ago,” said Harry. “I’m going to kill the bastard that murdered my parents, and wipe his followers from the face of the Earth if I can.”

“If I didn’t believe that, Harry, I wouldn’t be here to train you, to make you more powerful. We have a lot to learn, but first I need to acquaint you with a little present I brought for you. A cheater wand.”

“What is a cheater wand?”

“A cheater wand is a special purpose wand which is designed to perform only a specific type of magic, such as potions, transfiguration, or enchantment. They are commonly used by professionals to supplement their general-purpose wands, and are often the secret to that individual’s expertise. These wands are not used for common spells, they are very expensive, and are usually kept secret by the owner and used only in private. Many are passed down from generation to generation only.

“While most wands of this sort are perfectly legal to possess, there is a type that can not be carried legally. These wands enhance the ability to perform dangerous curses, and there use is forbidden. These are commonly called ‘Black Wands’ because they are used by dark wizards to perform dark curses.

“Of course, if you ask around the Ministry they’ll tell you that Black Wands are just an old rumor. ‘Oh, those things’ they’ll laugh, they don’t really exist. However, they do exist, the wands are made of a cursed blackened wood, and their core contains an artifact from a dark or a cursed creature. They can be a damn good friend to have with you in a close battle. The dark wizard carries the wand on his person, but out of plain sight. It usually must have a shielding container around it so that it doesn’t set off dark object detectors.”

With that, Moody handed Harry a plain looking metal case. Harry gave the catch a twist and opened it to see a Black Wand inside that was only about six inches long. He took the wand in his hand and it felt strange, different from the only wand he had ever known. There was power here, but it was like the power he had felt in the presence of dark wizards.

“It’s a lot shorter than a regular wand,” said Harry as he looked over the new wand with a bit of apprehension. “So this is going to be my little friend in a fight, huh?

“Your best little friend, if you learn how to control its power,” said Moody. “And don’t let the smaller size fool you, it’s plenty powerful. The shorter length and narrower width means that they’re easier to conceal, and can be brought into action more quickly.”

“Professor, I’ve already seen one these. Lucius Malfoy attempted to use the killing curse on me inside Hogwarts with a small Black Wand he pulled from his cane. Dobby the house elf saved me. He put it back in his cane and left the grounds.”

“Oh, yes, Lucius Malfoy would have one all right. The cane is his shielding, and there would be security enchantments. He is probably the only one who can pull the wand from the cane. It’s also good for when the Ministry checks your regular wand for past spells. Since you used a hidden cheater the unforgivable curse is never seen. Very slick, I’ll have to remember that one if I run up against Malfoy.

“You were lucky in two ways there, Potter. First, the house elf stopped him from killing you. Second, he assumed, rightly, that you didn’t know what a Black Wand was. The reason Black Wands are a ‘rumor’ is because those that actually see them in a dark wizard’s hand usually don’t live to tell anyone. Those that use them want to make sure they continue to be considered a myth by the general wizarding community. If Malfoy thought that you understood the significance of what he had inadvertently revealed to you, he would have made a very determined effort to kill you as soon as possible.”

“So the Ministry doesn’t know that Black Wands really do exist?” asked Harry.

“Of course they do, the Ministry knows very well that the wands do exist. Their secret rules strictly require that any employee who finds a Black Wand must immediately submit it to the Ministry for destruction on pain of imprisonment or worse. The truth is they issue them out themselves when they need to. Usually for assassinations and such. You have to be very high up in the Ministry to do something like that though. Even Aurors must have a license directly from the Minister of Magic to possess one legally. This is one I captured and kept hid for a number of years now. It’s come in handy a time or two; I’m giving it to you. Whatever you do, don’t let anyone know you have it that you do not trust with your life.”

“How do I use it?” asked Harry.

“The key is for the wizard to control the wand, not the other way around. That is what we are about to train you for. The wand still has its basic nature in it. You should only use this wand when you really need it, Harry. When you don’t need it then keep it in its sheath. Don’t casually expose yourself to it. The black magic will rub off on you.

“For right now we’ll mostly use your regular wand, you need to know how to use it better. We’ll save the Black Wand for later. We also want to train you to use the two together. That way your regular wand can help you maintain control over the Black Wand. With mental practice you could wield both wands in a duel just like a sword and a main gauche.”

“Come again?” asked Harry. “A main …what?”

“Main Gauche, Harry,” said Moody. “In the days of knights they often fought duels with a sword in their right hand and a shorter dagger in the left hand. Parry with the right, strike with the left. Caught many an opponent off guard.”

“It must have been difficult to control both at the same time,” said Harry.

