“...Apologize to her, Ron. You really hurt her feelings,” Harry told him as loudly as he could. They were alone in their room, Neville having already left for breakfast earlier.

“Apologize?! She’s the one that… the both of you…” Ron spluttered, seeming annoyed that Harry was bringing it up.

“Apologize. You hurt. Hermione. No one gets to do that, not even you,” Harry said.

“I… No, I won’t apologize,” Ron said, “The both of you are not thinking with your heads about this. I’m right about it, they both just want to exploit you. You’ll see.”

“It doesn’t matter, Ron. You were rude to her about it, if you don’t apologize then I can’t be your friend anymore,” Harry said.

“What, like your friendship is some great treasure?” Ron said, “You two think you’re better than me and Neville, always going on and on about spells neither of us can understand. You are so arrogant, you try to just hide it! I know the both of you look down on us. Always showing off and making yourself the center of attention wherever you go!”

Harry blinked, “I don’t look down on you. I don’t want that attention, it just happens,” he said, “And you and Neville talk about Quidditch together all the time, something that neither I or Hermione care about. How is that any different than us talking about advanced spells?”

“It- It is different. I knew you wouldn’t understand,” Ron said, “For all that people say you’re a genius you are rather stupid.”

“I suppose,” Harry said softly, “Goodbye, Ron. I will sleep in the chamber from now on. I’m going to breakfast.”

Harry’s lessons in Dark Magic from Salazar were much more productive in the following days. Ron stood his ground, with Neville as an uneasy mediator between Ron on one side and Harry and Hermione on the other.

Somehow, the papers had caught wind of the drama between them. Rita Skeeter had written a long article detailing exactly what had happened in Hermione and Ron's argument after the Yule Ball. Hermione was furious, and it only made Ron even more stubborn when a few of the Gryffindors voiced support for his stance. People seemed to think that Harry was cheating on Fleur somehow by comforting Hermione. He ignored them as usual, but he did receive several nasty looks in the hallways. The bullies knew better than to try to hex him by now, he had established that he would immediately retaliate if they did something no matter where he was.

Apparently they expected him to wait to strike back after they hit him with a tripping jinx in the hallways? How strange. After a few weeks of that behavior, the bullies had learned to avoid spells and only use their words and dirty looks on him.

Luckily for all of Harry’s strained friend group, they only had to go through a single week of this tension before it was time for Christmas break.

When Alice and Frank picked up Harry and Neville, Neville let out an audible breath of relief once they left Hermione and Ron who were still glaring at each other behind them.

When they got home to the Longbottom’s home, Neville prompted Harry to share the whole tale from start to finish almost word for word.

Alice had been upset with Ron, apparently that comment about Veelas that Ron made was very insulting to Fleur. She agreed that they should wait until Ron apologized about it before doing anything else.

Frank was a little more on the fence, wanting Neville to try to convince Ron to do it rather than letting him initiate things on his own. Frank and Alice actually got into an argument about it in front of Harry and Neville.

But after that bit of unpleasantness, things settled down and Harry and Neville were able to relax the next day.

— — —

On Monday, Harry had something else he was about to do that he was excited for. He was finally going to practice some dueling with his godfather Sirius Black. Alice and Frank told him not to tell anyone about it since it technically was still underaged magic. But since it was in a pureblood house under the Heir of the Black family it was only a fine if they were caught rather than the harsher punishments Harry would usually receive.

Harry walked through the fireplace and exited at Sirius’ old house. It was dark and claustrophobic, but it was more shielded from the Ministry than the Longbottom’s place.

“Ah, Harry!” Sirius said, “You rascal, I see you getting in trouble with the ladies already. I’ve seen the papers, good job on getting that girl for the ball. She’s a stunner!”

“Ah, it wasn’t like that, Sirius,” Harry said a little awkwardly. He had only interacted with the man a few times and the man seemed very comfortable in teasing him already. Harry didn’t mind too much, but Sirius seemed to have a certain idea of how things were that didn't perfectly line up with reality.

