11 Mystery solved. Part 3
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30 June 1995. Delacourt Manor.
For another training session, Ciaran, to my great surprise, invited both of the Delacour daughters. Fleur, who had been here many times before, was quietly warming up, retreating to a corner, while Gabrielle was looking at the training room, which was really impressive on her first visit.
As it soon became clear, Ciaran had decided to make the training conditions more difficult. With a gracious smile, the auror informed me that since I had learnt to dodge one person's attacks, the noble ladies present here would be able to participate to the best of their ability. To translate his extremely graceful mocking phrase into ordinary language, Gabrielle and Fleur, who are on the same team as my teacher, will be throwing spells at me in the same way. At these words, the noble ladies gave me promising looks. The only discount they gave me in this case was that some of the attacks I could fend off with Protego.
Having specified which spells the girls would use, Ciaran signalled the start of the training.
In the next moment, only the skills I had developed over the month prevented me from going to the floor in a completely dishevelled state - no one would want to be hit by several curses at once, even if it took only a few minutes to remove all these childish charms separately. The combination of spells that hit the body at the same time sometimes had the wildest results, so I tried not to test my luck.
- Furunculus! - I fell to the ground, dodging Fleur's spell while shielding myself from the auror's Expelliarmus.
As I rolled over to get back to my feet, I was caught up in a footstep spell from a joyous squealing Gabrielle, and I did another somersault across the floor, hissing to myself something I would never say out loud in front of French.
I jumped to my feet and took two spells from Fleur and Ciaran on my shield, but the inertia of the blow threw me back. Thanks to that, however, Gabrielle's next blow missed its target without any input from me.
Fleur, who I was closest to, threw a Stun and Disarm at me in succession, but she didn't realise that this time I was right between her and her little sister, so when I caught the Stun with my shield, I missed Gabrielle's Expelliarmus and her wand hit the floor. Immediately Ciaran, whom I'd let out of my sight for a moment, hit me from behind with an enhanced Disarming spell, so that I lost my weapon as well, and rolled around on the ground, the force of the auror's blows no match for the ones I'd received from the girls.
- Not bad," Ciaran waited until we'd picked up our wands before he began to go over the assignment. - You held your own against three people for about a minute and a half, even if they weren't actively attacking, but still, it's a lot harder than what we've done in training before.
- But in the future," he cut off my pleasure at this disguised praise, "I expect you to be able to handle three at once, with Jean-Claude or Marie standing in for Gabrielle.
My smile faded somewhat.
- But, for once, again, quite decent, considering that you didn't attack back, but only defended yourself. And now - the next exercise... - After waiting for the girls to leave the hall, the auror continued.
- Now you and I are going to strengthen spells not in the way I taught you before, but with the help of Ma-xima. It won't work for all spells, plus you have to add another swing of your wand to them, which is not always time-efficient.
- And what's the advantage of this enhancement if you can just throw the added energy into the spell.
- A few options for an answer. How much power can you put into the same Stupefy?
- Hmm... Quite a lot... - the question stumped me.
- The irony is that if you put all your energy into the same Stupefy, the spell will probably disintegrate right in front of you, and it's good if you don't fry yourself.
- So you can put more energy into an enhanced spell?
- Absolutely. If you want, you can test it with regular and enhanced Stupefy. I'll hold a shield in front of you against physical and heat damage, and you try to put all your energy into the simple Stupefy. - Auror waved his wand first over the rune stone that ruled the room, bringing the trainees' defences to maximum, and then he cast a spell I was unfamiliar with, covering me in a thin film of golden light.
I concentrated, mentally forcing a roaring torrent of power into my wand.
- Stupefy.
- BANG!" I was thrown a few metres away by the blast, and Ciaran flew off to the side, but managed to regroup and landed on his feet, shaking his head as he was stunned by the close burst.
- Damn it, I'd completely forgotten that you're potentially a much stronger wizard than I am. If it weren't for the room's defences, we'd be waiting right now for the lost Jean-Claude to come to us and call the medics.
I shook my head too, as if trying to shake out the echoes of the explosion of energies I'd caused.
- Now try the same thing-but with a word-enhanced spell.
I honestly tried to concentrate, though the possibility of flying to the floor again from the burst of power was not appealing.
- Stupefy Ma-Xima!
A dark red, thick beam burst from my wand and disappeared into the nearest wall, causing the magic that protected it to shimmer iridescently. Ciaran, admiring the effect, reduced the room's defences with a wave of his wand.
The remaining hours of training were spent learning which spells could be strengthened and which were useless, and practising a few rather powerful combat spells. Among them, I particularly liked the cutting Seco, which was on the edge of light and dark magic, and the explosive Bombarda, which Ciaran used to penetrate my Protego with a single blow, telling me later that separate shields were needed for physical blows.