“It still is. The first thing you need to learn most is mental control. The wand and the incantation are only a focus for your mind. That’s where your real power is located. You probably wonder how can a non-dark wizard do dark magic; how can you kill or torture someone unless you have a heart bound by hate? The answer is to have righteous anger, and direct it justly. You have to focus the anger you have over injustices you’ve seen, the death of your parents, of Sirius, of Dumbledore, against those who perpetrated these crimes; or will perpetrate others like them against other innocent victims unless you stop them.

“You are not acting out of unreasoning hate, or sadism, or greed for power. You are acting out of a sense of justice, to see the guilty punished for crimes committed, and love for others you are protecting from future crimes. When you face a dark wizard who is going to harm helpless people, muggle or wizard, friend or stranger, or who is going to escape punishment for a crime already committed, you will be able to kill them without becoming a dark wizard yourself. But you have to be careful against it becoming too easy.”

“I don’t know that I can do that,” said Harry. “I don’t know that I could really kill someone. Even Snape or Voldemort.”

“Nobody does,” was the reply. “Not until the moment of truth arrives. However, chance favors the prepared mind. That’s why the training is as much mental as physical. Not only how to cast the spell, but the willingness to do so without hesitation.”

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Over the next week Harry did little more than train mentally and physically. He continued to keep in touch with his friends by owl. Ron was passing messages from Ginny to Hermione who would forward them to Harry. The worst day was August 11th, Ginny’s birthday. It was her Sweet Sixteen party, invitations had been sent out to all of Ginny’s friends at Hogwarts to attend. Molly Weasley had supervised the sending of the invitations and had duly noted that the name of Harry Potter did not appear on the guest list. She knew in her heart that it was best for Ginny not be associated with Harry, but it didn’t stop her from crying over her part in making it happen.

Harry owled Hermione a few days earlier with a sack of Galleons, asking her to get Ginny something she wanted and give it to her secretly in his name. Harry received confirmation from Hermione the twelfth that Ginny had loved the new outfit. It was a deep blue mid-length designer dress that was backless, and the hem came to just above the knees. Up top, it had a sexy dipping neckline that showed off the wearer’s assets nicely. Ginny had never had much in the way of fashionable clothing, a lot of what she had her mother had made, often poorly. She had never had anything so sexy, so womanly, given to her.

Hermione had accessorized the dress with a wide black belt complete with wand holder, a pair of dressy black heels, and a multicolored selection of skimpy thong knickers. The remainder of Harry’s gold was used to buy a red garnet necklace and earrings. Hermione had then enchanted the package so that when the wrapper was removed and the box opened, only the belt would show as being Hermione’s gift. However, if the box top was replaced and the opener said the words “Happy Birthday from Harry Potter” opening the box would reveal all the items.

Hermione’s note included that she and Ginny had went back to Ginny’s room and she had tried everything on and loved it. As with all high quality wizard clothing everything immediately sized itself to the wearer. Lastly, Harry in his original message to Hermione had asked what she intended to give Ginny. All Hermione would say back was that she had ordered something special and had Ginny’s permission to give her the present late.

Training occupied nearly all of his time now. Sessions began about 8:00 in the morning and went to 11:30, then from 1:00 to 5:00. From Moody he learned more genuinely useful defense against the dark arts knowledge in the first week than he had in six years at Hogwarts. From Tonks he learned to mentally detect the presence of an enemy and tactics for how to move in response to an attack. Harry also learned a bit of muggle style fighting for close in work, in particular how to speed up his reflexes to counter an attack. However, fast he tried to be he never seemed as fast as Tonks though.

“You have to stretch out mentally,” she’d say. “Start countering the attack before it’s made. Develop a feel for threats around you. Even the most subtle change can clue you to an incoming attack.”

Professor McGonagall would come by in the afternoons and evenings about every third day; from her Harry learned how to apparate competently. Moody spent a lot of time showing Harry how to perform both unspoken and wandless magic, especially the Accio command. She and Moody both worked with Harry on mind control, especially closing his mind to attempts by opponents to read his thoughts and predict his moves.

“Potter, I know that you can call objects to you using your wand, but what if you have been disarmed by an opponent, or you’ve dropped your wand from a blow in a duel, or you are surprised without your wand on your immediate person?” Moody would ask. “If you can’t call your wand back to your hand in the middle of a fight, or in a dark room then you’re dead. Maybe others will die too. Remember the attack by the Dementors in the alley? You nearly died because you couldn’t find your wand in the dark, only pure luck in finding it just in time saved you that night.”

Harry realized he was making sense, but after two weeks he was growing tired. He spent all day, every day, working in the basement now, by the evenings when he wanted to have sex with Tonks they were both too tired. After an initial surge in ability, Harry leveled out and showed little improvement. Moody and Tonks both tried to keep him encouraged.

