New Beginings

Chapter 2:New Teachers and Training

The four new mages of Hogwarts woke early the next day eagerly awaiting their new training. Well three of the were eager. One was still asleep. " Harry. Harry come on get up." Hermione called pounding on his door. She heard a muffled reply and nothing happened. " Harry come on!"

" Oi Potter if you don't get up in the next ten seconds I'm going to blast this door away and come get you myself" Draco snarled. No response." One, two, three, Harry are you really going to make me blast open the door? Six, seven-"

" What happened to four and five?"

" Skipped those for the question. Eight, nine, ten. Harry you leave me know choice." Draco rolled up his sleeves," BOMBARTA!" The door was blown inwards and into a million pieces. Draco and Hermione entered.

" What the hell happened to my door?!" Harry yelled coming out of the bathroom toothbrush in his hand.

" But..but we thought you were still in bed. You never answered." Hermione complained.

" I got up after you started pounding on my door! Draco did you break my door?" Draco glared at Harry.

" Well of course I did! You didn't come out when Hermione called and I did count to ten first." Blaise, who had been fixing breakfast for the four of them, chose that moment to remind them that they only had twenty minutes left to eat and get down to the Quidditch Pitch to meet Dumbledore. Hermione let out a yelp and dashed to her room to finish getting dressed and Harry ran to get a fast shower. Draco just sighed and sat down to breakfast with Blaise. Fifteen minutes later they were all running to make it on time. Surprisingly none of them were out of breath when they finally reached the Pitch. Hermione looked at her watch and said they had made it on time and yet there was no Dumbledore. Five, and then ten minutes passed and still Dumbledore was no where to be seen.

" Well this is just great. We run all this way just to get here on time and the old fool is late." Draco grumbled." And its freaking freezing!" he flopped gracefully onto the ground. Everyone followed suit and they all huddled near each other for warmth for none of them had thought to bring a cloak. After a few minutes of shivering Harry held out a hand and flames burst from it to make a very warm fire in front of them.

" Ah. It seems that Mr. Potter has made very good use of his new powers." Dumbledore said from behind them. Hermione was the only one who didn't jump at the Headmaster's voice.

" Let me guess. We were supposed to wait and see who used their powers first to fix the situation and then you would show up?" she asked still warming herself in front of the fire.

" Excellent Ms. Granger. Five points to Gryffindor. Now I did promise all of you extra lessons to learn how to control your new powers, so if you would be so kind as to follow me we can get out of this cold." The four teens stood and started walking with Dumbledore." Oh Harry if you would be so kind as to put out your fire." Harry reached out his hand and the flames returned. Using the other hand he repaired the damaged grass. " Excellent job." Dumbledore smiled as he lead the teens to a part of the castle grounds they had never been before. As they walked on they noticed a rather large stone building that seemed to be in disrepair. " Yes this will do nicely as a training ground." Dumbledore muttered ushering them inside.

Harry and the others were quite surprised to find that the inside was warm and even humid as it was like a giant ballroom filled with plants. There was a lake in the middle, not as large as the Black Lake but still big, and they cold hear the sounds of a waterfall off in one corner. Looking to the ceiling they saw that it was just as magical as the one in the Great Hall and it showed the sun rising in a beautiful sunrise coloring it a lovely pinkish purple with hints of blue. All of them jumped slightly when a rather large tiger appeared out of the bushes and walked up to them. Harry and Draco already had their wands out and were moving to stand in front of their friends when the tiger stopped, cocked its head to one side and then transformed into a young witch in her thirties.

" A couple of fearless warriors you have there Dumbledore." She chuckled. Dumbledore took the woman's hand and bowed giving it a kiss.

" And how are you on this fine morning Lady Artimas?"

" Quite well thank you Albus. My sister should be here soon. Ah here she is." The four students looked up and saw a beautiful tawny owl flying towards them. It transformed into a lovely woman maybe just a few years older than Lady Artimas.

" Lady Athena." Dumbledore said repeating his greeting to Artimas' sister.

" Dumbledore." She said in a warm voice. " I take it that these are the four children that you spoke of?" she asked turning to Harry and the others. Hermione let out a small surprised "Oh" and turned to Dumbledore.

" Professor? Aren't Artimas and Athena the names of the Greek goddesses of hunt and wisdom?" she asked.

" Very good Hermione." Artimas spoke in a musical voice. " Yes those are the names of two Greek goddesses and yes we are from Grease but we are not goddesses. Just mages much like yourselves named for them."

