It seemed as if all the hard work that Cedric and Alicia put in over the summer paid off because the following day, Cedric made it onto the Hufflepuff team as their seeker.

Over the next couple of weeks, I discovered to my dismay, that it was a lot harder for all my friends to hang out together during the week. It always seemed as if one or two of us were busy with our new activities. Thankfully, we were still able to find time to get together on the weekends.

As for me, I split my time alone dueling with my fellow Silver Spears, acquiring new spells that I could use in duels, and working on occlumency.

Once again, I marveled at the efficiency of the Room of Requirement. It provided me with a way to learn new spells without spending countless hours hunting through the enormous library. Zack had suggested that I try to add some rarely used spells to my repertoire because it would increase the chances of forcing my opponent to dodge if he didn't recognize what spell was coming at him.

I ended up finding dozens of new and interesting spells, many of which had gone out of style and hadn't been mainstream for generations. But, before I started mastering those, I needed to shore up my defenses.

The shielding spell, while quite basic, was a tricky spell to learn. Many fully adult witches and wizards aren't capable of using it, but I'd imagine that part of that is due to lack of practice. While that sounds implausible that someone capable of using magic wouldn't take the time to master the shielding spell. Many of them don't put themselves in any dangerous situations, and just because someone can use magic, doesn't mean that they're badasses. If my time in the wizarding world has taught me anything, it is that plenty of people in our society are for lack of a better term, are average people.

One of the main difficulties with the shielding spell was the effort it took to form. You can't just say the incantation and expect the shield to appear. The spell was all about willpower. You had to will the shield into existence. The more focused you were, the stronger your shield would be.

However, according to the book I read on the subject, the shield wasn't perfect and wouldn't protect against everything. Powerful enough magic would be able to break the shield, and extremely dark magic like the unforgivable curses wouldn't be slowed down at all and would go right through the shield like it wasn't there.

The author of the book I was reading believed it had to do with the generality of the spell. This meant because it was designed to be an all-purpose spell, and it wasn't capable of stopping stronger spells.

The author's belief made sense. This rule seemed to be fairly consistent with other areas of magic that I had studied, like warding. However, it doesn't explain why dark magic can penetrate the shield like it wasn't even there.

There is so little known about dark magic and why it acts the way it does, and I'm not dumb enough to get caught seriously studying it at Hogwarts. But I had never really understood why the dark arts were so frowned upon.

All magic could be extremely deadly when properly used. Take the severing charm. While typically used to cut mundane items, it could easily slit someone's throat, or how about the fire charm, which could burn someone to death. One day, I plan to dig in and plume the depths of dark magic; it bugged me that so little was understood about dark magic.

Putting the dark arts to the back of my mind, I turned my mind back to shielding spell. As useful as the shield was, it had other downfalls. Timing, it was all about the timing.

Unfortunately, the protection spell didn't last. According to the book, the shield only lasts for a few moments, just enough to block a spell, then it would fade away.

Putting the book down, I brought out my wand. Concentrating on producing a shield, I said, "Protego."

At the tip of my ivory-colored wand, silvery wisps seemed to form a shield for a moment before fading away. I glared at my wand in frustration. I had been working on this spell for the last couple of weeks. I could tell I was getting closer, but trying to will a shield into existence was challenging.

Zack had told me that most duelers don't master the shield until their third or fourth year and not to worry about it. But I was planning on competing at a higher level, and if I wanted to get far in the tournament, I would need to master this spell.

Thirty minutes later and no closer to mastering the spell, Athena chuffed her displeasure at being cooped up.

"I know, I know," I comforted.

Being so busy with everything had stopped me from taking her out into the grounds and letting her stretch her wings.

Motioning towards my shoulder, I said, "Come on. Let's go for a stroll. Maybe we can find Hagrid."

Athena bleated with happiness and climbed up on my shoulder. Heading outside, I mused that I hadn't seen more than a glimpse or two from Hagrid so far. It was strange. Usually, he was always out and about, the last time he was so absent was when he was raising the garmr pups in secret.

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As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I mentally groaned. Seeing Hagrid's hut in the distance, I decided I might as well get it over with and see what creature he had now.

When I reached the hut, I could hear Hagrid crooning something inside in his deep rumbling voice. Reaching out, I knocked on the heavy wooden door. The noise vanished, and the hut became as silent as a tomb.

Rolling my eyes at his attempt to be sneaky, I called out, "Hagrid, I know you're in there. It's Alex."

I heard some shuffling and movement inside before the big door was suddenly pulled open, and giant hairy arms reached out and scooped me up in a hug.

"Alex," Hagrid exclaimed, while I was buried in his bear hug.

Hurriedly tapping him on the beefy arm, I gasped, "Can't breathe."

Hagrid set me down with a wide grin on his face, closing the door behind him, he turned to Athena. He picked her up with a surprising amount of gentleness. I tried not to frown at the difference of our treatment, why does she get the V.I.P. treatment and I'm nearly suffocated.

