It was practically a morning routine for Harry to take the knight bus towards the wizarding world. Harry had already caught up with Daphne on scenic routes taken so now he just travelled to the Green Alley while sipping his hot chocolate, it was still delicious, but not as good as it used to be - as was usually the case then having something tasty too often it slowly became not so special. He pondered whether to just stop taking it all the time and bring his own snacks and drinks for future travels, while reading yet another muggle light novel - he found their works more fascinating than wizarding ones.

 

Not much time later Harry was strolling through the Green Alley, towards the place where he was supposed to have his duelling class and later apparition class. He wondered if he would see any familiar faces there, hopefully it won’t be just him and Malfoy again… He cursed as he saw the all familiar blonde haired boy already entering the building - he just jinxed himself…  His mood now somewhat dropped and he followed the blonde inside.

 

Entering the now familiar classroom he saw that fortunately he would not be stuck with just Draco this time - there was also another student, Sue Li, a Ravenclaw in the same school year as him - perhaps they grouped students by age in those summer classes?  He smiled and waved to her when she caught his gaze and her eyes widened in shock - clearly meeting Harry Potter was not something she expected.

 

“Good morning Sue”

 

Sue waved back - “Morning Harry” - it was somehow a norm that Slytherin students referred to others by surname or first name for close friends, yet other houses already jumped to first name basis on acquaintance level.

 

“Why am I stuck with half-bloods again?” - A loud groan came from the back of the class as Draco noticed the newcomer.

 

Both Harry and Sue rolled their eyes - the young Malfoy was just as annoying as in Hogwarts. Harry pointed his hand to the side of the girl and enquired - “Can I sit there?”

 

Sue Li just nodded and Harry finally sat down, he chatted a bit with Sue about the class, yet she was a newcomer like him as well, in fact it was the first lesson for duelling in this summer and she did not join during previous years as she did not even know this place existed. She did admit she had some experience in the field as her parents were fans of duelling competitions and taught her some things themselves.

 

Their chat was interrupted as the door was pushed open and a young witch with pink hair entered the room. It was an usual colour for hair in Britain even among muggles in fact it was the first time Harry saw someone with pink hair.

 

The pink haired girl glanced around the room, then on the attendance list on the table, strangely her hair cycled from vomit green to gold then back to pink as she did that, respectively when seeing Malfoy and Potter surnames on the list - of course students did not know the specifics. Harry noted that she did not use a wand as her hair colour changed, perhaps she was the metamorphmagus? He did remember reading about this rare wandless magic ability in one of the books he bought.

 

“Hello everyone! I am an intern teacher here just for this summer, you can call me Tonks!” - her voice was cheerful, no trace of shock she clearly felt seeing the students she had to teach, based on her hair colour changes that occurred recently  - “Now let’s go over the spells you do know and the spells you are supposed to know at this age, then we will review what we will learn there and of course learn the rules of formal duels and if there's any time left we can even have a few mock duels! Based on your answer I will be able to better prepare the content for future classes!”

 

As she went over the spells she was hardly surprised by large gaps of knowledge - being from Hogwarts herself she knew that professors for defence were… unreliable. Still all students present knew a lot, even some extra spells like snake summoning which was not even part of Hogwarts curriculum - perhaps they knew more, just not shared everything she mused. After going over duelling rules - which were quite simple actually - do not kill the opponent and do not use spells that leave a permanent mark - like unforgivables and various dark magic curses. Other than that anything goes, which made this sport quite fun and popular to practise and watch.

 

After the theory part Tonks waved her wand, silently murmuring the spells so quiet you could not tell what it was - and the classroom tables rearranged themselves, leaving a large empty space in the centre. As there were only three students the teacher decided they just duel each other once, then if any one wins both fights they could duel her one on one - of course provided there was enough time left till the class ends.

 

Harry grinned as he was up against Draco first - he could beat up the prick now and get away with it, how wonderful was that!. He shuddered a little remembering the duels he had before this… or it would be better to say fights or perhaps one sided beatdowns by headmaster archwizard Dumbledore himself. Not that he learned anything from that - the headmaster always changed the spells used depending on how the boy dodged, assuming he predicted him - not knowing that Harry just utilised his past loop experience to know what Albus was casting and where it would be safe to stand to dodge. Still his skills should be good enough to beat young Malfoy he assumed as he did beat the boy in their duel in second year and now he had an extra year of knowledge from school.