“But we’re friends now I think, so it wasn’t all bad,” Harry added a second later.

Sirius frowned for a moment, “I had heard some drama distorted through the Dailey Prophet. Don’t you worry, no one with a functioning brain believes what they write blindly. I’m sure its more complicated than they made it out to be. Want to tell me about it?”

Harry sat down on a nearby bench and started telling him the whole story. Sirius always seemed interest in fun and Harry’s love life in their letters. Maybe he could help him out?

By the time Harry finished, Sirius looked rather, well, serious. He rubbed his chin and looked thoughtful, “Hmm. That is a pickle, isn’t it? I’m with Frank on this one, I say you should have Neville talk with him. He’s dug his heels in now from what you say. He won’t do anything unless he feels like its something he's choosing to do so on his own. I’m stubborn enough to know what it is like.”

“Thanks, Sirius,” Harry said, “Is it normal for me to not feel anything right now? I’m fourteen, and people seem to assume I should be feeling different about girls now. Will it just happen when I’m older?”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“I don’t know Harry,” Sirius said, “Say, did Frank and Alice give you the ‘talk’ if you know what I mean? Birds and the bees?”

“No? What do bees have to do with it?” Harry asked.

“Well, I- I actually don’t know,” Sirius said, “I guess as your Godfather it is up to me to do it. Even if you aren’t feeling it now it may come later. You never know.”

Harry nodded, curious.

Sirius started speaking, “So when a witch and wizard start growing older their bodies start changing. During this time…”

Sirius kept speaking, using strange phrases and looking uncomfortable as he started explaining. Harry kept questioning him about the specifics when he seemed to avoid something.

Eventually Sirius seemed to give up on tip toeing around it as he saw that Harry was both interested and not embarrassed at all in discussing it. After that, Sirius let loose in fully describing the reproductive process with all the explicit details as well as all the other things related to dating that Harry had never heard before. Girls liked to be given bundles of flowers? Harry had never heard of that before. And so much more as well.

“And finally, if you go all the way, make sure to cast the contraception spells before the next morning,” Sirius said, “It is important to keep up the practice so the girl doesn’t have to go through the stress of learning she’s pregnant and you don’t have to worry that she might actually want to have the baby later. Do it even if she casts the spells too, it never hurts to be extra careful. I’ve heard of many bad situations at school once we got to our upper years when people didn’t remember to do it properly. Best to prevent the drama by doing the spell each time until you actually want to conceive.”

Harry nodded, “Can you teach me the spell? I wouldn’t want to be caught off guard.”

Sirius grinned slightly, “Feeling lucky, ay? Alright, so the wand movement goes like this…”

It was a simple spell, Harry was sure it was second year level or below in complexity. He learned it in less than ten minutes even without a target to practice it on.

“Thanks for that,” Harry said, “I think I understand things a little better now. Is that everything?”

Sirius thought for a long moment before nodding, “Yep, I think that's all. You really listened to that without even flinching. I can’t believe you are getting in girl trouble without even being interested. Bah, but that's what I’m here for. Any more questions, even the explicit ones, don’t hesitate to put it in your letters. Its not like Hogwarts will tell you anything about it, so feel free to ask away.”

“I will,” Harry promised with a nod.

Sirius stood and clapped, “Now, enough of that for today. I promised you dueling practice and dueling you will get. We’ve got a room in here all set up.”

— — —

Sirius stood opposite of Harry.

“So, how much experience do you have in dueling? Any?”

Harry shook his head, “I fought off Lupin while he was a werewolf for a while, but other than that I haven’t actually had a sustained spell battle with anyone.”

Sirius nodded, “That’s about what I expected. How about battle spells? Tell me what ones you feel best about?”

“Are we allowed to use dark magic?” Harry asked.

“What? No. Dark magic is illegal,” Sirius said before peering at him, “Who’s teaching you dark magic?”

