Chapter 23 - Whats wrong with Arya?

Draco knocked on the door of Professor Flitwicks office and they heard his squeaky voice say "Come in". The duo looked at each other excitement buzzing in their eyes as they walked in together.

Professor Flitwick - " Ahh Draco, Arya it is great to see you, come in let's get started. So as you remember I already told you the weaknesses you need to work on in your individual dueling styles. Tell me about the training you usually do and we will see where to go from there".

Arya and Draco went on to explain their individual training methods before they meet to spar. Draco focuses on overwhelming power and speed to defeat his opponents thus he does a lot of calisthenics training that his previous tutors thought him to grow a strong fit body. He then uses multiple mechanical dummies that are enchanted to use a specific variety of spells and actively dodge and battle him. These are quite expensive but for dedicated duelists ideal training partners as they don't need to worry about harming their opponents and focus completely on the duel at hand. The use of multiple dummies forces Draco to constantly train his reflexes and speed to optimal levels in order to battle them effectively. Draco will usually train to the point of magical exhaustion in order to increase his magical reserves and this has resulted in him in almost reaching his second magical maturity already.

Arya on the other hand duels instinctively and has focused on her magical creativity combined with insane reflexes and decent casting speed. Arya trains in yoga to warm up her muscles and ensure that her muscles are kept supple while improving her flexibility. This is followed with calisthenics training to ensure a strong body and help promote the fluid movement of magic through he body. She has not used mechanical dummies which are too expensive for her parents to provide for her considering her interests were originally focused purely on Transfiguration before Draco inspired her love for dueling. Instead she duels many different witches and wizards from her family one on one so that she can see their approaches to dueling and implement them in her dueling style creating an unpredictable and ever changing way of dueling. Combined with her incredible Transfiguration abilities and her wandless magic capabilities has brought about a formidable duelist that is ever evolving her way of battling.

Professor Flitwick - "Ok fantastic two different yet complimentary styles of dueling ensuring any witch or wizard stupid enough to stand in your way without the necessary skills are utterly screwed. Ok Draco, for you we will focus on increasing your magical control and reserves as they are what you are lacking most, you already have an impressive arsenal of spells and incredible magical power. Then for you Arya we will work on improving your dueling instincts and incorporating more wandless magic spells that will compliment your ingenuity. You have already reached your second magical maturity and your reserves are simply unheard of in any underage witch or wizard alive today."

Professor Flitwick set up three mechanical dummies that would launch different spells at him soundlessly that he is to bat away and is not allowed to dodge for now. This will force him to learn to identify magical signatures of spells as they are launched at him while increasing his control by flicking them away. For Arya Professor Flitwick had her face off against himself as he would force her instincts in battle to grow and teach her improved spell chains that incorporate her wandless magic. By the end of the session Professor Flitwick was giggling in glee watching his two proteges as he tortur... trained them to the best of his abilities in the time allowed. At the present time both Draco and Arya were on the ground mentally cursing the terror that thought it was a good idea to ensure they spent all their magical reserves multiple times in an effort to "improve" their abilities.

Professor Flitwick - " Excellent work you two, you left me utterly lost for words as I watched you two put so much into your training. We will continue this every evening until your duel arrives and after you win I have a truly splendid surprise for you both"

Arya and Draco sweat dropped at the mention of a "splendid surprise" but kept their expressions neutral in an effort not to anger their torturer any further. They both stood up and bowed to the Professor thanking him for his "guidance" and promised to work even harder every day they saw him. Thus was born the hell week that would become a yearly tradition for his two apprentices but that is a story for a later time. The duo tiredly walked to their dorms with happy smiles at their experience despite their exhaustion knowing full well that they would be stronger than ever under the dueling doctors teachings.

And so the week continued with no more surprises, Arya continued to leave the professors in shock in every class as a result of her talents, well every teacher aside from Professor Sprout who wept comically everytime she saw Arya's dead expression in her class as she muttered to herself about "stupid prodigies who don't appreciate the art of herbology, all I hear every meal is how amazing she is from my fellow teachers as she consistently went above and beyond her preconceived notions of a first year students capabilities. Even Severus has cursed that he can't take any points from her for her classwork as it is flawless and while she is not Daphne Greengrass she is more than he could ask for aside from her constant talking in his class." With that thought in mind Professor Sprout swore to find out more about her and find a way to motivate her in class so that she can blossom in her class too.

Daphne became more withdrawn around Arya as she distanced herself from her as she was in talks with her father on how she can help her best friend but can't tell her anything yet until everything is in place. Arya of course had no idea why Daphne was distancing herself and was truly hurting inside every time she saw Daphne excuse herself when she came to talk to her. Even with all of Hermione's support Arya was slowly becoming a shell of herself and more withdrawn from everyone around her as she felt lost for the first time since she was eight without her best friends support. Her group of friends became increasingly worried as they saw their friend lose herself without her usual pillar supporting her from behind. Yet everything they tried was for not as Daphne continued to pull away from her and Arya fell apart without her.

The only solace Arya could find right now was her training with Professor Flitwick and Draco, she threw herself into it without any regard for personal health. Draco grew worried but nothing he could do would slow her down as she continued to immerse herself in her training, Professor Flitwick saw she was becoming more withdrawn but put it down to nerves and promised himself if she didn't come back to herself after the duel he would step in.

This all came to a head when two days before the duel the morning owls arrived and dropped a letter addressed to Arya into her lap, Arya could tell from the writing on the envelope that it was from her grandparents and grew worried as they had no reason to contact her while she was at Hogwarts. When Arya opened the letter and read the contents her face paled and something seemed to break in her as the letter fell from her grasp. Hermione terrified at her expression and hurried to grab the letter, once she had it in hand and read the contents her eyes widened in disbelief.