 

“Ready, set, fight!” - Tonks announced while sitting on a desk nearby together with Sue while eating popcorn from a bucket she got from who knows where - perhaps a fancy spell or storage item like Harry’s trunk?

 

Harry sent a casual expelliarmus, which flew past Draco’s left ear, his opponent managed to dodge, clearly young Malfoy was not the same fool as he was during their first duel in second year. Harry stepped aside, narrowly dodging the same red spellbeam Draco sent his way.

 

Harry then tried a few more shots, yet there was a shield in front of his opponent - a simple shield spell, only from front, quite simple, yet very versatile in duels. Finding it harder to dodge the rapid fire the blonde was sending him, yet seemingly his endless brickle with headmaster did improve his duelling somewhat, he somehow just knew at a glance where exactly the boy was aiming at as if feeling the magic of the spell before it left his wand.

 

The duel was in some sort of standstill - Draco could not hit Harry as he was just stepping aside, dodging with minimal effort, clearly not wasting much stamina on that. Similarly for Harry - while he was able to hit from time to time, he did not know any spells to break down that wall shield thing.

 

Suddenly they switched their spells - clearly not wanting to waste time on spells that did not work. Draco summoned a dozen of snakes, who were closing in on his opponent, meanwhile Harry animated a pair of desks to beat up the blonde - one in front that was stopped by the shield and one behind the blonde boy.

 

At the same time Harry turned to snakes and opened his mouth to hiss - **Stop!**

 

Harry tried using his parseltongue, yet Draco just smirked while casting another shield wall on his back, seemingly having expected this trick of Harrys and having countermeasures in place. The snakes continued moving forwards as if they never heard a thing - perhaps some kind of control spell or young Malfoy learned how to summon… deaf snakes.

 

As Harry was pondering of a way to escape his predicament, Draco was having a hard time against the desks as his fire spells were too weak to burn them quickly and he also needed to keep recasting his shield wall spell on both sides as the desks kept shattering his shields - luckily it was not simultaneous so he had time to recast the shield on the front before recasting the one in the back and repeating those actions as desks were breaking the shields quite fast - they were primarily made to block spells after all, and yes the boy realised he was quite stuck - it would take quite some minutes before his weak ignition spells burned the desks so he was stuck recasting shields.

 

Suddenly his vision darkened, looking up as if by reflex he saw another desk high above him - from the corner of his eye he could see Harry sitting on a tower of desks, snakes still far below, unable to reach him as the first desk of the tower was somehow very slippery, Potters wand was pointed at the desk above Draco’s head and the boy realised that the duel was over as his opponent cancelled the levitation spell.

 

*Clap* *Clap* - Tonks was already clapping, quickly swallowing her popcorn as if she wanted to say something, besides her Sue was also enjoying the snack while watching the show. The desk quickly fell due to gravity resulting in a painful moan from the blonde boy and a loud crashing sound.

 

“Well done Harry!” - teacher Tonks waved her wand and the snakes disappeared in a puff of smoke, after another wave the animated desks stopped moving, then a house-elf with a medic hat popped near Malfoy and forced some kind of potion down his throat, judging by Draco’s frowning face it did not taste any good.

 

“By the way, meet Jil - he is the house elf that monitors the duels and will help you recover after and of course, in case of accidents he will intervene and save you if necessary” - she shot a glare at Harry - “Like if a metal side of that desk hit Mr. Malfoy’s temple he could have died” - a red tone coloured Harry’s cheeks - he never thought about that, surely he hated the boy, but not enough to want his death. The teacher resumed her speech - “Sue, you’re next as Malfoy would need some time to recover”

 

Harry stood there once again getting ready for the duel, yet as the duel began his probing expelliarmus missed the mark and while he did dodge the first spell coming towards him, something did not feel right, his feel of magic was telling him that the spell somehow split and a part was coming to him still. No! It was another spell cast in quick succession at a slightly different angle which just happened to be the direction he was dodging in. The boy barely dodged almost falling over, yet more spells came his way - and somehow they were all double casts like that - he kept dodging, with almost no time to cast spells of his own he kept casting the shield spell - yet the shield was a larger target, Sue somehow just knew he was going to cast that and some different coloured beams hit his shield as it formed, breaking it apart.