“I can’t tell you,” Harry said, “But he is a painting so I can just run away if he tried to hurt me.”

“A painting you say…” Sirius said, “Well be careful, there’s a reason why dark magic is outlawed. I know that better than anyone, nearly all of my family practiced it and they all turned out nuts.”

“Don’t worry,” Harry assured him, “He’s teaching me slowly, making sure I don’t lose control as I practice. I am grateful he is spending so much time helping me.”

“Well, now I’m curious, sure you can’t give me a hint at least?”

“No, it is a secret sorry. I might be in big trouble if someone found out about it.”

“I’ll say,” Sirius replied, “Dark magic… well, it is your secret so I won’t pry. But no, no dark magic. Today you will be practicing your dodges since you don't have much practical experience. No defensive spells, no retaliation. Just me casting stinging jinxs at you as you move to avoid them while keeping your wand pointed towards me as you do it. If you can’t shield something then you must be able to dodge a spell at a moment's notice.”

“Does it have to be stinging jinxs?” Harry asked, “They hurt quite a bit.”

“So does getting hit by a spell in a duel,” Sirius replied, “Have to reinforce the lesson or you might not try your hardest. Now, are you ready to start?”

Before Harry could reply, Sirius began casting spells at Harry that he had to dodge. At first Harry barely dodged any of them. They stung a lot when they hit him. But over the course of an hour he learned to step out of the way as Sirius sent single spell after spell at him. Harry started getting a hang of it, it was similar to dancing in a way. A small shift of the foot, pivoting out of the way. A little step back to dodge a spell, a shimmy to the side to dodge the next.

“Good!” Sirius said not looking winded at all despite casting for over an hour, “Very good! Take a small break. Next I’ll start increasing the intensity and frequency of the spells now you've gotten a feel for it.”

When they came back Sirius started casting two and even three spells in quick sequence that were much harder to dodge than the single spells. Harry’s whole body ached slightly where he had been bombarded with various jinxes.

At the end of the day, Harry’s record was dodging a four spell sequence at once, although Sirius had perfectly positioned him afterward to nail him directly in the chest with his final spell.

By the end the both of them were panting after going for hours, Harry from leaping and twisting to dodge the spells and Sirius from using his magic so much.

After they were done, they both went through the fireplace back to the Longbottom's where Alice and Frank had Sirius over for dinner. Sirius told them all about what they had been doing today. Neville seemed more interested than he was before. He had refused to participate when Sirius had offered initially, wanting to relax over the Christmas break.

The next few days were much the same, with Harry practicing his dodging and some basic shields as well. Sirius cast a stinging jinx variant that was a different color. These were ones that Harry was allowed to block with his shield while the others were ones he was forced to dodge. The complexity became far more difficult as Harry had to decide which spells in the barrage he should block versus twist to dodge.

Sirius started taking breaks more often, his barrages of spells now consisting of twenty or more spells as he included the ones that Harry was allowed to block.

Instead of moving to use offensive spells, Sirius continued adding complexity to his spell barrages and even began stepping rapidly to the side to change the angles of his spells as he cast them.

In Sirius’ words, ‘All the offense in the world doesn’t matter if you get directly hit with something nasty.’

Harry could feel his improvement and it was quite fun, like a game, to choose what to do in the moment. So he was more than happy to continue. Neville was still relaxing, seeming to reconsider joining them as he saw how tired Harry and Sirius were at the now nightly meals at the Longbottom's house.

Sirius joined them for Christmas along with his old nurse Sharon. It seems that even after Sirius had recovered from his time in Azkaban she had stuck around, and now they were dating. Sharon was nice, she had brought Harry water a few times in the breaks in their training sessions.

Christmas was relaxing, and everyone enjoyed opening their presents. Then it was time to go back to school. The second task was announced to take place in late February, so Harry would have a little time. But he was still wary about the ominous riddle inside the golden egg.