38 The-Boy-Who-Trained (I)

"How are you, Jacky?" Harry asked as he stepped through the Floo, where Jacklyn was already waiting for his arrival. It has been quite some time since Harry started to call her using her nickname. The said girl smiled and pulled him into her arms.

"I am bored out of my mind. No more homework or anything else to do for that matter… Now, I am feeling kind of bad about graduating" Jacklyn said with a grin marring her face as she released Harry. "Maybe I should have fudged my exams on purpose" Jackly muttered thoughtfully as she tapped her chin with her finger.

Harry simply snorted in amusement. "Your fans would have probably attacked the Education Department for failing you" Harry pointed out mischievously.

"Yeah… I could see that happening" Jacklyn hummed in agreement. "Well, enough about me. So, what have you been up to?" Jacklyn asked, returning the favor.

"Studying" Harry answered with a straight face, making Jacklyn look at him in complete horror.

"Harry, you need to take a break. There is no need to push yourself so hard. You have already finished the fifth year curriculum" Jacklyn reminded him warily.

"I love studying, thank you very much" Harry immediately defended himself, making Jacklyn roll her eyes at him in complete exasperation.

"Well, I guess everyone needs a hobby" Jacklyn shrugged as she nodded her head in understanding. Harry probably wasn't going to change and from what she had seen, he really loved reading. "Come on, I will introduce you to my mom" Jacklyn said as she started to lead him through the halls.

"...Um. Don't take this the wrong way, but I thought your Family was much bigger?" Harry asked with an unsure look on his face as he kept looking around. The halls were decorated with extravagant lamps and curtains. He also noticed a lot of painting on both sides of the walls, but he didn't know much about paintings in the first place, so he decided not to make any comments on them.

Jacklyn started to chuckle after hearing his question. "Yeah, our Family is pretty big, but it isn't big like a Clan. most of them aren't here right now or I would have introduced them" Jacklyn answered while laughing as she pointed out toward the lake. Harry looked out the window only to find a group of men and children fishing.

"Do you want to join them?" Jacklyn asked, only for Harry to shake his head in denial. If Jacklyn's father was there, then he didn't want to be anywhere near that psycho.

"Is your father alright with me visiting?" Harry asked all of a sudden when he remembered that man wasn't happy to meet him.

Instead of answering, Jacklyn simply looked away and Harry didn't miss the blush creeping on her face. He had a nagging feeling at the back of his mind that Jacklyn never bothered to tell her dad about his impending visit. "Don't worry, he won't say anything…" Jacklyn trailed off in a strained tone.

"I hope you are right. By the way, Jacky, I am planning to participate in the Under Thirteen Tournament" Harry decided that he needed to change the topic. Jacklyn immediately turned around with an excited look on her face.

"Really? That's great" Jacklyn cheered excitedly.

"Yeah, so I was wondering if you could help me train during the holidays?" Harry asked, but he already knew the answer.

"Of course, I can train you, and if I ask Headmaster Kent then he will probably allow me to train you during the weekends even while you are at school" Jacklyn immediately agreed to train Harry and she was also sure that Headmaster Kent would allow her to visit the school in the weekends even when the school was in session.

"That will be great!" Harry beamed at Jacklyn with a bright smile on his face. Harry already knew a lot of Spells, but the only thing he was lacking was training.

Now, there was a vast difference between dueling and fighting, dueling was a sport and fighting was much more serious. There were no rules in fighting, you simply needed to make sure that you lived, while your enemy doesn't, or at least, your enemy is incapacitated, but knowing how to duel was much better than being a complete amateur.

"We can even start today if you want?" Jacklyn suggested and Harry immediately nodded his head in agreement. That is exactly what he was hoping for. "Okay, I will take you to the training room after you meet my mom. We're here" Jacklyn said when the two of them finally arrived at the rear deck of the house.

A few women were sitting around the table, enjoying tea and snacks. "Mom, we're here" Jacklyn announced their arrival and all the women immediately turned in their direction.

"Oh my, is that Harry Potter… I will be honest, the books don't do his eyes any justice" One of the women commented saucily. From the way some of the women were staring at him, Harry felt like he had entered a den of hungry hyenas.