 

As the duel progressed Harry learned to differentiate his feel of spells - now he could predict where both spells would hit which once again resulted in him dodging with minimal effort, yet Sue was also great at dodging so the duel entered a stalemate. Or so Harry thought as he somehow tripped while trying to dodge - looking at the ground he found it… mushy as if a swamp appeared in this location. He then remembered a recent spell he felt which was not aimed at him as he understood what happened. 

 

Moments later a red beam struck him - it was hard to miss a stationary target and his wand flew out of his hands. While his wand was flying to Sue’s hand she fixed the floor and Harry got up and bowed to her, thanking for a great duel while the teacher was giving another round of applause, more enthusiastically this time.

 

“Well done Miss Li! That was an amazing performance! I believe you have some former duelling practice, do you not? Double casting is quite a trick to pull off, not something one learns at school”

 

The girl in question blushed from praise as she explained - “Yes, my parents are a fan of duelling so they have thought me quite a few things”

 

Harry took his seat to spectate as Draco was already back on his feet, getting ready for duel. What followed was a one sided beatdown as the blonde boy could not dodge the double shots from Sue. Then Harry hoped to see the duel between Sue and Tonks, Sue was also enthusiastic about a wonderful practice duel, yet the class time had ended.

 

Harry was quite happy with the class - he thought he would be able to improve his combat abilities a lot during the summer, perhaps he could even help some poor folks after the Quidditch cup when death eaters were planning an attack.

 

After the class was dismissed Harry looked at the time - he only had half an hour until the apparition class, so he went outside to buy some snacks while killing time by reading books. Sue used the floo to leave home, so he had no one to talk to. Well there was Draco, but he preferred a books company.

 

Much to his disappointment he noticed Draco was waiting too after finishing his meal - of course the prick just had to take the same classes as him. Just five minutes before classes his mood brightened as he saw Daphne walking over from the distance. She waved at him, and Harry waved back, holding back his chuckle as he saw Malfoy waving as well.

 

“Welcome, Greengrass” - Draco stood up as she got close, giving his usual snobbish Slytherin greeting.

 

Unfortunately for him the girl did not even look at him and went straight to Harry - “Hello Harry!” - then as if his word finally reached her, she turned around to give a nod to now beet red Malfoy - “I see you’re here too Malfoy”

 

Harry was busy laughing at Draco's expense, while Daphne sat beside him, helping herself with some left-over snacks.. When he calmed down he greeted his friend back - “Hello  Daphne, it's good to see you”

 

After they quick catch up it was almost time for class, so they headed to the classroom door, just in time to see a person appear in front of it - it was not like other wizards causing loud popping sounds, somehow it was silent, one blink the hallway was empty and another a man was already there unlocking the classroom door.

 

Inside was a spacious hall with a few seats near the walls - most of the space was occupied by a complex runic ward of some sorts - Harry did start learning runes, but even then he could hardly recognize many of them - he could at least tell it had something to do with apparition - which was hardly a surprise.

 

He took a seat nearest to the professor's desk with Daphne sitting beside him, out of the corner of his eye he could see Draco sitting just behind him - professor's silence seemed to give an impression that he was a quiet speaker, hence the students instinctively sat closer to him.

 

The professor just glanced over the list of names, not showing any kind of special reaction on seeing Potter or Malfoy attending, then spoke with a low voice while stroking his grey moustache - “Welcome to apparition 101, my name is Raine Goldhorn and I will be your apparition tutor for this short summer session, as some of you might know this years summer classes are cut short in number due to the upcoming Quidditch cup preparations -  which is why there’s not much students this year. Still you should be glad, with fewer students even with fewer lessons you can potentially learn more as us teachers would be able to give you each more individual attention.”