"It's good to see you, Alex. I was beginning to think that you had forgotten me," Hagrid reproachfully mumbled. Reaching up, he pulled off Athena's collar, which freed up her wings and horns. "Who's a good girl?" He crooned while scratching the base of her horns.

Athena purred in pleasure while I tried to explain, "Sorry, Hagrid. I've been swamped. There is so much for me to do this year."

After a moment, I realized that it was a little strange that he hadn't invited me into the hut. "Hagrid, is there a reason why you haven't invited me inside?" I asked.

A guilty look appeared on his face, "No, nothing to it," Breathing deep, he added, "Ah nothing like that fresh air."

Seeing my unimpressed look, he surrendered. "Fine, come on in, just don't make any sudden moves."

Hearing his warning should have sent me running, but I was curious to see what he had inside. As soon Hagrid opened the door, Fang squeezed his way out, parked his butt twenty feet from the hut. "Fang, get back here," Hagrid bellowed.

Fang shook his big head, sending drops of drool everywhere. After a minute of coaxing with no success. Hagrid threw his hands into the air and grumbled, "Coward."

As soon as I entered the hut, my gaze was instantly drawn to the far side of the hut where Hagrid had built a makeshift fence. Behind the fence was a small creature whose makeup was jarring to the eye.

I could see cloven hooves, giant fanged teeth, and with a scaly tail whose tip had a razor-sharp fin on it, the creature looked like a mishmash of several different beasts. The head was a lion, the body a goat, and the tail looked like it belonged on a dragon.

Watched the beast munch on a giant slab of meat twice it's size. I moaned when I heard the bone inside the meat snap like a twig, "Oh Hagrid, not again. That's a Chimaera. You can't possibly think you can keep it here."

As I saw Hagrid eye the Chimaera with all the happiness of a proud parent, I realized that he indeed thought he could keep the creature. I sighed in defeat, yet another dangerous magical creature soon to be added to the Forbidden Forest.

At least it was still a baby. I dreaded how dangerous it would get when it got bigger. But at least if last year was any indication, Professor Dumbledore would step in and force him to get rid of the Chimaera when it got too dangerous.

"How did you get your hands on a Chimaera?" I asked.

"Yer uncle put me in touch with a Greek wizard, who was able to sneak me a Chimaera egg." Hagrid bragged. "He hatched a week ago. His name is Aegeus."

As I warily watched Aegeus happily rip meat off her bone. Athena seemed to agree with me that Hagrid was crazy. She soared her way back onto my shoulder and wrapped her tail around my throat protectively.

Athena hissed threateningly when Aefeus burped flames out. "Ahh, his first flame," Hagrid crooned in joy.

Of course, it can breathe flames. Hagrid was obsessed with dragons, and I'd imagine that a fire-breathing Chimaera was the next best thing.

As I took a seat on Hagrid's old, lumpy, stained, maroon-colored couch, Hagrid asked, So Alex. What have you and your little friends been up to?"

"Well, Alicia and Cedric have been busy ever since they made it onto the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff quidditch teams," I replied. Not sure if I should tell him about Anna and I joining dueling teams, so I evaded, "And I have been working on mastering the shielding spell."

"That's good," Hagrid grunted. "I bet that spell would have been helpful last year."

"Maybe," I replied. "But, I think it's more useful against spells rather than creatures." As soon as I said the words, a light went off in my head. I bet that's what I needed. Someone to sling spells at me, the risk of being hit would force me to dig deep and genuinely desire a shield to protect me.

I spent the next hour catching up with Hagrid, on my way back to my room. Fang whined at me, pleading for me to take him away from the horror of Aegeus.

The next day, I sent a message to Anna to meet me in the Room of Requirement. For what I needed, she would be perfect. I needed someone to force me into a situation where I needed to protect myself.

When Anna arrived, I explained my idea to her. For a moment, her face was blank. Then a wicked grin seemed to emerge. Pulling out her wand, she narrowed her lavender eyes and remarked, "Do you remember when we were younger and we went to my dad's quidditch match? You got your dad to cover me in silver and blue." Maliciously chuckling she added, "I warned you that you would pay for your sins."

Seeing her expression, I started sweating, "Anna, that was a long time ago. You still can't be upset, right?" I implored.

Seeing no change in her expression, my heart fell, I better master this shielding spell quick, fast, and in a hurry. The second she moved, I drew my wand out from its holster.

As the first spell was sent my way, I roared, "Protego."

Pale light erupted, my wand forming a weak shield. It seemed like the fear of being hit with another spell was the slight push I needed to get the spell to work.

Even though I was able to get the shield to form, I could tell from the way Anna's spell broke through that I needed to work on it. The stronger my need was, the firmer my shield would become.

By the end of the night, I think I had gotten the hang of the spell. I was now able to form a decent shield on command.

The practice was also good for Anna. She was getting skilled at moving from spell to spell seamlessly. I had the feeling that she was going to focus on pure offense, if she kept this up, I imagine that one day facing her would be like facing an unrelenting storm of spells.