"Quit it, Lyra. You are clearly making him uncomfortable" One of the women chastised the first woman with a gentle smile on her face before turning back toward Harry. "I have heard a lot about you from my daughter and ignore Lyra, she can be a bit… enthusiastic" The woman said as she gestured toward the previous woman. Harry guessed that the woman was probably Jacklyn's mother as Jacklyn was the only female Harper he knew.

"Hello, madams. I am Harry Potter. Thank you for welcoming me into Family manor" Harry introduced himself, making all the women smile at him.

"Such manners… I have tried to install manners into my son, but I am yet to succeed" One of the women said, looking quite impressed before she started shaking her head in disappointment.

"Yes, yes… My son is also the same" Another woman nodded her head in agreement. Harry's face started to twitch after hearing their comments. After that, Jacklyn started to introduce all the women, and Harry's guess was right, the second woman was Jacklyn's mother and the rest were her aunts or cousins.

"Jacklyn, why don't you take Mr. Potter and show the mansion, I think he will be quite uncomfortable among us, women" Madison Harper, Jacklyn's mother suggested when the introductions were finally over.

"Thank you, mom. That is what I wanted to do in the first place. I know he will be bored out of his mind if he stayed here" Jacklyn said as she started to lead Harry back into the mansion. Harry did hear a few amused huffs from behind, but he decided to ignore them.

It took Jacklyn nearly half an hour to show him around the mansion and when they were finally done, Jacklyn led him to the training room. The training room was a bit smaller than the training room he had been using at school, but it was still big enough for the two of them to practice.

"So, why don't you show me what can you do? I need to know what I am working with" Jacklyn suggested and Harry nodded his head in understanding as he pulled out his Willow and Horned Serpent Horn Wand.

From Jacklyn, Harry already knew that he could use his registered Wand anywhere in the Magical part of the country. He could even use it in the Muggle areas, but in that case, Obliviators might be dispatched by the Ministry. The Statute of Secrecy is very strict in this country even though the underage Magic laws were quite lax.

Jacklyn whipped her Wand toward the wall to spring up a target dummy from the floor. Harry took a position, but before he could cast a Spell, Jacklyn stopped him.

"Your posture is completely wrong" Jacklyn hissed in disapproval as she started to fix his posture. It took her nearly five minutes to fix in posture and Harry had to admit, he could aim and move better in his current posture. "Much better, now start!" Jacklyn exclaimed and Harry immediately started to cast. He decided not to cast some of the dangerous Spells he knew as he couldn't use them in the Tournament in the first place.

"I am impressed that you can cast all of them silently, but I am not impressed with your speed or your Wand movements. You are exaggerating your Wand movements quite a lot which is slowing down the speed of your casting" Jacklyn pointed out with a frown when Harry finished casting all the Spells he wanted to reveal.

Harry nodded his head in understanding.

"I won't need to work on your Spells as you know enough of them. As you are right now, you will probably win the Tournament too as I haven't seen anyone as young as you being able to cast the Stunning Charm or the Protego Charm" Jacklyn mused as she scratched her chin thoughtfully. "But you won't last a minute in the Under Fifteen Tournament as you are right now" Jacklyn said as she nodded her head.

"I have decided how to train you" Jacklyn snapped her fingers with a huge grin on her face. "From what I saw, the only thing you are lacking is experience. Let's duel, Harry. That will be the fastest and easiest way for you to gain experience" Jacklyn started to grin wickedly and Harry wasn't going to admit it, but the grin on her face was making him uncomfortable.

"Okay" Harry simply agreed with the idea as he also knew that dueling her was the easiest and fastest way for him to gain experience…

"Okay, move to the other side of the room" Jacklyn said as she started to walk away. Harry also started to make his way toward the other side of the room without wasting any more time… Harry arrived at the other end of the room and took his position. He tried to imitate the posture Jacklyn showed him as much as he could, but he knew that he was bound to have some flaws.

"Let's start!" Jacklyn called out and both of them fired the first Spell at the same time…