 

His throat seemingly got dry as he extended his arm sideways and a bottle of mineral water appeared in his hand - seemingly out of nowhere. He took a small sip to ease his dry throat, then resumed his speech. “Now as one of you already heard” - he glanced at Draco who seemingly tried to hide behind Potter - “apparition can be quite hazardous, in fact Mr. Malfoy here spliced himself apart last summer during the first lesson, so after fixing him we banned him from the class for a year as the older you get the easier apparition becomes, that is because you get more attuned to magic and get a better ‘feel’  for it.” - he now glanced at Harry and Daphne - “Do not worry though, as you might have noticed we have quite an impressive runic ward in place - it will prevent you from apparating anywhere but inside the circle, so most damage can be healed quite quickly, well unless you somehow splice your heart or brain, but I never heard of such a case happening, usually people get spliced by an ear or an arm - on not severe mistakes, like missing a nail or something you will not be banned and can continue practising”

 

The teacher took another sip, then waved his hand and three pieces of paper appeared seemingly in mid-air and flew to the students. On them there were a few paragraphs repeating the dangers of apparition and on the other side the actual instructions on how to actually do it.

 

Reading through the paper Harry thought it seemed quite simple - all you needed to do is to think about the location you want to appear in, visualise your body appearing there and then focus your magic - there was also a note saying that beginners could use a wand as it made it easier to focus the magic on it, but it was doable without it. The main dangers were forgetting to visualise a part of the body, getting distracted or most commonly appearing in a place that has changed - so accidentally merging with a tree, a wall, another person or something else. That was why wizards had special places for apparition that had wards in place that made sure other wizards were moved aside as a new one appeared.

 

Professor seeing that all students finished reading and were now looking at him for more instructions, took another sip of water - his bottle was already half empty, then gave further instructions - “Today you will try to apparate from one place inside this ward to another one - unfortunately if any severe accidents happen like losing a leg” - he briefly glanced at Draco who had a painful expression on his face as if remembering something unpleasant - “I will ban you from this class for a year - then you can just try next year, keep in mind that your money won't be refunded. Now as accidents usually happen during the first time, you will go one by one and try to apparate from that cross on the ground” - he pointed his arm to show a specific spot near the centre of the room which had a tile with a cross mark on it - “Then try to appear on that circle next to it” - there was no need to point as it was just a step away from the cross - another tile with a circle.

 

- “Well I guess I can demonstrate” - there was no sound and one blink the professor was at his desk and another on the cross, then as if giving them time to catch glimpse of him - he waited as all students heads turned to look at him before appearing on the circle briefly - then yawning and appearing back on his desk - all without a sound, even the yawn was silent.

 

“Of course, for first times it would take some time, it would also cause some popping noise, but with practice you can make it more silent or loader - whatever way you prefer, one of my friends even managed to make it sound like a piano chord, anything is possible with magic”

 

Another sip of water later, he glanced on the list again - “Let’s just go alphabetically, so Ms. Greengrass, you’re first”

 

The girl looked nervous, Harry gave her a thumbs up as if to encourage her, not sure if that helped or she collected herself on her own, but she walked to the cross tile with seemingly confident steps. It took a whole minute for her to focus until she finally disappeared with a loud popping sound - it was a good attempt, unfortunately not a perfect one as while she looked whole and unhurt her feet were bare - her shoes still remained on the ground on the cross tile.

 

“Well done for first try Greengrass, not an eyelash missing and you also managed to bring most of your clothes along! You can practise on your own now, to the side of the room there’s  plenty of such pairs of tiles to choose from, the ones in centre just have better ward effect of preserving health in case of splinting”

 

Daphne blushed, quickly wearing her socks and shoes again - it was hard to tell if embarrassment was from praise or from forgetting her socks and shoes while teleporting. She gave a sweet smile to Harry and moved to the side of the classroom to practise on her own.

 

“Next, Mr. Malfoy, let’s see if you do not forget all your limbs this year”

 

A red beet Draco walked to where Daphne was just a minute ago and was also deep in concentration - it did not take that long for him, perhaps he practised this part at home, then there was a much loader popping sound and he appeared on the circle, looking at his body and clothes he wore a proud look on his face, yet hearing the laughter from Harry, Daphne and even the professor he turned back to look at the cross tile as his face paled from horror. With trembling hands he reached up to touch his hair, yet all he felt was a smooth round surface.