" We actually went to Hogwarts ourselves." Athena added. " Now we are here to teach you how to use you're powers as well as how to speak the elven language. And as soon as our brother gets here he will be your physical trainer. You will learn how to handle a sword and the proper way to use a bow and arrows."

" You need to learn every possible way to defeat Voldemort besides magic. I will be teaching you control of your powers. Athena, wise one that she is, will teach you the finer points of battle tactics and as we said Aries will teach you physically." Artimas continued. Just then there was a clap of thunder and lightning ripped down the sky and struck the ground and from it emerged a tall well built man who looked to be Athena's age. " Show off." Artimas grumbled.

" Dumbledore. Artimas. Athena." he greeted in a deep baritone.

" You're late." Artimas snapped at her older brother.

" My apologies dear sister. I was unavoidably detained. It won't happen again." He said with a mock bow. " Ah so these are our new proteges." His eyes scanned the four teens. " Very well shall we begin?"

" I will take my leave if you don't need anything else." Dumbledore said.

" Professor?" Harry said slightly confused and worried.

" Ah do not worry Harry. You are being left in very capable hands." Harry sighed in relief and nodded.

" Thank you Sir."

" They are all your for the next three hours Aries." Athena said before she and her sister disappeared in a whirl of silk cloaks.

" Right. Well we shall start off by testing how well you do at simple things like running and we'll move on from there." With a wave of his hand the ground around them began to shift and mountains rose as steep hills were formed. " Ok. That should do. Here put these on." he said tossing them each a pair of red pants and a red shirt, which all four dropped as the clothes were waited down.

" What?! How in the bloody hell are we supposed to put these on much less run in them when we can't even lift them?!" Draco growled.

" You've never worn weighted clothing?" Aries asked. Everyone shook their head no and Draco managed to throw in a scathing look. " Alright. Well you'll just have to make do. This is a very good way to increase your ability to handle extreme pressure on your bodies. Which is handy should you get hit with a Gravity Crusher curse."

" Sir, I wasn't aware that there was such a curse." Hermione ventured.

" Indeed most don't. It isn't a very popular curse as it hasn't been used in several hundred year. Mostly due to the fact that it is rather primitive. For with this curse all of gravity's pull is released onto a persons body.

When hit by a Gravity Crusher curse the body is crushed by an enormous amount of pressure that will kill a person in a matter of minutes. Unless of course a person has conditioned their body so that it can withstand great pressure."

" So you're saying that training in these clothes can help us in that kinda situation?" Blaise asked. Aries nodded. " But you also said that this is a curse that no one uses anymore. Most people have never heard of it. So what exactly is the point?"

" A very good question Blaise. Five points to Slytherin. Yes it is unused and yes most people don't know of it but Voldemort does. He has on a number of occasions used this curse to,if you'll pardon the pun, crush his enemies. The Dark Lord likes it because there is no counter-curse. Even if a powerful shield charm was used against it the shield would break after a matter of seconds." Harry looked skeptically at his new teacher. " Yes Mr. Potter, even one of your undoubtedly powerful shield charms would fail. You are very gifted in these types of charms and they have stood under many Dark curses but I can assure you that gravity is much stronger than any Dark curse. Another added bonus to training in weighted clothes is that when your body makes the adjustments to the weight it becomes stronger without the weight. So if you are able to run 50 miles in weighted clothing, " a few eyebrows raised in disbelief at this, " you would be able to run twice that in normal clothes."

" Well lets get this over with. 'Mione you can go behind change behind a tree if you are uncomfortable." Harry finally said taking charge. Hermione obeyed and managed to pick up her clothes and went to change behind a large willow tree while the boys simply changed out in the open. They all stretched their muscles for twenty minutes and then slowly they began to walk and get used to the feel of the weights. Aries had them climbing up and down hills and after an hour told them to try and start a light jog. Half an hour of serious breathing the four teens found that it was starting to get easier to move and their professor told them to run for twenty minutes. Finally they were told to walk again for ten minutes to cool down before they were allowed to sit and take a break.

" Good. Not bad for your first time. I'd say that by next week we should be able to increase the weight. Now here is some lineament that should help take away some of the soreness of your muscles." Aries tossed a bottle to Harry. " Now as all four of you reek very much i suggest that you go take a dip in the lake. Don't worry Ms. Granger there are quite a few rocks that separate the lake so you can have some privacy. I will tell Artimas where you are." With that the four Hogwarts students helped each other up and walked over to the lake.