“Harry, why do you think it takes so long to become a ministry Auror? Or that the usual selection process is so arduous? If this were easy then any idiot could be an Auror. You already have leaps and bounds of knowledge and experience in the dark arts over every student in your class at Hogwarts; you know that you have an aptitude for learning defense against the dark arts magic. What we are trying to do for you we wouldn’t even consider trying with any other student.”

By the third week of training Harry had grown so tired that he stopped trying to concentrate and just reacted instinctively, and that made the difference. Up until then Harry had been a student; he’d acted as a student in a classroom should. Like there would be an exam later. Fatigue caused that part of his brain to say ‘fuck it,’ and another, intuitive, part to come on line. Moody had been telling him all along to stop thinking about what he was being told and just do it. Up until then it had made no sense, now it did. Harry began to improve, especially in wandless magic. Moody and Tonks took to hiding his wand in the house and having him train to find and call it to himself.

Tonks took particular delight that week in a little evening firecracker exercise. Moody would hide Harry’s wand and give Harry a ten-second head start; then Tonks would start seeking him about the house. She used her wand to send exploding snaps at Harry. If they made contact then they exploded on him. Harry soon found that they hurt like a motherfucker, especially those that hit near his testicles, a favorite target area of hers. Harry had to avoid her until he found his wand, and then hunt down and disarm her. Apparition was highly encouraged to make the chase a four dimensional battle. The only rule was that there were no rules, all was fair.

If Harry succeeded, he was rewarded with healing of any wounds, a long hot bath in the Jacuzzi tub with Tonks, sex, and an extra hour of sleep the next morning. If Harry surrendered, he was still healed (eventually), but he got a timed three-minute cold shower and went to bed horny. His cotton gloves were taken away to make sure he was still that way when he woke up.

After three nights of cold showers and no sex, Harry succeeded on the fourth evening of actually calling his wand from a kitchen cupboard, and caught an overconfident Tonks in a doorway and disarmed her. The next evening Harry found that the ante had been upped. Not only was he hunted by Tonks, but now Moody had laid boobytraps throughout the house for him to walk or apparate into. That night Harry could feel his wand was close by in a guest bedroom, but when he entered the room he was stunned and bound by one of Moody’s entrapments. Tonks showed mercy when she caught up to him lying helpless on the floor and only popped him a couple of times on the arse.

The next day’s session with Moody included lessons on how to detect magic in your path without a wand. He was also taught how to cast protective shields, to cast dark magic detectors, and how to project a weakened form of your Patronus as a proxy in front of you to trip boobytraps.

Moody began to see that Harry had really begun to toughen up and was learning well. He had Harry start with the Black Wand for the next day’s session. Harry trained on using unforgivable curses on rats; Moody would transfigure the rats into the likenesses of dark wizards and have Harry learn to use the Imperious, Cruciatus, and killing curses on them.

As the final week of summer training began, Harry was showing real improvement. He felt different, more powerful, and more anxious about his training. Could he really kill another wizard? With only a week remaining before the new term began at Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall arrived with a letter for Harry from Gringotts, the wizard bank run by Goblins. Opening the letter Harry learned that he was invited to come to the Gringotts Godric’s Hollow branch bank for the purposes of settling the final piece of his inheritance from his parents, an undisclosed piece of property. Apparently, now that Harry had reached his 17th birthday he was entitled to take possession of the property that had been placed in a trust at the time of his parent’s deaths. All further details would be disclosed in the Gringotts branch offices by the Goblin in charge of the account, a certain Mr. I. M. Fartzmellar.

“You’ve trained hard, Harry,” said Moody. “It would probably do you a world of good to get away from this house for a few days before returning to Hogwarts. You know your parents are buried in the cemetery there. It would be a chance to visit their graves if you wanted to. Just be careful; it can be a dangerous place to go. I’d rather you had some company with you.”

“Well maybe Tonks can come with me?”

“Aye, Harry,” added Tonks with a mischievous grin. “I’ll go along as your security escort. We could take the bike, and get rooms at one of the hotels in town, off the hill. It would probably be safer that way. We could keep you incognito so no one knows your there.”

The idea quickly appealed to Harry, anything that got him out of training time with Moody, and into having more sex with Tonks was a “no-brainer” decision.

“Can we go tomorrow morning then?”

“Sounds like a plan. We can come back on Sunday and have you ready to travel to Hogwarts on Monday for opening ceremonies, which gives you plenty of time for your excursion. We’ll do our last practice sessions today, and you can pack tonight.”