 

As professors laughter subsided, he took another sip of water and commented on Draco’s performance, still in cheerful voice  - “Well done Mr. Malfoy, forgetting your hair is quite common, do not worry though, you can continue practising, yet you should keep regrowing your hair so that you learn to not forget to take it with you. On your desk you will find a potion to do just that”. 

 

Glancing there the students managed to catch a glimpse of Jil, the house elf, appearing inside to drop the potion then disappearing - Harry was wondering why the wards did not prevent it from teleporting outside the sphere, thankfully professor somehow guessed students curiosity - “You might be wondering how come house elves are not affected by this ward - the thing is they are not apparating, they are teleporting in a different way, a ward to keep them in place would be even more complex than this one. And of course can’t say this runic ward is perfect.” - the teacher glanced at Malfoy who already had short hair that was quickly growing - “You can practise on any similar pair of symbols near your desk Mr. Malfoy” - professor then turned his gaze to the remaining student - “now it’s your turn, Mr. Potter”

 

Harry managed to glimpse Daphne giving him a thumbs-up - returning the encouragement -  while disappearing from the cross tile  to the circle one - she kept her shoes now and seemingly was working on decreasing the time it took her to concentrate for the ‘jump’. The boy smiled in response and walked to the centre of the classroom.

 

Once on top of the cross tile, unlike the other students harry did not take out his wand - he could feel magic quite well and felt no need to do that - in any case if it failed nothing would happen, there was no danger of harming himself just because he focused magic without the help of his wand, the only danger came if his visualisation failed.

 

The boy focused hard and visualised himself as clearly as he could - occlumency helped a ton here, so he remembered his body, his clothes and all the details, then just seconds later there was a quiet pop and the boy was on the circle. The boy smiled, yet looking back at the cross he could see his pocket trunk lying there - he only got the trinket a week or so ago so he somehow forgot to include it in visualisation.

 

“Well done Mr. Potter, but do think about all the things inside your clothes as well - you did not forget your trousers did you?“ -  Harry just blushed, picking up his trunk.

 

“Now just keep practising, we won’t be learning anything new this time, though next time I would be bringing some complex trinkets so you could practise with things you never seen before, we would have a practical exam in the field with some ministry official for your licences as a third lesson,, then we would have a theory lesson on speed, sound, and wandless apparition” - he glanced briefly at Harry - “which Mr. Potter can already do it seems -  and finally we will finish with a side-along apparition. Yes it is quite crammed, yet we do not have many students so we will manage”

 

Professor took another sip of water - the final one as his bottle was now empty. The empty bottle then seemingly disappeared, seeing the curious glances of his students he chuckled - “I know you’re curious about this trick of mine, let’s just say I am apparating the bottle to the trash can - I would not be teaching apparating objects without tagging along in class though, let this old man keep some of his own secrets” - he gave a smile to his students, then glanced at the clock - “Well you can practise till you’re exhausted or for another hour or so - then the class will end, I would not be covering any new material today, so you’re free to leave anytime, good luck!” - Then once again, seemingly out of nowhere a book appeared in professor's hand - Harry was shocked as he recognized the title - it was the muggle fiction novel he bought himself a few days ago.

 

They trio of students practised for a while until the time ended. They all managed to get apparition working while taking all their parts and items along - though both Draco and Daphne still needed ten or so seconds of concentration before making the ‘jump’ through space.  Harry just needed a few seconds which was probably amazing in their eyes, yet seeing professor doing the same in the blink of an eye he knew he still had something to aim for.

 

As the class ended the group parted ways - professor just disappeared without them noticing and they appeared outside the locked class - they cursed at the old man, who somehow bypassed the so called ‘can’t apparate outside this room’ wand. Then they split into two groups - Draco was clearly going to get his usual haircut - while the hair regrowth potion worked well it did not replicate the last haircut used - so now he looked almost like a girl from behind with semi-long hair. Meanwhile Daphne and Harry went to eat at a nearby restaurant in Green Alley, then grabbed a knight bus for their usual evening routine - taking a scenic tour while chatting.