Ch72. Why one should not try to take Bella down a peg

The rest of Hadrian's holidays was spent with Bellatrix as she was making sure to pour the knowledge of practical use of transfiguration in the battle into his head.

Bellatrix heard about the situation with the troll and she would be damned if something like that happened ever again to her... husband. How happy that little previously insignificant word made her! Even she hardly believed it. Her first husband... Rudolphus. Well, she would probably kill him one of these days. If only because he didn't make her feel as good and appreciated as Hadrian did! Hehe, Bellatrix made it her job to make Hadrian happy!

Hadrian almost wept from the number of bruises he had on his body. Bellatrix Black DID NOT pull punches during training. He was fed-up from having human-sized boulders hurled at him. Or from having wolf-sized statues chasing him. Or from having a cobra-like creature made out of carpet trying to squeeze him like a restrictor! Or... Well, you get it.

Sigh. He was completely done. But, on the brighter side, during these five days, he learned more than he did in Hogwarts and its library in a half-year. He could create those chains he bound the troll with on the drop of a hat and animate them to act like snakes. He could create a dozen of those wolf-like jagged rocky creatures with sharp spikes all over them. He could make big golems and he could do all that completely wandlessly.

Even Bellatrix pouted at him for hours due to that.

Today they had a mock battle between Bellatrix and Hadrian. Not for his sake but for hers. Hadrian wanted to take her down a peg and he knew exactly how to do so.

"So, Hadri, how would you fight little Bella?" Bellatrix cooed at him, her wand not even pointing at Hadrian.

But he knew better. She was always trying to appear above the situation. Cheerful. Childish. As if it didn't matter. It was poise. In reality, Bellatrix was anything but. Hadrian was sure she would snap her wand at him sooner than he could finish his spell the second she feels him casting something.

Bellatrix was still childish and a whole lot crazy but she was a battle expert. If there was something she had a knack for, it was killing things with her magic. Or finding easy and convenient ways to kill things with her magic. But she was arrogant.

Hadrian would have none of that.

"Why, my little Bella. I will use Flipendo." He smiled at her beamingly and was satisfied as he saw her falter a bit.

"A flipendo..." Bella gave him an exasperated look of wonder. "Really now. That I gotta see." She giggled.

Flipendo was utterly useless in a fight. Yes, it can trip a person and it is fast but it is also a first-year spell that doesn't even need to be guarded against as the magic dissipates the second it hits a moderately powerful wizard.

"Sure. I won't even guard myself." Bellatrix shrugged and stashed her wand to her sleeve, as she crossed her hands on her chest with a smirk.

"Oya, are you sure about that?"

"Yea, pre-"

And the completely and utterly low-powered first-year flipendo impacted. Not her. But the ground under her feet and Bellatrix suddenly found herself staring at the ceiling while her back ached from the unplanned meeting with the floor.

"Wow." She breathlessly exclaimed. "This was incredible! Again!"

Bellatrix giddily stood up, completely happy that Hadrian bested her and proved her wrong. If anything Bellatrix was not stupid and knew that he just gave her a lesson. Not only a lesson in humility but also in power. He showed her how she, one of the most dangerous witches of the modern era, could be bested with an ordinary and very forgettable flipendo charm! Bellatrix found it amazing! Being 'flipped backward' in battle is pretty much game over. Especially since the charm uses one-hundredth of the magic needed for some cutting hex or other battle-ready dark curses and in the time a wizard uses a dark curse, five flipendo could be cast!

Hadrian didn't yet know how he would curse at himself with immense regret for what he just did. He just woke a very unwanted skeleton in the closet and the skeleton took a liking to finding ways how to kill with first-year spells. Oh, the woes of Hadrian in years to come as his second wife has her fun!

But for now, Hadrian had no clue yet about his future.

He just looked at serious Bella whose wand was at the ready, waiting for his flipendo. He was sure she would try to block it. But he had his ways.

"Flipendo." He said and Bella cast a Protego. But no Flipendo flew at her.

It was then that she realized she was tricked and was about to send her own flipendo at Hadrian in sheer vindictiveness but he was faster. Three flipendo charms impacted the Protego of Bella in the exact same location one after the other, making a small hole through which the fourth hit the ground under Bella.

She could only stare with wide-eyes as the world spun and her back again impacted the floor.

"Fuck. That hurt." A groan came from her mouth.

She stood up with a pout but her mind was getting more and more interested in the special way Hadrian was handling her.

Oh, they both knew in a real fight this would be completely and utterly useless. She would kill Hadrian in seconds. She was not yet as idiotic nor weak to lose to flipendo when her life is on the line. Nor would she cast Protego, the weakest shielding charm.

"Cast your strongest shield, Bella. I want to try something." Hadrian told her... well, more like ordered but Bella didn't care. She had only one master and that was Hadrian.

Suddenly a swirl of dark-grey something appeared in front of Bella, shielding her.

"Uh... what's that?" Hadrian asked, weirded out.

"Dunno." Bella answered while looking at her nails as she kept minimal focus to keep the spell going. "Some dark shit I never used because other shields could do its job a whole lot better at a lesser cost. But it IS my strongest shielding charm when it comes to durability."

"Ah. In that case..."

Hadrian cast another flipendo. This time, he added a tweak.

The invisible Charm impacted the dark shield and sent ripples through it. The spells looked like they fought on the collision but then the flipendo slipped through and Bella's eyes yet again met the ceiling as she thanked every deity she applied the cushioning charm on the back of her head even though she didn't think it would work.

She stood up and saw her dark shield still active. The flipendo completely bypassed it. Marvelous!

"What was that!?" She asked as she deactivated her shield.

"Flipendo can not be overpowered. Usually. It is a precaution since it is taught to children. I tweaked it a bit. My version is as strong as much magic you supply. With enough precision and if I aim my magic on the sufficiently small spot... It just kinda slipped through your shield." Hadrian explained sheepishly. "Anyway, I am done, I spent seventy percent of my magic on that."

He saw that Bellatrix was already in a world of her own.

"Bella, are you listening?"

"Oh? Ah... yes... no... don't care?" Bellatrix half-answered, half-asked with a mix of confusion and annoyance at being interrupted from her thinking.

"What are you plotting?" Hadrian warily asked. He knew that look! It was the same look she used when she wanted to be chained to bed! He probably wouldn't like what will follow! OR he would like it. It would depend...

"Well, I was just thinking you know?" She started, gleefully rubbing the tip of her wand on her temple. "You used seventy percent but your magic is still very underdeveloped. You have at most five percent of what I do. IF I used ten whole percent for that spell..."

"What?" He got a bad premonition as Bella's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Would you flip somebody off so hard he would not be able to stand up? Please..."

"With a good aim, I could kill a man with it! Just imagine it! Using flipendo directly on somebody's heart!"

"Okay..." Hadrian trailed off, not about to discuss how an innocent pranking first-year spell could be used to rip somebody's heart from arteries by making it do a flip still inside the body. He had a clear picture that Bella is fully able to pervert the spell to a killing machine on par with Bombarda. Maybe this trying to take her down a peg was a bad idea after all...

"You, me, bedroom, now! You made me shooo horny!" Bellatrix giddily shrieked getting Hadrian back to reality.

He shrugged. Maybe it would get her to stop thinking about this? Doubtful but he can still try!

He came to her and swept her up into a princess carry. Bellatrix girlishly squealed in anticipation of their fun-time! Unfortunately for Hadrian, she already had an entire list of first-year spells she was about to 'experiment' with. Tehehehe.